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Chapter 149 Witch’s Castle

In her past life, Xia Xinyan had no background yet managed to hold her own against this guy. This time, with the support of the Summer Family behind her, she really wasn’t afraid of him.

However, not being afraid was one thing, but not wanting to interact with him was another. His flamboyant personality had reached a level that made her feel physically repulsed.

Unfortunately, leaving the dungeon came with a penalty; otherwise, she wouldn’t want to tackle this instance at all.

Just then, another voice attracted her attention: “Oh! Isn’t that… someone we know? What a coincidence!”

Turning her head, she saw it was Murong Yue.

It truly was quite a coincidence; being matched with a friend without even forming a party was always a pleasant surprise in any game.

Speaking of which, they had only teamed up with Murong Yue a few times at the start, after which they hardly communicated. The main reason being Xia Xinyan didn’t plan to interfere with the growth paths of those strong players from her past life. With her help, perhaps this group could become stronger than before, but there was also a chance they could become weaker.

After all, she couldn’t provide the same direct enhancement to them as she could with Ling Mo, and since they weren’t that familiar, she didn’t have a solid reason to assist them.

So, it was safer to let them develop on their own like they did in her past life. Once they grew stronger, she could build alliances when the time was right; for now, just getting a bit familiar was enough.

However, since they ran into each other in the dungeon, she wouldn’t push them away.

“What a coincidence,” Xia Xinyan waved to Murong Yue with a smile. “Want to team up?”

Murong Yue pondered for a few seconds before nodding. “Sure!”

So, before the dungeon officially started, all players already began gravitating into their respective groups.

This dungeon had a total of ten players. Now, Ling Mo and Xia Xinyan had gathered with Murong Yue and Hao Nan, while the remaining five gathered around Yan Zigui.

Hao Nan was quite surprised: “Ling Mo, aren’t those two your friends? Why did they go to the other side?”

Ling Mo replied, “… Don’t mind them.”

The less these two bothered them, the happier he’d be.

Xia Xinyan then took a look at the other five players.

She soon discovered that besides Yan Zigui, there was someone she recognized—an icy girl with a “keep your distance” vibe plastered on her face.

The girl was Tang Niannian, who had a very aloof personality and was another prominent player well-known in the gaming circle, even more so than Yan Zigui. Her abilities matched her personality well, having control over ice and snow, earning her the title of Ice Queen.

In Xia Xinyan’s eyes, her abilities leaned more toward support, yet she had developed numerous kill techniques, forcibly breaking into the leaderboard top ten.

In her past life, she had a decent relationship with this girl.

Because she once pummeled Yan Zigui, this girl seemed to appreciate her—nothing more than that.

Rumor had it that she and Yan Zigui were childhood friends, but she was unhappy with that arrangement, leading to Xia Xinyan’s past interactions with them being quite awkward.

At least they wouldn’t be standing within five meters of each other now.

Another point worth mentioning was that both were using their real appearances—seemingly, those of higher status preferred to play using their true selves, and they certainly had the flair to pull it off.

Or perhaps… they had planned to make a scene from the very beginning?

A sudden doubt surfaced in Xia Xinyan’s mind.

Meanwhile, as Xia Xinyan and the others sized up Yan Zigui, he was doing the same to them.

—Not recognized.

He didn’t want to bother with it.

At this point, the time they had to get familiar with their surroundings ended, and a task prompt appeared in front of everyone.

[Battle Zone: Witch’s Castle]

[Difficulty: High]

[Time Flow Rate: 1x]

[Description: This is a bizarre castle, and just a moment ago, a pure-hearted girl stumbled into it…]

[Current Task: Rescue the Girl]

[Bonus Task: The first player to find the girl will receive a reward of 5000 game points.]

[News: According to a survivor who managed to escape the castle, this place is fraught with danger; every step requires verifying you won’t walk into death…]

Xia Xinyan frowned slightly.

This is actually a hard difficulty dungeon…

Seems like the couple who joined their party today didn’t check the calendar before heading out.

But a higher difficulty also meant more opportunities; as long as one had the guts, this castle could be a treasure trove.

Just as she thought of this, the castle door suddenly creaked open, seemingly inviting them in, but inside was pitch black, with no visibility whatsoever.

Then someone wavered: “Didn’t the system just warn us about how perilous this castle is? Perhaps we should first look in the forest for something that could help us through this instance?”

The speaker was Sun Yang, managing to successfully draw everyone’s attention to him for the first time.

Yan Zigui glanced at him, snorting sarcastically. “You can go ahead and try.”

His attitude irritated Sun Yang, prompting him to grab Su Xiaobai and try to leave, only to be shrugged off by her: “What are you doing? You really think you can go alone? Come on, everyone here is a big shot in this game! Yan’s a deity on the leaderboard too! Do you really think you can match up to them?”

Sun Yang: “…”

Whose girlfriend is she?!

First, she was clinging to those two over there, and now this ‘Yan De Shao’ pops up. Isn’t he just a bit better at the game? What’s the big deal?!

Seemingly to prove himself, he shook off Su Xiaobai and headed towards the forest: “Just because they’re big shots doesn’t mean they’re right! Who knows, maybe there’s something good in the forest! If I find something later, don’t blame me for not warning you…”

However, the moment his foot stepped into the forest, the darkness completely engulfed him, the remainder of his unfinished sentence disappearing into the shadows.

Su Xiaobai was startled and immediately tried to find him, only to see Sun Yang suddenly burst out of the forest: “Ah ah ah ah ah!!!”

“What happened? Is there something in there?” Murong Yue instinctively prepared for battle, curiously asking.

Sun Yang’s face changed, but he didn’t utter a word.

The forest was pitch dark; he saw nothing.

Yet somehow, he sensed an incredibly terrifying presence standing right next to him, as if it was about to strike at any moment—something even more horrifying than a ghost—so he didn’t dare stay even for a second longer and ran straight back.

Seeing this, the smirk on Yan Zigui’s face grew even more pronounced.

Idiot.

Xia Xinyan’s expression remained unchanged.

She had seen plenty of such skeptics in her past life.

However, the game system had countless ways to ensure they followed the dungeon flow, and those capable of creating diversions outside the dungeon had yet to grow strong enough.

Just… she suddenly felt a bit sorry for this guy.

Yeah… this type of girl really isn’t suited for being a girlfriend; she’ll have to keep an eye on Ling Mo from now on.

Better to be picky than to settle.