Chapter 301 Demon

“What do we do now?” Ling Mo put away the launcher and asked.

He probably guessed that he couldn’t solve the problem alone, but knowing was one thing, and attitude was another.

Especially with this apocalyptic version in front of him, he felt a bit uncomfortable.

Whether it was this city or this world, there were many things he cared about and wanted to protect, so seeing them being destroyed felt quite strange.

It was similar to the time he encountered a ghost impersonating Xia Xinyan, and she met a ghost impersonating herself; Ling Mo now truly felt that whether imitating or impersonating was just so annoying.

He didn’t really like this place.

Xia Xinyan seemed to have seen through his thoughts and couldn’t help but chuckle: “This world actually has its merits… Want to go home for a visit?”

“Go downstairs?” Ling Mo asked instinctively.

“No,” Xia Xinyan shook her head, “to your home.”

All players entered the Dark Zone at coordinates identical to those in reality, but after that, entering the Dark Zone would be at the coordinates when leaving, with no further changes occurring, allowing players to freely develop in this world and establish bases in the Dark Zone.

Monsters were certainly more numerous in the city, making it relatively more dangerous, but it was also safer in the countryside.

He remembered during his previous life when people first encountered the Dark Zone, they mostly chose to camp in sparsely populated areas.

Xia Xinyan’s current thought was to revisit her hometown and establish their first base in the Dark Zone there.

Regardless of whether her memories from her previous life were false data or something else, that place was a memorable hometown for her; although she might no longer have the chance to return in reality, she could rebuild it into its former state in the Dark Zone.

Ling Mo paused for a moment and nodded: “Okay.”

Saying that, he summoned a helicopter, took Xia Xinyan onto the aircraft, and then started the helicopter, flying in that direction.

Skills for operating such vehicles could be bought in the game mall. Although the Dark Zone didn’t offer them an easy driving mode, it was still no problem for players now.

Moreover, with this convenient method, they could even save the time of getting a driver’s license in reality; for just a few hundred game points, someone who had never touched a steering wheel could drive like a seasoned pro.

After improving his skills to a certain extent, Ling Mo had been developing his overall capabilities during this time; he could say he had now become a versatile talent.

Xia Xinyan didn’t find it surprising since she had already learned all these things in her previous life.

Once the helicopter took off, the two began to observe the situation in the Dead City.

There were quite a few living dead on the streets of the Dead City, and the noise generated by the helicopter’s start-up startled the entire Dead City awake. Beneath them, beast-like roars erupted, but with the flying thing above, the monsters on the ground clearly had no effective way to attack and could only rage ineffectively below.

Xia Xinyan paid a little attention and noted that among the monsters she saw at the moment, none were particularly strong—even none could fly—otherwise, they wouldn’t be so comfortable.

In her previous life, when the Dark Zone had just opened, her first encounter was in a rural area, and she barely saw a few monsters until after a while when monsters began invading reality, suddenly many powerful monsters started appearing in the Dark Zone.

She always thought it was because her first location in the Dark Zone was rather remote and she hadn’t encountered any stronger monsters at the start, but now it seemed that wasn’t the case.

The monsters in the city were just living dead, which didn’t pose a threat even to players with a bit of strength.

Ling Mo was also observing below, and after noticing this, he couldn’t help but ask: “Are the monsters invading reality of this type?”

“No,” Xia Xinyan shook her head, “these are just the lowest-level monsters…”

“Then what exactly are the monsters invading reality?” Ling Mo was particularly concerned about this question.

Xia Xinyan recalled for a moment and said: “Demons.”

Those were the true opponents humanity had to face.

Those guys… could barely be described as humanoid, their appearance could fit seamlessly into any non-realistic game without tweaks; at least in terms of appearance, they matched the image of demons from human fantasy themes almost perfectly.

Moreover, not only their appearance but also their abilities were quite bizarre—practically any abilities used by monsters encountered by players in dungeons could be found among those demons. It was precisely because their abilities were diverse and varied that many powerful warriors had met their doom.

Those demons linger in this world and were likely the main reason for its destruction. In her previous life, humanity eventually found the general location of the demons’ actual base after long exploration, and afterwards organized an expeditionary force; whatever happened after that was common knowledge.

Thus, it was clear that those demons had a stronghold and wouldn’t wander around in the Dark Zone like these living dead. It was possible that upon noticing players entering this world… or perhaps after the Dark Zone and reality connected via “Realm of Divine Presence,” those demons sensed it and began making moves.

“Demons, huh…” After listening to Xia Xinyan’s description, Ling Mo had a rough image in his mind, “Sounds like a real hassle.”

After a pause, he continued: “These living dead can’t be considered demons, can they? Then where did they come from?”

Before Xia Xinyan could answer, he voiced his guess: “Could they be another version of us that has turned into corpses?”

Finding this guess somewhat ridiculous, he laughed at himself after saying it.

However, Xia Xinyan didn’t laugh: “Maybe.”

If considered according to past theories, then Ling Mo’s guess was not entirely unreasonable.

Though these living dead appeared severely decayed and rotten, their original forms were easily recognizable as human—after all, they couldn’t be compared to the real demons. Perhaps it was the demons invading this world that led this world, which was originally like Earth, to fall into destruction.

Of course, all of this remained speculative; the actual situation… perhaps only Monica would know.

After all, that girl was a professional handling such matters.

But Xia Xinyan didn’t intend to ask her immediately.

Right now, a date was a priority.

Well… although this date might be a bit strange.