Chapter 78: A Chance Encounter

Three months passed in a flash, and the overall situation in the war zone of Sun City Third High School was more or less settled. The progress of the battle far exceeded expectations; thanks to the impressive efforts of the students with the Yin attribute, all key structures were already occupied by the sixth day. By the seventh day, Sun City Third High had already identified the site for building the border fortress.

Over the following two weeks, the students cleared all the roads on their side of the map, ensuring smooth transportation of supplies. Meanwhile, the mine foreman and the barracks legion commander had both been forcibly leveled up to Lv1, allowing them to assign personnel to assist the players in various activities. At the very least, all the stone needed for the fortress could now be transported from the mine, and the two regiments—five hundred soldiers in total—would provide the best guarantee of the territory’s safety when the players logged out to rest.

It was precisely because of these safeguards that the school officially opened the logout signal for students. Naturally, the first group allowed to log out for rest were those who had died twice; if they died once more, they would be forced to exit. No one knew if they might be needed at a critical moment. To ensure that every player could appear at a crucial position when needed, those who had died twice would log out early and begin their six-month death penalty.

The remaining players, after completing their current tasks, were allowed to move freely, going wherever they wished. However, this amounted to little more than lip service, as most of the tasks were confined to specific areas, and the daily workload was so heavy that there was barely any time left to wander elsewhere.

Thus, most players, while completing their tasks, sought out mentors assigned to different regions to study their own fields or engaged in meditation training to enhance their abilities.

Liu Zong, naturally, was no exception. He usually completed his assignments near various graveyards, and afterward, he would practice cultivation on his own. Each week, before undertaking command missions, he would visit the main cemetery once to bring his questions to his mentor.

Today was supposed to be no different. Tomorrow, the command missions would become available. Liu Zong planned to take on the patrol mission from the nearby graveyard to the main cemetery, as well as the lamplighting task along the way, the sheep-headed undead extermination mission, and the enlightenment task for the locust-headed undead.

He had already experimented: if he accepted all four assignments and set out early in the morning, he could reach the main cemetery by nightfall and complete all the tasks with ease.

However, today Liu Zong’s luck seemed to have run out. The patrol and lamplighting missions were straightforward enough—the roads and lamps were fixed, so the tasks would be completed as long as he was present. But for some reason, the number of sheep-headed undead was unusually low today. Normally, he would find enough as long as he searched carefully, and the quota was modest: kill ten sheep-headed undead to finish the mission, with any extras only boosting his score.

Faced with such circumstances, Liu Zong was rather troubled. He didn’t want to stray too far from the road in search of them—leaving the road would mean failing the patrol assignment, and venturing too deep into the mist zone would risk not making it back if any danger arose.

Having already died once, Liu Zong had no intention of dying again and facing an early death penalty.

At this point, he was on the verge of giving up the mission. The only reason he hadn’t abandoned it outright was that there was still plenty of time; perhaps he might just encounter ten sheep-headed undead along the way, barely scraping through.

With this in mind, Liu Zong kept glancing about as he patrolled and lit the lamps, hoping to spot a few sheep-headed undead.

About halfway along the route, he noticed a streetlamp ahead that had gone out. Without much thought, he walked over to relight it.

As he reached the lamp, he instinctively looked around—and saw a yellow glow flicker in the distance.

This puzzled him, but without giving it much thought, he raised his hand and lit the lamp, which illuminated a ten-meter radius.

Then, taking his demon ghost loli with him, he moved toward where he’d seen the yellow glow. In his mind, it wasn’t far; he could just check it out and return.

But Liu Zong never expected that, the instant he stepped beyond the lamp’s circle of light, the gray mist closed in around him. He could see no more than five meters ahead, and a faint yellow glow flickered not far away.

Startled, he tried to retreat—but the scene behind him had changed. The streetlamp that should have been right there had vanished.

An ordinary person would have been terrified in such a situation, but most Yin attribute players specialized in necromancy and had been versed in its taboos from the very beginning.

Liu Zong quickly realized he had stumbled into a ghost wall. Running around blindly now would only get him truly lost.

So, he simply sat down, set his spear aside, and directed his demon ghost loli toward the direction of the yellow glow.

While not as skilled at controlling the demon ghost loli as a Lv1 player, nor as adept as the Mana Affinity students, Liu Zong had his own methods. After sending the loli forward, he closed his eyes, listening and sensing her movement.

He discovered that although the loli seemed to be walking ahead, she was actually staying right beside him—he just couldn’t see her for some reason.

Understanding this, Liu Zong stood up and called out in her direction, “Throw your big bear!”

Whether from his instruction or some other cause, he heard a whoosh and a clang as the loli’s big bear was bounced back.

Liu Zong laughed—now he knew exactly where the barrier was. He leveled his spear, closed his eyes, and lunged forward with a thrust, channeling all his strength into the attack, his entire body following the motion.

When he heard a metallic ring, he opened his eyes to find the gray mist had vanished. He was surrounded by a glow of yellow light.

The source was a fist-sized piece of amber, which seemed to contain something within. But whenever Liu Zong tried to look closely, a blinding light would flash, making it impossible to see what was inside.

After a moment’s thought, he put the amber away. As soon as he did so, the world returned to normal and he found himself only a few steps from the streetlamp.