Chapter 7: Night Parade of One Hundred Demons
At exactly 10:00 PM, Lin Huai parked her vehicle on the side of the road.
The vehicle’s protective shield automatically activated, wrapping both the tricycle and her in a soft, golden halo of light.
Night had officially fallen. It was the night of a hundred monsters.
All sorts of terrifying creatures crawled out of the dark rivers on both sides of the road and stumbled onto the highway. There were the ghosts of people who had been hanged, beast-like tiger ghosts, walking skeletons, and rotting zombies. They swarmed everywhere across the pavement.
The moment they spotted a player, they would rush over in packs, roaring and pounding furiously against the glowing shields.
Lin Huai calmly took all her supplies out of the coffin and neatly arranged them in the empty spaces of her truck bed. Then, she climbed into the coffin and lay down.
Propping her head on her arm, she stared up at her light screen, casually watching the lively public chat lobby.
It was still the Newbie Protection Period, so she had absolutely nothing to fear. She had lived through things far more terrifying than this. Compared to her past life, this level of danger felt like a vacation.
Just outside her shield, low-level Safety Ambassadors and ghouls slammed against the barrier, looking desperate to break in and tear her apart.
A bit further away, mid-level monsters—hanged ghosts, tiger ghosts, bloated corpses, starving spirits, and pale and purple zombies—circled her vehicle, staring hungrily at the golden light.
Further still, out in the dark rivers along the highway, countless vengeful spirits and water monsters floated on the surface. Some showed half their bodies, while others only revealed their hideous, pale heads.
Suddenly, a graceful female ghost wearing colorful, flowing ancient clothes slowly floated up from the river. She was incredibly beautiful, looking like a lost fairy or the moon goddess Chang’e—ethereal and otherworldly.
The moment Lin Huai saw her, she quickly grabbed something to use as earplugs and stuffed them tightly into her ears.
This female ghost only looked like a fairy. In reality, she was a “songstress” ghost. She loved to sing and was a master at imitating voices. Anyone who listened to her song would be hypnotized and lured right out of their protective shield. Sometimes, she would even copy the voices of a player’s friends or family members, tricking players into stepping out of the safe zone or walking straight into the deadly river.
Simply put, she was impossible to guard against.
Sure enough, the songstress didn’t just appear near Lin Huai.
[Dou Dou]: Please, someone save me, it’s so scary!
[Big-Eyed Cute Bro]: Please let me log off, I’m going crazy! This is only the first day. I can’t even handle one day, it’s too terrifying.
[Meatball]: Why are there so many monsters? Mom, I miss my mom… ಥ_ಥ
[Dragon Rising from the Sea]: It’s the Newbie Protection Period right now. Monsters cannot attack anything within ten meters of your vehicle. Don’t be scared. Just hide inside and do not go out.
[Qian An]: But the Newbie Protection Period will end sooner or later, and these monsters will eventually get in. I can’t stand it. Instead of being slowly tortured to death, I’d rather just end it quickly myself!
[Dragon Rising from the Sea]: Don’t do anything impulsive! There will definitely be a way to survive. As long as you stay in the safe zone now, you will be fine.
[Meatball]: I hear my mom calling me…
[Big-Eyed Cute Bro]: Someone is singing… it sounds so beautiful. Is someone near me?
[Dragon Rising from the Sea]: Don’t listen to any sounds! It’s a trap set by the monsters!
Although Dragon Rising from the Sea tried his best to stop them, and his sharp instincts had immediately realized the singing was a trap, his warning came too late.
The profile pictures of Big-Eyed Cute Bro and Meatball quickly turned gray.
When a player died, their avatar turned gray, and the total number of people shown at the top of the chat lobby dropped in real-time.
Lin Huai glanced at the top corner: Group Chat Members: 8,779 / 10,000.
On the very first day, over a thousand people had already died. Now that it was past 10:00 PM, that number was dropping faster than ever.
[Old Liu’s Liar]: What can we do? We don’t know anything, and we can’t do anything. What else is there to do but die?
[Sloppy King]: Exactly! We’re not as strong as the big bosses. If we don’t die today, we’ll still die tomorrow.
[Milk Tea Seven Parts Sugar]: Please, I don’t want to die! I don’t want to be eaten by monsters! Someone save me, please! Big boss, save me, I’m really scared. I’m only 16 years old!
Lin Huai tapped the text box a few times with her fingertips, but she didn’t send a message.
She had no obligation to save these people. In the future, this game would only get more terrifying, and surviving would become harder and harder. Those who lacked the will to survive now would just die after the Newbie Protection Period ended anyway. A few days earlier or later made no difference.
Besides, deep down, Lin Huai actually wanted the number of players to drop quickly.
Once the population in a zone fell below 5,000, towns would appear on the highway. Inside these towns, two zones with fewer than 5,000 people would meet and merge together.
Chen Feng and Su Wan were in District 88, Zone 888. Most of her enemies were in that zone. To get her revenge, a server merge was her best chance, aside from finding a rare zone transfer card. Global server events wouldn’t appear until the third month.
If it wasn’t for the mandatory Newbie Protection Period, Lin Huai wouldn’t want to wait a single day. In this new life, she held all the advantages. She could definitely hunt down Chen Feng, Su Wan, and the others before they grew too powerful.
It wasn’t until she saw the message from “Milk Tea Seven Parts Sugar” that Lin Huai’s cold, hateful heart softened for a moment.
So, at this time, she was only sixteen years old.
Lin Huai had indeed come back for revenge, but she would never forget the kindness she had received. Aside from Dragon Rising from the Sea, she had one other benefactor in Zone 444, and that was Milk Tea Seven Parts Sugar.
Back then, Milk Tea had seen the bounty placed on Lin Huai by Chen Feng. She knew Lin Huai was the target being hunted by the famous Ghost King of the Mystic Coffin, yet she still secretly gave her healing medicines. Those medicines had likely been Milk Tea’s very last supplies, but she gave them all to Lin Huai anyway.
Lin Huai still remembered the final message Milk Tea had sent her: “Sister, you must live on!”
At the time, Lin Huai had thought it was just a message of mutual encouragement. She assumed Milk Tea had seen her fighting so desperately to survive and felt a sense of sympathy.
But the very next day, Milk Tea Seven Parts Sugar died. She died completely silently.
Only then did Lin Huai realize that the message wasn’t just encouragement—it was a dying wish. Milk Tea had entrusted her own hope of survival to Lin Huai.
After Milk Tea died, Lin Huai investigated what had happened to her. She learned that the girl had jumped into the river to commit suicide. Lin Huai had spent her last remaining underworld coins to buy this information from an intelligence broker in Zone 444.
Luckily, Milk Tea was not a nobody; in fact, she was quite famous in the zone, which was why the broker knew her detailed history. This sixteen-year-old girl had received an ambulance from her starting vehicle box. Thanks to the vehicle’s special bonuses, she found a huge amount of medical supplies, making her one of the biggest providers of medicine in the zone.
