Chapter 120: No Flaws!
Old Wang’s suggestion was met with unanimous approval from the rest of the squad. With everyone shaking their heads and refusing the rare materials, Lin Huai had no choice but to give in.
She smiled warmly and gave a firm nod. “Alright then. If any of you ever need help opening a high-tier chest in the future, make sure you call me first. Consider it my duty.”
Once the crystal shares were distributed, the others bade their goodbyes and returned to their respective stretches of the highway.
Lin Huai stayed behind by her hearse to organize the loot. Pulling up her system screen, she transferred the recipe for Guiyuan Pills and a rare fragment of the Nine Revolutions Soul-Returning Pill recipe directly to Milk Tea Seven Parts Sugar.
A profound stone chest was guaranteed to yield at least one top-tier treasure. Beyond the rare alchemical recipes, the chest had also provided a bountiful supply of Blood Jades and Memory Crystal Orbs. Yet the prize that stunned Lin Huai the most was a gleaming golden parchment: a Resurrection Card!
[Resurrection Card: Capable of reviving any player who died within the past thirty minutes. Single-use only.]
Holding an item like this was practically equivalent to carrying an extra life in her pocket. Lin Huai placed it into the safest corner of her spatial bangle with great care.
She now possessed 88 Blood Jades and 41 Memory Crystal Orbs. That meant she only needed 12 more Blood Jades and 9 more Memory Crystal Orbs before all the materials required to upgrade her vehicle to Level 6 were fully gathered!
A surge of excitement rushed through her veins. Tapping her interface, she immediately called out to Old Hei.
“Old Hei, hey, Old Hei! When is the next instance scheduled to open? Will there be one in the next few days?”
Their working relationship was completely different from what it used to be. As long as the inquiry didn’t breach confidential protocol, Old Hei usually answered her directly.
Right on cue, his lazy, synthesized voice crackled in her ear: [Let me take a look at the event queue.]
A beat later, he let out a low whistle. [Well, look at that. You really do get whatever you wish for. There’s a trial opening up right about now.]
Lin Huai’s eyes sparkled with anticipation. “Then unlock it right away! What kind of instance is it?”
[Just go strike down three more wandering monsters—any level will do—and the system trigger will fire.]
Lin Huai understood the hidden condition instantly. Without another word, she raised her war scythe. With three swift, whistling arcs through the snow, three low-tier Road Safety Ambassadors were vaporized into gray dust.
Sure enough, the second the third fiend vanished, Old Hei’s unmistakable synthesized voice boomed across the sky of Zone 444, dripping with his signature scorn:
[Attention, all survivors! Total monster eliminations in this zone have officially crossed thirty thousand! The ‘Monsters Brawl’ competitive instance is now unlocked! Registration will remain open for ten minutes—eleven-player raid format, no waiting for latecomers!]
[The rules mirror the previous endurance rally: show up or don’t, and get lost if you don’t want the loot. Nobody is forcing you! Cowards who tremble at their own shadows, spineless weaklings, and useless babies who cry for mommy the moment a ghoul sneezes—hurry up and go grind your mileage! Don’t come inside and embarrass our district!]
[Anyone with a spine, assemble your raid teams now and stop dawdling. If you can’t find a party, throw yourselves into random matchmaking.]
[Will you walk out of here stronger than ever, or will you emerge to find your territory merged away because your scores were trash? Make your own choices! Don’t complain later that I never gave you a shot!]
Lin Huai knew none of those insults were aimed at her. Listening to his loud, aggressive taunts, she let out an amused chuckle. “Old Hei, do you have any practical tips for me regarding this trial?”
Old Hei snorted coldly: [A lone wolf like you has zero chance of claiming rank one in this format. No matter how lavish the leaderboard payouts are, they won’t belong to you anyway. Just go in, play around casually, and get out in one piece.]
Lin Huai raised an eyebrow, a knowing smile spreading across her face.
“Understood.”
In her previous life, the Monsters Brawl instance had been locked to ten-player parties, yet Old Hei had just announced an eleven-player limit. It was obvious the grumpy assistant had quietly tweaked the system parameters behind the scenes so her entire core circle could fit into a single roster.
A warm sense of gratitude filled her chest. Ever since Old Hei had pulled strings to protect her during the canyon ambush, she had viewed him in a completely different light. Even though he remained irritable and foul-mouthed, she could spot dozens of small gestures proving he genuinely looked out for her.
Sometimes, she even wondered if she had developed a bizarre attachment to her sharp-tongued handler.
Yet remembering how cold and indifferent the assistants had been in her past life, she knew better. Old Hei was truly dependable—far better than any system supervisor she had ever encountered.
Aside from his sharp mouth, he had no flaws at all!
With an eleven-player cap, Lin Huai didn’t even need to post a recruitment notice. Every member of the Elite Squad registered simultaneously, filling out her roster within seconds.
The Monsters Brawl was a timed trial where every raid team was sent into an identical parallel realm. Once inside, participants could see only their own companions, completely isolated from rival groups.
The instance was packed with an endless tide of horrors. Survivors were dropped into the arena to fight for their lives, and whichever squad racked up the highest kill count over three hours claimed the top ranking.
At least, that was how Lin Huai had understood the mechanics in her previous life.
Hearing Old Hei’s deliberate hint just now, however, she finally realized why her past scores had been so mediocre.
A lone wolf could never push through to the second phase on their own.
Vehicles were strictly banned from entering this trial. The eleven teammates gathered on foot around the glowing teleportation beacon on the road.
Flash Delivery Yellow Knight had already grown fond of Lin Huai’s expert guidance. Rubbing his hands together eagerly, he leaned in with a bright grin: “Boss! Boss, what kind of pointers do you have for us this time?”
Lin Huai nodded, her expression turning serious. “First and foremost: stick together, watch each other’s blind spots, and focus entirely on squad coordination.”
She continued, “This trial is divided into three distinct stages. The first stage is an endurance survival brawl filled with low- and mid-tier monsters. Our objective is simple: maintain our formation, slay whatever charges in, and prioritize keeping our teammates alive.”
“The second stage transitions into the Ghost King’s territory. There are three possible Ghost Kings that can spawn at random, so I cannot predict which one we will draw. Defeating the boss clears the way to the third stage.”
“As for the third stage…” Lin Huai paused, shaking her head slightly. “I honestly don’t know what lies beyond. We will simply do our best. The Monsters Brawl trial reopens every time the server crosses a global elimination milestone, so we will have other chances in the future. Since this is our first attempt together, our expectations don’t need to be absurd. Clearing the first phase and making it to the Ghost King within three hours will already be a massive achievement.”
She swept her gaze over everyone, her tone firm and steady: “However, even if we don’t clear the second stage, surviving the full three hours is our absolute priority. Coming out alive is what matters most!”
In her previous life, Lin Huai had entered this trial four times. Only on her fourth attempt had she barely scraped into the second phase, but the timer had expired the moment the Ghost King appeared. Every single one of her randomly assigned teammates had died in the arena, leaving her as the sole survivor.
Back then, she had lived entirely as a detached lone wolf—never coordinating, never stepping in to rescue others, caring only for her own skin. Although she had walked out alive every time, she had never placed anywhere near the top rankings.
The moment she finished outlining the battle plan, the trial’s resident system voice boomed through the clearing, signaling the start of the event. The light ring beneath their boots expanded sharply, whisking all eleven fighters into the rift.
Unlike Old Hei’s rough tones, this trial assistant was a haunting, eerie female voice, sounding like a storyteller whispering a sinister ghost tale:
[A once-in-a-millennium rift between the realms of Yin and Yang has torn open across the mortal plane. Fiends and ancient horrors have surged through the void, gathering for a chaotic slaughter within the unstable expanse of the Nether Rift.]
[Brave contenders, your purpose is to breach the fracture, suppress the madness, and claim the legendary treasures of the deep.]
Lin Huai looked up toward the horizon.
Where the gray earth met the sky, a colossal, jagged crimson chasm stretched across the firmament, resembling a bloody wound carved into the world by a celestial blade.
Dense, impenetrable black fumes billowed continuously from the depths of the tear, pouring into the sky like dark blood spurting from a severed artery.
The entire heaven was dyed an oppressive, suffocating shade of reddish-orange, coating the frozen air with a thick haze of crimson dust.
