Where's the cute girl we were promised? She's completely wiped out S-rank dungeons!

Ye Yingming stared blankly at Xu Tai'an, gazing at her beautiful face, which seemed like an angel descended from heaven, and feeling the concern flowing from her eyes. Tears streamed down her face.

For a moment, she was at a loss for words. The thought of someone treating her with genuine kindness while she harbored calculating intentions made Ye Yingming so guilty she was almost speechless. In the end, she could only nod, forcing out a single sentence from deep within her throat:

"Thanks......"

"You're welcome. Stand up first. I need to contact the rest of our team. I don't know where they fell or if they're injured."

Xu Tai'an took her hand and helped her up. Ye Yingming's talent was "empathy," not the kind of mind control that Qi Lian or Qiao Ran possessed. Xu Tai'an's true nature and memories were still intact, and his first reaction after falling into trouble was naturally to contact Song Yuan and the others.

After Qiao Ran upgraded the [Silent Ones' Communicator], it was no longer afraid of water. Xu Tai'an was probably the one with the safest landing point among everyone. She held Ye Yingming's hand and tried to walk out of the complicated underground palace while waiting for news from the others—Song Yuan and the others would definitely call for her if they were alright.

......

At this moment, in the underground river not far from them, Song Yuan was drifting downstream:

During this time, she also tried to exert force in the water to see if she could get closer to the shore. However, the current was too strong, and she failed many times in a row.

Song Yuan was swept along by the current, crashing headlong into the water. She passed many forks in the path—clearly, this underground river wasn't a single, isolated stream, but rather had many branches. She didn't know how much time had passed, but after her eyes had fully adjusted to the darkness, a withered tree root appeared not far ahead:

The tree's roots ran very deep, extending all the way up to the underground river. Song Yuan grabbed a root and climbed out of the water, swung twice in the air, and landed gracefully on the dry ground. Looking upstream, she sighed softly.

"...This is troublesome."

Xu Tai'an and An Xiaoyou had fallen somewhere. Not everyone is as resilient and physically gifted as her. Most players would be injured falling from such a height. And what about Qi Lian and the others?

She emptied the safe of Qi Lian's group. To avoid turning into zombies, they had to retrieve virus suppressants from the nearest lab. She also destroyed the notes that could provide clues, so unless one of Qi Lian's group had a player with tracking skills, they wouldn't be able to find them anytime soon.

Conversely—if that's the case, then Qi Lian and the others should already be trapped underground after the earthquake. The world is so small; I wonder if they'll ever meet in this dark, sunless underground?

It seems like tonight, let alone rest, it will be difficult to even get all five of us together.

After a brief moment of thought, Song Yuan changed her soaking wet clothes with a single click, tapped her communicator to turn it on, and asked:

"Hello, is everyone there? Is anyone injured? How badly are they injured?"

Three people responded immediately, and Qiao Ran was overjoyed: "Yes, yes, yes! You finally spoke! Have you made it ashore yet? No one on our side is injured—except for Cui Xiaofei, who has disappeared somewhere and we can't contact him now."

Song Yuan nodded calmly: "Yes, we're ashore. But I've been drifting for a long time, so I'm probably quite far from where we first landed."

So far, it's known that only she fell into the water: no wonder she's the player with the lowest luck. Song Yuan reasonably guessed that Qiao Ran might have appeared above the river because she happened to be with her.

Xu Tai'an asked worriedly, "Is it safe over there? Should we meet up first?"

An Xiaoyou stood atop a mountain of zombies, trying to get closer to the ground, but she was still too far away: "Damn it! We don't even know where we landed, how are we supposed to reunite? We were all about the same size when we fell, so why are our landing points so different?!"

"It might be due to the instance settings or system settings."

Song Yuan, flashlight in hand, began to walk along the tributary: "You should all be upstream of me, so let's all head downstream. After that, every so often I'll try to make a loud enough noise. If you can hear me, it means you're nearby."

The three of them agreed with the idea. However, Song Yuan didn't forget Cui Xiaofei and added a word of advice:

"Also, call out to Cui Xiaofei every so often. Keep doing this until he re-establishes contact with us. If he can't re-establish contact, we'll meet up first and then try another way to find him. Understand?"

Xu Tai'an: "Um... I have something else I'd like to discuss with everyone..."

Ye Yingming tensed up abruptly. Here it comes! Her talent is most effective in a one-on-one situation without outside interference. The interference from Xu Tai'an's teammates is currently the biggest obstacle to her plans.

After Xu Tai'an recounted what happened to her, An Xiaoyou suddenly realized:

"Was it her who dragged you down into the ground just now?"

Hsu Tai-an: "She didn't want to pull me down... she just wanted to save me. I hope I can help her as much as I can, okay? What do you all think?"

Ye Yingming clenched his fists, his fingernails leaving white marks on his palms, anxiously awaiting the result.

But Song Yuan simply asked calmly through the communicator:

"Xu Tai'an, how can you be 100% sure she's really a victim? Even if she is, how can you be sure she's not using that identity to deliberately get close to you, actually plotting something against you? You must have suffered enough from this kind of thing before, so why are you still so easily sympathizing with someone today?"

"I......"

Xu Tai'an's eyes indeed revealed a hint of confusion, as if he himself did not know why he had done it.

Seeing that she couldn't make a decision yet, Qiao Ran quickly added, "Yes. And Ye Yingming being here means Qi Lian and the others are here too. Did she tell you where her team members are?"