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

"Don't touch it! It's trying to lure the player to attack itself—!"

Xu Jian: "Huh?! What did you say?!"

By the time Song Yuan came to her senses and tried to warn Xu Jian, it was too late. Xu Jian kicked out, the kick feeling incredibly tough—because the child had no flesh on his body, only bones.

It let out a howl and rolled twice on the ground. A crisp "crackling" sound came from deep within its body—the sound of its ribs resetting and growing.

Qiao Ran exclaimed, "Oh no!" and quickly realized, "Internal injuries are still injuries. When blocking its attack, we must be careful not to use too much force."

But that wasn't all. After recovering, it didn't immediately attack. Instead, it stared intently at the four people in front of it with its small, narrow eyes. Its pale, bluish-white mouth split open in a sinister smile, and then it let out a scream loud enough to shatter eardrums:

"Stay away! Its calls are an attack!"

The quickest to react, Song Yuan, carrying Qiao Ran in one hand and the terrified An Xiaomei in the other, lunged forward to avoid the area most severely affected by the sonic attack. A system notification sounded in her mind—[Ding~ Player Song Yuan has been damaged by the sonic attack of the monster "Man-Eating Imp," HP -3, Remaining HP: 10]. She felt something warm dripping from below her earlobe—blood!

Xu Jian, being too large, couldn't dodge in time and lost 5 health points, leaving him with only 12. Qiao Ran's face was ashen, and while patting Song Yuan's shoulder and saying "Thanks," she leaned against the wall and spat out a mouthful of dark red blood.

However, Song Yuan felt it was already lucky that the attack hadn't killed Qiao Ran. She wiped the blood from her ear and asked Qiao Ran:

"How many health points do you have left? You should be able to hold on."

Qiao Ran weakly gave an OK sign: "Three points were deducted, now I only have 2 left."

Xu Jian's mental fortitude wasn't as strong as theirs; upon hearing the number, he immediately started cursing:

"Damn it, what's the point of playing if it's level 2?! You'll die from any other attack! And this ground... damn it, this ground feels like it's shaking!"

Even without him saying it, Song Yuan noticed that the entire building was shaking, somewhat like the scene when Qiao Ran stole the NPC's love potion, attracting a horde of female monsters to chase her. As soon as Xu Jian finished speaking, the doors to the rooms in the corridor began to open one after another:

The pregnant female monsters walked out. Although their appearance had not changed as horribly as Wang Daqiang's, their abdomens were also bulging. After a frantic wriggling, countless pale little ghosts tore open their bellies and crawled out.

Like Wang Daqiang, once the baby crawled out of the mother's belly, the mother seemed to have exhausted all her life force, collapsing limply. Hundreds of hungry eyes instantly locked onto the four people who exuded the fresh smell of blood.

Song Yuan decisively wrapped one of Qiao Ran's arms around her neck. Qiao Ran reacted quickly, snapping her fingers and switching to a blonde, petite girl persona to lighten the load. With one hand supporting Qiao Ran, Song Yuan pulled out the knife Xu Jian had made for her and ran towards the emergency exit.

"Quick! Run to the rooftop!"

Player "An Xiaomei" used the weapon "Crocodile Claws".

An Xiaomei, with her poor mental fortitude, fainted instantly. An Xiaoyou seamlessly took her place online. Together with Xu Jian, they followed behind Song Yuan, running frantically towards the swarm of white, mischievous ghosts.

"What the hell is going on? How the hell is this supposed to work? The hallways are full of... ugh! Full of monsters! We have to fight our way out of them without hurting them or letting them keep leveling up? Are you kidding me?!"

Before he could finish speaking, a little devil pounced on him, opening its huge mouth to bite at An Xiaoyou's throat:

An Xiaoyou extended her sharp claws. She wanted to endure it, but with such a monster lunging at her, it was hard for her to treat it gently. An Xiaoyou grabbed its head tightly like squeezing a watermelon, and the little devil's head exploded in a second, splattering white brain matter and pink brain tissue onto her face, making her scream in disgust:

"Oh no—what should we do now!"

Qiao Ran clung to Song Yuan's shoulder for balance, and even while fleeing, she managed to turn back and wave to An Xiaoyou, signaling her to relax:

"It's okay, these should all be regular monsters. Only the first elite monster will level up based on the damage it takes, so it's fine to just kill these."

Upon hearing this, An Xiaoyou abruptly turned to look at the corpses of the little ghosts he had scratched to death with his claws—they indeed hadn't regenerated. Realizing this, Xu Jian also breathed a sigh of relief. He had swung his twin blades so fast they created afterimages, and had killed quite a few little ghosts. Fortunately, the chase wasn't as difficult as he had imagined. If every little ghost had been injured and leveled up, it would have been impossible to play!

As Xu Jian slashed, he roared at Song Yuan and Qiao Ran, who were running at the front:

"But the first one is still following behind! Damn—it's heading your way!"

After two rounds of enhancement, the man-eating little devil that crawled out of Wang Daqiang's stomach was even hungrier. Its speed was astonishing; it still seemed to like Qiao Ran. There were many places it could use for leverage within the safety passage, making it bounce around the corridor like a white rubber ball, traversing 360 degrees without any blind spots.

An Xiaoyou and Xu Jian couldn't stop it. They watched helplessly as it leaped onto the ceiling and landed with a "whoosh" above Song Yuan and Qiao Ran's heads, only to be narrowly kicked away by Song Yuan.

But this injured it again! It fell to the ground and began a new round of upgrades.

Song Yuan turned to look at An Xiaomei and Xu Jian. Although she was running, her tone remained perfectly calm and even:

"This won't do. It seems to really like Qiao Ran. Let's lure it into an empty room and lock it up temporarily. You two search Wang Daqiang's body for poison ingredients or any usable tools!"

Qiao Ran sighed and muttered under her breath, "These monsters are really good at bullying the weak and fearing the strong... Just because they're weak doesn't mean they'll taste better, right?"

Xu Jian was still a little worried: "So you're the only one who can fight on your side, are you sure you can handle it?"

But An Xiaoyou had already nimbly pulled him away, creating distance between herself and Song Yuan:

"Stop dawdling! Just do what I tell you to do, stop with all the nonsense!"

The cannibalistic imp's injuries had almost healed. It stretched its limbs, glanced at An Xiaoyou and Xu Jian behind it, then at Song Yuan and Qiao Ran ahead, and decisively chose the path with Qiao Ran, roaring as it charged forward.

At the same time, Song Yuan felt the bloody aura around her seemed to have weakened considerably; the number of little monsters around her had decreased—it was clear that the imps spawned by the players and the imps created by the monsters in the dungeon were in a subordinate relationship. The elite monster commanded the imps to hold back Xu Jian and An Xiaomei, preventing them from providing support, while it went off to chase its preferred prey.

This monster can think and has a certain level of intelligence.

Not knowing how sensitive this monster's five senses were, and lest it overhear, Qiao Ran leaned close to Song Yuan's ear, subtly pointing a finger towards the rooftop server room, and whispered:

"Song Yuan, take it to the computer room. I can use my skill to make it obediently go inside and lock it up. I know your base stats are off the charts, but your stamina can't be infinite, can it? Do you think you can last that long?"

Song Yuan assessed the distance and her current physical condition, then nodded in confirmation: "It's possible. But it's a waste to use your skills on something like this, and the cooldown is too long. I can manage to get it in with a little effort."

Qiao Ran said urgently, "No! My skill duration can be split up, it's not continuous. You should conserve your stamina and save it for when you face Fu Zhengyang later."