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

"Hiss—Song Yuan, I think I know where the power distribution room key is!"

"What did you say?"

The monster's roar was too intense; An Xiaoyou couldn't hear what Qiao Ran was saying at this distance. Qiao Ran had no choice but to raise her voice and repeat herself:

"I say! I think I know where the power distribution room key is—not in the office, but on these monsters!"

"are you serious?"

Song Yuan brought up the game panel, bought two pairs of goggles, and gave one to Qiao Ran. Even though everything was still pitch black after putting them on, at least her eyes wouldn't be burned.

Did you see it with your own eyes?

Qiao Ran nodded affirmatively: "Yes. They still have their belongings with them, such as keychains, wallets, bank cards, and rings and necklaces. So I think the key to the power distribution room isn't in the office; it should be on them."

Song Yuan squinted and looked online. These monsters were moving too fast, and some details were not very clear, but at least she could be sure that they were carrying something.

An Xiaoyou raised her blood-soaked forearm to protect her relatively unscathed cheek, and chuckled:

"That's fantastic, a truly great discovery! But how do we get it from them?"

Generally, you have to kill a monster for its items to "drop" after it dies.

But these monsters had no physical form at all. This was the first time An Xiaoyou had encountered monsters like this in all the time she'd been in the game—monsters she could only passively take hits from and couldn't attack. She had never felt so pathetic!

A faint green light appeared in the distance, and Song Yuan began to slow down:

"Let's talk about it later. We're almost at the emergency exit, let's go downstairs!"

Just as the three reached the stairwell and were about to go downstairs, Song Yuan suddenly heard a familiar wail:

"Help! Help me..."

She stopped and looked up. The boy, who had been seen once before in the pharmacy, wearing a hospital gown and with a shaved head, was crawling slowly on the floor, head down, crying.

Strangely, the monsters didn't seem interested in him at all. They toyed with him like wild beasts with a lamb, occasionally swooping down to lightly scratch him, or sticking out their long, thin, rag-like tongues to lick the blood seeping from his wounds, making him cry out in fear.

But these wounds were insignificant compared to theirs. They had run all this way, and apart from Qiao Ran, whose injuries were slightly less severe, everyone was covered in scratches from the monsters. Song Yuan couldn't help but wonder, did these monsters have any pity for the identity of "students"?

If that's the case, then aren't they students too? Why were they scratched so badly?

The little boy finally climbed to the bottom of the stairs, and when he saw them, he reached out his hand to Song Yuan as if he had seen a savior:

"Help... Waaah, help me! Help me!"

Song Yuan hesitated for a moment before descending the stairs, then turned to ask An Xiaoyou:

"How many health points do you have left?!"

An Xiaoyou wiped the blood from her face and gritted her teeth as she answered, "32! My dad's health bar dropped from 100 before he left home to 32... and it's gone so fast..."

Upon hearing this, Song Yuan grabbed the boy by the collar, aimed carefully, and tossed him to An Xiaoyou.

"Catch!"

An Xiao instinctively opened her arms and caught the boy steadily. However, she didn't have Song Yuan's superhuman strength; although the high school boy was thin, he still weighed around 100 pounds. Her running speed suddenly slowed down considerably.

She stared wide-eyed at Song Yuan, unable to hold back her curses:

"What the hell is Song Yuan?! You're jumping out to play the saint at a time like this? He's just an NPC, what does his fate have to do with us?! I must have been out of my mind to join your guild!!!"

Although she scolded fiercely, she still held him tightly, not letting him go. Qiao Ran turned around to explain:

"Oh no, if you carry him with you, the monsters won't keep attacking you. They gave him to you because you're badly injured!"

An Xiaoyou was stunned for a moment, then realized that it seemed right? The stinging sensation of her skin being scraped lessened, and after taking the crying male student with her, the monsters' interest in her also decreased, and they all focused their attention on Song Yuan and Qiao Ran instead.

An Xiaoyou immediately lost her temper; her previously high spirits were completely extinguished by this sudden outburst. She felt a little guilty, but couldn't bring herself to apologize.

"That's also your fault, you didn't explain things clearly..."

"Take him to the fifth floor and find a room to hide in." Song Yuan didn't care at all. While waving her hand to drive away the monster, she calmly instructed her, "Don't ask so many questions, just go."

An Xiaoyou's health is too low. The biggest gap in the entire building right now is the entrance on the first floor; the further down you go, the more monsters there will be. If you run away without this little boy, even if you use your talent, you might eventually run out of health.

An Xiaoyou paused for a moment, but did as Song Yuan said without much hesitation, since now was not the time for sentimentality. She had only taken two steps when a white shadow rushed towards her along the stair railing.

"Watch out, something's coming!"

Song Yuan saw it just a step away, but she could only move one hand, unlike her usual agility; coupled with her numerous injuries, her reaction was a beat slower, and she failed to intercept it. The snow-white giant python nimbly weaved through the black mist, skillfully dodging each of the monster's attacks, and opened its blood-red maw towards An Xiaoyou:

[Ding~ Player "An Xiaomei" has used the weapon "Crocodile Claws"]

[Ding~ Player "An Xiaomei" has used the skill [Hardened]]

Fortunately, thanks to her reminder, An Xiao reacted quickly and pulled the boy behind her. Standing still without flinching, she reached out towards the giant python's mouth, grabbed the fang, and snapped it off—a white fang with venom still at the tip was broken off.

Countless tiny teeth bit her hand, but thanks to the [Harden] skill, apart from her own mouth going numb, An Xiaoyou was completely unharmed.

A hint of confusion shone in the python's tiny, black-bean-like eyes, as if it were wondering, "Wasn't it biting a person? Why is it biting a rock?" It then hissed and withdrew. An Xiaoyou, holding the snake's fangs, sighed sincerely:

"Not bad! This can be used as a weapon!"

Song Yuan led Qiao Ran behind the wall, using one hand to cover Qiao Ran's ears:

"It's not over yet! Don't just stand there, run away!"

[Ding~ Player "Puppeteer" has used the special item "Land Torpedo"]

A bomb emitting white smoke was thrown into the stairwell. Without any countdown, the bomb emitted countless beams of white light and exploded into fragments with a loud "bang!"

These monsters seemed terrified of explosions, just like Xu Tai'an's gunshots, let alone such a large bomb. The massive explosion sent the monsters that had been rampaging through the corridor vanishing without a trace.

From the white smoke following the bomb explosion, two figures, one tall and one short, slowly emerged. The giant python, seeing Liu Gaosheng, acted as if it had seen its own father, pouncing on him with a pitiful expression and wrapping itself around him, showing him its bloodied gums and telling him that its largest fang was gone, like a naughty child who had lost its favorite toy and was now running to its parents to complain.

Liu Gaosheng's pale face darkened. He glanced at Song Yuan and Qiao Ran, whose hands were empty, and then at An Xiaoyou, who was still holding the venomous fang.

An Xiaoyou: "..."

Song Yuan/Qiao Ran: "..."

Player "An Xiaoyou" used the skill "Frenzy".

This time, without Song Yuan saying a word, An Xiaoyou grabbed the little boy by the collar with one hand and ran upstairs like lightning. Liu Gaosheng looked at the puppeteer, and after receiving the puppeteer's permission, he slithered along the railing like a snake and chased after him with a "whoosh!"