Absolute Death Game

In the restaurant, Xiao Buli was wolfing down his food with voracious enthusiasm. For the first time in his life, he found the food in his mouth to be so delicious. The impact of the "Heart of Life and Death" on his Taoist Heart wasn't evident yet, but the influence on his enjoyment of life was strikingly clear.

("My Taoist Heart is now at LV2. With that, I should be able to learn more powerful spells.") Xiao Buli thought to himself while savoring the delicious lunch. Back when he was at Mystic Hollow Palace, he had seen several useful spells at Taoist Heart LV2, among them was the Invisibility Technique he most wanted to learn—of course, it wasn't the original version.

Lesser Invisibility Spell: Renders you invisible for the next 60 seconds. Any attack or spell-casting action will cancel this effect. Consumes 10 Mana points. To learn, one requires Taoist Heart LV2, friendly prestige with Mystic Hollow Palace, and 120 contribution points.

Xiao Buli recalled the learning requirements for the Lesser Invisibility Spell and realized that he still couldn't learn it.

Although he had reached friendly prestige with Mystic Hollow Palace, he was nowhere near the required 120 contribution points. He remembered spells at Taoist Heart LV2 required at least 100 contribution points to learn, and currently, he didn't have any contribution points at all.

("If I could complete the 'Suppressing the Rebels' mission, that should be enough. It seems necessary to schedule this task sooner, and perhaps I could ask Wu Min'er for help. With the recon capabilities of the Vermilion Bird Group, finding an NPC should be easy.")

With that thought, Xiao Buli glanced over to where the Vermilion Bird Group usually dined, only to find not a single person there.

"Eh, where's everyone from the Vermilion Bird Group?" he asked Wu Tao, who was sitting next to him.

While struggling to swallow the chicken leg in his mouth, Wu Tao shook his head, "Who knows, probably still on their computers. I heard they're still dealing with a mission involving the Dark Forest, trying to find the entrance to a dungeon. Oh right, speaking of dungeons, are we going for a dungeon raid this afternoon? I have learned a few powerful skills recently, it would be good to try them out."

Xiao Buli nodded his head, but in his heart, he wondered what that dungeon in the Dark Forest would be like?

Meanwhile:

"Everyone, be careful, the dungeon entrance should be within the Demon Clan camp ahead. Don't alert the enemy, move cautiously and spread out to search."

Wu Min'er, wearing headphones, commanded her subordinates with an air of utmost caution, carefully moving through the shadows within the Demon Clan's camp.

This was the heart of the Dark Forest. After days of perilous reconnaissance, she and her team members had finally discovered a camp of the Demon Clan, suspected of being the location of a dungeon entrance.

However, the presence of Demon Clan soldiers made it difficult to get close and see what was really there.

"Leader, there is a gap at nine o'clock, estimated to last 30 seconds."

Wu Min'er immediately looked in the direction indicated by her member. Indeed, due to a change of guard, there appeared to be a small gap in the outer security network of the Demon Clan camp, though it didn't seem to last long.

"Everyone, get close to me! Let's rush over together!" Wu Min'er had barely finished speaking when several semi-transparent figures had already drawn nearer.

Light Forbiddance Veil! An invisible barrier descended, wrapping Wu Min'er's position in an invisible darkness. The subtle camouflaged group in the pitch-dark forest was inconspicuous, and with the cover of this darkness, a group of five moved towards the gap.

They rushed through, avoiding the Demon Clan's sentries, but not long after encountered a problem—an armed Demon Clan guard was leading two Saber-Toothed Wolves in their direction.

Saber-Toothed Wolves, hostile creatures affected by demonization, were as docile as toys in the hands of the Demon Clan. These creatures had a strong ability to detect invisibility, posing a particular threat to the operations of the Vermilion Bird Group. It seemed this infiltration wasn't going to be easy.

"Du Wang, it's all on you now," Wu Min'er said.

Du Wang, a thief with secondary skills in alchemy, nodded at Wu Min'er's words and silently threw out a few meatballs.

Hypnotic Bait: Throw a bait ball infused with a sleep-inducing drug. The creature that eats it will fall into a slumber, and any damage may interrupt this effect (effective only on beasts).

The two Saber-Toothed Wolves, though more ferocious due to demonization, had diminished intelligence and without hesitation, gulped down the meatballs falling from the sky. In moments, they were snoring deeply in sleep.

The Demon Clan patrol was still trying to figure out what was happening when a ghost-like shadow had already been attached to his back.

Nerve Strike! The Demon Clan patrol was paralyzed instantaneously.

Weakness Insight—Enhanced Backstab. With the Weakness Insight ignoring armor, an Enhanced Backstab with six times damage directly struck, producing a bright red number: -875.

Instant kill, the Demon Clan patrol soldier didn't even have time to call out before he was dead.

The ghost gradually revealed her true form, Wu Min'er looked at the obsidian-dark, shining dagger in her hand and smiled with satisfaction. This 'Dark Dragon Fang Dagger' was a quest reward from Zhang Xiaotian, the lord of Nine Dragons City, after completing the Demon Clan uprising questline—a golden-quality top-tier weapon with truly terrifying attack power.

These past few days, she'd experienced the thrill of instakilling quite a lot, but what Wu Min'er cared about most was another attribute that seemed rather useless—Soul Binding: Once bound, it cannot be traded, thus avoiding the fate of being turned over to others.

Actually, the originally rewarded equipment was another weapon that was not soul-bound. However, by reaching a respectful personal prestige with Zhang Xiaotian, Wu Min'er slightly influenced the lord's actions—of course, this was something she would never reveal.

"Alright, you guys stay here and look for an opportunity to escape. I can take it from here alone."

After Wu Min'er finished speaking, she re-entered stealth mode, invisibly heading deeper into the Demon Clan camp.

Several Demon Clan guards blocked her path, but no matter. In this map, where there was never any daylight, shadows were plentiful. Spotting the shadow cast by a nearby broken wall, Wu Min'er lightly pressed the R key skill—Shadow Jump!

The next moment, her figure appeared on the other side of the guards, easily bypassing the rest and, after circling around a bit more, a huge fissure tearing through the earth appeared before her. Walking down the ramp at one end of the fissure, she didn't get far before a silver-lit instance barrier appeared before her eyes.

(A silver-quality instance, now things are getting interesting.) Wu Min'er thought with a twinkle in her eye.

The level of a boss inside an instance is usually one grade higher than the instance itself, which means that the bosses inside are at least of golden quality. Under normal circumstances, although challenging, it's not impossible to defeat them, but the problem is that this instance belongs to the Demon Clan.

A high-level Demon Clan elite nearly forced the Green Dragon Group to wipe; if it were replaced by a golden-level boss...

Wu Min'er couldn't help but feel a pang of pity for the strong parties of the Green Dragon Group, who always relied on equipment to crush lower-level instances, "What a bunch of poor fellows," she said with a faint sneer at the corner of her mouth.

"Let me see what kind of challenge you guys will face next," she muttered, licking her lips and carefully, anxiously, stepping through the silver barrier.

The color immediately brightened, and the gloomy scenery of the Dark Forest changed in the blink of an eye into a scene of fire spreading across the plain, with burnt marks from the flames everywhere and figures radiating flames walking to and fro in front.

Fire Spirits? No, more like Demonized Fire Spirits, to be precise. While encounters were rare, Wu Min'er had indeed dealt with elemental creatures before. Regular Fire Spirits were purely fiery red, but the cores of these Fire Spirits were tinged with an ominous black, and their names had become 'Corrupted Fire Spirits.'

It seems that the power of the Demon Clan could demonize not only humans but even elemental creatures, who were said to be immune to any mind-control abilities.

Continuing along the fissure's rocky wall, she didn't go much farther before a huge, oppressive figure appeared before Wu Min'er—the Abyssal Flame Demon Lord (Guardian of the Abyssal Gate), a gigantic being as tall as a three-story building, with a golden name and surrounded by a ring of dozens of elite Fire Spirit minions—And this was only the first boss.

Seeing such a scene, Wu Min'er couldn't help but offer a silent prayer for the people of the Green Dragon Group.

Picking up the camera beside the monitor, she pointed it at the screen and clicked the shutter.

(Alright, there's no need to explore further, time to make a getaway.)

Thinking to herself, she took out an Earth Spirit Talisman from her bag. Before leaving, she did not forget to check the number of players the instance could accommodate—A 20-person team? That meant the White Tiger Group was also in for some bad luck.

With a whoosh of white light, Wu Min'er's figure disappeared within the fissure.

"Whew, finally done. Thankfully no one died. Let's go have lunch," Wu Min'er said as she turned around, only to find that several people from her team were staring at her screen with looks of shock on their faces.

"Team leader, was that BOSS just now the instance BOSS that the Green Dragon Group is about to challenge? Are you sure?"

Wu Min'er rarely revealed her inner emotional changes in front of her team members, so she simply nodded and said lightly, "Yes, but whether the Green Dragon Group continues with this instance or not is not for us to decide. We just need to report the information."

After speaking, as if she remembered something else, "Also, don't let this information leak out. Otherwise, if the higher-ups find out, I won't be covering for you."

The warning lacked force, and while it seemed like a caution, it had no real effect; her team members responded with laughter and didn't take it seriously.

The group of five arrived at the cafeteria, each piled food onto their plates and found seats to sit down. Wu Min'er looked up at the Green Dragon Group and caught sight of Zhang Yaoyang enjoying his ribs, mouth stuffed with food, and couldn't help but feel a hint of mischief.

She took out her phone and softly sent the photo she had taken. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you are welcome to vote for it with your recommendation tickets and monthly tickets on Qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)