Is the entire street like this

The two stepped back into the dense, heavy darkness outside, where the sounds of chewing flesh and faint, elusive hisses swept over them once more.

Zhu Yan peered into the distance.

Just like the block previously sealed off by the fake police officers, this place was quite dilapidated and desolate. Not a single store on either side of the street was open for business—

The glass doors and windows were still intact, though. In a shop not far from them, a giant lizard was clinging to the window, its sticky drool leaving a long trail on the glass.

This was a monster Zhu Yan had never seen before!

"Run!" Yang Zhanbai suddenly shouted.

He grabbed Zhu Yan and dashed forward. A second later, a slight tremor came from beneath their feet.

Zhu Yan turned his head to look, only to see a thick vine striking the exact spot where he had just been standing.

Under the dim blue light, the cracks on the ground were clearly visible!

The two sprinted through the night, the wind howling past their ears.

The street was relatively straight. Zhu Yan paid close attention along the way but didn't notice any intersecting roads or alleys on either side that required further investigation.

However, the terrifying creatures here were even more bizarre—

Zhu Yan narrowly dodged a withered claw on the ground that tried to grab his ankle, finally spotting a patch of bright light ahead.

This illuminated area was about 20 meters away from them. Within this short distance, Zhu Yan saw no more crawling creatures like lizards, dormant withered claws, or vines—

It was as if this was some kind of quarantine zone where all the terrifying creatures had been completely eradicated.

"Stop," Zhu Yan said, panting heavily.

The distance they had just run must have been at least 600, if not 800 meters.

A high-speed sprint combined with dodging those ambushes in the dark made his heart pound so fiercely that it felt like it could leap out of his chest at any moment.

"Did you notice?" Yang Zhanbai stopped beside him, panting even harder than he was. "Fuck, give me a second."

Yang Zhanbai waved his hand. "That was at least a fucking kilometer. Let me rest a bit..."

A kilometer?

Zhu Yan, who was adjusting his breathing, couldn't help but turn to look at Yang Zhanbai upon hearing this.

He still remembered what it felt like to run a kilometer for a test in school, but this time it didn't feel nearly as grueling—

At most, he just needed to calm his heartbeat; the physical fatigue in his limbs wasn't very obvious.

Perhaps it was because that mysterious player level was related to physical fitness.

His player level was 4, which was indeed a bit higher than Yang Zhanbai's.

Zhu Yan straightened up and narrowed his eyes to examine the continuous stretch of lights ahead.

The bright yellow halos licked at the darkness, creating a hazy yet distinct boundary between this illuminated block and the dark night where Zhu Yan stood.

The block consisted of a row of open storefronts that stretched all the way to the end of Zhu Yan's line of sight.

All the store signs glowed with the exact same yellowish-green text.

[David's Kitchen].

An entire street of [David's Kitchen]s!

Moreover, the street was actually quite bustling.

Because there was a line outside every [David's Kitchen], and the ones lining up were groups of neatly and cleanly dressed "children."

Their queues extended outside each store, taking up most of the space on the street.

Strangely, every "child" seemed entirely focused on their current queue.

They chose to completely ignore the two people standing in the darkness not far away.

"Holy shit," Yang Zhanbai swore. "Why are there so fucking many of them?"

Zhu Yan completely understood, because he wanted to curse too.

Motherfucker.

If there were only two, three, or even five identical stores, it wouldn't be this overwhelmingly impossible to figure out where to start.

An entire street! A whole street!

With stores stretching endlessly out of sight, anyone could guess that the terrifying creatures inside would all look exactly the same.

This was insane.

How were they supposed to find anything?

Even if they went through them one by one, given this scale, it would take until dawn, right?

Furthermore, the level of The Boss was already level five.

The entrance to the third level required the bones of a level-five terrifying creature like The Boss.

If calculated by this difficulty, the level of the Solace Mother absolutely couldn't be low either!

Zhu Yan gripped his small knife tightly, his gaze sweeping over the queuing children.

The Boss was easy to deal with because The Boss didn't have any special traits or skills.

If it were replaced by something of the same level but with all sorts of tricks like those bizarre things in the dark, Zhu Yan felt he might not be able to handle it.

The best method was to activate [Roleplay] and [Roleplay] as The Boss.

However, the true level of the Solace Mother and its attitude toward The Boss were still unknown variables.

"Do you dare to go in?" Zhu Yan asked Yang Zhanbai.

Zhu Yan still remembered the risky experience of [Roleplaying] as Captain and going down to find The Boss.

The situation had been critical then, and he had almost lost his life.

With that experience, he felt it was best to venture in first, observe, and see if they could find any hidden tricks.

"Of course I dare. I'm braver than you."

Yang Zhanbai had mostly caught his breath and looked at Zhu Yan with an inexplicable expression.

"I'm a [Hunter], hey. What are you?"

Zhu Yan: "..."

I am a [Hunter] too.

Yang Zhanbai proudly showed Zhu Yan his right hand, where the bow and arrow mark was still very clear.

"I say, did you run yourself silly? Even if I'm weaker than you, with this thing, they wouldn't dare touch me."

Oh, right.

Zhu Yan had been so focused on remembering that he himself was a [Hunter], and having just run so fiercely, he had momentarily forgotten the mark on Yang Zhanbai's palm.

Looking at the mark on his palm, Yang Zhanbai actually started laughing cheerfully.

"Hahahaha, blessing in disguise! The textbooks really don't lie to me!"

"I gotta say, this [Hunter] mark is really quite useful for avoiding trouble."

Zhu Yan slightly admired Yang Zhanbai's mindset.

If nothing else, this guy was genuinely optimistic.

At a time like this, he still had the mood to quote classics.

Yang Zhanbai pointed behind himself. "Let's go. I think I've figured out the correct way to use the [Hunter] mark."

Zhu Yan opened his mouth, forcefully swallowing his words of rebuttal.

He pretended to know nothing and followed behind Yang Zhanbai, but in reality, his heart was already in his throat.

Heavens, is this karma?

Brother, oh brother.

The information his brother thought he had mastered and could use was entirely what Zhu Yan had used to deceive him!

God knows what kind of nonsense Yang Zhanbai would spout to those things; he had to be on his guard.

"...Little Yang, what are you planning to do?"

"What are those things that look like children? Have you seen them before?"

These things were truly bizarre.

Zhu Yan was fairly experienced and could already vaguely sense the danger levels of terrifying creatures.

And the feeling these "children" gave Zhu Yan was no less dangerous than the fake humans in the flower shop!

Zhu Yan tightly gripped that level-five dining knife.

In a block swarming with suspected high-level terrifying creatures, this thing was absolutely his lifeline.

"No," Yang Zhanbai said.

The two of them simultaneously slowed their pace, inching closer to those intently queuing children.

The closer they got, the deeper Yang Zhanbai furrowed his brows.

"...We are so close. Is there a barrier here? Why haven't they even turned their heads?"

"Don't these creatures of horror crave human flesh?"

Zhu Yan could hear his deliberately suppressed breathing.

They were only about three meters away from the nearest section of the queue.

Yet the "children" continued to line up, focused and cheerful. Zhu Yan could clearly make out the curve of their lips as they smiled—it was far too uniform, as if carved from the exact same mold.

A layer of soft, fine down on their faces gave off a faint, unnatural silvery gleam under the light.

They chatted and laughed, completely ignoring the two adults hidden in the darkness.

"It definitely isn't normal," Zhu Yan said. "It's as if they can't see us at all."

"Hold on, then." Yang Zhanbai fully exposed the mark on his right hand and shifted his knife to his left.

"I'll go in first and scout the way. I won't get hurt anyway."

Zhu Yan voiced no objections.

He watched as Yang Zhanbai strode forward, stepping right into the light.