The Labyrinth of the Monsters

The person in front of you is not a human, nor is it your friend Wang Zikai.

"Wang Zikai" doesn't actually exist, it's just a foolish beast pretending to be him, a mutated lost one.

If he's dead, then he's dead. There's no need to be sad.

Gao Yang told himself this, but it was useless. His chest felt tight, and he could hardly breathe.

Memories flooded his mind: almost being hit by Wang Zikai's sports car on the first day of school; passing out from heatstroke during military training and being carried to the infirmary by Wang Zikai; being dragged by Wang Zikai to the internet cafe for the first time and gaming all night; Wang Zikai crying and saying he didn't actually want his parents to divorce...

Gao Yang sat dejectedly in front of Wang Zikai's body, feeling lost.

Qing Ling walked into the room, holding a knife and covering her bleeding arm.

Chubby Jun hesitated for a moment, then stood up from beside Wang Zikai and walked towards Qing Ling, placing his hands on her injured arm. "I'll heal it!"

Qing Ling glanced at Wang Zikai and furrowed her brow. "Is he dead?"

Officer Huang nodded. "No heartbeat." He looked around at the scattered bodies of the beasts on the ground. "I didn't expect the village to be truly slaughtered. If it weren't for Wang Zikai, the four of us would probably be dead."

"...Did anyone escape?" Chubby Jun asked anxiously.

"I just counted. There are 31 outside and 22 inside the house, a total of 53 people."

"No one escaped! Can we leave this cursed place now?" Chubby Jun couldn't wait any longer. "They're all dead, there are no more enemies!"

As soon as Chubby Jun finished speaking, Gao Yang's chest tightened.

He covered his chest. "Something's not right..."

"What's wrong?" Officer Huang became alert.

"It just doesn't feel right..." Gao Yang couldn't explain. Perhaps it was because of his high mental strength, he could sense the presence of hidden enemies.

"It's not over yet," Gao Yang's voice was filled with despair. "There's something still with us. It's strong, excited, and dangerous..."

"Yang ge, you... don't joke like that, it's not funny at all!" Chubby Jun couldn't bear it anymore. He looked around. "What else is there? Where is it? I didn't see anything!"

Gao Yang closed his eyes and entered the system.

[Warning! You are in extreme danger]

[Lucky point earnings increased by 1000 times]

- 1000 times?

Gao Yang didn't know what this concept meant. All he knew was that with their current state, they were bound to die!

He opened his eyes and shouted, "Run! Run fast!"

The four of them didn't hesitate and rushed out of the house, not even caring about Wang Zikai's body.

Just as they ran out of the yard, Qing Ling, who was in the front, suddenly stopped. She didn't turn around and raised her hand towards the three behind her. "Back off! Don't come near me!"

The three of them didn't understand, so they stopped and held their breath.

Gao Yang was the first to notice. His eyes widened as he realized something was wrong with Qing Ling... more precisely, her black long hair was not right. There were a few strands of black hair that defied gravity and slowly floated up.

Gao Yang realized - those few strands of black hair didn't belong to Qing Ling!

"Hiss..."

Those few strands of black hair tightened around Qing Ling's slender neck, trying to strangle her. Qing Ling's fingers curled, and a blade hidden in her front pocket quickly flew out.

"Swish, swish, swish..." The blade cut through the strands of black hair, and Qing Ling quickly crouched down, leaping back to the side of the three.

The cut strands of black hair didn't chase after her. They floated in the air for a few seconds before slowly dispersing, like slender plankton, swimming towards the sky.

The four of them looked up together, feeling a chill down their spines.

A human-shaped skull fell from the sky, with thick black hair on it.

"Look down at your feet!" Chubby Jun shouted.

Gao Yang looked down and saw that the hair of the corpses on the ground had all fallen off and gathered together, like thin black snakes crawling on the ground. Soon, they defied gravity and swam towards the monster in the sky, like thousands of lost tadpoles returning to their mother's embrace.

Before long, the monster returned to its complete form.

Gao Yang didn't know how to describe it. It was a bizarre human skull with billions of black hairs attached to it. Under the moonlight, it looked like a giant seaweed monster floating in the depths of the ocean.

It slowly descended, and the hair spread in all directions, covering the sky and blocking out the moonlight. Endless darkness pressed down on the four of them, as if it were the end of the world.

"Isn't that... the hair monster that attacked us that night!" Chubby Jun finally remembered.

"That's right."

Gao Yang's heart turned cold. Even if they were at full strength, they might not be able to deal with this thing, let alone in their current situation of being outnumbered and out of resources.

He looked at Officer Huang. "Does the Zodiac organization know about this situation?"

Officer Huang's face turned grave. "I'm afraid they do, that's why they called us here."

"This isn't an assessment, they're sending us to our deaths." Gao Yang's voice carried a hint of unwillingness."We've been used." Qing Ling said coldly, "We're just cannon fodder."

"I'm sorry, it's my fault. Wu Dahai didn't seem like a bad person, I thought my judgment of people wouldn't be wrong..." Officer Huang was filled with guilt.

Gao Yang shook his head, "Don't blame yourself, joining the organization was our own choice."@@novelbin@@

"Enough of that! Think of a solution! I don't want to die..." Chubby Jun cried out anxiously.

"Qing Ling, can you still swing your blade?" Gao Yang asked.

Qing Ling remained silent. She had at least three fractures, and the muscles in her right arm were severely torn, making it impossible for her to exert any strength. Although she was still barely holding the Tang Blade, it was merely a bluff.

A quick look at " will leave you more fulfilled.

Of course, she could still use her Metal Talent. However, a level 2 Metal Talent, while useful for controlling hidden weapons to ambush a human, was completely ineffective against a beast of this level.

Gao Yang naturally thought of this, and Qing Ling's silence said it all.

Escape was impossible.

Fight meant certain death.

All reason told Gao Yang: it was a dead end.

Nothing was more torturous than waiting for death, but this agony didn't last long. The sky-covering black hair, like a black man-eating flower hanging upside down in the sky, began to surround the four of them in the courtyard.

"Everyone, be careful!"

Gao Yang shouted, but it was in vain.

Chubby Jun was the first to be entangled by the black hair. He completely gave up resistance, closed his eyes and sobbed in pain, hoping that he could die quickly without too much suffering.

Officer Huang was the second to be caught. He tried to resist, but only struggled for two more seconds before being tied up like a dumpling.

Gao Yang's situation was similar to Officer Huang's. The temporary addition of a dozen points of Agility didn't help him avoid the black hair's binding.

Qing Ling held out the longest. She used her Metal Talent to control the dagger, blade, and Tang Blade, spinning them rapidly around her. Countless strands of hair were cut off, but some still penetrated her defense. Within six or seven seconds, Qing Ling was tightly bound by the black hair.

Under the influence of the black hair, Gao Yang's feet slowly left the ground, and he floated up along with his three companions.

Qing Ling was the last to be caught, but it seemed that she was the prey the hair monster desired the most. She was quickly drawn towards the hair monster and soon hung upside down in front of the skull.

The black hair wrapped around her body moved slowly and coldly like tiny snakes, slowly burrowing into Qing Ling's waterfall-like black hair, as if wanting to merge with it.

Suddenly, the skull opened its mouth and spoke in a hollow, chilling, and distorted female voice: "Hair, hair, such beautiful hair..."

Qing Ling stared at the skull in front of her, showing no fear.

Suddenly, she opened her mouth, and a small blade hidden on her tongue flew out, aiming for the skull's brow.

"Metal!" Qing Ling shouted, concentrating all her control on the blade.

It was useless. The blade was too thin and brittle. It was crushed by the powerful intent, leaving only a tiny scratch on the skull's brow.

But this sneak attack angered the hair monster.

Hundreds of strands of hair intertwined, instantly condensing into a hard "black giant needle", like a scorpion's tail, curving upwards from below, piercing Qing Ling's chest.

"Qing Ling!" Gao Yang shouted.