Chapter 247: If you fight, you’ll feel terrible for a day; if you don’t fight, you’ll feel terrible for a lifetime!
So here’s the thing: you have to forget that you’re a supernatural being and just follow the clear-the-game process like an ordinary person. That’s the only way to avoid the dangers.
Basically, anyone who thought they had some amazing ability and could play with fire has already gotten themselves killed in those dangerous challenges.
Even the toughest guys in the top tier mostly just follow the rules properly.
Only those who have been infected know how powerful the virus really is. It’s not that they don’t want to use their supernatural powers; it’s that using them even once makes you cough up blood and leaves you weak.
No one’s going to do that unless it’s a real emergency.
So, on the surface, apart from Zhang Yangqing, it looks like everyone in this level is just an ordinary person.
This so-called “godly game” actually seems to have an even higher death rate than the last horror tale.
The whole point of the rules within the horror tale world is to allow ordinary chosen ones to clear the game.
The rules themselves are the most basic form of protection.
If a supernatural being wants to forcefully rise above those rules, they have to bear the disaster that comes from lacking that protection.
In lower-difficulty horror tale worlds before, maybe a few supernatural beings could pull it off.
But now, the one who was the unique one at the start is still the unique one.
Inside the horror tale world, there were shocking explosions coming from the bridge.
Because the chosen ones figured out that these dangerous small fuel tankers would eventually explode. To avoid running into an explosion while driving themselves, they simply detonated them right then and there.
The danger over the next few hundred meters seemed to be getting worse.
Without the help of the eerie crows, unless the supernatural beings went all out, there would be no way to get past this point, let alone for the ordinary chosen ones.
The eerie crows themselves moved in fits and starts, resting for a while before continuing to kill the eerie insects hiding along the bridge’s edge.
Sometimes, the eerie crows were covered head to toe in sticky goo left over from killing the mutated, eerie insects, yet they still stood on the chosen ones’ shoulders.
The chosen ones couldn’t show any disgust; instead, they had to praise them for a job well done.
After all, those crows were working hard so the chosen ones could stay alive.
Up ahead, they came to another dangerous spot.
There lay the enormous corpse of a mutated, eerie insect, looking like a giant locust.
It didn’t seem to have been dead for very long. Large parts of its body had already been eaten away, but its massive form still blocked most of the path.
Only a narrow lane, just wide enough for a vehicle to pass, remained on the right side of the bridge.
“I’ve got a feeling this is a trap deliberately set to lure me in,” said the One-Eyed Kid.
After observing the area for a while, he felt something was off and didn’t dare go any further.
Not that he was afraid this giant locust would suddenly come back to life – it was dead as a doornail.
The real fear in a place like this was some kind of spike trap. That would catch anyone, and they’d be dead for sure.
So the One-Eyed Kid had a sudden idea. He sent the crows to fly under the bridge and check for any danger down there.
After the crows flew down, they started cawing loudly.
That meant they had found danger, but they couldn’t deal with it themselves.
After all, crows can’t talk. They could only tell him there was danger, not what the danger actually was.
The One-Eyed Kid, trusting his own skill and courage, had one crow protect him, then climbed over the railing. He held onto the edge of the bridge with his hands and looked down to see what was going on.
What he saw gave him a real fright. A giant, eerie beetle was lurking underneath the bridge.
It was positioned exactly on the side where the vehicles could pass, as if it were just waiting for its prey to arrive.
Its body was enormous, covered in a hard shell that looked as impenetrable as diamond.
The dim light refracted off its shell, giving off a terrifying gleam.
The eerie beetle’s face was exceptionally fierce. Two shiny, black compound eyes bulged out on either side of its head, like two cold, hard stones.
Below those compound eyes were a pair of sharp mandibles, like two serrated swords, ready to rip into any creature that dared come close.
Its front pair of legs were incredibly strong, looking like they could easily split a boulder. Its hind legs were covered in barbs, making them look truly horrifying.
If it started making a threatening buzzing sound, that meant it was opening its shell and getting ready to fly.
Without the eerie crows, this thing would probably be attacking the chosen ones right now.
Here, the One-Eyed Kid noticed a detail: the two eerie crows kept issuing warnings but didn’t dare get close to that mutated, eerie beetle.
That meant they were also quite wary of it.
Similarly, the mutated, eerie beetle, seeing the two eerie crows, also became agitated. It seemed to be warning them not to try anything stupid, or else it would be a fight to the death!
It looked like they were evenly matched, and neither side seemed willing to make the first move.
At this point, the One-Eyed Kid and the other chosen ones started to understand: this was the big boss of the bridge level.
The giant locust was probably killed by this mutated, eerie beetle. That tells you how powerful it is.
There was a risky strategy here: let the two eerie crows fight it out to the death with the mutated, eerie beetle.
If the crows won, great. If they lost and completely enraged the beetle, then the chosen ones would be attacked too.
So the One-Eyed Kid chose to retreat. Back up on the bridge surface, it seemed the mutated, eerie beetle wouldn’t attack them. It just stayed there stupidly, waiting for the chosen ones to drive right into the trap it had set.
Now here was the problem. Since they couldn’t take that path, how were they going to cross the bridge?
At this point, the One-Eyed Kid, like most other chosen ones, went over and touched the giant locust’s body.
It felt like the body wasn’t very hard, and it had already been dead for a while.
So an idea formed in the One-Eyed Kid’s head.
The locust’s corpse was way too big to move.
But they could dig a tunnel right through its body, big enough for the vehicles to pass through.
That way, they could avoid the area where the mutated, eerie beetle was hiding.
It was the only solution he could think of.
With that in mind, he started looking for tools and began digging a tunnel through the giant locust’s body.
With the help of the two eerie crows, and despite the scorching sun, the One-Eyed Kid and the other chosen ones – wearing their masks – managed to dig a path through after about half an hour of work.
Thank goodness they had their masks on, otherwise the stench would have killed them.
They tried walking through the tunnel, all the way to the other side of the bridge, and sure enough, the mutated, eerie beetle didn’t attack them.
They figured the beetle was probably also wary of the eerie crows, so it didn’t dare make a move.
Time passed slowly. A 1500-meter stretch of bridge would take the chosen ones about ten minutes to cross on foot to the other side.
The One-Eyed Kid and many other chosen ones returned to their vehicles, dirty and disheveled, covered in grime. After three or four hours of hard work, everyone was feeling a bit tired.
They leaned back in their driver’s seats for a short rest and ate a little something.
Some chosen ones wanted to wash their faces with water, but it felt too extravagant. They couldn’t bear to waste their drinking water.
If they really ran out of water to drink later, they’d be kicking themselves.
Going into the river was out of the question. Washing in that river would leave you dirtier than if you hadn’t washed at all.
Just then, Zhang Yangqing stretched, yawned, and said, “Finally, you’re here. I’ve been sitting here all day, I’m exhausted.”
This remark made quite a few viewers watching on the big screens twitch the corners of their mouths.
Other chosen ones risked life and limb to clear the bridge, facing life-or-death situations, and you’re saying you’re tired from just sitting here?
It’s only because it was Zhang Yangqing saying this. If it had been any other chosen one, they would have been flamed.
The insults would mostly be things like “You think you can do better?” or “Don’t talk nonsense.”
But this guy was different. He actually could do it, and he would!
So the viewers couldn’t really flame him. They just felt like this guy had somehow managed to show off again.
The One-Eyed Kid didn’t feel upset at all. He felt this was exactly what he should be doing.
After all, Zhang Yangqing hadn’t complained to him when he was busy with the previous levels.
He just gave a simple report on the situation on the bridge.
He had a lot to say this time, but it was still very concise.
Zhang Yangqing basically understood what had happened.
This kind of complicated, tedious, and exhausting task was best left to the teammates.
After all, choosing a route was also a very important matter.
The difficulty of this level wasn’t that great for the One-Eyed Kid either. In his prime, he was also at the Fierce Ghost level. Now, with barely a tenth of his original power, he was about the same as other supernatural beings.
He just couldn’t compare to Zhang Yangqing, but that didn’t mean he lacked skill.
If the One-Eyed Kid were in an ordinary team of supernatural beings, he’d be the heavy hitter.
On Zhang Yangqing’s team, he was just a minor, not-so-useful guy who handled the troublesome tasks Zhang Yangqing didn’t want to do.
Since other supernatural beings could handle it, the One-Eyed Kid naturally had his ways.
Besides, Zhang Yangqing wasn’t the one driving, so he couldn’t be bothered to think about it.
Once the off-road vehicle was on the road, Zhang Yangqing continued to rest with his eyes closed.
In the viewers’ eyes, Heavenly Master Zhang had reached a new level of play.
He lets the natives clear the level, and he just lies down and cruises through!
His methods for getting through levels are becoming more and more unbelievable.
When it comes to creative stunts, no one can hold a candle to him.
What really makes people jealous is that he can pull off these stunts and still clear the level!
For that 1500-meter bridge, just walking across it once – even if everything went smoothly – took the chosen ones about ten minutes.
To clear the path, they spent about three whole hours there.
Now, driving – while having to navigate some detours – only took two or three minutes to cross.
If they sped, they could make it in one minute.
That’s why the chosen ones were so unwilling to abandon their vehicles.
The first 1200 meters were quite smooth, as the dangers had already been dealt with.
But after they drove through the locust tunnel and reached the other side of the bridge, the ground started shaking. A powerful, rumbling drone filled the sky, like dozens of huge military helicopters were following them.
The chosen ones looked through their rearview mirrors.
Wow, the mutated, eerie beetle was chasing after them!
“No, this thing is even scarier than the one I saw earlier. Has it mutated?” asked Hilde, a supernatural being from Hans Country.
This mutated, eerie beetle was twice the size of the one he saw earlier. Its smooth shell now had strange patterns on it, as if reinforced by some kind of spell.
And it had grown huge pincers on its head, seemingly capable of crushing any hard object.
Looking closer, the sounds the beetle made were incredibly angry, and its expression was terrifyingly ferocious!
Based on intel, there’s one way an eerie creature can mutate: through a change in emotion.
Last time, the dragon country’s heavenly master encountered an eerie mutation after the creature’s jealousy went through the roof.
But that time, it ran into the dragon country’s heavenly master at his peak. Mutation? Evolution? It didn’t matter.
This time, by driving right past the trap the mutated, eerie beetle had set, the chosen ones had enraged it.
The beetle felt like it had been fooled. “I spent so much effort preparing this trap, and you just drive past it like that?”
“Are you disrespecting me?”
Well, you can’t exactly judge an insect’s thinking by normal standards.
So it flew into a rage and chased after them.
Its overwhelming anger pushed it past its limits, and its power broke through to a new level.
Before, it had been afraid of the eerie crows. Now, it wanted to kill them, too.
Its target was simple: destroy the chosen ones’ off-road vehicles!
If it got hold of a vehicle with its pincers, that sturdy off-road vehicle would be twisted into scrap metal on the spot.
This mutated, mutated, eerie beetle (post-mutation) was incredibly fast.
Even with the chosen ones flooring the gas pedal, they could see it rapidly closing in.
In fact, the moment they saw the crows in their rearview mirrors, many chosen ones knew the answer.
The point of this level was to sacrifice the two eerie crows.
If they didn’t send the crows to buy them time, they were dead for sure.
After a while, though they were reluctant, the chosen ones opened their windows and, gritting their teeth, ordered the crows to go attack that mutated, eerie beetle.
At that moment, the two crows let out a series of “caws.”
It seemed like they were saying their final goodbyes to the chosen ones, or perhaps wishing them a safe journey.
After those calls, the two crows turned into black mist and flew out of the backseat windows.
The two crows let out a deafening shriek, deliberately trying to get the beetle’s attention.
Their voices echoed like thunder in a storm, reverberating through the air and shaking everything around them.
Their calls were filled with fearlessness and bravery. It was as if they knew death was waiting for them, yet they weren’t afraid. They resolutely and determinedly launched their attack on the enemy.
The sounds behind them grew louder and more intense. The roar of the battle shook the heavens and the earth continuously.
Until, finally, the two crows charged at the beetle one last time, using the last of their strength to mount their most ferocious attack.
In his rearview mirror, Hilde saw them fall from the sky like two black meteors.
They had given their lives to send the chosen ones on their new journey.
But their final cries echoed forever in the hearts of the chosen ones.
It was a stirring, heroic song.
During their time together, the two crows had saved the chosen ones many times. They could tell the chosen ones were having a hard time, so they brought them things they thought tasted good, and even helped tidy up their messy clothes.
It just shows that crows are very intelligent and spiritual creatures.
Without them, the chosen ones would never have crossed that bridge.
Their time together was short, but the memories are lasting.
Unlike the scheming and backstabbing of humans, the pure, simple kindness of animals is truly moving.
The supernatural being from Hans Country turned on his windshield wipers. It felt like there was mist on his windshield, making it hard to see the road ahead.
Many supernatural beings slammed their fists on their steering wheels, furious at their own helplessness!
It seemed like this horror tale world was telling these arrogant supernatural beings: if you don’t play by my rules, you’re powerless!
If he could, Hilde swore that after the virus was gone, he would come back and fight that beetle!
Nothing else would satisfy his hatred. He knew he wouldn’t get an SSSS rating anyway, and any other score didn’t really matter.
Sure, fighting that beetle might make him feel terrible for a day. But not fighting it would make him feel terrible for a lifetime!
He wasn’t the only one who felt this way. Many other supernatural beings did too.
Other supernatural beings were also at a decision point. Even the One-Eyed Kid was considering it.
But just then, a displeased voice came from next to them: “Stop the car. I’m going to squash this fly.”
I just finished eating and was taking a nap, and you dare disturb my rest? Looking for a death wish, are you?
