Volume One, Chapter 24: Which Damned Statue Is Counting Down Again?!
A total armor value of 1,600 points gave Li Chuan a great deal of confidence.
...
At the player gathering point.
Whoosh!
A tall, beautiful figure appeared beneath the white plum blossom tree.
"Sister Han is back! How was it? Did you complete the mission?"
"Great! The guild leader is back; we'll have food to eat now."
Over a dozen players gathered around immediately upon seeing her.
Gao Han nodded.
"Yes, it's done. How is everyone else?"
The freckled girl at the head of the group shook her head with a bitter expression.
"You're the first one back; no one else has returned yet."
Gao Han opened her treasure chest, obtaining ten loaves of bread and two buckets of water. She handed the fish and food from her pack to the freckled girl.
"The mission time limit is two hours. Regardless of whether they finish or not, they won't be able to return for two hours. They went in after me, so they should be out shortly."
"Set aside enough for our own needs today, and distribute the surplus to the stranded survivors."
The freckled girl's expression soured.
"Sister Han, there are twenty-four of us in the Illuminati. With the food you brought back, we don't even have enough for ourselves, let alone enough to share with the stragglers."
"Illuminati" was the name this group—who considered themselves noble—had given themselves, and their leader was naturally the strongest among them, Gao Han.
Gao Han’s fair brow furrowed.
"Aren't there others?"
The freckled girl whispered, "Even if everyone completes their missions, that's only twelve people. Besides, several of them said before they left that even if they obtained food, they wouldn't share it."
"Sister Han, others are laughing at us for being fools. They say that only by being like that 'Cold-Blooded One' can one survive longer in this cutthroat world."
Gao Han, whose username was "High Places Are Cold," lifted her proud chin.
"Only the most selfish people would say such things. Rest assured, I will lead as many people as possible to survive this stage!"
"You just mentioned that 'Cold-Blooded One'—did he complete his daily mission as well?"
The freckled girl nodded.
"Yes. When he came out, he was ambushed by a straggler with a bow and arrow, but the attacker didn't succeed and was killed by him instead."
"That's right! We even saw that Cold-Blooded guy using four buckets of pure water to water a tree!"
Gao Han's expression darkened.
"That selfish jerk. Instead of using water to save people, he uses it on a tree! How truly cold-blooded!"
...
At the edge of the withered forest, filled with a sense of eerie decay and death.
Li Chuan, dressed in a grey-white cotton coat, slowly took a few steps back.
"Hiss, what's going on? Just standing in that spot gave me a lingering sense of fear, as if I were being watched by something. Stepping back seems to have solved it."
"Was my perception wrong? Or is it..."
Li Chuan observed everything in the withered forest with intense scrutiny.
"Withered trees, vines, withered trees, vines, scattered broken stone statues."
Grey, white, black—everything seemed to fit the atmosphere of this dead forest perfectly.
What exactly were these things, and how did they kill previous players?
Li Chuan lifted his foot and walked into the withered forest from a different direction.
After another dozen steps, he once again felt that creeping dread of impending danger.
Something wasn't right!
Li Chuan stopped immediately and slowly retreated.
"The scenery here is about the same as outside, just with more dead trees and vines, the temperature is a bit cooler, and there are more of these broken stone statues... The statues!"
Li Chuan began to stare at a stone statue not far from him.
After staring for a long time, he still couldn't trigger the glasses' appraisal function.
Li Chuan switched to a different statue and kept staring.
[Silence Statue: Green]
[HP: 500/500]
[Level 10. A cursed, eerie statue. It will attack anything within its range that dares to make a sound!]
[Attack Range: 10-meter radius. Attack Method: Ground Spikes. Trigger Time: 10 seconds. Weakness marked!]
Li Chuan’s eyes widened!
The horror of the withered forest was actually these inconspicuous, broken stone statues?
The Silence Statue was a beast-shaped sculpture lying on its side in the dirt, half-buried. It was so severely damaged that Li Chuan couldn't even tell what kind of beast it had once been.
He picked up a large stone from the ground and tossed it into the range of the Silence Statue.
"One, two, three... ten!"
Whizz!
As soon as the ten seconds were up, a sharp stone spike as thick as a finger suddenly shot out from the ground, shattering the rock before vanishing instantly.
"What a bizarre method of attack!"
Having figured out how the statue attacked, Li Chuan moved cautiously, tip-toeing into the statue's range.
*Swish.*
His footsteps landed softly on the earth, making a faint rustling sound.
The statue remained motionless, and no spikes shot out.
Li Chuan was now certain that the sound of him walking on tiptoes was within the acceptable range of the Silence Statue.
Six meters, five meters, four meters, three meters!
"Weakness Strike!"
Li Chuan drew his longsword and struck directly at the statue's marked weakness!
—90!
*Clack! Clack-clack!*
Li Chuan kept counting the time in his head while hacking away at the statue's weak point.
Ten seconds reached!
Whoosh!
A stone spike erupted where Li Chuan had been standing, but he had already rolled to the side.
*Clack, clack!*
—64, —40...
Another side roll, Weakness Strike!
—234
...
Relying on his agile side-rolls, Li Chuan destroyed the statue in less than two minutes.
[Ding! Killed Level 10 Silence Statue (Elite) *1. Experience +20.]
[Cursed Energy Core: Green]
[A portable energy source manufactured with advanced technologies like separation and compression. It has been contaminated and requires purification before further use.]
Heh, another piece of junk taking up inventory space.
Li Chuan put away the loot and continued to explore deeper into the withered forest.
[Statue of Stillness: Green]
[HP: 500/500]
[Level 10. A cursed, eerie statue. It will attack any moving target within its range!]
[Attack Range: 10-meter radius. Attack Method: High Temperature. Trigger Time: 10 seconds. Weakness marked!]
Li Chuan frowned as he looked at the torch-shaped statue not far away.
It required absolute stillness within its range?
How do you pass something that requires stillness?
Li Chuan picked up a half-withered vine and tossed it into the range of the Statue of Stillness.
*Thud.*
The vine fell to the ground, and ten seconds later, it suddenly burst into intense flames.
Li Chuan stood there, stunned for a moment.
"How are you supposed to dodge this kind of attack? I didn't even see where it came from!"
Forget it, better to go around.
Li Chuan took a twenty-meter detour to bypass the Statue of Stillness and continued walking into the withered forest.
...
At noon, two scorching suns converged in the sky, and the ground temperature reached its peak.
Li Chuan couldn't bear the stifling heat of the forest anymore, so he took off his heavy cotton coat and changed into a thinner novice tunic, feeling a bit more comfortable.
"Little Green must be thirsty again. I'll explore for another half hour. Regardless of whether I find anything, I have to rush back to water Little Green!"
As he walked forward in small steps, Li Chuan felt that familiar heart-palpitating sensation once more.
"Damn it! Which plague-ridden statue is counting down again!"