Chapter 50

Chapter 50: A Player’s Death

After resting for a while, Ling Mo went up to the third floor.

Ever since she moved in, she rarely came up here. They called it the third floor, but it was really just an attic. She used it like a junk room, dumping anything she didn’t need out of sight.

She could have stored everything in her pocket space, but she worried that if someone visited and saw an empty living room with barely any furniture, she wouldn’t be able to explain it.

But now…

Ling Mo swept all the junk into her pocket space, then took out the black wood ear she’d collected in the game. She laid it out neatly on the floor, bark and all.

Fresh black wood ear was slick and hard to pick, but once it dried, harvesting became much easier.

For the final step, she pulled down the moisture-proof mat she’d been using as a sunshade on the window.

Blinding, scorching sunlight poured into the room.

Luckily, Ling Mo had prepared. With color-changing contacts and glasses on, the glare didn’t bother her eyes.

Still, the heat on her exposed skin was immediate and sharp, like she’d burn in minutes. She hurried out of the room.

With sunlight this strong, it wouldn’t take even an hour to dry the black wood ear completely. She just had to make sure it didn’t over-dry.

Back on the first floor, Ling Mo didn’t idle. She started training.

The scientific regimen Qie Man designed for her was far better than the random routines she’d been half-copying from videos. Archery and shooting practice were also officially on her schedule now.

There were countless things she wanted to learn, but she knew she couldn’t swallow it all at once. Step by step.

Qie Man even created a dedicated mental power training method based on her situation.

Whenever it got too cold, Ling Mo would put the water-chilling stone away for a while. During breaks, she’d run upstairs, collect the batch that had dried, and lay out a new one.

She didn’t throw away the bark from harvesting, either. Once dried, it became soft and fluffy—perfect kindling.

By the time the sun sank, she finally ended her training for the day. Her clothes were soaked through with sweat, but she didn’t complain. She was happy.

Because if she wasn’t sweating now, then later… she might be bleeding.

If she had to choose, she’d take sweat every time.

After a shower, Ling Mo blow-dried her hair and checked her phone for any new updates.

She nearly jumped.

The water-chilling stone had sparked a huge online uproar. But it was so expensive that most people couldn’t afford it, so for them it was just entertainment.

The other piece of news was different.

A player had died.

Ling Mo opened the thread. The dead player hadn’t been erased for failing the game, and he hadn’t been killed in a fight with another player.

He died of sickness.

He’d successfully cleared the third game round, but after the game ended, he started feeling awful—vomiting, diarrhea, burning hot all over. At the hospital, the diagnosis came back as a full-body infection.

It wasn’t a surface infection, either. It spread from the inside out. Before the doctors could figure out a way to treat it, the player started convulsing and died on the spot.

After death, his body decomposed rapidly and began to stink. As soon as the government got the report, they ordered the body to be burned immediately.

And it wasn’t an isolated case.

More than twenty other players had the same symptoms. Some had cleared the round. Some hadn’t.

Their conditions were milder, so they didn’t die as quickly as the first one, but the situation was still dire.

After investigators questioned them, they discovered the common thread: every single one of them drank water from the same lake.

At first, they only thought the water tasted strange and didn’t pay attention. Even when the first symptoms appeared, they still didn’t take it seriously.

By the time they understood how bad it was, they were already done.

Ling Mo stared at the post and couldn’t help thinking of the lake she’d come across before. Was it the same one?

It had felt off back then. She never expected anyone would actually drink from it.

“Qie Man,” she asked, “why would they end up like this? Is that lake really dangerous?”

“Based on Master’s description and my analysis, it was not a lake. It was titan ape urine.”

“Cough—cough, cough!”

Ling Mo immediately started coughing, her throat seizing up.

So that was what it was. No wonder it had felt wrong. Good thing she hadn’t lingered.

“Can those people be saved?”

“titan ape urine has mild corrosiveness and extremely strong infectiousness. If ingested by mistake, there is hope in the early stage. In the late stage, only a high-level healer can treat it.”

Which meant those people were finished.

Blue Star definitely had awakened healers by now, but Qie Man wasn’t talking about just anyone. A “high-level healer” meant a healer who’d reached sixth level.

Ling Mo set her phone down. After tidying herself up, she prepared to go out.

After enduring the extreme heat for so long, people had adapted. Most of them came out at night.

“Outside temperature detected above forty-five degrees. Activate the constant-temperature function of the illusory cloak?”

“The what?” Ling Mo froze. “Constant temperature?”

“Yes.”

Ling Mo glared. “You had something this useful and didn’t tell me sooner?”

“Previously, Master did not require it. I assumed you were aware.”

Ling Mo’s lips twitched. It felt suspiciously like being mocked.

Still, considering how expensive the illusory cloak was, a feature like this made sense.

The moment it activated, the air around her felt comfortable. For a brief second, Ling Mo almost felt like she’d been thrown back to the days before the extreme heat.

She headed out and reached the main street, only to find crowds surging toward the mall. Two burly men stood at the entrance, collecting money openly.

Ling Mo stared, stunned. People had to pay just to enter the mall now?

And nobody was resisting. If anything, they looked desperate to get inside.

It didn’t take long to find out why.

The mall boss had managed to snag a water-chilling stone and placed it inside the building. Then he converted the entire first, second, and third floors into paid cooling zones.

Once Ling Mo understood, she couldn’t help giving him a thumbs-up. Impressive. No wonder he was the boss.

But she didn’t go in. It was obviously packed shoulder-to-shoulder in there, and she wanted none of it.

She hopped on her e-bike, took a winding route through side streets, and arrived at the Central Plaza.

Lights blazed, voices overlapped, and the place buzzed with life.