Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Boss Level

Feng Ling jerked upright. “Where?”

“I-I don’t know…” Huang Fu Miao Miao swallowed, the words catching like thorns in her throat. “It’s a quest hint. It won’t tell players the exact location—just a search area. You’re supposed to explore it yourself.”

“Anything else?” Feng Ling’s eyes never left her. “Read it.”

Huang Fu Miao Miao stared at the virtual screen in front of her and read slowly, carefully, as if the words could bite:

“Deep in a pitch-black cave, the monster is already ravenous. Only sharp judgment and astonishing courage will bring you face-to-face with it. Silence is the prelude to death; light is the overture to victory. Conquer your fear and you will earn a generous reward—will you accept the A-rank extermination quest?”

When she finished, her face had gone tight and gray. “An A-rank extermination quest… If it’s A-rank, that means the target list includes a boss-level polluted entity.”

Feng Ling listened like she was filing every syllable away. “How strong is boss level?”

“I don’t know.” Huang Fu Miao Miao’s mouth twisted. “I’ve never run into an A-rank polluted entity. I can barely handle a B-rank elite monster as it is.”

She dragged in a shaky breath and forced herself to explain. “In the game, anything you can kill is ranked five ways: minion, elite monster, Boss, Lord Boss, and Abyss Boss.”

“Boss is the middle,” Feng Ling said. “So it’s… average?”

Huang Fu Miao Miao shook her head so hard it looked painful. “You can’t measure it like that. Abyss Boss is the strongest Boss the system generates directly. The number is fixed—only twelve in the whole world. You almost never meet one, and if you do, you can’t win. Players don’t even count them as realistic targets. So boss level is actually terrifying.”

Her voice dropped. “Even the weakest boss has a high-tier card and has completed at least three digestions.”

Feng Ling went quiet, turning it over.

Her own ability card was unusual—probably high-tier. And she’d completed three digestions too. By that logic… did that make her, as a hidden Boss, comparable to a Boss?

No. Too sloppy.

Huang Fu Miao Miao had said at least. Three was the floor, not the ceiling. This polluted entity might have completed five, eight—ten, more. Enough to push its corruption over the line and rot it into what it was.

“Chao Qiang Chao found aberrants in the tunnel,” Feng Ling said at last, “and you got a quest notice about a polluted entity. That isn’t coincidence.”

She looked at Huang Fu Miao Miao. “Is this quest only visible to you, or can all aberrants see it?”

“It’s an area quest,” Huang Fu Miao Miao said. “Any player inside the zone gets it.”

Feng Ling’s mouth curved, just a little. “So when we move in, we won’t only be dealing with a polluted entity. We might get hit by aberrants, too.”

Huang Fu Miao Miao didn’t answer. Her silence said enough.

Plenty of players were Madmen. They chased the rush—blood, screams, the clean click of violence. They didn’t hesitate to cut down compatriots, let alone Earth’s natives.

Feng Ling pulled out her phone and started typing. If they were walking into hell, everyone needed to know where the mouth opened.

[Feng Ling: Little Skeleton just received a quest hint. There’s an A-rank polluted entity nearby. I suspect the polluted entity is connected to what Chao Qiang Chao reported—finding a large number of injured aberrants in the tunnel.]

[Zhou Zhou: Holy shit!]

[Su Yu Qing: Can you confirm the polluted entity’s location?]

[Feng Ling: No. The quest only gives a search area.]

[Su Yu Qing: @Feng Ling, share the search area in the group. I’ll have technicians analyze the terrain.]

Feng Ling opened the map app and handed the phone to Huang Fu Miao Miao. “Mark the area. I’ll send it.”

Huang Fu Miao Miao took it, expression flickering.

She liked her name. She liked it a lot. So why did Feng Ling keep calling her Little Skeleton?

Worse—everyone in the group knew exactly who “Little Skeleton” meant, instantly, like it was already written into the bones of their little circle.

“Done,” Huang Fu Miao Miao said, and returned the phone.

The area was big. Too big. It swallowed the shopping mall whole and spilled into the surrounding residential blocks and parks.

Feng Ling screenshotted it and posted it.

[Su Yu Qing: Received.]

[Su Yu Qing: I’ll organize and coordinate residents’ evacuation. You continue as planned.]

[Zhou Zhou: I want a rocket launcher!!!]

[Su Yu Qing: Heavy weapons are Plan B. If your operation goes badly and the situation turns critical, I’ll request special authorization to bombard the area.]

[Feng Ling: If you collapse the tunnel, we’ll be buried alive.]

No one replied.

The chat went cold again.

Feng Ling stared at the screen, then at the word choice. When she’d said polluted entity, neither Su Yu Qing nor Zhou Zhou had asked what it meant.

So the Inspection Bureau knew more than she’d assumed. A lot more.

A private message popped up.

[Su Yu Qing: After this operation, I hope you’ll consider joining us.]

[Feng Ling: (^_^) Heh. We’ll talk.]

6:00 a.m.

Chao Qiang Chao posted a location pin in the group and ordered everyone to assemble at the shopping mall.

When they arrived, he sent a second message, narrowing it down to the underground Level B2 parking garage—Section C.

They reached Section C.

And then Chao Qiang Chao vanished.

No replies. No answered calls. Just silence on the line.

If Huang Fu Miao Miao hadn’t warned her about the polluted entity nearby, Feng Ling might’ve believed it was a prank—some sick joke dragged out over a frozen morning.

Then the sound came.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

It echoed off concrete and painted lines, rolling through the empty garage like a heartbeat inside a coffin.

Zhou Zhou’s head snapped toward it. His hearing was sharp; he didn’t hesitate. “Over there.”

A roll-up door stood a short distance away.

They approached. The door wasn’t locked. The ground in front of it was scuffed with chaotic footprints, like a crowd had surged and scattered in panic.

Zhou Zhou didn’t touch the handle. Not yet. He reported to Su Yu Qing first, voice low, controlled.

Huang Fu Miao Miao pressed close to Feng Ling, shoulders drawn tight. “What’s behind it?”

Feng Ling glanced at the signage and the private lock plate. “A bought-out garage bay. People park cars in there. Sometimes they store car-wash tools.”

She barely finished before—thump.

The door shuddered again.

Huang Fu Miao Miao jolted, going pale, fingers clawing at Feng Ling’s sleeve like it was the only thing anchoring her.

Feng Ling turned to Zhou Zhou. “When are you opening it?”

In an instant, Zhou Zhou looked like someone else. The earlier impatience and swagger were gone, pressed flat under discipline. He signaled.

The team members moved to either side, rifles up, muzzles trained on the gap that didn’t exist yet.

Zhou Zhou stepped forward alone. One hand on the handle, the other raised behind him—counting them in.

One.

Two.

Three.

He yanked the door up.

The metal clattered overhead, and every gun aimed into the space beyond—

Only to reveal a pit.

Zhou Zhou blinked, thrown. He’d pictured a thousand possibilities. He hadn’t pictured a hole.

The drop was nearly vertical, about three to four meters deep. Two men stood at the bottom, straining to hold up a pair of shovels lashed together into crude extended handles.

The noise wasn’t a warning, or a trap springing.

It was them, banging the roll-up door with the shovels, trying to be heard.