Free Web NovelChapter 168: Chapter 168: Shelter
The moment they entered the dungeon, every human’s phone received a corresponding message.
Several major cities were already packed full of people, the dense population made it hard to breathe.
In the city controlled by Flying Tiger Dad, a bloodshot eye hovered above everyone’s head, its rolling eyeball fixated on their every move.
Above their heads, there was even a giant projection, the sky transformed into a colossal mirror, live streaming everything within the area.
Nothing escaped the gaze of the eyeball; the humans living here had no privacy at all.
Even going to the toilet or taking a shower was monitored by the eye.
At first, people weren’t used to it, and tried to leave Flying Tiger Dad’s city for other places, only to find that outside the city, whether forest or small towns, the bizarre forest had already begun to grow madly.
They tried to destroy the forest, but there were too few powerful humans, no one had the capacity to clear a patch of space for ordinary people’s survival.
Once touched, the eerie forest would latch on and absorb one’s life.
The bodies with all their life energy absorbed gradually dried up, becoming one bizarre Dark Tree after another by the ordinary trees.
Even though the eye above every person’s head in Flying Tiger Dad’s domain was discomforting, now no one chose to leave.
The population here was dense; temporary high walls were even built, surrounding the whole city.
Lacking materials for construction, people tore down the city’s high-rises.
Abandoned building materials were piled up in strange ways.
The high-rises got dismantled to build the walls.
The Dark Forest would not actively invade land with anchor points placed by high-level lifeforms, even though countless lives existed inside.
The walls they built weren’t to stop the mindless proliferation of the Dark Forest.
But to prevent other humans from coming in.
The city was already overcrowded, and now, only ten cities habitable by humans had been announced.
Humans rushed to the nearest habitable city.
Despite many human cities getting devoured by the Dark Forest, those who survived were still too numerous.
Among the ten survivable cities, there were some whose anchors hadn’t been placed by powerful humans yet, but that didn’t stop people from flocking to seek shelter.
Now, cities were overflowing, and outside, people crowded into a ring of temporary outer towns.
With the Dark Forest not having grown all the way over yet, those unable to enter the city packed themselves outside.
Flying Tiger Dad didn’t let his city walls border directly with the Dark Forest, reserving much peripheral space.
It wasn’t for those humans outside to survive—he simply dared not let his refuge border fully with the Dark Forest.
Even in this domain, outsiders also had an eye floating above their heads.
The instant the livestream message popped up, the projection overhead showed everyone making the same move at the same time.
Pulling their phones from their pockets, bowing their heads to look at the screen.
The dungeon’s challenge mode could be disabled, just as the evil spirits "visited"—simply moving into other territories, not for conquest.
But Jiang Che’s dungeon had just been formed, so it currently tagged any intruder as a challenger.
The other humans with anchor points hadn’t set up defenses; as long as you killed them, you could claim their territory directly.
Now countless people had rushed into the livestream of those three humans, while the three in the dungeon stared confused and unmoving.
"Is this a dungeon? No, wait!"
"Did evil spirits come to the Human Realm?"
"Humanity is really doomed!"
...
The trio’s voices echoed in the livestream, and hearing them, viewers were bewildered too—since the three claimed they were in the Human Realm, while also saying they were inside a dungeon.
[These three were sent out by Dragon Cloud Tower to scout, destination: Red Pearl City. Not long ago, energy readings showed the ever-expanding Dark Forest stopped growing in that area.]
Dragon Cloud Tower was another power like the Flying Tiger Group. Unlike Flying Tiger, which drew in humans and the strong through livestreams,
Dragon Cloud Tower operated more like a brotherhood;
In this era of mutual human distrust, even teams from Flying Tiger who entered dungeons together would scheme against each other.
But Dragon Cloud Tower was different. They flew flags of loyalty and righteousness; since the livestream revealed all actions, every member was strictly vetted.
If anyone betrayed their teammates in a dungeon, even surviving wouldn’t spare them from a manhunt.
So, once their members teamed up in a dungeon, mutual trust was possible!
Seeing the three in the dungeon, Dragon Cloud Tower immediately came forward to claim them.
They posted corresponding info; the trio had accepted a mission to scout Red Pearl City.
[Before entering the dungeon, we were in contact. They said they’d seen a vast, strange city appear nearby—the area on the map used to be mountainous wilderness.]
Jiang Che’s dungeon covered a broad scope, and was a massive, uninterrupted building.
Dragon Cloud Tower kept publishing the info they had previously received.
They even posted the photos the three took of the area before entering the dungeon.
The pictures showed the trio on a hilltop, shooting a distant, giant, low, flat structure.
The building wasn’t tall, just three or four floors.
It was clear that this thing had suddenly appeared, and it was indeed in the Human Realm.
[We lost contact with them after they entered, did not expect to see them pop up in the livestream.] Dragon Cloud Tower quickly sent messages.
[So this dungeon isn’t in the Evil Spirit Realm, but in the Human Realm?]
[The dungeon is so close to the original growth of the Dark Forest, could evil spirits have come out?]
[It doesn’t look like it—after the dungeon appeared, one side was covered in Dark Forest, but the other side had none at all. It’s more like it cut off part of the Dark Forest’s growth path for humanity.]
...
Humans’ understanding of dungeons was still stuck at the evil spirit dungeon phase; Flying Tiger hadn’t explained the conditions for setting up checkpoints yet.
Because Jiang Che’s dungeon had only just appeared.
The three shown in the stream stood still, carefully probing their situation.
"There’s a little radar in my mind now, showing the location of a nearby crystal."
"I have it too."
"There’s a white Spirit Body next to that crystal. So, what do we do next?"
The three quickly compiled all the known info—up ahead, the white Spirit Body had no face, but looked, from its shape, like medical staff.
The sides of the corridor had many rooms, hospital beds inside, along with some typical medical equipment.
Aside from that, was one bloody crystal after another.
The white Spirit Body just waited by them.
