Realm Walker

Chapter 48: S-Rank Difficulty

No one answered Xi Shi's question. Only the young girl named Xie Lingxi looked as though she wanted to speak, then held back.

Zhang Yuanqing mulled it over. The trust just isn't there yet. Are they unwilling to reveal their official affiliations, or am I the only one here with an official background?

He was debating whether to offer a hint when the River Lord in the black hoodie spoke up, his tone cold and flat.

"We've been inside the Spirit Realm for several minutes now, and it hasn't given us a single prompt. That means clearing this place is entirely on us. If any of you know something, you'd better not hold back. We're all tied to the same rope here."

Xie Lingxi raised her hand slightly and said in a small voice, "I know a little about the old version of this dungeon. The introduction to the Spirit Realm has changed."

Zhang Yuanqing studied the girl carefully. Was she with an official organization?

The River Lord frowned at her words. "The introduction changed? Hmm, I think I understand now. The reason Jinshui Amusement Park's difficulty was altered is right there in the introduction. Does everyone remember what it said?"

The red haired Fire Demon scratched his head and mumbled, "I forgot..."

Xi Shi glanced at him, quietly put some distance between them, and smiled softly. "An unknown being arrived here. She's the one who changed Jinshui Amusement Park's difficulty rating. She ordered the spirits inside the park to help her find someone, a person whose name is four characters long. Who could it be?"

Ashamed Father couldn't help but chime in. "I don't think who it is matters. That person is probably just part of the background story. What matters are the 'spirits' inside the park. Is it possible that Jinshui Amusement Park's difficulty jumped to S-rank because those spirits received that being's blessing, making them extraordinarily powerful?"

Great Sage Equal to Heaven, decked out in loafers, skinny jeans, and a fitted blazer, lit up at this revelation. "That makes total sense! You're really smart, uncle."

The River Lord gave a slight nod, acknowledging the middle aged man's analysis. "Then as long as we avoid attractions with horror elements and pick simpler rides to experience, we should be able to lower the risk."

He turned to Xie Lingxi. "Do you know details of the old version of the strategy guide?"

Zhang Yuanqing heard this and was prepared to beat the girl to the punch with information from the old version, lest he lose his say in the group. Right at that moment, though, a chime rang through his mind—a notification from the Spirit Realm.

【Due to your outstanding performance earlier, a hidden mission has been triggered. You have been appointed squad captain. 】

【Warning: There is one evildoer hidden among your team. Ensure that your team always has at least 3 or more members, or you will be punished with a full reset of your current level's experience.】

【Warning: Keep your role identity hidden.】

A hidden mission?! Damn!

The thought drifted through Zhang Yuanqing's mind. His expression betrayed nothing, but his heart sank like a stone.

The dungeon's attractions were already riddled with danger, and now there was a wolf inside the team. The difficulty had just skyrocketed.

His hidden mission was to keep at least three members alive. By extension, the evildoer's mission had to be to reduce the numbers in the team below three, or wipe everyone out entirely.

His mind began to race. If I want to maximize our chances of clearing this, rooting out the traitor early would be the best move. But I can't reveal my own identity, and there isn't enough trust between the team members. I'd probably end up losing more than I gained and get framed as the wolf instead.

In that instant, Zhang Yuanqing felt like no one could be trusted. Even the sweet-faced girl called Xie Lingxi suddenly seemed like a wolf draped in human skin.

Wait. Jinshui Amusement Park was a multiplayer Spirit Realm dungeon open to all classes. Could there be an Evil-class Walker in the team?

If so, then given the inherent opposition between alignments, an Evil-class teammate would almost certainly be the traitor.

A ruthless idea flashed through his mind. He could use the Red Dancing Shoes to force everyone to reveal their abilities, and whoever belonged to an Evil class would be exposed immediately.

Immediately, he dismissed the idea. No, that's too reckless. It would leave no room for recovery. And is it really that simple? What if I guess wrong?

He exhaled silently and abandoned the idea of summoning the Red dancing shoes. If nobody in the team was of an Evil class, that stunt would instantly turn everyone against him, and the game would be over before it started.

So, I have to lead the team through the attractions while simultaneously hunting down the traitor? This is truly worthy of an S-rank multiplayer Spirit Realm. Just as difficult as the Mountain God Temple, only in a completely different way.

The dungeon hadn't even begun, and the pressure around Zhang Yuanqing's heart was already crushing.

"I've looked through the old strategy guide, but I don't remember every detail," Xie Lingxi said. ƒrēewebnovel.com

"Oh my, little sis, you're amazing! You must be part of an official organization, right? You don't mind if big sis tags along with you, do you?" Xi Shi cooed.

Zhang Yuanqing studied both women without letting anything show on his face. One is excessively naive, while the other is harboring ulterior motives...

The River Lord in the black hoodie turned his cool gaze toward Zhang Yuanqing. "What are your thoughts?"

Zhang Yuanqing considered for a moment, then spoke. "My initial assessment is that the difficulty increase applies to attractions containing supernatural elements. The other rides probably haven't changed much. So we can use the old strategy guide to pick something with very low difficulty."

A trace of approval surfaced through the River Lord's grim expression, and he nodded. "That's exactly what I was thinking. You really are a veteran who's been through multiple Spirit Realms."

River Lord looked around at the group. "No objections?"

The others nodded in unison, as if none of them had a mind of their own.

"Girl, which attraction do you think we should pick?" the River Lord asked Xie Lingxi.

She pressed her lips together, her dark sparkling eyes scanning the surroundings before she pointed at the dragon-like steel tracks rising and falling in the distance. "That one's the simplest."

When they saw the roller coaster she was pointing at, everyone's eyes twitched.

Xi Shi managed a strained smile. "Why?"

"According to the old version, the method of passing it was really simple. Get on, keep your eyes closed the entire time, and once the roller coaster completes three laps of the track, it's over."

Great Sage Equal to Heaven, the young streetwise punk, looked up at the towering steel tracks and faltered a bit, then pointed at the nearby carousel. "Uh... What about that one? I think that looks pretty safe."

Xie Lingxi shook her head with a serious expression. "The carousel is only for children. If an adult gets on, they'll never get off. There's no actual physical danger, but... it just keeps spinning. Forever."

Get on and it's a total wipe? The Great Sage quietly took a step back and said nothing more.

"If no one objects, we'll go with the roller coaster," said River Lord flatly, before letting out a short laugh. "All of you who have been matchmade into Jinshui Amusement Park, I can't guarantee you're all geniuses, but surely none of you are idiots."

Zhang Yuanqing analyzed his teammates one by one.

This River Lord guy keeps jockeying with me for control, whether he realizes it or not. Xie Lingxi looks harmless at first glance, but would anyone truly naive get matched into an S-rank dungeon? Xi Shi has been probing everyone's identity from the very start. That flirtatious act might be exactly that—an act.

Ashamed Father looks honest and straightforward on the outside, but his ability to pinpoint "supernatural elements" as the key danger with a single sharp observation demonstrates that his mind is nothing like his appearance.

Great Sage Equal to Heaven is a bit cowardly, a bit lecherous. There's nothing remarkable there, but he doesn't seem like a troublemaker either. Out of this entire group, I'd say the safest person is the Fire Demon, if I could confirm he's a Fire Sage. If not, he's the most dangerous one here.

After that brief analysis, he raised his hand. "No objections from me. Roller coaster it is."

Without realizing it, he had loosened his grip on control somewhat, no longer taking the initiative on everything but still maintaining a certain level of engagement.

He had read the guide. He knew Xie Lingxi wasn't lying. The roller coaster looked terrifying, but its mechanics were actually the simplest.

Of course, whether the roller coaster's rules remained unchanged was still unknown. Then again, wouldn't the other attractions have changed too?

"No objections from me."

"Same here."

"Fine by me. One ride's as good as another."

***

With the decision made, the group headed for the roller coaster. Following the signs, they passed through a corridor and entered the building beneath the tracks.

It was a modest lobby. Storage lockers lined the left side of the entrance and a ticket window sat on the right. As they stepped inside, the Spirit Realm's notification chimed in their ears.

【Ding. You have received one roller coaster experience ticket. Please reach the upper level within five minutes.】

【Ding. All excess items have been sealed. Please return to the storage lockers to retrieve them after the attraction is complete.】

Excess items? Zhang Yuanqing instinctively reached for the small blue pills in his pocket. Still there.

He was about to breathe a sigh of relief when Fire Demon cried out in alarm, "My Inventory won't open!"

Everyone panicked and immediately tried to summon their Inventories, only to find the function seemed to have ceased to exist entirely.

Great Sage Equal to Heaven's voice trembled. "M-my skills don't work either. What about you guys?"

Zhang Yuanqing's heart plummeted. He instinctively tried to activate Night Wandering, but the Power of the Dark Moon was sealed tight inside his body, completely unresponsive.

The others ran their own tests. Sure enough, every skill was gone.

The realization weighed on the Spirit Realm Walkers like a boulder on their chests. Without their skills, what difference was there between them and ordinary people?

Ashamed Father spoke up. "Active skills are disabled, but passive abilities are still intact, and our physical stats haven't changed either."

"We're already here. Let's go up," Zhang Yuanqing said as he led the way up the stairs.

With heavy hearts, the group climbed the stairs to the rooftop. It was a flat platform with two sets of rails laid across it, and sitting quietly on the tracks was a long carriage with two-seater roller coaster cars.

The team stared at the cars in silence. Nobody made a move.

Sigh. This is where I, the Chinese team captain, need to set an example. It fits the persona I've been projecting from the start.

Zhang Yuanqing smiled and said, "The last time I rode a roller coaster was back in my school days. I always loved sitting in the front row."

Under everyone's watchful eyes, he climbed into the front row seat and buckled up.

The others relaxed slightly and began boarding one by one.

"I'm afraid of heights," mourned Xi Shi as she put on her most pitiful expression, hesitating between Zhang Yuanqing and the River Lord.

In that brief moment of hesitation, Xie Lingxi, with her long, straight black hair, swooped in and claimed the seat beside Zhang Yuanqing. Xi Shi had no choice but to settle for the sea beside River Lord.

Zhang Yuanqing glanced at Xie Lingxi, who returned it with a sweet smile.

Once everyone was buckled in, River Lord said calmly from the second row, "Remember to close your eyes. No matter what happens, do not open them. Of course, if any of you feel like testing that rule with your life, be my guest."

"You really have a way with words, don't you," the Fire Demon muttered, his lips curling up in a snarl.

Zhang Yuanqing looked back to survey his teammates. River Lord and Xi Shi were in the second row, while Ashamed Father and Fire Demon sat in the third.

The somewhat timid Great Sage Equal to Heaven appeared to have been left out, and was sitting alone in the fourth row.

The tracks hummed to life. A deep thud resonated from beneath the car, and the roller coaster began to move, slowly at first.

Before Zhang Yuanqing turned back around, everyone had already closed their eyes.

He shut his own eyes and felt the car crawling along the rails. It moved sluggishly at first, climbing up what seemed to be a steep incline. When the coaster reached the peak, it stopped.

The next instant, a violent sensation of weightlessness seized him. Wind screamed past his ears, joined by a small cry of alarm from Xi Shi.

Zhang Yuanqing's entire body went rigid. He listened intently to every sound around him, silently counting the seconds. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

After roughly two minutes, the hurtling coaster began to slow, then came to a full stop.

He opened his eyes. The roller coaster had returned to the rooftop platform. Nothing had happened.

He let out a silent breath of relief, and then heard screams erupt behind him.

His blood went cold. He whipped around and his eyes narrowed violently.

River Lord's body, in the second row, was empty above his neck. His head was gone.

In the third row, Fire Demon's face was drenched in blood. He cradled the severed head in his trembling arms, his voice shaking.

"It... It didn't work... Closing your eyes didn't work..."

The River Lord's eyes were still shut tight. His expression was peaceful, as if he hadn't felt any pain at all.

A wave of cold dread rose from the depths of everyone's hearts.