Chapter 96: The Secret to Playing Games Is—

Under Alpha Princess’s guidance, the man and the serpent finally found the Soul Messenger.

In truth, they had come here when they first died. But they had no idea that talking to this angelic lady could bring them back to life, and so they had wandered off again in a daze.

As for corpse-running...

One had been riddled into a mushy pulp by a spray of bullets; the other had been flattened by a giant ape into a scrambled-tomato mess. Then they were trampled across the battlefield, blasted by artillery, pecked at by chickens, ducks, and geese... The system probably would not even have known how to clean up after that, if there had been a system at all.

"We're alive! We're alive!"

"It really can bring us back to life, hiss..."

At last seeing the light of day again, finally freed from the black-and-white state, the snake-headed man and the man in sunglasses embraced and wept, tears streaming down their faces.

At the same time, they felt both gratitude and a certain wariness toward Alpha Princess.

She had rescued them from the black-and-white abyss, and that was worthy of thanks. But this instance had become so bizarrely twisted, death came at the drop of a hat, and even after dying they were not allowed to leave, forced to grit their teeth and keep going... They had never encountered anything like this before. Clearly, this change had been brought about by that beautiful, almost inhuman woman.

"If you really want to thank me, then give me the username and password for the Sky Forum," Alpha Princess finally remembered her original purpose.

"The Sky Forum? What is that, hiss?" The snake-headed man blinked.

The man in sunglasses was also stunned for a few seconds, then suddenly realized that this strange spacetime bubble was unprecedented. If they wanted to clear it, they would still have to rely on Alpha Princess later on.

This woman really knew how to pick her timing.

"The username is Matrix. The password... I'll tell you only if you answer one question for me."

A username like Matrix... that straightforward? Then the password surely would not be something like Neo or Keanu Reeves, right?

"Go on, let me hear it," Alpha Princess said, not giving her word so easily.

"You won't hurt the friends I have on the Sky Forum, will you?"

That question surprised Alpha Princess a little.

Though the man in sunglasses and the snake-headed man had been sneaking around suspiciously, they did seem to... not be bad people, after all.

She could not read the snake-headed man's expression, since she had only ever studied human expressions and had never bothered to study monsters. But she could still read the emotions of the man in sunglasses.

"As long as they do not strike at this queen first, I will not harm them." When Alpha Princess grew serious, her choice of words was absolutely worthy of a diplomat.

"All right then..." Sensing Alpha Princess's mental waves, the man in sunglasses was not entirely satisfied with the answer, but it was enough. "The password is Neo2..."

It really did include Neo...

But before he could finish, Alpha Princess suddenly raised a hand to stop him. "Don't say it!"

"Huh? Why?" The man in sunglasses was baffled.

"Because I suddenly don't want to know anymore!"

"Just know it then."

"I don't want to!"

"The password is..."

"Don't say it! Even if you do, I still won't take your request and lead you out!"

"..."

A woman's mood could change so damn fast!

A moment ago she had been itching so badly it was almost unbearable, and the ugliness had been appalling. She had been helpless and desperate enough to think of killing herself to go back. But now that she could live again, continue leisurely vacationing here, savor the food, and enjoy this existence, why would she want to go back?

And she had even wanted to help that iron-straight fool ask for the Sky Forum account password? What a waste of time! Pathetic!

Alpha Princess despised herself thoroughly!

Leaving the dazed man in sunglasses and the snake-headed man behind, she dashed back to the battlefield in the little city. There, human and beast were locked in war, and it was also her battlefield of delicacies. A new day had begun. What delicious things would she find today? How exciting!

"Are women all like this?" the snake-headed man asked, watching Alpha Princess's drifting figure.

"Not all women are like this. Only beautiful women are like this. The prettier they are, the more like this they become!" the man in sunglasses said with deep, personal experience.

"Is that so? Then we'd better look for uglier ones in the future," the snake-headed man said, still shaken.

The man in sunglasses turned and looked at him. "You... really are still underage!"

==========

A full day passed, and Ox Second was still pinned beneath the rock, still on the verge of death, stubbornly refusing to fully die, convinced that he could still be saved.

Since he was still alive, the mission naturally had to continue.

Alpha Princess refused to give guidance, so the snake-headed man and the man in sunglasses had to think of a solution themselves.

In fact, before they died yesterday, both of them had already come up with a plan.

The snake-headed man's idea was that he had several seeds of the Overlord Spear. Like the spider lilies, they were also a specialty from his homeland, with absurdly fast growth and extraordinary toughness. If they were planted beneath the rock, once they took root and sprouted, they ought to be able to push the boulder aside.

The man in sunglasses, meanwhile, could read brainwaves and was very good at dealing with humans. If he found a military camp and brought a squad over, they could probably move the rock too.

So the two of them went off separately...

A moment later, the two of them went off separately again...

A moment later, the two of them once more went off separately...

A moment later, the two of them again went off separately...

Things actually did make progress. The snake-headed man successfully planted the Overlord Spear, and the Overlord Spear also successfully took root and sprouted. But just as he thought everything was going smoothly, the main force the man in sunglasses had summoned arrived as well...

"Crack-crack-bang!" A burst of random gunfire turned the snake-headed man back into a mushy pulp.

But the gunfire also alerted the beasts. Although the rooted-and-sprouted Overlord Spear really did push the giant rock aside, the surging monsters swallowed the elite squad and trampled them into a scrambled-tomato mess...

Thus, with Ox Second at the center, the enormous meat grinder started up once again, and everything seemed to repeat yesterday's scene.

The only difference was...

Yesterday, Ox Second had been pinned under a single giant rock. Today, the rock had been moved away, but during the fighting a seven-story building nearby had been shaken down, burying him underneath it.

Yesterday, at least they knew where he had been buried. Today, they did not even know where he was...

The two of them could only watch helplessly as the fiercest artillery from both sides rained down here. Enter, and you die; brush past it, and you are crippled; even looking at it could get you wounded. If you entered from the human army's side, the monsters would beat you to death; if you entered from the monster side, the humans would focus-fire you... There was no way to survive at all!

When the sound of battle occasionally thinned, the two of them mustered their courage and crept in, only for the result to be the same... death could not be escaped.

All they managed was to make the fighting sound grow dense again.

It was also because the two of them had died early yesterday and had wandered as souls the whole time that they never saw this scene; otherwise they would not have made such a stupid mistake.

This spacetime bubble... what on earth was wrong with this spacetime bubble?

"Ahhhhh!" "Hissssss!" ... In the blink of an eye, after dying more than a dozen or even twenty times, the two miserable, tearful souls finally collapsed once again, shouting and screaming as they swung their arms wildly!

So what if they died? Since they could revive after death, then charge! Fight! Go, go, go!

After not even two rounds of dying and coming back to life, their bodies suddenly shook and light burst forth. The LV1 mark above their foreheads changed to LV2...

After a full two days, these two fools had finally realized that playing a game was supposed to involve leveling up.