Chapter 25: Absolute Wipeout

"Should we keep going, or head out and wait for the others to come back…" Ye Weinuan was starting to lose her enthusiasm. Did they really have to push through a dungeon this full of nasty surprises?

"We're already here — might as well check what's ahead." Eagle had vented his frustration at the abyss and was feeling a bit better. He suggested pressing on: "Once you've cleared a dungeon like this once, the second run is a lot easier. I caught a glimpse of the dungeon rewards just now — 2,000 EXP per person upon completion."

That made sense. Ye Weinuan and Hit Me Please both mulled it over. If they had to run it again, they obviously wouldn't fall for the same traps. And 2,000 EXP was huge for them right now — a few more runs and they'd hit level 10.

"Alright, let's see what's ahead." Ye Weinuan took a deep breath. "But you two go first…"

Eagle nodded and steeled himself to move forward. He was honestly a little scared too, but the two bravest members of the party were already gone, so he had no choice. Rounding the corner, he found a narrow path — barely wide enough for one person. The right side was a wall; the left side dropped into the abyss.

"Let's move slowly and watch our footing. There's a good chance there are traps on this path." Eagle warned with a tense expression, bending down to carefully examine the ground. Sure enough, after advancing about ten meters, two pressure plates appeared in front of him.

Ha! Did they really think the same trap would work twice? Naive! Even putting two plates down won't help!

Eagle leaped lightly over them — and then heard a sharp whistling sound from ahead. That sound… Eagle looked up just in time to see an arrow flying straight at his face!

"Fuck! What a dirty trick!" The arrow slammed into him mid-air, sending him crashing right back down onto the pressure plates. A second later, the plates opened up, and Eagle was sent flying off the edge.

Ye Weinuan, who had witnessed the whole thing, was completely stunned. This was too humiliating! They'd only managed to kill a single wild rabbit the entire time — what kind of dungeon was this sadistic?!

"Another one down." Liu Kongkong casually retrieved the Midnight Hawk Eye. Lucky this time — a valuable piece of gear had come back. Without a second thought, he put it back out for sale.

Combination traps — he'd encountered these constantly in games he'd played before, and they were always the most infuriating. So naturally, he'd set them up in the Path of Reincarnation too. By carefully calculating the distance and height, he'd placed a crossbow trap at the far end of the path. Even if someone spotted the floor trap, there was still a backup — and after the backup, another backup…

Sure enough, another piece of gear arrived not long after.

"The [Skull-Cracker Hammer]? This thing might be hard to sell now." Liu Kongkong felt a little disappointed. It was a level 5 piece of equipment, and anyone who could enter the dungeon was already level 7 — no one would need it. He glanced over at the respawn point and saw Hit Me Please already standing there at attention…

Then another piece of gear arrived right after.

"That fast?" Liu Kongkong retrieved it again: "The Dawn Laurel Crown?!" He mentally ran through the IDs he'd seen at the respawn point recently. Night's Gentle Chill's entire party had been completely wiped out…

"Sorry." When Ye Weinuan came back, she found Hit Me Please still at the respawn point and realized she'd died embarrassingly fast. After Eagle died, Hit Me Please had done a forward roll to clear the trap — but there was a recess in the right-hand wall that nobody had noticed, and inside it was that disgusting rabbit again. It kicked him straight off the edge!

As for Ye Weinuan — watching all her teammates die in inexplicable ways had sent her fear spiking through the roof. She turned and bolted for the dungeon entrance. In her panic, she forgot there was still a trap on the path…

"It's… it's fine." Hit Me Please still hadn't recovered. He couldn't understand how one single stretch of path could have so many vicious designs packed into it. Thinking it over carefully, he felt like even a second attempt would be nearly impossible to get through. He messaged Night's Gentle Chill and explained what had happened inside.

Ye Weinuan also messaged Night's Gentle Chill, saying she didn't want to go back in. Then she saw Night's Gentle Chill post an item in the chat — and immediately sprinted toward the Path of Reincarnation.

Night's Gentle Chill and the others had already returned to the dungeon entrance. They'd been about to go back in and pull the rest of the party through, but reading the messages left them with sour expressions.

One spider, two wild rabbits, three pressure plates, and one crossbow trap — seemingly simple elements that had wiped their entire party in one go. If Liu Kongkong had heard that, he would have added: and that's exactly one hundred monster points~

Fortunately, they weren't the only victims. The entrance to the Path of Reincarnation dungeon was now crowded with players, every single one of them wearing an expression like they'd just swallowed something foul. Among them were a few Night's Gentle Chill recognized — including Lonely as a Song.

"Brother Lonely! You guys failed too?" Night's Gentle Chill wasn't bothered by the fact that Lonely as a Song had joined Big Dumb Duck's party. The reason was perfectly reasonable — Big Dumb Duck had approached him first.

Lonely as a Song gave a dry laugh. On their first run, they'd sprinted through to make up time, and three people fell into the very first trap. Then, inevitably, a rabbit kicked another one off the edge. The last person standing tried to fight the rabbit solo — and happened to glance up and spot the spider on the ceiling. The shock made them stumble and fall off too. The whole thing took about a minute. On the second run, they'd learned from the first attempt and made it to the narrow path smoothly — but the combination trap cost them three more party members.

This was no longer just a matter of cheap tricks — it required actual skill. Lonely as a Song had identified the problem and chose to exit the dungeon to strategize with his teammates, so they were now waiting at the entrance.

"Yeah, what about you guys — any luck?" Night's Gentle Chill and Big Dumb Duck were both big spenders, and Lonely as a Song didn't want to offend either of them, so he kept his tone polite.

Night's Gentle Chill shook his head. "This Secret Realm is disgusting. I'm almost ready to give up."

When the Secret Realm opened yesterday, players had received mail saying intel on the Secret Realm could be obtained from NPCs. A few minutes ago, Night's Gentle Chill had gotten word from his subordinates: seven dungeons had been discovered so far. Some parties had even attempted to fight the boss, while his group didn't even know what lay further down the path.

Even so, Night's Gentle Chill didn't want to switch dungeons.

For one thing, switching now would put them hopelessly behind other parties in terms of progress. For another, the rewards in the other dungeons were almost uniformly 500 EXP, with only one piece of equipment as a clear reward. But the Path of Reincarnation was different — higher completion EXP, plus three pieces of equipment, and on top of that, an equipment loot box.

That's right — an equipment loot box. The item description was simple: take this to Liu Dameng in the Starter Village to randomly receive a set of equipment. The S-rank reward was a Luxurious Equipment Gift Box, containing a full set of exquisite gear.

The item he'd shared with Ye Weinuan earlier was exactly this — pull the S-rank reward and you could exchange it directly for a full Dawn set…

"The rewards really are tempting." Even Night's Gentle Chill had to admit it. The gear sold for one gold coin per piece, and a full armor set of five pieces came to five gold coins — tens of thousands of real-world yuan. On top of that, this dungeon gave the most EXP, so once they figured out the mechanics, they could charge people for carry runs and make serious money.

Night's Gentle Chill was no fool. Pouring money in during the early game was acceptable. But for long-term operations, they needed a stable income — otherwise, relying on just the five of them to support a guild wouldn't get them very far.

"Let's go. We'll try again."

Night's Gentle Chill took a deep breath and plunged back into the Path of Reincarnation.