97: Chapter 97 The Mysterious Challenger

The wind and snow at the edge of the sinkhole paused for a moment.

Yamamoto Kenta stepped on the frozen snow crust, approaching the edge of the collapse where black soil was exposed, step by step.

He was so hungry that his vision was going black, and acid was churning violently in his stomach.

The cold wind, carrying the scent of blood from the bottom of the pit, intermittently poured into his nostrils.

On the extreme cold wasteland, the scent of blood was more alluring than fire.

Dragging his frozen legs, he bypassed a slab of collapsed frozen earth.

Ahead, the snow surface had several slight bulges.

Yamamoto Kenta's murky eyes brightened.

Whether it was the corpse of a beast crushed by the landslide or frozen entrails, as long as he could break them open to make soup, he could survive!

He drew his dull-edged short blade and knelt in the snow, digging frantically.

The tip of the blade had just pierced the snow crust.

From underneath came a slippery, viscous friction sound.

Yamamoto Kenta's movements froze.

The snow surface exploded with a roar.

Two Blood-colored Vines burst out from the snow, wrapping around his ankles!

Yamamoto Kenta opened his mouth.

A third vine whipped toward him, tightening around his waist and abdomen.

His scream was forcibly stifled back into his chest.

He swung his blade wildly.

The notched blade barely managed to sever a thin vine.

Dark red sap sprayed onto the snow, hissing as white smoke rose.

More vines surged out from under the snow.

Knees, wrists, neck.

He was locked down completely!

The Blood Vine suddenly contracted.

Yamamoto Kenta was yanked off the snow, dragged headfirst toward the abyss of the sinkhole.

His frozen fingers clawed five bloody marks into the edge of the frozen earth.

The wind and snow swept past.

The bloodstains were smoothed over by fresh snow.

The edge of the sinkhole returned to deathly silence.

The next morning.

The red coals in the cavern's fire pit were burning steadily.

Lin Ye sat by the fire, whittling wooden arrows with a dagger.

Wood shavings fell with a rustling sound into the small basin by his feet.

Zhao Mengmeng lay against the edge of the stone bed, vigorously rubbing that thick snow wolf pelt.

A batch of early-rising viewers had just flooded into the Great Xia Live Stream.

"The familiar early morning class in the cavern."

"Brother Eye whittling arrows, Mengmeng rubbing pelts, and monsters outside lining up to deliver materials."

"That wave of spiders blocking the door yesterday was so scary; I still get chills just staring at that door now."

"The door canopy needs a major overhaul sooner or later, or it will really get blocked off."

Zhao Mengmeng rubbed open the last piece of hard skin and looked up toward the cave entrance.

"Brother Lin, the outer windproof door needs to be thickened further."

"It was sprayed by acid yesterday, and the wooden board was almost pierced through."

Lin Ye inserted the whittled wooden arrow into the quiver.

"Today, we'll start by adding diagonal braces from the inside."

Before he could finish speaking.

A very faint cracking sound came from outside the door.

Crack.

Extremely faint.

But in the quiet cavern, it was piercingly distinct.

Lin Ye grabbed the crossbow and slid silently along the edge of the wooden door.

He pressed his left hand down in a signal.

Zhao Mengmeng immediately shut her mouth.

She rolled off the bed, holding her dagger with a reverse grip.

Another sound came from outside the door.

Snap.

Lin Ye leaned close to the crack in the door.

His left eye opened instantly.

Within his field of vision.

By the Water Pool below the Ice Waterfall, a humanoid silhouette stood.

There was not a shred of green representing safety.

Its entire body was flashing with blinding red light.

Its surface was covered in dense, high-dimensional gray spots!

Zhao Mengmeng lowered her voice: "What is that thing?"

Lin Ye stared at the door crack.

"There's something down there."

"A person?"

Lin Ye shook his head.

His right eye's retina was completely clear.

Even if a stranger Challenger with no hostility approached, a [Nationality] prompt would definitely pop up.

Right now, the light screen had no reaction at all.

Zhao Mengmeng leaned toward another crack.

Below the Ice Waterfall.

A figure wearing a tattered Challenger uniform moved slowly along the edge of the pool.

Its body was stiff.

Its head hung eerily on its chest.

Its gait exuded a heavy sense of being non-human.

Zhao Mengmeng's throat tightened.

"Is that thing a living person?"

By the Water Pool, that person stopped walking.

Its head slowly lifted.

On its cyan face, blood vessels bulged like dark red earthworms.

The whites of its eyes were murky.

The corners of its mouth were torn into a horrifying arc.

It was the Challenger from the island nation who went missing last night, Yamamoto Kenta.

Yamamoto Kenta suddenly dropped to all fours.

Its shoulders and knees twisted backward, and its palms dug directly into the cracks of the hard ice wall.

Clinging to the vertical ice cliff, it climbed upward frantically!

Great Xia Live Stream.

"Holy crap! How did he turn into this ghostly appearance!"

"That Yamamoto from the island nation! Wasn't he missing at the edge of the pit last night!"

"Even the nationality prompt is gone; this bastard is definitely not a living person!"

"Don't let him climb up!"

Lin Ye leveled the crossbow.

The view from the door crack was too narrow.

He coldly watched Yamamoto Kenta's movement trajectory.

The moment the opponent passed through the gap in the ice wall.

He pulled the trigger.

Whoosh!

The wooden arrow pierced through the wind and snow, aiming straight for the neck.

Yamamoto Kenta's upper body twisted violently to the side and back!

It completely violated human skeletal structure.

The wooden arrow grazed its throat and pinned into the ice layer behind it.

Zhao Mengmeng's pupils constricted sharply.

"It can dodge arrows!"

Lin Ye stepped back half a step.

"Guard the door."

"You're going out?"

"If it gets close, the wooden door won't hold it."

Lin Ye slightly raised his right arm.

The Dark Weaver shot into the rock crevice above.

He used the force to leap out of the passage.

His wide animal-hide cloak suddenly billowed in the wind and snow.

Lin Ye landed steadily toward the Water Pool.

His boot soles crushed a layer of thin ice.

Yamamoto Kenta suddenly stopped climbing.

Its limbs reversed, clinging to the cliff wall, staring down at Lin Ye headfirst.

A beast-like roar was squeezed from the depths of its throat.

Lin Ye raised his right arm.

Five Nano-wires shot out in a fan shape.

Yamamoto Kenta sprang away.

Its body twisted laterally on the ice wall.

Two Nano-wires missed.

The other three accurately pinned into its shoulder, waist, and thigh.

Lin Ye yanked his wrist.

Yamamoto Kenta was forcibly yanked off the ice wall.

Bang!

It slammed heavily onto the ice surface of the Water Pool.

Crushed ice flew everywhere.

Lin Ye's expression was cold, and he exerted force with his right arm again.

More Nano-wires shot out in succession.

They crisscrossed and wrapped around Yamamoto Kenta's chest, wrists, and knees.

Tightening to the limit!

Yamamoto Kenta was bound into a ball, struggling and roaring frantically on the ice surface.

Zhao Mengmeng slid down from the cave entrance using the Wind-Chasing Claw.

She stumbled upon landing.

She rushed to Lin Ye's side, holding the crossbow, her voice trembling.

"What on earth is this thing parasitized by?"

Lin Ye did not answer.

He leveled the crossbow.

The sight locked onto Yamamoto Kenta's forehead.

He fired.

Pfft!

The bone-tipped wooden arrow instantly pierced through the skull.

The struggling came to an abrupt end.

The livestreams of various regions fell into an unprecedented barrage of bullet comments.

"Island Nation: Baka! Lin Ye of Great Xia actually killed our empire's Challenger! This is murder!"

"Great Xia: Are you blind? That was clearly an arthropod! Brother Eye showed mercy and helped you perform a physical transcendence; why aren't you kneeling in thanks?"

"USA: Too brutal, not even sparing its own kind."

"Great Xia: Does that even count as human? If you insist on acknowledging a zombie as a relative, then suit yourselves."

Lin Ye loaded a new arrow.

Just as he was about to step forward to check.

Yamamoto Kenta's ruined chest cavity suddenly swelled violently.

The clothing was forcibly torn apart.

Ribs exploded outward one by one from the inside!

A Blood-colored Vine as thick as a baby's arm burst through the entrails and shot out.

It lunged straight at Zhao Mengmeng's face!

Zhao Mengmeng stared at that mass of dark red, her body frozen in place.

Lin Ye's left hand reached out like lightning.

He grabbed her by the back of her collar and yanked her backward violently.

Zhao Mengmeng slid backward for several meters, slamming heavily into the accumulated snow.

At the same instant.

Lin Ye raised the crossbow with one hand.

He fired.

Whoosh!

The wooden arrow accurately pierced through the vine in mid-air.

Pinning it onto the ice surface!

Dark red sap sprayed out wildly.

It hissed as it scorched the ice crust.

That severed vine was still twisting frantically, lashing at the ice surface.

Zhao Mengmeng sat slumped in the snow, her face deathly pale.

"Is this the parasitic source?"

Lin Ye stared at that piece of Blood Vine, his gaze cold and dark.

His left eye opened instantly.

Crossing the wind and snow, he scanned straight toward the northeast.

At the end of his vision.

The location of the sinkhole where the oil vein was drained yesterday.

A large swath of dim red light was writhing frantically along the ground.

The scale was terrifying.

Intense throbbing pain came from deep within his eyeball.

Lin Ye quickly cut off the visual connection.

Zhao Mengmeng scrambled to her feet, gripping her dagger tightly.

"Where is the source?"

Lin Ye retracted the Dark Weaver and turned around, carrying his entrenching tool.

"The sinkhole."

Zhao Mengmeng cursed.

"Yesterday we dug an oil field, today vines explode; this damn place even has follow-up services!"

Lin Ye looked toward the northeast forest line filled with wind and snow.

"Let's go take a look."

"Go now?"

"Do you want to wait for it to crawl to our door?"

Zhao Mengmeng didn't ask any more questions and fastened the bone clasp on her cloak.

The two crossed the Water Pool and stepped into the knee-deep snowy forest.