Huh? Isn't This A Galgame?
Chapter 162 - 159: To Enter or Not to Enter

To the north of the Erin Group Headquarters Building, there's a stretch of mountains extending for several kilometers, not particularly high, but usually desolate.

Yu Shujun chased the Silver Thorn, crossing the mountain range, and caught up with her at the foot on the other side.

With Silver Thorn's level, facing a player like Jun Wuming is like an elementary school student challenging a university graduate—it wouldn't even last to the second round.

Yu Shujun gave a slight twist of his wrist, easily cutting through the ropes wrapped around him and stepped through the thorn traps scattered on the ground, as simply as crunching through autumn leaves.

Silver Thorn's legs had lost feeling, forcing her to kneel, propping her unsteady body with her only remaining arm, her chest heaving violently, as she stared fixedly at the figure before her, approaching step by step.

Swoosh—

A flash of golden light.

A cold blade pressed against Silver Thorn's neck.

"Not planning to use your ace in the hole yet?" Yu Shujun asked coldly.

Silver Thorn squinted slightly, her expression confused despite wearing a silver mask, "What... ace in the hole?"

Yu Shujun's gaze turned cold, "That man sent you to infiltrate this map, and didn't even give you any decent god-level equipment?"

Looking at the mess everywhere, a rare flash of irritation crossed Yu Shujun's face, "With the heap of junk you brought, you plan to win against me?"

...

...

In the underground secret passage leading to the furnace in Erin Group, at a fork in the path.

Wen Nan stared intently at the piece that fell from the bitten marker in the spare equipment slot.

It was a metal fragment only about half the size of a pinky nail.

Just as Wen Nan was about to pick it up, Mr. Jiao pounced, clamping onto it tightly with his alloy pincers.

"Eh?"

Wen Nan grabbed Mr. Jiao's shell, trying to extract the metal fragment, when a "crack" sounded, like a tooth breaking, and then Mr. Jiao spat the fragment out with a "whoosh", retracting his two alloy pincers into his mouth, and remained motionless.

It seemed even Mr. Jiao's alloy pincers, though capable of cutting through iron like clay, couldn't damage the metal fragment in the slightest.

Only the boiling furnace below might be able to destroy it, right?

Thinking this, Wen Nan held the small metal fragment between his fingertips, carefully observing it.

The metal piece resembled a small phone sim card, but was made entirely of some special metallic material, covered with intricate patterns.

In the lower right corner of the metal piece, there was a small engraving [D.U.D.U.].

Is this... the logo of the manufacturer of this small metal piece?

Dudu? Dudu? Read-read? Gamble-poison?

Losing himself in absurd thoughts, Yang Mingzhong's voice came from the cave entrance ahead,

"Found it! The entrance is over here!"

Marking the way as they went, Yang Mingzhong emerged from the hole, followed quickly by Huang Yan and Guo Xiaofu, returning from two other entrances.

Upon seeing Yang Mingzhong's face darkened to near black, Huang Yan jumped, "Oh, Brother Yang, you're... okay? How'd you turn so red, like a roasted pig?!"

Yang Mingzhong coughed twice, cleared his hoarse throat, shaking his head, "I'm fine."

Then getting straight to the point—

"Below it, there's an enormous pit that stretches beyond sight. I didn't dare go all the way down, but from a distance, I saw it's filled with magma. Even through this 'safety airbag', you can feel the heat, burning your eyes shut. The furnace mentioned in the main quest should definitely be there."

Yang Mingzhong described vividly.

Huang Yan and Guo Xiaofu were eager to try but restrained from rushing in, asking Wen Nan, "Boss, we should go now, right?"

Wen Nan had no reason to refuse, stood up, nodded, and under Yang Mingzhong's lead, went into the cave entrance.

Just as Yang Mingzhong described, every ten meters further in, the temperature soared by dozens of degrees.

Without the protection of the "benefit items" covering them, they would likely have been melted into a puddle or even turned gaseous by now.

And as they continued to go further down, even the powerful heat-insulating "benefit items" couldn't completely shield them from the outside heat.

Breathing became more difficult, as if shoving one's head into a coal stove. Wen Nan's skin turned scorching hot, as red as cooked shrimp, his entire body flushed, with sweat dripping like large beads off his chin and extremities, quickly evaporating into steam upon hitting the ground.

His eyes were almost unable to open, physiological tears continuously secreted from the corners, sliding down his cheeks, mixing with sweat to drip off.

Guo Xiaofu didn't come in, guarding at the fork in the road.

Yang Mingzhong, Huang Yan, and Qiqi followed beside Wen Nan, and their condition wasn't too good.

This was almost more terrible than entering a mountain of flames.

"Just fifty meters ahead." Yang Mingzhong croaked.

Wen Nan looked at the three of them, "There's no need for so many on the tool destruction task. I'll go in alone, you can go back and guard the entrance with Guo Xiaofu."

Qiqi instantly shook her head, resolutely saying, "I want to go with you."

Yang Mingzhong also said, "Having been down there, although really hot, it's not entirely unbearable."

Huang Yan directly stated, "My armor's strongest here, right? Boss, why don't you give me the thing, I'll go destroy it, and you guys head back up first?"

Wen Nan instinctively reached into the spare equipment slot, pinching the small metal fragment, shaking his head, "Let's go together."

The last stretch of the journey was even more difficult, but they eventually made it.

Underfoot, boiling magma churned like river water.

Yang Mingzhong pulled out a metal-structured hard drive, and from a small opening in the film, tossed it towards the magma below.

The square metal case barely fell ten meters before it melted into liquid,

even with more than thirty meters separating it from the bottom magma.

Standing on the other side, Huang Yan exclaimed, looking towards the man beside him, "Boss, should we toss the item down now?"

Now the countdown for the last main quest showed over three hours left, so it seemed this time they could still finish the task early.

Soon they'd be able to leave this instance.

This realization made Huang Yan smile broadly with excitement.

However, standing beside Wen Nan, the three of them waited for a while, and did not see Wen Nan make any move.

"President?"

"Boss?"

"Bro?"

Wen Nan stood there motionlessly, clutching the metal fragment in his hand, his eyes fixed on the magma below. Reflected in his pupils was the orange-red firelight, his thoughts unknown.

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