With the help of Spades' whip, Bai Liu and the others passed through the fog smoothly without encountering any monsters.
But after they emerged, the scene before them was completely different from what they had seen earlier. The rainforest, once filled with towering trees, was now shrouded in gray mist. Large swaths of trees were burning, and the air was thick with ash from the raging flames. The sky was so dark that only faint light filtered through, making it impossible to tell whether it was day or night.
A sharp, acrid stench of exploding gunpowder hit them immediately, and the bitterness of charred carbon filled their mouths the moment they inhaled.
Tang Erda coughed twice, covering his mouth and nose. "What happened in this war world during the hour we were gone?"
"The flow of time in the war world is different from that outside," Bai Liu said, scanning their surroundings. "After we left, the timeline fast-forwarded to the end of the Great War."
Liu Jiayi waved a hand in front of her nose and looked up at Bai Liu. "—Is this the moment Elena mentioned? The point where everyone died in the explosion?"
"Generally speaking, at this stage, an excellent horror game would design a thrilling climax," Bai Liu said, looking at the fog-choked rainforest. "For example, a large-scale chase sequence."
Tang Erda froze. "Why would there be a chase? Isn't everyone dead and about to enter the next seven-day reincarnation?"
Liu Jiayi pulled the poison bottle from her waist, took two cautious steps back, and narrowed her eyes. "Precisely because they're dead, this is the most dangerous moment before the next seven-day cycle begins."
Bai Liu stared at the rainforest, where something seemed to be stirring. "Because aside from us players, this entire war dungeon map is now filled with monsters and the living dead."
Tang Erda grew alert. He paused before drawing his gun and subconsciously glanced at Spades, who stood silently beside him.
Spades looked back at him without speaking, one hand resting on the handle of the whip at his waist. His fingers twitched slightly, as if still tempted to stop Tang Erda from drawing the gun.
Tang Erda: "…"
Sensing the silent confrontation behind him, Bai Liu turned and gave Spades a light glance.
Spades stiffened inexplicably, then silently angled the whip handle toward Tang Erda.
Only then did Tang Erda breathe in relief and pull out his gun, aiming it at the trembling gray rainforest as though something were about to emerge.
But the forest only shuddered. Nothing surfaced—only the crackling of burning leaves and branches echoed in the air.
Just as Tang Erda turned to Bai Liu in confusion, Spades suddenly lashed his whip into the ground beside Bai Liu, the impact splitting the earth open.
The soil burst apart along the crack, spraying dirt to both sides. Mixed within the flying soil were several severed fingers.
Tang Erda followed the fracture line from where the whip had struck, and his expression stiffened.
Buried beneath the surface were countless corpse fragments, blasted and torn apart—pale flesh smeared with blood and gunpowder, shattered limbs, half-heads, wrists with exposed bone, twisted torsos. Every severed mouth faced Bai Liu and the others as though they were eyes.
These pieces, too broken to form complete bodies, writhed densely beneath the soil. It was as if they had sensed prey and were crawling through the ground toward them.
Suddenly, countless charred hands burst from the mud beneath Bai Liu's feet, clamping around his ankle and dragging him downward.
Tang Erda fired immediately, blasting a clean hole through the center of one palm.
It did nothing. The hands continued twisting and pulling.
"The attacks are ineffective," Bai Liu analyzed calmly, even as he was being seized. "These fragmented limbs are already in a living-dead state. If they can't be killed, we need to find their weakness."
Spades snapped his whip around one of the hands, trying to yank it off Bai Liu's ankle. After one pull, he abruptly stopped and slowly lifted his head to look at Bai Liu.
Bai Liu met his gaze calmly. "It can't be torn off."
Liu Jiayi crouched to inspect Bai Liu's ankle, but he stopped her.
Lowering his eyes, Bai Liu said, "They've fused with me. They can't be removed."
"Fused?!" Tang Erda exclaimed.
The greenish-black fingers embedded in Bai Liu's ankle had sunk halfway into the flesh, perfectly fused with his skin like a hand that had grown out of him. At the same time, the knuckles of Bai Liu's left hand began turning blue-black.
"This monster's attack is called [Fusion of Life and Death]," Bai Liu said evenly. "Once a corpse fragment touches a player, it becomes part of their body. When I'm attacked by all of a person's body parts, the fragments will completely merge with me, turning me into a living dead."
As he finished speaking, the hand at his ankle disappeared. His entire left hand turned blue-black and hung motionless at his side.
The corpses continued crawling closer, yet they ignored everyone else and rushed only toward Bai Liu.
Tang Erda shot several apart. Liu Jiayi spread poison in a protective circle. Spades cleared a clean space within it with his whip. Then he looked straight at Bai Liu.
"What did you do? Why are they only attacking you?"
Bai Liu shrugged. "Maybe I'm the lowest-rated player on the comprehensive panel here? They think I'm easy prey."
"You're lying," Spades said immediately.
"Forget that for now!" Liu Jiayi cut in. "These things can't be killed. If we stay here, we'll all be assimilated. Don't let Bai Liu touch the ground. Carry him and retreat!"
The moment she finished speaking, Tang Erda and Spades simultaneously reached for Bai Liu from opposite sides.
Both were a head taller than him.
They grabbed his shoulders simultaneously, and Bai Liu's feet left the ground. He was lifted straight into the air like a primary school student, his legs swinging slightly.
Spades said matter-of-factly, "You're so short, Bai Liu."
Liu Jiayi: "!!!"
Tang Erda: "!!!"
It's over. Bai Liu is definitely going to be angry.
Bai Liu slowly raised his head and smiled at Spades. "Oh? Really?"
-----------------
Later, Bai Liu sat astride Spades' shoulders as they escaped.
"Am I still short?" Bai Liu asked leisurely.
Spades paused. "No. You're very tall."
—It was undeniably childish to increase one's height by riding on someone's shoulders.
Especially when done by Bai Liu, who was smiling without showing his true emotions.
Tang Erda finally couldn't hold back his laughter.
Spades, still serious, later leapt from tree to tree using his whip until he reached the tallest one in the rainforest. From there, Bai Liu could overlook everything.
Spades steadied himself and said solemnly, "Now you are the tallest person in the world."
He added earnestly, "We can compensate for innate shortcomings with external means. Bai Liu, don't be angry at yourself for your physical shortcomings."
"It's not your fault that you're short."
Bai Liu: "…"
He took a slow breath and muttered a few quick words under his breath.
"What are you saying?" Spades asked.
"I'm reciting an ancient limerick," Bai Liu replied calmly.
"What kind?"
"'Don't be angry.'"
"Why?"
"To repair the mental damage caused by emotional fluctuations."
Spades nodded seriously.
He understood. It was a kind of spiritual cleansing verse.
From the treetop, Bai Liu observed the devastated rainforest. The closer to the town, the epicenter of the explosion, the more fragmented the corpses became. Near the lake, however, the bodies were more complete.
On the opposite shore, a crowd of intact corpses gathered in a frenzy, cheering and dancing around something.
Using a telescope, Bai Liu adjusted the focus until the scene became clear.
An assembled statue of an evil god.
Five wooden stakes.
Five people are bound to them.
Beneath each stake was a pile of blackened "firewood." But after a closer look, Bai Liu realized they weren't logs—they were dried, charred arms and calves, blasted apart and stacked like kindling.
Buckets of red paint sat beside each stake.
Around them were six additional piles of writhing broken limbs.
The fragments tried repeatedly to crawl up the stakes toward the bound people, only to be stomped back down by the dancing corpses. Each time they were trampled, red paint splashed across them.
It was clearly some grotesque human sacrifice ritual in progress.
Bai Liu adjusted the focus further to identify the five people tied to the stakes.
His brows lifted slightly.
"Spades," he said mildly, "I see four of your teammates tied up by monsters."
Spades nodded calmly. "There are five stakes. Who's the fifth?"
"It's someone we wouldn't have thought of." Bai Liu smiled, "It's Alex."