A day later, everyone returned to the guild hall right on time.

It was a rare occasion for everyone to be present. After several days of raiding together, they had grown close, and now they gathered in the office, chatting and laughing.

The last to arrive were, surprisingly, Jian Xingyi and Shanhai.

As the two stepped into the office, all eyes turned toward them.

Jian Xingyi nervously took a couple of steps back. “What’s going on?”

Bai Jie smiled kindly. “Everyone’s just admiring the bond we’ve formed.”

Jian Xingyi: “……”

Cola: “Hey, so after working together for so long these past few days, has anyone sparked a romance? We’re totally encouraging dating here!”

Jian Xingyi: “We don’t…”

Cola: “Oh, right, right, we know—you two are just pure, good friends!”

Jian Xingyi stared blankly for a moment, then finally nodded. “Right.”

Cola nodded earnestly as well. “Mm!”

“Alright, everyone’s here,” Bai Jie chuckled lightly. “Get ready—we’re starting the dungeon run right away.”

After Bai Jie and Heiye activated the dungeon, everyone was immediately teleported into a new space.

It was the location for the guild team battle—the Forgotten Forest.

【Welcome players from 【Grapevine Peak】 and 【Long Live for A Hundred Years】 to the guild team battle 【United We Stand】! Please work together in the Forgotten Forest to defeat all enemies!】

The Forgotten Forest was a map within the dungeon that Jian Xingyi had never seen before.

The forest was completely different from the one outside; the trees here… were multicolored, shimmering in every hue, and even oddly shaped.

Jian Xingyi had an instinctive reaction to use his skill whenever he saw a new plant; after activating it…

【Harvest Successful, Absorbed 【Essence】 x20】

【Harvest Successful, Absorbed 【Essence】 x25】

【Harvest Successful, Absorbed 【Essence】 x21】

……

Wow, there’s actually quite a lot?!

Jian Xingyi’s eyes widened.

What’s going on? Isn’t this a guild battle dungeon? Why is the essence value so high?

Woo—

Just as Jian Xingyi was marveling, alarm bells rang out all around.

Before they arrived, Shanhai had briefed Jian Xingyi: the tactics for guild group battles change every quarter, but they’re basically the same old routines, so everyone’s already familiar with them.

And this month’s tactic was the Fireworks Chase.

A group battle… put simply, it’s a free-for-all. There’s no chance for strategic formation; it’s just a huge crowd dumping damage haphazardly inside the dungeon.

As the alarm sounded, landmines exploded all around. The moment they detonated, resources would drop, and zombies would crawl out of the holes in the ground.

Everyone’s job was to rush in, kill the zombies, and grab the resources along the way, clearing all the zombies in the direction of the explosions until the boss appeared.

Boom!

Boom—!

The landmines exploded chaotically in all directions. Everyone had to dodge frantically to avoid being blown up or getting trapped in the zombie horde, so the scene was a complete free-for-all.

Jian Xingyi sat in front of Shanhai’s motorcycle and felt it run over something hard. Shanhai immediately swerved to avoid it, and a landmine exploded right beside them. Jian Xingyi’s ears were ringing, and a few pieces of shrapnel had splattered onto his.

Shanhai handed the motorcycle over to Jian Xingyi and took up his rifle to fire precise bursts.

Jian Xingyi was getting more and more comfortable riding Shanhai’s motorcycle; right now, he was doing his best to weave around the zombies to let Shanhai focus on dealing damage.

The landmines were too unpredictable, so everyone could only scatter in all directions, running and firing wildly.

So the melee was, quite literally, a chaotic free-for-all.

But Grapevine Peak was deeply moved at that moment.

—At least this difficulty level is normal! Who knows what kind of massive landmine fields they had to face before the merger!

In reality, the benefits of guild mergers aren’t limited to the obvious resource sharing. Take this moment, for example—and the upcoming zombie tide—Grapevine Peak stands to gain another advantage: reduced difficulty.

Both zombie waves and guild battles spawn monsters based on the guild’s level. If Grapevine Peak were to run the dungeon on its own, the number of monsters would remain the same, but their levels would be higher, which would be completely unprofitable.

And with Grapevine Peak having Long Live for A Hundred Years’ support in future Zombie Tides, the difficulty will surely drop, making things much easier for them—they might even be able to dominate, avoiding the previous situation where high-level players were sacrificed.

But on the flip side, this means the difficulty for Long Live for A Hundred Years increases.

So the people at Grapevine Peak feel they should lend a hand with “Long Live for A Hundred Years.”

Seeing more and more landmines all around, Jian Xingyi worried, “Will my presence here hinder your damage output?”

Jian Xingyi was always worried he was holding Shanhai back.

“No.” Shanhai grabbed Jian Xingyi’s hand, pulling him down to dodge a landmine.

Watching the dirt explode beside them, Shanhai patted Jian Xingyi’s shoulder and reminded him, “Shouldn’t we pick up the resources?”

“Ah…!”

Jian Xingyi immediately tapped to collect the lucky bag that had shot out.

Besides the lucky bag, Jian Xingyi didn’t forget about the essence points.

Black smoke swirled all around them, and the constant clamor never ceased.

As the group eliminated more and more zombies, the sound of heavy footsteps and flapping wings could be heard in the distance.

The boss is here!

…And not just one—there seemed to be quite a few of them.

Usually, Shanhai would be the one to take on the boss, with Cola and Bai Jie acting as his flanking guards.

But now…

Everyone silently glanced at Shanhai, who was burdened with his family in tow, and for a moment, they weren’t sure how to handle the boss.

Just as Bai Jie was about to step forward herself, she saw Shanhai instruct Jian Xingyi to rev the motorcycle to full speed and charge straight at the boss.

Bai Jie and Cola exchanged bewildered glances.

Huh??

Are they really going for it?!

As they sped past the towering grass, they saw that the dungeon boss was a giant zombie, much like the ones from the previous zombie horde.

Flying in the air beside the giant were two Dodo beasts, which appeared to be quite high-level.

The infected Dodo beasts acted like the giant’s guards, blocking the group from getting close to it.

Cola and Bai Jie exchanged a glance and immediately charged forward, each taking on a Dodo beast.

Shanhai whispered in Jian Xingyi’s ear, “Cover me.”

With that, he pulled out a rope and a grappling hook, flung them into the air, wrapped them around the giant’s neck, and leaped up to climb onto its head.

Shanhai landed on the giant’s shoulder, raised his gun, and aimed at its eye…

They had already faced a sea of giants at Grapevine Peak during the previous zombie tide. This time, with the addition of Long Live for A Hundred Years, there was only one giant. At first, no one was particularly nervous, but they soon realized this giant seemed different.

Although the previous giants were massive, they moved slowly and clumsily. Basically, as long as Shanhai could jump onto them and slash at their eyes and neck a few times, they could be taken down. But this giant… was far too agile!

In an instant, the giant moved with blinding speed, shielding its eye with one hand while lunging at Shanhai with the other.

“Bang!”

The bullet struck its thick, tough hide, having no effect whatsoever.

The people below were stunned. “Does this giant… have intelligence?”

—A zombie that possesses intelligence.

This was a terrifying thought, and a truly absurd one at that.

Zombies are already undead beings; if they were to gain intelligence as well, what would become of us?

“Maybe it’s just a reflex?”

But then the giant and Shanhai began to grapple.

Shanhai moved to the left, the giant to the right; when Shanhai attacked, the giant parried; and whenever Shanhai retreated, the giant pressed the advantage.

Whether or not it possessed intelligence, one thing was certain: this giant had the ability to mimic combat techniques.

Bai Jie’s heart sank to the depths.

Besides farming rewards, the guild battle launched at Grapevine Peak had another purpose.

Before the first zombie wave, giant zombies had already appeared in the guild group battles held at Grapevine Peak. It was the first time anyone had seen zombies of that size; while shocked, everyone was relieved that there weren’t many. But later, these zombies appeared in droves during the zombie wave, their numbers terrifying as they attacked relentlessly, seemingly without regard for their own lives.

At that time, everyone began to speculate: could the guild battle before the zombie wave have been a preview, a sort of “preparation” for the players? Since other guilds couldn’t reach the maximum combat power cap, but Grapevine Peak could, might the system have “advanced” powerful enemies for them as a result? In other words, did they have the opportunity to fight monsters from the next game update?

If this speculation is correct, then the giant before us…

…if such a giant appeared during the Zombie Tide, wouldn’t that be a death sentence for the players?

If this were just an ordinary person, fighting him in front of Shanhai would be completely hopeless, but the size difference was too great, and his defense was maxed out—this made things rather tricky.

If even Shanhai was in this state, did ordinary players stand a chance?!

Jian Xingyi watched with a heart pounding with fear.

Shanhai looped the rope around the giant’s neck, swung behind it, pulled a glow stick from his backpack, and tossed it to Jian Xingyi.

Jian Xingyi had been keeping a close eye on Shanhai and reacted quickly, steering his motorcycle toward where the glow stick landed to catch it.

Before anyone else could react, Jian Xingyi suddenly understood.

Perhaps because he’d spent so much time with Shanhai, he could now easily read Shanhai’s thoughts—even faster than the people on Grapevine Peak. As soon as he caught the glow stick, he immediately threw several cherry bombs at the giant zombie to draw its fire.

Shanhai had already circled around to the giant’s rear. Its massive bulk created a blind spot, so the giant couldn’t see Shanhai and was, as expected, drawn away by Jian Xingyi.

The giant roared and charged toward Jian Xingyi. Jian Xingyi immediately revved up his motorcycle and dove forward at top speed. Holding the glow stick in his hand, he stood out starkly against the dim surroundings, luring the giant to give chase.

Everyone froze, stunned, rooted to the spot.

—Xinghe, a fragile “Battle 6 Scrub” (though he’s actually reached a combat rating of 106 now), is actually riding a motorcycle to outmaneuver the giant… Ugh, the giant’s gone zombie-like!

Heiye was stunned. “Does hanging out with a big shot automatically make you a big shot?”

To be honest, for Jian Xingyi, this move required less technical skill and more an extremely high level of trust in the person behind him and…

“Eeek—”

Jian Xingyi mimicked Shanhai’s move and executed a somewhat unsuccessful sharp turn, but at least he managed to change direction and charge into the woods, causing the Giant to stop, looking somewhat dazed.

In that very instant, Shanhai—who had already climbed onto the giant’s head—slammed his broadsword directly into the giant’s brain.

…And synergy.

The giant let out a wail and raised its hand to strike, but just then, Jian Xingyi burst out from the other side of the woods and unleashed a barrage of gunfire at the giant’s hand.

Cola and Bai Jie, who had just finished dealing with the Dodo beast, were left speechless.

How exactly did Jian Xingyi coordinate with Shanhai? And their coordination was so smooth and precise—a split second too early or too late would have been fatal.

BOOM———

This formidable boss crashed to the ground amid everyone’s stunned gazes.

Once the giant fell, Shanhai began free-falling. Jian Xingyi was startled; fearing Shanhai might be injured, he frantically rummaged through his backpack, pulling out whatever usable items he could find.

Whoosh—

In the end, he tossed out the windproof tent they’d obtained earlier at Flag Mountain. Once opened, it would cushion the impact if someone ducked inside before hitting the ground—after all, it was designed specifically to protect against being swept up in a tornado.

But since there was no tornado nearby, Jian Xingyi had to throw it toward Shanhai after deploying it, while Shanhai tossed a rope back to try to hook the tent.

Unfortunately, their usually flawless coordination failed them at this critical moment. Jian Xingyi’s tent and the rope missed their mark; instead, the rope wrapped around Jian Xingyi’s waist, and Shanhai dragged both him and the tent into the air.

“Wah—!”

Shanhai was stunned, too.

At this point, Shanhai had no choice but to pull Jian Xingyi into his arms with one hand while holding onto the tent with the other, pulling them both inside.

Jian Xingyi felt himself suddenly hoisted into the air and then pulled into his embrace, before entering the tent with Shanhai.

Everyone: “……”

Firelight: “……What’s going on here?”

Coke: “They’re giving us a live wedding night performance.”

Firelight: “Ooh…”

“Thud!”

As the tent hit the ground, the system’s voice rang out.

【Congratulations to players 【Grapevine Peak】 and 【Long Live for A Hundred Years】 on their victory in the guild battle 【Sharper Than a Sword】! Players will be teleported out of the Forgotten Forest in ten seconds. Ten, nine, eight…】

As the system’s countdown continued, Jian Xingyi and Shanhai were crammed into the narrow, pitch-black tent. Shanhai was lying on top of Jian Xingyi, and Jian Xingyi still had his arms wrapped around him.

Jian Xingyi knew they were the center of attention right now, and his heart was racing because of it. But with the countdown almost over, he wasn’t sure whether to push him away. After all, pushing him away would create an even bigger, more conspicuous movement.

【6, 5, 4…】

Jian Xingyi could sense Shanhai’s rapid heartbeat and increasingly heavy breathing; he seemed unable to calm the intense emotions left over from the battle, his gaze burning as he looked at Jian Xingyi.

Jian Xingyi whispered, “What’s wrong?”

The next moment, Shanhai could no longer resist and leaned down to kiss Jian Xingyi’s neck.

“……!!”

Jian Xingyi almost let out a gasp of surprise.

W-what is he doing!!

Why the neck… No! The people outside will see!

Seeing Jian Xingyi frozen in shock, Shanhai whispered, “They… can’t see.”

The tent wasn’t opaque; everyone could only see the silhouettes of the two figures pressed together. They wouldn’t realize that, under everyone’s gaze and separated by nothing more than a thin layer of fabric, Shanhai had already taken Jian Xingyi’s Adam’s apple into his mouth. His gaze was dark and inscrutable, his movements brimming with possession.

Jian Xingyi, who had just executed a flawless combat coordination with Shanhai, couldn’t understand his sudden excitement and actions. He could only cover his mouth, afraid he might make a sound.

【Three, two…】

Wah… please just end this already…

【One!】

【The player will be teleported out of the Forgotten Forest.】

…

When Jian Xingyi opened his eyes, he was momentarily stunned.

Logically, he should have been teleported back to the guild along with all the other players, but how… was he still in the Forgotten Forest?

The surroundings were still filled with colorful plants, but there was not a soul in sight—no zombies or monsters either.

—Dead silence.

Jian Xingyi swallowed hard, feeling a mix of tension and fear.

Despite his anxiety, he relied on muscle memory to cast skills all around him, gathering high-value essence.

But since this wasn’t his first encounter with the strange, he quickly forced himself to calm down and pulled out his terminal to contact Shanhai.

……Huh?

Jian Xingyi broke out in a cold sweat. Why… was the terminal gone?

The next moment, Jian Xingyi lost consciousness again.