Pushing open the heavy stone door, the two stepped inside only to find nothing but stone walls all around them.

Huh…?

Something’s wrong.

Jian Xingyi furrowed his brow. “This setup… looks familiar.”

After thinking for a moment, Jian Xingyi placed gunpowder purchased from the mall around the room and then set it off.

Boom—!

After the explosion, they indeed discovered a strange magic circle on one of the walls.

The so-called magic circle—a strange, glowing circular pattern carved into the stone wall—contained numerous symbols and characters Jian Xingyi couldn’t decipher.

But at the very bottom, an extra line of text had been carved by human hands.

—It is both the end and the beginning; it is both the beginning and the end. Return to the place where it all began…

“I wasn’t mistaken after all!” ” Jian Xingyi said, “I found this same magic circle before, near the waterfall close to the summit of Peace Mountain. But when I touched it back then, it sent me straight home, saying I wasn’t qualified to use it yet. Thinking about it now, that magic circle by the waterfall must have been the one that brings people here. It’s just that I hadn’t unlocked this place yet, so I couldn’t use it.”

Shanhai nodded.

In other words, all they had to do was tap the magic circle!

Whoosh—

The moment their fingers touched the center of the magic circle, the two felt themselves being sucked into some kind of space.

When they came to their senses again, they found themselves inside a cave.

But…

“Whoa…”

Jian Xingyi was dumbfounded.

They were standing on the ground, but everything around them was upside down, and he saw a tombstone right beneath their feet.

—This was a mirror dimension.

They had indeed arrived at the tombstone for 01 or 02, but it was the mirror dimension of the tombstone.

Jian Xingyi crouched down and reached out to touch the floor, feeling as if he were blocked by an invisible barrier.

The target was right before his eyes, yet he couldn’t reach it.

And what was even more astonishing was… the entire cave—both here and in the mirror image below—was filled with skeletons and white bones.

“My God… are these burial offerings?” Jian Xingyi looked around; the white bones were piled almost as high as a mountain!

Shanhai was also puzzled; they could only crawl on the ground, straining to see the tombstones below through the barrier.

Tombstone No. 02: Vanguard

The Vanguard never fears, never stops; he will lead thousands of troops to victory and defend everything behind him!

The epitaph was too heavily scratched; from a distance, the two couldn’t make it out clearly.

It really is No. 02…!

The area around No. 02 was covered in red spider lilies. Separated by the barrier, Jian Xingyi couldn’t pay his respects or collect them—he was frantic.

As the two observed closely, they realized No. 02 was situated on an island, connected to another island by a suspension bridge.

They couldn’t see the other island clearly, but it seemed… as if there were faintly visible gravestones there as well.

Could it be 01?

That would make this location quite unique—the direction of 02’s tombstone seemed to gaze toward 01, yet they weren’t together.

Here at 02, everything was nothing but bleached bones, while nearby 01 was covered in fresh flowers.

Even though they were in a dark cave, 01 was surrounded by a riot of blossoms.

Putting it all together, 02—submerged in white bones and red spider lilies—looked as if it were guarding 01.

Jian Xingyi lay on the ground and stared for a moment. “Wow… that’s actually pretty romantic.”

“Indeed.”

But how do we get down there?

The two stood up and studied the surroundings for ages, but found nothing.

No traps, no paths—nothing at all.

Shanhai had excellent reconnaissance skills, and Jian Xingyi had his “Light Point” ability, so if there wasn’t a way… then there really wasn’t one.

“That’s weird. How are we supposed to get down?” Jian Xingyi pulled out the item he’d obtained from the Savior System. “Look, I even have a Tombstone Key, but there’s nowhere to use it here.”

Shanhai said, “Maybe we need to take a different path down.”

But for the time being, neither of them knew where another path might be, and it was almost midnight—time for the zombie tide—so they had no choice but to give up. After all, they’d achieved their goal of earning Bond Points, so they could only temporarily memorize the tombstone’s location and come back another time.

Although the system allowed players to leave the guild base during this zombie tide—after all, this was a fortress battle where even the guild’s boundaries were unrestricted—if a player left and didn’t return in time for the tide, leaving the guild short on combat power… well, that would be the player’s own problem.

Teleportation was only available on the first day.

The two decided to test the magic circle. After preparing to leave, they placed their hands on the circle once more.

Whoosh—

Sure enough, when they opened their eyes, they found themselves by the waterfall.

This really is a two-way teleportation circle!

To confirm it, they tried again, this time touching the magic circle while standing on the waterfall.

Whoosh—

Since the Tombstone area had been unlocked, they were teleported straight back to the Tombstone magic circle, coming face-to-face with the freshly respawned wolf.

Wolf: “……”

The two: “……”

But surprisingly—perhaps because they’d defeated it before—this time the wolf showed no reaction to them at all, simply sitting there leisurely and grooming itself.

Jian Xingyi suddenly had a mischievous thought, “Um… would we gain affinity points if we killed it again?”

Wolf: “?”

The wolf immediately stood up, baring its teeth, and glared fiercely at Jian Xingyi and Shanhai.

…It really is quite sentient.

Shanhai couldn’t help but laugh and sigh, “The Dodo Beast would, but this wolf probably won’t.”

“Oh.”

Only then did the wolf sit back down.

The two exchanged a smile, touched the magic circle to leave, and only after reaching the waterfall did they hop on their motorcycles to return to the guild.

Before the zombie tide began, Jian Xingyi still planned to go home to rest and recharge.

Everyone felt the same way, so they returned early as well.

With their Bond Points still insufficient for merging, they had no idea what kind of monsters they’d face tonight.

Fortunately, everyone had bought the “Potted Sprouts” Jian Xingyi had released, so the walls were now covered with plenty of Pea Shooters.

After a day’s hard work, everyone had earned a total of 155. Combined with Shanhai and Jian Xingyi’s 170, that brought the total to 325, increasing the original 12,315 to 12,640.

They were still a bit short of 13,000.

So everyone—including Jian Xingyi and Shanhai himself—was actually a bit surprised.

170 was really quite a lot—more than the entire guild had earned combined.

That strange wolf was like a cheat code, a truly unique presence, even to 02 and 01. Jian Xingyi and Shanhai felt that such good fortune might not last—this kind of luck wouldn’t happen every day.

Jian Xingyi furrowed his brow slightly. He felt that if they still couldn’t hit 13,000 tomorrow, he’d have to buy a Bond Card.

But if they could hit it tomorrow, then he could save 100 million.

But before that…

Jian Xingyi dragged Shanhai into his own courtyard and said, “Go plant the seeds for me!”

Shanhai nodded. “How many?”

“165!”

“?”

Jian Xingyi had given up. He’d come to fully realize just how terrible his luck was—he didn’t want to try a single one.

This kind of thing should be left to the luck-god Shanhai!

Shanhai began tapping away at Jian Xingyi’s screen.

【Congratulations to player 【Xinghe】 on obtaining Cherry Bomb x1】

【Congratulations to player 【Xinghe】 on obtaining Pea Shooter x4】

【Congratulations to player 【Xinghe】 on gaining Luck—something even better is sure to appear next time!】

After finishing a round, it was still no different from yesterday.

165 pulls, all SRs and Rs.

Add yesterday’s 165 to that, and it’s already 330 in total.

Not a single SSR!

Jian Xingyi: “……”

Shanhai: “Sorry.”

“No, it’s not your fault,” Jian Xingyi said expressionlessly. “Since this is my account, bad luck is just bad luck—no amount of luck-based theory can save it.”

“…… Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, hahaha, I haven’t gone crazy.” Jian Xingyi said with a smile, “I got 31 SRs this morning, so now I have 50! Isn’t that great!”

Among them, there are 5 types from the Mushroom family, 6 from the Pea Shooter family, 3 from the Melon family, 4 from the Flower family, and 1 from the Vegetable family.

He’s making progress toward the 10 varieties needed for the major guaranteed drop synthesis.

“……”

“……”

“Waaaaaah!!” Jian Xingyi screamed, clinging to Shanhai’s arm like a sugar-free bun.

Shanhai was at a loss for words, smiling and sighing at the same time. He reached out to gently ruffle Jian Xingyi’s hair and said softly, “There’ll be another chance next time. If I get something good, I’ll give it to you, okay?”

All the fields on Grapevine Peak are now being used to grow pot sprouts. Who knows?

“Mm.”

After letting off some steam, Jian Xingyi realized…

“Hey, actually, I use the terminal to hatch seeds. I don’t think I needed to call you over to my place just for that.”

Shanhai paused for a long moment. “Well, for convenience’s sake… why don’t I just sleep over at your place? The zombie tide is coming in three hours anyway.”

“……”

Huh?

Jian Xingyi froze for a moment.

“Oh, oh…”

Shanhai then took Jian Xingyi’s hand and led him inside, walking right into the house.

“W-where are you going to sleep?” Jian Xingyi’s ears turned slightly red. Although they had shared a bed before, that was back when he thought Shanhai was a human.

Shanhai said, “The couch will do.”

He just wanted to spend a little more time with Jian Xingyi, to be a little closer to him.

“Oh.”

━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

【Attention players of *Dawn of the Dawn* V3.0: The Midnight Session of the Five-Day Zombie Tide Feast—Day Two—will begin in one system hour!】

Three hours later, Jian Xingyi got up, assembled with the others, and everyone took their positions.

After setting aside one of each SR plant variety, Jian Xingyi distributed the plants he had grown among the four walls.

“Wow… how did you get so many?”

“Hey, Xinghe, how did you manage to get so many!”

“I heard that your guild won their last battle thanks to the SSR you summoned. You’re so amazing—what great luck!”

Jian Xingyi: “……”

Jian Xingyi’s eyes darkened slightly. “No, I won by sheer volume.”

Farmers win by grinding numbers and using synthesis stations.

In a way… I guess you could call that luck, too.

【Attention players of *Dawn of the Dawn* V3.0: The five-day Zombie Tide Feast Midnight Session is about to begin!】

A sharp, piercing siren wailed. The sky was gloomy, with only the floodlights glowing faintly through the thick fog and darkness.

Boom, boom…

The ground began to shake just like yesterday. This time, Jian Xingyi was prepared; he planted his feet firmly and steadied himself, only to see, not far away, the same mountains and seas of corpses as yesterday, along with two 【Godfather】.

【Night Two of the Zombie Tide Feast begins!】

At the same time, rifts began to appear within the guild’s territory.

“——!”

Attacked from both inside and out!

It wasn’t the first time they’d seen rifts, but a 【Godfather】 crawling out of one…

That was a bit beyond the scope.

Cola and Shanhai exchanged a glance; they had no choice but to deal with the 【Godfather】 in the rift first.

A squad also prioritized taking out the zombies crawling out of the rift.

Bai Jie commanded the remaining members, “Hold off the 【Godfather】 outside the gate!”

Fortunately, the walls were lined with Pea Shooters today. With the support of cannons and Pea Shooters, everyone managed to temporarily hold off the Godfather and prevent the other zombies from getting close.

“Get out of the way!”

“Watch out!”

The Godfather, crawling out of the crack, was very close to the wall. He charged recklessly toward the wall and smashed a hole right through it.

“Clang—!”

There was no time to react.

Bai Jie’s eyes widened.

Unbelievable!

“Bang!”

At the same moment, Shanhai leaped up in an acrobatic maneuver and shot the Godfather in the head, bringing him down.

But the zombies outside were already closing in. Cola and Shanhai charged out again, but unfortunately, the two of them could only hold off one. Seeing this, Bai Jie gritted her teeth, handed command to another team member, and grabbed a high-powered fighter to charge out herself.

It was a huge risk, but if they let the Godfather reach the wall’s edge, he could smash through several sections with a single swing of his hand.

But even with the Godfather held back, the breach had already been opened. So now, without him, ordinary giants poured through the gap in a continuous stream.

Jian Xingyi stared at the row of collapsed walls, stunned.

Even with Grapevine Peak’s elite forces, the city walls spanned too vast an area, and there were simply too many zombies—the Godfather had sent three of them.

Even facing a difficulty level that had been lowered, the situation remained terrifying.

Jian Xingyi looked at the few remaining sections of the city walls and took a deep breath.

Since things had already gotten this bad…

Jian Xingyi shouted, “Ms. Bai! Get back! ”

Bai Jie was taken aback. Even though she was the commander, and even though Jian Xingyi’s words had no basis, she still chose to believe him and, without a word, led her men back.

“Retreat! Everyone retreat! Everyone, get out of the way!”

Jian Xingyi took out the gunpowder he had obtained earlier behind the air wall, arranged it in a row, and aimed his gun at the powder kegs.

Since the city walls had already collapsed, he might as well let the walls and the zombies go…

up in smoke!

“BOOM—!”

Jian Xingyi used up all the gunpowder he had in one go, resulting in a deafening explosion that shook the earth and killed a swath of zombies.

That ended the battle. The Godfather, who had been closing in, was also injured in the blast. Taking advantage of his vulnerability, Bai Jie led her team to quickly finish him off.

Meanwhile, Shanhai and Cola had also taken down the Godfather.

“……”

Silence returned to the surroundings.

A single charge of gunpowder had ended the battle.

Everyone turned to look at Jian Xingyi in shock. Shanhai looked at him, a hint of a smile in his eyes.

Jian Xingyi gave a dry laugh. “Explosion… is art!”

It worked!

But it can only be used once. After all…

Jian Xingyi looked at the empty space before him—where the wall had once stood—and paused before saying, “We’ll have to move tomorrow.”