There's no time to be afraid anymore. Ahead, my comrades are still in danger. My mind was racing to find a way to break through the pack of dogs.
Just like in the rat pack earlier, walking on stilts wouldn't work anymore. The jumping and attacking abilities of the wild dogs were very strong. They might jump up and bite me, or even collide with the iron rod together. But wild dogs, unlike rats, couldn't climb steep slopes. So I found two iron short swords and inserted them one after another into the cave wall. I climbed up to the top of the cave step by step, then crawled sideways.
The rabid dogs were barking loudly, and the echoes bounced off the cave walls, making my head ring and almost causing me to lose consciousness. Fortunately, my five senses were the weakest, otherwise I would have fallen off. I quickly cut off my sense of hearing, but sound waves could still attack the brain. Now, I was relying on the mental strength I had painstakingly cultivated to support me.
I didn't know how long I had been crawling. I felt that I was about to go numb. Finally, the feeling of my mind about to split disappeared. Looking back, I had successfully passed through the area of the rabid dogs.
It sounds easy, but I really would rather face a monster twenty levels higher than me than endure the pain of the sound waves piercing my brain on the cave wall.
Slowly climbing down the cave wall, I turned on my sense of hearing. I felt as if I had temporarily lost my hearing. I tapped the two swords in my hand and couldn't hear any sound either.
While wondering how the tiger king and his companions managed to pass this stage, I saw two more corpses.
They were two other archers from the Hasa tribe, Xiaojia and Xiaoyi. Looking at their completely shattered equipment that couldn't protect them and the two arrows inserted into their throats, I couldn't help but sigh.
Obviously, the tiger king and his companions broke through by force. They probably did the same as in the previous stage, using arrows to kill the dog king and then advancing forward.
They didn't build any wooden beams in this stage, probably because the chieftain's mental power had been depleted too much. You know, large-scale magic has great power, but it also increases fatigue and depletes mental power significantly. It takes a long time to recover. If it's a more advanced magic, such as a banishing spell, it would consume the caster's own life force, and if the damage is too great, the caster might even die. The wooden beams were made up of a large number of "earth walls", although "earth walls" were not a particularly advanced magic, using too many of them would be extremely costly in terms of consumption.
I checked the system time. Since leaving the Hasa tribe, it has been exactly sixteen hours. This is the limit for an ordinary player to log in every day. If a player logs in for more than this limit, the system will warn you and forcibly kick you out of the game within five minutes. Of course, there are some people with special physiques who are exceptions. Like me, because my physiological consumption is very low, the system ignores it, so the limit set for me is twenty-four hours.
I believe the tiger king and his companions also considered that the time was insufficient, so they could only adopt the most direct method, violent breakthrough. Perhaps, in their eyes, the wild dogs were low-level monsters, and even if there were many of them, they posed no threat. And unlike mosquitoes and rats, they weren't so easily predictable, so they thought this way. With the strength of the wild dogs, they couldn't break through the defense of their equipment, but they could consume the durability of the equipment. The equipment on the Hasa tribe members' bodies had low durability and poor quality. Under the tearing bites of these tens of thousands of rabid dogs, they would be depleted quickly.
And the wild dogs themselves had considerable explosive power. After becoming rabid, this explosive probability would definitely increase a lot. High explosive power would lead to a certain probability of "fatal attacks". This attack ignored the defense of the body. When the equipment was ineffective, as long as hit, even the most advanced people and monsters would lose health. While the rabid attacks weren't high, as long as there was blood, the virus would enter the human body. The rabid virus is very terrifying. People infected with it would go crazy and bite randomly. Those bitten by them would be infected as well. Therefore, Xiaojia and Xiaoyi would choose to commit suicide. However, in any case, the chief, Chaahu, Manmuhe, the Tiger King, Honey, and the six of them still managed to pass through this obstacle. This was a fortunate thing. But who knows what even more dangerous obstacles lie ahead?
I was in a state of extreme anxiety, unable to feel sorrow. I quickened my pace and headed forward.
Surprisingly, I didn't encounter any monsters along the way, and there were no germs in the underground river I swam through. But I began to notice a large number of bones left by the Kazha people in the past. Clearly, there were terrifying enemies in these places before.
Reflecting on the battles of the Kazha people in the past, in the previous few levels, there should have been a group of high-level mages using group attack magic to clear the way. Later on, these mages who had expended a lot of vitality due to the sealing of the Bull Head God, their mental strength was simply too exhausted, so the warriors and archers had to engage the monsters up close. As a result, more and more people were infected with the virus and died in agony.
Looking at these long, white bones, my heart trembled. This game was indeed very realistic and very cruel. But perhaps because of all these cruel things I had experienced, my heart seemed to have become thousands of times stronger than before!
It seems that the "Plague God" has not fully awakened, so most of the levels have not yet recovered.
I dropped a lot of equipment on the way, but my eyesight was poor, it was difficult to distinguish in the darkness, and my mood was too anxious, so I only picked up a few items. These items were very bright in the darkness and should be at the silver level or above. But I didn't have time to examine them carefully.
The cave finally came to an end, and in front of me was a tall stone door, the door was slightly ajar, and no sound came from inside. I raised my head and saw the four big characters on the door: "Plague Gate".
The silence inside the door gave me a bad premonition. Because this meant that the Tiger King and his companions might have failed. But the more of this kind of situation, the less I could panic. I must face the terrifying enemies in the best state.
So many people died from illness along the way, the air must have been filled with viruses. Now my entire equipment might be covered with viruses. Fortunately, the skin of Ming Mengpi wasn't broken, it was like a bio suit. Even the air I breathed was isolated from dust and bacteria by it. Without this skin, I might have been infected countless times by now.
After resting on the steel wire bed for a while, I abandoned this bed that was contaminated with viruses. Although I was very hungry, in this environment, I couldn't tear open Ming Mengpi's skin to eat, fortunately, the medicine in the game was set to be used by thought, otherwise the battle that followed would be impossible to fight. At this time, my physical condition wasn't very good, but my mind was very clear. After adjusting, I stepped into the stone door.
The grand hall in front of me was as grand as the hall of the Bull Head God, capable of accommodating tens of thousands of people. However, because there is no plague god in Western mythology, the hall adopted the architectural style of ancient China.
On dozens of large red pillars, some ugly demonic images were carved, and they were respectively labeled as "Malaria", "Raccoon", "Plague", "Smallpox", "AIDS", etc. It seems that if the Plague God is fully awakened, there will be these dozens of checkpoints in the cave. I couldn't help but gasp. Although tens of thousands of Kazha people were almost wiped out, but being able to pass through so many checkpoints, I still had to sincerely admire.
I quickly saw the corpses of the chief, Chaahu, and Manmuhe. Although I had a premonition, my body still couldn't help but tremble. My heart was like being punched hard.
Although I didn't see the corpses of the Tiger King and his companions, but the golden-level long sword and silver-level wrist guards that fell on the ground belonged to the Tiger King and Honey respectively. Players don't leave corpses after death, but their most important equipment falls here, it's obvious what happened.
Player death is just a level drop, but I still felt my heart being torn apart. Because, what died with the Tiger King were not just their lives, but also their previous efforts. Just when they were close to success, all of their efforts were wiped out.
The Tiger King, Honey, and the one who was in charge of patrolling the perimeter, these three brave men. They might have gone offline to sleep, but in their dreams, they must have been extremely reluctant.
The Chief, Chaahu, and Manumoh, they must be unable to rest in peace.
Throughout the journey, they had made so many efforts, witnessed such great sacrifices, broken through so many barriers that ordinary people couldn't possibly break through, and had come to this point. But ultimately, they still fell.
They did not fail because they had done their best and even exceeded their own limits. They should have no regrets.
Now, it's just me. I don't know what terrifying existence killed them. I have secretly vowed that I will never let my comrades sacrifice in vain!
I take a deep breath, suppressing the surging blood. After escaping from the magic of the Bull God, I also witnessed the deaths of the previous four Haza warriors, saw the remains of tens of thousands of Haza people, and now even saw the sacrifice of my closest friend in the game. My heart suddenly became as hard as iron, as if I were transported back to the time when I swept through various games twenty years ago.
But I know that I am very different from before now. The reason why I was strong in the past was because of my ruthlessness, not caring about my parents' feelings, looking down upon the weak players around me, and having no other emotions towards the NPCs in the game except for using them. In life, I was ruthless, and in the game, I was even more ruthless. That was the person I was back then. Therefore, I took the name "Unlucky Star" because of this.
Now, I have feelings, but they won't shake my mind with emotions. Instead, I turn love, hate, and emotions into inner strength. This is a higher level of existence.
And precisely because of this, when I look at the corpses and items on the ground, I can still sense a sudden gust of wind coming from behind me!