Xin Ye shone his flashlight into the hole, but he couldn't see a thing.
He questioned Xun Yin, "Didn't you say you'd tell me if there was any danger?"
【You weren't going to walk over there anyway,】 Xun Yin replied. 【And I never promised to protect those two.】
"You're ruthless," Xin Ye muttered.
"The worst-case scenario is just a forced logout; we don't need to waste effort looking for them yet," he said, shifting his focus back to the mission. "The three of us will keep moving. Let's clear the mutated spider nest first."
As they ventured deeper, the path became increasingly difficult to traverse. The ground was littered with webs and small nests, and clearing them began to eat up more and more of their time.
When they finally reached the innermost cavern, Xin Ye came to a halt at the perimeter.
Xing Yue’s expression remained calm; she even let out a small smirk. "If this were the old me, I’d probably be grossed out for a while. But after seeing that Sparrow Vine recently, this is nothing."
The cavern was packed with a dense mass of spiders of varying sizes. Their dark, reddish-black hue made them look like necrotic tumors inside a patient’s body. Xin Ye couldn't help but marvel at how realistic the simulation was. "They look disgusting, that's for sure. But they don't have much combat power. Let's make this quick."
Xing Yue used her Ever-strand to bunch the spiders together, allowing Xin Ye to mow them down with gunfire. Tang Qiuqiu scrambled up the walls to the ceiling, scraping down the smaller nests they couldn't reach, which Xin Ye then picked off.
However, even after clearing the heap of "tumors," the mission did not register as complete.
Xin Ye refreshed the task list, confirming that his multi-function watch wasn't lagging.
"We targeted the wrong spot," Xin Ye said, narrowing his eyes. "Maybe that hole Lian Muyun fell into wasn't just a decorative trap. It might be the path to the real mutated spider nest we're looking for."
He made an immediate decision. "Let's head back to that hole and go down."
***
His suspicion proved correct.
A few minutes earlier, immediately after falling into the hole, Lian Muyun and Leng Xianye had tried to use their communicators.
Lian Muyun nearly broke his device pressing the buttons. "It's useless."
"Something's wrong here," Leng Xianye said, scanning the area with his flashlight. Seeing the abundance of spiderwebs, he understood. "Let's move forward and see."
They hadn't gone more than a few steps before the path ahead was completely blocked by webbing.
Lian Muyun grumbled as he raised his gun, "How did this spider manage to seal itself in so completely? Doesn't it ever go out to eat?"
He fired two casual shots, burning a hole with charred edges into the web.
The thing huddled inside let out a hoarse, insectoid cry. Deep red liquid began to seep from the bottom of the web, and the cavern was instantly filled with a rich, floral fragrance—one so concentrated it was nauseating.
Half of the mutated spider’s body squeezed out of the hole Lian Muyun had made. A ring of pale, tender limbs had grown along one segment of its body, tearing at the surrounding webs to facilitate movement. Its actions looked strained and agonizing, much like...
A butterfly being carved out of its cocoon halfway through pupation.
Instinct told Lian Muyun to aim his scope at the white "legs" on the spider's body. He fired four consecutive shots.
It worked, but the effect was the opposite of what he wanted.
The mutated spider tore itself free from the webbing and, in a rage, spread its eight legs and lunged toward Lian Muyun.
It was common knowledge that when it came to physical combat, long-range specialists fell into two extremes: they were either invincible or completely helpless in close quarters.
Lian Muyun struggled to parry two attacks with the frame of his gun. "Damn it! Leng Xianye, help me out!"
"Hold your own, I'm flanking it." Leng Xianye heartlessly rejected his childhood friend's plea, rushing toward the spider's rear with his gun. He figured the lower half of the body, which had been the last to emerge from the cocoon, was likely the spider's weak point.
"Leng Xianye, you have no heart!"
Leng Xianye cared less about his own heart and more about where the spider's heart was located.
Generally, a spider's heart is located in the anterior part of the abdomen, consisting of a single tube and chamber; firearms were rarely fatal against it. Ever since Leng Xianye had learned the utility of daggers from Xin Ye, he had become increasingly fond of the weapon. He even practiced with it in the training room. Now, presented with a perfect opportunity to show off his skills, he wasn't about to miss it.
He reached the spider's rear in a few strides, plunged his knife into one of its legs to gain leverage, and vaulted onto its back. He quickly identified the correct spot and prepared to drive the dagger into the heart.
Then, he hit a wall.
Even though the posterior part hadn't finished its metamorphosis, the hardness of the carapace wasn't something a simple dagger could pierce.
Leng Xianye was suddenly stuck in an embarrassing predicament, unable to advance or retreat.
Within five seconds, he had already mentally prepared himself to log out of the simulation. The biggest problem facing him now was his thin skin—he was wondering how to handle the sheer awkwardness once they were outside.
Fortunately, the "mother" of this story—the author—immediately dispatched her other "cheap son" to rescue her biological one.
Someone lightly tapped Leng Xianye on the head with their knuckles. "Stupid. You can't use a knife for this." Then, a hand pushed his shoulder, sending him off the spider's back.
Leng Xianye didn't hit the ground as clumsily as he expected; instead, he was caught and steadied.
The Mirror Image shared an identical face with Xin Ye, but its aura was far more piercing. Moreover, this was a heartless "bootleg" version. "Go stand with the others. I'll wait here for Xin Ye."
Before Leng Xianye could comply, a silk thread looped around his waist and yanked him back.
Xing Yue retracted her Ever-strand as soon as she pulled Leng Xianye over. "You were too reckless."
Leng Xianye felt his mind go blank for a moment. He nodded. "My mistake."
Xin Ye’s original pace hadn't been slow, but halfway there, Xun Yin had started tugging at his ear, demanding he speed up.
The AI's reasoning was: 【I wrote the plot wrong. Go fix the scene.】
Xin Ye: "You're making me feel like a total tool."
Xun Yin: 【You can be more confident than that. You *are* a tool.】
Fortunately, Xin Ye was a tool with professional integrity. If something happened, he was truly willing to step up—even if the mess he arrived to was enough to make his vision go dark.
He first summoned his Mirror Image to help rescue Lian Muyun. Before he could speak, Xun Yin beat him to it with a lament: 【My two silly children, how did they dare?】
Xin Ye handed Lian Muyun over to Xing Yue and Tang Qiuqiu, who had just arrived. "Wasn't this your doing?"
A certain someone quickly tried to divert his attention: 【Stop talking! Leng Xianye is still waiting for you!】
Xin Ye asked Tang Qiuqiu to distract the spider while he climbed onto its back with his assault rifle.
After spending these few days with his teammates—the "youth versions" of them—his biggest takeaway was that they were young and knew absolutely nothing.
When you threw those two conditions together in the face of a truly dire mission, it was synonymous with "seeking death."
He tried to recall how these people had grown strong in the past, but his memory bank was a void.
It seemed that in the past, he just had to deliver equipment and the four of them would become powerful—so powerful it had nothing to do with him.
Xin Ye reflected. His reflection bore no fruit. Xin Ye decided to try a new approach.
He would teach them.
He could re-teach his teammates the things he hadn't known back then—the things they had once taught him hand-to-hand.
Today could be the first lesson.
Once Xin Ye confirmed that Leng Xianye had been safely retrieved, he tapped his lens to recall the Mirror Image. As his ability snapped back into place, he decisively stabbed the lens directly into the spider's body.
The honey-like sweetness in the cave instantly intensified several times over, making it hard to breathe. Xin Ye, however, wasn't bothered in the slightest. Following the breach he had made, he shoved the barrel of the assault rifle directly into the spider's heart chamber.
All fear stems from insufficient firepower. But if you press the muzzle against a mutant's heart, the concept of "insufficient firepower" ceases to exist.
Xin Ye fired five shots in rapid succession. Even as the data-constructed spider blood splattered across his face, his expression didn't change one bit.
Soon, the mutated spider's life signs vanished completely. This time, the mission "Clear the Mutated Spider Nest" on the multi-function watch finally received a green checkmark.
The simulation training ended, and their figures began to fade from the scene. Xin Ye flipped down from the collapsed spider. Leng Xianye clearly wanted to approach him and say something: "You..."
Xin Ye saw that his logout progress bar was more than halfway full. "No rush. If you have something to say, say it outside."
But after emerging from the simulation pods, Leng Xianye didn't try to talk to Xin Ye again. Instead, he bid everyone a brief farewell and left the training room immediately.
Lian Muyun chased after him. Xing Yue, lost in thought, recorded some notes on her tablet before leaving as well.
Tang Qiuqiu, seeing that only he and Xin Ye were left in the room, nervously bit the back of his hand. He summoned his courage and asked, "Brother Xin Ye, do you... do you feel like we're dragging you down?"
Tang Qiuqiu was quite short, only about 1.7 meters. Xin Ye patted his head. "Not at all. Don't overthink it."
Qiuqiu was a good kid; if Xin Ye told him not to overthink, he likely wouldn't. But the other three were different; they all had their own ideas. Xin Ye was a veteran support staffer; he used to grab people for chats to decompress whenever a mission went sideways, so he understood the importance of communication. Upon returning to the dorm, the first thing he did was ask Xun Yin, "Does Leng Xianye still want to be our team captain?"
【Emotionally, yes. After all, he’s a young master who’s been a leader since he was a kid,】 Xun Yin said, looking at the character profiles of the two protagonists with pity. 【But rationally, he doesn't want to at all anymore.】
"As long as he still wants to emotionally, it's fine. He's not broken yet; he's still usable." Xin Ye opened his computer and began creating a new spreadsheet.
Xun Yin put down the outline he had hammered out last night and asked curiously, 【Does Brother Ye have a plan? How do you intend to solve this?】
Xin Ye took a sip of plain water. "A man's competitive spirit..."
The next day, Xin Ye took his proposal and knocked on Leng Xianye's dorm door.
Leng Xianye looked quite surprised to see it was Xin Ye. "Do you need something?"
"I'm here to compete with you for the captaincy," Xin Ye said expressionlessly, pulling up the competition schedule. "For this internal competition, there are only two paths before you: compete with me, or... compete with me."
"I can probably guess what you're about to say, but let me say this first: it's pathetic to start belittling yourself before your opponent even thinks you're incompetent."
The words that had reached Leng Xianye's throat were forced back down.
"I'll compete."
***
