Chapter 83: Run In With Other Survivors!

Mountain Mines. Unknown Cave.

In the dim torchlight, two miners were hacking away at the stone around an emerald vein.

Dak! Chink! Chink!

“Mine harder! Park dawg, what’s up with those weakass swings? Did ya not eat lunch or something, aeughh?!”

Feeling his ego take a hit, Park Insu can’t help but growl back.

“Madaraka! Gimme a break! The scar from touching those web still hurts! If it wasn’t for my super tough skin during transformation, that shit would’ve melted right through my arms!”

“Fer fack’s sake! Quit whining like a baby. Isn’t it just a little burn?”

“Yeah? Why don’t you go give it a try and see how it feels?!”

“Aueggh?! Think I’m an idiot like you?”

“Ya wanna go, baldie?!”

Two idiots butted heads again, drowning out the pained whimpers of the lonely emo-boy suffering from even worse corroded scars not far from them.

Alas, nobody cared about the status of the bait that finished playing his role. Nor did anybody notice the resentful glare hidden behind those long emo bangs…

But even if somebody did, perhaps they won’t even care. What could a weakass loser even do? There were more important issues to worry about.

Not far from the mining site, the two brains of the team were examining the dead spider that looked like it went through a slaughterhouse.

Kim Sungho dabbed the sweat on his forehead and didn’t dare to get too close to the monstrous corpse.

“Ohoho, these gray widower… their equipment destruction effect is quite disgusting… don’t you agree, Mr. Kwan?”

“Hmm.” But Kwan Minhwoo was more focused on something else. “Manager Kim, any thoughts on… that last cry?”

“The last cry?” That reminded Kim Sungho of a game mechanic and he broke out in more sweat.

“Ohoho... though I hoped it’s not, I’m afraid that might be a death thrall meant for calling friendlies… well, not so friendly for us, that is.”

Kwan Minhwoo frowned and looked out into the darkness.

Unfortunately, with only one torch to their team’s name, it’s impossible to see too far out. Guessing what else is out there is even more impossible.

There’s nothing else that could be done except get the arguing miners back on track.

“Mr. Park. Brother Tae. We’d appreciate it if you two stop wasting time. This isn’t a safe zone and we’re on a tight schedule. So let’s try to wrap this up as soon as possible.”

“Oh shut it, four-eyes!”

“Yeah! Madaraka, mining a bit slower won’t change anything! It’s not like there will be an entire spider’s nest chasing after us for revenge!”

It wasn’t known if Park Insu really had a crow mouth or not, but right on cue, Kwan Minhwoo’s gaze turned sharp. “Shush. You all hear that?”

Immediately, everybody zipped their mouths and pricked their ears.

Faintly but surely, they all hear the pitter-paddling echoing from the distant end of the cave!

Everybody tensed up and locked onto the direction where that came from…

There, at the end of the tunnel, they actually saw… another source of light!

“Somebody? Could it be… other players?”

Seeing the light quickly getting closer, all their faces turned serious.

If there’s other survivors, that wasn’t good news because that meant… competition!

Like the saying goes: stranger danger! Everyone could already imagine what will happen.

It’s fine if the other side is weaker, but what if the other party outnumbered them?

What if the other party demanded ownership of this emerald vein? Or…

What if they outright tried to rob them?!

But there wasn’t much time for them to react because… what came next was far worse than their imaginations.

Up ahead, the leading torchlight didn’t hide any of the approaching survivors’ faces. It’s just that...

Instead of greed or vigilance, all they saw on those faces were… pure fear!

Why? Because behind them… there was a swarm of spiders chasing them as far as the eyes could see!!!

Nobody needed to be told twice on what to do.

“RUN!!!”

In another cave.

All was calm and a little Miss Highschooler cheerfully skippidy-skipped around to search for ores behind the rockeries.

“Eih! Nothing here~”

“Eih! Nothing here either~”

“Fuu! Why is it just rocks everywhere here!”

No ores. No treasures. No mysteries. No danger. Xiao Shuling is almost bored out of her mind.jpg!

Right behind her, Jack can’t help but chuckle. “Bwahaha! Little missy, ya can’t always expect Lady Luck to favor us. By the looks of it, somebody else should’ve gotten here before us…”

As for who? There were some guesses, and a certain guess was soon confirmed.

“Footsteps?” Jack tensed up. “There’s somebody. Little missy, get behind me.”

Xiao Shuling quickly flew over like a sparrow returning to her nest and poked her head out from behind Jack’s back, curiously staring out into the dark.

There was no light coming their way, but the footsteps got closer and closer…

Feeling an inexplicable pressure washing over, Jack held up his axe, ready to strike. “Who’s there?! Show yourself!”

If this was a horror novel, their light source was a dead giveaway and what’s coming next would be true horror.

But what stepped out from the dark into their light was… a human. A rather familiar one too!

It was the teenager from their own base!

“Oh. It’s you.” Though Jack recognized the young man, he didn’t lower his vigilance at all.

Never let your guard down when facing any badass-looking character, especially since this one seemed to have set his sights on the little missy behind his back!

The footsteps suddenly paused and both sides quietly faced off.

Jack saw the storm that seemed to be brewing in those dark eyes and cold sweat broke out on his back…

It was only a moment but it seemed like an eternity has passed.

Fortunately, the young man eventually turned away and those footsteps resumed…

Once the footsteps faded back into the darkness, Jack finally relaxed and started breathing again.

“Phew. Well I’ll be damned. What’s wrong with you brats? One after another, you young ones these days are really…”

He really didn’t know how to describe it. Should he act like a certain lightspeed admiral and say everybody is scary from now on?

It’s unknown how scary others are, but the little goblin still blinked innocently like a harmless bunny. “Eih! Uncle, don’t lump us with him! We’re all perfectly normal!”

“Yeah?” Jack rolled his eyes.

“Aight, if ya say so. Anyways, as long as we don’t offend him and stay out of his way, it should be fine…”

“But seriously, just how did did that boy do it? No torch? And going so deep? Is he crazy or what?”

Xiao Shuling rolled her clever little eyes. “Eih! Maybe he has night vision?”

“Yeah? Sheesh. I suppose that makes sense.”

But they didn’t dwell on that topic for long.

“Aight, it looks like this road got picked clean by that young man. No wonder we didn’t find much… well, our last pick is almost dead anyways. We’ll just have to make do with what we have.”

“Eih! Uncle, what now? Go back early today?”

Jack thought about it for a bit, but felt it was still quite early to turn in for the day.

“Let’s scout out another route to get a head start on our next run and see if we can find anything good for Steve. Maybe we’ll earn enough for a player potion. Who knows.”

“Eih! This miss still prefers apples more!”

“Little missy, you and your apples! Bwahaha!”

While a pair enjoyed a relaxing scouting adventure, the other explorers finally got out of danger.

“Madaraka, think we lost em’?”

“Yeah… hah… ha... those suckers are gone.”

“Ohoh… ho… is everybody good?”

“We’re missing one!”

“Who?”

“We lost that dumbo. I saw him ran off on his own. Stupid!”

Nobody cared about a cannon fodder though. That’s one less mouth to feed.

Instead, they all turned their wary gazes to the strangers grouped up not far from them.

Kwan Minhwoo adjusted his glasses with a serious look and took the lead, “My friends, mind introducing yourselves?”