A Scare

The praise from Wang Yin and the others immediately rubbed many of the hired fighters the wrong way. They shot hostile glares at Long Ming. Yet, intimidated by his ridiculously top-tier loadout, none dared utter a word. Just then, Wei Zhang caught sight of Long Ming. His eyes lit up, and he could not resist circling him once before leaning in and taking a deep breath. "Whoa! What a wonderful scent!" "Whose dog slipped its leash? Get it on a lead already," Long Ming said coldly, his face expressionless. Lu Xu and the others were dumbfounded when they heard that. This guy was really that bold? Qin Ye's expression turned quite entertaining as well. He hurried to smooth things over, saying, "Just joking around." Instead of taking offense, Wei Zhang chuckled and stepped back. At that moment, Qin Ying spoke up in a gentle voice. "Everyone, it's about time. We should distribute the invitation letters." "Right!" Qin Ye and the others pulled out their invitation letters and handed them out to their respective escort squads. Out of the twenty-five people present, five were employers and twenty were escort combatants, eight of whom belonged to Qin Ye. "Now that everyone has an invitation letter, I will explain the squad assignments," Zhao Chen said gravely. Long Ming and the others turned their attention to Zhao Chen. "First, Young Master Qin Ye and the other four employers will form a single group. Our mission is to protect their team, complete the safe box objective, and bring the observatory online." "Understood." "The remaining personnel are split into four squads. I will lead Squad One, consisting of Red Ghost, Wei Zhang, Xu Lie, and Yan Huai! Squad Two..." After Zhao Chen laid out the simple division, he handed everyone a red strip of cloth to tie around their shoulders to distinguish friend from foe. Long Ming swept his eyes over his squadmates. Each was clad in exceptional gear, and every one radiated a dangerous aura. He had to admit that these wealthy young masters had hired capable hands. Soon, eight o'clock arrived. Qin Ye said excitedly, "Time's up! Everyone, move in!" Long Ming and the others raised the invitation letters in their hands to activate them. Whoosh! They dissolved into beams of white light and materialized on Transmission Platform 6. Long Ming turned his head to look around, watching beam after beam of white light descend continuously. He raised his wristband to check the displayed information. Civilization Unlocked: Watchtower Observatory Base. Civilization Level: 1 Player Count: 631/10,000. Looking at the numbers, Long Ming furrowed his brows. So many people had entered already? And the count was still climbing. "Holy crap, why are there so many people?" Wang Yin cursed in annoyance. "I can't even..." Qin Ye felt a headache coming on. The more players flooded in, the lower their chances of success would be. "All right, stop complaining! The longer an instance drags out, the more invitation letters enter circulation and the higher the difficulty gets. That's why we have to succeed this time," Bai Xiu said calmly, pushing up his glasses. "Damn right, let's crush them!" Lu Xu agreed chimingly. Qin Ying said to Qin Ye with some worry, "Brother, more and more people are showing up. I'm a little scared." "Don't worry, your big brother will protect you!" Qin Ye thumped his chest as he assured her. Long Ming's lip twitched slightly as he surveyed the nearby players. Although the current headcount was comparable to a standard instance, every single player present was armed to the teeth, and hardly anyone carried outdated weapons like single-shot rifles. Most wielded submachine guns or assault rifles, or at the very least automatic pistols, and none looked like easy marks. Wiping this crowd out would hardly be simple. Just then, Zhao Chen sent Long Ming a party invite. Seeing the prompt pop up on his wristband, Long Ming tapped to accept. A party interface immediately appeared on the wristband, displaying the names of Zhao Chen and the others, but nothing else changed. Twenty-odd minutes later, the headcount on the transmission platform had reached 952, and it was still climbing. Many players on the platform began to lose their composure, muttering curses under their breath. "Are people insane?" "What day is it today?" "Why the hell are so many people pouring in?" Qin Ye grew anxious as well. "Damn, is it actually going to break a thousand?" "Sigh, by the looks of it, it definitely will," Bai Xiu answered with a sigh. Hearing that, Long Ming turned to Qin Ye and asked, "How many were there during your last run?" "A little over five hundred," Qin Ye replied with a dark expression. "The difficulty has doubled, then." Long Ming found the situation rather troublesome as well. "Fuck, so how do we play this?" Wang Yin asked the others in frustration. "Once we drop in, regroup first and see how it goes. How many minutes until the half-hour mark?" Qin Ye asked, thoroughly agitated. "Four minutes," Qin Ying answered softly. Qin Ye and the others waited patiently. Soon, the countdown entered the final thirty seconds, by which point the headcount had reached 1,121. Yet right at the ten-second mark... Whoosh! A torrent of white light rained from the sky. Members of the Star Cluster Guild, Star God Guild, and Sin Abyss Guild, along with top-tier solo players, dropped in right at the wire. In an instant, the headcount surged to 3,211. All at once, whatever hope many players clung to died on the spot, and countless voices erupted in furious curses. "Fuck!" "Goddammit!" "How the hell are we supposed to play this?!" The next second... The patterns across the surface of the mechanical obelisk in the center of the mechanical platform lit up, blazing with dazzling brilliance. White light engulfed everyone. A few seconds later. Long Ming opened his eyes to find himself inside a dim room. He quickly scanned his surroundings and saw no one else. Judging by the dust-covered modern furniture in the room, the civilization of this world was fairly advanced. Long Ming raised his wristband and tapped open his mission log. Mission: Duty Objective: Travel to the central control room of the Observatory Base located in the Klote Mountains, activate the central control equipment, and transmit a signal to designated space coordinates. Reward: 1,000 Yiwei coins, Safe Box 2*2*2 upgrade card. After glancing over the objective, Long Ming closed the wristband interface. Bang! Bang! Gunfire echoed from outside. Long Ming moved to the window and looked out. A cluster of low-rise concrete buildings filled his view. Roughly guessing where he had landed, Long Ming promptly slipped out of the room. Under normal circumstances, he would have laid low for a while, but he was currently working as an escort. If he holed up and his employers got killed, it would be a bad joke. He had to find Qin Ye and Qin Ying immediately. Judging by his past instance experience, even though they had been scattered, the distance between them should not be too great. Normally, they would be in one of the nearby buildings. Long Ming walked to the back door and listened closely through the panel. Sensing nothing unusual, he gently pushed it open. Gripping his carbine, he leaned out of the back door, swept his gaze around to confirm no enemies were present, and cautiously moved out to search. A few minutes later. As Long Ming approached a corner, he heard faint rustling ahead. His eyes narrowed, and he crept forward silently. Not far away, Qin Ye was clutching a golden automatic pistol, his expression fraught with tension as he whispered, "Qin Ying? Zhao Chen? Where are you guys?" "Boss." Long Ming's voice came from right behind him. "Holy mother of—!" Qin Ye jumped, nearly leaping out of his skin. Turning around and realizing it was Long Ming, he let out a huge breath of relief and complained in annoyance, "Couldn't you just walk over normally? Are you trying to scare me to death?!" "Makes no difference. If I were an enemy, you'd already be a corpse," Long Ming replied flatly. "Forget it. Thank god it's you. I thought I was about to turn into a loot box right upon landing." "You've died on the drop before?" Long Ming asked with mild surprise. "What's so strange about that? If your luck is rotten enough to drop right next to people from another guild, you turn into a loot box in seconds." Qin Ye seemed to recall an unpleasant memory and spoke with irritation. "I see." Long Ming nodded slightly. "Enough about that. Let's go regroup with the others." Qin Ye moved to lead Long Ming away. Long Ming, however, remained rooted to the spot, showing no intention of moving.