At the top of the room door, there was also a notice—both of them spotted the red warning at the same time.
[All weapons are not to be taken out of the manor.]
It was simple; these weapons could not be claimed as their own.
An Ling followed Qin Xiao out of the room, subtly turning her pendant behind her back.
Praying not only granted her extra bonuses, but also allowed her to keep track of time.
[You have gained the Pendant Blessing: Never Miss—fishing, throwing, and all ranged attacks are guaranteed to hit.]
[Time remaining: 19 hours 37 minutes 54 seconds]
Never Miss again? An Ling paused, realizing that the pendant seemed to choose blessings based on her current circumstances.
In a situation where she was trapped inside the manor, blessings related to gathering would be of no help to her at all.
Or maybe it was just luck?
In any case, this blessing was the most helpful to her at the moment. With two enhancement cards and the Never Miss bonus, she could temporarily possess formidable combat strength.
Thinking back, when Qin Xiao hadn’t shown any surprise upon hearing that she had enhancement cards, An Ling also had a vague guess: maybe there were several enhancement cards prepared in the treasure chests around the ancient tree, specifically to deal with this monster.
Right now, it was around four-thirty. At least another hour and a half until dawn.
“By the way, is there a shooting range or something like that here?”
An Ling suddenly asked Qin Xiao, who was walking ahead. Since all the rooms here were so complete, an indoor shooting range didn’t seem too much to expect.
“No idea. It depends on the owner’s personal hobbies.” Qin Xiao didn’t go downstairs. Instead, he turned and started searching with An Ling on the second floor.
After making another round in the huge second floor, his confusion only deepened.
“Strange. For a slave owner who built such a massive manor on a deserted island to not have any guns?”
“Maybe the system doesn’t allow it,” An Ling added. This time, Qin Xiao simply accepted the explanation.
As the saying goes, caliber is truth. If there really were monsters, nothing could solve them better than firearms.
Unless it was some sort of spirit or demon.
Perhaps to prevent them from exploiting loopholes, the system had cleared out all guns and ammunition in the manor.
Sure enough, there really was an indoor shooting range.
But it wasn’t large; only two compound bows were placed there. An Ling picked up an arrow to examine it—a bamboo shaft with an iron tip, potent enough to deal considerable damage.
The target was set ten meters away. She looked at Qin Xiao, “How do you use this thing?”
“You don’t know?” Qin Xiao raised an eyebrow. Just now, he’d almost gotten the impression that An Ling was a skilled archer.
“Teach me,” An Ling replied bluntly. She just wanted to learn how to use a bow and arrow.
After all, she still had an antler bow in her backpack.
Qin Xiao demonstrated. He was quite familiar with the weapon—not an expert, but no beginner either.
Whoosh!
The pitch-black arrow shot through the air like a flash, piercing the target ten meters away—bullseye, 10 points.
The distance was short, making it not particularly challenging.
An Ling imitated his actions, memorizing the key points and things to watch out for. With the Never Miss bonus, she quickly became proficient.
Although she missed eight out of ten shots, Qin Xiao, watching An Ling grow more and more skilled, was struck by her talent.
With diligent practice, she’d surely become a master archer.
As time passed, the sky grew steadily brighter. Meanwhile, downstairs—
All the other survivors had gathered together, sharing mutual worries. To ease the tense atmosphere, they chatted with one another, trying to cover up the fear in their hearts.
After all, just a few hours ago, a survivor had died a gruesome death right before their eyes. No one knew who might be next.
Chen Rui sat nervously on a chair off to the side. He didn’t know where An Ling had gone, or why she hadn’t come back yet. He couldn’t blend in with this group at all.
“Bro, why’s your backpack so old?” Not far from Chen Rui, a survivor struck up a conversation with the man beside him.
Chen Rui looked over curiously.
The two were both from the trio—two men and one woman—who had just arrived at the manor. Judging by their conversation, it seemed they’d only teamed up temporarily after meeting in the middle of the night.
“Hey, who knows? It was like this when I got it,” the man laughed, putting down his backpack and starting to rummage through it.
Chen Rui thought he was looking for food, but the next second, the man pulled out a gleaming knife and, without a word, plunged it into the neck of the man beside him!
Blood spurted out instantly, spraying the girl next to them in the face. Her pupils shrank, her mind going blank.
After a moment’s delay, a shrill scream echoed through the entire hall.
“Ah!!”
The girl tried to run away in a panic, but stumbled over a chair and crashed to the ground with a thud.
Chen Rui also noticed blood splatter on his own face, losing the ability to think.
The survivors erupted into chaos, all eyes fixed on the crazed man wielding the knife.
“All you survivors deserve to die! It’s your fault I ended up like this!” the man ranted, stabbing the male victim over and over. The man was already dead, blood pooling everywhere.
Terrified, the girl scrambled to her feet and tried to escape, while the other survivors—none of them dared to restrain the madman. Instead, they all frantically rushed up the stairs.
The man shoved the corpse to the floor and stood up, his face splattered with blood, his eyes glaring fiercely at everyone present.
At this moment, he was a hungry wolf, and the other survivors were the flock.
Tap, tap!
The man suddenly sprinted, charging at the nearest survivor. That person quickly threw his supply-stuffed backpack at him, buying just enough time to save his own life.
But the manor was only so big—where could they really run?
Soon, as the initial shock wore off, someone came to their senses. “It’s just one guy! If we gang up on him, we can kill him!”
But not as many people had the resolve as he’d hoped. Most just wanted to flee into a room and lock the door behind them.
With an ‘as long as someone else dies instead of me’ mindset, they figured the madman would eventually be taken down by someone.
“Sh*t, you idiots!” Seeing no one responded, even that survivor didn’t dare act, and could only follow the crowd upstairs.
When Qin Xiao and An Ling followed the sound of screams to the staircase on the second floor, they saw everyone madly rushing upward.
They both caught sight of the madman slaughtering people downstairs.
An Ling’s gaze turned sharp—this symptom was exactly the same as the uncle she’d met before. This man was a survivor!
Qin Xiao, trained in ancient martial arts and holding a Tang sword, wasn’t afraid of the madman below at all. He immediately prepared to charge down and cut him down.
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