The moment the dungeon-clear notification appeared, it was immediately followed by the updated leaderboard:
【1st — Thieves NB Squad — 999 points】
【2nd — Alarm the People Squad — 895 points】
【3rd — Azure Sky Squad — 887 points】
【4th — Imperial Dynasty Squad — 872 points】
【5th — ……】
……
Commentator: 【It’s absolutely unbelievable, ladies and gentlemen, viewers at home! As you can see, the Thieves NB Squad has produced a score that has never existed before in history — 999 points!!! While their past performances have always been outstanding, a score of 999 is clearly one that can never be surpassed! This is an electrifying moment! This is a historic moment! Friends, let us all commit this to memory!!!】
Nine hundred and ninety-nine points!
First place outpaced second by a straight 104 points!
Under normal circumstances, the gap between adjacent teams wouldn’t exceed 20 points — yet this time, the margin had been stretched to over one hundred.
Yuri and Natasha, still upstairs hunting mutants, received the news. Neither of them spoke for a long time.
After so many brushes with death, Yuri had almost forgotten about scoring entirely. He had only been thinking that getting everyone out safely would already be a blessing beyond what he could ask for — winning back any record was something he hadn’t dared to hope for.
This score was terrifying.
Just one point away from the perfect 1000 — as if to say: we docked one point so you wouldn’t get arrogant.
Natasha’s mouth hung open, and it took a long while before she could close it.
She felt both astonished and deeply bewildered. “Why… why is the score… this high?”
She looked down at the bottle of toilet cleaner in her hand, murmuring, “It can’t be because of this, right?”
Yuri carefully reviewed what had been different about this run compared to all their previous ones, and came up equally baffled. He turned to Natasha and said, “Let’s go downstairs and regroup with the others first.”
……
Though the score had set hearts racing — even the commentator was still riding the wave of excitement — the comment section told an entirely different story —
【What just happened? How did the Guard suddenly drop dead?】
【I didn’t see it clearly either!】
【I saw something white fly past, then the screen flashed — the more I think about it, the stranger it gets. Anyone have a recording?】
【HAHAHA I recorded the newcomer champ trying to win a stuffed animal~】
【Sorry, he’s no longer the newcomer champ — one of the big tippers went wild and sent our Cabbage straight to the top of the rankings! ヽ(^0^)?】
【Cabbage Queen on high! HAHAHAHAHAHA hic】
【What the hell, Cabbage Queen?!】
【That thing that flew past just now looked like the fluffy toy Little Cabbage carries】
【How could a stuffed toy move on its own — Little Cabbage must have thrown it】
【That lightning was weird too. Even if a wire had shorted, it shouldn’t have looked like that, right?】
【It really did look like something got struck by lightning just now!】
【For a second I thought Cabbage had pulled out some secret weapon~ shaking in my boots】
【U^?^U today’s stream was so good, woof~! I can’t wait to register for Little Cabbage’s next stream~ throw confetti~ throw confetti~】
……
Some viewers found it strange.
Others didn’t think much of it.
Despite the few inexplicable moments captured on stream, the matter ultimately fizzled out without resolution.
For her part, Bai Youwei had already composed herself and followed the rest of the team out of the building.
What had just happened caught her off guard — outside the bounds of her plan.
Bai Youwei was well aware of her own flaw: she was far too prone to getting carried away. She had assumed there were only a handful of hatchlings left and had completely let her guard down — but who could have predicted that one Guard had survived?
That Guard had taken the full force of Shen Mo’s earlier explosion. Half its body was already rotted away. After spotting Bai Youwei it staggered toward her, and though it moved slowly, its massive frame and grotesque features had still given her a genuine jolt of terror!
In the very instant she screamed, the rabbit delivered the killing blow.
— Every time she entered a dungeon, Bai Youwei brought the rabbit with her. But she always kept the rabbit out of the camera’s line of sight.
That place called the Upper World — she still didn’t know what it was like, or what kind of people lived there. Exposing too many of her cards would do her no favors.
She glanced silently up at the sky. The comments discussing what had just occurred were dwindling.
She hoped it wouldn’t bring trouble……
—