Absolute Death Game
Chapter 42 You're Already Dead

By 7 a.m. it seemed as though the end of the journey was still an eternity away, with no sign of it concluding anytime soon. Luckily, Li Jian was exceptionally polite today and had called to have breakfast delivered from the restaurant by that time. The four men ate toast and drank milk while staring at the screen, all feeling somewhat bored.

"I might as well be feeding pigs or herding sheep," Xiao Buli thought to himself. Isn't this place supposed to be dangerous? Why can't I see a single monster? There's not even the sound of wild beasts or birds chirping.

"All of a sudden, the carriage came to a halt."

"What's the matter? Why has the convoy stopped?" Li Baocheng asked, stuffing bread into his mouth.

Sun Bin said, "I don't know, maybe the convoy leader will have an answer."

"There's no need for that, I guess we'll be moving again soon," Han Baiqiang said as he shoved another piece of bread into his mouth.

The three men didn't budge, but Xiao Buli felt something wasn't quite right, as he saw the convoy's guards taking a defensive stance. He hurriedly jumped down from the carriage and ran to the front of the convoy, arriving just in time to catch up with the merchant and the guard captain, Captain Wang.

"Captain Wang, is there a problem? Why has the convoy stopped?"

"It's too quiet!" the captain said sternly, "Plus, this terrain is very suitable for an ambush...."

Xiao Buli glanced around and saw it was just as the captain said. The convoy was now stopped in a gorge with slopes on both sides, covered in dense forests. But wasn't it said that traveling with the convoy was safe? Could it be that an unexpected plot twist was about to happen?

"Everyone, be careful. It looks like something is about to happen!"

He turned and shouted back at the others, and when he faced the screen once more, he saw the caravan master pierced through the head by an arrow.

-148, a large, crimson number burst forth. The caravan master was instantly killed on the spot without any suspense.

"Damn, it's an ambush by the Black Mountain bandits!"

Captain Wang shouted orders while directing the convoy's guards to rapidly regroup around him. Suddenly, hordes of bandits emerged from the forests on both sides of the gorge.

They all bore names with "Black Mountain" in them—Black Mountain Lackeys (spearmen bandits), Black Mountain Looters (sword and shield bandits), Black Mountain Raiders (javelin and shield bandits)—numbering around thirty to fifty, and they did not seem to represent their full strength.

As soon as Xiao Buli sees that the situation was unfavorable, he turned to run. He didn't believe such a small group of guards could withstand such an onslaught. It's better to flee while they are still drawing the enemy's fire.

He had only run a few steps when an arrow whistled over his head, narrowly missing him and thudding into the shaft of the carriage. Xiao Buli broke out in a cold sweat, a stark reminder that death was indeed omnipresent. He quickly jumped over the shaft to the other side of the carriage, using it for cover, and ran to the rear of the team in one breath.

The caravan's workers and the coachmen were already in disarray, while Han Baiqiang and the others hadn't run yet and were still looking around uncertainly.

"What do we do, what do we do? Should we go up and help?" Han Baiqiang asked in panic, having no idea where he had thrown his bread and his hands hovered over the keyboard uncertainly.

"Help with what, just run!" Xiao Buli did not hesitate as he rushed past the three men and straight into the opposite forest. The fear of death muddled his mind. He had always known the cost of dying in the game, but he never thought that one day he'd be so close to his own demise.

This feeling of not being in control of his fate made him lose his composure for the rarest of moments, and he just kept running, not even daring to look back…

Then suddenly, Han Baiqiang let out a tragic scream.

"What's wrong?" Xiao Buli's heart skipped a beat, although he hadn't known them for long, he truly did not wish for anyone to die.

"I got hit by an arrow, but thankfully I'm not dead! That arrow just now took out half of my health points, luckily, it only hit me in the butt and didn't cause a critical hit, otherwise, I would have been killed instantly."

As Han Baiqiang spoke, he frantically moved his character to hide behind the wagon, along with him were Li Baocheng and Sun Bin, the three of them had hesitated for a moment and none could escape, now they were trapped behind the wagon as arrows flew past their heads one by one

It seemed there was only one person shooting the arrows, but the power was astonishing, a hit to a vital spot was practically an instant kill, so none of the three dared to poke their heads out.

Dammit, I wish I could shoot arrows with that kind of power, Li Baocheng thought to himself while straining his camera angle to glance up the hill, and he instantly felt a chill, the archer was far away from them, way beyond his attack range, he couldn't even see the name, only a vague silver color--that meant the archer was a minor boss-level enemy.

In this game, archery is done in a parabolic fashion, with his current strength and the quality of his bow he couldn't shoot that far, so it looks like a counter-attack is out of the question, but staying here was also a dead-end. As soon as the caravan's guards were all killed, when the bandits surrounded them, they too would meet their end here.

Suddenly, Sun Bin had a stroke of inspiration, "I've got it, let's log off quickly!"

Xiao Buli then realized, right, we can log off, logging off means we won't die!

He hurriedly clicked to exit the game and saw that he had returned to the character selection screen and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. He was finally safe, he thought.

But behind him, Han Baiqiang suddenly cried out in panic. "Hey, why can't I log off?"

Xiao Buli quickly stood up and looked at Han Baiqiang's screen--

System Notification: Since you are currently in a combat state, you cannot log off. You can choose to forcibly exit the game, but your character will remain in the game until you leave combat or log in again, and you can complete the official logout process after leaving combat.

So you couldn't log off in the middle of a fight, luckily I ran fast, Xiao Buli thought to himself, feeling fortunate.

Now they really felt desperate, the three of them watched as the caravan's guards fell one by one until only Captain Wang was left, desperately holding on.

"There's only one shooter, let's charge together, as long as we're not hit in a vital spot we shouldn't be killed instantly, and there are three of us. If we run together, unless we're incredibly unlucky, we should be able to get away," Sun Bin suggested.

All the while, he checked his equipment and health points, thanks to his exquisite Pigskin Jacket and the Pale Ring, two items that boosted health, his health points were close to two hundred which was more than Han Baiqiang, he definitely had the best chance to escape.

Li Baocheng and Han Baiqiang, upon hearing this, also steeled themselves. Han Baiqiang said, "Okay, I'll count to three and then we run together, one! Two! Three!"

The three of them charged out almost simultaneously, at the same time, the archer hidden in the woods aimed at them. Li Baocheng, the fastest, bravely ran at the front of the group, Sun Bin, seeing this, quickly activated his newly learned 'Charge' skill and suddenly overtook Li Baocheng. But before he could feel relieved, an arrow with a chilling gleam pierced through his character's heart.

The screen flashed a number -234 dramatically, and Sun Bin's mind buzzed. He watched as his character screamed, clutching his chest, and collapsed on the ground as if his soul had been ripped out, stunned in place.

The screen gradually dimmed, and a few blood-like bright red characters appeared at the center of the screen—You're dead!