When Lei Zhen slowly opened his eyes, he was blinded by the sunlight in the sky. He tilted his head slightly and started to glance around his surroundings.
'I didn't die?' Lei Zhen thought. The only thing he recalled was that some mysterious vines were absorbing the blood he had coughed up.
Suddenly, Lei Zhen screamed in pain when he felt his brain was being rammed by a train at full throttle. It was worse than a migraine, and Lei Zhen felt like committing suicide.
After all, he could see the [Novice Staff] besides him, indicating that he was still in the game, Magnolia, and not in the real world. Dying wasn't a big deal since he could just resurrect himself in a town or someplace else.
At least that was what he had in mind until he heard a sudden voice echoing from afar.
"Youngsters nowaday are really incompetent. Just a mere test and it was enough for them to struggle and ask to die."
"Who!"
Lei Zhen narrowed his eyes as he quickly scanned around his surroundings, seemingly trying to find the person that was speaking.
However, the only surrounding scenery was some cave wall and occasional water droplets dripping down from the ceiling, there was no one else present.
The unknown voice could no longer be heard except for the sound of dripping water and a few dark passages ahead of him.
Despite the spooky environment, Lei Zhen wasn't horrified by it considering how he had dealt with human blood when he was still a resident. Hence, he slowly got up after a few grunting noises when the sudden headache occurred again.
Rubbing his temples for a moment, Lei Zhen grabbed his staff as he began walking forward. Not a tinge of fear could be seen in his eyes.
Time slowly passed by, and Lei Zhen could feel the temperature start dropping down when he advanced forward. The water that was drenched in the ground seemed to have gone up a level.
It seemed like the further he walked, the deeper the water level would be.
"Could the passage here lead to a waterfall?" Lei Zhen muttered. That was the first thought that came to his mind considering how he was in a forest.
Forests would usually have some waterfall landscape, available for a clean source of water to exist where one can drink or take a quick rinse in their body.
As much as he hated to say it, Lei Zhen couldn't help but be impressed by the detailed scenery and immersive environment of the game. If it weren't for the fact that he was dressed in clothes unique to Magnolia, then he would have believed himself to be in the real world.
His shoes were soaked by the water and Lei Zhen felt like he was being submerged the more he walked. Doubts started filling his mind as he hesitated if he should continue to walk ahead.
Just when he thought of that, the pathing that was behind him seemed to have vanished, prompting him to twitch his face.
'Am I being watched or being trolled right now?' Lei Zhen thought. The timing was too impeccable, almost like he was being mind read by someone.
Now without a path to retreat, Lei Zhen sighed softly as he tried to open the system menu to log out. The current event was too confusing for him, and he thought it would be nice to gain some information from Shan Lin before proceeding.
Alas, it was a futile effort. He failed to log out and the reason for it was that the system mentioned he was still in combat mode. Lei Zhen was dumbfounded by this news and wondered where and how he was possibly still in combat mode.
Opening his status screen, Lei Zhen saw his health points were gradually recovering by themselves and were around 13 health points from the initial 2.
If he was able to recuperate right now, then doesn't that prove he was out of danger? Otherwise, why would a game allow him to regenerate if he was still fighting an enemy?
"If the game is indicating that I'm still in combat mode yet no visible enemies could be spotted. The only plausible claim is that the enemy must either be proficient in camouflaging or that it's in front of me." He muttered.
After saying that, Lei Zhen held the staff tightly in his hand as he prepared himself to cast [Stun] at any given moment. With his mind focused on the path ahead of him, Lei Zhen proceeded with caution, occasionally glancing left and right.
Sometime later, he had reached the end of the path and as he was expecting, there was a large waterfall, gushing down water constantly.
Lei Zhen swallowed a mouthful of salvia nervously. It wasn't because of the large waterfall that was splashing some water at him, but it was the height of it.
He had fallen into a pit previously, but the pit wasn't that tall in height. Yet right now, he couldn't even calculate the height between the ground level and the tiny circle of light from above.
"Just how far underground did I get into?" Lei Zhen muttered in confusion. He wanted to open his map to check his current location.
However, the signal seemed to be blocked or it could be a flaw of the system since it only mentioned him being in the Lux Forest but not an accurate location.
Suddenly, his empty map started blinking and a white circle dot could be seen appearing on the map.
Surprised, Lei Zhen hurriedly turned his attention in the direction of the white dot.
"Hello, are you there?" He yelled out, seemingly hoping that there was actually someone else here other than him.
Seeing how there was no response, Lei Zhen resorted to his last tactic- acting shamelessly.
"Are you the one who talked to me before? I'm already here, so why are you hiding your face? It couldn't be because your face is disfigured or is it that you're too embarrassed to show yourself because of my handsomeness, right?"