The Trembling World
chapter-452-30041322

TL: LifeisaJourney

Greed is always a motivator. Once reached level 10, when they return to the Beginner Village, they would instantly jump tier into upper management. Not to mention that it would increase their ability to protect themselves. Weighing between the risk and advantage, the pre-level 10 players would feel that it is worth to stay behind.

Prior to arriving to meet with the teenage girl, they had spent the whole day practicing. At night time, they returned back to the public square. They saw a freshly created depression several meters wide caused by the King Crocodile. Even the thought of such a monster made everyone tremble.

The main cause of the fear of King Crocodile was because of its size. Even a simple step would make the ground tremble. Once they felt the vibrations, they would need to quickly move away from it, while also looking for an opportunity to erase their scent, so it wouldn’t be as dangerous.

Around the same time every night, the song ‘Little Apple’ would start playing in the loudspeaker. Then the teenage girl would reappear, acting like she was there this whole time.

Liu Gan and everyone had their makeup done by Ana. They had transformed into auntie ladyboys.

Every player was working hard to succeed, but with this many people, it would be hard to finish a complete dance. Any mistake was pointed out by the teenage girl and they would have to restart. However, the amount of mistakes were decreasing. Right as they were about to succeed, the ground started shaking and a roar could be heard.

Liu Gan halted the group, then lead them over to a nearby lake. Once again, they hid a hundred meters downstream of the lake in the mud. Mud was immediately applied to their bodies.

They narrowly avoided the ambush in time. After the King Crocodile approached the public square, it followed their scent down to the lakeside. Once again, it angrily bellowed when it realized that it had lost track of its prey.

This predator was quite intelligent. It would walk around the lake and at every step it took it would sniff the border. Only a few steps later, it was very close to where the group was hiding. The King Crocodile’s nose produced a great stench before it inhaled.

The immense pressure and fear caused some of the less courageous people to pee their pants. It was good for them that the lakeside mud had a stronger odor than the pee, it was enough to mask the odor. The King Crocodile didn’t discover the group of humans hiding in the mud, continuing with its patrol before leaving.

The group stayed crouching in the mud for another half an hour, until the ground shaking had stopped. Once Liu Gan couldn’t sense any sign of the King Crocodile, one by one they waded ashore.

By the time they returned to the public square, the teenage girl had already disappeared. Since there was nothing they can do about it, they had to continue the next day.

***

Liu Gan remembered his lesson from yesterday night, that this area was the King Crocodile’s territory. He didn’t set up his camp in his territory anymore.

Liu Gan led the group back to the campsite that they had slept at for the latter half of the night. They gathered firewood and started up the bonfire, then decided who would stand guard for the first half of the night shift.

About midnight, one of the smaller Crocodile creatures appeared from somewhere in the dark, while Cai Hao Chen and Liu Kang were on guard duty. Lucky for their group, they were already level 10. They withstood the Crocodile’s first ambush so no one died unnecessarily. Liu Gan sensed the danger and didn’t need anyone to wake him up. He picked up his greataxe to finish off the Crocodile.

This time the chance to reach level 10, was handed over to Song Jiu. There were six people that were level 10 now: Ana, Stratos, Cai Hao Chen, Liu Kang, Johnny Fei, and Song Jiu. There were only three people left that weren’t level 10: Saffron Ma, Xu Ji Chao, and Star Yu.

***

Aside from that smaller Crocodile appearing, nothing interesting happened that night. Liu Gan woke up early to eat breakfast and practice his dance routine. He had to ensure that they got that teenage girl’s approval.

Perhaps it was the King Crocodile’s pressure, but the players were working extra hard. Those that were stuck, received extra attention. This extra day of practicing helped them get down the basic moves, especially Saffron Ma. Xu Ji Chao couldn’t find anything wrong with the other player’s moves.

From inept dancers, they were now organized into a dance group. Even though it looked strange, as long as they didn’t make any mistakes then it would be fine.

“We have to pass this time!” Ana shouted to rally the team spirit.

“With Auntie Ana leading us, we will succeed,” Stratos shouted out to ‘help’ Ana. What he received back was a kick in the buttocks from her!

***

Later that night, they arrived early to wait for the teenage girl. Their morale was high. They passed the test on the first try, and were so moved that they cried. They clapped and cheered in celebration. They were happier than when they had killed a BOSS. They had worked together diligently to achieve this result, so the feeling wasn’t all that different.

Passing the teenage girl’s trial, Johnny Fei received the third puzzle box. Inside was the puzzle that he handed over to Liu Gan. Now they were just missing one piece of the puzzle, but they still couldn’t figure out what the puzzle resembled.

“I will also give you a map of the Theme Park, if you feel tired you can leave through the side exit.” The teenage girl handed over the map to Johnny Fei, before disappearing into black fog.

At first look, the three tasks looked like they were easy to do, but when they got started they weren’t easy at all. If it wasn’t for Ana’s suggestion to dress up as aunties, they wouldn’t even know where to find these so called ‘aunties’ to get their help. On top of that, the dance moves were difficult even for more-than-human players, but to have the routine down with two days of practice was a commendable job. Everyone had to match their movements like mirror images!

***

With the completion of the third quest, they had the whole night to rest as their reward. By the next morning, after breakfast was over, they split up to search for the fourth quest. It was a necessary piece to complete the map.

Liu Gan split up the remaining nine people into three teams. The team leaders were Ana, Cai Hao Chen, and Johnny Fei. The three teams would head in different directions away from the King Crocodile’s nest, while Liu Gan would head toward the nest alone.