“Can you get me out of here?” Her voice flickered like a candle in damp stone.

Nana Toki groped through the Lost Cavern for ages, palms on cold rock like winter bark. The place matched the files—no exit at all, just a maze like a sealed cage.

The space felt less like a cave and more like iron bars under a moonless sky. She didn’t know if this guy Nan Jin could really take her out.

“Uh, leave here... I think... maybe.” Nan Jin held a black dagger like a shard of night, eyes unsure as he looked at Yuzu.

“But Yuzu, why leave now? We fought the current to get in, like fish against the stream.”

“...” Even if it took blood to come in, I still want out. My heart was a drum in a coffin.

I have zero desire to grow old here with you, you glorious idiot, like moss hugging a tombstone forever.

Nana dug a spare low-tier gear from her pack, handed it over like a token in rain, and spoke with a steady flame. “Didn’t you say this lady means a lot to you? If we don’t get out, how’s this lady supposed to flex and chase the truth with you?”

Why does every plane gift me girls with soft clouds for brains? My patience felt like brittle ice.

“Oh...” Nan Jin took the gear, slipped it on like armor of dusk, then blinked awake and said, “I don’t want to flex and chase truth at all. I just want to stay with Yuzu, like a kettle beside a stove.”

“......” No wonder he stayed in the Lost Cavern three years, like a bat clinging to the same cave roof. Turns out it’s the idiot card.

People really exist who know they’re amnesiac yet won’t seek their memories back, like a boat that refuses the shore? My thoughts crackled like frost.

“No, you do.” Nana gripped the girl’s shoulders like anchor hands, eyes locked on Nan Jin’s like two stars in cold water. Her tone rang solid as iron. “You want to go out, flex, and find the truth.”

“But...” His voice fluttered like a torn flag.

“No buts. Hurry the hell up and get this lady out.” My mission burned like a fuse. I need a new plane, like a bird craving new wind.

Every extra second on this plane is another grain of sand grinding my skin.

“F-fine...” Her aura must’ve been a thunderclap. Nan Jin stared for a few heartbeats, then nodded fast like a chick pecking rice. “Since Yuzu wants to leave, I’ll take you out.”

That’s more like it. Nana liked obedient kids, like reeds bending to the river.

“......” A murmur rose—an incantation like mist over a swamp.

“Open!” Nan Jin spoke, blade in hand like a midnight key. Next instant, purple light flared under their feet like a sudden aurora, and Nana, still clutching her shoulders, felt their bodies plunge as if the earth dropped away in free fall.

“......” Holy crap—this idiot opened a hole under us like a trapdoor in fog! Is this murder? My stomach floated like a kite cut loose. I was going to die, like a pebble tumbling down a well.

Her grip slid from shoulders to hands without knowing, fingers clutching Nan Jin as if catching a branch over a ravine. This idiot wouldn’t scam me into a pit, right?

Bang! Thud! Crack! The air smacked like a drumline.

Suddenly, the fall snagged like a fish on a hook. The rushing scene froze like frost sealing a pond.

“W-what is...” Legs remembered ground like roots finding soil. Nana kept Nan Jin’s small hand, straightened slowly like a blade from its scabbard, and scanned the world. “Where the hell are we?”

A scarlet moon hung like a bleeding coin. Ruined high-rises and husk-old city walls crouched like giants. Dead trees clawed the sky like black ribs, and crows stitched shadows everywhere like flying ink. Nana stood at the mouth of what felt like a tunnel, watching this familiar-strange panorama with a stunned gaze, mind blank as winter lake.

Is this still my game-plane? It looked like a battlefield’s leftover bones after a storm of steel.

If not for the familiar map name blinking on the minimap in the top right like a lighthouse, Nana would’ve sworn she’d been tossed into an apocalypse plane.

Zzz—zzt—zzt— White beams flickered like fireflies, then went steady.

By the black tunnel, Nana focused, and saw players popping online because of the version event update, like lanterns lighting one by one.

[World] Rainbow After Rain: “Holy hell, I almost thought I logged into the wrong game. Weren’t we a wuxia fantasy river? This feels like a horror swamp after the update.”

[World] I’ll Teach You a Middle Part: “Same here. I was used to flowers and willows. First glance, I thought I’d crossed to another world like smoke slipping through a gate.”

[World] Old Kenpachi Without a Sword: “This realism is thunder. The devs are badass.”

[World] Call Me Your Queen: “Dev knows what players crave, like a chef salting the broth just right.”

[World] Red Bean Soup: “Any big shots to carry me through the event? I’ll spam ‘six-six-six’ like firecrackers.”

[World] Butterfly in a Sea of Filth: “Giant Lizard Forest and the Divine Demon Tower both changed, like mountains shifting.”

“......” Nana stood by the Lost Cavern, watching the noisy swarm as they spawned like sparrows. Black lines crawled down her forehead like ink drips.

Are these folks here to play or join a sightseeing tour like tourists on a ridge? Is anyone doing the level-cap quest, or is the river just for tossing stones?

[Nearby] Never Give Up: “Hey! Treasure Imp, over here!”

While she was mid-grumble, figures she knew rose on her right like silhouettes through fog. Nana arched a brow as she turned. Think of devils and they come like shadows at dusk.

The Moonlit West River crew knew Nana too well, like old friends reading tea leaves.

She opened her mouth to greet them. A black flash cut past like a hawk’s shadow.

The one sprinting in front, Never Give Up, had a red damage number bloom above his head like a poppy: [Critical, -29031].

A gasp hung like a torn banner, then he dropped face-first, corpse on stone, under the stunned stares of the trio behind him, the Name-Choosing Is Hard three.

[Nearby] Never Give Up: “......” Uh. How did I die? His respawn light blinked like a candle. He stood up, dazed as fog.

He hadn’t even seen the blade swing, like lightning above clouds. He was dead already. Was Treasure Imp’s bug level upgraded like floodwater?

And why kill me? I hadn’t even done anything, like a sparrow pecking seed. Is this some new hello?

“Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t kill you.” Nana refused to carry Nan Jin’s pot like a donkey with extra sacks.

“She did.” Nana tugged Nan Jin out from behind like pulling a cat from a curtain.

“......” Never Give Up squinted at Nan Jin, eyes flat as pond water. He stared at the level above her head and snorted. “I’m dumb, sure, but you can’t take me for a rock. That’s a fresh-out-the-village kid. No way she one-shots me like thunder from a clear sky.”

He jabbed a finger at the glowing ‘30’ like poking a sign. Besides, he was forty levels above this girl, a chasm like a canyon. Saying ‘insta-kill’ like snapping twigs? You think everyone’s the Treasure Imp, a walking bug?

“How about you check this level-30 newbie’s stat panel?” Nana rolled her eyes like clouds. “See if you’re truly a fool under the moon.”

“......” Rarely, Never Give Up was speechless, silence like snow. He glanced at Nana, then at Nan Jin, then slowly opened Nan Jin’s stat panel like lifting a lid.

A few seconds slid by like raindrops on slate.

“Holy crap, over six thousand attack?” His eyes went glassy like ice. “Did she glitch the game like a river breaking a dam?”

He gripped the panel, hands trembling like leaves. He’d played forever, read all the nonsense guides like gulls pecking trash, and never saw six thousand. Not even five thousand!

Now look—one stroke satisfies the drought. A Treasure Imp NPC with over five thousand attack, and a level-30 newbie with over six thousand. This game’s bugs are a locust swarm.

In a heartbeat, he even felt like quitting, like a candle snuffed by wind.

“Seen any newbie bug their way over six thousand attack?” Nana rolled her eyes again, like wheels clacking. “You a fool or what?”

[Nearby] Naming Is Hard: “Boss is always kind of a fool, like a goose in fog.”

[Nearby] This Name’s Hard: “His fool-level is steady as the tide.”

[Nearby] Hard To Name This: “It’s not new. Treasure Imp, don’t sweat small ripples.”

Never Give Up: “......” Hey hey, that’s harsh, like pepper dumped in soup!

Nana: “......” These three are as sharp-tongued as ever, like knives on a whetstone.

“You know how I stack attack, right? Same trick here.” Nana offered a hint like a pebble dropped in a well.

If he still missed it, then his brain was a broken lantern.

“You mean she’s wearing gold gear?” Never Give Up tested the water like a toe at a river’s edge.

“Ask her.” Nana spread her hands like open wings. “I haven’t seen her gear panel. All guesswork like tea leaves.”

She’d never heard of a weapon growth stat that pushes attack and agility past six thousand, like vines scaling a tower that high. Maybe it’s a bug, sure. Nan Jin’s from the public-test era, the age of bugs like locust summers.

“But... we can’t see her gear panel.” Never Give Up frowned and handed Nana his panel like passing a scroll. “Look.”

[This unit is under Shadow protection. Viewing temporarily disabled]

Nana: “......” Incredible. The Shadow class even locks the equipment panel, like a curtain nailed shut.

She stared at the blocked panel, then lifted her head, blinking dumbly at Nan Jin, like a deer in a lantern beam.

Nan Jin returned a goofy smile, innocent as a sunflower.

“Yuzu, what’s wrong?” Her voice was honey on warm stone.

“Nothing...” Nana’s feelings were a tangled skein, like threads under cloudy light.

“So where did you even find her?” Never Give Up pointed at Nan Jin, exasperation rising like steam. “She’s more bug than you, Treasure Imp.”

“Hmm? Pulled her out of this cave.” Nana thumbed behind at the Lost Cavern like pointing at an old well. “Read the net guides on the Lost Cavern? She’s the hidden class mentioned there—Shadow.”

“Huh?” His surprise fluttered like a startled sparrow.