### Chapter 6: Return (7)
The icy chill of winter felt even more penetrating in the dead of night.
Strong Brother gasped for breath as he watched the writhing mass of bl**d and flesh on the snowy ground coalesce into what once were his teammates. A gut-wrenching fear surged through him, overwhelming his entire being.
Is this some R18 horror movie? He definitely didn’t sign up to be the main character.
Still, clinging to a sliver of hope, Strong Brother attempted to talk to them. Maybe they still retained some of their original consciousness.
“You guys…”
Unfortunately, he barely managed to utter those words when his former teammates, now resembling hunting dogs, dropped to all fours, growling and charging at the dwindling members of the Extermination of Immortals Guild.
“Ha! They are my brainless Muscle Men, driven only by slaughter and bl**d!” The Bald Man cackled with glee.
Under his command, the Giant halted, seemingly wanting to witness the bloody spectacle as a casual observer.
The Muscle Men sprinted like they were on crack, each bound covering seven or eight meters in the blink of an eye before converging on the panicking crowd of the Extermination of Immortals Guild.
“Roar!”
Having lost all humanity, the Muscle Men clearly forgot their past camaraderie. They struck with claws that sunk deep into the players’ chests.
“Rrriiiip!”
A hapless player was torn in half by the sheer force of a Muscle Man. Not even the Rebirth Scroll could save him this time.
bl**d sprayed forth, mingling with chunks of intestines, instantly staining the pure white snow a horrific crimson.
“b*stard!”
Pushed to their limits, Strong Brother and Li Xiaocong stood back-to-back, surrounded by seven or eight Muscle Men.
At this point, the remaining guild members had scattered under the threat and pursuit of their enemies. The Muscle Men were just too powerful; the old players had done their best, and that brief resistance had to count for something after all Strong Brother’s hospitality.
“Ha! Who would have thought, the infamous Extermination of Immortals Guild would someday perish at my hands!” The Bald Man declared, slapping the Giant’s ear. “Come on, shove these two into your belly. From now on, whenever I tell Strong Brother to go east, he won’t dare go west. Just thinking about it makes me feel so good!”
“Boom boom…”
That was the sound of the Giant crushing the ground beneath its feet.
As the Muscle Men blocked every escape route and the Giant’s massive shadow loomed closer, Strong Brother whispered to Li Xiaocong, “I’ll cover for you. Find a chance to escape.”
“No way!” Li Xiaocong instinctively shot back, “We either both stay or both go!”
“A kid can’t be left without a father right after being born. Trust me on this.”
Without waiting for a reply, Strong Brother sprang into action.
“Iai! Heaven Slashing Strike!”
This was the first skill he’d learned from Little Musashi as her disciple.
However, he felt he paled in comparison to her and had never used it in public, spending most of his time practicing in secret.
Now, facing life or d*ath, especially for Li Xiaocong, how could he bear to see his good bro, who had just become a father, kick the bucket?
So even if it meant risking it all, he had to give Li Xiaocong one shot at escaping.
Two Muscle Men stood in his way, but his Heaven Slashing Strike had already formed. A brilliant sword light shot through the air like a meteor, cutting the two Muscle Men in half.
As he leapt over the bloody remnants, Strong Brother aimed upwards toward the Bald Man.
Although he wasn’t entirely sure, that guy had to be the brain and command center of the Giant. The Bald Man might seem capable of respawning, but if he could just take him down temporarily, who knows what opportunities it might yield?
“Ha! Still daring to come at me?!”
With the Bald Man’s laughter booming, the Giant swung a fist—bigger than a stone mill—right at Strong Brother.
With a resounding “bang,” Strong Brother was sent crashing down like a kite with its string cut, landing on the ground and lying utterly still.
“Oh? Used up your Rebirth Scroll? Well, too bad, guess it’s time to gobble you up!” The Bald Man posed triumphantly, hands on his hips, like someone who had everything completely under control.
At that moment, a figure returned.
Li Xiaocong frantically dug Strong Brother out of the snow, throwing him over his shoulder and hastily moving toward the guild building.
“Are you insane?” Strong Brother coughed up bl**d weakly.
“I’m not crazy; I just can’t leave you behind!”
With a sigh, Strong Brother realized it was too late for any other arguments.
He strained to lift his head, and the full moon was soon overshadowed by a colossal figure.
He knew their final moments were drawing near.
“Heh, what a touching scene of brotherly love. d*mn it, I feel like the ultimate villain here,” the Bald Man complained. “Just d*e quietly, and maybe I’ll keep your minds intact. Then you can join me in doing great things for the players in this godforsaken place. How about it?”
“Pfft! With you? You don’t even know your a** from your elbow, and you’re trying to represent the players?” Strong Brother retorted, desperately clinging to the last shred of dignity as the guild leader of Extermination of Immortals.
Not only did the Giant loom above them, but the area was also thick with the menacing Muscle Men, leaving them no route of escape.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Qilin Guild players stood back, watching cautiously.
The Bald Man turning into a monster had indeed sowed confusion among them; no one dared to confirm whether the Bald Man still had his original self or if he had become the Giant’s puppet.
And just as the Qilin Guild players watched nervously and whispered among themselves, something even stranger occurred.
One player, mid-conversation, suddenly collapsed without warning.
It wasn’t just him; nearly one-tenth of the three thousand players lost all consciousness at once. No matter how much you shouted at them, they were unresponsive, as if they had simply passed out completely.
“What the hell?! What’s going on?”
“Is it some kind of contagious disease?”
“This is downright creepy; one second they were fine, and now they’re not.”
“Does anyone have masks? Could be some acute infection!”
“Where would we get masks? This isn’t the real world, you know?”
Seeing such bizarre behavior unfold, the players of the Qilin Guild panicked and fled in all directions. A few even carried their unconscious friends on their backs, frantically searching for a player skilled in healing spells to figure out what on earth had gone wrong.
The Bald Man danced gleefully atop the Giant’s shoulder.
“Ha! Who knew we’d see sprouts of new life so quickly? Good, very good!”
Sprouts? What sprouts?
Strong Brother and Li Xiaocong, awestruck by the chaos of the Qilin Guild members scattering, began to sharpen their wariness toward the Bald Man’s true identity. He probably was no longer a normal person; otherwise, what kind of guild leader treats their members this way?
