Chapter 13: Gathering of Monsters

Ye Luo and Lin An headed in the opposite direction from that pair. After a while, they encountered more explorers. Ye Luo’s expression sharpened slightly. They were all moving in pairs, but this time, the person they met was alone.

Bathed in the blood-red moonlight, Ye Luo stepped closer and finally saw clearly. The lone figure ahead was the fashionable young woman.

“It’s you two.” The woman spotted them and her face lit up with delight.

Ye Luo, however, took a wary step back and asked, “Why are you alone?”

The woman gave a bitter smile. “Ten minutes ago, we ran into a monkey. That monkey could actually talk. It tried to trick us into taking off our number tags. We refused, so the monkey tried to snatch them by force. He… he fought back instinctively. The monkey went berserk, tore the flesh from his body piece by piece… The monkey’s main target was him. I didn’t dare watch any longer—I just turned and ran.”

Ye Luo’s face grew even grimmer. That meant—the man with glasses, who fancied himself the leader, had died just like that. At most, there were only seven of them left.

“What about you two? Did something happen? You both look terrible,” the woman quickly asked.

“Let’s talk as we walk,” Ye Luo said briskly. There was still one more group to find—she had to see if it was possible to gather everyone together.

The woman nodded and followed Ye Luo without hesitation. Ye Luo briefly recounted what had happened, then said, “First, I’ll take you to find a staff member in red. Once we get the bananas, we’ll head straight to the meeting point.”

“So the real way out is to kill the monkeys…” The woman had gone pale, too. If Ye Luo hadn’t figured it out, they might have been trapped here forever.

“We already got a number tag before—it’s yours,” Ye Luo said.

The woman looked confused. “My… my number tag?”

Ye Luo took it out. “Number 9. It’s yours, right?”

A flash of joy crossed the woman’s eyes and she nodded eagerly.

Ye Luo showed the tag but didn’t hand it over, instead putting it away again. “Let’s get the bananas first.”

The woman was anxious but said nothing more, simply nodding obediently.

Seeing that she was at least cooperative, Ye Luo relaxed a little. The man with glasses was dead; though the woman’s story made sense, Ye Luo still kept her guard up. She would return the number tag only when everything was over.

It wasn’t long before they found a staff member in red. The woman dutifully collected two bananas and handed them to Ye Luo immediately.

“You’re smarter than me. The bananas will be most effective in your hands,” she said frankly.

Ye Luo accepted them without protest.

“It’s almost time. We need to get back to the meeting point. And… we have to lure the monkeys over,” Ye Luo said quietly.

Only when the monkeys gathered together would the bananas have their greatest effect, forcing them into a deadly frenzy.

“Just tell me what to do, Ye,” Lin An replied.

Ye Luo thought for a moment, then spoke gravely. Lin An and the woman both agreed to the plan.

When all was set, the three of them reached a fork in the path.

“Now, I’ll take off the number tag,” Ye Luo said quietly, and without hesitation, she removed it.

The moment someone took off their tag in Monkey Mountain, it was as if they were marked. Instantly, the mountain erupted into chaos—monkeys began converging toward her.

“Run!” Ye Luo took off at once.

All three sprinted in different directions, but the monkeys zeroed in on Ye Luo alone.

The shadowy creature clinging to her back weighed her down, and while it was bearable when walking, running made it nearly impossible to ignore. She couldn’t last as long as she’d hoped.

With the monkeys almost upon her, Ye Luo had no choice but to put her number tag back on.

Immediately, the monkeys turned and charged in another direction—Lin An’s.

He had taken off his tag.

Lin An’s stamina was better than Ye Luo’s, allowing him to last longer.

When the agitated monkey horde finally calmed, the woman took off her tag.

By repeating this process, each along a different path, they slowly lured the monkeys toward the designated meeting point.

There, the remaining two pairs were already waiting.

The four consisted of three men and one woman. A man with a scar across his face said impatiently, “Time’s almost up. Where’s that woman? Don’t tell me she’s playing us!”

“Just wait a bit longer,” another said patiently. “She seems reliable.”

“How reliable can a woman be?” the scarred man sneered. “I bet the method she found is fake. The rules said to trust the staff in green. The staff in green said to trade number tags with the monkeys, but she tells us to kill the monkeys! How the hell is that supposed to work? I don’t buy it.”

“I actually think it makes sense—” another started to say.

Suddenly, his pupils contracted sharply. Monkeys—monkeys! A horde of them was charging from three directions.

“Shit! That many monkeys? Are they out of their minds?” the scar-faced man blurted.

At that moment, Ye Luo and her two companions appeared.

As the three groups of monkeys converged, Ye Luo tossed a banana behind her. At the same time, all three of them put on their number tags.

Deprived of their targets but seeing the banana, the monkeys’ attention instantly shifted. In the scramble for that single banana, chaos erupted among them.

“Let’s go. Find somewhere to hide,” Ye Luo said, still panting.

The scar-faced man looked unconvinced, but his partner tugged him away, and he reluctantly obeyed.

With so many monkeys, the melee only grew more savage. In their frenzy for the banana, some were even trampled to death.

Unfortunately, the monkeys that died were not the berserk ones—they probably wouldn’t drop a number tag.

Ye Luo quickly asked, “Did you all get your bananas?”

“Yes,” came the unanimous reply.

Ye Luo relaxed a little. Of the seven of them, they now had fourteen bananas, three of which had already been used, leaving eleven.

The fashionable woman’s number tag was already in hand.

For everyone else to escape, the best scenario was to create six more berserk monkeys and have them kill each other.

Watching the battle, Ye Luo said quietly, “If you trust me, give me all your bananas. From here on, we can’t afford even a single mistake.”