Faced with his threat, Yin Xiu simply shook his head in silence, then pointed to his throat, indicating that he was indeed unable to speak.
Then he remembered that he should pretend to be weak, so he symbolically hid behind Li Mo, looking like he was dependent on his boyfriend.
The young boy shifted his gaze to Li Mo, staring at him, "If your boyfriend won't tell, then you will."
Li Mo remained silent, not wanting to pay attention to the boy's words, which made the boy frown even more.
He said fiercely, "If you don't tell me, I'll kill your boyfriend!"
He tried to provoke Li Mo's killing intent, and Li Mo did indeed frown, but the boy's props did not work on him.
Fearing the other party would notice something amiss, Yin Xiu quickly pulled Li Mo's hand, drawing him behind her. She stared intently at the young boy, displaying an attitude of bravely facing him for the sake of her boyfriend.
Seeing that his props were ineffective against the two of them, the boy pouted, not wanting to see them being all lovey-dovey. "Fine, I think intimidation isn't enough. I'll throw them into the cave first, and deal with them later."
With that, the young boy tossed aside the player he had turned into a little wooden doll and turned to walk toward the campfire. The item hadn't worked, and he didn't want to waste time on the two of them. Anyway, they were just ordinary players who had been captured while passing by, no different from those trapped inside. He could deal with them later.
Yin Xiu and Li Mo were pushed and shoved into a nearby cave.
After pushing aside the door made of tree trunks in front of the cave, you can clearly see that there are many players crowded together inside, and everyone's face is filled with fear.
"Check your weapons first." A player came up to search them, and Yin Xiu, unmoved, handed over his knife. The only weapon they had was this knife; they didn't have any others. The knife was taken and put away.
All the players' weapons were taken away and placed outside. Only Yin Xiu could draw his own sword, and he didn't care if others took it.
Once inside, the door closed, plunging the cave into darkness with only a dim light. The cave was damp and cold, and the players had no food. Many were on the verge of starving to death due to the rules that caused them to lose stamina at an alarming rate. Everyone stared wearily at the two newcomers, sighing and lamenting.
"Sigh... two more have been arrested..."
"Those who come in won't survive; they'll starve to death soon. You're just unlucky."
"It's so late at night. We escaped the hunters, but we couldn't escape that little beast. It's unfortunate."
Everyone looked haggard and pessimistic, perhaps because they had been locked up here watching people starve to death and had no hope of survival left.
"Hungry?" Yin Xiu stood at the door, staring intently at them, then patted Li Mo beside him, "Go get them something to eat."
Before Li Mo could respond, the player next to him asked in confusion, "You've been locked up here, and all your belongings have been taken. Where are you expecting him to get you food?"
Yin Xiu glanced at Li Mo, "My boyfriend has his own way of doing things, right?"
Li Mo smiled, pursing her lips. "Yes."
The players were completely bewildered when they suddenly saw Li Mo's hand turn into a puddle of liquid that dripped to the ground, quickly solidifying into a dark, tentacle-covered, twisted creature that crawled on the ground.
"Holy crap!" the players cried out in panic. The door next to them suddenly opened, startling the creatures crawling on the ground, which then scrambled onto Yin Xiu's back.
The players who had just brought Yin Xiu back were standing at the door, staring inside. "What are you yelling about! You want to go out and die now, huh?!"
The player huddled inside pointed at Li Mo in terror, trembling, "He...he...a monster...a monster!"
The players turned to look at Li Mo. "Yeah, he looks like a monster, it's terrifying! You guys better behave yourselves! Be careful the boss doesn't drag you out and burn you like my teammates did!"
The player grumbled angrily, closed the door, and decided he didn't want to get involved anymore.
Once the door closed, the cave was plunged into darkness once more. Everyone huddled in a corner, their faces filled with fear, staring at the smiling Li Mo, barely daring to breathe.
Li Mo ignored them, instead turning around and pulling the dark mass off Yin Xiu's back, explaining with a smile, "This is number two."
Then it was ruthlessly thrown on the ground.
"Boyfriend! I like him! I like him!" The little black ball of fur cried and pounced toward Yin Xiu's feet, baring its teeth and claws as it tried to hug Yin Xiu's leg. Li Mo stepped on it and kicked it out through the crack in the cave.
"Boyfriend! I love you! I love you! I love you!" The dark mass outside the crack was still muttering softly, then it crawled away.
"It will go find your knife and bring back some food while it's at it," Li Mo said with a smile to Yin Xiu.
Yin Xiu nodded silently. He could imagine that if Li Mo wanted, he might turn himself into countless tiny black balls and pounce on him, squeaking and yelping.
It's too noisy, just thinking about it annoys me.
A few moments later, the players near the cave suddenly became noisy, with one player shouting in terror, "Monster! A dark monster stole our food!"
"Quick! Quick! Stop it!"
"No, it's running too fast! It has so many legs! What darted past?! It's so dark! I can't find it at all!"
"It's slipped into the woods! It's even darker in there, and harder to find it now."
"Ah... never mind... we can't even catch him, let alone look for him."
"It's alright. The boss's attention is still on the campfire. He hasn't noticed that the food is missing here. If you don't say anything and I don't say anything, no one will know."
"Shh... Let's pretend nothing happened and keep it a secret."
Soon, the area quieted down, and everyone pretended that the dark monster hadn't stolen their food.
After the crowd had completely quieted down, two muffled thuds suddenly rang out outside the cave entrance, and then the door was opened.
A dark monster carrying a large bundle of supplies was lying on the ground, with two tentacles holding the supplies and two tentacles holding stones. Next to it was a gatekeeper player lying on the ground with a large bump on his forehead.
"Boyfriend! I'm back!" As soon as the door opened, the dark monster rushed in, threw the supplies and knife on the ground with a thud, and then ran towards Yin Xiu as if it were a matter of course. Several tentacles danced as it ran, but before it could reach Yin Xiu's feet, it was instantly stepped on by Li Mo, turned into liquid in a second, and returned to his hand.
The second member of the "tool" group, who had worked hard but received no reward, even evoked pity from the players huddled in the corner. It had rushed towards Yin Xiu with all its might after finding the item, only to return without even touching it.
"Here, my boyfriend's knife." Li Mo smiled as she picked up the knife from the ground and handed it to Yin Xiu, looking obedient.
Yin Xiu silently took the knife and hung it back on his waist, then looked at the players opposite him.
The players are starving and are extremely envious of the supplies brought back by the little tentacles, but they dare not steal them and can only stare longingly.
Yin Xiu bent down and dumped a bag of supplies onto the ground, staring at them expressionlessly. "One condition, one set of supplies in exchange. The choice is yours."