Chapter 45: Logout

Chapter 45: Logout ’Now then...’ Xu Tao paused, thinking. ’What to do...’ He was swallowed by a snake—whole. But since the snake was large, Xu Tao could still move a bit freely, even while being squeezed like an almost-empty toothpaste tube. Dying? He had no plans for that, not even in his dreams. He’d already convinced himself that he’s destined to reach the Divine Heaven Immortal Stage once more, after all. In his current situation, he had three choices. One was to stay put and wait for Pepe to call for backup. But this was risky. He couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t get digested before then, or if the backup would even be able to clear out the snake swarm safely. Second choice: cut the snake open and escape. This choice was viable, but doing so with his current speed meant he was only destined to get swallowed by another one. Then, this would repeat dozens, maybe hundreds of times until he ran out of energy... The number of snakes around him was simply too great for his current amount of Qi to handle. Third and final choice: figure out another way through the Lost System. Character, Management, Quests, Gacha, Crafting/Mixing, Options, Log Out, and Help. Of these menu items, five were already tried and tested. Only Options, Log Out, and Help remained a mystery. But Xu Tao instinctively felt that one of these buttons would help him survive this predicament. "Ugh..." With a bit of a struggle, he moved his hand and swiped open the main menu. Even in a dark, narrow space, it was mysterious how he could read all of its contents clearly. Depth-wise, the windows should have appeared beyond the snake’s throat meat, yet he could still see it just fine. The first he tried was the obvious button: Help. As he pressed it, hoping to "call for help," he was shocked by what appeared next... "What the...?" A book popped into view, flipping pages randomly. It was quite an active animation, but as the flipping ended, it just showed help about topics like menu panels, monsters, loots, and such. It might be useful at any other moment, but completely useless right now... Worse, it wasn’t the kind of "help" Xu Tao was praying for. "Next is Options!" He tapped the next menu—Options. This brought up a complex control panel with various tick boxes, sliders, and buttons. Things like "Pause Announcements mid-fight [Yes/(No)]" or "Auto-Pickup Nearby Loot Boxes [Yes/(No)]." There were hundreds of other options, but... Xu Tao knew none of them would help him in his current predicament. "This is the last one..." The final menu option: Log Out. He felt like he’d heard the term before, but wasn’t sure when or where. This half-knowledge made him hesitant to touch it—like a plague. But right now, he had to try everything he could to survive. With a trembling finger, he tapped the button—only to see a warning appear. [Warning! You are about to log out! You will be teleported back to Earth. Do you wish to proceed? Yes/No] "...Earth?" It was an unfamiliar name for a location, but Xu Tao would be happy to go anywhere but inside a snake’s throat. In the first place, he knew nothing of this world until the dark elves briefed them about it. It wouldn’t be weird to find a city called "Earth" somewhere in it... or so he thought. As he pressed the Yes button, however, a new warning appeared, stopping him. [Warning! You are in the middle of a fight! You need to be out of battle for 10 seconds before you can log out!] "..." Although this announcement demoralized him for a moment, it also gave him a sliver of hope. Ten seconds. As long as he could get out of battle within that time, he could log out! ’But what is considered to be mid-battle, and what’s not...?’ Curious, he reviewed the Help menu again. This time, he searched specifically for information about battle states. Miraculously, he found it somewhere down the middle of the thousands of terms and selected it instantly. But the content was as long as a full book Chapter... Xu Tao read through it and summarized the key points related to his current situation. To exit "battle" mode: First, you must remain undamaged by enemy attacks for 10 seconds. This couldn’t be met, since the snake’s digestive fluids were slowly melting him, inflicting miniscule Damage Over Time (DoT) ticks. Second, you must be at least 5 meters away from hostile entities. This, too, couldn’t be met—he was literally inside his enemy. Third, you must remain still for at least 5 seconds. But this was only a bonus; if the first two were met, the third was easy. "Which means..." Xu Tao sighed. "I still need to break out of here." Although this sounded like the second choice earlier, the implications were now a lot different. Before, he needed to break out to escape, but now, he only needed to break out and buy himself ten seconds of transient peace. "...Easy!" In a second, he pulled out his Character panel and dumped all the free points he had equally into STR and AGI—two stats he would rely on for the stunt he was about to pull. [ Name: False Fisherman Level: 185 Stats: STR: 208 INT: 22 VIT: 22 AGI: 208 DEX: 22 Cultivation: 2200 Bonus Points: 0 Currency: Money: 39,180 Gold System Points: 24,775 Point ] With preparations complete, he didn’t hesitate. He drew his sword and slashed. To cut through the tough meat of the high-level monster, however, he had to expend quite a bit of Qi. "HAAAP!" His sword dug deep, piercing right through the monster’s body. Then, with all his strength, he pulled the blade upward, using his newly increased stats—and to his surprise, the slash went quite smoothly! ’This is the effect of over 200 STR?!’ Xu Tao was shocked. He felt that even relying purely on his Strength, he could pierce through the snake’s tough scales! After cutting the snake open, he jumped out—and that marked the beginning of the chaos about to unfold. Xu Tao found himself not above anything, but right smack in the middle of the squirming, slithering mass of giant snakes! Their bodies felt like sandpaper, slowly chipping away at his skin as they slid past. But Xu Tao wouldn’t fall without a fight. "HAAAAAP!" He swung his sword upward, unleashing a powerful burst of Qi—a pillar of golden light rained down from above, evaporating the digestive fluids clinging to his body and pushing away any snakes that got too close. That single second of action spent half his Qi at once, but it allowed him to slip through and reach the wide cavern overhead. He tried to take advantage of the gap and make a break for the still-visible opening high above—but the snakes swarmed again, forming a giant wall that refused to let him pass. A bitter smile crossed his lips, realizing that escaping wouldn’t be easy. "Now then..." Xu Tao formed a sword hand sign. "Will my Qi run out, or will the Log Out function activate first? This is a battle of speed... and endurance!" The longest ten seconds of his life—had begun.