Rising from the Ground-Huh? This Isn't a Dating Sim?(Mouth with three corners)

Hu Jiayao and Gu Jinxing were originally waiting anxiously at the respawn point.

The moment the system prompt announcing the completion of all main quests echoed in their minds, Hu Jiayao, who had been pacing back and forth in the living room, let out a loud curse, heaved a long sigh of relief, and then collapsed flat onto the floor.

Staring straight up at the ceiling, he immediately caught sight of the light screen suspended directly above the respawn point, which had now transitioned into a countdown timer for the final clearance settlement.

Before Hu Jiayao’s lips could even curl into a smile, the ground beneath him abruptly began to shake violently.

"An earthquake?!" Hu Jiayao sprang up from the floor in an instant.

"No," Gu Jinxing said, standing at the dormitory doorway, his gaze dark and heavy as he looked toward the direction of the company's main building next door. "It's the Irene Building."

Hu Jiayao quickly followed him, his line of sight passing over Gu Jinxing's shoulder to gaze at the neighboring Irene Building, whereupon his jaw dropped in utter astonishment.

In the dead of night, that twelve-story building was swaying from side to side, violently pulling itself up from the earth.

Its massive form abruptly detached from the ground, kicking up billowing clouds of grey-white dust and smoke just like an abandoned building being demolished by explosives in the real world, shrouding the entire structure within it.

Accompanied by a deafening, thunderous roar, the ground directly beneath the building rapidly caved in, causing the surrounding terrain to shake, fracture, and collapse right along with it.

When the dust and debris finally cleared, the figure of a mountain-like giant was finally revealed with crystal clarity before their eyes.

The side wing annexes had torn away from the main building to form two arms. The top floor, where the president's office was located, served as the structure's sole light source; the white, strip-like illumination made that area look precisely like the giant's eyes.

Moving further down, from the ground-floor lobby to the second-floor cafeteria, and onward to the laboratories on the third and fourth floors, the structure bulged outward slightly to form the giant's waist, hips, and thighs.

Further down still, where legs should have grown, numerous slender "tentacles" supported the body—those very "tentacles" were the intertwined underground tunnels that led to the furnace.

Having pulled its entire body free from the earth, those "tentacles" spun rapidly, propelling the massive form forward in the direction of the company dormitory.

For such a gargantuan monstrosity to loom over them under the cloak of night was a visual too overwhelmingly shocking, turning Hu Jiayao's face pale with fright. He subconsciously stepped backward, stumbled twice, and crashed straight to the ground.

"What the hell?! Is that Godzilla or Optimus Prime?! It—it—it's trying to destroy our respawn point?!"

Faced with such a colossus, Gu Jinxing was equally shaken. Instinct urged him to retreat alongside Hu Jiayao, but reason told him there was no need to run—

He had no idea why the building had come to life, but since it had existed as part of this map all along, it would not approach the players' respawn point.

Sure enough, the humanoid building merely shifted laterally a short distance toward the respawn point before coming to a halt.

It stopped, spun around in place to face the spot where it had stood up, and then raised one arm high into the air.

Its arm swung down like a giant pile driver, slamming heavily onto the sunken ground—

Bang!

Deafening explosions echoed one after another, shaking the ground and striking terror deep into their hearts.

The patch of land where the Irene Building had originally stood had been left hollowed out and on the verge of collapse after its tangled subterranean tunnels were ripped away. Now, hammered by that massive arm of reinforced concrete, the ground gave way completely within just a few strikes.

With a thunderous crash, the surrounding terrain shattered and caved inward, forming a massive, crater-like depression resembling a volcanic caldera.

The scorching orange-red magma from deep within the earth was completely exposed.

Witnessing this scene, both Hu Jiayao and Gu Jinxing turned grave, their eyes filled with deep anxiety.

"The guild master and the others... couldn't possibly have already..."

"No." Gu Jinxing raised a hand and pointed toward a specific spot on the edge of the deep crater.

Hu Jiayao squinted his eyes to look closely. Near the surface of the ground, he spotted several tiny, round spheres hanging against the inner wall, looking rather like frog eggs.

"Holy shit! They're still alive!" Hu Jiayao laughed in relief, then whipped out his sledgehammer, instinctively wanting to rush forward. "Let's go save them!"

Gu Jinxing reached out and blocked him. "How are you going to save them? With your hammer? In that building's eyes, your sledgehammer is no different from a paperclip."

"Then what do we do?" Hu Jiayao realized that rushing over like this wouldn't help at all and would merely result in throwing away another life.

They were both greenhorns who had just stepped out of the trial map; their equipment inventories lacked any weapons capable of handling such a situation. Attempting to deal with a building of that magnitude was nothing short of a fairy tale.

Gu Jinxing pondered for a moment, pulled a barrel of flare ammunition from his backup equipment slot, placed it by the window, and fired it toward the building.

The fireball trailed a long streak of light as it landed squarely on the "head" of the building, yet it failed to attract even the slightest fraction of its attention.

At this moment, the building was entirely consumed by the crater formed by the furnace.

"Arooo—"

The massive structure emitted a muffled howl, sounding like howling gales rushing through an empty mountain valley, or the frantic shrieks of a wounded beast.

Bang!

That giant arm whipped furiously through the air, reaching impatiently into the depression as if trying to retrieve some lost treasure. However, the blistering heat of the furnace forced it to jerk its hand back, driving it into an even greater frenzy as it began pounding wildly against the ground. The impact shook the crater, causing its edges to collapse outward by roughly another meter.

"Damn it!"

Huang Yan cursed, hurriedly releasing his grip on a loose slab of stone and desperately anchoring himself to a fresh spot on the inner wall.

Scorching, shattered rocks rained down from above, smashing against their bodies. If not for the protection of their "welfare items," they would already be battered and bleeding profusely.

However, those "welfare items" were now riddled with holes and could not possibly hold out much longer.

"Ah, save—"

Guo Xiaofu's shrill plea for help echoed from above, followed immediately by the sight of his body plummeting from a high vantage point.

Huang Yan frantically reached up, trying to grab him, but fell short by a fraction of a distance and missed. "Damn it!"

Yang Mingzhong, who was holding down the rear at the very bottom, swiftly cast out a rope, securely lassoing Guo Xiaofu around the waist and halting his fall.

Hanging from Yang Mingzhong's ankles, the surviving Guo Xiaofu burst into tears. "We can't get out... Are we going to die here?... With that building up there, there's no way we can make it back to the respawn point... We're finished..."

The expressions on the faces of the others were equally grim.

Only ten minutes remained until the final settlement time.

That building loomed over their heads like an insurmountable mountain.

There was simply no way the few of them, mere novices, could ever fend it off.

Unconsciously, all of their gazes simultaneously shifted toward the man standing beside them.

"Guild Master, what do we do?"