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Bonus chapter! Thank you to Winter for the donation! ^^
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The sun was gradually setting in the west. As the sunlight shifted, the entire Mingya Building gave off an oppressive and dangerous atmosphere.
The appointed meeting time was approaching, and all the players had returned to the gathering point in advance.
Since there were still more than ten minutes until the designated time, no one paid much attention to the fact that two people were missing. Instead, they began exchanging the information they had gathered.
A man in a black coat, named Lan Xu, spoke in a low voice, "There's something very wrong with this residential area. The residents here are extremely unfriendly to outsiders. I knocked on every door in one building, but not a single person opened the door for me. I’m certain, though, that there were people inside."
One of the players immediately raised their hand. "Same here."
A woman with a high ponytail added in a serious tone, "It was the same for me. As soon as they realized we were outsiders, they acted as if they’d seen something terrifying, like a flood or a wild beast."
Aside from confirming that the residents were suspicious, they had gained almost nothing from their afternoon of investigating.
The woman with the high ponytail, named Lin Rong, looked at Lan Xu and said, "The dungeon’s nights are far too dangerous. We must find a place to stay."
The other players agreed. Nighttime in a dungeon was always the most perilous, and wandering outside would surely lead to death.
The players shared everything they had learned, including any details they found strange, no matter how small. They even mentioned a plant in a flowerbed that inexplicably had blood on it.
"A plant with blood?" Lan Xu frowned and looked at the player who had brought it up. "Was there anything unusual nearby?"
"No," the player shook their head. "Only the plant had blood on it. Nothing else in the area seemed out of the ordinary."
"But I’m certain it was human blood—and fresh, as if it had just been spilled."
Bloodstains were never a good sign. This could very well be a crucial clue to the dungeon. Deep in thought, Lan Xu asked, "Which direction?"
The player pointed toward the corner of the residential area. It wasn’t particularly close, and if they went there and back, it might already be dark by the time they returned.
Lan Xu had no choice but to suppress his desire to check it out for now.
Time passed slowly, and soon the appointed meeting time arrived. However, the two missing players still hadn’t returned.
This was a high-level dungeon, and even advanced players would never wander off alone at night, let alone these two, who weren’t even experienced players.
Something had happened.
Those two were probably in grave danger, and the bloodstains on the plant might very well belong to one of them.
And this was only the first day of entering the instance.
It’s important to know that most instances grew more dangerous as they progressed, but for two players to die inexplicably on the very first day was an extremely rare occurrence—especially in broad daylight.
Either those two accidentally triggered a death condition, or this instance was exceptionally dangerous.
The players who made it here weren’t novices. They wouldn’t carelessly touch things or ignore the rules, making it unlikely that they triggered a death condition.
…That leaves only the second possibility.
As the players realized this, a wave of fear surged through them. Instinctively, they glanced at each other and saw the same terror and unease reflected in each other’s eyes.
Would they really be able to leave this instance alive?
Fear filled the players’ eyes, but the amnesiac young man standing nearby remained innocent and oblivious, gazing at them with a pure expression as if completely unaware of their fear.
Or perhaps he simply didn’t understand what they were talking about.
Lan Xu cast a subtle glance at the young man and broke the silence. “Let’s find a place to stay first.”
No one objected, and they all followed behind Lan Xu. This time, no one dared to wander off from the group.
Mingya Building was massive, with a total of ten buildings. Not all floors had been sold, and not all rooms were occupied.
Some players, unable to find anyone willing to take them in, located vacant rooms and resorted to unconventional methods to open the doors.
Both Lin Rong and Lan Xu frowned. Using force to break into rooms in an instance wasn’t exactly a safe approach.
But with nightfall fast approaching, they had no other choice. In the end, all the players entered the rooms.
Although these rooms hadn’t been sold, they were beautifully furnished, looking no different from occupied homes—almost as if they were waiting for someone to move in at any moment.
It was definitely cramped with eight people sharing the space, but no one dared to split up and sleep in separate bedrooms. They all stayed in the living room.
Naturally, none of the players felt secure enough to fall asleep. They sat in the living room, alert and wary, dreading the possibility of something terrifying appearing around them.
Only the exceptionally handsome and delicate-looking young man stood out.
Sitting on the sofa, ‘Ruan Qing’ rubbed his sleepy eyes before directly lying down and falling asleep.
For a moment, the other players felt envious. Forgetting everything because of amnesia seemed like a blessing—at least he didn’t remember how terrifying the dungeon was.
But, skipping an entire night of sleep wasn’t an option either. They couldn’t go without sleep for seven days straight, especially since the dungeon grew more dangerous as it progressed.
The players discussed the situation and decided to split into two groups, with four people taking turns keeping watch through the night.
Before anyone realized it, it was already the latter half of the night, time to switch shifts. Nothing had happened so far, and there had been no suspicious noises.
Lan Xu speculated that the number of deaths per day might be restricted or limited. Once that limit was reached, the chance of anyone else dying that day became much smaller.
Lin Rong, who was keeping watch with Lan Xu, agreed with this theory. Otherwise, the difficulty level of this dungeon would be absurdly high—almost equivalent to a "no survivors" dungeon.
In the infinite horror game, there were indeed "no survivors" dungeons. These weren’t dungeons without any means of survival, but their difficulty was so extreme that no player had ever managed to clear them alive.
Such "no survivors" dungeons were extremely rare. They couldn’t be unlucky enough to draw one of those, could they?
Still, having two deaths in one day was already a sign of high difficulty. With ten people in total, they wouldn’t even last seven days at this rate. They had to quickly find the critical clues and avoid the death traps.
Lan Xu woke up the four who were sleeping, including ‘Ruan Qing.’ After explaining his theory to them, he sat on a nearby sofa to rest.
‘Ruan Qing,’ who had been suddenly woken up, looked dazed. Sitting on the sofa, he yawned sleepily and rubbed his eyes, still groggy and not fully awake.
The other three were already wide awake. Seeing that ‘Ruan Qing’ was struggling to stay alert, one of them softened his voice and said quietly, “You can go back to sleep.”
💕
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