Mu Shan looked at the milk bottle in her hand. There was no production date or expiration, no manufacturer name or address. Just 250ml, and the big words “Milk” on the packaging paper.
Another system-made three-no product.
Lin Kuan knelt on the ground, his face full of joy as he rummaged through the food on his plastic sheet.
Because his movements were too fast, several dishes in trays got knocked over. The food and rice mixed together on the ground, looking little better than swill.
But he seemed completely unbothered. He gathered the food with his hands, carefully wrapped up the bulging plastic sheet, and hugged it to his chest.
“Great, there’s an apple!”
He picked up a rolling apple by the elevator door and rubbed it hard on his clothes. Who knew if his clothes were dirtier or the floor.
Lin Kuan looked up and met the gaze of Mu Shan, whose “harvest” was meager. His whole body stiffened.
Compared to his “bountiful harvest,” he looked a bit embarrassed: “It’s fine. Everyone’s like this the first time without experience. The door was only open for a short time anyway. We’ll be prepared tomorrow!”
After struggling and hesitating in his mind for a long time, he still handed over the apple: “…Why don’t you have it?”
Mu Shan was a bit surprised by his action but still shook her head: “Thanks, no need.”
“I noticed that when the elevator went up earlier, it stopped five times on the five floors nearby, but I only heard the sound of claiming supplies three times.”
Hearing her question, Lin Kuan was stunned: “You’re really sharp!”
“Not every floor in the building has players. I heard some are empty floors.”
“Heard?” Mu Shan frowned. “You’ve never followed the elevator up or down even once?”
Lin Kuan hugged his food and shrank his neck: “No… The system doesn’t require us to go down, right? It’s too dangerous outside. I don’t want to die.”
He scurried quickly to his safe house, hesitated as he looked at her: “Well, if that’s all, I’ll head back? See you tomorrow!”
Mu Shan didn’t speak. The skinny man swiftly slipped into the sunroom and slammed the door shut.
From the looks of it, he wouldn’t step out of the safe house for the rest of the day.
In just those few words, the clanging bell sounds from upstairs had already reached a high floor, no longer very clear.
Mu Shan checked the 24th Floor again carefully. In the gap of the elevator door, she spotted some brown marks, only on the inner side of the door seam.
Like dried blood.
She circled the outside of the sunroom twice and found scratches on the ground from hard objects rubbing over a long time.
One player after another came here, left, came again and left again. The safe houses overlapped in the same spot.
Because of poor ventilation, the trash Lin Kuan had dumped at his safe house door gave off waves of stench.
The pitch-black, dim, stuffy environment made her mood a bit irritable.
Mu Shan originally wanted to summon two zombies as bodyguards, but after thinking it over, she gave up.
First, the environment was still unclear, and the indoor space too narrow. Second, the elevator door could open at any time; exposing her cards too early would be disadvantageous.
But speaking of zombies, Mu Shan thought of something.
She quickly entered the sunroom, sat in a chair, turned on the light, and flipped open the leather card album.
The 【Hoarding Addiction 1】 skill allowed her to obtain three cards from the current instance, which to some extent reflected the instance’s setup and clues.
For example, in the previous instance [Humid Heat Forest], she had drawn a giant insect monster character card right upon entering, indicating that giant insects were the instance’s signature monsters. This helped players understand the hidden plot.
She flipped open the leather book. On the third page in sequence, three new cards were indeed inserted.
Mu Shan raised an eyebrow. It was within expectations, yet also reasonable otherwise.
【Item Card: A pile of shattered plates, a leftover bone, half a burned incense stick】
All garbage item cards.
System, you’ve outdone yourself.
Mu Shan laughed in anger and gave a thumbs-up to the Main God System in her mind.
If you’ve got the guts, keep giving me trash cards.
She tapped [Discard] on the shattered plates and leftover bone cards, leaving the incense stick card, which provided the only bit of plot clue.
—At least confirming that the current instance had spirit-type monsters.
Incense, paper money, yin-yang: the things Chinese people feared most.
Mu Shan sighed and looked out the sunroom window—now she knew why the system had included a window as an optional item in the safe house gift pack. It was another hint for the future.
The world outside the building was a chaotic mess, but not pure black. The human eye could make out some blurry structures. There seemed to be large swaths of dark clouds in the sky, or maybe not.
If this building was an independent instance, then outside the window was very likely another space.
Mu Shan stared at the strangely shaped dark clouds for a while. After five seconds, she felt like that patch of clouds had enlarged a bit, getting closer to the window, bringing a sense of being watched.
Mu Shan quickly pulled down the blinds, blocking the vague peering from outside the window.
Only when she turned away did she notice goosebumps rising on her arms.
Breakfast was milk with her homemade orange jam pancakes.
After a simple meal, Mu Shan grabbed a broom to clean the room. She didn’t want to hunker down long-term like Lin Kuan, yet also wanted to stay informed in real-time, so she switched back and forth between the ground floor and her place.
About half an hour later, while she was doing woodworking with wood picked up from the forest, she suddenly heard the elevator plummeting downward at high speed.
The “rumb-rumb—” roar was impossible to ignore. Metal scraping against the door panels, plummeting straight down from above, speeding past the 24th Floor without stopping at any floor, finally crashing to the bottom of the building with a “bang.”
This huge commotion told all players: today’s supply distribution was over.
Mu Shan went closer to listen carefully. There was a “whoosh-whoosh” wind sound in the elevator shaft—a normal physical phenomenon. Beyond that, she couldn’t glean any other information.
What was on the 1st Floor? Kitchen, prep room, monster headquarters, building exit?
Daily supplies started from the 1st Floor. If a bold player went straight down to grab everything, what would happen?
Normal people would have such thoughts.
But Mu Shan figured, given the system’s nature, it absolutely wouldn’t give players such an opportunity.
She pressed her ear to the elevator door and could hear faint voices from two players upstairs. The 23rd Floor was dead quiet—no movement during morning supplies either, probably an empty floor.
She couldn’t pry open the elevator doors by force; her strength wasn’t enough.
The only way… Mu Shan looked at the elevator buttons on the wall: [▽][△].
The most critical setup in the building right now was “floors.” If someone obvious grabbed all the 1st Floor supplies early, the instance couldn’t proceed, making the system’s setup meaningless.
No need to care about which floor; everyone go to the 1st Floor.
So, Mu Shan guessed that waiting at the bottom was either a rule of inevitable death by causality or some monster absolutely impossible to beat.
“Knock, 120th Floor!”
Zong Rui had been in the instance for five days. This morning, after switching floors, she heard static buzzing from the badge at her collar.
She got excited at once: “Skyscraper instance! I’m the Cleaner. Who’s on the other end?”
【Junior Detective League Walkie-Talkie Badge (Communication Type)
Quality: Common
Description: Product of player [Doraemon]’s skill
Usage: Users must belong to the same registered team and be in the same instance to enable voice chat
Note: “The truth may not be just one!”】
The knockoff Detective Conan series badges produced by Doraemon totaled five, all rounded up by their team and given only to the five core members.
The walkie-talkie badges allowed voice transmission without typing in the system chat—useful for urgent moments when hands were occupied. But the odds of all five landing in the same instance randomly were low. Zong Rui had only used the badge once so far.
As the “zzz” static faded, the breathing on the other end grew clear. Zong Rui heard a mild voice from the walkie-talkie: “Is that A-Rui?”
Her face lit up with joy: “Captain!”
…
The two met on the 120th Floor. Zong Rui chattered nonstop to Du Mingqi, not only sharing the clues collected so far in this instance but also detailing the previous instance’s BOSS and Mu Shan’s final Q&A opportunity.
Du Mingqi: …Too much info at once; a bit overwhelming.
He took a moment to process: “The previous instance side quest reward was only 100 gold coins, but your group went to fight the Insect King?”
“If I didn’t guess wrong, the instance BOSS shouldn’t be the Insect King, but that village chief, right.”
Zong Rui had been handling the insect swarm outside at the time and wasn’t in the church, so she didn’t know about Mu Shan and the others killing the village chief. She only learned later.
“Captain, you’re a god!” she exclaimed exaggeratedly. “They charged to attack the village chief. I was thinking those people must be crazy—how could an NPC be the player killer.”
Du Mingqi smiled: “They weren’t crazy. Not only that, she’s a smart one too. You’re lucky to have met the Dream Faller and the Collector. Otherwise, following the original player path there, the odds of killing the BOSS before the heat ramp-up were low.”
Zong Rui: “First time seeing the Dream Faller. He’s pretty much like the rumors—just like him leaving the Insect King half-dead.”
“I’ve met him five times, though he doesn’t remember.” Du Mingqi paused. “I’m glad he’s finally found someone important in his life.”
In the pitch-black environment filled with dust, spiderwebs hung in the roof corners, and the floor was covered in undisturbed gray soil.
Lines of fluorescent green system prompts refreshed in midair.
【Player chooses to use item [Satellite Locator] function
Now teleporting you to the located person’s instance [Skyscraper]】
【Player’s current instance [Undersea] progress 1%, task failure
Punishment: Deduct 3000 gold coins
Midway withdrawal double penalty: Player gains Weakened state】
【Satellite Locator item usage cost: Hell start for this instance】
The system prompts ended. A “rumb-rumb” teleportation sound appeared on this floor. After space folded and unfolded, calm quickly returned.
The thing that had been peeking from outside the window “whoosh” vanished, leaving only two small handprints on the window glass.
The pitch-black building seemed unchanged. No extra player sunroom appeared indoors; only a crude basement entrance on the ground.
【He Yuncong’s Safe House】 hung there, but no one emerged.
On the grayish wall besides the elevator door was a faded floor sign.
(666th Floor)
WTF, 666th floor??
very funny, system (sarcasm)