Strolling Game

“Big shot, help! Do you have any experience to share? I’ve never played a puzzle-solving game before! Could you explain how to find the clues?”

The person who claimed to love them was very enthusiastic, replying directly: “Just observe carefully, don’t skip over information, and mainly, don’t miss anything. Put all the information together, and you can usually solve it. Finding information is the most crucial part. Typical examples are random-looking graffiti on the walls, clocks that have stopped moving, and so on. Just be attentive.”

“Many thanks!”

“There are still good people out there! My eyes are tearing up!”

“True kindness still exists in the world! I’ve finally seen it today!”

“You guys surely won’t kill a big shot like this, right? They have nothing, just pure information value! It must be safe, right?”

“Safe my foot. There’s nothing now, but once you get out of the dungeon, everything will be useful. Someone this capable will definitely get a good ranking, and the system rewards are substantial! Be careful, big shot, someone has definitely set their sights on you.”

“Is there a possibility that if you hadn’t said it out loud, no one would have even thought of it!”

“Haha, thanks a lot. I’ve noted down this big shot’s ID. You must achieve a good result.”

“Enough is enough!”

“Forget about that, aren’t you guys concerned about the difficulty distribution? It’s actually assigned based on the wealth and mileage leaderboards!”

“How normal is that? If it weren’t based on these two authoritative leaderboards, would it be random? If a regular person like me entered a Hell-level dungeon, wouldn’t that just be a death sentence?”

“If you put it that way, Crow is definitely in a Hell-level one, right?”

“Why is it that even when those big shots fail, they only have 1,000 game coins deducted? That’s not fair at all! It should be deducted proportionally! If 100% is to be deducted, everyone should have 100% deducted!”

“The person above should worry about themselves first.”

......

Cheng Shuili didn’t pay attention to the regional channel. Ailin had just sent a message; the person had been dealt with, and very luckily, that card had dropped.

Cheng Shuili gripped the card, silent for a moment, then shook her head. She had wanted to trade fairly, but there were always people who treated her like a pushover. Since things had reached this point, she had nothing more to say.

The dungeon was a racing type. If it ended quickly, she could use the card as soon as she got out, just in time to stock up on more food before the famine arrived.

Cheng Shuili carefully put away the card and waited quietly for the dungeon to open.

Her gaze fell on Su Rui. If she could follow her into the dungeon, that would be fine; if not, she could run up mileage outside. Either way, the utility brought by her was significant.

These days, Cheng Shuili had reaffirmed her decision time and time again. It was truly worth it!

If there were a chance to visit the black market again, she planned to buy another servant, though she hadn’t yet decided what this servant would do.

The system’s countdown hit zero at 8:30 sharp.

Cheng Shuili closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she was already in a dim room. She moved hesitantly, and a damp, musty odor immediately drilled into her nasal cavity.

【Dungeon “Lost Door” has opened】

【Current participants: 8546/8546】

【Supplementary rules: 1. This dungeon is ranked by time taken; the less time, the higher the rank. 2. This dungeon no longer determines victory through averages. 3. This dungeon lasts for eight hours. Complete the puzzle within eight hours to succeed!】

They actually gave eight hours?

With so much time given, the difficulty could be imagined.

Su Rui wasn’t there; it seemed servants would not follow their masters into the dungeon.

Cheng Shuili frowned and observed her surroundings.

It was a cramped room of less than ten square meters. The walls were covered in mottled mold, and a tattered spider web hung from the corner of the ceiling, trembling slightly with the cold wind seeping in from somewhere unknown.

It was clearly a place that hadn’t been lived in for a long time.

The only light source in the room came from high up on the right wall, where a small vent the size of a palm allowed sunlight to stream in, though it wasn’t very bright.

When Cheng Shuili lifted her foot, she felt an inexplicable, sticky sensation.

She walked to where the sunlight shone to see clearly: the floor was covered in a layer of semi-dried, dark stains, looking like spilled red wine or dried blood.

The room suddenly echoed with a “ticking” sound.

Cheng Shuili spun around abruptly and discovered a ceramic washbasin in the corner.

A rusted faucet was dripping water, and a layer of murky liquid had accumulated at the bottom of the basin. Black, flocculent debris floated on the water’s surface, looking exactly like human hair that had fallen out.

Cheng Shuili couldn’t help but shiver, but she quickly calmed down.

The system was playing psychological warfare this time. The atmosphere was indeed terrifying, but it was all just people scaring themselves. She needed to remain calm.

Cheng Shuili circled the room and, just as she prepared to look for clues, she noticed the locked oak door.

A bronze-colored keyhole was exposed on the oak door, with the requirement laid out in plain sight. Cheng Shuili had to find a key to open this door based on the clues within the room.

Except...

She happened to have a key on her.

Cheng Shuili stared at the keyhole for a while before pulling the skeleton key from the Abyss Ring.

Since it wasn’t an electronic lock, her key... should be able to open it, right?

This was the first time she had put this key to use since obtaining it. She hoped it would be useful.

Cheng Shuili inserted the skeleton key into the keyhole. The friction between metal and metal produced a faint sound that, amplified in the silent room, sounded exceptionally eerie.

She held her breath and turned the key gently.

“Click.”

The sound of the lock cylinder popping open was exceptionally clear in the quiet room.

The corners of Cheng Shuili’s mouth curled upward. It really opened; it was truly worthy of being called a skeleton key!

She pushed the door open carefully. The door hinges let out an ear-piercing creak, as if they hadn’t been opened for many years.

Behind the door was a narrow corridor with faded floral wallpaper, parts of which had peeled away to reveal the moldy plasterboard behind it.

At the end of the corridor was another door, left ajar, with a faint light filtering through the crack.

Cheng Shuili took her long blade from the Abyss Ring and stepped forward slowly.

The system said there was no life-threatening danger in this dungeon, but this was definitely a Hell-level one. Who knew if it would be different from a normal dungeon?

Regardless, caution was paramount!

The floorboards groaned under Cheng Shuili’s feet, each step seemingly challenging the weight-bearing limit of this old house.

When she reached the door, a scent mixed with disinfectant and some kind of putrid odor rushed toward her.

Cheng Shuili hesitated for a moment, then lifted her hand to push the door open.

Before her was an old-fashioned bathroom. The bathtub was filled with water, its surface covered in a layer of white foam.

Most chilling of all, there appeared to be a person lying in the bathtub, revealing only a pale face and one hand resting on the edge of the tub. The fingernails on that hand were an unnatural bluish-purple.

Cheng Shuili wasn’t entirely sure if this thing was human.

She didn’t dare get close, standing to the side to observe the room. This room also had a wooden door, identical to the previous one, with a bronze keyhole.