When the Weaver specifically named the Black Feather safe zone in a previous announcement, wasn't that right when Cheng Shuili was owed game coins by a server-wide announcement?
The fact that she was owed game coins and then announced server-wide was already absurd enough, but at the time, the Weaver also used the announcement to warn everyone against going to crowded places, specifically naming Black Feather and saying not to enter the new safe zones.
Good intentions?
Cheng Shuili didn't believe it for a second.
It was more like using a public platform to settle a private grudge.
Since the Weaver could abuse her power back then, it stood to reason that now, because of the insults from people on the regional channel, she might be withholding the dungeon hints...
Cheng Shuili's train of thought stopped there.
The Weaver did provide hints in the last dungeon, but those hints were just there to fool the players!
Or perhaps, the hints were correct in the sub-region dungeons, but once the dungeon difficulty was raised to Hell-level, or even the highest tier of Hell-level, all the information obtained before entering the dungeon was no longer reliable and could even become fatal misinformation.
If that were the case, it wouldn't make much difference whether she had this hint or not.
It was the players participating in the sub-region dungeons who were the ones suffering.
Cheng Shuili stopped dwelling on these trivialities. Now that the dungeon details were out, the most urgent task was to find teammates to join the dungeon with.
However, that wasn't particularly important either.
Cheng Shuili could emerge from the dungeon even if she were just leading a dog, though she couldn't guarantee whether the dog would make it out.
Of course, that was just a figure of speech.
She didn't have a dog with her, nor was she treating anyone like a dog.
Cheng Shuili rubbed her temples, contemplating who would be the most suitable companion.
Just as she was thinking about it, a private message notification popped up.
【A Gentle Kiss】: Boss Crow, looking for a team? It's just me here.
Her?
Cheng Shuili had originally assumed she was fixed teammates with Gulu Gulu Bubbling and Drafty, but thinking about it, it made sense; after all, the Dragon Country grand region had only just merged, and these four lone wolves wouldn't necessarily all be from the same sub-region.
Even though she figured it out, she still asked: "Isn't little Gulu Gulu following you?"
【A Gentle Kiss】: She has fixed teammates and isn't with me. Besides, I feel like if I can stick with Boss Crow, my chances of survival would be higher no matter how you look at it, right?
Very blunt, and very persuasive.
Cheng Shuili liked dealing with smart people.
【Angry Crow Takes Flight】: Fine, but you must listen to me once we enter the dungeon.
Cheng Shuili was very easygoing; if the other party didn't agree, she would just drop it. As she said before, it didn't matter who Cheng Shuili teamed up with; she just needed a team to enter the full-server dungeon.
The other party replied with a question.
【A Gentle Kiss】: Is this the condition for following Boss Crow?
Cheng Shuili was concise: "Yes."
She didn't want trouble, nor did she need other opinions.
Having said that much, Cheng Shuili felt the matter should have fallen through, but to her surprise, A Gentle Kiss agreed.
【A Gentle Kiss】: No problem, I guarantee I will completely follow Boss Crow's commands.
Cheng Shuili was a bit surprised, but she didn't ask further.
【Angry Crow Takes Flight】: Good.
With the team selection settled, Cheng Shuili closed her private messages. She opened the regional channel, which was still filled with dissatisfaction toward the Weaver.
Coupled with the fact that the so-called "cheering" and "guessing" functions were still not online, the credibility of the Weaver as a system had plummeted to the absolute bottom in the eyes of the players.
There were many messages of insults and attacks, everyone venting their emotions frantically, with only a few scattered comments discussing the dungeon description.
But these valuable pieces of information would be drowned out by more meaningless content as soon as they appeared.
Cheng Shuili glanced at them a few times and only found it noisy.
She closed the grand region channel and opened the trading channel to claim the tickets for this dungeon.
【Mist Corridor Invitation】 (Full-Server Dungeon Entry Ticket)
Price: 1000 game coins (Free for the top 500 players on the leaderboard)
Status: Available to claim (You are ranked 1st on the grand region leaderboard, you can claim it for free.)
This invitation was silver-gray overall, with hidden dark patterns of teardrops and mist textures on the paper; it looked quite exquisite.
If this weren't an invitation to a dungeon but a ticket to an opera, Cheng Shuili would surely have sincerely praised the organizer's attention to detail.
She tucked the invitation into the Abyss Ring and took the opportunity to check the items she should carry.
Cheng Shuili had brought everything she needed and everything she didn't.
Anyway, the space in the Abyss Ring was quite large, so there was no need to take anything out.
Time passed while waiting.
The moment the countdown hit zero, a damp sensation enveloped Cheng Shuili without warning.
Her vision was swallowed by thick, impenetrable gray-white mist, and the natural ambient noise in her ears was instantly replaced by absolute silence.
This teleportation was more violent than any before it.
It wasn't like something was carrying her over; it was more like Cheng Shuili was being pressed directly into another space.
A cold, viscous sensation squeezed in from all directions, as if she had sunk into a bottomless, freezing pool.
It wasn't just sight and hearing; even her breathing was forcibly stripped away for a moment, and a slight stinging sensation radiated from her lungs.
This was definitely not a friendly teleportation experience.
A few seconds later, the pressure dropped sharply, and the mist before her eyes thinned slightly, allowing her to barely see a few meters around her.
Underfoot were stone slabs covered in moss, and on both sides were towering dark stone walls, with dead vines and viscous trails resembling those left by snails crawling across them.
Cheng Shuili sniffed and quickly held her breath again.
What permeated the air was a rich, nauseatingly sweet fragrance.
As her eyes gradually adapted to the environment, Cheng Shuili saw a corridor stretching infinitely forward and backward before her.
Most importantly, there was no one here but herself.
This dungeon actually separated teammates during teleportation.
As she was thinking, the dungeon's prompt panel popped up:
【The full-server dungeon "Mist Corridor and Silent Theater" has opened.】
【Current Location: Mist Corridor】
【Current Goal: Find the correct path and head to the theater!】
【Team Members (2/6): Angry Crow Takes Flight, A Gentle Kiss.】
If not for that last line of text, Cheng Shuili would have doubted what kind of dungeon she had actually entered.
Cheng Shuili closed the prompt panel and didn't rush to move, instead opening the chat page to try to contact A Gentle Kiss.
But unfortunately, the entire page was gray.
It seemed that in this dungeon, or at least for now, communication methods were unavailable.
Cheng Shuili wasn't surprised; she closed all useless interfaces and focused her attention entirely on the present.
The surroundings were absolutely quiet, quiet enough to hear her own steady heartbeat and the sound of blood flowing.
The gray-white thick mist flowed slowly, like a living creature, squirming between the walls and the ground.
The visible range was compressed to within ten meters; anything further was just a blur of pale white.
The more Cheng Shuili looked at the environment before her, the more familiar it felt.
The moss-covered floor, the towering walls on both sides—these were very similar to the first dungeon she participated in after entering this world.
That maze-like dungeon called The Mist.
The dungeon difficulty at that time was very low, the penalty for failure was also very low, and there were even players outside the dungeon helping those who hadn't come out to cheat.
Now, however...
Even Cheng Shuili had to be cautious, walking on thin ice.
She took a deep breath, her gaze scanning the stone walls on both sides and the floor.
Walking while observing.
Since the goal was to find the correct path, then... there must be clues.
Cheng Shuili's eyes were not idle, nor was her mind.
Her memory was excellent, and she could recite the three rules mentioned in the description without a single error.
Just from the description, Cheng Shuili could infer that this dungeon was also a rule-based dungeon.
As long as a rule was broken, one might be instantly sentenced to death.
This meant that even Cheng Shuili had to be careful with her words and actions here.
But compared to other players, she was still relatively relaxed. It was inevitable to get bored after walking for a long time, so Cheng Shuili yawned and took out a perfectly ripe strawberry from the Abyss Ring.
This had been picked yesterday and put into the Abyss Ring just after being washed.
Therefore, the freshness of this strawberry was undoubtedly high.
Cheng Shuili sniffed, feeling the strawberry's fresh fragrance, and finally felt a bit more comfortable.
A corridor is a corridor, a theater is a theater, why make it smell so strong?
This fragrance had been bullying her nose the whole time!
Just as Cheng Shuili was about to put the strawberry into her mouth, her movement suddenly paused.
From deep within the mist ahead, a sound of tearing cloth suddenly rang out.
Following that, there was a "tap... tap... tap..." sound.
Like some hard heel lightly striking the stone road.
The sound came from far to near; the speed wasn't fast, but it was clearly headed toward her.
Cheng Shuili acted as if she hadn't noticed anything, lightly taking a bite of the strawberry; the sweet juice burst in her mouth, forming a sharp contrast with the sweet, decaying fragrance around her.
Comfortable.
The whole person felt much better.
Cheng Shuili stood in place, silently gripping her long blade, her gaze cast sharply in the direction the sound came from.
The mist stirred, and a blurred outline slowly emerged.
It was a child.
She wore a tattered dark red dress, though the originally magnificent style could still vaguely be discerned; the hem of the dress dragged along the slippery ground. On her head was a wide-brimmed hat, and under the brim was a hollow face.
This thing had no facial features, only a patch of pale, sickly skin.
Her hands hung at her sides, her fingers long and thin, with obvious seam marks at the joints, looking like a roughly stitched doll.
And the tapping sound coming from under its feet came from a pair of equally tattered dance shoes.
Cheng Shuili leisurely took another bite of the strawberry, the juice flowing down her fingertips a little, which she shook off casually.
The faceless doll child stopped about five meters away, tilting its head, looking at Cheng Shuili.
More accurately, it should be looking at the strawberry in her hand.
Although it had no eyes, that patch of pale skin seemed to tremble slightly due to this desire.
A voice, childlike in its innocence but clearly hollow and twisted, echoed directly in Cheng Shuili's mind:
"So fragrant... so bright..."
"It's... the smell of fruit... it's... the smell of the outside world..."
"Guest... can you share a little with Little Red Riding Hood? Little Red Riding Hood... hasn't tasted fresh things in a long time..."
The doll calling itself Little Red Riding Hood moved a small step forward, its stitched fingers slightly curled, making a gesture similar to begging.
Its movements were stiff and eerie, like a marionette controlled by clumsy hands.
Cheng Shuili swallowed the last bite of the strawberry and casually tossed the stem onto the slippery moss at her feet.
That little bright red stem looked particularly eye-catching in the gray-white mist.
Her gaze landed on Little Red Riding Hood's hat. Although the dress on her body was red, this hat was more like the color of straw, not even remotely close to red.
For this thing that suddenly appeared, Cheng Shuili was of course going to use Insight first.
【Insight activated!】
【Name: Lost Theater Doll·Little Red Riding Hood (Fake)】
【Description: A doll with an extremely strong sense of jealousy, yearning for everything that living beings possess. It views all fresh things as supreme treasures and will beg or trade with lost travelers in a childlike, innocent manner. Please be sure to treat its requests with caution; satisfying or refusing them may trigger unknown consequences.】
【Weakness: Afraid of water, afraid of fire, and fears everything a cotton doll should fear.】
Oh?
So it was a little cotton doll.
Cheng Shuili had previously been like a formidable enemy, thinking some terrifying character had arrived.
Since a weakness was displayed, it proved that it could be killed.
Little Red Riding Hood moved another small step forward, tap, tap.
It tilted its head, and that faceless head seemed to convey a greedy "stare" even better.
"Guest... Little Red Riding Hood, is very good..."
Cheng Shuili finally spoke, her voice clear and indifferent: "I don't have any more strawberries."
She was telling the truth.
The last strawberry had just entered her stomach, and the strawberry stem was still on the ground.
Little Red Riding Hood's stiff neck seemed to tilt at another angle.
"But..." Cheng Shuili changed the subject, her hand reaching toward the Abyss Ring, "I have this."
A pre-cut box of watermelon appeared out of thin air in her palm.
This was also something she had picked herself yesterday and processed before putting it into the Abyss Ring.
Who wouldn't like to eat a piece of crisp and juicy watermelon when bored?
But what attracted Little Red Riding Hood was certainly not this.
The preservation effect of the Abyss Ring was particularly important at this moment.
Fresh.
For Little Red Riding Hood, it was a fatal attraction.
The watermelon was bright red and juicy, full of water, carrying a refreshing sweet fragrance; in this space dominated by the rich, heavy scent, it was like a small sun, emitting a light that could not be ignored.
Little Red Riding Hood's body lunged forward abruptly, then stopped abruptly; the stitched fingers opened and curled, full of impatient desire.
"Want... it...!"
Cheng Shuili held the box of watermelon but didn't hand it over.
"I can give it to you, but you have to answer a question for me." Her voice remained steady, showing no emotional fluctuation, "The correct path, how to distinguish it?"
Little Red Riding Hood completely didn't expect there to be a player this bold; she almost paused completely.
It had always been her responding based on the choices these players made. When was it the turn of these players to use fresh food as bait to ask her questions?
After the pause came rage!
"You...!"
Rate on N.U.
