Zuo Lin'an watched as the five women huddled in a circle with their backs facing outward to block everyone else's view. They kept their voices down to a whisper, sometimes even communicating entirely through hand gestures without speaking.
The woman with patches on her clothes held out her left hand first, raising one finger, while waving her right hand from side to side, apparently indicating a denial.
Then, she raised two fingers on her left hand, her right hand still waving.
Finally, she raised three fingers, and her right hand waved once more in denial.
Seeing this through his God's-eye view, Zuo Lin'an immediately thought of the common talent, 【Lie Detection】, which allowed a player to detect lies three times a day.
Three fingers, three waves.
He had just answered three questions, and every single one of his answers had been a lie.
“...”
He felt helpless.
This was such a trap!
He had previously hoped that no player with the 【Lie Detection】 talent would show up.
But as luck would have it, whatever he feared most came true!
Sigh!
But on second thought, it made sense. 【Lie Detection】 was only a common talent, after all, so the probability of a player spawning with it was quite high.
Not to mention, twenty players had entered this time.
“What do we do?”
Their voices were extremely soft, almost like breathy whispers.
“What else can we do?”
“All three of his answers were... In other words, this isn't his first time here, he knows about the specter, and he definitely knows what the word 'Time' means!”
The woman with the silver hairpin frowned.
“This native knows far more than we imagined, but he's clearly very wary of us and acting cold. If we can't get on his good side, we probably won't get any information out of him.”
The woman with patches on her clothes whispered softly.
“Then... should we tell those martial arts masters?”
The woman with the silver hairpin rejected the idea without a second thought.
“No!”
“Absolutely not!”
“If we tell them, do you think they'll help a few weak women like us clear the dungeon?”
“Of course they won't!”
“Every single one of them looks like trouble. To be honest, the only one we can rely on right now is...”
At this point, the woman with the silver hairpin stole a glance at Zuo Lin'an.
“...only him.”
As soon as she said this, the other four women fell silent.
Because they realized they couldn't refute her.
They had already tested those four ordinary men earlier. Ever since entering the dungeon, they had looked as though they carried a deep, bitter grudge.
They were clearly like clay Buddhas crossing a river—unable even to save themselves, let alone protect a few weak women.
As for the others...
They were all martial arts masters; the women didn't even dare to say a single word to them.
If they threw themselves at their mercy, whether they lived or died would be entirely up to luck.
“Then, what should we do?”
The woman with the silver hairpin took a deep breath. Since she was the one who proposed it, she should be the one to go.
“Wait here. I'll go try.”
Without waiting for the others to react, she stood up, gently smoothed her black hair, adjusted her collar, and walked toward Zuo Lin'an.
The other women didn't have time to stop her, leaving them to fret anxiously behind her back.
Zuo Lin'an turned his head slightly and watched as the woman sat down beside him with an easy grace, her cheeks flushing slightly as she offered a coy, inviting smile.
She seemed a bit shy, but her expressive, talking eyes were incredibly alluring!
As expected, only a woman raised in ancient times could possess such eyes.
“Do you... need something?”
The woman with the silver hairpin looked slightly embarrassed.
“This humble woman is named Liu Baixu. I failed to introduce myself to you earlier, Young Master, which was quite rude of me.”
Looking at the woman who was practically on the verge of throwing herself into his arms, Zuo Lin'an appropriately softened his demeanor.
“No matter.”
Seeing that he wasn't angry, Liu Baixu finally began to build rapport.
Instead of directly asking about the dungeon, she casually chatted about trivial domestic matters.
Zuo Lin'an played along, pretending to gradually warm up to her as his expression softened.
Seeing that things were going well, Liu Baixu gradually steered the conversation toward the dungeon.
“We got lost and ended up here, and we don't know when we'll be able to go home. Our elderly parents are still at home, and if we return too late, they will surely worry about us in vain.”
Zuo Lin'an shook his head.
“You should give up. Of all the people who have been brought here, I have never heard of anyone leaving alive.”
Liu Baixu looked downcast. “Is there really no way to survive a bit longer? Perhaps if we stay alive long enough, we can find a way to leave.”
The players' main quest was to 【repel the specter twice】.
This definitely didn't mean every single player had to repel it twice, but rather the collective total.
In other words, as long as those martial arts masters didn't turn on them, they might not even need to come into contact with the specter to clear the dungeon!
Of course, the prerequisite was that they could survive until the clearance.
After a moment of thought, Zuo Lin'an said, “You want to ask about food and water, right?”
Liu Baixu nodded. “Yes, but water is definitely the most important.”
Zuo Lin'an pointed in a certain direction.
“Go down the mountain in this direction, and after walking a bit further, you'll find a small puddle. That's the only place with water around here.”
“As for food, I recall that every time they throw someone in here, they release ten rabbits and ten wild chickens. Since you all don't count, it means they only threw me in.”
Which meant twenty animals in total.
He had previously calculated this based on three players' food consumption over three days—eating one for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, which would be about twenty-one animals for three people over three days.
This estimate was very close to reality.
After all, among the players entering the dungeon this time, there happened to be three Houtian Rank experts. Logically, all this food belonged to them.
The only unexpected factor was the addition of Zhang Tinglei, a Xiantian Rank expert.
Therefore, many subsequent events would spin out of control.
Hearing this, Liu Baixu's heart instantly sank.
“This... is there anything else...”
Zuo Lin'an said, “If you just want to survive a bit longer, then go fetch some water. As for food?”
A strange look flashed in his eyes as he pointed to their surroundings.
“You can gnaw on tree bark, dig up roots, or even eat dirt. That should keep you going for a while.”
Liu Baixu's lips trembled slightly upon hearing this.
Gnawing on tree bark? Digging up roots?
And... eating dirt?
These words immediately reminded her of the refugees she had seen in her childhood.
Back then, she was held in her father's arms and saw with her own eyes those refugees who were starved to the bone. Their eyes glowed with a faint green light, like hungry wolves in the forest.
When they looked at her, their eyes were filled with... hunger!
Zuo Lin'an noticed that Liu Baixu was trembling slightly and assumed she was frightened by his words.
“What's wrong?”
Liu Baixu snapped out of it, forcing a strained smile onto her face.
“Oh... it's nothing. I was just thinking that my sisters and I should go down the mountain to find some water.”
Zuo Lin'an nodded.
He thought for a moment and also pointed out the location of the cave.
“There's a cave over there. Once you have water, you can go there to rest. It'll shelter you from the wind and rain. As for this mountaintop... there's no need to return here.”
This was a perfect opportunity to split up the players, and he couldn't afford to miss it.
Rate on N.U.
