I'll also work hard to conquer the dungeon today.

Chapter 347, 1.23, 10 Paper Cutting (Inside)

The first thing they saw when they opened their eyes was that they were surrounded by a group of soldiers with spears pointed at them. Bertias subconsciously released Lan Xiao's wrist and frowned as he observed the people surrounding them.

The surrounding buildings resemble the easternmost central town of the food kingdom, with vermilion fences and bamboo groves giving it a majestic and solemn ancient feel.

Bertias reached out and grabbed the muzzle of the spear; it was hard and sharp.

This is the real world.

His blue-gray gaze slowly fell on the soldier who was watching his movements. Bertias chuckled dryly, released his grip, and explained, "Just checking to see if it's a toy."

After all, one second he was in a world of paper figures, and the next he was seeing a group of three-dimensional living people. He had to make sure it was real.

Lan Xiao turned her head to the side, rolled her eyes helplessly, and muttered, "She really is an idiot."

"That guy said the same thing to you before, take him away!" The soldier's gaze toward Bertias grew increasingly hostile as he gave the order.

"Yes, yes, I surrender, I surrender, do as you please." Bertias raised his hands above his head to indicate that he would not do anything, and obediently accepted the soldiers tying him up with ropes.

Lan Xiao frowned, not understanding what Bertias's intentions were. She was very scared and even wanted to hide, but she still reluctantly cooperated with Bertias's actions and did not resist.

Bertias cast an approving glance at Lan Xiao. If Lan Xiao had resisted, he would have had to come up with other remedies. Now that she was cooperating, it saved him a lot of trouble.

Lan Xiao ignored Bertias, casting a glance at the ghost instead. She was thinking about what the soldier had said earlier, which meant that Mu Yegui had also encountered the same situation, even though the time she entered was not much different from theirs.

Or is it that the passage of time here is actually the same as in the paper-cut replica?

Come to think of it, she didn't hear any notification to exit the instance, which means...

This is still a dungeon world, an inner world or a reversed world closely related to paper-cut dungeons.

She had heard about the Food Kingdom instance while in the Entertainment Kingdom. It seemed that the Food Kingdom instance had a corresponding other instance, and both had to be completed simultaneously with the same progress in order to enter the correct strategy path.

If that's the case, then it's troublesome. They have no way to contact people outside, so it's impossible for them to run instances simultaneously and keep their progress in sync.

No! Wait!

If this is the inner world of the outer instance, then all the buildings and contents should be the same as the outside world, except that they have changed from paper to real objects.

So, this might affect the outside world, who knows? If they're smart enough to notice, then they can cooperate.

The current situation is to confirm whether this place is consistent with the outside world and whether they influence each other.

Bertias might have refrained from making any rash moves because of this. Her emerald eyes turned to the figure in the gray cloak walking ahead. Lan Xiao was startled for a moment, then hurriedly lowered her head, her face slightly flushed.

"Um... Big brother? Where are you taking us?" Bertias tentatively called out to the soldier and asked. "Enough nonsense." The soldier's face was stern, showing no intention of chatting with Bertias and not giving him the slightest chance to get close.

"Could you let my girlfriend walk a little ahead? Let her walk alongside me. She's a bit timid, and she'll be scared if I don't hold her hand. Don't let my thin appearance fool you; I'm actually quite manly," Bertias said to the soldier with a smile.

The soldier glanced at Bertias's thin frame with a hint of suspicion, then gave a look to the person behind him. The latter reached out and nudged Lan Xiao, pushing her forward.

Lan Xiao stumbled forward a couple of times from the sudden push, but Bertias caught her firmly around the waist and pulled her closer to him. Although he quickly released her, Lan Xiao's face flushed again from the sudden intimacy.

Bertias gently held her hand, and Bertias even hooked her palm with his fingers a few times.

Lan Xiao was slightly taken aback. She suppressed the itch in her palm and noticed that Bertias had written the word 'wait' in her palm.

The soldier who had been being flirted with by Bertias glanced at Lan Xiao and then at their similar heights, and casually remarked, "Not bad for luck with women."

"Of course, my girlfriend is the prettiest," Bertias replied shamelessly.

Although she knew that Bertias's claim of being her girlfriend was fake, Lan Xiao still blushed, her delicate and beautiful face as tempting and delicious as a red apple.

Bertias harassed the soldiers intermittently, chattering on and on like a chatterbox, constantly rambling on about trivial matters. His eyes, however, were inadvertently observing the changes in their surroundings, quickly filtering out countermeasures in his mind.

The soldier led the two to an extremely luxurious room, casually told them to wait for a summons, and then closed the door and left.

The moment the door closed, their tightly clasped hands suddenly loosened, and they took several steps back, completely losing the intimacy they had just shared.

Bertias walked to the closed door and carefully examined it, but there was no response no matter how he pushed, pulled, or moved it.

"It won't open. Looks like we'll just have to wait." Beltias had a faint smile on his face, but his blue-gray eyes were unfathomable. However, because he had his back to Lan Xiao, the latter did not see his expression at this moment.

"Hmm," Lan Xiao replied casually, sitting in her chair with her head down.

Her emerald eyes were fixed on the hand that Bertias had just held, and she could still feel its warmth.

“There might be a key item here to unlock the story, but I don’t know what its connection is to the dungeons outside,” Bertias said as she inspected the various furnishings in the room.

"Where did Mu Yegui go? Logically, she should be in the same place as us, but the only information we have so far is the soldier's words, 'That guy said the same thing to you before,' but I can't be sure that he was talking about Mu Yegui."

Although the probability of it being Mu Yegui is as high as 99%, as long as there is 1% unknown, it is still impossible to say for sure that it is Mu Yegui.

"What I'm more curious about now is who will summon us next. What is the connection between the world we are in now and the paper-cut copy? Why is the world inside the box like this?"

"Because it's a world inside a box." A familiar, emotionless, soft, childlike voice came to their ears, making them pause slightly.

(End of this chapter)