Timeline Player

[New Player Dungeon: The Wrongfully Dead]

Twenty years ago, a cold snap claimed six lives; their bodies still remain on that icy plain.

[Mission]: Survive for three days

Here's a piece of advice: in this world, hunger and fear are more dangerous than monsters and anomalies.

Chi Que opened his eyes and found himself lying on the snow.

cold.

He sat up abruptly, panting heavily. His hand instinctively reached for his waist, and when he felt the gun was still there, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Although there are no bullets, they can serve as a deterrent in critical situations.

He counted his pulse to calm himself down, counting from one to one hundred, then repeating the process while observing his surroundings.

It was a desolate place, with a low, gray sky that obscured the sun, making it difficult to see anything more than a few dozen meters away.

Besides him, there were five other people scattered on the snow within a radius of about ten meters, slowly getting up.

"Where...where am I?" the student-looking boy asked first, his face tense. "I was just in my dorm..."

"I'm afraid it's what they call a dungeon game?" The middle-aged office worker sighed. "That's how it's written in the novels my son reads."

The burly man clicked his tongue: "Games and all that, it sounds like a dream, but it's damn cold in here."

The woman in business attire thought for a moment and said, "It's like the climate in the Russian Federation. That's what I saw when I went there on a business trip."

"Originally, there should have been six people here," Chi Que said, "but now, one person is missing."

The student's face instantly turned pale: "Brother, stop scaring me! It was already scary enough, okay?"

Chi Que didn't speak, just stared at him.

The students were momentarily uneasy.

He did intentionally utter a classic line from a horror movie, but it's true that someone is missing.

"He's right." The sophisticated woman in business attire confirmed Chi Que's statement. "I also remember there were supposed to be six people."

A gust of cold wind blew by, and everyone suddenly felt even colder.

The middle-aged office worker was silent for a moment, then suddenly spoke up: "How about... we go look for it?"

The burly man frowned: "Looking? Where are we looking? We can't see anything in this godforsaken place."

"but--"

Before the office worker could finish speaking, a long howl suddenly came from afar.

Awooo—

Everyone froze in their tracks.

The student's face turned pale instantly: "Wolves...there are wolves here?!"

The woman looked around, but could see nothing but a vast expanse of white snow and the blurry silhouettes of distant mountains.

At that moment, a line of semi-transparent text simultaneously appeared before everyone's eyes:

Please proceed to the mission location as soon as possible: Icefield Manor.

"Damn it!" the burly man cursed. "What kind of crappy game is this?!"

The woman didn't speak; her gaze swept over the crowd and landed on a tiny, almost invisible black dot in the distance.

"There," she pointed, "there's a building."

Everyone looked in the direction she was pointing, but they couldn't see anything.

"Are you sure?" The burly man squinted, not seeing anything.

"I have good eyesight," the woman said.

Chi Que glanced at her.

"Let's go," he said. "The missing person is either dead or doesn't want us to find them."

Another wolf howl rang out, this time clearly closer than before.

"Go!" the burly man roared, taking the lead in following Chi Que.

The others stumbled and caught up.

The woman ran a few steps, then suddenly stopped and looked down at her feet.

She was wearing a pair of high heels.

Black, with thin heels, stuck in the snow and unable to be pulled out.

So she bent down, took off both of her high heels, held them in her hands, and then, barefoot, continued running forward on the snow.

The student following behind her stared wide-eyed, his mouth agape: "Sister, aren't you cold?!"

The woman looked up at him and said, "It's cold."

"Then what did you do—"

"I've practiced martial arts," she said through gritted teeth.

Chi Que did not turn around, but noted this down.

He continued forward, and the black dot in the distance gradually became clearer. He silently counted how many steps were left.

Seven hundred steps.

Six hundred steps.

Five hundred steps.

The wolf howls behind us grew closer and more frequent.

He suddenly remembered the system's advice: hunger and fear are more dangerous than monsters and anomalies.

The fear had already arrived before the monster was even seen.

He continued counting.

Four hundred steps.

The distant black dots gradually revealed the outline of the building: three stories high, with gray-black exterior walls and a roof covered with thick snow.

Three hundred steps.

Two hundred steps.

One hundred steps.

A wolf's howl was almost upon them.

Chi Que could hear the screams of students, the curses of burly men, and the miserable screams of a wage slave behind him.

Chi Que suddenly pushed open the gate of the manor and stepped inside.

The others scrambled in, and the student was the last to enter, slamming the door shut with almost all his might.

The student collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath, tears welling in his eyes: "So close...so close..."

The burly man leaned against the door, his face also looking very grim.

"That middle-aged man was dragged away by wolves," he said.

Chi Que shook his head: "Not a wolf."

He habitually started to make things mysterious.

The burly man paused, then turned to look at him: "What?"

"It wasn't a wolf." Chi Que repeated, as if stating something utterly ordinary. "I glanced back."

The burly man frowned: "Under those circumstances?"

"Wolves aren't that big," Chi Que further stated. "The size is wrong, the fur is wrong, and the howl is wrong too."

The student got up from the ground: "What was that?"

Chi Que was silent for a moment, then said, "It's a dog."

Another silence followed.

Wolves are wild, dogs are domesticated.

How could there be dogs on this icy plain?

"There's no use thinking about this now." Chi Que stood up, brushed the snow off his clothes, and said, "Let's figure out how to keep warm first."

So everyone started to split up and take action.

The burly man dragged a bundle of firewood from somewhere, and the students helped carry it to the fireplace and light it, while the woman found a few cotton-padded coats.

Chi Que glanced out the window; it was already completely dark.

"We take turns keeping watch at night," he said. "Two-hour shifts."

"I'll go first," the burly man volunteered.

Chi Que nodded, found a corner to sit down, and closed his eyes to pretend to sleep. He had only wanted to rest, but drowsiness came faster than he expected. His eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and his consciousness gradually sank lower and lower.

Something was licking his hand.

Chi Que suddenly opened his eyes.

A hairy face was close to his hand, its tongue lolling out, breathing out air, and its bright black eyes staring at him.

It's a dog.

He was stunned.

Seeing that he was awake, the dog ran off happily.

The hall before me was no longer the cold, dilapidated one I had seen before.

Warm yellow lights, a roaring fireplace, several long tables pushed together, with steaming pots and pans on them.

Several people sat around the table, chatting and laughing.

"What are you daydreaming about?" Someone shoved a bowl into his hands. "Drink it while it's hot, and come over here right away. The captain has something to say."