Timeline Player

"After this operation is over, I'll go back to my hometown to get married."

"Look, this is a picture of my daughter, isn't she cute?"

"I haven't been home to see my parents for three years. I plan to bring them gifts when I go back this time."

......

In the warm camp, where the stove was burning, the team members were gathered around the fire, dreaming about the future.

Chi Que sat among them, lost in thought.

He suspected he had traveled through time.

To be precise, I traveled back to twenty years in the timeline of the alternate universe.

He turned his head and looked at a small dog next to him.

Chi Que had seen this dog before.

It was one of the ones that had chased them earlier, with a distinct black line between its eyebrows; he remembered it very clearly.

But right now, it's just a puppy.

He reached out and patted the dog's head.

The dog wagged its tail, seemingly enjoying it.

Chi Que felt something was off.

This sense of incongruity does not mean that the world before our eyes is fake; on the contrary, it is so real that there is nothing wrong with it.

What puzzled him was why this instance was specifically set at a point in time more than twenty years ago.

The task given in the instance is simply to survive for three days; what happened in the past does not affect their survival strategy at all.

unless...

"Could it be that this dungeon has a way to clear it besides surviving for three days?" Chi Que thought of this possibility.

Just as Chi Que was pondering, a sudden, urgent phone call broke the atmosphere.

Someone picked up the satellite phone, but their face immediately turned ashen.

"What happened?" someone asked.

"I just received a notification that a once-in-a-century cold wave is expected to pass through in three hours and will last for a week..." The man paused for a moment before gritting his teeth and speaking with difficulty.

One week.

The smiles on everyone's faces immediately froze.

"Where are the supplies?" someone asked in a hoarse voice.

The logistics officer said with difficulty, "We were originally planning to return tomorrow, so... the remaining food is only enough for three days."

The fire in the fireplace crackled and flickered.

Chi Que's heart sank.

You really can't just raise flags randomly.

It seems that this is the cold wave from twenty years ago that claimed six lives, and their bodies remain on the icy plains to this day.

He suddenly realized a problem.

Six lives lost.

He raised his head and glanced at everyone present.

The one who said he was going back to his hometown to get married, the one who showed off his daughter's photos, the one who hadn't been home for three years, and the team member who just answered the phone.

one two three four.

Chi Que counted twice.

It's still four.

Even if you include himself, then it's five.

Who is the sixth life?

Chi Que recalled the "missing person" on the snow. There was one player missing when the dungeon started. Who was that person?

Is there a relationship between the two?

Could it even be the same person?

His mind raced with thoughts, but he couldn't make sense of them.

Was the sixth person supposed to be here, but is he/she just not present? Or... was the sixth person not even part of the expedition team?

He put down the soup bowl in his hand, his gaze sweeping over the faces of the four people, trying to discern something from their expressions.

In the end, no one could come up with any ideas.

Staying behind to die, or rushing out to die, is not a choice at all. The team member who answered the phone put it down, opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but in the end just slumped back into his chair.

"Let's rest first." The young man who said he was going back to his hometown to get married was the first to stand up. "We'll talk about it tomorrow...tomorrow."

tomorrow.

Chi Que remained silent.

He knew that all of these people were going to die.

The others also got up one after another. Someone added two pieces of firewood to the fireplace, moving very slowly. The one who hadn't been home for three years patted the team member who answered the phone on the shoulder, said nothing, and the two walked together into the corridor.

Chi Que remained seated and did not move.

He didn't stand up until the footsteps of the four people had completely disappeared, and then he heard a rustling sound at his feet.

He looked down, and the little dog had somehow come up to him.

"What are you doing following me here?" Chi Que asked casually.

The dog, of course, didn't answer; it just wagged its tail.

Chi Que ignored it and continued upstairs.

The villa was larger than it appeared from the outside, with seven or eight rooms lined up on both sides of the corridor, each with a brass number plate hanging on its door.

He looked at the number hanging on his body, found his room, the door was unlocked, and the room was simply furnished: a bed, a wardrobe, a desk, and a faded landscape painting on the wall.

It was a moon, but what lay beneath it was unclear.

Nothing special.

He had just lain down on the bed when he heard a rustling sound coming from the door—the little dog was trying to squeeze its head through the crack in the door.

"..."

Chi Que was too lazy to get up, so he called out, "Come in."

The dog seemed to understand, and with a strong push, it tumbled and crawled into the room. Then it happily jumped onto the bed, found a spot to lie down at his feet, and its tail was still wagging back and forth.

The bed is warm.

Chi Que then noticed that there were several hot water bottles under the bed, which must have been prepared in advance.

This detail made him momentarily dazed. People from twenty years ago were making preparations for what they thought would be just an ordinary night, unaware of what would happen next, unaware that they would all eventually die here.

Chi Que closed his eyes, trying hard not to think about those trivial matters.

Sleepiness came faster than he expected, and all he could hear was the faint sound of wind and snow outside the window, and the dog's even breathing.

In a state between sleep and wakefulness, the thoughts in my mind began to blur, scatter, and then recombine:

The missing player.

Expedition team.

Cold wave.

The pack of dogs chasing after him twenty years later.

Six lives lost.

......

life?

Chi Que paused for a moment.

The dungeon refers to six lives.

not human.

He slowly turned his head.

At the foot of the bed, the little dog was curled up in a ball, fast asleep.

Chi Que suddenly realized something: if it was indeed the sixth life that had died, then what about the one chasing them twenty years later...?

What is it?

Moreover, he remembered clearly that when he first entered the instance, he did see that there were five people in total.

Suddenly, a very faint sound came from outside the door.

Chi Que's body tensed up instantly.

"Wake up!" the burly man's urgent voice rang out.

Chi Que suddenly opened his eyes.

The dimly lit hall, the flickering fireplace, the restless air—he was back; he had returned twenty years into the future.

He propped himself up on the ground and sat up. Everyone else was awake too. The students seemed to be still half asleep, while the woman was deathly pale.

"What happened?" Chi Que's voice was steady, as if he wasn't the one who had just woken up.

The burly man didn't answer, but stared intently into the depths of the hall.

Chi Que followed his gaze and looked over.

Something stood there in the darkness.

Three meters tall, its outline is indistinct, very thin, and it has a human shape.

Only those eyes were clear.

Chi Que was stunned for a moment.

He recognized those eyes.

The person who promised to go back to their hometown to get married...