After being poisoned by mushrooms, all the strange creatures became fascinated by me.

After turning several corners, a small figure appeared in front of Tang Li.

Gu Xiaoying.

He stretched out his small, withered arms and blocked Tang Li's way.

"Can you not go?" Gu Xiaoying asked her, her face devoid of skin, but her voice was heart-wrenching. "Tang Li, you weren't in any danger."

"Oh, so you want to see me again." Tang Li tilted her head slightly. "Even though I witnessed a murder in a daze, even though I already know the truth about human experimentation, am I not in danger?"

"Yes," Gu Xiaoying looked at her, his tone urgent and persuasive, "Even so, there is no danger. They won't hurt you; they will let you go."

Tang Li smiled and said, "Now it's not that they're letting me go, it's that I'm not letting them go."

"—Get out of the way."

Gu Xiaoying didn't move aside; a dark shadow hovered around him, swirling like stardust. "Are you going there for my file, Tang Li?"

In the dreamlike, hallucinatory scene, his voice was almost pleading, "You don't have to go, you don't have to go. I'll tell you about my past."

He was willing to tell everyone about his dirty past.

But Tang Li was not tempted by the readily available truth.

She said, "Gu Xiaoying, that's not just a file, it's evidence."

I not only want to know the truth, but I also want to bring the truth to light and expose the evil to the light of day.

Gu Xiaoying, of course I will protect you, but I also want the wicked to get what they deserve.

A dark shadow, like a tide, lightly covered Tang Li's feet. Gu Xiaoying's bloodshot eyes stared at Tang Li, and he sighed softly.

It's the same again. She is, and so are you.

Girls, one after another, you walk on the edge of a knife, run on fire, as if you don't know pain, and will never cry.

But this time, I won't let you go and never come back.

"Go, then go." Gu Xiaoying stepped aside, and a dark shadow spread from him toward Tang Li, wrapping around her ankles and enveloping her body like the wings of a raven.

He pointed in the right direction, "Run! Before Lao Yan hands the file over to Sun Ping."

If you insist on doing so, I will protect you.

Archives.

Blood, blood, blood everywhere.

Jiang Hui suddenly turned around, and a six-legged, three-armed black shadow pounced on her. Jiang Hui did not dodge, but lowered her body and rushed straight past it.

In the instant they brushed past each other, the dark figure was cleaved in two by a flash of bright light.

A trail of blood splattered across Jiang Hui's face. It wasn't her blood; the shadowy figure had no blood. Jiang Hui looked around and saw another player fall beside her, blood flowing freely.

The wound ran across his waist, and it seemed he wouldn't survive. The emerald bracelet he had obtained from Sun Ping was still clutched tightly in his hand, but it offered no protection whatsoever.

Jiang Hui's eyes grew increasingly cold. Sun Ping had deceived these inexperienced newcomers, and Tang Li had stumbled upon the truth: these bracelets, which looked exactly like the protective bracelets in the store, were useless fakes.

No wonder Sun Ping looked so grim back then; he thought he had been exposed and was filled with apprehension.

The newcomer had stopped breathing, yet his blood continued to flow from his body. The once smooth and hard marble floor of the archives had now become sticky and soft, squelching underfoot like chunks of raw meat.

The raw meat greedily absorbed the blood flowing from the newcomer. Jiang Hui took one last look at the dead newcomer, took out a yellow talisman from her pocket, tapped it lightly with her finger, and a flame ignited, falling onto the newcomer's corpse.

Soon, the flames engulfed his entire body, burning away his skin, flesh, and blood.

Jiang Hui's knife has already stabbed into the next strange creature.

Sun Ping tricked the newcomers into coming, gave them useless props, and locked the door to the archives room, all so that their screams and deaths would awaken enough eeriness.

When the concentration of players and eerie entities within a unit area reaches a high value simultaneously, meeting requirements such as "dark environment" and "narrow space," and players have contributed enough blood, there is a chance to trigger the dungeon scene "Night Parade of a Hundred Eeries."

That is, when this writhing ground, like flesh without skin, absorbs enough blood, more than a hundred monsters will awaken at the same time. They have no mind and will be controlled by the Dean, becoming his entire force.

She—they certainly wouldn't let that happen.

The small window leading to the next floor opened again, and a ladder was placed up.

Qiu Wanting half-peeked out from between the two wooden planks. The flesh and blood on the ground around him writhed and tried to attack him, but light emanated from between his fingers, forcing the flesh and blood on the ground to flee into the darkness.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out that what he was holding in his hand was a pair of curved surgical scissors.

"A special treat from Dr. Jiang." Qiu Wanting waved his surgical scissors at Jiang Hui. "How many survivors are left? Throw them over here."

"Today, I, Boss Qiu, am making an exception and doing good deeds."

The opera-style singing continued in a soft, guttural tone.

"...Firstly, Ma Su lacked strategy and talent; secondly, discord among the generals led to the loss of Jieting..."

Sun Ping pulled up a chair for himself and sat down next to Lao Yan.

"Old Yan, still asleep?" he chuckled. "Shouldn't you be keeping watch over the archives at this hour?"

Old Yan kept his eyes closed and remained silent, a faint smile playing on his orange-peel-like face.

"You wouldn't believe it, the archives were a real mess tonight!" Sun Ping exclaimed to himself, his barely suppressed excitement rising in his voice. "Dead people! Dead people everywhere, blood everywhere!"

"The strange things in the archives are quite a treat, Mr. Yan, why don't you go and get a piece of the pie?"

Old Yan swayed back and forth in the rocking chair, remaining silent.

Sun Ping grew increasingly impatient. Being ignored by a blind and deaf old man was hard for his pride to bear. He stood up and strode around Old Yan, waving his hands, "A Hundred Ghosts' Night Parade! What a magnificent scene, how rare! I orchestrated it all tonight!"

"The Hundred Ghosts Night Parade is a gift I gave to Dean Lei! With it, Dean Lei Hong's strength will greatly increase, and he will no longer have to worry about Gu Xiaoying!"

He turned his head and suddenly moved closer to Lao Yan.

Sun Ping squatted down, staring intently at the old face, his tone both gentle and kind, "Such a precious gift..."

"Old Yan, do you think it's unreasonable to exchange Gu Xiaoying's mere file and a core item from the dungeon?"

A moment of silence.

Old Yan suddenly opened his eyes, looked at Sun Ping's face so close to his own, and revealed a cracked, shrunken smile through his toothless mouth.

"Isn't that a bit much...?"

The radio was still playing:

"...You've taken three of my cities by sheer luck, and now, insatiable greed, you've seized my western city..."