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

Tang Li and Gu Xiaoying stood facing each other.

But there were not only two people in the ward, but also Nannan, whose will resided in the game.

"You did everything you could to pull Nannan away from danger, but she wouldn't leave you." Tang Li stared at Gu Xiaoying, feeling cruel even as she spoke.

"She's back, back to her nightmare. She's here to save you, and not only that, she's gathered evidence of human experimentation at the hospital; she's hidden clues in the game."

Gu Xiaoying was trembling, and his hoarse voice choked with sobs: "But she failed, she sacrificed herself."

He covered his face in anguish, "She shouldn't have come back, she shouldn't have..."

"Of course she has to come back, she can't not come back!" Tang Li interrupted him, raising her voice for the first time. "Can't you see that, Gu Xiaoying?"

She snatched the phone and, in front of Gu Xiaoying, manipulated Nannan to randomly walk into a wrong clinic.

The doctor in white wielded a sharp blade and dismembered Nannan.

The bloodstains reflected in Gu Xiaoying's empty eye sockets, and the black mist suddenly swirled like a raging storm.

In a place they paid no attention to, lightning suddenly struck down above the bizarre private hospital.

Tang Li remained undaunted.

"Did you see that?" She forcefully shoved the phone under Gu Xiaoying's nose. "She just keeps dying like that, so cruelly!"

"She was dismembered, sawn into pieces like toast, burned from head to toe, and choked to death by her own vomit after being exposed to poison gas!" Tang Li's voice was almost choked with sobs. "I played the game for dozens of hours, and Nannan died hundreds, even thousands of times!"

Who can understand the shock she felt when she realized Nannan was real?! Who can comprehend the pain she felt when she had already developed feelings for Nannan, yet still had to continue playing the game and searching for clues left behind by Nannan!

She hated herself every time she didn't choose the right option, but she rallied and cheered herself on for Nannan and for herself.

Tang Li stared at Gu Xiaoying, the anger in her dark eyes finally dissipating. "Don't you understand yet? Why would Nannan do this! She's the game's creator, why would she design her own death in such elaborate ways?"

"—She feels guilty, Gu Xiaoying."

Gu Xiaoying suddenly looked up, as if hearing the sound of bells and drums, and his whole body trembled.

"She hates herself for leaving you, she hates that it wasn't her who stayed in the hospital! She hates herself so much she wants to die!" Tang Li seemed to be racing against something, her breath coming in short gasps, each word seemingly possessing its own will as it rushed out of her mouth. So that's it, it's Nannan, she's speaking for Nannan—

"She's filled with regret and guilt. Of course she wants to go back to the hospital. If she can't get back here, she'd rather end her life in the most casual way!"

Tang Li squatted down beside him. She and Gu Xiaoying were so close that Gu Xiaoying could no longer escape her eyes.

The girl's face on the phone screen overlapped with Tang Li's at that moment.

"Don't you understand, Gu Xiaoying? Once someone makes up their mind, you can't stop them."

"She didn't die for you, not just for you. She died so that she could walk in the sunlight with a clear conscience, so that she wouldn't have to pretend nothing happened when she closed her eyes to see the faces of her victims, so that suffering and evil would end at this very moment when she took the lead, so that the wicked would be punished and the good would live long lives, so that she could stand tall, so that she could have a clear conscience. She faced death calmly because if she were to cast the darkness behind her now, every day from then on would be a life of mere survival!"

Gu Xiaoying covered her mouth, trembling.

So that's how it is. So this is you, this is the real you. How narrow-minded I was, yet I still so desperately wanted to stop you. I wanted to stop you, but I'm also so proud of you. I can no longer stop you from giving your all to bring light.

Gu Xiaoying was almost heartbroken and on the verge of crying out in pain. He trembled as the black mist surrounded their wounded master.

But her voice, and theirs, still came.

"So, Gu Xiaoying, why did you refuse?"

"Why did you reject her? Why did you reject me?"

The voice descended like a divine oracle.

"That's what she's going to do."

"This is her—this is the destiny we've chosen for ourselves!"

At this moment.

Early morning, rosy dawn, and sunrise should appear in the eastern sky.

However, there was no sun.

There weren't even any dark clouds or rain.

The somber dome, like the dried-up eyes of a dead man, suddenly cracked with a faint, almost imperceptible sound from a certain point.

The dome cracked open, like a glass ball shattering from heat, with several enormous fissures crisscrossing the entire sky. Deep within the fissures, a dizzying dark red surged.

People looked up, trembling, and listlessly gazed at the cracked dome.

After watching for a while, at one point, they finally realized: it was a hand, an enormous hand, a hand that blocked out their sun and moon, and blocked out the sky of the instance.

Those cracks are wounds on my hands.

Whose hand? The eerie creatures looked at each other. Was it your hand? My hand was intact. It wasn't my hand.

Of course, it wasn't their doing. Who could possibly manipulate the celestial phenomena of the dungeon? The enraged Dean Lei Hong, despite his best efforts, could only manage a sudden storm. Who else could possibly manipulate the celestial phenomena of the dungeon?

Gu Xiaoying reached out her hand to Tang Li.

"I can't tell you, Tang Li," he said.

He is the dungeon boss, and he cannot directly tell the players the truth about the dungeon. But is he really helpless?

Now that things have come to this, how could he possibly refuse her?

Since she wants the truth, since she wants to open her eyes.

Gu Xiaoying gave a sad laugh.

"So, touch me." He took Tang Li's hand, pulled her along, and told her to cup his face in her hands.

This was the first time Gu Xiaoying had reached out to Tang Li, the first time he had asked for even the most ordinary physical contact.

Yet he was so grief-stricken, as if he had committed some heinous crime, one that could never be redeemed by death.

Tang Li didn't hesitate for even a second.

Even from her perspective, the monster opposite her was a hideous and terrifying creature.

Sticky blood enveloped her ten fingers, and writhing flesh filled her palms. In Tang Li's eyes, her hands were completely soaked in blood, and the warm blood even spread down her sleeves, wetting most of her cuffs.

"If you regret it," Gu Xiaoying whispered in her ear, "then hate me."

Tang Li did not speak.

She lowered her head, her forehead touching Gu Xiaoying's forehead.

Blood splattered on her forehead, trickling down the corners of her eyes. She embraced Gu Xiaoying, and his blood splattered on her chest as well.

At this moment, Tang Li thought that all this blood was just her hallucination.

But even if it weren't for that, she would never willingly let go of her hand.

"Alright," Gu Xiaoying finally said in the endless expanse of time and space, "Alright, time's up."

As if he had made up his mind, as if he had convinced himself to accept any outcome, Gu Xiaoying withdrew from Tang Li's embrace.

"If you want to know the truth... Tang Li, then please step out of this door."

"Go have breakfast. When you get to the restaurant, you'll understand everything." He looked at Tang Li, his eyes at that moment unlike those of a child. "Don't be afraid."

"Someone is waiting for you outside the door."