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

Qiu Wanting turned to Tang Li, the only one of the three who knew nothing about this, and was about to explain what a "paranormal human bomb" was.

Tang Li spoke first, "I understand."

The quick-witted viewers in the live chat had already described to her what kind of disaster such a prop would bring.

"It's too late, streamer, find a sturdy, deserted place to hide." "This hospital is about to collapse, where can the streamer run to?" "Streamer, why don't you ask the dungeon boss for help... Good heavens, I never dreamed I would say something like that."

"Was it the dean who did it? Or Sun Ping?" "Thanks to the other streamers' privacy-blocking features, they don't know they've been planted with a bomb, otherwise all the players would be in chaos right now..."

Tang Li looked at the two "veteran" players beside her and asked, "Isn't there a way to disarm this kind of bomb? I saw in the comments that a high-level purification item was mentioned..."

"You simply can't find these kinds of items in our current low-level, bizarre live-streaming store," Qiu Wanting replied.

"Then, find the person who planted the bomb and kill them?" Tang Li blurted out.

She was shocked to realize that she had only been in the bizarre instance for a day, yet she was already able to say "murder" so easily.

Jiang Hui nodded, but her expression remained solemn: "The supernatural human bombs are human-attached devices. If the person who planted the bomb dies, all the bombs will cease to exist."

"However, since that person was able to plant the bomb, he must have been aware of the consequences of it being discovered. He couldn't possibly not hide, or he could simply and mysteriously surrender to the hospital administration and place himself under their protection."

"With only a dozen minutes left before the bomb explodes, I'm worried that he just wants us to waste time searching for him."

"There are only two ways to stop the bomb right now," Qiu Wanting clearly told Tang Li, "either kill the player who planted the bomb."

"Or, kill the players who have been planted with bombs beforehand."

Qiu Wanting's words brushed past Tang Li's ears, bringing her a distinct chill.

Jiang Hui flipped her hand, and a golden compass with erratic pointers appeared in her palm. She murmured an incomprehensible incantation, with only the last sentence clearly audible: "Guide me to the person who planted the supernatural human bomb."

The pointer suddenly lengthened, its tip piercing Jiang Hui's fingertip. It sucked its fill of blood before releasing Jiang Hui and finally beginning its work. The pointer began to spin in circles, but it couldn't stabilize, hesitating and changing direction every now and then.

"Tsk," Jiang Hui frowned, "The other party really did use a tool to confuse directions."

Qiu Wanting asked, "What about this one?"

In his hand was a rag doll wrapped in red thread. The doll was made entirely of coarse white cloth, with crooked black stitches. It had no mouth, and its two eyes were sewn with black thread. Just by looking at it, one could tell that its purpose was not to comfort children, but to curse them.

"A voodoo doll," he said simply, "If we can't find it, we won't look for it. We'll just curse it and kill it."

"Using this will backfire," Jiang Hui said. "Are you willing to risk most of your life for that person?"

"Of course I didn't use it," Qiu Wanting said calmly. "There are so many players who have loaded bombs. Giving them a chance is better than being attacked by the backlash than dying."

"Too many people will only cause trouble," Jiang Hui immediately followed up. "If they know that everyone has been hit by a bomb, every player will just wait for other players to use voodoo dolls."

"Choose one or two lucky ones who don't deserve pity," Qiu Wanting said succinctly, "give them a simple scare, and that'll be enough to trick them into using you."

"The only problem is that the other party might not be unaware of this." Jiang Hui pondered while rummaging through her items. "He doesn't seem to be short of points, and protective items can prevent cursed attacks."

With a flick of her wrist, Qiu Wanting unleashed a dazzling display of jewels between her fingers, almost illuminating the darkness.

Only upon closer inspection did Tang Li realize that beneath the dazzling light in his hands lay twisted sheep hooves, bloodstained yellow paper, worn-out red shoes, and clay-sculpted infants… The sight gave Tang Li goosebumps.

Boss Qiu sneered coldly, "He may not lack points, but do you think I do?"

Holding a handful of cursed artifacts, the man's smile in the darkness screamed villainy. "One isn't enough? Use a second one on someone else. Two aren't enough? Use a third. There's still so much time. I'll see how many rounds he can endure."

Jiang Hui was clearly persuaded by the wealthy and powerful Boss Qiu, and nodded, indicating that she could take charge of capturing the lucky players.

Just as Jiang Hui and Qiu Wanting were discussing the player list head-to-head, Tang Li, who had been completely ignored, shakily raised her hand.

"Um..." she said softly, "I have a question."

"Since players can be killed by bombs in dungeons, why not just let them leave the dungeon altogether?"

She tilted her head in confusion, recalling the experience posts she'd read on the forums. "Didn't they say that players could rest in the safe zone after leaving the dungeon? Surely they're not going to chase bombs all the way to the safe zone and blow them up?"

Jiang Hui and Qiu Wanting fell silent, both staring at Tang Li.

Tang Li felt insecure under his gaze. "Judging from tonight's situation, it's definitely going to be a do-or-die situation. If we're going to destroy the instance, a lot of players will just get in the way, right? Letting them leave early is for their own good."

"Besides, these cursed items look really expensive..."

Jiang Hui spoke up: "You mean, to allow players to meet the conditions for escaping the dungeon... The escape path from the dungeon is to survive for nine days, or to verify the truth or falsehood of all the rules."

She pulled out the medical handbook she always carried with her from her pocket and flipped to the densely packed appendix filled with rules.

"—You've now completed the validation of all the rules in the appendix?!"

Good heavens, Tang Li, didn't you just open the medical manual this morning?

How much did you actually do today?!

"Ah, I already said," Tang Li shrugged, "we have to do both."

She also pulled the booklet out of her pocket; it was crumpled and torn.

Only the appendix page was intact, covered with checkmarks and crosses.

Tang Li, like a top student who had finished all her homework a holiday in advance, generously and casually shared her test paper with the whole class.

"Now, let them copy your homework!"