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After leaving the dungeon, Jiang Huali returned to her room in the rest center.

In the game, each person has their own private room. When they are not in a dungeon, they stay in their room, which is fairly well-equipped.

Of course, if you don't want to stay in your room, you can also go to the nearby entertainment venues to relax.

In the game, all dungeons are accepted from the quest lobby. Each person has a limited time to stay in the rest center, and must go through a dungeon every so often.

If someone wants to run dungeons continuously without returning to the rest center, that's also possible.

Jiang Huali and her team have obtained four cores, which are essential for entering the Abyss and fighting against the game. Xin Mingqing said that if they need to enter the Abyss and destroy the game, they must find the "key".

This "key" is precisely made up of four core components.

Instead of rushing to find the entrance to the abyss, they chose to rest and make plans.

Having just emerged from the "Carnival Underground" instance, everyone went back to their respective rooms to rest.

To Jiang Huali's surprise, Mo Ci also came out with them.

Jiang Huali lay on her bed in her room, having just finished showering. She glanced at Mo Ci sitting on the sofa next to her and asked, "You're allowed to be here?"

Mo Ci glanced at her still dripping hair and replied somewhat absentmindedly, "Yeah, if you're careful, the game won't find out."

"Games? Can you tell me what your relationship is with games?" Jiang Huali asked curiously.

Mo Ci pondered for a while, then finally stood up, sat down next to Jiang Huali, and took a towel from the side to carefully wipe her hair.

"In a sense, we are the same kind, born together in the abyss. It's just that I only recently awakened. When I awoke, the game had already reached maturity."

"It grows its power by drawing malice and life from you when you enter the instance," Mo Ci said calmly. "My power is comparable to itss; we are interdependent and mutually restrictive."

Jiang Huali sat up in bed, interrupting Mo Ci's actions of drying her hair. She pursed her lips and asked softly, "You know why we're collecting the cores, right?"

"Um."

Mo Ci adjusted her posture and continued to wipe the other side of her wet hair.

He was clearly more concerned about Jiang Huali's wet hair than the topic she was talking about.

At this moment, Jiang Huali felt more and more that Mo Ci and Meng Zhiling were very similar in some ways. Although the two seemed to have completely different personalities at first glance, when they were with her, their words and actions were exactly the same.

According to Mo Ci, he is inseparable from the game, so if the game is destroyed, he may also disappear.

Jiang Huali reached out and grabbed Mo Ci's forearm, "You..."

Mo Ci stopped what he was doing. "Hmm?"

Don't you think you're a bit possessed?

Jiang Huali asked.

Her eyes were wide open, and her expression was serious.

Mo Ci: "?"

His expression was unusually blank. "What?"

Jiang Huali didn't know how to say it. In the previous world, she felt that Meng Zhiling's feelings for her were too intense.

She considers herself a rather detached person when it comes to relationships, which makes her less inclined to believe in "love at first sight."

Meng Zhiling is a very good partner. He is straightforward yet reserved. He allows Jiang Huali to feel his love effortlessly and subtly infuses his love into every corner of Jiang Huali's life.

Frankly speaking, Jiang Huali doesn't think her love for Meng Zhiling is that deep. Perhaps it's because she has never met someone so determined to be with her, or perhaps it's because she doesn't resist or dislike Meng Zhiling, which is why she agreed to be with him in the first place.

However, it is undeniable that Jiang Huali gradually developed a sense of dependence in this relationship.

When Jiang Huali saw her familiar lover again in this world, she couldn't quite explain her feelings.

But would Mo Ci, a non-human being in this world, also fall in love at first sight?

If not, then his current behavior towards someone he's never met before, who is now trying every means to leave him, or even someone who is on the opposite side, is like being possessed.

Mo Ci was indeed stunned for a moment at first, but when he came to his senses, he couldn't help but chuckle softly.

"I am not possessed by evil spirits."

He is evil in himself.

He leaned down slightly and inhaled the lingering fragrance of Jiang Huali's soul.

He knew perfectly well why he had come to that instance and why he was here now.

Because his soul was already drawn to her, he was bound to be entangled with her until the moment he vanished.

-

What caught Jiang Huali even off guard was that on the afternoon of the second day of her rest at the rest center, she was pulled into a dungeon.

She was preparing to go out and meet up with Qi Man and the others to discuss core matters.

Mo Ci sat beside her, idly playing with her hair.

The next second, the game system notification sounded, and when she could see things clearly again, she was already in the dungeon.

Welcome to the instance "Dream Hotel".

Jiang Huali was lying on a large bed with a hand tightly wrapped around her waist. When she turned her head, she saw a familiar face.

"...Ink Shrine?"

Jiang Huali moved Mo Ci's hand away and sat up. "How did we suddenly end up in a dungeon?"

Mo Ci hugged her, resting his chin on the crook of her neck. Upon hearing this, he said, "...You've been discovered."

His voice was very soft, but because the two were very close, Jiang Huali could hear it clearly.

We've been discovered? What's been discovered? Who discovered us?

……game.

Jiang Huali realized what was happening and felt a chill run down her spine.

That makes sense. They obtained the core that could be used to make a key. It's impossible that the game didn't notice at all. The current situation seems to be about to eliminate them silently.

"Who else came in besides us?"

Having already formed some suspicions, Jiang Huali pushed away Mo Ci, who was still clinging to her, and decided to go out and check the situation.

...

This is a hotel. Jiang Huali sat in the lobby on the first floor, listening to the hotel owner talking to her.

"You checked in yesterday, right? This winter, the mountains were snowed in and closed off. Who would have thought that people would still come to stay at the hotel!"

The innkeeper had a round belly, a kind face, and small eyes. He was standing in front of Jiang Huali at that moment.

Jiang Huali and her teammates exchanged glances, and Qi Man said, "Boss, we're done. You can go ahead and get back to work."

The innkeeper wanted to say something, but seeing the cold faces of these young people, he swallowed back the sales pitch he was about to make.

"Okay, just call me if you need anything! Our hostel may be small, but the facilities are quite complete!"

After saying that, he swayed back to the front desk.

"So, what's going on now?" Qi Feng asked, his face showing annoyance.

After Jiang Huali came out of the room, she bumped into the main characters who were also out investigating. In addition, she also met Xin Mingqing in the lobby on the first floor.

Xin Mingqing sat on the sofa, fiddling with the compass in his hand, his expression not relaxed.

"I said..."

A woman's voice interrupted from the side, "It's one thing for you to come into this godforsaken place, but why did I come in too?"

Zhou Cui sat alone on a small sofa, twirling her long, wavy hair with her fingers, and spoke with a hint of dissatisfaction.

"It might be because of the previous instance, we were doing some things... You probably noticed it too, I didn't expect to involve you, sorry."

Qi Man said.

In this instance, they are tourists. According to the innkeeper, the mountain was blocked by heavy snow this year, and all the innkeeper's employees had gone home early, leaving only him and his wife. They never expected that guests would come.

As for this instance, it's quite strange.

"No need for apologies. I just want to know, this instance doesn't even give us a quest. How are we supposed to get out?" Zhou Cui gave a slightly mocking smile. "Are you trying to make us die here?"

Yes, there are no quests in this instance.

All the main quests and side quests have disappeared without a trace, except for the system notification sound when you first enter the dungeon.

The people present fell silent.

Jiang Huali looked at the artificial flowers on the table and tapped the system in her mind.

[Hey, was this scene in the original storyline?]

The system appeared at lightning speed: "I've already checked. It's likely because you didn't give the real core to the Boss in the previous dungeon, causing the main characters' progress to accelerate. In the original storyline, they still needed to clear a few more dungeons to obtain the fourth core."

[Furthermore... the original novel had a terrible ending; it didn't explain whether the main characters ultimately used the core to enter the abyss, destroy the game, and return to the real world.]

Jiang Huali: [...]

"A failed project?" she said, somewhat incredulously.

"Yes, host, take care," the system said, sounding slightly sad.

Jiang Huali suddenly felt a headache.

Qi Feng, who was standing to the side, noticed the somewhat complicated expression on Jiang Huali's face and said, "What's wrong? You look like you've lost all will to live. Is it because your boyfriend got involved too?"

As he spoke, he glanced at Mo Ci, who had been silently playing with Jiang Huali's fingers the whole time.

Jiang Huali felt her head hurt even more.

"What you should be concerned about right now is whether we can get out of here," Jiang Huali said to Qi Feng with a complicated expression.

Qi Feng fiddled with the miniature bow and arrow model in his hand and said, "We'll meet force with force and water with earth. We won't die here so easily."

Xin Mingqing, who was standing to the side, put away the compass and said, "I just used a guidance item. This dungeon is not that simple. Since we were dragged in by it, it must want us to stay here forever."

"But at the same time, we have also come to a place close to the abyss."

Xin Mingqing said meaningfully.

"All four core components are now on me. Our primary task now is to find out where the 'door' is."

An unspoken tension permeated the crowd. While no one outwardly showed panic, everyone understood the situation perfectly well.

The crisis has arrived silently.

But right now, it's just the calm before the storm.