Chapter 154 Back to Reality (Unedited) "Today is my weekend, we..."

Hearing Liang Jun say this, Qi Zhixia couldn't help but be moved.

"But so many days have passed, Jiang Zhiling might already be..."

“I know,” Liang Jun interrupted decisively.

She took a deep breath, seemingly trying to calm herself down after the initial tension. "But we still don't really know what happened. What if there's a chance things might turn around?"

Jiang Zhiling disappeared on the first day they entered this instance, and now it has been six days since they arrived at the market.

For five whole days during this period, she never returned, nor did she take the initiative to contact any of them.

In rule-based worlds, player disappearances are common. It's not that people are emotionally distant; it's just that in such a besieged environment, "disappearance" is often another euphemism for "death."

Liang Jun used to think so too, but now she wants to give it a try, just in case.

Xin Sang understood Liang Jun's emotions. She first patted Qi Zhixia's shoulder to show that she understood, then moved to Liang Jun's side and carefully embraced her with her warm arms.

"Ling'er is probably just not able to reply to messages right now. Maybe we'll see her let us know she's safe and sound after a while."

Before letting go, Xin Sang gently patted Liang Xun's back again, then took two steps back and walked towards the end of the NPC group.

Currently, only she, Qi Zhixia, and Ge Lin have not yet successfully completed the challenge.

Based on previous experience, the number of customers limited by a manually retractable cage is just enough to satisfy one player's needs for completing the level. Even if all six people present successfully complete the level, there will still be at least eighty unused NPCs remaining.

Xin Sang stood next to the sixth telescopic baton, raised his hand and waved it behind him, "I guess we won't need these anymore. I'm not going to take the props back. I'll just leave them here. Maybe they'll come in handy when Ling'er comes back."

She pulled two brand-new invisibility cloths from behind her waist. "Let's put these invisibility cloths nearby."

After doing all this, Xin Sang straightened up and sighed.

"She's so smart, she'd definitely come up with a solution."

Seeing this, Luo Chuange and Ge Lin felt a mix of emotions and didn't know what to say, so they could only turn away in silence.

Gu Keke's nose tingled, and tears fell in large drops as if they were worthless, but she covered her mouth with her hand, unwilling to make a sob.

Liang Jun's eyes also turned red.

She forced a fairly natural smile, "Thank you, Sister Xin..."

"I've told you so many times, don't be so polite with each other!"

Xin Sang still casually tossed her red hair like a feather duster, and the tip of her nose seemed to have been stained with color. "Alright! That's enough with the sentimental stuff. Let's save these stories for when we get out of here safely!"

Everyone's fighting spirit reached its peak at this moment.

Even the players who had already succeeded did not leave; they continued to devote all their energy to teamwork, daring not to slack off in the slightest.

Although the last three spots weren't too far away, Ge Lin volunteered to go first, and the others didn't object.

Qi Zhixia and Xin Sang followed closely behind, and the group successfully completed the final challenge.

When Xin Sang came out from behind the cashier, Luo Chuange waved his phone at everyone.

"I just edited out the specific walkthrough and sent it to the group," Luo Chuange said, quickly turning off the screen to save battery. "If Jiang Zhiling comes out, she'll be able to see it."

Liang Jun stepped forward and patted his shoulder twice to express her gratitude.

She turned back to look at the motionless NPCs, her tone calm as if she were narrating something ordinary, "They said that the players who were trapped here before had never cooperated as well as we have."

Everyone paused, stopping to look at Liang Jun.

"It's nothing, I was just making a casual remark."

Liang Xun wiped away the indifference on her face, and the corners of her mouth turned into a familiar smile. "Now that we've cleared the level, let's hurry up and get ready to leave. We need to escape from here before work ends."

Unlike when they checked out, the players now had to return to their respective cashiers, as the supplies they had purchased were still stored there.

If you want to continue to survive in a rule-based world, these supplies are absolutely essential, so even in a life-or-death situation, you must not leave these "life-saving rations" aside.

Gu Keke, ever the loudmouth she always was, asked, "Where do we meet? Will the scenery change after we step out of this door—"

"Probably not—"

Like singing a folk song, Liang Jun replied loudly so that all the teammates present could hear, "This dungeon is very similar to the last one, the mental hospital; both are levels with no scene changes. We didn't experience any scene changes in the hospital, and I guess it won't be this time either—"

Xin Sang chimed in, "Then let's meet in the parking lot! Our cars are all parked there. Everyone get in safely first, and then we'll discuss the next steps—"

Liang Jun thought so too.

Before leaving completely, she habitually braced her toes against the magnetic door panel, then bent down to check the items in her shopping bag.

Aside from water resources, they had plenty of canned food. However, Liang Jun wasn't too worried about drinking water, since they even had a pot. If necessary, they could just find a water source in the wild and boil it to disinfect it.

She carried the heavy shopping bags in one hand, pushed open the checkout door, and then used her body to push open the exit gate that had long since gone out of control.

-

Liang Jun slept for a very long time.

When she woke up again, her body was sore and numb, her vision was blurry, and even her thinking ability was unusually slow.

"Coco, where are we now..." she asked instinctively, rubbing her eyes.

After waiting several seconds without receiving a reply, Liang Jun's sluggish brain finally came to its senses, realizing that the silence around her seemed eerily quiet.

There was no roar of cars, nor the sound of others talking.

Even the soft, warm touch beneath her was something a car seat could never provide.

Liang Xuan was fully awake.

She seemed to wake up abruptly from a nightmare, and sat up abruptly.

Perhaps because her body hadn't been active for a long time, or perhaps because of the lack of blood flow to her brain caused by suddenly getting up, it took Liang Jun a while to adjust to the dizziness and darkness before the scene in front of her gradually became clear.

She blinked twice, looking somewhat incredulous, and then abruptly threw off the thin blanket covering her.

Sitting on the bed, Liang Xuan was wearing a complete pajama set. She stared blankly for a few seconds, then curled up her legs, grabbed the bottom half of her pajama pants, and looked at them from left to right.

As if realizing something, Liang Xuan hurriedly put on her slippers and then ran to her desk in the bedroom.

There was nothing wrong with the desk. Liang Xun placed her palm on the table and pressed down on it with all her might. The old desk still shook as she remembered.

The group photo from the orphanage still stood in the familiar spot for Liang Jun, next to the frame was her frequently used notebook. Liang Jun picked up the notebook, seemingly trying to find something in it, but after flipping through the classroom notes she had compiled at school, the rest of the pages were completely blank.

Liang Jun looked up, just as she was about to continue searching, when a black glasses case came into her view.

She hesitated for a moment, then reached out and opened the bulging glasses case. Inside lay a pair of sunglasses that she hadn't worn much, the frames wrapped in a protective cloth.

Liang Jun sat down in the wobbly chair. She turned her head to look at the desk, where six unopened boxes of self-heating rice were stacked into a pagoda, as if waiting for someone to come and enjoy them.

In that instant, it was as if something had ripped her soul out—

Her pajama pants had already been completely torn to shreds by the NPC during the beginner level, and she was even injured and bled as a result, accidentally triggering a hidden rule of the system.

She had already removed the loose right leg of the desk and turned it into a weapon to fight off NPCs. She had propped up the empty space with books of just the right height, so the desk should no longer be wobbling.

Before she even left her bedroom, she had already turned the group photo from the orphanage face down on the table. Now, she shouldn't see those familiar faces anymore.

Logically, the notebook should contain her handwritten records of the beginner's rules, and should also show traces of her circles and drawings from that time. But now, it's so clean and tidy that there isn't even a single pen mark.

The sunglasses were her tool to block the direct gaze of NPCs. After using them, Liang Jun didn't put them back in their original place, nor would she bother to wrap them with a glasses cloth again; she did it as casually as she would in everyday life.

Those six boxes of self-heating rice were her only food at the beginning of her nightmare, and she was 100% sure that she had eaten them all.

Liang Xun sat on the creaking chair for a long time. After finally digesting the tangible truth before her, she finally chose to turn on the laptop on her desk.

The computer booted up smoothly, just like before. Liang Xun's desktop was clean, without any miscellaneous software; her graduation project file, located in the very center, was the most eye-catching.

She picked up the mouse, double-clicked the left button, and opened her graduation project file.

Fortunately, Liang Jun's memories had not been altered. Based on the final notes and revision dates in her graduation project file, she should have returned to the day before the arrival of the rule-based world.

The blinding light from the computer screen was so intense that Liang Jun's eyes ached, so she had to turn her head away.

Liang Jun propped herself up on the desk and tentatively called out a few times, "System? System?"

The cold, mechanical voice in my head didn't come again.

Liang Jun walked towards the bedroom door, opening it open without any hesitation.

The small living room outside was as clean as ever, and all the furnishings and decorations were still as Liang Yan knew them.

She had thought she might be able to easily accept all of this—

Until there was a knock on their own door.

Liang Xun assumed that Gu Keke had come to her house, so without thinking, she opened the door wide.

"Sister Junjun!"

The person who came was wearing casual clothes with cartoon patterns, and her shiny black ponytail swayed back and forth nimbly behind her head. "I have the weekend off today, let's go to the flower and bird market!"

Liang Xun was immediately stunned, "Qin Miao?!"

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Author's note: This concludes the content for the fifth level of the dungeon!

But our journey continues—