Xiao Tangqiu's heart trembled violently. He stared blankly at the extremely familiar face in front of him. His lips trembled and he almost blurted out the name Meng Xinghe. However, after meeting those eyes without any emotion, he swallowed his words back, lowered his eyelids, and felt bitter in his mouth.

"So many newcomers, what a hassle..." The sarcastic voice sounded again, its tone filled with malice, "What a hassle, too many people holding us back, we might as well just kill them all."

The voice was full of malicious mockery, which made Xiao Tangqiu startled. He looked in the direction of the voice and saw a man in a white windbreaker. The man was very handsome, and he was handsome in a gentle way. He also wore a pair of very exquisite gold-rimmed glasses, and looked like a handsome scholar from an academy. However, there was a scar on his brow bone, which added a bandit-like look to his originally gentle and handsome face.

However, what surprised Xiao Tangqiu the most was what was in the man's hand - the man was playing with a small knife with his five fingers flying. The originally sharp weapon looked like a small toy in his hand. He stared at the knife for a while and suddenly found that it seemed to be a scalpel.

The man standing next to Shen Yuan was obviously Shen Yuan's companion. In addition to him, there were two girls standing next to Shen Yuan. Before Xiao Tangqiu could continue to look, those newcomers woke up one after another, and their frightened voices interrupted Xiao Tangqiu's thoughts.

“Who are you?!”

"You kidnapped me? Let me out!"

"Do you know who I am? Let me out now!"

Xiao Tangqiu suddenly understood the man's previous prejudice against newcomers. He was about to reach out and rub his slightly swollen temple when a familiar voice rang out, "Qiuqiu? Great! We actually entered the same dungeon!"

He turned his head and saw that it was indeed Tang Mianmian. He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Although the S-level difficulty of this copy made him very desperate, he had to admit that he was still a little relaxed after meeting an acquaintance.

Even though he thought so, he still smiled bitterly and said, "What's good about it? Didn't you hear? This is an S-level mission..."

Tang Mianmian touched her nose and said, "...I heard it. Our luck is really African."

On the other side, a girl next to Shen Yuan finished counting the number of players and calmly reported to Shen Yuan, "Twenty people in total, more than half are newbies."

Shen Yuan's eyes were calm, and he just nodded slightly when he heard this.

"So many rookies are such a hassle, and they're so noisy," the man in the white windbreaker licked his tongue. "Boss, why not just kill them all..."

The noisy newcomers were startled when they heard this. A middle-aged man in a suit shouted in a timid voice, "Who are you? Why are you killing me? This is a society ruled by law! Murder is against the law!"

A middle-aged woman also shouted, "You just want money? I won't give it to you! Let me out now! You're a bunch of social scum! Scum who want to get something for nothing! I'm going to call the police and have you arrested!"

Others also started shouting loudly, and a girl with low psychological endurance burst into tears.

"Shut up!" The man in the white windbreaker was completely enraged. Without waiting for Shen Yuan to reply, he flicked his finger and the scalpel shot towards the middle-aged man in the suit who was making the loudest noise. The scalpel flashed with the unique cold light of metal and attacked the man in the suit like lightning.

The next second, the scalpel grazed the scalp of the man in the suit and pierced into the tree trunk behind him.

Everyone present was frightened by the windbreaker man's move. They were stunned and silent for a moment, and the man in the suit even felt his legs go weak and he knelt on the ground.

Xiao Tangqiu suddenly burst out laughing, and everyone followed his gaze to see that the suit man's forehead had become bald at some point, shiny and hairless, like a boiled egg... Then they looked up and saw that it was the scalpel that had nailed the suit man's wig to the tree trunk!

Everyone couldn't help but burst into laughter, and the originally solemn atmosphere became a little more relaxed. The man in the suit finally realized what was happening. He reached out and touched his cold forehead. His face suddenly turned pale, and he got up in a rage to get his wig.

However, the man in the suit tried to pull it out for a long time, but the scalpel remained firmly nailed to the tree trunk, motionless and deep into the wood.

"Enough of the nonsense. In short, you are now in a dangerous world. If you want to leave here, you must complete the assigned mission," the girl spoke again, her voice faint. "I just checked. This is a forest. The only way out is this one. Follow this path. The end of the road should be our mission destination."

Xiao Tangqiu was puzzled. She had just checked? When did it happen? She had clearly not left this place from beginning to end!

"Why should we believe you?" the middle-aged woman questioned.

"You don't have to believe it," the girl said calmly, "I'm only telling you this for those who don't want to die. Believe it or not, the decision is yours. Those who don't want to die can follow us, but don't blame us for not warning you in advance—you can choose to follow us, but if you get into danger, we won't save you."

"It's happened many times before. Even if we forbid others to follow, they will still follow. Instead of that, why not let you follow openly? Whether you live or die depends on your own luck. We won't help you, nor will we save you."

"That's all, Captain, let's go."

After the girl finished speaking, she completely ignored the doubts and protests of others, turned around and left with Shen Yuan. The man in the windbreaker did not leave immediately. He looked around and his eyes fell on the faces of those noisy newcomers, revealing a hint of mockery.

Soon, Xiao Tangqiu met the eyes of the man in the windbreaker. He was startled and was about to look away, but the man in the windbreaker licked his lips at him and showed a look that seemed quite interested.

...A feeling of being stared at by the boss suddenly came to his mind. Xiao Tangqiu quickly turned his head away, but he caught a glimpse of the man in the windbreaker snapping his fingers, and then the scalpel returned to his hand as if it had self-awareness.

The man in the windbreaker played with the scalpel while slowly following Shen Yuan and his group.

Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian looked at each other and hurriedly followed. No matter what, they had to cling to the thighs of these great gods - even if the great gods didn't want them to cling.

The forest was eerie and silent. Apart from the occasional sound of bats flapping their wings, there seemed to be no other movement. It was so spooky that the others did not dare to stay and hurriedly followed.

Just as the girl had said before, there was only the road under their feet in the forest. They walked along this road all the way without encountering any forks in the road.

After passing through the forest, a building appeared faintly at the end of the intersection. As they got closer, the building gradually revealed itself - it was an ancient castle, somewhat like a medieval Gothic castle, gorgeous and grotesque, tall and thin... even more gloomy than the forest they came from.