"As for why I brought you all here... it's because you're all too incompetent!" The dwarf said, hands on his hips, emphasizing, "You lot will never be able to please Her Highness the Princess!"

"As for what kind of trial it is... you guys guess! I like suspense, and besides, this is part of the trial, so it's really interesting, right?"

"See that door? Open it, and the trial will officially begin. Don't worry, time outside will stand still completely. The reward for completing the final trial is becoming stronger!"

"As for where the key to the door is... Hey, don't look at me like that. I've told you, I like suspense. This is part of the trial, you know?"

The dwarf tilted his head back and let out an exaggerated laugh, seemingly quite pleased with his prank.

Then it snapped its fingers, the light bulb slowly rose, the crack in the ceiling closed again, and at the same time, the phantom disappeared as if it had never existed.

Everyone stared silently at the locked wooden door.

"Ah... so it really has become an escape room." Xiao Cheng seemed completely oblivious to the atmosphere, and remarked rather insincerely.

"Let's find the key first." Elite Woman Number One frowned even more deeply.

So everyone stood up and, starting from the sofa where they were sitting, almost inch by inch, fumbled for the key to open the door.

Xiao Cheng and Fang He also joined in.

"Do you think you can find it?" Xiao Cheng asked in a low voice.

“That’s impossible to find… Could you lend me a hand?” Fang He asked her for help without any hesitation. “Lift up the sofa and take a look.”

"Then why are you still looking?" Xiao Cheng easily lifted the sofa. "Look, there's nothing underneath."

“I know, but if we don’t look for it,” Fang He turned his attention to the light bulb in the corner, “it will only make us, who are already so out of place, seem even more out of place.”

"What does it matter?" Xiao Cheng leaned over and watched him skillfully unscrew the light bulb from the socket.

"The situation is still unclear, and it's not good to cut off any possibility of cooperation," Fang He patiently explained to her, then casually put the light bulb into his pocket. "There aren't any here either."

Xiao Cheng: "...Why are you carrying a light bulb?"

"My family was poor when I was a child, so this was my instinct to scavenge," Fang He lied through his teeth.

The reception room wasn't big; it wouldn't take eight people long to search from one end to the other.

In the end, nothing was found.

"There's no key here at all," Number Four concluded. "What are your ideas for another way to unlock it?"

"Pry it open." Number Three's mind raced. "Who here knows how to pick locks?"

"Is there a thief here?" In the mind of Elite Woman Number One, picking locks and being a thief were synonymous.

Beside her, Number Two tugged at her sleeve and whispered, "Don't say that."

No one answered.

Thus, a stalemate ensued.

The eight sinners sat on the sofa in their original positions, deep in thought.

The dwarf gave them a seven-day trial period, but they haven't even left this reception room yet.

“Sitting idly isn’t going to solve anything. Why don’t we get back to the problem itself and take another look at that lock?” Xiao Cheng suggested.

“I’ve checked it. It’s locked very tightly. There’s no way to open it without a key,” Elite Woman Number One said in an unquestionable tone.

"Ah, I know, I just want to take another look." With no one else responding, Xiao Cheng simply got up and walked over by herself.

Fang He stood up behind him and said, "I'd like to see too."

The lock was a very ordinary metal lock, quite heavy, with a subtle bronze sheen. Xiao Cheng touched the latch, and the elite woman scoffed, "You think you can pry it open with your bare hands...?"

There was a click.

Xiao Cheng looked innocently at the metal lock that had broken into two pieces in her hand: "Ah, I broke it."

Elite Woman Number One: "..."

Others: "..."

“It’s because the lock is of poor quality. I can do it myself,” Fang He explained on her behalf.

Xiao Cheng glanced at him gratefully, using a gentle smile to hide her panic: "Yes, if the quality isn't good, anyone can do it."

Regardless of whether it works or not, the door has been opened.

The eight people walked out and were greeted by a luxuriously decorated game hall.

The hall was divided into small cubicles, each containing the latest large-scale game consoles.

On the far right is a small stairwell with a layout diagram on the wall. The second floor has a lounge for each of them, as well as a kitchen.

"Are we trying to unlock all these games?" Number Four casually picked a game console and fiddled with the controller for a bit.

On the game console screen, accompanied by cheerful background music, a blue pixelated figure hopped up and down, moving forward at a fast speed. In the end, it couldn't avoid the spike trap and crashed into it, falling to the ground with a thud.

As the pixelated character dies, the game screen instantly turns gray, and amidst exaggerated laughter, the words "game over" appear in blood red on the screen.

It looks just like a regular game console.

The group waited anxiously for a while longer, and finally confirmed that nothing terrible would happen even if they lost the game.

“The dwarf said we have to play until he’s satisfied.” Elite Woman Number One frowned slightly.

"We have seven days, and there are a total of twenty-eight game machines here, each with a different game."

"If passing the trials is the way to complete the game, then we can pair up and each pair can be responsible for one game per day."

“But you also said ‘if,’” Number Three retorted. “We can’t risk our lives to verify your guess.”

Elite Woman Number One looked slightly displeased and wanted to say something more, but was stopped by Number Two.

"She was just suggesting a possibility; she didn't mean anything more. After all, everything is still unknown, so everyone is free to speak their minds."

But no one actually offered their own ideas.

It was number six who made the first move.

She was mute, and no one else there could understand sign language. She had been standing next to Number Five, playing the role of a background character. But at this moment, she gently hooked Number Five's little finger, signaling him to translate for her.

"We can first find out exactly what games are involved, and maybe we can discover some clues."

"Sure, there's nothing else to do right now anyway." Number Three and Number Four nodded in agreement.

Xiao Cheng and Fang He had no other opinions, and Number Two readily agreed. The remaining elite women, Number One, could only submit to the majority.

Ultimately, they split into pairs to explore the machines separately.

"This looks like a dress-up game?" Xiao Cheng looked at the big-headed girl wrapped in a bath towel on the screen.

"Without a doubt, yes."

Fang He pressed the control button, manipulated the flower-shaped mouse arrow, and clicked the pink "Start Game" button above the girl's head.