With a crisp click, a golden game coin fell to Xiao Cheng's feet. She picked it up and said, "I succeeded."

"The game console didn't go black, it seems like I can start over and try to get another ending." Fang He tried to operate the game console, and sure enough, he returned to the game's starting screen.

This time, there was also an overview of the endings. He clicked on it and saw that there were three final endings in total. Currently, only the first one was lit up, while the other two were gray question marks.

“I thought you didn’t want to fight the little monsters anymore.” Xiao Cheng raised an eyebrow. “But since you’ve said so, it’s not impossible to do it again.”

Fang He: "...Why haven't they come down yet?"

The tactic of changing the subject wasn't very clever, but the whole thing was certainly strange.

It's been almost half an hour since number three and number one went upstairs. It was just to check the keys and call someone, it shouldn't have taken this long.

"Shall we go up and take a look?" Fang He asked Xiao Cheng for her opinion.

"Go ahead." Xiao Cheng nodded, and then the two of them walked towards the stairwell.

The second floor was unusually quiet. All the room doors were open and empty, with everyone gathered in the small kitchen.

They stood still, motionless, like a photograph frozen in time.

Number Three and Number Five were exchanging keys, the mute girl stood next to Number Five with her arm around his, and Number Four was drinking tea a little further away from them.

Number One and Number Two stood in the corner of the kitchen whispering to each other, each holding half a cream bread.

"What... is going on?" Xiao Cheng poked Number Three in confusion, but saw no reaction.

He wasn't even breathing.

"Is it related to the key?" Fang He guessed, tentatively reaching out to grab the key from Number Five's hand.

He took it down very easily, holding the delicate little key in his hand without anything happening.

"Ah...you brought the key from the game, they can't be that unlucky, can they?" Xiao Cheng blinked, vaguely guessing what had happened.

Fang He had obviously guessed it as well.

The two exchanged a glance, grabbed their keys, and hurried downstairs. They quickly found game console number three and turned on the black screen.

After a burst of melodious background music, the game screen popped up, showing six players in six different rooms, each solving a puzzle.

Fang He tried pressing the control buttons, but nothing happened. It turned out they couldn't communicate with the people in the game at all.

"I wonder how long we'll have to wait before they come out," Xiao Cheng said. "Want to try some other games? Or do you need to eat something first?"

"Let's eat something first. I found a bag of noodles in the fridge last night. Do you want to eat it together?" Fang He asked her.

Xiao Cheng thought for a moment, nodded and said, "Okay." Then, after thinking for a moment, she added, "No scallions or garlic."

So Fang He went upstairs to cook noodles, and Xiao Cheng dragged two stools side by side and sat down on one of them, watching the game progress of the six people as if she were watching a monitor.

Number Five is making the fastest progress; he has already started trying to unlock the room door with the combination lock, followed by the mute girl.

The most pitiful one was actually number one.

She entered the wrong password, and somehow triggered some mechanism. A bucket of cold water was poured over her head, leaving her soaking wet and looking quite disheveled.

She nervously twisted her hair, looked up, and shouted something.

At the same time, number five in the next room paused in his password input and then took a step back.

A spark grazed his finger, lit up, and then quickly went out, appearing completely harmless.

But without a doubt, even if he had been a fraction of a second slower, he would probably have already fallen to the ground.

"Tsk, how tragic." Xiao Cheng sighed sincerely.

By the time Fang He brought down two bowls of noodles, no one had yet managed to escape the room.

"How is it?" Fang He handed one of the bowls without scallions or garlic to Xiao Cheng, then sat down on another stool. "Eat it while it's hot, don't let it clump together."

The noodles looked delicious and smelled wonderful, making them very appetizing. Xiao Cheng used her chopsticks to scoop them up, and at the bottom of the bowl lay a soft-boiled, white egg.

"Your cooking skills are actually quite good." Xiao Cheng ate the soft-boiled egg in one bite, feeling the warm, sweet egg yolk burst in her mouth.

"Actually, all I can do is cook noodles," Fang He replied very sincerely.

"The mute girl is opening the door." Xiao Cheng ate his noodles while keeping an eye on the game progress of everyone on the screen.

The mute girl had finished typing the last letter, then cautiously walked away quickly. After waiting for a long time without seeing anything, she breathed a sigh of relief and tried to press the doorknob.

The door opened.

A light smile appeared on her face as she quickly left the room, and then the surveillance footage of her went dark.

She disappeared from the screen.

"There's no sound from upstairs." Xiao Cheng listened carefully. "There should be another level to overcome."

But they should wait until everyone has cleared the level before they can see it.

After finishing her noodles, Xiao Cheng took the two empty bowls upstairs to wash them.

The six players remained standing in the same spot like statues.

She ignored them and walked away on her own, pausing slightly as she passed the mute girl.

She frowned as she looked at the mute girl's hand and Number Five's hand, which were clasped together.

Was the movement like this before?

But Xiao Cheng looked around a few times without finding any clues. She turned around, left the kitchen, closed the door, and locked it from the outside.

In the kitchen, the mute girl slowly raised her eyes in slow motion, silently staring at her back.

The smile on her face looked painted on, stiff and empty.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!