Fang He stood on the stairs looking at Xiao Cheng, his brows furrowed slightly, a hint of confusion on his face, and asked in a cold voice, "Do you know me?"

Xiao Cheng was taken aback by his question. She paused for two seconds, then asked hesitantly, "So... we shouldn't know each other?"

She glanced at the number five above Fang He's head, then turned her gaze back to his face.

His blank expression didn't seem fake; he clearly had no reason to make such a joke now. Looking at his face more closely, perhaps it was just her imagination, but Xiao Cheng noticed that there really was a slight... difference?

Is it just my imagination?

While she was still a little confused, Fang He slowly walked up the steps toward her.

"A newcomer?" He stopped in front of Xiao Cheng, looking down at her with a gaze full of unfamiliarity. "I don't care where you got my name, or where you learned this trick, but if you're trying to get close to me this way..."

He chuckled lightly, leaned down slightly, and said in a gentle yet dangerous tone, "Go wash up and go to bed early. This is a life-or-death dungeon, not some prime-time idol drama."

Whether it's an idol drama or not is another matter, but Xiao Cheng never dreamed that one day she would encounter such a plot involving suspected amnesia.

She met Fang He's gaze with a complicated expression, and asked in a particularly tactful manner, "Is it possible that I know your twin brother?"

"I thought we were going to meet in a dream," Fang He sneered.

Xiao Cheng pondered for a moment, then nodded quietly: "It's not impossible. Maybe I know another version of you in the world."

Fang He was speechless for a moment, then straightened up, took a step back to create distance between himself and Xiao Cheng, and then steered the conversation back on track: "Number Six, even if you're a complete newbie, you should know what a dungeon is all about, right?"

Xiao Cheng forced a somewhat awkward smile: "Maybe I really don't know right now."

Fang He didn't say anything, but glanced at her meaningfully before turning around and leaving without any hesitation.

"Wait!" Xiao Cheng grabbed his wrist quickly. "Tell me! Tell me and I'll know! Can't you be a little more patient with newcomers? You weren't like this before!"

Fang He paused, expressionless, and flicked his wrist, trying to break free of her hand.

But it didn't shake.

He experienced firsthand what it meant to have a grip as strong as an iron clamp.

Xiao Cheng was completely unaware of this, and after noticing his resistance, she even unconsciously increased her efforts.

Fang He took a deep breath, unable to bear it any longer: "Let go."

But Xiao Cheng didn't let go; instead, she held on even tighter, looking up at him pitifully: "Brother Number Five, everyone else is ostracizing me. If even you don't tell me, I really will die here."

“I know, I’m telling you, but let go first,” Fang He said through gritted teeth. “You’ve almost broken my wrist.”

Xiao Cheng looked down blankly, then withdrew her hand as if she had been electrocuted.

His wrists were covered in bruises, especially the several very obvious finger marks, which looked particularly striking.

"Sorry, I'm just naturally strong." She could probably guess what the so-called amnesia was all about, but she still couldn't help but complain, "But you look really weak right now."

Fang He was visibly angry, so much so that he didn't even notice Xiao Cheng's words. He rubbed his wrist to suppress his temper and asked impatiently, "So what do you want to know? Do you need me to start from the beginning?"

"Wait, I have a few questions to ask before that." Xiao Cheng shook his head. "First, do you know what the system's mainframe is?"

"Regarding the system's mainframe, some players have indeed speculated that it's the reason we were inexplicably dragged into these dungeons, but no one can prove its existence." Fang He gave her a meaningful look. "Are you sure you want to ask this?"

"And what about a place to rest?"

"Perhaps... you mean the void field between the two instances?"

His answer confirmed Xiao Cheng's own guess. She nodded knowingly: "I see. Then nothing else matters. I have nothing more to ask. Let's go downstairs. After all, I volunteered to come and meet you and the other players."

"Are you sure?" Fang He raised an eyebrow in surprise, watching her pass by him and walk unhurriedly toward the stairs.

"Ah, of course there are still questions left, but unfortunately, you can't give me the answers right now." Xiao Cheng was walking on the steps, and after only two steps down, she suddenly stopped, as if she had suddenly remembered something, and turned to look at Fang He, who looked slightly surprised.

"Players don't lie to players, I have indeed seen another version of you in the world, or more accurately, Fang He 2.0? Well, to put it simply." Xiao Cheng curled her lips into a playful smile, "Brother Number Five, he's so manly."

In the lobby on the first floor, Number One stared impatiently at the direction of the stairs. Seeing Xiao Cheng and Fang He walking down slowly, his brows furrowed so deeply they looked like they could trap a fly: "I told you to find someone, why is it taking so long? Where's the other one? And where did Number Four go?"

Xiao Cheng: "..." Damn it, after seeing Fang He, I completely forgot about Player Number Four! Completely forgot about him!

Fortunately, a short while later, Number Four came running downstairs, panting: "I...I'm sorry!"

He slumped onto the sofa, catching his breath slightly. "I went to check the rooms, so it's a little late, but I did find some clues." He pulled a stack of exquisite gold-embossed invitations from his pocket and arranged them in a row on the central tea table according to their numbers. "This house belongs to a novelist, and the five of us were invited here because... wait!"

He suddenly paused slightly, glancing around at everyone present with some uncertainty. He then recounted the number of invitations, his eyes widening in alarm as he looked at the number six above Xiao Cheng's head: "How can there be six players? Shouldn't this be a five-player instance?"

"Could it be that there aren't enough invitations? After all, there are six floors in total, and if there's one room on each floor, there should indeed be six players," Fang He said.

“But…but…” Number Four shook his head violently, as if he had discovered something extremely terrifying, and his voice began to tremble involuntarily. “You didn’t go to the top floor, so you don’t know. There are only five rooms left for the players. The sixth floor…that’s the novelist’s study.”

Xiao Cheng: "..." So you mean an unnecessary sixth person?

Number One was the first to react, pointing at Xiao Cheng and shouting, "I get it! You're the novelist! You're an NPC mixed in with the players!"

Xiao Cheng was speechless, and didn't even bother to complain. "Big brother, use your brain! Are you just going to use your head to crack walnuts?"

Just as the atmosphere was getting tense, a rhythmic round of applause suddenly came from the other end of the stairs.

Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and saw the unshaven novelist holding a transparent thermos cup, leaning lazily against the railing, waving to them: "Welcome to my five...six distinguished guests who have come as invited."