“I don’t know where the person you’re looking for is. My orders only include bringing you there.”

The "Fang He" in front of him seemed completely oblivious to the pain; he even moved closer to the blade, allowing it to penetrate even deeper.

“You have to get to the core area, there’s no time to lose.” He stated calmly, “You have to get there before Nineteen wakes up, before the instance ends, and then you can find it.”

"What is it?" Xiao Cheng frowned, pulled the blade outwards a little, and moved it a bit further away from him to prevent him from impulsively committing suicide by hitting his head against the blade.

"What you're looking for." He seemed particularly honest, answering Xiao Cheng's every question truthfully.

That's so weird.

Xiao Cheng tried her best to ignore the strange feeling in her heart and asked again, "The black box?"

But this time he didn't answer immediately. Instead, he shook his head, looking slightly bewildered: "I don't know."

"Who gave you the order?"

"……have no idea."

Why did you use Fang He's appearance?

“Because that way you will believe it.” This time he didn’t shake his head again, but gave the answer very quickly, “I can perfectly imitate his habits, I am his copy, in a sense, I am him.”

Xiao Cheng: "..." So who gave you this confidence?

“It’s too late, come with me.” He repeated stubbornly again, “To the core area, it’ll be soon, the time will be up soon.”

Xiao Cheng silently scrutinized him for a long time, then turned and sheathed the knife.

"Let's go, lead the way." She bent down, picked up the brass ring, and surprisingly easily opened the iron gate on the ground.

That easy?

She began to have some doubts. After all, the way he opened the door just now didn't seem fake. If he really had such good acting skills, she wouldn't have seen through him so easily.

Then he gave a relieved smile: "You really are the person I've been looking for. You are destined to go there, and it can only be you."

Xiao Cheng looked at the bloodstains on his neck with a slight sense of speechlessness.

I don't understand, I really don't understand this idea of ​​replicating people.

*

Fang He pressed the button on the wall of the cubicle again. This time, only two doors opened, facing each other.

The area outside was shrouded in a light mist, obscuring the view of the opposite cubicle. He hesitated for a moment, then walked straight towards the door on the left.

It was still a blank room.

Fang He knew he had made the wrong choice, but the door had already closed again, and to make matters worse…

This is a death cell.

If the previous method is still used to transform the space, it is almost impossible for him to stay exactly at the intersection of the two sides, which means that he would have to start almost entirely from scratch.

Unless someone opens that door again.

However, it seems even less likely than the possibility of remaining in the same place after the transformation.

It seems we'll have to take a longer route.

Fang He sighed helplessly, squatted down, and began to calculate the transition point here.

Just then, a noise was heard from behind the wall, followed by a loud bang. The door was kicked open, and then Nineteen, carrying a gun, stormed in with great momentum.

To be precise, they broke in halfway.

He stood by the door, peering into the cubicle: "Damn it, another dead cell?"

Upon seeing Fang He, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he waved excitedly, urging, "Come here! Hurry up, before the door closes! Let's go to the other side; the other door definitely leads to the gray semi-core area!"

Everything happened too coincidentally.

But now is not the time to doubt.

Fang He glanced meaningfully at Nineteen's flushed face, then quickly got up and ran towards the other cubicle.

The moment the two ran into the gray cubicle, the door slammed shut right behind them.

Nineteen looked at the iron gate that had been pulled open in the center of the ground, and the joy on his face became even stronger.

"Looks like someone's already gone ahead! It's most likely Xiao Cheng! Let's hurry and catch up!"

"Do you know where they went?" Fang He followed closely behind him, braced himself with one hand, and jumped down from the iron gate.

The rooms were still gray, and the iron door in the center of the floor was still open.

"Of course it's the core area! Only the core area can be cleared. You're a veteran player who's cleared so many dungeons, you can't possibly not know this, right?"

As he spoke, Nineteen continued to leap down from the iron gate with remarkable agility, the gun in his hand posing no obstacle to him.

“There’s no other way. After all, I’ve been trapped in the Death Chamber until now, so the information I can get is really limited,” Fang He said calmly, then casually asked again, “So you’ve been working with Xiao Cheng all this time?”

"It wasn't exactly continuous. We separated later in a cubicle. There was a spatial shift when the door opened, which was just bad luck." Nineteen sighed softly. "Luckily, I can absorb experience beads."

"Experience Beads?"

Fang He looked at the abnormal blush on his face. Compared to the beginning, it seemed to have faded a little, but it was not obvious.

"Yes, that's a great thing! I leveled up entirely because of that!" Nineteen excitedly introduced it to him. "But if you've been in the Dead Zone the whole time, you probably haven't encountered those monsters. All the experience orbs are dug out of the monsters' bodies."

It doesn't sound like a good thing.

Fang He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, then suddenly changed the subject: "Nice gun."

"Haha, likewise, your knife is pretty good too."

Then the two fell silent, quickly following the open iron doors, and walked unimpeded into the first all-black cubicle.