Overwhelmed with grief and anger, Number 5 rushed into the elevator, her shoulders shaking with sobs. Desperate to escape, she frantically pressed the elevator buttons repeatedly.

As if hearing her thoughts, the elevator doors finally began to slowly close, making a creaking sound that made your teeth ache.

"Heh, it's nothing..." Number 3 was about to make a few sarcastic remarks when he suddenly heard Number 5 scream in panic from inside the elevator.

The scream was shrill and distorted, like the sound of fingernails scratching a blackboard. Interspersed with the scream were the short beeps of the elevator, the floor numbers jumping erratically before finally settling on the 5th floor.

The calls and beeping stopped abruptly.

"Is this... all better?" 4 asked hesitantly.

No sooner had he finished speaking than two loud bangs were heard.

The floor display quickly went dark. Brother No. 7 was the first to react, rushing over to pry open the outer door of the elevator, revealing the completely deformed car that had fallen down.

Steel and wooden planks were pressed and stacked together, with half of a twisted, deformed, mud-like hand protruding from the edge.

Reddish-black blood slowly seeped out.

Number 5 died.

“This…” Xiao Cheng didn’t feel much empathy for the NPC’s death. She looked at the young man with a puzzled expression, feeling that this matter was more or less related to him.

The man keenly noticed her gaze and gave her a faint, aloof smile: "My name is Fang He."

It means they don't intend to say it explicitly.

Xiao Cheng nodded knowingly and turned to look at the other digital people.

Number 1 and Number 3 moved away from the elevator with disgust, Number 4 anxiously tugged at his hair, Number 2 continued blowing bubble gum indifferently, and Number 7 squatted outside the elevator car, trying to get Number 5's body out.

But the steel was too heavy, and he tried for a long time without success. He could only plead with the others, "Please help me."

Nobody helped him.

He sighed dejectedly, then stood up and scratched his buzz cut helplessly: "In this godforsaken place... if she dies like this, won't she become a ghost?"

"Even if you become a ghost, you won't come after us." Number 3 sneered. "So what if you die? Don't forget our topic today. You all had a good game last night, right?"

The atmosphere became lively again, and the death of Number 5 was glossed over.

They began to share their experiences in numerical order.

"I lit the candle." Number 1 became more and more excited as he spoke, gesturing wildly, his blond hair flying proudly. "It really appeared in the mirror! I've never seen anything so magical before. I watched it crawl out of the mirror, I fed it blood, and it immediately answered my question!"

“Me too.” Number 2 stopped chewing the bubble gum, and his voice became clearer. “It really answered my question that had puzzled me for years.”

"I don't know, I don't know how to describe it." Number 4, seemingly insane, spoke before Number 3 could. "She is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen... I swear, she is absolutely the most beautiful woman I have ever seen."

After Number 3 and Number 7 finished speaking, they all turned to Xiao Cheng and Fang He.

"And you?" Number 1 asked.

"And you?" all the digital beings repeated in unison.

"Same as above." Fang He said succinctly, "A very fruitful harvest."

"Number 8, you'll say something different, won't you?" Number 3 let out a sinister laugh.

Xiao Cheng's "same as above" was cut off. Thinking about the mirror she had smashed, she carefully said, "Very intense, extremely intense."

"It spoke to me in a friendly manner, and I responded enthusiastically. It was a very pleasant experience, so pleasant that I was so excited that I couldn't sleep at night and even dreamed about it."

"This is bad. You need to break free as soon as possible, or it will control you," Brother Number 7 warned earnestly. "It didn't leave any marks, did it?"

"No," she said, shaking her head.

"That's good." Brother No. 7 seemed genuinely happy for her. "Otherwise, it would have come looking for you. You know, these kinds of things are usually very persistent."

He paused, seemingly lost in thought, and then emphasized again with lingering fear, "Quite persistent."

That concludes the sharing session. Now it's time to plan for the second night, which is tonight's games.

“According to the rules, today’s game is supposed to be a two-player game.” Number 1 pulled a palm-sized booklet out of his pocket. “But we only have seven people now, and one person is unfortunately unable to participate.”

Xiao Cheng wanted to volunteer and raise her hand; she really wanted this good fortune.

But number 7 spoke up before she could: "I'll give up. You guys want to play this game even more than I do."

"That means we'll split the six of us into three groups," Number 1 nodded. "We'll arrange the specific groups according to the game rules, okay?"

"Sure." Number 3 chuckled mischievously, "But Number 8 will probably end up with Number 6."

With plenty of time before nightfall, they now faced another practical problem.

The elevator is broken, and the stairwell is closed.

They had no way to get back to their rooms.

Fang He and Xiao Cheng made an excuse to see if they could open the stairwell, temporarily getting away from the digital humans.

"You've read the diary, haven't you?" Fang He asked bluntly.

"I've looked at it. Is there a problem with the diary?" Xiao Cheng didn't mention that the diary had gotten hot this morning.

"No, I was just curious and wanted to try it out."

"curious?"

“Yes, I want to see whether it’s the diary recording or us replicating it.” Fang He leaned lazily against the wall. “Number 6 actually accepted Number 5’s confession yesterday. It’s a mutual crush between the two of them, but my behavior just now was very gentlemanly. I didn’t do anything wrong to them.”

Xiao Cheng: "..." I'll say thank you on behalf of the young couple.

“Yesterday, a distorted black shadow crawled out of the mirror.” Fang He jumped to a very fast topic. “It was afraid of light. When I held up a candle, it didn’t dare to come near me. It disappeared on its own after half an hour.”

"I smashed the mirror, and it didn't have time to come out," Xiao Cheng said frankly. "Mainly because it was pointing at my bald face, I just couldn't resist."

Fang He remained silent for a long time before saying, "You are truly a brave warrior."

"You flatter me," Xiao Cheng said modestly.

After exchanging a brief exchange of information, Xiao Mengshi and Fang Shenshi returned to the group of digital people.

“It can’t be opened. The big iron lock is very sturdy. We need a key,” Fang He said.

"Who knows if he actually went to check the lock?" Number 3's laugh left much to the imagination.

"Let's go check the guardhouse; they might have a spare key there." Number 1 pointed to the small cubicle next to the main gate.

"I'll go," Brother Number 7 volunteered again.

But this time, Number 3 stopped him: "How can I always let you do the work?" After saying that, he turned to face Xiao Cheng. Although he had no facial features, Xiao Cheng could definitely feel his sinister and cold gaze.

He then said, "Number 8, you go."