03. Expressionless: "It's been more than seven days. Let's go."

No one left.

Bao'er said softly, "Teacher said that some dungeons are special and take ten or even dozens of days to finish."

Zhao Maomao recalled Bu Yi, whom she had picked up from the plant-picking instance: "Yes, the boss saved someone last time, and she stayed in the instance for several months."

123 chimed in: "And the dungeon has shrunk again, which means they probably got a dungeon core, but got caught up in another dungeon before they came out."

04. The mouth moved but no words came out. This is a rare case. The core of the dungeon may have been taken by someone else.

03 turned and left: "Stubborn."

Half a day later, 02 and the others returned to the inn, and 03 was cleaning the bloodstains off the knife.

"Who did you kill?" Question 02.

"The surrounding guards were cleared out."

02 smiled gently. 3 This child is tough on the outside but soft on the inside. He was afraid that Xia Chuhe and the others would be attacked when they came out, so he cleared away the potential threats in advance.

03 said, "Let's wait until tomorrow. Someone needs to stay in the store, and someone needs to earn points."

02 nodded: "I gave the things to Si'er. He's Bao'er's teacher, so it's enough for him to look after her. If... things really get bad, Bao'er..."

03 said, "I have always been Bao'er's older brother."

After spending several months together, the nameless ones had come to regard Bao'er as part of their own family. If Xia Chuhe really did die in the dungeon, they still had the means to raise a child. Besides, in a few years, Bao'er would be old enough to live independently.

At the same time, Xin Diao was also considering whether to enter the dungeon to rescue Xia Chuhe and the others. If they were still alive, she could be a help to them.

However, Sister Diao's coma lasted longer and longer.

If she went into the dungeon with Diao Jie, it would be like bringing a burden most of the time. But Xin Diao wasn't comfortable leaving Diao Jie outside either. If Diao Jie died, she'd probably die with her.

After thinking it over, Xin Diao contacted the people at the Lighthouse: "I agree to the deal. What do you want?"

Lighthouse: "Swear allegiance to the lighthouse, come to the lighthouse base, and I will give you an item that will allow two people to merge."

Xin Diao didn't hesitate any longer: "Okay."

Lighthouse: "Before that, bring your pledge of loyalty—I want the head of the leader of the Believers in Heaven Gang."

As a user of the Haijiao Forum, Xin Diao knew a little about the Xintian Gang, the newest force to take control of the Haijiao Trading Market. It was rumored that the gang leader could hear divine language.

Xin Diao quickly made up his mind to first take the head of the Xintian Gang leader, and then go to the Lighthouse to resolve his own problems.

If she's fast enough, she might still have a chance to come back and collect Xia Chuhe's body.

...

The consequence of working until the early hours of the morning and then dealing with other miscellaneous matters is that you don't wake up until noon the next day.

Xia Chuhe and the others didn't waste their energy points buying food and water gift packs; instead, they ate the food stored on the farm.

During the meal, the group discussed what they needed to do that day.

Let's go to the chicken and duck siblings' house first and find out about their feeding patterns. Last night, the chicks were clearly holding back on their feeding patterns; maybe we can pry more information out of them.

At night, they'd transform into diners and go to the restaurants to cause trouble. Especially that restaurant next door, which had only opened after splitting off half of its dining area from the original "Flesh and Blood Restaurant"—it was practically dead!

With Li Qiusheng and Wang Yan leading the way, the group of six soon arrived near a cluster of buildings that looked almost like ruins.

The buildings here are all two or three-story unfinished buildings with exposed, unsealed cement on the exterior walls, and most of the windows are empty, like unfinished abandoned buildings.

However, there weren't many weeds around the building, probably because they were often trampled on.

Li Qiusheng pointed to one of the buildings: "Here, on the third floor."

The first and second floors were silent. Lu Dangui glanced at them briefly; no one lived there.

The chicken and duck siblings chose to live on the third floor, probably for safety reasons.

The group of six quickly reached the third floor.

Li Qiusheng knocked on the door: "Are you home?"

There was no response from inside the door.

Li Qiusheng waited for a while, then grew a little impatient. She looked at Xia Chuhe with her eyes, asking for his opinion.

Xia Chuhe nodded.

Li Qiusheng forcefully pushed the door open and entered the house with Wang Yan.

"that is……"

Li Qiusheng only said two words before he and Wang Yan disappeared from the sight of the other four people.

"Something's up." Xia Chuhe cautiously stopped the others.

However, the scenery before her suddenly changed, and she found herself alone in an unfamiliar place.

Xia Chuhe heard a notification: "Task triggered - Role-playing, do not be detected. Buy a brand new pair of sports shoes for the upcoming sports meet. Success will grant you clues about the past, failure will result in missing the clues and deducting 50 energy points."

Meanwhile, Wang Yan and Li Qiusheng were moved to an unfamiliar office, where they shared the same task—to ensure the auction's success. Success would grant 100 energy points, while failure would deduct 20 energy points (success may have unpredictable consequences; please complete the task with caution).

The other three also changed their identities and accepted the mission.

Lu Danggui – Role-playing, must not be exposed, mission is to get a meal of meat.

Li Yue – a role-playing character whose identity must not be revealed; her mission is to fulfill the child's requests.

Bu Yi – role-playing, which must not be detected, and the task is to satisfy the child's demands.

The rewards and penalties for the three missions are the same: success rewards 100 energy points and a clue, while failure deducts 50 energy points. They also receive a warning—mission success may have unpredictable consequences; please complete the mission with caution.

Based on the energy levels accumulated by the six people, as long as even one person can complete the task, the energy levels are more than enough to withstand the impact of failure.

The six people disappeared in the small building, and a past event was reenacted in another time and space.

"Xiao Wang, Xiao Li, you two revise this document and make a new one. We'll need it at the auction." The fat, middle-aged man handed a document to Wang Yan.

Wang Yan and Li Qiusheng flipped through the documents; it was the completed auction document concerning the taste of hope.

The document takes into account factors such as Hopeful Taste's geographical location, customer traffic, and operating conditions, and gives an asset valuation price: - Energy Value.

The starting price for the auction is 100 energy points.

In other words, if someone bids for the Taste of Hope at the reserve price, they will not only have to spend 100 energy points to buy it, but also take on a debt of 50,000 energy points.

Li Qiusheng muttered, "Where did this rich sucker come from? This one didn't even go unsold?"

However, the project that promises to taste is a fairly successful project that has already been completed.

The two flipped to the last page of the document, where they found that the "Taste of Hope" had been purchased by Boss Xiong for 200 energy points and was later renamed "Taste of Despair".

Now, Wang Yan and Li Qiusheng need to refer to this document to conduct an asset appraisal of the Dongbei Hotel and draft the relevant documents.