This soup looks suspicious. The herbal soup Alice made before was pure black. Of course, it can be simply explained that herbal soup made with different plants will definitely have different colors. But why would Alice put this soup in the basement to make it?

In the entire basement, apart from this large pot, there was only the largest long, rectangular box attached to the wall, which looked quite like a coffin.

Aransta put the spoon back in its place, then opened the box. Inside was a headless human corpse. There were no fatal wounds below the neck, so the cause of death must have been the missing head. However, the cut was too clean, and it didn't even look like it was made by a sharp weapon.

"So this person's head was cut off and put in the closet in the bedroom? That should be it."

Looking at the corpse, and recalling the red herbal soup behind him, Arceus guessed that this herbal soup was a reaction substance that transformed human flesh into cotton.

He certainly couldn't test it on the corpse on the spot. Any clues left behind could be discovered by Alice, and they would be in danger once Alice stopped pretending.

Don't let Alice's seemingly weak appearance fool you; even Laast isn't entirely confident he can defeat her—this is an intuition born from the strange creatures within him.

"This herbal soup might still be of some use, Aransta. Do you have any containers on you?"

"No."

The cabin was simply furnished with a living room, bedroom, kitchen, and toilet. If you went to the kitchen to look for a container, it would be too easy to spot. There were only so many items in total, so it would be easy to notice if one was missing.

The toilet was even simpler, consisting of nothing but a pit and a bucket.

"Then let's do this: go out and find a stone of suitable size, and have Rayast hollow out the center. That way we can make a simple stone bottle."

The three of them busied themselves for a while and quickly retrieved some of the red herbal soup. The stone bottle was not well sealed, so Aransta had no choice but to hide it under the living room floor.

Actually, this thing may not be of any use, it's just better to be prepared.

Judging from the signs last night, the herbal soup doesn't take effect immediately upon contact with flesh and blood. Instead, it takes a long time to turn the flesh and blood into cotton. This can't be used as a temporary tool, but it's quite good for ambushing people.

"Brother, we've been working here for so long, Jiang Ran is probably already somewhere. We've practically turned this little house upside down, is it really any good?"

Based on the information they have now, Alice will kill those who remain here and turn them into cotton dolls. It seems to be just a dangerous trap, and there shouldn't be any problems as long as they leave.

[Rule 3: Traveler, if you find the legendary "Lost City", please enter the city during the day and do not leave the city at night. If you do not have this ambition, please stay in Alice's cabin until the seventh day, and do not leave the area within a kilometer of the cabin during this period.]

“I’m actually a little curious,” Arceus said, “what would happen if we really stayed in the cabin for seven days? Would we clear the game immediately, or—”

“Brother, do you really think we can stay here for the full seven days?” Alansta said with a wry smile. “We might not have any problem surviving, but seven days… Jiang Ran would probably have finished the game by now, and this world would have closed by then.”

"You really have a lot of faith in him, not even as much faith in your brother as I do." Arceus looked towards the door. "Just watch, there's definitely something fishy going on with Alice. I'm going to find out the truth about it!"

"And the key moment will probably be tonight!"

It was still morning in Aransta's world, while it was already night in Jiang Ran's world. There was a time difference of nearly 10 hours between them, since it was already the next day when Aransta entered the world.

It had been several hours since Jiang Ran encountered the giant centipede. After that, he continued to advance into the insect nest and discovered a very large cavern.

Jiang Ran's actions in the insect nest could not be described as secretive; rather, they were under the spotlight. Holding a water bottle, he entered the burrow under the watchful eyes of all kinds of insects, much like an old leader coming down to inspect the place.

Surprisingly, despite being a swarm of insect burrows, the tunnel was surprisingly spacious, with a height of over two meters and a width that would easily allow two people to walk side by side.

This size was certainly not designed for humans; there's probably a huge creature inside.

The cave has ventilation openings, so while it's a bit uncomfortable inside, it's not suffocating. The surrounding soil is mixed with some special crystals, providing a faint glow.

This is done simply to make things easier for the ghost story writers. If such an important location is suffocating to the point of being unable to see anything, how would they possibly complete the game? There are no unsolvable problems in the world of ghost stories.

This indirectly proves that there are important clues in the cave, and that he did not come to the wrong place.

Then... Jiang Ran got lost in the cave and wandered around for several hours.

Okay, just kidding.

About thirty minutes after entering the cave, Jiang Ran found a black crystal. Afterwards, with the help of Gwen's ability, several hours passed and Jiang Ran had obtained a total of six crystals. These crystals were distributed in various locations in the cave, and the locations they were hidden in were all extremely tricky.

After a day, Jiang Ran had to admit that he was a little hungry. It was a pity that he couldn't bring food into the Strange Tales World, otherwise he would have definitely brought in a backpack full of mineral water and compressed biscuits!

This is such a long time. In the previous instance, we would have already gone home and taken a nap. But in this instance, we haven't even reached the designated place yet. It's really unbelievable.

[Rule 5: If you are in the Insect Forest, please hide in a safe area before the night storm arrives. Do not eat black insects. The insects are not hostile to you, but most insects are not discerning. Please make sure you have the means to deal with these insects.]

[Rule Six: If you are in a deserted city, please take shelter in a safe area before the night storm arrives. Ignore any knocking at night. Remember that there are no living things here, and do not trust anything that can move.]

[Rule Seven: If you are in Alice's cottage, please do not leave the cottage for the time being. Tonight, please be sure to go to Alice's bedroom to rest. Remember to keep the windows closed, do not look into the eyes of the dolls in the room for a long time, and do not mention topics such as "family" to Alice.]