This place was called Terror City, also known as Smile City due to its distinctive symbol ":)", a unique space hidden in the real world.
Every day, new players are absorbed into this place, and numerous new dungeon games appear, filled with dangers.
The safe house roams among the various dungeons.
It had been twenty hours since Zhang Xue and Li Jianqiang entered the safe house.
Xia Jing was sitting on the sofa, holding Tuanzi, quietly gazing out of the window, when he suddenly heard the faint sound of a door opening with a click.
He turned his head.
Zhang Xue met his gaze and instinctively avoided it, appearing somewhat fearful.
The scene of Li Jianqiang's death lingered in Zhang Xue's mind, together with the youth's attitude at the time, it was almost like he was watching an ant being crushed, it made her feel a chill deep in her heart.
Xia Jing, however, didn't mind her reaction. He smiled and said, "Good morning."
Zhang Xue trembled slightly.
No matter how gentle his voice was, it couldn't provide her any comfort at this moment.
Avoiding Xia Jing's gaze, she spoke in a hushed voice, "...I...I still have a monster's eye on me. I want to see... if I can use it to buy some props."
Xia Jing's smile broadened.
He said cheerfully, "Please feel free to use the electronic scale at the front desk."
Xia Jing's smile made Zhang Xue lower her head even more.
...The monster's eye was something she had picked up along with the dragon horn.
At the time, she didn't know why the veteran players collected these disgusting monster parts, but she thought it might be useful in case of emergencies..... She had indeed hidden the existence of the monster's eye from Li Jianqiang intentionally.
Li Jianqiang was too impulsive, too reckless. The less he knew, the fewer accidents would happen.
Of course, Zhang Xue had to admit, during those not long yet not short sixteen hours, she had thought about the fact that, given Li Jianqiang's personality, outside, she would still be forced to interact with him due to her family's strong demands. But in this life-and-death situation... she had to leave herself with more options.
Biting her lip, Zhang Xue took out the sticky monster's eye from her pocket and carefully placed it on the electronic scale.
Soon, the small screen on the scale displayed "200 energy density 100 grams."
Zhang Xue took back the monster's eye, steadied herself, and walked towards the small shop.
After a while, she came out empty-handed.
Unlike the items obtained in dungeons or game halls, equipment "purchased" in the safe house's small shop appear as small icons on the player's body. With a single thought, the item appears in the player's hand, and the method of use automatically appears in the player's mind.
A small scythe icon appeared on Zhang Xue's wrist.
She nodded to Xia Jing and cautiously approached the safe house door.
The scene outside the safe house shifted, instantly returning to the familiar corridor.
Xia Jing leaned on the sofa, his elbow resting on the armrest, his hand supporting his chin, he watched with interest, as a woman, who had just arrived in Smile City for a short period of time, was already adept at peeking outside in a defensive posture.
After waiting for a full minute, with no movement outside, Zhang Xue took a deep breath, decisively summoned the scythe into her hand, opened the door, and stepped out.
The next moment, the safe house departed, drifting towards the next dungeon.
Xia Jing chuckled, retracting his gaze, his slender fingers stroking Tuanzi's fur, "Isn't it really interesting?"
All kinds of people, various personalities, strange and unpredictable dungeons and monsters.
Tuanzi raised its little head comfortably, leaning into Xia Jing's palm, seemingly asking for more head pats.
"Unfortunately, to play the game properly from start to finish like them, I still have to log into the dungeons from the game hall." Xia Jing muttered to himself.
He only had one opportunity per week to control the drifting direction of the safe house.
With that in mind, Xia Jing stood up, walked to the door, and raised his hand to gently touch a crack on the door frame.
The safe house couldn't be damaged from the outside, but it could be damaged from within.
Li Jianqiang was too large and, when forcibly ejected from the safe house, crashed into the door frame, creating a crack.
Xia Jing spread his fingers in the air, and with a thought, a dragon horn appeared in his hand.
As if playing an instrument or drawing threads, Xia Jing's slender fingers grasped the energy from the monster within the dragon horn and collected it within his palm. The horn immediately turned gray, fell apart and scattered like powder.
With the energy gathered in his palm, Xia Jing gently touched the crack on the door frame.
In an instant, the crack disappeared without a trace.
And just like that, a dragon horn was consumed.
Tuanzi, followed closely to Xia Jing's feet, sticking to him like his shadow. Xia Jing propped up his chin with his elbow, murmuring, "One dragon horn was used to make that bowl of noodles, another to repair the crack. Now, only the newly acquired eye and four other monster parts are left..."
The stock was running low.
Xia Jing's eyes shifted, smiling at Tuanzi.
"But it's okay, today is Monday in the game hall."
Meaning, it was the day he could control the safe house.
He could go out to gather supplies—
And play some games along the way.
*
Smile City Game Hall, Monday.
The game hall was like a huge plaza, the entire space formed an oval-shape.
At the front center was a massive holographic screen. The top of the screen displayed a countdown timer similar to the college entrance exam countdown hung in high school classrooms, showing—
:) has been running for 235 days, 3232 players online, 13 new dungeons today, 981 total dungeons.
The last three numbers changed constantly in real-time.
Below this line of text, the holographic screen was divided into two sections, the left for system announcements, and the right for player announcements.
At this moment, only a few players lingered in front of the holographic screen.
On days, when the player rankings was not updating, most players showed little interest towards the holographic screen.
Some gathered in the official supermarket at the right corner of the game hall, collecting supplies using their points.
Those with space bags were storing their weapons within them, while those without space bags simply carried them in their hands.
Others were scattered in front of the public login rooms surrounding the game hall, going through final mental preparations before entering the dungeons.
Every player forcibly absorbed into Smile City had to enter a dungeon once a week. Otherwise, if they missed the deadline, Smile City would haphazardly pull them into any dungeon at random.
It could be a relatively simple one-star or two-star dungeon.
It could also be a three-star or even four-star dungeon, impossible for ordinary players to handle.
For the sake of their small lives, most players wouldn't challenge the Smile City's game rules.
At the opposite corner from the official supermarket, there was a narrow, winding corridor.
This narrow corridor seemed like a bug left by an unqualified designer. Many players had explored it out of curiosity, only to finally conclude that there is absolutely nothing within this corridor. At the end of the corridor there was simply only a wall.
Maybe someday, Smile City would realize and remove this meaningless corridor.
But at this moment, in this small hidden place, the wall at the end of the corridor quietly turned into a door.
Inside the door.
Xia Jing was making final preparations for his departure.
As the owner of the safe house, he naturally didn't have to pay for any props.
However, Xia Jing usually never wasted the monster equipment he had painstakingly collected.... these were valuable for exchanging high-energy-density monster parts.
He only took the monster, faceless woman's skin mask from the rack, and a small human face icon appeared near his right ear on the back of his neck.
The faceless woman's skin mask needed activation.
Xia Jing drew a rather rough face on a piece of paper.
Even Tuanzi frowned at the drawing.
Unfazed, Xia Jing naturally summoned the skin mask and fed it the paper with the drawn face.
With the sound of "kacha, kacha" the mask chewed and swallowed the paper, and soon, the except for a mouth, otherwise faceless skin began to show specific features.
Xia Jing put the skin mask back into the small icon on his neck and with a thought—
His originally handsome and beautiful face turned into a totally ordinary one.
He now looked about twenty years old, with a large, doughy face, small triangular single-lidded eyes, a flat nose bridge, chapped thick lips, and features that seemed to have been altered by some funny face filter, it absolutely defied appearances a human could be born with in reality .
His smooth black hair turned into a hedgehog-like buzz cut, just as he had crudely drawn.
Tuanzi lay on the ground, unable to bear the sight, covered its face with its paws.... to correct what was said before, it is not "ordinary" at all.
Had it not feared that Xia Jing would waste monster parts trying to treat it, Tuanzi was very eager to claw its own eyes out right on the spot.
Xia Jing laughed out loud, his clear voice becoming hoarse and rough.
"This voice can't be blamed on me, it's the faceless woman's mask automatically matching a voice to the features recognized by it."
Xia Jing stored a machete, rope, pliers, and a dagger in his space bag, and then put the small pouch-like space bag into the pocket on his pants.
These were props he had bought in the game hall, with points he had earned from completing dungeons.
Finished his preparations, Xia Jing smiled mischievously, he used his beautiful slender fingers, which did not fit his current face at all to tickle Tuanzi's chin and said "Alright, take good care of the place, ok~"
Tuanzi barked, wagged its tail a few times in disgust, and turned its head away, using the resentment in its eyes to show that he has been hurt by this face .
Xia Jing laughed heartily, straightening up, in a good mood, saying, "I'm heading out—"
"I'll be back sooner."
Leaving behind a final bright smile and a statement that the doggy did not believe at all, the young man pushed open the door and walked out.
…
The young man emerging from the depths of the narrow corridor did not attract anyone's attention.
Although, the young man had an astonishing height of 1.8 meters and a figure comparable to that of a model's, however that face truly could not attract anyone's attention.
After seven days... no, more than seven days.
The safe house's time mostly follows the time frame of the dungeons, and a day in a dungeon could correspond to just an hour in the game hall.
So, technically Xia Jing had already been holed up in the safe house for more than seven days.
Finally once again arriving in the game hall, he took a deep breath. His pair of black pupils, within those small eyes, sparkled with light.
Humming a tune softly, Xia Jing squinted his eyes and smiled as he walked straight towards the login room.
At this moment, the game hall had more than a hundred public login rooms, its numbers would automatically increase or decrease based on the number of players online.
Many players stood scattered around in front of unoccupied login rooms, just standing there, hesitant to enter.
Among these rows of login rooms, there were also many that had a green light shining indicating "occupied."
Suddenly, a few rooms were opened from the inside, and the people emerging from within were either covered in blood, deathly pale or completely drenched in sweat. There were also people, who were relatively composed with unfazed expressions.
Seeing these people, the players who had not logged in yet showed a constantly changing variety of reactions.
Some, no longer wanting to hesitate, clenched their fists and with a "bang", opened a login room and walked in.
Others had a mental breakdown, they squatted down holding their heads, repeatedly muttering "Amitabha."
Forming a stark contrast to others, Xia Jing barely paused in front of the login room with a red light indicating "unoccupied," opened the door, and just walked in.
His fleeting side profile attracted quite a few glances containing complex feelings.
After the small door closed, the only item in the login room, a machine resembling an ATM, lit up its screen.
The screen displayed in small frames various dungeons, sixteen per page, for a total of sixty-two pages.
The dungeons were arranged by difficulty from low to high.
Seeing the dungeons, Xia Jing's face lit up, like a thirsty desert traveler finding water.
Standing still, he eagerly flipped to the last page, which causes him to raise an eyebrow.
—Not too surprising.
Today, there were still no four-star dungeons.
At the end of the sixty-two pages, the last dungeon was still a three-star dungeon.
Xia Jing pondered, flipping back a bit, and saw that most three-star dungeons currently showed "0" in the top right corner of their small frames, meaning no players were currently logged into those dungeons.
After entering the login room, players would be automatically deducted by two points, but entering the room did not guarantee the start of a dungeon game.
Each dungeon had a number requirement of players.
If a player chose a dungeon with no players and by the time three hours have passed and the required number of players still has not been met, the dungeon would automatically eject the player.
Those two points would be wasted.
Many new players, not having many points to begin with, would without completely understanding the rules, waste all their points in the login room and lose the chance to choose a dungeon themselves.
After the seven-day limit, the Smile City would automatically pull them into any random dungeon, leaving their fate up to chance.
Xia Jing wasn't foolish enough to enter an empty dungeon, as it would be a waste of time.
He thought for a moment and summoned a small holographic screen for players he had bought with his points.
The holographic screen showed up in front of him, Xia Jing clicked into the forum and saw an uncountable amount of posts.
"Bit the bullet and bought a holographic screen, only ten points left. Any big shots willing to help a newbie earn points? QAQ"
"Anyone want to discuss the four-star dungeons opened before? [1][2][3][4]"
"The idiot Cyclops in the 'Humans Go Die' dungeon yesterday at 4 PM, fuck, if you have the guts to steal my equipment, you have the guts to come duel me in the game hall! [1][2]"
"What exactly is this mysterious safe house anyway? Can any big shots explain it to us newbies?"
"Newbie question, has anyone successfully earned ten thousand points and left here..."
"It seems there isn't a lot of people today. Why hasn't anyone entered a three-star dungeon yet?"
Xia Jing quickly browsed through and clicked into the last post.
The post was made at 9 AM, and now it was already 12 PM noon, yet no one had responded to the OP, to agree to enter a three-star dungeon together.
Just Xia Jing and the OP were also far from enough players needed for a three-star dungeon's requirement.
Xia Jing wasn't too disappointed. For him, playing low-star dungeons was still playing, and he could still collect "materials"—monsters.
He simply closed the holographic screen, raised his hand, and selected the "newly added today" category on the machine. Thirteen dungeons appeared in front of Xia Jing.
Ten one-star dungeons, three two-star dungeons.
Among the two-star dungeons, two already had a full headcount, with the games being already in progress.
The only remaining two-star dungeon displayed a "8/9" in the top right corner.
The dungeon required nine players, and eight had already logged in.
Xia Jing's eyes swept over the dungeon's name and cover.
"Don't Think About It!"
The cover featured a distorted black color splotch with tentacle-like extensions, resembling an octopus, in the center. On the monster's face were squinted eyes in the shape of crescent moons caused by smiling and a ghastly white mouth.
Staring at it long enough, one could seemingly see a twisted human face in the center of the monster.
Xia Jing squinted a bit.
The human face seemed to emerge automatically from the cover, but it also seemed like an illusion formed from staring too long, making it hard to distinguish.
Xia Jing soon shifted his attention.
Behind the monster, various daily life scenes were scattered around.....an open-plan office, a crowded supermarket, a wide roadway, a cozy home, a school, classrooms, etc...
No apparent pattern.
The information shown was very fragmented.
"En".
This one will do.
Hope it would be more interesting.
Thinking this, Xia Jing smiled and lightly clicked the dungeon's cover and darkness suddenly completely covered his sight.
…
…
After an unknown amount of time, Xia Jing was awakened by a melodious tune.
Along with the music, a gentle female voice softly called out.
"Students, it's time to get up, students, it's time to get up..."
"Please wash up and go to the cafeteria for breakfast. After eating, quickly head to class for morning study..."
The sound of creaking echoed in his ears, it was the noise created when the crude wooden bed boards were being pressed.
Xia Jing felt his head was groggy, when he lifted his upper body, he immediately noticed he was wearing a thin, white base and blue lining, spring school uniform.
His lower half was clad in loose matching pants, stuffed under the blanket, even though only a minute has passed since he had awakened, he already felt suffocatingly hot.
…A two-star dungeon was expected to be rudimentary, but not providing pajamas was a little to overly rudimentary.
Silent for a moment, Xia Jing lifted his blanket and glanced around.
One dormitory, four beds.
Beneath the beds were their desks, everyone slept on the top bunk.
Besides him, the three others:
A youth, also in his twenties, wearing glasses, thin and ordinary-looking. He was rubbing his eyes groggily and looking around the dorm in confusion.
A muscular, dark-skinned man with a bear-like physique and fierce features, warily eyeing the other three people.
The last one lay opposite to Xia Jing's bed, rubbing his forehead.
He seemed very tall, perhaps almost 1.9 meters, broad shoulders, handsome features, fair skin, and a pair of peach blossom eyes looking a bit listless, showing how hard he was trying to awaken himself, his eyes scanning the others nonchalantly.
All four were undoubtedly players.
All four, regardless of age and size, were wearing fresh meat* school uniforms.
...Quite funny.
The glasses guy broke the silence first, clearing his throat, "Ahem…"
Xia Jing, the peach blossom-eyed man, and the bear-like man all turned their gazes to him at once.
The glasses guy suddenly found himself to be the main focus of the room, the pressure on him immediately built up.
He awkwardly laughed, "Um that… I just need to go for a morning pee, holding it in is making me a bit anxious!"
With that, he got out of bed cowardly.
The other three: "…"
Xia Jing smiled lightly and also started moving.
The bear-like man and the peach blossom-eyed man immediately looked at Xia Jing.
"I need to use the bathroom too," Xia Jing looked up, sarcastically smiling, "What… want to join?"
The peach blossom-eyed man thought for a second and got out of bed too.
The bear-like sharply turned his gaze towards him.
The peach blossom-eyed man smirked lazily, "Don't be shy. If you want to join, just queue up. No need for a silent permission."
The bear-like man almost choked to death!
Who the hell has the mood for a bathroom break after entering a dungeon, who the hell is shy about going to the bathroom, and who the hell was asking for your permission!
No but seriously, the first thing these people do after entering a dungeon is to go to the bathroom, what kind of tactic is that?!