The young man rummaged in his pocket for a moment, then took out a business card and said courteously, "I come from a newly established small company. Currently, I'm doing a bit of business in Apartment Six. If you have any needs, you can add me as a friend on the forum."
"..."
Cheng Tingyu fell silent for a moment, his gaze landing on the newcomer.
After a moment, two lines of text appeared in her right eye—
[Name: Wang Si]
[True Name: Unable to Display]
The young man had a name that exuded a minimalist charm, but beyond that, no other information could be verified. The data obtained through various means was less detailed than the line on his business card that read "Salesman Wang Si of the Plush Bear General Store."
However, Cheng Tingyu also remembered that he could even read the real-time data of Wu Shanyu in the video before.
This wasn't the first time such a situation had occurred. For instance, when she first moved into the apartment, Cheng Tingyu couldn't see the ability information of Yu Zhishou, who handled her check-in today, even though he was clearly a player dispatched by the inspection team.
She had a slight suspicion in her heart—Wei Heng and the player with the ability named [Flesh and Blood: Life Overload] were both already dead. So, could Wu Shanyu, whose detailed data she could see, also be dead?
"You might not believe it, but Wang Si is my real name," Wang Si said enthusiastically to the person in front of him, who already had a preliminary understanding of him. "Of course, we call 'Furry Bear' a company, but essentially it's just a small shop..."
Cheng Tingyu: "What kind of props do you have here?"
Wang Si chuckled, "We have a bit of everything. Even if we don't have it, you can pre-order it." He added, "But for the No. 6 Apartment instance, I suggest you buy [Essential Balm Stickers] and [Chewable Coffee Candy]. These items help players stay calm and focused."
Calculating the money he could earn by living in the apartment for a month, Cheng Tingyu felt slightly tempted: "I..."
Wang Si added, "The starting price for both items is thirty thousand city coins."
Cheng Tingyu instantly regained a state of inner calm: "…I have no intention of making a purchase."
Poverty greatly limited her desire to spend.
Wang Si, who received a negative response, didn't seem particularly disappointed. He simply repeated that if there was a need, they could place an order with him.
Cheng Tingyu was somewhat curious: "Doesn't the apartment management prohibit tenants from doing business privately?"
Wang Si casually said, "Of course it's not prohibited. It's not just us here; 'Screwdriver' has also sent people here—of course, they have to be considered partners of the apartment."
Cheng Tingyu smiled thoughtfully: "The 'screwdriver' business... is quite extensive."
Wang Si had originally planned to leave, but upon hearing Cheng Tingyu's words, he stopped in his tracks, turned around, and said, "'Screwdriver' is a company very adept at seizing profits, and of course, it won't miss any opportunity to generate revenue." He paused, then showed a friendly expression, "A piece of advice for a newcomer: don't choose to deal with 'Screwdriver' when there's no room for maneuver."
The cafeteria had stocked up on a variety of convenience foods. Cheng Tingyu went to the window and picked up a bag of bread, a can of porridge, and a one-liter bottle of water. The apartment building wouldn't provide too much food for the residents at once, to prevent them from refusing to go out, making it difficult for the staff to manage the residents' living conditions.
In addition to drinking water, Apartment No. 6 also provided basic living supplies for the residents. Cheng Tingyu carefully selected for half a day, and in the end, unsurprisingly found that he didn't recognize any of the brands. So, he randomly picked an orange-scented toiletry set. When passing by the recreation room on the third floor, he borrowed two magazines to take with him.
——Compared to other types of books, newspapers and magazines are clearly more suitable for understanding the local customs and culture of a region.
Cheng Tingyu carried the items and walked towards the sixth floor.
Each floor of the apartment had residents, but it was rare to see anyone in the corridors, giving the hallways an almost abandoned sense of desolation.
Cheng Tingyu could hear the echo of her own footsteps. When she reached the fifth floor, she suddenly stopped, stepped back three steps, and turned her head to look down.
...Below was an empty expanse.
About thirty seconds later, Cheng Tingyu slowly withdrew his gaze and continued walking to the sixth floor.
Cheng Tingyu's footsteps stirred up some dust, and after she passed, the dust slowly settled back onto the steps.
After returning to Room 606, Cheng Tingyu began to formally inspect her residence for the foreseeable future. The overall space of the room was so monotonous that there was nothing particularly worth mentioning. The only thing that slightly surprised her was the relatively spacious shower set up in the washroom by the entrance. Previously, whether in the desolate area or in capsule hotels, she had always used a quick-cleaning spray to replace the act of bathing. This was the most futuristic household item she had seen since her journey began.
Cheng Tingyu placed the food in the mini-fridge, then lay peacefully on the bed reading a magazine, like a college student in no hurry to find a job.
Compared to the world before her time travel, the books in this world seemed particularly lacking in interest. The magazine Cheng Tingyu picked up was called "F0631 City Weekly," and its main content was merely an introduction to the city's conditions. For instance, it reported on the opening of a new branch of the "Screwdriver" insurance company, the population growth in the last quarter, which development zones were likely to be incorporated into the city, and surveys on young people's employment intentions, among other things.
Cheng Tingyu patiently read from the beginning, dealing with dinner in between with porridge and bread. After dinner, he spent another two hours browsing forums, then tidied up and got ready for bed.
Although the information she received from others suggested that the first night after moving in would be relatively safe, Cheng Tingyu thought it would be more prudent to prepare for the worst..
Dreams can easily make one lose their sense of time.
"Cough..."
When she regained self-awareness, Cheng Tingyu realized she was no longer in bed but standing in the living room of a two-bedroom apartment with a sense of dilapidation. She coughed once, then straightened up.
She was wearing a sky-blue plush pajama and slippers, a very homely outfit, with every detail exactly matching Wu Shanyu from the video.
The first time is unfamiliar, the second time is familiar, and by the third time, it basically becomes second nature. After experiencing situations where waiting for the bus and asking about part-time job information could lead to entering a dungeon, Cheng Tingyu had reason to suspect that his luck might indeed be somewhat poor..
She quickly scanned the room—a not-too-spacious living room with beige floor tiles, white-painted wooden cabinets, a straw-yellow sofa, and some taped-up cardboard boxes piled in the corner.
The house was not lacking in mirrors or items that could be used as mirrors. Cheng Tingyu immediately glanced at his own reflection data—
[Special Status: [Continuous Bleeding], [Uncontrollable Trembling], [Weakness]]
[Health Points (Health): 97/100]
[Stamina (Abundant): 98/100]
[Mental Value (Normal): 112/125]
The various stats were not low, but she had just entered the instance and had specifically taken the entire afternoon off to relax and recover her energy. Yet, she had barely refreshed at the starting point for a moment before she was already affected.
Cheng Tingyu felt the speed at which she was losing health and thought that, given the current situation, she could stay at the initial spawn point for at most three minutes before having to move to a new location.
She headed straight to the kitchen, relying on the experience she had gained from the video to grab a pair of scissors.
The kitchen, like the living room, appeared somewhat empty, lacking most of the essential cooking utensils. Beside the counter was a square wooden table, on which sat a transparent glass jar filled with colorful candy balls. Next to the wooden table was a child's chair that only reached halfway up Cheng Tingyu's calf.
Cheng Tingyu casually took a blue candy ball from the glass jar and ate it.
The information about the restorative item provided by Wei Xugui was correct. After consuming the candy ball, Cheng Tingyu's mental value, which should have decreased slightly, returned to its original state. However, his physical value did not receive a corresponding boost.
Although the current instance had a time limit, it also had a good exit mechanism where death in the instance did not equate to real death. Despite realizing that the situation was gradually becoming unfavorable, Cheng Tingyu did not rush to escape but patiently circled the room twice.
——Chapter One: Come in, consider it gathering intelligence with a health bar.
From the state of the room, it was clear that the person living here had just moved in and hadn't had the chance to organize everything yet.
After leaving the kitchen, she took a turn into the bedrooms—both beds were already made, with beige sheets in the larger room and cartoon sheets with yellow bears in the smaller room.
Cheng Tingyu carefully lifted the bedsheet but found no hidden items underneath.
No wonder Wu Shanyu went to open the cardboard box; other places didn't offer much value for a thorough search. If there had been enough time to explore, Cheng Tingyu would have made the same choice.
Cheng Tingyu returned to the living room, efficiently completing her reconnaissance within a minute. Her various metrics also efficiently transitioned from nearly full status to being 10% short of full status within the same minute.
She tried to open the window, unsurprisingly without success, then raised her elbow and slammed it hard against the glass.
"Bang!"
Cheng Tingyu covered his arm and took two steps back without any expression. The previous attempt had some effect—his originally healthy life value had directly dropped to a mildly dangerous "81/100." As for the glass window, it remained unmoved, making "Secret Eye" shed tears and "Flesh" feel heartbroken.
Entering the instance, 68 seconds in.
The video on the forum showed that if participants stayed inside the house for too long, they would suddenly die. To avoid following in Wu Shanyu's footsteps, she needed to leave the refresh point immediately.
Cheng Tingyu grasped the handle of the living room door, and a line of red characters, as if written in blood, immediately appeared—"If you're an idiot, go up to the hundredth floor."
"..."
Cheng Tingyu remained silent for a moment before stepping out of the room.
From the brightness of the light outside the window, it could be deduced that it was daytime in the scenario, yet the corridor appeared extremely dark and cramped.
The couplets pasted on the door of the house across the street were clearly red, yet the surroundings cast a dirty black-green hue over them.
Cheng Tingyu only left the door slightly ajar, not closing it completely to avoid any unexpected situations that might require him to return to the refresh point, and then quickly walked to the staircase.
As a person who is both timid and reckless, upon learning that the No. 6 Apartment dungeon wouldn't actually result in death, Cheng Tingyu didn't hesitate for even a second. He directly followed his deep-seated love for courting disaster and began to walk down the stairs, intending to try a choice completely different from the one in the video.
When he reached the thirteenth step, Cheng Tingyu suddenly felt a strange sensation, as if he had been submerged in icy water, and he stopped in his tracks.
She calmly raised her head and saw a twisted black claw hanging above her.
The slender, pitch-black, jagged claws with sharp nails, in the instant they were seen, swiftly and silently plummeted down, landing precisely on the face of the person on the stairs.
"..."
Cheng Tingyu clearly had the physical fitness to disguise himself as a novice flesh-and-blood player, but at this moment, he was completely unable to react.
A stinging pain, suffused with a sense of suffocation, pierced through flesh and blood.
"Drip."
"Tick-tock, tick-tock."
A drop of thick liquid gathered into a pool of blood, flowing down the steps in a winding stream.
The field of vision turned from bright red to darkness. In the split second before leaving the instance zone, Cheng Tingyu saw lines of rapidly flashing information—
[Dreams are fragments of reality.]
[Dreams are but silhouettes of the future.]