Xu Linqiu sat in his place, but his gaze was observing others.
Old Tomato was socially anxious, but once the topic shifted to games, he would open up like a floodgate, detailing strategies and insights with extreme clarity, showcasing his innate sharp intuition.
He had cleared the Difficult Dungeon twice, with a highest score of 88.
Jun Mowen, unpretentious in speech, interacted with others sincerely and wasn't aloof; he just preferred silence—a player driven by intellect.
He had completed Nightmare mode once, scoring 79.
As for this Night Watcher... Xu Linqiu gave him a glance, and the latter, while chatting with others, stealthily flashed a peace sign at him. No mistake...this guy was actually an internal member of the Investigation Bureau, now reluctantly under his command.
Why reluctantly?
Because this fellow was backed by significant figures within the Investigation Bureau, and after the public beta of Abyssal Paradise, he was assigned to his team.
Additionally, this fellow wasn't just leveraging connections; his talent was truly exceptional, having cleared the Difficult Dungeon three times with an average score of 81.
The game's rating system actually encompassed many aspects—combat power, luck, understanding of the world, completion of tasks, and so forth—complex yet comprehensive.
And these three, they were the promising newcomers he was currently focusing on.
As for...the other two who had unusual encounters with the supernatural.
Xu Linqiu turned towards a girl in a connected hat and Su Qi; he could understand why one would sleep throughout—after all, the girl was plagued by anomalies, and sleep deprivation was normal.
He twitched the corners of his mouth slightly.
But damn, the other ate from start to finish.
Were you reincarnated from a starving ghost?
Su Qi, seemingly aware, looked up and locked eyes with him, offering a slight smile.
"..."
Xu Linqiu helplessly withdrew his gaze, having been outfoxed when he first met this guy. He admitted...he was better suited for combat, unable to handle this fellow.
And a particularly strange point.
He was unable to find Su Qi's Dungeon clear records and rating—this was the first time such a situation had occurred...it seemed Su Qi's data was disrupted, needing time to recover.
"Could it be that...a bug occurred?"
Yet Xu Linqiu found it far-fetched: "Forget it, this isn't a real game."
"I'll check later using higher authority from the teacher."
-----------------
The offline meeting thus hastily concluded, and after everyone added each other as friends, they were eager to leave early.
In the early public beta phase, everyone was desperate to level up sooner, expand their advantage, and pass the club's assessment to become official members.
Su Qi also took a cab home, and upon entering his community, he spotted a white cat with distinct features.
The cat looked unique, prompting Su Qi to take a few extra glances.
For its forehead fur had been cleanly shaved.
And upon his appearance, it fixed him with a dark, unblinking stare.
"It shouldn't be the same one from before; this one's clearly fatter, but the owner of this cat has some interesting ideas, giving it such a hairstyle."
Mumbling to himself, Su Qi walked past the cat. The white cat scratched its claws fiercely and growled lowly, yet did not dare to pounce.
Once back, Su Qi lay down in the game pod.
[Neural connection in progress]
[Connection successful]
[Welcome Player Su Buxian to the game]
Su Qi didn't immediately start matchmaking but went straight to the draw.
The prize box, after shaking back and forth, burst open with a bang.
Inside, instead of a sphere of light, was a piece of equipment.
[Name: Dark Wind Boots]
[Type: Equipment]
[Quality: Ordinary]
[Cost: 100 Physical Strength Points]
[Function: After activation, it will enter a five-minute Stealth State (In darkness, all movement and noise are reduced by 90%, movement speed is increased by 30%, movement speed and Body Movement Attribute are the same, with a maximum bonus of 50)]
[Note: On nights when the moon is black and winds are high, murder leaves no trace]
"It seems pretty good, my metaphysical lottery theory has been proven once again."
Su Qi equipped it directly, but he didn't set it to show; his character's clothing remained his usual outfit.
After all, many equipment styles are quite flashy, and mixing them randomly could result in an unknown style, but when activating its function, it would briefly display a phantom for one second to indicate it was working.
[Player Su Buxian, Level 7]
[Matching for team Difficult Dungeon in progress]
[Team Dungeon confirmed, number of players: six]
This time, the lights in the personal login space didn't flicker, and from the doorway, vast expanses of darkness surged in like tide water, yet silently.
Then, it engulfed the room along with Su Qi.
-----------------
[Since it's the first time entering a team dungeon, this mode will provide a common main mission for each player, and will evaluate and reward based on individual completion degrees]
[Note: Any act of killing a team member will result in a ban of the main mission, and no related rewards or experience can be obtained]
After a brief trance, Su Qi felt as if he had fallen from the high sky to the ground.
His first thought was:
"I didn't hear that voice this time."
Then, he sniffed:
"Unpleasant smell."
Su Qi smelled a foul stench of blood and decay.
He slowly opened his eyes.
He was now on an abandoned bus, and the source of the foul and bloody odor was a uniformed corpse in the aisle, which had been dead for some time, judging by the dense swarm of flies around it.
And on this bus.
There were five other living people, all of whom had also opened their eyes and whose nicknames appeared above their heads, indicating they were players in this team dungeon.
However.
Su Qi paused slightly: "Two classmates, we meet again."
A youth in a duckbill cap and another slightly shy-looking young man were sitting across the aisle, although both had slightly changed their faces, the IDs above their heads exposed their identities.
[Dark Guardian] and [An Old Tomato]
Both were level 7, and upon seeing Su Qi, they also paused: "Su Buxian?"
"It looks like you guys are duo-queuing."
"Yes," Dark Guardian replied, somewhat surprised, "Brother Tomato and I added each other as game friends after getting home, planning to duo-queue, and we didn't expect to see your nickname as soon as we entered, what a coincidence."
Su Qi: "It really is a coincidence, and it seems it's not just the two of you duo-queuing—don't the two in the back have something to say?"
The two in the back were also duo-queuing.
One named [Ah Qie], and the other named [Ah Ti]
[Ah Qie] paused briefly: "Then let me introduce myself, my name is Ah Qie, level 6."
He pointed to the man with a buzz cut beside him: "This is my son."
The buzz-cut man glared: "Back off, I'm your father, forget about me bringing you food this afternoon."
"Wrong, dad."
Oh.
Su Qi understood, these two were clearly roommates.
"Your dorm room can fit gaming pods?" asked Old Tomato curiously.
"Yeah, we live in graduate dorms, there's quite a bit of space."
As they chatted,
A voice rang out, calm yet somewhat profound,
"Although I don't want to interrupt, haven't you noticed what's going on outside the bus?"