"Soul-Crying Street": He Decided He Would Never Step on Another Manhole Cover!
If the previous Dungeons were like a slow, gradual descent into danger, then this Dungeon is all about surprise; you never know where the danger might be.
He had experienced accidentally stepping on a manhole cover and falling into a sewer, and then being pierced through by suddenly growing Thornbush. Xu Xi felt that no matter how bizarre the way he died, he could remain calm.
I never expected that the later stages of this Dungeon would require Items from the earlier ones to complete.
Given that there's no going back, Xu Xi thought about it and realized that if he didn't have the ability to Rollback...
That's not right either. This assumption shouldn't hold true. If there hadn't been Rollback, he would have died in the First Instance. How could he have survived until now?
Xu Xi shook his head, stopping thinking about these irrelevant things. Right now, he only had one thought:
He decided he would never step on a manhole cover again!
--
[... Who secretly sped up my live stream?]
[Xu Xi: How about artificially speeding up the video?]
Why did the loop depth reset?
[Could this signify the start of the next phase?]
[There's something strange. The fourth floor seems normal, so why did Xu Xi choose the alley on the right?]
[You can check out the replay of the second player; he stepped on the manhole cover, it came loose, and he fell in.]
[Oh, wasn't it said that he was trapped and died in the next cycle?]
[Because he had Item on him, the things in the sewer couldn't harm him, and he found a chance to climb out.]
[Actually, if this player hadn't forgotten the paper money, they probably would have had a chance to complete the game.]
Is this Dungeon entirely based on luck?
[Perhaps there is a slight chance? As long as players don't like stepping on manhole covers, then the 4th floor won't be a problem.]
That's quite friendly to us. Here, stepping on manhole covers is considered unlucky, so we usually step over them.
[But if you don't step on the manhole cover, you won't know there's anything unusual about this layer, right?]
[... Oh right]
[Hey guys, are you blind? Look closely, there aren't any manhole covers in those loops!]
[Ah?]
[Holy crap, it really is! Damn, watching it on repeat so much has made my memory all mixed up.]
[So, Xu Xi didn't avoid stepping on manhole covers because he had a habit of doing so; he simply knew there was a problem.]
I thought I finally had something in common with this big shot, but it turns out it was just wishful thinking (not really).
[You can also observe carefully on the 6th floor; as long as you walk in an S-shape in the very center, you can avoid all the growing Thornbush
As for the paper money, it should be related to the background of the Dungeon.
The first major loop ends with the three NPCs taking a group photo at the supermarket entrance, but there's an anomaly on the first floor: Sunny Department Store.
If nothing unexpected happens, each major cycle should represent a story; you can ponder them carefully.
Moreover, the paper money appeared twice, which is the real, subtle hint given by the Dungeon.
The first time, the banknotes were bundled up and couldn't be moved, but the second time was different.
Each banknote has a face value of 100, so I think taking one or two should be enough. The number of Little Black Men should correspond to the number of banknotes you take.
Their advantage is that they appear silently, but their disadvantage is that they are slow, and players can easily outrun them.
Some viewers provided lengthy analyses in the comments section.
[You write a lot, I'll hang out with you]
[Why couldn't I take it the first time? Didn't taking it also result in the Little Black Men appearing? And there was only one of them.]
[The combat power of the Little Black Men on the two floors is completely different. One is an elite monster, and the other is a normal monster. How can they be compared?]
[Boss Xu Xi: One or two bills? If the rest of the banknotes weren't stained with blood, I would have taken them all.]
[Who understands this? Watching Xu Xi go through these loops is like watching Streamer play a game, a speedrun with no damage and one life, the relaxation is just too much!]
In their eyes, the young man seemed to know what was wrong with just a glance, and his entire demeanor was as smooth and effortless as if he were strolling in a garden.
The other person's mere presence exuded an aura of complete control, making them feel exceptionally at ease.
--
Xu Xi suddenly realized that there were actually no manhole covers on the street originally, and couldn't help but click her tongue.
The endless stream of abnormal loops confused his memory.
In front of him, a woman with big, wavy curls, wearing a slit cheongsam and sky-high heels stood smiling at the end of the street, smoking a cigarette.
She ignored the approaching young man until a stack of banknotes appeared before her.
Having successfully passed the 9th floor, Xu Xi relaxed.
Fortunately, he was worried that he might not have enough money if he didn't take the remaining banknotes.
Congratulations, your judgment was correct.
"After sinking deeper and deeper into the quagmire, she chose to lose herself."
Upon seeing this slogan, Xu Xi's mind raced with thoughts.
He recalled carefully that the figure of the woman who had just asked for the banknotes was strikingly similar to the silhouette of the woman on the Second Floor of Sunny Department Store.
So... the couple embracing on the second floor of Sunny Department Store Second Floor, the first floor of the first major loop, wasn't that couple?
After the loop reset, he vaguely sensed that the anomalies in each loop were all about a story, and the progression of the loops was also revealing that story layer by layer.
A reset signifies the end of the previous story, while a new cycle marks the beginning of a new one.
But the previous story clearly depicted a supermarket owner and his family of three.
Thinking of those slogans about roses and transactions, Xu Xi had a bold guess in her mind.
The woman in the cheongsam is most likely the owner of Sunny Department Store and has some special professional identity; the couple embracing are her and the supermarket owner.
The supermarket owner cheated on his wife with the woman in the cheongsam, betraying the woman in the dress.
The woman in the dress may have hanged herself because her husband cheated on her, gambled, and mortgaged all their assets.
The girl in the nightgown cut her wrists for unknown reasons. Perhaps it was due to the influence of her troubled family, her mother's suicide, and the fact that her pet black cat was in a car accident. After losing hope in life, she also chose to end her own life.
As for the supermarket owner who ultimately jumped to his death, his actions not only led to a broken family but also left him with a mountain of debt. Whether he regretted it at the moment he jumped is unknown.
The second story should now be about women in cheongsams.
The sound of the same chips betting suggests that the woman in the cheongsam is secretly engaged in some kind of work.
He even reasonably suspected that the supermarket owner's involvement with gambling was due to deliberate guidance from the other party.
In one of the loops, the boy sitting in front of the Sunny Department Store has an unknown relationship with the woman in the cheongsam.
It's highly likely they are mother and child.
However, these cycles are even more enigmatic than the first story.
He couldn't currently deduce what had happened to these two people.