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On his eighty-second Save-Load, Xu Kai lost his balance again and nearly fell. He quickly straightened up and steadied his lunchbox.

The painful memory of his death lingered in Xu Kai's mind. Fat Auntie had said the word "die" in a peculiar tone. When he heard it, his ears had instinctively blocked it out in fear, so he hadn't heard all of it. Even so, the energy contained in it had exploded inside him in an instant, tearing both his Weird Energy and his body to pieces.

That overbearing force was even stronger than the monster's in the Arena. No wonder the monster had run out of sight as soon as it heard Fat Auntie's voice. Most likely, it had been taught a lesson before.

It was a pity that, in his last death, Xu Kai had only managed to test that the spoon was extraordinary. Fat Auntie's identity was still shrouded in mystery.

He took a moment to recover, forcibly circulated his Weird Energy, took a running start, turned and vaulted over the railing, then rushed back to Fat Auntie's serving window and asked at top speed:

"Auntie, why is there a newly laid red carpet at the elevator entrance?"

"Are you crazy? Where's the red carpet? Tell the doctor to up your dose!"

"You're a Feeder too, right?"

"Die!"

After briefly bursting apart, Xu Kai woke up again. It went without saying that he had to find out Fat Auntie's true identity, so he turned and rushed back.

"Auntie, how many rounds have you won?"

"Die!"

"Auntie, have you ever gotten a Discharge Certificate?"

"Die!"

On his ninetieth Save-Load, Xu Kai was in a daze. For the time being, he gave up on the idea of getting himself killed to gather information. His mind was filled with the word "die," spoken in Fat Auntie's strange tone, along with layer upon layer of memories of his entire body bursting apart. Even now, he still felt phantom pain throughout his body.

From the information he had gathered, Fat Auntie had also seen the Arena, won three rounds there, met the Chief, and obtained a Discharge Certificate at some point. Why she had stayed here remained unknown.

Fat Auntie gripped the spoon in her hand very tightly. Xu Kai had only been able to touch a tiny part of it each time, but that had given him a slight inkling.

The most outrageous thing about this instance wasn't the rules, but the way one's own perception was slowly being distorted without one noticing at all. So he suspected that the spoon in Fat Auntie's hand wasn't a spoon at all; it was simply that Xu Kai's own perception was wrong, leaving him unable to recognize what it really was.

Xu Kai carried his lunchbox slowly back to his seat and began eating.

During those deaths, he had directly asked Fat Auntie what had caused all the changes. She hadn't answered, but her eyes had flicked upward. Xu Kai chewed his food and looked up, but all he saw was a clean ceiling.

Was his perception wrong? Probably not. In the Arena, Xu Kai had also looked at the ceiling, and it was no different from the cafeteria's now—just as neat and clean.

Then what was the reason for looking up?

Xu Kai attached great importance to Fat Auntie's upward glance for one simple reason: he had died twice, and each time, he had asked that question before dying. Fat Auntie's movement had been identical both times, even down to the angle. She had simply glanced upward.

Xu Kai was at a loss. Looking up, he could only see the ceiling. The only other things were the pillars supporting it.

Surely there couldn't be something wrong with the pillars?

Xu Kai glanced over instinctively, and his chopsticks stopped. He had spotted the loudspeaker on a pillar.

He suddenly remembered that Patient Number Eight's roar could shatter glass, and the monster's roar had nearly shaken them all to death. Fat Auntie went without saying; Xu Kai couldn't even withstand a single word from her.

It was sound! The mutations were being transmitted through sound.

To test this theory, Xu Kai controlled a wisp of Weird Energy and turned it into a small snake, which climbed along the edge of the pillar toward the loudspeaker.

By now, everyone had finished lining up in the cafeteria, and no voices were coming from the loudspeaker. Xu Kai guided the little snake inside it.

He could clearly feel that the speaker's sound-control component was vibrating abnormally. Yet the vibration produced no sound—or at least, none that someone like Xu Kai could hear.

Xu Kai controlled his Weird Energy, trying to feel out every detail of the loudspeaker, but gradually, he found it increasingly difficult to control. By the time he finished eating, he had lost contact with it.

Bang!

The loudspeaker in front of Xu Kai suddenly exploded, scattering fragments everywhere. Luckily, Xu Kai had finished eating, or he might have ended up with bits of hard casing in his food.

Xu Kai stood up and carefully sensed the Weird Energy he had just lost contact with. It was what had exploded, blasting the loudspeaker everywhere.

Xu Kai could sense that the disconnected Weird Energy had vanished, but the power within it had become much more violent. It had also mutated extremely quickly, since it had been in direct contact with the loudspeaker.

Now Xu Kai had a clear idea: the sound from the loudspeakers on the pillars was what caused the collective mutation.

This was no place to linger. Having finished his meal, Xu Kai stood up and headed straight for Elevator One.

He kept walking forward until he suddenly saw Leng Chong and Nurse Lin facing off ahead.

Calling it a face-off wasn't quite right. Both were leaning on crutches, standing five meters apart between the two elevators, but neither dared enter one.

Only when they saw Xu Kai arrive did they greet him.

"Brother Xu, perfect timing! Let's take care of Nurse Lin together, and then the two of us can settle things between ourselves!"

"Xu Kai, don't listen to him! Leng Chong is so devious. He was on the First Floor, right? The Surveillance Room is on the First Floor. He's been able to spy on almost all the information in the entire instance. He's too much of a threat. The two of us should work together and get rid of him first!"

For a moment, Xu Kai's arrival seemed to break the stalemate between them, and both tried every way they could to pull him to their side.

"Say, aren't you afraid of seeing the Arena again, standing around here like this?"

Xu Kai could see that this really was a three-way deadlock now, especially since everyone was badly injured.

The earlier standoff between the two had been less a confrontation than a fear that whoever entered an elevator first would be ambushed by the other. After all, the elevators were Killing Zones too.

"Ahem. Brother Xu, you go first. Nurse Lin and I still have some sparring to do!"

"Doctor Xu? Do you dare leave?"

Nurse Lin was still suspicious of Xu Kai's identity, but he was wearing a white coat and playing the part so convincingly that she hadn't recognized him.

For the moment, the situation had reached a stalemate.

This couldn't continue. The cafeteria loudspeakers were constantly emitting the sound that caused mutations. Xu Kai had just tried destroying them, but whether he snapped them off normally or blew them apart with Weird Energy, the loudspeakers on the pillars automatically repaired themselves after a minute, just like what he had experienced in his ward.

He had already suffered enough contamination at noon. If he endured more that evening, Xu Kai could guarantee that he would see the monster in the Arena again.

"Ahem. Actually, if you think about it, we're all trying to clear the instance and stay alive. We all have a common goal, so we should be friends."

Hearing Xu Kai say this, Nurse Lin laughed and said:

"A common goal? Stop circling the coffin. I know you want to take the elevator, so just say it. What are we going to do?"

"I suggest the three of us each take a step back. How about we each choose an elevator and get in and out at the same time?"

"...Agreed!" ×2

"All right, I'll count to three, and we'll press the elevator buttons together. Three, two, one."

Click, click, click.

With three clicks, Xu Kai, Leng Chong, and Nurse Lin pressed the elevator buttons at the same time. The three had never been so united.

With three dings, the elevators arrived one after another, but all three kept pressing their buttons until every elevator door had opened.

Xu Kai first checked his elevator. It was spotless inside, and there were no other patients waiting to ride it. He immediately put half a foot inside.

The other two followed suit, then each leaned outward a little so they could see the others' elevators.

"I'll count to three, and we'll all go straight in. Once we're out of the elevators, if anyone wants to arrange an accident or something, that's up to their own abilities!"

The accidents Xu Kai mentioned were what the initial rules had described: outside the Killing Zones, one could arrange accidents to kill other opponents.

The other two nodded.

"Three, two, one, go!"

The three entered their elevators at the same time, and the doors immediately began to close.

As they closed, Xu Kai could be seen staring at Elevator Three, and Nurse Lin's body instantly burst into flames. Nurse Lin threw a long knife, piercing straight through Leng Chong's body. Leng Chong hurled the Ice Ball wrapped in Xu Kai's tooth-cleaning jar into Xu Kai's elevator. The moment it entered, the Ice Ball exploded, sending countless Steel Balls flying out. Xu Kai forcibly wore them all down with his Weird Energy.

Afterward, all three had nearly the same thought:

Nice move. Fucking devious.