[Escape Room] Escape

After receiving the "system notification," Lin Feng smiled with satisfaction and stepped into the fourth room, pleased with himself.

Compared with the "careful" arrangements in the previous rooms, this one was practically bare, so empty it was unsettling.

When Ren Yi first scouted it, he had privately remarked that this was probably what they called a "budget shortage."

He suspected that Lu Zihan's uncle had originally designed a flashier killing move, only to swap it out at the last minute to suit the "beginner difficulty," leaving behind this seemingly simple trap that was exceptionally lethal under certain conditions.

Lin Feng and Chen Fang moved forward cautiously and soon spotted the next door.

A line of unusually straightforward text was written on it.

[Press all three buttons at the same time to open the door]

Three bright red buttons were arranged in a row on the pale wall, a full five meters apart.

The intention was plain: three people had to press them simultaneously to get through.

Ren Yi silently labeled Lu Zihan's uncle a "psychological torture enthusiast." He seemed to be very fond of designing situations where "one wrong step leads to a lifetime of regret." First, he hid the crucial key in the third room, which they couldn't return to after leaving, and then he imposed this headcount requirement at the very end.

If the participants failed to notice the hint in the first room, or lost too many people before the final stage, they could only beat their chests in regret and despair.

Could it be that this uncle's rule needed to draw on the emotion of "regret"?

Ren Yi had a feeling he might have accidentally hit on the truth.

In any case, it was now his turn to step in and finish things himself.

Chen Fang's face drained of color. "We're done for! There are only two of us left!"

"Why panic?" Lin Feng said calmly. "Press the one on the left. Leave the other two to me."

The light machine gun in his arms rose into the air on its own and flew steadily to the button on the far right. With a click, its cold metal muzzle pressed the button down.

The door unlocked with a click.

Chen Fang let out a long breath, and an almost fawning smile quickly spread across her face. "Your ability... it's incredible! In a place like this, it's practically a divine skill!"

"It's nothing worth mentioning." Lin Feng recalled the machine gun, his tone indifferent. "Guns aren't much use against mutant beasts."

"But they're more than enough to deal with ordinary people!" Chen Fang continued to flatter him as the two walked into the final room, one behind the other.

Oh? In Lin Feng's pocket, Ren Yi's lips curled up slightly.

The fifth room was just as empty. Its only focal points were the heavy wooden door at the far end and the ancient-looking brass padlock on it, as though quietly waiting for the matching key.

Without another word, Lin Feng walked straight ahead.

At that moment, the jade token in his pocket trembled almost imperceptibly.

When he was only a few steps from the door, Chen Fang, behind him, suddenly "saw" the floating light machine gun turn its muzzle without warning, its dark barrel trained squarely on her.

She sighed softly.

"Come to think of it, which city are you from..." Lin Feng, walking ahead, had yet to finish when a sudden change occurred!

He felt something cold and slippery on his face, as though it had instantly been enveloped in a transparent film of water.

The liquid seeped into every opening, surging wildly into his nose and mouth! An icy sensation of suffocation gripped his throat like an iron clamp, robbing his lungs of every last trace of air.

"Handsome boy..." A chilling voice sounded almost against his ear. "Do you know? I almost... really was going to let you go."

Lin Feng's eyes widened in terror. From the corner of his eye, he barely managed to glimpse Chen Fang's body, which had transformed into a pool of flowing, translucent liquid! Her hands had completely liquefied and were plastered tightly over his face like the most pliable and deadliest of leeches.

She was an ability user too!

"The reward for a beginner instance is fixed, and everyone who clears it gets an equal share." The "Chen Fang" made of water sighed, her voice full of feigned regret.

"You're so capable. You helped me clear out all the competition in one go... My ability doesn't last very long, and I was just worrying about how to deal with them."

"Mmph... glug, glug..." Lin Feng struggled wildly, but his throat could only produce the muffled sound of air being squeezed out.

"Originally, seeing how many trump cards you had, I thought we might as well part peacefully... But why did you have to pull out a gun and point it at me?"

I... didn't! Lin Feng roared inwardly.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang—!

The floating machine gun opened fire, tongues of flame spitting from its muzzle as bullets rained down on the humanoid mass of water!

But how could bullets truly hurt "water"?

The bullets passed through the watery body, leaving only a succession of ripple-like holes and tiny splashes before falling harmlessly to the floor with crisp clinks.

The machine gun fired half a magazine in vain. Finally, its power ran out, and it crashed to the floor with a clang.

No! I have an ability! And a system! I haven't made it out of the anomaly instance yet! I haven't killed my enemies! I haven't become the strongest person in the three cities... System! That's right... System, save me!

He screamed frantically in his heart, pleading with his only "golden finger."

But the system's text never appeared before his eyes again.

Lin Feng's bloodshot eyes bulged, and the last bit of oxygen in his lungs turned into meaningless bubbles. His struggles gradually weakened.

He died.

The water enveloping him slowly withdrew and gathered beside his completely cold corpse, reshaping itself into a soaking-wet Chen Fang.

She pulled the key from Lin Feng's pocket, weighed it in her hand, and spat in annoyance. "Nothing at all, you pauper!"

Almost at the very instant her words fell—

Whoosh—squelch!!

A piercing whistle tore through the silence! A vicious bone blade appeared out of thin air and pierced Chen Fang's neck with the speed of lightning!

There was no expected spray of blood, only a muffled squelch and transparent droplets splashing in every direction.

Chen Fang's neck had turned to water at the last moment! But the terrifying impact still sent a wave of excruciating pain and numbness through her "cervical spine."

Damn it! The gunfire brought that anomaly here!

Terrified out of her wits, she could no longer care about anything else. Her entire body instantly collapsed and stretched into a swift, transparent torrent, shooting toward the final door.

The moment the key went in, the door slowly opened, revealing a warm, enticing, pure white light that promised safety.

"Ha... haha!" Ecstasy swept away all reason like a tsunami. Chen Fang rushed through the door in excitement and re-formed her human shape in the light, the joy of escaping with her life washing over her.

Then she faintly heard a muffled gunshot, as though it had come from beneath a deep layer of water.

Chen Fang froze for a moment and instinctively tried to rush deeper into the light, but an invisible barrier seemed to block her path through the white glow.

Immediately afterward, the hopeful white light went out as abruptly as a light bulb losing power.

Chen Fang stared in shock. What lay before her was no escape route at all, but a cold, rough cement wall.

The door was two meters to her left, but those two meters might as well have been an impassable chasm.

A sharp pain came from her chest. She slowly turned around, and at the end of her gaze stood a delicate-featured, black-haired youth who had appeared beside Lin Feng's corpse at some unknown point.

In his hands was the light machine gun that should have been empty. A wisp of smoke curled up from its muzzle.

Where's that... anomaly?

That was Chen Fang's last fragmented thought before her consciousness sank into eternal cold and darkness.

Ren Yi walked forward and, expressionless, fired a few more shots into Chen Fang and Lin Feng each. Only after confirming they were thoroughly dead did he turn into a cloud of white mist, pass through the iron door, and return to the previous room.