He hadn't expected to run into another player this far back. When the door to the room opened from the other side, both men paused upon seeing each other.
The newcomer looked deathly pale. There were knife marks on his arm, and his lips were cracked and bloody. When he saw Xu Huo—or, more precisely, the food in Xu Huo's hand—his eyes locked onto it.
"Food. Give it to me." He stood at the other end of the room and demanded it outright.
Xu Huo looked at him and shoved the last bit of food in his hand into his mouth.
The man looked as if he were about to break. He sank weakly to the floor, rolled his eyes upward, and seemed to sink into a void.
"You doing okay?" Xu Huo called across the room.
"No." The man didn't change his posture. "But if you gave me something to eat and drink, I'd feel a lot better."
"Come take it, then," Xu Huo reminded him.
"I can't. I've got no strength." The man still looked feeble. "I went too far. Just making it back is good enough. As long as I don't run into any players who eat people, I'll take whatever comes."
"How far did you go? Did anything change in the rooms farther back?" Xu Huo asked.
"There must've been more than twenty thousand rooms. It got too long, so I stopped keeping track." The man's eyes shifted downward. "If you want to know what's farther back, trade me food and water."
Xu Huo smiled and gave him a piece of candy and a glass of water.
The man took small sips of the water, then set the half-full glass beside him and put the candy in his mouth. A moment later, he sighed contentedly. "That's