First, the number of players in the Dungeon had changed to 20.
Second, he was notified that he had cleared the Dungeon.
One person clearing the Dungeon meant it was over. All remaining players had failed to clear it, and they could leave now, too.
Only when he saw the clear notification did Xu Huo realize that "one person clears the Dungeon" didn't mean only one person could clear it. It meant that as soon as one person cleared it, the Dungeon ended. Presumably, none of the players who had come before had realized this. They'd mistakenly thought that killing someone was the way to clear it.
Of course, whenever the number of players remaining in the Dungeon had updated, Xu Huo had also assumed the missing players were dead—killed by other players in the Dungeon or by the friend who was truly hiding people away.
But killing people wasn't the Dungeon's purpose. As long as someone noticed its hint, it was possible to clear it without anyone dying.
Unfortunately, players were so accustomed to fighting and killing in the game that they hadn't imagined there could be such a gentle Dungeon. It was like looking into a mirror: the person in the mirror was just like the person looking into it.
The painted woman slipped out from behind him and curiously watched the figures passing nearby. "These shadows are so strange. They won't let me touch them."
"That's probably the Dungeon's doing," Xu Huo said. "It keeps the past's influence at a certain distance from reality, so it can achieve the effect described in the legend."
"They look like real people." The painted woman tilted her head, thinking. "In that case, people who see them won't be able to tell who's dead and who's alive."
As she spoke, she