So...
His head had flown off!
Who had done it?
Then the restaurant owner saw the Pig Head Man standing behind him, a hulking figure nearly two meters tall.
It held a long Fleshing Knife, fresh red blood dripping from the blade.
It reached out with a rough hand, grabbed the headless body, and dragged it toward the kitchen with heavy steps.
Before long, the kitchen filled with the chilling sound of meat being chopped.
"Ah!!!"
The screams around them grew louder!
Two people rolled their eyes back and nearly fainted from fright.
"Murder! Someone's been murdered!"
"Monster! A monster killed him!"
Bai Zuo stopped and watched the farce in silence. Then he turned and headed for the stairs.
The force that had been holding everyone back and preventing them from leaving vanished when the Pig Head Man appeared.
Seeing Bai Zuo leave the dining hall without hindrance, the others finally reacted. They scrambled after him, rolling and crawling as they fled.
The Pig Head Man was still here. Who knew if it would come after them once it finished dealing with that body?
After getting away from the terrifying murder scene,
the others gradually recovered from their fear.
"We're inside a Horror Game dungeon."
"Why did this have to happen to me?!"
"This is terrifying! I want to get out of here."
"What should we do now?"
"The dungeon prompt said we have to find a way to escape this restaurant."
"There's an elevator over there!"
The group swarmed toward the elevator as if they'd spotted a lifeline.
A bespectacled man with a refined appearance immediately tried to stop them. "If escaping this dining hall were that easy, the conditions for clearing the game wouldn't say we have seven days!"
"We should introduce ourselves and figure out how to clear the game together!"
His words calmed some of the panicked people who had lost their bearings.
But others weren't grateful.
They cursed at him and shoved the bespectacled man out of their way.
"What the hell are you talking about? There's a murderous pig monster in here! Getting out is what matters most. Move!"
"You don't want to leave, but we do!"
The burly man leading them cursed under his breath, spat on the floor, and pressed the elevator button hard.
The elevator started moving. Before long, it had risen from the tenth floor to the twenty-sixth.
Ding!
The doors opened.
The elevator was spacious and clean. No monster lunged out at them, either. It looked like an ordinary elevator.
"I think you people have been working yourselves stupid. There's a shortcut right here, and you still want to go looking for other ways!"
Several people walked into the elevator. Two more hesitated, then stepped inside under the man's impatient gaze.
The elevator doors closed as everyone watched.
One person couldn't withstand the pressure and reached for the elevator buttons, but the bespectacled man stopped him.
The bespectacled man pushed up his glasses. "Let them try it. If riding the elevator is safe, we'll take the next one."
The others finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Bai Zuo leaned slightly against the wall, staring at the group with a strange, predatory look.
The malice constantly radiating from humans—and far more intensely than usual—made him feel utterly at ease. Surrounded by that malice, the Heart Gu he had contracted let loose its appetite and gobbled it up.
Human malice was delicious!
The elevator began to descend.
It seemed it really would reach the first floor safely.
The others grew more and more excited. They could see hope of clearing the game.
Suddenly,
the elevator, which had been steadily descending, slowed to a stop just before reaching the fourth floor. Its chains let out several creaks that made their scalps tingle.
Then the entire elevator car began to shake.
The people inside panicked.
They immediately pressed every button in the elevator.
But it was no use. The elevator paused on the fourth floor for a few seconds. Then the car lurched, and suddenly shot upward at terrifying speed.
"Ahhhhhhh!!!"
The people waiting outside the elevator heard only the piercing screams echoing through the shaft.
Then they watched the floor number on the display climb at an abnormal speed.
In just a few short seconds,
the elevator car came hurtling up with a deafening roar and slammed into the top floor.
The screams abruptly stopped.
Then those outside the elevator saw blood seeping through the gaps and pooling at their feet.
Several people's legs went weak, and they slumped onto the floor.
"Ah!"
They kicked their feet against the ground as they scrambled backward, away from the blood flowing toward them.
They'd almost gotten on that death elevator!
The bespectacled man's hand trembled. Shock and fear flashed in his eyes, along with some relief.
Thank goodness he'd let the others test it first.
One elevator was already broken. After seeing what had happened to those people, no one dared try the other one. They wanted nothing more than to stay as far from the elevators as possible.
The bespectacled man knew it was time for him to speak. "All right, you've all seen how dangerous everything in this game is. If there really were such an easy shortcut, this dungeon's rank and difficulty wouldn't be that high."
"The game shouldn't give us a condition we can't fulfill. But it still says we need to escape the dining hall within seven days—not five, three, or one."
"That means there's no shortcut. We'll probably have to look for clues and clear the stages one by one before we can escape."
The bespectacled man glanced around. "There are seven of us left. Let's start by introducing ourselves!"
"My name is Li Ke. I'm a team leader at a company. I'm pretty sharp, and I exercise regularly, so I'm in decent shape."
A tall girl hesitantly said, "My name is Han Shitao. I'm a high school student. Sports are my strong suit, and I love reading supernatural and horror novels. Maybe that'll come in handy."
"You can call me Qiang Ge. I'm between jobs." Qiang Ge looked fairly strong, but there was something unsettling in his expression.
A man looked a little evasive. "Let's skip the introductions. Just call me Hua Zi."
A handsome man with delicate features was still shaken. He stared blankly at the blood splattered on his hand.
Only when the others called out to him did he snap out of it. "My name is Du Jiashi. I'm just an ordinary wage earner."
A woman dressed in stylish, sophisticated clothes, with the air of a fashionable city professional, said, "My name is Xu Rou. I'm an office worker. I mainly do clerical work."
She had probably been crying earlier; her makeup was a little smudged.
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