On the third day in Chang Xu's Beast Arena, the Players rose early, pushed open the stone doors of their rooms, and gathered on the Beast Arena's platform.
Aside from Chu Xun, Ge Lin, Dong Xiwen, and Lai Na'an, who still looked fairly well-fed thanks to their ample food supplies, the rest of the Players were in a thoroughly disheveled state.
Large patches of lime covered Chang Xu, Liu Yuhan, Qin Mu, and Nian Fu's bodies. Petrification marks crawled across their necks, arms, and ankles, and their skin had taken on the hard, cold texture of marble.
A lack of food stirred hunger, driving the Players one step closer to becoming stone statues. The curse treated every living being in the Beast Arena equally.
They knew the state of their own bodies best. Just two bouts of hunger were enough for a person to be completely turned to stone by the curse.
They had already gone through it once. One more time, and they would be dead.
"Two people are missing." Liu Yuhan lifted her eyelids and surveyed the crowd for a moment. "Fan Zhanwei and Lin Ye aren't here."
Dong Xiwen scratched his head. "Something must have happened. No ratmen showed up last night either. What kind of danger could they have run into?"
"Let's go take a look." Nian Fu shrugged indifferently, her tone mocking. "Those two were in pretty poor shape. Maybe they just starved to death."
The beast-fighting game had yet to begin, and the animals had not all arrived. The Players straggled toward Fan Zhanwei and Lin Ye's room.
The stone door was shut tight. Ge Lin gripped both door panels with his hands and pulled them apart, forcing open a crack. He squeezed half his shoulder through, then pressed sideways with his elbow, widening