Unable to Escape the Net Cafe

"Streamer, streamer, are you in a studio or somewhere else? It's all over the news—the Speed Net Cafe is on fire."

"The net cafe's exits are blocked. Not a single survivor has been found. The Hanjiang City fire department has already gone to put out the fire."

"Shouldn't there be thick smoke if there's a fire? How come there isn't even a trace of smoke in your private room?"

After reading those comments,

Zhang Ze was stunned.

He searched for Speed Net Cafe, and a rapidly trending topic appeared before his eyes:

<Massive Fire Breaks Out at Hanjiang City's Speed Net Cafe!!>

A fire?

How was that possible?!

Even with his headphones on, Zhang Ze could not possibly have failed to notice a real fire. This sudden news story felt like some kind of prank, and he hesitated before clicking into it.

Yet the photos from the scene, the time, and the location all matched the Speed Net Cafe.

In the pictures, the Speed Net Cafe had already been completely swallowed by flames. Thick black smoke continuously billowed out from inside, fire trucks filled the street, and firefighters were urgently battling the blaze with high-pressure water hoses.

A fire of that scale...

There was no way Zhang Ze would not have noticed it.

"What kind of joke is this? A fire here? That's utterly ridiculous. Don't believe every rumor you hear!"

Zhang Ze said with a smile to his livestream viewers.

When he pushed open the door, he happened to run into the peppy girl at the front desk, who was carrying over a cup of cola. "We're running a promotion today. Customers in Zone C can enjoy one free cup of cola!"

"Thanks."

"Oh, right. The internet says your net cafe is on fire. What do you think about that?"

"A fire? You must be joking." The peppy girl at the front desk clearly did not believe it. The net cafe was operating normally; there was no way it could be on fire.

Zhang Ze showed her the news page.

The girl's expression changed slightly, as if she too were thinking, How could that be possible?

Suddenly—

"Damn it! Attendant, why did the internet suddenly cut out? What the hell?"

"Exactly! I was already in overtime in my game, and then the internet got cut off. How am I supposed to play now?"

"What's that compared to me? I'd already picked my loadout in War Thunder and was about to grab some tissues to become a legendary pilot, then you cut off my internet. How am I supposed to take off now?!"

Many customers in Zones A and B suddenly began shouting.

Right after that, customers from Zones C and D also stormed out of their rooms in fury and went to the front desk to question the peppy girl.

Every computer had lost its internet connection.

The girl was a little bewildered, but she quickly collected herself. Network maintenance could sometimes cause a temporary outage; it was not particularly strange.

"Please don't panic. I'll call the owner and get someone to inspect it. Everything will be back to normal soon."

The girl apologized.

Then she took out her phone to call the net cafe's owner.

"Beep~"

"The number you have dialed is currently out of service~"

There was no signal on her phone.

The girl stared in astonishment. She had never encountered anything like this before. The entire net cafe had lost its internet, and now the phones had no signal either, as if a nearby cell tower had been destroyed.

A chill suddenly ran down Zhang Ze's spine.

He walked to the entrance of the net cafe and found that the door had somehow been locked shut. The double doors were tightly closed, perfectly sealed, without the slightest sign that they could be opened.

Zhang Ze gave them an experimental push.

The doors did not budge.

Then he pushed harder.

They still would not open.

"Could I really be this unlucky?"

A bad feeling rose in Zhang Ze's heart. He had merely watched that video a few times. What the hell was going on?

The commotion at the entrance caught the attention of several customers. They were all a little sturdier than Zhang Ze and looked like students from a nearby university. They rushed over and tried to open the doors.

But no matter how hard they tried, the doors seemed welded shut. They could not open them at all.

"Move aside. I'll do it!"

One customer picked up a fire extinguisher from the floor and smashed it down hard.

Crack!

The fire extinguisher was dented on the spot.

A large amount of carbon dioxide sprayed out, instantly turning the entrance into a mess. Yet the doors remained as solid as a mountain, without any sign of damage.

These doors did not even have locks.

They were like the common doors found in malls. There were no locks at the top or bottom; a light push should have opened them. Even if they did not open, an impact like that should have destroyed them.

But now, these doors were far stronger than they had any right to be.

An atmosphere of panic descended over the net cafe.

"Break the door!! Break the door!! Smash it open!"

"I'm strong! Let me do it!"

Some people tried to break down the doors with fire extinguishers, bricks, and computers from the net cafe... but nothing worked. Anything that struck the doors simply shattered itself to pieces, without having the slightest effect.

Others tried to contact the outside world.

They made calls, sent text messages, and turned on Bluetooth.

There was no signal at all. They could not communicate with the outside.

They could not get out.

Even the livestream comments running in the background on Zhang Ze's phone had stopped ten minutes ago. The livestream feed had already cut off, meaning his phone had lost signal more than ten minutes earlier.

Despair spread as an icy chill wrapped tightly around everyone's heart.

Almost everyone in the net cafe was male—at least a dozen people, including university students and middle-aged men. There were barely any female customers in sight.

So many men together, yet they could not open a thin wooden door.

"There's a fire exit behind the net cafe. Let's use the fire escape!" the peppy girl at the front desk said.

Her words jolted everyone awake. They rushed toward the back door, where the fire exit was located. A green "Emergency Exit" sign on the wall pointed toward it; it was the emergency passage meant for situations like this.

But that door was also tightly shut.

Zhang Ze tried to open it.

It felt just like the front door. It still would not open.

Not only would it not open, but the back door was made of glass. Beyond it was pitch-black darkness, silent in a way that inspired terror. No matter how loudly they shouted, knocked, or smashed at the door, every sound was completely swallowed up.

Zhang Ze aimed his phone's flashlight beyond the glass door.

The light shone into the darkness as though something were absorbing it. It illuminated less than half a meter before it could not extend any farther.

It was as though the Speed Net Cafe had been sealed off by something, isolated from the outside world.

"It's over. What the hell is going on??"

"Could this be some Japanese reality-show prank? No way. How could they completely cut off all signals? It's not twenty years ago!"

"Mom, save me!! I'll never go online again!!"

A few timid customers had already been frightened into tears.

Zhang Ze narrowed his eyes and thought for a moment.

The more critical the situation, the calmer he had to be.

"What's your name?" Zhang Ze looked at the peppy girl.

"I... I'm Shen Yue." Shen Yue answered Zhang Ze, looking completely at a loss.

Zhang Ze pointed toward the net cafe's kitchen. Modern net cafes all had dedicated kitchens where they could make snacks like crispy pork, fries, and fried chicken cutlets. There had to be equipment like microwaves inside.

"Get some white sugar and plug in a microwave. Anyone here who studied chemistry, make some crude homemade explosives... I refuse to believe we can't blow this door open!"