Hold him, rise on tiptoe, part your lips, kiss~

Without warning, the wall in front of them was blasted apart!

Stone and sand flew, shock waves rippling outward.

Within three seconds, debris had struck the director's eye and drawn blood. The blast knocked his aged body to the floor, and he fell backward onto his backside. Squelch-

He landed squarely on a shattered wooden table leg, blood pouring out. "Aaaaaaaaaah-!"

Tears streamed down along with his piercing screams. His vision blurred, leaving him unable to make out what was in front of him-

What happened? Why did the wall suddenly explode from outside?

He had controlled this dream for years, and nothing like this had ever happened. Had those two come back?

No, impossible!

The director clung to his conviction: Ordinary people would only get lost in the darkness. There was no way they could ever find their way back...!!

Yet the very next second, his pupils widened, and his naive thoughts came to an abrupt halt. Right in front of him, Yu Qing raised his hand and gently placed a bomb larger than the director's face on top of his head, smiling mildly.

"I figured it out. You're the one who polluted Xu Han's dream."

"Beep, beep, beep..."

As the bomb counted down steadily, the system's voice rang out:

[Congratulations to streamers Yu Qing and Qian Lai for discovering the major hidden clue "The polluted dream." Plot exploration: 78%!]

Seventy-eight! Seventy-eight percent!!!

This time, it wasn't just the system. Even the livestream room went wild with excitement.

The viewer count, which had hit rock bottom, surged to unprecedented heights. Viewers screamed that this livestream room had climbed to third place on the "Viewer popularity rankings"!

[Third? Aaaaaah, third! I just checked-the first, second, fourth, and fifth places on this list are all level-ten Dungeons. Ten is the highest Dungeon level!!!]

[Waaah, this ranking gets tons of exposure. Wifey's going to be famous QAQ!]

[I knew it! So it's "Angel Psychiatric Sanatorium"!! I remember this Dungeon being vicious. It looks like level one, but the farther you get, the nastier it becomes. Plenty of veteran streamers who've been playing for years don't dare enter, and a newbie actually reached such a high plot exploration percentage! That's a new record.]

[Is that white-haired cutie a streamer? Hehe, I'm hard! Lick, lick, lick, lick, lick, lick, lick, lick, lick!]

"Beep, beep, beep..."

The bomb's countdown continued. Inside the room, the director's face visibly twisted with pain.

He heard Yu Qing say, "You polluted Xu Han's 'Dream Core' and took control of his dream. Then you used his dream to carry out your evil sacrificial ritual."

That was the entire truth they had uncovered on the surface so far!

"Beep, beep, beep..."

The director's hands trembled, and bloody tears filled his eyes.

He had never imagined that Yu Qing could return after getting lost in the darkness. By all rights... by all rights, no one should have been able to find the way back!!

But with the threat right in front of him, he could only endure the pain and stand up, dragging his stooped body forward with difficulty. Desperately, he picked up an already broken picture frame from the floor and hurried away.

Covered in blood, his steps faltering, he murmured through trembling lips, "Mom... Mom..."

"Hahahahaha." Watching the old man call for his mother, Qian Lai found it hilarious. Even so, he stepped forward worriedly, caught Yu Qing by the wrist, and urged, "Hurry, let's go!"

The boy blinked, holding the wildly beeping "bomb" in his palm, and turned his eyes toward him in mild confusion. "There's no danger anymore. Why hurry?"

"No, that bomb in your hand is about to explo-"

"Beep-"

Before he could finish, Yu Qing casually pressed something, and the "bomb" stopped making noise. Then, as the boy slowly raised his hand, Qian Lai saw an... alarm clock???

"..."

A long silence followed. The young man stood practically frozen in place. Only after a long while-so long that the cold sweat at his temples had almost dried-did he murmur, "You... you scared the director off with that thing?"

[Hahahahahaha!] The livestream room kept roaring with laughter. [Help! Qian Lai literally said exactly what I was thinking, hahahaha!]

[Oh, oh, oh, I know why! I noticed that Yu Qing barely changes his expression. Whatever he says, he looks so serious that it's really easy to believe him, hahahaha!]

[Wifey is the GOAT!!!]

[But I'm really curious. How did wifey find the Sanatorium? It's pitch-black outside. Did he leave some kind of marker?]

A marker?

Qian Lai glanced over casually and thought, Yu Qing really did do that.

When he left the Sanatorium, he had cut his finger and smeared his blood on the outer wall. In the darkness, his red eyes could see his own blood, allowing him to pinpoint the way back.

They didn't need a Revival Card. They only needed to buy a few high-powered bombs to return to the Sanatorium.

Although... they had blasted the wrong spot, it had still been strangely satisfying!

Qian Lai left the room with Yu Qing, feeling much more relaxed as they walked. Still...

He said, "Now we've confirmed that the director is the core NPC here, where's the key? Did he hide it?"

"Possibly." Yu Qing thought as he headed downstairs. Passing through the lobby, he involuntarily stopped again and raised his gaze to the eerie, towering Angel Statue in front of him.

He studied the Angel Statue's eyes-the bloody tears were flowing more noticeably now. One drop, two drops, three drops...

Those bloody tears fell ceaselessly from her pitch-black eye sockets like beads from a broken string, as though... she were heartbroken beyond measure.

So... who was sealed inside the Angel Statue?

And what was the director's sacrifice for?

Mutter, mutter.

As he pondered, that eerie sound drew closer again, and Yu Qing instinctively looked toward Qian Lai.

The young man seemed to have discovered something. He strode forward, grabbed Xue Ziyi by the collar as though picking up a chick, and swung his fist!

Every sentence Xue Ziyi spoke earned him a punch. Every word earned him a punch. Even a cry of pain earned him another punch!

In the end, he could only kneel on the floor and kowtow, begging for mercy.

The livestream room cheered that he had gotten what he deserved, but the temperature around them kept dropping. Yu Qing knew that what he would have to face next was...

The red-envelope task...

[Beep-]

His vision went black, and the sound of the livestream room disconnecting and shutting down rang sharply in his ears. The temperature around him dropped so low that his hands and feet trembled. In his field of vision stood that same beautiful monster, lovely as a god.

The sound of approaching tentacles was unmistakable. Yu Qing asked the system, and it replied:

[The livestream room is closed, but the viewer task still counts.]

Even better if the viewers can't see. I might as well...

The boy secretly gritted his teeth and walked toward the beautiful BOSS before the tentacles could touch him. Standing before him, he pulled down one of his tentacles. The instant the man lowered his head, he rose onto his tiptoes.

His lips parted, a soft breath slipping out.

"Mmph..."