Juliet's death

The air was thick with tension, the low growls of lions surrounding them, close enough to touch.

Moonlight spilled in through the windows, bathing the room in radiance. Everyone's face seemed veiled by a filter, yet remained clearly visible.

They were all looking at him.

He seemed to have come at a bad time.

Excuse me, was it too late to leave now?

Xie De stiffly looked at Pearl, who had come back from the dead, and once again cursed heaven's unfairness. Why couldn't Hu Songlin share half his luck with him?

Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

God had closed a door on him, and not only had he failed to open a window, he had sealed every crack as well.

Why was he so pessimistic? Oh, because his pistol was out of bullets. Ha ha. He had shot several monsters on his way into the mansion, and had just used up the last of his ammunition.

That was the situation. Of the four people present, Xie De alone had no weapon, and he had walked straight into the line of fire himself. This boss even held a grudge against him.

Hilarious. "455, I asked you to find the protagonist, and you led me straight into a death trap."

455 replied as though it had lost all will to live, "You said it yourself. You asked me to help you find the protagonist. Just tell me, is he here or not?"

They had entered through the mansion's back door, which led into the kitchen. There hadn't been many people there to begin with, and the lions were all gathered near Wei Yanchi. Their journey had been completely unimpeded, without a corpse or any sign of fighting in sight.

Because it was so dangerous outside, Xie De had mistakenly assumed the mansion was safe, and that all he would need to do was solve the mystery.

Deduction wasn't his strong suit. Of course he had to find Wei Yanchi.

He simply hadn't expected things to be even more dangerous around the protagonist. How had he managed to run straight into the movie boss who had a grudge against him? With no bullets left in his gun, he was more than a little nervous.

At that thought, Xie De instinctively put on what he considered an awkward but polite smile. He even wanted to say, Sorry to interrupt. Please, carry on.

39 stood farthest from the window, half his face already indistinct in the darkness. His short, tousled silver fringe partly obscured his eyes, but he still looked down on them from above. His lips slowly curved upward; even calling his expression teasing would have been generous.

He looked as though he were watching a show, admiring with faint mockery the sorry spectacle of lesser predators tearing into one another.

Wei Yanchi's voice was low. "Mr. 39..."

"I'm not crude at all!" Pearl angrily cut him off and shouted at 39, "I saw these upper-class people dancing terribly, and they weren't particularly elegant either. In fact, if you'd come a few minutes earlier, you'd have seen them crawling all over the floor, crying until their tears and snot ran together. Your assessment of me is wrong, because I killed those disgusting things very elegantly."

In her anger, she looked just like 39's rebellious younger sister.

Beiwei's eyes filled with surprise. This instance boss actually knew 39? Were the two of them that close?

But remembering that this was 39, she found it only natural. Everyone had their own special abilities and opportunities. It was perfectly normal for Mr. 39 to have a more impressive network of connections.

Beiwei recalled what Wei Yanchi had told her earlier and suddenly felt ashamed of the words with which she had underestimated Mr. 39. This was 39! A truly formidable man.

They should be able to clear this dream very soon!

Wei Yanchi wasn't as surprised as Beiwei. He had smelled Mr. 39's tobacco on Pearl, but he hadn't expected 39 to be so familiar with the instance boss.

Neither had Xie De.

455 hurriedly looked around and immediately said, "Oh my, this instance boss doesn't seem to mind at all that you shot her in the head. I've got it. Hurry up and put on an act. You might still have a chance to survive."

"How?" Xie De was dazed.

"Just like you did in front of her last time."

"But I was just making things up then. Who knows what I even said..."

He was falling apart. His defenses were crumbling.

For a moment, his survival instinct took over. Xie De kept the corners of his lips raised, and even his eyes seemed to hold just the right hint of wicked amusement.

"But, my dear young lady, I didn't see any of it."

Pearl's aggrieved eyes brimmed with tears. "That's because you came late. You missed the most magnificent performance. That isn't my fault."

"But it isn't my fault either."

39 stepped closer. His beautiful, slender fingers gently wiped away Pearl's tears as he spoke softly, like a devil whispering, his voice laced with malicious temptation. "My dear, I didn't come here for scraps, nor did I come to see your tears. How about putting on another performance for me?"

Pearl flushed a little. "Gladly. What would you like to see?"

"Screams. Death. Just like what you did before."

"All right."

39's words were exactly what she wanted to hear. Pearl immediately grew excited and brandished her pitchfork as lion after lion entered from the balcony.

The lions bared their fangs, their coats sleek and glossy, their teeth and claws covered in blood. They circled the group, growling low.

Xie De clenched his hand tightly inside his pocket, his uneasy gaze avoiding the lions. Fortunately, everyone had been drawn to Pearl's movements, and nobody noticed. They merely assumed he was indifferent to it all.

Pearl made the lions roar viciously at the three people before her, trying to provoke them with the threat of death and force them to scream. But of the three, only Juliet kept trembling, so frightened she was about to faint.

"Don't you dare faint!" Pearl shouted furiously. But Juliet really was close to passing out from the fright. Despite being so terrified, she still didn't scream.

In truth, someone frightened to the extreme couldn't scream, but Pearl only grew angrier, convinced Juliet was deliberately defying her. In a fit of rage, she drove her pitchfork viciously into Juliet's head.

Xie De was suddenly surprised, because the moment Juliet died, the dream created by this movie began to collapse.

A look of realization flashed through Wei Yanchi's eyes.

The space and time around them shattered, while Pearl continued angrily smashing Juliet's head, again and again, just like the repeating movie clip Xie De had seen at the start of the instance.

Everything went black.

They woke in the first layer of the dream, inside the damp, gloomy cinema.

Beiwei immediately ran up to Xie De and looked at him with shining eyes, though her face remained expressionless, like an aloof pet dog wagging her tail at her owner.

"Mr. 39, you're truly incredible."

Xie De had been under considerable stress just now. With his head aching, he closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Hearing those words, he accepted Beiwei's praise with a twinge of guilt.

He also asked inwardly, 455, are you all right?

455 replied weakly, "Not really. We've been trapped in this instance for almost a whole day and night. I'm running out of power."

Uh-oh.

Yue Xiamo got up not far from them, still somewhat bewildered, and patted Wei Yanchi's shoulder. "What happened? Have we cleared it already?"

Wei Yanchi looked at 39 with a gentle smile, then spoke with unmistakable pride. "Yes, we've cleared the Juliet and Romeo movie, and we're about to clear this instance too, because I've figured it out."

Figured it out?

Joy rose in Xie De's heart. Wonderful. We're finally getting out, just as 455 is about to run out of power.

As soon as he stood up and swept his gaze around, he spotted Hu Songlin crouching pitifully by the screening room door, idly drawing circles. They were only five steps away from him, yet not one of them had noticed him.

What was he doing here?

Was he about to come up with another rotten idea?

Xie De walked over irritably and asked in a cold, hard voice, "What are you doing here?"

As soon as he approached, Beiwei, Wei Yanchi, and Yue Xiamo all looked over. When had someone appeared there? Confusion, wariness, and curiosity instantly entered their eyes.

Hu Songlin raised his head and saw 39 standing at the front, with the other three looking at him from behind.

Someone had noticed him again.

"I... I'm waiting for you."