Hearing the reply in his earpiece, Ren Ye asked in surprise, "Xiao Shuai? Holy shit, how come it's you?"
"Bro, that tone really hurts. What's wrong with it being me? Are you that disappointed?" Xiao Shuai replied.
Ren Ye had assumed he would continue fighting alongside Brother Tiger this round. After all, both of them had received clues from Song Mingzhe. He had never imagined the system would pair him with a teammate who handled pressure terribly, turned into a champion trash-talker at the drop of a hat, and could single-handedly flame five people at once.
Ren Ye scratched his nose and replied politely, "No, you're overthinking it. I'm not that disappointed. My mental game's just fallen apart a little, and I want to surrender at fifteen."
"...Holy shit, I already paid you, and that's what you say to me?" Xiao Shuai prepared to put his verbal artistry on display.
"Enough, cut the crap." Ren Ye thought for a moment, then said quietly, "Let's meet at the shopping mall on the sixth floor. We'll have a quick chat and exchange information."
"Okay, okay, I'm on my way."
"Yeah."
With that, they ended their conversation, and Ren Ye headed straight for the elevator.
On his way down, he made a point of observing the building's interior. He discovered that its layout differed from that of an ordinary residential building. Every corridor was extremely long, with numerous turns, intersecting like a gigantic maze.
Each floor contained at least a hundred households. It resembled a large hotel, or the haunted apartment blocks often seen in Hong Kong horror films from the nineties.
However, the decor here was relatively luxurious. The corridors were clean and full of life, and many of the neighbors knew one another, greeting each other warmly as they passed.
Observing