The elevator was moving when, suddenly, the overhead lights went out.
Piercing screams rang out as countless pale hands covered in livor mortis clawed the elevator doors apart from outside!
"Help! Help!" The people inside screamed in terror. To everyone's surprise, Zhang Fang screamed the loudest.
He wasn't afraid of people, but he was afraid of Instances.
Because the things inside Instances weren't human...
Under the force of countless corpse hands, the elevator doors burst open, and blinding light poured in.
A line of blood-red text slowly appeared amid the dazzling white light: "The god watches from the depths, waiting for you to become a sacrifice."
The blood-red text vanished. Shao Lan felt himself briefly lose consciousness.
It was as though some violent force had yanked his soul out of his body, then brutally stuffed it back in.
He opened his eyes and gasped for breath.
An endless mountain road stretched ahead, while dense trees flashed past in the rearview mirror.
He was sitting in the passenger seat of a moving car.
A beautiful young woman sat behind the wheel.
Her long black hair fell in large curls, and she wore a black knit dress. Her face was strikingly beautiful. The two hands gripping the steering wheel were fair and slender, with four nails painted an eerily dark red and the other six completely bare.
Seeing Shao Lan open his eyes, the woman turned toward him with a smile. "You're awake, honey."
Shao Lan froze for a moment.
His gaze swept around the car before settling on a Polaroid stuck up in front of him.
It showed him and the woman before him kissing in front of the castle fireworks at Disney. She even wore a pink LinaBell headband.
The photo was definitely fabricated.
Shao Lan was certain he had nothing to do with this woman. At the very least, he knew he had never been to Disney.
"Your name's Shao Lan, right?" the woman said. "I'm Xu Jiawei. If you can't remember my full name, you can call me Jiajia-are you a newbie?"
Shao Lan confirmed his suspicion. "You're a player too?"
Xu Jiawei smiled. "Of course. Were you hoping to meet an NPC as pretty as me?"
Most men would easily let their guard down around a beauty of Xu Jiawei's caliber, but Shao Lan remained wary. "Then how did you know my name?"
Xu Jiawei pointed at the glove compartment, which held two phones. "I got here about two minutes before you, so I read through the information first."
Rather than immediately checking the phones, Shao Lan examined his own body in surprise.
The nails that had been driven into him and the cuts Zhang Fang had inflicted were all gone.
"What's wrong?" Xu Jiawei asked.
"I had some injuries before I came in," Shao Lan said. "For some reason, they've all healed."
Xu Jiawei burst out laughing. "You really are a newbie. Looks like I'll have to teach you a thing or two-"
"In the building, as long as you're not dead, your injuries will heal automatically when you enter an Instance, no matter how bad they are. Likewise, no matter how badly you're hurt in an Instance, as long as you don't die on the spot, you'll heal when you return to the building."
"In short, the elevator can instantly heal anything. Once you enter it, your body automatically resets."
"You could call that one of the perks of entering an Instance. After all, every Instance has such a high death rate, and the guaranteed pay is only five hundred yuan. There has to be something else to keep people willing to participate."
"Oh, there's a rest stop up ahead. Come on, I'll show you another perk of Instances."
Xu Jiawei parked and took her phone and an elegant clutch. Shao Lan also found a men's shoulder bag on the back seat, which presumably belonged to him.
Shao Lan had already guessed what this perk was-
They often had assigned identities in Instances. This time, for example, after checking his phone, Shao Lan discovered that he and Xu Jiawei were a young couple working in a big city. Xu Jiawei was returning to her hometown and had invited him along.
As long as their assigned identities had money, they could use it to buy food and drinks. Everything they couldn't bear to splurge on in the building could be enjoyed here.
At the rest stop, Xu Jiawei ordered one of every flavor at the milk tea shop, picked out the most expensive imported snacks, and bought plenty of face masks, essential oils, skincare products, and makeup. She even ran into a clothing store and charged two mink coats to her card.
"It doesn't matter. You never have to pay off credit cards in Instances anyway." Xu Jiawei smiled as she stroked the coat's soft fur.
The credit card payment was due next month. By then, they would either have left this Instance or... already be dead.
There really was no reason not to spend this money, so Shao Lan started shopping too.
Steamed sea bass, stir-fried beef, tofu with crab roe and shrimp, water spinach sautéed with garlic, and pork ribs simmered with winter melon and Job's tears. Four dishes and a soup-first, he ate his fill.
Next door was a dim sum shop. He ordered one each of pineapple buns with cold butter, hawthorn char siu pastries, salted egg yolk siu mai, pan-fried turnip cakes, and shrimp bean curd skin rolls, and had the shop pack them in takeout containers.
He didn't know how long this Instance would last, so stocking up on snacks that kept well was essential. High-protein meat jerky, New Orleans-style chicken breast, Sichuan-style beef jerky, spicy dried fish, and salt-baked quail eggs. Shao Lan first loaded up on these protein-rich meat snacks, then picked up compressed biscuits, chocolate, nougat crackers, bread, and cakes for carbohydrates.
Finally, he took several large bags of mixed nuts. They would keep him full and provide fat.
Xu Jiawei's mink coats had also reminded him of something-mink wasn't necessary, but he did need a few warm layers.
There were several menswear shops at the rest stop. Shao Lan bought a full softshell outdoor outfit, two sweaters, a down jacket, and a scarf, hat, and gloves.
The trunk and back seat were already filled with his and Xu Jiawei's shopping bags. After a moment's thought, Shao Lan went to buy one last, crucial thing.
Weapons.
There weren't many things at the rest stop that could serve as weapons.
Shao Lan went to the kitchenware section. Sure enough, Xu Jiawei was there too.
Realizing they had both had the same idea, they wordlessly stepped around each other and headed for different shelves.
The smallest fruit and baby-food knife was light and compact, with a sharp point that made it well suited for use as a dagger.
The largest bone cleaver had the advantage of being big and sharp, but it wasn't nearly as easy to carry.
Shao Lan selected several knives in descending order of size. Then he spotted multifunction folding knives on another shelf and hurriedly grabbed a few of those too.
The two of them had packed the car so full that nothing else would fit.
"Let's go. We have to reach our destination before five." Shao Lan glanced at the map. A red circle marked their destination, labeled "Xu Family Village."
Clearly, that was the "hometown" the Instance had assigned to Xu Jiawei.
The car sped along the mountain road. This time, Shao Lan drove, and they moved considerably faster.
"Honey, I never imagined you'd be such a good driver on top of being so handsome," Xu Jiawei said with a faint smile.
Shao Lan gave her a calm glance. "You must be very good at clearing Instances."
"Huh? Why do you suddenly say that?"
"Most people are scared out of their minds when they enter an Instance. You're the only one who still has the energy to flirt."
"Honey, that's where you're wrong." Xu Jiawei gave Shao Lan a playful shove. "What do we live for? To have fun, of course. Even if the world ends tomorrow, that won't stop me from hitting on handsome guys."
Shao Lan chuckled and shook his head helplessly.
With a few minutes left before five, the sun was already sinking toward the mountains. Their car reached its destination before dark.
Once they crossed the mountain, an endless sea came into view. A row of white houses stood along the shore, and the wooden sign before them read "Xu Family Village."
Three other cars pulled up at the village entrance just before and after theirs. The passengers got out-exactly three men and three women.
Shao Lan quickly spotted Xu Nan and Zhang Fang among them.
He understood now. Each of the four cars held a "couple." Together, the four men and four women made up all the players in this Instance.
Shao Lan steadied himself and considered what to do next.
In the building, anything not explicitly forbidden was allowed. That was why Xu Nan and Zhang Fang had dared to rob people without restraint.
But they were in an Instance now, and every rule was unknown. No one knew what consequences indiscriminate murder might trigger.
So, at least for now, Xu Nan and Zhang Fang wouldn't attack him.
With that thought, Shao Lan pushed open the car door and prepared to get out.
But the next instant, his hand froze.
An utterly bizarre face was reflected in the rearview mirror.
It belonged to a little girl.
Her head was large and her body frail, like a bean sprout. Two braids hung on either side of her head, her hair dry and yellowed.
The little girl had lovely features: a delicate, upturned nose and a tiny mouth like a cherry.
Except where her eyes should have been... there were two enormous, pitch-black holes.
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