Elevator descending. Please hold on!

"Where am I? Have I been kidnapped?"

Lin Feng stood up, rubbing his slightly dizzy head.

Not long ago, he had been rushing to his eight a.m. class. Since he couldn't get used to living in the dorm, he had rented a place off campus with someone else. He had no idea what bastard had invented eight a.m. classes.

"Why am I in an elevator?"

Lin Feng reached out and pressed the door-open button, but the elevator didn't respond. Just then, the LCD screen beside the buttons suddenly lit up, and a strange voice came from the elevator's speaker.

[Welcome, lucky ones, to the world of elevator survival.]

[Here, there are endless treasures and deadly dangers. Every time the clock strikes twelve, the elevator will enter a new floor. You may choose to explore the floor or remain in the safety of the elevator. Regardless, the elevator will close after one hour. Any survivors who have not entered the elevator will remain on that floor forever.]

[You may also enter the same floor as other survivors. You may cooperate to explore the floor or slaughter one another.]

[The screen beside the elevator buttons allows you to communicate or trade with one another.]

[You may use supplies obtained from your floors to upgrade the elevator and turn it into a base. Its level is the same as your level in the chatroom.]

[The elevator is an absolutely safe area. No creatures encountered on the floors will enter the elevator. However, this applies only to creatures from the floors. The elevator cannot withstand attacks from other survivors, so please protect it.]

[Now, let the game begin!]

After the voice faded, Lin Feng calmed down. It seemed he hadn't been kidnapped, but had been brought to another world, just like in a novel. And judging by what that voice had said, he probably wasn't the only one.

By now, the screen had finished loading. It displayed a chatroom, with a large numeral 1 beside his avatar and name. Apparently, that was his level. Beside it were the materials required for an upgrade: 50 kilograms of wood and 100 kilograms of iron.

The chatroom also had public and private chats, and automatically translated languages.

[Where is this? Is anyone there? What should we do?]

[Everyone heard what that voice just said, right? We might have been transported to another world.]

[Damn it, I just won ten million in the fucking lottery!!!]

[So this isn't the underworld after all? I ended up here right after jumping off a building. I thought this was the underworld.]

The chatroom was bustling. It seemed quite a few people had been transported to this world. The elevator was also very spacious, even bigger than a normal freight elevator.

Just then, a voice rang out in Lin Feng's mind.

"Beep. Host detected entering the world. Foresight System bound."

"Beep. The floor the host is about to enter contains no danger. There is a machete in the drawer of the teacher's desk, and an unopened packet of chocolate inside the desk in the second column, third row. Note: all objects in the classroom can be dismantled."

[Ding-dong! Elevator descending. Please hold on.]

The elevator announcement sounded, and Lin Feng immediately felt a sensation of weightlessness. A moment later, the sensation vanished, and the elevator doors opened automatically.

Lin Feng didn't act particularly surprised about being bound to a system, though he was certainly secretly delighted. After all, having a system meant he had an advantage over everyone else, and this system even seemed capable of predicting information about the floors!

"It really is a classroom."

Lin Feng spoke as he looked at the clean classroom.

Above the blackboard were eight very familiar Chinese characters: study hard and improve every day.

Walking over to the teacher's desk, Lin Feng did indeed find a machete in its drawer. But why would there be a machete in a classroom?

Then Lin Feng looked toward the desk the system had mentioned and found the packet of chocolate in its compartment.

There was still plenty of time, though. Only one minute had passed, and the elevator wouldn't close for another 59 minutes.

The spot on the elevator that should have displayed the floor number now showed a countdown until the doors closed.

[59:23]

With plenty of time left, Lin Feng wasn't in a hurry and continued searching the classroom.

After spending several minutes searching every desk, Lin Feng only managed to find a blank notebook.

I really don't get it. This is clearly a classroom, so why isn't there a single book? And all the windows are opaque, and even the doors are locked tight.

But upgrading the elevator happens to require wood, so I might as well chop up these desks.

Lin Feng gave the machete a few test swings and found it exceptionally comfortable to wield, as well as extremely sharp. Unfortunately, all the desks and chairs in the classroom, including the teacher's desk, were made entirely of wood. There was no iron.

There were roughly 40 desks. Lin Feng was, after all, just a college student who liked playing video games and hardly ever exercised. After working for over 50 minutes, he had only dismantled 20 desks. If he carried them into the elevator without dismantling them, he wouldn't be able to fit many inside.

"Six minutes left. I'm done. Fuck, I need to exercise more from now on!"

Lin Feng spoke as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Then he carried over another six chairs before returning to the elevator.

Just after Lin Feng returned, the elevator doors closed, and he seemed to faintly hear a clamor of voices.

"There aren't actually fucking students having class in there, are there??"

Lin Feng scratched his head as he looked at the 20 desks he had dismantled.

Whatever. If this really is a school, I'm sure the school will replace the desks.

Lin Feng looked at the screen again. The materials required for an upgrade had changed.

[Upgrade requirements: 10 kilograms of wood, 100 kilograms of iron.]

"All those fucking desks only came to 40 kilograms? There's definitely a middleman taking a cut!"

The elevator had probably counted the chairs too, since Lin Feng saw them listed in the details below.

After he excluded the chairs, the wood required increased by another 10 kilograms.

Lin Feng had brought those chairs back so he could rest.

After arranging the six chairs, Lin Feng tried lying on them. There was just enough room to stretch out.

But there wasn't much space left in the elevator either.

"Let's check the chatroom."

Lin Feng got up, walked over to the screen, and opened the chatroom.

[Have you all finished your first floor? Did you encounter any danger?]

[I'm done exploring. Mine was an unfinished building. I only found two shovels and a leather bucket.]

[Mine was pretty safe too, but it was a bit disgusting. The floor I entered was a public restroom. The smell inside was so disgusting that I went back to the elevator without staying long.]

[Hey, above me, that public restroom of yours should have faucets, right?]

[Yes, but I'm not thirsty, and I don't have anything to hold water anyway.]

[Drink some even if you're not thirsty. What if you get thirsty later and can't find any?]

[If you want to drink it, go ahead. Water from a restroom? That's fucking disgusting.]

[Looks like none of us entered dangerous floors. Mine was an abandoned factory. I found 20 kilograms of scrap iron and half a bottle of mineral water.]

P.S. Leave your brains here.