Pour it on~

But none of them played along.

"Pfft, a couple of compliments and a lousy insurance salesman like you gets all high and mighty." A fat man couldn't stand it and stepped forward, saying bluntly:

"You won't even tell us your name. If you want to cooperate, set an example and explain what your item does first. Otherwise, what if you're up to no good and have something else in mind?"

Although this was their first time entering the game, they all instinctively knew that the items from their beginner gift packs were what they would depend on to survive. How could they reveal them so casually?

The man in the suit opened his mouth, but after struggling for a long while, he only managed to say that his name was Liu Shuang. In the end, he never shared his item's ability.

Several people who had thought Liu Shuang's speech about "working together to clear the game" made sense and were about to reveal their own items promptly shut their mouths.

Right, why should they reveal their own items?

Even in the real world, they shouldn't be overly eager to share private information with strangers they had just met. Presumably, the same applied in the game.

Liu Shuang wasn't polite either. "Hmph, fine. Everyone can go back to their own rooms and fend for themselves in five minutes."

Seeing that an alliance was no longer possible, the suited man didn't linger outside. He took out his key and returned to room 207, where he had awakened.

The girl in the school uniform stood to one side, her eyes clear and vacant as she babbled.

After hearing everyone talk about items, she glanced blankly at the skill she had obtained from her beginner gift pack-Double Kick. As though something had occurred to her, she stopped talking.

Seeing the white light outside the window grow dimmer and dimmer, she quietly slipped into room 203.

Zuo Cheng'an closed the door to room 204. Rather than heading to a safer corner away from the door, he sat down against it.

He had already placed the room's axe and shield within reach, where he could grab them in an instant.

Ever since he had gained the Eye of Truth skill,

whenever he focused on the axe, he could see a line of annotation:

[Hand axe: A weapon thoughtfully provided to new players by the owner of Happy Apartment. Don't be shy; use it to your heart's content.]

[Small wooden shield: At a critical moment, it might save your life. Now say, "Thank you, small wooden shield." (P.S. It isn't very reliable.)]

The axe and wooden shield weren't classified as items. Zuo Cheng'an had tested things both openly and subtly during the day.

No one besides him could see annotations on ordinary objects.

This had given him plenty of firsthand information.

For instance, this place was part of Happy Apartment, but they couldn't even go downstairs and could only move around on the second floor, so naturally, they couldn't see the apartment building in its entirety.

Perhaps this instance only needed a corridor as its setting, rather than an entire apartment building.

It was also possible that the apartment's other floors belonged to other instances.

Zuo Cheng'an hadn't hidden in a corner of the room and instead stayed behind the door. The room was too small to fit even a bed anyway, so hiding anywhere made no difference.

By staying behind the door, he could also promptly gather information from the sounds outside once the so-called hunter appeared.

Meanwhile, his eyes weren't idle either. He watched the scrolling comments in the air without missing a single message.

[How much longer until dark? I can't wait.]

[Soon, soon! Only half a minute left! Hurry up and start the slaughter!! Hahahahaha!!]

[Hope the hunter puts on a good show. The bloodier, the better. I want to record it for my collection.]

After everyone returned to their rooms, the corridor fell quiet.

The moment the five minutes were up, the last trace of light outside the window vanished, leaving the entire corridor pitch-black.

Creeeak-!

In the silence, even the slightest sound stood out.

Coupled with the corridor's enclosed layout, even faint noises were amplified over and over.

[Here it comes! The hunter's here!]

[Whoa, it spawned over by room 208, right?]

[Finally, some blood. Any more dawdling and I would've gone to the Meat Canning Factory stream next door.]

[I just came from there. Meat Canning Factory really deserves its reputation as the meat grinder of level-one instances. I've had my fill, so I hurried over here for something lighter.]

[I love hardcore gore! Thanks for the recommendation! Heading over now.]

[The hunter has appeared. Number deployed: 1.]

Creeeak-cree-creeeak-

Outside the door came the sound of a sharp weapon scraping the floor.

An unknown creature emerged from the wall at the room 208 end of the corridor, passing rooms 207, 206, and the others in order.

As though deliberately trying to frighten the prey hiding inside, it circled in front of each room but did nothing more.

The room doors had peepholes, seemingly tempting the curious people inside to press up against them and look out.

Worried that his gaze might attract the creature's attention, Zuo Cheng'an closed the peephole and chose to learn what was happening outside through the scrolling comments.

After a while, he thought he heard a door being broken down and screams mingled with sounds of a struggle. But they were too far away for him to tell which room they came from.

[Who's in 201? Poor unlucky bastard.]

[I wasn't paying attention either. I was watching the beauty in 203 the whole time. Lower worlds may be backward, but they really do produce beautiful women. Look at that schoolgirl. She's already that pretty before she's even fully grown. Imagine her later.]

[She'd have to survive first. She might die this round. How's she supposed to grow up then?]

[To answer the earlier question, 201 was that fat guy. Tsk, tsk, what a horrible death.]

[Now you've got my attention. Which camera's over there? I'll take a look.]

Was it the resident of 201 whose door got broken down?

An answer formed in Zuo Cheng'an's mind, but the game hadn't announced daybreak, so he didn't risk going outside.

Inside room 207.

Liu Shuang stood trembling behind the door. He had already kneaded a corner of his suit into a crumpled mess.

Although having his purpose in proposing an alliance exposed had made him lash out in embarrassment, the other man had been right. His intentions weren't entirely pure.

Because the item he had drawn really wasn't much use.

[Dried mutton (pack)]

[Category: Item (white, consumable)]

[Effect: Strength +1 for a short time after consumption.]

[Restrictions: None.]

[Description: Pour it on~~]

Liu Shuang's initial strength was 4, and eating the dried mutton brought it to 5. Eating it made practically no difference!

Moreover, only after eating it did he discover that the supposed "Strength +1 for a short time"

actually meant one minute! And it couldn't even stack! What damn use was that?

Even a damn sip of water would stay in his stomach for five minutes, wouldn't it?

If there hadn't been five pieces in the pack, he would have already lost it and started swearing.

People were selfish and couldn't stand seeing others better off than themselves.

After learning how useless his item was, Liu Shuang couldn't suppress his curiosity.

He desperately wanted to know whether everyone else's items were like his-unrewarding to use, yet a shame to discard.

Without the confidence to face an enemy, he still had to come into close proximity with a dangerous creature.

God knew his heart had nearly flown out of his chest when he heard the creature outside pass his door.

Fortunately, the hunter hadn't lingered outside his door in the end. As for who the screaming unlucky bastard was, that was beyond his concern.

After killing the resident of 201, the hunter seemed to have eaten its fill. It showed no intention of choosing another lucky victim and left through the wall it had come from.

[Day has broken! The hunter has left.]

The moment the announcement sounded, everyone, who had been waiting in their rooms in agonizing impatience, opened their doors and stepped out almost simultaneously.

Following the bloodstains in the corridor, they quickly found their way to room 201, which had been attacked the previous night.

Room 201's wooden door was badly deformed. Slightly below its center, the hunter had gouged a hole roughly thirty centimeters across.

Bits of flesh and splattered blood covered the area around the opening.

The answer was obvious. Judging by the deformation of the wooden door and the fat and scraps of flesh squeezed out around the hole,

the hunter had gouged through the door and slipped into the room.

After killing the occupant of room 201, it had forcibly pulled the body through that thirty-centimeter-wide hole and dragged it away.