Cooperation

Suddenly, Liu Shuang thought of Zuo Cheng'an.

Not only had he been the first to suggest that the Hunters might follow some pattern when killing, or that something triggered their killings,

he had also deduced that at most two people could stay in one room.

He must have known something! But he hadn't shared it!! He had done it to get Liu Shuang killed!

That had to be it!

"Heh..." Liu Shuang sneered. Since you tried to screw me over first, don't blame me for what happens if I survive.

Bang, bang, bang!

Bang, bang!

In the pitch-black corridor, the sounds of two doors being battered down rang out one after another.

Room 205's door gave way first, a hole opening near the bottom of the wooden door.

Nothing made a person grow like death. In that critical moment, the bespectacled man grabbed his axe with a crazed expression and hacked wildly at the claw reaching into the room!!

Unfortunately, his strength stat seemed low, limiting the damage he dealt to the Hunter. His blows were weak, too, and even after all that hacking, he hadn't broken the bones in its arm.

Hearing the commotion inside Room 205, the Hunter working away at Room 204 immediately abandoned its target and joined the assault on Room 205's door.

With both Hunters working together,

they soon gouged out a hole large enough to crawl through.

"No, no!!! Stay away!!"

Trapped in the room, the bespectacled man swung his axe madly, tears mingling with snot, as though some ferocity deep inside him had been unleashed!

Liu Shuang counted the time inside Room 207. When only half a minute remained until dawn, he quietly opened his door.

The only sounds in the corridor were the Hunters chewing their food and faint moans. Soon, even those faint moans disappeared.

Sensing that dawn was approaching, the two Hunters abandoned the corpse and left the way they had come, one after the other.

At that moment, Liu Shuang summoned his courage and darted out of his room.

He snatched the glasses off the bespectacled man's face and quickly put them into his game inventory.

The Hunters were in a hurry to leave and did not attack Liu Shuang.

With that done, Liu Shuang calmed his pounding heart and let out a long breath.

[Day has broken. The Hunters have left.]

Click.

The survivors stepped out of their rooms. Although they had prepared themselves for what might happen during the night, the horrific scene at Room 205 still gave them a fright.

The bespectacled man's skin and clothes had all been torn open. Half of him remained inside the room, while the other half was scattered outside.

At a glance, it was impossible to tell which parts of his body were missing.

Zuo Cheng'an barely managed to find some fragments that were most likely part of the skull, but there was no sign of the glasses on them.

He gave Liu Shuang, who had been the first at the scene, an impassive glance without exposing him.

Soon, the others also noticed that something was missing from the corpse. Or rather, an item was missing.

"Where are those night-vision glasses of his?"

"They aren't in the room, either. Did a Hunter swallow them?"

"Maybe the game automatically reclaimed them when their owner died?"

"Probably. His head isn't even whole. It looks like a half-eaten apple. The glasses must have ended up in its stomach, too."

Misled by Liu Shuang's words, the group tentatively accepted the explanation that a Hunter had eaten the item.

The man from Room 206 suddenly asked Liu Shuang, "If there are still two Hunters tonight, we'll be next. Want to team up tonight?"

Liu Shuang could not have asked for more. "Of course. I've already told you about my item, the dried mutton. How about introducing yours? If you don't want the others to hear, we can talk in a room."

"N-no... there's no need for that. My name is Zhao Chengyuan. My item is a 'Long-Handled Mirror,' green quality. It can reveal unusual beings normally invisible to the naked eye."

Everyone gasped!

They all drew in a sharp breath at his words. It was actually an item that let people see ghosts!

Although they did not yet understand its value, something connected to ghosts and of green quality ought to be fairly rare in the game.

Faced with the envy in everyone's eyes, Zhao Chengyuan tugged at the corners of his stiff mouth, seemingly in self-mockery.

"This isn't a paranormal instance. What use is it here?"

Zhao Chengyuan had shown his sincerity by introducing his item, but Liu Shuang seemed extremely dissatisfied with it.

A mirror with no combat capability at all. Teaming up with him would be no help whatsoever!

Then he turned away with a hint of disdain and addressed the others.

"What are you all waiting for!? Don't think you can stay out of this! If two Hunters can appear tonight, three can appear tomorrow night!! Once the Hunters destroy every room's door, none of us will escape!!"

Clearly, he thought Zhao Chengyuan was too weak and wanted to force more people to band together.

After several cycles of "day" and "night," the six players still alive in the instance could just barely be called companions who had faced life and death together.

They knew one another much better than they had at the start of the game.

Zheng Ren thought the suited man's words made some sense. The game required them to survive seven days, and there were already two Hunters on the fourth day.

If the difficulty increased every three days, would three Hunters appear on the seventh day?

Zuo Cheng'an shook his head in disagreement. "If we hadn't killed that Hunter, three really might have appeared on the seventh day.

"But we've already killed one. There are most likely only two left in the game, the two that appeared last night."

Zheng Ren was no fool. Sometimes he was simply a little slow to react and missed the point.

With even a slight reminder, he could grasp the key.

"Because of the carvings on the windows!?"

"Right. Three monster designs, corresponding to three Hunters. A level-one instance won't be too difficult. Look, the game shoved the clues right in the players' faces."

Hearing that only two Hunters remained in the game eased everyone's worries a little.

The five minutes of daylight were almost up again, yet they still had not worked out a safe way to deal with the Hunters.

Liu Shuang was beside himself with anxiety. After all, he would be the Hunters' target tonight!

Of the eight rooms, only Rooms 202 and 208 still had intact doors, offered somewhere to hide, and were not targets of the Hunters' attacks. Both were already occupied.

His only remaining option was to fight the Hunters!

"So what? What do you gain if I die? Are you just going to stand there and watch the monsters kill me!?

"Working together is our best solution right now! Don't you agree?"

After saying that, Liu Shuang stared straight at the woman, waiting for an answer.

Everyone had seen Liu Shuang's drastic, exaggerated change.

When it had nothing to do with him, he stayed out of it. The moment he was dragged in, he became more frantic than anyone.

The woman grew a little uncomfortable under his stare, rubbing a corner of her apron over and over. In the end, like Zhao Chengyuan, she gave a brief introduction to her ability.

"My name is He Jinmei. I don't know what you mean by items. If you mean things from the beginner's gift pack, all I got was a skill book called 'Basic Archery Techniques.' I've already used it."

With that, He Jinmei took the key from her pocket and struck the spot precisely between the brows of the middle monster on the window.

"After using it, I found I had much better control over my muscles. As long as somewhere is within throwing range, I can pretty much hit wherever I aim."