After the system's voice disappeared, Jiang Nuo found a piece of paper in her hand. There were four rooms on this floor, and behind each room door was a blank space for recording.
Jiang Nuo glanced at it casually, then tossed it aside, muttering, "What a nuisance, this damn system."
Following the faint light in the corridor, the five players quickly found the first room, 404.
It's as if the door frame was drawn directly onto the corridor wall; the whole door exudes an eeriness.
"Should we... should we go in?" Liu Wei swallowed hard, instinctively alert and fearful of the unknown danger.
Yue Zhou silently pushed open the door, and with a little force, it opened immediately. The room was unusually dark, so dark that one could not see their own hand in front of their face.
Jiang Nuo didn't go in; instead, she crossed her arms and leaned against the doorframe, scanning the room with her eyes.
Xu Yin and the other two continued to explore inside. According to the mission rules, they should only need to act as security guards and walk around the room once.
A few seconds later, Jiang Nuo and Si Yan's eyes simultaneously fixed on the same spot.
A huge portrait of a deceased person hung on the wall directly opposite the entrance; it appeared suddenly, without any warning.
The old man in the portrait was expressionless, his bloodshot eyes staring at everyone, like the eyes of a violently deceased person filled with resentment, as if they might crawl out of the portrait at any moment.
Even though those who can enter the six-star dungeon are all mid-to-high-level players, Liu Wei and Xu Yin were still startled by those eyes and covered their mouths tightly to keep from screaming.
[Oh my god, that's terrifying!!]
The camera, once controlled by the system, is not intelligent at all; it keeps filming scary things!
[No joke, just one look from those eyes is enough to give you a month of nightmares.]
Suddenly! The old man's eyes moved, staring straight at Jiang Nuo, their gazes meeting. His face was withered, like a skull covered only by a layer of human skin.
Jiang Nuo raised an eyebrow slightly, her expression completely unmoved.
"It's you..."
A hoarse, decaying voice came from the portrait.
The three players who were walking around the room immediately became alert and retreated to the doorway.
The old man crawled out of the portrait and rushed to Jiang Nuo, his terrifying white and red eyes staring intently at Jiang Nuo.
Si Yan frowned, her hands hanging at her sides clenching slightly, her gaze fixed warily on the ghost before her, whose intentions she couldn't discern.
Jiang Nuo, on the other hand, seemed quite at ease, still leaning lazily against the door frame, letting the old man's trembling, almost collapsing facial features move around as he pleased.
"How could it be you...? It really is you! Why are you still alive!"
The old man's eyesight was very poor. He shouted excitedly, raising his trembling, pockmarked hand, but his eyes gradually cleared.
"Jiang... Jiang!"
Jiang Nuo: "You know me?"
"... Well!"
The old man's eyes suddenly rolled back, revealing only rotting flesh; his eyeballs rolled out and crashed to the ground.
Jiang Nuo took a half step back. With Liu Wei's uncontrollable exclamation, the old man twisted and rushed towards the crowd, his mouth opening and dropping bits of flesh, like pieces of a corpse pieced together.
In a corner unnoticed by the old man, Yue Zhou formed hand seals and chanted a spell in a low voice, causing the entire room to suddenly tremble.
Jiang Nuo glanced at her, her eyes crinkling with a smile, "Thank you for your trouble."
Then he turned and went inside, taking a moment to kick open the only cabinet in the room, which looked like an upright coffin.
Si Yan's breathing faltered slightly. "This is..."
He stared in disbelief at the symbols on the bottom of the coffin, squatted down to examine them closely, and then glanced back at the old ghost.
Jiang Nuo was also surprised, as she, as an unofficial family member, was familiar with the association's internal encrypted language.
I shouldn't have been here.
Jiang Nuo pondered for a moment, "He knows me... Could it be that he came in after I returned to reality?"
No, he was a former member.
Si Yan was very certain, pointing to several special symbols.
"With the addition of too many new members in the past two years, the association has changed a number of complex encryption codes, which only... the group from over a decade ago knows."
"Huh?? What does that mean? Is this ghost a human from the real world?"
"Oh no, could it really have been randomly selected?"
Does this mean the system represents some kind of civilization more advanced than Earth? Otherwise, how could it have done this so quietly...?
[Holy crap! The person upstairs got their account banned!]
Is it just an account ban... or is the person also banned...?
"Come back to your senses and ask again." Jiang Nuo stood up, and with a flick of his wrist, black and red talismans appeared, easily breaking through Yue Zhou's witchcraft.
Yue Zhou froze, her rough voice shouting, "Are you crazy, Jiang Nuo?!"
"I have a use for him."
Jiang Nuo bit her finger, and the combined suppression of demonic blood and talismans rendered the old ghost immobile, causing him to slowly droop his head and fall into a daze.
Jiang Nuo casually took out a ghost-collecting pot, intending to put the old man ghost inside, but just as he took it out, a gust of wind swept by.
He looked up, surprised for a moment, then reacted instantly, turning around and dodging at the same time as Si Yan.
"Oh my god..."
Liu Wei was stunned.
The old ghost, who had already been subdued, suddenly exploded in front of them without any warning, leaving only a mess of flesh.
Xu Yin glanced at Jiang Nuo, but was startled by his expression, and retreated further towards the door.
Jiang Nuo gripped the teapot, glanced down at the ground, then looked at Si Yan, "That damn system did it on purpose."
Si Yan frowned, her doubts deepening, and murmured softly, "The connection between reality and this place is deeper than we thought."
The paper that Jiang Nuo had thrown away returned to his hand. A checkmark was drawn after the 404 error, and the homeowner's name was displayed at the end.
" Song Gen."
Jiang Nuo hesitated for a moment, then this time she didn't lose it.
"Let's go, next room."
He turned to face the other three players and noticed their probing gazes.
Jiang Nuo's heterochromatic eyes curved into a smile, her clear voice carrying a subtle warning, "Don't ask things you shouldn't, or you might get into trouble."
Xu Yin said, "Let's go."
Yue Zhou: "You're really sick."
Jiang Nuo: "... Yue Zhou!"
Don't think that having no hair gives you the right to do whatever you want!
As they left, Jiang Nuo took Si Yan's hand and gently squeezed it, receiving a quick response and a unique sense of peace in the darkness.
Jiang Nuo suddenly lowered her head and chuckled softly, then pressed closer to Si Yan's shoulder.
The second room, 406.
"It's so hot!" Xu Yin pushed open the door, scalded by the intense heat. "What's in the room? How can it be so hot!"
Jiang Nuo tested the temperature with her hand, then exclaimed and pulled back, "Wow, it's like teppanyaki!"
"How do we get in?" Liu Wei didn't dare to approach.
Yue Zhou formed a strange incantation and whispered, "Incantation out, ice shatters."
Jiang Nuo jumped back, choked by the dust from the door opening and coughed repeatedly. " Yue Zhou! Just open the door and say something!"
"Snort."
Yue Zhou went in first, leaving Jiang Nuo with a cold snort.
Jiang Nuo grimaced, rubbing her face against the wet tissue Si Yan handed her, "Damn it."
Si Yan chuckled softly, wiping the ash from Jiang Nuo's forehead. "If I don't get revenge, that's not like Nuonuo."
Jiang Nuo held up his index finger to shush, briefly activating system blocking for 0732, and explained to Si Yan, "Keeping Yue Zhou alive is crucial for our destruction of the dog system."
" Yue Zhou's sorcery far surpasses mine, and is even... more mysterious."
[Task participants can redeem a 024 shielding bracelet for 200 points; it will not be detected when sent via Lingduan.]