Chapter 67
The chaos in the mall continued to spread.
Security guards in uniform quickly stepped forward to maintain order, but less than a minute later, panicked voices erupted from the crowd.
“What’s going on?! I have no signal!”
“Me neither! I can’t even call emergency services!”
“That’s impossible! This is a mall! How can there be no signal?!”
More and more people noticed the problem, taking out their phones to check.
Shen Yan, holding Xing Nuo, stood near the escalator on the fourth floor and also took out his phone, glancing at the signal bars, which were completely gone.
He didn’t react to the gasps and curses around him, seemingly unconcerned.
He took out another phone from his pocket. This one had full signal.
He tapped the screen a few times, put the phone away, and ruffled Xing Nuo’s head, trying to soothe him.
“It’s okay. We’ll go home soon.”
Xing Nuo hummed, burying his face in his brother’s chest, the noise around them making his eardrums vibrate.
Shen Yan, seeing this, covered the little one’s ears, a flicker of suspicion in his eyes.
Why does he always seem to be around when anomalies occur?
Was it really just a coincidence?
On the first floor.
The crowd had scattered, leaving a clear space around two or three people lying motionless on the floor.
A nurse, wanting to help, took a step forward, and a bullet struck the floor beside her foot.
“Ah!”
She clutched her leg, looking around, but couldn’t see who had fired the shot.
“Who did that?! Stop playing games!”
“Did anyone see who fired the gun? I didn’t see anyone!”
“I was watching! The bullet just appeared out of thin air! No one fired a gun!”
These words sent chills down everyone’s spines.
There was no sign of the perpetrator?
Just as they were wondering if it was all a prank, a cold, sharp laugh echoed from above.
“Good afternoon, everyone! Hahaha!”
A female voice followed.
“It’s been so long since I’ve seen so many living humans! This dungeon is quite entertaining!”
“I specifically chose this dungeon. Not bad, right?”
The mocking laughter faded, and several figures, carrying heavy machine guns, appeared, floating in mid-air on the third floor.
As the crowd gasped, they landed on the first floor with a loud thud.
The first floor was an open-plan space, with a small promotional booth in the center where children had been receiving free toy cars earlier.
Several figures stood on the booth, laughing and waving their weapons, unfazed by the crowd’s stares.
“Hahaha! A bunch of weak humans!”
“Wow, this brings back memories! I used to be one of them!”
“Now I can take them all down with just one punch! Hahaha!”
“This is so much fun! A dungeon merged with the real world! I didn’t know such dungeons existed!”
The grinning players looked at the terrified humans, a smug feeling rising within them.
They were different now. They had entered dungeons, awakened their abilities, and were no longer ordinary humans.
As the players gloated, an announcement echoed through the mall:
[Ding! Dungeon level increased! Please actively search for clues and clear the dungeon as soon as possible!]
A man with a bandana wrapped around his head winced and whispered:
“Dao-ge (Brother Knife), why did the dungeon level increase? Did something happen?”
A woman in high-heeled boots, flipping her long, red hair, scoffed at him.
“Are you scared? This dungeon is connected to the real world. Of course it’s different. It’s just a level increase. Look at you, trembling.”
The man called Dao-ge, seemingly the leader, waved his hand dismissively.
“Relax. We came here for the points. I’ve been to this mall before, actually.”
He chuckled, remembering something.
“Those snobby shop assistants, looking down on me because I was poor.”
He then laughed heartily.
“And now I’m back! Where are those shop assistants?! Tie them up! We’ll kill them all!”
His underlings cheered.
Only the bandana-wearing man looked worried, but, being low in the pecking order, he didn’t dare speak.
The players’ arrogant display ended, and the crowd erupted in a cacophony of voices.
“Who are they?”
“Superhumans? With superpowers? How can they jump from that height and not die?”
“Holy crap, did everyone secretly evolve without me?!”
The ordinary people were confused. A few elderly people, emboldened by their age, stood their ground, refusing to move.
“What do you think you’re doing?! Let us out! Or I’ll lie down here and sue you!”
The players, unfazed, raised their guns and fired without hesitation.
Another body fell to the floor.
Those who had still harbored some hope now felt a chill run down their spines, and they scrambled back.
“Ahhh! They’re actually killing people!”
“Run!”
The players, seemingly enjoying the chaos and the fear they inspired, laughed.
“Dao-ge, this dungeon is so much fun!”
A man with shifty eyes, looking at the pretty girls in the crowd, licked his lips.
“The other dungeons only had NPC monsters. This real-world dungeon, with so many living humans, is much more exciting!”
“I told you, these kinds of dungeons should have appeared sooner! Why should only we be dragged into that horror world? Everyone should experience this thrill!”
The players, who had been thugs even before entering the dungeons, now empowered with props and abilities, looked down on the ordinary humans with disdain.
They didn’t seem to be in a hurry to complete the dungeon.
They had been doing their usual dungeon tasks when the mall suddenly changed, merging with a real-world mall.
Their gloomy, dilapidated surroundings were gradually replaced by shiny new tiles and clean walls.
The lights brightened, and everything seemed to return to normal.
The players, their minds twisted from experiencing countless horror dungeons, seeing the ordinary humans, their expressions turned manic and crazed.
This is great!
They hadn’t expected to see real humans again!
The dungeon mission could wait.
They wanted to have some fun first!
A deadly game of cat and mouse began.
The crowd panicked, those on the fourth floor, farthest from the carnage on the first floor, hiding in nearby shops, locking the doors.
Shen Yan, carrying Xing Nuo, returned to the play area where they had been earlier.
The sounds of panic and chaos echoed around them. Xing Nuo, placed on a coin-operated tiger ride, tugged on its ears and turned to his brother.
“Big Brother, bad people coming?”
The players’ dramatic entrance, floating in mid-air, had been witnessed by almost everyone in the mall.
Shen Yan nodded, ruffling the little one’s hair.
“It’s okay. The mall owner will be here soon, and they’ll be chased away.”
Xing Nuo nodded, clenching his fists, punching the air.
“Bad people! Mall owner chase them away! Lock them up!”
Shen Yan’s gray eyes softened, and he pinched Xing Nuo’s cheek, amused by his sense of justice.
“That’s right. Those who break the rules will be punished.”
Shen Yan was a monster who enjoyed creating rule-based dungeons.
Most of the dungeons he controlled were of this type, requiring players to obtain specific items or escape certain scenarios without breaking the rules.
His meticulous and rule-oriented nature was evident both in his real-world company and in his horror world dungeons.
As the players fired their guns at the humans, a system notification sounded:
[Detected: Core dungeon rules updated:]
[Please review the updated rules. Do not harm ordinary humans!]