Rao Fei felt like he had a particularly long dream, yet it also seemed extraordinarily short.
When the dungeon’s mandatory kill rule activated due to his forfeit, he thought he would suffer greatly, as he had already used up all three of his chances.
But in reality, the entire dungeon responded to him with nothing but emptiness, much like being injected with anesthesia by a doctor in the hospital before surgery. After an irresistible wave of drowsiness, his consciousness completely faded away.
Before losing consciousness completely, Rao Fei hadn’t endured physical pain, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t truly suffering. He couldn’t help but think that Weird 101 wasn’t even the highest danger-rated dungeon.
Yet a dungeon like this, without any dungeon horrors even showing up, could effortlessly erase his consciousness.
He wasn’t one of those new players who had only cleared one or two dungeons. He had joined the Confidentiality Bureau’s Forest Management Division years ago.
But when facing a dungeon like this, after breaking the rules, he still had no power to resist.
Rao Fei split off a thread of his mind and looked at Peng Jia and Peng Xu, who sat silently beside him. Their bodies had also become nearly transparent.
If they were like this, what about the Confidentiality Bureau?
Could the Confidentiality Bureau really protect everyone under such immense pressure?
Rao Fei could no longer ponder the answer to that question. He could only pin his hopes on more existences like Bureau Chief Lin emerging in his world in the near future.
That way, his sacrifice would be worth it.
In contrast to Rao Fei’s righteous resolve, Peng Jia and Peng Xu’s silent acceptance differed greatly. As he watched his own body slowly begin to vanish before his eyes, an instinctive desire for survival took over Wang Xingxing, making him want to take it back, to rush onto the stage regardless of everything.
Why did it have to be him?
Why not kill another player and have that player sacrifice in his place? That way, he could save both Bureau Chief Lin and himself, right?
Why did he have to accompany Bureau Chief Lin through the dungeon? Just because of the skills he had honed for his stage dreams?
He was only twenty years old.
His life had only just begun…
Wang Xingxing thought about many things. He stared blankly toward the stage and, in the end, simply sat there quietly.
In the very end, the strongest trainee, Wang Xingxing, did not take the true stage as he had dreamed of in his teens.
On the deck
He had already poured out all the little stones. To not miss the miraculous scene he anticipated, Su Ximu changed from squatting to sitting on the edge of the deck.
The youth still clutched the now-empty glass bottle in his arms, his legs dangling in the air, his black-and-white eyes fixed unblinkingly on the sea below.
The slowly sinking little stones hit the seabed, making faint clinking sounds.
Once all ninety-five little stones had settled into their spots on the seabed, Su Ximu turned his head and looked at his second brother.
Su Wuzi’s gaze was gentle as he sat on the deck with Xiao Xi, still holding that potted plant in his arms.
“Xiao Xi, look.” He spoke up.
As Su Ximu looked down at the sea again, the vivid red on each little stone gradually faded.
They were like oversized ocean balls casually tossed into the sea, visibly expanding in size.
A little stone caught in a coral fork even swelled so much that it was swept away by an undercurrent and rolled to a spot farther off, spinning as it went.
The little stones’ colors grew fainter and fainter until, with the passage of time, they became fully transparent.
Su Ximu looked closely. Inside each drifting transparent crystal orb seemed to sleep a tiny person.
The tiny people were so small that their specific features couldn’t be made out yet, only that they slept spread-eagled inside the orbs in various poses.
He even saw one tiny person get pushed uncomfortably by the current, shifting from a floating sprawl to curling into a ball.
Su Ximu was very familiar with these transparent crystal orbs. Seeing such a truly miraculous sight, he turned his head again to confirm with his second brother: “Second Brother, these are their dreams, right?”
Su Wuzi shook his head: “Not mine.”
Ever since Xiao Xi came back, he no longer dreamed.
“Theirs.”
Theirs?
As he spoke, the ocean balls in the sea grew a bit larger.
Su Ximu gradually made out the features of the tiny people closer to him.
One ocean ball bobbed along until it reached the coral cluster right below his feet.
Even with a tiny person inside, the ocean ball felt light as a feather, lacking the force to even shatter the coral.
The youth on the deck looked down closely and recognized who the somewhat playful tiny person inside this ocean ball resembled.
Liu Jie.
Trainee No. 44, who had already been eliminated by the program group earlier.
He lay flat on his back, mouth wide open even in sleep.
Su Ximu saw it, and Lin Lan, not far from him, stared at the scene in utter disbelief.
What was this?!
Before this, he had never heard of any weird dungeon that had a method like this to assimilate players.
But if these transparent orbs weren’t a means of weird pollution assimilating players, then what were they?
Instinctively, ripples stirred in Lin Lan’s heart. Before his reason could catch up, an emotion called hope began to sprout.
Lin Lan held his breath. Su Ximu tilted his head, lost in thought.
The train of thought interrupted by Wang Xingxing that day finally became clear again.
Under the sea surface, once these feather-light ocean balls grew to a certain size.
Crack.
The first cracking sound came from the sea.
Then came an unbroken chain of cracks, cracks, cracks…
The ocean ball containing Wang Xingxing was a bit farther from the deck.
He, who had been immersed in oblivious darkness, suddenly felt a piercing light hit his eyelids.
He grew annoyed at the light disturbing his peaceful sleep but couldn’t avoid it no matter what. In the end, he irritably snapped his eyes open with a flip and shot up.
Only then did his thoughts begin to return, recalling everything that had happened to him not long ago.
Voluntarily forfeiting, violating the dungeon’s mandatory kill rule, being erased by the dungeon rules, losing consciousness and awaiting transformation into a low-level dungeon weird.
At that thought, Wang Xingxing panicked and reached out to touch his face, neck, chest… everywhere.
Had he already turned into a weird like this?!
But weren’t player-transformed weirds supposed to be the lowest level in the dungeon, completely devoid of self-awareness? Why could he still clearly remember everything about himself and control his body so fluidly?
Wang Xingxing felt a mix of surprise and bewilderment.
He couldn’t help but look around.
Only then did he realize there were so many others around him! And they were all at the seabed!
Wang Xingxing watched as those who woke slightly later than him had reactions much like his own.
Most importantly, he recognized most of them. Even those whose names he couldn’t recall, their faces looked familiar.
These people were clearly the trainees who had participated in the show with him!
In other words, these were all players chosen by the dungeon just like him!
Probably due to differences in the final moments their consciousness lingered and the situations they faced, only a small portion of the many players woke as calmly as Wang Xingxing.
Most players, once their thoughts returned, still bore inescapable terror on their faces.
Finally, after looking around, Wang Xingxing spotted Rao Fei and Peng Xu.
Rao Fei was very close to the deck. Having woken a while ago, he looked up with an exceptionally complex gaze.
It just so happened to meet the gaze of the youth looking down from the deck.
Behind Su Ximu loomed a large neon sign. He smiled at the people below: “Mr. Gardener, I remembered. This place is actually part of the dungeon too, isn’t it?”
Rao Fei was momentarily stunned.
The youth on the deck glanced at his empty glass bottle again.
“So, this really is a miraculous wonder.”
On the deck at the pier on the other side, Lin Lan eagerly walked down the long flower path and through the archway at the end of the deck.
The next second, he slid right into the azure sea.
So, the seabed was actually the exit of this dungeon.
Trainee No. 44, Liu Jie, right below the deck, was shocked speechless by this sudden twist of survival after disaster.
He never imagined that when he opened his eyes again, he could still sense his own existence.
At this moment under the sea, it seemed a dimensional space had formed. Liu Jie was in the water but felt no suffocation or discomfort.
He tried swimming, poking his head above the surface.
During the process, he heard other players nearby discussing.
Lin Lan: “That’s how it happened. I saw Supervisor Su sitting on the deck, opening the glass bottle in his hand and pouring all the red stones inside into the sea.”
Who knew the stones weren’t stones after all.
The usually silent Peng Xu spoke up proactively: “I counted. Including you all, there are 104 people total.”
In other words, this dungeon, which was supposed to eliminate 95 players, had everyone survive thanks to the intervention of that youth they had always seen as a high-risk weird.
Trainee No. 44 listened to the conversation as he swam up until, finally, their eyes met.
Liu Jie opened his mouth, hesitating.
In the end, he said in a voice not too loud or soft: “Supervisor Su! My dad doesn’t actually have terminal illness!”
“He’s a drunk who likes beating his wife and kids. I resented him, so I used him as an excuse.”
Su Ximu paused slightly after hearing this before asking: “And how are you all now?”
Liu Jie nodded vigorously: “I took my mom to another city. He can’t find us. Last year, I snuck back home to check. Neighbors said he had no money left, so when his alcohol cravings hit, he diluted industrial alcohol to drink. Now his hands shake nonstop when he drinks. I didn’t bother with him and left again.”
Su Ximu smiled: “That’s great then.”
As he spoke, time was up.
The entire seabed began to glow with an ethereal blue, ripples spreading in circle after circle, stirring irresistible curiosity about what world lay beyond.
Su Ximu waved to these trainees he had spent time with: “Goodbye~”
Some trainees still couldn’t quite believe it and couldn’t help asking: “Supervisor Su, where will we go?”
“Home.” The youth answered matter-of-factly.
