chapter 7
Lu Li was very tired.
“I really just want to die.” He rubbed his eyes. “But now it’s time to sleep, Mr. Underworld King.”
He spread the bedsheet on the floor and lay down in the corner against the wall.
With walls on both sides, he was wrapped up.
It felt very safe.
A gloomy, icy voice suddenly sounded above Lu Li’s head.
“Bosi.”
Lu Li perked up his ears. “What?”
“My name.”
Bosi sat back on the edge of the bed, showing no sign of wanting to sleep.
He returned the book recording the Ancient Magic Array to the Teleportation Array, then took out a thick stack of documents, a quill, and a carved candle holder, placing them on the small table by the bed.
Lu Li lay there watching him. “Bosi, what are you doing?”
Bosi’s fingertip brushed the candle wick, instantly igniting a faint blue flame that illuminated the words on the documents.
“Working.”
Lu Li clicked his tongue. “Are you sure you’re not a fake Underworld King? Why are you working overtime?”
Bosi snapped the quill.
With a cold expression, he took a new pen from the Teleportation Array.
“Shut your mouth.”
Just a second ago, he had been in his Palace, handling the heavy affairs and reports of the Underworld.
The next second, because of this damned draw, he was pulled out by his new Player, forced to start the Game Night, making him sit so aggrieved in this shabby room, at a table so narrow he couldn’t even stretch his arms, breathing the filthy air of the lowest D Grade Instance.
He circled errors heavily on the documents, wrote harsh comments, and said,
“I will find a way for you to obtain death. Then, you must leave this game world forever and never come back.”
The young man curled up in the corner was staring at him. Hearing this, he pressed his lips together and smiled. “Thank you for your hard work.”
His eyelids were fighting, but he still remembered to care for his benefactor. “Will you be reading all night?”
Bosi said, “It’s none of your business.”
After a long time, so long that Lu Li thought he had fallen asleep, he heard Bosi speak again.
“I don’t need sleep.”
Lu Li replied softly, “That’s great.”
“I don’t like sleeping with the lights off. It’s too dark. The candlelight you lit now is just right, thank you.”
–
When Game Day returned, Bosi was still working as Lu Li closed the door.
He followed the seven Players into the Elevator, heading from the Fifth Floor to the Fourth Floor.
Luo Jia Bai, who was closest, asked, “Your dark circles are heavy. Didn’t sleep well last night?”
Lu Li shook his head. “I slept pretty well.”
Just a bit short on sleep.
By the time he and Bosi finished fussing, it was almost dawn. He felt like he had just closed his eyes before getting up again.
Luo Jia Bai thought he was just forcing himself. “You lost sleep because of the noise last night, right?”
“What noise?”
“You all heard it too?!” The new male Player, Lin Bo, who survived the last round, actively joined the conversation.
“It was a woman crying and banging on the wall! She screamed all night, kept me awake.” Lin Bo complained loudly. “I live in the room on the far right, the crying was so loud it was like knocking right next to my ear, and it never stopped!”
Just one night had passed, and he was a completely different person from yesterday.
His eye bags hung down to his nose, his facial features were sunken, even his skin had become loose, looking as if his life force had been drained.
“Was the crying woman last night one of you?” He smiled in a way that made everyone uncomfortable, his gaze at the two Female Players in the Elevator full of scrutiny. “What do you exchange with Evil Spirits, crying so hard at night? Not sleeping yourself and keeping others awake too!”
As Lin Bo spoke, he reached out to tug at the sleeve of a Female Player.
“Brother Qi, this guy is so annoying!” One of the Female Players hid behind Qi Mingda.
Qi Mingda stepped forward in a show of authority, shook off Lin Bo’s hand, and warned, “Watch your mouth.”
“You’re just proud because you’ve been here longer and have more Points.” Lin Bo’s eyes were dark, full of jealousy and resentment. “Who lives or dies today is still uncertain.”
Somehow, Lin Bo seemed convinced he would win, carrying an air of superiority.
Lu Li watched, analyzing the situation.
After just one night, the Player factions had already begun to shift.
Now, besides his sidekick Qiao Ren, another Female Player had joined Qi Mingda.
Apart from himself, Luo Jia Bai, and Lin Bo acting alone, the remaining two Players had formed another team.
Judging by the numbers alone, Qi Mingda has the greatest chance of winning.
[Fourth Floor Arrived]
A cold mechanical voice sounded, and the Elevator doors opened.
Lin Bo was the first to step out.
Lu Li watched his confident back, thoughtful. “Looks like he found a key clue?”
“Not necessarily.” Luo Jia Bai followed him out, his gaze falling on the top of Lin Bo’s head, and he said in a low voice, “But he definitely fell for the Evil Spirit’s trick.”
“During Game Night, he was deceived by the Evil Spirit and traded away his own soul.”
“His skin has aged nearly twenty years. That’s a symptom of losing one’s soul.” Luo Jia Bai continued with his death prophecy, “Lin Bo is going to die soon.”
–
They entered the Fourth Floor.
It was unusually spacious here, and the floor was nowhere to be seen.
Because thick sand was piled everywhere.
On the wall directly opposite everyone, there was a door, but to reach it, they would have to cross nearly twenty meters of sand.
Everyone stepped in, sinking with each step; the sand reached less than halfway up their calves.
Nuo Nuo followed, poking her finger into the sand.
“Dear guests, do you like Nuo Nuo’s beach?”
“My family and I would build houses by the beach, stacking them high, so high, even taller than Nuo Nuo herself. But naughty Buck liked to burrow in the sand.” Nuo Nuo’s calm tone suddenly turned sharp as she shrieked, “Whenever he crashed into them, the houses would collapse! The sand would bury people, and if you couldn’t get out in time, you’d be buried forever!”
The Female Player who had sided with Qi Mingda screamed, “The sand in the room is increasing!”
More sand was pouring in through the cracks in the walls.
Lu Li looked down. The sand wasn’t just increasing; it was rising at an alarming rate.
Just a moment ago, it only reached halfway up their calves; now, it was already at their knees.
The Instance Boss, Nuo Nuo, wanted to bury them alive.
Everyone was horrified by the situation and anxiously asked how to solve it.
“What are the game rules? What’s the gameplay?”
“How do we get out!”
“Nuo Nuo, say something!”
Nuo Nuo played with the sand in the room with her fingers, stirring the quicksand faster and faster. She hummed a tune happily, ignoring all the Players’ questions.
Someone shouted, “Run! Head for that door! This place is completely sealed, the Elevator can’t go back, the only way to survive must be that door!”
“That’s right, only that door! Run toward it!”
The panicked Players finally found a direction and desperately ran forward, but became deeply stuck in the flowing sand.
They repeatedly pulled their legs out, taking big steps forward.
Luo Jia Bai also took two steps forward, then looked back at Lu Li, who was standing still, and asked curiously, “What are you waiting for?”
Lu Li looked straight ahead.
“Waiting for them to give up.”
He wondered when these people would realize.
No matter how long they walked, the flowing sand always brought them back to where they started.
And there was something wrong with this Sand Zone.
Lu Li’s expression and tone were not joking. Luo Jia Bai hesitated, but still chose to move forward. “Don’t just stand there. The Sand Zone is huge, and there’s only one door on the other side. If you don’t go now, it’ll be too late.”
“I still have plenty of Points left. I can exchange them for Items to move faster on the sand.” Luo Jia Bai frowned. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Suit yourself.”
“I thought you’d be smarter than them.” Lu Li sighed softly. “Didn’t you notice? No one has actually touched the bottom.”
“How could that be…” Luo Jia Bai was stunned. “You must be overthinking it.”
He pulled his foot out of the sand and stomped down hard to prove it to Lu Li. “See? Isn’t this the bottom?”
Lu Li opened the Shop on his Wristband and exchanged for the cheapest Item: a two-meter Wooden Stick for 2 Points.
He stuck the Wooden Stick into the sand beside Luo Jia Bai’s leg, his arm tensing slightly as he pushed down. Even after hitting the “bottom,” the stick could still go further down.
A force from below pushed the stick back up, as if extremely resistant and unwilling.
Lu Li’s expression didn’t change. He rolled up his sleeve with one hand and pressed down harder, violently driving the stick in most of the way.
The resistance vanished, and the entire stick sank smoothly into the sand.
Lu Li calculated as he spoke, “This stick is two meters long. Are your legs really that-long?”
Suddenly, the ground beneath Luo Jia Bai’s feet gave way, and the extreme imbalance on both sides nearly made him fall.
His face filled with terror. “There’s something under the sand!”