[Successfully matched to the instance âThe Deathly Visageâ]
[Matching your teammates, please wait...]
[Number of Participants: 9]
[Main Task: Survive for 48 hours]
This instance didnât provide any narrative content, only direct tasks.
As Gu Mian was looking at the panel and contemplating the tasks, an odd sensation suddenly came over him. The panel in front of him gradually blurred until it completely disappeared into the darkness.
He felt a discomfort, the kind one experiences when fed a bottle of sleeping pills but desperately tries to keep their eyes open to see the world.
Gu Mian moved his body in the darkness but found himself seemingly lying on a bed. His brain raced, but his body felt somewhat out of his control, as if experiencing sleep paralysis.
He strained again, finally regaining control of his body.
Gu Mian took a deep breath and abruptly sat up from the bed.
He must have entered the instance.
But where on earth was he?
It was pitch black around him, with the softness of a bed beneath. Gu Mian sat on the bed for several seconds, gradually adapting to the darkness.
A window was apparently by his side, but two curtains covered it, leaving only a gap in the middle, no wider than a palm, through which a faint light projected.
Gu Mian reached out to pull the curtains apart. Just then, he suddenly sensed something watching him from the darknessâa gaze seemingly filled with malice.
He immediately turned to look but saw only pitch-black darkness.
Meanwhile, his hands hadnât been idle; he had swiftly pulled open the curtains before him. Outside the glass window was a city still aglow with lights. Colorful neon signs on tall buildings intertwined and flickered. Streetlights cast dazzling beams, and occasionally, cars sped along the empty roads. It looked like a perfectly normal world.
The light from outside illuminated the room.
Gu Mian immediately used the light to look in the direction from which he had sensed the gaze. He saw a door there, slightly ajar, but the light from the window couldnât penetrate the darkness beyond the gap.
Gu Mian quickly surveyed the roomâs interior.
It resembled a dormitory, likely for staff. A large table stood in the middle of the room. On it, an alarm clock was running; Gu Mian used the faint light to check the time: twelve-twenty.
There were four beds in the approximately thirty-square-meter room, and on each, someone was snoring heavily.
Following the loudest snore, Gu Mian saw Fatty sleeping soundlyâand droolingâon the bed next to him.
It seemed all players who entered this instance had been forced to "sleep."
Thankfully, their clothes were still on; they hadnât been undressed.
He couldnât determine if the people in the other two beds were players.
Looking at Fatty drooling on the adjacent bed, Gu Mian sighed. He leaned over slightly and patted Fattyâs fleshy cheek, making the fat on his face jiggle. "Wake up."
Just then, Gu Mian felt a movement in the pocket of his white lab coat. He looked down to see a slender hand suddenly extending from it, like Sadako climbing out of a television screen.
To prevent the Holy Daughterâs brother from wandering around while he was away, Gu Mian had brought the CD into the instance in his pocket.
The hand was currently trying to crawl out. Gu Mian unthinkingly pressed it back in.
After Gu Mian pressed it back, the brother in the CD finally quieted down and stopped moving.
At this point, Fatty was dazedly rubbing his face. Of course, the first thing he touched was a handful of his own drool. He slurped a couple of times, then opened his drowsy eyes and looked at Gu Mian. "Ah... Doctor, werenât we...?"
"Quiet," Gu Mian whispered, cutting him off. "There are others in the room."
Fatty shook his head, got out of bed, and surveyed the room. He noticed the people sleeping in the other two beds and looked somewhat disappointed when he didnât see Chu Changge.
He opened his mouth and asked Gu Mian in a low voice, "Are these two players?"
Gu Mian had already gotten out of bed and approached the two. He was unable to access their player information; it seemed these two werenât players.
Gu Mian shook his head at Fatty.
Fatty nodded in bewilderment and looked around again. He observed their surroundings: they seemed to be on the third or fourth floor of a building adjacent to a road, with a line of shops below.
The clock on the table now showed twelve-thirty. Fatty quietly got out of bed and came over to Gu Mian. "There was no instance introduction this time. It said there are nine players, but we donât know who the other four are. We also donât know where Brother Chu has gone."
As he spoke, Fatty glanced at the two people sleeping on the other beds. "So, what should we do now?"
Gu Mian tiptoed around the room and noticed something that looked like a schedule posted on the slightly ajar door. He walked over to take a closer look and saw it was a "Duty Roster."
It wasnât a cleaning rotation but a work schedule.
But the times seemed a bit strange...
[Monday] 8:00-12:00 Yang Ziwen; 12:00-4:00 Liu Jie; 4:00-20:00 Gu Mian.
[Tuesday] Yang Ziwen all day.
[Wednesday] 8:00-14:00 Yang Ziwen; 14:00-20:00 Liu Jie.
[Thursday] Liu Jie all day.
[Friday] 8:00-14:00 Gu Mian; 14:00-20:00 Liu Jie.
[Saturday] 8:00-14:00 Yang Ziwen; 14:00-20:00 Gu Mian.
[Sunday] Gu Mian all day.
As expected, the instance had maliciously used his real name again.