Shattered with a Bang

Outside the door, only the sound of metal clashing from the statues remained.

"I'll talk! My Lord, I'll talk!"

One of the statues wobbled and took a step forward.

"I h-hope you can be magnanimous and spare our hearts."

That bronze face looked rigidly at Zhu Yan, the muffled voice echoing from within its chest cavity.

"Y-you had better spare our lives."

The statue said, "The supermarket owner has already left. The power suppressing this floor has been halved, and the scene is already on the verge of collapsing."

"Your room is on another floor, so you have no way to suppress this place either."

"If we aren't on this floor, there truly won't be a single thriller creature left. The scene will change immediately."

Oh?!

Zhu Yan raised an eyebrow.

So there was this underlying rule.

Then he had even more reason to kill them!

"First, tell me the information I want to know."

Zhu Yan smiled at the statues. "You don't want me to crush you to death right now, do you?"

The statues swayed unsteadily for a moment.

"Alright. But once we say the password, we will be teleported away immediately, and the power suppressing the floor will instantly weaken. Are you sure?"

He was sure, because Zhu Yan intended to crush that heart the exact moment they were teleported away.

Zhu Yan's smile grew even wider as he opened his mouth to lie.

"That's perfect. You can escape from me."

...

Inside the dorm room.

Chen Zhaoxing could no longer stay calm.

Although he didn't understand the rest, he knew the statues meant that the floor was about to undergo a change.

That wouldn't do.

Chen Zhaoxing glanced back at Xu Tongguang, giving him the creeps.

"What do you want to do now?"

Chen Zhaoxing narrowed his eyes in a smile.

"Oh, oh, oh, brother, we should go find Yang Zhanbai right now. Do you think they still have the lives to open the door?"

Xu Tongguang gulped. Chen Zhaoxing gave a weird chuckle, pushed him forward as a shield, and reached out to grab the doorknob.

"It's fine. If those two don't have the lives to open the door, we'll just have to go with the flow... oioioi yeah!"

...

Outside the door.

The statue leaned in, lowered its voice to a minimum, and spoke clearly.

"The password the supermarket owner said before leaving was: I love geoduck."

The moment those words were spoken, Zhu Yan felt the heart he was gripping being abruptly yanked by some mysterious force.

He forcefully ripped it out and crushed it, watching helplessly as the statues began to crumble, and then...

Disappeared.

Zhu Yan looked down at his right hand.

The heart was a translucent gray, feeling a bit like a soaked water bead.

Some minced meat still stuck to his hand; he reverted to Zhu Yan's appearance and casually wiped it a couple of times on Qin Yang's clothes.

Qin Yang was scared silly: "Y-you you you... you're a h-human?!"

"You're actually a player!"

Zhu Yan stored away the headless corpse on the ground.

This thing was quite disgusting, but it was a freebie that could be used to feed The Core.

Letting him kill people casually was something he still couldn't do at this stage.

"Yes, I am." Zhu Yan smiled at Qin Yang. "You idiot."

After mocking him, he turned and ran toward the supermarket owner's [Memory Supermarket].

Almost at the same moment he took a step, Chen Zhaoxing yanked the door open with a loud bang!

The floor had already begun to shake, and the doors of some rooms started to flicker.

Chen Zhaoxing grabbed Xu Tongguang and ran wildly, while the two surviving players on the ground finally reacted and scrambled after them.

"Help!!"

"Don't leave us behind, take us with you!"

Zhu Yan lunged behind the counter and found the supermarket owner's old-fashioned red telephone.

This was the treasure the owner used to ask for floor passwords.

He didn't know how to use it yet, but if he could steal it, why leave it here?

The floor trembled violently, and the shelves began to creak and sway.

Zhu Yan steadied his body and grabbed the phone to examine it.

It didn't have a phone cord like a normal telephone, but its buttons were complete, like a beautifully crafted model.

Zhu Yan immediately stored it in his ring, and amidst the violent shaking, he frantically stuffed the items from the shelves into his ring.

It would be a waste not to take them.

Even if humans couldn't eat this food, couldn't the Tuxedo Cat eat it?

The scene outside began to change rapidly, and Zhu Yan felt the ground suddenly drop away.

He had to clench his jaw tightly to prevent his heart from leaping out of his throat.

About five seconds later, the falling stopped.

A lively din drifted in from outside, followed by the aroma of food mixed with Sichuan peppercorns, cumin, and various seasonings, the sizzling sound of meat being grilled on iron plates, and the crackling of vegetables in hot oil.

Zhu Yan panted heavily behind the counter, slowly climbed up, and looked through the glass at the corridor outside.

"[Xishan University] Cafeteria Floor!" a thriller creature shrieked, striking the edge of a pot forcefully with an iron spoon. "Step right up, don't miss out—everyone can only stay on this floor for 20 minutes!"

Well, this deviated a bit from his original plan.

But at least he had obtained the password for the floor where [Auntie Jin's Braised Noodles] was located.

He just didn't know when the supermarket owner would realize something was wrong.

That thing's level wasn't low.

Even if the floors changed, it should still be able to return to its own [Memory Supermarket], right?

Zhu Yan activated [Roleplay] and transformed into Chen Zhaoxing's appearance.

This guy was short and wore a hat; overall, he wasn't that conspicuous.

He decided to lurk outside, wait for ten minutes first, and grab a bite to eat and rest while he was at it.

Ten minutes later, if the supermarket owner still hadn't made a move, he would just shout "I love geoduck" and go to the floor where [Auntie Jin's Braised Noodles] was!

...

On the other side.

The supermarket owner wove through the bustling corridor, trying to find traces of the [Hunter].

It squeezed past a line in front of a roast suckling pig stall, shoving aside two fake humans.

The greasy aroma of the roast suckling pig wafted into its face; the owner adjusted the layers of bug skin on its face and waved its hand in annoyance.

This [Hunter] sure was good at pretending.

In the muggy air, a glance around revealed nothing but thriller creatures.

Let alone humans, it couldn't even smell the scent of low-level [Demons]!

The supermarket owner turned down the corners of its mouth in dissatisfaction.

It narrowed its eyes, just about to observe the thriller creatures nearby, when a cold fragment fell from the sky, hitting its skull with a thud.

"Who?!" The supermarket owner was thoroughly displeased.

What a joke.

It was bad enough that it hadn't spotted the [Hunter's] whereabouts at a glance, but as a high-level thriller creature, why should it be hit by something?!

It raised its voice coldly: "Get out here right now!"

Thud!

Another fragment.

This piece hit its foot dead on, making the furious owner jump and shuffle to the side.

It wanted to curse, but soon came another sound.

Thud!

A third fragment, a fourth fragment...

These heavy bronze fragments rained down, carrying a swamp-like liquid, and smashed onto the thriller creatures.

A bronze face still bearing clear facial features landed with a bang at the owner's feet, coming face-to-face with it.

Its heart skipped a beat, and a sense of dread rose from beneath its empty skin.

"Is this... the statue?"

A sudden burst of gasps erupted all around.

The terrifying creatures backed away in dissatisfaction. As if sensing something, the boss looked up just as a statue, still whole but covered in fresh cracks, plummeted from above. The rush of wind from its fall nearly blew the boss's insectoid skin wide open.

The statue smashed into the ground with a deafening crash.

The cracks spread rapidly across its surface at a visible rate.

Seizing its final moments, the statue struggled to twist its fragile body. Ignoring the shards of bronze peeling off its form, it fixed its gaze tightly on the boss nearby.

"We were tricked. The frog killed us, and the floors have changed."

With those words, the statue violently shattered into pieces.