What Is a Floor Command

Downstairs.

In the [Player Forum], some private messages from Yang Zhanbai lay quietly.

“What the hell? You trying to off yourself?”

……

“Good to know you’re alive. What’s your progress over there?”

……

“Did the [Hunter] cripple you?”

“We’re afraid the dragonfly will come back. We want to check the kitchen right now—didn’t you say there’s still someone in there?”

Zhu Yan quickly scanned his surroundings, pressing the hand that held the key nervously against the scarlet door.

“We’ve reached the instance entrance,” he said. “I’m fine—no injuries. I’ll tell you the details later. For now, all the [Key Fragments] are with me.”

“…Damn!”

Yang Zhanbai shot up from the cramped floor of the [Lazy Man’s Craft Shop].

His brows were knit tight, sweat beading on his skin from the stifling air inside the shop, and a strand of red hair clung limply to his forehead.

“What’s wrong?”

Qi Yinming turned his head nervously, glancing outside.

It had been quite a while now.

But for some reason, that dragonfly still hadn’t come back.

Clutching his weapon, Yang Zhanbai rapidly relayed Zhu Zeyu’s message.

“The way Zhu Zeyu talked about it, you’d think it was no big deal.”

He paced back and forth, the cramped space making him feel hotter and more restless by the second.

“But realistically—you know what it’s like. Taking a hit for the [Hunter] was inevitable, and the fact that the [Hunter] was willing to bring him along in the first place—who knows what that’s about.”

Xu Tongguang and Chen Zhaoxing exchanged a glance. Chen Zhaoxing looked at Yang Zhanbai’s state and handed him a cockroach.

“Hey, new mint flavor,” he said in a dazed tone. “Honestly, don’t you think you’re imagining Zhu Zeyu as way more fragile than he is?”

Yang Zhanbai chewed the candy irritably: “The hell I am. Zhu Zeyu’s weapon level isn’t high enough—he can’t beat the [Hunter]. That’s just facts.”

“His mental fortitude is solid though.” Chen Zhaoxing puffed out his cheeks. “Alright, fine, I won’t bring up the inflatable cockroach thing… Let me ask you this—Zhu Zeyu got the last Key Fragment, right? That means he’s already gone and circled through the terrifying high-level creatures’ territory.”

“Yeah.”

“And he made it out alive?”

“…Yeah.”

“Then there you go,” Chen Zhaoxing said. “That makes him stronger than us.”

Yang Zhanbai shook his head: “But what if he kicks it—”

“Then you’d kick it too if you went,” Chen Zhaoxing cut him off. “Ask Zhu Zeyu—what’s his plan with the reply he just sent you?”

Yang Zhanbai didn’t need to ask, because Zhu Zeyu’s reply was already flashing across his retina.

“There’s something I need to ask you to do.”

“You know the password to the [Kitchen], right?”

“Some players are locked in the first room of the [Kitchen]. I promised them I’d get them out.”

Downstairs.

Zhu Yan stared at the red text on his retina, splitting his attention between monitoring the surroundings and thinking in silence.

Honestly, they could skip rescuing those players in the [Kitchen].

If those high-level grotesques happened to be in there too, then that place really would be too dangerous.

But the hint on the door…

Zhu Yan glanced at the rhyming little poem.

The “audience” was still waiting—this “plot” had to play out fully. Nothing could be rushed.

And honestly, he was pretty curious to see what would happen himself.

With a flick of intent, Zhu Yan took out the puppet.

Carefully activating [Acting], he split off a small, unimportant part of himself into a wisp of mist.

After confirming it wouldn’t affect his main body’s movements, that wisp of fog slipped into the puppet, watching the somewhat stiff body become lively again.

On the other end, Yang Zhanbai’s reply came in.

“You want us to go to the [Kitchen], right?”

“We’ll head there now.”

“No,” Zhu Zeyu replied. “I’m going to the [Kitchen]. Yang Zhanbai, you come down. The [Hunter] said that if I leave, someone has to take my place.”

Truthfully, those words didn’t quite fit Zhu Zeyu’s noble, self-sacrificing persona.

But with Zhu Yan coordinating on the side, it could be smoothed over.

“Have everyone else stay in the dorm. You come down alone.”

Zhu Zeyu added: “The [Hunter] said if too many people show up, he’ll kill the extras on the spot.”

“The floor change password is [Bedroom].”

“I need you to keep an eye on the [Player Forum] for my messages…”

…

Inside the banquet hall.

“Gone?” the Silver Lady drawled in her theatrical tone.

The Goatee said nothing, its grim face tightening as it stood and craned its neck to peer into the hole in the middle.

“A courtier’s trick… a magician’s trick.”

It spoke slowly, with long pauses between each syllable, like the calm before a thunderclap.

The Murderer cackled as it hefted its axe.

The Madam’s eyes gradually turned cold, her gray pupils growing blurry and lifeless.

Ignoring the corset cutting into her waist, she bent her rigid body downward and took a deep breath of the air below the hole.

There was still a faint trace of fresh, living player flesh and blood here—even a lingering warmth.

As if a living person had just been hiding in the space beneath the serving cart!

The Madam’s grip on her folding fan tightened abruptly, sending the ribs of the fan groaning under the strain.

“Liar.”

She said it coldly, then suddenly lashed out and flipped the massive silver cover off the [Hunter]’s body.

WHAM—

The silver lid flew like a scrap of paper, smashing into the long table and scattering the leftover scraps of the unfinished meal.

“Have you lost your mind?!” a grotesque shrieked as it scrambled to dodge the flying juice and debris. “Just find him and kill him—what’s with the tantrum?”

The Madam’s mouth fell open as she gasped for air, her ruined lungs wheezing like a broken bellows.

The fury of being tricked hit her late, flooding through her. She lunged forward, grabbed a chunk of flesh from the [Hunter]’s chest, and tore into it with no regard for decorum, then laughed so hard she nearly fell over.

“Nicely done,” she said. “Truly nicely done. The meat inside is an old man’s meat, and that [Thrilling Delight] only lingers on the surface.”

She giggled for a while, then turned her cracked, gum-showing mouth toward the Goatee, her blurry gray eyes never blinking.

“We’ve been played by the [Hunter].”

She watched as the Goatee snapped the right hand off the corpse, and cheerfully delivered the verdict.

“Oh dear, tell me—what is all this, exactly?”

The Goatee stared coldly at the severed hand.

“The [Hunter]’s mark is wrong too. Unless I’m misremembering—”

It raised the bloody hand, calmly showing it around the room.

“This mark should be mirrored left to right.”

The Silver Lady let out a snide laugh.

“You foreign devils have no class. What are you showing off for? You proud of being made a fool of?”

She rose from her withered frame, her eyes gleaming with cruelty.

“Come on. Split into two groups.”

"That little swindler managed to get the last key, which means he must already have the other four."

"He's probably heading to the dungeon exit by now. If we wait by the tree for the rabbit to show up, are you telling me we can't catch him?"

Goatee nodded in deep agreement.

"You." He casually pointed at one of the creepy creatures. "Ask what the floor-changing commands are for the dungeon exit."