The young player who should have been standing onstage to announce the good news had vanished without a trace. The microphone he had been using lay quietly on the stage floor.
Above the stage, the red words flickered faintly.
“Look! What’s happening to the rules?!” a man shouted.
Someone in the crowd hurriedly backed away and knocked over a camera.
The metal legs of its stand scraped across the marble floor, emitting a harsh, grating sound.
It was at that moment that the red rules began flashing wildly.
Amid the crowd’s terrified screams, the words shifted and warped without pause. They twisted into a sphere, then unfurled again, rearranging themselves into a completely different line of text.
“This is a…”
The red letters flickered as though the connection were faulty.
“…room you can’t leave unless you kill yourself.”
For an instant, the crowd below the stage fell completely silent.
Then, from a corner, a despairing, shrill wail rang out. Soon, wave after wave of sharper screams rose up, almost tearing the roof off the auditorium.
……
The elevator doors slowly closed.
Two private messages from Yang Zhanbai flickered across Zhu Zeyu’s retinas.
“Ready [smile][smile]”
“Is the event downstairs going smoothly?”
At his side, Director Jin’s breathing was somewhat labored.
“What about the others?”
He suddenly asked as the elevator began ascending.
Zhu Zeyu and Jin Rongxu exchanged solemn glances.
Then, under Zhu Yan’s control, Jin Rongxu swallowed hard, putting on an expression of grave alarm and lingering fear.
“When I came out, I think… I heard Zhu Zeyu say that the rules had changed.”
Director Jin turned his head and glanced over. Zhu Zeyu’s forehead was covered in a fine sheen of sweat.
“They did change,” he said. “I don’t know why. It’s possible that thing can launch mental attacks.”
“When Captain Jin was in the changing room…” His breathing grew heavier, and his voice faltered with tension. “He suddenly started shouting, ‘Hunter.’”
“Because I really did see one.”
Beside him, “Jin Rongxu” smoothly patched up the lie without changing expression.
“I really did see one!”
The elevator was packed, yet no one spoke.
Captain Zheng and another colleague exchanged glances, both choosing to remain silent.
A player wearing goggles cautiously observed Director Jin, but Director Jin only asked, “What did the rules change to?”
Zhu Zeyu swallowed.
No.
He couldn’t laugh.
If he laughed, he’d blow his cover.
“This is a room you can’t leave unless you kill yourself.”
He said it with a perfectly straight face, watching Director Jin’s body visibly stiffen.
As soon as the elevator doors opened, the man hurried out as if a cat were chasing a mouse.
This was hilarious.
If he kept frightening Director Jin like this, the man was going to develop claustrophobia.
“No one is allowed to enter any area below the twentieth underground floor of the quarantine zone.”
Director Jin gritted his teeth, seemingly making a difficult decision.
“…Go to the office and report the situation at the Western Suburb Shelter to our superiors.”
In the end, he sighed and turned to a thinly built player in the team.
“Tell them our means of resistance have inexplicably failed and that a dungeon has descended.”
“We’re requesting reinforcements and have decided to evacuate the area temporarily!”
The player nodded once and turned to leave.
Director Jin clenched his jaw, the veins on his face throbbing.
“Damn it! How did a catastrophic incident big enough to make the headlines end up landing in my lap?!”
Zhu Zeyu lowered his head without saying a word.
“We were lucky to escape with our lives today.”
He gave a cold laugh, though inwardly he couldn’t suppress the lingering fear.
If not for Zhu Zeyu’s advice… if not for that timely warning that had arrived like aid in the snow, he would have ended up rotting to death in the auditorium along with everyone else downstairs!
Who could have imagined that the rules would suddenly change?
In reality, they’d had only a few dozen seconds to escape!
The more Director Jin thought about it, the faster his breathing became.
The older generation in his family placed more faith in traditional Chinese philosophy. There was a concept in it called “assisting prosperity.”
Whether Zhu Zeyu actually had the ability was still unknown, but he certainly brought good fortune to the Jin family’s uncle-and-nephew pair.
This man had saved Jin Rongxu twice, and Director Jin himself twice.
Looking at the young man beside him, whose face was slightly pale, Director Jin secretly made up his mind.
No matter what, for both personal and practical reasons, he had to keep Zhu Zeyu by his side.
This man had enormous potential. He was also willing to charge into danger.
He could keep Zhu Zeyu around for now and use him as a bodyguard.
If the man survived until the dungeon ended, Jin Rongxu could simply seize his ability according to the original plan.
That way, even if they failed to obtain the three abilities of the Hunter, Jin Rongxu wouldn’t leave this dungeon empty-handed.
……
Zhu Yan, however, didn’t notice the expression on Director Jin’s face.
The female voice of the announcement had begun speaking in his ear again, still carrying that mechanical cheerfulness.
“Attention, Hunter. The first round of the dungeon has descended.”
“In fifteen minutes, we will publicly announce the overall Hunter rankings to all players and Hunters, as well as reveal the completion status of the Hunter missions.”
Interesting.
Hidden inside Zhu Zeyu’s body, Zhu Yan followed Director Jin down the long corridor leading to the main entrance.
“Once the overall Hunter rankings have been announced, we will release the overall player rankings.”
“In addition, your abilities will be updated in real time at midnight tonight. Please remember to check them. Friendly reminder: Please keep this information as secret as possible.”
“This concludes the announcement. Good luck!”
Zhu Yan suddenly thought of a question.
He looked up at Director Jin’s back and asked silently in his mind:
“So, am I considered a Hunter right now, or a Boss?”
“All Hunters will unlock a Boss mission once they reach a certain level.”
The female voice answered in a lilting tone.
“If you’re asking which ID will be used in the announcement…”
The pause carried a meaningful hint.
“Dear Hunter, in order to attract more players to join us, naturally, we’ll announce you as both.”
All right.
Zhu Yan’s question had been answered.
He didn’t ask anything else. He simply followed Director Jin, taking one slow step after another until they reached the main entrance. There, he adjusted his expression into one of shock, confusion, and lingering terror, preparing to deal with the approaching Yang Zhanbai.
Seeing that the health bar of [Shivering Delight] was close to empty, he casually retrieved a vial of drops from the air and dripped a few into his mouth.
The effect was immediate.
A few seconds later, however, chaotic red text rapidly flooded his retinas, carrying a hint of mechanical fury.
“&＃＃[《]Friend, friend.”
“Where did you go?”
“—Eat people. Eat eat eat eat eat—”
“I ate everything clean. Why did you leave &@? No way?”
“Your rules &@@@＃?”
Zhu Yan’s mood lifted, and the corner of his mouth curved slightly.
Oh my. It had noticed.
If he succeeded, the territory eroded by [Illusion] could become his. Then he would have land of his own.
“May you sleep forever.”
“I’ll come up and kill kill kill kill—”
“Zhu Zeyu!” Yang Zhanbai’s voice pulled Zhu Yan back to reality.
“Director Jin! Did the event go smoothly?”
Zhu Yan struggled to look at him through a gap in a page of garbled text.
Yang Zhanbai was hurrying over, carefully studying everyone’s expressions.
“Zeyu, why is your face so pale? Uh…”
His expression grew serious as he realized something was wrong.
“Director Jin, Captain Jin. What happened down there?”
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
y came from. The chests contained supplies, currency, class-change scrolls, skills, talents… and even godhood! The laws of the world were completely rewritten. This became a world where everyone gambled with their fate! Some people, despite having nothing, opened a divine artifact and rose to the top, eventually ruling the world. Others went bankrupt, opened nothing but worthless junk, and leaped from skyscrapers in despair. Lin Ye arrived in this world from another reality, utterly bewildered. “What is going on? Why is everyone a gambling addict?!” “Opening chests? No way. I refuse to gamble. I’ll start with myself!” Until— On his first chest, he obtained a Mythic Talent: Void Incarnation! He could become completely intangible, pass through all things, and reduce everything to nothingness! … On his fiftieth chest, he obtained a Mythic Weapon: Blade of Karma! With a single slash, karma shattered, twisting the universe and overturning the myriad phenomena of creation! … On his ninety-ninth chest, he obtained a Mythic Divine Treasure: Primordial Purple Energy! It could split open the heavens and earth, create all things, and evolve countless worlds with a single thought! Lin Ye: “Now that I think about it… shouldn’t someone have told me that every chest is guaranteed to contain something Mythic?!”
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
