The previously silent floor instantly boiled over.
Doors opened one after another, and a flood of NPC guests poured out of their rooms, screaming as they ran for the emergency exits.
Yu Huaiting walked against the current down the center of the corridor, his greatsword dragging on the floor, tearing up the plush carpet.
“Get lost.”
His voice was ice-cold.
The panicked NPCs automatically made way for him, but the surging crowd still jostled him—someone accidentally bumped his shoulder.
Yu Huaiting’s eyes darkened. He directly swung the greatsword.
Boom!
Sword qi mixed with wild force swept out horizontally. The dozen-plus NPCs before him were instantly flung away, crashing heavily into the walls on both sides.
The corridor was instantly cleared over a large stretch.
Source Star’s bullet comments flew at speed.
[Help! I hid from him and still got killed.]
[I can’t anymore, mega-chad hahaha.]
[Who even dares enter an instance with Yu Huaiting and Fu Songcheng anymore?]
…
But Yu Huaiting wasn’t letting up.
He kept walking forward, randomly kicking open doors still tightly shut, continuing his utterly unmethodical destruction.
“Halt!”
Just then, a large batch of hotel security in black uniforms surged from both ends of the corridor.
Faceless, holding uniform electric batons and police batons, radiating an ominous black aura all over.
“Violating player detected. Executing clearance directive.”
The faceless security announced mechanically.
Dozens of security personnel, in perfectly synchronized steps, closed in on Yu Huaiting from both front and rear.
“Clear me?” Yu Huaiting gripped the hilt with both hands. “Let’s give it a try.”
His legs surged with power, his whole body shooting out like an arrow loosed from a string.
Clang!
The greatsword slammed viciously against the security’s batons. Yu Huaiting flipped his wrist, the massive force crushing the opponent’s defense directly, the blade slicing away half the NPC’s body.
Without any pause, he sidestepped the baton from behind, his right leg whipping out in a roundhouse kick that sent the NPC behind him flying a dozen-plus meters.
Yu Huaiting was like a wolf among sheep in the security NPC crowd, every swing of the sword carrying a terrifying howl of torn air.
And on the first floor, as the alarm continued, the hall began shaking violently too.
“Mr. Fu still isn’t found, and now Mr. Yu’s gone on a rampage—is the instance about to collapse?!” Zhao Yixing clutched the edge of the sofa, face full of terror.
Bai Mu looked at the pen hand on the clock, still dim. “Does anyone have a locating item?!”
Xu Zhun shook his head. “No use. My skill can’t reach him. Mr. Fu must be in a dream!”
“The register can’t find him either!” By now Xu Qingyao’s eyes were swimming from flipping through the register; though many guests had disappeared, Fu Songcheng’s name still wasn’t in it.
Zhao Yixing recalled the moment he’d brought Fu Songcheng into Lin Feng’s dream to save Bai Mu—the system prompt [Registering employee identity…]
“He seemed to have a hotel employee identity. Could we find him in the employee section?”
Xu Qingyao flipped to the register’s first page and shook her head after a while.
“Let’s go up too and split up to find them!” Chen Yu suggested. This instance required all twelve present to clear; guarding the first-floor hall wasn’t a good plan either.
A man was about to shake his head, unwilling to risk himself, when Bai Mu spoke: “Move in pairs. Xu Zhun keeps everyone’s safety status updated at all times.”
The ten quickly divided their teams and, with varied moods, went up in batches via the elevator and stairwell.
On the endless stairs, Fu Songcheng was still walking down.
He couldn’t hear the alarm, nor feel the tremors.
He only panted, mechanically moving his steps.
“Yu Huaiting…”
Fu Songcheng recited the name in his heart, trying to resist the exhaustion and loneliness surging in like a tide.
With every floor he descended, he wondered whether to check how many floors he’d reached, then vetoed himself. He had to find Bai Mu and the others quickly—maybe once the eleven were gathered, they could find the twelfth, Yu Huaiting’s information.
His head was dazed and heavy, as if there was a lot of information he’d overlooked.
He only remembered he had to hurry down and find Yu Huaiting.
…
Yu Huaiting held nothing back.
The heavy blade traced afterimages through the narrow corridor. The last NPC was kicked in the back of the knee, forced to his knees.
The greatsword’s shadow descended without mercy.
“Wait!”
The NPC looked up, and on its featureless face a kind of urgency could even be made out.
“You’ve wrecked this place like this—aren’t you afraid you won’t find Fu Songcheng?”
The greatsword stopped just above the NPC’s head.
Yu Huaiting looked down at it, somewhat intrigued. This NPC seemed a little different—cowardly in a fight, hiding at the very back, and very human-like.
“I’m not afraid.”
A tone of course, as if that were only natural.
The NPC was choked by this crisp answer.
Yu Huaiting sneered, his wrist pressing down, and the greatsword thoroughly shattered the NPC.
He couldn’t sense Fu Songcheng’s exact position. Fu Songcheng’s location bobbed up and down in his perception like a bad-signal coordinate.
Yu Huaiting couldn’t be sure where Fu Songcheng actually was.
But he didn’t care at all.
As long as the instance’s countdown hadn’t ended, he’d keep searching.
Can’t find him on one floor, search two. Can’t open a door, tear down the whole floor.
He had strength to spare.
At the very worst—even if the time truly ran out and the instance judged them failed, it was just dying here together with Fu Songcheng. Though Fu Songcheng lost out a bit—their deal with Dawn hadn’t been honored—Yu Huaiting had eaten very full before entering the instance. He wasn’t at a loss.
Hehe.
Yu Huaiting lingered no more.
Holding his sword, he strode to the next tightly shut door, raised his leg, and kicked hard.
Bang!
The door panel shattered on impact. He stepped in with long strides, his gaze sweeping the room.
Not Fu Songcheng.
He turned and left, rushing toward the next target.
Yu Huaiting was exactly the answer to the three black-gold cards Fu Songcheng had encountered.
The first card asked whether he held hope for the future.
The second asked about entrusting one’s life.
The third asked, when faced with certain failure, whether to give up or go one’s own way.
Fu Songcheng’s answers were Yu Huaiting’s choices.
Yu Huaiting was such a clean, pure person—he only followed his own thoughts; he fought when he wanted to fight, and Fu Songcheng indulged him. The answers Fu Songcheng was too lazy to be troubled by pondering were written on the questionnaire by Yu Huaiting, and Fu Songcheng was “awakened” by him in this way.
Whereas Fu Songcheng had fallen into a dream.
Fu Songcheng hadn’t followed his own heart.
His written answer, [Go your own way], contradicted the choice he’d made after weighing pros and cons—to return to the hall.
Only by not losing yourself, by clearly knowing what you most crave, can you stay lucid.
Fawning, wavering—that’s just confusion.
At this moment, Fu Songcheng was still descending.
Tap, tap, tap.
Muffled footsteps echoed in the stairwell.
He hadn’t noticed that the recovery potions he’d drunk weren’t working. The fatigue in a dream was a mental consumption. Nor had he noticed that he’d walked countless flights of stairs and still hadn’t seen a single floor marker.
Concern brings confusion.
Greed brings trouble.
Meanwhile, the ten players on the first floor had split into five teams.
They searched upward along different stairwells and elevators.
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