Walking all the way down the stairs, you’d never reach the end—you’d forever be trapped on the first layer.
The real way to break the deadlock was absurdly simple—you just had to turn around and walk up against the steps.
“Alright.”
Fu Songcheng reined in his thoughts, his tone returning to its usual coolness.
He walked over and kicked Yu Huaiting’s ankle with the tip of his shoe.
“Don’t beat him to death. He’s the founder of Death Party.”
Yu Huaiting’s raised fist froze in midair as he understood Fu Songcheng’s subtext.
Hearing Fu Songcheng’s voice, most of the frenzy and viciousness in his eyes receded.
He turned his head and looked at Fu Songcheng—now restored to his true appearance, expression cool—his Adam’s apple rolling.
“You’re okay?” Yu Huaiting’s voice was a little hoarse.
“What could possibly be wrong with me.”
Fu Songcheng gave him a faint glance.
Only then did Yu Huaiting release the grip holding Quan Heng up. He stood, wiping the blood off the back of his hand on his pant leg in disgust, then glanced down at Quan Heng beneath his feet, barely breathing.
“I’ll listen to you.”
Yu Huaiting answered obediently—not the slightest trace of the ferocity from moments ago when he’d been about to beat a man to death.
Quan Heng lay collapsed on the ground, beaten unconscious by Yu Huaiting, only the faint rise and fall of his breath proving he was still alive.
“Down there is a dead end.”
Fu Songcheng’s expression didn’t change. “The right path is above. Just walk against the stairs.”
He didn’t plan to tell Yu Huaiting what a stupid mistake he’d made before, and even less planned to admit that he’d been circling in the dead end because he was worried about him.
Fu Songcheng’s pride had always been heavy—this kind of thing absolutely had to rot in his stomach.
But Yu Huaiting had always followed Fu Songcheng’s words without question. Fu Songcheng said go up, so go up—no asking why, no need to fully understand.
“Okay.”
Yu Huaiting nodded, grabbed Quan Heng by the back collar, and dragged him along like a dead weight. “Let’s go, up.”
Fu Songcheng patted his head and took the lead up the upward stairs.
Footsteps echoed in the empty stairwell.
It was actually very simple—turning back was the correct answer.
He listened to Yu Huaiting’s deliberately lightened footsteps behind him, and the dull scraping sound of Quan Heng being dragged across the steps.
The plumb line called reason had once been Fu Songcheng’s standard for measuring the world, but now, he allowed it to tilt just a little—for the person behind him.
Fu Songcheng spoke without turning his head: “Yu Huaiting, I really do hate you.”
Yu Huaiting, I really do like you.
“Hm?”
A confused nasal hum came from behind—Yu Huaiting seemed baffled by that one sentence.
But Fu Songcheng didn’t explain. He walked up against the stairs, his steps firmer than ever before.
…
The upward road was unexpectedly short.
After just a few steps, the two reached the hotel’s top floor. Fu Songcheng pushed open the heavy door at the end of the stairwell.
The hinges gave a dry creak, and then the somewhat harsh white light poured out, dispersing the stairwell’s chill.
“We’re out.”
Fu Songcheng said softly.
Yu Huaiting answered and stepped through the door, his arm surging with force as he flung the half-dead Quan Heng onto the corridor carpet like a piece of trash.
In the elevator bay not far away, the atmosphere had been so oppressive it nearly froze.
Bai Mu looked calm, her fingers unconsciously twisting together.
Lin Feng leaned against the wall, trying to tease a smile out of Chen Yu as if nothing were wrong.
Hearing the fire door push open, everyone looked up.
Only after seeing who it was did Bai Mu relax. She rushed over in three quick strides, her voice unable to hide its excitement. “Brother Fu! Mr. Yu! You’re back!”
Fu Songcheng gave a slight nod in reply.
Lin Feng’s gaze passed over Bai Mu and landed sharply on the unfamiliar man on the ground.
He straightened, brows furrowing slightly. “Why’s there an extra person?”
Yu Huaiting’s eyes, which had just calmed somewhat at seeing Fu Songcheng safe and sound, were instantly covered with another layer of viciousness at Lin Feng’s question.
He stepped in front of Fu Songcheng, irritably lifting his eyelids to stab at Lin Feng coldly. “Why ask so much? Mind your own business.”
Lin Feng was choked off, his expression darkening slightly.
“Don’t bring some unclear thing along and get everyone killed.”
Before Yu Huaiting could curse Lin Feng out, Bai Mu spoke up first to help. “Mr. Lin, how can you say that? We’re awake now thanks to Mr. Fu. He must have his reasons for doing this.”
Fu Songcheng didn’t care what they thought. His cool gaze swept over everyone present, and after confirming the headcount was correct, he had no intention of explaining Quan Heng’s identity. “Back to the first-floor hall. Activate the tokens and leave the instance.”
Lin Feng, choked off by Bai Mu and Yu Huaiting, looked displeased but, fearing Yu Huaiting, didn’t quite dare to make a scene. Chen Yu nudged him twice. “Let’s go, Brother Lin.”
“Hmph.”
Lin Feng walked quickly, taking the lead.
Everyone felt as if granted amnesty; no one wanted to stay here a second longer.
The group quickly took the elevator down to the first floor.
As they stood in place, the pointer icons lit up one by one.
The last to light was the pointer itself—the pen.
Light after light blazed in the hall, and then the mechanical voice all players knew sounded:
[Ding—detected players activating tokens. Settling instance data.]
[Instance Name: Infinite Dream Whisper.]
[Clear Status: Cleared.]
[Instance Completion Rating: A-rank.]
[Distributing clear rewards.]
[Congratulations to player ‘Fu Songcheng’ on obtaining 5,000 points.]
[Players ‘Yu Huaiting’, ‘Bai Mu’, ‘Lin Feng’, ‘Chen Yu’… obtained 3,000 points.]
Then, in Fu Songcheng’s mind, a notification sounded that only he could hear:
[Detected player ‘Fu Songcheng’ meeting hidden conditions. Distributing additional item reward.]
[Congratulations on obtaining special trade item: “Quit While You’re Ahead.”]
[Function: Initiate one forced transaction. The system will permanently uphold the transaction result; no external force or rule may alter it. Single use only.]
[Child Star 73641 Fu Songcheng, please “quit while you’re ahead.”]
Fu Songcheng lowered his lashes slightly, hiding the look in his eyes, and unobtrusively tucked the item into his personal panel.
Light flickered, space twisted.
The next second, they were back in the central plaza of the player rest area.
Around them was the bustling crowd, with other teams teleporting back from instances from time to time—some cheering in delight, others weeping over their companions’ corpses.
Not far away, the other members of “Dawn” spotted Fu Songcheng and the others and were about to come over and greet them.
“Bring him. Back to the rest room.”
Fu Songcheng said quietly to Yu Huaiting.
Yu Huaiting understood immediately. He grabbed the hair of the Quan Heng on the ground and followed behind Fu Songcheng, avoiding the others and going straight back to their private rest room.
The door shut heavily behind them, sealing off all the noise outside.
The main lights in the rest room weren’t on; only the motion-sensor floor lights on the walls gave off a faint cold glow.
Fu Songcheng walked to the sofa and sat down, casually unbuttoning two buttons at his collar.
Bang!
Yu Huaiting unceremoniously slammed Quan Heng onto the cold, hard metal floor. Quan Heng let out a faint groan, his body instinctively curling up.
Yu Huaiting bought a binding item from the shop and, in three swift motions, bound Quan Heng’s hands and feet dead behind his back, cinched extremely tight.
That done, Yu Huaiting stood, clapped his hands, and turned to look at Fu Songcheng. “Songcheng-gege, I know a bit about torture methods.”
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