Without thinking, Yu Yezhou rushed forward.
Yang Lin and Xuyue had no choice but to follow him.
Gu Zhan saw them from a distance, stopping his steps and no longer advancing.
"You’re still alive!"
Yu Yezhou appeared particularly excited.
This contrasted with Gu Zhan’s cold expression.
Yang Lin also looked at him but with a more restrained expression.
Gu Zhan nodded slightly. "I’m fine."
Yu Yezhou opened his mouth, wanting to ask where he had gone last, why he had disappeared for so long, and why he had returned.
But reflecting back, Gu Zhan’s jumping down indicated he had a card up his sleeve that Yu Yezhou didn’t know about.
Their current relationship wasn’t good enough to the point where they could ask each other about their hidden cards.
So he held back his questions and said, "It’s good that you’re back... Let’s go back."
They returned to the hive together.
Coincidentally, all of them lived in the same hive.
Once inside the building, they scattered.
The first thing Gu Zhan did upon returning home was rest; he lay down in bed and slept deeply. When he woke up, it was still bright outside, but upon closer inspection, more than a day had passed.
The star dial watch lay quietly on his wrist. Gu Zhan gently stroked the smooth dial, feeling for the first time that he couldn’t quite see through this item he had brought out from the dungeon.
It seemed quite powerful.
It seemed to hold its own secrets.
He couldn’t help but recall the moment he locked eyes with the black cat at the end, seeing those huge beastly eyes...
It always gave him a familiar feeling.
Who had been looking at him through the eyes of those bosses?
Gu Zhan thought for a moment and then went into the interior of the star dial watch.
After such a long time, Sun Jingqiu had tidied up the internal space well; the empty ground of the playground had been renovated and planted with vegetables, the small weeds along the paths had been cleared, and the old walls had been repaired.
This place, which had originally looked desolate and eerie, finally showed some vitality.
She seemed to sense him, walking towards him as soon as he landed.
Behind her was Xiao Ling, who was flying a kite.
However, the kite seemed to be homemade and wouldn’t fly no matter how hard she tried. Absorbed in her kite, Xiao Ling didn’t notice the raised ground and accidentally tripped, falling face-first into the dirt.
Seeing this, Sun Jingqiu felt embarrassed and hurried to help Xiao Ling, softly saying to Gu Zhan, "I’m sorry, I’m sorry. This child just likes to play a bit too much."
Gu Zhan replied, "It’s okay; this is your place."
He was only occasionally coming back to check in and didn’t want Sun Jingqiu and the others to feel like they were in “someone else’s home.”
He went to the square; the sculpture was still as it had been, with the hospital director standing in the fountain with a fish tail, his face cold and indifferent, like a high and mighty statue.
But the black cat...
Gu Zhan turned to ask Sun Jingqiu where the black cat had gone, and she hurriedly replied, "Oh, that cat has a bad temper. Our noise would disturb its sleep, so it went over to the inpatient building."
This hospital had many buildings, and Sun Jingqiu and Xiao Ling chose a small bungalow to live in.
The inpatient building was very empty, and they generally didn’t go over there.
Evidently, that period of imprisonment was a past they were unwilling to recall.
The inpatient building was a place they avoided if possible.
Gu Zhan walked alone toward the inpatient building.
Leaving the area where Sun Jingqiu and Xiao Ling lived, the space felt too empty.
It felt like he could hear the echo of his footsteps even before he entered.
Looking up, the sky also seemed fake, like a glass dome hovering overhead.
He soon reached the entrance of the inpatient building. The hallway was empty, and dim light streamed in through the windows.
Gu Zhan didn’t go in but called out from the door, "Meow?"
After a while, an echoing "meow" came from deep within the hallway.
He waited at the door for a bit, and soon a black cat walked out of one of the rooms.
It stared at Gu Zhan for a moment with its yellow eyes, meowed again, and approached him with feline steps.
"Meow~"
Before long, it was at Gu Zhan’s feet, circling around his legs and occasionally nudging his ankle with its forehead, appearing quite affectionate.
Gu Zhan watched it for a while; it truly looked just like a cat.
When he locked eyes with the cat, there was none of that familiar feeling.
It seemed that to find “those eyes,” he would have to go back into the dungeon.
---
Gu Zhan had a solid rest at home for two days. After two days, he received a message from Yu Yezhou saying they were going to a bar for a debriefing meeting.
Debriefing Meeting.
These few words burst into Gu Zhan's vision like demons, making his eyes ache.
He somewhat regretted getting to know Yu Yezhou and this group of people.
But in the end, he still went.
In the bar's base, he shared what happened to him in the black hole.
"The black cat has a lot of labels on it, all repelling each other. Before we arrived, the factory had already dealt with many people whose labels were in chaos. My appearance only accelerated their process and frequency of rejection. The black cat couldn't control those labels, and they all flew away."
Gu Zhan said this, omitting the details about the eyes and the role of the watch.
The watch could temporarily shield the black cat's powers, making those labels even more uncontrollable.
Yu Yezhou said, "According to you, after you went down, it was like throwing in a catalyst that accelerated the collapse process."
"Yes," Gu Zhan nodded.
Yu Yezhou stood in front of the whiteboard, remained silent for a while, and then said, "This instance surprised me. I thought each instance had the same way to clear it, but the way we exited this instance... seems different from others."
"Right, we just need to remove the labels that don’t belong to us, right?" Yang Lin said. "But it seems we’ve also blown up the instance."
At this point, she felt a little guilty.
During her break these few days, she had paid attention to the live streams, wanting to see how others cleared the game.
However, after searching for several days, she couldn't find any live stream for the Happy Town game.
It seemed that the game had closed since they left.
At this point, everyone in the room fell silent, looking at each other. After a while, Yu Yezhou asked, "Have you thought about where these instances come from?"
No one spoke.
Yu Yezhou continued, "This system claims to voluntarily fulfill our wishes, but in reality, once we come, we can’t leave. It feels like... like some kind of organization that, you know, has a semi-coercive nature."
"But what is its purpose? Where does the energy to fulfill our wishes come from? We have no way of knowing..."
"Maybe..." Yu Yezhou finally concluded, "the real way to fulfill wishes is not in the mall but in the truth behind these instances. To be honest, I’ve been here for so long, and I haven't seen anyone really leave the game."
Perhaps they really couldn't escape.
Deep down, everyone shared this vague common understanding.
But this conclusion was too discouraging to bring up.
After Yu Yezhou spoke, the room fell silent. He knew he couldn't let everyone sink into despair like this. After a moment, he said, "This is just my guess; perhaps there are other truths behind it."
Yang Lin said, "But as it stands, not just this instance, but other instances also have a second way to clear them, it's just..."
Halfway through, she let out a bitter smile. "If the second way to clear an instance means blowing it up, then if there are too many instances blown up, will the system target the players?"
"Um..." Yu Yezhou felt she had a point.
His expression turned serious as he pondered for a moment and said, "Although this behavior is tempting, we shouldn’t try it lightly."
Being targeted by the system.
That was obviously not a good thing.
Yang Lin chuckled and said, "You shouldn’t be telling us this."
Saying this, she turned to Gu Zhan, who had been absent-minded since entering the room and was now staring blankly out the window, seemingly not listening to Yu Yezhou at all.
Yu Yezhou: "..."
Well, it was obvious that Gu Zhan was the most likely person to break the rules.
He called out to Gu Zhan, "Did you hear that?"
"Ah?" Gu Zhan looked up, a hint of confusion in his eyes.
He was really spaced out and hadn’t heard a word!
Yu Yezhou opened his mouth, wanting to repeat what he just said, but then realized that Gu Zhan was not the type to heed advice. He helplessly smiled and said, "Forget it, it’s none of your business. Do whatever you want."
Gu Zhan blinked.
The debriefing meeting ended there, and next was the future plans.
"Do you have any plans moving forward?"
Yang Lin slumped in her chair. "After barely getting out of the last instance, what other plans could there be? Of course, I need to rest for a while. I won’t be entering an instance for this month."
Yu Yezhou looked at Xu Yu: "What about you?"
Xu Yu said, "I plan to find a few simple instances to grind for points."
Yu Yezhou replied, "I'm like Yang Lin; I also need to rest for a while."
After saying this, his gaze naturally fell on Gu Zhan.
Gu Zhan remained silent for a moment and said, "Do I have to answer?"
Yu Yezhou: "..."
He almost burst with anger but held it in, patiently saying, "Yes, tell us."
"I'm planning to look for an instance of S-rank or above, and I'll go tomorrow."
"Huh?" A look of indescribable admiration spread across Yu Yezhou’s face as he stared at Gu Zhan for a long time, then finally patted his shoulder, "I respect you for being a man; come back alive."
"Should be," Gu Zhan replied.
---
Gu Zhan's rest was brief.
He urgently needed to unravel the confusion in his heart; he wanted to see who was behind those eyes.
The next day, he arrived at the entrance of the instance.
[Welcome to the SSS-rank instance <Black Raven Mansion>. In this instance, you will play the role of a villa owner.]
[Black Raven Mansion is located deep within the mountains and forests, a long-closed, solitary building. Ten years ago, there was a guest here. Unfortunately, ten years later, the greenery has covered the courtyard, and the lock on the iron gate has rusted.]
[Tonight, you will open this long-sealed mansion that has been closed for ten years to welcome a few guests arriving from afar.]
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