Su Ziyi glanced at the torn sleeve of her blouse, a bit worried. “The dress is torn; I wonder if that violates any rules.”
“The hotel manual must mention it, right? Something about maintaining a tidy appearance…” The new girl walking behind them looked puzzled. Earlier, she had been crying in the lobby, wanting to go home, but now she seemed to have accepted reality.
Su Ziyi and Wu Yun exchanged worried looks, smiling as they replied, “Yeah, we just forgot for a moment.”
Everyone’s manual had different information, and the experienced players present realized this.
Lin Ya followed the signs and arrived at the banquet hall. At the entrance stood two waiters in vests, both wearing identical smiles as they handed him a number tag.
Lin Ya flipped it over to take a look.
Number 66, a lucky number.
“Please take care of your number tag; losing it may lead to unfortunate consequences,” a slightly eerie, monotone voice made the people behind him instinctively tense up.
“That’s scary…” Li Yu shivered as she reached out to take the number tag, but when she suddenly saw a smile creeping up next to her, she couldn’t help but scream, “Ah!!”
Lin Ya looked mildly exasperated at the waiter’s attempt to frighten them.
In his view, the entire hotel and its interior appeared to have transformed. As he walked, the hotel walls looked charred and blackened; apart from the players, everyone else appeared either ghostly pale or in a gruesome, bloody mess.
It looked a bit dirty.
Lin Ya chose not to pay attention to what was behind him and walked straight inside.
Whether players or NPCs, everyone was dressed very formally, all holding number tags as they entered, and the banquet hall looked extremely lively.
“Sorry, ma’am, you cannot enter.”
“What?!” Wu Yun’s face suddenly turned ashen as she clutched the torn sleeve of her outfit, trying to avoid the waiter’s piercing gaze.
“Your appearance does not meet the standards; you are not allowed to participate in the ball.”
With only 3 minutes left before the ball started, there was no time to change outfits, especially since there were likely monsters in the stairwell and elevator—time was short.
If she couldn’t enter the ball, she would certainly violate the rules!
Su Ziyi’s complexion darkened; a partner was required at the ball, and there might be a two-person dance segment. If Wu Yun couldn’t enter, then…
His gaze fell on Li Yu, who was preparing to enter nearby. Suddenly, an idea struck him.
“Wu Yun! Do it!”
He said coldly, restraining the bewildered Li Yu forcefully. Wu Yun quickly reacted and rushed over, swiftly tearing off her dress.
“Don’t! Let go of me!” Even in her confusion, Li Yu realized they were eyeing her dress. If she lost her gown and couldn’t enter the ball, the outcome would surely be dire.
“Don’t worry, you won’t die! There’s a protection mechanism for beginners in the first level.” Su Ziyi said kindly, yet he didn’t mention that the difficulty would escalate in the next instance.
“Help! Don’t!” Li Yu was unsure if what he said was true and couldn’t bring herself to believe it, crying out for help.
Unfortunately, everyone else merely cast her a cold glance as they passed by into the banquet hall.
No one came to save her.
NPCs gave her ambiguous looks; their gazes were merely fixed on her, silent.
Wu Yun was sweating, feeling that she’d never undressed this quickly before—none of the NPCs watching made her feel any less intimidated.
Under those gazes, she worked even faster.
She struggled hard against Su Ziyi’s grip, but he held her firmly in place, allowing her only to cry as she watched her dress being pulled off, left in nothing but her underwear and safety shorts.
Wu Yun managed to get dressed just in time for the last few precious seconds to grab a number tag and enter.
The moment she crossed the threshold, the clock hung at the entrance stopped.
The doors of the banquet hall slowly closed.
“No!”
Li Yu was pushed to the ground, staring in fear at the closed banquet hall, noticing the thin, charred legs in front of her, her body instinctively moving back.
…
As the doors shut, Su Ziyi and Wu Yun let out a sigh of relief, feeling cold sweat trickle down their backs.
“It’s a good thing your mind was quick; otherwise, I might have been done for here.” Wu Yun’s chest heaved up and down, her breathing rapid, clearly shaken.
Su Ziyi glanced at her, “You need to stay alert from now on.”
“The level of this instance is probably quite high; we must stay on our toes. If we encounter something like this again, I’m afraid I won’t be able to save you.” One rookie was already finished; two were behind that guy Lei Guang, while another solo player looked tough to deal with.
Finding another ‘lightning rod’ for cannon fodder seemed quite a challenge.
They felt no guilt for Li Yu outside the doors; even if she were a companion, she could be used as a stepping stone, let alone being a stranger.
As the gentle music gradually faded, the entire banquet hall was plunged into darkness.
“Be careful.” Several players huddled together, their eyes warily scanning the pitch black surroundings.
“My number tag is missing!”
A startled cry rose from the darkness.
Lin Ya stood in the corner, turning towards the voice, raising an eyebrow—it was the new girl who had spoken to him earlier.
In the next moment, the lights turned on.
Everyone instinctively closed their eyes, the brightness blinding.
“Ah!” A tragic scream rang out as the girl lay on the black-and-white checkered floor, her body charred. Just a moment ago, she had screamed, but when their gazes shifted to her, she was cold, her flesh blackened as if she had been burned for a long time and dead for an age.
The few people standing beside her quickly dispersed, turning their heads away in cold detachment, their minds racing.
Had the missing number tag led to her death?
The question surged in their minds, and they tightened their grips on their number tags, fearing it might vanish too, leading them to meet the same fate as the new girl.