Gamers Are Fierce

Liu Wu Dai nodded and recounted in detail her experiences after arriving in the Shengnan King's Dream.

Her initial teleportation point was an isolated, uninhabited residential building, where she encountered two grotesque paper figures with incredibly exaggerated regenerative abilities. After a difficult battle, she discovered that only by simultaneously inflicting damage on both paper figures could she prevent them from regenerating.

Liu Wu Dai used a specific method to destroy both paper figures simultaneously. Then, she left the residential building and used a personal vehicle from her inventory to travel along the road to the villa.

There she met Nelson, a headless monster resembling a Sand Rogue. After a conversation, she accepted Nelson's invitation to participate in the Truth Moment show.

However, during the show, Liu Wu Dai broke the rule that participants could only tell the truth. Nelson revealed his ferocious nature, dissolved the studio, and began hunting Liu Wu Dai for breaking the rule. He was intent on prying open her skull to plunder her secrets.

At first, Liu Wu Dai had wanted to deal with Nelson within the villa, confident she could use the equipment and items purchased with money from her inventory to kill the headless monster.

But as time passed, Liu Wu Dai was horrified to discover her memory was becoming progressively more blurred. Her memories, whether good or bad, were rapidly fading, and she could no longer recall them.

This was undoubtedly the House of Integrity's method for punishing rule-breakers. If she were to exit the Shengnan King's Dream then, those precious memories that formed her personality would be irretrievably lost.

Naturally, Liu Wu Dai refused to accept this. She used some kind of item to stabilize her rapidly eroding memories, hid in the shadows to gather her strength, and prepared to kill Nelson at the opportune moment to reclaim them.

Then, she saw two players arrive at the House of Integrity from another road. While talking to Nelson, they presumably lied about something and, before they could even understand the rules, Nelson twisted their heads off.

Liu Wu Dai had no choice but to hide back in the room. She used her items to try and remove the spiders on her body (these spiders only looked formidable but didn't actually cause severe physical harm) while waiting for an opportunity.

She sensed new people arriving at the House of Integrity, hearing the noisy clamor of the show being held in the downstairs hall, but she did not hear the specific voices from the show and had no idea that Li Ang was participating in the Truth Moment.

Until Li Ang burst in, she had assumed the person stomping heavily up to the third floor was Nelson, the Butler of the House of Integrity, attempting to kill the headless monster with a fatal arrow.

That, in essence, was her experience within the Shengnan King's Dream.

"Oh, right," Liu Wu Dai said, glancing at the bent and broken metal arrow discarded on the ground. "Sorry, I almost hurt you just now."

To say she 'almost hurt' him was an understatement; in fact, Li Ang hadn't sustained any damage at all.

Liu Wu Dai herself was inwardly astounded. During their last mission together, the Mirage Dragon incident, he had already proven himself a cut above other players of the same level. Yet now, in such a short time, he could block her charged attack without injury...

He must be cheating, right?!

"It's nothing," Li Ang said, waving his hand to show he didn't mind, though his peripheral vision kept scanning Liu Wu Dai's face.

She didn't seem to be lying.

If it had been a stranger who had attacked him, Li Ang might have unleashed his full power and killed them to permanently eliminate any future trouble. However, Liu Wu Dai had been through two missions with him; they were, to some extent, companions who had faced hardship together. Moreover, she had helped during the Solitary Cold Temple mission and had done Chaichai a favor, so silencing her was out of the question.

Li Ang suppressed his killing intent and carefully recalled what Nelson had said in the studio.

Back then, the headless monster had said, "There's a female visitor from a Different World trapped in the house. She's someone you know and have a somewhat favorable impression of. As spiders continuously spill from her mouth, her mind also flashes with images of being with you..."

At the time Nelson said this, Li Ang had thought it was Wang Congshan, but now that he thought about it, Liu Wu Dai also fit the criteria.

The images flashing in her mind as the spiders spilled out must have been the 'life review' from her own memories—like seeing one's life flash before their eyes.

Damn, I was tricked.

Li Ang shook his head and muttered to himself, Nelson, you died a horrible death. Why did you have to play those vague word games, making me kill you? What was the point of it all?

Considering Liu Wu Dai's account, Nelson was likely a habitual schemer. He exploited his position as Butler of the House of Integrity to lure outsiders into breaking the rules, allowing him to attack them and plunder their memories.

This time, in trying to 'fish' for Li Ang, he hooked a shark and met a well-deserved end...

"What are your plans next?" Li Ang thought for a moment, then asked Liu Wu Dai, "Leave this place, or continue to explore the Shengnan King's Dream?"

Liu Wu Dai didn't answer immediately. She furrowed her brow in thought for a moment, then finally lifted her head and exhaled deeply. "My memories are slowly returning, probably because that headless butler is dead now. Um... what do you plan to do?"

"I want to keep exploring this place," Li Ang said, glancing at the house. "This dream seems to hold many interesting things."

Liu Wu Dai thought for a bit and then said, "Shall we team up? This place is too strange; having someone to help would be much safer."

The two had cooperated twice before, and this time Li Ang had even saved her life, so a certain level of trust could be afforded.

"Alright." Li Ang raised an eyebrow. "But I don't think exploring the Shengnan King's Dream offers you a good cost-benefit ratio, does it? The potential gains don't seem to outweigh the risks."

The dangers in this world are comparable to those in regular missions or script worlds. Moreover, players operate alone, without teammates or any mechanism to prevent friendly fire, and there are no safe houses or similar places to rest and recover.

Confident and capable Lone Wolf Players could certainly stay here, continuously resolving anomalies and earning rewards. However, Liu Wu Dai didn't seem like a Lone Wolf Player who lacked equipment or items; she could buy whatever she needed. Why would she risk her life in such a dangerous place?

"I don't lack equipment or items; what I need are Experience Points." Liu Wu Dai shook her head. Just as she was about to say more, she felt the floor tremble beneath her feet, and dust began to fall from the ceiling.

"This place is about to collapse! We should leave first." Li Ang frowned. He bolted out of the room and picked up the winter melon-shaped Beehive from the floor. (Miss Chai, who had been hiding under the floorboards, crawled into Li Ang's body through the soles of his feet.) Accompanied by a house full of Soldier Bees, he and Liu Wu Dai fled the House of Integrity. They stood in the middle of the road, watching the dilapidated villa slowly crumble.

Dust billowed. From within the ruins of the House of Integrity, strange, low whispers suddenly emerged, only to fade back into silence.