Xu Jiawei was originally tidying up her things to get out of the car, but following Shao Lan’s gaze, she was also startled. “What the hell is that…?”
The little girl without eyes raised her hand, pounding heavily against the car window, and opened her mouth.
Through the car glass, Shao Lan and Xu Jiawei couldn’t quite hear what she was saying, but they could tell from her lip movements.
She was saying:
“Hungry.”
“Hungry.”
“So hungry.”
Xu Jiawei looked left and right, her gaze landing on a half-eaten bag of barbecue-flavored potato chips in the center console. She had bought them at the service area, and they were still giving off a savory aroma.
Hesitating for a moment, she rolled down the window and handed the bag of chips out.
The next scene, however, made her skin crawl—
Countless children came running from all directions, swarming around the first little girl and grabbing at the chips in her hands.
There were dozens of children, every single one of them eyeless, with only two dark, hollow pits where their eyes should have been.
Some children who failed to grab any chips ran over, beating against the car doors with even greater force and letting out piercing shrieks.
Xu Jiawei pressed the horn, but the children weren’t scared at all. In fact, the honking only drew more attention, causing even more kids to come running.
Dozens of children completely surrounded the car, trapping it in. Looking out from inside, there were tiny, tender faces in every direction, and on each face was a pair of chilling, hollow black sockets.
Shao Lan pondered for a moment, digging through the pile of food in the back seat until he pulled out a vacuum-packed roast duck.
Tearing the packaging wide open, Shao Lan popped open the sunroof, leaned out halfway, and like a baseball pitcher, hurled the roast duck far away into the distance—
Zhang Fang, who was talking to Xu Nan, suddenly felt a rush of wind behind his head.
With quick reflexes, he spun around and caught the heavy object that had nearly struck his back—a roast duck.
The packaging was torn, and fragrant juices leaked out, covering his hands.
Before Zhang Fang could figure out what was going on, he saw a dense swarm of children charging straight toward him.
“Oh mom! Oh mom!” Zhang Fang screamed. “Ghosts!”
He tried to throw the roast duck to Xu Nan, but Xu Nan immediately dodged out of the way.
A dozen children swarmed around Zhang Fang. Some fought over the roast duck, while others began gnawing directly on Zhang Fang’s hands—after all, his hands were covered in the roast duck’s grease, and he smelled just like a roast duck himself.
“Tsk tsk,” Xu Jiawei said, looking at Shao Lan. “Honey, I had no idea you were so black-bellied. Using this diversion tactic of ‘besieging Wei to rescue Zhao’ is a bit underhanded, don’t you think?”
“He wasn’t exactly fair and square when he pulled a knife on me in the building just for a few bites of food,” Shao Lan said coldly. “Now that I’m proactively sending him food, he should be thanking me.”
So there was bad blood between them. Xu Jiawei understood.
Robbing others for survival supplies was extremely common in the tower. She had been robbed too when she was a newcomer, though fortunately, she made it back in subsequent dungeons.
Just as Zhang Fang’s hands were being bitten until they were bloody and mangled, a middle-aged man in his forties came running over from the distance.
“What are you doing! What are you doing!” the middle-aged man scolded loudly. “You naughty brats, stop this right now!”
He seemed to carry a lot of authority, and the children immediately stopped in their tracks.
“Aiya, aiya, I am so, so sorry.”
The middle-aged man strode over to Zhang Fang’s side, full of apologies.
“I’m the village chief of Xu Family Village. It’s one thing that I’m late in welcoming our village’s son-in-law on his first visit back, but to let these ignorant kids bite you—I am truly, deeply sorry!”
“The village health station is right next door. Jiaojia, take your man…”
“Go get it bandaged up.”
The person next to Zhang Fang was a fair-skinned, slightly plump girl wearing a cute, light-yellow hoodie.
She didn’t look very old, and right now she seemed quite nervous and reserved, not reacting at all when the village chief called her.
“Jiaojia, what are you daydreaming for? Hurry up and go.”
The village chief urged.
“Oh, oh, right.” Jiaojia cautiously approached Zhang Fang. “Let’s go.”
Zhang Fang’s face was pale with pain, and he cast a venomous look at Shao Lan—by now, he certainly knew who had thrown that roast duck at him.
“You just wait,” Zhang Fang said viciously.
He then set off with Jiaojia toward the health station.
The wind carried snippets of their conversation back from a distance.
“What did you say your name was again? Something Jia?” Zhang Fang asked impatiently.
“X-Xu Jiaojia.”
“What a crappy name. This dungeon gives every guy a wife, so how come the kid surnamed Shao gets a beauty, while I end up with a fat girl like this?” Zhang Fang was in a terrible mood, complaining and cursing as he walked.
Xu Jiaojia looked like she was about to cry from his scolding, but because Zhang Fang was fierce and intimidating, she had no choice but to forcefully swallow her tears.
Hearing this, Shao Lan calmly turned to the last male player beside him and asked, “May I ask your name?”
The male player replied, “My name is Xu Zijian.”
Shao Lan understood now.
Among the eight of them, four shared the surname Xu. According to the setup, “Xu Family Village” was the hometown for those four, while the remaining four were the “significant others” brought back home.
This also explained why Xu Nan had been forcibly invited into this game by the property agent; it turned out this dungeon required exactly four people surnamed Xu to be able to play.
Xu Jiaojia and Zhang Fang returned shortly after visiting the health station, a bandage wrapped around Zhang Fang’s hand.
He seemed a bit quieter and stopped cursing and swearing.
Xu Nan, on the other hand, kept glaring fiercely at Shao Lan the entire time. Shao Lan looked straight ahead, pretending not to notice.
There were many buildings in the village, most of them being single-story houses, except for a three-story small building that was quite grandly decorated. A sign by the doorway read “Xu Family Village Guest House.”
The village chief led the eight people into the guest house’s first floor and instructed the waiters to pour tea.
Beaming with smiles, he introduced everyone to the place:
“Our Xu Family Village is a small fishing village nestled against the mountains and facing the sea. For generations, we’ve farmed and fished for a living. The population isn’t large, but everyone is a descendant of the same ancient ancestor and we’re all relatives. Therefore, the whole village is just like one big family, with no distinction between yours and mine.”
“Some of the promising children in the village don’t have to toil away day and night depending on the whims of nature like we do; instead, they went to big cities to study and work. But whenever they find a partner and want to settle down, they always bring them back home to pay respects to the ancestors and introduce them to the neighbors.”
“This time, Jiawei, Zijian, Jiaojia, and Anan have all brought everyone back with them, and we are all thrilled! We will definitely do our absolute best to host all of you! Our village may be small, but the scenery is lovely, and there are plenty of joys you won’t experience in the big city. Over these next three days, we’ll make sure everyone gets to experience them all.”
Three days.
Shao Lan keenly caught onto this keyword.
This should be the duration of their time in this dungeon.
That meant their mission was to survive these three days and successfully escape.
The tea was ready now, and a waiter dressed in a red cheongsam brought out the teapot, pouring tea for everyone.
The tea looked somewhat hot, and most people didn’t drink it immediately.
One impatient person took a small sip, only to immediately spit it out: “Oh god, why is this so fishy?”