Chapter 216 - -

Chapter 216: Chapter 213 - "I Just Feel Sorry for Big BrotherSu Ming’an immediately reached out to pull the person out of the cabinet.

However, the strength value in the Shadow State was too small, and the person was stuck inside the cabinet like superglue, impossible to tug them out.

He felt the light behind him growing brighter and brighter, accompanied by the sound of wind rapidly approaching.

He quickly stepped his other leg in, stuffed his entire body into the cabinet, then quickly swung around to shut the door.

"Bang." A soft sound, and the darkness completely enveloped the inside of the cabinet, cutting off the increasingly close light.

The cabinet was cramped, and Su Ming’an felt as if he was stepping on something soft, his entire body pressed against the interior, unable to even stretch out his arms.

In the pitch black, he couldn’t find the other’s vital spot. Otherwise, he would have delivered an annihilating blow earlier, to prevent the person from striking first in the dark.

He didn’t know if this method of hiding inside the cabinet would work. He held the Spatial Displacement in his hand, ready to teleport away the moment the light found them, leaving the player inside to take the fall.

Just as he was contemplating briefly, the space in front of him suddenly brightened.

Su Ming’an made a slight movement, and the player below let out a faint cry of pain.

His current state... was entirely stepping on the other person below, otherwise there was no way he could have squeezed in.

And at this moment, this player was still thinking about communicating with him...

Perhaps the other party also realized that they were players in the same predicament. For normal people, the thought of cooperation would outweigh the competitive instincts.

The communication prop allowed for anonymous identities, thus preventing the risk of exposing numbers and real names.

Su Ming’an casually made up a name "Xingkai" and agreed to the communication request.

There was still no movement outside the cabinet, the doors were completely sealed, not a glint of light seeping through. After assigning an anonymous number, he saw a message pop up.

Su Ming’an looked down for a moment, but it was pitch black, and he couldn’t even locate the other person’s face.

However, he was certain that the other was a recklessly moving player at night, and moreover, a Dragon Country player.

He wasn’t afraid of death because he had something to rely on, but the other’s fearlessness was...

Su Ming’an was still paying attention to the movements outside the cabinet door. It seemed that when the light was approaching there were no footsteps, no sound from the floorboards at all, so he wasn’t sure if that thing was still lingering outside the cabinet door.

The player below was still sending messages, seemingly eager to cooperate with him.

Su Ming’an managed to move his fingers slightly and typed a message.

Su Ming’an felt something was off.

The other was called "Number Three," but he didn’t have a single piece of information about his own identity, let alone what number he might be.

Thinking back to Wang Xingkong’s situation in the previous school instance, he remained wary of other players with player identities.

He casually made up a number.

Su Ming’an fell silent for a moment.

And while he was thinking, the person below kept sending messages calling him "big brother."

This was the current state of players, not everyone was like those at the top of the leaderboard who could rely on being bold or having strong adaptability to recklessly blunder about. Lone wolf players were ultimately a minority; most players, when encountering others in an instance, would prefer to communicate and cooperate as much as possible rather than engage in a fight to the death for points upon meeting.

The overall atmosphere tended towards harmony, and under the current mechanisms, it would become even more so.

Seeing that this player, who ventured out into the darkness just like him and exuded a boss-like demeanor, Mo Yan knew cooperation would undoubtedly be beneficial. His tone was as gentle as possible.

Even if it meant being polite before resorting to force, he tried to start with courtesy. After all, provoking the other party could lead to an unfavorable fight for both sides here.

...And for some reason, Mo Yan felt a sense of familiarity about the other person.

Su Ming’an pushed open the cabinet door.

He clutched his Extinguisher and was prepared for spatial displacement at any moment. After all, opening the door to an immediate attack was not uncommon; if something did attack his face upon opening the door, spatial displacement might not be quick enough to evade it.

But he had already waited quite some time without result.

If that thing were still lurking by the cabinet door, it would be better to face it now.

The cabinet door was pushed open forcefully.

...Darkness.

Outside looked the same as inside, both covered in darkness as if a giant hand wiped away all light.

The lights, which symbolized hope and brightness in the night, represented danger in such hallways.

However, fortunately, that thing had already left.

The completely invisible Surveillance Eye offered no hints at this time.

Su Ming’an fully opened the cabinet door and leaped down.

"Creak—"

The floor let out a sharp wail, followed by the sound of the other player sucking in a breath.

He seemed to be stepped on quite hard, crawling out of the cabinet very slowly, not sure where he got stepped on.

The message popped up.

Su Ming’an extended his hand.

The small black cat, merging with the darkness, appeared in midair. It deftly turned its body and silently landed on the floor.

Raising its paw, it ran down the stairs next to it, clearly scouting ahead.

The message notification popped up.

Su Ming’an was somewhat surprised.

Su Ming’an turned around.

The somewhat slender young man was staring at him with a pair of slightly glowing eyes.

And it was because of these eyes that he could see the other’s appearance.

He received new information.

Night vision... A generally mediocre skill turned out to be surprisingly suitable for this situation.

Su Ming’an equipped the high-level defensive barrier he had previously looted, ensuring it could be passively triggered at any time, and then he took the lead in descending the staircase.

The black cat continued downward, having reached another long corridor without encountering any danger.

On the way, another message popped up.

...As expected.

Had his fame reached the point where even his summoned creatures were well-known by the players?

...So he was really someone that had just logged off, having experienced only one or two instances.

Su Ming’an wondered why there were players as reckless as him. Even players with strength who ranked near the top shouldn’t be roaming around these dangerous parts willy-nilly.

Turns out he was just a hot-headed newbie, excited for this kind of instance.

He didn’t currently have the intention to kill or drive the other person away.

Night vision was somewhat useful; if it didn’t hinder him, letting the guy live was fine too—he could even take a blow for him at a critical moment.

Who knew, while he didn’t feel like talking, the other party seemed relentless, continuously bombarding him with messages.

Su Ming’an felt the walls with his hands, inching forward along the corridor of the next floor.

Originally, he no longer wanted to pay attention to this person, but the more they talked, the more outrageous it became.

Su Ming’an turned around, but his vision was the same no matter where he looked, as if the light in front of him had been forcibly taken away.

At that moment, a pair of rather terrifying eyes lit up, floating in the air like a lone pair of suspended eyes, becoming the only source of light in the area.

The other person’s night vision appeared quite frightening under these conditions.

Su Ming’an extended his hand, and the other player led him to the opposite wall, instructing him to feel along the wall.

He noticed there seemed to be a spot on the wall that was different from the others, with some unevenness that resembled a patch on clothing, and the area he touched felt as though it had been covered with wallpaper, hiding something behind it.

He tried to rip off the wallpaper, but it wouldn’t budge.

A system prompt popped up:

The clue turned into a streak of light and entered the clue column.

Su Ming’an found that this person’s temperament was really quite good.

He had first tried to pull the other person out of the cabinet, then stomped a few times repeatedly, and afterward continued to act unresponsive, but the other party interacted with him as if nothing had happened, enduring it to a certain degree.

If "endurance" could also be considered a standard for evaluating value, the other person might not be so useless.

As soon as he sent this message, he saw that pair of bright eyes blink rapidly a few times, as if gratitude was about to spill out from them.

He fell silent for a moment, then thought to lift his foot to continue forward, but received another message.

Su Ming’an didn’t say anything and walked forward.

He reached out his hand and indeed felt a layer of iron sheet.

"Click".

A clear unlocking sound rang out.

The iron door was slowly pulled open, revealing its full appearance.

Inside, unlike the darkness outside, there was a faint light; when Su Ming’an looked up, he saw a conspicuously blood-red wall in front of him.

"Big brother, your lockpicking skill seems very much like annihilation..." The player behind quickly followed.

But at the glimpse of the wall, he suddenly fell silent.

The wall was covered in writing.

The handwriting in red and blue stretched from the top of the wall to the bottom.

The writing glowed faintly.

Like slanted flames shooting across the sky.