“Doll Game? What Doll Game?”

Tan Xiao pulled his legs out of the mud and struggled toward the bespectacled man. “Manager Zhang, what do you mean by what you just said? What dolls, what game? I don’t understand.”

The bespectacled man hung his head powerlessly, his entire being shrouded in gloom, his lips stiffly opening and closing: “There’s no need for me to explain, you’ll understand soon enough… I’ve only experienced this once before. That time… there were sixteen of us… in the end only I survived…”

Tan Xiao stared at him blankly, then scratched the back of his head, his expression somewhat bewildered.

Suddenly arriving in such a place was like entering an unknown monster’s lair. People trembled, and some had already begun crying softly.

Shen Mo lifted Bai Youwei out of the mud and looked around, only to find nowhere to put her down. Everything in sight was wet mud, without a single clean spot to stand.

Bai Youwei pointed to a giant snail shell not far away. Shen Mo carried her over, stepping through the muddy pits one by one.

Whether they had been shrunk or the snails had mutated, the snail shells here were each as big as a double-door refrigerator! However, having already witnessed rabbits as large as big dogs, seeing such snails didn’t seem so hard to accept.

Fortunately, only empty shells remained, hollow inside. Otherwise, it would definitely turn into a horror show.

Bai Youwei sat on the rough, protruding surface of the shell, her long dress soaked with muddy water, thick and heavy. She had to struggle to maintain her body’s balance.

Their current environment was a huge mud pit, surrounded by slippery stone walls that narrowed toward the top. At the very center of the ceiling, there was only a small circular opening, like a well extending straight up.

Sunlight leaked down through the opening, making the center of the cave bright while the surroundings remained dim. The farther from the opening, the darker it got, with the corners nearly pitch black.

Simply put, this was a cone-shaped space covered in mud.

After settling Bai Youwei, Shen Mo helped up Teacher Cheng, who wasn’t far away.

They had been in the same car, so they fell close together.

The poor sixty-year-old man had a deathly pale face, covered in mud, his legs soaking in muddy water, knees trembling uncontrollably.

Shen Mo helped Teacher Cheng onto another shell, then looked around again—other people were also climbing onto shells one after another to avoid soaking in the mud.

So far, he hadn’t seen a Monitor.

However, this place was very large, with dim lighting and countless snail shells providing cover. Perhaps the Monitor was hiding somewhere?

Cursing sounds came from not far away. It was those three hoodlums grabbing the bespectacled man.

Their leader, Hui Ge, grabbed the bespectacled man’s collar, both threatening and frightened: “Zhang Hua! You dare deceive us! Why didn’t you mention the game when we were at the service area?!”

Earlier they politely called him Manager Zhang. Now they just called him by name.

Tan Xiao grabbed Hui Ge’s arm, also getting involved in the scuffle: “You dare lay hands on him?! Wasn’t last night’s beating enough? Let go!?… I’m talking to you! Will you let go or not?!”

Several people pushed and pulled in the mud pit, unable to determine a winner. Before long, they were all panting.

The bespectacled man—Zhang Hua—collapsed in the mud, looking at them as if looking at dead men. “What good would mentioning it do? Even if I had mentioned it, could we have avoided it?”

“Bastard!” Hui Ge cursed and turned to climb the stone wall.

However, the stone wall above was slippery and the mud below was soft. His hands and feet had no purchase at all.

Zhang Hua sat in the mud watching them laugh: “Don’t waste your energy. If I were you, I’d carefully observe the terrain now, to avoid being completely clueless when the game starts and just waiting to die.”

“Who the hell are you saying will die?!” Another punk, Citou, angrily said, stepping forward to teach him another lesson.

The cave’s light suddenly dimmed.

Everything went pitch black.

Immediately after, a childish voice rang out—

“Huh? There are so many players this time…”

Everyone jumped in fright and immediately held their breath.

They could only hear rustling sounds in the darkness, as if something was slowly descending along that vertical circular opening…