Three grey icons appeared in front of each person’s body.

The icons depicted a bear, a fish, and a nail, respectively.

When the light orb finished speaking, Shen Mo’s fish icon lit up, and Bai Youwei’s bear icon and nail icon both lit up.

This matched the choices of who had invited the guests inside.

The light orb shifted toward Bai Youwei with obvious reluctance, its voice icy cold: “Congratulations. You are the Master of the Doll House.”

Ding! —

The icons vanished, and a golden key materialized out of thin air, dropping into Bai Youwei’s palm.

The moment she touched the key, information flooded into her mind:

【Key of the Doll House: Hold the key and turn it half a rotation clockwise to open the doll house in any space.】

Something stirred in Bai Youwei’s heart. She gripped the golden key tightly.

The scene before them began to shift — dissolving, becoming translucent, turning unreal — and finally dissolved into a vast expanse of white light.

When the light faded, they found themselves back at that street corner.

Having been gone for several days, suddenly seeing familiar scenery again left everyone a little dazed.

Shen Mo picked up the gold coin from the roadside — the one that had brought them into the game in the first place.

The coin was still a coin, only now dusty and dull, its inscriptions blurred and indistinct. Held in the palm, it gave no reaction whatsoever.

“The game is closed. This coin should be completely inactivated now,” Yan Qingwen walked over and said.

“Keep it as a memento,” Shen Mo said, turning around. He walked to where Tan Xiao still lay unconscious, crouched down, and slipped the coin into his trouser pocket.

Yan Qingwen looked at Tan Xiao and said to Shen Mo: “Don’t worry. We’ve sustained injuries worse than this. After coming out of the maze, the body’s self-healing ability is strong — it just takes time. Take good care of him these next few days.”

Shen Mo asked him: “How is Su Man’s injury doing?”

Yan Qingwen frowned slightly, glancing toward Su Man in the distance. “…Not encouraging. The bones in her hand were nearly pulverized. Even though they’ve been spliced back together with the item, she likely won’t be able to use the whip anymore.”

Not just the whip — that right hand would probably be unable to bear any strength for a long time.

“Being alive is enough,” Yan Qingwen said quietly.

An unexpectedly difficult game instance — ten people went in, ten people came out. That alone was reason enough to be grateful.

“What are your plans going forward?” Yan Qingwen asked.

Shen Mo looked around. His gaze ultimately came to rest on Bai Youwei.

She sat on the roadside — without her wheelchair, she cut a somewhat disheveled figure — and was currently fixing him with a disgruntled glare.

Shen Mo smiled lightly. “Going forward… I need to find a wheelchair.”

…

On the first day after leaving the doll house, both groups made camp together to rest and recover.

Yan Qingwen’s side had most members carrying injuries and needed to rest.

On Shen Mo’s side, Tan Xiao remained unconscious, Bai Youwei had no wheelchair and couldn’t move a step, and the group also needed to regroup.

A campfire burned vigorously through the night. Above, the sky was a canopy of brilliant stars.

They gathered around the fire, idly chatting — talking about gains, and about losses.

“They said the rewards would be generous, and all we got was a snowflake…” Li Li pinched the cold little snowflake in his fingers and read out its item description. “…Only snowflakes can invite the winter guest. The snowflake melts when the guest leaves. What is the winter guest? Will it be even more fearsome than the Nail-Tooth Beast?”

“This is already good enough. Didn’t we also eat the fish and collect the beads?” Lu Ang reflected. “Besides, just being able to come back with our lives is already plenty — never mind the rewards…”

Li Li frowned. “That’s different — think about how hard it was for us to get out of there! You hurt your leg, Su Man hurt her hand, Zhu Shu and I both nearly died! If it weren’t for the items…”

“The attrition this time really was very heavy,” Yan Qingwen said, glancing over toward Shen Mo’s group. “If it weren’t for the items, some of us might have already died.”