The two men got up to work, still cursing and grumbling, trading crude jokes and vile language.

From the look of things, the young man in the denim jacket appeared to be their leader.

Now that he’d gone to find water, the remaining two were at the camp setting up the tent. Their movements were rough and clumsy — they’d clearly been stuck in the labyrinth long enough to build up a whole lot of frustration, and all manner of irritations were boiling to the surface.

Once the tent was set up and the water-fetcher had yet to return, the two of them headed to the shops along the road to loot supplies. They ransacked every store, turning everything upside-down. Even in an antique and cultural goods shop they had absolutely no use for, they smashed and destroyed everything in sight out of sheer spite.

They were utter, absolute thugs and hooligans!

Watching them made Su Man furious. She couldn’t help but think: the game had killed so many people — why hadn’t it taken care of scum like these?!

She looked toward the other side, where the man who’d collapsed on the ground lay utterly still. He appeared too exhausted to so much as stir, let alone attempt an escape.

She thought for a moment, then decided to keep watching, to see if she could find an opportunity to rescue him.

She had just overheard them say they needed this man to show them the way — which meant the bespectacled man had some knowledge of this labyrinth. If she managed to save him, he might be grateful enough to teach her how to navigate it.

After all, men who wore glasses tended to be fairly clever.

Take Li Li, for instance — or so she believed.

And besides, he was apparently crippled.

Bai Youwei, for her part, was quite clever.

Su Man was still working through her thoughts when the man who’d gone to find water returned, a large barrel of purified water hoisted on his shoulder — the kind pulled straight off someone’s water dispenser.

He aimed it at the bespectacled man’s face and tipped it straight down.

The jet of water slapped into the bespectacled man’s face and immediately splattered in every direction.

“Lu Yuwen, get up and drink.” The young man in the denim jacket ordered without ceremony. “Don’t play dead on me — get up and work out the map. Figure out where we’re going next.”

Su Man gave a small start.

…Lu Yuwen?

The name had the character for ‘wen’ in it.

Men with the character ‘wen’ in their name seemed to tend to be rather clever.

Like Yan Qingwen.

So this person equaled Li Li (wears glasses) + Bai Youwei (crippled) + Yan Qingwen (the character ‘wen’ in his name).

Su Man had made up her mind: she was saving this man, no question about it.

She quietly retreated, stashed her pack, then armed herself with only her whip and dagger, travelling light, and settled in to wait —

From afternoon, until nightfall.

When it came to lying in wait, she could hold absolutely still for hours at a time without moving.

Over there, they had started a campfire. They cooked a pot of instant noodles, eating and talking.

Su Man listened for a while, and gradually pieced together the situation.

The young man in the denim jacket was called ‘Brother Xiao.’

The slightly shorter one went by Yangzi.

The darker-complexioned man was called Zhang Ke, and was a predator of a particular kind.

The three of them had met Lu Yuwen during the previous game. Lu Yuwen had devised the method to clear it, and they had all cooperated to carry it out, the four of them completing it together — or so it had seemed like a partnership.

But the moment the game ended, they had instantly turned on him, attempting to rob Lu Yuwen of his reward items!

To escape them, Lu Yuwen had deliberately run toward the labyrinth — and unfortunately, the labyrinth chose that very moment to expand its range, sweeping all four of them inside!

So these three men harbored nothing short of murderous hatred for Lu Yuwen.

But they were self-aware enough to know that their own heads were no match for his. So they had tied him up and forced him to find them a way out.

Which explained the scene Su Man had first witnessed.

Now that they had eaten their fill, the leftover broth from the instant noodles — poured into a stainless steel basin — was shoved in front of Lu Yuwen and told to eat.

Lu Yuwen refused. So they force-fed him, sloshing soup all over his body. A fine man, reduced to being treated worse than a dog.