Those inside the dollhouse stood frozen for a moment, then scrambled to find liquor.

Du Lai and Leonid popped the caps and poured the bottles straight over their own heads. The sharp, pungent smell of alcohol drove the insects swarming around them away. Shen Mo was doused all over as well, and the insects gathered around him either died or scattered.

But even that wasn’t enough.

The sharp alcohol fumes could drive away the insects, but couldn’t neutralize the “venom” already coursing through their bodies. Du Lai and Leonid were still hungry. A’Shalina felt hungry too.

Bai Youwei used the mud to heal Shen Mo’s wounds, then took out a collar and fastened it around his neck.

Shen Mo opened his eyes. He looked at her in silence, unmoving.

Bai Youwei said, expression blank: “I can’t walk right now, so you have to carry me. If you feel like biting me, I’ll have the rabbit electrocute you. Don’t worry — I won’t go easy on you.”

Shen Mo watched her steadily, saying nothing. A flicker of suppressed anger showed at the depths of his eyes.

“Upset with me? Unhappy?” Bai Youwei said coldly. “Shen Mo, from the day you dragged me out of my home by force, my life and death have been tied to yours. Don’t even think about abandoning me.”

She finished speaking, looked away from him, and pulled three more collars from her bag, tossing them to Du Lai and the others.

Du Lai was speechless for a long moment. “How many dog collars do you actually have?”

“That’s all of them. Wear them or don’t — up to you,” Bai Youwei replied flatly. “But I think you’d better.”

Wearing the thing was admittedly a bit of a blow to one’s dignity — but the “lice” were a constant threat, and what was a little dignity worth when weighed against life and death?

A’Shalina cared least about such things and was the first to put hers on.

She blinked slightly, looked at Bai Youwei, then at Du Lai and Leonid. “…I don’t feel as hungry anymore.”

Hearing that, Du Lai and Leonid immediately fastened their collars on too. They found that the hunger was still there — but when they looked at Bai Youwei and Chen Hui, they no longer felt that same gnawing craving as before.

Du Lai touched the collar at his throat. “I didn’t expect this item could have this kind of effect.”

“It may be because both work by interfering with the brain’s consciousness,” Bai Youwei said calmly. “You never actually wanted to eat human flesh — you were just being affected by the lice. You could say… your own brains were deceiving you.”

Du Lai listened, then couldn’t help but glance back at the door. From behind it came the sound of gnawing — grinding, rhythmic, the sound of teeth on bone.

Du Lai did his best to ignore that skin-crawling sound. He said hesitantly: “…If we’re wearing these things when we run into that creature again, we’ll have no way to fight. We’ll just be waiting to die.”

The pet collar would restrict the wearer’s actions, making it impossible to carry out any aggressive behavior.

Bai Youwei thought for a moment. “We do need to come up with a plan for dealing with that bull.”

Chen Hui murmured from the side: “We’ve already been through so many stone chambers, and still no trace of the magic sword…”

At those words, everyone fell silent.

The more chambers they passed through, the more remote the hope of finding the sword. Did the magic sword that could kill the Minotaur even truly exist?

After a long pause, Bai Youwei said: “There’s one place we haven’t searched yet.”

“Which place?” A’Shalina asked quickly.

Bai Youwei unfolded her hand-drawn map, studied it, and circled a spot.

“Here… where Slade died,” she said. “We never searched Slade’s body.”

Du Lai looked puzzled. “Why would you think the sword is on him?”

“A tool this important should be placed somewhere special. We haven’t finished the entire maze, but the most special locations are really only of two kinds: the mural chamber at the center, and the teleportation chambers around the perimeter. But we’ve been through all of those and found nothing. That leaves only one other possibility.”

Bai Youwei extended a finger and tapped the map.

“The magic sword was taken by someone long ago. Marc and the others were trapped here for months. If there had truly been a magic sword, they couldn’t have simply overlooked it.”

—