— The season was something like early autumn.

The surrounding scenery was half-green, half-gold, carrying the desolate quality of autumn, while the air was crisp, dry, and cool.

Countless thorny vines grew along the castle walls, densely tangled, their surfaces mottled in the sunlight with the patchy rust-like coloring of oxidized iron.

Tan Xiao reached out and picked at the rough, hard exterior of the plants. Genuinely hard — and covered in thorns. If anyone tried to climb along the vines to get out, that would be nearly impossible.

After stepping through the light column, it hadn’t taken him long to arrive here. Then two pieces of information surfaced automatically in his mind:

【Mission: Retrieve the King’s sword.】

【Rule: No killing.】

Tan Xiao already knew he had to find the sword — but this place was enormous. Where exactly was he supposed to look? And where were the others?

He looked around. The place resembled an abandoned castle, with expansive gardens and towering spires. Parts of the pathways were blocked by thorny vines. He had originally thought about climbing to a higher point to get a proper view, but those thorns jabbed him here and there every time he tried, like a hedgehog, making it impossible to get a foothold.

Tan Xiao scratched his hair and went to sit at the edge of an overgrown flower bed, feeling somewhat at loose ends.

Every time he’d entered a game before, either Shen Mo was leading or Bai Youwei was directing — what to do, what not to do, everything organized clearly. Now with no one to direct him, he was genuinely… at a loss.

He fished a crumpled piece of gum out of his pocket, unwrapped it, popped it in his mouth, and started chewing.

After chewing for a bit, he blew a bubble. Then he suddenly heard a series of rapid hacking sounds.

Tan Xiao jumped to his feet and looked around. Not far off, a middle-aged man in a knitted cap was swinging a sword and chopping at the thorny vines blocking the path.

Not a teammate — but seeing another living person was enough to excite him. Tan Xiao jogged over to greet him. “Hey! ——”

The man in the cap tensed immediately.

Almost by reflex, he raised his sword — then, apparently remembering the game rules, slowly lowered it again.

The man in the cap asked, hostility thick in his voice: “What do you want?”

“Where’d you get that sword?” Tan Xiao asked without any sense of awkwardness, as casually as if they were old friends. “The game’s not supposed to let you bring weapons in, is it?”

The other man had no interest in talking to him and went back to hacking at the vines without a word.

Tan Xiao muttered beside him, “You smuggled a weapon in. I’m going to report you. That’s cheating.”

The man in the cap was privately exasperated. He snapped irritably, “Haven’t you noticed this is a castle? Go take a look around — the soldiers around here have swords on them, take one freely!”

Tan Xiao froze.

He had, in fact, noticed several dead soldiers earlier — some tangled up in the vines with only half a head or one arm visible, as if they had become part of the plants.

Still, the game rule was that he couldn’t kill anyone. Whether or not he had a weapon probably didn’t matter much either way.

Tan Xiao’s attention returned to the man in the knitted cap.

“Hey, friend — why are you chopping the vines?”

The man brought his sword down in another heavy hack, and said impatiently, “None of your business! We’re not on the same team. Stop trying to make small talk with me! Get lost!”

Tan Xiao’s expression dropped. He rolled up his sleeve. “Hey, watch your mouth!”

“Lunatic!” The man in the cap sheathed his sword, turned, and walked away to look for clues elsewhere.

The vines he had been chopping split open with long gashes, oozing a semi-transparent brownish-green liquid — and then, within moments, sealed themselves back up like living tissue.

Tan Xiao nearly dropped his jaw. He rushed after the man in the cap. “Hey! Hey hey hey! Did you see that?! Every place you chopped has healed back up! What the hell, are these spirit vines?!”

The man in the cap said irritably, “I was chopping them to test them precisely because they felt wrong! Stop following me!”

“I’m not following you, I’m keeping surveillance on you!” Tan Xiao stated with complete confidence. “What if you’ve found a clue and you’re hiding it? I’m telling you — don’t try any tricks while I’m watching!”

The man in the cap cursed under his breath, not wanting to waste any more time on Tan Xiao, and kept heading deeper into the castle.

—