Everyone’s movements became even more cautious.

Shen Mo had taken only one step forward when another snake wound itself up over his shoe.

He couldn’t help but suspect these black snakes were some form of Medusa’s protective strategy.

—When players were far away, there were no snakes. When players began to approach, snakes appeared. When players drew closer still to Medusa, snakes coiled around their bodies and began to attack.

So if he continued forward, would snakes cover his entire body?

…That possibility was quite high. He remembered that this game placed the highest demands on the mental dimension—so the trial’s difficulty perhaps lay precisely in requiring players to overcome their psychological aversion to snakes.

Shen Mo slowly thought this through, his gaze resting on the people ahead.

They too seemed to have noticed the snake numbers increasing. Some simply stopped moving, staying put for this round.

They probably felt there was no need to push themselves too hard—with so many teammates, as long as one person won, they all won.

Shen Mo had no intention of letting them be so comfortable. He surveyed the path ahead, identified his footholds, and then moved forward in a few steps—agile and swift, without even a footfall sound—easily surging half a meter past them.

Those who had been at the front were startled and hurried to step forward.

A sword scraped against a nearby stalactite, producing a sound. The demoness heard the noise and turned her face again—fixing those cold and terrifying vertical pupils upon them.

Some managed to steady themselves in time.

Others were not so lucky, and fell on the spot. They turned to stone face-down on the ground.

Shen Mo stood quietly, studying Medusa with cold eyes.

Being closer now, certain details became clearer: those black snakes on the ground were unmistakably crawling out from her serpent hair. No wonder the closer one got, the more snakes there were.

Another sharp pain in his legs—venom fangs pierced skin, and his nerves went momentarily numb.

Shen Mo frowned imperceptibly, maintaining his stillness.

Snakes coiled around both his legs. One had already wound its way up to his waist, scale-skin dragging across his clothing fabric, carrying the cold, fishy scent of cold-blooded creatures.

This kind of close, immediate threat was always difficult to guard against—as if one wrong moment and they’d sink in another bite.

Medusa finally turned back. Her hauntingly beautiful face, so perfect it seemed to conceal poison, appeared once more.

“Person in front, do you have a question for me?”

This time, the person at the front was Shen Mo.

There was so much he wanted to ask.

He wanted to know how Bai Youwei was faring right now. Wanted to know his companions’ progress. Wanted to know what the world had become. Wanted to know what ultimate victory would bring.

Perhaps he had been silent too long. The demoness gave a faint smile and spoke softly:

“Although the game rules require me to answer players’ questions, I must remind you… chasing so-called answers is meaningless, and dangerous. There is only one way to achieve victory here—use the sword in your hand to kill me.”

“Where did the doll game come from?” Shen Mo suddenly spoke.

The demoness paused, then laughed softly. “Hmm, that is a good question… But I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you, because my answer is: it has always existed, and has never disappeared. Since it has always existed here, there is no question of where it came from.”

Shen Mo frowned, raised his sword, and advanced several steps—moving forward over a dozen meters at tremendous speed.

The moment his feet stopped, snakes from all around were drawn to him, streaming endlessly up his body. Their venom fangs followed close behind.

Wave after wave of sharp pain.

Shen Mo clenched his teeth and endured.

This time, he again stood at the front, with a clear lead over the others behind him.

Killing Medusa would be effortless—even with more snakes, he had no fear.

But deep within his heart, he still wanted to know: what exactly was the doll game?

“What is it?” Shen Mo asked in a low voice. “Or let me rephrase: why does the doll game exist?”

—