Chapter 6: Then Let Me Ask You

Chen Ran did not blame Cao Yu; after all, he was trying to help her, so there was no reason to be angry.
“Once we’re back in the real world, I’ll make this guy treat me to a meal,” she thought.

After tending to her wounds, Chen Ran approached the other players.
The hemostatic spray’s healing effects also worked on burns, so she generously sprayed it on the burns of Zhou Fan and the others... Well, “generous” might be an overstatement since those burns were caused by her own “Flame Staff.”

“Miss, thank you so much!” Zhou Fan gritted his teeth and expressed his gratitude.
The searing pain from before was almost unbearable and nearly did him in.
He knew Chen Ran had struck him to help, so he had no reason to be upset, but it stung nonetheless.

To divert attention, Zhou Fan turned to Cao Yu and asked,
“By the way, what was the purpose of having us intercept those trying to escape just now?”

Before Cao Yu could answer, Chen Ran cut in,
“You came out of the hallucination later than we did, so you didn’t notice—those who tried to flee were never affected by Du Ruo’s illusion from the start.”

Those not under the illusion were isolated, standing on the right side of the hall.
Chen Ran glanced at them, then withdrew her gaze and continued,
“If we can figure out why they weren’t attacked by Du Ruo and imitate that, our safety within this dungeon will undoubtedly increase significantly.”

“I see... then they are indeed crucial,” Zhou Fan’s expression grew serious.

“Um...” A delicate woman suddenly raised her hand to remind them, “The man wearing the hood earlier has escaped.”

“Let him go. He wouldn’t even say thank you if we saved him; definitely not one of us,” Mozi stepped forward, trying to befriend Chen Ran. “Thanks for stepping in earlier.”

“You’re welcome,” Chen Ran waved her hand dismissively. “Even without me, if you kept fighting, you’d eventually snap out of it.”

“Or possibly bleed out and die,” Mozi added, then looked at the beautiful woman and smiled, “You should also thank this lady for holding back. She was the one I fought in the hallucination. Had she used her real strength back then, I might have... What should I call you?”

The beautiful woman ignored him, feeling her spirits had mostly recovered. She walked straight toward the group attending the funeral—the ones who hadn’t succumbed to the illusion.

Mozi’s smile stiffened, a bit awkward.

Seeing this, Cao Yu said,
“Let’s save the small talk for later and first gather some intel.”

He then moved toward the group as well...

...

It turned out Du Ruo was a police officer who died yesterday; his girlfriend had died eight days earlier. The players were attending the funeral as Du Ruo’s colleagues.

Apparently, this world had no ghosts until now.

Everyone in the farewell hall admitted this was their first encounter with a ghost, and their worldview was completely shattered.

Cao Yu was not surprised by this.

If everyone turned into a ghost upon death and haunted funerals, the dungeon world would never be so stable, nor would the government allow such ceremonies as funerals to exist.

The birth of ghosts and their hauntings must have conditions—ordinary people simply didn’t know them.

This made it much harder for Cao Yu and the others to gather useful information.

Because those who were never under the illusion themselves had no idea why they weren’t attacked.

The seven didn’t give up; like police interrogating suspects, they spent nearly forty minutes questioning everyone about their family background, age, occupation, hobbies, and skills... Chen Ran borrowed a tablet from the funeral organizers to record all the information and compiled it into a spreadsheet.

Gathered around the tablet, they brainstormed and analyzed the differences between those affected by the illusion and those who were not.

Cao Yu led the effort with a hypothesis and quickly confirmed the first common trait among those unaffected:

“They’re all single.”

“...That counts?” Mozi said, “I’m single too, but I was attacked.”

“No, you’re not,” Cao Yu replied.

“Uh,” Mozi hurried to defend himself, “I really am single...”

Meanwhile, the beautiful woman had already caught on. She pulled out her police ID and took out a photo tucked inside—a picture of an unfamiliar man and woman, intimately posed.

Seeing this, others also took out their IDs and photos.

Chen Ran looked at the photo and suddenly understood:
“So that’s the purpose of the photo!”

She herself had no partner, but her identity in this dungeon was linked to one. When she first saw the photo, she had suspected as much.

It wasn’t hard to guess. After all, the photo was tucked inside her ID—somewhat of an unspoken confirmation.

She just hadn’t understood the photo’s function until now.

Now she did—it was for breaking up.

With the photo in hand and as a police officer, she could easily go to the station and use their internal facial recognition system to find her partner’s basic information.

Once found, she could naturally break up and restore her single status.

“Did you figure this out long ago?” Chen Ran asked Cao Yu.

“Sort of. According to the dungeon description, the girlfriend is a trap. She returns on the seventh day after death to kill her partner. What happened to Du Ruo might happen to us.”

Cao Yu replied,
“So we either find and protect our girlfriends or break up. It seems like breaking up is the right choice now.”

“I have a question,” Chen Ran asked, “Even if our girlfriends come to kill us after death, that’s seven days later. It doesn’t sound that dangerous. We only need to survive here for twelve hours to clear the dungeon. Seven days later is too late.”

Before Cao Yu could answer,
The beautiful woman suddenly said,
“Today is Ghost Festival.”

“...You asked about today’s festival earlier?” Chen Ran was surprised but quickly realized, “Right, Du Ruo died yesterday but is haunting today, not following the seven-day rule... We should find out if today is special.”

Previously, all her focus had been on interrogating—or rather, investigating—the two groups, so she hadn’t thought to ask about this.

“Forget about the Ghost Festival for now. Let’s go to the police station!” the delicate woman urged. “At the station, we can quickly look up the girlfriends’ information and break up fast!”

“You’re so impatient.” Cao Yu looked at her and asked, “By the way, are you male or female?”

“Ah?” The delicate woman was taken aback, glanced at her ID, and replied, “My ID name... Lu Shi... I think it’s a unisex name.”

She was truly stumped... No, it didn’t matter—male or female, they could find out easily at the station.

“Don’t rush,” Cao Yu pointed at the tablet in Chen Ran’s hand. “Let’s see if there are other common traits. Also, we don’t have to go to the police station.”

“Don’t have to...?” The delicate woman was puzzled.

Once again, the beautiful woman was the first to act. She strode toward the crowd, casually picked someone, and threatened them into lending their phone. Then she tossed out a question:

“I’m asking you—is my gender male or female?”

“?”

The person was dumbfounded, seemingly caught in a mental standoff, before finally stammering,
“You’re obviously male.”

“What’s the emergency number?”

“1...”

The beautiful woman took a photo of the man-woman couple photo on her phone, then began dialing the emergency number. As a police officer, once she identified herself and gave her badge number, she could easily get her “colleagues” to help find the “girlfriend’s” basic information.

Strangely, she tried several times but kept getting a busy signal.

It seemed a lot of people were calling emergency services now.

The beautiful woman then went to Du Ruo’s parents and asked,
“Do you have the phone number of Du Ruo’s colleagues?”

Since Du Ruo was a police officer, his parents might have contact info for his coworkers.

“You’re his colleague yourself...” Although puzzled, Du Ruo’s parents searched their phones and gave her a number.

She immediately made the call... After some steps, she successfully obtained the information.

She then called the “girlfriend” and, using a casual excuse, unilaterally announced the breakup.

【You have obtained Safe House protection】
【You have activated side quests】
【Side Quest 1: Uncover the truth behind the “Vengeful Spirit”】
【Side Quest 2: Save the World】
【Side quests are optional and may be completed at your discretion】
【Warning: When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you】

Saving the world... The beautiful woman’s mind immediately filled with many speculations, though she suppressed them for the moment.

Players only needed to complete the main quest to clear the dungeon; side quests were bonuses—she knew this well.

She returned to the team, handed her phone to Cao Yu, and said,
“Break up. Just break up.”