The number display inside the elevator car was flickering, about to point to "8". Lin Xiao glanced sideways, her gaze lingering on Ji Youran for a moment, breaking the silence since the dungeon began: "Let me press the button for the next floor."
Ji Youran didn't say much, just gave a slight nod, silently agreeing to the proposal. This was to comply with the game rules—everyone had to preserve one button-pressing opportunity.
On the other side, Zhao Yiming stared at the paper in his hand, his left hand anxiously scratching his hair, as if the clue to clearing the dungeon was hidden in his strands: "Two flyers, two flyers from different floors... Which one should I choose?"
Lin Yunfei was also pacing nervously nearby, seemingly trying to force her brain to work faster through constant movement. As a student, she squeezed the flyer tightly, her gaze scanning back and forth between the lines, her nose almost touching the paper surface, muttering the content aloud, not even letting go of any punctuation. After reading it repeatedly, a spark of insight flickered in Lin Yunfei's eyes. She raised her head and spoke somewhat dazedly: "... I think I might have found something."
Zhang Zhiyuan immediately pressed: "What did you find?"
Lin Yunfei pointed to the flyer in her hand: "These two papers, one from the third floor, one from the seventh. The seventh-floor one is more wrinkled, the third-floor one is relatively newer." Her tone carried obvious uncertainty, "The older one has been in my hands longer, so by first come first served, should I go to the seventh floor first?"
Zhang Zhiyuan didn't want to argue, but he was puzzled: "But the two flyers in my hand seem about the same age." He asked blankly, "Could the rules be different for different passengers?"
Ding—
Just as everyone hadn't reached a conclusion, they arrived at the eighth floor.
The elevator doors slowly slid open to both sides.
At this moment, the car was utterly silent. Everyone's gaze was involuntarily drawn toward the door, desperate to know the situation on the eighth floor, yet afraid of seeing something beyond their expectations.
"......"
After a second, someone let out a soft sigh.
The light inside the car was already dim, but outside was even darker, as black as if a heavy curtain was directly covering everyone's eyes. The passengers could see nothing and hear nothing, as if outside wasn't a mall floor, but a bottomless deep sea under the night.
Zhao Yiming's throat bobbed, his voice trembling: "W-What's going on?" He asked again, "I can't see anything, what about you all, do you see anything?"
Ji Youran shook his head: "No."
Lin Xiao gently pressed her index finger against the corner of her eye. In her vision, the scene outside the door was equally terrifyingly dark. The limited light source inside the car could only extend outward about thirty centimeters, then was swallowed by the dense void.
Since even her [Eye of Insight] couldn't obtain more information, she could only conclude that the passengers inside the car couldn't see the outside scenery. This was the same as the setting in the previous "Happy Valley" arcade—it's a basic rule of the dungeon that couldn't be broken.
Five seconds later, not sensing any passengers getting off, the elevator doors slowly closed.
Lin Xiao, as agreed beforehand, reached out and pressed the "B1" button.
Zhao Yiming stammered: "Why don't we press B2?"
"I haven't been to B1 yet, want to take a look." Lin Xiao replied, then asked, "Who's turn is it next?"
In fact, all the passengers clearly knew in their hearts that to survive in the dungeon, everyone had to take turns pressing the elevator buttons, to avoid violating Rule Three in the rules.
But upon hearing Lin Xiao's question, the others didn't respond immediately. The instinct for survival made them all want to delay their turns, more and more.
If they hadn't found their floor after the first round of button pressing ended, the later someone pressed, the more survival time they could buy.
Lin Yunfei's lips parted, about to say something, when suddenly Dou Wenbo spoke up:
"I'll go next."
Dou Wenbo raised his head, still carrying that hint of arrogance on his face: "My floor is determined anyway."
Zhao Yiming couldn't help but retort: "Nobody else can determine their floor, only yours can be determined. Don't you think there's something wrong with that?"
"You were just discussing whether it's possible for different participants to have different rules in the same dungeon, right?" Dou Wenbo said, "This is indeed possible."
Lin Yunfei stared at Dou Wenbo, her gaze not leaving for even a moment, and softly said: "Have you ever thought, why only you..."
Perhaps because he was about to leave soon, Dou Wenbo glanced at the others and actually explained seriously: "It's not only me—sometimes in the entire dungeon, there are some people who happen to be luckier." Then, a somewhat malicious smile appeared on his face, "Actually, luck could be on your side too. After all, the preparation time for both flyers just now was..."