Nightmare City tasks are accepted through the task panel, with the system randomly assigning missions. Nobody can know in advance what type of mission they will receive.
Furthermore, the locations for carrying out the tasks are varied and strange. Like the previous Love Academy mission that Ke Li and Xue Li undertook, after accepting the task, they arrived at a room in a building in Nightmare City according to the location provided by the task panel. Upon entering, they were transported into the corresponding mission.
To find the escape exit, they had to return to the same place they entered from.
Zhou Zhou, Heya, and Qian Le formed a team and accepted a mission. Now they need to go to Room 99 in the Underground Street, as indicated by the task panel.
The three followed the map to the designated location. The Underground Street looked desolate, and Room 99 resembled a small wooden shack made of four wooden boards with a roof, so small that even Heya alone would find it cramped.
Qian Le hesitated outside the wooden hut and asked, “Could we have taken a wrong turn?”
Zhou Zhou checked the map again. The location marked matched the sign on the wooden hut.
“No, this is the place.”
“Let’s go inside and see,” Heya said as he pushed open the door and bent down to enter.
Zhou Zhou followed him in. Although Qian Le wanted to complain about the small and dilapidated location for the mission and wonder what kind of mission it could be, he hurried in after the others since they had already entered.
Inside, the space was larger than it appeared from the outside, but there were no windows, and it was quite dark.
Heya frowned and took a couple of steps towards Zhou Zhou and Qian Le. “This is the mission location?”
It probably wasn’t. Zhou Zhou was also unsure since this was his first time entering a mission.
As the three were puzzled, the ground suddenly trembled and began to slowly descend.
Heya placed his large hands on Zhou Zhou and Qian Le’s shoulders. “Be careful not to fall, you little scrawny things.”
During the tremors, the amplitude was small, so Qian Le didn’t feel much. However, Heya’s hand pressed down on his shoulder like a fan, almost knocking him over.
Qian Le: …It was on purpose, definitely on purpose.
Zhou Zhou, on the other hand, remained stable. Although the force on his shoulder was substantial, his feet remained firmly planted, and he even thanked Heya.
After that, the three remained silent, with only the occasional scraping sound from the descending ground and their breathing breaking the silence.
After an unknown amount of time, the ground finally stopped descending.
Heya was the first to step forward and open the door. Outside, it connected to a luxuriously furnished living room.
From Zhou Zhou’s perspective, the wooden hut’s door was old and dilapidated, but the other side revealed a white carved wooden door, a stark contrast.
The three entered the living room from the wooden hut. The living room already had several people present, who all turned to look at them upon hearing the door.
Seeing Heya’s towering figure, they seemed surprised, while Zhou Zhou and Qian Le walked behind him, obscured from view, drawing less attention.
The carved wooden door was in the middle, with the dining room to the right and the living room to the left. In the center was a spiral staircase leading upstairs, with hallways on both sides, indicating this was a two-story villa.
At the moment, people were seated at the dining table and on the sofas. Heya headed directly towards the living room but paused slightly in his steps before continuing forward.
Zhou Zhou glanced at Heya, then curiously observed the surroundings. The carved wooden door had closed again, and through the windows, he could see lush greenery in the distance, giving the impression of a manor.
There were people seated on the three sofas, except for the single sofa. The other two sofas were quite large, able to accommodate five or six people each.
Heya walked towards the middle sofa, where only one woman was seated, and plopped down in the center. He motioned for Zhou Zhou and Qian Le to join him.
Before Zhou Zhou could react, the alert Qian Le quickly sat down beside Heya and pulled Zhou Zhou to sit on his other side. Although still apprehensive around Heya, allowing Zhou Zhou to sit next to that guy would be too dangerous.
Luna, originally seated alone on the edge of the sofa, gave Heya an unhappy look as he sat next to her, but she didn’t say anything since his size made him intimidating.
Luna turned her head, flipped her long hair, and continued smiling towards the person seated on the single sofa. “What’s your name? I’ve asked you so many times, but you won’t say.”
Her tone was gentle, with a hint of playfulness. Combined with her beautiful appearance, it attracted the attention of those seated on the other sofa.
However, the man seated on the single sofa appeared oblivious, remaining silent. His relaxed posture exuded an oppressive aura, making him seem unapproachable.
Luna was quite interested in such a man. At a glance, she could tell he held a high status and position, and his appearance was more handsome than anyone she had ever seen. A little coldness meant nothing, she was confident her qualities were not lacking and could certainly catch his eye.
Heya sat there, amused by the spectacle, while Zhou Zhou had been observing the house’s decorations and layout. He thought the house was nice, and if he had enough points, he would buy one like this.
Noticing the others looking in one direction, he curiously peeked over as well. The single sofa was on the left, but Zhou Zhou’s view was blocked by Heya.
A very cute girl, and another one… huh?
Zhou Zhou’s eyes lit up. “Al?”
Alvia looked up, his icy blue eyes meeting Zhou Zhou’s, who seemed delighted to see him.
He nodded at Zhou Zhou, his expression unchanging, but the gesture still caused Luna’s face to stiffen momentarily.
She asked a question, but he remained silent, acting as if he didn’t hear her, while responding to others.
Luna felt irritated but still smiled lightly. “So your name is Al. Do you two know each other from before?”
Her tone carried a hint of questioning, causing Alvia to frown, but Zhou Zhou honestly replied, “Yes, he saved me.”
Zhou Zhou continued, “Al, you left in a hurry last time, and I didn’t get to properly thank you. Can we exchange contact information? I’ll treat you to a meal.”
As expected, Alvia gave Zhou Zhou a meaningful look, realizing he would eagerly want to take things further upon meeting him. “Wait until the mission is over.”
It was not possible to add friends within the mission. This could only be done after exiting the mission, so his response was quite normal.
Zhou Zhou thought the other person had agreed, his eyes crinkling as he nodded at Alvia, his good mood evident to anyone.
Perhaps because he had been alone for too long, the people he met at the Love Academy held a special significance for Zhou Zhou.
Ke Li and Xue Li needed his help to complete the mission, so they exchanged contact information, making them his friends.
As for Al, he was the first person to have saved him, but Zhou Zhou hadn’t seen him again after that and felt regretful, thinking he might never see him again.
He didn’t expect to meet him here, which was great.
Luna could no longer smile. These two were discussing their next date right in front of her, acting as if she didn’t exist.
“Al, could you guide me during the mission later? It’s my first time, and I don’t know what to do,” Luna pleaded. Then, as if unintentionally, she glanced at Heya. “You three came in together, so you’re a team? That’s nice, unlike us, with only two people.”
Her overly direct provocation made her intentions clear to anyone. Heya let out a cold snort, too lazy to engage with her since his task was to follow Zhou Zhou, treating everything else as entertainment.
While they were talking, a few more people entered from outside.
The task panel suddenly made a sound, and everyone immediately stopped their conversations to look at their task panels.
[Mission Name: Strange Shadows in the Villa]
[Mission Content: Survive for 24 hours and find the exit.]
Another mission to find the exit, but this time with the additional requirement of surviving for 24 hours, indicating it might be dangerous here.
Zhou Zhou looked at the mission name, wondering if the “Strange Shadows in the Villa” referred to strange things inside the villa. He hoped there might be ghosts, finding the idea exciting.
“Where do you think the exit will be?” After a moment of silence, someone finally spoke up, a man with neon green hair.
“The villa isn’t that big, and with so many of us, it won’t take long to search the whole place. So it probably won’t be that simple. Maybe it’s somewhere beyond the two floors we can see.” A man in his thirties wearing glasses speculated.
Indeed, looking out the windows, there was only one villa surrounded by a warehouse in the back and a few sheds, likely for keeping livestock.
Those areas could also potentially be the exit location.
A man closest to the door, who seemed short-tempered, headed straight for the door upon hearing this. “What’s the use of guessing while standing here? I’ll go check.”
He opened the door and walked out. At the moment of closing the door, Zhou Zhou heard a similar door-closing sound from the other side of the house.
Many people heard the noise and looked towards the spiral staircase, where the man who had just left now appeared at the door behind the staircase, which seemed to be the back door of the villa. Going out the front door had somehow led him directly to the back door.
The man seemed dumbfounded, as he had clearly walked out, but the next moment, he reappeared here.
Heya sat on the sofa with his arms crossed. “Looks like we don’t need to go outside.” Since they couldn’t leave, the exit must be inside the villa.
Currently, there were twenty people on the first floor of the villa. In the end, everyone decided to split up and search for the exit within the villa.
Those who had already formed teams naturally stayed together, while the remaining individuals formed groups of two or three.
Luna looked at Alvia expectantly with her beautiful eyes.
Alvia didn’t even glance at her, instead addressing Zhou Zhou. “Do you mind if I join you?”
Before Zhou Zhou could nod, Luna quickly objected, “It was agreed that teams would consist of two or three people. If you’re a team of four, it wouldn’t be fair to the others.”
“Nevermind, then.” Alvia stood up and headed upstairs.
His movements seemed slow, but by the time Luna stood up, he had already turned the corner on the second floor and disappeared from sight.
She stomped her foot angrily and secretly glared at Zhou Zhou before finding others to team up with.
Zhou Zhou was still gazing upstairs, wondering why Al walked so quickly, oblivious to Luna’s actions.
“Hey, what are you looking at? Let’s start searching.” Heya’s towering figure blocked Zhou Zhou’s view as he spoke.
“Oh, yeah.” Zhou Zhou snapped back to attention and joined Qian Le and Heya in searching for the exit.
The three of them searched the living room on the first floor, mostly staying in one spot, mainly because Heya’s imposing stature intimidated others from assigning him elsewhere.
After ten minutes of searching, a sudden scream came from upstairs.
As the players on the first floor looked up towards the source of the sound, a person fell from the second-floor railing, plummeting directly onto the first-floor floor.
Blood gushed out from underneath them, spreading across the floor.
The people on the first floor quickly gathered around, their expressions complex in the face of such a gruesome sight.
“It must have been that bespectacled man from earlier,” Qian Le frowned, guessing.
Zhou Zhou crouched and studied the body intently for a moment. “Looking at the color, it should be him.”
The others were somewhat speechless upon hearing his description, even though they had also identified the person in the same way. But hearing it said out loud felt strange.
The person on the floor was unrecognizable, not because of the severity of the fall but because they had been turned into a mosaic!
From head to toe, along with the red mosaic puddle continuously spreading on the floor, the entire scene made it impossible to discern anything.
The human-shaped mosaic lay motionless, indicating that this player had likely died.
The initial horror of someone dying mysteriously at the start of the game was replaced by this bizarre spectacle of the dead person being turned into a mosaic. Truly befitting an official game.
A white mist-like substance enveloped the human-shaped mosaic on the floor. The white mist then began to coalesce, taking on a human shape, gradually separating from the deceased’s body.
Recognizing the familiar form, Zhou Zhou’s eyes lit up, and he couldn’t resist reaching out to grasp it.
Nightmare City tasks are accepted through the task panel, with the system randomly assigning missions. Nobody can know in advance what type of mission they will receive.
Furthermore, the locations for carrying out the tasks are varied and strange. Like the previous Love Academy mission that Ke Li and Xue Li undertook, after accepting the task, they arrived at a room in a building in Nightmare City according to the location provided by the task panel. Upon entering, they were transported into the corresponding mission.
To find the escape exit, they had to return to the same place they entered from.
Zhou Zhou, Heya, and Qian Le formed a team and accepted a mission. Now they need to go to Room 99 in the Underground Street, as indicated by the task panel.
The three followed the map to the designated location. The Underground Street looked desolate, and Room 99 resembled a small wooden shack made of four wooden boards with a roof, so small that even Heya alone would find it cramped.
Qian Le hesitated outside the wooden hut and asked, “Could we have taken a wrong turn?”
Zhou Zhou checked the map again. The location marked matched the sign on the wooden hut.
“No, this is the place.”
“Let’s go inside and see,” Heya said as he pushed open the door and bent down to enter.
Zhou Zhou followed him in. Although Qian Le wanted to complain about the small and dilapidated location for the mission and wonder what kind of mission it could be, he hurried in after the others since they had already entered.
Inside, the space was larger than it appeared from the outside, but there were no windows, and it was quite dark.
Heya frowned and took a couple of steps towards Zhou Zhou and Qian Le. “This is the mission location?”
It probably wasn’t. Zhou Zhou was also unsure since this was his first time entering a mission.
As the three were puzzled, the ground suddenly trembled and began to slowly descend.
Heya placed his large hands on Zhou Zhou and Qian Le’s shoulders. “Be careful not to fall, you little scrawny things.”
During the tremors, the amplitude was small, so Qian Le didn’t feel much. However, Heya’s hand pressed down on his shoulder like a fan, almost knocking him over.
Qian Le: …It was on purpose, definitely on purpose.
Zhou Zhou, on the other hand, remained stable. Although the force on his shoulder was substantial, his feet remained firmly planted, and he even thanked Heya.
After that, the three remained silent, with only the occasional scraping sound from the descending ground and their breathing breaking the silence.
After an unknown amount of time, the ground finally stopped descending.
Heya was the first to step forward and open the door. Outside, it connected to a luxuriously furnished living room.
From Zhou Zhou’s perspective, the wooden hut’s door was old and dilapidated, but the other side revealed a white carved wooden door, a stark contrast.
The three entered the living room from the wooden hut. The living room already had several people present, who all turned to look at them upon hearing the door.
Seeing Heya’s towering figure, they seemed surprised, while Zhou Zhou and Qian Le walked behind him, obscured from view, drawing less attention.
The carved wooden door was in the middle, with the dining room to the right and the living room to the left. In the center was a spiral staircase leading upstairs, with hallways on both sides, indicating this was a two-story villa.
At the moment, people were seated at the dining table and on the sofas. Heya headed directly towards the living room but paused slightly in his steps before continuing forward.
Zhou Zhou glanced at Heya, then curiously observed the surroundings. The carved wooden door had closed again, and through the windows, he could see lush greenery in the distance, giving the impression of a manor.
There were people seated on the three sofas, except for the single sofa. The other two sofas were quite large, able to accommodate five or six people each.
Heya walked towards the middle sofa, where only one woman was seated, and plopped down in the center. He motioned for Zhou Zhou and Qian Le to join him.
Before Zhou Zhou could react, the alert Qian Le quickly sat down beside Heya and pulled Zhou Zhou to sit on his other side. Although still apprehensive around Heya, allowing Zhou Zhou to sit next to that guy would be too dangerous.
Luna, originally seated alone on the edge of the sofa, gave Heya an unhappy look as he sat next to her, but she didn’t say anything since his size made him intimidating.
Luna turned her head, flipped her long hair, and continued smiling towards the person seated on the single sofa. “What’s your name? I’ve asked you so many times, but you won’t say.”
Her tone was gentle, with a hint of playfulness. Combined with her beautiful appearance, it attracted the attention of those seated on the other sofa.
However, the man seated on the single sofa appeared oblivious, remaining silent. His relaxed posture exuded an oppressive aura, making him seem unapproachable.
Luna was quite interested in such a man. At a glance, she could tell he held a high status and position, and his appearance was more handsome than anyone she had ever seen. A little coldness meant nothing, she was confident her qualities were not lacking and could certainly catch his eye.
Heya sat there, amused by the spectacle, while Zhou Zhou had been observing the house’s decorations and layout. He thought the house was nice, and if he had enough points, he would buy one like this.
Noticing the others looking in one direction, he curiously peeked over as well. The single sofa was on the left, but Zhou Zhou’s view was blocked by Heya.
A very cute girl, and another one… huh?
Zhou Zhou’s eyes lit up. “Al?”
Alvia looked up, his icy blue eyes meeting Zhou Zhou’s, who seemed delighted to see him.
He nodded at Zhou Zhou, his expression unchanging, but the gesture still caused Luna’s face to stiffen momentarily.
She asked a question, but he remained silent, acting as if he didn’t hear her, while responding to others.
Luna felt irritated but still smiled lightly. “So your name is Al. Do you two know each other from before?”
Her tone carried a hint of questioning, causing Alvia to frown, but Zhou Zhou honestly replied, “Yes, he saved me.”
Zhou Zhou continued, “Al, you left in a hurry last time, and I didn’t get to properly thank you. Can we exchange contact information? I’ll treat you to a meal.”
As expected, Alvia gave Zhou Zhou a meaningful look, realizing he would eagerly want to take things further upon meeting him. “Wait until the mission is over.”
It was not possible to add friends within the mission. This could only be done after exiting the mission, so his response was quite normal.
Zhou Zhou thought the other person had agreed, his eyes crinkling as he nodded at Alvia, his good mood evident to anyone.
Perhaps because he had been alone for too long, the people he met at the Love Academy held a special significance for Zhou Zhou.
Ke Li and Xue Li needed his help to complete the mission, so they exchanged contact information, making them his friends.
As for Al, he was the first person to have saved him, but Zhou Zhou hadn’t seen him again after that and felt regretful, thinking he might never see him again.
He didn’t expect to meet him here, which was great.
Luna could no longer smile. These two were discussing their next date right in front of her, acting as if she didn’t exist.
“Al, could you guide me during the mission later? It’s my first time, and I don’t know what to do,” Luna pleaded. Then, as if unintentionally, she glanced at Heya. “You three came in together, so you’re a team? That’s nice, unlike us, with only two people.”
Her overly direct provocation made her intentions clear to anyone. Heya let out a cold snort, too lazy to engage with her since his task was to follow Zhou Zhou, treating everything else as entertainment.
While they were talking, a few more people entered from outside.
The task panel suddenly made a sound, and everyone immediately stopped their conversations to look at their task panels.
[Mission Name: Strange Shadows in the Villa]
[Mission Content: Survive for 24 hours and find the exit.]
Another mission to find the exit, but this time with the additional requirement of surviving for 24 hours, indicating it might be dangerous here.
Zhou Zhou looked at the mission name, wondering if the “Strange Shadows in the Villa” referred to strange things inside the villa. He hoped there might be ghosts, finding the idea exciting.
“Where do you think the exit will be?” After a moment of silence, someone finally spoke up, a man with neon green hair.
“The villa isn’t that big, and with so many of us, it won’t take long to search the whole place. So it probably won’t be that simple. Maybe it’s somewhere beyond the two floors we can see.” A man in his thirties wearing glasses speculated.
Indeed, looking out the windows, there was only one villa surrounded by a warehouse in the back and a few sheds, likely for keeping livestock.
Those areas could also potentially be the exit location.
A man closest to the door, who seemed short-tempered, headed straight for the door upon hearing this. “What’s the use of guessing while standing here? I’ll go check.”
He opened the door and walked out. At the moment of closing the door, Zhou Zhou heard a similar door-closing sound from the other side of the house.
Many people heard the noise and looked towards the spiral staircase, where the man who had just left now appeared at the door behind the staircase, which seemed to be the back door of the villa. Going out the front door had somehow led him directly to the back door.
The man seemed dumbfounded, as he had clearly walked out, but the next moment, he reappeared here.
Heya sat on the sofa with his arms crossed. “Looks like we don’t need to go outside.” Since they couldn’t leave, the exit must be inside the villa.
Currently, there were twenty people on the first floor of the villa. In the end, everyone decided to split up and search for the exit within the villa.
Those who had already formed teams naturally stayed together, while the remaining individuals formed groups of two or three.
Luna looked at Alvia expectantly with her beautiful eyes.
Alvia didn’t even glance at her, instead addressing Zhou Zhou. “Do you mind if I join you?”
Before Zhou Zhou could nod, Luna quickly objected, “It was agreed that teams would consist of two or three people. If you’re a team of four, it wouldn’t be fair to the others.”
“Nevermind, then.” Alvia stood up and headed upstairs.
His movements seemed slow, but by the time Luna stood up, he had already turned the corner on the second floor and disappeared from sight.
She stomped her foot angrily and secretly glared at Zhou Zhou before finding others to team up with.
Zhou Zhou was still gazing upstairs, wondering why Al walked so quickly, oblivious to Luna’s actions.
“Hey, what are you looking at? Let’s start searching.” Heya’s towering figure blocked Zhou Zhou’s view as he spoke.
“Oh, yeah.” Zhou Zhou snapped back to attention and joined Qian Le and Heya in searching for the exit.
The three of them searched the living room on the first floor, mostly staying in one spot, mainly because Heya’s imposing stature intimidated others from assigning him elsewhere.
After ten minutes of searching, a sudden scream came from upstairs.
As the players on the first floor looked up towards the source of the sound, a person fell from the second-floor railing, plummeting directly onto the first-floor floor.
Blood gushed out from underneath them, spreading across the floor.
The people on the first floor quickly gathered around, their expressions complex in the face of such a gruesome sight.
“It must have been that bespectacled man from earlier,” Qian Le frowned, guessing.
Zhou Zhou crouched and studied the body intently for a moment. “Looking at the color, it should be him.”
The others were somewhat speechless upon hearing his description, even though they had also identified the person in the same way. But hearing it said out loud felt strange.
The person on the floor was unrecognizable, not because of the severity of the fall but because they had been turned into a mosaic!
From head to toe, along with the red mosaic puddle continuously spreading on the floor, the entire scene made it impossible to discern anything.
The human-shaped mosaic lay motionless, indicating that this player had likely died.
The initial horror of someone dying mysteriously at the start of the game was replaced by this bizarre spectacle of the dead person being turned into a mosaic. Truly befitting an official game.
A white mist-like substance enveloped the human-shaped mosaic on the floor. The white mist then began to coalesce, taking on a human shape, gradually separating from the deceased’s body.
Recognizing the familiar form, Zhou Zhou’s eyes lit up, and he couldn’t resist reaching out to grasp it.
