Chapter 151 An Unusual Dungeon

This was an incredibly spacious hall, estimated to be about the size of a basketball court. However, aside from several torches embedded in the surrounding walls for illumination, it remained utterly empty.

Apart from the corridor they had arrived through, there were three more corridor entrances ahead. Yet, they were so dark that it was impossible to see what lay within. Even when shining a flashlight, the light seemed to be devoured by the darkness.

Three choices, huh?

Xia Xinyan pondered thoughtfully.

She wasn’t worried that any of these three paths would lead to a dead end. After all, no matter how difficult a dungeon might be, the system had to consider that players only had one life to clear it. So, it wouldn’t create situations where a single wrong step meant certain death. Even in the hardest dungeons, the game would generally allow for a chance to survive—even if they stepped into a death trap, it would give them some time to live and a path to escape.

Otherwise, walking one step wrong and splat, getting crushed, and then being clueless about how they died after exiting the dungeon would be way too boring.

So, it shouldn’t matter which path they chose; the difficulty might differ slightly.

It was really just a matter of luck.

After all, luck counted as part of strength.

Xia Xinyan stared at the floor for a while, trying to figure it out.

The floor of the hall was patterned, but the patterns didn’t seem regular, or maybe they were too complicated for her to make out—she quickly dismissed the latter possibility since the dungeon had just begun, and such a tough puzzle wouldn’t come up so soon.

She thought for a moment and scanned the hall again.

Then she suddenly noticed that there were also patterns on the ceiling.

No… those weren’t just patterns; they were a series of very complicated routes.

Moreover, directly above them was a route leading straight to the entrance of the corridor ahead. Xia Xinyan only glanced at it, then lifted her foot and stepped out.

Ling Mo immediately tensed up, seemingly ready to pull her back at any moment.

However, as she made that step, the floor did not collapse.

Xia Xinyan understood: “There’s a route hint on the ceiling. I’ll go ahead and scout.”

Saying that, she dashed forward quickly, following the route, leaving Ling Mo no time to grab her.

He hesitated for a moment but chose not to follow. Instead, he looked at the others crawling out from the corridor behind: “Hey, be careful, the floor might collapse…”

Just as Cheng Yu stepped onto the ground, it gave way beneath him.

Fortunately, Hao Nan, who was right beside him, reacted quickly and yanked him back: “Whoa, watch out, bro!”

Cheng Yu looked in terror at the collapsing floor: “What’s going on here? Why didn’t your side collapse?”

Ling Mo pointed at the ceiling: “There’s a safety route hint up there… probably.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the ground suddenly trembled again, and then Sun Yang shouted, “That stone slab is coming down again!”

Now everyone dared not linger on the safe ground beneath the stone slab. They all quickly located the safety route on the ceiling and scrambled out. A few misplaced their footing and caused the ground to collapse but managed to grab onto the adjacent safe ground in time and slowly pulled themselves up.

Ling Mo also made space for them, letting Hao Nan and Murong Yue step up while a few others formed small groups on different routes, seemingly too scared to stay here any longer. They all picked up their flashlights, shining them on the ceiling’s routes as they began to move forward.

At this point, Xia Xinyan had already reached the entrance of the front corridor and turned back to wave at them. She wasn’t planning to step inside just yet to check things out; if another collapse happened, those coming behind would be in trouble.

Thanks to her earlier scouting, Ling Mo and the others had a pretty smooth journey, reaching the opposite side several minutes faster than the others. Then Xia Xinyan turned and entered the corridor.

Hao Nan hesitated: “Aren’t we waiting for the others?”

“They’re not on the same route as us; they must be entering the other two corridors,” Murong Yue reasoned. “Besides, do you really want to walk with that… that whatever little swallow? She seems like a high and mighty person; I don’t like that type at all.”

Ling Mo shook his head: “Me neither.”

After all, he had seen that guy throw a random glance at Xinyan; that gaze always made him feel like he was looking down on her. If a hot-tempered person came over, that guy would likely be in serious trouble.

He considered himself to be on the patient side, but that guy left a terrible first impression on him, especially that glance at Xinyan, which directly put him in the ‘potential enemy’ column.

Plus, judging by Xinyan’s earlier words, they might have known each other before? It seemed Xinyan didn’t really like that guy either.

So he felt even more inclined to keep Xinyan away from him.

Seeing they all felt this way, Hao Nan could only nod: “Alright, let’s go first?”

Xia Xinyan took the lead: “Let’s go.”

Ling Mo quickly followed, walking alongside her, always ready for any emergencies.

However, this time, the group encountered no emergencies in the short term.

This must have been a section meant for them to take a breather.

As they settled briefly, their focus shifted away from the immediate environment, and their thoughts began to wander.

“By the way, have you all noticed something strange about this dungeon?” Murong Yue suddenly asked.

Wen, of course, shot her a glance: “What’s strange about it?”

“I’m not sure,” Murong Yue shook her head, her expression a bit odd, “It just feels different from the dungeons I’ve played before, but I can’t quite place what’s wrong… It just feels… eerie, yes, eerie.”

“Isn’t this the typical style for such dungeons? Witch’s Castle, all have a bit of a horror vibe,” Hao Nan mused. “But I also feel like something’s off about this dungeon.”

Ling Mo was still mostly focused on observing his surroundings, his mind partially detached from their discussion: “Maybe high-difficulty dungeons are just like this. Have you encountered any other high-difficulty dungeons before?”

“…No,” Murong Yue shook her head.

Hao Nan thought his reasoning made sense: “That might be it. I’ve never seen a dungeon start with such high-intensity attacks.”

Listening to their discussion, Xia Xinyan merely smiled silently.

This dungeon was indeed different from the previous ones.

But not because it was higher in difficulty, but because of this morning’s hotfix.

Just as she had guessed, this update added a significant sense of realism—

For instance, it was the first time they encountered corpses that wouldn’t disappear, even if it was just a dead cat, or the first time blood was depicted, even if it was just a pattern.

And evidently, they hadn’t noticed these small details.

That’s how the game worked, step by step leading players to accept that sense of realism. Perhaps some would notice during this process, but at least throughout the last life, there had never been any major rhythm. Those players who were deterred by the later graphic depictions of blood and guts were merely eliminated by the game.

In short, regardless of whether the players accepted it or not, the game’s progress would never change. The impending Cataclysm would always arrive.

And this update once again reminded Xia Xinyan— the game’s progress was moving much faster than she had anticipated. In the near future, she might not enjoy too many peaceful days.

So she had to work hard to become stronger.