"We must be on the eighth floor," 007 said, looking at the grid screen on the wall in front of him. "This room has an opening to the floor below, but I carefully observed the room downstairs; there's no way to the floor below *that*."

"So we can only move around on the eighth floor and the seventh floor below us, right?" Keke, who was squatting on the ground examining a corpse, looked up. "It seems only the three of us are on this floor. Gu Mian and the others must be on other floors. According to the grid on the screen, this building should have eight floors. If we can only move between the seventh and eighth floors, then the others might also be restricted to two floors."

The corpse at Keke's feet was purplish. Its bulging eyeballs were bloodshot, and its long tongue lolled out of its mouth. Several hemp ropes were wound tightly around its neck—the person had been strangled.

Fatty, looking at the horrifying corpse on the floor, retreated a few steps. "The Doctor and Brother Chu aren't on the same floor as us. I wonder if they're together... Speaking of which, I saw that eight people entered this instance. Besides the three of us, the Doctor, and Brother Chu, who are the other three?"

Xiao Qiao and Liu Ruyan weren't home when the special instance appeared, so they're not in this instance.

007 was silent for a few seconds before speaking. "It's the three who were locked in the storeroom on the first floor. I was in the storeroom when the special instance appeared. Since I got in, they presumably did as well."

Fatty suddenly understood. "Ah, right! I almost forgot about those three. That makes exactly eight people."

I wonder if those three are on the same floor as the Doctor and Brother Chu.

Fatty tried to open [Group Chat for Ten] to contact Gu Mian, but it wouldn't open.

This instance had disabled all special items, including Xiao Qiao's [Group Chat for Ten].

"We can't contact the Doctor, and we have no idea which floor he's on," Fatty said, looking frustrated.

007 looked down at the corpse on the floor. "The instance is called 'Corpse Match Three.' The mission is to connect corpses of the same type for elimination. In room 802 next door, there's a corpse submerged in a water tank—it drowned. I think when the instance mentioned 'corpses of the same type,' it's referring to the method of death."

Keke added, "Just like in a match-three game, if we can drag three or more corpses that died the same way into adjacent rooms, they will be eliminated. Let's first figure out the types of corpses on the seventh and eighth floors."

Keke said, glancing at the countdown on the nearby screen, "We only have five hours. Time is tight; we can't waste any."

Hearing this, Fatty quickly pulled out pen and paper from his pocket. "I'll make a diagram and record everything."

The three of them immediately began to hurry through the rooms. Fatty also drew a grid on his paper, identical to the one on the large screen, and started recording the types of corpses in the squares for the seventh and eighth floors.

About twenty minutes later, they had figured out all the corpses on these two floors.

The countdown clock now read 4:35:29—four hours and thirty-five minutes remaining.

The trio—007, Keke, and Fatty—were gathered in room 701, looking at the diagram Fatty held.

"On our two floors, there are a total of three strangled, three burned black, three headless, three who died from overeating, three drowned, and one dismembered," Fatty said, holding the paper and analyzing the findings.

"This one dismembered corpse on our floors can't be eliminated by itself; we have to cooperate with the people on the floors below," 007 said, his finger stopping on room 708 on the paper. "This is where that dismembered corpse is. If the people on the floors below place a dismembered corpse in rooms 508 and 608 respectively, then the corpse in our room 708 will match the type of the corpses in the two rooms below, forming a vertical line to be eliminated together."

"But the people on the floors below don't know the situation on our floors, nor do they know we have a spare dismembered corpse up here," Keke frowned.

"Right," Fatty pursed his lips. "We have to let the people on the floors below know what we need."

"So we have to complete the tasks the instance releases at irregular intervals," 007 said, looking at the grid screen on the opposite wall. "Right now, these grids are empty. I suspect that every time we complete a task, the location of one or more corpses will be revealed in the grid."

Fatty looked very troubled. "Then we'll have to make all the corpses on these two floors appear on the screen so the people on the floors below will know we have an extra dismembered corpse here."

"It seems people on different floors need to help each other. Corpses that one set of floors can't eliminate will require help from adjacent floors to eliminate. So, it's best to complete tasks to unlock all corpse locations on the grid," Keke let out a long breath. "Only by seeing the whole picture can we make the most correct decisions."

"It's quite a coincidence on our floors," Fatty scratched his head. "Apart from that dismembered one, the corpses on our two floors are all in sets of three. Can't we eliminate all the other sets of three corpses, leaving only the dismembered one to be eliminated with the lower floors?"

"No, we can't," Keke said, looking at the chart Fatty drew. "Our extra dismembered corpse on the seventh and eighth floors needs to be combined with those on the lower floors to make a set of three for elimination. So, the fifth and sixth floors below will most likely also have leftover corpses. Perhaps they must be combined with a certain type of corpse from our floors to be eliminated.

"If we immediately eliminate all the corpses we can, then the people on the lower floors will be out of luck. Their leftover corpses that need to be linked with ours won't be able to be eliminated."

At this moment, 007's expression suddenly turned grim. "I've thought of a problem. What if someone's floors have corpse types that are all in groups of three or more, allowing for complete elimination? And what if, upon discovering this, they immediately eliminate all corpses on their floors?"

"Then, the surplus corpses on adjacent floors won't be able to be linked with the corpses on that person's floors for elimination, because that person's floors will already be empty."

Fatty's eyes widened. "Just like our dismembered corpse! It needs to be linked with those on the fifth and sixth floors to make a set of three for elimination. But if the corpses on the floors below have already been completely eliminated, then we'll be helpless with this dismembered corpse. We can only watch helplessly as it turns into a ghost!"

This is too wicked!

This instance is too cruel!

In this situation, as long as they eliminate all the corpses on their own floors, they'll be safe and sound. The introduction stated that the Evil Ghosts these corpses turn into cannot pass through walls. Ghosts from other floors cannot reach their floor.

If a normal person discovered that all the corpses on their floors could be completely eliminated, their first reaction would probably be to clear their floors and wait for the countdown to end. This would cut off the escape route for players on adjacent floors.

「At this time, Gu Mian, who was on the fifth and sixth floors, had finished searching both floors.」

He was pleasantly surprised to find that his luck was exceptionally good this time. The fifth and sixth floors, where he was, had three strangled, three burned, three who died from overeating, three drowned, and four dismembered corpses.

The sixteen corpses on these two floors could be perfectly self-sufficient and completely eliminated. Once all the corpses were eliminated, he could just lie down on the spot and sleep until the instance ended.

But Gu Mian didn't immediately move the corpses. Instead, he stared at the 8x8 grid screen on the wall.

He was the only one on the fifth and sixth floors, so the others must have been assigned to different floors.

He didn't believe the corpses on the other floors could also be perfectly self-sufficient and completely eliminated. If everyone's situation was like this, this instance would hardly need to exist. They might as well just hand over the clearance rewards directly.