As the water level dropped, the bloated corpse inside sank to the bottom of the water tank. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Gu Mian carefully reached past the sharp, broken edges of the tank to pull out the body.

Perhaps due to being soaked for so long, the body was exceptionally heavy. Gu Mian estimated it to be as heavy as two Fatties.

Because of the body's immense size, it got stuck halfway out. Gu Mian had to forcefully enlarge the opening.

It took him quite a bit of effort to finally drag the body out.

Gu Mian sat down beside the enormous corpse on the ground. Just dragging it out of the tank had been hard enough; he could hardly imagine how he was going to get it into the room where it belonged.

Unfortunately, special items weren't permitted in this instance; otherwise, he would have definitely used his walkie-talkie to call his mom for help moving the body.

They had entered this instance so suddenly, and he hadn't even brought his brother's disc, so Gu Mian had no choice but to do it himself.

The corpse's neck was swollen to the size of a small ball, stretching the poor strawberry necklace taut. It looked as if it could snap at any moment.

Gu Mian immediately reached out to rescue the endangered necklace, lest it actually break under the strain.

Removing the necklace was surprisingly uncomplicated. Gu Mian had worried the corpse would put up some resistance, like in the clichéd scenes from horror stories where "the body jumps three feet in the air and punches the living daylights out of someone." Instead, the body just lay there obediently on the ground, not making any trouble.

"That was easy," Gu Mian muttered, holding the necklace while examining the body on the ground.

Because the entire body was swollen, it was difficult to discern its original appearance. All Gu Mian could tell was that it was male, with one nose and two eyes.

At that moment, however, Gu Mian had a strange feeling that the face was familiar.

He was taken aback by the thought. How could he find a corpse even fatter than two Fatties familiar?

But the more he looked, the more familiar it seemed. He felt like he had seen this face somewhere before.

Gu Mian crouched down and stared intensely at the swollen, watermelon-sized head, running through the faces of people he knew in his mind. It didn't take long before a face matched the one in front of him.

"Xu Xingcheng?" Gu Mian wasn't entirely certain.

The head was so incredibly bloated, its skin stretched taut, making it difficult to recognize. Gu Mian crouched down, cradling the head to examine it more closely. The more he looked, the more it resembled Xu Xingcheng.

Gu Mian knew Xu Xingcheng and the Evil God were the same person, who, out of sheer boredom, had created numerous avatars to wander the instances. Gu Mian had previously encountered him in several instances.

But in those previous instances, he had at least been alive. It was unexpected to see his avatar as a bloated corpse in this one.

The Evil God was a key figure in Paradise World; perhaps he even had a few entrance tickets to Paradise World. If so, they might be able to enter Paradise World and commence the rescue mission for Lu Yi.

But looking at the current situation...

Gu Mian silently observed the bloated Evil God before him. He seemed as dead as could be, his eyelids so swollen they bulged high.

"Xu Xingcheng? Xu Xingcheng?" Gu Mian tried calling his name a few times, attempting to rouse the seemingly dead avatar of the Evil God.

Although his profession was a Doctor, his skills weren't yet strong enough to bring someone back from the dead just by calling their name. Gu Mian hoped the game developers would strengthen his abilities in the future. If he couldn't revive someone by calling their name, then being able to make someone drop dead by calling their name would also be acceptable.

He called out to him a couple more times but still received no response.

It seemed he was truly, thoroughly dead.

The appearance of the Evil God's avatar in this instance was unlikely to be a coincidence. Gu Mian recalled that player floors had been suddenly reassigned right before the instance began. Could this have been the Evil God's doing?

The Evil God had intervened to get himself and his corpse assigned to the same floor.

But with the corpse unable to speak or move, what use was having it on the same floor as Gu Mian? Was it so Gu Mian could see how 'beautiful' his avatar looked after bloating?

As he pondered, Gu Mian began to pat down the corpse, running his hands over its body. There had to be a reason for the Evil God's actions. He'd check for any items on the body first.

Maybe he'd find some clues.

But after searching from head to toe, there wasn't a damn thing on the corpse.

Gu Mian silently withdrew his hand and stared at the swollen avatar. Right, after the five hours are up, any corpse not eliminated will become an Evil Ghost and wander for ten minutes.

As long as this corpse isn't eliminated by the time limit, their beloved Evil God can reanimate.

He wondered if he could communicate normally with the upgraded 'Evil Ghost Evil God' version later.

Gu Mian glanced again at the bloated Evil God on the floor, then, holding the necklace, turned and walked towards room 608.

Time was pressing. Teammates on the upper and lower floors were still relying on him to help eliminate corpses. He'd put the Evil God aside for now and complete the task first.

Soon, Gu Mian arrived back at room 608. The charred corpse lay in the middle of the floor.

Gu Mian quickly approached it, crouched down, and dangled the necklace in front of the charred face. "Miss Jiao, I've found your necklace."

Gu Mian had no idea what this corpse's name was. He simply called it "Miss Jiao" because it was charred to a crisp; he felt this surname suited its identity.

The Miss Jiao on the floor showed no reaction.

Gu Mian then reached out to put the necklace on it himself, murmuring as he did so, "Look, I'm putting the necklace on you. This means I've completed the task, right? I hope you won't be ungrateful..."

As he was speaking, the large screen beside the corpse suddenly flickered a few times, and several lines of text appeared—

"The player from floors 5-6 has helped the young lady in room 608 find her strawberry necklace. The young lady in room 608 is very touched and has marked two corpse locations for everyone in the building. (This information is visible to all)"

At this moment, Fatty and the other two on the seventh and eighth floors were in their room discussing the instance when Keke noticed the text that had appeared on the large screen. She quickly said to the others, "Quick, look!"

"A player from floors 5-6 has completed a task, and the instance has identified two corpse locations for us..." 007 had barely finished reading the text on the screen when the words gradually faded, and the display reverted to the previous grid.

But this time, the grid looked a little different.

The 8×8 grid, which had previously been blank except for room numbers, now had images in two of its cells.

One was room 706. Inside it, a very cartoonish, pitch-black little figure lay motionless on the ground.

"This represents a burned corpse," 007 said, looking at the cartoon figure in the cell for 706.

Fatty immediately pulled out the paper where he had recorded the corpse locations. "The unlocked room 706 is on our floor. Let me see if what's shown here is correct..."

He quickly found the small square representing room 706 on his paper; it indeed indicated a charred corpse.

"That's right, the corpse in that room was burned to death," Fatty said, looking up at the two people in front of him.

Keke was looking at the second unlocked cell in the grid. It was the third room from the left on the fourth floor, room 403.

In this square, a cartoon figure with a huge belly appeared, similar to the corpses on their floor that had burst from overeating.

007 also looked at this cell. "It seems the corpse in room 403 died from overeating."

After examining the two cells, 007 looked up at the timer. The countdown showed only four hours and twenty-two minutes remaining.

"The instance lasts for five hours. Almost an hour has passed, and we've only unlocked two cells." 007 looked worried. "I'm afraid we won't be able to unlock the locations of all the corpses in the building before the countdown ends."

If they hadn't unlocked enough corpse locations by then, they wouldn't know what the lower floors needed, and the lower floors wouldn't know what they needed.

"It's taken almost an hour to unlock just two cells. At this rate, we might only unlock about ten or so in five hours. But there are sixty-four rooms in this building..." Keke speculated. "I guess as time goes on, the frequency of tasks will increase, and each task will unlock more cells."

"Miss Keke is right," Fatty agreed. "These instances all follow the same pattern. When you first enter, they seem quite tame, but they get more intense and thrilling the further you go."

Keke, standing nearby, was momentarily speechless. If she hadn't misheard, was he just using "tame" to describe a horror instance?