Li Ku still entered the elevator.

This time upon entering the elevator, he could clearly feel that there was indeed a difference between this red-lit elevator and the Blood Pool Elevator at the bottom of the Blood Pool.

Apart from the different sense of space and its inherently somewhat gloomy and cold atmosphere, the most obvious difference was its button panel, which clearly displayed numbers for floors 1 through 99.

In fact, Li Ku also felt it was highly probable that he couldn't return to the space at the bottom of the Blood Pool.

However, he still tried pressing the button for floor 50.

Not long after, the elevator dinged, and he emerged from the 50th floor. What he saw was indeed a long corridor very similar to the 49th floor.

The difference was that the room numbers displayed on the doors now started with "50".

Unwilling to give up, Li Ku walked all the way along the corridor towards its depths.

He discovered that the further into the corridor he went, the dimmer the lighting became.

And at the very end of the corridor, there was a silvery-white vortex, seemingly a spatial passage...

This spatial passage... where would it lead?

Jiang Ye actually knew—

It was the passage leading to various monster-fighting and leveling-up spaces.

Seeing Li Ku hesitate, he directly spoke up: "Rather than taking risks yourself, it's better to return to room 4906 and get more information from the Cardboard Box Monster."

Li Ku nodded, then turned back.

However, this time...

Just after emerging from the elevator on the 49th floor, he keenly sensed a black shadow flash past in the direction of the corridor!

Li Ku instinctively switched to Death State and chased after the shadow.

Jiang Ye was initially startled, wondering...

Could it be that the Nomadic Merchant had sent a Survival Jade Token?

But soon, he also gave chase and discovered it was a player.

A thought struck Jiang Ye, and he left a message for Li Ku: "Don't worry about it, I'll go seize the body!"

Not long after, Li Ku saw a thin young man dressed in black walking out from the depths of the corridor.

He walked towards Li Ku's direction, showing no surprise upon seeing him.

Li Ku then understood what had happened: "Witch Gui?"

He recalled what the Cardboard Box Monster had revealed about monsters seizing players' bodies...

And how Witch Gui had previously seized the bodies of Lin Dong and himself.

Unable to suppress his shock and suspicion, Li Ku tentatively asked: "Is it only you who can randomly seize any player's body? Or can all monsters seize players' bodies freely like you?"

Jiang Ye was currently checking the Data Panel and group chat messages of the player he had seized. After a short while, he finally replied:

"My situation is special. Generally, a monster's seizure of a player is irreversible. Once seized, the monster completely transforms into a player and can no longer revert to being a monster."

"Whereas my 'body seizure' is one of my own abilities. I can withdraw at any time and return the player's body to them."

This explanation secretly shocked Li Ku.

But immediately after, Jiang Ye added: "Of course, my body seizure isn't 100% successful either."

"Facing players with powerful spirit attributes, failure is very likely."

"Of course, if you willingly accept my seizure, the probability of success is higher."

"Permanent body seizures by monsters other than me also have probabilities of success or failure."

"If a monster successfully seizes a body, the player's soul dies, and their body becomes the monster's shell."

"If a monster fails to seize a body, the player inherits the monster's Glyph Pattern Ability."

"So theoretically, there are players who can become stronger by surviving failed monster seizures."

Li Ku's era had no monsters.

Or, more accurately, he had only recently witnessed the monster resurgence.

Therefore, he knew absolutely nothing about the situation regarding monsters.

Listening to Jiang Ye's explanation now, while gaining knowledge, Li Ku couldn't help but voice a suspicion:

"Witch Gui, you..."

"Could it be that you were originally an existence from this hidden space?"

"You and that Cardboard Box Monster mentioned the 'Abyss Restricted Zone anomaly', which is clearly a feature of this hidden space."

Jiang Ye wasn't surprised by this conjecture.

However, after a moment's thought, Jiang Ye countered with a question:

"What kind of existence do you think this hidden space is?"

"Is it like a dungeon space behind the Hair Tree? Or a space hiding secrets at the bottom of the Blood Pool? Or perhaps... some other kind of space?"

Li Ku pondered for a moment, then gave his analysis and conjecture:

"I think both the bottom of the Blood Pool and the roots of the World Tree might align with our imagination of 'Hell'."

"And the monster resurgence also happened precisely in the space at the bottom of the Blood Pool."

"Plus, what Li Si mentioned about Sisyphus and death..."

"So I think this space hidden within 'Hell' might be specially set up for monsters!"

"If we call the world above ground the 'world of the living'."

"Then this hidden space located underground might belong to the 'underworld'!" 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"So here, monsters aren't just resurging; they have always existed."

"Monsters here seize players' bodies; the 'veteran players' here even help Witch Gui seize new players' bodies..."

"Then it's not hard to guess that a considerable portion, perhaps even over 80%, of the veteran players here are players who have been seized by monsters!"

"If we connect these players seized by monsters with the situation of He Yuliang and Chen Cang randomly triggering the [Curse of Despair]..."

"Then perhaps we can call this place the 'Cursed Land'!"

"Because here, 'curses' happen far too commonly..."

Li Ku's tone was quite serious as he said this.

Clearly, his understanding of this "hidden space" was only spatial.

He completely didn't consider the issue of time.

He probably thought this was another world on the same timeline.

However, his assumption wasn't necessarily wrong.

Because the timelines of the two worlds could indeed be understood as being on the same line?

Jiang Ye experienced some things in the Doomsday Prison world.

After returning to the Doomsday Apartment world, a period of time had also passed.

His understanding of the Doomsday Prison era as the era before the Doomsday Apartment was merely based on historical speculation.

But what if these two worlds were parallel lines?

In the face of intangible, untouchable time, no one can say for sure.

Humans can only use their own cognition to understand the world.

And can never truly see the real world.

Therefore, even though Li Ku's understanding differed from what Jiang Ye thought, he didn't correct him.

Instead, he shared the information he obtained after seizing the body with Li Ku:

"Perhaps what you say is right. However, the players in this world, though from the same civilization as us, are not wearing Prison watches."

"However, their Data Panels have an extra column called [Survival Points], which should serve a similar purpose to the time on the Prison watch."

"Besides that, the player I seized shares a Novice Apartment chat group with other players in this Novice Apartment."

"The reason this guy suddenly came to the 49th floor was because in the group chat, a new player named 'Li Ku' suddenly appeared, causing panic among the newbie players."

This situation was strikingly similar to when the new player Huang Qi appeared and caused panic among Jiang Ye's classmates.

However, the players in this apartment didn't seem to be classmates.

They were residents living on the same floor of a certain residential complex.

The guy he seized was named Ji Zixuan, the strongest player in this apartment, so he was quite bold and came directly to check the situation.

Upon hearing Jiang Ye's explanation, Li Ku immediately checked his own Data Panel.

After some study and scrolling, he indeed found the chat group.

With just a quick glance, he was speechless: "These... these newbies, really, are just like the newbies in the school, stupid to the point it shows on their faces."

"And this Ji Zixuan, he really is bold. He already guessed I'm a veteran player, yet he still dared to come deliver himself to death."

Li Ku seemed very surprised.

But Jiang Ye stated: "This apartment is clearly quite different from your school."

"The players here have their own safe residences. As long as they don't actively provoke monsters, they aren't likely to be attacked by monsters either."

"And the much stronger veteran players won't descend until the 8th day..."

"Their survival environment is much easier compared to your school."

"So their mentality naturally can't compare to the newbies in the school."

Li Ku nodded in agreement. While checking the messages revealed in the chat group, he headed towards room 4906 again.

These newbies in the group clearly didn't possess much information either.

So to obtain information, they still had to rely on monsters.

However, this time...

When he went to knock, room 4906 simply didn't answer the door.

"Damn!" Li Ku belatedly realized, "The rooms in this world seem to be safe as long as the door isn't opened."

Jiang Ye remained silent for a moment, then reminded: "The apartment administrator on the 1st floor lobby should have a master key that can open all rooms."

A dark glint flashed in Li Ku's crack-like eyes. As if harboring some mischievous interest, he suddenly sent a message in this apartment's chat group:

[May I ask, does the administrator have a master key that can open all apartment rooms?]

As soon as this message appeared, the previously lively chat group instantly went dead!

For a long while, not a single new message popped up.

Li Ku raised an eyebrow, then headed towards the elevator again, saying to Jiang Ye who had seized Ji Zixuan's body:

"The 1st floor of this apartment might still have other players, right?"

Soon, the two took the elevator to the first floor.

However, the entire first floor showed no sign of any players.

Instead, at the front desk in the lobby, sat a slovenly tattooed young man.

That guy had small eyes and a flat nose bridge, his looks somewhat comparable to Jiang Ye's Huang Bo clone.

It wasn't that he was particularly ugly, but he inexplicably gave off a very bastardly vibe that made people want to slap him.

The key point was, that guy seemed to have anticipated Li Ku and Jiang Ye's arrival.

He directly squinted his eyes, looking at Li Ku with a disdainful, condescending gaze.

Even making a very rude sound with his mouth, like someone calling a dog: "tsk tsk tsk"...

This scene bore some resemblance to when the War God of Mang Village provoked Gao Qiqiang.

Even though Li Ku had long smoothed out his temperament in the Personality Reconstruction school, being so wantonly provoked now made him frown involuntarily.

Mainly because his detection methods showed...

This young man's attribute talents and abilities weren't particularly strong.

In a one-on-one fight, he probably couldn't even withstand one of Li Ku's hands.

How dare such a small Calamity make "tsk tsk tsk" sounds at him?!

Li Ku wasn't an emotional person.

He believed there must be a reason for such abnormal behavior.

This guy seemed to be deliberately provoking him...

And on his Data Panel, besides talent abilities, there was also a permission identity—

[Administrator of Apartment 4869]

Apartment administrator...

Li Ku quickly realized...

This identity might come with certain inherent permissions!

And permissions...

He immediately thought of the permissions of Sun People players.

The first one allowed Sun People players to directly Erase Moon People players!

So this apartment administrator...

Could he also directly Erase apartment players?!

Thinking this, Li Ku instantly panicked.

Erasure...

Erasure!

This survival pressure forced him, while in Death State, to swiftly dash towards the direction of the apartment's 1st-floor main door.

This scene directly dumbfounded the apartment administrator.

Huh? Dude? You haven't even attacked me yet! What are you scared of?!

And the direction you're running towards...

That's the apartment main door!

Outside that...

Is the mist world!

You rushing into the mist world is worse than letting me Erase you!

However, what shocked him was—

After that guy charged into the mist world...

He wasn't destroyed by the mist at all, and his entire form showed no signs of erosion whatsoever!!

This scene completely baffled this newly appointed Administrator 4869!

He directly sent a message for help in the administrators' group:

[Holy crap?! The 'suspected veteran player' I mentioned earlier seems to be more than just a veteran player!]

[That dude! Damn it! He charged into the mist!]

[The key point is! After charging into the mist, he was completely fine!!]

[Dare not open my eyes~ hope it's my hallucination QAQ]

1049: [Are you sure that dude was fine after entering the mist?]

4869: [Absolutely, positively, and definitely sure!]

2023: [Does he have some item on him that can block mist damage?]

4869: [How would I know what item can block mist? Speaking of which, do items that block mist even exist?]

4869: [Seems like before the Great Cleansing, even those top-tier seniors couldn't be like nothing happened in the mist, right?]

4869: [But that dude, when he finally ran, his form seemed to turn into a black shadow... I'm not sure if that shadow was an item or an ability. He ran too fast, as if someone was chasing him!]

This 4869 had many more doubts in his mind.

Suddenly, a senior-level administrator tagged him in the group—

4444: [Did that dude have a watch on his wrist? @4869]

4869: [Yes! It seems he did have a watch! Is that watch the item that blocks mist for him?]

Just after sending this message, 4869's consciousness fell into nothingness.

Meanwhile, Ji Zixuan beside him suddenly looked dazed and utterly shocked, completely unaware of what had happened.

Yes, Jiang Ye directly switched to seizing the body of this Administrator 4869.

Thus, he naturally saw the contents of the administrators' group chat through this administrator's perspective.