The night was very dark, and the air was still, almost no sound of wind. The atmosphere was particularly eerie, as if the entire world had died.

Wei Wenlan and Qin Lin were both spending the night in such an environment for the first time, and they found it very unsettling. They had closed their eyes for a long time but couldn’t fall asleep.

The two of them opened their eyes and instinctively looked towards the window.

This house was quite tall, and the windows were high, too. They tilted their heads to look up, but all they could see was pitch darkness. There was only one light bulb in the room, and it was turned off; there wasn’t even a small night light. The two were somewhat afraid of such an environment. The more they looked, the more terrifying it seemed. This was already an unfamiliar world, a place where ghosts might appear. What if a ghost suddenly came out of nowhere?

No, they couldn’t think about it anymore.

They quickly closed their eyes again, but still couldn’t fall asleep.

"Are you asleep?" Wei Wenlan’s voice broke the silence.

Qin Lin replied softly, "Not yet," pausing for a moment, she added, "I can’t sleep."

Neither the environment nor the atmosphere allowed her to feel sleepy.

Wei Wenlan said, "Me neither. Chenchen, are you asleep?"

"No," Ah Chen replied. If she wanted to sleep, she would, but generally, she followed her body’s wishes. She didn’t want to sleep, regardless of the environment.

For Wei Wenlan and Qin Lin, the place was very quiet.

For her, it was a bit lively. The two pretending to be vases by the window were talking all along; she had been listening to them.

"Hey, since we can’t sleep, let’s chat for a while. Having some noise is much better; it was really terribly quiet before," Wei Wenlan said. "By the way, do you know what task Shi Lingmeng and the others have next door?"

She was a bit curious about this since it had gotten dark earlier, making it inconvenient to disturb them. Moreover, in this kind of place, she really didn’t want to wander around for fear of encountering something bad.

The two households were close enough for them to see the activity on the opposite side. Shi Lingmeng and the others seemed to be staying there and hadn’t been driven out.

Ah Chen and Qin Lin didn’t know; they hadn’t paid attention to it for now.

"If you want to know, find a chance to ask tomorrow when you meet them," Ah Chen suggested. Such tasks issued directly by the NPCs, even if difficult, could be solved by purchasing tools with coins in hand. They wouldn’t leave adventurers completely helpless, according to Ah Chen’s guess.

It was just unknown what method Shi Lingmeng and the others used.

"I wonder how many levels there are to clear," Wei Wenlan spoke again, her tone somewhat confused. Of course, she never regretted coming along.

In the outside world, the only person she truly cared about was her good friend Li Chen. Imagining a life without this person suddenly made everything seem meaningless.

Furthermore, encountering such an event in her lifetime was worth it.

"We’ll get out," Ah Chen reassured her, as it was her task to make sure Wei Wenlan got out.

"Doesn’t matter, we just need to do our best. Coming here once isn’t a loss," Wei Wenlan smiled, taking things lightly. As long as she was with her good friend, it didn’t matter whether they got out or not.

That was truly what she thought in her heart.

"Since we mentioned it, let’s think about what to do if we really get out. Oh, they say after clearing the stages you can earn generous rewards. What would those be? Forget money; we aren’t short of that. Immortality, perhaps? Seems a bit unrealistic, haha! A life free from illness and disaster would be nice..."

Listening to their conversation, Qin Lin felt a bit jealous.

She had good friends too, but none with such a relationship that could disregard life and death, and perhaps there weren’t many like that.

"Ah—" 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

A scream shattered the conversation in the room, waking the adventurers sleeping in the villagers’ houses. They opened their eyes and gazed out the window. Had they not recalled the villagers’ warnings, some might have gone outside.

Their warning couldn’t have been without reason; surely something happened at night which would cause adventurers to rush out. Previously, those adventurers were likely driven outside by similar curiosity. Otherwise, who would step out into the pitch-black night when it’s chilly, even if it wasn’t summer?

"Did you recognize whose voice that was?" Wei Wenlan asked.

Qin Lin: "Very unfamiliar, probably someone I don’t know."

Ah Chen also found it to be a stranger’s voice.

In fact, she was somewhat curious about what happened; if it was just one person, she would have gone out to check.

"Help me!"

"Ah—save me."

The cries echoed again, extremely miserable, causing Wei Wenlan to cover her ears. It sounded so horrible. In the outside world, if she didn’t go and check personally, she would at least choose to call the police.

What in the world could be going on?

Knock, knock!

The sound of the door being knocked accompanied by Huo Jingchen’s voice: "It’s me, did you hear the screams outside?"

"Heard them," Qin Lin replied, reaching to turn on the light, only to find it didn’t work. She said, "Why isn’t the light turning on?"

"Same here, must be a power outage," Huo Jingchen said.

Wei Yao chimed in from the other side: "Power outages are common in villages like this."

Wei Wenlan had already rummaged through her bag to find her phone and turned on the flashlight.

The group gathered at the door and eventually headed to the house where Huo Jingchen and others were staying. It was just a few steps, yet the screams outside hadn’t ceased.

"The noise outside is too loud to fall asleep anyway, so I asked you all to get up and share your thoughts on what’s happening," Huo Jingchen spoke once everyone was seated. He hesitated for a moment and then asked Ah Chen, "Do you think we should intervene in the matters outside?"

He recalled that during the first level, Li Chen had helped Tan Sui.

They must have received significant rewards, so to successfully clear the stages here, the more coins and tools, the better. Huo Jingchen wasn’t someone to go step by step. He had to consider how to earn more rewards. Although these things carried risks, without taking risks, there would be no rewards, and the probability of survival greatly decreased.

"Am I calling the shots?" Ah Chen’s eyes sparkled with amusement. "If the decision is wrong, who will bear the responsibility? If we’re going to intervene, should we all go, or should just one person go have a look? And who would that be? If I say don’t go and we miss out on rewards, would that be blamed on me? Though we are a team, many actions can still be decided personally. It’s not like if one team member triggers a rule, others will get implicated."

Huo Jingchen was clever; despite the casual question, he actually wanted to extract more information from her, given the extraordinary abilities she had shown before. If the decision was wrong, she’d naturally be held accountable. She had resources, and if she decided to step out, she couldn’t be expected to leave others behind who followed her out.