After finishing two cans of beer, the large man started to feel that the room wasn’t as stuffy as it had been before.
However, perhaps due to drinking too many beverages, after continuing to play a shooting game for a while, he began to feel a bloated sensation in his lower abdomen.
He stood up, mechanically scanning the room, slowly realizing how strangely empty it felt.
The intern who had been here earlier hadn’t made a sound after going into the bathroom.
A person with a functioning bladder and the intention of making a good impression on the employer certainly shouldn’t have been in the bathroom, silent and still, for more than twenty minutes.
Had he looked at the computer screen next door, he would have noticed that only ten minutes remained for Xu Dengming to finish the “Escape Room” test.
“00:09:59…”
The final moments silently ticked away.
The large man paced a few steps, his previously clear eyes gradually clouded with frustration.
He then seemed to make a decision, walking briskly toward the bathroom and knocking loudly on the door.
He knocked with tremendous force, the loud noise making his ears ring as chips of paint fell from the door.
However, no response came from inside the room, as though the person inside had gone deaf.
Suddenly, the large man went silent, his gaze fixed on the door, his eyes bloodshot, as if the red veins were slowly crawling up to surround his pupils.
After two steps back, he lifted his foot and kicked hard at the door.
With a loud crash, the wooden bathroom door flew open.
Dust and wood shavings filled the air.
The bathroom light was off, and a heavy, damp darkness hung in the room.
The large man squinted, trying to make out what was behind the door, only to find—
There was no one inside.
The intern had seemingly vanished into thin air.
He stood in the doorway for a while, finally stepping across the threshold.
The view from the door was limited, and only by stepping inside could he investigate further.
The air in the bathroom was not just humid, but chilling as well.
The coldness crept up his spine like a slug, slowly climbing up his back.
The space inside was so cramped that the walls seemed like they might collapse inward, suffocating anyone inside.
The bathroom in Room 206 had no windows, and theoretically, there should be no wind.
But after crossing the threshold, the large man could hear a distinct sound of wind blowing downward.
Before he could process it, a sharp pain exploded in the back of his head.
Bang!
A heavy, metal water pipe struck the large man’s skull with a brutal force.
His head didn’t cave in but cracked open, as though it were a hollow chocolate ball melting in hot cream.
Thick, bright red blood poured out, soaking his hair and spreading across the floor.
Xu Dengming, holding the pipe, stepped back two paces.
The smile that had once lingered on her face vanished, and her eyes grew cold and frightening.
As she noticed the large man’s lifeless body, she stopped herself from striking again.
Despite everything settling down, she remained tense, her hand involuntarily tightening around the pipe, veins protruding along her wrist.
Even at this moment, she was still on high alert.
The man’s body twisted unnaturally, emitting an otherworldly vibe.
His bloodshot eyes bulged from their sockets, merging with the blood that had spilled across the floor.
He would never get the chance to ask Xu Dengming why she had attacked.
But she felt certain that, even in his final moments, he could probably understand her motivation.
After all, Escape Room was a single-player RPG, and Xu Dengming knew that she alone was the player in this game.
But what role did the other “person” in the room play?
She thought that if the man wasn’t an NPC guiding her through the game, then he was likely a red-name monster who would reveal his true nature when the countdown ended.
Xu Dengming had always felt something was off about the job application process.
Yet, some unknown force clouded her judgment, making her overlook the inconsistencies until she had spent some time working in this strange place, only to finally realize that the room she was in wasn’t part of the real world.
Xu Dengming still remembered the sensation—the way her mind felt split into two halves.
One part accepted the situation as entirely rational, while the other kept shouting warnings, urging her to observe the details in the room before it was too late.
Room 206 didn’t have much furniture, with the freezer and workstation at opposite corners of the room.
The window was above the freezer.
Xu Dengming had opened the freezer earlier and, upon standing at the workstation or in front of the freezer, she noticed that the view from the window was always the same.
Even without a degree in physics, she knew this was impossible.
The view outside the window wasn’t real—it was a meticulously detailed game texture, so lifelike that it could fool anyone.
As she realized the truth, the once-obscured knowledge and reason returned to her mind, and she finally understood the nature of her situation.
The moment of clarity felt almost painful, as though someone had reached inside her skull and was tugging at her brain.
She began to understand just how bizarre her experiences had been.
Why had she been drawn to the second floor, attracted by something on a piece of paper?
Why had she walked into this terrible room, unaware of any benefits or conditions, and started working on the test right away?
As someone who was familiar with various scams, Xu Dengming should have realized immediately that any proper game company wouldn’t recruit testers in such a shady way.
After entering the room, the large man had given her a hint: the window couldn’t be opened, and the door couldn’t be unlocked.
The line between reality and the virtual world blurred, as the false reality hid the truth.
Xu Dengming had to figure out how to escape the room as the only player in the game.
Based on her previous game experiences, she knew that locked doors or windows couldn’t be opened by brute force.
To open a door, she would need to rely on in-game items.
Items were usually obtained in two ways: either through searching or defeating monsters.
The room was sparse, and she hadn’t found anything resembling a key, but she had discovered several cans of beer that seemed to have bypassed quality control.
The labels on the cans made her suspect they were some kind of status-boosting items that would improve her combat power but lower her intelligence.
She placed the cans on the large man’s desk to see if he would go into a rage after drinking one.
Her experiment was a success.
Knowing her own limited strength, she turned off the bathroom light and quietly hid atop a wooden cabinet, just out of sight.
The large man, his judgment clouded by alcohol, didn’t notice the ambush above.
Xu Dengming struck.
As she reflected on her plan, the blood from the large man’s head gradually covered the floor.
A glint of silver-white light shimmered from the blood, forming into a key.
Then, a message appeared in Xu Dengming’s vision:
“Game completed.”
The storm clouds above hadn’t dissipated, but the rain had slowed, only a few droplets falling with the wind.
Xu Dengming stood in front of an old, abandoned office building, staring into space.
A second ago, she had been considering the aftermath of defeating the NPC in the game.
Now, she was back in the real world.
The speed of the scene transition made her feel like she was in a dream.
“Game reward settlement…”
A line of text appeared, snapping Xu Dengming out of her thoughts.
She reached out to touch the floating words but received no response.
Then, she pulled out her phone and took a picture of the words.
The picture showed only the office building.
Xu Dengming lowered her gaze, tapping her temple lightly with her finger.
Then, she smiled, a faint expression of frustration on her lips.
Perhaps she had gone mad—or maybe the world was simply abnormal, and she had just accidentally glimpsed the hidden side of it.
The text in the air didn’t stay for long.
After a few seconds, it changed.
“Settlement complete. The player’s test number has been generated.
“Your number is: 009-000.”
“The system has been activated.”
“The game panel has been successfully opened.”
“This instance’s reward has been automatically added to your inventory.”
“Unhatched Fire” wishes you a pleasant game experience.
Xu Dengming’s eyes lingered on the words “Unhatched Fire” for a while before she sat down on a nearby bench, starting to seriously analyze her current situation.
The possibilities of illusion seemed to be shrinking, and she now faced the reality that the experience she had just gone through was far from over.
She had unwittingly become a part of an ongoing, much larger game.
As soon as she thought about the rewards, her gaze instinctively shifted to the other sections of her backpack interface.
Aside from the disc, the most prominent item in her backpack was a shiny treasure chest marked with the word “new.”
Xu Dengming opened the treasure chest, and the box shook a few times before spitting out a pile of glittering items, along with an old water pipe.
System: Congratulations, user! You have received Colorless Crystal x50 and a Bloodstained Old Water Pipe x1.
【Colorless Crystal: A popular material that can also be used to draw cards from the Golden Card Pool.】
【Bloodstained Old Water Pipe: An old water pipe with a hard texture. The bloodstains on its surface contain the lingering confusion and resentment of monsters at the moment of their death. It can be used to attack enemy units with a certain chance of causing them to enter a sluggish state.】
The old water pipe she had received also showed its rarity; it was a D-grade item.
Xu Dengming made a gripping motion, and the old water pipe immediately appeared in her hand.
Its weight and feel were identical to those in the game.
She swung it lightly.
The pipe was very handy, and the sensation of swinging it made her almost eager to give it a try.
Her backpack had twenty slots, with the disc not counting toward the item limit.
Items of the same type could be merged, and the Colorless Crystals appeared directly in the balance section.
She recalled the system’s note about “card draws” and curiously opened the prize pool.
The “Unhatched Fire” card pool had two types: one was golden, and the other was white.
If Xu Dengming were to evaluate it, she’d say the golden card pool looked fairly normal, but the white one looked very much like a short, fat, second-hand washing machine.
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