[The Hannibal dungeon has been constructed]

Tong Yu spent three and a half days completing the construction of the second dungeon. It was originally planned for three days, but because Sheng Jing’s spiritual power supply was so consistently smooth during those three days, Tong Yu thought, “Well, there’s enough spiritual power,” and added even more details.

New Dungeon: Hannibal

After the scene construction was finished, it was time for the NPCs.

Tong Yu agonized over Hannibal’s appearance for a long time. Hannibal is a cannibal, so an ugly and ferocious appearance seemed to fit the character better, but Hannibal is also a highly educated doctor and should be polite. After much deliberation, Tong Yu simply put both versions of Hannibal into the dungeon, ran through the plot, and finally chose the handsome version of Hannibal.

Why?

Because the scene of the handsome, refined Hannibal in a tuxedo using a knife and fork to peel open a skull was just too impactful.

This seems a bit perverse, but isn’t the fun of being an escape room owner sitting behind a computer watching players scared out of their wits?

“Send a message to Zhang Xin and tell him the second dungeon is ready,” Tong Yu told the shop assistant.

The message was sent, and in less than ten minutes, Zhang Xin arrived in a flurry.

“The dungeon’s ready so fast?” Zhang Xin asked incredulously as he entered. When Tong Yu said he could finish the second dungeon in a week, he didn’t believe it and insisted on changing the time to a month. But wow, the guy finished it in five days. Zhang Xin strongly suspected Tong Yu was acting on impulse, throwing something together just to prove he could do it in a week.

“What’s the plot? What checkpoints did you design? Does the horror level reach Ghost Bride’s standard?” Zhang Xin rattled off a series of questions.

Tong Yu was too lazy to explain and simply pointed to the escape room entrance.

Zhang Xin followed Tong Yu’s finger. The first thing he saw wasn’t the escape room entrance, but the handsome Caucasian man standing at the entrance. This NPC had an exceptionally striking appearance, especially those azure eyes that seemed to draw you in when he looked at you.

“This is an NPC?” Zhang Xin asked.

“His name is Hannibal, and he’s the protagonist of this dungeon’s story,” Tong Yu introduced.

“What’s this dungeon called?” Zhang Xin asked.

“Hannibal’s Dinner,” Tong Yu replied.

Zhang Xin immediately frowned: “That name is too ordinary; it doesn’t sound scary at all. Also, why make your NPC so handsome? Or are you saying this NPC will also transform like Ghost Bride?”

“No transformation, he just looks like this,” Tong Yu said.

“Then it’s even less scary! Players come in for a thrilling horror experience, not a romantic one. What are you doing?” Zhang Xin was already worried about Tong Yu’s design for the second dungeon and immediately started nagging, “Didn’t I tell you not to rush? We still have time. The priority is the dungeon content, the horror level. Ghost Bride built a good foundation, but if the second installment can’t follow up, the popularity will quickly decline…”

“Brother… you haven’t even played it yet, how do you know it’s not scary?” Tong Yu couldn’t stand it and interrupted Zhang Xin’s nagging.

“You… he looks like that, how can he be scary?”

“You can’t judge a book by its cover!” Tong Yu smiled meaningfully. “Talking more is useless; whether it’s fun or not, you’ll have to experience it yourself.”

With that, Tong Yu led Zhang Xin to the dungeon entrance and pushed him in.

Zhang Xin was pushed in somewhat bewildered, but he wasn’t very scared because this dungeon’s setting was completely different from Ghost Bride’s. The Li Mansion where Ghost Bride lived was dimly lit, with red candles everywhere, looking eerie. But here, it was different. The architecture was grand and flamboyant. Although candles were also lit, the numerous candles filled the hall with light as bright as day. A long, ten-person dining table was neatly set with tableware, and the refined and handsome host, leading a group of servants, was personally welcoming him.

“My honored guest, welcome to my castle. Dinner will take some time to prepare, so allow me to show you around first,” Hannibal said with refined grace, his captivating eyes making it impossible to refuse his invitation.

Zhang Xin couldn’t help but grumble, “Is this a horror game or a dating game?”

Outside the escape room, Tong Yu heard Zhang Xin’s complaint and couldn’t resist opening the voice chat: “Manager Zhang, is Hannibal your ideal type by any chance?”

Zhang Xin’s face flushed. “I’m playing a game, don’t disturb me.”

Tong Yu stifled a laugh and didn’t bother Zhang Xin further, quietly watching as Zhang Xin followed Hannibal on the castle tour. Then, Hannibal left on the pretext of kitchen matters, and Zhang Xin encountered the first plot character. Following that, Hannibal reappeared, dragged the person away, then proceeded to pry open their skull, and then… Zhang Xin went offline.

“…” Tong Yu.

He hadn’t thought the game would scare someone offline—after all, Ghost Bride could do it, let alone Hannibal, whose horror level was even higher. But… it had just started! He hadn’t even reached the first checkpoint, and the person was already offline?

In Zhang Xin’s office, Zhang Xin tore off his helmet and rushed into the bathroom, where he promptly vomited. He had only had a bag of nutrient solution for lunch, so there was nothing substantial to throw up, but he couldn’t suppress the physiological reaction. He kept retching until bile came out, then staggered out of the bathroom like a ghost.

He had barely sat down when his light-brain on his wrist rang; someone was making a video call.

Zhang Xin weakly answered. A face about five parts similar to his appeared on the video. “Little Xin, are you okay?”

The man in the video was Zhang Miao, Zhang Xin’s older brother and also his contractor. He had just felt Zhang Xin’s spiritual power drop sharply and thought something had happened, which was why he had called so frantically. Now, seeing Zhang Xin’s pale face, he was even more anxious: “Where are you? I’ll come find you right now.”

“No need!” Zhang Xin waved his hand. “I’m fine.”

“You’re fine? Do you know how much energy you just lost?”

“I know.” He went offline, of course he knew. “I just played a game and got scared offline.”

“What?” Zhang Miao almost thought he misheard. “You got scared offline playing a game?”

Zhang Miao could understand others getting scared offline while playing games, but Zhang Xin? He was a manager at a game development company. He had played countless games, experienced all sorts of horror games. How could he possibly be scared offline?

“What game?” Zhang Miao asked curiously.

“Escape Room.”

“Haven’t you played that game before?” Zhang Xin had told him when he went to play the Ghost Bride dungeon. At that time, Zhang Xin had lost a lot of energy, but he hadn’t been scared offline.

“New dungeon. I’ll explain it to you later. Go get me some more spiritual power; I need to go back online.”

“…” Zhang Miao received such a request for the first time in his life.

Ten minutes later, Zhang Xin logged back online. Tong Yu, who was happily sipping milk tea, said in surprise, “I thought you wouldn’t be able to come online today.”

Zhang Xin stomped over and snatched the milk tea from Tong Yu’s hand. “You still have the mood to drink something!”

Seeing his bad mood, Tong Yu carefully said, “I just… didn’t realize you were such a scaredy-cat.”

Zhang Xin, who had also been scared offline for the first time in his life, felt his face burning. “I wasn’t scared offline! My spiritual power wasn’t enough. Didn’t I play Ghost Bride once before? I lost a lot of spiritual power then, so this time, I had insufficient spiritual power, and insufficient spiritual power forces you offline, didn’t you know that?”

“I know, I know.” Tong Yu wasn’t sure if Zhang Xin was telling the truth or not, but even if it was a lie, he wouldn’t expose him. “So, do you think I should adjust the horror level?”

“What level did you set it at?” Zhang Xin asked.

“A+,” Tong Yu said.

“A+? That’s too low! It needs to be at least SS-class. This is not on the same level as Ghost Bride at all.”

“SS already? Then if it gets even scarier, it’ll be maxed out, with no room for development,” Tong Yu worried, thinking the next step would be SSS.

“You’ve already thought of something even scarier?” Zhang Xin’s eyes widened.

“This is just the beginning.”

Zhang Xin suddenly felt a little dizzy. He felt like his spiritual power was rapidly draining even when he wasn’t playing the game.

Tong Yu saw that Zhang Xin seemed about to go offline again and quickly shoved the milk tea into Zhang Xin’s mouth. “Drink something warm, calm your nerves.”

Zhang Xin instinctively took a sip. The warm, sweet taste instantly brought him back. He looked at the item in his hand with surprise. “What is this? It’s delicious.”

“It’s a drink I made, called milk tea,” Tong Yu explained. “I noticed that players who come out of the escape room often like something warm. Hot water is too bland, so I made this. Sweets can make people happy and should have a calming effect.”

Zhang Xin took another sip and said very seriously, “It really does have a calming effect. After drinking it, I feel my spiritual sea is more comfortable.”

That’s the effect of dopamine.

Zhang Xin didn’t continue talking about the milk tea. “So, do we need to adjust the horror level?”

“No, keep it at this level. But this time, we need to choose the live stream players carefully.” Zhang Xin already had a complete marketing plan in his mind. “The Ghost Bride dungeon construction is complete, with a total of a thousand game points. It will be fully open tomorrow at 10 AM. Since Hannibal is already finished, why not take this opportunity to launch Hannibal simultaneously? I plan to hold a competition. For the next two days, the top eight players who participate in the Ghost Bride dungeon, have the lowest energy consumption, and whose spiritual power exceeds 200,000B, will get to experience the new dungeon, ‘Hannibal’s Dinner,’ for free.”

“A talent show,” Tong Yu understood.

“Exactly, a talent show. This way, the chosen streamers will have popularity, and Hannibal will definitely be a massive hit,” Zhang Xin said, getting more excited the more he thought about it. “Ghost Bride already had 100,000 reservations; Hannibal will drive people crazy! No, I need to go back and hold a meeting, borrow people from other game teams. Once Hannibal launches, we’ll immediately start replicating the scenes.”

During this time, the scene constructors under Zhang Xin’s command were almost depleted of spiritual power from replicating the Ghost Bride dungeon. They simply had no spare capacity to create another Hannibal, so he had to find a way to borrow people from elsewhere.

With that, Zhang Xin prepared to go offline, but before leaving, he chugged the rest of the milk tea in his hand.

Tong Yu had nothing to do, so he also logged off. With time on his hands, he made himself some afternoon tea and then packed a parcel for the research institute. Little Fatty sent the parcel; the original owner used to send things to Sheng Jing frequently, so Little Fatty knew the address.

—-

At the research institute, Sheng Jing had been working day and night for several days. While others were experiencing mental breakdowns and splitting headaches, he was still connecting to the main brain with his spiritual power. Eventually, the director forcibly dragged him out, saying, “Even if your mind is fine, your body needs rest.”

Sheng Jing woke up after a nap and received the parcel from Tong Yu.

He unwrapped it to find a box of food he’d never seen before and a cup of a drink.

It wasn’t honey pomelo tea.

*Ding!* His light-brain simultaneously received a message from Tong Yu: [These are homemade sponge cakes and milk tea. Hope you like them. P.S. The scene construction is complete, thanks for your help.]

Sheng Jing picked up a cake, took a bite, and a rich sweetness spread from his tongue all the way to his spiritual sea. It felt as if every cell in his body was gently caressed.

He then took a sip of the milk tea; it was warm, sweet, and doubly delicious.

‘The milk tea must be better than the honey pomelo tea, right?’