Han Jiao had never been so terrified. Screaming, she tried to leap up and push away the suddenly moving Hu Jizu, but when people were truly afraid, their bodies betrayed them. She was frozen stiff, unable to move.

It was pitch-black in the coffin, the air thick with the stench of rotting flesh, and behind her, a corpse was stirring. After her initial screams, Han Jiao’s mind went blank. It wasn’t until the hand that had wrapped around her waist slowly crept up to her shoulder that she finally snapped out of her paralysis.

If there had been a mirror, if there had been light, Han Jiao would have seen that her face was no longer pale, but ashen. Her beautiful eyes were wide with terror. She ripped Hu Jizu’s hand off her and kicked him into the corner.

She could clearly feel the rotting flesh beneath her foot, but she couldn’t scream anymore. Only tears streamed down her face.

The coffin was so small, and her frantic struggles had used up even more oxygen. After kicking Hu Jizu away, she started to feel breathless.

There was barely any air left.

She was going to suffocate in here.

And her golden clock had run out of resets, so she couldn’t rewind time.

She was going to die.

And she’d be trapped in a coffin with that disgusting man, buried as his wife.

Realizing this, Han Jiao couldn’t calm down. She started to struggle again.

She couldn’t do anything; she couldn’t use her items. It was like they had all stopped working.

Logic told her to stay calm, to avoid using up the little air left, but how could she?

Outside, Qin Guoan and Qiu Yuanzhi saw the coffin shaking. They knew the bride inside was struggling, but the coffin was so cramped. Even if she struggled, she would soon suffocate and be quiet.

Their mission had failed. They didn’t know who had succeeded and left, so they were all going to die.

Qin Guoan watched the slowly quieting red coffin, its crimson color looking even more sinister in the moonlight.

Professor Huang had come out too.

He hadn’t helped search for the bride, but he watched the “bridal chamber” rituals, taking notes.

All the Shangyang villagers were celebrating, cheering every time the coffin shook.

“Young Master Hu is pleased with his bride.”

“The bride is blessed!”

“The bride is happy!”

“Young Master Hu is happy to have a wife, hee hee hee!”

Qin Guoan and Qiu Yuanzhi had encountered “those things” earlier and were injured. Qin Guoan was holding a blood-soaked bandage.

They stared at the trembling coffin. Finally, Qin Guoan cursed and kicked aside the celebrating villagers. He pulled out a military knife and charged toward the nailed-shut coffin.

“Stop! Police!”

He yelled at the villagers and then called to Qiu Yuanzhi, “Help me!”

Qiu Yuanzhi, surprised by Qin Guoan’s actions, hesitated, then threw down his things and ran to help, swearing under his breath.

…The mission had failed anyway.

If they were going to die regardless, what was the harm in saving the innocent Zaoya from the coffin? They were men, after all. They had done what they had to for the mission, but now that it was over, why hold back?

But as Qin Guoan and Qiu Yuanzhi tried to rescue “Zaoya” from the coffin, the Shangyang villagers wouldn’t allow these outsiders to disturb the “bridal chamber”. They swarmed around them.

The cheering villagers now surrounded Qin Guoan and Qiu Yuanzhi with blank expressions.

“Don’t let them disturb my son’s happiness!”

Mr. Hu stood at the front, his face equally emotionless.

“Damn it.”

“Damn it.”

“Outsiders deserve to die.”

At that moment, Huo Yu and Lu Lu, who had rushed back to tell the others about Wen Renxi, arrived. They were shocked to see Qin Guoan and Qiu Yuanzhi being attacked.

These villagers were not normal humans!

Qin Guoan, trapped, saw Huo Yu and Lu Lu and shouted to them.

“Someone cleared the dungeon! The mission failed! Save the person in the coffin!”

Upon hearing that someone had cleared the dungeon and their mission had failed, Huo Yu and Lu Lu’s faces went blank.

They had failed.

And it was a team-wipe dungeon.

Knowing they were all going to be buried here, and hearing Qin Guoan’s words, Huo Yu and Lu Lu quickly realized what he was trying to do.

If they were going to die anyway, they might as well save someone, die with a little peace.

After all, their original mission was to bring Zaoya back to Mr. Hu to die, and they had been working towards that. Now that it was pointless…

Lu Lu thought of Zaoya, her tearful face flashing in her mind. She grabbed a stick and started hitting the villagers, urging Huo Yu to help.

The coffin was still shaking, meaning the bride was alive. They had to open it before she suffocated.

At that moment, the players who had been trying to capture Zaoya just an hour ago were united in their goal.

But there were only four of them, while all the Shangyang villagers had gathered at the Hu’s.

They couldn’t reach the shaking red coffin.

As time passed, the shaking gradually weakened.

Han Jiao felt like she was trapped in a tiny space with the writhing Hu Jizu. There was no light, no sound, and she was dizzy, stars flashing before her eyes. The pain of suffocation made her claw at the coffin walls, making grating sounds.

She felt her nails break.

Time seemed to stretch endlessly.

She was going to die.

Realizing this, Han Jiao became ruthless. Instead of pushing away the crawling Hu Jizu, she grabbed his arms and kicked him.

The violent movements made her feel even worse, her limbs cramping, but the effect was significant.

Mr. Hu had prepared a large coffin for his son, afraid he would be uncomfortable. This space now worked to Han Jiao’s advantage.

She was holding Hu Jizu’s rotting arm, and the armless Hu Jizu had been kicked to the other side of the coffin.

Throwing away the arm, Han Jiao lunged at Hu Jizu.

Summer accelerated the corpse’s decay, and though it had been treated, the flesh was soft and easily torn. Otherwise, Han Jiao wouldn’t have been able to rip off his arm.

This was Han Jiao’s final act of desperation.

Didn’t Mr. Hu love his son? She would make sure he didn’t rest in peace!

The red coffin, which had almost stopped moving, started shaking violently again. The villagers, blocking the four players, cheered.

They had no idea that the bride was tearing off the groom’s arms, legs, and feet, limb by limb, like a rag doll.

Han Jiao’s mind was fading; she acted on pure instinct.

Qin Guoan and the others were still trying to break through. Seeing the coffin’s movement weaken again, he knew the bride was dying. Anger flared up.

He wasn’t a cop; he was a chef before entering the nightmare world.

But he had served in the military for years and couldn’t stand this. If he hadn’t known this was a nightmare world, he never would have accepted this mission.

While Qin Guoan and the others were fighting, the entire mountain was plunged into darkness. The bright moon hid behind the clouds, and the stars vanished. The only light left was in Shangyang Village.

The darkness surrounded the forest, rapidly approaching the village, as if the mountain itself was restless.

“Hurry! The bride is dying!” Qin Guoan shouted. Lu Lu and the others heard him, but they couldn’t break through the villagers.

Running footsteps sounded in the distance.

Wen Renxi, without any items, had to cross half the village to reach the Hu’s, unlike Huo Yu and Lu Lu, who had rushed back to share information. She was much slower.

Even though she had suspected Han Jiao had been captured and taken to the Hu’s, and had come immediately, it still took time.

Seeing the chaos at the Hu’s and hearing Qin Guoan’s shout, she knew Han Jiao was in the red coffin.

And she had been in there for a while.

Realizing the urgency, Wen Renxi ran forward, pulling her butcher knife from her waist. With her left hand, she fired Han Jiao’s hidden blade, which stuck into a tree outside the Hu’s.

The blade retracted, pulling Wen Renxi through the air.

Mid-flight, Wen Renxi released the blade, landing lightly on a villager’s shoulder, using it as a springboard to flip over the crowd. She landed by the red coffin and kicked the lid.

The coffin was solid wood and heavy, but Wen Renxi was confident she could kick the lid off. But to her surprise, it didn’t budge.

Qin Guoan, seeing Wen Renxi arrive, shouted a reminder.

“It’s nailed shut! Pry the nails first!”

It was a custom.

Coffins weren’t sealed at first. Although nails were used, they weren’t fully sealed. Usually, they waited until the deceased’s partner died, and then they were buried together, and the coffin was sealed.

In this special case, for the Shangyang villagers, the snow bride and her husband were to be buried together, so the coffin was sealed. It wasn’t easy for Wen Renxi to open it.

Hearing Qin Guoan, and seeing the red coffin had fallen silent, Wen Renxi focused, channeling her strength into her right hand. She took a deep breath and swung her knife at the coffin.

There were several types of butcher knives. Wen Renxi’s was a bone cleaver, used to chop large bones. It looked heavy, like an axe, but much larger.

With all her strength, she struck the solid wood coffin, which couldn’t withstand the force. Wen Renxi split it open from the foot end.

Han Jiao, inside, was barely conscious.

Wen Renxi’s strike allowed air in. She wedged her knife under the lid, and with both hands, pried it open. The nailed-shut lid flew off, revealing Han Jiao curled inside.

The lid landed at Mr. Hu’s feet, and he screeched, his face contorted.

“Stop her! Kill her! She ruined my son and daughter-in-law’s happiness! Kill this outsider!”

The players: “…”

They hadn’t expected this seemingly harmless girl to be so fierce.

No one doubted the coffin’s material; it was solid, heavy, and nailed shut. Yet, Wen Renxi had pried it open without touching the nails.

Only Huo Yu and Lu Lu weren’t surprised.

This was an awakened nightmare native!

They even suspected Wen Renxi was the dungeon’s greatest danger. Once someone completed the mission, she would kill all the players who had helped.

Earlier, Qin Guoan and the others had been blocked from the coffin, but now the situation was reversed. The villagers tried to attack Wen Renxi, but Qin Guoan and the others held them back.

However, just as they couldn’t reach the coffin before, they couldn’t stop the enraged villagers now. Several broke through, lunging like demons.

They truly wanted to kill Wen Renxi for disrupting their traditions.

Wen Renxi scoffed. She had no time to fight; Han Jiao was in a bad state, having suffocated for too long. She had to get her out quickly.

And Wen Renxi believed the pampered young lady wouldn’t want to stay with Hu Jizu’s rotting corpse.

Moreover, these villagers had crossed Wen Renxi’s line.

Last time, Zaoya had escaped, and Wen Renxi hadn’t drawn her knife due to the modern setting. But this time was different.

Wen Renxi, no longer holding back her anger and rage, swung her knife, swift as a ghost. In a matter of seconds, several villagers lay dead on the ground.

After dealing with them, Wen Renxi turned back, one foot in the coffin, one on the edge, and lifted the unconscious Han Jiao out.

The fresh air revived Han Jiao. She opened her eyes to see herself on the ground, Wen Renxi kneeling beside her.

Her nose was still red from crying.

Han Jiao stared blankly, speechless, as if she had lost her mind. She wore the white wedding gown, and there was still rotting flesh under her nails.

Was the young lady scared out of her wits?

“Are you okay?”

Wen Renxi asked, worried.

She hoped the lack of oxygen hadn’t damaged her brain!

That wouldn’t be easy to fix.

Han Jiao still stared blankly, while behind Wen Renxi, a villager charged, swinging an axe.

Wen Renxi didn’t turn, her knife flying backward, hitting the villager’s chest. She then touched Han Jiao’s forehead. “Are you really out of it?”

The warm, dry hand on her forehead brought Han Jiao back. She abruptly sat up, throwing her arms around Wen Renxi’s neck and sobbing.

She was terrified.

Wen Renxi paused, sighing inwardly, and gently patted Han Jiao’s back, comforting her trembling body.

Thank goodness, she hadn’t crashed, just needed a reboot.