Chapter 32: Cold Heart (1)

The door number reads No. 37, Chang’an Street.

The two copper doors were sealed with yellow seals, which showed signs of looseness, as if they had been dragged by someone. There was a sign in bright red font at the door saying “No Entry”.

Lin Sheng looked around and saw that it was deserted. There were no players entering at the same time as usual. This meant that he was the lucky one who was selected to enter the special limited-time dungeon.

Sure enough, when he opened the system message, the prompt was marked at the front.

[You have entered the limited-time dungeon: Cold Heart]

[The location of this dungeon is: Wax Museum, No. 37, Chang’an Street]

[This dungeon is limited to 6 hours, and the rules of the game are unknown]

[Your identity is: Private Detective]

Limited-time dungeons have appeared many times in the game Ember. From the initial black and white puzzle to the present, the concept of limited-time dungeons has been mastered by many people.

At a certain time point, players who choose to start the game in a random dungeon have a chance to be drawn into a limited-time dungeon. Although this time point is uncertain, many players who like challenges will carefully calculate the time when the next limited-time dungeon appears and wait in real time.

The rules of this limited-time dungeon have gradually been completed by those players who have challenged it. They have created a limited-time dungeon strategy post to communicate and help each other.

Lin Sheng has of course seen this post. At first, he had no interest in this challenging dungeon, but he saw an acquaintance in the post, Qi Ming.

The two greeted each other in a friendly manner and added each other as friends. In the subsequent chat, Qi Ming talked about how he participated in the first limited-time dungeon and met Bai You there by coincidence.

Lin Sheng was in a trance for a moment.

He had not been able to add Bai You’s contact information before, and he had been thinking about it all the time. He thought that there were so many people in the game that he would never meet her again, so he asked Qi Ming.

But he heard Qi Ming say this.

[I don’t have her contact information. Oh, I saw that the girl was playing seriously, so I thought I would add her as a friend after the game was over, but she was killed by the dungeon boss in the middle of the game. 】

So Lin Sheng had to give up, but he kept in mind that there was a very dangerous dungeon boss in the limited-time dungeon, and he took a closer look at the posts about this later.

This extra look made him see the information he cared about.

[It’s so annoying. I saw the silver-gray-haired girl again this time, but I just greeted her and didn’t say a few words before I ran into the dungeon boss again and died immediately.]

[It’s so funny, you really dare to pick up girls in this game? This is a horror game, and the people who come to play are either couples or big guys who pick their feet in the name of cute girls. Where do you get your confidence? 】

[You can’t say that, maybe she is really a girl? To be honest, even if she is a man, I would still…]

[Damn… a gay man is next to me]

Silver-gray hair color is not common, at least Lin Sheng has never seen many, so he immediately thought of Bai You. Later, he asked the guy on the forum and compared a lot of information, confirming that it was Bai You.

He also found a lot of information on the forum, and found that many people who had encountered the boss in the limited-time dungeon had seen this girl with silver-gray hair.

Although he didn’t know why Bai You often appeared in the limited-time dungeon, Lin Sheng decided to take a chance and pick a time to see if he could get in.

And the fact proved that his luck was pretty good, he succeeded in getting in on the third try.

[Identity: Private Detective]

[Age: 39]

[Unknown biography]

[Come to the Wax Museum at No. 37 Chang’an Street for some personal reasons]

According to what Qi Ming said before, he couldn’t contact the system or exit the game in that limited-time dungeon, and the difficulty was unimaginable.

However, it may be because the difficulty was set too high at the beginning, and the players had a poor gaming experience and complained a lot. The difficulty of the recent limited-time dungeons has been reduced a lot. The system will inform the player’s identity and time limit, and will also give information based on the player’s exploration level.

It’s just that the rules of the game are still unknown.

Lin Sheng put away the thin identity card, took a breath, and began to check the door of the wax museum.

The sign at the door was tilted, and the yellow seal had faded. It was dragged out by someone to create a gap large enough for one person to pass through. Lin Sheng bent down to see that the dust on the door had just been scratched.

It should be that someone went in not long ago, but I don’t know if this person is a player or an NPC.

Since it is enough for one person to enter, Lin Sheng didn’t intend to move the seal on the door. He had played dungeons many times, and he still remembered very clearly not to touch things.

Suddenly, footsteps came from behind.

Lin Sheng immediately turned around and saw a person walking towards him in the middle of the street. It was drizzling at the moment. She held up a black umbrella and walked slowly and leisurely.

The two of them were getting closer and closer until she stood under the eaves. Lin Sheng was still a little unbelievable and just stared at her in a daze.

He had thought that he would see her in the dungeon. This was what he was looking forward to and why he came here. But he didn’t expect to see her, no, should I say that he saw her so early? Not really…

He didn’t know what he was talking about.

Bai You took the umbrella and casually folded it and threw it aside. Anyway, it was a disposable item that would disappear in another world, so she didn’t need to care.

She had been trapped in the game for, well, countless times. After all, the time in the game was difficult to calculate. If the time she experienced in the game was compared with the real world, it would be about a year.

But in reality, only two short months had passed in reality.

As time went by and she experienced more dungeons, Bai You had no interest in the players in the dungeons. She could even be described as indifferent.

Feeling the burning gaze of the player next to her, Bai You just frowned and walked straight to the wax museum without saying anything.

“Bai You?”

Seeing that Bai You didn’t seem to see him, Lin Sheng tried to call out her name.

He was a little nervous. After all, they just met by chance in a game two months ago. It was normal that she couldn’t remember it.

Bai You stopped.

Except for a few players she met when she played the game in the early days, she had never told anyone her name. After careful identification, the face was indeed familiar, but she couldn’t remember the name.

So she nodded politely, “Hello.”

Lin Sheng laughed, his pretty face slightly red. He could see that she might not remember him clearly. He scratched his head to help her out, “I am Lin Sheng. We played together in a dungeon two months ago. Long time no see.”

Bai You’s memory came back a little. Thinking back, this dungeon was the beginning of her nightmare. She met that person in that dungeon and was trapped in this endless cycle of games ever since.

But the man in front of her was not like those players with ulterior motives. He only knew how to use her. I remember that he was the one who managed to buy her time in the end.

Bai You smiled, “Yeah, long time no see.”

“Hey, there are two more players here!”

A group of young men and women suddenly appeared at the end of the street. There were eight or nine of them and they surrounded the entrance of the wax museum.

“Hello.”

“Hello, little brother!”

“You guys got here so fast, huh? Has anyone gone in yet?”

Lin Sheng thought these were probably random players who came in, but he didn’t know how they got together in such a short time. They might be social experts, but he couldn’t do that.

Lin Sheng politely greeted them one by one and pointed at Bai You, “I don’t know, there were only two of us when I came.”

When he pointed, he realized that Bai You was no longer beside him. Lin Sheng was stunned for a moment, and turned around to look for her. He saw the girl carelessly tearing off the yellow seal on the door and kicking the door in.

Lin Sheng: “…”

Did she act like this before? He seemed to be a little unclear.

The players were also stunned. A male player nudged Lin Sheng with his elbow, “This girl is quite aggressive, newbie?”

Lin Sheng shook his head, “It shouldn’t be, she has participated in many limited-time dungeons. I think she may have her reasons for doing this…”

As he spoke, he himself became a little unsure.

However, since Bai You, as a girl, had already entered first, Lin Sheng didn’t want to lose face in front of the people he cared about, so he followed in and walked quickly to her side.

This wax museum is very large. From the outside, it looks like there are three floors. It is a duplex villa. The house is very dark, dark and cold. As soon as Lin Sheng entered, he felt a piercing cold temperature. He got goosebumps and touched his arm.

On the other hand, Bai You didn’t react much. As if he was used to it, he walked to the wall naturally. The next second, the light came on.

Seeing Lin Sheng standing there stupidly, rubbing his arms, his nose was frozen, Bai You took out a piece of unworn clothes from the inventory and threw it to him.

“This is a wax museum, and the temperature is kept low all year round. Just find the air conditioner and turn it off.”

Lin Sheng unfolded the gorgeous female cape that was completely unlike Bai You’s style, which was embellished with gems. The corners of his mouth twitched, but he didn’t say anything. Knowing that Bai You was kind, he put it on obediently and followed her.

“Where are we going now? This villa is quite big. Are we going to look for clues everywhere now?”

Bai You glanced at him lazily, “That’s what you have to do. I’m not interested in clearing the game.”

Or in other words, her task was not to solve the puzzle and clear the game.

At that time, she asked Si Yu if he had brought her into the game, and he answered no.

Bai You had no reason not to believe him. Because there was no need for him to lie to her, to someone who could be easily controlled.

So she placed her suspicion on the system.

When she still couldn’t connect to the system, Bai You didn’t sit there and wait for death, but made a deal with Si Yu.

After this transaction, the system that had disappeared all the time finally appeared and admitted that she would enter the real game world because of its operation. It said it was sorry, but asked her to stay here and serve as an administrator.

Bai You didn’t want to agree, but she had no choice. She had no conditions for negotiation. As long as the system wanted, she would die quietly in this absurd game in the next second.

Of course, as a sign of sincerity, it also opened up the administrator’s authority to her, so that she could do whatever she wanted in the game.

And now, she was just here to perform the administrator’s tasks.

Author has something to say:

Long time no see! I haven’t updated for a while because of physical reasons. I tried to update a few chapters but my condition was very bad and I didn’t know what I was writing. I have rested for a while and I have been much better recently. I can probably see it from the style of this chapter (?). I will try my best to fill the gap!