"The truly dead" reminded everyone of one thing: the second multiple-choice question they had just faced.
"So that's what it meant!" Tong Zheng sighed, his voice laced with regret. "Damn, I chose wrong."
As Tong Zheng finished speaking, the attendant announced everyone's choices.
Except for Chi Hao and Guan Wei, who had chosen Jing Minghe, everyone else had made a wild array of different selections.
Yue Yang was utterly dejected, his head bowed in silence. He couldn't comprehend how Jing Minghe had managed to extract the necessary clues from such a chaotic mess in such a short time.
He had initially thought he wouldn't need to do anything. He just had to wait for Jing Minghe to make a mistake, and he would smoothly pass. After all, in the plot he knew, Jing Minghe wouldn't have had the time to meticulously sift through the details that would lead him to the correct answer, nor would he have had the opportunity to ask for Chi Hao's help.
"The punishment begins."
The attendant uttered these four words, and the tower doors creaked open.
Yue Yang was lifted by an unseen force and dragged towards the exit. Just as he was about to be pulled out, he abruptly raised his head, which had been hanging low. His gaze fixed on Jing Minghe, filled with resentment and unwillingness. He suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs, "I remember now, Jing Minghe! You're his brother! He's a madman, you... Ah!"
Yue Yang's words were cut short as he was torn to shreds.
After Yue Yang's punishment concluded, the others who had made wrong choices also began to face their penalties. However, Jing Minghe was no longer inclined to care about their punishments. Yue Yang's final words echoed in his ears.
Jing Minghe remained in a daze even after everyone's punishments were over.
A portal of light had appeared. Dragging their weakened bodies, everyone eagerly stumbled into the portal one by one.
Seeing Jing Minghe still lost in thought, Chi Hao grabbed him and pulled him into the portal.
"How could this happen?"
Guan Wei's exclamation managed to draw Jing Minghe's attention back slightly.
Jing Minghe focused his gaze. Aside from Chi Hao, Guan Wei, and himself, who had not been punished, everyone else was sprawled on the ground. However, their location was not the train station leading to the resting area, but a desolate graveyard.
The overgrown weeds in the graveyard couldn't conceal the mounds of earth lying side-by-side. Some even had coffins exposed, while others revealed only bone wrapped in straw mats. Occasionally, a few gravestones stood crookedly, their inscribed characters eroded by time, leaving the names of the deceased unreadable.
The graveyard at night was the most fear-inducing place. The moonlight offered no warmth, instead casting a chilling, eerie glow over everything.
The occasional caw of a crow seemed to herald the approaching hour of death.
"No way?" Tong Zheng managed to catch his breath, wobbling to his feet, his voice nearly a whisper. "Why isn't this the resting area? What is this place?"
You Mi and Yan Xiaoqian supported each other as they stood up. Chen Mu helped Lin Ling, who couldn't stand steadily.
"We... directly entered the next instance," Guan Wei said, his initial shock subsiding into a calm assessment that echoed everyone's unspoken fear.
Tong Zheng asked, bewildered, "Why did this happen?"
No one answered him. No one knew why.
Jing Minghe observed his surroundings carefully. Beside the graveyard, there was a small path leading to an unknown destination. The path was flanked by waist-high weeds. Due to the darkness, they couldn't see where the path led.
"What the heck!" A startled cry came from not far away. "How did we get here? Where's the station? Shouldn't they send us back to the resting area?"
Jing Minghe and the others turned to look. Not far from them, about seven or eight graves away, stood three figures.
"There are people over there!" one of the three said. "I wonder if they're other players."
Another person shouted towards Jing Minghe and his group, "Who are you?"
Tong Zheng raised his hand and waved, gathering his strength to shout back, "We're players who came from the last instance. How about you?"
"Us too."
As the three figures walked towards Jing Minghe and his group, they asked, "Were you also sent here directly after completing the last instance? Do you know what's going on?"
Tong Zheng was still the one to answer, "Who knows? It's so sudden. We thought we could finally go back to the resting area, but after coming out of the portal, it's this lousy place."
Because it was a graveyard, the three cautiously walked around it. Even though they weren't far apart, it took them a while to reach Jing Minghe and his group.
As the trio approached, Jing Minghe and his group noticed that the person walking at the forefront was a young man who appeared to be no older than seventeen or eighteen.
"Hello," the young man stepped forward and shook hands with Tong Zheng, who had initially called out to them. "My name is Ke Wuwen."
He then gestured to the middle-aged man with a small mustache standing to his left. "This elder brother is called Jiang Zheng."
The other was a tall man whose muscles were evident even through his thick clothing. Before Ke Wuwen could introduce him, he spoke up, "My name is Zhang Yu."
After the three introduced themselves, Jing Minghe and his group also offered simple self-introductions.
Jing Minghe was the last. As soon as he said his name, Ke Wuwen suddenly pointed at him, exclaiming, "Idol! It's really you! I admire you so much. Your boxing is amazing. I saw your fights in the underground arena! Super fantastic!"
Jing Minghe raised an eyebrow slightly. "Oh? Is that so? How old are you to have been to the underground arena?"
"I'm already eighteen. My uncle took me to the underground arena before. I really like you, I do. Ever since I saw your fights, I've liked you so, so much."
"...Is that so?"
Tong Zheng looked from Jing Minghe to Ke Wuwen. The admiring gaze in Ke Wuwen's eyes, shining with excitement as he looked at Jing Minghe, made Tong Zheng begin to doubt if they were still in a graveyard.
Seeing Ke Wuwen about to launch into a long fan-boying story with Jing Minghe, Tong Zheng quickly interrupted, posing the most pressing question for them at the moment.
"Um, since we've inexplicably been thrown into a new instance, shouldn't we first try to figure out the situation here?"
Jiang Zheng immediately agreed. "This brother is right. Since we're in an instance, we have to keep looking for clues to clear it."
"Damn," Zhang Yu's face was etched with dissatisfaction. "We just barely escaped the last instance, and we haven't even caught our breath, and now we have to start another one. They're clearly not giving us any room to breathe."
Ke Wuwen smiled but said nothing. He really wanted to chat more with Jing Minghe, but now was clearly not the time. He had to temporarily suppress his excitement.
Guan Wei surveyed their surroundings and then turned to Jing Minghe, asking, "Do you have any ideas?"
Jing Minghe gestured with his chin towards the left. "There's a path over there. Let's follow it and see."