Everyone watched Gu Chenhui nervously, his life or death hanging on whether he could stand up again.
Just as the iron cage was about to approach the furnace, Gu Chenhui finally moved. He rolled sideways with all his might, kicked away the person torturing him, and a wild grin curved his lips.
"You want to defeat me? Ridiculous!" he said, throwing a punch with undiminished force, as if his injuries were insignificant. "In my dictionary, there are no such words as failure!"
As Gu Chenhui defeated one opponent, the iron cage began to ascend. Mo Xiao couldn't help but exclaim, "Is this… still human?"
"Yes," Gao Zhenli said, watching Gu Chenhui duel, momentarily forgetting her fear. "He probably doesn't have a single healthy spot left on his body, does he? A normal person would surely be unable to move by now. Yet he…"
"Do you wish he couldn't move?" Gong Liang asked abruptly.
Gao Zhenli turned to look at Gong Liang and replied with lowered eyes, "Of course not. But even if he loses, we…"
"Remember this scene," Gong Liang interrupted Gao Zhenli, looking at her with profound meaning in his eyes. "It will be good for you."
"You…" Gao Zhenli didn't understand what Gong Liang meant, but she wasn't in the mood to argue with him. Unconcerned by his implied meaning, she let her gaze return to Gu Chenhui.
Fighting on the dueling platform was one man, but he possessed a non-human will. Though his body was covered in gruesome wounds, he fought like a fierce tiger, knocking down his enemies one by one.
In Gao Zhenli's heart, only one question remained: How was this person doing it?
"Victory!"
After the last opponent fell, the iron cage quickly ascended to the platform. The cage door opened, and You Mi was the first to rush out, taking off the retractable medical kit hanging from her body as she ran, hurrying onto the dueling platform at top speed.
"Gu Chenhui! Hang on!"
After only four stages, almost everyone was covered in scars. Gu Chenhui was now half-dead, and You Mi was doing her best to save her comrade.
Chi Hao had already stepped forward to assist You Mi.
Ke Wuwen had also woken up. He had successfully missed the earlier drama, only to see the gruesome sight of Gu Chenhui.
Ke Wuwen had intended to help, but Tong Zheng stopped him. "Stay put and don't cause trouble."
As the surrounding environment began to distort, everyone was accustomed to such changes. They just didn't know whose turn it would be next, and if that person could hold on until the end.
A snow mountain reappeared, but the snow was no longer white; its color was now more pronounced.
The same question arose in everyone's minds: it seemed that the more injuries a player sustained in a stage, the deeper the color became. Would they only be able to pass the dungeon when this snow completely turned red? And how much blood would it take to dye it?
The temperature on the snow mountain was very low, yet You Mi was already sweating profusely.
They had expected the next stage to appear soon, but even after You Mi finished treating Gu Chenhui's wounds, they were still on the snow mountain, with no change in their surroundings. Sudan Novel Network
"This is…" Tong Zheng said with a wry smile, "a mid-game break?"
"No," Gong Liang interjected, "Hao Yu is not here."
Upon hearing this, others also looked around. Indeed, Hao Yu was nowhere to be seen.
"Could it be…" Gao Zhenli shivered, biting her already blue lips and struggling to speak, "that this time, we won't see the person challenging the stage? In that case, will their victory or defeat still affect our lives?"
Mo Xiao, ignoring his injuries, rubbed his hands and arms. "It definitely will. Don't you feel it? The temperature is getting lower and lower. Even after You Mi treated our burns for so long, the perceived temperature didn't drop this quickly."
As Mo Xiao said this, those who hadn't noticed it before began to feel it clearly. They wondered if it was just a psychological suggestion, or if the temperature was truly dropping so rapidly.
Lü Bin, shivering, could no longer form complete sentences. "I don't know what's happening with Hao Yu. I really don't want to… turn into an ice sculpture."
"What's worse is that we can't see his progress at all. It feels like our fate, whether we live or die, is entirely up to chance."
The few of them began to instinctively huddle together. Regardless of Hao Yu's situation, for now, they had to ensure they didn't freeze to death.
Inside the stage, Hao Yu looked at the victim's photos and a stack of case files laid out before him. His body trembled uncontrollably because the case he was facing was the greatest shadow of his life.
After the first victim was murdered, he had failed to find the killer in time, allowing the perpetrator to kill six more people, including his own sister.
Not only that, but he had failed to bring the killer to justice even after entering the City of Death.
The familiar interrogation room, the familiar scene, the familiar colleagues, the familiar sense of despair.
"Captain, what are you spacing out for?" A colleague nudged Hao Yu. "The seventh victim appeared yesterday. Didn't you say you wanted to see all the files?"
"Yes, Captain," another colleague added. "Do you have any new ideas?"
"Captain, we have to hurry. We can't let him keep killing."
"And the higher-ups have warned us that if another victim appears, we'll all be out of a job."
His colleagues chattered around him, but only Hao Yu knew that if a ninth victim appeared, it wouldn't just be about losing his job. Death awaited him, and his nine other companions, suffering somewhere unknown, would also die because of his failure.
Hao Yu slammed his palm on the table, silencing the voices around him.
"All of you, out. Leave me alone."
His colleagues filed out of the interrogation room one by one. Hao Yu let out a long sigh. After a moment, he forced himself to analyze the pile of documents on the table.
After reviewing them all, he confirmed that everything was there, nothing missing, all of it things he had painstakingly compiled himself.
This showed that the system knew everything about each of their lives, down to the smallest detail.
In the outside world, even though he had compiled these clues, due to his sister's death, he had never been able to analyze them calmly. He knew that being swayed by emotions was detrimental to solving the case, yet he couldn't control himself.
Hao Yu clutched the documents in his hand and let out a bitter laugh. "I truly am a failure."
Despite this self-deprecation, Hao Yu knew clearly that whether he was a failure in the outside world or not, here, he absolutely could not afford to fail.
He could not die here. He had to successfully leave the City of Death. He still had to go out and catch the killer who had taken his sister's life, and make that person pay the price they deserved!
"Click!"
The interrogation room light suddenly flickered, and a countdown timer appeared on the wall in front of him.
So, besides the limit on the number of victims, there was also a time limit. He didn't have much time left, and he had to stop the killer within this limited period.