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Chapter 914 Mom, I'm not coming home for dinner tonight.

"Oh, I see. I thought you were together since you were so close together from a distance. That guy was really strange; he ran away as soon as he saw people. If he had noticed you were there earlier, he would have run away much sooner."

"Of course he won't notice me," Anzhitinglan thought to herself.

After being pulled into a special instance and seeing the list of players who set the rules, An Zhitinglan realized that Gu Mian's team had also entered the instance—that Guigu and Fatty were part of her previous plan to fight seven people at once.

To be honest, she didn't expect to run into Gu Mian and her group again in such a short time. Of course, they haven't met yet, but since they're all in the same instance, it's only a matter of time before they meet again.

Moreover, her name was on the list provided by the dungeon, and Gu Mian and her group knew that the evil villain An Zhitinglan was also there as soon as they saw the list.

Whether Gu Mian came to Anzhitinglan was uncertain. The information provided for this instance was vague, and it didn't specify whether only the players on the list had entered. She suspected that Gu Mian's team included more than just Guigu and Fatty; there was a high probability that Gu Mian was also there.

She didn't want to reunite with Gu Mian like old friends, so she used a special item to conceal her identity the moment she saw him.

Mantis Glasses

[Introduction: "Shh—see that cicada? Tell Mom I'm not coming home for dinner tonight. Oops! Someone drooled on my head, how disgusting… Tell Mom I'm not coming home for dinner tonight…"]

—A comment from an anonymous user who was snatched away by a sparrow for laughing too loudly.

[Function: Like the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. Wearing these mantis glasses developed by Toy Goose will automatically trigger "selective blindness and deafness" on players within a 180° radius directly in front of you. No matter what amazing feats you perform, your opponents won't be able to spot you. Mom no longer has to worry about me getting caught while sneaking up on someone!]

To allow all Mantis players to focus on ambushing, the Mantis Glasses will automatically reduce the noise of any player within a 180° radius behind them—including but not limited to footsteps, snarling, drooling, and teammates frantically shouting "Run!" warnings.

For every three cicadas caught, the user gains one use of the "Mantis Glasses". The user currently has 2 uses remaining.

Each time a user puts on the "Mantis Glasses," it consumes one use. There is no time limit for each use; the use ends when the user turns around or removes the glasses. (Catching cicadas is risky; use with caution.)

This cicada-catching item is for real cicadas. Whether inside or outside the instance, catching three cicadas will grant you one additional use. When Anzhi Tinglan obtained this special item, summer had already passed. Fortunately, she encountered a summer instance and caught over a dozen cicadas while escaping for her life.

She entered the instance near this intersection and was drawn to the glowing claw machine. But before she could get closer, she saw a dim flashlight beam in an abandoned supermarket across the aisle with a sign that read "Guochun Supermarket," indicating that someone was inside.

Anzhi Tinglan immediately turned off her flashlight and used a special item called "Mantis Glasses" to conceal herself, unwilling to risk being caught by Gu Mian.

Fortunately, there was a glowing claw machine in front of her, so turning off the flashlight wouldn't plunge her into complete darkness.

From a distance, she could only see blurry, indistinct figures in the supermarket, unable to make out their faces. The figure took a few steps toward them and then stopped, seemingly having also noticed the claw machine and observing it from a distance.

Thanks to the man's few steps forward, Anzhi Tinglan was able to get a general idea of ​​his figure.

"It's not Gu Mian," she thought to herself, looking at the person of medium height and slightly broad build.

Although it wasn't Gu Mian, judging from the man's behavior, he was very cautious and might be a member of Gu Mian's small group. However, she remembered that among the people she had seen in the apartment last time, there didn't seem to be anyone of this build.

Anzhi Tinglan wasn't sure how many people were in Gu Mian's group. The person she saw last time was probably not the whole group, and this person might be a member of Gu Mian's group that she had never met before.

The person observed from a distance for a long time before continuing to walk this way, heading towards the claw machine. Anzhi Tinglan, not wanting to approach the strange claw machine rashly, decided to stay and observe what would happen next.

As the person drew closer, the darkness surrounding them was dispelled by the light emitted from the machine, and she finally saw them clearly.

He was a middle-aged man around forty years old, with a calm demeanor and wearing frameless glasses. An Zhitinglan watched him slowly approach and stop in front of the claw machine.

She wasn't close enough to the man to see his player information.

Anzhi Tinglan originally wanted to take a few steps forward to take a look, but if she got any closer, she would be too close to the claw machine, and if something happened, she wouldn't have time to escape.

She planned to observe the claw machine for a while to make sure there was nothing wrong with it before going forward to observe the man.

But before Anzhi Tinglan could step forward, she saw the person next to the claw machine suddenly turn their head towards her.

Her first thought was that the other person had spotted her, but the Mantis Glasses were still on her head. Anzhi Tinglan immediately realized that the person wasn't looking at her, but at what was behind her.

There was something behind her...

The man in front of her didn't run away immediately, but just stared at her, while An Zhitinglan didn't hear any sound coming from behind her.

The Mantis Glasses only block out sounds made by the player; if a ghost approaches from behind her, she can hear its voice.

Moreover, judging from the middle-aged man's reaction, what was approaching from behind was probably not something dangerous, but most likely another player.

Other players might not be a threat to this man, but they might be a different story for her, especially if it were Gu Mian...

Thinking of this, An Zhitinglan immediately darted to a side where the man couldn't see her and removed the [Mantis Glasses] she was wearing. As soon as she took off the glasses, she heard the voices of two people who were treating the dungeon like their own living room—

"Huh? What's that green-glowing box up ahead of the intersection?"

"Did you see that? There's someone next to that green light."

The sound was so loud that even an eighty-year-old who was hard of hearing could hear it immediately.

Fortunately, neither of the two voices was Gu Mian's, and judging from their intelligence, they didn't seem to be members of Gu Mian's gang.

Then, what happened earlier happened: the man in front of the claw machine ran away, and he joined up with the two idiots.

"Hey!" Sweetie Seven suddenly exclaimed, "Look, that glowing thing up ahead is a claw machine! The name of this instance is related to claw machines, and we even designed a certain number of... something..."

As she spoke, she strode eagerly to the claw machine, pressing her face against the glass box to peer inside.

Anzhi Tinglan looked at the person who was almost pressed their face against the glass of the claw machine. This person was really skilled and daring, directly sticking to the claw machine when they saw it.

I really don't know how these two survived the previous dungeons. Not only did they survive, but they also developed such confident personalities. Gu Mian doesn't even have that kind of confidence.

If the two weren't still of use to An Zhitinglan, she would have turned and left long ago. She also wanted to ask about the number of grappling hooks and the number of obstacles on the third layer.

As she was thinking, Liu Liu Da Shun beside her also quickly went to the claw machine, and the light emitted by the claw machine enveloped the two of them.

"Why are all these green dolls in here? They look like... green dog dolls?" Sweetie Xiaoqi, who was the first to arrive at the claw machine, stared at the glass box and questioned.

Anzhi Tinglan didn't get close to the claw machine just now, so she didn't see the style of the dolls inside clearly.

Now that we're closer, we can see her clearly...

The style was very familiar; the moment she saw them, she felt as if she had seen these dolls somewhere before.

Upon seeing it a second time, she remembered.

I saw him at Gu Mian's house.

On the night she came down from the Upside-Down City and was unfortunately arrested by Gu Mian, she saw a green dog doll in the corridor of Gu Mian's apartment.

The plush toy was about the size of a small dog, entirely green except for its white belly, with the word "Limited Edition" written in gold on its forehead. It was a plush toy in a sleeping position, and no one knew who had left it in the hallway.

The plush toy in the claw machine was exactly the same as the one she had encountered in Gu Mian's apartment, except that it didn't have the golden "Limited Edition" words on its forehead.

what happened?

A huge question filled An Zhitinglan's mind. Gu Mian already had the doll that could only be obtained in this instance. Could it be that someone in their group had been to this instance?
Before she could think about it further, Sweetie Xiaoqi started talking to herself again.

"This claw machine is really strange... no, it's actually quite normal. Except for the fact that the plush toys inside are too green, everything else is strangely normal. I thought the claw machines in this dungeon would be the kind that are old, spooky, and have bloody handprints printed on the outside... Also, Brother Da Shun, do you remember the number of things we set when we entered the dungeon? It doesn't seem to match up."

It's clear that Little Seven has forgotten what quantity she set for something, and can't even remember its name now.

Anzhi Tinglan felt her forehead throb twice; she hadn't felt this irritable in a long time.

Perhaps because the name "Da Shun Ge" sounded a bit rustic, Liu Liu Da Shun coughed awkwardly before speaking: "I remember, I set the number of claws and plush toys to be the same, but the number of claws and plush toys in this claw machine is different from what I set..."

Anzhi Tinglan stood two meters away from the claw machine, listening expressionlessly. Well, now there's no need to bother asking. It seems these two will reveal the information themselves.

She waited for Liu Liu Da Shun to finish speaking, and once she understood the number of things the two people had set up, she turned and left.

Liu Liu Da Shun continued, "You set the number of 'two layers of obstacles,' if I remember correctly it should be..."

Upon hearing this, Anzhi Tinglan took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

If either of them had even the slightest inclination to use their rusty brains, they would have remembered that the "number of obstacles on the second level" was set by a player named "岸芷汀兰," while Sweetheart Xiaoqi was likely responsible for setting the "number of obstacles on the third level."

Perhaps Anzhi Tinglan's prayers had worked, because Liu Liu Dashun's brain trembled slightly—"The number of obstacles on the second layer... no, I seem to have remembered it wrong, Xiao Qi, you set the number of obstacles on the third layer."

Speaking of this, Liu Liu Da Shun, his sluggish senses finally realized something was wrong. Perhaps the "number of obstacles on the second level" had touched a nerve. He finally reacted and looked at An Zhi Ting Lan: "I remember now, did you set the number of obstacles on the second level?"

You finally remembered?
Anzhi Tinglan originally thought that these two people would remember her name the moment they saw it, but she didn't expect that she had overestimated their intelligence.

"Hmm... I set it up. As soon as I entered the dungeon, a prompt appeared asking me to set the number of second-level obstacles, saying that it couldn't exceed five. I didn't know what this was, and it didn't give any other information, so I just randomly set it to four."

At this moment, Little Seven chimed in: "Me too. When I was setting the number of obstacles, it also said that the number of obstacles on each floor could not exceed five."

"How many did you set up?" This was what Anzhi Tinglan cared about most.

“Zero.” Sweetie Seven looked at Anzhi Tinglan with a disapproving expression. “‘Obstacles’ are obviously meant to hinder our claw machine games, so the fewer the better. The four you set is too many.”

Zero...

Hearing the number set by Sweetheart Xiaoqi, Anzhitinglan felt a sense of suffocation.

The exact effect of "obstacles" is still uncertain; they might be beneficial to the player, so setting them to zero is too hasty. The ideal number of "Orchids on the Shore" is a middle number, two or three.

Her face twitched, and she turned her gaze to Liu Liu Da Shun: "And you, Da Shun, what did you set for the number of claws and dolls? How many did you set?"

"When I set it up, it told me that the number of claws and the number of plush toys must be the same and cannot exceed ten. Of course, I set it to the maximum of ten. The more claws there are, the easier it is to catch plush toys. The more plush toys there are, the more we can catch."

"But this claw machine isn't what we designed at all. There's only one claw, and there aren't even ten plush toys. There aren't any three-layer or two-layer obstacles either. It's really strange... Wait, where are you going?"

As Liu Liu Da Shun was speaking, he saw An Zhi Ting Lan turn around with a changed expression and walk away without looking back. He hurriedly asked her what was wrong, but she seemed not to hear him and strode forward.

Her dim flashlight beam was no brighter than Liu Liu Da Shun and Tian Xin Xiao Qi's; it was like white paint dripping into a black pool, and soon it completely blurred into the darkness.

"What's wrong with her all of a sudden? Could she be possessed?" Sweetie Seven watched the figure disappear into the darkness.

Liu Liu Da Shun was also completely baffled. He stared at the direction An Zhi Ting Lan had left in for a while, and decided that since he couldn't catch up with her anyway, he might as well do what was in front of him first: "Let's study this claw machine first. I played claw machines before the global game started. You need to insert coins to win a prize, but we don't have any coins to insert right now."

"So we need to find some tokens for the claw machine first? But are the plush toys in there really any good? This claw machine is completely different from the one we set up." Sweetheart Seven was skeptical of the machine in front of her.

"Let's go find some game tokens first. While we're looking for tokens, let's also see if there are any other claw machines here. I think there should be more than one claw machine here."
"There are no other clues right now. The only thing that can be connected to the information given in the dungeon is the claw machine. We can only follow the clues from the claw machine. Wasn't it the same with the two dungeons we cleared before? We found a small clue and followed it to easily find the way to clear the dungeon."

At this point, Liu Liuda Shun's expression became proud.

He led everyone through the first two dungeons, so if he applies the experience from those two dungeons, he'll definitely be able to clear this one smoothly as well.

Sweetie Seven also thought of Six Six's outstanding performance in the previous two dungeons, and couldn't help but feel more confident: "That's right, the dungeons aren't difficult at all. I used to think these dungeons were terrifying and dangerous. No wonder those people didn't let us into the dungeons, they must be afraid that we would find out that the dungeons are actually so easy after we came in..."

Goodbye, Gugu! I'm setting sail tonight. Don't worry about me, I have the keyboard of joy and wisdom~