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Chapter 935 "Try Giving It Two More Punches"

"No one resisted?" Guigu asked.

Entering dungeons is extremely dangerous, and people in the base should have objections to being assigned to such dangerous work.

He didn't expect 007 to dare to do such a thing so soon after entering the base.

Isn't this like putting yourself in a hot seat?
"Initially, some people did raise objections..."

Hao Laoshi thought to himself, "Actually, my wife and children were assigned to the logistics team, so they don't know much about the people who went into the dungeon."

"All I know is that the group initially protested, but after Ms. Digital personally led a few people into the instance, those who came out of the instance suddenly changed their tune and helped her persuade others to enter the instance together."

"Later, more and more people were persuaded to enter the instance. She would personally lead the group in first, but strangely, the group did not seem to suffer many casualties. They all changed their tune to the Number Lady and were convinced."
"Later, some people even rushed to enter the dungeon, but I really don't know what the specifics were. The logistics department and the people who entered the dungeon were strictly separated, and they didn't communicate much after they were separated."

Guigu frowned deeply.

Did the group that went into the dungeon suffer few casualties?
This is truly an unbelievable thing.

When they established the Hulu Gorge base, there were nearly fifty people left in the team, and all of them were capable of entering the dungeon.

After establishing the base, they selected some of the more qualified people from among those who had come to join them in entering the instance together.

At its most crowded, the base had nearly three or four hundred people, of whom about sixty or seventy could enter the instance.

However, these dozens of people suffered losses almost every time they entered the dungeon, and there were even cases of total wipeout.

With fewer people able to enter dungeons, the remaining players have to increase their dungeon entry frequency, which in turn increases the rate of death.

This is a vicious cycle with no solution.

Fortunately, the hundreds of people at the base can still do logistical work, grow food, and go out to search for resources to alleviate the survival pressure on the base.

However, the resources produced by the logistics personnel don't even account for a small portion; the majority still depend on the people who enter the dungeon.

But later, fewer and fewer people could enter the instance, while the number of people waiting for supplies remained the same. The base's resources could hardly be replenished.

Later, as temperatures dropped globally, he experienced a winter he had never felt so cold.

Even indoors, water will freeze into hard ice lumps.

If you stick your hands out from under the blanket, they'll feel so cold they'll almost disappear, and you'll just shiver unconsciously.

Many people froze to death in the base.

Some people who were freezing to death tried to escape the cold by entering the dungeon, but never came out.

During that period, they entered the dungeon very frequently, firstly to conserve heating supplies, and secondly to obtain more resources so that others could survive.

The mortality rate also increased significantly. After that harsh winter, the number of people who could enter the dungeon was reduced to only a dozen or so.

During the bitter cold, none of those capable of entering the dungeon froze to death because scarce resources were prioritized for them—this was also Hanshan's choice.

Only by ensuring that those who can enter the instance can resources be available to allow more people to survive.

After the harsh winter, the number of people at the base dwindled to less than one hundred.

So many people died; we should be feeling sad.

But at that time, Guigu inexplicably breathed a sigh of relief. There were fewer people in the base, and the pressure on resources was not so intense.

However, some people in the base were dissatisfied with the decision to prioritize those with abilities during the harsh winter.

These people came with their families, some of whom had died in that cold winter. They could not complain about the harsh weather, so they could only project their resentment onto those they could choose.

The deaths of their relatives and friends were all due to the uneven distribution of resources by the base.

This resentment accumulated day by day, and finally erupted, leading to a large-scale riot by a group of people.

The riot that led to him burning half of his face and losing half of his hand.

After that incident, some more people died in the base, and now the number of people has stabilized at a few dozen. Those who are capable of entering the dungeon are even fewer, including mediocre people like Hao Laoshi who are neither good nor bad.

So he really didn't understand how 007 managed to bring so many inexperienced people into the dungeon and still manage to minimize casualties.

“Besides Sweetheart Seven, there are also Mouse Loves Cat and Six Sixes in the dungeon,” Hao Laoshi thought of the familiar names on the previous list. “Even if we can’t ask Sweetheart Seven, we can still run into other people and maybe we can find out something from the other two.”

Guigu nodded.

That's all we can do now. Let's try to find the other people in the base first.

He analyzed their current location and realized that Sweetie Xiaoqi had been running in a panic, heading straight for the middle of the mall.

This disrupted Guigu and Hao Laoshi's plan to find the stairs along the edge.

He chased too fast and lost his way back, so he simply led Hao Laoshi forward.

They hadn't walked far when they spotted a glass tube-like structure ahead, which upon closer inspection turned out to be an elevator. Guigu hadn't encountered an elevator on the other floors; this was the first time he'd seen one since entering this instance.

Although he didn't report the possibility that the elevator was still powered, he quickly walked over and tried pressing the elevator door switch a few times.

As expected, there was no power.

At this moment, Hao Laoshi, who was standing next to him, suddenly remembered something and said, "By the way, when I met Ren Leshan on the first floor, he told me that he had seen the map of that floor. The map was posted next to the elevator. Mr. Gu, you don't know who Ren Leshan is, do you? He's the man who was with me next to the two-story amusement park before."

Guigu knew about Renle Mountain.

Anzhi Tinglan had told him about this person when they were on the stairs. When he heard the name Renleshan, he felt a strange sense of familiarity.

After going upstairs and seeing Ren Leshan in person, he didn't have that feeling. He felt that he might have heard the name somewhere before but had never met him in person.

As he pondered this, he scanned the area around the elevator with his eyes, trying to see where the map was posted.

He quickly fixed a metal composite board map to the wall next to the elevator door.

However, the drawings on it were covered in dust, and he had to reach out and wipe them to see what the map originally looked like.

"There's a two-story amusement park, so this must be the second or third floor." The two-story amusement park next to the stairs connects the second and third floors. Combined with what Anzhi Tinglan said earlier about the third floor having zero obstacles, we can confirm that this is the second floor.

He continued to look at other parts of the map.

This floor features a two-story playground, a children's sightseeing vehicle rental shop, trampolines, a toy craft shop, an arcade, and other entertainment venues. There's also a very long and narrow area labeled "Happy Time Tunnel" on the map.

It should be a long, narrow tunnel for recreational purposes, with colorful lights and such inside.

One end of the narrow tunnel is not far from the arcade, near the sticky area.

At that time, Guigu was so focused on Sweetie Xiaoqi that he didn't have time to observe his surroundings and therefore didn't see the entrance and exit of the narrow tunnel.

"The elevator is located in the middle of the mall; just follow this direction..."

Guigu compared the store's facilities on the map with the surrounding environment. Although the place was already dirty and messy, he could still barely make out what kind of store it used to be.

“Just follow this direction,” Guigu pointed out based on the direction indicated by the shop, “and you will find the stairs if you keep walking straight ahead.”

The two walked quickly and soon bypassed the mess and closed shops, arriving near the staircases scattered around Renle Mountain.

They could see the two-story amusement park from a great distance.

Just looking at it from a distance, Guigu felt that something was amiss.

Hao Laoshi, who was standing nearby, also had the same feeling. He stopped and looked over there from a distance: "Mr. Gu, don't you think there's something wrong with that amusement park?"

It's not that I think it's dangerous over there.

Guigu took a few more steps forward with his flashlight, stopped at a corner next to a shop to observe what was ahead, and upon closer inspection, he finally understood why he felt something was off.

This is not the second layer at all!

The playground in front of them was the lower part of a two-story playground. On the second floor, they saw the upper part, which was not at the same height. That's why they felt unfamiliar when they saw this two-story area.

Guigu looked up along the spiral slide and saw that it was indeed hollow, with all the rides reaching the next level through the hollow ceiling.

Is this actually the third floor?
Anzhi Tinglan clearly told him that there were no obstacles on the third floor.

In fact, when Anzhi Tinglan told him, he also suspected that she was not telling him the truth.

However, the list provided at the beginning of the dungeon clearly states that the number of obstacles on the third level was set by Sweetheart Seven. Such an extreme number is indeed something Sweetheart Seven would set, which is consistent with her character.

Just as Guigu was hiding in a corner, pondering what was going on, he suddenly heard a sound coming from the stairs.

The sound made him instinctively turn off his flashlight.

Last time I heard a sound coming from the stairs, and the next second a ghost jumped in from above.

Guiguzi has developed some psychological trauma.

He was already in a running position, ready to escape immediately.

But then he heard a noise on the stairs that didn't sound like a ghost dragging.

It looks like someone is talking up there.

"Doctor, we finally caught it, but it's like it's dead. It's not responding at all."

"Try punching it twice more."

Then he heard the sound of something hitting flesh.

That's right, now it's time for Gu Zi to turn back, put down the Gu Zi knife, abandon Gu Zi and do good, know that Gu Zi can change, Gu Zi is determined to think about Gu Zi, Gu Zi!