The apocalypse begins with a dungeon game.

Li Can lifted the curtain with one hand and carried a round plate of food in the other as she walked out of the kitchen.

Standing in the lobby was a ghost emanating a dark, eerie green light; its head and body were joined together, forming a smooth curve.

The upper part of the head is relatively large, but full and rounded. The line connecting the lower part of the body goes down to the feet, gradually narrowing until it becomes a small tail tip at the tail end.

Two bouncy tentacles are located on both sides of the body, resembling two miniature rice bowls.

At the tip of the tentacle are four fingers about the size of a tadpole, which looks a bit comical.

"Guest, please sit here." Huang Xiaoqi carefully turned to the side and invited the ghost that was floating on the ground without landing to a seat near the door.

Although Li Can was a little shocked, her expression remained unchanged. With a smile on her face, she walked to the dining table and placed the freshly made green pepper and shredded pork rice bowl in front of the guest.

So this is what the supernatural is like... Li Can quickly accepted reality. At first, he thought that the supernatural in this world might be similar to the indigenous people like his "family".

Looking at it now, the shape is really too different.

The ghostly, eerie guest remained silent, sitting at the table without needing utensils. Instead, it used its short, tender tentacles to reach out and grab food from the plate.

Then he put the food into his gradually opening mouth.

Li Can turned around and walked to the silver counter, observing silently from a distance.

The guest seemed to have no facial features, only an extremely small slit for his mouth, which was usually closed. If you didn't look closely, you might mistake him for a jelly stick.

"Please continue eating, guest. If you need anything, please call me." Huang Xiaoqi politely stepped back and walked to Li Can's side.

Neither of them spoke.

In the quiet restaurant, the only sounds were the rustling of customers constantly grabbing food and chewing it in their mouths.

Its mouth opens very wide each time it opens and closes; its body is the size of a person, and the opening of its mouth is the size of the cross-sectional area of ​​two basketballs.

Li Can had no doubt that this thing, just as the parchment scroll said, would erupt and devour a customer if it angered or displeased them.

The calm didn't last long. The guest finished the entire plate of food and slowly got off the chair, leaving a sticky, dark green substance on the ground behind.

It was sporadic, like an oil leak from a car.

"It's delicious, the cooking is excellent." The eerie guest floated to the cashier next to the two, and a dialogue box suddenly popped up above his head.

Li Can looked at the font above; it had a cute cartoon style, but it wasn't hard to tell what it was.

This thing has grown to this size, yet it still needs to eat. Its way of communicating is also very strange.

He remained silent. Since entering the Mysterious City instance, apart from the information on the scroll, he had no memory of the restaurant's past management methods or his own identity as "Xing Dazhuang".

So the more mistakes you make, the more you should observe, learn, and imitate.

Seeing that Li Can didn't respond to the customer's words, Huang Xiaoqi felt a bit awkward. She quickly smiled apologetically, "Your satisfaction is our greatest achievement. Thank you for your patronage, sir."

"I'll recommend your restaurant to others. The food here is delicious, and I'll definitely come back to make a reservation next time." A new message popped up above the eerie head.

"Oh, thank you so much! I'm so sorry, thank you so much."

I'm going to make the payment.

"Okay, okay, I'm getting ready." Huang Xiaoqi quickly wiped her hands on the surface of her apron, turned around and went into the counter to take out two large red notebooks.

Li Can, with her sharp eyes, caught a glimpse of the words on the cover of the notebook: "[Certificate of Leaving the City]".

Suddenly, his heart was filled with turmoil. Was this thing even in the restaurant? He had been planning to sneak out and use his "little wolf in sheep's clothing" to imitate the eerie and look for clues once things at the restaurant were more or less resolved.

It seems that it's no longer needed now...

"Guest, you can pay in two installments. My husband and I both need to save up some money."

As Huang Xiaoqi spoke, she opened the two red booklets.

This thing looks like a notebook, but it's actually just a large piece of cardboard that unfolds into a single page.

One of the red booklets had Li Can's one-inch photo pasted in the upper left corner, with his name "Xing Dazhuang" and other personal information below.

The other notebook bears Huang Xiaoqi's logo.

The notebook was filled with tiny print, all of it consisting of numbers, mostly restaurant revenue.

【Okay.】The strange guest was quite easy to talk to. He nodded his round, bouncy head, imprinted his handprint on Li Can's exit certificate with his left hand, and slapped Huang Xiaoqi's notebook with his right hand.

The eerie green tentacles touched the surface, and after a short while, they were removed. Li Can then saw a handprint resembling a small animal appear in the center of the page.

It then slowly melted, turning into a monetary number, which was absorbed by the certificate and placed into the nearest column.

"Thank you for your patronage, and we welcome you to visit us again!" Huang Xiaoqi smiled broadly, and after collecting the money, she carefully closed the notebook and put it back in the drawer.

Li Can watched this scene in silence until the strange guest's figure left and disappeared into the thick night.

"Ding-a-ling..." The bell on the glass door rang crisply after the guests had left. Huang Xiaoqi turned around and looked at Li Can, her tone somewhat dissatisfied, "Honey, what was wrong with you just now? The guests were about to pay and you were just standing there like an idiot."

"Have you been too tired lately? Let's hang in there a little longer, and we can rest when we close up shop." The woman said as she cleared away the empty plates on the table.

The ground was a mess, and the woman picked up the mop that was lying in the corner and handed it to him.

"Yes, I'm a little tired."

Li Can pondered in his mind the purpose of this exit certificate and the amount of payment from those customers.

The certificate is so easy to get, it's right there at the cashier, but will this dungeon game be so simple that players can just leave the game?

No, so there are certain limitations. For example, you have to play your role well, earn money through the supernatural to eventually redeem yourself, and then take the certificate you've accumulated to the city gate to find the guard and leave the city...

Things don't seem to be as simple as they appear on the surface.

Having learned from the experience of the previous instance, Li Can knew that even the information given at the beginning of the instance was incomplete.

The rest will require players to deduce the truth themselves, as much of the information is misleading and may not be accurate.

"We'll be busy for a while before we can close up shop. Sigh, it's not good to close up shop. The two of us are splitting the money from these customers' meals, and we don't know when we'll be able to reunite with our son..." Huang Xiaoqi sighed, looking listless.

Li Can slowly moved his head to look at the night outside. After cleaning the ground, he pondered the words in his heart: what does "reuniting with his son" mean?

He had already guessed that the meal expenses were a necessary condition for the city exit permit, but this was the first time he had heard about Xing Tiantian's current situation. Could it be that his son had already left the city?