The apocalypse begins with a dungeon game.

"Damn it, what a pair of beasts!" Wu Xiuyuan slammed his fist on the large iron pot, causing the entire pot to vibrate loudly.

Immediately, the pot cracked open from all sides of the dented fist-shaped indentation, and strands of soup spilled outwards.

"Oh my god, what do I do now?"

He frantically tried to block the liquid with his palms, but was scalded by the juice and jumped up and down repeatedly, groaning as he pulled out a few strands of hair. His eyes quickly turned towards the NPC grandmother.

"If Heaven had not given birth to Wu Xiuyuan, the Daoist arts would have remained in eternal darkness. Still Water Talisman, suppress!"

A bright yellow rectangular talisman appeared in the void and instantly stuck to the surface of the pot, but it still couldn't stop the crack from breaking.

"Auspiciousness arrives from all directions, spiritual energy gathers, restoration talisman, suppress!"

The iron pot remained unchanged.

"Oh, Master, how about trying a forging talisman?" Wang Qing suggested.

"Without raw materials, how can we forge it?"

The scene was chaotic and disorderly.

A hint of joy flashed across Li Can's face as he controlled the puppet vulture to land on a branch of a large tree.

Opposite us was a towering black clock tower. On the top circular clock face, the hour and minute hands were crossed, showing the time as 11:17 PM.

With a place to rest, the vulture, after observing the clock, focused all his mental energy back on his own perspective, and his weakened state was finally relieved.

After scanning the surroundings, Li Can handed over the empty ceramic bowl. "Use this."

Wu Xiuyuan paused for a moment, then took the bowl and mumbled a spell. The round bowl was then embedded in the pot.

Everyone was finally able to relax.

"The young man is quite smart."

Wu Xiuyuan wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and sighed.

Li Can observed the yellow talismans that had fallen to the ground and understood immediately. So this was Wu Xiuyuan's special ability.

It seems that in the post-apocalyptic world of the timeline where he doesn't exist, the power structure of humanity has truly undergone a radical transformation.

Compared to that, his gashapon ability is nothing special.

What he's more eager to do now is find a way to unlock the last two gashapon machines, and what surprises the weekly refreshed resource eggs and ability eggs will bring him.

"Gentlemen, it's getting late," the old woman in the rocking chair said, conjuring a palm-leaf fan and waving it continuously.

Little Fish bit her lip and asked from afar, "Grandma, is she a child too?"

"no."

Upon hearing this, Xiaoyu and Xiaomo exchanged glances, a hint of confusion flashing in their eyes.

Wu Xiuyuan rubbed her swollen fist and then asked, "Was she killed by a doctor at Wenxin Mental Hospital?"

"Yes."

After this question, everyone's attention turned to Li Can, who was the last to answer and whose role was crucial.

After answering the six questions, the basic outline of the soup base was clear, but more specific clues were needed to determine the details.

"Grandma, is this you?" Li Can looked into her eyes.

Upon hearing Li Can's question, everyone's pupils dilated in unison.

Yes, nobody expected that the soup maker would be involved in this game; isn't he just an NPC who issues quests?

The old woman chuckled and remained silent for a long time, as if recalling some past events, her thoughts drifting far away, and her expression gradually becoming serious.

Li Can observed her every micro-expression intently until he caught a trace of sadness on her face.

In the silent, deep darkness, the firelight cast flickering lines of light across the old woman's face.

Her mouth opened and closed, but she only uttered one word.

"Yes."

"Friendly reminder, everyone can breathe freely." Wang Qing stroked his trachea up and down, took a long breath of cold air, and then exhaled.

"Brother, you're amazing! How did you figure out that she was this person? I was shocked when you asked me that."

Chen Qi, holding Xiao Yu's hand in one hand and Xiao Mo's hand in the other, looked at Li Can and his mother-in-law with a mixture of astonishment and disbelief.

Wu Xiuyuan immediately gave Wang Qing a flick on the forehead. "Disciple, can you shut up? You almost lost a hair just now, you'd die."

"Okay, okay, Master, please stop hitting me."

Throughout the entire process, only the masked man, Bai Zhuo, remained relatively calm, seemingly detached from the situation.

He did everything in a detached manner, as if he wasn't participating in a life-or-death game, but rather on vacation.

Li Can didn't speak, but closed his eyes.

He kept trying to etch his mother-in-law's appearance into his mind, hoping to remember it deeply, and he kept recreating her image from when she was young.

His next stop was the hospital, where he needed to find clues. He had to memorize everything before leaving.

This is a crucial piece of information, and there can be no mistakes.

When I opened my eyes again, all that was left was an empty iron pot and a campfire that was gradually dying out.

The old woman and her rocking chair vanished from the spot, leaving the players looking at each other in bewilderment.

The faint echoes of her last, barely audible words still lingered in the air:

"Ladies and gentlemen, we'll see you later."

"She's leaving already? Then who should we ask for our last question, and how do we leave the game?" Wang Qing tugged at Wu Xiuyuan's clothes and asked in a low voice.

Wu Xiuyuan looked at the empty pot bottom and began to sort through it:

"So, based on this information, we can roughly deduce that my mother-in-law was killed by a doctor while she was being used as an experimental subject at Wenxin Mental Hospital."

"But this is not the final answer. She didn't say how detailed and elaborate the soup base should be when we give it in the end, so it's hard to determine whether we won or lost."

"I don't know if you've noticed, but the area we're in is the back hill of the hospital. If we go to that building in front, we should be able to find the remaining clues."

"We previously stated that our collaboration was limited to the seven questions in the first Q&A session, and now it's time for us to part ways."

"The last chance to answer the questions will be a life-or-death situation; only one of us can survive..."

"I'm sorry everyone, I, Wu Xiuyuan, am not capable of being a savior who can save all living beings. My ability is only enough to protect the safety of myself and my disciple."

"Well then, farewell."

After speaking, Wu Xiuyuan did not linger. With a silent face, he pulled Wang Qing and walked into the woods in the direction of the hospital.

As Wang Qing was being led away, she frowned and sighed, "Master, is it really only one of us who can survive? Everyone seems to be a very nice person."

"There's really no way for them all to survive. Those two little kids are so pitiful..."

Even after the master and disciple had walked far away, Wu Xiuyuan's angry voice could still be heard in the jungle: "Who isn't pitiful? Do you think I wanted this?"

"..."

But before they could take more than a few steps, the old man and the young man ran back in an instant.

Seeing the disheveled state of the master and his apprentice, Chen Qi couldn't help but pull Xiao Yu and Xiao Mo even closer to himself.

"What happened? Why are you back again?"

"Run! The forest is full of those eight-legged spider monsters that killed 1612, and they're starting to move!" Wang Qing shouted.

"My master and I hadn't even taken a few steps when they all chased after us!"

Run? Where to run?

Chen Qi wanted to explore this small open space, but there was nowhere to hide as far as he could see.

That one monster alone is difficult to deal with.

If all the monsters go on an uncontrolled rampage and kill people, will they still be able to survive until the final step of solving the puzzle?

The answer is obvious.