Under the overcast sky, countless silver watches, each about the size of a palm and nearly identical, hung from the sky by golden threads. These threads descended through the clouds, and even with Lu Qingjia’s Thousand-Mile Eye, neither he nor The Richest Man could see where they ended.
The Richest Man casually picked up one of the watches and frowned after examining it for a while. “Some are still running, while others have stopped, but there’s no discernible pattern.”
He flipped the watch over to inspect its back and face. “There’s no obvious marking either.”
Lu Qingjia responded, “How could there be none?”
He pulled several watches over at once. “Look at the three o’clock position on the dial.”
This area usually displayed the date, but in these silver watches, there was only a tiny grain-sized space showing the number “7,” so strictly speaking, they were indeed identical.
Lu Qingjia asked, “What does the number ‘7’ remind you of in this world?”
The Richest Man suddenly realized, “Is it the number of ticket purchases?”
He quickly checked dozens of watches. “Since we reset everyone’s ticket purchases to seven this morning, all these watches show ‘7’?”
After saying this, he hesitated. “Isn’t this assumption a bit far-fetched? After all, we can’t find any evidence to prove it.”
“How is there none?” Lu Qingjia smiled. “I had the ticket purchases of all players, stranded players, and those who turned into NPCs reset to their initial count.”
“Now it seems that although the NPCs haven’t regained their memories or abilities, they still display some remnants.”
“The evidence is—” Lu Qingjia’s gaze passed through thousands of silver watches, and he reached out to pull one hidden in a corner.
The number displayed on this watch was different from the others—it showed a ‘6’.
Lu Qingjia said to The Richest Man, “You should also look for yours. I specifically didn’t have your count adjusted at that time.”
“Why?” The Richest Man asked as he searched. “You couldn’t have guessed this back then, could you?”
Lu Qingjia replied, “How could I? I only confirmed the issue with the clock factory after the station collapsed.”
“But with just me alone, the sample size is too small, and coincidences can’t be ruled out. Adding you lowers that probability. Besides, I wasn’t sure about the risks of resetting the counts.”
The Richest Man felt a bit frustrated. “So everyone, including your teammates, was pushed out as guinea pigs?”
Lu Qingjia smiled. “I was never someone you could truly rely on. If you wanted to hitch a ride with me, there were naturally risks involved.”
The Richest Man didn’t expect him to admit it so readily. After a moment of silence, he finally smiled. “Indeed, you don’t seem like the type of player who could develop mutual trust with others.”
“But at the same time, you’re not the kind of person who would abandon others for personal gain or push teammates out to take the fall in a crisis.”
The Richest Man looked at Lu Qingjia and smiled. “Although my playstyle isn’t as meticulous as yours, thanks to my family background, I have a good eye for people.”
“People like you, who lack moral constraints, have their own pride and sense of aesthetic in their actions.”
“Forcing you to act in a cowardly or ugly manner would be worse than killing you.”
Without waiting for Lu Qingjia’s response, he pulled out a silver watch from a spot. “Look, found it.”
He pointed to the number displayed on it—’1′, which was the number of ticket purchases he had left when he reached the final layer.
“If these silver watches represent all players, then the movements or stoppages of these watches make sense.”
Lu Qingjia said, “For example, the watches that show ‘7’ but have stopped should undoubtedly be players who have turned into NPCs.”
“The other watches seem to be running normally, but if they truly represent players, there must be differences between stranded players and ordinary players.”
Lu Qingjia casually pulled out two silver watches, and a tool suddenly appeared in his hand.
The Richest Man quickly asked, “What are you doing?”
Lu Qingjia replied matter-of-factly, “Of course, I’m going to open them up. Have you ever heard of a watch that can’t be opened?”
He smiled and added, “A man’s life isn’t complete if he hasn’t taken apart a watch, toy, or appliance.”
The Richest Man: “…”
It was such a compelling argument that he was momentarily speechless.
He could only watch as Lu Qingjia used extremely delicate tools to unscrew the tiny screws on the silver watches, each as small as a sesame seed.
The first watch showed nothing unusual, and Lu Qingjia reassembled it. The second and third watches were the same, but on the fourth watch, they finally found something different.
“Look!” Lu Qingjia handed the watch to him.
The Richest Man looked inside and saw that the interior of the silver watch was entangled with golden threads. Although the watch’s surface was still running normally, the threads connected to the sky, and the hand controlling everything from behind could manipulate it at any moment.
Lu Qingjia said, “So the question is, we are respectively an ordinary player and a stranded player, representing two different groups. Should we open our own watches to confirm?”
The Richest Man gritted his teeth. “Open them!”
The two quickly opened their own watches. Sure enough, as an ordinary player, Lu Qingjia’s watch had a normal internal structure, and the golden thread was merely for connection.
The Richest Man’s watch, however, was a different story. The golden threads were entangled, representing a situation where he was more controlled than he had imagined, which filled him with anger and shame.
Lu Qingjia said, “Now I finally understand why, in the past three years, no player has ever accumulated enough points to exchange for a chance to return to reality.”
“Because if your time isn’t what you think it is, and you haven’t escaped the game’s rules of resetting and memory erasure, then this makes sense.”
“Stranded players may seem to have escaped the curse of repeated resets and memory loss, but they are completely controlled by some entity. The days of smooth memory make them lose their vigilance.”
“But in reality, they are only under more precise control. Ordinary players are limited by the rules because as long as their ticket purchases aren’t exhausted, they haven’t failed the task, and that entity has no right to control them like puppets.”
“But stranded players are different. The entity has full control over them, more precise and flawless, and doesn’t need to follow any rules. It can do whatever it wants, and I suspect it can even directly edit their memories.”
“So that’s why so many people couldn’t complete their tasks,” The Richest Man interjected, sneering. “I never trusted that thing from the beginning, so I never expected to escape through task completion. It seems I’ve saved myself this time.”
The two directly took their own silver watches, though The Richest Man had a harder time, needing to remove the entangled golden threads.
The golden threads were tricky. The entire silver watch was small, and its mechanical components were even smaller. The golden threads were tangled and knotted, and when The Richest Man tried to untangle them, he found that they moved on their own.
“Is this a warning that unless I want to destroy my own watch, I can’t escape?” The Richest Man said grimly.
“Not necessarily,” Lu Qingjia said. His hair suddenly grew longer, drilling into the watch and fighting with the golden threads while protecting the watch’s components.
Earlier, they had easily pulled the watch off the golden thread, indicating that the thread’s toughness wasn’t very strong. Although it was more than enough to destroy The Richest Man’s silver watch, it was no match for Lu Qingjia’s hair.
After all, Lu Qingjia’s hair could cut through steel pipes in his first game. By now, in the Intermediate Level Game, there were few opponents in terms of toughness and sharpness.
Although the golden threads had terrifying effects, they weren’t powerful in this aspect.
Once the watch was removed, Lu Qingjia received a message from a female teammate in their group, saying they had arrived but couldn’t see Lu Qingjia and The Richest Man.
Lu Qingjia and The Richest Man emerged from the space and indeed saw the group outside.
“Come over,” Lu Qingjia said.
The group stepped onto the gear platform. Lu Qingjia had already transferred the ticket system to his phone when he acquired the train company, so he could easily control it now. He issued tickets to each of his teammates.
This wasted quite a few ticket purchase opportunities, but it also changed the numbers on the players’ silver watches to 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2.
The group successfully removed their silver watches, and a prompt sounded in their minds:
“[Player Group 213’s clearance conditions have been met. Please proceed to the exit as soon as possible. Time is limited, please proceed to the exit.]”
Before the system’s voice faded, a small door, about one person’s height, appeared out of thin air in the distance. It stood in the air, and from behind the door, nothing seemed different, as if it were merely a decoration.
But when the door slowly opened, looking straight ahead revealed another space.
Then a three-minute countdown appeared above it.
The players were surprised that, having only been in the game for three days, what seemed like a heavily trapped and impossibly difficult game had already reached the clearance point, and they could exit immediately. Their faces lit up with joy.
“Brother Lu, let’s go in quickly,” they urged.
But Lu Qingjia smiled. “What’s the rush? I still have things to do.”
The group was dumbfounded, still unable to keep up with his train of thought.
A male player who had had enough of this place panicked. “What do you mean, ‘what’s the rush’? There’s only three minutes—ah, and now dozens of seconds have already passed while we’re talking.”
Lu Qingjia scoffed. “You think I’ll leave just because you want me to?”
The group was speechless. How could he still be so stubborn at a time like this?
But The Richest Man, who had developed a tacit understanding with Lu Qingjia over the past two days, understood.
He also sneered. “I see. It seems this space really has treasures worth digging for.”
Lu Qingjia nodded and said to the other five, “No need to rush. The so-called clearance condition is just removing a few watches. These watches only represent us individually, and it’s not like the entire space or the game instance will collapse without them. What’s the point of setting a countdown, and only for three minutes?”
He then spoke loudly to the presence in the air. “I already told you, you lack the flexibility to handle unexpected situations. Why are you still so foolish? The more you rush to get rid of me, the more it proves that this place can’t withstand scrutiny.”
Hearing his words, the group also stopped panicking.
After all, the way to clear this game was too unconventional, and they weren’t ready for it to end so abruptly. Honestly, trusting their own judgment was far less reliable than trusting the expert, especially since The Richest Man agreed.
So everyone ignored the countdown on the door. Sure enough, once the three minutes passed, the countdown disappeared, and the door didn’t close. It was clearly a sneaky attempt to trick them into not staying in the space any longer.
“What’s here?” someone asked.
The silver watch space, apart from the hundreds of silver watches hanging in the air, had nothing else. The surroundings were completely white, as if there were no boundaries. If they wanted to search for something, the vast area would be a daunting task for the seven of them.
Moreover, dispersing could lead to unexpected incidents.
But Lu Qingjia didn’t think so. He smiled. “There’s something I’ve been emphasizing since we started this mission. Have you forgotten?”
The players, overwhelmed by his numerous unconventional moves, couldn’t immediately recall the most crucial point.
But The Richest Man quickly caught on. “This world, the more restrictions it sets, the more it wants, and it must be exchanged for equal or even higher stakes.”
“Since it can set such meticulous and stringent rules, players can also easily obtain the stakes it has bet.”
“Exactly!” Lu Qingjia said. “A place so focused on keeping players, with rules more meticulous and stringent than any other instance, favorable to the system, couldn’t possibly set high-difficulty conditions for obtaining treasures. At most, it can only hide them.”
“And this hiding can’t use abilities or items beyond what intermediate players can handle.”
As he spoke, Lu Qingjia’s hand held a shoulder-fired rocket launcher, and he fired a shot into the air.
The group didn’t expect him to be so reckless and looked up in shock.
However, they discovered that the sky of this space wasn’t as high as they had imagined—it shattered with a single shot.
“A hologram?”
The group looked at the exposed ceiling. Although the space wasn’t small, its height was less than ten meters. Once the fake sky disappeared, the true form was revealed.
“No, this is much more advanced than a hologram,” The Richest Man said. “After all, I specialize in spatial abilities. If it were just a technological method, the room’s range and height would have been within my grasp long ago.”
Layers of ice appeared under Lu Qingjia’s feet, rising and lifting him to the ceiling.
Hanging in the center was a golden pocket watch.
All the golden threads extended from this pocket watch. Given this instance’s desperate attempts to keep players and its ambition to create a complete secondary world here, if it all relied on this golden pocket watch for control, then the thousands of threads it could manage were likely just the beginning.
Lu Qingjia reached out to take the pocket watch, but before his hand could touch it, he suddenly felt a chilling killing intent.
The killing intent seemed to solidify, as if it wanted to cut Lu Qingjia into a thousand pieces. Even The Richest Man and the other players below deeply felt this pressure.
It was even more intense than the pressure they had felt facing the Western Dragon from the higher world earlier, making their spines tingle, hair stand on end, and blood pool at their feet. They almost bolted.
Two of the players did just that, instinctively darting into the door.
But Lu Qingjia seemed completely unaffected by the killing intent. Instead, he smiled. “Don’t be so ugly. You can’t only take advantage and not suffer losses.”
“If you want to gamble, of course, you have to be prepared to lose everything—oh, wait, you haven’t lost yet, so don’t be so stingy.”
Without hesitation, he plucked the golden pocket watch.
The moment the pocket watch touched Lu Qingjia, it disappeared, merging into his body.
It turned out that it wasn’t an item but an ability that had been extracted and manifested as an item.
The moment Lu Qingjia received it, he understood the essence of this ability and couldn’t help but admire Ouyang Bai’s luck.
It truly was the blessing of a lucky person.
Lu Qingjia dismissed the ice and landed on the ground. The others, seeing this, knew that the treasure he had found must be extraordinary, or it wouldn’t have provoked such a killing intent from the instance’s controller.
“Will you be okay? After all, that—” A player, still feeling the lingering killing intent, asked with a shudder.
Lu Qingjia replied, “I actually hope it disregards the rules and personally attacks me.”
Hearing this, the group relaxed slightly. They felt that as long as that entity didn’t personally intervene, Lu Qingjia could handle any problem at this level.
Although they were somewhat envious of the treasure he had obtained, there was nothing they could do. After all, he was the one who led them through the game, and he found the treasure himself. It had little to do with the rest of them, who were just along for the ride. They couldn’t reasonably claim a share.
With this in mind, the atmosphere remained harmonious for now.
Lu Qingjia said, “Let’s go. It’s time to exit the game.”
With the golden pocket watch, which controlled the players and the entire instance, in his possession, if he successfully exited the game, this instance would be considered cleared.
The other stranded players would also return to reality, though it was unclear what would happen to the NPCs.
The group stepped through the door and entered a stone chamber. The moment the seven of them entered, the door behind them closed.
Instead, another door appeared at the opposite end of the chamber. Outside this door, various scenes shifted—it was clearly the real world.
Some players, seeing this, were already eager to leave.
The Richest Man also said, “Yes, this was the endpoint for our team back then.”
Before he could finish, a bubble shield suddenly appeared behind Lu Qingjia, and a pool of sludge spread out to cover him.
The Richest Man, having been burned here before, had been on guard the moment they entered, but the others hadn’t.
Two players, who were slow to react, were instantly drenched in sludge from head to toe.
It turned out that a player behind Lu Qingjia had been making a slashing motion. Earlier, his hands had been empty.
But after being covered in sludge, everything was revealed. They saw that he was holding a katana.
The katana had been invisible before, making it the perfect tool for an ambush, but Lu Qingjia had effortlessly blocked it.
Lu Qingjia smiled. “I forgot that you don’t have yesterday’s memories. What you know now is from my explanations, not from your own recollections, so your memories haven’t been unlocked. Of course, you wouldn’t know about my powerful defensive abilities.”
The player’s face darkened, and he roared at the others, “What are you all standing around for? Let’s attack together! Since the game is cleared, everyone should get a share of the benefits. Why should this guy keep it all to himself?”
The Richest Man said in disbelief, “Have you lost your mind? Don’t you realize what role you played? What benefits could possibly have anything to do with you?”
The player sneered, “Heh! We’re not as generous as you, The Richest Man. With your vast wealth, you naturally don’t care about these things. But for us, who risked our lives to clear the game, we won’t let go of any benefits that are rightfully ours.”
His words caused some of the other players to waver. The one who remained the calmest was the female player.
She frowned and said, “Enough! Although everyone desires treasures, and it’s only natural to feel jealous when Brother Lu gets them while you get nothing, you should still let go of any inappropriate thoughts.”
“If it weren’t for Brother Lu leading us, we might still be stuck at the station. How many of us would have discovered the secret of the resets? We five would have become NPCs sooner or later, right?”
A male player laughed and said, “Brother Lu truly has extraordinary charm. In such a short time, he’s already made a woman devoted to him.”
He then turned to the female player and said, “At least you women can clear the game somewhat reliably. Don’t get weak in the knees and fall head over heels for any man you see. If you’re willing to give up, that’s your business. Why should you dictate what we do?”
The female player was furious. “What the hell are you spouting? Before you spew such nonsense, take a look at my level—it’s higher than yours. How dare you comment on how I clear the game?”
The atmosphere in the stone chamber instantly became tense, and the previous harmony collapsed.
The Richest Man frowned and sneered, “It seems this room is truly sinister. Whether it’s a normal clearance or a shortcut, no matter how well relationships are managed outside, once inside, everyone starts doubting and tearing off their disguises.”
Lu Qingjia said, “No need to doubt it. This place is designed to amplify people’s negative emotions. I’m sure you’ve already guessed that.”
“But you should also be careful. You think you’re unaffected, but in theory, no one can escape it.”
“Right now, you should feel completely disillusioned with your teammates and everyone here, even wanting to kill them all, right?”
The Richest Man was startled but quickly steadied his mind. Given his formidable strength, his resistance was naturally high. After Lu Qingjia’s reminder, he knew how to suppress it.
Among the remaining five Players, the female Player and another Player with relatively strong mental fortitude began to reflect on their actions and strived to calm their emotions, refusing to be led astray by obsession, desire, anger, or jealousy.
However, the remaining three were not as resilient.
To Lu Qingjia, this was no big deal. He said, “Alright, even if you’re blinded by desire now, you should know that with me already on guard, there’s no way you’ll get what you want.”
As he spoke, he revealed a ferocious smile, fully unleashing his killing intent for the first time.
Instantly, everyone in the stone chamber felt as if they had been plunged into an icy, bone-chilling pool. Unlike the previous killing intent, which had been powerful yet somewhat distant, this time it felt like a tangible threat right before their eyes, as if their heads would roll off their necks in the blink of an eye.
Lu Qingjia asked, “Still willing to take the risk?”
The fear induced by his killing intent restored some rationality to the three Players. Comparing their own strength to that of Lu Qingjia and The Richest Man, they realized how foolish their earlier actions had been.
Lu Qingjia, however, didn’t give this episode much thought. Instead, he turned to The Richest Man and said, “I can understand now why, even after passing the earlier stages, people often fail at the final step.”
“The rules for stepping into the exit are stringent. There’s a restriction here that provokes selfish and malicious thoughts, and few are unaffected. The instance is already riddled with traps, making it difficult for Players to establish complete trust. Once conflict breaks out, everything falls apart.”
The Richest Man nodded. In fact, like Lu Qingjia, he had the strength to keep the entire team in check. However, when he instinctively retaliated, he struck too hard. Combined with the infighting among the other Players, someone died, and the team was no longer complete, thus losing their qualification.
Because next to the exit of the instance, it was clearly written: 【Limit of six people】
This meant that one person in this room was destined to stay behind.
So, who would stay? Who would willingly give up their hard-earned chance to clear the instance to someone else? The Players, already overwhelmed by the dark side of magic, had no trust left after the betrayal and infighting. Who would be willing to stay behind, just to confirm whether this rule was another trap set by the Game?
The Richest Man sneered, “This thing sure is flexible. When we arrived, the limit was four people, and we had five.”
Lu Qingjia laughed, “So the text can change too?”
The three Players, barely restored to rationality, sneered, “Whether the text changes with the number of people or not, the authenticity of this rule is still unclear to everyone, right?”
“You’re talking so grandly now, but who do you plan to choose to stay behind?”
With that one sentence, the atmosphere, which had just slightly calmed down, became tense again.
Given the strength of Lu Qingjia and The Richest Man, they would undoubtedly be fine no matter what happened. In a fight, they would be the ones to survive in the end.
But the others weren’t so sure. Their strengths were comparable, with little difference between them. Any one of them could be the one left behind.
They didn’t have Lu Qingjia’s abilities, nor did they possess The Richest Man’s skill of thriving even when trapped. By tomorrow, their memories would vanish, and they might not even remember that they had been one step away from clearing the instance.
So, the Players looked at each other, and one of them suddenly made a move, launching a sneak attack on the female Player.
“Since only one has to stay, let’s settle this by strength.”
As long as one of them died, there would be no need to choose. The rest could all clear the instance.
The female Player was also prepared. A woman who had made it this far was certainly not soft-hearted. Seeing the attack, she immediately counterattacked, thinking to herself that if one had to stay, it would be decided by strength.
However, before the fight could fully escalate, both of them were dragged into the ground by Sludge that appeared out of nowhere, leaving only their heads above the surface.
Lu Qingjia sighed, “You should have some self-awareness about your intelligence. Since you’re not fit to make decisions, don’t go around the leader and act on your own.”
Then he addressed the group, “You all go. I’ll be the last.”
“You?” The others were both shocked and skeptical.
But The Richest Man could somewhat understand. He said, “You suspect that if someone in the team dies, the number above might change?”
For example, if the limit is now six people, but if one dies, the number might drop to five.
“Or perhaps, once someone dies, it violates the exit rules, automatically disqualifying them from exiting?”
The Richest Man’s thoughts were entirely based on his understanding of the nature of this instance.
Lu Qingjia said, “It’s not a suspicion; it’s a certainty. The condition for exiting this instance is that everyone who entered the stone chamber must survive and leave.”
The Richest Man was somewhat worried, “But what if? What if you’re the one left behind?”
He stopped mid-sentence because he saw the look on Lu Qingjia’s face.
That absolute confidence, that almost arrogant attitude—even if he were left behind, he was certain he could still clear the instance. It was the demeanor of a victor, confident that this instance could not trap him.
