3. The Treasure Chest

The door to the sealed room suddenly swung open, and there was a monster inside.

Normally, under such circumstances, most people would feel their heart skip a heavy beat.

So when Li Jiangdong and the man with glasses looked toward the doorway, they couldn’t help but exclaim.

“What the hell!”

“Could you at least give a heads-up before opening the door!”

Li Nuo, holding the door handle and facing the corridor outside, turned back with an innocent expression and said, “Big brother, you told me not to make any noise.”

Li Jiangdong gritted his teeth and said, “What the hell… are you crazy or what?”

Li Nuo smiled, “About ten or so kinds of crazy.”

The man with glasses patted Li Jiangdong on the back and stepped forward with a serious expression. “What if opening the door brings out that ‘monster’ the system mentioned? Then we…”

“I’ll be more careful next time,” Li Nuo cut in directly.

Inside this room, aside from the door and a narrow crack that looked like it might be hiding a treasure chest, there was no other exit.

According to the system, now that they stepped outside, no danger would be encountered.

The man with glasses and Li Jiangdong were simply scared.

The man with glasses adjusted his glasses and whispered, “But since the door is already open…”

Li Nuo turned and stepped out in one stride…

[Inventory Unlocked]

[Based on your cause of death and personal tags, suitable items or equipment have been sent to your backpack.]

[Murmur “backpack” to open the inventory panel; review and equip items to complete the beginner tutorial. You cannot move until then.]

Li Nuo opened the inventory as instructed. There were six slots, one holding a ring set with a ruby.

[Red Tearstone Ring]

[Quality: Fine]

[Effect: When HP falls below 20% of maximum, attack damage increases by 20%.]

[Description: This ring allows one to burst forth with a false illusion of still being able to fight when barely clinging to life. Wearing it at least lets you die with some dignity.]

Dark… Dark Souls?

Li Nuo inhaled sharply… it was undoubtedly a divine artifact, but it felt somewhat awkward.

Frowning, he took the ring out and slid it onto his finger. Soon, everyone regained the ability to move.

Li Nuo looked up to see Li Jiangdong holding a bundle of wire, the man with glasses gripping a horn, and Ma Sihan trembling as she pulled out a windproof lighter.

Death method and personal tags determined the type of items received.

The Red Tearstone Ring in Li Nuo’s hand represented his “tag,” also a “bloodline” type item obtained under the influence of the “Bleeding” status.

“Do your weapons have any special attributes?” Li Nuo asked.

Aside from the oddball staying silent, the others said no special attributes existed. Judging from subtle changes in their expressions, Li Nuo concluded they were probably telling the truth.

Then the three of them’s items should be related to the cause of their deaths.

Strangled or stabbed by wire, crushed or scared to death by a horn, burned or wax-dripped by a lighter.

“What did you two get?” the man with glasses scanned Li Nuo and the oddball.

“Useless junk, just a broken ring,” Li Nuo flipped them the middle finger, showing off the ring.

Then the oddball looked at everyone, raised a hand behind his back… revealing he was holding a lump of feces…

“Damn! You’re the crazy one!”

“Stay away from me!”

“Ahhhhh!!!”

Li Nuo blinked vacantly, suspecting the lump of excrement might not be a system item—that the oddball was hiding the real prize behind the feces.

He leaned in for a closer look but thought better of it—the lump was dry… not fresh.

...

Outside the door was a rolling shutter with a pull handle. The moment it was lifted, a pungent stench of blood assaulted them like flies in a summer outhouse.

The gloomy corridor was coated with dried blood—blood everywhere. Ceiling, kerosene lamps, walls, floor—all bathed in dark crimson.

They were ordinary people. Even if you put a few special forces soldiers in this corridor, which looked like the aftermath of a strawberry party, they’d be stunned for a while.

At that moment, Li Nuo tapped the wall, breaking the silence. The others looked over.

He said, “Modern minimalist decor, materials are microcrystals. Judging by this large area, the owner must be quite wealthy.”

Li Jiangdong gritted his teeth. “Yeah, the setting is modern, but that doesn’t matter to us, because you, me, and everyone else are locked in this stupid sealed room.”

“Dong, can you give me a small piece of that wire?” Li Nuo suddenly asked.

Li Jiangdong glanced at the ring on Li Nuo’s hand and thought the kid might want to make a more reliable weapon, so he snapped off a short segment and handed it over.

“So now…” Ma Sihan still cowered behind the doorframe, afraid to come out.

“If you’ve watched horror movies, you should know the golden rule, right?” The man with glasses turned and said, “Never split up!”

Everyone nodded, while Li Nuo bent the wire into a U shape.

The oddball posed against the wall.

No one wanted to meddle with these two lunatics, but they also couldn’t let them wander off now.

Nobody knew what might happen; one more person meant one more bait to keep themselves alive.

Outside was a straight corridor lit by dim wall lamps.

Narrow side passages branched off intermittently. Li Nuo walked in the center and stopped at a junction.

He asked, “Should we check out the side passage?”

“What are you thinking?” The man with glasses halted, glancing sideways. “The side passages are darker, and don’t forget—there’s a monster here.”

Li Nuo shrugged. “Alright, I’ll follow the group.”

He just thought the side passage wasn’t decoration. Maybe there was a treasure chest inside. It didn’t matter to concede on an inconsequential choice, especially without evidence.

“What do you think the monster is?” Ma Sihan asked with a shiver.

“I stick to materialism. Hopefully, no ghosts or spirits,” the man with glasses said nervously.

“What if it’s a succubus?”

All eyes turned to Li Nuo, who had spoken.

He said, “Everyone needs dreams; otherwise, how do you survive?”

“We have to survive first before dreaming,” the man with glasses retorted, then added, “In real life, I’m a clerical worker. If danger comes…”

He looked at Li Jiangdong but hesitated.

Ma Sihan grabbed Li Jiangdong’s arm and whispered, “Please… Dong, I’m just a student…”

Li Jiangdong was indeed the most reassuring presence in the group.

He scanned Li Nuo and the man with glasses. “If things get physical, you two follow my lead.”

He wrapped the wire around his hand and took the lead.

Less than a minute later, they reached a three-way junction: three passages of equal width but different lengths stretched ahead.

Suddenly, the wall lamp went out.

“Ah—!!!”

Ma Sihan screamed. When she finished, Li Nuo took a deep breath. If he weren’t unfamiliar with the situation, he really wanted to shove the oddball’s lump of feces down her throat.

Seconds later, the light returned.

Almost everyone’s body shuddered.

The man with glasses pointed nervously to a dark shape lying on the left passage floor. “That… is a corpse, right?”

Suddenly, a corpse appearing in a horror movie signaled a nearby monster and served as a warning.

Excluding reckless characters in horror films, a normal person would avoid the corpse and take a different path.

So when Li Jiangdong’s trio saw Li Nuo approach the body, they froze.

It wasn’t unwillingness to intervene, but fear.

Only when they saw Li Nuo start stripping the corpse’s clothes did they cautiously approach.

At the sight of the corpse’s face, all three regretted coming over.

The man with glasses and Ma Sihan vomited immediately.

Li Jiangdong, covered in vomit, vomited too.

The corpse lay flat on the ground; its head was crushed flat, features unrecognizable. Its blood-soaked outer clothing was torn open, revealing flesh flayed open as if some creature had forcibly ripped the chest cavity apart.

Li Nuo stripped the corpse without hesitation.

Fearing the others wouldn’t understand, he explained while rummaging through the body.

“In horror movies, the rule is to avoid corpses, but this is a mission script. Corpses symbolize treasure chests and clues. Maybe they carry healing items or even a Gatling gun.”

He picked up the corpse’s pants, and a panel appeared before his eyes:

[Frankenstein’s Trousers (Damaged)]

[Quality: Common]

[Description: A cliché of horror films—scientist killed by his own creation.]

Li Nuo found most things had panels, and sometimes the description snippets pieced together fragments of the world’s lore.

But neither the pants nor the corpse’s clothes revealed anything new.

“Strange…” Li Nuo wondered, folding the corpse’s clothes neatly and setting them aside—a habit formed from growing up in a hospital.

However, the three, including Li Jiangdong, looked at him strangely.

Who folds a corpse’s clothes?

That guy’s a pervert…

Ma Sihan whispered, “Could he be an artist?”

The man with glasses looked awkward. “An artist into corpse performance art…”

“Hmph, even forensic pathologists aren’t afraid of corpses. That means nothing,” the oddball scoffed nearby. “The value of a treasure chest depends on what’s inside.”

Li Nuo’s eyes brightened. Right, the inside!

Just as he was about to thank the oddball, the latter doubled over and vomited against the wall after witnessing the corpse’s condition.

Li Nuo smiled lightly, then without hesitation, reached in and pried open the chest cavity wound.

The sound of mangled flesh in the silent corridor was especially chilling.

They all watched Li Nuo. The girl was trembling so badly she was about to lose control; the man with glasses and Li Jiangdong dared not breathe heavily.

Fearing they might be too horrified, Li Nuo explained:

“When I was young, I was misled by forum posts and naively believed zombie viruses and Cthulhu curses were real. To overcome future fears, I trained myself to handle disgusting things. It’s not hard—just replace the thought process.

“Even things like sanity points can be overcome by changing your mindset.

“For example, imagine eyeballs as leaves densely covering a tree outside your door. Imagine the sound of flesh being crushed as the beep in a movie.”

No one responded or knew how to reply.

He paused when he felt something strange, then continued:

“From a mission perspective, there’s no need to panic now. The description already warned us, ‘There’s a monster here; don’t provoke it unless you can’t help it.’ Human corpses aren’t monsters by concept, but there might be exceptions—like I can’t be sure if some facehugger won’t crawl out and tongue-kiss me.”

As Li Nuo spoke, he pulled out a blood-stained plastic bag from the opened chest cavity.

“But there’s also the possibility of finding some key items now.”