"Does anyone notice anything?" There were too many people present to discuss the dungeon openly, so Night's Gentle Chill asked through the team channel. Everything had happened so suddenly just now — when they were falling, everyone had been busy grabbing weapons and had no time to look elsewhere. But with this many people, surely someone with sharp eyes had spotted something.
"Yeah — I noticed we all fell at the same time."
Isn't that obvious... Wait!
"All at the same time?" Night's Gentle Chill looked toward Second Bear, who had spoken: "You mean...?"
"Right. When we were falling, I looked around. It seems like the entire corridor collapsed. I don't know the exact cause — did anyone see any prompts or mechanisms?" Second Bear looked around at the others.
"Yes! I saw what looked like a humanoid monster at the far end of the corridor!"
"I didn't see anything, but I touched something soft..."
"So it was YOU groping my butt?! I thought it was some kind of monster!"
Night's Gentle Chill quickly stepped in to smooth things over — the dungeon entrance was cramped to begin with, and thirty people rushing in at once naturally got squeezed together. Then they turned to look at Second Bear and found him still gathering information from the others.
"Boss, if you trust us, leave this to Second Bear. He's been our team's commander all along — he's led us through plenty of dungeons, big and small..." Big Bear vouched for his brother.
"Fine." Night's Gentle Chill said nothing more. Having someone knowledgeable in the team was more than welcome. They checked their own equipment.
Huh? How come none of my gear dropped?
They opened their inventory next.
"My Sword of Ra—" The words died on their lips as they spotted Big Dumb Duck not far away, and immediately pivoted: "My radiant schedule has three meetings tomorrow morning — everyone, let's move it..."
Then, stunned, they checked the inventory again. The Sword of Radiance was truly gone!
"Boss, since you're pressed for time, let's get moving. Everything everyone saw is valuable — let me share my thoughts briefly." Second Bear had been in the middle of his analysis when Night's Gentle Chill's urging made him look up reluctantly. "Based on what happened after we entered, the Void Space dungeon does feel similar to the Path of Samsara. As the highest-level dungeon in the Starter Village, I'm sure everyone here has run it before."
Seeing everyone nod, Second Bear continued: "We felt our way forward about twenty meters after entering, but it seems like no one stepped on or spotted any traps. So I'll make a bold guess — the corridor after entering the dungeon may have no traps, or the corridor itself is the trap."
"So what should we do?" Ye Weinuan asked curiously, looking at Second Bear.
Second Bear casually blew his bangs aside. "The humanoid monster at the far end of the corridor might be the key — though I can't be certain. I did a rough calculation: from the time we entered to when we fell, it was about thirty seconds, and the corridor is roughly one hundred to one hundred and fifty meters long. So... could this be asking the entire party to pass through in an extremely short time?"
"Isn't that just sadistic? I suspect whoever made this dungeon is the same person who made the Path of Samsara." Heart and Soul's expression soured — the memory of being completely wrecked last time was still fresh.
Second Bear shook his head. "Honestly, it doesn't feel like it. First of all, the corridor is long, but the time given is actually quite generous. If it were the Path of Samsara, people would probably have already been caught in traps within the first few steps. The corridor combined with that time limit feels more like a test of team efficiency."
It was indeed some kind of test. When Liu Kongkong designed that section, he had a purpose in mind — but it wasn't a test of the team; it was a test of individuals. He had built quite a few difficulty points into this dungeon, and one of them was movement speed. The thing at the far end of the corridor wasn't a humanoid monster at all — just a simple trap switch. As long as someone reached the end and flipped the switch within twenty-five seconds, the corridor wouldn't collapse.
He had even included a hint: a large character written on the floor right at the dungeon entrance — the word "RUN," written big and bold. But clearly, not many parties had noticed it. As for whether there were other traps along the way...
Ten minutes later, Heart and Soul returned to the respawn point with a dark expression. On the second attempt, everyone followed the commander's orders and sprinted forward — and Heart and Soul, with the fastest movement speed, ran at the front! Then a familiar trap appeared, and down they went again.
That one was actually Liu Kongkong being unable to resist. He hadn't originally planned to put it there. But after placing the Transit Stone, he saw he had some points left over, and on the principle of not wasting them, he had "accidentally" placed one.
Still, they hadn't reached the boss yet, so even dying meant they could re-enter. After Heart and Soul fell through, the people behind all dodged it, ran to the end, and found only a switch — letting out a collective sigh of relief and feeling genuine admiration for Second Bear.
"Good thing you were here. Otherwise we'd have been fumbling through that corridor for a while." Having wiped only once before clearing the first section, Night's Gentle Chill was very satisfied.
Second Bear standing at the front, however, didn't look pleased: "No — I'm afraid that corridor we just passed... can't even be counted as one stage." He pointed downward. Night's Gentle Chill heard this and stepped forward a couple of paces.
There, they saw a staircase leading down, ending at a massive regular hexagonal platform. From each corner extended a long corridor, and at the end of each of the six corridors was a huge room.
In the dim, cavernous space, the sheer scale of the scene made everyone catch their breath.
"Pretty impressive — though it doesn't look too hard." Looking at the six rooms below, Night's Gentle Chill guessed they were six boss chambers. Being able to see all the boss locations at a glance was already something to be grateful for.
"Let's hope so." Second Bear said gravely, and headed down.
Oh wow — over 400 attribute points already credited? Liu Kongkong, who was in the middle of crafting equipment, opened the dungeon interface and saw that "Void Space" had recorded over 4,000 player deaths in just half an hour. The interface was packed wall-to-wall with equipment, potions, and materials — an endless stream of drops. He tossed everything into storage.
The returns were pretty solid.
Satisfied, Liu Kongkong opened his character panel and began allocating points.
When he was done, his stats read:
Name: Liu Dameng
Class: Apprentice Blacksmith (Level 14)
HP: 1431/1431
Mana: 101/101
Strength: 11
Constitution: 144
Agility: 11
Intelligence: 11
Spirit: 11
Available Points: 0
Still a bit behind compared to before, but this was only the beginning.
By his estimate of the time elapsed, if things were moving quickly, the players should have already reached the first platform. Liu Kongkong mulled it over, then checked through the materials and equipment the players had dropped. He paused when he spotted the Sword of Radiance.
"With all this gear, I won't need to craft much more myself — and there's no rush on leveling up either." He said to himself, then logged off and went offline.
As for the dungeon?
If this group could clear even the first boss within a day, that would be impressive enough.
And so, that night, two to three thousand players wailed in agony inside "Void Space." As more players gradually reached Level 18, that number kept climbing wildly.
Meanwhile, the one responsible for it all had already showered, finished his instant noodles, and was fast asleep.
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