【Lunch time is over. All Players, please return to the Initial Rest Area!】

【......】

The system prompt suddenly rang out, repeating three times like a battlefield’s retreat signal.

Kirk let out a breath of relief. Throughout the lunch period, his nerves had been strung tight, like he’d just been through a war.

Now, his back was soaked in sweat—something he hadn’t even noticed during the earlier intel gathering.

“Ah! Aaaahhh!”

Long Liu’s chains rattled violently, his face turning red as he strained forward, like he wanted to lunge and bite Kirk.

Kirk touched the scratch on his face with some apprehension—it was left by Long Liu during his earlier rampage, when Kirk hadn’t dodged in time.

He felt he was now very close to the truth, stepping into territory untouched by the others.

The issue between these two groups might be directly related to the ultimate goal of the Game, though he hadn’t yet figured out what the connection could be.

Still, progress was progress.

Slightly bowing toward Long Liu, Kirk said,

“Respected sir, today’s noon psychological counseling is now over.”

“Looking forward to our next session.”

With that, Kirk opened the door behind him and walked out backward from the room.

Meanwhile, in the room where Lu Ce was, he and Wang Ao also heard the system voice.

Only this time, it was clearly Wang Ao who let out a breath of relief.

When he heard that sound, his eyes lit up like a drought meeting rain. He lowered his head and peeked cautiously at Lu Ce with a pitiful glimmer in his eyes.

Lu Ce also stood up with some lingering satisfaction, picked up his mangled right hand, and pressed it against his mask, carefully licking off the blood.

As he licked, he stared at Wang Ao lying on the floor.

Wang Ao shrank back a little.

—This guy… he’s not planning to eat me, right?

For some reason, that thought popped into Wang Ao’s head.

Lu Ce held the iron shard without a word and turned to walk toward the door.

Wang Ao’s limp body leaned against the wall, collapsing to the floor. That demon of a man was finally leaving.

Suddenly, Lu Ce turned back at the doorway, and the mask showed a friendly smile (*^_^*).

“I’ll come back and visit you later, Mr. Wang.”

Then he politely closed the door.

The light in Wang Ao’s eyes went out. His heart, which had been hanging by a thread, was now completely dead.

【: Honestly, I think Kirk’s pretty sharp. The Masked Man always seems to stumble into info by accident.】

【: I think the Masked Man just blends in way too well with the mental patients—no communication barrier at all.】

【: The Masked Man grabs a mental patient and just straight-up tortures them.】

【: Actually, comparing the two exits, the real gap is their difference in combat power.】

As the viewers chatted, they noticed Lu Ce didn’t head back to the Initial Room after leaving.

Instead, he went in the opposite direction—straight into the open room where Tom was.

He walked right up to Tom, said nothing, and struck without warning!

He stabbed the iron shard—confiscated from Wang Ao—straight into the metal head of the iron-skin robot!

*Crack!*

With such force, the shard went halfway in.

Tom: ?

Spectators: ??

Official monitoring staff: ???

Dude… are you okay?

Seriously got a screw loose—why go mess with the Game Host for no reason? Isn’t that just asking for trouble?

Mouse licking a cat’s b***, looking for a thrill?

【...Player, do you have a problem?】

“Why didn’t the system prompt go off? Shouldn’t this have triggered some hidden in-game mission or maybe a new Achievement Badge?”

“Seriously nothing? So stingy.”

Tom: ......

G*dd*** it, my face turned iron-blue from anger!

Well, Tom’s face was already iron-colored to begin with.

【Players should focus on the Game and not think about anything else!】

“Alright, delicious Tom, you really do smell amazing.”

【The Great Tom!】

Lu Ce didn’t waste time bickering and immediately turned to leave, heading down the big circular hallway toward the farthest room.

“Ahhhh!”

Suddenly, a blood-curdling scream echoed down the long curved corridor—it was inhuman, gut-wrenchingly shrill.

The expression on Lu Ce’s mask shifted slightly as he continued walking toward the room.

When he arrived at the Initial Room, he found he was the last to arrive.

Along the way, a trail of blood led directly to the room. Looking up, he saw Big Guy’s twisted, pained face.

At that moment, his right arm looked almost severed—white bone shards were visible where the skin had split. Only the flesh kept it barely attached.

Jiu Tian was beside him, helping to stop the bleeding.

“Got any meds? Hurry!”

Big Guy, grimacing in pain, pulled out a Basic Healing Potion from his backpack and poured it on.

In a flash, the torn flesh began to squirm and slowly knit itself together. The bleeding slowed.

Seeing that, Big Guy finally let out a breath and plopped down on the floor, drenched in sweat.

“If it’s too much, focus on keeping yourself alive first! How’d you end up like this?”

Jiu Tian, being part of the Official Organization, had the instinct to protect others and immediately asked.

“I f***ing hit him! Those things’ mental states are too unstable—it’s impossible to stay alert the whole time.”

“Everyone’s level of restraint is different, and that guy… he just straight-up pulled down his pants and started jerking ** at me!”

Jiu Tian: …..

Okay yeah, no man could’ve held it together after that.

Hearing that, the woman called Jinsheng turned pale, looking like she might puke.

After confirming that Big Guy wouldn’t die from blood loss, Jiu Tian finally relaxed and sat off to the side.

It had only been an hour, but everyone felt drained—mentally and physically.

Well, except Lu Ce.

Kirk sat far off, glancing at Big Guy and calmly said:

“If you can't, exit!”

Nothing more to say. In his eyes, these people were useless. Might as well focus on survival.

In the heavy silence, everyone finally noticed Lu Ce, who had just walked in without saying a word.

Jiu Tian gave him a quick glance and was immediately shocked—he saw Lu Ce’s nearly shredded right hand and nearly blew his top.

He knew very well—this crazy guy was probably the one with the highest Combat Power!

“You actually got injured too?! Who the h**l could hurt you like that?”

“Hm?” Lu Ce tilted his head in confusion, “Who? Me? I didn’t. What injury?”

As he said that, his hand—which looked like it had been through a meat grinder—swayed gently.

Yeah, that visual was *very* R-rated.

Jiu Tian: ......