Deadly Game: Almighty Boss’s Guide to Making Money

Chapter 1229. The Book at Night (17)

“That’s the corner I mentioned earlier,” Huang Jingjing said, pointing to the back of the convenience store.

The fallen shelves remained as they were, and there seemed to be a few more charred wooden sticks scattered around them than before.

Chang Xiaohe walked to the shelf, squatted down to examine it carefully, and suddenly exclaimed "Oh!" pointing to the bottom of the shelf.

"There are scratches here! It looks like... scratches from a key?"

The crowd quickly gathered around and saw several deep and shallow engravings on the metal shelf, shaped like the teeth of a key.

Lin Xi touched the engraving with his finger; it felt rough and didn't seem to be naturally formed.

"Has someone tried something here with the key?"

"Here, there's half a note."

As Xiaoqin spoke, she picked up the half-burnt piece of paper from the ground, examined it carefully under the light, and suddenly her eyes lit up.

"Look, there seem to be words on the back of the note! Although they're burnt and blurred, you can still make out the word 'clock'!"

"A clock?" Guo Yuelang interjected, looking around.

"Convenience stores usually have clocks on the walls, so could the key be hidden inside the clock?" Quan Quan asked.

The group immediately began searching for clocks in the store.

Bai also found a wall clock above the cashier. The clock face was covered in dust, and the hands were stopped at 3:10.

He reached out to wipe the dust, but Lin Xi grabbed his hand.

"Don't touch it! Check if there's a problem first."

Huang Jingjing leaned closer, stared at the clock for a while, and then waved her hand around it.

"It's alright, there's no danger."

Lin Xi nodded, told Bai to step back, and then stepped forward to gently remove the clock.

The back of the clock is empty; there is nothing on it.

She shook the clock again, and a "click-clack" sound came from inside, as if something had come loose.

There's something inside!

"Let me do it!"

As Ouyang Xichen spoke, he immediately stepped forward and carefully disassembled the clock's casing. A silver key fell out, with a small character for "time" engraved on it.

Wow! We found the key!

—So the key was hidden inside the clock! The note that says "the key is hidden in..." must have been followed by "inside the clock"!
—Did the first snowflake already know? She mentioned the "scent of a key" before, maybe that's what she was referring to!

—That was the last time, right? It should have been the last time. The first snow fell from here when we entered the library.

Aren't they all the same place?

—Perhaps it's a clue left over from the last mission?

—Is this the key to the entrance or the key to the exit?

—Maybe even the first snowflake didn't find the key, but just sensed its presence?

So, was there a problem with the first snowfall, or was there no problem?

—The first snow didn't come.

—Yes, last time she and Chang Xiaohe entered a dungeon, they should have found the key in this convenience store.

—They probably thought they had completed their mission here and went to other places!
Lin Xi handed the key to Huang Jingjing and told her to keep it safe.

Just then, Bai Yueming suddenly pointed to the back door of the convenience store.

"Look!"

Everyone looked in the direction he was pointing and saw black mist seeping from the crack in the back door. The mist grew thicker and thicker, accompanied by a slight hissing sound. Hmm, the library is about to appear again.

However, the fog used to be a light gray, but now it has turned black.

It seems that Bai Yueming's jinx was right again.

Black mist seeped out from the cracks in the door like a living thing, and the originally slight hissing sound gradually became sharp, making people's scalps tingle.

Chang Xiaohe subconsciously took a half step back, his eyes fixed on the back door.

"This fog... is much stranger than the previous gray fog. Could it be dangerous?"

Huang Jingjing gripped the silver key tightly, her knuckles turning slightly white.

"Don't panic, everyone. Let's observe the situation first. Maybe the way the library appears has just changed."

Even so, everyone's gaze remained fixed on the ever-spreading black fog.

Lin Xi thought for a moment, then summoned a compass that had been placed in the dungeon before. The compass needle spun wildly, completely losing its direction.

"Something's not right. There's something wrong with this fog; it's interfering with the surrounding magnetic field."

As soon as she finished speaking, the lights in the convenience store suddenly began to flicker, the changing light making the whole space even more eerie.

"The black fog seems to be drifting this way," Xiao Qin said.

The black mist was no longer confined to the area near the back door; it was slowly spreading into the store, covering the merchandise on the shelves with a thin layer of black ash, as if it had been corroded.

Guo Yuelang took out a flashlight from his backpack, turned it on, and the bright light shone on the black fog, but it could only penetrate a short distance, and the depths of the fog remained pitch black.

"This can't go on. The fog keeps spreading, but the library hasn't appeared yet, and it's getting dark outside."

Those who fail to enter the library before dark will be eliminated.

Lin Xi pondered for a moment, his gaze falling on the remaining parts of the clock after Ouyang Xichen disassembled it.

“Ouyang, when you took the clock apart before, did you find any unusual parts? Maybe there are other clues inside the clock besides the key.”

Ouyang Xichen immediately squatted down and carefully examined the scattered clock parts. After a while, he picked up a small gear.

"There seem to be some marks on this gear; I didn't notice them when I took it apart before."

The crowd gathered around and, by the flickering light, could see that the gear was engraved with a string of strange symbols, neither numbers nor common characters.

Just then, Bai Yueming spoke up: "Quick, look at the back door!"

Everyone turned their heads and saw that the back door was completely covered by black mist. A blurry door shadow was vaguely visible in the mist, but the door shadow was surrounded by black vines, which looked particularly eerie.

"The library is about to open, but this time it looks... different," Huang Jingjing muttered to herself, her unease growing stronger.

The silver key was slightly warm in her hand, as if responding to something.

Lin Xi stared at the eerie doorway, then glanced at the gear in Ouyang Xichen's hand.

"Maybe this gear is related to that door. Let's try pointing the gear at the door." Ouyang Xichen immediately did as he was told, holding the gear up in front of him and pointing it towards the back door.

The next second, the symbols on the gear suddenly emitted a faint blue light, which pierced through the black mist and shone on the shadow of the door.

The compass, which had been spinning wildly, stopped instantly, and the needle pointed steadily in the direction of the doorway.

The door, entwined with black vines, slowly opened a crack, from which came a series of low, guttural roars that sent chills down one's spine.

It seems that passing the library level this time won't be so easy.

Everyone was thinking the same thing, but no one said it.

Inside the convenience store, the air was still thick with black fog, and the lights were barely visible.

"No way, are we supposed to walk in the dark?" Bai Yueming complained.

"If only the fog could dissipate."