My main world refreshes weekly.

It's the 10th of the month, and it's past 10:30.

The sound of mahjong tiles clattering filled the Mingcheng Club.

"The Enchantress".

"child."

"Pancakes".

Chengdu locals love to play a few rounds of roulette whenever they have a spare moment, and gamers are no exception.

Even if they have to go into the lab in a few hours and might never come out again, they still want to enjoy themselves first. This is a sense of relaxation ingrained in the bones of Chengdu people—a Buddhist-like, lazy attitude. Let whoever wants to get involved, let them get involved; they certainly won't.

Jiang Wanxin, who came from the water towns of Jiangnan, had no interest in playing cards with them. Chen Ci had been in the dungeon for five and a half hours. She sat at the bar, her brows furrowed, glancing at the time every now and then.

The player's first game is special. The time flow ratio between the instance and reality is fixed at 1:1. However, because the materials used in this game come from higher-level instances, the system will reduce the game time limit to 1-6 hours to balance the difficulty.

In other words, if the speech hasn't come out after six hours, it means the game is over and you've died in the dungeon.

"Sister Jiang, stop thinking about it, let's play a couple of rounds to relax," one player shouted. "We're one short for a three-man game."

Jiang Wanxin shook her head: "You guys play."

The bespectacled player sat down at the bar with a cup of tea, sighed, and comforted Jiang Wanxin, saying, "Sister Jiang, please accept my condolences. We're all seasoned players who've seen it all. She was just a newcomer we met once. Why hold a grudge?"

Jiang Wanxin looked up at him and said, "You seem to know how to talk?"

The bespectacled player adjusted his glasses and smiled, "It's alright."

Jiang Wanxin: "Okay, then I'll burn you down later to keep him company and chat with him."

Glasses player: "..."

The crowd burst into laughter, and someone bluntly said, "Stop licking your boots, Sister Jiang isn't interested in you."

The bespectacled player blushed: "What do you mean by 'licking'... This is comforting, understand? Can you call something between friends 'licking'?"

One player wearing a plaid shirt joked, "Why don't you also boost your charm a few times? Maybe Sister Jiang will take a second look at you."

"That won't do," the bespectacled player refused.

Charisma is the most useless attribute. Unless a crucial skill in your destiny requires a certain amount of charisma, no player will bother to invest in it, since people can die in this game.

"Is Sister Jiang heartbroken over her props?" one player joked while playing mahjong. "If it were me, I would have started regretting it three hours ago."

Generally speaking, the shorter the game time of the first instance, the lower the difficulty, and vice versa. Once it exceeds three hours, the probability of players dying will increase exponentially for every additional 15 minutes.

"Oh, how foolish of you, Sister Jiang!" someone lamented. "It would have been so much better if I had that prop."

"Hurry up and get the cards," he urged his teammate, adding a fair comment at the same time: "You have to admit, that kid is really handsome. If it were a girl, we might be the ones giving out the props."

Whether you're trying to pick up girls or simply making friends, offering help when someone is in need is always better than adding to someone's already good fortune.

"No way," his next player replied, "unless she's a loli... Sanjo."

"Wow, it's quite lively here." As everyone was chatting, a man in a suit walked into the club. He was also wearing glasses, but with gold frames. He had a friendly smile on his face and exuded a scholarly air, yet he was also composed.

"Good evening, Director Fu." Everyone greeted the man.

This is Fu Tao, one of the managers of Mingcheng Club in the Chengdu area.

"You guys continue, don't worry about me." Fu Tao smiled and went to the bar to get Jiang Wanxin a coffee. He noticed that Jiang Wanxin was in a bad mood and couldn't help but ask, "What happened? Why do you look so worried?"

"A new person came tonight," Jiang Wanxin said.

Fu Tao was slightly taken aback: "Isn't that a good thing?"

Jiang Wanxin added, "His physical fitness is 4."

"Strength and Constitution both at 4?" Fu Tao asked curiously. "What about the other attributes?"

Jiang Wanxin replied, "I applied it all over my face."

Fu Tao: "..."

The bespectacled player whispered, "Sister Jiang even gave him a needle, hoping he could come out alive."

Jiang Wanxin turned her head abruptly, glaring at him with murderous intent.

The bespectacled player quickly slipped back to his seat.

Fu Tao glanced at his watch: "How long has he been in the program?"

"5 hours and 41 minutes," Jiang Wanxin gave the exact time.

Fu Tao didn't say anything more, but patted Jiang Wanxin on the shoulder to comfort her, and took the coffee back to his office.

Jiang Wanxin sighed, slumped onto the marble countertop, and slumped down completely. It was impossible not to feel a pang of regret at wasting such a prop, but if it came down to Chen Ci coming back alive, Jiang Wanxin would choose the latter. Even if she had to do it all over again, she would still do it.

Everyone thought she was blinded by Chen Ci's beauty and acted impulsively, including her boss Fu Tao, who probably thought so too. But in fact... Jiang Wanxin was very clear-headed.

It's no exaggeration to say that her resistance to handsome men is higher than that of 99% of women in the world. She does admire Chen Ci's face, but his face alone is not enough to make her give him props.

More important than visual appeal is the "charm" of the speech itself. Jiang Wanxin saw in this little guy the same enormous potential and limitless possibilities as one of her former colleagues.

So she wanted to help Chen Ci.

Unfortunately, it seems she didn't help at all.

"Whoosh!"

"The Rock" Johnson, having just been outmaneuvered, shoved the mahjong tiles aside, cursing, "Damn it, what a bad day! I'm not playing anymore!"

The guy across the street checked his watch: "It's almost time, that kid still hasn't come out?"

The burly man scoffed, "It would be a miracle if he came out."

The items are very helpful to the players, that's undeniable, but the survival rate of less than 10% in the first game is also no joke. It's a game with a slim chance of survival, and with a strength and constitution of 4, how can you possibly win?

Relying on that face?

"What if?" The man in the shirt, always eager for drama, said with a smile, "I'm curious what he'll ask of you if he wins. That kid doesn't seem like someone who's easy to bully."

The burly man scoffed, "Then you'll probably never know."

There was only one minute left in the six hours until Chen Ci entered the stage.

Thirty seconds.

ten seconds.

The other mahjong game also stopped; the game was over.

Jiang Wanxin gripped her wine glass tightly, her beautiful eyes fixed on the corridor.

The bespectacled man began drawing circles backwards, muttering to himself, "Survive, survive..."

At crucial moments, you need to offer a counter-praise to avoid getting caught up in the consequences.

The hall was unusually quiet at this moment, with everyone waiting to see how the newlyweds would fare tonight.

The countdown ended silently.

Just as Jiang Wanxin was biting her lip, her eyes almost dimming...

"Bang!"

The door to the private room was kicked open from the inside.

Chen Ci, hands in his pockets, a cold expression on his face, strode towards them.

"Sorry to keep you all waiting."

"You've all been disappointed... I'm alive!"

……