Chat group, starting from the Infinite Terror God Space

The first test: the death staircase.

The spiraling metal staircase, like an endless python, extends infinitely downwards through the dimly lit honeycomb passageway. The cold steps gleam with a pale white luster, and the air is filled with the pungent smell of machine oil and old metal. With each step, the dull thud of shoes rubbing against the steps can be heard.

The mercenaries and Zhang Jie were already in excellent physical condition. Among the others, Zheng Zha often went to the gym to train, so his physical condition was quite good and he had a decent foundation. The middle-aged man, Mou Gang, was a truck driver, and his stamina could keep up with the team.

The physically weak Zhan Lan secretly tugged at Zhang Jie's clothes for support. Zhang Jie only glanced at her, neither scolding nor objecting to her clever trick. Li Xiaoyi, panting, lagged behind at the back of the group. Although slow, he could still barely keep up. Wang Qi, having taken a pill, felt a warm sensation flowing through his chest and could have easily kept up, but he deliberately pretended to be breathing heavily.

Only a middle-aged woman in her forties, whose steps grew heavier and heavier, was gradually left behind completely.

One person is out.

After running a short distance, the woman's figure completely disappeared around the corner of the stairs. Zhang Jie suddenly uttered a sentence in a low voice.

The people around him heard it, but no one spoke. Zheng Zha, running, asked in confusion, "What? Eliminated?"

Zhang Jie sneered, "Don't take my words lightly. This is the real world; you can die. You probably still think this is just a movie? The collar will detonate if you're a hundred meters away from Matthew Edison. That's the rule. That guy... is dead."

"boom--!"

Before the words were even finished, a deafening explosion erupted from above the stairs, a violent shockwave surging down the gaps in the steps, making everyone's eardrums ring. Everyone instinctively looked up, only to see layers upon layers of cold, spiraling stairs—nothing else could be seen. But a chilling cold instantly crept up their spines; everyone knew perfectly well that a living, breathing person had vanished before their eyes.

Wang Qi's heart jolted violently; the sound of the explosion seemed to strike his very soul, causing him to tremble uncontrollably. He was filled with fear—fear that life could vanish so easily, and fear that he had just narrowly escaped the same fate.

Even with prior mental preparation, knowing the God Realm was incredibly cruel, all expectations seemed pale and powerless when truly facing death. Without experiencing death firsthand, one will never understand its taste. The only reason people dare to move forward is because they cannot see the true face of death. And now, a living, breathing human life vanished silently and completely, accompanied only by two loud bangs.

Meanwhile, the mercenaries and the male and female protagonists seemed completely oblivious to the explosion, not even noticing that one of them was missing. As they drew closer to the end of the stairs, one of the mercenaries suddenly shouted, "Sir, the Flame Queen has locked onto us! She knows we're here!"

Only then did Wang Qi realize he had finished running down the stairs. His legs gave way, and he collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath, trying to relieve the burning pain in his lungs. The short ten-minute run down the stairs felt like ten hours to him.

Zheng Zha and the others collapsed to the ground, utterly exhausted, panting heavily. Running down the stairs for ten minutes straight, even just going down the stairs, was far too strenuous for them.

Zhang Jie slowly walked over, looked at the group of people panting heavily, and shook his head:

"Hang in there, you should be grateful you're even alive. To be honest, you're lucky; this horror movie has a very low danger level. In fact, it's one of the few horror movies where you can solve problems with bullets. If you can survive this horror movie, you'll get a thousand reward points to use to improve your physical condition."

A thousand reward points? Wang Qi sneered inwardly. That amount was less useful than preparing a coffin for himself in advance.

Matthew Addison led the team deeper into the passage, where isolation laboratories gradually appeared on both sides. Behind the thick tempered glass, murky sewage filled the entire space, and pale corpses floated scattered on the surface, swaying gently with the ripples, exuding an indescribable eeriness and gloom.

"Damn it!" A mercenary's expression changed. "These labs are the only way to get to the Flame Queen's main server room. Now they're all flooded, and we can't get through at all."

Matthew Addison nodded and ordered, "Raine, J.D., go see if you can drain the water."

The two responded and walked deeper into the passage with their guns.

He looked at the research area flooded with water and then instructed, "Kaplan, Zhang Jie, go find another route to the Flame Queen."

Kaplan raised his gun and followed Ryan and his companion, while Zhang Jie casually waved to Zheng Zha and the others before following them in a nonchalant manner.

After the group had walked a distance, Spence couldn't help but ask, "What exactly happened here? These labs look like..."

Matthew Addison glanced at everyone and said in a deep voice, "About five hours ago, the Flame Queen sealed off the entire Hive, activated the internal defense system, and began the massacre—releasing poison gas, cutting off elevators, and sealing off laboratories, just like now. She wiped out all the researchers in this area."

He paused, then continued, "After the company noticed the anomaly, our team was sent to shut it down; that's the purpose of our trip."

Just as the female protagonist was talking to the mercenaries, someone suddenly screamed. Everyone turned to look and instantly understood why—behind the glass wall next to them, a female corpse was floating in the water, her figure clearly visible.

Wang Qi felt a chill run through his hands and feet, his fear no less than anyone else's, yet he forced himself to stare intently at the corpse. He had to adapt to all of this as quickly as possible; he couldn't afford to be too scared to even lift his hand when facing zombies later.

"Hey, let's introduce ourselves?" Zhan Lan suddenly spoke up, "After all, we'll be relying on each other from now on."

With no objections from the others, Zhan Lan took the lead in introducing herself.

"My name is Zhan Lan, Zhan from Zhan Tianyou, and Lan from mountain wind. Sounds like a boy's name, right? I'm a writer. Before coming here, I was complaining about not having any inspiration. I never expected to stumble into such an infinitely exciting world. I guess I brought it on myself."

Zheng Zha smiled amicably: "Zheng Zha, Zheng as in Zheng Chenggong, Zha as in Nezha. I'm a company supervisor. Before coming here, I did find reality too boring, as bland as slowly rotting, and wanted to find some excitement... but the excitement here is just too much."

The middle-aged man, Mou Gang, smiled憨厚ly: "Mou Gang, I'm a long-haul freight driver. I don't have as many fussy things as you educated people. Before I came here, I kept complaining about my wife being stingy and my son being useless. I was quite disappointed with reality. I played a game online with my friends and clicked 'confirm' to come here."

Seeing that Wang Qi didn't speak, a young man standing nearby quickly chimed in, "Li Xiaoyi, a senior in high school. He complained a lot before coming here, but now that I think about it, it's not bad. As long as I don't die, I can become a superhero. Zhang Jie said that the enhanced abilities can be retained when I go back. I never want to be bullied at school again. I'm going to teach those bastards a lesson when I get back!"

After everyone finished their introductions, all eyes turned to Wang Qi.

He paused for a moment, then spoke calmly, "Wang Qi. Before coming in, he was just an ordinary worker. I never expected to fall into the Main God Space. I don't know if it's good luck or bad luck."