A Guide to Surviving the Mysterious Dungeon and the Twelve Talismans

Chapter 2 Entering the Dungeon: The Serial Killer in the Apartment

[Load the Horse Talisman?]

Please note that each instance can only carry a maximum of three runes.

[More talismans can be loaded in future system upgrades]

Zhou An was stunned for a moment. A dungeon can only load three talismans?

But it doesn't matter, let alone three, even one is already incredible.

"Loading immediately".

The next instant, Zhou An felt a heat rising in his chest.

Zhou An lifted his clothes and saw a horse talisman pattern on his chest.

The horse talisman flickered a few times and then disappeared beneath the skin.

Zhou An instantly sensed that he possessed the power of the Horse Talisman.

In an instant, Zhou An felt all his fatigue and any ailments vanish.

He felt refreshed and extremely invigorated.

Yes, even physical and mental fatigue can be eliminated by the horse talisman, keeping Zhou An at his peak at all times.

"Awesome! Haha!" Zhou An burst into laughter.

Regardless of what the dungeon is or whether it's dangerous, Zhou An is absolutely capable of clearing it with his current abilities.

With inexhaustible physical strength and mental energy, Zhou An could heal any fatal wound instantly unless he was instantly killed. He was also immune to all poisons. What did Zhou An have to fear?

Just then, another notification sound appeared in Zhou An's mind.

[Enter the instance: The Serial Killer in the Apartment]

[Instance Type: Multiplayer]

Number of participants: 5

"A serial killer?" Zhou An felt a chill run down his spine.

However, Zhou An quickly remembered his horse talisman.

So what if he's a serial killer? Could he possibly kill Zhou An?

If Zhou An really encounters a serial killer, he will show the killer the power of the talisman.

Zhou An then searched the room and found only a room key and a ten-yuan soul banknote.

The currency issued by the Heaven and Earth Bank is called Soul Money, not Underworld Money. That's quite interesting.

Oh, and my own phone, fully charged, but with no signal.

He checked the time on the clock hanging on the wall with his phone, and sure enough, it was correct—7:30 in the morning.

"Knock knock knock!" Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

Zhou An immediately became alert.

"Mr. Zhou, we are holding a general meeting in our apartment building. Please gather in the lobby on the first floor within ten minutes." An aged voice came from outside the door.

“Okay, right away,” Zhou An replied immediately.

Staying in the room offered no clues, and with the horse talisman on him, going out was the best option.

Zhou An did not go out immediately, but waited until the sounds outside the door had faded away before quietly opening the door.

A cool breeze blew in, making Zhou An shiver.

It was a gloomy corridor with a dim light from a lamp on the ceiling.

He quickly surveyed the corridor and found it to be very long. He was in the room at the very end, with the door number 410 on it.

"Squeak~~!" At this moment, the door to room 409, which was opposite Zhou An's, opened.

A figure walked out.

When Zhou An saw the other person clearly, his pupils contracted sharply, and his heart started pounding faster.

"Coo coo coo~~! A new guest has arrived! Wahaha, it smells so good, so good! Come visit my room sometime."

A strange man was chuckling, and a vertical pupil the size of a fist occupied half of his face.

Below the vertical pupil is the mouth; it has no nose.

The man with vertical pupils didn't look at Zhou An. He closed his door and walked towards the elevator at the other end.

"Phew!" Watching the departing man with vertical pupils, Zhou An took deep breaths, trying to calm himself down.

But it had no effect at all; my heart was still pounding wildly.

"Horse Talisman, I have a horse talisman," Zhou An silently chanted, and soon he calmed down.

Zhou An was no longer afraid and strode towards the elevator, quickly arriving at the elevator located in the middle of the corridor.

The elevator is stopped on the tenth floor; it will take some time to get down.

At that moment, three more terrifying figures arrived in front of the elevator.

They didn't speak, but stared at Zhou An with strange looks.

“The vertical-pupiled man in room 409, the big-headed monster in room 406, the tumor-like monster in room 404, and the snake woman in room 401.” Zhou An silently wrote down their room numbers.

"Are there only four monsters on the fourth floor?" Zhou An asked.

"Hehehe... Human, you've got some nerve." The big-headed monster let out a strange, croaking laugh.

"Interesting, humans actually dare to talk to us." The toxic monster also let out a strange laugh.

"Hehe, you guessed right! There are only four of us monsters on the fourth floor." The snake woman flicked her snake tail and gave Zhou An a flirtatious wink.

"Ding-dong!" The elevator sounded and then slowly opened.

Zhou An looked inside and saw four monsters, plus a middle-aged man who appeared to be human.

The middle-aged man remained calm, showing no fear whatsoever due to the monsters around him. He even glanced at Zhou An before paying no further attention.

The four monsters standing next to Zhou An entered the elevator.

The man with vertical pupils said, "The elevator is full. Please take the next one."

Zhou An remained noncommittal; when the four monsters went up, the elevator was indeed full.

Three minutes later, Zhou An took the next elevator to the lobby on the first floor.

The apartment lobby wasn't small, and more than fifty monsters had already gathered there.

Among them were four other humans, just like Zhou An.

Two of them were terrified, while the other two remained calm.

The sight of so many monsters gathered together made Zhou An's heart skip a beat again, and it took him a while to calm down.

"It's you, you old man! Driving on the highway, you've really gotten me killed!" Zhou An's expression changed as he approached, and he grabbed the old man by the collar.

"Hey, young man, what are you doing? What are you doing?" The old man grabbed Zhou An's arm with both hands, and his terrified expression eased a little.

"It's you, old man. Why did you have to drive on the highway in the middle of the night? You caused my car to overturn, and that's how I ended up in this dungeon."

Zhou An will never forget the face illuminated by the high beams.

"Ah...it's you, you beast! Driving so fast in the middle of the night scared this old man to death, and I ended up in this eerie place too."

"I'll beat you to death, I'll beat you to death!" The old man raised his hand and slapped Zhou An across the face.

Zhou An jerked his head back to avoid the old man's slap.

"Alright, everyone stop. The person is dead, what's the point of arguing? Let's think about how to survive in this instance first."

“Those strange creatures are all watching,” the middle-aged man said in a deep voice.

The fifty-odd monsters were indeed staring intently at the five of them, as if they were looking at some delicious food.

"Hmph, damned old man." Zhou An snorted coldly and released the old man.

However, Zhou An remembered the word "strange" that the middle-aged man had said.

These monsters all seem to be referred to as 'weird'.

"You beast, you damned beast, you scared this old man to death! If this were outside, you'd probably extort money from me to death."

The old man also spat on the ground and glared fiercely at Zhou An.

"Trash." Zhou An left those words and ignored the old man.

Chapter 3 Cleaners and Zookeepers

Zhou An looked at the middle-aged man: "Uncle, what do you mean by saying we're all dead?"

"Literally, to enter the instance, there is only one identity: the dead, which you can call a player."

"Don't ask about anything else. Only if you can survive in this instance will you be qualified to know everything."

"Here's a piece of advice: don't reveal your name," the middle-aged man said in a deep voice.

Upon hearing this, Zhou An, who had originally intended to ask further questions, immediately shut his mouth.

It seems there are some taboos in this strange world.

"Waaaaah, where am I? It's so scary, I want to go back." Another newcomer, a woman in her late twenties, sobbed, her expression one of extreme fear.

But nobody paid any attention to her.

Just then, the door to the administrator's room in the distance opened, and a middle-aged woman walked over.

This middle-aged woman, very middle-aged, very old, is just like a dormitory supervisor in the real world.

But she exuded a strange aura.

When she appeared, all the monsters around her fell silent and dispersed, making way for her.

“Recently, a serial killer has appeared in our apartment building. In the past month, he has killed more than ten residents, making our apartment building feel eerily uneasy.”

“Our rent has been reduced again and again, to only half of what it used to be, but even so, the occupancy rate has dropped from 90% to 50%, and another tenant moved out yesterday.”