Xiao Tangqiu hadn’t quite gotten over the shock yet, when the housekeeper turned around and removed a painting from the wall behind her. She piously held onto the painting with a humble posture. Then, she carefully placed it at the other end of the table, that is, directly opposite the Castle Master.

It was the portrait of Lily Marlene.

The newbies who were originally sitting at the back suddenly turned pale and regretted their decision. It seemed less frightening to sit next to a ghastly old man than a portrait of a dead woman.

However, the Master of the castle obviously didn’t think that there was anything wrong having dinner with the portrait of a dead person. He looked at it with deep emotions swirling in his eyes. But after a brief moment, he bowed his head and coughed for a while before he said in a low voice, “Guests, please enjoy your meal.”

The newbies were still hesitating whether to eat or not, but Xiao Tangqiu had already lifted the silver cloche off the dinner plate. He let out a sigh of relief. There wasn’t anything weird inside – it was steak.

Although some of them weren’t used to using forks and knives, they soon started eating after having endured hunger for so long. The steak was little raw, but it tasted good.

Seeing that others had started to eat, the newbies finally joined in with confidence. Everyone was hungry and even the picky child ate with gusto.

Xiao Tangqiu secretly stared out of the corner of his eye at Shen Yuan who sat next to him. Compared with his own crude and clumsy movements, Shen Yuan cut the steak with grace and elegance. He was obviously very familiar with using a knife and fork.

He withdrew his gaze and sighed quietly.

Just like him, Meng Xinghe seldom had western cuisine, so he wasn’t very good at using a knife and fork.

When everyone was almost done with dinner, the Castle Master said, “I believe you already know my identity. I am the Master of this castle, Lippinobert. Are you all suitors who read my marriage solicitation letter in the newspaper?”

………Wait a minute? Marriage solicitation letter? Suitors?

Did he just hear something strange?

Xiao Tangqiu blinked, wondering if he had heard voices.

Everyone else’s reaction wasn’t much better than his. They all sat dumbfounded. Tang Mianmian dropped his jaw in shock, so scared that the fork in his hand fell off with a clatter.

The Master of the castle, Lippinobert, lowered his head and coughed a few more times. Then he said in a hoarse voice, “I am a puppet master and I love puppets very much, so I hope my wife will love puppets too. In seven days, I will choose a beautiful young woman from among you suitors, and then she will be my wife……..”

“But within these seven days, you cannot damage any puppets in the castle.”

“What if we damage them?” Windbreaker Man grinned and asked.

Lippinobert looked at Windbreaker Man coldly, “……you don’t want to know.”

Twenty players sat at a long table and had a discussion.

“What is this place? Can we leave?” The female college student couldn’t help but ask in fear.

“Can we get out of here? I have an important interview tomorrow!” A young man with glasses spoke up at once.

The middle-aged Suit Man burst out, “Yes! I have a meeting the day after tomorrow to discuss a deal that involves tens of millions of dollars.”

A young woman who looked like a white-collar worker also grumbled, “I’m supposed to attend my best friend’s wedding tonight!”

Windbreaker Man looked at the newbies with a wide grin on his face, as if he didn’t want to ruin their fantasies.

However, someone still had to handle this sort of unpleasant but necessary matter.

“You can’t go back.”

The woman who followed Shen Yuan coldly continued, “You can’t go back. This is another world entirely…….”

The newbies turned pale at the sound of that. Although they didn’t want to believe it, everything they had experienced from the beginning to the present made it impossible for them to delude themselves.

“We really can’t back?” The female college student asked the woman in horror.

The woman gave the female college student a vague look; perhaps it was because they were both women, she added a few more words, “No one has ever been able to return to the real world.”

“Do we have to stay in this terrible place forever?” The female college student looked pale.

The woman said flatly, “After completing the mission, we can leave this instance.”

“Mission? Instance?” The young man asked, “Is this a game?”

The woman seemed to have something else to say but was rudely interrupted by a voice, “Fu Ling jiě, why bother explaining all these to these newbies?”

The person who spoke was the other woman beside Shen Yuan. However, rather than the word “woman”, it seemed more appropriate to call her a girl because she looked really young, around 15 or 16 years old, and was wearing a pink skirt covered in diamonds and lace. While twirling her curly hair, she smiled and spat out a cruel sentence, “……They can’t even survive tonight so what’s the point of explaining it to them?”

“How can a little girl like you be so vicious?” The middle-aged man scolded discontentedly.

The girl gave the middle-aged man a chilly look. She raised her hand and suddenly a delicate pink umbrella appeared in her grip. Then she pointed the tip of the umbrella at the middle-aged man. The next second, the tip of the umbrella fired a “bullet” which brushed the middle-aged man’s scalp and destroyed his wig in an instant.

The middle-aged man was so scared that he fell to the ground from his stool and was too afraid to get back up.

The girl laughed scornfully, “That’s why…… I hate rookies the most.”

“Lulu,” the woman frowned slightly. “Don’t overdo it.”

The girl blinked innocently.

Xiao Tangqiu was a bit stunned. Even if the flying scalpel of Windbreaker Man could be considered a normal phenomenon still within the bounds of physics, then the weapon of this Loli must be magic!

After being intimidated by this Loli, the newbies once again settled down and learned to behave.

“…..To put it simply, if we want to leave this castle, we’ll need to complete the mission.” the woman continued, “I’m telling you in advance that we won’t form a team with any of you because we can’t trust you. The reason I’m telling you all this is out of goodwill and to prevent you from misbehaving. If one of you irritates the BOSS and ends up breaking down the plot or upgrading the mission difficulty, all of us will be implicated.”

“Upgrading the mission difficulty?” Xiao Tangqiu couldn’t help but say, “This is already an S-level mission. Can S-level missions still be upgraded?!”

The moment he spoke, Shen Yuan looked up at him. His eyes were foggy, as if they were shrouded in a thin veil or perhaps enveloped by clouds and mist, appearing both vague and empty.

However, before Xiao Tangqiu could properly decipher the emotion in Shen Yuan’s eyes, Shen Yuan had withdrawn his gaze. He lowered his eyes and said, “Yes, there are more difficult missions beyond the S-level missions.”

His voice was cold and crisp, like an icy spring. Yet, beneath that frozen surface, there seemed to be a trace of unfathomable emotions.

The newbies looked puzzled and obviously didn’t understand the concept of mission difficulty. However, the other four old players’ expressions immediately turned ugly.

Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian looked at each other, their faces turning pale. Previously, when the D-level mission was upgraded to S-level difficulty, they had almost died. If this time the S-level mission was also upgraded, wouldn’t they be dead for sure?

“From now on, we should split up to look for clues, but you better be careful and remember the NPC’s prohibitions.”

After the woman finished speaking, she left with Shen Yuan’s team.

Soon, the four old players also left together.

Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian exchanged a look and were about to leave when the female college student came up and asked them carefully, “Are you going to look for clues? Can I come with you?”

Tang Mianmian subconsciously looked towards Xiao Tangqiu to get his opinion.

Xiao Tangqiu frowned slightly. Apart from Tang Mianmian, he didn’t trust anyone else. The female college student had reacted rather calmly earlier and didn’t seem like the kind of person who made trouble at first sight, but…….

“Why do you want to join us? We aren’t old players. “

The female college student said with a serious face, “You look much more reliable than the other newbies. I will try my best not to drag you down. I’m good at sports and I’m involved in many sports clubs in school…..”

She tried her hardest to persuade Xiao Tangqiu but seeing that Xiao Tangqiu remained unmoved, she gritted her teeth and threw out her last bargaining chip, “I am a German student, my major is German language…… I just rummaged through several rooms on the first floor and found a few German newspapers. I think you’ll need the skills I got from my field of study!”

Xiao Tangqiu was a little surprised. Compared to English, which was a widely used language, German was indeed less spoken. If the relevant clues were written in English, everyone could probably understand a little, but if it was in German, they would most likely not understand a single word. Right now, the ability to understand German was indeed an important skill.

“German?” Tang Mianmian was somewhat suspicious, “But we all understood what the Master of the castle said just now. He was clearly speaking Chinese! How could we possibly understand German?”

The female college student blushed as opened her mouth to say something, “He seems to be speaking Chinese, but the newspaper is indeed printed in German……”

Tang Mianmian wanted to add something else, but Xiao Tangqiu interrupted him. He said flatly, “What’s the point of arguing? Just look for some clues that have writing and we’ll know whether it’s true or not.”

The female college student realized this meant that he had agreed to her joining their team and her eyes suddenly brightened, “Thank you! My name is Lu Si’er. What are your names?”

Tang Mianmian answered, “My name is Tang Mianmian…….”

“But this is only temporary,” Xiao Tangqiu added faintly. “If we find that you’re not worthy of our trust, we’ll kick you out.”

“Of course!” Lu Si’er nodded.

Once Xiao Tangqiu agreed, Tang Mianmian nodded in agreement as well.

“My name is Xiao Tangqiu,” he introduced himself.

Lu Si’er also refused to beat around the bush and said bluntly, “I dug up several newspapers in some of the rooms on the first floor. But I didn’t dare move them so I left them where I found them. I’ll show you.”

Xiao Tangqiu nodded, “Let’s go.”