Outside the bedroom, although the red-haired man and the short-haired woman failed to convince Flying Can to trust the little girl, they did succeed in making him question the validity of the rules.
After all, the rules were given to the players by Su Shisan. It wouldn’t be surprising if there were traps hidden within them.
While the rules they’d followed so far hadn’t led to major issues, who’s to say there weren’t hidden rules they hadn’t uncovered yet—like a death trigger?
Flying Can hadn’t found any clue about that one yet.
He had searched Su Shisan’s room earlier, but nothing turned up. The only place that might be hiding something was the girl’s schoolbag, which she kept behind her.
It would probably only become accessible when they reviewed her writing assignment.
“There’s something here!” the short-haired woman suddenly whispered, excited, motioning the others over to a wall-mounted painting.
Flying Can walked over, surprised. “Something’s here? I already checked. That painting is pasted directly on the wall.”
Of course he had examined the only painting in the room.
“But the wall behind it is hollow,” the short-haired woman said smugly. “Guess all those mystery novels weren’t for nothing. Listen!”
Thump, thump, thump!
She knocked on the wall behind the painting—it indeed sounded hollow.
Delighted, Flying Can rushed to the kitchen, grabbed a kitchen knife, and carefully tore the painting off.
Then he began hacking at the wall.
Once, twice, three times…
The hollow wall wasn’t sturdy. In no time, he had carved a hole into it. He reached in and pulled out a gaming console.
“Huh?” His eyes widened. “Why… is it something like this?”
The red-haired man’s eyes lit up. “See! I told you, making Shisan study is the wrong path. If it were the correct path, why would the game console be hidden so secretly?”
“I think that makes sense. How about we let her rest and play for a while?”
The short-haired woman was fully converted now—she trusted the clues she had personally uncovered.
Flying Can hesitated. He didn’t think Su Shisan was a good NPC, but the clue was right there. It might be worth trying.
What if the death condition was “completing all the study tasks”? Letting the NPC rest could give them a lead.
With that thought, he nodded. “Alright, I’ll charge the console first. Once it’s ready, we’ll let her play.”
Once it was charged, he signaled to the other two to enter the room with him.
It had been quiet inside for too long—he was worried something had gone wrong.
Thankfully, all was well. The group was just stuck on a particularly difficult math problem.
If they hadn’t come in, the group inside would’ve opened the door to ask for help anyway.
The short-haired woman rubbed her eyes uncertainly. “Is it just me, or do you all look kind of pale?”
Wang Yaozu let out a cold laugh. “If you were tortured by math for nearly an hour, you’d look like this too.”
It was so reasonable and convincing that the short-haired woman immediately accepted it.
The glasses-wearing girl, however, touched her face and adjusted her frames, frowning. “Do we really look that bad? I didn’t notice.”
‘Can’t I just recruit a player as an NPC?’ Su Shisan couldn’t help but ask her system upon hearing that.
The girl with glasses clearly outperformed the others. Even under heavy pollution, she retained a level of sanity.
This was her first dungeon, yet she was keen and insightful—definitely helper material. Honestly, someone like her would do well in anything.
“No. Unless she runs out of points and truly faces death, you won’t have a chance to recruit her,” the system replied coldly.
Su Shisan wasn’t surprised. It would be ridiculous if dungeon builders could recruit every promising player—player balance would collapse instantly.
She asked no further and opened her math book to face the players.
“This question’s really tough. Big brother and sister, help me solve it. Once I finish this one, I can move to the next.”
Then she turned to the short-haired and glasses girls. “And I don’t think your faces look bad at all. Maybe you were mistaken?”
“Maybe… yeah, maybe it’s fine?” The intense atmosphere of studying washed over them.
The short-haired girl looked dazed for a second, then focused again. “Maybe I was just overthinking it.”
Su Shisan smiled in satisfaction and turned away.
The man in the suit suddenly asked, “Hey, how did you three get in? Did you find anything outside?”
“We found a gaming console hidden in the wall, so we thought Shisan could take a break and play a little,” the red-haired man said, giving Su Shisan a warm smile.
Already aware of what happened outside, Su Shisan played along, feigning surprise. “Really? Mommy hid all my games so I couldn’t play them.”
Wang Yaozu suddenly had a weird feeling. He was a bad kid himself and very familiar with having his games confiscated. But the sequence of events in this dungeon seemed… off.
What was missing?
His chaotic thoughts made it hard to focus. Thinking had never been his strong suit anyway. Shaking his head, he gave up trying to figure it out.
If the sky falls, someone taller will hold it up—right?
“Well, before you play, you still need to finish your homework,” Flying Can said, extending a hand. “Let’s look at your essay while we wait.”
He suspected there was a clue in the Chinese essay. The rules’ description of it had always struck him as odd.
“Children are imaginative. It’s normal for strange sentences to appear in their essays.”
But what strange sentences? Could they reveal truths about the dungeon?
Su Shisan obediently turned and handed him her finished composition from her bag.
As a third-grader, she didn’t need to write anything complex—just 200 words.
“My Companions”
Mom is always busy with work and can’t be with me often. She hires lots of companions to keep me company…
Though they all force me to study like Mom, I still really like them… But these companions always disappear like ○○, which gets kind of boring…
Today, before leaving, Mom said a new batch of companions would arrive. I’m so happy to meet them!
At first glance, it read like a child’s simple journal entry, full of minor typos. Easy to fix.
But one line stood out like a slap to the face—“disappear like ○○.”
In the real world, this would mean they quit or were fired. But this was a dungeon. Here, disappear could very well mean die.
“Shisan, what do these circles mean?” the red-haired man asked carefully.
“Bubbles!” Su Shisan replied cheerfully. “They disappear like bubbles!”
“Because they study with you?” Wang Yaozu’s voice cracked with fear, his eyes wide with terror.
“I don’t know.” Su Shisan shook her head this time.
Everyone looked to Flying Can for a final decision. They no longer trusted him completely, but he was still the most experienced.
“…Let’s let her play a little and observe. The rest of you stay back. Don’t get too close.” Clenching his jaw, he finally made up his mind.
As far as he knew, some beginner dungeons had death rules that could wipe out everyone in one go.
They hadn’t been harmed so far, so their margin for error was still large.
Su Shisan looked up at the floating numerical values above each person’s head:
Flying Can: 80
Glasses Girl: 70
Suit Guy: 70
Wang Yaozu: 60
Short-haired Girl: 50
Red-haired Guy: 50
She frowned slightly but didn’t move. Instead, she pointed at her workbook. “Let’s finish this first. Mommy says we should always finish what we start.”
Then she smiled sweetly at the red-haired and short-haired players. “Big brother, big sister—come help me with the last few problems. You haven’t played with me yet.”
Hearing her emphasize “finish what you start,” Flying Can became more convinced that completing all the homework would be fatal.
But finishing just the math might still be safe.
Besides, they were here as companions. The fact that those two hadn’t helped yet could be a red flag too.
“Alright, you two help her finish the last few questions,” he said generously.
The red- and short-haired players weren’t suspicious. They thought Su Shisan liked them because they brought her the game and let her rest.
The glasses girl was the only one who hesitated. Her head ached from too many math problems, so she didn’t protest when everyone else agreed.
“This looks like a regular game, but it’s a little edgy—not really for kids.”
Flying Can checked the games after charging the console.
Wang Yaozu glanced at the screen and chuckled. “If my mom caught me playing this when I was a kid, she’d have smashed the console!”
That comment suddenly woke up the glasses girl. As a model child who was never punished, she hadn’t thought of this before—but now it clicked.
“Wait a minute. If her mom really didn’t want her to play, why not smash the console or delete the games? Why hide it in the wall?”
“Maybe the game is essential for clearing the dungeon. A built-in path,” Flying Can shrugged.
Inside the bedroom, Su Shisan barely held back a laugh.
You didn’t even screen your veteran players? Is this guy helping the team or helping me?
Even without Flying Can’s defense, she could have justified it herself.
The others were doomed anyway. But he’d practically dug the newcomers’ graves for her.
“If it weren’t for your severe corruption, he wouldn’t be like this. But failing this task has serious consequences. Once the dungeon ends, he’ll become your [Bed Linen]. You said you wanted a player as an assistant, right? He’s your chance,” the system said coldly.
Su Shisan declined without hesitation. “I’m not that desperate.”
Finishing the last multiple-choice question, she stood up with a bright smile. “Let’s go play!”
The moment she stepped out of the bedroom, an unseen darkness fell over the entire house.
The second the console touched her hands, everyone felt a tightness in their chest—as if something unseen pressed against their lungs.
Something was wrong.
“Maybe we shouldn’t do this,” the short-haired girl murmured, shivering from a sudden instinctual fear.
“Maybe we should delete the old games and install something peaceful?” the suit guy rubbed his chin.
Seeing them hesitate, Flying Can also grew uneasy and reached out to take the console back. “Let’s just—”
The red-haired man was already smiling. His pupils narrowed to pinpoints, and he suddenly snatched the console and handed it to Su Shisan.
“Have—fun—playing,” he said in a strangely slow, distorted voice.
“When did you corrupt him that badly?” the system asked, astonished. His sanity had jumped from 50 to 90 in an instant—he was now completely enslaved.
Holding the console that pulsed with power, Su Shisan smiled like an innocent child. “During dinner. Remember?
Rational and cold. From the moment he felt sympathy for me, he began to fall. I just activated the corruption just now.”
Never be soft on dungeon children.
“This is so fun!” she beamed, laughter as bright as silver bells echoing through the room, echoing again and again.
The sound infected the others—soon everyone was smiling uncontrollably. Their sanity plummeted.
No—something was wrong… The glasses girl’s fading consciousness screamed at her to stop the laughter.
She knew this was dangerous, but she couldn’t control her body anymore.
She vaguely remembered there was a word—a command—that could stop the girl. But her corrupted brain couldn’t retrieve it.
Flying Can’s face wore a smile, but terror filled his eyes. If this mission failed, he would die.
That fear sharpened his mind at the final moment.
“S-Study…” he forced the word out, suppressing his urge to laugh. “St—”
“Shh.”
Su Shisan gave a single glance. The red-haired man instantly covered Flying Can’s mouth.
The last voice of resistance was gone.
Laughter deepened and spread. The entire living room echoed with their hysterics.
“Hehehehehehe…”
“Hehehehehehe…”
The sound turned into floating bubbles, encasing each of them as they drifted upward…
Boom!
One by one, the bubbles exploded, taking the players with them. Blood splattered across the white walls, the air thick with the scent of death—a living hell.
Then the system’s cold voice rang out:
“Ding! Congratulations to the builder for completing the trial dungeon. Achievement unlocked:
『Game Over』
You’re amazing!”
Su Shisan gently wiped a drop of blood from her cheek, face emotionless.
“Exit dungeon.”
Beginner’s Meat Grinder.