“Holy shit, Su Bingyao is a player?”
Although Li Ran had suspected it before, actually seeing the video confirmation still sent a huge shock through his heart.
Beside him, Lu Zhaohui also looked stunned.
“What the hell is going on? Why is sister-in-law in the video?”
Zhao Yingzhi didn’t answer but motioned for the two to keep watching.
The video’s content was fragmented. Most of the footage was damaged. Aside from the initial segment that appeared relatively complete, the rest was broken and scattered, to the point that even the people were hard to make out.
The chaotic, fragmented footage lasted nearly three minutes before turning into static.
A deep voice with a “shhhhhh” distortion sounded again: “Recording, Day Fifteen of survival. Eternal Night. Four survivors.”
“So fast? It’s already Day Fifteen?” Lu Zhaohui exclaimed.
Li Ran frowned and said, “The video is more damaged than we thought. The earlier parts seem completely corrupted.”
He also noticed the mention of “Eternal Night” in the voiceover. Looking up at the gloomy sky, he said, “Yesterday the night started around 3:30 PM. The days are getting shorter. On Day Fifteen, Eternal Night will begin!”
Zhao Yingzhi nodded in agreement and reminded them, “The final night of madness will start at midnight after Day Fourteen ends!”
Midnight would bring more than just the ever-present virus—they would also face monster swarms like tidal waves and flash floods.
This information was nothing short of devastating to them.
At that moment, the video transmitted the sound of several people panting heavily.
“Heh… are you sure this is the only way to survive?” a woman’s voice questioned in the video.
“Do we even have any other options?” a man responded.
The two then began to argue, disagreeing with each other. Their argument was at times fragmented, sometimes clear, sometimes noisy.
“Enough! The captain’s sacrifice gave us a crucial clue. If we can find the Boundary Gate, we can survive. And the most likely place it exists… is deep inside the Dark Palace.” A cold voice echoed out.
Li Ran’s ears perked up. That voice—he knew it too well. It was Su Bingyao.
“And what if the Boundary Gate isn’t there?” the man asked.
“Is there any situation worse than the one we’re in now?” Su Bingyao replied in the video.
Everyone in the video fell into silence.
“Rustle rustle~~~”
Suddenly, a strange noise came from the video. Countless viruses surged in like a swarm of bees.
In the distance, terrifying howls echoed.
“They… they’re coming…”
“Quick—into the Dark Palace!”
The following sounds were too chaotic—running, panting, environmental noise, and the pursuing rustling sounds.
Then the footage ended.
“Boundary Gate?” Lu Zhaohui looked completely lost.
This was the most critical piece of information the video had revealed.
Su Bingyao, once a player, said in the video that finding the Boundary Gate was the only way to survive. But that raises the question: what exactly is the Boundary Gate?
(Boundary Gate: A legendary door leading to the dark world.)
The Golden Finger gave a hint.
The dark world?
The Safe House is also in the dark world. Is there a connection between the two?
Now he knew the Boundary Gate led to the dark world, but he had no idea how to explain this to Lu Zhaohui and Zhao Yingzhi.
Lu Zhaohui and Li Ran both looked at Zhao Yingzhi, thinking she needed to explain the Dark Palace—after all, she was the only one who had entered it and come back alive.
“Come with me,” Zhao Yingzhi said.
She led the two toward the front gate of the neighborhood.
After exiting, she smashed the window of a parked car by the roadside and climbed inside with practiced ease.
The two didn’t react much—breaking into houses or stealing cars was commonplace in the dungeon. No one cared.
Soon, Zhao Yingzhi was driving them toward the eastern outskirts of the settlement.
No keys? How did she start the vehicle?
For someone who retained the memories of an assassin, this was no problem.
Before long, the car exited the home zone, and at the edge of their vision, an immense black wall of mist appeared before them.
Zhao Yingzhi stopped the car at the base of the towering mist wall. The three got out and approached the dark area.
Pointing at the endlessly stretching, sky-high black wall, Zhao Yingzhi said, “What you're seeing now—the boundary mist wall—is the edge of the world.”
Li Ran and Lu Zhaohui already knew this was the world's border, but they had never seen it in person.
Looking up, they saw the black wall towering into the sky. Looking to either side, the wall stretched endlessly, a truly majestic and awe-inspiring sight.
“Can we touch it?” Lu Zhaohui asked.
Li Ran answered before Zhao Yingzhi could—he had seen it through the Golden Finger.
“Try it,” Zhao Yingzhi said with a half-smile.
As Lu Zhaohui hesitated, reaching out to touch the wall, Li Ran beat him to it, placing both hands on it.
“Feels like a barrier,” Li Ran said.
Touching it felt like pressing against glass, but within it pulsed a vast, surging energy. Compared to it, the energy in his own body was like a droplet against an ocean.
“Can it be broken?” Lu Zhaohui asked curiously.
Both Li Ran and Zhao Yingzhi rolled their eyes at him and answered in unison: “No.”
Their strength was like ants trying to shake a tree when compared to this barrier.
“You both wanted to know what I saw in the Dark Palace, right?” Zhao Yingzhi said.
Li Ran and Lu Zhaohui nodded.
Zhao Yingzhi turned, pressing her head against the barrier, staring into the endless black mist.
“Damp… eerie… an infinite darkness.”
Li Ran frowned slightly and leaned close, pressing his face to the barrier, peering through it.
The surging black mist filled the void like a crashing tide…
“Bang!”
Suddenly, a black hand slapped the barrier, letting out a low thud.
Li Ran, thanks to the Golden Finger's warning, had already taken two steps back. Lu Zhaohui, on the other hand, screamed in terror.
“Someone—someone’s in there!”
A dark, deformed figure appeared behind the barrier. Its features were obscured—only a silhouette could be seen, like through frosted glass.
The twisted figure slammed against the barrier wildly, its movements deranged and filled with hostility.
“It’s happening again!” Lu Zhaohui cried in fear.
Behind that figure, more strange shadows emerged—each with bizarre forms. They rushed toward the barrier, their bodies grotesquely distorted and terrifying: hunched, lurching, clawing, ghostly—each one plastered themselves against the barrier like a horde of zombies sealed on the other side!
Seeing this, Li Ran felt his scalp tingle uncontrollably.
And this was just the small area of the barrier in front of them. He didn’t even want to imagine how many monsters lurked in that void beyond the wall.
Li Ran even saw, deep in the shifting black mist, massive moving silhouettes as large as mountains.
“The Dark Palace is a place where the living must never enter—and where the dead desperately try to escape,” Zhao Yingzhi said coldly, staring at the horrifying silhouettes on the other side of the wall.
“Inside the Dark Palace… they are called—the Void.”
(End of Chapter)