*Bang!*

*Bang!*

The Big-Faced Monster slammed into the crevice from the outside.

One of them began to soften like clay, trying to squeeze through the narrow opening.

But Li Chengyi couldn’t see any of this; his eyes were shut tight.

After closing his eyes, he had to count!

*“Count!”*

“One, two, three, four…” he whispered as he began to count softly.

After counting, he needed to sing!

Quickly counting up to thirty, Li Chengyi began to hum the song.

*Bang!*

He heard the sound of the Big-Faced Monster crashing against the crevice from the outside.

“*Night falls, night falls, there’s always someone by the window…*

*Who is it, who is it? It’s the big, clumsy fellow…*”

He began to hum the tune of *The Kind Buru*, the nursery rhyme from Gris.

Inside the crevice, he couldn’t activate the Flower Scale Armor. He had tried multiple times while singing, but the space was too narrow for the armor to form.

Oddly, as he continued humming, the Big-Faced Monster outside gradually stopped making noise and slowly grew quieter.

By the time he sang through the song for the third time, it was as if the entire area had been swallowed by an eerie silence.

The Big-Faced Monster had completely stilled.

Li Chengyi cautiously, ever so slowly, opened his eyes just a sliver.

He was still wedged inside the crevice.

In front of him, beyond the opening, the Big-Faced Monsters had disappeared as if they’d never been there.

Directly facing him, the red maintenance door was wide open.

Standing in the doorway was a pale boy dressed in white, staring at him quietly.

*Buzz…*

A sharp, grating hum flooded Li Chengyi’s ears from every direction.

He winced, feeling as if his vision were spinning. The crevice around him seemed to rotate; he was spinning too.

The boy outside, along with the red door, receded and shrank into the distance, becoming blurred.

*Pop.*

There was a soft sound, like the closing line on an old TV screen.

The entire scene in front of him collapsed into a single line.

Then it shrank to a dot and vanished.

“Are you okay? Should I call an ambulance?” A concerned voice approached, growing louder.

Li Chengyi shook his head and opened his eyes.

He was standing outside the rice noodle shop, teetering as if he might collapse.

It felt like he hadn’t slept in days; his body was utterly spent.

An elderly man with silver hair, holding a shopping bag, looked at him with concern.

Clearly, this passerby had seen him stumbling and thought he might be having a health issue.

“No, thank you. I’m fine... Just... too tired,” Li Chengyi replied quickly, taking in his surroundings.

No bodies!

He realized with a start.

There were no dead bodies. He had left the Grius Parking Lot!

This time, he hadn’t needed anyone’s death to escape. He’d done it purely on his own by recreating Jiajier’s method of escape.

Following the survivor’s theory had worked; he had succeeded in escaping the Dead End!

*“I… did it!”*

Li Chengyi looked down at his hands. His right arm was completely numb, and the connection between his shoulder and chest burned with pain.

But… he had done it! He had escaped!

A sudden wave of relief, rare and precious, enveloped him. It was as if a massive weight had been lifted, and he felt lighter than he had in a long time.

“It’s good that you’re okay, young man. You should take care of yourself, even if you’re working hard,” the old man advised, clearly having seen too many overworked youths.

“It was just some over-exercise,” Li Chengyi explained.

Thanking the kind old man, he stood there, overwhelmed, unsure what to do next.

Should he go back to the hotel?

Or check out and go home?

Now that he’d escaped the Grius Parking Lot, he wouldn’t be in danger unless he encountered a new Dead End.

*“Finally… I can finally sleep well.”*

Li Chengyi pulled out his phone and shared the good news with Sindra and Song Ran, the two who, although unrelated to his entry into the Dead End, had helped him the most.

He sent out two quick texts.

Sindra’s call came almost immediately.

“So, what now? Going home to rest or continuing training at the company?” His tone was as curt as ever.

“Home. All I want now is to take a long shower and sleep without a care in the world,” Li Chengyi replied.

“Good job.” Sindra didn’t say more, but Li Chengyi could tell he understood how he felt.

Smiling, Li Chengyi hung up and strode toward the hotel to check out.

Check out, hail a cab, go home.

It all happened seamlessly.

Back home, he brushed off his parents’ questions, took a long shower, and collapsed into bed, falling asleep immediately.

* * *

In the suburbs of Suyang, an upscale residential complex stood under the darkening sky.

An older man with a stubbled face, clearly unshaven for days, sat by a recliner. His ashtray overflowed with stubbed-out, pale-yellow cigarette butts, some still smoldering.

The ashtray wasn’t the only place full of cigarette butts; some had even fallen to the floor.

Thick smoke swirled around him, but he didn’t care. In one hand, he held a lit cigarette, the other clutched his phone.

“Boss!”

A man in a black jacket with a crew cut burst into the room from the living area, his voice filled with excitement.

“We found him!”

“Found him?!” The older man’s eyes lit up, gaining a spark of life.

“Is it news about Dongdong? Where is she?!” He stood abruptly, his voice deep and growling like an awakened lion.

The man in the black jacket flinched but kept his composure.

“No, boss, not Dongdong. It’s the man you told us to look for. We found his details through another source.”

“Not Dongdong…” The old man’s hope faded once more.

This was Meng Mingcheng, the father of Meng Dongdong.

His daughter had been missing for a long time, disappearing from their home despite being surrounded by security and company.

In the time it took him to use the bathroom, she had vanished without a trace.

Meng Mingcheng had spent everything he had—money, connections, manpower—to find her, but to no avail.

“Do you mean you found the information on the two people she mentioned?” 

While it wasn’t news of his daughter, finding these two might lead to clues about her fate.

Meng Mingcheng had a foreboding feeling but didn’t want to confront it.

“Yes, sir. One of them has been missing for a long time and is presumed dead. But the other has been sighted around the New Century Building. Our people tracked him to his residence,” the man in the black jacket confirmed.

Meng Mingcheng’s eyes brightened.

“You saw him?” he asked, pacing and extinguishing his barely smoked cigarette in the overflowing ashtray.

“Yes, and our team is keeping an eye on him. Knowing where he lives makes it easier to get more information.”

Meng Mingcheng stopped pacing and looked at the man sharply.

“Go check out his family situation,” he ordered.

“Boss, are you suggesting…” The man’s eyes widened.

“Everyone has a weakness, and most people's weakness is their family. If we control his family, then…”

He paused mid-sentence, a chilling realization dawning on him.

“Wait… why is that man out? And Dongdong isn’t?!” 

A terrifying thought paralyzed Meng Mingcheng.

He stood frozen, memories of his daughter flashing through his mind—her smile, her laughter, growing up from an adorable child to a graceful young woman.

Tears welled in his eyes, trickling down his cheeks despite his efforts to suppress them.

“Boss…” The man in the black jacket sighed.

“Should I personally lead the team?” 

Meng Mingcheng didn’t respond at first. After a long silence, he shakily reached for a pack of cigarettes on the table but struggled to pull one out. His hands seemed slick, unable to grip the cigarette properly.

“Xiaolin, have I treated you well?” he asked suddenly.

“Yes, boss… You’ve been very good to me,” the man replied, a shadow of realization crossing his face.

“Then do me this favor,” Meng Mingcheng said quietly.

“… Arson, then?” Xiaolin gritted his teeth.

“Keep it clean. Use a gun first,” Meng Mingcheng turned away, looking at the vast white star in the sky.

“Understood.” Xiaolin nodded. “Should we inform Mr. Zeng?”

Zeng was the bald man tasked with finding information.

“No, the fewer people know about this, the better,” Meng Mingcheng said.

“Understood.” Xiaolin powered off his phone, watching as the screen faded to black and displayed the XF logo—the manufacturer’s symbol.

He glanced at his boss before leaving silently.

Gunshot first, followed by a staged electrical fire—this wasn’t new to him.

But this time, the target had backers. The risk was higher than before. One mistake…

Xiaolin knew that the boss would take care of his parents and younger brother. His life wasn’t worth much, but if it could secure his brother’s future, it was worth it.

*“It has to be quick—use a silenced gun from a

 distance, one clean shot, then trigger a fire. The entire job must be done within ten minutes.”*

He calculated the plan in his head. His aim was good; he’d been a sniper in the military, though not an elite, but accurate enough to land shots from a hundred or two hundred meters with an auxiliary system.

Xiaolin stepped out of the living room and moved to the elevator.

*Ding.*

The elevator doors slid open, revealing a long-haired young man in a blue tracksuit, head down, absorbed in his phone.