Vol. 1 Chapter 2

The system left silently, just as silently as it had come.

Only the players remained standing there in silence, torn between laughter and disbelief, each harboring their own suspicions.

The only one without any doubts was Wu Wang, who continued happily demolishing things without a trace of inner turmoil.

Flat walls weren’t easy to chew through. He bit into the dent he’d made, tugging left and right while kicking with his hind legs. Powdery debris scattered everywhere.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Xiao Tao staring at him with an expression that clearly said speechless admiration.

At least the other man had become a bit more self-aware and stopped trying to touch him. After standing there struggling internally for a while, like he was waging some fierce mental battle, Xiao Tao finally knocked on the wall.

“I’ve got an item that can swap objects around. If Brother Husky really manages to break through the wall, I’ll replace that wall with yours.”

“…Ah, about that.”

The student who had desperately wanted to regroup earlier now sounded hesitant instead.

“B-before, didn’t you say only one person could stay in a room? Why did you suddenly change your mind, bro?”

He stammered for a while before cautiously adding:

“…Um, bro. Don’t you think the ‘One’ in the question might’ve referred to your husky?”

“…What are you trying to say?”

Xiao Tao’s eyebrows rose higher and higher as he listened.

“If it wasn’t referring to the husky, what else could it mean? Me? Hah. I haven’t even started suspecting you, and you’re already suspicious of me?”

CRACK!

The white wall’s mournful cry interrupted the tension.

Under Xiao Tao’s frozen stare, Wu Wang barked excitedly and kicked powerfully with his hind legs—

completely blasting the wall open.

“…”

Xiao Tao was forced to shut up.

Opening random walls was a gamble. No one knew whether the room beyond held a human, a ghost, or some unknown monster.

Though irritation still lingered on Xiao Tao’s face, his hands moved quickly, pulling out an item and replacing the broken wall at top speed. Then he impatiently shouted through the opening:

“What are you still standing there for? Get over here! If I were a monster, you’d already be dead a hundred times over!”

“O-oh, coming…”

The student hunched his shoulders and awkwardly crawled through the dog-sized hole, accompanied by a string of jingling metallic sounds.

“Woof?”

Sitting proudly in front of his demolition masterpiece, Wu Wang tilted his head curiously, briefly distracted by the sound of clinking metal.

It was unexpectedly surprising.

Throughout their earlier conversation, the student had sounded timid, cautious, and highly dependent on others—the type of obedient kid who instinctively sought help from parents or teachers whenever something happened.

But once he appeared in person, the studded leather jacket and bright red punk hairstyle he wore instantly shattered any assumptions about him being “well-behaved.”

“This isn’t my outfit!”

The student jumped up and hurriedly clarified, constantly tugging awkwardly at the hem of his clothes. Clearly, he cared deeply about his appearance.

“I woke up dressed like this! This stupid game definitely changed my clothes! Bro, can you stop looking at me like that? Why do I feel like you really dislike me?”

“If I disliked you, would I’ve used an item to save you?”

Xiao Tao snorted through his nose and impatiently pushed aside the student still lingering by the dog hole. Squatting down, he peered into the neighboring room.

“Oh, right. By the way, this skin color and these nails are from using a vampire item card. Stop making wild guesses all over the place.”

Supporting himself against the cracked wall, Xiao Tao carefully inspected the room beyond.

He ignored the student’s self-introduction of “My surname’s Zhou, my name’s Zhou Mo.”

Before he could look for long, however, a fluffy round dog head suddenly popped up beside his chest.

“…?”

Wu Wang enthusiastically shoved himself halfway through the hole, flattening both ears in the process.

“Woof… woof!”

The neighboring room was another identical pure white chamber.

Completely empty.

No furnishings to destroy.

Boring enough to offend dogs everywhere.

“Awoo…”

Wu Wang whined in disgust and withdrew his head from the hole.

While lowering himself to groom his messed-up fur, he heard Xiao Tao mutter from beside the opening:

“This room doesn’t have doors on the side walls either…”

Wu Wang twitched an ear, unable to understand what this two-legged creature found so troubling.

After carefully tidying his fur, he tucked his paws beneath himself and curiously observed the rich and varied behavioral patterns of the two humans before him.

Zhou Mo still looked terrified, huddled in the corner and afraid to move.

Xiao Tao, meanwhile, frowned as he looked up again at the still-bleeding ceiling.

Wu Wang followed his gaze upward but found nothing interesting.

Instead, he heard the distant hymn-like singing begin moving again, drifting nearer and farther unpredictably.

Perhaps it was just imagination, but every time the singing approached, it seemed closer than before…

No one knew when it might suddenly appear outside their room.

Zhou Mo looked ready to throw up.

“Bro… how are we supposed to escape?”

“I checked my room over and over. There weren’t any hidden doors or cracks. Could this really just be a completely sealed room?”

“Of course not.”

Xiao Tao sounded distracted as his pale fingers scrolled through the projection from his pocket watch.

“My instance mission is ‘Adopt a little angel and feed it three times.’ If we can’t leave, how are we supposed to adopt anything?”

“…”

Zhou Mo froze.

Before he could respond, Xiao Tao closed the projection.

“And my personal skill lets me scan partial information about objects. I already scanned the door. It’s on the ceiling. The only problem is…”

His expression darkened.

“There’s a monster guarding the door outside.”

“Earlier, several players already tried opening it to scout the area. But the result…”

The remaining player count spoke for itself.

“…Then what do we do? We can’t stay trapped here forever, right?”

Zhou Mo sounded miserable.

“If we want to survive, we need more information. But to get information, we have to go outside. And outside there’s a mon—”

“Woof.”

Wu Wang, who had been quietly observing from the floor, suddenly stood and barked toward the ceiling.

“Holy shit, you scared me!”

Zhou Mo apparently had a habit of talking too much when nervous.

“Why’re you barking all of a sudden? And hey, why doesn’t your husky wag its tai—”

The final word died in his throat with a loud gulp.

The holy hymn that had once sounded far away had somehow vanished completely.

In its place came a strange windlike sound—

right above them.

Cold sweat soaked through their clothes instantly.

Zhou Mo stiffly looked upward. After confirming the sound wasn’t coming from inside the room, he let out a huge breath of relief—

only to tense up again moments later.

Lowering his head rapidly, he mouthed exaggeratedly at the others:

Someone’s outside the door!

His heart nearly jumped out of his throat.

Just as he was about to crouch beside the overpowered husky for comfort, Wu Wang abruptly stood up.

The tail that had remained motionless until now suddenly began wagging furiously with excitement.

Zhou Mo: “???”

Was this the legendary husky?

This abnormal compared to normal peo—normal dogs?

That didn’t make sense either! He watched short videos all the time, and everyone said huskies were cowards who cried dramatically after losing fights!

Knock. Knock. Knock.

A polite knocking rhythm echoed out.

Several seconds later, it came again.

“My dear children, why won’t you open the door? I can hear your breathing.”

The voice outside was beautiful and pure—almost heavenly.

But no one inside dared move.

Much less open the door.

—Well, no one except Wu Wang.

His front paws were already clawing at the wall.

Thank goodness the door was dozens of meters high. Otherwise, Wu Wang absolutely would’ve performed a live demonstration of a husky opening doors.

Warm blood continued dripping steadily from the cracks in the ceiling door.

No one dared—

or wanted—

to think about the seventh player who had died not long ago.

But expecting a mere door to stop an NPC was about as effective as covering one’s ears while stealing a bell.

After the third knock, the thin ceiling door creaked open.

An NPC with clear features and a gentle smile descended gracefully on white wings.

At first glance, he looked no different from the traditional angelic imagery passed down through later generations.

He was immaculate from head to toe.

Yet less than three seconds after landing, a pool of scarlet blood spread beneath his feet.

“According to the law, only one angel may reside in each room. You—”

His soft, waterlike voice abruptly stopped upon noticing the giant dog hole in the wall.

Wu Wang wagged his tail and experimentally opened his mouth, slowly approaching the angel’s drooping wings.

Just as his canine teeth were about to touch the gigantic chicken wing—

a pair of hands suddenly pulled him back.

Zhou Mo inhaled sharply and mouthed frantically at Wu Wang:

Are you insane? Provoking an NPC?!

“…”

Wu Wang opened his mouth to bark—

only to get covered again.

Zhou Mo finally seemed to remember the species barrier between himself and a husky and gave up trying to mouth words at him. Instead, he desperately signaled at Xiao Tao with his eyes:

The monster outside the door is gone now! Shouldn’t we run for it?!

—Too late.

Something cold and tube-like wrapped around Zhou Mo’s shoulder.

It slowly coiled and uncoiled.

Thick, foul-smelling liquid dripped onto his leather jacket, making him gag instantly.

Wu Wang also recoiled as if struck by lightning, retching several times with his back arched.

At some point, the angel had already turned around.

There was no anger over the dog hole.

No displeasure at being rejected.

His smile remained flawless.

“Come with me to see the Lord.”

“The Lord?”

Xiao Tao, experienced as ever, still found time to mutter quietly.

“Could the background setting of this instance really be Heaven?”

As he spoke, he skillfully tore another item talisman and instantly swapped places with Zhou Mo.

“—Bro?!”

Zhou Mo’s eyes widened in shock, nearly moved to tears.

“You saved—”

“Shut up already.”

Xiao Tao clicked his tongue impatiently.

“Move.”

“Brother Husky earned us this chance to get outside. Don’t waste it.”

With the angel leading the way, the two humans and one dog finally left the room.

Fortunately, there was no immediate death trap waiting outside.

But the smell of blood was overwhelmingly strong.

Every step on the floor felt thick and sticky beneath their feet—

Yet visually, everything remained pristine white and spotless, even glowing with translucent purity.

After only a few steps outside, Wu Wang abruptly scrambled and jumped into Xiao Tao’s arms.

The dog’s surprisingly substantial weight nearly made Xiao Tao collapse.

“Oh? So now it’s not like before, when you wouldn’t even let me touch you?”

“Woof!”

Wu Wang innocently stared at him for a few seconds, twitching his furry ears before slowly pressing his soft paw pads against Xiao Tao’s chest.

Xiao Tao’s heart instantly melted.

Completely oblivious to the fact that the dog was simply using him as a carpet to wipe its paws clean, he happily accepted his role as an automatic throne.

Wu Wang comfortably flicked his dangling tail and stretched his neck out to inspect this awful new territory.

To the naked eye, the place looked magnificent and holy.

After the ceiling door closed, no trace of a seam remained.

At a glance, the area resembled a vast oval-shaped platform surrounded by curved railings made from the same glowing material, clean as polished jade.

Beyond the railings, however—

was endless blackness.

Pitch darkness.

Zhou Mo tentatively reached a hand toward it.

Before he could extend halfway, Xiao Tao kicked him back.

“Can you stop touching random things? That’s the edge of the instance. If you stick your hand out there without protection, it’ll be corroded into a burnt thing in under half a second.”

“!”

Zhou Mo immediately recoiled in terror.

Only after ascending several floors behind the angel did he finally lower his voice and speak hesitantly:

“Um… bro. …And Brother Husky.”

He actually addressed Wu Wang respectfully too.

“Don’t you think something’s weird?”

“We violated the rules, even smashed a hole through the wall, and the angel still didn’t kill us…”

He swallowed nervously.

“Could it be planning to bring us straight to the final boss so it can slaughter us there?”

“And another thing—we’ve gone up several floors now without seeing a second angel. Does this instance really only have one angel and one God?”

“Wouldn’t fewer NPCs be a good thing?”

Though Xiao Tao said that, he was clearly considering the same issue.

“Maybe they were temporarily transferred away.”

Frowning, he added:

“I’ve encountered something similar before. It was in a faction-based instance…”

“A faction instance?”

Zhou Mo nervously twisted his fingers.

“Does that mean there’s also Hell?”

“…”

Xiao Tao suddenly stopped walking.

He didn’t answer.

Wu Wang, who had been lounging lazily in Xiao Tao’s arms, also raised his head toward the east.

His hanging tail unconsciously started wagging again.

“…………”

By now, Zhou Mo had already deduced a pattern from Wu Wang’s previous tail-wagging incidents.

He looked on the verge of tears.

“D-does that mean there’s another monster?”

Pure white feathers drifted down gracefully from above.

He heard the sound of a thousand wings beating.

Ten thousand eyeballs rolling wetly in unison.

Holy hymns that made his mind spin and his thoughts blur—

“AAAAAHHHHH!!!”

Zhou Mo suddenly unleashed a scream powerful enough to shake heaven and earth as he jumped backward violently.

“Holy shit, Brother Husky, why’d you bite my hand—what… are… you…”

His voice gradually faded.

Instinctively, Zhou Mo’s eyes widened to their limit.

His heart nearly stopped as he stared at the descending wings before him.

The wings were immaculate.

Beautiful enough to resemble works of art.

But as they brushed against his face, they carried a revolting stench of blood.

The countless eyes embedded in the wings trembled and rolled frantically—

then, all at once, focused directly on him.

“…………!”

It was a horrifying sight beyond words.

His survival instincts screamed wildly while his mind went blank.

Yet his gaze uncontrollably passed beyond the giant wings, staring through the gaps in the feathers toward the dreamy white forest in the east filled with holy glowing orbs.

His thoughts stopped functioning entirely.

His frozen brain failed to connect those apple-shaped lights with Adam, Eve, or Eden.

Instead, his gaze locked helplessly onto the largest tree at the center of the garden—

the Tree of Life stretching into endless clouds.

Wu Wang was staring there too, fluffy tail swaying lightly outside Xiao Tao’s arm.

A tall figure stood beneath the tree.

Apparently hearing Zhou Mo’s tragic scream, the figure slowly turned around.

Silver hair slid over broad shoulders.

The man stood lazily, casually.

Yet perhaps because the black suit perfectly emphasized his broad shoulders, narrow waist, and ideal proportions, that laziness instead felt refined and elegant.

Light flowed down his side profile like a kiss.

It twined around his lifted fingertips before disappearing beneath the sleeve of his suit into a cold metal chain.

The scene was holy.

Perfect.

But dogs didn’t understand perfection.

The only thing Wu Wang understood was that the little human cub looked like he was about to be flattened into meat paste by giant chicken wings.

“—Awooo!”

Without hesitation, Wu Wang bit Zhou Mo’s arm again, dragging the stupid human cub away from the incoming wings.

Xiao Tao also gave up on continuing this angelic sightseeing tour and immediately tore open his last teleportation item, activating it just a second before the second attack landed.

An unimaginably violent dizziness struck instantly.

Completely unprepared, Wu Wang nearly got flung senseless.

The fluffy tail behind him curled instinctively toward his stomach in terror—

only for a cool hand to teasingly brush against it before it could fully hide.

Xiao Tao stared in utter shock.

The silver-haired man who had been standing beneath the tree had somehow teleported beside them.

Not only had he grabbed Xiao Tao’s wrist and forcibly joined the random teleportation—

he was also smiling gently at the dog as though Xiao Tao and Zhou Mo didn’t exist at all.

“Have we met before?”

His tone was clearly warm and polite.

Yet both Xiao Tao and Zhou Mo shivered involuntarily.

It felt less like he was saying “Have we met before?”

and more like:

“Hello. Please die.”