“Stay here forever...” Echo was startled.

“So Mr. Reiner was lying after all. Or rather, he wasn't lying, but simply didn't know about this,” Kairo said.

Su Lingyan turned the note over. The handwriting was so forceful that the words had left deep impressions on the paper, making them visible even from the back.

“We found something on our end, too,” Su Lingyan said.

She then recounted what their group had discovered.

“You cracked the code? That's impressive,” SunnyBoy said.

“Yeah...” Kairo pieced together their findings and quickly reached a conclusion. “So, the biggest problem with this manor right now is the ghost of that man. He mistakes certain guests for his lover and then keeps them in the manor forever. We're not sure exactly how he does it, though.”

Everyone nodded. It was a reasonable deduction, but...

Su Lingyan tapped her fingers lightly against her thigh. “There's one problem, though. Heroin and I just checked Mr. Reiner's statements again. We searched online for information about Ekil Manor, and most of what we found was positive. There were no reports of anyone going missing, just as Mr. Reiner said.”

“What does that have to do with anything? Wait...” Kairo suddenly realized something.

“Right. If that man's ghost really does keep guests in the manor forever, then people should be going missing. But there haven't been any reports of that at all,” Su Lingyan explained.

“Then did Kylar, or rather, Mr. Reiner, cover up the disappearances?” SunnyBoy asked.

“But at the beginning of the dungeon, the system specifically hinted that we'd heard rumors about something sinister happening at this manor,” Echo pointed out.

The clues contradicted one another, tangling together like a ball of yarn that was impossible to unravel.

“It feels like we don't have enough clues to figure out the truth yet. And our weapons are still sealed, too.” Kairo let out a heavy sigh.

“Oh, right! What about our phones? Has anyone checked their messages?” Echo suddenly remembered that they had phones. There should be clues related to their characters on them. Maybe they could even find a hint that would help them unlock their exclusive weapons.

“That's right!” Only then did everyone realize that these weren't their own phones, but the phones belonging to the characters they were playing in the dungeon. They should give them a thorough search.

“We're acting like complete idiots for only thinking of this now.” Bai Luoyin took out her phone.

After all, none of them had much experience. They had each cleared fewer than five dungeons so far. With more experience, they would probably stop overlooking such obvious clues.

Everyone began carefully searching their phones for clues. Wendy, the chef, happened to pass by and noticed the light was still on in their room. She went in to turn it off, only to find five young people with their heads buried in their phones.

“Young people these days...” Wendy left the guest room.

Five minutes later, Su Lingyan had gone through all the apps, files, and pictures on her phone without finding anything noteworthy. The phone was like a prop from a TV drama, lacking the apps and data a normal phone should have.

In the end, she settled on a messaging app she had never seen before.

It required a password to open. That meant there were probably important clues inside.

But there was one problem: What was the password?

Su Lingyan searched through the other data on her phone and tried piecing together several possible passwords from what she found, but none of them worked.

By the time her screen displayed the message Too many incorrect password attempts. Please try again in five minutes., the others had also discovered the mysterious messaging app.

“What's the password?” Kairo pondered.

“Any ideas?” SunnyBoy asked Su Lingyan.

Su Lingyan showed him her now-locked screen. “Not a clue.”

“Have you tried your birthday?” SunnyBoy asked. Birthdays were usually one of the first things that came to mind when solving this kind of puzzle.

“What's your birthday?” Su Lingyan asked.

“Why are you suddenly asking me that?” SunnyBoy looked puzzled.

“She doesn't mean your actual birthday. She means the birthday of the character you're playing,” Kairo explained.

At the moment, the players were taking on the roles of guests, but they knew nothing else about their characters.

“The characters we're playing...” Bai Luoyin felt that their identities were probably important to this dungeon.

While everyone was still trying to figure out how to crack the password, someone knocked on the door.

Kairo went over and opened it. Cyril stood outside.

Cyril peered into the room to see what everyone was doing and said, “Wendy told me you were all here. Looks like she was right.”

“Is there something you need, Butler?” Kairo asked.

“It's time for the manor to turn out its lights. Please return to your rooms and retire for the night.”

Kairo picked up his phone and checked the time. It was eleven o'clock at night.

Kylar certainly had a healthy sleep schedule.

“I've already given you all your room keys, so please distribute them among yourselves. Good night.” Cyril gave them a slight nod before walking down the stairs at the end of the hallway.

Kairo closed the door, then took all the keys out of his system inventory.

“Time for bed?” SunnyBoy asked.

“Yeah. Take one each.” Kairo opened his palm, revealing five room keys.

Su Lingyan casually picked one up. “Does sleeping count toward our playtime? Are we actually sleeping in the game?”

Did sleeping in a game count as real sleep?

“I know this one! My second dungeon had a mechanic like this.” SunnyBoy picked up a key at random as well. “The time spent sleeping gets skipped. You lie down on the bed, close your eyes, open them again, and it's morning.”

“So it doesn't take up any time?” Bai Luoyin asked.

“Not exactly. Last time, I lay in bed for a while and almost actually fell asleep before it turned morning... Hmm, my guess is that since it's a multiplayer dungeon, everyone's time has to be synchronized. So time only skips forward once everyone has chosen to go to sleep.” SunnyBoy thought back to his previous experience.

“Then let's all lie down as soon as we get to our rooms,” Kairo said.

Everyone took a key. Kairo stayed in this room, while the others left and headed to their own rooms.

“Even if it's not real sleep, good night, everyone.”