The first to strike was Lu Gang, who grabbed for Xie Man’s throat. After she dodged, he leaped after her toward the room’s sofa. The sofa overturned near the Gloomy Man’s feet, and Lu Gang used it as a springboard to launch a sudden assault on Ni Tian, punching her directly toward Xu Huo’s position. Xu Huo elbowed away Ni Tian who tried to take advantage of the opportunity to sneak attack him, then ducked to avoid Li Weiran’s scissors while simultaneously kicking Gao Jun away!

“Boom!” Gao Jun crashed through the room and rolled out into the exhibition hall. Xu Huo flashed outside, raising his foot to stomp on the man who hadn’t yet gotten up.

However, several colored balls exploded nearby at that moment, spraying out rope nets that rushed toward him. Xu Huo swung his sword to cut through the ropes, then kicked Gao Jun forward into the darkness.

The Painting Woman, who had been lying in ambush nearby all along, descended and wrapped him up, dragging him toward the blank painting frame. Xu Huo quickly followed and forcibly pressed the man into the frame, but just like with Ni Tian’s situation, the frame didn’t swallow the person.

Neither players who hadn’t cleared the level nor those who had already cleared it would work. It seemed the method for creating the third task’s collection was different from the first two.

During his moment of contemplation, Li Weiran appeared behind him. “Xu San, you’re actually Extra, aren’t you!”

Xu Huo turned his sword around, the beam of sword energy spreading out before converging to human-width. Li Weiran, still holding her scissors, tilted her head as her upper body slid diagonally to the ground.

When he turned back, Gao Jun had already disappeared.

“Xu San, save me!” Ni Tian and the Gloomy Man had also entered the exhibition hall. Seeing Li Weiran’s corpse, the former cried for help while the Gloomy Man immediately abandoned his attempt to kill and rapidly retreated, simultaneously watching Xu Huo warily.

Ni Tian was overjoyed and quickly ran toward Xu Huo, but at that moment the monster charged over from the front of the exhibition hall. After being pulled aside to avoid the monster’s cane, she said gratefully, “Thanks to you…”

Before she could finish speaking, Xu Huo casually stuffed her into the living painting beside him, then removed the painting frame and raised his sword to block the monster’s cane!

Seeing that his Ruby Longsword could withstand a direct clash with the sculpture monster’s cane without issue, the Gloomy Man quickly changed targets, returning to the room to flank Xie Man together with Lu Gang.

“Shameless bastards, two against one! Are all the other players dead?!” Xie Man shouted as she fled from the room. Catching a whiff of blood and seeing that Gao Jun who had come out earlier was gone while Li Weiran had been cut in two, with Xu Huo fiercely fighting the sculpture monster, she swallowed hard. Suddenly, something resembling frog webbed claws extended from beneath her flat shoes, and she began climbing up a pillar.

Her speed wasn’t slow, leaving the Gloomy Man and Lu Gang helpless as they chased after her. Instead, after grabbing several paintings and trying to knock her down, they attracted the monster’s attention back—it stopped paying attention to Xu Huo and charged toward them!

“Bang! Bang! Bang!” The hunched sculpture monster made urgent, unpleasant scraping sounds on the floor tiles, forcing the two to retreat. Meanwhile, Xie Man on top of the pillar sighed in relief and continued climbing while comforting herself, “Whether I’ve cleared the level or not, as long as I survive until the dungeon time ends, I can move to the next dungeon…”

But what she and the other three people present didn’t expect was that the monster stopped beneath the pillar, then straightened up and stretched its head forcefully toward her, as if confirming something.

Xie Man frantically climbed higher, but at that moment the sculpture monster waved its cane, and she was pulled by an invisible force flying toward a pillar diagonally ahead!

The moment she touched the pillar, she disappeared. Lu Gang and the Gloomy Man, who could only see shadows but couldn’t clearly discern the painting’s content, immediately rushed over!

Xu Huo, who wasn’t far away, remembered that what should be hanging there was a blank sheet of paper. He hesitated slightly as he moved—a living person entering blank paper could barely count as meeting the third task’s requirements, but simultaneously, paintings created by the sculpture monster might also be living paintings like the others in the art gallery. If it were a living painting, rashly touching it would only result in being swallowed.

During his moment of hesitation, Lu Gang had already touched the painting first, and in the next second his entire body spun as he was sucked into the painting. The Gloomy Man, who was just inches away, withdrew his hand upon seeing this, but then reached for the painting again.

However, during this instant of hesitation, the painting frame before him flew upward, and the sculpture monster behind also swung its cane at him!

The Gloomy Man dodged behind the pillar, circled around the not-very-agile monster, and ran toward the corridor. The monster stretched its head and followed his route around the pillar, but by then the Gloomy Man had already run far away. The monster then turned to look in another direction, and after finding no one, began wildly swinging its cane around the exhibition hall.

The Gloomy Man rushed all the way to the deepest part of the corridor in one breath, hiding in the room where Li Weiran had stayed. He locked the door tightly, panting as he retreated, his eyes fixed straight on the door. After a prolonged silence, footsteps finally sounded outside, and the hopeful light in his eyes instantly extinguished.

“Knock knock knock.” Xu Huo knocked on the door without speaking.

After hesitating repeatedly, the Gloomy Man finally proactively opened the door and stepped back to let the person outside enter.

“We’ve had no conflicts or contradictions since meeting in this dungeon. You have no need to kill me. Aside from a few potions, one practical item I had was already destroyed by the sculpture. I have two other items that are quite useless. If you want them, I can give them all to you. I don’t even hope to clear the level—just let me survive until the dungeon time ends.”

Xu Huo walked over and sat down by the sofa, then placed two paintings beside him.

The top one was the painting that had swallowed both Xie Man and Lu Gang. The two had already turned into oil painting figures, unwillingly twisting their faces within the frame.

The Gloomy Man glanced at it briefly before looking away, consciously keeping his distance from Xu Huo.

“No need to be so nervous.” Xu Huo gestured for him to sit. “I still have my third task unfinished.”

The Gloomy Man’s face visibly darkened. “You want me to test it for you?”

Xu Huo tapped the two paintings beside him. “If we can clear the level in one attempt, I can give you one of these paintings.”

The Gloomy Man showed struggle on his face but quickly resigned himself. “It seems I don’t have any other choice.”

Xu Huo nodded. “You’re right.”

The Gloomy Man paused for a moment, then sat on the floor and said, “You’re very strong—stronger than any E-grade player I’ve ever seen. Li Weiran was considered quite formidable, yet she died by your hand in just a few moves.”

Xu Huo smiled without responding to this, instead asking, “What’s your name?”

“Wei Da.” The Gloomy Man habitually touched the pits on his chin. “My friends all joke that my name sounds like a tissue brand, so I’m not too willing to tell people.”

“You can use a fake name in the game,” Xu Huo said.

“A true man doesn’t change his name or hide his identity,” Wei Da said with a straight back. “What kind of man would dare not speak his real name?”

Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. “You don’t seem like someone with that much backbone.”

Wei Da choked up, then said, “It’s just a label anyway. Whether it’s real or fake doesn’t matter—I can’t be bothered to make up a new one.”

Xu Huo touched his chin. “Show me your items.”

Wei Da knew he couldn’t escape this ordeal and readily took out all his items and potions. He personally considered his items not worth looking at, so he didn’t hide his evolution agent either, instead hoping Xu Huo would take a liking to the evolution agent to make up for the psychological gap.

However, he was mistaken—Xu Huo was very interested in his items.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep