# Chapter 156: Trapped in a Sealed Room
Xu Huo's body remained motionless, his breathing unchanged, as he stared directly at the puppet.
After about ten seconds, the puppet twisted its head, then clicked and clacked its way up the stairs to the second floor. Soon, the sound of chopping meat came from above.
Xu Huo silently returned to the ground floor, walked up the stairs, and looked up at Tao Chengxin, who was plastered against the ceiling at the corner of the landing. He gestured for her to come down.
Tao Chengxin landed as lightly as a cat, using the faint light from outside the window to read Xu Huo's expression. Finding no trace of emotional fluctuation, she couldn't help but curl her lips into a self-deprecating smile.
The two avoided the chopping puppet on the second floor and returned to the fifth floor. Xu Huo walked straight to one of the rooms and kicked the door open. The room was empty, with no sign that the bed had been used.
Tao Chengxin went in, knocked and tapped around for a while, then crawled out from under the bed. "There's a secret passage here."
Xu Huo moved the bed aside, pulled up the ring on the floor, and revealed a set of stairs below.
"Should we go in?" Tao Chengxin asked. "There might be more puppets down there..."
Before she could finish, Xu Huo had already started descending. She paused for a moment, then quickly followed.
Unexpectedly, the underground passage led to a very well-appointed dining room.
The walls, made of casually arranged red bricks, were hung with various block-shaped scented candles and flower baskets. Warm-toned recessed lights illuminated the four corners of the room, each corner holding a skull-shaped decoration, with a scroll clenched between its teeth.
In the center of the room hung a massive chandelier. Beneath it was a dining table about ten meters long, covered with a red tablecloth. At the center sat a three-branched candlestick, with a single chair at each end.
"What is this place?" Tao Chengxin asked instinctively, while Xu Huo turned to look behind them, frowning. "The door is gone."
They had just come out of the passage, and the door should have been about two meters behind them. But in the blink of an eye, the door had become a wall!
Tao Chengxin went up and pounded on the wall, only to find it was solid—impossible to break through.
"Look around," Xu Huo said.
The two then began searching every part of the room. After a thorough inspection, even using their items, they could only confirm one fact: they were truly trapped.
All the walls, including the ceiling and floor, were solid. The passage they had come down through seemed to have been nothing but an illusion.
"Is this a high-level player's trait or an item?" Tao Chengxin's eyes scanned the room. "There isn't even a window hole. How do we get out?"
Xu Huo didn't know either. But the girl in the white dress had deliberately lured him here—it couldn't be just to trap him.
"We need to figure out the rules of this place." He looked around, then his gaze settled on the scroll in the skull's mouth at the corner.
"Don't touch it!" Tao Chengxin immediately stopped him, her face darkening. "You dare mess with things in an instance? What if it's a trap?"
"Do you have another way?" Xu Huo countered.
"Still, no!" Tao Chengxin said. "Think again. Maybe we can come up with something. Unless absolutely necessary, don't touch anything here!"
Xu Huo didn't argue with her. He silently accepted her words and withdrew his hand. But at that moment, his vision suddenly blurred, and he found himself sitting at the dining table.
He instinctively tried to stand, but his body was restrained by some inexplicable force. He couldn't leave the chair at all. Even his arms were fixed to the armrests, with only his fingers able to move.
Across from him, Tao Chengxin was in the same situation. She struggled and looked over. "I can't move!"
"Same here." Xu Huo's gaze darkened. He manipulated the strings with two fingers, hiding them under the chair, and dropped the dual-color Rubik's Cube at his feet.
Seeing his actions, Tao Chengxin focused for a moment. In front of her, a giant-sized realistic frog suddenly appeared. The frog, as big as a human head, let out a "Croak!" and then began swimming through the air around her.
"Croak!"
"Croak!"
Three frogs appeared in succession. After each one croaked, it opened its mouth wide and joined the circling procession around her.
Having made basic defensive preparations, Tao Chengxin still tried to break free from the chair's restraints, but it was futile.
"You're still calm?" She looked at Xu Huo. "Aren't you afraid someone will take advantage of our immobility to attack us?"
"Afraid," Xu Huo said succinctly, but his expression didn't change at all.
Tao Chengxin cursed under her breath, then turned her head to look around and shouted, "Is there anyone breathing out there? Show yourself!"
"Are you trying to starve us to death by tying us to these chairs?"
"Give us a clear sign of what you want!"
...
"You have the guts to do this but not to admit it? Are you too ugly to show your face?"
"Your grandma here has good psychological endurance. I'm not afraid of ugly people. Come out, and I promise I won't laugh at you!"
"Coward! Spineless..."
She kept shouting and cursing for five minutes. When she got no response, she exhaled and returned to a normal tone. "I knew this instance wouldn't let people pass so easily."
She glared at Xu Huo across from her. "I really shouldn't have followed you in!"
"You wanted to take advantage of the situation. If you got tricked, don't blame others." Xu Huo glanced at her indifferently, then gestured with his chin toward the skull. "Can you get that scroll over here?"
"So you knew I was following you." Tao Chengxin said irritably, "I don't get it. Why did you come to the Bear Claw Restaurant?"
"You didn't even stay here last night."
"Same as you—I followed someone else here and got tricked." Xu Huo repeated his earlier question. "The scroll."
"You're pretty good at ordering people around. I can't do it." Tao Chengxin said without thinking.
"Use that equipment you had hanging outside the window last night." Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you don't have a single long-range item."
Tao Chengxin was startled, then her face darkened. "How did you recognize me?"
That's right—she was the "female ghost" who had harassed Xu Huo in the middle of the night.
"Recognizing you wasn't hard. Get the scroll over here, and I'll tell you." Xu Huo made his offer.
Tao Chengxin stared at him silently, a dangerous glint flickering in her eyes.
Xu Huo seemed not to notice. He added, "We're allies now."
In fact, when he had run into her at the entrance of Yongxing Club that morning, he had already recognized her. She carried the same scent as the "female ghost"—something she had used on her face. The cleaning agent hadn't completely removed the odor.
"I know you're short on cash. Otherwise, you wouldn't have dared to rob someone without even entering the room." He said, "Afraid Yongxing Club would make you pay for damages?"
Yongxing could contract the train's kitchen and open shops inside instances, so of course they weren't afraid of players defaulting. Even if a player had no money, they must have their own methods of debt collection.
"Yongxing is black-hearted and overcharges, but you're not much better. Why bother being a player? Switch careers and go into business."