# Chapter 201: The Elevator Back to the Fifteenth Floor
This undoubtedly increased the risk for the players as well.
"I don't agree with splitting into more elevators," Wei Bin said. "Our purpose in doing this is to save more people, not to test the limits of the instance rules. As long as we stay within the safety line, whether or not we figure out some of the other rules doesn't matter."
Like Dai Wenqian's suggestion about dispersing the number of people—there was actually no need to do this at all. As long as after this descent, nine out of the ten elevators remained, it would basically confirm that the number of safe elevators matched the number of floors. Dispersing people was just an unnecessary extra step.
"How can you be sure this isn't floor-based randomness?" Dai Wenqian maintained his gentle smile. "Perhaps the first few floors were just us being lucky."
"But if each floor down only randomly reduces the number of people in one elevator, wouldn't the risk spread out to each person be smaller?"
"Without trying, for every floor we go down, we can only cram as many people as possible into the elevators. Even if the random frequency isn't that high, once it hits, we'll lose at least thirteen people."
"But what if we're lucky and don't get chosen?" Xiao Ba said.
Dai Wenqian adjusted his glasses. "It's never wrong to prepare for the worst."
Although Gu Yu and the others didn't agree with his method of using human lives to test the rules, it was indeed a viable approach. The sooner they figured out the rules, the safer they would be.
"So how many people per elevator?" Zhang Biao asked tentatively. "Do you have a plan? Is more safe or less safe?"
Dai Wenqian made a gesture for Xu Huo to go first.
"It doesn't matter how many, as long as it doesn't exceed thirteen people," Xu Huo said.
"But to be cautious, the two extra elevators—one should have fewer than five people, and the other fewer than ten," Dai Wenqian added.
The other players had no objections, and the opinions of those outside weren't within their consideration.
The six hours on the tenth floor quickly passed, and everyone entered the elevators again. However, this time the players dispersed into six different elevators. Xu Huo, along with the cart he was pulling, was accompanied only by Da Zhi, Jiang Yihua, and three ordinary people. There were also two elevators with fewer people—the one with fewer than five included Gu Yu and Wei Bin.
The moment the elevator doors closed, Xu Huo knew that the elevator he was in had triggered a rule trap, because instead of going down, the elevator suddenly accelerated upward!
"Watch out!" He warned Jiang Yihua and the others, steadying the cart with one foot while pressing his back against the elevator.
The others quickly followed suit, pressing against the elevator walls, hands behind them, bending their knees to brace for impact.
In the blink of an eye, the elevator rushed back to the fifteenth floor, but when it stopped, the doors didn't open. Instead, the ceiling of the elevator car split open to the left and right.
The lights went out. Jiang Yihua quickly turned on her phone, the flashlight beam illuminating the top of the elevator shaft, which was only about two or three meters above them.
"It sounds like something's coming from the side!" she said, nervously holding her breath.
Xu Huo also heard sounds coming from the side pipes, and at the same time, he smelled a strong odor.
"Cover your mouths and noses," he warned the others.
Jiang Yihua and the others were sweating from tension, their eyes wide as they stared upward. But just as the rustling sounds reached the edge of the elevator, and they felt like something was about to cross over the car, the noise suddenly stopped!
A few seconds later, the ceiling closed, the lights came back on, and the elevator plummeted to the ninth floor.
"Ding!" The moment the elevator doors opened, Jiang Yihua rushed out without hesitation. When she looked up, she was startled by several skeletons suddenly appearing before her eyes, stumbling back and nearly colliding with Da Zhi and the others coming out behind her.
From the other elevators, Dai Wenqian and the others also emerged.
Seeing the terrified expressions of Xu Huo's group as they scrambled out of the elevator, Dai Wenqian looked seriously at Xu Huo. "You win this round."
Xu Huo turned to look at the other elevators. Two of them had people missing.
One elevator, carrying thirteen people without any player accompanying them, was just like the fifteen people who had come down from the fifteenth floor—no traces left inside the elevator. But the other elevator, which had carried nine people, including one player, had all of them missing. The elevator car showed signs of a struggle, along with a few spots of fresh blood.
"What is that?" Gu Yu pointed at a small yellowish-green substance like mucus in the corner of the elevator.
"It should have been left behind when Wang Cheng was attacked," Zheng Liang said with a grim face. "We've lost another player!"
Dai Wenqian looked at Xu Huo. "What did you encounter in the elevator?"
"We didn't see anything," Xu Huo said. "After the elevator started, we were taken to the fifteenth floor. The ceiling of the car could open to the left and right. There should be other places connected above the elevator shaft—maybe there are mutant creatures inside."
The elevator doors slowly closed. He stared at the mucus in the corner for a moment, then said, "But it didn't show itself, and the ceiling closed again. The elevator went straight to the ninth floor."
"Just like that?" Zheng Liang found it hard to believe. "You weren't attacked?"
"Can't you understand plain language?" Jiang Yihua said, still shaken. "We were attacked too, we just didn't come face to face with the mutant!"
"That mutant must be very strong—I could feel it!"
She was still being supported by Da Zhi.
"I don't understand. What you're saying is, you were taken to the fifteenth floor, but for some reason, the mutant didn't attack you?"
Before Wei Bin could finish speaking, Xu Huo and Dai Wenqian's gazes simultaneously turned to the mutant plant in the cart.
The ones that had been taken up should have been three elevators. Two of them had people missing, with only the player leaving behind some signs of struggle. The elevators with missing people had opened at almost the same time as the other elevators, meaning the time these three elevators went up and came down was very short.
In such a short time, the player might have been killed or taken away. Either way, it showed that the situation he encountered left him almost powerless to resist.
Given such a disparity in strength, Xu Huo's group had escaped unscathed. The only difference was the mutant plant they had brought up from the thirteenth floor.
"Is there a mutant killing people in the elevator?" At this moment, the rich little girl asked tremblingly. "Was someone killed? Did you already know?"
Xu Huo withdrew his gaze and turned to look at the people crowded around him. "Let's check the ninth floor first."
The players suppressed their questions and began to examine the contents of the floor one by one.
The ninth floor was a specimen floor. The skeletons Jiang Yihua had run into were human bone specimens, casually hung outside a metal-clad box. There were many such metal boxes.
"Thump, thump." Zheng Liang knocked on a metal box and pressed his ear against it for a few seconds. "It sounds like there's water inside."
"Maybe it's some kind of specimen soaking in liquid," Gu Yu said, glancing around. Then she added, "This floor should be safe too."