Someone... in the wardrobe?

Li Ang instinctively looked towards the corner of the room, where a tall, old wooden wardrobe stood.

RUSTLE, RUSTLE.

The sounds of hangers colliding and clothes rustling came from inside the wardrobe.

Then, with a BANG, the wooden doors of the wardrobe were violently pushed open from within, and a figure rushed out.

He was a tall man dressed in black Night Clothes, wearing a hat and a mask. His eyes gleamed fiercely, and in his gloved hands—motorcycle gloves—he held a small knife and a damp towel.

The man's target was clear: he headed straight for the bed where Li Ang lay.

However, a muffled, beastly roar erupted from under Li Ang's bed.

A massive shadow, far too large to have fit under the bed, leaped out and surged towards the man. It swept him up, crashing through the glass window and onto the ground below.

Li Ang performed a kip-up, launching himself from the bed. He pushed off the bedframe powerfully with his feet and, using the momentum, leaped nimbly to the window.

Looking down, he saw only a street shrouded in the dim light of two rows of streetlamps. The man in Night Clothes was screaming in agony, stumbling as he fled down the street. Behind him, the dark shadow followed unhurriedly, occasionally swinging its arms, tearing at the skin on the man's back.

Li Ang frowned. Just as he was about to jump out of the window, he realized the floor beneath his feet was rapidly dematerializing. In the span of a breath, the floor, walls, and the entire room dissolved into smoke and vanished.

Li Ang fell directly from the third floor. A fall from this height was nothing to him.

Now on the street, he turned his head but saw no sign of the room, the man in Night Clothes, or the pursuing shadow monster.

Silence. Deathly quiet. It was as if only this straight street, stretching endlessly into the distance and enveloped by the dim light of the streetlamps, remained in the entire world.

"Uh," Miss Chai looked around in confusion. "What's going on here?"

"Not sure." Li Ang's brow furrowed. He saw what appeared to be a parked vehicle not far up the road. Judging by its shape, it should be a van.

Li Ang didn't rush forward. He first tried to open his friends list, but found it inaccessible. Then, he took out the [Ruitu Military knife 3000], turned on its flashlight, and shone it towards the pitch-black darkness bordering the street. The flashlight's beam was swallowed by the darkness as if severed in mid-air.

Li Ang pondered for a moment, then took a Beehive and a Worm from his inventory. He used Swamp God Power to control two Soldier Bees and the Worm, sending them to explore beyond the street's edge. The insects slowly flew out of the area illuminated by the streetlamps. Suddenly, his connection to them via Divine Power was severed; they were swallowed by the darkness, vanishing without a sound.

That way is a dead end.

Li Ang then took out his phone, a drone, a shortwave radio, and other devices to test them. He finally confirmed that remote communication was impossible in this space. He couldn't launch a scout drone or start his Ducati motorcycle either. Compasses, GPS locators, and similar devices were all non-functional.

Li Ang exhaled slowly, watching his breath form a white plume in the cold air.

Miss Chai asked, "What do we do now?"

"Let's go check out that vehicle first," Li Ang said. He stretched his limbs and then walked down the street towards the van.

It was a silver van, somewhat old-fashioned in style but well-maintained. Through the darkened windows, he could see the keys were still in the ignition. The door wasn't locked. Li Ang pulled it open and looked inside, finding that all the rear seats had been removed. The interior was lined with black waterproof plastic sheeting, on which various tools were laid out: duct tape, small knives, handcuffs, sedatives, a handheld video camera, a tripod, ropes, and a plastic bucket filled with an unknown liquid.

Li Ang said calmly, "From my conversation with the creature under the bed, 'I' was supposed to be a child in this scenario. And the owner of this van was the man hiding in the wardrobe."

Miss Chai was silent for a moment before she said slowly, "That man... he's a kidnapper who targets children..."

"Yes." Li Ang nodded. As he leaned down to inspect the vehicle, he noticed something rolled up and motionless beneath it. He extended his Bronze Sickle under the van, hooked the object, and pulled it out. It was an old, yellowed English newspaper.

The gist of it was that local authorities had apprehended a kidnapping suspect after a family filed a report. When found, he was unconscious on a lawn, his body covered in shards of glass and wounds consistent with an animal attack. His vehicle was parked on the side of a residential street, filled with various kidnapping tools. In the cellar of the suspect's home, officials found five children who had gone missing over the past three years, along with a large collection of homemade videotapes. Furthermore, near the doghouse of the suspect's pet dog, they unearthed numerous skeletal remains of adolescents and children. Examination revealed the bones belonged to multiple individuals. The suspect died the day after being found, despite medical intervention. Before his death, he was constantly shouting the name "Frank." Authorities urged anyone with information related to "Frank" to contact them as soon as possible.

Li Ang put down the newspaper, his expression turning somewhat peculiar as he looked at the van.

"So," Miss Chai took a deep breath and said in a low voice, "is this something that actually happened in the real world, or is it a nonsensical and absurd incident that spontaneously manifested within the Shengnan King's Dream, based on an urban legend...?"

"Both are possible," Li Ang said detachedly. "Perhaps what just happened was a simple newbie tutorial."

"Newbie tutorial? What do you mean?"

"If I hadn't finished the conversation with the creature under the bed, and hadn't waited for the man in the wardrobe to appear, but had attacked Frank immediately, then the story would have ended with Frank and me killing each other." Li Ang narrowed his eyes. Does this mean you have to figure out the patterns to survive these strange incidents here...?

He stood there pondering for a moment, then folded the newspaper into a small square and tucked it into his pocket. Then he got into the van and turned the key.

The van started, its headlights piercing the darkness ahead.

"It actually starts," Li Ang said, pleasantly surprised, as he pulled the door shut.

"Eh?" Miss Chai sounded surprised. "You're going to drive this van? It feels... strange. Kind of scary."

"No reason not to. Driving is much faster than walking," Li Ang said, starting the van without hesitation and driving forward. He scoffed, "It's just a van used by a kidnapper. You used to sleep on a glass tank filled with formalin and corpses every day, and you weren't scared then."

"The atmosphere is different! I'm not afraid of corpses. It's the invisible, untouchable, and truly terrifying evil spirits that scare me."

Li Ang shook his head, ignoring Miss Chai's protests, and focused on driving.

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