"Brother, that name of yours sounds a bit perfunctory," Ryan said, unable to hold back.
"Then I'll change it," Ethan thought for a moment. "You can call me Ethan Cheng if you want."
"You're Ryan, so what should I call myself?"
Ryan looked stunned and shook his head helplessly.
"Forget it, let's just leave it like that. By the way… what happened to you?"
His gaze suddenly fell on Ethan's arm.
Aside from the torn skin on his knuckles, Ethan's arm also bore several obvious wounds. They were impossible to miss.
The others had clearly noticed those fresh injuries earlier as well, but none of them had asked about them.
Ethan thought for a moment and decided to tell the truth.
"Someone broke into my house. It was completely dark at the time, and somehow I got hurt in the chaos."
"What happened afterward?" Ryan asked in surprise.
"Was the intruder caught?"
The others also looked over. In any world, a home invasion was not exactly common.
"No," Ethan shook his head. "He disappeared."
"Disappeared?" Ryan seemed thoughtful for a moment before suddenly saying,
"You didn't run into a ghost, did you?"
"What…?" Ethan's brows instinctively furrowed.
"Don't misunderstand," Ryan quickly waved his hands. "I'm just saying."
Perhaps thinking Ethan was sensitive to the word, Ryan hurried to explain. Then a mysterious expression appeared on his face.
"Have you ever heard a theory… that ghosts might actually exist in the world we came from—the so-called 'real world'?"
Ethan's heart suddenly trembled.
Ghosts… might also exist in reality?
Might?
Did that mean these people had never encountered ghosts in reality before?
"If ghosts really existed in the real world, it would have caused a huge uproar already," Sophia said calmly.
"And even if the news was somehow suppressed from ordinary people, how could players like us not know?"
"I don't know," Ryan shrugged. "I just heard that ghosts might exist in reality too. Besides, if we can come here through a strange elevator, who says they can't go there? Maybe… they've already crossed over into the real world. We just don't know it."
After a pause, he continued casually.
"By the way, what was it like when you entered the elevator? For me, I was asleep when an elevator suddenly appeared in my room. Before I even realized what was happening, my legs started moving on their own… and then I arrived in a completely unfamiliar world. After that, someone told me that this place had ghosts."
He forced a bitter smile and let out a long sigh.
Lily thought for a moment and continued the conversation.
"My experience was similar. I was in the library at the time, surrounded by people. Suddenly the elevator appeared, and it was like something controlled me. I just walked straight in."
"I saw it on the street," Sophia added.
"At that time, no one except me could see it. And even after I returned to reality, nobody noticed anything strange. Everything went back to normal, except that the elevator disappeared."
"I also saw it suddenly appear in my house," Daniel said awkwardly when it was his turn.
After that, the room fell silent again.
Victor didn't share his experience. He simply sat quietly to the side.
Ethan also remained silent.
At that moment, his heart felt icy cold.
He was different from all of them.
He was the only one who had entered the elevator voluntarily.
And that elevator hadn't appeared suddenly at all.
It had always been there.
It had never disappeared.
From their conversation, he could also confirm something else.
These people had never seen ghosts in reality.
He had originally thought their experiences were merely different from his, but now he realized something much deeper.
The very logic behind how he entered this world seemed completely different from everyone else.
However, after thinking about it carefully, Ethan realized there was no point dwelling on it now.
Many things would only matter if he survived and returned alive.
Maybe… once he made it back, everything would return to normal again.
Just then, Ryan suddenly stood up.
"There are three sweet potatoes in the kitchen. I'll roast them. Each of us can have half later. That should be enough to get us through the night."
"Why not cook rice?" Victor asked.
"With what water?" Ryan replied indifferently.
"Unless you want to go outside and find some right now. Since there's a kitchen, water must be somewhere nearby."
Victor was instantly silenced and said nothing more.
It was completely dark outside now. No one wanted to leave the house at this time—not only because of the weather.
Everyone understood that in the darkness, something far more terrifying than the cold might be lurking.
"From now on, nobody moves alone," Ryan said, glancing around the room with a meaningful look.
"Even going to the bathroom."
"In a moment I'll bring a few jars inside. We'll use those if necessary. No objections, right?"
It seemed to be an unspoken consensus.
Everyone nodded, including the two girls. It looked as though they had already grown used to this kind of arrangement.
Ethan naturally had no objections either. Knowing there were ghosts in this world, he had absolutely no desire to act alone.
The reason was simple.
He valued his life.
"Hey kid, I'm scared going alone. Come with me."
Ryan pointed at Daniel.
The boy hesitated for a moment, but after thinking of something, he gritted his teeth and followed Ryan outside.
Victor snorted quietly, as if he already knew what Ryan intended to do.
Ethan also seemed thoughtful.
This young man named Ryan seemed to harbor a certain kindness toward the boy. The earlier remarks, including the introductions, had all seemed like subtle hints.
Thinking about it that way, Ryan saving Daniel outside the temple earlier might simply have been his way of trying to keep the boy alive.
Soon, noises came from outside the curtain—then the crackling sound of firewood burning.
At the same time, faint whispers between the two could be heard outside.
Ethan roughly guessed what they were talking about. He was just about to get up and join them when a voice suddenly spoke beside him.
"Brother, what do you think about this mission?"
Ethan looked up and saw Victor staring at him intently, his eyes flickering with some hidden thought.
"You mean searching for the corpse?" Ethan paused, then replied casually, "That depends on the angle you look at the problem from."
"Angle?"
Victor looked confused.
"Yeah. Angle." Ethan nodded.
"You see, the range mentioned in the prompt isn't limited to just inside the temple. There's also a patch of muddy ground in front of it."
"You mean…"
Victor froze and instinctively looked toward the glass window.
Outside it was pitch black, with white snowflakes constantly striking the glass.
Which meant…
Once tonight passed, that muddy ground might very well be completely covered by snow and ice.