Gourmet Goose saw the hanging, eerily chuckling frames without any fear.
As he walked slowly, he continued to explain:
"I’ve already watched your livestream from last night.
"I noticed that some of you also wanted to go to the fourth level of the nightmare. But why couldn’t you make it? The reason is simple... it’s because when you take the main road and get halfway, you’ll be suddenly caught up by Big Hammer Bro, who appears out of nowhere with a once-in-a-lifetime teleportation.
"It seems there’s only one path here, which is to enter through the small road into Elle’s book. That’s what you all thought, right?"
Gourmet Goose said this as he walked towards the wide-open window.
He took the letter that was outside the window.
But he didn’t start reading right away, nor did he turn back to look.
Instead, he closed the window immediately... and carefully hung up the lock.
As he turned around, lightning struck at the same time.
The hanging frames turned into corpses dangling from the rafters!
But Gourmet Goose didn’t look up.
He didn’t look outside the window, nor at the corpses. He just stood still holding the letter and started whispering, "I’ve watched all the videos of the third layer, and now I fully understand the mechanics of this level.
"Actually, this level has a timed movement mechanism.
"Big Hammer Bro actually moves very slowly, and he isn’t a ghost... he can’t go through walls.
"Starting from when the wind blows the window open, Big Hammer Bro will appear behind you after forty-three seconds. I watched all the videos three times, timing with a stopwatch, no more or less.
"And during this time, if you keep running at full speed, there’s a tiny chance you can make it... but this will worsen your injuries, and you will enter the next level in a near-death state. Because the corridor on this level has been lengthened, forty-three seconds is definitely not enough for you to reach the next level. That’s how you died."
"And the reason Kid God was hammered to death by the window is that he stayed in place to read the letter, and kept turning his head back and forth, wasting too much time..."
He had just finished speaking when he saw his own shadow suddenly lengthen.
So Gourmet Goose didn’t hesitate any longer and darted forward, beginning to run with small steps.
Big Hammer Bro was behind him, shattering the window with a hammer blow.
But because Gourmet Goose had darted forward, the hammer strike couldn’t smash his head directly.
And with the wall in the way, Big Hammer Bro couldn’t chase after him indoors by advancing one step.
He could only silently, forcefully smash the glass and the wall—then, with great effort, leap inside.
Seeing this, Annan had already understood his strategy:
Because Big Hammer Bro will always appear behind you, Gourmet Goose deliberately found a spot where there was "light behind him" and "the opponent could reach him even with an obstacle in the way," right against the wall.
This would trap Big Hammer Bro outside the house.
And with the light from the lightning outside, Gourmet Goose had the chance to escape the moment the hammer fell—in fact, some players did escape the first hammer blow. But because they were injured, they couldn’t run fast... and Big Hammer Bro could easily catch up and hit them with another hammer blow.
But "Big Hammer Bro" can’t go through walls.
He’s just an ordinary Decree Wizard without the ability to enhance his physical qualities, only possessing one powerful cursed weapon hammer...
This means it’s hard for him to climb in from the outside.
Whether he comes around from the front door or climbs in through the window... it would give Gourmet Goose time.
He didn’t have to run in agony—
Using the time Big Hammer Bro was delayed, he could run forward at a slightly slower speed but with much less cost... and as a result, he would enter the next layer with a much healthier value than if he had run at full speed.
"This uncle... might be a genius," Annan murmured, his eyes sparkling.
A week has almost passed since the internal test started.
Although the players have not yet embarked on the Transcendent path...
Among the forty players he initially picked, a few have already started to stand out.
Everything went according to the plan of Delicious Breeze Goose.
He smoothly made his way to the corner, while Big Hammer Brother was still some distance away from him.
Just to be safe, he didn’t investigate anything; he just ran forward with all his might, planning to check his recording later—
However, the players watching the live stream along with Annan saw something there.
On the display cabinet where the tomatoes were placed, there was now an additional diary.
Annan could tell at a glance—that was Elle’s diary from the nightmare!
Annan suddenly realized.
Actually, if Delicious Breeze Goose had been greedy for a moment, he could have grabbed the diary and run.
In this way... even if he hadn’t entered the third level of the nightmare, he could have learned the most important information from the diary.
But Delicious Breeze Goose still chickened out.
Or rather, he subconsciously chose a more cautious and prudent approach.
This was different from the other three frontline progress players...
As Delicious Breeze Goose opened the door and rushed through, he finally entered the fourth level of the nightmare.
He was the first player, including Annan, to successfully enter the fourth level of the nightmare.
And here, there was a significant change—
"—Wait?? This isn’t???"
"—Wait, Uncle Goose, don’t hurry forward!"
"—Fuck, is this a crossover?!"
"—Void crossover, the deadliest..."
The barrage reacted so strongly... because many of them had watched Jiu’er’s live stream.
Just as Delicious Breeze Goose pushed open the door to the third level.
What appeared before him was no longer the previous hall.
Instead, there was a long and dark corridor.
—It was the T-shaped corridor that Jiu’er had just smashed open!
The walls on both sides of the corridor were deep red, the ceiling and the floor were light brown. But the ground was also covered with a thick red carpet, which seemed to extend redly into the distance as far as the eye could see.
Two lamps lit up beside Delicious Breeze Goose, illuminating a very small area around him.
Beyond that, there was nothing... or rather, nothing could be seen.
Delicious Breeze Goose also clearly realized something was off: "Why are you guys reacting so strongly?"
"—Sweet Rice Dumplings also entered this map in the second-level nightmare!"
"—This is fake, it’s a hallucination! Think ’this is fake’ in your mind and then try to see if you can push the wall open?"
"—No! The one that’s really a hallucination is supposed to be the historical event on the second level. This one is a nightmare, for all we know it could be real..."
"—Old Goose, this is a T-shaped corridor. If you walk all the way inside, there are two forks; you might encounter a trap if you reach the end, or it might be like The Shining where blood spurts out from the gap in the door..."
The barrage lords frantically started to strategize for Delicious Breeze Goose.
They began remote guiding.
Annan also sent a barrage and started remotely controlling the tool goose:
"Old Goose, check the content of the letter to see if there’s any change from what Child God saw?"
Thank you to the new patron qamda for the reward! I now owe one happy addition to the updates, still owing fifteen Chapters uuugh...