Facing the bed stood a tall European-style grandfather clock, indicating that it was currently 9:10 a.m. It was still too early to go out.

Whether players could communicate over long distances inside an instance depended entirely on the dungeon's setting.

For example, in the previous Playing House dungeon, the background was modern society, so players could use cell phones. After meeting up with teammates, they could exchange contact info and stay in touch.

But the Count's Castle dungeon looked straight out of nineteenth-century Europe. Mo Bai found no cell phone on her or in the room, so contacting Gu Tiandong would be difficult.

Of course, in situations like this, if a Player has a communication-type item card or a teammate with a telepathic skill, communication would still be possible.

Before entering the dungeon, Gu Tiandong had purchased a C-tier item card called The Gluttonous Carrier Pigeon.

C-tier cards were mostly auxiliary, as they had little attack or defense power, but that didn't mean that a C-tier card was automatically weaker than a B-tier one.

Sometimes, when multiple support abilities are combined properly, they can produce astonishing results.

The Gluttonous Carrier Pigeon could link three players and accurately transmit messages between them. It could be used for as long as the pigeon remained alive, and unless it died mid-flight, it would continue working until the end of its one-month lifespan.

In theory, as long as no one catches the pigeon and roasts it, then it could technically be used indefinitely.

A card with such a useful effect costs only 1,000 points. Not because C-tier cards were cheap, but because this pigeon was a money-eating beast.

Each time you use it, you have to pay 500 points. Those 500 points cover only one round trip, so you must pay another 500 points to use it again.

Even someone like Gu Tiandong, who'd saved up 150,000 points from daily dungeons and was considered "rich," could be bankrupted by this bird's appetite.

After purchasing this card, Gu Tiandong lamented that this thing eats even more than Mo Bai. After getting punched by Mo Bai, he finally comprehended the meaning of silence is golden.

After reading the rules posted on the door, Mo Bai decided not to wander around before lunch. She would stay put for the next few hours, wait until mealtime to meet Gu Tiandong, and then have him use the Gluttonous Carrier Pigeon to lock onto her position. They would only use it for essential communication. Otherwise, that bird would devour all their points.

There were still more than two hours until lunch. Mo Bai could only remain in the room, but she didn't plan to sit around doing nothing.

Not being allowed to go out didn't mean she couldn't open the door, right?

Mo Bai pushed open the old wooden door. It opened inward with a harsh creak, and within three minutes, a black-and-white blur appeared at the doorway.

It moved so fast that Mo Bai only saw afterimages. Even with her keen eyesight, she could barely track it.

Only when the figure stopped did she see that it was a tall, slender maid dressed in a classic black-and-white uniform.

She wore the typical black maid dress seen in anime, with a white cap and apron.

If not for her height, which was at least 2.5 meters, and her reed-thin frame, she might have passed for an ordinary maid.

Mo Bai blinked at the eerie, horror-movie-like maid that looked like something straight out of Slender Man Universe. If all the maids in the corridor looked like this, Mo Bai doubted if she could dare take even a single step outside.

This thing was stronger than Daddy.

Daddy had greater strength, defense, and regeneration, but its speed was still within human range.

This maid's speed, though, was beyond what human eyes could follow.

"Dear Guest No. 4, what are you doing?" The maid smiled mechanically at Mo Bai, showing a mouthful of sharp, jagged teeth that looked like saw blades.

Those teeth surely have nice bite strength, Mo Bai thought.

"Nothing much, just open the door for some fresh air," Mo Bai replied calmly.

She didn't plan to leave. She only wanted to test the maids and butlers mentioned in the rules and gauge their strength. Now she'd seen enough.

"Opening the door is fine. Leaving the room outside designated hours is not," the maid said in a chilling tone.

"What happens if I do?" Mo Bai asked.

"Whichever foot steps out will be cut off. Whichever hand reaches out will be chopped off. A shoulder leaning out will be sliced off. A head poking out will be severed."

"Oh? And what about this?" Mo Bai asked fearlessly as she stretched one end of her grabber tool past the doorway.

According to Xiao Qi, her grabber, blanket, and wheelchair counted as her legs, so they could accompany her anywhere. Mo Bai had brought all of them into the dungeon.

The moment the grabber's tip crossed the threshold, the maid's body bent at an impossible angle. Her head, which was previously at 2.5 meters, folded downward until her gaping mouth snapped down and bit the grabber clean in half.

It broke into two pieces. One in Mo Bai's hand, the other lying outside. The break was jagged, and the pattern of the maid's teeth was clearly visible.

"Like that," the maid said coldly.

"Could I have that back? Maybe I can reattach it," Mo Bai, completely unfazed, casually asked the maid as if speaking to a normal person.

The maid's face flickered with surprise, but she still replied in her mechanical tone, "Yes."

She picked up the broken half outside and tossed it back.

"Thank you." Mo Bai thanked her with a polite smile and closed the door.

She didn't leave the room and used her Environmental Optimization ability to transform the grabber's hard plastic into tempered steel. It instantly became as heavy as a metal club while its hardness multiplied severalfold.

Once that was done, Mo Bai opened the door again.

The same maid zipped back instantly, the same mechanical smile on her sharp-toothed face. "Dear Guest No. 4, what are you doing?"

"Oh, trying this again," Mo Bai said pleasantly as she extended her newly reinforced grabber outside.

The maid: "…"

Though her expression stayed polite, her eyes showed apparent anger. Still, she bent her body at that freakish angle again. She opened her mouth and bit down hard enough to snap the steel grabber.

This time, it didn't break cleanly. Half of it remained intact, while one of her triangular teeth was snapped off as it got stuck on the grabber.

Mo Bai was about to pull it back when the maid, determined and stubborn, bit down again with the other side of her mouth. She managed to completely break the grabber, but only after losing another tooth in the process.

One tooth rolled outside, while the other was stuck to Mo Bai's grabber.

The maid reached out her long arm to retrieve the fallen tooth and saw Mo Bai calmly retrieving her grabber and even picking up her other tooth. Her expression twisted grotesquely.

Mo Bai opened her palm to show the tooth. "Do you want to come in and get it?"

The maid's face contorted as her facial muscles knotted into a monstrous grimace. However, she still answered politely, "Except for cleaning hours between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., we do not enter a guest's room."

As expected, the rules were absolute. They were both shackles and protection.

As long as she remained inside her room during restricted hours, nothing outside could harm her.

With a new rule confirmed, Mo Bai smiled. "How about a trade? You give me back the other half of my grabber, and I'll return your tooth?"

The maid nodded as she gritted her teeth. Mo Bai tossed the tooth out, and the maid hurled the tempered grabber back.

The force was strong but still within human limits. Mo Bai simply turned her wheelchair aside, and the half of the grabber slammed into the wall behind her, but didn't damage it.

Mo Bai, still polite and gentle, expressed sweetly, "Thank you."

Just as she was about to close the door, a door diagonally opposite hers opened.

Standing there was a tall girl, maybe 1.7 meters, with a high ponytail and freckles on her ordinary face. Her position was just right for Mo Bai to see her through the door.

The girl smiled and mouthed something.

Her lip movements were so clear that Mo Bai could tell she was saying thank you.

Thank her? For what?

Before she could process it, a shadow flashed to the opposite doorway. It was a maid identical to Mo Bai's own, except with a full set of teeth. The maid asked politely, "Dear Guest No. 7, what are you doing?"

"Kill you!" a resounding voice rang from inside.

Mo Bai quickly maneuvered her wheelchair to find the best spot to watch the scene.

Just as she did, a massive sword, over 1.5 meters long and 30 centimeters wide, thrust out from the doorway.

The maid bent to bite it, but before she could clamp down, the sword flicked upward at an impossible speed and angle, slicing clean through her neck with a single stroke!

The motion was smooth, practiced, and utterly decisive. The maid never even had a chance to fight back.

Her head rolled down the corridor with a heavy thud-thud-thud sound while her body collapsed heavily and lay still.

Now, Mo Bai understood why the girl had thanked her.

Her own two tests exposed the maids' abilities. The girl must have observed her actions, either through an ability or a special item, and learned the maid's strengths and weaknesses, and then struck without hesitation.

If the maids were roughly on par with Daddy, that made them B-rank monsters. For the No. 7 girl to decapitate that monster in a single strike, she was clearly a powerful player.

Her judgment was also razor-sharp: as soon as Mo Bai revealed the intel, she acted immediately with no hesitation.

Moments later, ten more maids rushed over. Twelve in total, including the toothless and headless ones.

The toothless maid continued standing firmly in front of Mo Bai's door, while the other ten lined up before No. 7's door, which blocked Mo Bai's view.

None entered, though. No. 7 simply shut her door calmly. As long as she stayed inside, they couldn't harm her.

The maids stood vigil, motionless before the closed door.

Mo Bai almost wanted to applaud the No. 7 girl. This was the first time she had done such a thorough job for someone. The information she'd risked her life to gather was put to good use!

Combat Group players were truly impressive. While Mo Bai was still fiddling with her wheelchair, that girl had already taken down a B-rank monster.

Mo Bai turned back to her own maid and said cheerfully, "Don't be mad. I'm much gentler than the girl across the hall, right?"

The maid: "…"

Mo Bai could see she was ready to explode, but still forced herself to say, "If there's nothing else, Guest No. 4, please do not leave your room."

"Alright," Mo Bai replied and closed the door.

But was she going to let the toothless maid off that easily?

Of course not!

She bent down with effort to pick up the broken half of the tempered grabber. Fortunately, since she'd improved her Constitution stat, her legs could move a little. Otherwise, she wouldn't even have been able to reach it.

After laboriously getting back into her wheelchair, Mo Bai joined the two halves and used Environmental Optimization again.

After upgrading her ability, she could perform two chemical transformations in succession. This time, she carbonized the grabber and turned it into a diamond.

It was the hardest substance she knew.

The clear, colorless grabber reflected soft rainbow light under the dim glow of the room. Dazzling and beautiful.

Mo Bai opened the door for the third time.

This time, she could clearly see eleven maids standing in front of the door across from hers. The moment her door opened, the poor, toothless maid scurried towards her like a ghost.

Mo Bai raised her diamond grabber and asked innocently, "Can I stick this halfway outside the door?"

The maid forced a smile that looked worse than crying. "Any belongings of a guest that leave the room outside the permitted hours will be destroyed."

"Then let's test that," Mo Bai said while extending the grabber past the doorway.

She was certain that the maid's teeth couldn't possibly bite through a diamond, so this time, she wanted to see how the maid would handle it.

The moment the grabber protruded beyond the door, a handsome, gray-haired, middle-aged man in a suit and white gloves appeared at the door.

He grasped the grabber lightly with one gloved hand, then formed the other like a knife, and slashed down, cutting the diamond grabber clean in half.

He tossed the broken piece into Mo Bai's lap, bowed elegantly, and spoke in a deep, magnetic voice:

"Dear Guest No. 4, I am the castle's butler. Should these clumsy maids fail to meet your needs, please feel free to call upon me anytime. I will ensure that your needs are met personally."

Though his tone was courteous, Mo Bai heard the threat beneath the words: If the maids can't handle you, I will.

Mo Bai smiled back just as politely. "Actually, I'm a bit hungry. Is it possible to request some dessert before lunch?"

She had used her Chemical Transformation ability twice in a row, so her energy bar was empty. She urgently needed food to replenish her energy.

The butler clearly didn't expect her to make a request. After a moment's stiffness, he replied, "Certainly. We can offer drinks and sweets. Drinks include black tea, coffee, and hot water; desserts include cake, egg tarts, and chocolate. What would you like?"

All calorie bombs. Mo Bai's eyes practically glowed green.

"Is there a limit?" she asked.

The butler stiffened again before answering, "No limit. But if you eat too much now and leave leftovers at lunch, that would be… unfortunate."

"Then I won't eat too much," Mo Bai nodded seriously. "Let's start with five slices of cake, five egg tarts, and ten chocolates. That should fill me half-full. And no drinks, just give me a bucket of hot water."

The butler: "…"

Mo Bai: "What are you waiting for? I'm starving."

The butler squeezed out a sentence through his gritted teeth, "As you wish, my Dear Guest No. 4."

Mo Bai patted her stomach. She had been living mostly on steamed buns and pickles for days since she was too embarrassed to always mooch food from others.

She was literally starving!

Unlimited food in this dungeon? Perfect!