"Huff—"
Lin Yu woke from his slumber and sat up on the bed.
Furbollo was still sound asleep in his sleeping bag on the floor, drool trickling from the corner of his mouth, looking utterly content.
Lin Yu walked over and kicked Furbollo.
"Time to wake up."
Startled from his dreams, Furbollo panicked and rolled twice across the floor.
"What the—? Who's ambushing me? Aah!"
He shouted while clumsily disentangling himself from the sleeping bag before jumping out in alarm.
Lin Yu sighed helplessly at Furbollo's antics.
Recognizing Lin Yu, Furbollo calmed down.
"Oh, it's you, May."
He exhaled and looked outside.
Dawn had just begun breaking. Furbollo frowned.
"How long did we sleep?"
Lin Yu checked the bedside clock: "About three hours. We slept around 4 AM, and now it's almost 7 AM."
As Lin Yu spoke, Furbollo's frown deepened.
"That's not right. My head doesn't hurt at all."
"Whenever I sleep less than eight hours, I always get headaches!"
Hearing this, Lin Yu suddenly realized something.
"Something is definitely wrong!"
He muttered under his breath.
Now Lin Yu discovered he'd lost three more abilities!
The powers of [Ruffian], [Chef], and [Corporate Drone] had vanished!
This meant...
Either three people had seen through his lies last night.
Or...
They were dead.
Neither possibility was good.
Thinking this, Lin Yu grabbed a torch.
"Hey, Furbollo... we need to hurry."
"To confirm something!"
Without looking back, Lin Yu strode out the door.
Still half-asleep, Furbollo blinked before scrambling after him.
"Wait for me, May!"
He called out, catching up to Lin Yu.
"Where are we going? What are we checking?"
Lin Yu didn't answer, instead leading them to one of the zones from memory.
The area where the player who believed he was a [Chef] had been staying.
After some searching, Lin Yu found him in one of the outposts.
The outpost door stood wide open, the furnace inside extinguished as snow blew inward.
The player was a slightly balding middle-aged man.
He lay curled by the furnace, long dead.
Furbollo hurried over, pressing the corpse's skin before frowning.
"Excluding temperature factors, time of death... roughly 12 hours ago."
"No obvious external wounds or signs of poisoning. Possibly froze to death, or... unnatural causes."
"Judging by his expression—might have been scared to death."
Hearing Furbollo's accurate estimation, Lin Yu exhaled.
He'd thought they'd need to examine more bodies, but now... probably unnecessary.
"Likely killed by [Chate]. Probably 'dream murder'... literally scared to death."
"Also, based on his death and my 'known information', I can deduce one more thing."
Lin Yu said, looking at Furbollo.
Furbollo met his gaze: "What are you getting at?"
"Furbollo, what day do you think it is?"
"Day three?"
"No, it's day five," Lin Yu stated seriously. "Every time we sleep... we're out for over 24 hours."
"That's how the monster called [Chate] kills... I found the corpse of the NPC we first met earlier. Same death pattern."
Furbollo's expression shifted.
"Seriously? Bro, why didn't you say so earlier!"
"I didn't fully trust you before."
Lin Yu replied calmly.
"That explains everything. No wonder my head doesn't hurt," Furbollo's face darkened briefly before breaking into a grin, "Heh, damn... this is actually kinda fun!"
Gritting his teeth, excitement flashed in his eyes: "So this dungeon isn't just about hidden 'truths' and 'puzzles'—it's properly difficult too."
"Time to get serious."
Furbollo yanked off his woolen hat and stuffed it into his coat, revealing messy lead-gray hair.
He carefully smoothed it back before producing a black bowler hat from his coat.
Lin Yu watched curiously.
"Is that hat some powerful item? Blocks mental attacks? Stops oversleeping?"
"Nah, purely decorative," Furbollo's ears and nose were bright red from cold, "But it symbolizes my resolve—means I'm now playing this dungeon at 70% effort!"
Lin Yu blinked before retorting:
"Why not go all-out 100%?"
Furbollo shook his head: "I don't think... it's necessary yet."
"Give me 100% right now!"
As Lin Yu insisted, Furbollo opened his mouth to argue, then—
Meeting Lin Yu's piercing gaze in the snowstorm, he shrank back.
"Fine, fine! 100% it is!"
Grumbling, he swapped the bowler for a woven straw hat.
"Maximum power mode, activate!"
Lin Yu sighed at the hat exchange.
"What kind of weird habit is this?"
"So the wool hat means 'hibernation mode' and those heavy earflap hats are 'power-saving mode'?"
Furbollo looked shocked.
"How did you know?!"
Lin Yu sighed louder.
"It's completely obvious!"
Furbollo pondered this before studying Lin Yu.
"Impressive, May. Doctor's observational skills... you must be great at surgery, right?"
"I know squat about surgery—just a med student. Haven't even done residency."
Lin Yu deflected.
Better not claim expertise... what if he got exposed later?
Claiming to be a student was safest.
After all, "April" they'd met earlier was also a med student who got the [Doctor] profession.
Furbollo nodded thoughtfully.
"I see..."
"So, where next? You've got a plan, right?"
"Since... you seem to get revelations in your dreams."
"Some special item doing that?"
Furbollo inquired.
Lin Yu looked surprised at the [Detective]'s insight.
He nodded: "Correct, I do receive dream hints."
"Our notebook's owner, 'Vale Valetti', has been sending me visions these past days!"