Guided by the boy, Wang Xiaole didn't spend much time finding his way to the entrance of an ordinary residential building.

The route was not complicated along the way; Wang Xiaole had walked the same path once among the two previous choices. The reason he couldn't escape earlier was mainly due to the absence of a key character accompanying him, which would have triggered the plot.

The boy took out the key and opened the door, and Wang Xiaole followed him inside. What seemed ordinary from the outside revealed a somewhat sinister and eerie house once inside, perfect for shooting a ghost story.

"My mother is in the room." The boy led Wang Xiaole to the kitchen door, gently turning the cobweb-covered old door that creaked open.

Shortly after, Wang Xiaole's gaze settled on the kitchen interior. Standing in the room was a middle-aged woman, counting plates. "One, two, three... eight, nine. A total of nine plates!"

After a scene that seemed familiar, Wang Xiaole, standing outside the door, saw the middle-aged woman bow her head in the room, followed by a ghostly cry.

"Due to understanding some foreign horror stories, I seem to have guessed what will happen next," Wang Xiaole said to himself, but both the boy and the middle-aged woman heard it.

Upon hearing a stranger's voice, the woman suddenly turned, revealing a face that appeared very pale even in the darkness. In that moment, Wang Xiaole felt like he was being watched by a corpse.

The woman then approached him. With each step she took, her appearance became increasingly terrifying, eventually giving off an almost ghostly feeling as she stood opposite him. "Why is one missing? Where is that plate?" she demanded. "Did you accidentally break it? In this eerie checkpoint, anyone led into the house by the boy and speaking a similar sentence suffered a grim fate at the hands of the female master. Indeed, in this mysterious level, the boy's purpose was not to extort money. He sought to bring "offerings" into the house and deliberately enticed and ensnared any prey that approached him.

When Wang Xiaole entered the house, the boy was already prepared to dispose of him, waiting only for him to say the phrase leading to his own downfall. Sensing the worsening atmosphere, Wang Xiaole knew he couldn't drag it out any longer. Seizing a brief moment of contemplation, he came up with a different response to present to the woman. "I know where that plate is. It must have been taken by your husband!"

"Eh?" This was an answer the boy had never heard before, and it was no wonder that the woman voiced her confusion. "Why would my husband take it?" she asked. As the woman showed puzzlement, Wang Xiaole swiftly organized his thoughts and began to speak. "No outsider can enter this house, and if I'm not mistaken, your family should consist of only three people." The woman nodded in response. "Yes, we are a family of three." "Then it's clear: the suspect who took the plate must be one of the three individuals in the house. As the involved party, madam, you are naturally ruled out. Besides, your child is unlikely as well. Your child seems so well-behaved, I don't think he could be the culprit."

"That's true. I trust my child the most." Just as the boy was trying to figure out how he got involved, Wang Xiaole skillfully steered the conversation and led the woman down a logical path. "Neither you nor your obedient child is the suspect, so the only remaining person is your husband, who has not shown up until now." "Why would he take a plate from the house?" the woman asked. Wang Xiaole continued his explanation, and as he did so, he painted a picture of financial troubles possibly linked to infidelity and setting up a new household outside. The conversation unfolded, revealing the husband's potential financial hardships and questionable actions, which the woman found utterly unacceptable.

As Wang Xiaole was sowing discord, a deep male voice suddenly rang out from outside. It became evident that someone had walked into a trap without realizing it. Taking note of the man’s words, it seemed that someone was in for trouble. Wang Xiaole had no interest in witnessing anyone's misfortune and made his departure from the scene, distancing himself from the house.

The events that unfolded further confirmed that in this labyrinth, the unknown variables loomed larger. The experience that had initially seemed like a plot from a legal public service announcement unexpectedly morphed into a horror story with its own chilling tags. What was more surprising was how, in the final stages, the story shifted from terror to a family drama.

"Just like dealing with the Undead Knight, I successfully used my intelligence to save a lot of time and effort. I truly am incredibly clever!" Pleased with his problem-solving skills, Wang Xiaole rubbed his chin. As his emotions settled, he began to search for a new way out.

The boy's storyline had concluded. Realizing that the maze was alive, Wang Xiaole discovered a whole new path unfolding before him. Proceeding along this path, he found himself standing upon a gigantic chessboard unlike any he had seen before. Each square was as wide as his body, alternating between black and white, creating a dizzying pattern. Inside the chessboard, he felt as if he were standing in a vast open field.

What was most extraordinary was that the chessboard was suspended high in the air. Walking to the edge of the chessboard and looking down, Wang Xiaole saw a giant lava valley beneath. The valley and the chessboard were connected by nothing. This place was hanging entirely in the air.

At that moment, the mountains on both sides of the chessboard began to tremble ever so slightly. The tremors grew stronger, and even the person standing on the floating chessboard could feel the intense vibrations. Rocks on the mountain peaks started to crumble and fall, disappearing into the lava below, leaving behind only the rising white smoke.

As the rocks kept falling, a massive skull appeared before Wang Xiaole. A demon, a giant demon resembling a volcanic entity! This giant demon was a typical representation of a great demon in the Western continent. It sported a pair of curved goat horns on its head, eyeless sockets with burning flames, a human body with goat hooves, enormous bat wings covering the sky, and an imposing presence that shook the whole space, truly an unmatched sight.

The tremors continued. The giant demon seemed to be slowly emerging from the mountains, gradually revealing its massive body from the rocks. Wang Xiaole pondered, "Is this massive demon my opponent? If dealing with it through combat could solve the problem, perhaps it wasn't a genuine problem..." Finally, as all the rocks had crumbled, the large demon sluggishly moved its neck and limbs, almost as if easing stiff muscles from a long slumber. Lastly, upon noticing the magma lake beneath its feet, the demon began to shift its body.

Thunk! Unexpectedly, the massive demon strode into the lava lake. It slowly sat down, allowing the lava to engulf more than half of its body, then began to groan in enjoyment. It seemed to be relishing in the sensations, as if basking in a hot spring. "I have no clue about the demon world..." Wang Xiaole muttered to himself, uncertain about the situation. That's when he noticed the demon spotting him standing on the chessboard. "Oh ho ho ho ho! Today, I unexpectedly have a visitor here!" the demon exclaimed with a jovial laugh. Extending its thick fingers, the demon pointed at Wang Xiaole on the chessboard, expressing surprise. "My, my, a guest here today!"

Upon being discovered, Wang Xiaole was ready to draw his sword, but the demon unexpectedly interjected, "I haven't had a chess partner in a long time. Little human girl, care to play a game with me?" "I don't know how to play chess," Wang Xiaole admitted. Perplexed, the demon asked, "What is chess?" Tilting its head, the demon involuntarily directed the lava on its shoulder downwards.

Pointing at the chessboard beneath his feet, Wang Xiaole attempted to clarify. "If not chess, then what game do you want to play with me?" "Of course, it's our demon world's most popular game, 'Divine Demon Chess'! I can teach you if you don't know how," the demon offered.