Zachary hadn’t even finished collecting a few murals when one near the center of the passage suddenly reverted to its true form.

The creature across from him appeared humanoid, but with skin dark as ink. In the dead of night, stripped bare, an ordinary person might not see him, possessing a natural invisibility within the darkness.

Just as Zachary was carefully sizing up the opponent, the fellow opposite suddenly charged at Zachary with great force.

Startled by the abrupt move of the figure opposite, Zachary was taken aback, and the Flying Swords hovering behind him immediately rushed out.

In the blink of an eye, the Flying Swords stopped behind the opponent, who was still in a running posture, but the next moment, both of his legs were severed at the roots, and the upper half of his body fell heavily to the ground.

Seeing this situation, Zachary walked up to the man with a smile, squatted in front of him, and said with a hint of disdain, "What’s your identity? What’s with this blind flailing, scaring me like that?"

As Zachary was squatting down, mocking the other party, a slight distortion appeared in the air behind him.

If one observed carefully, they could still vaguely make out some distorted shapes in the air.

Just when the creature thought it could succeed in a sneak attack, the Flying Swords abruptly appeared between it and Zachary, then slapped it away with the flat of the blade.

The reason for not impaling the creature with the tip of the sword was the fear that the sharp Flying Swords would pierce straight through its chest. If the creature hadn’t died instantly, it might have continued to attack Zachary.

For that reason, a less lethal slap was used, sending it flying instead.

Zachary, at this time, paid no attention to what was behind him and simply touched the body of the person in front of him. Then, just as Zachary had speculated,

a notification of successful capture sounded in his ear, and the number of remaining hiders decreased to eight.

After confirming the successful capture, Zachary stood up to observe the creature that was slapped away by the Flying Swords.

The creature hit the wall hard after being slapped by the Flying Swords. Its almost transparent body, after falling to the ground, became visible once more.

Its head was elongated like that of an Alien, its left arm lacked a hand, and the tip of the arm was connected to a bone similar to a Drill Head.

Although a hand had formed at the end of its right arm, the hand only had four fingers, each bearing a long, sharp claw.

Despite the forceful slap from the Flying Swords not being light, it did not cause significant harm to the creature, and it soon stood up again after falling to the ground.

However, the way it shook its head immediately upon getting up revealed that the creature had indeed been hurt by the slap from the Flying Swords.

Just as it was regaining clarity and preparing to attack Zachary again, Zachary had already reached its side and merely touched its body with a light touch.

The once robust creature vanished instantly from Zachary’s sight. The notification of successful capture sounded again in Zachary’s ear, and the number of remaining hiders decreased by one more, leaving only seven left.

And now, less than one Hour had passed since the beginning.

The task of capturing ten people in Ten Hours, averaging one hour for each capture, seemed to be more efficient for Zachary, potentially saving him Two Hours.

Zachary had not expected to capture three people so smoothly. However, there was no smile on his face now, as the large doors at both ends of the passage were still closed.

"Could there be a third hider lurking here?"

With this thought in mind, Zachary sped up the process of dismantling and transporting items.

But even after Zachary had dismantled everything in the passage, including the ceiling overhead, and stored it all in the Storage Space, he still found no trace of any other hiders, and the doors at both ends of the passage remained closed.

At this moment, Dong Tianyu, trapped in the corridor, begrudgingly made his way to the front and then forcefully tugged at the grand doors, suddenly feeling a slight shake.

Realizing this, Dong Tianyu appeared to have an epiphany, stepping back from the doors, and then, with several dashes of his Flying Swords, he directly shattered the closed doors into pieces.

Seeing the outcome, Dong Tianyu then reflected on how silly his previous actions were, almost as if he was pitting his wits against thin air.

Through this battle, Dong Tianyu gained a further understanding of the situation within the Mysterious Realm.

First and foremost, most things within the Mysterious Realm could be packed into the Storage Space and taken away.

And those things that could not be taken away in the Storage Space were either connected to the hidden enemy or were outright the hidden enemy’s true form. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The second piece of intelligence, the Mysterious Realm allowed great freedom; everything could be freely destroyed, with no possibility of respawning or reappearing.

The third piece of intelligence, the criteria for a successful capture in the Mysterious Realm were simple, with no need to kill the target; merely touching the target’s body counted as a successful capture.

The fourth piece of intelligence, even though touching the opponent counts as a successful capture, there were no restrictions on the opponent attacking oneself in the Mysterious Realm.

Thus, even if touching them meant capture for Dong Tianyu, the opponent could still launch stealth attacks. For them, whether they hid until the time was up or outright killed Dong Tianyu, either scenario would mean victory.

Yet, upon seeing the varied races of the opponents, Dong Tianyu was at a loss to determine whether they were real individuals like Dong Tianyu or NPCs simulated by the Mysterious Realm.

’Forget it, I can’t think too much about this right now. The straightforward task is to capture all the opponents, so whether they are real or NPCs, I need to give it my all,’ Dong Tianyu thought.

Having come to these realizations, Dong Tianyu’s demeanor also became much more serious, for he suddenly considered the possibility that if these hiders were NPCs simulated by the Mysterious Realm, that would be one thing.

But if those people, like Dong Tianyu, were outsiders who entered this place, and were imprisoned here for failing to capture, becoming the next invader’s target.

At that thought, a chill ran down Dong Tianyu’s spine, and he became much more wary.

After destroying the doors to the direction from which he’d come, Dong Tianyu again used his Flying Swords in the same manner to destroy the doors on the other side of the corridor.

Exiting the passageway, Dong Tianyu entered a spacious hall.

Looking around, he saw one side of the hall filled with a variety of delicacies, while the other side featured a vast dance floor, beside which stood a stage replete with musical instruments.

These arrangements didn’t seem too different from the ballrooms provided for passengers’ activities on ordinary cruise ships.

Dong Tianyu strode directly to the food area and, with a sweep of his arm, he transferred the delicacies from the tables directly into his Storage Space.

In the blink of an eye, the once lavish spread of dishes that adorned the tables was reduced to but a few lonely fruits that fell to the ground from mid-air.

Dong Tianyu’s sweeping gesture had not only collected the table-top delicacies but also the tables themselves into his Storage Space.

The few fruits left untouched on the ground were undoubtedly problematic.

It was unclear whether these fruits were transformed by the hiders or if the hiders were currently controlling them.

No matter how he thought about it, Dong Tianyu couldn’t understand if these fruits were the hiders transformed, Dong Tianyu would have hit the jackpot this time, catching four or five hiders at once.

If they weren’t transformed by hiders, though, what was the hiders’ purpose in manipulating these fruits?

Were they intending to kill Dong Tianyu with the fruits or asphyxiate him while he ate the fruits?