Desperate Courier Station

Shi Mo regained consciousness in a pure white light.

Just a moment ago, he was lying in the extremely comfortable bedroom specially prepared for him in the Seventh Sequence Base, with an excessively soft mattress beneath him and an absolutely quiet environment around him.

The next second, a feeling of weightlessness and slight dizziness from spatial displacement enveloped him.

When the white light faded, he found himself standing on a dilapidated, gray street.

The sky was a perpetual twilight hue, oppressively so that it was hard to breathe. The surrounding buildings were crooked and distorted, their walls covered with mottled stains and incomprehensible graffiti, and the air was filled with a strange smell of rust and decay.

He was still wearing his black silk nightgown, barefoot, with his long, silvery-white hair disheveled, and his heterochromatic eyes looked particularly eerie in the dim light.

His attire was completely out of place with the environment, but there was no panic on his face, only obvious displeasure at being disturbed from his sleep.

He looked around and saw nine other figures.

They were dressed in various ways: office workers in suits, students in school uniforms, and housewives in pajamas... At this moment, their faces all showed fear, confusion, and disbelief.

A thin young man wearing thick glasses trembled violently, his crotch quickly becoming soaked and emitting a foul odor—he had wet himself in fear.

A cold, emotionless notification sounded in the minds of all the candidates:

[Rank F dungeon: 'Desperate Delivery Station' is now open.]

[Task objective: Deliver the three assigned packages safely to their respective customers within the specified timeframe.]

Rule 1: Delivery must be completed before the final deadline indicated on the package;

[Rule 2: Ensure the package is intact on the outside and the contents are undamaged;]

Rule 3: Do not cause customer complaints.

Violation of any rule will be subject to penalty as appropriate.

[Mission failed: Death.]

[Mission Successful: A Gift from God.]

"F-rank..." Shi Mo repeated in a low voice, his brows furrowed, his dissatisfaction almost tangible.

Why are the instances he's randomly selected for always the lowest level? Something like the B-level [Abandoned Hospital] that required "acquiring" it was much more interesting.

[Host...] The system's voice sounded weakly, brimming with timidity, [This...this is normal...After all, you're a newbie, and your record shows very few dungeon runs. The matchmaking mechanism in the Rules of the Strange Tales usually gives you a few low-level dungeons to practice in first, to familiarize yourself with the process...]

"Practice?" Shi Mo's voice turned colder. "Boring."

Just then, ten packages emitting a faint white light appeared out of thin air on the ground in front of each participant. At the same time, a semi-transparent countdown timer appeared on their wrists and began to decrease.

Panic escalated instantly.

"A package? A package delivery? Are you kidding me! I want to go home!" A middle-aged woman in a flashy nightgown screamed, grabbing the package on the ground and trying to throw it away.

"Shut up! Do you want to get us killed?" a man in a suit who seemed a little calmer shouted, but his pale face and trembling hands betrayed his inner fear.

"Time limit...only one hour! Where is the first address?" A girl who looked like a student tried to remain calm as she looked at the labels on the package.

Shi Mo ignored the chaos around him. He bent down and picked up his three packages. The packages were small and light. He glanced at the address and recipient information on them, then at the countdown timer on his wrist.

"Let's go," he said casually, whether to himself or the system, before stepping barefoot onto the gloomy street. The hem of his bathrobe brushed against the dirty ground, yet strangely, it didn't pick up any stains.

First delivery point: Room 307, Rusty Apartment.

Following the address, Shi Mo arrived in front of an old apartment building that looked as if it could collapse at any moment. There were no lights in the stairwell, only a dim red glow, like veins writhing, seeping through the cracks in the walls, providing extremely limited illumination.

He climbed the creaking stairs and arrived at the door of room 307. The door was a rusty iron door, covered with scratches.

The countdown is still steadily decreasing.

Shi Mo raised his hand and knocked on the door.

There was a rustling sound from inside the door, followed by heavy footsteps. The door creaked open a crack, and a bloodshot, yellow eye with vertical pupils peered out warily through the gap.

This is a low-level, F-class anomaly, resembling a skinned humanoid ape, emanating a faint stench and malice. It instinctively wants to intimidate and even harass this "food" being delivered.

However, when its gaze met Shi Mo's heterochromatic eyes, and when it felt the terrifying mental pressure emanating from the other party—even though most of it was sealed—which was still far beyond its comprehension, all its malice instantly froze and then deflated like a punctured balloon.

"Your package." Shi Mo spoke calmly, following the procedure, and handed over the first package.

The F-rank monster shuddered violently, practically snatching the package without even checking it. He hurriedly nodded and bowed, his voice dry and hoarse: "Th-thank you! Thank you for your hard work! No problem! Excellent!"

After saying that, he slammed the door shut with a "bang," as fast as if he were running for his life.

[First package delivered successfully. No complaints.] The notification sounded in Shi Mo's mind.

Shi Mo turned and went downstairs expressionlessly. The whole process went as smoothly as a regular package delivery.

Meanwhile, tragedies were unfolding on the streets and at other delivery points.

The bespectacled man, terrified out of his wits, tripped and fell while running, causing a package in his hand to hit a roadside stone, leaving a slight dent in the corner.

When he nervously handed the package to a huge, stinking monster that lived next to a garbage dump, the monster inspected the package and let out an angry roar.

"Damaged! My baby is damaged!" It grabbed the bespectacled man's arm and, with a piercing scream, tore off his entire arm and stuffed it into its mouth to chew.

The bespectacled man lay in a pool of blood, and soon fell silent due to the excruciating pain and blood loss.

Another contestant, a slow-moving fat man, had his countdown timer run out when he delivered the second package.

"Timeout." The cold notification sounded.

The door in front of him suddenly deformed into a giant mouth full of sharp teeth, which swallowed him whole, leaving only a short scream and a few drops of blood.

Another woman, due to excessive nervousness, accidentally touched the cold fingers of a prankster when handing a package to him. He complained that her "attitude was rude and made me uncomfortable."

The next second, the ground beneath her feet suddenly collapsed, and she screamed as she fell into endless darkness.

The punishments varied, but all resulted in death or disability. The surviving newcomers were even more panicked, running wildly through the dangerous streets like headless flies, praying that their customers would be more accommodating.