Zhao Rong shook his head, his voice tinged with regret. "We’re inside the world of a video game—one that’s running on an arcade machine out on the street," he explained. "Even if I use the mobile app to buy things from the Paradise Shopping Cart, the package can only be delivered to the physical machine. It can’t be sent into the game world itself."

Hearing this, Xuelian sighed helplessly. "Zhao Rong, does that mean the only way to escape this game and return to the real world is to beat it?"

Zhao Rong nodded. "Let’s all work together," he encouraged them. "As long as we beat the game, we can return to reality. That’s just how this Isotope Game Converter is designed."

With that, Zhao Rong led the three women and his assistant toward the first stage’s boss, everyone armed with submachine guns. Since he had prepared the weapons for them, their advance was relatively smooth. In no time at all, they reached the boss unscathed.

The boss of the first stage was a large, fat man wielding dual blades, busy slaughtering NPCs. He taunted Zhao Rong’s group. "Since you’ve come from the real world into my game, you’d better prepare to die under my butcher’s blades!"

With that, the fat man charged toward them, his dual blades held high. However, before he could even get close, Zhao Rong and the others raised their submachine guns and unleashed a hail of bullets on the boss.

To their surprise, even as bullets peppered his body, the boss didn’t die. He simply continued his charge, blades at the ready.

Seeing that the submachine guns were ineffective against the fleshy giant, the assistant exclaimed in fear, "Zhao Rong, why won’t this fat man die? Is he a zombie?"

Yu Lan also cried out in horror, "Could he be one of the walking dead? Is he immune to bullets?"

Lili swapped her magazine, pulled the trigger, and aimed a wild spray at the fat man’s head. "Just die, you fat slob!" she shouted.

While everyone else focused their firepower on the boss, Xuelian took charge of dealing with the smaller minions rushing toward them.

Hearing everyone’s confusion, Zhao Rong explained, "You have to understand, we’re in a game world right now. The reason our guns can’t kill this fat man is that his health bar isn’t empty yet. As soon as his health is gone, he’ll die instantly."

Upon hearing this, the assistant and the three women had a moment of realization and immediately resumed their frantic barrage on the boss. Sure enough, it wasn’t long before the fat man’s health was completely depleted. He collapsed to the ground, dead. Zhao Rong and his group had successfully cleared the first stage.

When they arrived in the desert landscape of the second stage, a car immediately appeared nearby. Zhao Rong led everyone to it, hopped in, and began driving wildly, running over enemies and ramming their cars. "Everyone, be careful!" he shouted. "The two enemies in the car next to us will throw grenades into our vehicle!"

The assistant asked, "Zhao Rong, how do you know they’ll throw grenades into our car?"

Zhao Rong recalled playing the game as a child. "I was still in elementary school back then," he said. "I remember that in the second stage, you get into a car and slam into the bad guys. That’s how you get a lot of points. But the enemies throw grenades into your car to drain your health."

Before Zhao Rong could finish his sentence, an enemy in the adjacent car threw a grenade, which exploded right next to the assistant. Seeing the grenade detonate beside her, she immediately flopped onto the car floor, shut her eyes, and said breathlessly, "Damn, what rotten luck! I got hit by their grenade... I’m definitely a goner now..."

However, before she could finish, Zhao Rong slapped her twice across the face. "Assistant, can you stop being so dramatic? You’re perfectly fine. Why are you lying in the car playing dead?"

When the assistant realized she was completely unharmed despite the grenade blast, she sat up in astonishment. "Zhao Rong, this makes no sense! I clearly saw and heard a grenade explode right next to me. The shrapnel alone should have torn me to pieces! But I’m not even scratched. What’s going on?"

While driving and fiercely ramming the enemy car to drain its health, Zhao Rong explained, "Assistant, didn’t I tell you already? In a game world, everyone has a health bar that keeps them alive. As long as the enemies haven’t emptied your health bar, you won’t have a scratch on you. But even though you’re physically unharmed, the moment that health bar is depleted, you die instantly."

Before Zhao Rong could finish, the assistant suddenly noticed that she was down to half a health bar. The other half had been blown away by that single grenade. Terrified, she asked, "Zhao Rong, if my health runs out and I die, does that mean I’ll be stuck in this Dinosaur World game forever and never return to the real world?"

Zhao Rong yanked the wheel, crashing into the other car one last time and depleting its health completely. He then replied to her, "In this Dinosaur World game, everyone gets two lives. So, when you use up your first health bar and die, another ’you’ will drop down from the sky. If you use up both lives, however, then you’ll disappear from this game forever."

Hearing that she had two lives, the assistant let out a laugh of relief. "Thank goodness! That grenade only took half of my first health bar. I still have a life and a half left. I think that’ll be more than enough for the next few stages."

However, she had barely finished speaking when she suddenly lost the other half of her health. When the rest of her health vanished, she cried out in terror, "What’s happening? My first health bar is completely gone?"

As her health hit zero, she collapsed and simply vanished from inside the car.

When the three women saw the assistant, who had been alive and talking just a moment ago, suddenly disappear, they asked Zhao Rong in horror, "Zhao Rong, did the assistant just die? Is she gone forever?"

Zhao Rong shook his head and pointed up at the sky. "It’s alright, don’t worry. She only used up one life; she still has another one left. The assistant will be dropping down from the sky any second now."