The two of them only emerged from the bathroom when Shen Nianzu's skin turned pruney, and only then did he recall something he had forgotten. "Wait a minute, didn't the phone ring earlier?"
"Uh, yes?" Jin Jiuchi responded from where he was putting on his clothes. "Did it?"
He pulled down the hem of his shirt before looking around, locating the phone tossed on the carpeted floor near their discarded clothes. Picking it up, he noticed that there were three missed calls from Gu Luoxin— the first one was a little past eight, most likely when they were still asleep, the second one was half an hour later when they were busy experimenting in the bathroom, while the third one was five minutes ago. Oh, they must have missed it because they were fooling around a bit after they had climbed out of the bathtub.
"Who?" Shen Nianzu asked as he buttoned his blouse.
A little review to avoid confusion ^^
1st Cycle => newbie
2nd Cycle => Intermediate
3rd Cycle (test) => success becomes a veteran player, failure results in death
Repeat the previous, but on 6th Cycle => success becomes an elite player, failure results in death
After elite, comes the legendary rank. This is a little special and players can choose to challenge the Cycle whenever they want, or they can choose to remain as an elite player forever (which most players do) as the risk to become a legendary player is too high.
Let's call all these the 'main' cycles. Players can choose to challenge other 'side' cycles in order to farm points and earn props, just like how gamers complete side tasks to increase xp and build strength. For example, Shen Nianzu entering 'Shishen Apartment' is a side cycle, he deliberately purchased the ticket to challenge this cycle.
Players can challenge as many side cycles as they want as long as they have enough points to purchase the tickets. As for the main cycles, the ticket will be provided by the Nightmare App for free ^^
Hope this will refresh your knowledge of the worldbuilding and not make you more confused instead QAQ