You promised to wreak havoc on the dungeon, but instead you've got Dragon Slime!

This scroll does indeed lead to the core, but it passes through a "rift valley area" along the way. That's Ron's new contraption—the ground appears flat, but it's actually riddled with dark fissures; if you step on one, you'll fall directly into the beast horde below.

This trap is so subtle that a layman wouldn't immediately recognize it as a snare, yet it can deliver a fatal blow at the right moment.

That evening, Vanessa came to help Lilith move her things as usual. She quickly noticed the map scroll, flipped through it casually, and then stuffed it into her coat.

Ron looked at the runestone at the control panel, the red dot slowly moving, and a smile appeared on his face—if Bakus really sent people to use this road, it would be tantamount to sending people to their deaths in the Rift.

The following morning, Bacchus sent a probe team into the Black Language Cave.

They followed the map and took the new route. The first half went smoothly, and they bypassed most of the monsters, advancing to the area surrounded by the rift valley with almost no effort.

The first soldier tried stepping over it, and the ground didn't budge, appearing safe. So the whole team relaxed their guard and quickly crossed over.

When they were halfway there, the crack suddenly collapsed, and more than a dozen beasts covered in bone spurs rushed up from below, tearing the three people at the front into pieces.

The rear guard hastily retreated, but the cracks seemed to be triggered in a chain reaction, bursting open one after another, forcing them into a dead end. The next second, a heavy flapping sound came from the sky—a group of stone-winged beasts swooped down, their screams making eardrums ache.

In less than two minutes, the entire team was wiped out.

A commotion erupted in the spectator area. Bakus, watching the battle unfold on the magic crystal cards in the Carnival Maze, pressed his fingers tightly against the edge of the table.

This time, he was almost certain that Vanessa was giving him false information.

High above the Black Language Cave, Ron twirled the rune stone in his hand and said calmly, "That's enough, time to collect it."

Inside the stone chamber of the carnival maze, the brazier burned brightly, casting shadows that flickered long and short on the animal skin walls.

When Vanessa was brought in, Bacchus was standing with his back to her in front of the map on the wall.

He didn't speak immediately, but simply pointed to a route on the map: "This is what I asked you to draw."

Vanessa glanced at it; it was the same document she had given him yesterday. The route was very detailed, even clearly marking rest stops and supply points.

“The entire group on this road is dead.” Bacchus slowly turned around, his tone flat. “How do you intend to explain this?”

Vanessa's heart tightened, and she quickly whispered, "Perhaps... the monsters in the Black Language Cave have respawned, and the layout has changed."

"Changed?" Bakus's lips curled slightly. "My men investigated, and those monsters were set up too cleverly, as if they were waiting for them to arrive before they moved."

Vanessa wanted to explain, but her throat felt like it was blocked by something.

Chapter 120

Bacchus suddenly changed the subject: "This time, I want you to lead the team."

Vanessa was stunned: "Me?"

“Yes.” Bacchus picked up a set of light armor from the side and threw it at her feet. “Since you know the route through the Black Language Caves so well, then lead my men through it yourself. If you come back safely, I will trust you; if you don’t—that’s your own problem.”

He turned back to the map, making it clear that he brooked no refusal.

Vanessa lowered her head, her fingers unconsciously clenching the edge of her light nail polish. She knew this wasn't a test, but an ultimatum.

Meanwhile, on the observation platform in the Black Whisper Caves, Ron saw a red dot on the runestone stop at the fixed coordinates of the Carnival Maze. Lilith stood beside him and briefly recounted the news she had overheard the previous night—Bacchus had Vanessa personally lead the team in.

Ron was silent for a few seconds, then said in a low voice, "Okay, then I'll prepare a very special route for her."

He pulled up a panoramic view of the Black Language Grottoes and connected several key points with his fingertip.

At first glance, this route seems smooth, with almost no high-damage monsters along the way, but the real killer moves are all hidden in seemingly safe buffer zones—such as the "invisible traps" on the plains, the "delayed collapse rocks" in the canyons, and the "double nest linkage" newly added in the Sand Serpent area.

In particular, the "double nest linkage" will simultaneously draw out two nests of adult sand snakes, attacking from the front and back, leaving them with almost no chance of survival.

Ron arranged the monster spawn intervals to be accurate to the second, ensuring that the team would be instantly surrounded the moment they stepped into the trap, leaving them no time to react.

“If she takes people down this path, she’ll have no way out,” Claudia whispered beside her.

“Yes.” Ron closed the console. “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”

He knew very well that Bacchus's scheme was to force Vanessa to reveal her identity, while his scheme was to provide irrefutable evidence of this exposure—once Vanessa led her people down this path and the entire team died in the trap, her identity would be definitively confirmed.

At night, Vanessa stood before the teleportation array in the Carnival Maze, looking at the fully armed elite of Bakus before her, and felt an inexplicable sense of oppression welling up in her heart.

Bacchus stood at a distance, holding a wine glass, as if enjoying a good show.

The teleportation light illuminated, and Vanessa gritted her teeth and stepped inside.

The air from the Black Language Cave was thick, carrying a familiar dampness and a faint, pungent smell of blood. She took a deep breath and whispered to the group behind her, "Follow me."

On the darker platform above, Ron was already seated quietly, the runestone beside him emitting a steady red light—the prey had entered.

The passageways of the Black Language Cave were eerily quiet.

Vanessa walked at the front, clutching the route map in her hand, her steps heavier than usual. Behind her followed eight fully armed Bacchus elites, each well-equipped and heavily guarded.

There was no sign of slimes in the entrance area, nor of the old blind-eyed merman. The monsters seemed to have been deliberately removed, leaving the passageway deserted.

The unusual silence prompted a soldier in the back row to mutter under his breath, "This is going so smoothly; it doesn't seem like the Black Language Cave."

Vanessa ignored it, but a sense of unease lingered in her heart—Ron rarely left the entrance so clean.

The team followed the route, bypassing several intersections, and soon entered the first buffer zone—a flat, grayish-white stone area, dry and without any abnormalities.

As they stepped on it, the runes beneath the stone slab were gently activated. Ron, watching from the observation platform above, watched the energy curve twitch slightly, his lips tightening even more.

"The first step," he silently counted in his mind.

At the end of the buffer zone lay a canyon. Towering cliffs on either side limited visibility, and the wind within sounded like a low, mournful wail. Vanessa led the way in, the warriors following closely behind.

In the middle of the canyon, my feet suddenly sank – not into a collapse, but rather a subtle sinking sensation, like a premonition of stepping on thin ice.

Before they could react, a low, grinding sound came from the top of the canyon. Patches of gravel tumbled down the rock face, accompanied by the cracking vibrations of the crevices.

This is Ronbu's "Delayed Collapse Rock" trap—once triggered, the top will begin to collapse after three seconds, forcing people into the range of subsequent traps.

Vanessa's expression tightened, and she immediately quickened her pace, leading her people towards the other side of the canyon. But that was exactly what Ron wanted—just a dozen meters ahead was the trigger zone for the "Double Nest Linkage".

The trigger zone was a seemingly ordinary gravel slope. The moment I stepped on it, the ground felt like it had been stirred up. A low, grinding sound came from deep within, like a thick rope sliding between the rocks.

The next second, two massive fissures simultaneously opened at the bottom of the slope. The first sand serpent burst forth from the left, its body as thick as a stone pillar, its mouth agape as it lunged at the front. The other serpent charged from the right, its tail sweeping across like an iron whip, flinging the mages in the back row directly into the rock wall.

"Double Nest Linkage" - the core of Ron's killing plan.

It's not a simple pincer attack by two sand snakes, but a coordinated mechanism: when one sand snake attacks, the other will circle behind the victim to block their path, forcing the victim to endure the attack from the gap.

Bacchus's elite troops clearly hadn't anticipated this coordinated attack. The shield warrior had barely raised his shield to block the first bite when the tail of the second sand serpent coiled around his waist, yanking him off the ground and flinging him toward his companions.

The rear ranks attempted a counterattack, but the two sand snakes coordinated flawlessly—one controlled the humanoids, while the other disrupted their formation. In just twenty seconds, the team was scattered in two.

Vanessa was being protected by a warrior as she retreated, but just as she reached the mouth of the canyon, she stepped on another hidden trigger rune. The barbed stone array on both sides of the canyon suddenly popped up, blocking the only way out.

Trapped in the middle, the team had no choice but to fight. The sand serpents roared and coiled their bodies, spreading poisonous mist in the narrow space. The mage's fireballs flashed like balls of light within the poisonous mist, but they couldn't completely destroy the sand serpents' scales.

One minute.

The first person was poisoned to death and turned into particles of light that dissipated.

Two minutes.

The back row was completely cleared out.

In the third minute, the warriors around Vanessa were swept away by the tail, and she herself was forced to the front of the barbed stone formation, her breathing rapid as if she were about to explode.

Ron watched the red dot flash on the observation platform, knowing the situation had come to a close. He lightly pressed his fingertip on the runestone, giving the order to the monsters in the Sand Serpent District—encircle them.

The entrance and exit of the canyon were sealed off at the same time, and the sand snakes and fishmen surged forward together, their battle cries flooding the entire passage like a tidal wave.

Less than half a minute later, the ground beneath Vanessa's feet gave way, and she was flung into a pile of rocks by the sand snake. Her vision suddenly went dark, and she disappeared in the light of the system notification.

The team was wiped out.

Inside the stone chamber of the Carnival Maze, Bakus looked at the failure records on the magic crystal cards, his fingers tightening little by little.

He no longer needed to guess—Vanessa was not only unhelpful to him, but also the source of his repeated entrapment.

On the high platform of the Black Language Cave, Ron slowly put away the runestone and whispered:

"Close the net."

Chapter 121

Deep within the carnival maze, in a stone chamber, a brazier burned brightly, the air thick with heat and stuffiness.

Vanessa was brought in by two men in black robes. Her knees buckled, and she was pushed in front of Bakus.

Bacchus slowly stood up, walked around her once, and said in a calm and unhurried voice, "Three times. You know which three times I'm talking about."

Vanessa bit her lip and remained silent. Her palms were already soaked with cold sweat.

“The routes you’ve given me are getting more and more accurate—so accurate that they’ve led my men into Ron’s traps time and time again,” Bacchus whispered in her ear. “This isn’t a coincidence; it’s betrayal.”

Vanessa looked up abruptly: "I didn't!"

Bakus raised his hand, and the man in black robes placed a magic crystal card in front of her. Several images appeared on the card—the moment she stole the scroll, the scene of her handing it to the hooded man, and even the detail of her clutching the route map tightly in her hand before entering the teleportation array.

These images were collected by Bakus's spies and tracking symbols over the past few days.

Vanessa's face turned deathly pale instantly.

Bacchus slowly retreated into his chair, as if looking at a useless chess piece: "Your only choice is to tell me—how Ron made you spread false information."

Vanessa opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She knew it would be useless to speak; she was already in a dead end.

Meanwhile, in the spectator area outside the Black Whisper Caves, the guild's investigation team was communicating with Amata.

Ron stood a short distance away, holding a specially made magic crystal ball. Inside, the "observation records" from the entrance area of ​​the Black Whisper Caves over the past few days circulated—

It includes the entire process of several groups of challengers following the fake route, as well as the route map and the corresponding screens when traps are triggered.

He didn't directly call it a trap, but simply said, "Recently, some people have been selling fake guides to the Black Language Caves, and many people have spent money only to end up dead."

The archmages in the investigation team stared at the image in the crystal ball, their expressions gradually darkening.

"Fake guide?" One of them frowned. "Is there any evidence to support this?"

Ron shrugged and handed over a parchment with a route map printed on it. A faded rune mark could still be faintly seen on the corner of the paper. The investigation team recognized the rune at a glance—it belonged to the rune system of the Bacchus family of the Carnival Labyrinth.

The group exchanged glances and had already made their judgment.

Amata chimed in, "I'll include this in my investigation report."

The investigation team members nodded.

That night, Ron returned to the high platform of the cave, where the red dot on the runestone had completely stopped moving—a sign that Vanessa was trapped in the Carnival Maze and could no longer move freely.