A bizarre and terrifying experience; I messed up the dungeon world.

When Han Yingying logged out of the dungeon, it was just dawn.

She sat on her bed in her bedroom, still wearing yesterday's clothes, with a faint scar on her wrist—a scratch from the ghost in the haunted manor. She looked at her hand; the scar was healing at a visible speed.

The dungeon results panel is still hanging in front of me:

[Instance: Terrifying Manor]

[Rating: A]

[Reward: Skill Fragment x1, Gold Coins 500]

Current Level: Lv.3

Han Yingying turned off the control panel and went to wash her face. She looked unwell in the mirror; there were dark circles under her eyes and her lips were pale. She turned on the tap, and the cold water splashed on her face, making her shiver.

My phone rang; it was a message from Zhou Lang.

"Are you home?"

"Um."

"have a good rest."

The conversation ended there. Han Yingying stared at the screen for a few seconds, then placed her phone face down on the table.

That's just how Zhou Lang is—he's never hesitant to help when he needs to, and once he's said his piece, he's done with it; he wouldn't waste a single extra word.

She climbed into bed, wrapped herself in the blanket, and closed her eyes.

His mind was filled with images of the basement of the manor. The densely packed ghosts, the thing chained up with iron chains, and Zhou Lang's silhouette walking ahead with an oil lamp in hand.

She drifted off to sleep.

There was a white fog in my dream.

She stood in the fog, unable to see anything around her. A voice called her name in the distance, but she couldn't make out who it was. She tried to walk over, but her foot slipped—

Han Yingying suddenly opened her eyes.

The bedroom is gone.

She stood in an old corridor, her feet on cracked terrazzo flooring, the fluorescent light tubes overhead only half lit, the other half flickering. Large areas of plaster had peeled off the walls, revealing the gray-black cement underneath.

There was a musty smell in the air, mixed with the pungent odor of disinfectant.

The panel popped up:

[Instance: Abandoned Hospital]

[Difficulty: Level A]

[Mission: Find the "medical record" and leave the hospital through the main entrance within 72 hours]

Current number of players: 5

[Note: Do not enter the operating room at night (20:00 PM - 06:00 AM)]

Han Yingying was stunned for two seconds.

The previous dungeon just ended, and we didn't even have time to catch our breath.

She looked down at herself—still wearing the same pajamas she wore at home, her hair a mess.

"Hold."

She muttered a curse under her breath and looked around the corridor.

About thirty meters to the right, there was a figure crouching in the corner. Han Yingying walked over warily and found that it was a young woman, in her early twenties, who was hugging her knees and curled up in a ball, her body trembling violently.

"Are you a player?" Han Yingying asked.

The woman looked up, her eyes red-rimmed and her face streaked with tears: "I...this is my first time in a place like this...I don't know what happened..."

"Which instance?"

"The...first time."

"Newcomer." Han Yingying sighed inwardly. She squatted down, her voice softening, "Don't cry, crying won't help. What's your name?"

"Lin Xiaoxi".

"Alright, Lin Xiaoxi, come with me."

Han Yingying helped Lin Xiaoxi up. Lin Xiaoxi's legs were too weak to stand, so Han Yingying supported her arm and led her forward. As they passed an open ward door, Han Yingying glanced inside—there was a "person" lying on the bed, covered with a white sheet, motionless.

Beneath the white cloth, his chest remained still.

Han Yingying quickened her pace.

At the end of the corridor was a nurses' station. The swivel chair behind the counter was overturned on the floor, and documents were scattered everywhere. There were three people next to the nurses' station—two men and one woman.

The man at the front was around thirty years old, with a buzz cut, and wearing a faded military green jacket. He was holding an iron pipe that had been broken off the wall, and he nodded slightly when he saw Han Yingying.

"Another one," the man with the buzz cut said.

Standing next to him was a tall, thin man wearing glasses, with an unlit cigarette dangling from his mouth. The tall, thin man looked Han Yingying up and down, his gaze lingering on her pajamas for half a second, but he said nothing.

The third person was a short-haired girl carrying a professional-looking hiking backpack and a folding knife at her waist. She leaned against the wall with her arms crossed and her expression indifferent.

Han Yingying could tell at a glance that the buzz cut and the tall, thin guy were no novices.

That short-haired girl is definitely not one of them.

"What's your level?" the crew-cut man asked Han Yingying.

"Lv.3".

The man with the buzz cut raised an eyebrow. The tall, thin man took the cigarette out of his mouth and finally spoke: "Lv.3? How many dungeons have you done?"

"The third time."

"Level 3 in just three times?" The tall, thin man turned to look at the crew-cut man. "Old Xu, this leveling speed is a bit weird."

The man with the buzz cut, called Lao Xu, didn't answer, but asked Han Yingying, "What's your name?"

"Han Yingying. What about you guys?"

"Xu Kun," the man with the buzz cut said, then pointed to the tall, thin man, "His name is Fang Yuan."

The short-haired girl signed up herself: "Lu Ting. Lv.2, Second Dungeon."

Han Yingying looked at Xu Kun and Fang Yuan: "What are your levels?"

Fang Yuan smiled and tucked the cigarette behind his ear: "Lv.5."

"Lv.5?" Han Yingying was somewhat surprised. "How many times have you entered the dungeon?"

"I can't remember. A dozen or so times?" Fang Yuan scratched his head. "Anyway, quite a lot."

Han Yingying knew very well what Lv.5 meant. The system's upgrade mechanism didn't just look at the number of dungeons completed; it also considered ratings, kill counts, and survival rate. Reaching Lv.5 meant being among the top players.

But what really concerned Han Yingying was something else.

"If you're at Lv.5," she said, looking at the two of them, "you should have already obtained S-rank qualification."

Fang Yuan's smile faded slightly.

Xu Kun replied expressionlessly, "I got it."

"Then why don't you participate in S-rank dungeons?"

silence.

Fang Yuan put the cigarette back in his mouth but didn't light it. Xu Kun switched the iron pipe to his other hand and said, "We'll talk about that later. Let's deal with the immediate problem first."

Han Yingying did not ask any further questions.

Five people formed a temporary team. The division of labor was clear—Xu Kun and Han Yingying were responsible for scouting, Fang Yuan brought up the rear, and Lu Ting looked after Lin Xiaoxi.

The hospital has six floors. They are on the third floor now, and the stairwell leading upstairs is filled with broken medical equipment and blackened mattresses, barely wide enough to squeeze through sideways.

Han Yingying walked ahead, clutching a scalpel she'd picked up from the nurses' station. Her skill—[Fear Perception]—allowed her to detect the location of ghostly creatures within a ten-meter radius. She'd acquired it during her second dungeon run, and it was highly useful.

The fourth-floor corridor was darker than the third-floor one. The fluorescent lights were completely off, with only the emergency exit sign at the end of the corridor emitting a faint green glow.

Han Yingying's perception skill was not triggered, indicating that this area is temporarily safe.

"The medical record..." she thought as she walked, "It should be in the doctor's office or the records room."

"The archives are usually on the first floor," Xu Kun said.

"But the task didn't specify which medical record it was," Fang Yuan added. "This kind of vague description usually means that the medical record isn't in its usual location."

Han Yingying agreed with this assessment. The quest design for horror dungeons is never so straightforward.