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

[Mission Update: Fulfill the last wishes of at least three townspeople to obtain a pass fragment]

[Hint: Each resident has a different last wish. Completing the wish will reward you with 1 fragment. Collect 3 fragments to synthesize a pass.]

"A thirty-year-old wish." Fang Yuan rubbed the goosebumps on his arms. "That doesn't sound like an easy life."

Zhou Lang had already turned and walked out. "I'm leaving. It needs to be done before dawn."

Han Yingying followed. As she walked out of the town government gate, her senses detected something unusual—not from the ghosts, but from the town itself.

The spatial structure of the entire town is undergoing subtle changes.

The streets were extending, and the houses were multiplying. The intersection she had just passed had changed—an alley had appeared on the left, and the original right turn had become a T-junction.

"The town is changing," Han Yingying reminded her.

"A common mechanism in S-rank dungeons," Xu Kun finally added, "is that the map is dynamically generated to prevent players from memorizing routes."

The six people split into two groups: Zhou Lang, Han Yingying, and Lin Xiaoxi in one group, and Xu Kun, Fang Yuan, and Qian Wei in the other.

Han Yingying's group is responsible for the western half of the town.

The first last wish came from an old woman in a tiled house. She sat in a grand chair in the main room, holding an empty photo frame in her hands.

"My photo..." the old woman's voice was soft, like the wind rustling through withered leaves, "My family photo... it's in Old Wang's cupboard next door..."

Han Yingying told Lin Xiaoxi to stay where she was, while she and Zhou Lang went to the next room.

The "Old Wang" next door was also a ghost, squatting in front of the stove repeatedly making the motion of lighting a fire. There was nothing in the stove.

Han Yingying found a yellowed photograph in the cabinet. The photograph showed a family of five—two elderly people, a young couple, and a little girl.

She put the photo in a frame and handed it to the old lady.

The old woman looked down at the photograph, her withered fingers tracing the edge of the frame. Then her body began to become transparent, gradually dissipating from the edge towards the center.

She smiled before disappearing.

Panel prompt:

[Wish Fulfilled: Fragment x1]

Han Yingying carefully collected the fragments. She noticed Zhou Lang squatting in front of the stove, watching the old ghost Wang Gui repeatedly try to light the fire.

"What about his last wish?" Zhou Lang muttered to himself.

"It should be ignition," Han Yingying said.

Zhou Lang took out a lighter and pressed it against the stove. Flames shot up, and although there was nothing in the stove, the fire did indeed start.

Old Wang Gui looked at the flames, slowly stood up, walked to the water vat next to the stove, scooped out a ladle of water from the vat, and poured it into the pot.

He is cooking.

But there was no food in the pot.

After the fire had been burning for a few minutes, Old Wang Gui scooped a bowl of air out of the pot, carried the bowl to the door, placed it on the threshold, and said something to the air.

Han Yingying didn't hear what he said.

Then he vanished.

[Wish Fulfilled: Fragment x1]

Two are done. One more to go.

Han Yingying was about to walk to the next house when Zhou Lang suddenly called out to her.

"Wait a moment."

His expression was a little strange. Han Yingying rarely saw him show this kind of expression before—not nervousness, not alertness, but a kind of hesitation.

"Don't you think... the difficulty of this dungeon is abnormal?" Zhou Lang asked.

"You mean the difficulty level shift?"

Zhou Lang's eyebrows twitched. "You knew?"

"The system notified me when the last instance ended. Original difficulty B, actual execution difficulty A, offset +2."

"...Did the system proactively notify you?" Zhou Lang's tone changed.

"What's wrong?"

"It won't give you a prompt," Zhou Lang said, "unless the offset value exceeds a certain threshold—or there's a problem with the system itself."

Han Yingying's perception skill suddenly jolted violently. It wasn't that she had detected a ghost, but rather a deeper warning.

"How long have you been investigating this?" she asked.

"Starting from the second instance."

"What did the investigation uncover?"

Zhou Lang did not answer.

He opened his mouth, then closed it again. Green light shone on his face, casting shadows on his eye sockets and cheekbones.

"Complete the dungeon first," he finally said.

Han Yingying looked at him. She could sense that Zhou Lang was hiding something—not maliciously, but more like protecting something, or hesitating whether to lay something out in the open.

She didn't ask any further questions.

"Let's go." Han Yingying turned around and continued walking forward.

Zhou Lang followed. He walked half a step behind her, and the lamplight cast their long shadows on the dirt road.

Lin Xiaoxi jogged to catch up, completely unaware of the subtle change in atmosphere between the two people in front of her.

The third wish was much more difficult than the first two.

It was the ghost of a young woman, standing beside a dry well. A deep ligature mark marked her neck, and her head was tilted to one side at an unnatural angle.

She didn't speak, but kept looking into the well.

Han Yingying walked to the well and looked down.

The well was very deep, pitch black, and the bottom could not be seen. But a faint sound could be heard coming up from the bottom of the well—like a baby crying, or a cat meowing.

"Do not respond to calls from empty rooms," Han Yingying read out the mission instructions.

Does a well count as an "empty room"?

She did not act rashly. The woman ghost's last wishes could not be obtained through language, but could only be inferred from her behavior and environment.

A ligature mark on the neck – indicating hanging or strangulation.

A dry well—there's something at the bottom of the well.

The sound of a baby crying.

Han Yingying suddenly understood.

"Her child is in the well."

Zhou Lang squatted by the well and shone a lamp down into the water. The green light only reached three or four meters deep; below that, it was pure darkness.

"I'm going down," Han Yingying said.

"You're crazy." This was the third time Lin Xiaoxi had said this today.

"You don't need to go down." Zhou Lang stood up.

He took a rope out of his pocket—he didn't know when he got it—tied it to the stone pillar at the wellhead, and started sliding down while holding onto the rope.

Han Yingying waited at the wellhead.

One minute. Two minutes. Three minutes.

The rope suddenly swayed violently.

"Zhou Lang!"

no respond.

Han Yingying grabbed the rope and was about to climb down when a muffled thud came from the bottom of the well, followed by Zhou Lang's voice:

"We're up here, don't move."

Half a minute later, Zhou Lang climbed out of the well. His coat—Han Yingying was wearing his coat—and his sweater were covered in mud, and there was a cut on his right arm that was bleeding.

He was holding something in the crook of his left arm.

A tiny, grayish-white baby.

No, it's a ghost in the form of an infant.

It stopped crying. It closed its eyes and nestled quietly in Zhou Lang's arms.

Zhou Lang walked up to the female ghost and handed her the baby.

The ghostly woman took the baby and pressed it against her chest. Her crooked neck slowly straightened, and the marks from the strangulation gradually faded. She looked down at the child in her arms, her lips moving as if she were singing a very soft song.