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

After listening, Zhao Qiang remained silent for a long time.

"I have something to tell you," he began, his voice a little muffled. "Last week when I went home, my mom said that a family in the next building heard a knocking sound at their door in the middle of the night. When they opened the door, no one was there, but there was a pair of shoes left at the door. The next day, the person in that family was hospitalized—not because they were sick, but because they were terrified. They said they saw something they shouldn't have seen."

"What is it?"

"A faceless person," Zhao Qiang said, "standing at the foot of his bed."

The three remained silent.

The oil lamp in the room flickered, casting a long green shadow on the wall.

"I'll help you," Zhao Qiang said. "I can't help with other things, but I'm good at running errands and doing odd jobs. Besides—" he scratched his head, "I won't outlive you two anyway, so it's the same whether I die sooner or later."

"Don't talk nonsense." Zhou Lang patted him on the shoulder.

Han Yingying couldn't help but chuckle, then quickly composed herself.

The three of them collected everything they could carry from the room. In addition to the diary and photos, there was a damaged chip in the table drawer—the system prompt indicated that this was a "Fragment of the Mysterious Origin Tracing Device (1/5)". Collecting all five fragments would allow them to create a device to trace the source of the mystery.

On the final day of the dungeon run, the three successfully completed all the tasks. The Butler gave Zhou Lang an extra rating during the final settlement:

[Hidden Achievement Unlocked - "Bug Watcher"]

You've discovered something you shouldn't have. It's dangerous, but also valuable.

[Reward: Mystic Perception +2, Next Dungeon Difficulty Coefficient +0.5]

"The reward comes with an added level of difficulty?" Zhao Qiang was dumbfounded when he saw this notification. "Is this a reward or a punishment?"

"The more difficult the dungeon, the higher the rewards," Han Yingying said. "That's a good thing in a roundabout way."

"Your definition of 'good things' is a bit different from that of normal people," Zhao Qiang said.

A flash of white light, and the three were teleported out of the instance.

The dungeon lobby was bustling with people.

The moment Zhou Lang appeared, the system broadcast blared across the entire server:

Player "Langligelang" completed the S-rank dungeon "Terror Manor" with an SSS rating, ranking first in the entire server!

Player "Firefly" completed the S-rank dungeon "Terror Manor" with an SS rating, ranking seventh in the entire server!

Immediately following was a deluge of private message notifications. Zhou Lang's message bar exploded—99+.

He casually clicked on a few:

"The Orderly Guild cordially invites you to join us; excellent benefits are offered."

"Dark Star Guild is recruiting elite players—"

"Heavenly Punishment Guild—"

They were all invited by the union.

Zhao Qiang leaned over for a look, his teeth aching from the sourness. "Good heavens, these unions usually ignore me, but now they're all being incredibly polite."

Han Yingying's situation wasn't peaceful either. Her inbox was also overflowing with invitations, and some union members were even stationed at the lobby exit.

A woman in a white robe approached, smiling as she handed over a gold-embossed business card. "Miss Han Yingying, I am Bai Lu, the External Relations Minister of the Orderly Guild. Our guild president greatly admires your abilities—"

"No, I won't add it." Han Yingying didn't even take the call.

Bai Lu's smile froze for a moment. "I haven't finished speaking—"

"No matter the conditions, I won't add them. Thank you." Han Yingying walked past her and continued walking.

Two more groups of people arrived, each more enthusiastic than the last, but Han Yingying's response remained consistently just two words. Zhao Qiang, watching from the side, muttered under his breath, "Sister Yingying, isn't your way of rejecting people a bit too blunt? At least leave them some face."

"Saving face is for friends," Han Yingying said. "I'm not friends with them."

Zhao Qiang shut up.

However, something went wrong on Zhou Lang's side.

As he walked to the bulletin board in the center of the hall to check for new information, a voice came from behind him.

"Brother, we meet again."

Smoker.

He still had that same nonchalant attitude, an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips, hands in his pockets. But this time, there weren't just two people behind him—there were twelve.

They were all members of the Soul Devouring Guild.

The atmosphere in the hall suddenly changed. Several casual players who were trading quietly moved further away, afraid of being caught in the crossfire.

"What's up?" Zhou Lang turned around.

"It's nothing serious," Smoker said slowly. "I just saw Han Yingying reject the Orderly people, the Dark Star people, and the Heavenly Punishment people. Oh dear, she's offended quite a few people."

"What business is it of yours what she does?"

"None of my business." Smoker pulled a slip of paper from his pocket and waved it. "The Lawful White Dew just found me and asked if I had a grudge against you guys. I said yes, and you almost slit my throat with a chainsaw."

Zhou Lang: "..."

"Guess what Bai Lu said?" Smoker grinned. "She said that even if someone can make Soul Eater suffer, Order isn't really interested in befriending them. After all—Order is afraid of getting into trouble if they offend Soul Eater."

Zhou Lang understood.

This guy is using someone else to do his dirty work. He deliberately spread the conflict in the instance, making other guilds think that getting too close to Zhou Lang and Han Yingying would offend Soul Eater—and Soul Eater is ranked second, so few guilds are willing to offend the second-ranked power for the sake of two solo players.

"You've got a knack for making things up," Zhou Lang said.

"It's not made up, it's true." The smoker shrugged. "You really almost sawed me in half. Right?"

From a factual standpoint, that's correct.

But the context has been completely distorted.

Zhao Qiang became agitated: "You started it! Your men hit Brother Lang with iron bars!"

"Do you have any evidence?" the Smoker asked.

Zhao Qiang was speechless. Battles in dungeons aren't recorded unless a player intentionally records them. And in that situation, who would have thought to record it?

"Without evidence, I can say whatever I want." The smoker turned and walked away. "But don't worry, I'm a magnanimous person and won't cause you any trouble. Just don't block my way."

Twelve people followed him as he left.

A murmur rippled through the hall.

Han Yingying walked over, her expression grim. "What did he do?"

Zhou Lang briefly explained the situation. Han Yingying listened, then remained silent for a moment. "Do those unions believe him?"

"Whether you believe it or not is not important, what's important is that no one is willing to take the risk," Zhou Lang said. "But it doesn't matter, I never planned to join any guild anyway."

"With him causing all this trouble, we won't even have anyone to help us when we encounter problems in dungeons in the future," Zhao Qiang said worriedly.

"I'm so glad you're here," Zhou Lang said.

Zhao Qiang: "...I'm no help at all. I'm just a burden in the dungeon."

"Don't underestimate yourself." Zhou Lang patted his shoulder. "You're a high-class burden."

Zhao Qiang was almost driven mad by this attempt to comfort him.

The three exited the game and returned to the real world.

Time passed, and a week went by.

Strangely, this week has been unusually calm.

The strange events that used to occur every three or four days suddenly disappeared. News reports of "strange noises in a certain neighborhood at night" ceased, and the paranormal forums became deserted.

Zhou Lang went to class and ate meals as usual. Life returned to a long-lost sense of normalcy.