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

Zhou Lang raised his eyebrows.

"A whole number," Han Yingying emphasized. "Strange behavioral patterns are usually random, but this one is very regular. Thirty seconds, not a second more, not a second less."

"Fixed patrol routes, fixed stop times," Zhou Lang responded in a whisper. "Like a programmed NPC."

"Yes," Han Yingying said, "normal supernatural phenomena wouldn't be like this."

The two exchanged a glance.

Abnormal data fluctuations. This instance is strange and different from normal instances.

-

The next day, the six split into two groups. Lin Mu took Su Xiao and Chen Feng to the dean's office to carry out the main mission. Zhou Lang and Han Yingying had other plans.

"Let's investigate that bug," Zhou Lang said.

Zhao Qiang naturally followed Zhou Lang. His reasoning was sound: "I'll die if I get lost."

The three of them began searching floor by floor from the second floor, not for medical records, but for anomalies. Anything that didn't conform to the normal logic of the copy—misplaced objects, garbled text, spatial distortion—was recorded.

In a treatment room on the third floor, Zhou Lang discovered the first anomaly.

An electrocardiogram monitor was running in the corner of the room, displaying waveforms on its screen. However, the device was not plugged in; the power cord was broken, and the plug was lying on the floor.

"Passive operation." Zhou Lang squatted in front of the instrument. "This machine shouldn't be able to turn on."

韩莹莹走过去看屏幕。波形图不是正常的心电波形，而是一组重複的数字序列：7-3-7-3-7-3。

"Password?" Zhao Qiang guessed.

"Not necessarily." Han Yingying stared at the numbers, "but this set of data was definitely manipulated."

They continued their search. At the end of the fourth-floor corridor, there was a door that read "Archives." The door was open, and the room was empty except for a chair placed in the center. On the chair was an open notebook.

Most of the notebook's contents had been erased, leaving only one sentence legible:

"The system isn't perfect. The cracks have always existed, but no one noticed. The patients in the nursing home didn't die from the disease, but from altered diagnoses. The true medical records are hidden—"

The writing at the end is blurry and illegible.

"The modified diagnosis results," Han Yingying repeated. "Is this a clue for the dungeon quest, or information about the bug itself?"

"The two might be the same thing." Zhou Lang turned to the last page of his notebook, where a line of very small pencil writing appeared at the bottom:

"B4-017".

"B stands for the basement," Zhou Lang said. "Room 017 in Zone 4. The basement."

"It's the basement again." Zhao Qiang's lips twitched.

Just as the three were about to leave the archives, they heard footsteps coming from the stairwell.

It's not eerie. Eerie things don't happen during the day.

A figure emerged from the stairwell, paused upon seeing them.

Silence.

Zhou Lang knew him. They had met during the seventh dungeon run. He was a lone wolf player, not affiliated with any guild, quite strong, but reclusive, and never actively sought out other players. Shen Mo was also in the dungeon yesterday when the guild besieged him, but he didn't show up at all, neither offering help nor taking advantage of the situation.

"You're investigating this too?" Shen Mo asked. His voice was hoarse, as if he hadn't spoken to anyone in a long time.

"What do you know?" Zhou Lang asked bluntly.

Shen Mo walked into the archives, glanced at the notebook on the chair, and then looked at the last page that Zhou Lang had turned to.

"I've been to B4-017," he said. "I can't get in. That door requires two people to open; I can't open it alone."

"So you've come to us to collaborate?" Han Yingying asked.

"I've come to see him." Shen Mo looked at Zhou Lang. "You're different from others."

Zhao Qiang stepped in front of Zhou Lang: "What do you mean?"

"You, a lone wolf in an SS-level dungeon, suddenly seeking cooperation with others—your motives aren't pure." Zhao Qiang was unusually clever for once.

Shen Mo glanced at Zhao Qiang, ignored him, and continued to Zhou Lang, "I entered this instance three days ago."

"What?" The three of them were stunned at the same time.

"The instance has a 72-hour time limit, but I entered three full days earlier than you," Shen Mo said. "This means—"

"You're experiencing a different timeline," Han Yingying continued.

"It's not another timeline," Shen Mo corrected her. "It's the same instance being run repeatedly. I died once, and then woke up again in the same place. The instance didn't kick me out; it just made me start over."

The character died but wasn't kicked out. The process repeats.

What else could this be but a bug?

"What happened when you died?" Zhou Lang asked.

"I was killed by a strange entity on the fourth basement level." Shen Mo's statement was calm, as if he were talking about someone else's story. "At the moment of my death, I saw something. The system interface displayed garbled text, and a line of red text flashed briefly before disappearing."

"What red text?"

"'Data overwrite failed, backtrack to node.' — Then I woke up, back to the starting point of entering the instance, and time was reset. But the wounds I had before I died were still there."

Zhou Lang remained silent for a moment.

"I agree to cooperate," he said.

Zhao Qiang opened his mouth, as if to say something, but ultimately didn't.

-

The four of them acted together. Shen Mo was more familiar with the underground level than the others, and led the way, avoiding three strange patrol points, and successfully arrived at the door of room B4-017.

The door was made of metal, with a circular groove on each side, about three meters apart. Shen Mo was right; it took two people simultaneously placing their hands into the grooves to open the door.

Zhou Lang and Shen Mo each stood on one side, reaching out their hands simultaneously.

The sound of mechanical rotation came from the groove, and the metal door slowly rose.

It's not a room inside.

It was a huge spherical space, at least twenty meters in diameter. The walls of the sphere were densely covered with text and symbols, some resembling programming code, others like some kind of ancient script. A ball of light floated in the very center of the sphere, and data streams moved across its surface.

The moment Han Yingying stepped inside, her head throbbed with pain.

She covered her head and squatted down.

"Han Yingying!" Zhao Qiang and Zhou Lang rushed over at the same time.

"Don't touch me—" she managed to squeeze out, her voice trembling.

It's not pain. It's memory.

A flood of fragmented memories rushed into her mind.

She saw herself standing in front of a huge control panel, wearing a white uniform with an X on her chest badge—the emblem of the X Guild. Her profile read: Founder.

She saw herself traversing countless dungeons, her level climbing steadily until she reached the maximum. She saw herself standing before a massive portal of light, with a group of people waving goodbye to her behind her. She passed through the portal and walked out.

The only max-level player to successfully exit the game.

That person was herself.

The torrent of memories subsided after about two minutes. Han Yingying slowly stood up, her face pale and her forehead covered in sweat.

"How are you?" Zhou Lang asked, supporting her arm.

"I'm fine." She straightened up and looked at the code on the ball's wall, her eyes completely different from before.

She recognizes these codes.