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

Han Yingying opened her eyes, and a few rays of light shone through the gap in the curtains.

She stared at the ceiling for a long time, her memories blurry like paper soaked in water, but still able to make out outlines—the haunted manor, the basement, and the countless ghosts pasted on the walls.

He rolled over and sat up.

The alarm clock on the bedside table showed 8:03 AM. My phone screen showed three unread messages: one from my stepmother asking if I wanted breakfast; one from my college roommate Miaomiao inviting me out for hot pot at noon; and the last one was a package delivery notification.

Everything is perfectly normal.

Han Yingying sat on the edge of the bed, picked up her phone and put it down again, repeating this three times.

wrong.

What's wrong?

She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but each time she emerged from a dungeon, the feeling intensified. It was like walking into a room where the doors, windows, tables, and chairs were all in their proper places, yet there was just an inexplicable sense of unease.

She shuffled downstairs in her slippers. Her stepmother, Liu Yulan, was frying eggs in the kitchen. Hearing footsteps, she turned around and glanced at her: "You're up? You've kept your little sister waiting. Go wash up first."

Han Yingying hummed in agreement.

Stepsister Han Jiajia was sitting at the dining table scrolling through her phone. When she saw her sister come downstairs, she didn't even look up and said, "Sis, did you stay up all night playing games again? Your dark circles are as heavy as a panda's."

"No, I was sleeping too soundly."

"You don't look too good either." Han Jiajia finally looked up, tilting her head to examine her. "Have a lot of classes lately?"

Han Yingying shook her head.

She sat down at the table, and Liu Yulan brought over fried eggs and porridge. The clinking of chopsticks and bowls was very soft, and the kitchen exhaust fan hummed. Han Jiajia ate while complaining about the slow delivery, and Liu Yulan scolded her for buying things recklessly again.

That's perfectly normal.

Han Yingying looked at the two people in front of her. Her stepmother had been married into the family for four years, and their relationship had been neither good nor bad; they had lived a polite but distant life. Han Jiajia was the same age as her, three months younger, and had a more outgoing and carefree personality.

She lowered her head to drink her porridge, her mind still racing.

After the last instance ended, she remembered leaving with Zhou Lang and Zhao Qiang. Zhao Qiang was jumping for joy, saying how awesome it was to get all the pay. Zhou Lang was still the same, not saying much, but doing everything he was supposed to do.

and then?

And so she ended up here. Waking up in her own room, just like the previous times.

"Sis, you dropped your spoon."

Han Yingying looked down and, sure enough, the spoon had slipped onto the table. She picked it up, and Han Jiajia glanced at her, muttered "absent-minded," and then ignored her.

After finishing her meal, she went back to her room and searched it thoroughly. Wardrobe, drawers, bookshelves, under the bed—nothing. There was no trace of anything related to the strange game. Her phone showed nothing unusual either; the call logs and text messages were all ordinary.

She opened her contacts and scrolled to the name "Zhou Lang".

I hesitated for two seconds before dialing.

When we arrived at the agreed hot pot restaurant at noon, Miao Miao was already there, along with her other roommate, Chen Cheng.

"Come on, I've already ordered the hot pot base for you, a half-and-half." Miao Miao waved, her enthusiasm almost startling the waiter at the next table.

Han Yingying sat down and glanced at the menu: "You ordered three servings of tripe again?"

"Four portions this time."

"...Your obsession with tripe could qualify you for intangible cultural heritage status."

Chen Cheng laughed heartily, while Miao Miao declared confidently, "Tripe is the soul of hot pot, and I won't accept any arguments against it."

The hot pot was bubbling and steaming. Miao Miao and Chen Cheng were chatting about the latest popular variety shows, while Han Yingying listened as she cooked her own meat, occasionally chiming in.

There shouldn't be any problems on a day like this.

But she just couldn't completely relax.

The event ended around 4 PM, and Miao Miao tried to get her to go shopping, but she refused. She took the bus home, glancing out the window. The streets, pedestrians, and traffic lights were all operating smoothly and methodically.

When I got home, Liu Yulan had gone out to do square dancing. Han Jiajia wasn't there; there was a note on the table saying she had gone to a classmate's house.

Han Yingying sat alone on the sofa in the living room.

The TV is off.

She stared at the black screen of the television, which reflected the living room and her own silhouette.

Quiet.

It's too quiet.

Then the lights went out.

Not just one light—it was all the lights. The living room lights, the hallway lights, the kitchen lights, even the streetlights outside the window—all went out at the same instant.

Darkness surged in, overwhelming everything.

Han Yingying's hand rested on the sofa armrest, motionless. She wasn't panicked. After experiencing so many instances, mere darkness was no longer enough to make her lose her composure.

The familiar mechanical prompting sounded in my mind:

[Player Han Yingying detected.]

[Automatic matchmaking for the third instance – "The Last Train".]

[Loading the copy...]

[Countdown: 3, 2, 1—]

The ground beneath her feet disappeared. The feeling of weightlessness lasted for about two seconds, and when she regained her footing, she was already in a train carriage.

It was an old-fashioned green train with hard plastic seats. Outside the windows, it was pitch black; you couldn't see anything. The overhead fluorescent lights flickered twice, then came on, but the light was pale and cold, casting an indescribable chill over the entire carriage.

There are people in the carriage.

A man was sitting in the front row, wearing a dark hoodie and a hoodie, so his face was obscured. In the middle, two people were sitting side by side, a man and a woman. The man was flipping through an old magazine, while the woman had her eyes closed and was leaning back in her chair.

There's one more—

Near the connecting area between the carriages, a short-haired girl squatted on the ground, leaning against the seat leg, trembling all over.

The dungeon rules appeared before Han Yingying:

[Instance: The Last Train]

Rule 1: The train will pass through seven stations, and the carriages will change at each station.

Rule 2: Do not get off at the wrong stop.

Rule Three: Before the final destination, just stay alive.

Just three rules. The wording was brief, but Han Yingying had already learned to smell the bloodshed in these understated rules.

"It's good to be alive"—the subtext of these four words is: dying is easy.

She first walked towards the girl who was squatting on the ground.

"How are you?"

The girl suddenly looked up, her eyes were terribly red, and her face was covered in tears. She looked to be in her early twenties, probably a year or two younger than Han Yingying.

"I don't want to die... This is my first time entering a dungeon like this, I don't know anything..."

"Which game?"

"My first time!" the girl's voice rose. "I was just reading in my dorm, and then... that's how it ended!"

Han Yingying squatted down to be at eye level with her.

"Listen to me, panicking won't solve anything. What's your name?"

"Su Wan".

"Su Wan, stand up first. If you're squatting on the ground, you won't even have time to react if something reaches under your seat."

Su Wan jumped up as if she were a spring.

Han Yingying's lips twitched—okay, I scared her.

"Don't be afraid, I've been in dungeons before, I have experience. Just follow me."

Su Wan gripped her sleeve tightly, nodding vigorously.

At this moment, the other three players also noticed them. The hooded man walked over first, took off his hood to reveal a long face with thick eyebrows, almost like a unibrow.