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

"How many times have you been to a dungeon?" He got straight to the point.

"The fourth time," Han Yingying said without hiding it.

The long-faced man's expression changed slightly, and he exchanged a glance with the man and woman who walked up behind him. The woman spoke first, her voice low: "My name is Fang Zhiyu, and this is my partner, Xu Nuo. You can call me Sister Fang."

Xu Nuo was the man flipping through the magazine; he wasn't tall but was sturdy. He pushed up his glasses and greeted him.

The hooded, long-faced man introduced himself: "Lin Chuan. Sixth time."

The sixth time? Han Yingying glanced at him again.

Fang Zhiyu also said, "This is our eighth time."

"Eight times?" Han Yingying was a little surprised.

"At this rate, you're already qualified for the S-level assessment." She didn't say it aloud, but her question was written all over her face.

Fang Zhiyu understood her meaning, smiled, and didn't explain. Xu Nuo, however, pushed up her glasses and said, "We're not interested in S-rank. Just being alive is good enough; why bother with all that?"

Han Yingying was about to say something when the carriage suddenly lurched.

The fluorescent light flickered.

The loudspeaker blared. A woman's voice, incredibly gentle, yet strangely unsettling:

"Dear passengers, welcome aboard the last train. This train will stop at seven stations. Please alight at the correct station. Next stop—first stop, 'Old Photos'."

"Don't get out of the car," Lin Chuan said directly.

Han Yingying looked at him.

"The first stop is always a trap." Lin Chuan said this in a calm tone, based on his experience.

The train slowed down and came to a stop.

The car door opened with a hiss.

Outside the door was a corridor, the walls of which were covered with old photos. Some were black and white, some were color, some were yellowed; some were group photos, some were solo portraits.

There was a warm light at the end of the corridor, which looked very cozy.

Su Wan stared at the door for a few seconds, then leaned slightly towards it. Han Yingying grabbed her arm.

"Don't look."

Su Wan shivered and turned her head away.

Thirty seconds later, the doors closed. The train restarted.

"Those photos—" Su Wan's voice was very soft, "I saw my mother in them."

Han Yingying did not respond.

We've passed the first stop.

The air quality didn't improve; in fact, it became even heavier.

Then--

"Wow, this carriage is quite lively."

A voice came from the other end of the carriage. Han Yingying and everyone else turned their heads at the same time.

The door at the connection point had opened at some point, and a person was leaning against the door frame, holding a green oil lamp in their hand.

Zhou Lang.

"You're here too?" Han Yingying asked.

"Nonsense." Zhou Lang walked over, glanced around at the people in the carriage, his gaze lingered on Su Wan for a second, and then looked at Lin Chuan and the other two.

Xu Nuo reacted the most. His eyes behind his glasses widened, and he even dropped his magazine.

"Wait... the green oil lamp? You are—you are the one—"

Fang Zhiyu helped him up.

Xu Nuo couldn't stop himself: "Are you a 'reckless rascal'?!"

A subtle expression appeared on Zhou Lang's face.

Han Yingying found it hard to describe that expression; it was probably somewhere between the embarrassment of being called by her real name and the indifference of "it doesn't matter".

"...Call me whatever you want."

Xu Nuo almost lost her balance, grabbing Fang Zhiyu's arm: "Zhiyu, did you hear that! It's a real person! Alive! How many times have I told you, those stories on the forum are absolutely not made up—solo completion of the haunted manor, pushing open the door to a three-story basement, wielding a chainsaw to fight a vengeful ghost—"

"Shut up." Fang Zhiyu pressed him down.

Zhou Lang walked over and sat down next to Han Yingying with a blank expression.

"When were you assigned here?" Han Yingying asked.

"I was in one carriage before you. The one behind me was empty, so I walked this way."

"Are you also using automatic matching?"

Zhou Lang nodded.

It was inevitable. Han Yingying sighed inwardly, but she couldn't say she disliked it. With Zhou Lang around, she felt much more at ease—although she herself found the thought a little strange when it first came to her.

When did it start?

When did I start to feel at ease having this person by my side?

She didn't think about it too deeply.

The broadcast came on again:

"Next stop—the second stop, the 'Mirror Room'."

The train slowed down.

Han Yingying noticed that the temperature inside the carriage dropped with each stop. By the time the train stopped at the second station, her breath was already visible as white mist.

The car door opened.

Outside was a room with mirrors covering three walls, from floor to ceiling, seamlessly fitting together. The mirrors reflected the interior of the carriage and the figures of everyone, but the angles were off—the reflections didn't perfectly correspond to their actual positions.

"We can't get off the bus again," Lin Chuan judged.

"Not necessarily." Zhou Lang stared at himself in the mirror for a while. "The rule says not to get off at the wrong stop, not that you can't get off. There are definitely stops out of the seven where you have to get off."

"How do you determine which one is correct?" Fang Zhiyu asked.

"Look for patterns. The first stop is called 'Old Photos,' using emotions to lure you off the train. This stop is called 'Mirror Room,' clearly a visual trap. You shouldn't get off at trap-type stops, but it might be problematic not to get off at task-type stops."

"According to your logic—" Xu Nuo tilted her head towards the mirror, "we need to find a station that's different from the previous two."

"right."

Zhou Lang didn't explain further after he finished speaking.

After the thirty-second door opening time, the doors closed. The train restarted.

Su Wan, who had been hiding behind Han Yingying, finally asked in a low voice, "Is that person... very powerful? The one with glasses seemed really excited just now."

Han Yingying thought for a moment about how to put it: "You can understand it as... he belongs to the kind of player in this game who is not quite normal."

"Something's not normal?"

"When others see a ghost, they run away, but when he sees a ghost... never mind, I'll only scare you more if I tell you more."

Su Wan's expression showed that she was indeed more frightened.

We've arrived at the third stop.

Announcement: "Next stop—the third stop, 'Empty Room'."

The car door opened. Outside was indeed an empty room. White walls, white floors, completely bare, with a lamp in each of the four corners, all lit.

There were no abnormalities.

But precisely because there was nothing unusual, everyone became even more nervous.

"What about this station?" Xu Nuo asked.

Zhou Lang didn't speak. He stood up, walked to the door, squatted down, and tapped on the floor of the room.

The sound is solid.

He knocked on the wall again.

That's true.

He turned to look at Han Yingying: "What do you think?"

Han Yingying was taken aback. He actually asked her that.

She looked at the room carefully. It was white, too white. It wasn't a clean white; it was an overdone white, as if it had been deliberately painted over many times.

"No," she said. "It's too deliberate. The cleaner the place, the more likely there is a problem."

Zhou Lang's lips twitched slightly; it was hard to tell if it was a smile or not. "You think the same way I do."

Thirty seconds. The door closed.

The fourth stop.

The broadcast was different this time. The female voice was still gentle, but now it had a drawn-out, chanting quality:

"Next stop—the fourth stop, 'The Lost and Found Room'."

After the door opened, there was a room filled with clutter. Old furniture, broken cardboard boxes, dusty dolls—it looked like someone's storage room had been crammed full.