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

Since the advent of horror games, the official explanation has always been "dimensional rifts leading to interdimensional invasion." But if the dungeons are seals, then what's sealed is breaking free layer by layer. Each time players clear a dungeon, are they reinforcing the seal or breaking it?

"There's one more thing," Han Yingying's voice lowered, "Recently, I keep having these fragmented memories. Not dreams, but images that flash through my mind when I'm awake. There's a place, very dark, filled with those runes. And people are talking, but I can't make out what they're saying."

"When did it start?"

"After that incident at the haunted manor, I touched the rune wall in the basement, and it all started when I came back."

Zhou Lang pondered for a moment. He himself had also experienced something unusual—that dream. But he didn't mention it.

"Don't think too much about it yet. The dungeon opens in three days, then we'll see."

"Um."

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Lang sat down at the table and turned the bronze badge he had brought from the manor over. There was a line of small characters engraved on the back, which he hadn't noticed before, but now, under the light of the table lamp, he could see them clearly—

"The seventh seal has been broken."

The seventh floor.

The dungeon I cleared earlier was the seventh one.

Day 14.

The night before the instance opens.

At six o'clock in the evening, the sky was abnormally dark. Thick clouds hung over the city, their color grayish-green, like a giant dirty rag.

Zhou Lang packed his things and sat in the living room waiting. Zhao Qiang sent a message saying he was ready, bringing three sharpened bamboo skewers, saying it was a "folk exorcism method" he learned online. Zhou Lang couldn't help but reply with a question mark.

At eight o'clock, something strange happened.

There was no warning whatsoever.

The living room lights went out, the TV went out, and the phone screen went out. The entire building, the entire street—every light source within sight went out at the same instant.

Darkness enveloped everything.

Then—the sound came.

It wasn't a scream, nor a strange noise; it was an extremely low-frequency hum, so low it was almost inaudible, but you could feel your chest resonating with it. My teeth started to ache, and my temples throbbed.

Zhou Lang groped his way to his backpack in the dark and took out an oil lamp. He struck three matches before it lit, and the green light illuminated half of the living room in a ghastly green glow.

There's something moving outside the window.

He leaned closer to the window and looked down—the streetlights in the community garden were all out, but he could see what was happening on the lawn by the dim light of the oil lamp.

The lawn was full of people.

No, it's not a person.

Their body proportions were off; their limbs were too long, their joints bent backwards, and their posture resembled a human body folded up and then unfolded. Dozens, hundreds, stood densely packed downstairs, all looking up in his direction.

They have no faces.

The smooth, egg-shaped head has only one slit running from the left ear to the right ear.

My phone suddenly lit up.

System push notification:

[WARNING: The eighth instance is about to begin. An abnormal concentration of strange elements has been detected in the current area. Players are advised to immediately enter a safe zone.]

[The instance will be forcibly teleported in ten minutes.]

ten minutes.

Zhou Lang quickly dialed Han Yingying's number—it went through.

"What's the situation on your end?"

"There's something downstairs. A lot of it." Han Yingying's voice was steady, but she spoke faster than usual. "I counted, there are more than forty that I can see. They haven't gone upstairs, but they're seeping into the building—black lines have appeared on the walls, spreading in from the outside."

"Don't touch those patterns."

"I know. I can hold on for ten minutes."

"Over with Zhao Qiang—"

"I contacted him, he's fine, he's hiding in the closet."

"..."

Zhou Lang hung up the phone and couldn't help but imagine Zhao Qiang huddled in the closet, clutching three bamboo skewers in his hand.

It lasted for eight minutes.

A white light flashed, and vision blurred again. The living room, the building, and the faceless monsters all vanished, replaced by chaos.

The teleportation has begun.

The moment I landed, the ground felt cold and hard to the touch—it was stone.

Zhou Lang opened his eyes.

He stood inside a massive building with an absurdly high dome, estimated to be at least twenty or thirty meters high. The four walls were covered with withered vines, interspersed with dim wall lamps that emitted a faint blue light.

The entire space resembled an abandoned church, but without a cross; instead, a bronze mirror sat on the altar.

A system notification popped up:

[Eighth Dungeon: The Church in the Mirror]

[Difficulty: S]

Number of players: 6

[Survival Objective: Survive in the church for seven days and find the true exit.]

[Rules: 1. Every midnight, the bronze mirror will reflect the "shadow" of one player. The shadow will wander in the church until dawn. 2. A player touched by the shadow will die within 24 hours unless the corresponding "shard of mirror" is found and removed. 3. The bronze mirror cannot be destroyed. 4. Do not look directly at the bronze mirror for more than three seconds.]

Six people.

Zhou Lang looked around. Han Yingying stood three meters to his right, her expression calm; Zhao Qiang was on his left, rubbing his eyes, clearly uncomfortable from the teleportation process.

He recognized the other three—teammates A, B, and C from the last instance. A's name was Li Mu, a veteran, not talkative but with strong execution skills. B's name was Su Wan, a college student, skilled in analysis and reasoning. C's name was Wei Tao, the oldest, a former social worker, and adept at dealing with people.

The sixth person stood in the farthest corner.

Zhou Lang had never seen this man before. He was tall and thin, wearing a black hoodie with the hood pulled down to cover half his face. He leaned against the wall, hands in his pockets, and didn't look at anyone once.

"Who are you?" Zhao Qiang asked first.

The other person raised an eyelid slightly: "What's it to you?"

Zhao Qiang choked for a moment.

Han Yingying glanced at the man and opened the system panel to check the team information. Her expression changed, and she turned to Zhou Lang, saying in a voice only the two of them could hear, "His ID is 'Ashes.' He's from the Blazing Flame Guild."

Blazing flames.

The second-ranked guild. The one Qin Du belongs to.

Zhou Lang's eyes narrowed slightly. A six-player dungeon, randomly matched, and he just happened to be matched with someone from Blazing Flame?

When it comes to randomness, you only need to believe a third of it.

"Let's explore the environment first." Zhou Lang didn't dwell on the issue and told the others, "Work in pairs and check the church structure separately. Meet at the altar in fifteen minutes."

Li Mu nodded and volunteered to team up with Wei Tao. Su Wan followed Zhao Qiang. Han Yingying naturally teamed up with Zhou Lang.

The ashes remained unmoved.

"And you?" Zhou Lang asked, looking at him.

"I'll just wander around by myself." He said and left, walking at a leisurely pace, turning into the corridor on the left side of the church.

"There's something wrong with this guy," Zhao Qiang muttered under his breath.

"Let's ignore him for now. Let's go."

The church was much larger than it appeared. Besides the main hall, there were more than a dozen side rooms, each with a different symbol engraved on its door. Zhou Lang saw that familiar pattern again—it belonged to the same system as the sealing runes in the basement of the Horror Manor.