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

The basement was much larger than I had imagined.

The green light of the oil lamp illuminated a spacious area, the walls of which were covered in black mold, and some old wooden boxes were piled in the corner. In the very center stood a stone platform, covered with densely engraved runes.

Zhou Lang approached the stone platform; the runes glowed faintly in the oil lamplight. He crouched down to examine them closely and discovered that these were not ordinary characters, but rather a carrier of some kind of rule.

"What does it say on this?" Zhao Qiang leaned closer.

"I don't understand." Zhou Lang shook his head and took out his phone to take a few photos.

Han Yingying circled the stone platform and found a groove on the back. The groove was strangely shaped, resembling the outline of a key, but three times larger than a normal key.

"There's something here," she said, beckoning the two of them over.

Zhou Lang glanced at the recess and was about to speak when footsteps came from the direction of the stairs.

All three people turned around at the same time.

The footsteps were neither hurried nor slow, descending step by step, each step firm and deliberate. It wasn't a ghost—ghosts don't make footsteps.

Zhou Lang raised the oil lamp high and shone it towards the stairwell.

A figure appeared at the edge of the aperture.

"Don't be nervous, it's me."

Xiong Batian walked down the stairs, his hands raised in a gesture of surrender. He was wearing a black hoodie, the hood pulled down to reveal his sharply defined face.

Zhao Qiang breathed a sigh of relief, but immediately tensed up again: "How did you know we were here?"

"I'm not blind." Xiong Batian walked up to the three of them, his gaze sweeping over the runes on the stone platform. "The three of you sneaked downstairs in the middle of the night, making such a commotion, it's hard not to notice."

Zhou Lang didn't say anything, he just looked him over.

Xiong Batian met his gaze: "I know what you're investigating. There's a problem with this instance; the rules don't provide complete information, right?"

"What are you doing—"

"I've been in this dungeon seven times," Xiong Batian interrupted Zhao Qiang. "For dungeons of S rank and above, the rules never tell you everything explicitly. I noticed the basement on the first day, but it's too risky to go down alone."

He looked at Zhou Lang: "Let's cooperate. You have an oil lamp that can ward off ghosts, and I have my own skills. If we fight one-on-one, neither of us is guaranteed to survive."

Zhou Lang did not agree immediately.

"What are your skills?"

Xiong Batian pulled a compass-like object out of his pocket; the pointer trembled slightly under the green light.

"It's for scouting. It can sense danger sources within 30 meters. It's a reward from an SS-level dungeon, and I only have one chance to use it left." He put the compass away. "I originally wanted to save it for the most crucial moment, but judging from your progress, working together is more efficient."

Zhou Lang glanced at Han Yingying.

Han Yingying nodded slightly.

"Okay," Zhou Lang said, "but on one condition—if we encounter danger, follow my instructions."

Xiong Batian shrugged: "No problem."

Zhao Qiang muttered to himself, "Why does it feel like our team is starting to resemble a raid team more and more..."

The four of them gathered around the stone platform again. With Xiong Batian joining them, the search became much faster. His ability to identify dungeon items was indeed strong; they quickly discovered a hidden compartment at the bottom of the stone platform.

Inside the hidden compartment was a leather-bound notebook, its cover yellowed and cracked.

Zhou Lang turned to the first page, where the handwriting was messy and illegible:

"On the first day, I discovered it. This manor wasn't built by the owner; it grew out of itself."

"On the third day, the manor owner died. No, it should be said that he was always dead."

"Day 7. The rules are deceiving us. We don't work to survive, we work to feed it. The 'value' we create every day makes this mountain strong."

"On the ninth day, I found the path to the core. It's beneath the stone platform, and it requires a special key. The key isn't an object; it's a person. A living person."

The handwriting became distorted and almost illegible, with the last line barely legible:

"Don't trust the butler killer. He's not an NPC, he's—"

The writing stopped abruptly there. The following pages were torn out.

Zhao Qiang swallowed hard: "This notebook was left behind by the previous batch of players?"

"It's not necessarily the previous batch," Xiong Batian said. "It could be even earlier. The paper has oxidized like this, so it's been sitting for at least a few months."

Han Yingying stared at the notebook, her fingers unconsciously stroking the cover. Suddenly, she froze.

"Yingying?" Zhao Qiang called out.

Han Yingying did not react. Her pupils contracted sharply, and her lips trembled slightly, as if she had seen something unbelievable.

Zhou Lang noticed her unusual behavior and waved his hand in front of her eyes.

Han Yingying snapped back to reality, took two steps back, and leaned against the wall. Her breathing was rapid, and fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead.

"What's wrong with you?" Zhou Lang asked.

"I..." Han Yingying opened her mouth, "I remember now."

"What are you thinking about?"

"A lot of things." She closed her eyes, then opened them again after a few seconds. "I recognize the handwriting in this notebook."

All three of them were stunned.

"I wrote it," Han Yingying said.

The air was silent for about five seconds.

Zhao Qiang was the first to react: "Wait, what did you say? You've been to this instance before?"

Han Yingying shook her head: "It's not that I've been here before. It's that... I remembered a lot of things from the past."

Her expression was complex, and that complexity wasn't feigned. Zhou Lang had seen many people lie in dungeons; liars' eyes would dart around. Han Yingying didn't.

"I'm not a newbie," Han Yingying's voice calmed down. "Before I met you, I had already cleared many dungeons. S-rank, SS-rank... I've cleared them all. I'm a max-level player."

Zhao Qiang: "???"

Xiong Batian frowned.

"My memories have always been fragmented, starting from the first instance where I met you. Everything before that is a blank." Han Yingying looked at Zhou Lang. "Just now, when I touched this notebook, those memories suddenly came back. Not all of them, but most of them came back."

"What else did you remember?" Zhou Lang asked.

Han Yingying hesitated for a moment.

"The X Guild. Have you heard of it?"

Zhou Lang shook his head.

"That union..." Han Yingying paused, "...I founded it."

Even Zhou Lang was taken aback this time.

Zhao Qiang stared, mouth agape, before finally managing to utter, "You're a girl, and you've started a guild? What's the size of it?"

"Top three in the entire server".

Zhao Qiang's mouth remained open.

Xiong Batian's expression didn't change much, but he gave Han Yingying a new look: "If you're a max-level player, why did you act like a newbie before?"

"My memories are sealed," Han Yingying said. "Skills, levels, experience points—everything has been reset. As for the reason… I still can't remember some of it. It's related to a person, but information about that person is completely blank in my memory."

When she said "alone," her gaze unconsciously swept over Zhou Lang before quickly looking away.

Something's not right.