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

Han Yingying could sense that something was wrong; it had been there ever since the memories flooded back. There was a gap in those memories, like a piece of a puzzle had been deliberately removed, and the shape of that puzzle piece vaguely overlapped with Zhou Lang's outline.

But she didn't say it.

It wasn't that she didn't trust Zhou Lang; it was that she herself hadn't figured things out. Before she had, there were some things she shouldn't have said.

"Never mind that for now." Zhou Lang put the notebook away. "The notebook says that a living person is needed as a key to access the core. This information is crucial. But we need to keep looking for clues to figure out how to do it."

"I can translate some of the runes on the stone platform," Han Yingying said.

All three of them looked at her.

Han Yingying walked to the stone platform, her finger tracing the runes: "This is the basic language of the dungeon, which advanced players can learn. The gist is... this manor is a 'container' used to collect fear points. When the fear points accumulate to a certain level, the container will awaken. Kill the steward is the guardian of the container, and the daily salary he receives is not a reward—it's a bond. The more money you take, the deeper your bond with the manor becomes."

Zhao Qiang glanced down at the money in his pocket, his face turning green: "Then haven't we been digging our own graves all this time?"

"It's not all bad," Han Yingying said. "The deeper the bond, the higher the privileges. Once the salary reaches a certain amount, the teleportation function on the stone platform can be activated."

"How many?"

"Three thousand."

Zhou Lang calculated the money he had—1200. He was still short more than half.

"At the current rate, it will take at least four more days," Xiong Batian said. "But we only have three days left in the instance."

"So we need to think of another way." Zhou Lang looked at Han Yingying. "How much of your memory have you recovered? Can you still use your previous skills?"

Han Yingying tried to bring up the system panel and browsed through it.

"The skills are still locked, but there are some new items in my inventory." She swiped around a bit. "There's a Fear Converter that can convert the fear points generated by ghosts into wages."

Zhao Qiang's eyes lit up: "Doesn't that mean—"

"That means we can make money by scaring ghosts," Zhou Lang chimed in, a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth.

Zhao Qiang: "...Why do I find it particularly reasonable coming from you?"

Over the next two days, the four of them worked together more and more seamlessly.

During the day, they work regular jobs and receive basic pay. At night, Zhou Lang leads a team down to the basement, using oil lamps to lure out ghosts, while Han Yingying uses a converter to collect fear points. Xiong Batian is responsible for scouting and providing early warnings, and Zhao Qiang is responsible for... building courage.

Zhao Qiang is very clear about his role: "I'm just a tool, don't expect me to deal damage."

But in reality, he did a pretty good job. The next night, a ghost suddenly pounced on Han Yingying's back from a crack in the wall. Zhao Qiang grabbed it by the scruff of its neck and ripped it away.

"Aren't you afraid of ghosts?" Han Yingying turned to look at him.

Zhao Qiang's hands were trembling, but he didn't mince words: "Being scared is one thing, but when it's time to step up, you have to. Brother Zhou taught me—it's not shameful to be afraid of death, it's shameful to be a coward."

Zhou Lang had never taught him to say that. But he didn't expose him.

By the evening of the third day, the four of them had finally scraped together three thousand in wages.

"That's enough." Zhou Lang placed all the coins into the groove on the stone platform.

The runes on the stone platform suddenly lit up, and the entire basement began to shake. The mold on the walls seemed to come alive and wriggled, converging from all directions to the center of the stone platform, forming a black vortex.

A door emerged from the vortex.

It wasn't an iron gate, but a wooden one. It was very old, with peeling paint, and a red rope was wrapped around the handle.

Han Yingying stared at the door, her pupils shrinking slightly.

She remembered this door.

In those recovered memories, she had seen similar doors more than once. Each time she pushed one open, it led to the core of the instance. And at the end of the core was usually the key to victory—or perhaps a death trap.

"Are you ready?" Zhou Lang asked.

The three people nodded.

Zhou Lang pushed open the door.

Behind the door was a white corridor.

There was no mold, no ghosting, not even dust. It was unnaturally white, like an operating room.

At the end of the corridor is a huge mirror.

The four people walked up to the mirror, and the reflection in the mirror made them all stop in their tracks.

There were no reflections of them in the mirror, but rather a scene—the world outside the villa. A city, streets, crowds. But the sky was red, black cracks crawled across the walls of the buildings, and the faces of the pedestrians were expressionless.

"Is this...reality?" Zhao Qiang murmured.

"Yes." Han Yingying's voice was low. "Something strange has happened. The situation outside is worse than when we left."

A line of text appeared on the mirror:

Congratulations on clearing the SS-rank dungeon "Terror Manor". Rating: Perfect.

[Special Note: Because all team members received the highest rating, a hidden reward has been unlocked—early qualification to participate in the Guild Competition.]

【Whether to accept? 】

Zhou Lang and Han Yingying exchanged a glance.

"Accept." The two spoke almost simultaneously.

A flash of white light engulfed the four people's vision.

The moment he returned to the safe zone, Zhao Qiang collapsed to the ground.

"Finally out... Damn it, I'd go bald if I'd stayed in there another day."

Xiong Batian also sat down, his expression much more relaxed than before. He was usually a man of few words, but after completing a high-difficulty dungeon, the slight smile on his lips was impossible to hide.

Zhou Lang stood still, looking at the panel that popped up in the system.

[Player: Wandering Waves]

[Level: 47]

[Unlocked: Eligibility to participate in the Guild Tournament]

[Note: This qualification is granted exceptionally due to the record of achieving the highest consecutive dungeon rating.]

Han Yingying received the same notification. She glanced at it, closed the panel, and walked over to Zhou Lang.

"Did you see that? An exception was made."

"I saw it."

"Don't you find it strange?"

Zhou Lang didn't answer, but he was thinking about the same thing. The rules were never broken; this was a consensus among all veteran players. Every piece of information and every reward given by the system was within the established framework. The very appearance of the word "breakthrough" was abnormal.

Xiong Batian also saw the information on his panel. His qualification for the competition wasn't newly granted—it had been unlocked two months ago, but he hadn't used it until now.

"I obtained my qualification through normal channels; it was automatically unlocked after clearing an SS-level dungeon three times," Xiong Batian said. "You two skipped the normal process and were given it directly."

Zhao Qiang got up from the ground, leaned over to look at his control panel, and his face immediately fell.

"I don't."

His panel displayed: [Participation in the Guild Tournament requires completing three SS-rank dungeons. Current progress: 0/3.]

Han Yingying also checked on her teammates. Zhao Qiang, and the two teammates they later met in the safe zone—Liu Yan and Song Qing—all had the same requirement: three SS-level dungeons, not one less.

"Then let's go try it," Zhao Qiang said. "It's only three times."

"The mortality rate for SS-level dungeons is forty percent," Xiong Batian coldly stated a number.

Zhao Qiang's lofty ambition lasted for about 0.3 seconds.