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

Hui-ge's smile froze for a moment. "...Is this name for real?"

"Seriously."

Su Tang burst out laughing. Even Fang Yan, who had been expressionless the whole time, twitched at the corner of his mouth.

Lin Xiaoxi thought about it seriously for a moment: "Lang...Brother Lang?"

Zhou Lang waved his hand. "Just call me Zhou Lang."

This isn't the last instance, so there's no need to use aliases. He doesn't know the details of these people yet, but seven days isn't a long time, nor is it a short time, so he needs to have a proper way of addressing them.

The discussion continued until 8 PM. The final consensus was that everyone should go back to their own rooms tonight, lock their doors and windows, and not open the doors no matter what happens outside. Tomorrow, they would split up to investigate the guesthouse and the surrounding town.

As the event was ending, Su Tang suddenly called out to Zhou Lang.

"You weren't randomly matched into this instance, were you?"

Zhou Lang stopped in his tracks.

Su Tang tilted her head to look at him, her eyes sparkling. "Not many people can choose to enter a C-rank dungeon, and your attitude was too calm. Did you do your homework before coming in?"

This girl has good observation skills.

"You're meddling too much," Zhou Lang said, and went upstairs.

At 10 p.m., the guesthouse quieted down.

Zhou Lang lay on the bed, without turning on the light, listening to the sounds outside.

At 10:15, footsteps began to echo in the corridor. They weren't human footsteps—the rhythm was off. Human walking is a two-beat rhythm, left-right-left-right. These footsteps were a three-beat rhythm; Zhou Lang didn't want to dwell on the extra beat.

Footsteps echoed from one end of the corridor to the other, then back again. Over and over, like a patrol.

At 10:40, the sound stopped at his door.

The doorknob moved slightly.

It didn't turn. It wasn't locked; the thing outside the door just tentatively touched it and then stopped.

The silence lasted for about two minutes.

The doorknob moved again. This time with more force, and a slight metallic scraping sound could be heard.

Then, a low humming drifted in through the crack in the door. It was a woman's voice, the tune was hard to make out, the melody was very strange, fluctuating in pitch, like some kind of folk song.

The humming lasted for five or six minutes.

Zhou Lang didn't move.

He pulled out an oil lamp in the darkness, but didn't light it; he simply held it in his hand. This lamp was brought from the haunted manor; it could reveal the supernatural. But now was not the time to use it.

On the first night, I did not enter the room.

This intelligence is accurate.

The humming finally faded away. The footsteps also gradually disappeared. The corridor fell silent again, too quiet to be quiet, not even the chirping of insects could be heard.

Zhou Lang closed his eyes.

Tomorrow will be busy.

[A strange hibernation begins during the daytime.]

He got up, washed his face, and opened the door. The hallway was spotless; everything from last night seemed to have never happened. There were no footprints on the dark red carpet, and the wall lamps had been switched to white light, making everything look much normal.

Zhou Lang knocked on the other people's doors first.

201 is Hui Ge. When he opened the door, his eyes were dark and he looked like he hadn't slept well all night.

"Damn it, something's been playing all night outside." He rubbed his temples. "The song is awful, worse than my ex-girlfriend's karaoke."

Lin Xiaoxi, whose eyes reddened as soon as she opened the door, said, "The sounds last night were so scary... I had to push the wardrobe to the doorway to block the view before I dared to close my eyes."

204 is Su Tang, and her mental state is unexpectedly good. "You slept well, earplugs are a good thing." She waved the silicone earplugs in her hand at Zhou Lang.

205 is Fang Yan's room—the door is open, but the person is no longer in the room.

The group of people looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Where's Fang Yan?" Hui Ge peeked into the room; the bed was neatly made, and his luggage was still there.

"I saw him when I went downstairs just now," Su Tang pointed downstairs. "He left as soon as it was light, heading towards town."

He's a man of action, after all.

The five of them agreed to meet on the first floor for breakfast. The breakfast was prepared by the female owner and laid out on the long table in the dining room—plain porridge, pickled vegetables, steamed buns, and a plate of scrambled eggs. It seemed normal.

Zhou Lang smelled the porridge; it didn't have any strange odor. He first ate a bite of egg, chewed it, and swallowed it. After waiting five minutes, his body showed no unusual reaction.

Seeing his actions, Hui raised an eyebrow. "Are you testing the waters?"

"The intelligence we bought didn't mention anything about the food being problematic, but just to be on the safe side..."

"Then why don't you let others try it first? Why are you so eager to do it yourself?" Hui Ge realized his words were inappropriate and coughed lightly.

Lin Xiaoxi sipped her porridge slowly, not daring to look up. Su Tang, on the other hand, ate with relish and even poured herself a cup of tea.

Fang Yan returned just before breakfast was finished.

He pushed the door open and came in, his face damp with dew and the hem of his coat stained with mud. He walked to the table, sat down, picked up a steamed bun, and uttered the longest sentence he'd spoken since entering the dungeon: "There's no one alive in this town."

A moment of silence fell over the table.

"What do you mean?" Hui asked.

"There are shops, stalls, and signs on the street, but no one is there. I walked from one end to the other and didn't see a single person." Fang Yan took a bite of his steamed bun. "Luming Town is a ghost town."

Su Tang put down her teacup. "Rank C dungeons don't do things like this. They usually assign NPCs to create misleading information. If there aren't any NPCs, either the dungeon's design is unconventional, or—"

"Or maybe there's a bug," Zhou Lang continued her sentence.

Several people's eyes converged on them.

"What bug?" Hui Ge's voice tightened.

Zhou Lang didn't give a definitive answer. "Let's investigate first. We'll split up today and focus on two areas: the history of this guesthouse, and those rooms on the third floor that are 'under renovation'."

"Didn't they say we weren't allowed to go upstairs?" Lin Xiaoxi whispered.

"There are no strange activities during the day; the rules only apply at night." Zhou Lang glanced at her. "But don't go alone."

The division of labor was quickly decided—Hui Ge and Lin Xiaoxi would search the town again to see if Fang Yan had missed any clues. Su Tang and Fang Yan would search the common areas on the first and second floors. Zhou Lang would go up to the third floor by himself.

Su Tang objected to this arrangement. "You're going up to the third floor alone?"

"The situation on the third floor is unclear, and having too many people would only be a hindrance."

"When you say we're in the way, you mean you think we're useless, right?"

Zhou Lang did not deny it, and turned to go upstairs.

The third-floor corridor has the same layout as the second-floor corridor, but the atmosphere is completely different.

The carpet was a dark gray, not a dark red. Half of the wall lamp was off, leaning against the wall, its shade covered in a thick layer of dust. The air was filled with a musty, stale smell, mixed with a strange, sweet, fishy odor—the same rotten, sweet smell I'd smelled outside yesterday, but much stronger.

Rooms 301 to 305, five rooms in total, each with a yellow "Under Renovation" sign on the door.

Zhou Lang first squatted down and looked through the crack in the door. The crack was very narrow, letting in no light, and it was pitch black inside. He pressed his ear against it and listened for a moment.

301, Quiet.

302, Quiet.

303 - There is a dripping sound.

The dripping rhythm of the faucet was not normal; the intervals were sometimes long and sometimes short, as if something was disturbing the water source.