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

The boy turned around, smiled, and said, "Oh, sorry, my name is Chen Lei, this is my first time participating in this."

When he smiles, the corners of his mouth curve a bit wide.

All six people have arrived.

The system panel pops up:

[Dungeon Now Open]

[Mission: Investigate the truth behind the mall's underground cable car accident within 24 hours]

[Rule 1: The mall has five floors; the basement level is a cable car station, which is open at night.]

[Rule 2: Every 2 hours, a creep will be released. The creep will actively seek out and attack players.]

Rule 3: Clues are scattered throughout the mall; please search carefully.

[Rule 4: The last person standing and submitting the correct answer will receive a generous reward.]

[Current time: 22:00, the first anomaly will be released at 00:00.]

[Note: There are no safe zones in this instance.]

The words "no safe zone" silenced everyone present.

Ma Tiezhu spoke first: "Two hours is enough time for us to figure out the terrain. I suggest we split into two groups, one to search the top three levels and the other to search the bottom two levels—"

"No distinction," Zhou Lang said.

Ma Tiezhu looked at him: "What do you mean?"

"Split up, or you'll die faster." Zhou Lang's tone was calm. "The strangeness of this dungeon is at least A-level; if you're alone, you simply can't withstand it."

"Grade A? How do you know?" Su Wan interjected.

Zhou Lang did not explain.

Ma Tiezhu looked a little embarrassed: "Brother, I've done two high-difficulty dungeons already, splitting up to search is basic stuff—"

What difficulty level were your two attempts?

"...Grade A"

"This time it's S-rank."

Ma Tiezhu shut his mouth.

Han Yingying stood next to Zhou Lang without saying a word, but she noticed Lin Xiaoxiao's expression—the girl who looked very scared had a quick glint in her eyes when Zhou Lang said "A-level eerie".

It's not fear, it's more like interest.

Then the light disappeared, and Lin Xiaoxiao turned back into the timid little girl, hiding behind Ma Tiezhu and trembling.

Han Yingying looked away and remained silent.

"Then let's go together," Ma Tiezhu conceded. "Shall we check out the cable car station on the basement level first?"

"No rush," Zhou Lang glanced at the mall layout, "Search the first floor first. The closer the area, the easier it is to overlook; clues are often right under your feet."

The six people began searching the first floor.

The first floor of the mall was full of clothing stores and cosmetic counters, looking no different from a normal mall. Zhou Lang walked into a women's clothing store, opened a drawer under the counter, and found a yellowed piece of newspaper.

The title is now only half complete: [...Cable car company...Major accident...17 people...]

Seventeen people.

He carefully collected the fragments and continued searching.

Han Yingying found a handwritten note in the shoe store next door, tucked inside the shoebox of a pair of red high heels. The handwriting was messy:

"They're still down there. You can hear crying every night. Don't go to B1."

She handed the note to Zhou Lang.

After reading it, Zhou Lang folded the note and put it in his pocket.

Two clues point in the same direction—the underground floor.

"What did you find?" Ma Tiezhu asked, leaning closer.

Zhou Lang recounted the contents of the newspaper fragments but omitted the note. It wasn't that he didn't trust Ma Tiezhu, but rather that he wasn't sure if any of the six people were problematic.

The system says there is no safe zone.

This "lack of security" doesn't necessarily refer to just the eerie.

Time ticked by, and by 11:30, the six men had searched the entire first floor and found a total of four clues. Besides the two led by Zhou Lang, Ma Tiezhu found a cable car maintenance report in a jewelry store's safe. The signature field was completely blank—no one had signed it, meaning that the cable cars had never undergone proper maintenance.

Su Wan found the fourth item: an old photograph showing two identical girls, around thirteen or fourteen years old, standing in front of an open space. A date was written on the back of the photograph, five years before the cable car accident.

"Twins." Su Wan examined the photo closely. "This vacant lot is where the shopping mall was later built, right?"

Zhou Lang took the photo and glanced at it, then he had a better understanding of the situation.

The information in the copy investigation warrant matched the actual clues—the twin sisters did indeed die on this land before the mall was built. They weren't cable car passengers; they were the earliest souls to perish beneath this land.

"There's still half an hour left," Chen Lei suddenly said.

Everyone looked at him.

The boy in the school uniform had been very quiet since entering the instance, spending most of his time at the back of the group, his presence barely noticeable. Now he stood next to a pillar, pointing to the digital clock in the mall lobby: 23:30.

"The first strange thing is the midnight release," he said. "Shouldn't we find a defensive position?"

Ma Tiezhu clapped his hands: "Right, we need to find a place to squat."

"You can't squat down," Zhou Lang said.

Why?

"The rules state that the monsters will actively seek out players. They'll find you wherever you crouch, so it's better to keep moving."

"Keep running?" Lin Xiaoxiao's voice trembled again. "How long will it take?"

"Run until it can't catch you."

It was said so easily, but no one present could laugh.

Zhou Lang checked the time and made a decision: "Go to the second floor. Turn off the escalator from the first to the second floor, and set up roadblocks at the stairwell. The eerie energy is released from underground, so it has to pass through the first floor to come up. I can't say how long it will take, but a few minutes should be enough."

No one objected.

The six people went up to the second floor. Ma Tiezhu and Zhou Lang worked together to pull the emergency brake on the elevator and then moved several shelves from the shop to block the stairwell.

Eleven fifty-eight.

Everyone stood in the second-floor corridor, staring towards the first floor.

The background music in the mall stopped sometime ago, the air conditioning was turned off, and the temperature was dropping.

Lin Xiaoxiao squatted in the corner, hugging her knees. Ma Tiezhu stood at the front, flexing his wrists—his skill was enhanced physical strength; his fists could shatter stone slabs. Su Wan leaned against the wall, her expression as relaxed as if she were waiting for takeout. Chen Lei stood beside her, staring at the tips of his shoes.

Han Yingying walked over to Zhou Lang and lowered her voice: "Have you noticed Chen Lei?"

"What did you notice?"

"He hasn't asked about the rules once or looked at the control panel once since he came in. A new player shouldn't react like this."

Zhou Lang glanced at her.

The fact that Han Yingying could observe this showed that she was calmer than he had expected. The experience at the villa had not been in vain.

"Don't alert them yet," he said.

Midnight.

All the lights on the first floor of the mall went out.

The lights on the second floor were still on, but the light was visibly dimming, as if something was draining the electricity.

A sound came from the first floor.

It wasn't footsteps, but the sound of wheels rolling over the ground, a dull metallic scraping, creaking and groaning, coming from afar.

"What was that sound?" Lin Xiaoxiao asked softly.

No one answered.

The sound stopped in the atrium on the first floor. Then, something drove out of the darkness.

A cable car.

To be precise, it was half a cable car. The front half of the cable car was intact, but the back half looked as if it had been torn apart by a huge force. The jagged metal cuts were rolled outwards, and only the frames of the seats remained, with the backrests covered in dried dark brown liquid.

The cable car wasn't suspended from cables; instead, it glided directly along the marble floor. It circled the atrium once and then stopped.