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

It's been three days since I left the manor instance.

Zhou Lang lay on his bed in his rented room, staring blankly at the ceiling. His phone screen lit up and dimmed repeatedly, displaying messages from Zhao Qiang.

"Brother Lang, I get weak in the knees just looking at a broom now."

"Brother Lang, do you think I can skip going into the dungeon next time?"

"Brother Lang?"

"Brother Lang, are you dead?"

Zhou Lang turned over and ignored him.

The rewards from the Manor dungeon were considerable. In addition to the recovery ability from fusing with the Bandaged Ghost, his "Scare Ghost" attribute was also upgraded—now he can not only scare low-level ghosts, but also have a brief deterrent effect on mid-level ghosts.

But that's not what he cares about.

The trail to my sister remains broken.

Three months after the game's release, Zhou Yao, the older sister, disappeared. Without any warning, she vanished into thin air. Zhou Lang scoured every available source—official forums, underground trading markets, gray intelligence networks—only to find a vague record: Zhou Yao's last known appearance was on the participant list for an S-rank dungeon.

The survival rate for S-rank dungeons is less than five percent.

Zhou Lang closed his eyes, suppressing the thought. Thinking too much was useless; he needed greater strength, more dungeons to enter, and access to higher-level information.

My phone vibrated again.

This time it wasn't Zhao Qiang.

[System notification: There are 48 hours until your next forced dungeon run.]

Zhou Lang sat up, staring at the cold text on the screen. The game's rules were simple—each player had to participate in dungeons within a certain period, or they would be forcibly teleported to a random dungeon. The difficulty of the random dungeons was unpredictable; those with bad luck would be sent straight to S-rank, leaving not even a trace.

Therefore, smart players will actively choose dungeons.

He opened the dungeon list, his eyes scanning over the dense array of options.

Level B – Too easy, low returns.

Level A – Moderate difficulty, but it depends on the specific content.

His finger hovered over an option.

【The Terrifying Train - Level A】

Scene: A train that never stops. There are strange occurrences among the passengers; every hour on the hour, a passenger dies.

Number of participants: 8.

Rewards: Awarded based on performance; a perfect completion will earn an A-grade item.

Not bad.

Just as Zhou Lang was about to click confirm, his phone rang.

"Zhou Lang." It was Han Yingying's voice on the other end of the phone, much more composed than in the dungeon. "Did you see the system notification?"

"Um."

"I'm going into the dungeon too, for the second time." She paused. "Which one are you planning to choose?"

"The Train of Horror"

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone. "I'll choose this one too."

Zhou Lang frowned. "This is only your second time entering the dungeon; an A-rank is too much of a stretch for you."

"The rewards for Grade B are too low," Han Yingying said. "Besides—with you here, I feel the chances of survival are much higher."

That was too blunt, leaving Zhou Lang unsure how to respond. He coughed lightly and said, "Whatever."

After hanging up the phone, he sent another message to Zhao Qiang.

"I'm going into a new dungeon, The Train of Horrors, Rank A."

Zhao Qiang replied instantly: "Holy crap, Brother Lang, are you crazy? You just got out!"

"The mandatory dungeon is coming soon."

"Why don't you just pick a B-rank thug?"

"The supplies provided by Rank B are insufficient."

Zhao Qiang sent a long string of ellipses, finally saying, "Then be careful. I can't get in this time; the cooldown period isn't over yet."

"understood."

Zhou Lang put down his phone and began organizing his equipment. The oil lamp had three uses left, the chainsaw was fully charged, and the shears had been sharpened and were still fairly sharp. In addition, he bought two items from the shop in the manor instance—a roll of bandages and a bottle of red potion labeled "Emergency Use."

The bandages accelerate wound healing, and their effect is doubled when combined with his ability to fuse with the Bandage Demon. The instructions for the red potion were vague, only stating "use in times of crisis," but the price was outrageously expensive, costing him eight hundred dollars of his salary.

There aren't many items, but each one could be a lifesaver in a critical moment.

Forty-eight hours later.

A flash of white light, and Zhou Lang's vision refocused.

He stood in a train carriage. The seats were old-fashioned green train seats, the leather peeling off to reveal the yellowed foam inside. Outside the window, it was pitch black; he couldn't see anything, only hear the clanging of the wheels on the rails.

There were seven people in the carriage.

Han Yingying sat two rows to his left and nodded slightly to him.

A middle-aged man sat by the window on the right, wearing a wrinkled suit, his tie hanging loosely around his neck, clutching a briefcase in his hand. He was hunched over in his seat, his eyes darting around.

Across from me was a little girl, who looked to be in her early teens, with pigtails and a dirty teddy bear in her arms. Her expression was calm, too calm, so calm that it didn't seem like something a girl her age should have.

Across the aisle sat a woman in her thirties, wearing a white shirt and gold-rimmed glasses. Her hair was tied in a neat ponytail, and a notebook lay open on the table. She looked like a teacher.

A few rows further back, a tall, thin man in a white lab coat leaned back in his chair, resting with his eyes closed. A nameplate was pinned to the chest of his lab coat, but the words were illegible from the distance.

The most conspicuous figure was the burly man standing at the junction of the carriages—bald, his short-sleeved shirt stretched taut by his muscular arms, and a pair of boxing gloves hanging around his neck. This guy looked like someone you didn't want to mess with.

There was another one, sitting in the last row, near the corner. A young man, wearing a baseball cap pulled low so his face wasn't visible. He kept fiddling with a coin in his hand, turning it between his index and middle fingers with an almost overly practiced ease.

Eight people.

[Instance loading complete - The Terrifying Train]

[Difficulty: Level A]

[Rule: The train will stop once every hour on the hour (from 00:00 to 06:00). During the stop, the carriage lights will be turned off for 60 seconds. After 60 seconds, a passenger may be missing.]

[Mission: Survive until dawn.]

[Note: Not all passengers on the train are people. Be mindful of your seatmate.]

The atmosphere in the carriage changed the moment the rules were announced.

Except for the little girl who remained expressionless, clutching her doll, everyone else showed varying degrees of tension. The middle-aged man's hands began to tremble, the female teacher adjusted her glasses, and the boxer took his gloves off his neck and put them on his hands.

Zhou Lang glanced at the clock in the carriage—11:20 PM.

There are still forty minutes until the first lights-out.

"Everyone," the female teacher spoke first, her voice clear and bright, "I think we should introduce ourselves first, so we can get to know each other. My name is Su Wanqing, and this is my third time entering the instance."

The boxer scoffed and said in a gruff voice, "What's the use of giving your name? You're still going to die." He glanced at Zhou Lang. "My name is Lei Dong, this is my fourth time."

The middle-aged man raised his hand tremblingly: "I... I'm called Lao Chen. This is my first time entering a dungeon, I don't know anything."

The little girl looked up and said in a soft voice, "My name is Duoduo."

She didn't say how many times.