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

"Third carriage, under the seats"

Old Chen's handwriting was very messy, and you could tell his hand was shaking when he wrote it. This piece of paper wasn't there before the dungeon started—Zhou Lang noticed that Old Chen had been rummaging through his briefcase after entering the dungeon, so he probably found some clues around that time.

He put the note into his pocket.

"Did you guys notice?" Ah Qi's voice came from the back row, still lazy. "This is the first carriage."

Zhou Lang followed his gaze. Above the connecting door at the rear of the carriage hung a sign: Carriage No. 1.

"The train rules don't say you can't go to other carriages," Ah Qi flipped a coin. "But I suggest moving between carriages on the hour—who knows what you might encounter if you switch carriages when the lights go out."

Reasonable. Zhou Lang mentally added one point to this person's score.

"I have a question," Dodo suddenly spoke up. She pulled a folded piece of paper from behind her teddy bear and unfolded it—it contained a simple train map. "I found this inside my teddy bear."

The map was drawn roughly, but it contained a lot of information. The train had a total of five carriages: carriages one through three were passenger carriages, carriage four was the dining car, and carriage five was the locomotive. There was a red cross next to the dining car, and the words "Exit" were written next to the locomotive.

"Is the front of the train the exit?" Su Wanqing frowned. "Then why don't we just go straight to the front of the train?"

"It won't be that simple," Zheng Yuan said. "If an A-level dungeon could be cleared simply by walking through it, what kind of A-level dungeon would it be if everyone came out alive?"

"There are limitations." Zhou Lang pointed to several horizontal lines on the map. "Look here."

每节车厢之间都画了横线，横线旁边标着时间。一号到二号之间写着「0:00-1:00」，二号到三号是「1:00-3:00」，三号到四号是「3:00-5:00」，四号到车头是「5:00-6:00」。

"We can only reach the corresponding carriages during each time period." Zhou Lang connected the information on the map: "From midnight to 1 a.m., we can only move between carriages one and two; from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m., we move to carriage three; after 3 a.m. we can go to the dining car; after 5 p.m. we can enter the locomotive."

"The lights will also be turned off at different times," Han Yingying added. "That means you have to endure one or even multiple rounds of lights going out every time you push a train into a new carriage."

Zheng Yuan smiled wryly: "Layer upon layer of advancement, layer upon layer of elimination. The people who designed the dungeons are quite patient."

"What does the red cross next to the food cart mean?" Lei Dong asked.

No one can answer this question.

The clock strikes 12:15. There are 45 minutes until the next hour.

"Let's go to carriage number two." Zhou Lang made the decision. "The clues left by Old Chen point to carriage number three, but we can't get there now. Let's move forward first."

No one objected. Over this period of discussion, Zhou Lang had unwittingly become the backbone of this group. His analysis was accurate, and his judgments were decisive—except for that game ID, which was truly awful—he was otherwise flawless.

The group of seven passed through the connecting door and entered carriage number two.

The layout of carriage number two was almost identical to that of carriage number one, with the same old green seats and the same overhead lights, but with one more thing—a long table was placed in the aisle in the center of the carriage, on which were seven envelopes sealed with wax of different colors.

"One for each person?" Lei Dong walked over, picked up a red wax-sealed envelope, tore it open, pulled out the note inside, and read: "'Your seatmate will give you away when she's in carriage number three. Watch her left hand.'"

His seatmate?

Everyone subconsciously glanced at their seats. In the seating arrangement of carriage number one, Lei Dong's left seat was empty, and Su Wanqing's right seat was empty.

Su Wanqing didn't speak, but her expression froze subtly for a moment—then returned to normal, and she pushed up her glasses with an ambiguous attitude.

"What about mine?" Duoduo tiptoed and picked up a pink wax-sealed envelope. After reading the note, she folded it up and stuffed it back into the teddy bear's pocket.

"What did you write?" Su Wanqing asked.

"It's a secret," Duoduo said.

"..."

Zhou Lang took a black wax-sealed note. He opened it; inside was only one line of text:

"You can see them, but they also know you can see them. Use your tools carefully."

This is referring to an oil lamp.

The copy already knows his trump card.

He discreetly put the note away, observing the others' reactions. Han Yingying's expression changed slightly after opening her envelope, but she quickly hid it again. Zheng Yuan wore a smile, his expression unreadable. A Qi read the note twice, then tossed it under his seat.

Information warfare.

The copy is using information to create suspicion. Each person's note contains different content and points to different people. If not handled properly, people will start fighting amongst themselves without any shady actions.

"Don't be swayed by the note," Zhou Lang said. "It's just a smokescreen from the instance."

"How did you know?" Ah Qi's tone was slightly playful.

"Because if the information is true, the instance has no reason to tell us proactively. It wants to see us distrust each other—too much distrust leads to disarray, making it much easier to defeat one by one than to wipe out the entire group."

"That makes sense." Su Wanqing nodded. "But we can't completely ignore it—the contents of the note might be half true and half false. The key is to figure out which part is useful."

"We'll talk about it in carriage number three."

By the time the discussion ended, it was already past 12:40.

Carriage number two has to endure until the hour—1 a.m.

The seating arrangement was rearranged. This time, Han Yingying sat directly next to Zhou Lang, explaining that "I'm more vigilant, and sitting next to him makes it easier to observe." Zhou Lang didn't call her out on it.

Lei Dong moved two seat cushions to block the gap between the carriage doors. Although the effectiveness was questionable, it at least made him feel safer.

0:58.

The train slowed down again.

"Here we go again." Zheng Yuan straightened up.

The lights flickered twice—the exact same premonition as last time.

On the hour.

Darkness descends.

Zhou Lang perked up his ears this time, focusing all his attention on listening to Chapter 47: The World of Rules

Han Yingying opened her eyes.

The ceiling was white, the curtains were pink, and the air smelled of laundry detergent—lavender.

She lay on a single bed, covered with a thin blanket, sunlight filtering through the gaps in the curtains and drawing a golden line on the floor.

Where is this...?

Han Yingying sat up, her mind blank. She remembered her name, that she was twenty-two years old and a college student. Beyond that, she couldn't remember anything.

She got out of bed, her bare feet stepping onto the wooden floor. The room wasn't large, and the furnishings were simple—a desk, a wardrobe, and a full-length mirror. The mirror reflected a pretty girl with long, flowing hair and faint dark circles under her eyes.

"I am Han Yingying," she said to herself in the mirror, her voice hoarse.

She pushed open the door and walked into the hallway.

There was a piece of paper pasted on the wall of the corridor.

No, it wasn't pasted on. The words were directly grown onto the wall, like part of the wall plaster itself; the black lettering was embedded in the white wall surface, with slightly raised edges.