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

The post was made three days ago and has received twenty-seven replies, nineteen of which are criticizing the poster for being bored and having nothing better to do. Of the remaining eight replies, five are serious discussions.

Han Yingying clicked on one of the replies: "There's been something walking around in the empty room next to my house every night at midnight. I called the police, but when they came, they said no one was home. I installed a security camera, but when I reviewed the footage, it was all static."

Another suggestion: "Don't go to the alley behind the Second District vegetable market. I passed by last week and saw a door there. There are never any doors in that alley."

Just as Han Yingying was about to continue scrolling down, the screen suddenly went black.

It wasn't a shutdown, nor a power outage—the living room lights were still on. Her own face, and the image behind her, was reflected on the computer screen.

There was nothing behind him.

But in the reflection, there was someone standing behind her.

Han Yingying turned around abruptly.

empty.

She looked at the screen again—her reflection had returned to normal, and there was nothing behind her.

But there was an extra line of text on the screen, not webpage content, but white text displayed directly on the black screen:

"Stop investigating."

Han Yingying stared at the line of text for three seconds, then made a decision—to continue investigating.

She switched to her phone to search. The cell phone signal was intermittent, but she still managed to find a screenshot of a cached internal government document. The document's category was labeled "Emergency Response Plan for Special Events," and most of the content was blacked out, with only one line remaining uncovered:

"Phase Three: Unexplained physical phenomena occur in public areas, with the expected impact expanding to—"

The following content has been crossed out.

Han Yingying took a screenshot and was about to save it when a system notification popped up.

[An S-rank dungeon has been detected. Player "Yingying" meets the entry requirements and will be teleported shortly.]

"What?"

Before she could react, the white light had already swallowed her whole.

Han Yingying almost tripped and fell when she landed.

Beneath her feet were cold railway sleepers, above her was a rusty platform canopy, and the air was thick with the damp smell of rust. She stood in an abandoned train station, with a dozen or so people scattered on the platform.

She recognized a few of the faces.

"Yingying?"

A man in a gray hoodie walked towards her. He had a narrow face, small eyes, and a silver earring in his left ear—Lu Han. She was a player she met in the third dungeon; they had teamed up once, so they were practically acquaintances.

"How did you get dragged into this?" Lu Han's expression was not good. "This is an S-rank."

Han Yingying looked around and quickly counted the number of people. There were fourteen people in total on the platform, standing scattered about, most of them unfamiliar faces. At the edge of the crowd, she spotted two unexpected figures.

Su Mian and Ye Cheng.

Su Mian was a friend she knew in real life, and Ye Cheng was Su Mian's college classmate. Both were players, but their strength was only average. Under normal circumstances, they shouldn't even be here in an S-rank dungeon.

Han Yingying walked over quickly. Su Mian was squatting on the ground, her face pale, and Ye Cheng stood beside her, looking completely helpless.

"What happened?" Han Yingying asked.

Su Mian looked up and saw her, her eyes reddening: "I don't know... I received an invitation at home, it said it was a C-level dungeon, and Ye Cheng and I accepted it together. But after we got in—"

"It's become an S-level," Han Yingying finished for her.

Ye Cheng nodded, his lips taut: "Someone changed the dungeon invitation information; we've been tricked."

Invitations to reclassify C-level dungeons as S-level dungeons and send them to players of average strength are not bugs, but rather something someone did intentionally.

"Who sent it to you?"

"Anonymous." Ye Cheng pulled a crumpled invitation from his inventory. "Look, the sender field is empty."

Han Yingying took it and glanced at it. The paper of the invitation was the same as normal, but there was an inconspicuous mark on the corner—like a drop of blood.

She remembered this detail.

A system notification popped up at this point:

[S-Rank Dungeon: The Last Train]

[Background: This is a train that never stops. It will pass through seven stations. At each station, the train will stop for three minutes, during which "passengers" will board. The player who reaches the final station alive is considered to have completed the level.]

Rule 1: Do not get off the bus during the stop.

Rule 2: Do not talk to "passengers".

Rule 3: Do not open the door to carriage number seven.

The train will arrive at the station in five minutes. All players, please prepare accordingly.

Su Mian's face turned even paler.

Han Yingying returned the invitation to Ye Cheng and turned to scan the other players on the platform. Most were processing the system notification; a few looked quite calm and were likely veteran players. In a corner, three people huddled together, whispering amongst themselves, their gazes occasionally sweeping over the others with a hint of appraising their prey.

Han Yingying ignored them and returned to Lu Han's side.

How much do you know about S-rank dungeons?

Lu Han shook his head: "This is my first time too. But I've heard that the survival rate for S-class is less than 30%. Out of fourteen people who come in, no more than five will leave alive."

Five people.

A train whistle sounded from the end of the platform, deep and long, as if it were rising from underground. The tracks began to vibrate, and two dim yellow lights appeared in the darkness in the distance.

The train is here.

An old-fashioned steam train slowly pulled into the station, its body rusted and its windows covered in a layer of dust. The doors opened automatically, revealing the dimly lit carriages inside.

Just as Han Yingying was about to get into the car, a hand was placed on her shoulder.

"Wait a minute, my shoelaces aren't tied properly."

That voice made her feel a sense of relief.

Zhou Lang squatted behind her, tying her shoelaces without even looking up, as if he weren't entering an S-level dungeon but going out to buy groceries. Zhao Qiang stood next to him, his legs trembling, but he didn't run away.

"How did you all get dragged into this?" Han Yingying asked.

"I don't know." Zhou Lang tied his shoelaces, stood up, and dusted off his trousers. "I was just eating instant noodles when I was teleported halfway through."

He glanced at the train, then at the crowd on the platform, his gaze lingering on Su Mian and Ye Cheng for a moment.

"Someone you know?"

"Yes, I was tricked into coming here," Han Yingying explained briefly.

Zhou Lang's expression remained unchanged after hearing this. He turned to Zhao Qiang and said, "Let's go."

Fourteen players boarded the train one after another. The train had a total of seven carriages. The first six carriages were open to the players, while a sign that read "No Entry" hung on the door of the seventh carriage.

Han Yingying chose the third carriage. Zhou Lang, Zhao Qiang, and Lu Han followed her in, and Su Mian and Ye Cheng also came over. The six of them sat down in the same carriage.

The interior of the carriage was more spacious than the exterior, with wooden seats and a kerosene lamp hanging overhead. Outside the window, it was pitch black—not night, but pure black, and nothing could be seen.