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

At this moment, Zhao Qiang suddenly asked, "Is that child... still in the car?"

Everyone fell silent.

Han Yingying pressed her face against the glass of the carriage door and looked out. The aisle was empty. She then looked towards the rear of the carriage—at the end of the dark aisle, a small silhouette flashed by.

"It's still there."

"Once the 'passengers' get on the bus, they don't get off." Zhou Lang popped a potato chip into his mouth—he'd pulled it out from who-knows-where. "Seven stops, at least one person gets on at each stop. By the last stop, there are more ghosts than people on the bus."

He was telling the truth, but this truth made Su Mian's face turn even paler.

Zhao Qiang quickly added, "But with my older brother here, it shouldn't be a big problem."

Zhou Lang glanced at him: "Don't flatter me."

Zhao Qiang chuckled.

The train continued its journey. The interval between the third and fourth stations was considerably longer than the first two, about forty minutes. During this time, Han Yingying kept thinking about one thing.

During the Manor instance, she felt there were too many inconsistencies in Zhou Lang's behavior. His item acquisition methods, his skills, his speed of understanding the instance rules—these didn't seem like the characteristics of an ordinary player. Add to that the anomalies she'd recently discovered in real life…

She needs to talk to him.

After a period of violent shaking, the train stabilized, and some blurry images appeared in the pure blackness outside the window—like the outline of distant mountains, or the spine of some huge creature.

Han Yingying walked to the back of the carriage and sat down against the wall.

Zhou Lang arrived about five minutes later. It was unclear whether he had sensed something or was simply tired of sitting there.

"Say whatever you want to say." He leaned against the opposite wall, his hands in his pockets.

Han Yingying organized her thoughts. She wasn't going to beat around the bush—her experience dealing with Zhou Lang told her that this man had little patience for beating around the bush.

"I discovered something in reality," she said. "Something related to the dungeon. Or rather, something related to the supernatural."

Zhou Lang didn't interrupt.

"Have you noticed that after each instance ends and you return to reality, the number of anomalies around you is increasing? Missing persons, abnormal surveillance footage, and groups of people experiencing hallucinations—the frequency of these events is increasing, and the scope is shrinking."

She paused.

"I feel like the things inside the instance are seeping outwards. The arrival of the supernatural isn't just a concept in the game; it's happening in reality."

After saying this, Han Yingying watched Zhou Lang's reaction. She had revealed half of her hand—normal people wouldn't casually tell others this kind of thing, especially since she and Zhou Lang hadn't known each other for very long. But her intuition led her to this decision.

Zhou Lang remained silent for about ten seconds.

Then he said something that Han Yingying didn't expect:

"How far along is your investigation?"

It's not "Are you kidding me?" or "What evidence do you have?"—it's "How far have you gotten in your investigation?"

Han Yingying understood immediately.

"You're investigating too."

Zhou Lang didn't deny it. He took out his phone from his pocket—the phone in the copy had no signal, but its storage function was still working. He flipped to a folder containing a dozen screenshots, several audio recordings, and a handwritten timeline document.

“My sister left me some things before she disappeared,” he said. “She was investigating the same thing. The night she disappeared, she sent me her last message—'Don’t believe the rules.'”

Han Yingying looked at the timeline on her phone screen. Zhou Lang's timeline was more detailed than hers, starting from the first unusual event three months ago and continuing up to the most recent week. Many milestones were marked in red, with brief notes written next to them.

"You've been investigating your sister," she said.

"It's not just her." Zhou Lang put his phone away. "I discovered that the appearance of dungeons isn't random. Someone—or something—is controlling the distribution and difficulty of dungeons. Why did the Manor dungeon suddenly appear? Why were the three of us grouped together? Why did this S-rank dungeon lure players of Su Mian and Ye Cheng's level into it?"

"Do you think someone is manipulating things?"

"The manipulation is too extensive. It should be said that someone is exploiting system vulnerabilities to do their thing."

Han Yingying thought of the blood droplet-shaped mark on the invitation.

"The invitations that Su Mian and the others received had markings on them," she described in detail.

Zhou Lang's expression changed after hearing this.

"My sister mentioned this symbol in the documents she left behind." He pulled out a photo—a yellowed slip of paper with the exact same blood drop symbol drawn on it. Two words were written on the back of the slip of paper—

"gap".

"gap?"

"I don't know what it means either. But this symbol has appeared more than once. Every time it appeared, a serious and bizarre event happened afterward."

The two exchanged a glance. Suddenly, several puzzle pieces in their hands matched up.

Han Yingying didn't ask him why he hadn't said anything before. She could guess—revealing such things required trust, and Zhou Lang's trust in people was extremely valuable. His willingness to reveal his hand at this time already showed his attitude.

"I have a suggestion," Han Yingying said. "Starting with this copy, we'll share information. What I find, you can see, and what you find, I can see. If your sister's situation is related to the strange occurrences—"

"Highly likely related."

"Then we should investigate together. Going it alone is too inefficient."

Zhou Lang thought for a moment.

"OK."

It was straightforward and decisive, without any strings attached.

The tension that had been building in Han Yingying's heart for so long finally eased. She had been carrying this burden alone for so long that she had begun to doubt whether she was overthinking things. Now, at least there was someone she could exchange information with.

When the two returned to their seats, Lu Han was analyzing the strategies for the next few stops for Su Mian and Ye Cheng. Zhao Qiang listened nearby, occasionally interjecting, "My older brother said something like this and that," though he had no idea when Zhou Lang had mentioned it.

The train swayed.

A system notification pops up: [We are about to stop at the third station: Unnamed. Stop time: three minutes. Note: A special event will occur at this station.]

The words "special event" made everyone tense.

In the darkness outside the window, the outline of the platform could be vaguely seen. This platform was different from the previous two—it was large, and there weren't just one or two "passengers" on it, but a whole dark mass of people.

The train slowed down.

Dozens of blurry silhouettes stood on the platform, varying in height and build, but they had one thing in common—they were all facing the train, motionless.

"So many..." Zhao Qiang's voice changed.

The car door opened.

The "passengers" didn't move. They stood on the platform, facing the train, maintaining that posture.

The three-minute countdown has begun.

One minute passed. No "passengers" boarded.

Two minutes passed. Still nothing.

Han Yingying suddenly realized something was wrong—footsteps were coming from the connecting area between the carriages. The footsteps weren't from "passengers" boarding from outside; they were coming from inside the carriages.

She turned to look at the door at the back of the carriage.