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

She was squatting in front of a tightly closed door, fiddling with the lock in her hand. Hearing footsteps, she paused, turned around, saw them, and breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"You've come at the right time; I can't open this lock."

Zhou Lang went over to take a look. This door was different from the others in the ward; there was a note on it that read: "Morgue - No entry without permission."

"You're going to the morgue?" Zhao Qiang's voice rose eight octaves.

"It's not that I'm going, it's this." Han Yingying showed what she was holding—a mission card that read: "Go to the morgue and find the first clue."

Zhou Lang took out a pair of scissors and cut the lock in two strokes.

The door opened.

The temperature inside the morgue was at least ten degrees lower than outside, and water droplets were dripping down the white tiled walls. In the center was a row of stainless steel storage cabinets, numbered from 01 to 20. Three of the cabinets had red indicator lights, the rest were green.

"Red indicates there are 'guests'." Han Yingying looked at the task card. "The clue is in cabinet number 03."

Zhao Qiang took a step back.

Zhou Lang stepped forward and opened cabinet number 03.

There was a person lying inside.

No, it wasn't a person. It was a wax doll, so finely crafted that even the pores were clearly visible. The doll's chest had been cut open; inside were no internal organs, only a neatly folded strip of paper.

Zhou Lang took out the slip of paper and unfolded it.

"This academy has seven floors, each containing a bizarre parasite. Find and eliminate all the parasites to clear the level. Note: You are not the only hunter."

"Not the only hunter?" Zhao Qiang leaned closer to look. "Are there other teams?"

"In a team setting, there are definitely more than just the three of us," Han Yingying said.

She's right.

As they went downstairs, they encountered two other people in the second-floor corridor. A man and a woman; the man was in his early thirties, with a square face, and was wearing what was clearly standard equipment from a certain union; the woman was younger, around twenty-five or twenty-six, with short hair and a cold expression.

"Who are you?" the square-faced man asked, his hand resting on the weapon at his waist.

"Casual players," Zhou Lang said. "And you guys?"

"My name is Meng Yuan, and this is my partner, Su Wan." The square-faced man withdrew his hand, but remained vigilant. "Also a freelancer."

When he said "I'm also a freelancer," his eyes darted around for a moment. Zhou Lang noticed it but didn't point it out.

Su Wan remained silent. She leaned against the wall, her hands in her pockets, her gaze sweeping over Zhou Lang and the other two before finally settling on Han Yingying's face, lingering for two seconds.

When Han Yingying met her gaze, Su Wan looked away.

"That's five people now. I wonder if there are any others." Meng Yuan rubbed his hands together. "Should we team up?"

"Sure." Zhou Lang didn't refuse. More people means more things to do, and he also wanted to see where these two people came from.

The five of them headed upstairs. On the fourth floor, they encountered their first bizarre parasite—a mass wrapped in a bed sheet, suspended in the center of the ward, constantly expanding and contracting as if it were breathing.

"I'll do it." Zhou Lang took out a chainsaw.

Then Su Wan moved.

She moved with incredible speed, pulling a dagger from her pocket and stabbing it almost past Zhou Lang's arm. Her target wasn't the parasite—it was Zhou Lang's lower back.

Zhou Lang dodged to the side, and the dagger tore the corner of his clothes.

"What do you mean?" Zhao Qiang shouted.

Su Wan didn't answer, and with a flick of her wrist, she slashed again. Meng Yuan attacked at the same time, but his target was Han Yingying—he punched her in the temple.

Han Yingying reacted faster than expected, dodging the attack with her head and slapping Meng Yuan's elbow with her backhand. The sound of the joint dislocating was particularly clear in the quiet ward.

Meng Yuan grunted, then used his left hand to follow up, drawing a short blade from his waist.

"Did the Dark Eclipse Guild send you?" Han Yingying asked while parrying, her tone not angry at all, as if she were confirming a known answer.

Meng Yuan didn't respond, nor did Su Wan.

But their silence itself is the answer.

Zhou Lang started the chainsaw, the roar of the motor deafening in the enclosed space. He didn't chase after Su Wan—instead, he turned around and swung the chainsaw down, striking the suspended parasite.

The parasite let out a sharp screech and burst open. Black liquid splattered all over the wall, with a few drops landing on the back of Su Wan's hand.

She flung her hand away abruptly, leaving a red burn mark on her face.

"You can try," Zhou Lang said, turning off the chainsaw and holding it in his hand. "Let's see if you kill us first, or if I wipe out all the parasites on this floor and make the whole floor collapse."

Meng Yuan and Su Wan exchanged a glance.

This isn't a threat. The parasites are the core that maintains the replica structure; eliminating them will indeed cause the corresponding floors to collapse. Zhou Lang is gambling with everyone's lives—including his own.

"You're crazy." Su Wan finally spoke, her voice even colder than her expression.

"You're only finding out now?" Zhao Qiang said from the side, his tone carrying a strange sense of pride.

The standoff lasted for about ten seconds.

Meng Yuan sheathed his short blade. Su Wan hesitated for a longer time, but finally also put her dagger back into her waistband.

"Mission failed, and we can't get out of this instance either." Meng Yuan flexed his elbow, which Han Yingying had slapped askew, and grimaced. "Let's cooperate. We'll deal with what happens after we get out."

"Cooperation is possible." Zhou Lang hung the chainsaw back on his waist. "But there's one condition—explain clearly who sent you."

"Lin Qi of Dark Erosion." Meng Yuan was quite straightforward. "He said you've offended a lot of people and offered a high price to have us take you out in the instance. Su Wan and I already owed him a favor, so we had no choice but to come."

Su Wan gave him a disgruntled look, but did not refute him.

"Have you repaid the favor?" Zhou Lang asked.

"It's all paid off." Meng Yuan nodded. "Whether this cut succeeds or not, we're even."

"OK."

The five of them awkwardly formed a team. Su Wan walked at the very back, maintaining a fixed distance of three steps from the four in front of her. Anyone who got too close to her would be bounced back with a warning look.

Zhao Qiang tried to hand her water.

"I'm not thirsty."

Zhao Qiang tried to strike up a conversation.

"I'm not talking."

When Zhao Qiang tried for the third time, Su Wan pulled the dagger from her waist and twirled it between her fingers twice, and Zhao Qiang immediately became obedient.

"Brother Lang," Zhao Qiang shrank back and said in a low voice, "this woman is scarier than a ghost."

Zhou Lang ignored him, studying the map of the instance. The abandoned hospital had seven floors; they had already cleared out two parasites, leaving five. But strangely, the higher they went, the more obvious the anomalies became in the corridors—a dark red liquid was seeping from the walls, and something was glowing in the cracks in the floor.

"Did you notice?" Han Yingying walked to Zhou Lang's side, her voice low. "These unusual distribution patterns, and the one recorded in the basement of the Horror Manor—"

"Same," Zhou Lang continued. "The bizarre erosion pattern is the same."