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

The rusty gate of the abandoned factory made a grating metallic scraping sound when it was pulled open by two soldiers.

Behind the door was complete darkness.

It wasn't ordinary darkness—it was a textured black, like flowing ink blocking the entrance. Zhou Lang turned on the oil lamp, the flame low, illuminating only two steps ahead.

"Attention all personnel, proceed in formation," Li Feng ordered.

The fifty-odd players were divided into ten teams, each with five to six members. Zhou Lang, Zhao Qiang, and Han Yingying were assigned to the third team, with a male and a female as their two teammates.

The woman's name was Lin Mu; she had short, neat hair and carried a sniper crossbow on her back, looking menacing. The man's surname was Sun; he was in his forties, and everyone called him Old Sun. He carried an iron rod covered in runes.

"Old Sun, what star rating are you?" Zhao Qiang asked.

"Two and a half stars," Old Sun said honestly. "I have enough experience, but I'm just unlucky. I haven't gotten any promotion items in three dungeons in a row."

Lin Mu didn't reply and walked ahead to scout the way.

Upon entering the instance, the space changed. From the outside, it looked like a three-story abandoned factory, but inside it was ridiculously large. Corridors stretched one after another, and rooms were densely packed together, like a giant maze.

The first phase of the cleanup went more smoothly than expected. The low-level monsters on the perimeter were only one-star and two-star, and with over fifty high-level players splitting up, the progress was rapid.

When Zhou Lang used the chainsaw to split the fourth wandering ghost, he noticed a problem.

The distribution of these ghosts is incorrect.

The intelligence he bought for 5000 points of cunning clearly stated that the ghosts in the outer area roamed randomly, without fixed routes. However, after observing for nearly half an hour, he noticed that the ghosts' patrol routes were regular. They were deliberately avoiding a certain area on the east side of the factory.

"Yingying," Zhou Lang said in a low voice.

Han Yingying leaned closer.

"Look at those rooms on the east side, have any ghosts or monsters passed by?"

Han Yingying thought for a moment, then shook her head: "No."

"The intelligence said the ghosts are randomly distributed," Zhou Lang said, "but none have appeared in the eastern area."

Han Yingying frowned: "You think there's something over there?"

"It's hard to say, but it's worth going to see."

Taking advantage of the gap as the other teams advanced westward, the two quietly turned towards the east corridor. Zhao Qiang saw this from behind, hesitated for a moment, and then followed with Lin Mu and Lao Sun.

"Where are you going?" Zhao Qiang asked as he caught up.

Zhou Lang briefly explained his findings. Zhao Qiang scratched his head: "Aren't we overthinking it?"

"It's on the way anyway," Zhou Lang said.

A few lights in the east corridor were still on, casting an intermittent glow. Large patches of dark red stains covered the walls, and a putrid stench permeated the air.

Lin Mu suddenly stopped and raised his hand to signal for quiet.

A person was standing at the end of the corridor.

Zhou Lang gripped the chainsaw tightly instantly—no, it was a living person. A man in a black jacket was squatting in front of an iron gate, fiddling with the lock using some kind of tool.

"Who?" Zhao Qiang shouted.

The man turned around. He wasn't old, maybe twenty-five or twenty-six, and wore gold-rimmed glasses; he was quite refined.

"Shh." He held up his index finger. "Don't shout, there's a secret door here."

Zhou Lang eyed him warily. This person wasn't from their third squad; he must be a player from another squad.

"Which team are you on?" Old Sun asked.

"Seventh Team, Lu Yuan." The bespectacled man stood up, dusted off his pants, and said, "I, like you, discovered something wrong with this area on the east side."

He adjusted his glasses: "To be precise, I discovered it earlier than you guys. Before entering the instance, I bought two intelligence reports and compared them, finding that the markings of this area on the map were contradictory. One marked it as a storage room, while the other marked it as a corridor. Two different descriptions for the same location—that's quite interesting."

Zhou Lang and Han Yingying exchanged a glance. This Lu Yuan has good observation skills.

"So you want to investigate this place," Zhou Lang said.

"Yes, but I can't handle this door by myself." Lu Yuan patted the iron door. "This door is sealed with ghostly energy; it takes at least three people working together to open it. I was planning to come back after I finished clearing it out, but I didn't expect you guys to arrive first."

"Cooperation?" Lu Yuan spread his hands.

Zhao Qiang tugged at Zhou Lang's sleeve and whispered, "Don't trust strangers."

Lin Mu also cast a warning glance at him. Old Sun, on the other hand, seemed indifferent, leaning against the wall with his iron rod.

Zhou Lang glanced at Lu Yuan, then at the iron gate.

"What did you find out?" Zhou Lang asked.

"Straight to the point, I like that." Lu Yuan pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it—it was a hand-drawn map covered with markings. "This copy wasn't naturally formed."

Zhou Lang raised an eyebrow.

"All the massive dungeons are automatically generated by horror games, right? But 'Ghost Realm' is different. I compared satellite images before and after the dungeon was generated, and people were already frequently entering and leaving this factory three months before the dungeon appeared. In other words—someone modified this place before the dungeon was generated."

"Who is it?" Han Yingying asked.

Lu Yuan shrugged: "I don't know, that's why I'm trying to find out what's behind this door."

Zhou Lang made a decision: "Cooperate."

Zhao Qiang opened his mouth as if to say something, but Zhou Lang silenced him with a look.

Six people stood in front of the iron gate. Lu Yuan directed their positions, and he, Zhou Lang, and Zhao Qiang each pressed a rune node on the gate, simultaneously channeling spiritual power into it.

The seal on the door lit up for three seconds, then cracked.

The iron gate creaked open, revealing a downward staircase.

"Interesting." Lu Yuan shone his flashlight downwards. "This passage isn't even on the map."

"I'll go first." Zhou Lang walked ahead, carrying the chainsaw.

The steps were very steep, and after walking for about three minutes, we arrived at a basement room. The room was small, with a few tables scattered with papers and tools.

This doesn't look like a monster's lair. It's more like—a workshop.

Han Yingying walked to the table, picked up a piece of paper, and looked at it. The paper contained a diagram of the dungeon's structure, marking the spawn points of various monsters.

"Was this designed by humans?" Han Yingying's voice was a little tense.

"It's more than just artificial design." Lu Yuan flipped through the notebook on the table. "This contains complete records of how monsters were bred. The Stitched Corpse Demon was created by piecing together twelve corpses, and the Ghost King was catalyzed using some kind of core. It's all documented."

Zhou Lang pulled an iron box from under the table and pried open the lock. Inside were several crystal-like stones, completely black, emitting a faint light.

"What is this?" Old Sun came closer to take a look.

Han Yingying stared at the black crystals, then suddenly her body stiffened.

Her pupils contracted sharply, and her face turned deathly pale within seconds. Zhou Lang noticed immediately and reached out to support her shoulder.

"What's wrong?"

Han Yingying didn't answer. Her mind was undergoing a violent upheaval—a flood of fragmented memories poured in like a burst dam, images, sounds, and smells densely pressing against her nerves.