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

"Then why do you look at me so intently?" Zhou Lang remembered that the butler would always give him an extra glance every time he received his salary.

"Because you're the first person who isn't afraid to walk," the butler said. "When others come in, their pace unconsciously quickens, their shoulders tense, and their eyes dart away. You don't. The way you look around... is like you're shopping in a supermarket."

Zhao Qiang: "..."

It really is.

The butler's body began to become transparent.

"The manor will completely dissipate after dawn, and you can leave now." It looked at Zhou Lang. "One last reminder—the mirror is just a scrap; the real thing is outside."

"What do you mean?"

The butler did not answer; its body had already dissipated to the point where only its outline remained.

Ding--

The "Manor Horror" instance is now complete.

[Settlement in progress...]

A series of system notifications refreshed the field of vision.

Zhou Lang (Lang Li Ge Lang), rating: S+

[Rewards: 3000 points, 1 "Mirror Fragment" item, and the special title "Mirror Breaker"]

[Mirror Shard: Reflects strange abilities; requires a 24-hour cooldown after each use. A one-time consumable that can be repaired in the shop.]

[Mirror Breaker: Resistance +50% when facing mirror-like anomalies.]

Not bad.

Zhao Qiang and Han Yingying also received their respective settlement rewards, which were one level lower than Zhou Lang's, but still quite generous. Han Yingying received a house item called "Strange House"—the description said it could "contain and contract strange entities," while Zhao Qiang received an "Echo Dagger."

Zhou Lang glanced at Han Yingying's prop a couple more times. A prop capable of containing strange objects—its quality was quite high.

"You're lucky," he said.

Han Yingying looked down at the illusory house model in her hand, her expression somewhat dazed, as if this prop had triggered a memory of hers, but she couldn't quite grasp the tail of that memory.

There was only a fleeting glimpse of the scene—frost covering the sky, an empty mansion, and someone calling her name.

Flowers...what?

"Han Yingying?" Zhou Lang called out to her.

"Huh?" She snapped out of her reverie. "Nothing, I was just spacing out."

A white light enveloped the three people.

When they opened their eyes again, they were back in the real world.

-

Han Yingying lay on her bed and stared at the ceiling for three minutes.

At two in the morning, there was a light patter of rain outside the window. Her room was in the westernmost corner of the second floor, facing north, and never saw the sun. Two years after she moved in, the room still had a persistent musty smell.

She sat up abruptly, feeling dizzy—this always happened when she came out of the game, like she'd been on a rollercoaster.

My phone screen lit up; it was a message from my stepmother.

"Your dad will be back from his business trip tomorrow, so please clean the house."

Sending such a message at 2 a.m. is intentional.

Han Yingying didn't reply, and turned her phone face down on the bedside table.

She opened the system panel, and "The Haunted House" lay quietly in her inventory, its icon a small gray house. She tried clicking it, and the pop-up description was more detailed than in the game:

【The Mysterious House (A Growth-Type Item)】

Current level: 1

[Capacity: 0/1]

[Description: Can capture and contract with bizarre entities weaker than the user. Once contracted, the bizarre entity will reside in the Bizarre House and obey the user's commands. Capacity increases with level.]

Growth-type items. Han Yingying remembered this category—she had seen someone explain it on the forum before. Growth-type items are the rarest type of all items because they grow stronger along with the player, with no upper limit.

How did she manage to draw something like this?

Luck? Or...?

It was that inexplicable feeling again. Her intuition told her it wasn't luck, but reason couldn't find any other explanation.

Putting the thought aside, Han Yingying prepared to go to sleep.

The moment she lay down, she heard footsteps in the hallway.

It was very soft, but exceptionally clear in the quiet of the early morning. Pat, pat, pat—it was the sound of bare feet walking on the wooden floor, coming from the other end of the hallway toward her room.

Han Yingying sat up with a start.

The footsteps stopped at her door.

The light coming through the crack under the door was blocked—something was standing outside.

This is reality.

It's not a game.

Han Yingying's heart leaped into her throat. She could remain calm in the game because she knew it was a game, with a system and rules; dying simply meant losing points. But this was the real world; such sounds shouldn't be heard in the corridor.

Her father was away on a business trip and hadn't returned yet. Her stepmother lived in the master bedroom and walked in slippers. The sound of bare feet didn't belong to any family member.

The doorknob moved slightly.

Han Yingying stared at the doorknob, watching it slowly turn half a circle—and then stop. Because she had locked the door.

The silence lasted for about ten seconds.

A voice came from outside the door, very soft, like a whisper squeezed through the crack in the door:

"Yingying, open the door."

It was her mother's voice.

Han Yingying's blood had gone cold.

Her mother passed away three years ago. She had late-stage stomach cancer, which had already spread by the time it was discovered, and she died only four months later. Han Yingying remembers holding her mother's hand and feeling it gradually grow colder.

"Yingying?"

She called again. Even the tone was exactly the same—her mother always called her with a slight upward inflection at the end, with a gentle tone as if coaxing a child.

Han Yingying bit her lip, forcing herself to calm down.

She opened the system panel—the panel was still there.

If the supernatural has already invaded the real world, then the system should also be usable.

She saw her skill bar, which had been empty before, but now had a line of text:

[The Fraudster (Beginner Stage)]

The lie believed by the target will become the truth.

[Cooling: Allow 1 hour between each use.]

When did they appear?

There's no time to think about it.

Han Yingying stared at the door and spoke a sentence. Her voice was steady and did not tremble; she herself was surprised that she could be so calm at this moment.

"The last thing my mother said to me when she passed away wasn't calling my name."

The sounds outside the door stopped.

What she said was—'Don't look back.'

Han Yingying's eyes welled up with tears instantly, but she didn't shed any.

"There's nothing outside the door," she said.

This is not self-comfort, nor is it to bolster courage.

It was a lie—there was clearly something outside the door. But she said it, and she chose to believe what she said.

The skill has been triggered.

A very faint buzzing sound came from the direction of the door, and then—

The footsteps disappeared.

The light beneath the door crack returned to normal. The corridor was empty; there was nothing there.

Han Yingying buried her face in her knees, her shoulders trembling slightly.

Two minutes later, she looked up, wiped her eyes, and looked at the system panel again.

[Fraudster, first use record. Rating: Excellent.]

She stared at the words "fraudster" for a long time.

fraud.

She didn't know why she had acquired such a skill. The ability to make lies come true—how ironic.

What's the lie she's told the most since she was a child? "I'm fine." "I'm not sad." "My stepmother is very good to me." If only all these lies could come true.