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

As the white light faded, Zhou Lang opened his eyes.

The stone floor beneath my feet was no longer the basement floor, but a gray, desolate wasteland. The sky was an odd color, as if someone had splashed a layer of diluted ink on it; it wasn't exactly black, nor was it particularly bright.

Han Yingying and Zhao Qiang appeared beside him one after the other.

Zhao Qiang bent over and gagged twice. After recovering, he looked around and asked, "Where am I? Shouldn't we be back in reality?"

"This is the outer layer of the copy," Han Yingying said. Her expression was much calmer than Zhou Lang had expected.

Zhou Lang surveyed his surroundings. Scattered across the wasteland were some translucent pillars of light, and the outlines of buildings could be vaguely seen in the distance. His inventory was still there, with the oil lamp, scissors, and chainsaw lying securely in their slots, but the wages he had earned had been automatically converted into another currency—labeled "Ghost Coins."

"Have you been here before?" Zhou Lang asked Han Yingying.

"I came here once after the third dungeon, but I was teleported back after less than half an hour." Han Yingying pulled out a palm-sized black panel from her waist. "You should have this too. It's called an information terminal. It unlocks automatically after clearing an S-rank dungeon."

Zhou Lang rummaged through his pockets and, sure enough, found a cold plate. After turning it on, a dense array of information popped up on the screen.

map.

A huge map was laid out, marking areas such as "Safe Zone," "Trading Area," "Guild Base," and "Arena." Their location was "Instance Exit - Wasteland D-7."

"Wait, the guild?" Zhao Qiang leaned over to look.

"There are organizations in this strange world," Han Yingying said. "As more players join, they naturally band together. The top ten guilds are all quite powerful; the first is called 'Abyss,' and the second is called 'Blood Pact.'"

As soon as she finished speaking, a push notification popped up on her device.

[Third on the Live Stream Hot List: A player's perfect run of the S-rank dungeon "Terror Manor" sparks heated discussion.]

"Live stream?" Zhou Lang raised an eyebrow.

Han Yingying clicked the link, and a semi-transparent screen unfolded in front of them. The screen was replaying a clip from the manor instance—to be precise, the part where Han Yingying tore apart the mutated ghost in the basement.

The comments section went crazy.

Holy crap, what's wrong with this girl?

Is this something a human being could do?

[This is an S-rank dungeon, guys. It's a miracle she even survived. She even got a perfect rating!]

[Newcomer Award Winner]

Zhou Lang noticed another voice mixed in with the comments:

Stop bragging, just wait and see how she dies after she kills the blood pact member.

[She's the one who killed the second boss's henchman in the Blood Pact. Haha, this woman won't survive three dungeons.]

[Those lunatics from Blood Pact dared to attack even the number one guild, and she's just a solo player? She can only wait to collect her corpse.]

Zhao Qiang's face turned pale instantly: "A blood pact? The player we killed was a member of a blood pact?"

"The player who ambushed us in the manor instance," Han Yingying said calmly, closing the livestream, "He struck first, so killing him is fine. But the Blood Pact guild—"

She didn't finish speaking.

A plume of red smoke suddenly rose from the eastern side of the wasteland. Immediately afterwards, seven or eight figures emerged from the smoke and headed straight in their direction.

Above each person's head floats the same symbol: a drop of bright red blood with a key embedded in the center.

Blood pact.

"You came fast enough." Zhou Lang put the oil lamp in his pocket, his tone as if commenting on the nice weather today.

The leader was a bald man, a little over two meters tall, with a bone necklace around his neck. He stopped ten meters away from the three of them, his gaze sweeping over Zhao Qiang and Zhou Lang before finally settling on Han Yingying.

"Han Yingying?" The bald man's voice was gruff. "You killed one of our second brother's women?"

Han Yingying didn't say anything.

Zhao Qiang took half a step back, then stood still.

Zhou Lang stepped out from behind Zhao Qiang: "He attacked first. Is the rule of your blood pact that you can kill at will and no one can retaliate?"

The bald man looked at Zhou Lang, his expression subtly changing: "Who are you?"

"The other person who cleared the manor instance," Zhou Lang said. "If you're looking for trouble, I'm more suitable than her. I'm the one who killed that person."

Han Yingying quickly interjected, "He's talking nonsense. That person is me—"

"Which of you killed him?" the bald man asked, annoyed.

"Me," they both said at the same time.

A brief silence.

Zhao Qiang weakly raised his hand from behind: "...Actually, I kicked him too."

The bald man's expression twisted for a moment. The people behind him began to whisper among themselves, and a short man couldn't help but chuckle, only to be nudged by the elbow of the person next to him.

"Alright." The bald man brandished a black curved knife. "Then let's settle the bill together."

He took a step forward, and dark red patterns spread across the ground—some kind of skill was being activated.

But just then, a sharp whistle rang out from afar.

The bald man paused. He looked down at the terminal, his expression changing several times before finally sheathing the knife.

"Consider yourselves lucky the safe zone patrol came over." He took two steps back. "Don't think this is the end of it. Next time you run into them in a dungeon, you'll be in for it."

A red column of smoke rose again, and the person bound by the blood pact disappeared from the spot.

Zhao Qiang's legs went weak, and he plopped down on the ground: "Damn it, what's the difference between this crappy place and a dungeon? We're going to get chased after even after we leave?"

Zhou Lang did not answer. He stared in the direction where the blood pact had disappeared, going over the information he had just received in his mind.

The safe zone has a patrol system, and you can't just attack anyone outside the instance—at least not in certain areas. The fact that the Blood Pact members chose to ambush people at the instance exit indicates they knew the completion time and exit location in advance. This kind of intelligence capability is beyond the reach of casual players.

"Let's go," he said. "Let's get to the safe zone first."

The three followed the markings on the map toward the safe zone. Along the way, Zhou Lang flipped through the data in his terminal, roughly figuring out the structure of the bizarre world.

The instance is the core, and all players are periodically forced to enter it. Outside the instance lies this gray world where players can trade, form groups, and join guilds. Guilds are ranked according to their overall strength, and the top ten guilds have their own bases and resources.

The number one ranked "Abyss" is very low-key and rarely appears in public.

The second-ranked "Blood Pact" is a notoriously ruthless group. Their leader is nicknamed "Mad Dog"—a name he gave himself, not given by anyone else. This group believes in one principle: those who obey me prosper, those who defy me have their entire family condemned to heaven.

"Han Yingying," Zhou said.

"Um?"

"Just how powerful are you in this world?"

Han Yingying was silent for a few seconds, then extended her right hand. A layer of pale blue light enveloped her palm, and a faint humming sound filled the air.

"The S-rank dungeon gave me a chance to awaken a skill. Combined with what I had accumulated before, it's probably... above average."