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

Three days before the final, the organizing committee released the copy information.

Four teams, totaling twenty-four people, simultaneously entered an SSS-level dungeon.

The news caused the player forum to crash for half an hour. Not because of excessive traffic, but because the server administrator accidentally shut down the server after seeing the announcement.

The SSS-rank dungeon has been opened twice in history.

The entire team was wiped out twice.

Zero survivors.

"Do you think we should write a will?" Zhao Qiang squatted on the dormitory balcony, the setting sun casting a long shadow over him.

Zhou Lang took a can of cola from the refrigerator and tossed one to him. "Who's this for?"

"That's true." Zhao Qiang gave a bitter laugh. "My parents are long gone, and no one would accept what I write."

Han Yingying pushed open the door and came in, holding a thin piece of paper in her hand. "Information about the dungeon, just got it."

Three lines of text on the paper:

Dungeon Name: Graveyard of Gods.

Dungeon level: SSS.

Instance objective: Unknown.

Zhao Qiang stared at the "unknown" for five seconds, then chugged his cola. "Not even telling me the target? What's the difference between this and crossing the street blindfolded?"

"SSS-level targets will not reveal their objectives in advance," Han Yingying said.

Zhou Lang flipped the paper over and looked at it; there was nothing on the back. "What about the other teams?"

"The second team's captain, Qin Lie, is ranked third overall and has an aggressive playstyle. The third team's captain, Jiang Xue, is ranked seventh and is a control-oriented player. The fourth team's captain, Lao Ma, whose real name is Ma Jianguo, has survived nine out of twelve S-rank dungeons."

"What about the other three times?" Zhao Qiang asked.

"I died, but my teammates brought me back to life with a resurrection item."

Zhao Qiang glanced down at his inventory—a dagger, two rolls of bandages, and a bottle of courage potion. He was penniless.

"Where are our team members? Are they all here?" Zhou Lang asked.

"They've all arrived," Han Yingying said. "Xiong Batian is working out in the gym downstairs, Lu Yuan is researching in the library, and Shen Wei is preparing medicine."

This is the complete lineup of Zhou Lang's team. Six people, going to tackle a dungeon where no one has ever come out alive.

Zhou Lang finished his cola and crushed the empty can. "Okay, tell everyone to meet at 8 PM tonight. I'll explain the tactics."

"You have tactics?" Zhao Qiang's eyes lit up.

"no."

"Then why are you gathering here?!"

"To see you one last time."

"...Can't you speak like a human being?"

"Alright," Zhou Lang tossed the can aside, "I want to see what supplies everyone has. Before going into battle, we need to know how many bullets we have."

At 8 p.m., six people sat in the conference room.

Xiong Batian, a burly man with muscular arms, sat by the door, looking like a moving wall. Lu Yuan, wearing black-rimmed glasses, had a pile of handwritten notes spread out in front of him, densely packed with analyses of high-level dungeons from previous years. Shen Wei, the youngest, looked to be under twenty, carrying a medicine box filled with over a dozen different bottles and jars.

"Tell me, what do you have?" Zhou Lang asked directly.

Xiong Batian reported first: "An iron axe, C-grade defensive armor, and two healing packs."

Lu Yuan adjusted his glasses: "A detection device that can scan for anomalies within thirty meters. There's also a flashbang and a tattered copy of a logbook."

"What's written on the torn page?" Zhou Lang asked.

"There's only one sentence—'The heart of the graveyard is at its deepest point, but there's more than one way to get there.'"

Shen Wei opened the medicine box: "Six bottles of treatment potion, three bottles of antidote, two packets of paralysis powder, and one more bottle... never mind, let's not talk about that one for now."

Zhou Lang didn't press further. Everyone has their own trump cards, and he wouldn't force someone to reveal them all.

Zhao Qiang scratched his head: "All I have is a dagger, two rolls of bandages, and a bottle of courage potion... I'm really poor."

Han Yingying announced her props, and then everyone looked at Zhou Lang.

He took the oil lamp out of his pocket and placed it on the table. "This is my main weapon."

Xiong Batian frowned: "A broken lamp?"

"This lamp can make ghosts appear and make them give way," Zhao Qiang explained for him.

"There's also a pair of scissors, a chainsaw," Zhou Lang said, "and some... special abilities fused from the bandaged ghost."

He didn't elaborate. Some things you'll naturally understand when you use them.

The weather was unusually good on the day we entered the instance.

Twenty-four people stood in the center of an abandoned stadium, with a huge vortex cracking open above their heads. The vortex was grayish-white, rotating very slowly, and bone-like patterns could be seen inside.

Qin Lie stood at the front of his group, his physique strong and muscular, exuding the aura of someone who had fought many battles. He glanced at Zhou Lang, his gaze lingering on Zhou Lang's face for half a second.

"So you're just a free spirit?"

"Um."

"I heard you can scare ghosts?"

"Occasionally."

Qin Lie scoffed and said nothing more.

Jiang Xue stood on the other side, surrounded by her four teammates arranged in a semi-circle, displaying remarkable discipline. She wore a white trench coat, her hair tied up high, and there wasn't a single unnecessary accessory from head to toe.

Old Ma was the easiest to spot; he was in his fifties, half his hair was white, and his face was etched with deep wrinkles. He had an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips, and he squinted as he sized up everyone.

"Young men," Old Ma said, his voice hoarse, "don't try to be a hero once you're inside. Getting out alive is more important than anything else."

As soon as he finished speaking, the vortex suddenly expanded, and a suction force pulled everyone in.

-

When Zhou Lang opened his eyes, he was standing on a gray-white stone slab.

The air was cold, carrying an indescribable fishy smell, not the smell of blood, but more like the lingering odor of something that had been rotting for a long time.

All around were towering stone walls, their surfaces covered with densely packed patterns—human figures, animal forms, and outlines of creatures not belonging to any known species. These patterns were not reliefs, but rather appeared to have been directly pressed into the stone by some force.

The notification sound has been emitted.

Welcome to the SSS-rank dungeon: Graveyard of Gods

[Instance Objective: Locate the heart of the graveyard and break the seal]

Time Limit: Forty-eight hours

[Hint: This is not where a person is buried.]

Zhao Qiang swallowed hard. "If it's not human... then what's buried?"

No one answered him.

Twenty-four people were teleported to the same area, a huge circular plaza. In the center of the plaza stood a stone pillar, with no inscription, only a relief of an eye. That eye was closed.

"Attention, teams," Old Ma spoke first. "There are four exits in the square, corresponding to four directions. As usual, each team should go their own way, and if you encounter a fork in the road, you'll have to rely on your own abilities."

Qin Lie had no objection. Jiang Xue nodded.

Zhou Lang scanned all four exits. The northern passage was the widest, the southern one the narrowest, and the eastern and western passages were roughly the same width.

"We'll go east," he said.

No one asked why. The team was used to relying on his judgment.

Zhao Qiang walked to the right rear of Zhou Lang, behind Xiong Batian Hall, while Lu Yuan continuously scanned with a detection device in the middle. Han Yingying and Shen Wei were sandwiched in the middle of the group.

After walking through the passage for about ten minutes, it grew narrower and darker. Lu Yuan's detection device emitted a faint blue light, and data kept flashing on the screen.