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

The day we left the haunted manor, it rained lightly.

Zhou Lang stood in the safe house, tallying his spoils. The rewards for clearing the manor dungeon weren't particularly generous, but the special physique he gained after fusing with the bandaged ghost had significantly improved his vision in the dark. Zhao Qiang leaned against the corner, dozing off, muttering something; he was probably having a nightmare. Han Yingying sat on the other side, scrolling through the game panel in her hand.

"Zhou Lang, look at this." Han Yingying handed over the panel.

A new notification popped up on the panel—

[System Announcement: An abnormal fluctuation has occurred in instance C-0347. Players are now being recruited to investigate. Instance Level: C. Instance Type: Survival. Reward Multiplier: ×3. Note: This instance has exhibited an unknown anomaly; please choose carefully.]

The reward multiplier is tripled.

Zhou Lang glanced at it a few more times. The normal multiplier for a C-rank dungeon is 1x, so 3x means either the mission is special or there's something fishy going on. Whenever the system warns you to "choose carefully," it's usually not a good thing.

"Do you want to go?" Han Yingying asked.

"Triple reward," Zhou Lang said, without saying whether he would go or not.

Han Yingying glanced at him and put the panel away: "Okay."

"Wait, what do you mean 'okay'?" Zhao Qiang sprang up from the corner. "What, three times? I didn't hear that—"

"New dungeon, triple rewards, something's wrong." Zhou Lang gave him all the keywords.

Zhao Qiang's expression changed several times: "What do you mean by 'abnormal'?"

"I don't know. I'll find out when I get there."

"...Can I not go?"

Zhou Lang glanced at him.

Zhao Qiang swallowed back the words he was about to say: "Okay, okay, I'll go."

After the three confirmed their registration, the panel displayed detailed information about the instance.

[Instance Name: Seven Days at a B&B]

[Background: You are a student at Qingchuan Academy of Fine Arts, heading to Cangling Town for a week-long outdoor sketching trip. You and your classmates are staying at the town's only guesthouse, "Wangshanju".]

[Objective: Survive for seven days.]

[Special Note: Safe during the day, dangerous at night. Do not leave the room after dark.]

[Number of strange occurrences: 7]

The information is limited, but sufficient. Seven strange occurrences over seven days—one per day? Or all at once? The rules aren't clearly stated, which in itself is a signal.

Before the teleportation began, Zhou Lang checked his inventory. The oil lamp was still there, the scissors were still there, and the chainsaw still had 40% durability left—he'd used it a bit too much at the manor last time. He also had a few other odds and ends he'd brought from the manor; he wondered if they'd come in handy.

A white light appeared.

When Zhou Lang opened his eyes again, he was standing on a bus.

Outside the car window were rolling green hills, with the road winding along the mountainside and a few crooked pine trees occasionally flashing by. Inside the car were about a dozen people, some catching up on sleep, others wearing headphones and daydreaming, and easels, paint boxes, and various art supplies crammed between the seats.

Zhou Lang looked down at himself—a white T-shirt, jeans, and a canvas bag slung over his shoulder, containing a sketchbook and charcoal pencils. A typical art student's outfit.

His seat was by the window, next to Zhao Qiang. Zhao Qiang was also looking at his own attire, his expression complex.

"I'm actually wearing overalls." Zhao Qiang tugged at the straps, his voice carrying a hint of disdain.

A face turned around in the front row; it was Han Yingying. She had her hair tied in a ponytail, wore a loose cotton-linen shirt, and had a thin chain around her neck with a small paintbrush pendant hanging from it.

"My background is in oil painting," Han Yingying said. "What about you?"

Zhou Lang flipped through the background information implanted in his memory: "Traditional Chinese painting".

Zhao Qiang: "Sculpture".

The three of them were silent for a second.

"You do sculpture?" Zhou Lang looked Zhao Qiang up and down, his arms as thin as bamboo poles.

"It was arranged by the system!" Zhao Qiang exclaimed anxiously. "I also want to learn traditional Chinese painting!"

Among the other passengers, several were clearly players as well. Zhou Lang's method of judgment was simple—real NPCs sat there completely relaxed, while players were more or less tense. Look at the guy in the baseball cap, his eyes were constantly darting around; the girl in the black hoodie in the corner changed her sitting posture three times in ten minutes; the burly man in the last row stepped on someone's easel when he came in, and his apologetic movements were stiff like a robot.

The bus swayed and rattled for about half an hour before finally turning onto a gravel road. At the end of the road was a small town with gray tiles and white walls, and wisps of smoke rising from chimneys, looking very much like a bustling, everyday place.

"We've arrived at Cangling Town. Students, please pack your things."

The speaker was a middle-aged man sitting in the front row, wearing round-framed glasses and with his hair neatly combed. He introduced himself as Mr. Lin, the teacher leading the sketching trip. (NPC)

The bus stopped at the town entrance, and everyone disembarked. The town was small, with a main street running north to south, lined with low-rise houses and a few scattered shops. There weren't many pedestrians on the street, but everyone's expression was normal, lacking the eerie feeling often found in horror movies.

That's perfectly normal.

Zhou Lang remembered this.

Wangshanju is located at the end of the main street. It's a three-story building with warm yellow paint on the exterior walls and several osmanthus trees in the courtyard. A woman in her forties, with a round face and wearing a floral apron, stands at the door with a particularly warm smile.

"Welcome, welcome! I heard you were coming, and the rooms are all ready." The woman introduced herself as the owner of the guesthouse, surnamed Liu, and asked everyone to call her Sister Liu.

"Sister Liu, are all the arrangements made for the twelve students plus me, the teacher?" Teacher Lin asked.

"Don't worry, don't worry, there are six rooms on the third floor, two people per room, and you'll have a room on the second floor by yourself." Sister Liu counted on her fingers, "More than enough room."

There were twelve students. Zhou Lang counted them; there were twelve people on the bus, including himself. Of them, he could confirm six were players: himself, Zhao Qiang, Han Yingying, the girl in the baseball cap and black hoodie, and the burly man in the last row. The remaining six were either NPCs or players who were hiding well.

There was a slight hiccup when assigning rooms.

Sister Liu read out the names from the list and paired them up. Zhou Lang and Zhao Qiang were assigned to one room, Han Yingying to the girl in the black hoodie, the baseball cap guy to a tall, thin guy who looked like an NPC, and the burly man to a bespectacled, frail-looking boy.

"Let's go up and take a look."

The corridor on the third floor wasn't long, with six wooden doors lined up in a row. Zhou Lang and Zhao Qiang's room was at the very back, number 301. Pushing open the door, the room wasn't large but it was clean and tidy, with two single beds, a simple wardrobe, a desk, and the window facing the back mountain.

Zhao Qiang threw his bag onto the bed and first checked the window locks—he'd learned his lesson from the last time at the resort.

"The lock is working, and the window can be locked from the inside," Zhao Qiang reported.

Zhou Lang ignored the windows; he was checking every nook and cranny of the room. The area under the bed was clean, the wardrobe was empty, and there was nothing unusual about the ceiling. In the desk drawer was a thin guest guidebook.

He opened it and took a look.