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

The lights came on.

Su Ke slumped in her chair, her forehead covered in sweat. She looked at Zhou Lang, opened her mouth, but couldn't say a word.

"Let's go, it's over," Zhou Lang said.

Six o'clock sharp.

[Congratulations on completing the Midnight Cinema instance. Rating calculation in progress...]

The system popped up a results panel, displaying the scores for the five individuals in turn. Zhou Lang received an SSS rating—plus a new item. Han Yingying received an S rating. Zhao Qiang and Su Ke received A ratings. Lin Yuan was a special case; the system gave him a "courage bonus," raising his score from B to A.

Next is the regression process.

Before the system transmitted the message, Han Yingying found Lin Yuan and Su Ke.

"You guys worked well together." She was direct and didn't beat around the bush. "Want to team up for the next dungeon run?"

Lin Yuan scratched his head. He glanced at Su Ke, who shook her head.

"Thanks, but let's forget about it," Lin Yuan said. "With my skill level, teaming up with you guys would just be a drag. And to be honest, I really couldn't do what you guys did—yelling at ghost faces, saying 'the party' in front of a bunch of ghosts."

Su Ke didn't say anything, but simply nodded slightly in agreement.

Han Yingying didn't press the issue. "Then next time we meet, at least we won't be strangers."

In the last few minutes before the transfer, she saw Zhou Lang at the entrance of the screening room.

He was squatting next to the projector, rummaging through an old box. The box was full of film reels, which he took out one by one to examine, his expression focused.

They weren't looking for props.

What information is he looking for?

Han Yingying walked to the door and leaned against the door frame.

"What did you find?"

Zhou Lang didn't even turn his head: "Something interesting."

"Is it convenient for you to say?"

He stopped what he was doing and glanced back at her. His gaze was complex—there was hesitation, something else, it was hard to say. Finally, he put the film back in the case, stood up, and clapped his hands.

"I haven't decided how to say it yet."

Han Yingying hummed in agreement and didn't ask any further questions.

A white light appeared, and the world shattered and reformed.

Going back to reality.

Han Yingying sat on her bed, looking at the crack in the ceiling.

The time on my phone is 7 a.m.

She immediately opened her notes—the notes she had made were still there.

"The third morning of the same pattern. The fridge is full of milk. The pancake vendor flips the first pancake at 7:12. The white bread truck has a flat left rear tire."

She got out of bed and went to the kitchen.

The refrigerator is full of milk.

She went outside and walked to the alley entrance. The pancake vendor was flipping a pancake. She glanced at her phone: 7:12.

A white van was parked at the entrance. The left rear tire was flat.

This is the fourth time.

Han Yingying stood there, feeling an extremely absurd feeling—she was trapped in a loop, and every time she entered and exited the instance, the loop would reset.

But this time was different. She remembered.

Last time she remembered nothing, but this time she remembered those fragments. A white room, sunlight streaming through the window, and people talking.

Stardust.

She returned to her apartment, turned on her computer, and began searching for the name.

The game community is flooded with posts, but information about "Stardust" is scarce. A top-twenty player on the leaderboard, a perception-based player with a 100% dungeon completion rate. No real identity, no social history, and even gender is "unknown."

The only clue was an old post, published three months ago.

Post title: "Does anyone know which instance Stardust last appeared in before it disappeared?"

The message contained only one sentence: "It's said to be an A-rank dungeon called 'Echo,' and people who went in never came out again."

Han Yingying opened the replies. Most of the twenty-odd replies were guesses, but the last one caught her attention.

The responder's ID is a string of gibberish. The content is:

"Stardust didn't disappear. She just forgot who she was."

The post was made in the early hours of this morning.

Han Yingying stared at the words, a chill running down her spine.

She clicked on the profile of the garbled ID; the page was blank, containing no information. She copied the reply, preparing to take a screenshot—

The screen suddenly went black.

It's not that the computer shut down. It's that all the light has disappeared.

The room was plunged into an unnatural darkness, with even the sunlight outside the window gone.

Then a system notification exploded in her mind.

[Emergency Dungeon Matchmaking - The S-Rank Dungeon "St. Anne's Hospital" is about to open. Please prepare within 10 seconds.]

ten seconds.

Han Yingying only had time to put her phone in her pocket.

The world is shattered once again.

S-class.

The highest difficulty level Han Yingying had ever encountered was A-level. A-level was already deadly enough—the Horror Manor was just the tail end of A-level. What did S-level mean? She had seen a statistic post in the community: the survival rate for S-level dungeons was less than 40%.

Five people went in, and two came out alive, which is considered a normal performance.

Before her stood a seven-story white building. Large patches of white paint had peeled off the exterior walls, revealing the gray cement underneath. Above the main entrance hung a plaque, the characters blurred by the rain, but three words could still be barely discerned: St. Anne's College.

The character before "院" was obscured by rusted iron sheets.

Zhou Lang stood beside her, looking up at the plaque. Zhao Qiang, behind him, had already begun taking deep breaths—his fixed ritual before each dungeon run.

"S-rank." Zhao Qiang's voice was ethereal. "Zhou Lang, tell me the truth, are you cursed by the Grand Duke Jupiter?"

"What I'm destined to do is none of your business!"

"I'll do whatever you do, I'm your deskmate."

The system panel popped up.

Welcome to St. Andrew's Hospital.

You have been confirmed as a patient at this hospital. Your medical record has been generated; please collect it in the admission lobby.

Rule 1: Patients must follow medical advice. Patients who refuse treatment will be discharged.

[Rule Two: Some medical staff members of this hospital are no longer considered living persons. Please determine this for yourself.]

Rule 3: The period from 9 PM to 6 AM the following day is a "silent period." During this period, all noise is strictly prohibited.

Rule Four: Your illness is real. Cure it, or be cured by it.

[Enjoy your hospital stay.]

After reading the rules, Zhao Qiang thought about them seriously for three seconds, then turned to leave.

Zhou Lang grabbed him by the back of his collar: "Where are you going?"

"go home."

"The door is inside."

Zhao Qiang's face scrunched up.

Han Yingying noticed several people standing near the entrance. Two unfamiliar players—a man and a woman, fully equipped and clearly organized veteran players—and two faces she hadn't expected to see here.

Lin Yuan. Su Ke.

The two of them were acting very strangely. Lin Yuan had a makeshift bandage wrapped around his left arm, and Su Ke's glasses had a broken lens, and there was blood on her clothes, it was unclear whether it was hers or someone else's.

"What are you doing here?" Han Yingying walked over.