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

The moment the dungeon entrance opened, Zhou Lang sensed something was wrong.

The ninth instance, SS-rank. The system-provided scenario is an abandoned underground parking garage with six levels, each shrouded in dense fog. The mission is simple—find the seven keys scattered across the levels, open the iron door at the bottom level, and escape alive.

Simple? Zhou Lang didn't believe it.

He glanced at the group. Han Yingying stood to his left, clutching a dagger. Zhao Qiang shrank back, pale-faced but not falling behind. Teammates B (Lin Ke) and C (Zhang Yuan) stood on either side; they were old partners, working together seamlessly.

Teammate D – Shen Mo – stood alone a few meters away, hands in his pockets, looking completely unconcerned.

This person had been in the same area as them since the seventh instance, neither helping nor causing trouble, acting like a bystander. Zhou Lang had tried to probe a few times, but the other party was slippery and wouldn't say anything.

"Let's go." Zhou Lang didn't waste any more words and led the way into the depths of the parking lot.

The fog on the first layer was very thin, with visibility of about ten meters. Rusty car frames and broken glass were scattered on the ground, and a rotten, sweet smell filled the air.

Zhao Qiang stepped on a piece of glass, which creaked, startling him.

"Could you please stop—" Lin Ke hadn't finished speaking when footsteps came from the fog ahead.

This is not a journey undertaken by one person alone.

There are many people.

Zhou Lang stopped and raised his hand to signal everyone to stay still.

Seven or eight people emerged from the fog, the leader of whom was a bald man with a union badge hanging on his chest—the symbol of the Iron Hammer Society.

"Zhou Lang." The bald man grinned. "What a coincidence."

What a coincidence.

Zhou Lang looked to his left and saw four or five more people emerge from behind the vehicle, wearing the Dark Assassin's insignia. The same was true on his right; members of the Star Alliance blocked his retreat.

The three unions, totaling fifteen or sixteen people, surrounded Zhou Lang and his group.

Zhao Qiang's legs began to tremble.

"This is..." Han Yingying's voice was very low.

"A hunt," Zhou Lang said.

The bald man took two steps forward: "I can pretend that your refusal to join our Iron Hammer Society last time never happened. But you've also offended the Dark Assassins and the Star Alliance. Brother, it's not that I want to make things difficult for you, you've blocked your own path."

"So?" Zhou Lang asked.

"Hand over your items and equipment, and leave this instance," the bald man said. "We won't kill you all."

"Exiting the instance will deduct 300 points and a random piece of equipment," Han Yingying said.

"That's your problem," the bald man shrugged.

Zhou Lang glanced around at the people. A woman from the Dark Assassins' group was staring at Han Yingying with hostile eyes. Several members of the Star Alliance were armed, clearly prepared.

"Did you two discuss this outside the instance?" Zhou Lang asked.

"A smart person should know what's good for them," the bald man said.

Zhou Lang turned and glanced at Shen Mo. Shen Mo was standing at the edge of the encirclement; the union members didn't stop him, and even made way for him.

"Shen Mo, what do you mean?" Zhao Qiang shouted.

Shen Mo glanced at Zhao Qiang, said nothing, and took two steps to the side, moving further away from the encirclement.

Neither side will help the other.

Row.

"I'll give you ten seconds to think it over." The bald man held up one finger. "Ten, nine—"

He didn't count to eight.

Zhou Lang made a move.

The moment the oil lamp was lit, green light filled the entire first level of the parking lot. Everyone saw what was hidden in the mist—crawling on the ceiling, crouching under the cars, standing behind the pillars—a dense array of ghostly figures.

The bald man's expression changed.

"Are you crazy?! You're summoning ghosts so we can all die together!"

"I didn't provoke them." Zhou Lang raised the oil lamp higher. "They were already here. When you surrounded them just now, you stepped on three of them."

Everyone looked down at their feet.

The bald man's right foot was stepping on a pale hand. The owner of that hand—a faceless female ghost—was slowly emerging from the ground.

Screams echoed throughout the parking lot.

"Don't move!" Zhou Lang shouted. "Moving too quickly will anger them. The light from the oil lamp can keep them still, but only within the illuminated area. If any of you run out of the light—"

Before he could finish speaking, a young man from the Star Alliance turned and ran away.

He rushed into the fog, and less than three seconds later, his screams abruptly stopped.

It's quiet now.

No one dared to move.

Zhou Lang withdrew his gaze and looked at the bald man: "Are you still counting or not?"

The bald man opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.

"Get out of the way," Zhou Lang said.

The crowd parted automatically to make way. Zhou Lang walked in front, holding the oil lamp, followed closely by Han Yingying, with Zhao Qiang holding onto Han Yingying's clothes, and Lin Ke and Zhang Yuan bringing up the rear.

They passed through the encirclement and headed towards the entrance to the second level.

After walking about twenty meters, Zhao Qiang looked back and saw that the union members were still standing there, not daring to move.

"Will they catch up?" Zhao Qiang asked.

"Yes," Zhou Lang said. "They'll chase after them once they realize the ghost won't attack on its own."

"Then let's—"

"run."

Three words, crisp and decisive. The five people sped down the slope and entered the second level. The fog was even thicker on this level, with visibility reduced to only five meters.

Zhou Lang's oil lamp became the only source of light.

"Yingying, can you check if there's a key on this floor?"

Han Yingying closed her eyes. Her perception, which she had awakened in the previous instance, was particularly useful in this environment.

"About forty meters to the northeast," she said. "But there's something there, not a ghost, but... I can't quite put my finger on it, it's very strange."

"That makes sense. SS-rank dungeons always have guards near the key." Zhou Lang adjusted his direction. "Let's go."

The second floor was far more eerie than the first. There were tire tracks on the ground, but they extended into the walls, as if something had driven right through them. The pillars were covered with scratch marks left by fingernails; every single one of them was covered.

Zhao Qiang should have looked away; once he did, he discovered that the marks were slowly moving, crawling like worms on the cement surface.

"Don't look," Zhou Lang warned.

Zhao Qiang suddenly turned his head.

They found the first key. The key was inserted into the gas tank cap of a wrecked car. Zhou Lang reached out to pull it out, but the key wouldn't budge.

"Do I need to use force?" Lin Ke asked.

"No." Zhou Lang crouched down and looked under the car. There was a pair of eyes watching him from under the car.

Zhou Lang stared into those eyes for three seconds.

Then he laughed.

He held the oil lamp close to the underside of the car, its green light shining in. Something under the car let out a piercing shriek, like metal scraping against glass, making everyone's eardrums vibrate. The thing darted out from under the car, so fast that only a gray afterimage could be seen before disappearing into the fog.

The key came loose. Zhou Lang pulled it out and put it in his pocket.

"One," he said. "There are six more."

It took them almost an hour to find the third key. The strangeness of the third level began to get tricky—the fog itself moved and would actively envelop anyone who was alone. Lin Ke was almost swallowed by the fog, but Han Yingying pulled him back.

Just as they were about to descend to the fourth floor, they heard footsteps behind them.