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

Injuries sustained in dungeons can be carried back to reality. She's gotten used to it.

I washed my face and started making instant noodles. While waiting for the water to boil, I glanced at the forum.

The post is discussing a player with the ID "浪里个浪".

"Does anyone know who 'Lang Li Ge Lang' is? I heard he got the only perfect rating in the Horror Manor dungeon."

"This person also got a perfect score in Nightmare Hospital last time, that's outrageous."

"My friend said he saw this guy chasing a ghost with a chainsaw, and the ghost was scared away. The ghost was scared away! Can you imagine?"

"Scare ghosts? What kind of cheat is this?"

"It's not a cheat; I heard it's a special attribute, unique to the entire server."

Han Yingying looked at these posts and her lips twitched slightly.

"Waves and waves." Zhou Lang probably thought he was quite eloquent when he chose this online name.

The forums raved about this ID, but Han Yingying had actually seen him in person. The man who walked through a horde of ghosts with an oil lamp, his expression calmer than the ghosts themselves—to be honest, the descriptions on the forums were rather conservative.

She sent Zhou Lang a message: "You're back?"

After a while, Zhou Lang replied with a single word: "Mm".

When did your Haunted Mansion instance end?

"Early yesterday morning."

"I just finished settling in. As soon as I logged in, I was pulled into a new instance."

The text bubble on Zhou Lang's end popped up for a while before finally sending a message: "What dungeon?"

Han Yingying briefly recounted the events of the lonely city on a rainy night.

Zhou Lang sent a long message—something that rarely happens to him.

"Have you noticed that the intervals between copies are getting shorter and shorter? Normally, there should be at least a 72-hour interval, but this time it's seamless. This is not right."

Han Yingying frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I've been investigating something. The weird system might have a bug; some players are being flagged as abnormal, and dungeons are being pushed to them at an unreasonable frequency. The higher the frequency and the greater the difficulty, the richer the rewards. It looks like a benefit, but it's actually accelerating the consumption of resources."

Han Yingying stared at the screen for a long time.

She had always thought that the frequency of dungeons she encountered was normal. But after Zhou Lang mentioned it... she thought back carefully and realized that since entering the game, she had indeed experienced more dungeons than other players she knew, and the difficulty was also higher.

She thought it was just bad luck.

"How do you know all this?" she typed.

Zhou Lang's reply came a few minutes later: "I was investigating my sister's affairs. I found out during the process."

Han Yingying didn't press further. She knew a little about Zhou Lang's sister's disappearance; Zhao Qiang had mentioned it. This wasn't a topic Zhou Lang could casually discuss, and his willingness to share so much was already beyond her expectations.

"Okay. I'll be careful," she replied to the message.

Han Yingying put down her phone; the instant noodles had already clumped together. She ate a few bites hastily, but her mind couldn't settle down.

The replication frequency is abnormal. It has been flagged. Consumption is being accelerated.

She picked up her phone again and scrolled through the chat history. Zhou Lang had referred to "some players." Did he count himself?

It should count. Given his copy completion speed and exposure rate, it would be strange if he hadn't been flagged.

But he didn't talk about his own situation, only hers.

This person...

Han Yingying leaned back in her chair, staring at the ceiling. A vague thought flashed through her mind, but she couldn't grasp it.

That evening, as Han Yingying finished showering and was getting ready for bed, her phone vibrated again. It was a message from Su Xiaomian, a long string of texts.

"Sister Han! I'm back! I just checked the forum, and you know what? There's a really popular post analyzing the real identity of 'Langligelang,' with lots of guesses, but all of them have been wrong. However, one highly-rated comment says he might know this person, that he's very capable offline, and that he's a student! A student! Sister Han, isn't that an exaggeration?!"

Han Yingying felt a headache coming on. "Typ it slower."

"By the way, Sister Han, do you know 'Langligelang'? He's a legendary figure on the forum, he always clears dungeons perfectly, and he has a special ability—he can scare ghosts! Ghosts run away when they see him! I idolize him so much!"

"……Know."

"Really?! You've seen him?!"

Han Yingying hesitated for a moment. Zhou Lang's identity was not something she could easily reveal. "I've heard of him."

"Wow, Sister Han, you know so many people! Oh, right, there's something I've always wanted to say—Sister Han, the way you use your dagger and how you assess enemies are so similar to some of 'Lang Li Ge Lang's' famous moves! There are people on the forum who have done technical analysis on that style of quickly assessing the environment and then acting precisely..."

Han Yingying's finger stopped at the top of the screen.

Is it similar to "Lang Li Ge Lang"?

How is she like Zhou Lang at all? Their fighting styles are completely different. Zhou Lang uses intimidation to suppress, while she relies on observation and judgment.

Unless what Su Xiaomian was talking about wasn't a fighting style, but something more fundamental—a mindset.

Han Yingying suddenly felt a throbbing in her temple.

A brief image flashed through her mind: a dark room, a table, and something on the table that was glowing. She reached out to grab it—

And then that was it.

She rubbed her forehead. This had been happening more and more frequently lately—strange, inexplicable fragments of images, without beginning or end. At first, she thought it was a side effect of the dungeon runs, but now, thinking back, she realized she'd never seen these scenes in any dungeon before.

What is that?

"Sister Han? Are you still there?" Su Xiaomian sent another message.

"Yes. I'm going to sleep now."

Han Yingying turned off her phone and closed her eyes. The vague thought resurfaced in her mind, this time slightly clearer—

Has she forgotten something?

Something very important.

But weariness came faster than doubt, and she couldn't hold on any longer, sinking into the darkness.

The dream came again.

It was that recurring dream again. She stood in a white space, with nothing around her, but she wasn't alone—someone was standing in front of her, with their back to her.

The person's outline was familiar, but every time she tried to see their face clearly, the image would shatter.

This time is different.

The person turned around.

His lips moved, and he uttered a sentence. Han Yingying couldn't hear the sound, but she read his lip movements—

"Wake up."

Han Yingying suddenly opened her eyes.

She's no longer in the rented apartment.

She stood in a corridor with countless closed doors on both sides. The lights on the ceiling flickered, and the air was filled with the smell of disinfectant.

hospital.

Welcome to the instance: Eternal Night Hospital

[Dungeon Difficulty: S-Rank]

Han Yingying's pupils contracted slightly.

S-class.

It was a seamless transition once again.

She wasn't the only one.

An argument was heard coming from the end of the corridor. Han Yingying went over to see what was happening—Su Xiaomian was squatting in the corner, with two people standing next to her.

Meng Kai and Lu Yuan.

"You guys..." Han Yingying was a little surprised.

"Don't ask me, I don't know why I was dragged into this again." Meng Kai's expression was very unpleasant. "And this time it's an S-rank. If the system keeps doing this, I'm going to complain."

"Who should we complain to?" Lu Yuan asked.