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

As the light screen for the dungeon settlement unfolded, Zhou Lang was counting his money.

It's not game currency, it's the paper money you collect in dungeons—you can't take it out, but the act of counting money itself is a pleasant experience.

Congratulations to player "浪里个浪" for completing the A-rank dungeon "Murder Manor"!

[Rating: SSS]

[Reward has been sent to your inventory]

[Special Note: Based on your overall performance in the last four dungeons, you have unlocked access to SS-rank dungeons.]

Zhou Lang stuffed the last banknote back into his pocket. SS level.

This level is known as the "death line" on player forums. The survival rate for A-level dungeons is around 40%, S-level drops to 20%, and SS-level—no one has ever done statistics on that, because there aren't enough survivors to make up the sample size.

As the white light faded, Zhou Lang stood in the plaza of the safe zone.

Zhao Qiang lay sprawled on the ground, staring at the sky.

"I never want to go into a dungeon again."

"You always say that."

"This time it's for real."

Zhou Lang didn't reply. Zhao Qiang's "really" was like a weather forecast—limited in its reliability.

Han Yingying landed much more gracefully than Zhao Qiang, standing steadily, though her face was a little pale. She looked down at the settlement panel and suddenly frowned.

"What's wrong?" Zhou Lang asked.

"There's a new notification." She turned the panel over to show Zhou Lang.

[Server-wide Announcement: The first Guild Tournament will begin in thirty days. Guilds will compete for rankings, and the top three guilds will receive rare resource rewards. Registration closes seven days before the tournament begins. Please check the announcement board for details.]

The guild competition. Zhou Lang glanced at it, not particularly interested. He was a solo player, with absolutely no connection to guilds.

But clearly, others don't think that way.

They hadn't even stood in the square for three minutes when people started crowding around them.

The first one was a man in a suit, whose ID was "Po Jun," and who wore a badge of the "Azure Sky Guild" on his chest. He bypassed Zhou Lang and Zhao Qiang and walked straight up to Han Yingying.

"Miss Han, I've heard so much about you. I'm the vice president of the Azure Sky Guild, and our president has been closely following your performance—"

"No, I won't add it," Han Yingying said.

Po Jun's smile faltered for a moment. "Please let me finish..."

"No, thank you."

Less than two minutes after Po Jun left, the second one arrived. This time it was a female player from the "Blazing Flame Guild." She changed her opening remarks, first praising Han Yingying's performance in the last dungeon, then talking about guild benefits, from equipment resources to dungeon priority, speaking eloquently.

After listening, Han Yingying politely shook her head.

The third, the fourth, the fifth.

Zhao Qiang got up from the ground, watching these people come and go like a revolving lantern, and clicked his tongue in amazement. "Who did you offend? Why are you rushing around like this?"

"It's a union competition," Zhou Lang said. "Everyone's scrambling to recruit people."

Han Yingying's stats speak for themselves—four consecutive dungeon survivals, two SSS ratings, and ranking in the top fifty among combat-type players. Such talent, placed before the guild competition, would be a prime target.

But Zhou Lang noticed something: although many guilds came, they were all second-tier or lower. None of the top guilds showed up.

He could roughly guess the reason.

"Is it related to the Second Union?" he asked Han Yingying.

Han Yingying nodded. "The Second Union has spread the word that I'm their chosen one, and anyone who tries to poach me is going against them."

"When were you pre-selected by them?"

"I want to know too."

The second guild, officially known as the "Arbitrators' Guild," ranks second only to the first guild, the "Temple." Its leader, Shen Ye, is a man more cunning than a sieve. After Han Yingying rejected his recruitment during the last S-rank dungeon, he started using this disgusting method to claim territory.

While the top guilds might not actually be afraid of the second-ranked guild, no one wanted any unexpected trouble on the eve of the major competition. So Han Yingying became a hot potato – someone they wanted, but didn't want to cause any trouble.

The sixth person who came was a little different.

No union badge, dressed plainly, a young man wearing glasses walked over and handed over a business card.

"Wanxiang Guild, Planning Department, my surname is Wen." He spoke quickly, "We're not afraid of the second guild, but we're not here to poach people. We just want to get to know each other so we can look out for each other if we run into each other in dungeons."

He left right after saying that, decisively and cleanly.

Han Yingying looked at the business card but didn't throw it away.

"Wanxiang..." Zhao Qiang scratched his head, "What's its ranking again?"

"Fourth," Zhou Lang said.

"That's not bad either. Why don't you consider it?" Zhao Qiang asked Han Yingying.

Han Yingying put the business card away without answering the question. She glanced at Zhou Lang, "What about you? Has no one come looking for you?"

Zhou Lang shrugged. "I'm not that famous."

That's true. His ID, "Langligelang," has almost no presence in the player community, since his core ability is scaring ghosts—something that doesn't have a corresponding data metric on the player leaderboard. Guilds recruit based on hard data like combat power, healing output, and crowd control abilities; "scaring ghosts" isn't part of the evaluation system.

Needless to say, Zhao Qiang's overall evaluation has always hovered around the passing mark.

The three of them stood in the square for a while, and Zhou Lang opened his inventory to check his rewards.

[Bandaged Ghost - Evolution Fragment x2]

[General Skill Book - Insight (Level C)]

[Gold Coins x 5000]

The fragments are good; collecting five will allow the Bandaged Ghost to advance once. He glanced at the skill book's description: Insight—can briefly see through a target's weaknesses. This is useful; he'll keep it.

"It's time to go back," Zhou Lang said.

At the exit of the safe zone, there were two options: remain in the game space or return to reality. Zhou Lang chose the latter.

The white light shone again.

-

When Zhou Lang opened his eyes, he was lying on his bed in his rented room.

There's a crack in the ceiling; it's been there since last year. The landlord said he'd fix it, but it still hasn't. The lamp is on. My phone keeps vibrating next to my pillow.

He picked up his phone; there were seventeen unread messages, mostly news notifications.

He casually drew two lines.

[An anomaly occurred on Metro Line 3 in XX City, with multiple passengers claiming to have seen "non-existent platforms" in the tunnel. The metro company responded that it was due to a lighting malfunction.]

[A baby's cries were heard from a residential building in Nancheng District late at night, lasting for three hours. Police investigation revealed that no infants or young children lived on that floor.]

Zhou Lang put down his phone and lay on the bed for a while.

There have been more and more news stories like this lately.

In the first few months after the horror game's release, the eerie events only occurred within the game. Players entered instances, faced ghosts and monsters, and either survived or died, remaining completely separate from the real world. But starting two months ago, the lines began to blur.

Ghosts, or rather, the supernatural, are infiltrating into reality.

It started as minor incidents: footsteps late at night, extra reflections in the mirror, faucets that wouldn't turn off. Most were dismissed as urban legends, no one taking them seriously. But the frequency increased, the scope expanded, and the incidents became increasingly outrageous. Last week, an entire street of streetlights in a city simultaneously shattered, and the surveillance footage captured nothing.