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

"Let's go." He shook his burned wrist and led his men away.

The other three union members followed and left. Before leaving, the woman in the twilight glanced back at Zhou Lang with a gloomy look in her eyes.

"Thanks." Zhou Lang put away the chainsaw and looked at the three masked men.

"No need." The masked man in the lead took out a bottle of medicine from his pocket and tossed it to him. "Take care of the injury on your lower back."

"Why are you helping us?" Han Yingying took the other bottle of medicine and stared into the masked man's eyes. The mask was exquisitely made, even the eye sockets were covered, making it impossible to discern any features.

The masked man tilted his head. "You'll find out later."

After saying that, the three of them turned and left. They came suddenly and left just as quickly.

Han Yingying stood there, something churning in her mind, but she couldn't quite grasp it.

"What's wrong?" Zhou Lang walked over.

"It's nothing." Han Yingying came back to her senses and helped him treat the wound on his lower back. "Something about what they said... just doesn't feel right."

"Let's survive this dungeon first." Zhou Lang glanced at the time on the floating panel. "The first bell should be ringing soon. Find cover."

The first bell rang four minutes after they entered the house.

Through the window, one could see that the outside air had turned a visible dark red, slowly spreading like blood dissolving into water. A stray cat that had somehow appeared was enveloped in the red mist; its body began to disintegrate from its tail, and it vanished without a sound.

Zhao Qiang swallowed hard. "If this were outside..."

No one answered. The answer was too obvious.

Lin Yue's shoulder has been reattached, but he still can't move it much. Su Yao's internal injuries have improved considerably after using the medicine; at least she can run now.

Lu Chen entered the house at some point and sat quietly in the corner.

"Didn't you say you weren't going to get involved?" Zhao Qiang didn't give him a friendly look.

Lu Chen glanced at him. "I won't get involved in your affairs with the union. But I don't want to die. This is the nearest cover."

Logically, there was nothing wrong with it. Zhao Qiang snorted and said nothing more.

The bell tolled for thirty seconds and then stopped. The red mist outside quickly dissipated, and the town returned to its previous gray and gloomy state.

"Keep pushing the mission forward." Zhou Lang stood up.

The main quest for the SS-rank dungeon is "Find the way out of the town." The floating panel provides a vague hint: the town's exit is related to the clock tower, and the clock tower's secret is hidden in the residents' memories.

In other words, they need to search every building to find clues about the clock tower.

Over the next few hours, the six split into two groups. Zhou Lang led Han Yingying and Zhao Qiang in one group, while Lin Yue and Su Yao led the other. Lu Chen followed behind alone, keeping a distance.

After searching seven or eight buildings, Zhou Lang discovered the problem.

"Don't you guys feel... that something's off about this instance?" he asked.

Han Yingying nodded, "That's too few. We've only encountered three strange creatures in the SS-level dungeon so far, and their behavior is very strange. Several times when we should have chased them, they stopped moving."

"BUG," Zhou Lang said.

"Huh?" Zhao Qiang didn't understand.

"This instance has a bug." Zhou Lang pointed to the notes and diaries they found. "Look at these clues. Starting from the third building, the narrative starts to fall apart. The third building says the clock tower was built by the mayor, the fifth building says the clock tower has always been there, and the seventh building says the clock tower fell from the sky. A normal instance wouldn't have these contradictions."

Han Yingying flipped through the notes she had collected, her expression changing. "Not only that. Look at this—the diary in Building Four mentions 'second reincarnation,' but the dungeon description doesn't mention reincarnation at all."

"What's interfering with this instance?" Zhao Qiang asked.

"Or rather," Zhou Lang paused for a moment, "the problem lies with the instance itself."

They decided to conduct an in-depth investigation.

The next day, in the basement of a partially collapsed general store, Zhou Lang found a thick handwritten notebook. The paper was yellowed and brittle, and the handwriting was messy but barely legible.

"The 37th cycle. The town continues to repeat itself. The exit is blocked. The clock tower is not the exit; the clock tower is the lock."

The 37th cycle.

Zhou Lang and Han Yingying exchanged a glance. This was definitely not something a normal SS-level dungeon should have.

"Someone is following us," Han Yingying suddenly whispered.

Zhou Lang didn't turn around, lowering his voice, "How many?"

"one."

They weren't from the union. Those guys scattered after the first bell, each busy trying to save their own lives.

Zhou Lang put away the handwritten notes and walked out of the basement as if nothing had happened. He suddenly turned around at the corner—

Lu Chen stood there, not even trying to dodge.

"How long have you been following them?" Zhou Lang asked.

"Let's start with the general store," Lu Chen said. "Are you investigating anomalies in the instance?"

Zhou Lang neither denied nor admitted it.

Lu Chen took out a few slips of paper from his pocket and handed them over. "I found that too. The clues for Building 9 and Building 11 don't match up either, and the strange activity in Building 11 just got stuck halfway through, like a program crashing."

Zhou Lang took the note and looked at it. It was indeed valuable information—the record of Building 11 mentioned the word "crack" and also drew a rough diagram, which looked like a cross-section of the clock tower.

"You want to cooperate," Zhou Lang said. This wasn't a question.

"One person is too inefficient," Lu Chen said bluntly.

Zhao Qiang walked up from behind, glanced at the note in Lu Chen's hand, and then at Zhou Lang. His expression clearly said, "Is this guy reliable?"

"Okay." Zhou Lang didn't hesitate for long. Lu Chen's information was true, and his strength was also genuine. More importantly—if this dungeon really had a bug, having another capable person wouldn't hurt.

After the collaboration began, progress did indeed accelerate significantly.

Lu Chen possessed exceptional search abilities; he had a skill called "Mark," which allowed him to mark places he had visited and sense hidden spaces within a certain range. With his assistance, they found all the clues for the buildings within three days.

The pieced-together information is as follows:

The town is indeed in a cycle. But the cycle isn't a custom setting; it's caused by some external force. The clock tower isn't the exit; it's the core that maintains the cycle. To leave the town, the cycle must be broken, and the way to break the cycle—

"At the very top of the clock tower, there's a redundant gear," Han Yingying read the last clue. "Remove it, and the clock will stop."

"And then?" Su Yao asked.

"The trail ends here," Zhou Lang shook his head. "No one has recorded what happened after that."

"It's probably because the person recording it didn't succeed," Lu Chen said.

"It's also possible that it succeeded, so there's no need to record it anymore," Han Yingying said.

Both speculations make sense. But they have no other choice.

That evening, Han Yingying sat by the window, looking through the notes she had collected. The moonlight shone on the paper, and the scattered words suddenly looked strange.

Something was moving in her mind.

It's not churning, it's not struggling—it's piecing itself back together. Like a thousand pieces of glass, each piece returning to its place.