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

How can you be so sure?

"A Rank D instance won't put crucial information in the mouth of the most easily accessible NPC. She's the intelligence source, but not the boss," Gu Huai said. "Go see her again today and find out exactly what's going on in that room on the third floor. Who went in, when they went in, and whether they came out."

"And you?"

"I'm going to the third floor."

Shen Yu frowned. "You should know that you are not allowed to enter that room."

"I'm not going in," Gu Huai said. "I'll just look around from the outside."

The two split up.

Shen Yu didn't go to the studio until 2 PM. The studio was completely different during the day than at night—the windows were wide open, sunlight streamed in, and two artists were painting inside. The woman in the beige cardigan wasn't there.

Shen Yu waited in the studio for half an hour. At exactly three o'clock, the woman came out through a small door on the inside. Shen Yu hadn't noticed that door before—it was the same color as the wall, and you couldn't see it at all unless you looked closely.

"You're here again." The woman smiled when she saw Shen Yu.

"I want to draw this building," Shen Yu said, sitting in front of her easel, her pencil landing on the paper. "But I'm not quite sure about the structure of the third floor. You've lived here for a long time, could you tell me about it?"

[Con artist Lv1 activated]

The woman's smile remained unchanged. She walked to Shen Yu's side and looked down at her painting.

"There are four rooms on the third floor. Two on the left and two on the right. You cannot go into the one at the very end on the left."

Why?

"Because that's her room."

"she?"

The woman's expression shifted slightly. It was very subtle, but Shen Yu noticed it—the corners of her mouth softened a little.

"The person who lives in that room. She's been there a long time ago, even before me."

"Did she draw it too?"

The woman shook her head. "She doesn't paint. She collects paintings. Other people's paintings, paintings by others, she paints. As long as someone paints her likeness... that person will enter her room and never come out again."

Shen Yu stopped writing with her pencil.

If I draw her likeness, will I be pulled into the room?

She suddenly realized something—this instance assigned everyone the identity of an "art student" or someone with a creative background. Twenty-two people were assigned here for "sketching and field research."

If someone unknowingly drew that thing...

"Has anyone already drawn it?" Shen Yu asked.

The woman laughed again. This time it was a genuine laugh, with the relaxed air of an observer.

"Two people were missing last night, didn't you notice?"

Shen Yu felt a chill in her heart.

She quickly got up, dropped her art supplies, and ran out of the studio. On the second-floor landing, she bumped into Gu Huai, who also seemed to be rushing over.

"There are framed pictures on the walls of the third-floor corridor," Gu Huai said quickly and briefly. "They were empty this morning, but now there are two paintings. They depict people."

"I know what happened." Shen Yu repeated the information he had received from the woman.

After listening, Gu Huai remained silent for two seconds.

"So the key is the ghost in that room—as long as you don't draw its image, you won't trigger the trap."

"Yes. But the problem is that nobody knows what it looks like. It doesn't show itself, but if someone accidentally draws features that resemble it while they're drawing..."

"You should know Article Five," Gu Huai suddenly said.

"Don't believe what the dead say?"

"Those two people who were drawn in were most likely given incorrect information beforehand by a ghost, which led them to draw something."

Shen Yu thought of the woman in the art studio—she was a ghost, and she was indeed "speaking." But the inscription said, "Don't believe what the dead say," yet the information the woman gave her was correct.

"There are different levels here," Shen Yu said. "Some ghosts provide real information, while others spread false information. The woman in the art studio is the former, but there are definitely other ghosts misleading the players."

"That's why your skill is key," Gu Huai said. "You can tell which ghosts are telling the truth."

The two stared at each other for a second.

"After 10 p.m. tonight," Gu Huai said, "come with me to the third floor."

Shen Yu opened her mouth as if to say that the rules stipulated that players could not leave the room after 10 o'clock. But then she thought again—the rules were restrictions for ordinary players, and it was never possible to complete a dungeon entirely within the rules.

"it is good."

At 9:50 p.m., Shen Yu came out of room 209. The corridor was dark, with only the emergency light in the corner emitting a dim yellow glow.

Gu Huai was already at the top of the third floor.

He changed his gear—not the ordinary hoodie he wore during the day, but a tactical vest with hidden pockets on the inside. The metal tube in his hand was clipped to his waist, and in his other hand he held a strangely shaped copper pendant.

"What's that?" Shen Yu asked, pointing to the bronze pendant.

"A detection-type ghost device. If there are any eerie traces of S-level or higher, it will generate heat."

S-level. Shen Yu didn't really understand this classification, but judging from Gu Huai's attitude, it must be a very high level.

"You're not just aiming to complete this dungeon?"

Gu Huai didn't answer and went upstairs.

The corridor on the third floor was narrower than the two floors below. There were two rooms on the left and two rooms on the right, at the end of which was a tightly closed wooden door. There were no room numbers on the door, and a faint white light shone through the crack in the door.

Two new framed paintings appeared on the wall. Gu Huai was right—the paintings depicted people. Two young people, a man and a woman, with stiff expressions and wide-open eyes, as if frozen in a moment.

Shen Yu leaned closer to look. The background of the painting was a pitch-black room with only a white lamp overhead. The two people stood under the lamp, their postures unnatural, their arms at slightly twisted angles.

"Are they still alive?" Shen Yu asked.

"Judging from the dungeon mechanics, clearing the core within 72 hours will save us. If it exceeds that time—" Gu Huai didn't finish his sentence.

The two walked down the corridor towards the door at the end. The closer they got, the lower the temperature became. The brass pendant in Gu Huai's hand began to tremble slightly.

But before they even reached the door, something else appeared on the walls along both sides of the corridor—more picture frames. Empty picture frames. A dozen or so, densely packed together, with only white backgrounds.

"These are prepared for us," Shen Yu said.

Gu Huai stared at the door, and the trembling of the bronze pendant intensified.

"There is something," he said in a low voice, "but it's not the strength you'd expect from a D-rank dungeon."

"What do you mean?"

"It means that something that doesn't belong here might have been mixed into this instance."

Shen Yu was about to ask more questions when a sound came from the other side of the door. It wasn't a knock, but the sound of fingernails scratching against the wooden board. "Squeak—" one after another, rhythmically.

Gu Huai pulled her back three steps.

That's enough for tonight. Let's go home.

Shen Yu didn't try to be brave. The two quickly retreated to their respective rooms.

The next day, they changed their strategy. Shen Yu spent the whole day wandering around the guesthouse, using her con artist skills to talk to three non-human beings—the "kitchen helper" chopping vegetables in the kitchen, the "little girl" singing in the flower bushes in the backyard, and the "manager" who was constantly organizing the shelves in the basement storage room.