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

The cleanup operation ended more smoothly than Zhou Lang had anticipated.

More than fifty advanced players were divided into six groups, advancing layer by layer, and it took them a full eight hours to reach the third underground level. The Ghost King's strength was indeed terrifying; four players died on the spot, and more than a dozen were seriously injured. But in the end, they overwhelmed it with sheer numbers.

Zhou Lang was lucky enough to be assigned to the outer perimeter cleanup team. He fought the three-star stitched corpse demon twice, managing to survive both encounters without serious injury. Zhao Qiang's enhanced strength proved invaluable in close combat, and Han Ying's healing touch saved at least three lives in the team.

After the battle, each person received 5000 points of Mystery and a two-star Ghostly Weapon. Zhou Lang chose a bone knife—its blade glowed with a ghostly green light and had a corrosive effect when slashing at ghosts.

"I'm back alive." Zhao Qiang slumped down by the roadside, his back against a utility pole, his face still smeared with black ghost blood.

Han Yingying sat beside him, quietly bandaging the wound on her arm. None of the three spoke; the silence was filled with the relief of surviving a close call.

Zhou Lang returned to his rented apartment at three in the morning. He threw his gear on the table and collapsed onto the bed. The bandaged man was perched on top of the wardrobe, tilting his head to look at him.

"He's not dead," the bandaged man said.

"Hmm." Zhou Lang closed his eyes.

"Good luck."

"Um."

Zhou Lang rolled over, turning his back to the bandaged man. Three seconds later, snoring began.

Shen Yao also returned home at three in the morning.

She lived in an old apartment building in a neighboring province, on the sixth floor, with no elevator. Her legs were shaking as she climbed the stairs, not entirely because she was tired—the images of the stitched-together corpse demons from the Ghost Realm dungeon were still flashing through her mind.

She turned on the entryway light, changed into slippers, and habitually checked the door lock. It was locked. The windows were also closed.

"This is the second time," she muttered to herself.

Two instances. The first was a sudden instance I encountered in the mall, and I barely survived. The second was today's cleanup operation.

Shen Yao doesn't remember anything from before.

Her memory began three weeks ago—she woke up in the hospital, physically unharmed, but with a blank mind. Doctors said she had "selective amnesia," possibly due to severe psychological trauma.

What kind of trauma? I don't know.

She only remembered that her name was Shen Yao and that she was twenty-three years old; nothing else. She had no ID card, no bank card, no cell phone—nothing at all. Later, the government's player management department contacted her, issued her a temporary identity, and told her—you are a registered player of the horror game, level A.

An A-level player. Sounds impressive, but Shen Yao had no idea what it meant.

She took a shower, changed into her pajamas, and crawled into bed. The alarm was set for nine in the morning.

The moment I closed my eyes, something moved in the darkness.

Shen Yao suddenly opened her eyes.

The ceiling is gone.

Above her was a hazy gray sky, with low-hanging clouds pressing in close. Under her feet was a cobblestone path, flanked by old residential buildings, but all the windows were dark, without a single light.

A cold, mechanical voice sounded in my ear:

[Dungeon Open - "Twilight Town"]

[Difficulty: S]

Number of players: 6

[Mission: Survive in town until dawn, or find and eliminate the "Mayor"]

[Hint: Do not look back after dark]

S-rank dungeon.

Shen Yao paused for two seconds, but didn't show much emotion. She assumed this was normal—the last Ghost Realm was also A-level, this time it was a level higher, which made sense.

She looked around.

Five people were scattered on the street. The one closest to her was a tall man in a black hoodie, carrying a chainsaw.

Zhou Lang.

Shen Yao recognized him. He was a fellow player from the Ghost Realm instance. He saw her too and nodded slightly.

"We've run into each other again." Zhou Lang walked over, his voice very soft, as if afraid of waking something.

"Yes," Shen Yao said.

The two didn't talk much. Their gazes simultaneously swept over the other four people.

A tall, thin boy wearing a baseball cap looked nervous, pacing back and forth, surveying his surroundings. A muscular man with short hair stood with his arms crossed, his expression calm. A young man in a plaid shirt pushed up his glasses, muttering something to himself.

The last one was a girl. She had long hair tied in a ponytail, was wearing sportswear, and had a deathly pale face. She was squatting by the roadside, dry heaving.

"That guy over there, he's not acting right," Zhou Lang said.

Shen Yao has already moved.

She walked over to the girl and squatted down: "What's wrong?"

The girl looked up, her eyes red-rimmed: "I...it was my first time entering a dungeon. I don't know what happened, I was sleeping, and then suddenly..."

You got an S-rank on your first dungeon run?

A question crossed Shen Yao's mind, but she didn't have time to think about it. The sky was darkening, the gray transitioning into black.

"Follow me, don't wander off, and don't get separated from others," Shen Yao said. Her tone was calm but firm, as if she had said it many times before.

The girl paused for a moment, then nodded vigorously: "Okay. My name is Lin Ke."

"Shen Yao".

Zhou Lang walked over: "It's getting dark, we need to find a safe place."

At this moment, the remaining three men also gathered around. The burly one with short hair spoke first: "My name is Fang Xu, and I've been doing dungeons for two years." He looked at Zhou Lang and Shen Yao, "Are you the team leader?"

"Not really," Zhou Lang said. "I'm just more experienced."

The boy next to Fang Xu, who wore glasses, pushed up his glasses and said, "My name is Chen Yu." His gaze lingered on Shen Yao for a few more seconds, and he opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but ultimately did not speak.

The last boy in the baseball cap shrank back: "Song Lei. This is my first time too."

Six people, two of whom were novices.

Shen Yao and Zhou Lang exchanged a glance, tacitly refraining from mentioning the matter.

"Let's find a building first," Zhou Lang said.

The six people walked along the bluestone path. The doors and windows of the residential buildings on both sides of the road were tightly closed, and there was no living creature in sight. There was a damp, musty smell in the air, mixed with an indescribable sweetness—like rotting flowers.

After walking for about five minutes, Lin Ke suddenly grabbed Shen Yao's sleeve.

"There's a sound," she said.

Everyone stopped in their tracks.

After a few seconds of silence, Shen Yao heard footsteps at the end of the street. Many footsteps, dense and heavy, dragging something along the ground.

"Go inside." Shen Yao lowered her voice.

Zhou Lang kicked open the nearest door, and the six men filed in. Zhou Lang closed the door behind them and used a chainsaw to block the doorknob.

The room was pitch black, with only a sliver of gray light filtering in from the window. Shen Yao groped her way around, taking in the surroundings—a typical living room layout: sofa, coffee table, and TV stand. Thick dust covered everything, as if it had been abandoned for a long time.

The dragging sound grew closer. Peeking through the crack in the window, a group of humanoid figures appeared on the street. Though they were humanoid, their gait was completely off—their heads were tilted, their limbs were bent in the opposite direction, and each step produced a grinding sound.

Lin Ke covered her mouth, tears streaming silently down her face. Song Lei wasn't much better off; he huddled behind the sofa, trembling all over.