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

After Li Feng finished explaining the action plan, the crowd dispersed and each person checked their equipment.

Zhou Lang noticed that among the fifty-odd players, several had a distinctly different aura.

Standing at the front was a man in his thirties wearing a black trench coat, with an old scar on his face that ran from his brow bone down to his jaw. He held a black hunting rifle in his hand, the barrel of which was covered with runes. There was no one standing within five meters of him.

"Who is that?" Zhou Lang asked Zhao Qiang in a low voice.

Zhao Qiang glanced at it, and his expression changed: "Shen Yuan."

"who?"

"You haven't heard of this name?" Zhao Qiang lowered his voice. "He's the only one who survived among the group that cleared the S-rank dungeon three years ago. His nickname is 'Absolute Killer'."

Zhou Lang glanced at him a few more times. Shen Yuan seemed to sense something and turned to look at him. His gaze was indifferent, like looking at a tree by the roadside—neither hostile nor friendly. Pure indifference.

Zhou Lang withdrew his gaze.

Another thing that caught his attention was a young man in designer clothes at the edge of the crowd. He was in his early twenties and wore four or five rings on his fingers, each one gleaming faintly—all of them were ghostly artifacts.

The man was accompanied by two burly men who looked like bodyguards, but he was scrolling through his phone, looking completely indifferent.

"And who is that?"

"I don't know him." Zhao Qiang shook his head. "But to be able to wear so many ghost artifacts without suffering a backlash, one must either have extraordinary talent or incredible luck."

Han Yingying leaned closer: "I know him, his online name is 'Money Power,' and it's said that he can solve every problem in every dungeon with money."

"Money?" Zhou Lang was taken aback. "What kind of money do you use in dungeons?"

"His skill is money," Han Yingying said. "He can materialize currency, both offensively and defensively. When he encounters an NPC in a dungeon who requires trading, he just throws money at them to get through. Some people on the forum have analyzed that his skill is effective against at least 30% of dungeon types."

Zhou Lang was speechless. What kind of bugged skill is this?

Just then, the young man suddenly walked towards them.

"Hi." He took off his sunglasses, revealing a pair of smiling eyes. "Are you three a team? Need more people?"

Zhao Qiang asked warily, "You want to join?"

"No, no." The young man waved his hand. "I want to ask if you want to join me. My name is Qin He. I plan to get some good stuff on this mission, and having more people will make it easier to divide the work."

"Did you come alone?"

"I brought two bodyguards, but they're just ordinary players, their skills are average," Qin He said frankly. "I need someone who can fight."

Zhou Lang sized him up. This man spoke directly and was unpretentious, not seeming to have any ill intentions. But teaming up with a stranger rashly was too risky.

"I'll think about it," Zhou Lang said.

"Sure." Qin He took out a gold card and handed it over. "This is my contact information. You can use it after entering the dungeon. Contact me anytime."

He turned and left. Zhao Qiang took the card and looked at it: "A metallic business card, inlaid with...is this real gold?"

"Rich people," Han Yingying concluded.

At this moment, Li Feng made a gesture, and everyone quieted down.

"The operation begins," he said. "The first to enter is the vanguard, responsible for clearing the entrance area. The second is the main force, following behind. The third is the support team, staying outside to provide backup."

Zhou Lang and his team were assigned to the main team.

The vanguard consisted of fifteen people, all seasoned veterans judging by their equipment and demeanor. Shen Yuan was among them. They were the first to enter the factory gate.

The rusty iron door slammed open with a screeching sound. Behind it was complete darkness.

Thirty seconds later, the entire vanguard team entered.

A minute later, a voice came through the walkie-talkie: "The entrance area has been cleared. Main force, follow up."

Zhou Lang followed the group inside.

The temperature plummeted the moment I stepped through the gate. The perceived temperature dropped from the twenties to below zero. My breath turned into white mist.

The factory interior was no longer a normal factory. The space was distorted; what should have been a factory of only a few hundred square meters had become a vast, endless space. Rusty iron chains hung from the ceiling, the floor was black mud, and the air was filled with the sweet, rotten smell of decay.

"It's huge." Zhao Qiang looked around.

Zhou Lang didn't speak; he was observing the ground. There were fresh footprints in the soil—left by the vanguard. But next to those footprints, there was another kind of trace.

Dragging marks. They're wide, like something was dragged across them.

"Don't scatter," Zhou Lang said. "Stay close."

The trio walked close together, in the middle of the main team. Suddenly, shouts came from ahead, followed by the sounds of fighting.

The walkie-talkie crackled to life: "Main force, take note! One-star monsters spotted ahead, numbering around thirty. Vanguard team engaged. Main force, accelerate forward and assist in their elimination."

The crowd began to run. Zhou Lang gripped the chainsaw tightly and rushed to the front.

Then those things came into view—humanoid, but with reversed joints. They crawled on the ground, moving swiftly on all fours like spiders. They had no facial features, only a huge mouth filled with countless teeth.

One-star monster, crawling corpse.

The vanguard had already taken down more than a dozen, and the rest were rushing towards the main force.

Zhou Lang activated his chainsaw, hacking at the first charging crawling corpse. The saw blade sliced ​​into the rotting flesh, black juice splattering. One.

The second one pounced from the side, but Zhou Lang dodged it and cleaved it in two with a backhand saw. Two of them.

Zhao Qiang activated his power enhancement and punched a crawling zombie away. The thing crashed into the wall and shattered into pieces.

Han Yingying stood behind, ready to provide treatment at any time.

The battle lasted less than three minutes. Thirty one-star monsters were easily dealt with by more than fifty high-level players.

"Too easy," someone said with a laugh.

Zhou Lang didn't laugh. He looked at the remains of the monster on the ground—the fragments were slowly wriggling, moving closer together.

"They are reorganizing," Zhou Lang said.

Li Feng noticed it too. He ordered into the walkie-talkie: "Everyone, speed up! Don't linger here. Go deeper in and find the core."

The group quickened their pace. Behind them, the slain monsters were gradually piecing themselves back together.

Five minutes later, the group came to a fork in the road. Three paths led in different directions.

"Split up," Li Feng said. "The vanguard will go to the left, and the main force will split into two groups, one going to the middle and the other to the right."

Zhou Lang was assigned to the middle lane. He was with about twenty people, including Zhao Qiang, Han Yingying, Qin He, and his two bodyguards.

The passage in the middle narrowed further and further until it became a corridor that could only accommodate two people side by side. The walls were covered with cracks, from which a dark red liquid seeped.

The two players at the front suddenly stopped.

"There's something there," one of them said.

Zhou Lang squeezed to the front and saw what was at the end of the corridor—

A gigantic humanoid creature, at least three meters tall. Its body was stitched together from several corpses, with four arms, four legs, and three heads sewn onto its head.

Stitched Corpse Demon. Three-star Ghost.

It hasn't moved yet. It's like it's asleep.