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

"Let me see," Zhou Lang said. "I'm not going to steal it."

The ghost stared at him for a few seconds, then released his grip.

Zhou Lang picked up the paper.

It says:

[Name: To be determined. Symptoms: Abnormally lucid. Diagnosis: Further observation required. Remarks: This patient is resistant.]

"Is this written about me?" Zhou Lang asked.

The ghost nodded.

"Are you a doctor?"

The ghost nodded again.

"Where is the dean?"

The ghost stopped moving. It slowly turned its head, looking towards the end of the corridor—the sixth floor. Then it shook its head.

"The dean is no longer here?"

The ghost picked up a pen, wrote a line of words on the back of the paper, and turned it over for Zhou Lang to see.

The hospital director became the hospital's director.

Han Yingying leaned closer and saw the words, then exchanged a glance with Zhou Lang.

The dean does not cease to exist. The dean has become the building itself.

"Where is the medical record?" Zhou Lang continued to ask.

The ghost wrote another line of text.

[Sixth floor. But the key is with the dean.]

"The hospital director is the hospital director, and the key is with the director," Zhou Lang repeated. "So the key is somewhere in the hospital."

The ghost nodded.

Which place?

The ghost shook its head. It wrote the last line.

[I can only answer three questions before the consultation time ends. I've used up my quota.]

Then it lowered its head and continued writing the medical record, ignoring Zhou Lang.

"Let's go," Zhou Lang said, turning around.

The two walked back down the corridor. The ward doors on both sides of the corridor were closed, with various colored lights shining through the cracks. Some were green, some were red, and a scratching sound came from behind one of the doors.

Han Yingying walked beside Zhou Lang and lowered her voice: "The hospital director is the hospital itself, and the key is inside the building—which means the key could be anywhere."

"No," Zhou Lang shook his head. "If the hospital's director is the hospital, then what is the core of the hospital?"

"……heart?"

"The hospital doesn't have a heart. But it has lifelines," Zhou Lang said. "The power supply system. Or the water supply system."

Han Yingying thought for a moment: "The basement."

"Yes. We'll go during the day tomorrow."

The two returned to the ward and climbed back through the window. Chen Ling was still huddled under the bed, and only crawled out when he saw them return.

"How is it?"

Zhou Lang explained the situation.

After listening, Chen Ling asked, "So we have to go to the basement?"

"Um."

"Why is it always the basement?" Chen Ling's voice was filled with resentment.

No one answered him.

The clinic hours ended at 6:00 AM the next morning. The corridor returned to normal.

When the three of them went downstairs, they saw two more people in the lobby on the first floor.

They weren't the two casual acquaintances from yesterday. They were two new faces.

A man and a woman. The man wore glasses, was very thin, and looked refined. The woman had short hair, wore sportswear, and looked very neat.

"Zhao Qiang?" Han Yingying blurted out.

The man with glasses turned around: "Sister Ying?!"

"Holy crap?!" Zhou Lang saw it too.

When Zhao Qiang saw Zhou Lang, his expression changed from surprise to a complex mix of emotions—joy, confusion, and a touch of grievance.

"Brother Lang, what are you doing here?"

"That's what I was going to ask you," Zhou Lang said, walking over. "Didn't you say you'd never play again after the last dungeon run?"

"I didn't come here voluntarily!" Zhao Qiang exclaimed anxiously. "I was playing games in my dorm when this guy suddenly walked in! And he's an S-rank!"

The short-haired woman next to me spoke up: "Me too. I was inexplicably pulled in. I only got an A rank in the last dungeon, how could I be matched with an S rank?"

"Who are you?" Zhou Lang looked at her.

"Lin Ke," the short-haired woman said, "Do you know each other?"

"Hey classmate," Zhao Qiang said, "this is the Lang Ge I mentioned to you."

Lin Ke looked Zhou Lang up and down: "Is he the one who scared the ghosts to tears at the haunted manor?"

"You didn't cry," Zhou Lang corrected. "You just failed to manage your facial expressions."

Han Yingying ignored their conversation; she was thinking about something else.

Zhao Qiang hadn't logged into the game for a long time since the last dungeon run, and his level wasn't high. Lin Ke also said she was only A-rank last time. These two people, whose strengths were mismatched, were both forcibly pulled into an S-rank dungeon.

This is not normal.

"Zhao Qiang," Han Yingying began, "before you were pulled in, did you receive anything strange? Props, messages, or was anyone contacted?"

Zhao Qiang thought for a moment: "Someone added me as a friend and said they wanted to trade items. I didn't agree."

"Me too," Lin Ke said. "Someone tagged me in the trading channel, asking me to go to a certain coordinate to pick up something. I didn't go."

Han Yingying looked at Zhou Lang.

Zhou Lang's expression changed. It wasn't worry, but rather a "I guessed it, but I'm not too happy" expression.

"Someone has tagged them," Zhou Lang said.

"Mark?" Zhao Qiang didn't understand.

"There are some advanced items in the game that can mark other players," Han Ying explained. "The marked person can be forcibly pulled into a designated instance."

"Who marked me?! Who did I offend?!" Zhao Qiang exclaimed anxiously.

Zhou Lang didn't speak, but he thought of someone.

Woman in red.

Yesterday, she took the initiative to talk to him, and after being rejected, she didn't persist. At the time, Zhou Lang just thought she was sensible. Now, thinking about it, if she had known beforehand that a new person would be sent in—

She is waiting.

Pieces that can be used.

"Let's go," Zhou Lang said. "From now on, you two will be with us."

Without saying a word, Zhao Qiang stood behind Zhou Lang. Lin Ke hesitated for a moment, then followed.

The five people walked towards the basement. The stairs ended at the bottom of the first floor, and the iron door was half open.

"etc."

The voice came from behind.

Zhou Lang turned around. The woman in red stood in the center of the hall with her four teammates.

"Are you going to the basement?" the woman in red asked.

"What's it to you?" Zhou Lang said.

"I'm just offering a friendly reminder," the woman in red smiled. "During last night's consultation time, those two rogues went to the basement. Only one came back. The one who came back was missing an eye."

"Thank you." Zhou Lang turned and continued walking.

The woman in red's smile faded.

A burly man behind her took a step forward, but she raised her hand to stop him.

"Let him be," the woman in red said softly.

Five people went down the stairs. The basement passage was narrow, only wide enough for two people to walk side by side. The walls were damp cement, and half of the overhead light bulbs were broken, while the rest flickered.

"Brother Lang," Zhao Qiang said, leaning close to Zhou Lang's back, "that woman said someone is missing an eye—"

"I heard you."

"Aren't you afraid?"

"What are you afraid of?"

Zhao Qiang opened his mouth, but swallowed the rest of his words.

After walking for about three minutes, a door appeared at the end of the passage. It wasn't an iron door, but a very old wooden one. A note was pasted on the door, the handwriting messy:

[No unauthorized personnel allowed in the power distribution room]

Zhou Lang pushed the door open and went in.

It was much larger inside than I had imagined. It wasn't just a power distribution room; it was more like a central hub. On the left were the distribution boxes, on the right the main water valve, and in the very center on the floor—

It's a circle.

The circle is about two meters in diameter and was drawn in black. There is something embedded in the center of the circle, but it's not very clear.

Zhou Lang squatted down.

It is a key.

It was embedded in the ground, with only a small section of the key head showing.

"Found it?" Han Yingying walked over.