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

The moment the ninth instance opened, Zhou Lang sensed something was wrong.

The teleportation light faded, and he found himself standing in the lobby of an abandoned hospital. Half of the fluorescent light tubes on the ceiling were broken, and the remaining few flickered, emitting a piercing electrical sound.

Han Yingying was to his right, and Zhao Qiang was to his left. Lin Yuan and Su Qing were a little further away, appearing on either side of the registration desk.

Lu Han stood in the far corner, arms crossed, leaning against the wall, not touching anyone.

"SS-rank." Zhou Lang glanced at the dungeon rating on the panel.

It was harder than last time.

Before he could even look at the rules, footsteps echoed from the end of the corridor. The sound of many footsteps.

"They're here." Zhao Qiang's expression changed.

Not a ghost.

are people.

More than twenty players emerged from both ends of the corridor at the same time, each wearing a badge from a different guild. Zhou Lang recognized a few of them—people from the Shattered Star Guild, people from the Iron Wall Guild, and the Blood Flag Guild, with whom he had clashed in the last dungeon.

The three unions joined forces.

Leading the group was Zhong Ming, the president of the Shattered Star Guild. He was in his thirties, bald, and had a centipede tattooed on his neck. He looked at Zhou Lang and smiled.

"Brother Lang, it's been a long time."

Zhou Lang remained silent.

Zhong Ming continued, "Last time we invited you to join, but you didn't give us face. This time, we also invited the Iron Wall people from Han Yingying's side, but they still didn't give us face."

"So?" Zhou Lang asked.

"So we discussed it and decided that you two solo players are being too arrogant." Zhong Ming shrugged. "SS-level dungeons only have so many resources. You don't join a guild, yet you occupy the highest-ranking positions, so we..."

"I'm not willing," the vice president of the Blood Flag Guild interjected.

Zhou Lang counted the number of people. There were twenty-three on the other side, and six on his side, including Lu Han. But Lu Han was unlikely to help.

Sure enough, Lu Han took two steps back, retreating into the shadows of a corner, his expression indifferent.

Zhao Qiang leaned closer and whispered, "Brother Lang, you can't beat them, can you?"

"I can't beat them." Zhou Lang was very honest.

In SS-level dungeons, players can attack each other, but killing someone will not result in item drops; it will only severely injure the attacker and force them out of the dungeon. Leaving the dungeon does not mean death, but it will forfeit all rewards from that dungeon and deduct points.

Zhong Ming didn't waste any words and simply waved his hand.

Twenty-three people rushed forward.

Zhou Lang immediately pulled Han Yingying back, and Zhao Qiang reacted quickly, following suit. However, Lin Yuan and Su Qing were positioned too far forward and were cut off by the crowd.

Lin Yuan used his skill—a shield—to block the attacks of three people. But a fourth person circled around from the side and punched him in the lower back.

Before Su Qing's healing skill could finish casting, two people grabbed her arms.

"Brother Lang!" Zhao Qiang turned around and looked.

Zhou Lang stopped.

There's no escape. Both ends of the corridor are blocked.

He pushed Han Yingying behind him, about to make a move, when Zhong Ming's voice rang out: "Don't hit her in the face, don't kill her, just make them leave the instance."

Zhou Lang's "scare ghosts" skill is useless against living people. The props he has are not combat-oriented either.

Just as he was thinking about how to break the deadlock, a member of the Shattered Star Guild rushed in front of him and slashed down with his short sword.

Zhou Lang dodged to the side, grabbed the other person's wrist and pulled them forward, using the momentum to throw them away. But immediately a second and a third pounced on him.

"Han Yingying, your control skills—"

"Cooling down, forty seconds left." Han Yingying's voice was steady.

Forty seconds is too long.

Lin Yuan was already at his limit. His shield shattered, and he was surrounded by three people, sustaining several wounds. Su Qing fared even worse; someone stepped on her hand, causing her to cry out in pain.

Zhou Lang was surrounded by five people. He parried twice, but failed to block the third kick and took a kick to his ribs. It hurt, but he could bear it.

Zhao Qiang rushed forward to help, but was pushed to the ground and had his back stepped on.

"Stop struggling." Zhong Ming walked over, looking down at Zhou Lang. "Just obediently exit the dungeon. Be more obedient next time, and things won't come to this—"

He didn't finish his sentence.

Because a hand reached out from behind him and put it on his shoulder.

Zhong Ming froze. Not out of fear, but because there was a force in that hand that made him completely immobile.

"That's enough," a woman's voice said.

Zhou Lang looked up.

A woman in a black trench coat stood behind Zhong Ming, her hand on his shoulder and her other hand in her pocket. Her badge was an "X".

X Union.

Zhou Lang had heard of this name before. It was the most mysterious guild in legend, with very few members, but each one was a top expert. No one knew who their guild leader was, nor did anyone know the requirements for joining.

Zhong Ming's face was grim. "Your X Guild is going to interfere?"

"This isn't interference." The woman in black released her grip and took two steps to the side. "It's a warning. You can't touch these two people."

"Why should I?" Vice President Blood Flag retorted.

The woman in black glanced at him. Just one glance.

Vice President Blood Flag took a half step back and said nothing more.

The other members of the Shattered Star Guild also stopped and looked at Zhong Ming.

Zhong Ming was silent for a few seconds, then gritted his teeth. "Let's go."

Twenty-three people left. As they left, Zhong Ming glanced back at Zhou Lang, his eyes conveying a clear message—this wasn't over.

The corridor returned to silence.

Zhou Lang rushed to Lin Yuan and Su Qing's side immediately. Lin Yuan was alright; although injured, he could still move. Su Qing's hand was swollen from being stepped on, and she couldn't bend any of her ten fingers.

"It's okay, I can heal myself." Su Qing bit her lip as she applied the treatment to herself, but her hands were trembling violently.

Han Yingying squatted down to support her wrist.

Zhou Lang turned around and looked at the woman in black.

"Thank you," he said, "but why are you helping us?"

The woman in black smiled, her gaze falling on Han Yingying for a couple of seconds.

"She'll find out eventually."

After saying that, the woman in black turned and left.

"Wait a minute—" Zhou Lang wanted to ask.

"Don't chase after them." The woman in black didn't turn her head. "There are still monsters to deal with in the dungeon. You guys need to survive first."

The person is gone.

Zhou Lang stood there, pondering the sentence. "She" refers to Han Yingying. What is the relationship between the X Guild and Han Yingying?

He turned to look at Han Yingying, who also looked bewildered.

"Do you know her?"

"I don't know him." Han Yingying shook her head.

strangeness.

Zhao Qiang got up from the ground and dusted himself off. "Brother Lang, I almost died here."

"If I can't explain it, the most I can do is exit the instance."

"That's still a loss!"

Zhou Lang didn't reply; he was thinking about something else.

There was a bug in this dungeon—he noticed it the moment he teleported in. A line of garbled text flashed briefly in the upper right corner of the system panel. This doesn't happen in normal dungeons.

There was a similar anomaly in the last instance, but it wasn't as obvious as this one.

He hadn't mentioned it to anyone else because he wasn't sure what it meant. But now, after what had just happened, he felt it necessary to investigate.