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

"I want to sleep." The man closed his eyes. "A real sleep. The lock is open, and I can leave. But this house is unattended; it will collapse. If it collapses, the place where my daughter lived will be gone."

Zhou Lang understood what he meant. The old man wanted to be free, but he couldn't let go of the house.

He suddenly thought of Zhao Qiang.

"Old man," Zhou Lang squatted down, "could you find someone else to manage this house?"

The person on the bed opened their eyes and looked at him.

"You leave the housekeeper and the rules behind, and he becomes the master." Zhou Lang pointed at Zhao Qiang. "You're free, the house is safe, and you get the best of both worlds."

Zhao Qiang's eyes widened: "Change...change me?"

"Do you want to complete the game?" Zhou Lang asked him.

"Yes, I do."

"The condition for clearing this instance is to take over the manor," Zhou Lang said. "When I came in, I saw the completion prompt—'Give the manor a new owner.' Killing ghosts is useless, and you can't escape either; the only way is to take over."

Han Yingying then realized what was going on. She had always thought this instance was about killing time and avoiding ghosts, but it turned out that Zhou Lang had been looking for a way to "take over" from the very first day he arrived. He worked diligently during the day to accumulate ratings and studied the basement at night, all for this purpose.

Her gaze towards Zhou Lang changed again. This man wasn't reckless; he assessed the situation before making a move.

"But if I take over," Zhao Qiang's voice trembled, "won't I be unable to get out?"

"No." Zhou Lang shook his head. "The master doesn't need to stay inside all the time. He just said that he can leave once the lock is opened. After you take over, just carry the 'key' to the manor with you, and you can still leave the instance. The manor recognizes the key, not where you are."

He said it half because he was pushing the issue, and half because he was gambling. But he said it with absolute certainty.

The old man on the bed looked at them and suddenly smiled. "You young man, you're better at calculations than I am."

"You flatter me." Zhou Lang placed the brass key into Zhao Qiang's hand. "Hold it."

Zhao Qiang's hands were trembling. He looked at the keys, then at Zhou Lang. Over the years, from elementary school to high school, Zhou Lang had shielded him from countless troubles; he couldn't even remember them all. Yet, every time, Zhou Lang was the same, as if everything was within his calculations. Sometimes Zhao Qiang even wondered if this guy had long since ceased to be human.

"Don't worry." Zhou Lang patted him on the shoulder. "I'll take care of it if anything goes wrong."

With just this one sentence, Zhao Qiang's hand stopped shaking.

The old man slowly sat up in bed. He reached out and lightly pressed his hand on the back of Zhao Qiang's hand, which was gripping the keys.

"The manor is now in your hands."

A grayish-white aura emanated from the old man and entered Zhao Qiang's body. Zhao Qiang stiffened, let out a muffled groan, and a faint light appeared on the key.

On the bed, the body slowly deflated, eventually turning into a thin layer of ash that scattered on the sheets.

The old man was relieved.

Zhao Qiang stood there, his face pale, but there was something else in his eyes. He could sense the movement throughout the entire manor—the ghosts upstairs, the pendulum in the hall, even the wind in the corridor outside.

"I... have become the master?" he murmured.

"Congratulations." Zhou Lang put the chainsaw back into his inventory. "Now, send us out."

Zhao Qiang then remembered his important task and frantically tried to understand the rules of the manor. After a moment, he looked up: "The completion prompt has appeared! It says... it says the manor owner can decide the completion time."

"Then let's do it now," Zhou Lang said.

"Wait," Han Yingying suddenly spoke. She had been staring at the empty bed, and now she frowned. "Don't you guys find it strange? This is a C-rank instance, yet the rules are so complicated. And what that old man said about 'my daughter passing away from illness'—the instance description didn't mention a daughter at all."

A very soft sound suddenly came from the direction of the hall.

The three of them looked over together.

The sound came from the direction of the hall; it was very soft, like something had fallen to the ground.

Zhou Lang gestured for the two to stay still. He held up the oil lamp and slowly moved towards the stairwell. The green light shone up, but the stairs were empty; there was nothing there.

"It's probably the house making that noise," Zhao Qiang said softly. "Old houses are all like that."

"No." Han Yingying stared in that direction. "I've heard that sound before. It sounds like glass."

Zhou Lang also began to have doubts. He had just dismantled the butler, released the master, and replaced Zhao Qiang—every step was part of his plan, except for this sound. He disliked things that weren't part of his plan the most.

He turned to look at Zhao Qiang: "You're the master now, can you sense how many 'things' are in the manor?"

Zhao Qiang closed his eyes, his facial muscles twitching. After a while, he opened his eyes: "Upstairs... there used to be a group of ghosts, now only phantoms remain, they've dispersed. But—" He paused, "in the hall, there's one more."

"One more?" Zhou Lang's eyebrows twitched.

"Yes," Zhao Qiang swallowed, "it wasn't originally from the manor. It's... it just came in."

Han Yingying's expression changed. "How could there be extra items in the dungeon out of nowhere?"

Zhou Lang didn't answer. His mind worked quickly. The ghosts in the manor were all created by the old man and were under Zhao Qiang's jurisdiction. Now that there's an extra one that's not under his jurisdiction, it means this thing came from outside the instance, or rather, it crawled in from somewhere else.

He recalled Han Yingying's earlier comment, "The rules for a C-level dungeon are this complicated."

A thought popped into my head: this instance might be being targeted by something else.

"Let's go up and take a look," Zhou Lang said.

"No!" Zhao Qiang grabbed him. "Can't we just leave after we get through customs? I'll take you out right now!"

"I'll send it over," Zhou Lang nodded, "but take a look first. I want to know what it is."

He wasn't being stubborn. He was thinking about his sister. Her disappearance was related to the game, and this strange phenomenon of "the dungeon being invaded by something foreign" might be a clue. That's why he'd entered so many dungeons. He couldn't ignore what he was seeing.

The three of them went up to the first floor.

In the very center of the hall stood a person.

She stood with her back to them, wearing a white dress, with long hair that reached below her waist, and remained motionless.

Zhao Qiang's legs went weak again.

Zhou Lang held the oil lamp forward. The green light shone on it, but the figure in the white dress didn't change—ordinary ghosts would reveal themselves or retreat at the sight of an oil lamp, but this one didn't.

"It's not afraid of lights," Zhou Lang said in a low voice.

Han Yingying stood half a step behind Zhou Lang. She gripped her short knife tightly. "A C-rank ghost couldn't possibly be unafraid of this lamp. This thing is higher level than the dungeon."

The figure in the white dress slowly turned her head.

There was no face. In front was a smooth, flat sheet of skin, completely bare.

Zhao Qiang gasped and stumbled backward, crashing into the wall.

Zhou Lang didn't back down. He stared at the faceless creature, his mind racing. This thing didn't belong to this instance; it was of a higher level and immune to oil lamps. A direct confrontation was a poor strategy. He currently had an oil lamp, scissors, a saw, and Zhao Qiang, the newly appointed manor owner—not many cards to play.

"Zhao Qiang," Zhou Lang said in a low voice, "how quickly can you send us away?"

"We need some time to gather our strength..."

"Gather".

The faceless thing didn't move or make a sound. It just "looked" at Zhou Lang and the other two, as if it were sizing them up.