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

[Punishment Location: Horrifying B&B. Countdown: 18 hours. Please wait at the designated location for your arrival.]

A terrifying guesthouse.

The name made Han Yingying's heart skip a beat. She didn't know why—she shouldn't react to any name given her amnesia—but she was terrified.

A fear that comes from deep within the body, bypassing memory and acting directly on instinct.

She had been to that place before.

And it's dangerous there.

The next day at four o'clock in the afternoon, Han Yingying stood in the living room, waiting for the so-called "guidance".

Her stepmother sat on the sofa watching TV, while Chen Xiaoman went out. No one asked her why she was standing in the living room, lost in thought.

At exactly four o'clock, the living room lights went out.

The TV was still on, but the picture was static. The stepmother glanced up, then looked at Han Yingying, her expression calm: "Here we go again."

Before Han Yingying could speak, the floor beneath her feet began to shake. It wasn't the shaking of an earthquake, but a rhythmic tremor, as if something was moving underground.

A crack appeared in the floor in the center of the living room. A dark red light shone through the crack.

"Let's go," the stepmother said, turning her eyes back to the television. "Remember to eat when you get back."

The crack widened, and suddenly Han Yingying's feet lost their footing—

She fell.

The fall was brief, perhaps only two or three seconds. But in those two or three seconds, Han Yingying felt her body being torn apart, as if something had pierced through her.

Then she stood on a road.

It was an asphalt road with wasteland on both sides. The sky was gray, and the sun was nowhere to be seen. At the end of the road, there was a bus stop sign, and five or six people were standing next to it.

Han Yingying looked down at herself. Her clothes were unchanged, and her phone was still in her pocket. She took it out and glanced at it. There was no signal, but a new icon had appeared on the screen—a black gear. Clicking on it displayed a line of text:

[Player: Han Ying]

[Level: Newcomer]

[Skills: None]

[Number of dungeons cleared: 0]

Players? Dungeon?

She scrolled down further and saw a line of small print:

[Punishment Quest: Complete the Horrifying Inn instance once with a rating of "Pass" or higher to remove the punishment. Failure will result in permanent confinement to the Strange Dimension.]

To remain permanently.

Han Yingying put her phone back in her pocket and walked towards the bus stop.

As I got closer, I could see that the people next to the bus stop were also looking at their phones. Their expressions varied—some were tense, some were calm, and one tall man was even smiling.

A woman in a black leather jacket was the first to notice Han Yingying approaching. The woman looked to be in her late twenties, tall and with delicate features, and had an unlit cigarette dangling from her lips.

"A newcomer?" the woman asked.

Han Yingying did not answer.

"Don't be afraid, this is my second time too." A thin boy wearing glasses leaned over, forcing a smile. "What's your name? My name is Lin Yuan."

"Han Ying"

"Let's all introduce ourselves," the tall man said, his voice carrying an undeniable air of authority. "So that we don't end up not even knowing each other's names when we're working together later."

He introduced himself: "My name is Sun Lei, I'm a C-level player, and I've cleared three dungeons."

Grade C. Han Yingying didn't know what this meant, but judging from the expressions of the others, it seemed pretty good.

The woman in the leather jacket: "Qin Wan, D-rank, has cleared one level."

The bespectacled man: "Lin Yuan, D-level, one."

A short, chubby man in sportswear: "Fatty Liu, D-grade, one."

There was also a man who hadn't said a word, leaning against the bus stop sign with his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. His hood was pulled low, so his face wasn't visible.

"Hey, what about you?" Sun Lei looked at the person.

The man didn't move.

Sun Lei frowned, but didn't press the matter. He turned to Han Yingying: "And you? What's your level?"

Everyone was looking at her.

Han Ying's mind raced. Her character panel read "Newbie," with zero completed dungeons. To be honest, she was the weakest among them. In this environment where the rules were unknown, exposing her weaknesses was the stupidest thing to do.

She opened her mouth, and a lie slipped out: "Rank C, I cleared a Rank C dungeon."

The moment she spoke, her phone vibrated.

She didn't look immediately. But she sensed something had changed. A slight, warm sensation spread from her fingertips throughout her body, lasting for about two seconds before disappearing.

Sun Lei was visibly surprised. "Grade C?" He looked Han Yingying up and down. "You look very young."

"She looks younger than her age," Han Yingying said.

Sun Lei didn't press the matter further, but there was something more in his eyes—it was unclear whether it was respect or wariness.

When no one was looking, Han Ying took out her phone and glanced at it.

The panel has changed.

[Player: Han Ying]

[Level: C]

[Skill: Deceiver (Passive) - Your lies will be recognized as "facts" by the system. This skill becomes ineffective when the lie is exposed.]

[Dungeon cleared: 1 (Rank C)]

Han Yingying stared at the screen, her fingers trembling slightly.

She just told a lie. Then the system changed her information and gave her a skill.

A con artist. Lies are perceived as facts.

What does this mean? If she says she's a C-level, does the system actually change her to a C-level? What if she says she's an S-level?

She hesitated for a moment and didn't try. The skill description said, "It fails when the lie is exposed." If she exaggerated too much and was exposed, she might not even be able to keep her current C-rank.

Let's keep this as a trump card for now.

The sound of an engine could be heard in the distance.

A bus drove in from under the gray sky; its body was black, not the normal color of a bus. A pale light shone from the windows, and one could vaguely see people sitting inside.

The bus stopped at the bus stop. The doors opened.

The driver was a person—or rather, a thing—in a gray uniform. Because it had no face. A patch of smooth, gray skin covered its entire face, devoid of features, but its head was clearly facing the group at the door.

"You need to pay the fare to get on the bus." It spoke, its voice coming from the very center of its face, as if there was a hole in it. "One weird coin per person."

Sun Lei was the first to act. He took a black coin out of his pocket and dropped it into the coin box next to the driver. The coin landed with a dull thud.

"Pass," the driver said.

Sun Lei got into the car.

Qin Wan was the second. She also cast a ball.

Lin Yuan and Liu Pang followed.

It was the man in the hat's turn. He also took out a coin and tossed it in casually, without saying a word the whole time.

Han Yingying was the last one.

She felt her pockets. Nothing. She had no weird coins.

"You need to pay the fare before you get on the bus," the driver repeated.

Han Yingying stood by the car door, her palms sweating. Everyone on the car was staring at her. Sun Lei leaned back in his seat, raising an eyebrow slightly.

Fraudster.

Lies will be recognized as facts by the system.

Han Yingying reached into her pocket and clenched her fist. Then she pulled her hand out, pinching it between her index finger and thumb—there was nothing there.