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

At the end of the basement was a wall.

A small iron door, much smaller than the one upstairs, was embedded in the wall, and a dark red light seeped through the cracks in the door.

Zhou Lang approached with the oil lamp in hand. The iron gate wasn't locked; there was only a round turntable. He tried turning it, but the turntable didn't budge.

"A password is required," Han Yingying said.

"How many digits?" Zhao Qiang leaned closer to look.

The dial is engraved with the numbers 0 to 9, only three digits.

Zhou Lang thought for a moment and dialed "714".

With a click, the door opened.

Zhao Qiang was stunned: "How did you know?"

"The butler gets paid at seven every day, and the manor has fourteen rooms," Zhou Lang said. "All the rules here are related to these two numbers."

Han Yingying glanced at him but didn't say anything. She had already noticed this, but hadn't had a chance to verify it yet.

Behind the door was a small room, with a wooden crate in the center. The crate was covered in a layer of dust and hadn't been touched in a long time.

Zhou Lang stepped forward and opened the box.

Inside lay a yellowed diary and a black badge.

The last page of the diary reads: "The owner of the manor is not a person, nor are the workers. The only thing that is real is the pay. Take the money you've earned and leave, and the gates will be open for you."

"That's it?" Zhao Qiang asked incredulously. "We can leave as long as we save enough money?"

"Not only that." Zhou Lang flipped to the middle of the diary and pointed to a line: "People who go out every night will have their wages deducted. If the deductions go into negative territory, they become part of the manor."

Zhao Qiang's expression changed: "Then what about last night—"

"I wasn't detained last night when I went out." Zhou Lang put away his diary, picked up the black badge and looked at it. "The effect of the oil lamp. Going out with an oil lamp lit isn't a violation."

He put the badge in his pocket.

"So what do we do now?" Han Yingying asked.

"Go back to sleep, work normally tomorrow, and leave once you've saved up a thousand in wages."

"I already have six hundred," Han Yingying said.

"I also have six hundred," Zhao Qiang raised his hand.

Zhou Lang took out his money and counted it: "One thousand two hundred."

The two fell silent.

"...Did you know from the beginning?" Han Yingying's tone was not one of doubt.

Zhou Lang didn't answer, and turned to walk back.

Zhao Qiang muttered under his breath, "This guy is really..."

The next morning, the three of them went to work as usual. When it was time to settle their wages at 7 p.m., Han Yingying and Zhao Qiang both had earned more than a thousand yuan.

After killing the butler and distributing his wages, he looked at the three of them, and a snapping sound came from his empty eye sockets.

"Congratulations everyone, the project is now complete."

It stepped aside, revealing the door behind it. The door was open, and outside was a burst of white light.

"Wandering freely, extra reward: Black Badge x1, Contract Fragment x1."

"Zhao Qiang, Bonus Reward: Copper Coin Bag x1"

"Han Ying, Bonus Rewards: Spiritual Sensing x1, Contract Fragment x1"

Han Yingying felt a warm current flow into her body. She looked down at her hands; fine lines appeared on her skin and then disappeared.

"What is this?" she wanted to ask, but the white light had already engulfed everything.

-

Han Yingying opened her eyes.

The ceiling is white. Her ceiling.

She lay in her bed, covered with her own blanket, her phone beside her pillow. The screen was lit, showing 7:15 AM.

The alarm clock is ringing.

She turned off the alarm clock and stared at the ceiling for a long time.

The manor. The oil lamp. The ghost. Zhou Lang. Zhao Qiang. Everything was vividly clear in my mind, every detail almost too clear to ignore.

But she is now lying in her own home.

Han Yingying sat up and checked herself. She was wearing pajamas, shorts, and her hair was loose. Just like any other ordinary morning.

She lifted the blanket; there were no marks on her body.

Dream?

It was so real. She could recall the smell of dust in the basement, and the sound of Zhao Qiang's sweaty palms rubbing against the doorknob.

She opened her phone's photo album and scrolled to yesterday's records. There was nothing there, except for a photo of takeout she had taken the day before.

"Yingying, breakfast is ready." Her stepmother's voice came from outside the door.

"Coming," Han Yingying replied, getting out of bed to wash up.

I looked perfectly normal in the mirror. My complexion was good, and my eyes were bright; I didn't look like someone who had gone through three terrifying days of work.

When she came out after washing her face, her stepmother had already served the porridge. Plain porridge with pickled vegetables, just like every day.

Stepsister Han Xiaoyu was sitting across from her playing on her phone. When she saw her come out, she looked up and said, "Sis, you look great today."

"Mm." Han Ying sat down and picked up her spoon.

Everything was too normal. So normal that she began to wonder if she had just had an unusually long dream.

But she could feel the reward of that "sensitive perception".

While eating her porridge, she heard her downstairs neighbor stirring a wok, and the faint scraping sound of Han Xiaoyu's phone screen scrolling in the next room. These sounds had never been so clear before.

Not a dream.

Han Yingying put down her spoon, her mind racing. If it wasn't a dream, how did she get back? The white light followed her directly to bed, without any transition.

"Sister, aren't you going to eat?" Han Xiaoyu asked.

"I'm full." Han Yingying got up and went back to her room.

She locked the door, sat on the edge of the bed, and tried to recall every detail.

The butler said "The project is finished," gave me a reward, and then there was a white light. Then came this morning's alarm clock.

She looked at her hands. Her senses were acute. This thing truly existed within her; it wasn't an illusion.

There were also fragments of the contract. She didn't know what they were, but she could feel that something had increased, like an extra puzzle piece had been added to her body. The piece was in the right position, but the picture was incomplete.

Where's Zhou Lang? Where's Zhao Qiang? Have they come back too?

Han Yingying picked up her phone and scrolled through her contacts. Zhou Lang's number wasn't there. He had never given her his contact information. Zhao Qiang's wasn't there either.

She thought for a moment and then opened her friend Liu Siqi's chat window.

"Siqi, are you free today? Let's go out for dinner."

The message received a reply in less than a minute.

"Okay, okay! Noon or evening?"

"Noon, I guess."

"Roger that! See you at the usual place!"

Han Yingying put down her phone. She needed to be with normal people to confirm that she was still normal.

At 11:30 a.m., she arrived at her usual mala tang restaurant near the school. Liu Siqi was already choosing her ingredients and waved when she saw her.

"Over here! The bean curd sheets are fresh today, grab some quickly!"

Han Yingying took a bowl and started picking at her food. Enoki mushrooms, potato slices, luncheon meat. The same choices as before.

While we sat down to wait for the food to cook, Liu Siqi leaned over and said, "Have you been on a diet lately? You look thinner."

"no."

"Your complexion is so good! Your skin is practically glowing." Liu Siqi looked her up and down. "What skincare products are you using?"

"I didn't change it," Han Yingying said. "Maybe I slept well."

"Fine, if you don't want to talk about it, then forget it." Liu Siqi pouted and started talking about the dramas she had been watching recently.

Han Yingying listened, occasionally offering a few words of response. Everything seemed normal. People came and went on the street, steam rose from the shops, and Liu Siqi went on and on about gossip.

There were no ghosts, no manor, and no butler murder.