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

Han Yingying hesitated for a moment: "I sensed it. It stopped on the roof for a while, as if... confirming something."

Zhou Lang glanced at her but didn't say anything, though he made a mental note of the information.

The cable car continued its journey. The first stop was completed safely.

Shen Lan sat down against the carriage wall, hugging her arms. She was clearly upset, but she held back her tears.

Zhang Tiezhu walked over to Han Yingying and lowered his voice: "What's your relationship with that guy? He seems pretty impressive."

"We met in the last dungeon," Han Ying said.

"How many times has he done this?"

Han Yingying thought for a moment. She wasn't really sure. Zhou Lang had never given a direct answer to this question.

"I don't know."

Zhang Tiezhu gave an "oh" and didn't ask any more questions. But his gaze towards Zhou Lang held a newfound scrutiny. Someone who could voluntarily form an alliance with a veteran player who had completed the game four times was no ordinary character.

-

The second parking came very suddenly.

The cable car traveled for about twenty minutes, then stopped abruptly without any warning.

Everyone reacted quickly this time, closing their eyes immediately.

Han Yingying's senses spread out once again.

This time it's different. It didn't come from above. It came from—

The carriage door is open.

Something has come in.

The footsteps were very light, like bare feet stepping on a metal floor. One step, two steps, three steps.

It stopped right in the middle of the carriage.

Han Ying didn't dare open her eyes. The rule said, "If someone gets on the bus, don't look at their face." It got on the bus.

But the wording of this rule is subtle—"Don't look at his face," rather than "Don't look at him."

In other words, you can open your eyes, but you can't look at faces.

Han Ying opened her eyes a crack, her gaze fixed on the ground.

She saw a pair of feet.

Barefoot, white feet, with black toenails.

Those feet stood motionless in the middle of the carriage.

Han Ying did not look up.

Zhou Lang's voice came through softly: "Don't look at her face. You can look at other parts."

He opened his eyes too.

Zhang Tiezhu hesitated for a moment, then squinted and looked down. Only Shen Lan kept her eyes tightly shut, too afraid to move.

Those bare feet stood there for about a minute.

Then it moved. It took a step towards Shen Lan.

Shen Lan's breathing became erratic instantly.

Han Yingying tensed up. She wanted to say something, but wasn't sure if making a sound would be against the rules—the rules didn't say she couldn't make a sound.

"Shen Lan," she said softly, "don't move, just close your eyes."

The feet stopped.

After standing there for a few more seconds, he turned towards the car door and got out.

The sound of the doors closing. The cable car restarted.

Han Yingying breathed a sigh of relief.

Shen Lan opened her eyes, her whole body trembling. She looked at Han Yingying, her lips moved, but she couldn't say a word.

"You did a great job," Han Yingying said. "It's okay as long as you didn't open your eyes."

Shen Lan nodded and finally managed to squeeze out, "Thank you."

Zhang Tiezhu exhaled: "Damn, this is too exciting."

Zhou Lang leaned against the carriage wall, took something out and twirled it in his hand. Han Yingying glanced at it—it was the black badge she got from the previous dungeon.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked.

"I'm wondering what the final destination will be." Zhou Lang put away his badge. "The rules are too simple."

"Isn't simplicity better?"

"The simpler the rules, the more variables there are," he said. "Haven't you noticed? The rules only mention three situations—stopping, someone boarding, and the final stop. But they don't say what happens if someone breaks the rules."

Han Yingying frowned. He was right. Usually, the rules for copying content would specify penalties for violations. This one didn't.

"So you think—"

"The punishment could be instant death," Zhou Lang said, "the kind without warning."

Silence fell over the carriage.

The cable car stopped and started intermittently.

The third time she stopped, Han Yingying counted the time; it had been exactly three minutes. Nothing was put on the car, and nothing passed over the roof. It was simply parked.

But everyone kept their eyes closed, and no one dared to gamble.

The fourth time we parked, more things came up.

This time, Han Yingying observed more carefully. She looked down at the ground and saw a pair of bare feet walk in, circle the carriage, and then—

It stopped in front of Zhou Lang.

Han Yingying's heart clenched.

Those feet were facing Zhou Lang, less than half a meter away.

Zhou Lang remained motionless. His breathing rate was exactly the same as usual.

That thing stood in front of him for a long time. Longer than ever before.

Han Yingying counted the seconds. Ten seconds, twenty seconds, thirty seconds.

Her keen senses told her that the thing was bending over.

It bent down and approached Zhou Lang's face.

Han Yingying wanted to warn him to be careful, but she swallowed the words back. Zhou Lang knew the rules better than she did. He wouldn't look up.

Forty seconds.

Those feet took a step back. Then they turned and walked towards the car door.

The doors close. The cable car starts moving.

Zhou Lang's voice rang out: "It's smelling it."

"Smell what?" Zhang Tiezhu asked.

"Smell if it smells on us," Zhou Lang said. "I have some ghostly energy from the last instance on me, so it lingered a little longer."

Han Yingying remembered—Zhou Lang had merged with the bandaged ghost in the haunted manor. He was indeed different from ordinary people.

"Won't it mistake you for one of its own kind?" she asked.

"No," Zhou Lang said with certainty. "If it considers me one of its own kind, it won't leave. It will stay."

He spoke in a very flat tone, as if he were talking about what to eat today.

Zhang Tiezhu stared at Zhou Lang, his Adam's apple bobbing. Who was this guy? How could he be so calm when he exuded ghostly energy?

Han Yingying, who cleared the level four times, has proactively formed an alliance with him. Something's not right.

He began to seriously assess his position in the team.

"It might stop again," Zhou Lang said, "but there are only four rules. As long as you don't make any mistakes, you just need to make it to the finish line."

"The question is, where is the finish line?" Han Yingying said.

The cable car journey was uncertain. There was no timer, and no landmarks outside the window. Only gray fog.

Shen Lan finally recovered somewhat from her fear. Her adaptability was stronger than Han Yingying had expected. It was already quite an achievement that she could hold back her screams after experiencing something like this for the first time.

"I have a question." Shen Lan raised her hand, her movements a little hesitant. "Rule number one, don't knock on the glass. This rule hasn't been triggered yet."

Han Ying nodded. Indeed, the second and third conditions have been triggered so far.

"What if the glass breaks on its own?" Shen Lan asked.

Everyone looked out the window.

The glass was intact. But Shen Lan's question pointed in another direction—what if something broke the glass from the outside?

"The rule says 'don't knock,'" Zhou Lang said. "The subject is us. Whether or not things outside break is not within the scope of the rule."

"What if something outside knocks?"

Zhou Lang didn't answer. He didn't know.

This is what he meant by "the rules are too simple, but there are too many variables."

The cable car ran for about twenty more minutes. Han Yingying began to sense some changes.

The haze outside the window is thinning.

It's not just thinning little by little; it's clearly dissipating. The outline of the mountains can be faintly seen in the distance.

"Are we almost there?" Zhang Tiezhu leaned closer to the window.

"Don't get too close," Han Yingying warned, "What if your hand touches the glass—"