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

This statement is somewhat flawed, but the logic is sound. In this bizarre world, lone players are the easiest to bully.

Lin Shuang looked at Shen Du.

Shen Du sat in the farthest corner, sheathing his short sword. Sensing her gaze, he raised his eyelids slightly.

"Why are you looking at me?" he said. "I'm not leaving."

Lin Shuang opened her mouth, but ultimately said nothing.

She lowered her head and stared at the black stone slabs on the ground for several seconds. Her nose felt a little sore, and she blinked hard twice.

"Fine," she said, "then we won't untie you."

The monkey slapped its thigh: "That's more like it!"

"But," Lin Shuang looked up, "it's going to be very dangerous. The Purgatory Guild isn't joking; Pei Jin really will hunt us down. You need to be mentally prepared."

"Ready?" Ayao said.

Old Qian scratched his head: "Could you wait until I replenish my treatment potions before preparing..."

Lin Shuang smiled. It was brief, fleeting.

She stood up, stretched her wrists, walked to the information board, pulled up the map of the area around the base, and began planning her next move.

The most important thing right now is to leave the Purgatory Guild's territory. Safe havens can't be stayed indefinitely; the strange world has rules—if you don't enter a dungeon within a safe haven for more than 72 hours, you'll be forcibly teleported to a random location.

There is less than a day left in the 72-hour period.

"We need to enter the next instance before tomorrow." Lin Shuang pointed to several glowing dots on the map. "These are the nearby instance entrances. The closest one is three kilometers northeast of the stronghold."

"Three kilometers." The monkey made a face. "The people from Purgatory are definitely squatting outside."

"So we won't go northeast." Lin Shuang's finger swiped to the other end of the map. "We'll go southwest. We'll take a longer route, passing through the neutral zone, and enter another instance."

"What level is that instance in the southwest?" Old Qian asked.

Lin Shuang checked the information board: "Grade B. 'Bone Mine'."

"Grade B is good, Grade B is safe." Old Qian patted his chest.

"Don't get too excited." Shen Du stood up and walked over to look at the map. "To the southwest, we have to cross a no-man's-land. There are no outposts or safe zones. If the people from Purgatory also plan to take this route, we'll have nowhere to hide if we encounter them in the wild."

"What should we do then? We can't just sit here and wait to be teleported to a random location, can we?" the monkey said. "Random teleportation is even more dangerous; who knows where we'll be thrown?"

Lin Shuang stared at the map and thought for a while.

"We'll split into two groups," she said. "Old Qian, A Yao, and Monkey, you three form a team and head northeast. Make it look like you're going to enter that instance."

"Bare bait?" The monkey understood immediately.

"Yes. Most of the people from Purgatory are lying in wait in the northeast. After the three of you go out, they will most likely chase after you. But you don't need to go too far—just circle back to the base. They can't make a move inside the base."

"And what about you and Shen Du?" A Yao asked.

"While they're chasing you, Shen Du and I will head southwest. Once we reach the dungeon entrance, I'll send you a party invitation from inside, and you can teleport directly over."

Team invitations allow teammates to be teleported into dungeons across distances, which is one of the benefits of team binding.

Old Qian thought for a moment: "What if they don't chase us?"

"You're so fat, you're such a big target, who else would I chase if not you?" the monkey said.

Old Qian: "..."

"Don't worry," Lin Shuang said. "The person Yang Ge is looking for is me. They'll first check if I'm among you. If they find I'm not, they'll change direction. But by then, we'll have already arrived."

"Time difference," Shen Du summarized.

"Yes. The key is this time difference."

After discussing the matter, everyone rested. There were still ten hours before departure, so they needed to be well-rested.

Lin Shuang leaned against the wall and closed her eyes, but couldn't fall asleep.

She was thinking about something.

Yang Ge said, "Everyone in the live stream saw it"—meaning that not only the Purgatory Guild, but all guilds saw her performance in the S-rank dungeon.

Why is it only Purgatory that's causing trouble?

What about the other guilds? Are they observing? Or do they have other ideas?

She rolled over. She was overthinking things; she needed to address the immediate problem first.

Ten hours later.

The lights inside the base brightened, and the simulated "daytime" began.

Five people stood at the exit of the stronghold.

"Remember, head northeast after you get out, and make a big commotion," Lin Shuang told Lao Qian and the other two. "If you find yourself being chased, just run back. Don't linger."

"Okay, Mom." The monkey rolled its eyes.

Lin Shuang ignored him. She glanced at Shen Du, who nodded slightly.

"Walk."

Old Qian and his two companions stepped out of the wall of light first.

Lin Shuang stood inside the stronghold waiting. Five minutes later, a message notification came from the mark on her wrist—a coded message from Lao Qian.

"Someone else followed, at least seven or eight."

The plan is in effect.

"Let's go." Lin Shuang and Shen Du slipped out of the other exit of the stronghold and quickly moved southwest.

The gray wilderness was eerily empty. With no cover, two people running in this terrain would have nowhere to hide if they were discovered.

Shen Du led the way, keeping his pace neither too fast nor too slow. Going too fast would exhaust him, while going too slow risked being overtaken.

Two kilometers.

Two and a half kilometers.

Lin Shuang's heart was constantly in her throat. The imprint kept sending messages from Lao Qian—"Still chasing", "We're almost at the stronghold", "We've entered the stronghold, it's safe".

When the third message arrived, Lin Shuang and Shen Du could already see the dungeon entrance.

A black rift hovered in mid-air, surrounded by a swirling dark red aura. Above the rift floated two words—

"Dry bones".

B-level dungeon.

Lin Shuang immediately opened the team panel and sent a dungeon invitation to Lao Qian and the other two. Three beams of light appeared, and the figures of the three people materialized in front of the rift.

"Phew—" Old Qian bent over as soon as he landed. "I'm exhausted from running."

The monkey looked around: "Is no one chasing us?"

"Not yet," Shen Du said. "Go inside quickly."

When Lin Shuang opened her eyes, all she saw was the ceiling.

It's white and has a crack.

She recognized the ceiling. It was the ceiling of her rented bedroom, and the crack had been there since the first day she moved in.

The real world.

She sat up in bed, her head spinning. There was no black mark on her wrist—in the real world, that mark wouldn't appear. But she could feel its presence, like a small pebble buried beneath a vein.

The phone on the bedside table showed the time: 3:47 AM.

Lin Shuang rubbed her face. Every time she exited this bizarre world, it was the same—she woke up from a dream.

Her way of entering the supernatural world is by sleeping. Falling asleep is entering, and waking up is exiting. When she wakes up depends on the situation in the supernatural world; sometimes sleeping one night is equivalent to staying there for several days.