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

"Don't touch him yet." The woman from the X Guild walked over, squatted down, and glanced at Lin Yue's wound. "His internal organs aren't damaged, but he's lost too much blood. Your potion is too slow; use this instead."

She tossed me a small white bottle.

Zhou Lang caught the bottle, opened the cap, and poured it onto Lin Yue's wound. The bleeding stopped immediately, and the wound healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"What is this thing?" Zhao Qiang was dumbfounded.

"A four-star potion," the woman said. "Don't waste it, give some to that girl over there too."

Zhou Lang used the rest of the medicine to treat Su Yao's wounds. Their conditions stabilized; although they were still weak, they were at least out of danger.

"Thanks." Zhou Lang stood up, looking at the woman in front of him. "Why did you help us?"

The woman smiled and pushed her sunglasses up to her forehead. She glanced at Han Yingying: "You'll find out eventually."

Han Yingying frowned: "What do you mean?"

"Literal meaning." The woman put down her sunglasses, dusted off her hands, and said, "Alright, you guys get back to work. With those people blocking the way, you don't need to worry about the low-level monsters. Just focus on the mission."

The five men in black trench coats turned and left, their departure swift and decisive.

Zhou Lang looked at Han Yingying: "You know them?"

"I don't know him." Han Yingying shook her head, her eyes filled with confusion.

She said you'll find out later; there has to be a reason.

"I really don't know," Han Ying said earnestly.

Zhou Lang didn't press the matter further. There were more important things to do right now—the dungeon quest wasn't finished, and the strange creature was still roaming the hospital.

"Let's get the task done first," he said.

It took more than four hours to clear the instance.

The process wasn't smooth. The SS-level anomalies were stronger than those they had encountered before. Fortunately, the guild members had cleared out most of the lower-level anomalies on the perimeter, so Zhou Lang and his group only needed to deal with the higher-level anomalies in the morgue.

The final boss was a faceless nurse, with a strength of three and a half stars. It took Zhou Lang and Han Yingying twenty minutes to defeat her.

Dungeon rating: SS.

All copies, highest rating.

As the teleportation light to leave the instance illuminated, Zhou Lang noticed something strange—a glowing crack in the corner of the morgue. It was so small that it was almost invisible if you weren't paying attention.

"Did you see that?" he asked Han Yingying in a low voice.

"Hmm." Han Yingying was also looking at it. "It looks like a bug."

"What do you mean?"

"It means exactly what it says. Something that shouldn't exist in the game," Han Yingying said. "I've seen similar posts on the forum before, where people said they found unusual rifts in dungeons. But those posts were quickly deleted."

The teleportation light completely enveloped them, and the crack disappeared from their sight.

Upon returning to the real world, the first thing Zhou Lang did was check the forums.

He searched for two hours but found nothing. Han Yingying was right; the relevant posts had indeed been deleted.

"Someone is controlling the information," Zhou Lang said to the bandaged man.

"You just realized?" the bandaged man replied.

"Do you know what that crack is?"

"I don't know," the bandaged man said, "but I can sense that thing doesn't belong to the instance. How should I put it... it's like a crack appeared in a wall, and behind the crack is another space."

"Haven't you been in the game all this time? You should know more."

"It's true I'm in the game, but a lot of things changed during the time I was sealed away." The bandaged man paused. "And my access to information is limited. Don't treat me like an encyclopedia."

Zhou Lang thought for a moment: "Have you heard of that X Guild?"

"I've heard of them," the bandaged man said. "A very mysterious group. They're all very strong, keep a low profile, and never participate in player-versus-player battles. Except for today."

Why are you helping us?

"Ask me? How would I know?"

Zhou Lang sighed. There were too few clues.

The next day, he arranged to meet Han Yingying at a coffee shop. Zhao Qiang also came; Lin Yue and Su Yao were still resting at home because their injuries hadn't fully healed.

"I want to investigate that bug," Zhou Lang said bluntly.

"Me too," Han Ying said. "But where do we even begin? All the posts have been deleted, and we can't contact the people who posted them."

"I have an idea," Zhou Lang said. "Next time we enter a dungeon, we'll look for it specifically. If every dungeon has similar cracks, then it means this isn't a coincidence."

"You want to deliberately go into a dungeon to find bugs?" Zhao Qiang's expression was priceless. "Are you tired of living?"

"It wasn't something we actively sought out in the dungeon," Zhou Lang said. "We just looked for it while we were in the dungeon."

The three discussed it for a long time, but couldn't come to a conclusion. There was too little information; they could only wait until the next instance.

When Zhou Lang left the coffee shop, he found Shen Mo standing at the door.

"You've been following us?" Zhao Qiang's expression was grim.

"I live right across the street." Shen Mo pointed to the apartment building across the street. "I saw you guys when I came out to buy something."

"What a coincidence?" Zhao Qiang didn't believe it.

Shen Mo ignored him and looked at Zhou Lang: "Are you investigating the rifts in the dungeon?"

Zhou Lang and Han Yingying exchanged a glance. Shen Mo's ears are too sharp.

"You know?" Zhou Lang asked.

"I've seen it too," Shen Mo said. "More than once."

"When did this happen?"

"I saw it once during my fifth dungeon run. I didn't pay attention at the time, but it became more and more frequent later." Shen Mo's tone was very calm, as if he were talking about the weather.

Zhou Lang sized him up. Shen Mo was a difficult person to understand from their first meeting. He didn't get close to anyone, nor did he get into conflicts with anyone. Last time when they were surrounded, he stood by and watched, neither helping nor causing trouble.

But now he's come to me on his own initiative.

"What do you want?" Zhou Lang asked.

"Cooperation," Shen Mo said. "You investigate yours, I'll investigate mine, and we'll share information."

"Why should I trust you?" Zhao Qiang asked.

"Trust is unnecessary," Shen Mo said. "I have leads you don't, and you have manpower I don't. It's mutually beneficial."

Zhou Lang pondered for a few seconds. He had witnessed Shen Mo's strength; it was no weaker than his own. If Shen Mo was an enemy, keeping him around wasn't safe. But if he could be utilized…

"What clue?"

"The rifts don't appear randomly," Shen Mo said. "They follow a pattern. They always appear near the core area of ​​the instance, and they can only be seen when players meet certain conditions."

"What are the conditions?"

"The dungeon rating is S or higher."

Zhou Lang frowned. They always got the highest rating in dungeons, so they could see it every time. This explained why most players didn't know about the rift—there were very few people who could get an S rating or higher.

"Okay," Zhou Lang said. "Let's cooperate."

Zhao Qiang opened his mouth to object, but Han Yingying tugged at his sleeve.

"But there's one thing," Zhou Lang added, "You must tell us anything you discover immediately. If you keep it to yourself, our cooperation ends here."

"No problem." Shen Mo nodded.

Over the next week, the four split up. Shen Mo was responsible for gathering information in the underground sections of the player forums, Zhou Lang and Han Yingying organized the details they had observed in the previous dungeons, and Zhao Qiang went to inquire about the X Guild.