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

With Shen Mo's help, progress was indeed much faster. He somehow obtained a backup of the deleted posts, in which several players described similar experiences—seeing cracks in the core area of ​​the dungeon, and feeling a strong attraction upon approaching them.

"Has anyone tried to go in?" Han Yingying asked.

“There is one,” Shen Mo said. “The post says he put his hand into the crack.”

"and then?"

"Then his account was gone. Not dead, but the entire account disappeared. It was as if this person had never even entered the horror game."

Several people fell silent.

"So that crack might be the exit," Han Yingying suddenly said.

Everyone looked at her.

"Think about it," Han Yingying said, "No one can quit a horror game, right? But what if there's a loophole that allows someone to leave? That player's account disappears not because he died, but because he left the game."

"That's just your guess," Zhao Qiang said.

"No." Han Yingying's expression was somewhat strange. "It's not just a guess."

She closed her eyes and pressed her fingers to her temples. Zhou Lang noticed that her face had changed, becoming very pale.

"Yingying?"

"I remember now." Han Yingying's voice trembled slightly. "I remember..."

"What are you thinking about?"

Han Yingying opened her eyes. Her gaze had changed; it was no longer filled with confusion and bewilderment, but rather clear and certain.

"My memories," she said, "except for the part about meeting God, I remember everything else."

Zhou Lang waited for her to continue.

Han Yingying looked at him, her lips moving a few times, as if she was organizing her thoughts.

"The X Guild..." she said, "is one of my creations."

Quiet.

Zhao Qiang's mouth opened. Shen Mo's expression finally changed slightly—his eyebrows twitched.

Zhou Lang stared into Han Yingying's eyes: "Are you sure?"

"Confirmed," Han Yingying said. "I used to be... a max-level player. Currently, I'm the only one who has successfully logged out of the game."

"Wait," Zhao Qiang raised his hand. "You said you left the game? Then why are you still here?"

Han Yingying shook her head: "I can't remember that part. I remember leaving, but I don't remember why I came back. There's a blank period in my memory, which is related to God."

"So you used to be a big shot," Zhao Qiang's voice was slightly ethereal. "The top kind."

"Um."

"Then why didn't you say so sooner?"

"I didn't remember before," Han Ying said. "My memory just came back."

Zhou Lang remained silent. He was processing this information.

Han Yingying is the founder of the X Guild. She is the only max-level player who has ever left the game. She lost her memory for some reason and returned to the game.

This amount of information is enormous.

"What are you planning to do?" Zhou Lang asked.

Han Yingying was silent for a moment: "Let's not tell anyone yet. Although I've remembered the past, my current strength hasn't recovered. If those guilds find out my identity, there will be even more trouble."

Zhou Lang nodded; this assessment was reasonable.

But there was another thing Han Yingying didn't say aloud—she vaguely sensed something was wrong. She left the game, then came back. Part of her memory had been erased. Who did it? Why?

Looking at Zhou Lang's serious profile, she suppressed her question.

There's no need to make him worry until she figures it out.

A week after leaving the instance, Zhou Lang received a system notification.

[Congratulations to player Zhou Lang! All completed dungeons have received the highest rating. According to special rules, you have qualified for early participation in the "Guild Competition".]

Han Yingying also received the same notification.

"A guild tournament?" Zhou Lang stared at the system panel for a long time. He had seen this on the forums before; it was a large-scale competition among high-level players. The teams that made it to the finals could unlock an SS-level dungeon—the highest known difficulty level in the game.

"I'm qualified too," Shen Mo texted. He added, "I've had that qualification for a long time, but I've never used it."

"Why not use it?"

"It's pointless. One person can't go to an SS-rank dungeon."

Zhou Lang thought for a moment and sent a message to Han Ying: "What do you think?"

"I want to participate," Han Ying replied quickly. "The SS-level dungeon might be related to a bug. And if I had been a max-level player before, I might have found more clues in the SS-level dungeon."

"Where are Zhao Qiang and the others?"

"They're still missing a requirement. They need to complete three SS-rank dungeons to qualify for the competition."

This is a problem. The union competition requires a team of at least five people, and currently only three of them are qualified—Zhou Lang, Han Ying, and Shen Mo.

"Should we send them to run dungeons?"

"This is the only way."

That evening, the group met at Zhou Lang's rented apartment.

"So you mean we have to run three more SS-rank dungeons?" Zhao Qiang's expression was grim. "We almost got stabbed to death last time, and you're making me go again?"

"It's not that I want you to go," Zhou Lang said. "It's that only if you go can we gather enough people to form a team."

"Then why can't you go together?" Lin Yue asked. His injuries had mostly healed, but he still sounded a little weak.

Zhou Lang opened the system panel and showed them the rules of the guild competition.

Players who have already qualified for the competition are not allowed to enter regular dungeons during the competition. Violators will be disqualified.

Zhou Lang pointed to the rule: "See? Han Yingying, Shen Mo, and I are locked out now. We can't even go with you guys if we wanted to."

Zhao Qiang stared at the line of text for a long time: "So the three of us have to go by ourselves."

"right."

"Three times SS-rank."

"right."

"Do you know what the mortality rate is for SS-class ships?" Zhao Qiang asked.

"I know," Zhou Lang said, "but you're strong enough. I saw your performance in the last dungeon; you wouldn't have been injured at all if you hadn't been ambushed."

Lin Yue and Su Yao exchanged a glance but remained silent.

"I've prepared some things for you." Zhou Lang pushed three small bags over from the table. "Healing potions, defensive talismans, and two two-star ghost weapons. Han Yingying and I put them together."

Zhao Qiang opened it and looked at it. He moved his mouth, but in the end, he didn't say any words of thanks. He just nodded.

"Be careful," Han Yingying said. "Run if anything goes wrong. It doesn't matter if you get a low rating; the most important thing is to come back alive."

"Alright, alright," Zhao Qiang stood up. "Don't make it sound like a suicide note. It's just three dungeons, let it go."

He paused for a moment as he turned to walk towards the door.

"Wait for us to come back," Zhao Qiang said. He didn't turn around.

Lin Yue and Su Yao followed.

After the door closed, only three people remained in the room.

"You're worried," Shen Mo said. It wasn't a question.

Zhou Lang did not deny it.

"I'll keep an eye on them for you," Shen Mo said. "Even though I can't enter the instance, I can monitor their status from outside. The system has a teammate tracking function, didn't you know?"