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

Zhou Lang gripped the chainsaw tightly and charged at the nearest one.

The chainsaw blade sliced ​​into the corpse demon's shoulder, making a screeching sound. The corpse demon swung its arm, the force of which sent Zhou Lang flying.

He slammed his back against a machine tool, wincing in pain.

"Are you alright?" someone called out from the side.

"It's nothing." Zhou Lang stood up and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

The bandaged man's voice rang in his ear: "I told you you would die."

"Shut up," Zhou Lang said in a low voice.

He gripped the chainsaw again and charged forward once more.

This time he was smarter. Instead of confronting it head-on, he circled around behind the corpse demon and attacked its knee joint. The chainsaw blade severed the stitches, and one of the corpse demon's legs was severed.

The unbalanced corpse demon fell to the ground, and Chen Yong seized the opportunity to deliver a finishing blow, severing its head.

"Not bad." Chen Yong glanced at Zhou Lang.

Zhou Lang didn't say anything, his attention was entirely on the remaining two.

Another chaotic battle ensued.

After all three corpse demons were defeated, four people in the group were injured. One of them was seriously injured; a corpse demon had torn a gash in his right arm, exposing the bone.

"Use the best medicine," Chen Yong said.

The injured person was in so much pain that their face turned pale, but they still applied the medicine themselves.

Zhou Lang took out a bottle of healing potion and handed it over: "Use mine."

The man glanced at him, then took it, saying, "Thanks."

Chen Yong checked the time: "They'll come back to life in three minutes. Everyone get ready."

Zhou Lang took a breath, pondering in his mind.

This won't do. Our stamina will be completely depleted, and the exorcism potion will run out. We must destroy the core as soon as possible.

Suddenly, a burst of static came through the headphones, followed by the voice of the fourth team leader—

"A large number of monsters have appeared on the first basement level! Not the stitched-together corpse demon, but—what is it—ah!"

Communication was interrupted.

Everyone's expression changed.

The communication was interrupted for about ten seconds before Li Feng's voice reappeared in the earpiece.

"Four groups? Four groups replied?"

no respond.

"Group Five, immediately support Group Four. Groups One, Two, and Three, maintain the status quo and do not act without authorization."

Zhou Lang stood in the circle of exorcising water, watching the corpse demon fragments slowly piecing together on the ground, while thinking about something else.

If problems arise on the first basement level, what about the third basement level?

"Team leader," Zhou Lang said to Chen Yong, "this can't go on like this."

"I know," Chen Yong wiped the black liquid off his dagger, "but the order is to hold this place."

"How long should we keep guarding? Something's already happened to Group Four."

Chen Yong paused for a moment, then pressed a button on his headset: "Commander, Team Three requests a mission change."

"No." Li Feng replied quickly, "Each group, maintain your current positions."

Chen Yong took off his headphones and shook his head at Zhou Lang.

The three corpse demons have almost finished resurrecting. The first one has already stood up and is swaying unsteadily, trying to find its way.

"One more round." Chen Yong raised his short knife.

Just then, the voice of the fifth team leader came through the earpiece: "Fifth team has reached the first basement level and found the fourth team. The fourth team... is completely wiped out."

Everyone stopped what they were doing.

Total annihilation.

All ten people died.

Zhou Lang heard someone cursing and trembling behind him. Chen Yong's face was also grim, but he still held up his knife: "Take care of the ones in front of us first."

Suppressing his frustration, Zhou Lang and his teammates charged toward the resurrected corpse demon.

This round was even more difficult. It wasn't because the Corpse Demon had become stronger, but because morale had collapsed. Several people were noticeably slower, and their coordination had broken down.

After finally defeating the three corpse demons again, the team gained two more wounded members.

Chen Yong, panting heavily, said, "Everyone, pull yourselves together! If you're afraid of dying, you shouldn't have come."

"They came here because they had no other choice," someone muttered quietly.

Chen Yong did not respond to that.

Through the earpiece, the fifth team leader was still reporting: "...The fourth team didn't encounter the Stitched Corpse Demon, but a new kind of monster, which wasn't mentioned in the intelligence. It's humanoid, but completely red, and very fast... There's a lot of blood and severed limbs on the ground."

Zhou Lang's mind was racing.

The intelligence is incomplete. There are unknown monsters underground. The fact that all four groups of ten people were wiped out indicates that the thing is quite powerful.

Now, Group Five will continue on.

"Group Five, continue advancing," Li Feng ordered.

Zhou Lang thought to himself, "Has this commander gone mad?"

"Team leader." He then looked at Chen Yong.

"Stop talking." Chen Yong waved his hand. "I know what you want to say. But we can't change the military's orders."

"So we just wait to die one by one?"

Chen Yong turned to look at him, his gaze filled with a complex emotion: "What do you want?"

Zhou Lang thought for a moment: "Let me go underground."

"You're going?" Chen Yong looked him up and down. "What's your skill level?"

"I've played against the three-star monster," Zhou Lang said.

"You think you can tackle a four-star game after you've already beaten a three-star one?"

"It's better than wasting time here," Zhou Lang said. "We can't kill all these corpse demons. If we keep wasting time, we'll run out of energy and die anyway."

Chen Yong stared at him for a few seconds, then turned to the others: "Who wants to go with him?"

silence.

No one spoke.

"Fine," Chen Yong sighed. "Go yourself. Don't blame me if you die."

Zhou Lang nodded and checked his equipment—the chainsaw was fully fueled, the oil lamp still had more than half fuel left, six bottles of healing potions were left, and five defensive talismans.

"Wait a minute." Chen Yong took something out of his pocket and threw it to him.

Zhou Lang caught it and saw that it was a black bead with fine lines on its surface.

"Soul Shattering Bead, a two-star item," Chen Yong said. "Crushing it can cause soul damage to ghosts, but it can only be used once. Save it for fighting the Ghost King."

Zhou Lang put the beads in his pocket: "Thanks."

"Don't thank me," Chen Yong said. "If you can take down the core, we won't have to play this endless loop with the Corpse Demon here."

Zhou Lang left the workshop and walked down the corridor into the depths of the factory.

The entrance to the underground area is on the westernmost side of the factory, and it's a freight elevator. The elevator has long been decommissioned, but there's an emergency staircase next to it.

Zhou Lang pushed open the emergency door, and a stronger fishy smell than outside rushed in.

The stairwell was dark; the oil lamp could only illuminate an area of ​​two or three meters. Zhou Lang carried the lamp in one hand and held the chainsaw in the other, slowly descending the stairs.

He stopped at the entrance to the basement level.

The door was open. There was a large patch of black liquid on the door frame—it was blood, but the color was wrong; it didn't look like human blood.

Zhou Lang leaned against the door and glanced inside.

The basement level was a spacious warehouse. Corpses lay scattered on the floor—dressed in various clothes, belonging to four groups of people.

Ten corpses. Some were missing arms, some were torn in half.

Zhou Lang didn't go in. His target was the third basement level.

The bandaged man spoke up: "The bodies above died very cleanly."

"Clean?" Zhou Lang asked in a low voice.

"There were no bite marks, only cuts from a sharp weapon. It was very fast; they probably didn't even have time to react."