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

The cleanup operation of the Ghost Realm instance lasted for three days and two nights.

Fifty-three people went in, and thirty-seven came out. Zhou Lang was one of them.

Back in his rented room, he lay in bed for two whole days, his injuries still not fully healed. The bandaged man lay silently on the ceiling, occasionally turning over.

On the third day, Zhou Lang got up and checked the system panel.

Mysterious balance: 12300 points.

The rewards from the Ghost Realm dungeon were indeed generous, and with the addition of items he found left behind by two deceased players, his gains were much greater than expected.

But Zhou Lang wasn't in a happy mood.

The four-star Ghost King was only suppressed by Li Feng using special military weapons; ordinary players were no different from paper in front of it. Sixteen people, all with names, had greeted him when they went in, and came out with only their equipment scattered on the ground.

Zhou Lang opened the player forum for horror games and browsed the posts for a while.

A pinned post caught his attention.

Title: [WARNING] The death rate in dungeons has been abnormally high recently, which may indicate a system bug.

The post included a statistics table. Over the past month, the player mortality rate in dungeons of grade B and above has skyrocketed from an average of 35% to 72%. Especially in the last week, almost everyone who entered the newly opened dungeons was wiped out.

The comments section exploded.

"My teammates went into a B-grade dungeon last week, all eight of them died, and none of them came back."

"Is it possible that the monster has become stronger?"

"It's not that we've become stronger, it's that the rules have changed. I've heard that the safe zones in recent dungeons are getting shorter and shorter, and some even encounter strange things right at the start."

Zhou Lang watched for a while, his brows furrowing more and more tightly.

He pulled out an item from his backpack—"Eye of Peeping." He had picked it up from a dead player in the Ghost Realm dungeon; it was a two-star ghost artifact whose function was to peek into the dungeon's underlying information, including dungeon level, bugs, hidden rules, and so on.

Usage requirements: Must be activated within a copy.

In other words, he needs to first create a copy before he can use this tool to find out where the problem lies.

"What are you thinking?" The bandaged man flipped down from the ceiling.

"Something's not right with the recent dungeons," Zhou Lang said. "The death rate is abnormal."

"What's it to you?"

"I'll have to go into the dungeon next time too," Zhou Lang said. "If the system really has a bug, I need to know in advance."

The bandaged man tilted his head: "You're planning to enter the dungeon on your own?"

"Um."

"You almost died in the Ghost Realm last time, and only three days have passed."

"So I can't choose anything too difficult." Zhou Lang opened the dungeon matchmaking panel. "I'll pick a B-rank dungeon, go in and use the Eye of Sight to check the situation, and if there's a problem, I'll run away."

"Do you think you can escape?"

Zhou Lang did not answer.

He selected "Random Match," with a level requirement of B. The system rotated for a few seconds and then displayed a prompt:

Match successful. Dungeon: Midnight Cable Car in the Mall's Underground. Rank: B. Number of Players: 6/6. Teleportation Countdown: 30 minutes.

Zhou Lang noted down the dungeon's name and searched for it on the forum.

There are no related posts.

A brand new instance, with no walkthrough or information.

"Damn it," Zhou Lang cursed.

He quickly packed his gear. The chainsaw was too heavy, so he didn't bring it this time. He carried a cane, an oil lamp, three bottles of healing potions, two defensive talismans, and the Eye of the Stalker.

The bandaged man looked at him: "I have something to tell you."

"explain."

"I've been sensing something lately." The bandaged man's voice was lower than usual. "High-level anomalies are active. Not from inside the instance, but from outside."

Zhou Lang paused for a moment: "What do you mean?"

"I can't quite explain it," the bandaged man said, "but be careful once you enter this instance. If you encounter anything beyond the instance's level, don't try to fight it head-on."

"You told me to be careful, so it seems it really is dangerous."

The bandaged man didn't reply.

The countdown has reached zero.

The white light engulfed Zhou Lang's vision.

When he opened his eyes again, he was standing in the lobby of a shopping mall.

The fluorescent lights overhead were on, but the light was bluish, making the whole space feel cold. The mall was huge, surrounded by various shops, but the mannequins in the shop windows were posed rather strangely—some were twisted at impossible angles, as if they had been broken and reassembled.

Zhou Lang didn't look at it closely.

Five people were already standing in the hall.

The one closest was a young woman with a ponytail, wearing sportswear, with a pale face, clutching a dagger in her hand, the handle wrapped with yellow paper—a talisman knife, the cheapest equipment for beginners.

Standing next to me was a tall woman, around thirty years old, wearing a tight black dress, red high heels, and heavy makeup. She leaned against the counter, looking relaxed, her eyes constantly scanning the other people.

A bald, middle-aged man stood in the center of the hall, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, with Buddhist prayer beads around his neck—no, Zhou Lang looked closely, those weren't prayer beads, but a chain made of bones. A ghost artifact.

In the corner sat a short-haired girl, who looked about seventeen or eighteen years old, wearing a pink hoodie and hugging a plush toy. She had her head down and looked very scared.

The last one was a male high school student, wearing a school uniform and carrying a schoolbag. He stood straight, but his eyes were a little unfocused, as if he was daydreaming.

Six people, including Zhou Lang.

A system notification popped up:

[Instance: The Midnight Cable Car in the Mall's Underground]

[Mission: Investigate the truth behind the cable car crash within 24 hours]

[Rule: One spook is released every 2 hours. The spook will track the nearest player.]

Survival conditions: Survive until the mission is completed, or the truth is revealed.

[Note: There is a cable car tunnel in the mall's underground area. The cable car will operate automatically every midnight.]

After reading the rules, Zhou Lang did some mental calculations.

One anomaly is released every 2 hours, 24 hours a day. That means a maximum of 12 anomalies can be released.

12 eerie creatures in a B-level dungeon?

That's not right.

A typical B-rank dungeon has 3 to 5 strange creatures. 12, even if they are all low-level, is still excessive.

Zhou Lang touched the Eye of Insight in his pocket, but didn't use it right away. He wanted to observe the situation first.

The bald, middle-aged man spoke first: "I've been to this instance three times already, just call me Old Zhang. In this kind of multiplayer instance, someone has to lead the way, otherwise everything will fall apart."

He looked around at the others: "First, introduce yourself. How many times have you entered the dungeon, and what abilities do you have? I'll go first—fourth time, I have enhanced physical skills, and I'm a melee fighter."

The woman in the black dress smiled: "The third time. As for the skills... they're support-type, so I can't go into too much detail. Just call me Sister Su."

The girl with the ponytail said in a trembling voice, "I...this is my first time. I don't even know how I was chosen. The system said it was a random match, and I originally chose level D..."

Zhou Lang glanced at her.

This is my first time being assigned to a B-level dungeon?

This is even more wrong. Under normal circumstances, the system wouldn't throw newbies into high-level dungeons.

The girl in the pink hoodie whispered, "Second time. I don't have any skills... just a little gadget, not very useful." She hugged the plush toy even tighter.

The high school boy seemed to only then come to his senses: "Huh? Oh, the second time. I'm not very capable, I'll just follow everyone's instructions."

Everyone looked at Zhou Lang.