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

"The eleventh time," Zhou Lang said.

The hall was silent for two seconds.

Old Zhang's eyes lit up: "Eleven times? You're a pro! Brother, you—"

"I'm not leading the team," Zhou Lang interrupted him. "You can lead if you want, but I have my own things to do."

Old Zhang was taken aback, his expression turning somewhat unpleasant, but he didn't say anything. He couldn't afford to offend a veteran player who had completed eleven dungeons.

Sister Su looked at Zhou Lang with great interest, and the corners of her mouth curved into a smile.

Zhou Lang ignored her. He was thinking about something else.

Of the six, one was a newbie who was wrongly assigned, and another was a high school student who was slow to react—everyone gets nervous when entering a dungeon, but this high school student didn't seem nervous. He seemed... indifferent.

Like someone who already knows the ending.

Zhou Lang suppressed this thought and did not show it.

"Alright, I'll take care of it." Old Zhang clapped his hands. "First thing, find the entrance to the underground cable car tunnel. The mall has a total of—"

Before he could finish speaking, another system notification popped up.

The first anomaly has been released. Countdown: The second will be released in 2 hours.

Everyone's expression changed.

"They're already letting it in?" The girl with the ponytail's voice trembled. "Didn't they say every two hours—"

"There is no safe period," Zhou Lang said.

He stared at the small print in the system notification.

There's no safe period. They start by throwing in something strange.

This is not a B-grade book at all!

The crowd dispersed and began searching for the underground entrance on the first floor of the mall.

Old Zhang appointed himself captain and assigned the groups: "I'm in a group with the little girl." He pointed to the girl with the ponytail, "Sister Su and that—" He looked at the girl in the pink hoodie.

"My name is Lin Xiaodie," the girl in the pink hoodie said timidly.

"Sister Su and Lin Xiaodie are in one group. The remaining two brothers are in your group."

Zhou Lang was grouped with a male high school student.

Zhou Lang didn't care. He had planned to act alone anyway, so being divided into groups wouldn't affect him.

"What's your name?" Zhou Lang asked the high school student.

"Chen Ye," the high school student replied calmly.

Zhou Lang nodded and didn't ask any more questions. The two walked towards the east side of the mall.

The mall's layout was standard: cosmetics and jewelry counters on the first floor, with elevators in the center. But all the elevators were stopped, and the escalators weren't moving either. Zhou Lang tried the buttons a few times, but there was no response.

"We have to take the stairs," Zhou Lang said.

He found the door to the fire escape and pushed it open. The stairwell was pitch black; going up led to the second floor, and going down led to basement level B1.

"Let's go down and take a look."

Chen Ye followed behind without saying a word.

Zhou Lang walked up a few steps and suddenly stopped.

He turned to look at Chen Ye.

This high school student was remarkably composed in the dark. Even players entering the instance for the second time, if not afraid, wouldn't be this relaxed. He barely even observed his surroundings as he walked.

It felt like I was visiting my own home.

Zhou Lang noted down this observation and continued on his way.

Level B1 is a parking lot. It's empty, with no cars, just a row of concrete pillars. Half of the light bulbs are broken, and the few that are lit are flickering.

Zhou Lang squatted down and touched the ground.

There are tracks on the ground.

These aren't parking lot markings; they're railway tracks. Embedded in the concrete, they're rusted, but they are indeed railway tracks.

"Found it." Zhou Lang stood up and walked forward along the railway tracks.

The railway tracks stretched deep into the parking lot, finally disappearing into a wall. There was a rusty iron gate in the wall, with a sign welded onto it:

[No entry to the cable car access area]

Zhou Lang reached out to push the door open.

"I don't recommend going down now," Chen Ye suddenly said.

Zhou Lang turned to look at him: "Why?"

"Intuition," Chen Ye said.

That was a very perfunctory answer. But Zhou Lang really didn't intend to rush in alone.

"Let's go back and meet up," Zhou Lang said.

The two returned the way they came. As they went upstairs, Zhou Lang, walking behind Chen Ye, noticed a detail—Chen Ye wasn't looking where he was going. His footsteps landed precisely on each step, but his eyes were elsewhere.

Back on the first floor, the others were already waiting in the lobby.

The girl with the ponytail—who said her name was Xia Lu—had red eyes, looking like she had just been crying. Old Zhang stood next to her, looking helpless.

"What's wrong?" Zhou Lang asked.

"We were terrified," Old Zhang said. "We found a clothing store to the west, and the mannequins inside could move."

"Is it eerie?"

"Not sure. It moved for a moment and then stopped." Old Zhang scratched his bald head. "It might just be an environmental effect of the instance."

Zhou Lang looked at Xia Lu. This girl really shouldn't be in this instance. Encountering a B-rank character on her first try—her luck was ridiculously bad.

At this moment, Sister Su leaned over and lowered her voice: "Mr. Zhou, there's something I need to say."

"explain."

"When Lin Xiaodie and I were strolling around the south side, we saw the floor plan. This mall has four floors above ground and three floors below ground. But B1 is a parking lot, and the markings for B2 and B3 were painted over."

"There's an entrance to the cable car tunnel on B1," Zhou Lang said. "We found it, but the iron gate is locked."

"Should we do it now—"

A sound came from upstairs.

It was very light, like something being dragged across the ground.

Everyone looked up at the second floor.

The mall's atrium is open-plan, and you can see the second-floor corridor railing from the first floor. At this moment, nothing can be seen behind the railing. But the sound continues.

drag……

It looked like something heavy was being slowly dragged along.

"Strange." Old Zhang's expression turned serious. He took the bone chain off his neck and wrapped it around his fist.

"The system says one every two hours, and the first one has already been released," Zhou Lang said. "Don't confront them head-on, observe first."

"I know," Old Zhang said in a low voice, "I've run this dungeon three times already—"

The sound stopped.

Everyone held their breath.

Three seconds. Five seconds. Ten seconds.

Nothing happened.

Old Zhang breathed a sigh of relief and was about to speak—

"what!"

The scream came from behind.

Everyone turned around abruptly.

Lin Xiaodie stood beside the counter, a dozen meters away from the crowd. She didn't know when she had walked there. She pointed behind the counter, her face pale.

Zhou Lang quickly went over and went around to the back of the counter to take a look.

a corpse.

No, that's not right—it's half a corpse.

It was a woman, wearing a shopping mall uniform, but only her upper body was visible. Her lower body was missing. The cut was clean and sharp, as if it had been sliced ​​horizontally by some sharp instrument. Most strangely, there was no blood. The cut surface was dry, as if it had been dried for a long time.

"What is this..." Xia Lu's voice came from behind. She saw it too. Then she squatted down and gagged.

Zhou Lang carefully examined the corpse.

The work uniform has a name tag: Wang Fang, Cable Car Operations Department.

Cable car operations department?

"Come and see!" Zhou Lang shouted.

The others gathered around. Old Zhang glanced at it and frowned: "An NPC?"

"It should be." Zhou Lang pointed to the name tag. "An employee from the cable car operations department. That's the clue."

Sister Su squatted down and examined the corpse as well. She reached into the deceased's pockets.

"What are you doing?" Old Zhang asked.

"Look for clues." Sister Su said without looking up. "Dead people often have things in their pockets."

She took a folded piece of paper out of the breast pocket of her work uniform and unfolded it to read.