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

Everyone was panting. Ma Zhuang's shoulder wound was bleeding, and Fang Yi knelt down to treat it.

"Healing potion." Zhou Lang took a bottle out of his bag and tossed it to Fang Yi.

Fang Yi caught it, glanced at the label, and poured it onto Ma Zhuang's wound. The wound healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Thanks." Ma Zhuang stretched his shoulders.

Zhou Lang didn't respond. He was counting. Just now, the stitched-up corpse demon split into seven, and they were all destroyed. But the intelligence said—it would resurrect.

"Don't relax," Zhou Lang said. "Watch the ground."

really.

Three minutes later, the pieces of flesh on the ground began to wriggle. They gathered together, like living mud, slowly piling up and stitching themselves together. Ten minutes later, a complete stitched-up corpse demon stood up again.

Exactly the same as before. Three meters tall, four arms, two-sided head.

"We respawn every ten minutes." Liu Qian's expression was grim. "How are we supposed to fight like this?"

"No fighting," Zhou Lang said. "Let's go around it."

"Go around?" Old Chen looked at the stitched-up corpse demon. "It's blocking the middle of the workshop, and the back door is behind it."

"Draw it away," Zhou Lang said quickly. "Ma Zhuang will draw its attention, the rest of you go around from the side. This thing isn't fast, we can outrun it."

Ma Zhuang glanced at the stitched-up corpse demon, then at the door behind him. "Okay. How far?"

"About fifty meters."

"No problem." Ma Zhuang stepped forward, patted his chest at the stitched-up corpse demon, and said, "Big guy, look this way."

The Stitching Corpse Demon turned its head and stared at Ma Zhuang.

Ma Zhuang started running to the left. The Stitched Corpse Demon chased after him, but it wasn't very fast; its three legs made it run like a crooked giant crab.

"Let's go!" Zhou Lang led the others and rushed towards the back door from the right.

The door was iron and unlocked; Zhou Lang kicked it open. The crowd filed out.

"Ma Zhuang!" Old Chen called from the doorway.

Ma Zhuang had already shaken off the Stitching Corpse Demon and ran back in a big circle. He rushed through the door, and Zhou Lang and Lao Chen worked together to close the iron door and prop it up with the iron frame next to it.

The iron gate was slammed a few times, making a dull thud. But although the stitched-up corpse demon was strong, the iron frame held up.

After a few bumps, the sound stopped.

"Gone?" Xiao Tao asked.

"They probably went back to the middle of the workshop," Liu Qian said. "These ghosts are territorial and won't stray too far from their area."

Zhou Lang leaned against the wall, his mind racing.

They resurrect every ten minutes. Killing them is pointless. Those ten stitched-up corpse demons are just a delaying tactic; the real key is the core of the third underground level and the Ghost King.

"We need to find a way down into the underground," Zhou Lang said.

"It's marked on the map," Liu Qian said, pointing to the blueprint in her hand. "There's a freight elevator in Section B, in the northeast corner. But I'm not sure if it's usable."

「走

The group continued onward. They encountered no more grunts or stitched-up corpse demons along this stretch. The corridor grew darker, and the air reeked of rust and rotting flesh.

Five minutes later, they found the freight elevator.

It's an old-fashioned industrial freight elevator, with a rusty iron cage structure. The control panel has four buttons—1F, B1, B2, and B3.

"B3 is the third basement level," Liu Qian said.

"Can it be used?" Old Chen reached out and pressed the button on B1.

The elevator made a creaking sound, and the indicator light came on. It's working.

"Wait," Zhou Lang said, "Go straight down? Without waiting for the other groups?"

"Unable to contact them." Old Chen pulled out his communicator, but it was all static. "Communications within the instance are blocked."

Zhou Lang thought for a moment. The fifty-odd people were divided into seven or eight groups, each responsible for a specific area. The plan was to meet up on the third basement level after clearing the outer perimeter. But now communication was cut off, making coordination impossible.

"If we go down directly, we might encounter the Ghost King prematurely," Liu Qian said.

"But if we don't go down, we'll just be stuck here fighting the resurrected stitched-up corpse demon," Zhou Lang said.

There was a few seconds of silence.

"I agree to go on." Gu Nian suddenly spoke.

Everyone looked at her. This was the first time she had spoken up since entering the instance.

"Why?" Old Chen asked.

"Staying up there is pointless," she said. "The monsters will revive; staying there will only deplete our stamina and resources. The sooner we get to the core, the better."

Zhou Lang glanced at her. His judgment was correct.

"Okay." Old Chen made the decision. "Go down. Go to B1 first to check the situation, don't go straight there."

Eight people entered the freight elevator. The iron cage swayed under the weight, making an uneasy sound. Old Chen pressed B1.

The elevator began to descend.

The sound of metal chains rubbing together echoed in the shaft. Zhou Lang counted the seconds; about fifteen seconds later, the elevator stopped.

The door opened.

The basement was completely different from the upper floors. The corridors were narrower, the walls were damp concrete, and there was standing water on the floor. The lights were still on, but they flickered and shone intermittently.

"This place is like an underground laboratory." Fang Yi looked at the signs on the wall, "Storage area, experimental area, observation area..."

"An abandoned factory with a lab underground?" Ma Zhuang asked. "What factory?"

No one answered.

The group walked less than twenty meters forward when the corridor forked. The left side led to the storage area, and the right side led to the experimental area.

"Which way?"

Just as Zhou Lang was about to speak, Gu Nian suddenly grabbed his arm.

"Don't move." Her voice was very soft.

Zhou Lang stopped. The others stopped too.

"Listen," Gu Nian said.

Zhou Lang pricked up his ears.

A very soft sound. Coming from the right. Not footsteps, but... the sound of a sewing machine. Click-clack, rhythmic.

"Something's being sewn," Gu Nian said.

Everyone's hair stood on end.

"Bandages." Zhou Lang asked in a low voice, "What's on the right side?"

The bandaged man paused for two seconds before answering: "One. Very strong. Much stronger than the one above."

"How many stars?"

"...Three and a half stars? No, it might be four stars."

Zhou Lang felt a chill run down his spine.

"The Ghost King is on the third basement level," he whispered to his teammates. "But there are big guys here on B1 too. Maybe more than three stars."

Old Chen's expression changed: "The intelligence is wrong."

"The intelligence was incomplete to begin with," Liu Qian said. "How accurate can something bought with 5000 points of 'Strange Tactics' be?"

"Go to the left," Zhou Lang said, "and avoid it."

No one objected.

The group turned to the left towards the storage area. The sound of sewing machines gradually faded into the distance.

The storage area consisted of a row of iron shelves with sealed boxes on top. Some of the boxes were broken, and black liquid was leaking out, spilling all over the floor.

As Zhou Lang walked past a row of shelves, he caught a glimpse of a label on a box out of the corner of his eye—

"Experiment Subject-037. Status: Failure. Handling Method: Decomposition and Recycling."

He stopped and looked at a few more.

"Test Subject-041. Status: Failed."

"Test subject-055. Status: Partially successful. Handling method: Continue observation."

"Test Subject-072. Status: Successful. Handling Method: Put into Use."

Zhou Lang's heart skipped a beat.

The Stitched Corpse Demon. It's not a naturally formed monster; it's man-made.

"This factory used to make ghosts," he said.

Everyone stopped in their tracks.

"Create ghosts?" Ma Zhuang couldn't believe it. "Humans can create ghosts?"

"It's not about creating ghosts." Liu Qian walked over and looked at the label, her face grim. "It's about using people for experiments. Turning people into monsters."