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

She also withdrew.

Only Su Wan and Gu Shen remained in the white space.

Gu Shen stood there, hesitant to speak.

Su Wan waited for two seconds, but he still didn't say anything.

"I'm leaving," Su Wan said.

"Um."

Both of them withdrew.

Su Wan woke up from her dream.

It's the same ceiling, the same light. My phone shows 7:15 AM.

But this time it's different.

She remembered what happened in the dungeon. She remembered the mirror, and those fragments of memory.

"The seventh experiment." Su Wan sat up, ignoring the sweat-soaked pajamas clinging to her body.

She turned on her computer and started searching.

I'm not searching on horror game forums. I'm searching on a normal search engine.

"Consciousness Experiment", "Consciousness Transfer", "Virtual Consciousness Experiment".

The search results are mostly science fiction novel and movie reviews. There's no substantial content.

Su Wan changed direction. She opened the system panel of the horror game and looked through her personal information.

Name: Su Wan.

Level: B player.

Registration date: June 1, 2024.

Completed copies: 4.

Four copies. She remembered them all, from the first to the fourth.

However, the registration time is incorrect.

In Su Wan's memory, she had played more than four instances of the horror game. Although those memories were vague, she was certain that she had completed many instances. At least ten or more.

In other words, her account was reset.

Or perhaps this wasn't her first account at all.

Su Wan felt a chill in her heart.

She closed her eyes, trying to recall more. Those fragments of memory were like locked behind a door; she could feel their presence, but she couldn't open that door.

Forget it. Relying on memory won't work; we need to investigate.

Su Wan reopened the forum and searched for "Zero".

Sure enough, there were a lot of posts. This player was very famous on the forum—he had published dozens of high-quality dungeon guides with accurate analysis, earning him the title of "God of Guides." But three months ago, this account suddenly stopped all activity and never logged in again.

Su Wan opened Zero's personal homepage.

The profile picture is a white circle with a cross inside.

It's exactly the same as the marker for the safe zone in the instance.

Su Wan's hand paused.

Fang Qing said her judgment method was similar to Zero's. The safety marker in the instance was Zero's portrait. She had a strange sense of familiarity with that marker.

These clues point to one possibility—

She is Zero.

But if she was Zero, why was her memory erased? Why register a new account and start all over again?

Su Wan stared at the screen, her fingers hovering over the keyboard.

She entered another keyword: "The eeriness has descended into reality".

The search results brought up a ton of results. Most were urban legends and conspiracy theories. But one post title made her stop—

Horror Games Are Not Games: A Former Researcher's Account

The post was very long. Su Wan started reading it from the beginning.

"I once participated in a project. The project name is confidential, but I can tell you its purpose: to study the mechanisms by which strange entities invade the real world and to find countermeasures."

"The horror game was a byproduct of this project. It was originally designed to train warriors to fight the supernatural. But the project went out of control."

"The eerie presence is no longer content to remain confined to instances. It's infiltrating. Have you noticed things happening around you repeatedly? People saying the exact same things? Scenes you're seeing for the first time, yet they feel strangely familiar?"

"That's not your imagination. Those are traces of a strange infiltration."

"If you're reading this post, it means you've already noticed something amiss. My advice is: don't tell anyone, don't discuss it publicly, and don't try to contact the authorities. Because—"

That's the end of the post.

The message below reads: "This content has been deleted for violating community guidelines."

Su Wan scrolled down, but the comment section was empty. All the replies had been deleted.

She tried clicking on the poster's ID.

"This user does not exist."

Same as the previous reply.

Su Wan leaned back in her chair, staring at the ceiling.

The clues are fragmented, but they've pieced together a rough outline: horror games aren't something that exist naturally; they're designed by humans. The eeriness is seeping into the real world. Someone is trying to cover this up.

She herself may have been part of that "fighting the supernatural" project.

"The seventh experiment," she murmured.

If the subject of the experiment was her, and if her memory was deliberately erased—then what exactly did the person who erased her memory want to do?

Su Wan stood up and walked to the window.

The street downstairs is the same as yesterday. The old man selling breakfast has fried dough sticks on his cart. The electronic screen of the pharmacy across the street is scrolling through "GG" messages. A woman is waiting at a traffic light.

Everything is normal.

Su Wan watched for three minutes.

The old man selling breakfast handed the third fried dough stick to a boy in a school uniform, saying, "Be careful, it's hot."

Su Wan remembered this scene.

She picked up her phone to check the time and made a mark. If the exact same scene repeated itself at the same time tomorrow—then it would prove the post was true.

Su Wan didn't waste the rest of the time. She saved every post she could find about "Number Zero," taking screenshots and storing them locally. Then she tried to recover more memories.

It's no use. The door is still locked.

My phone rang at 3 p.m.

Gu Shen sent a message: "How are you feeling today?"

Su Wan replied with "It's alright".

Gu Shen: "You suddenly paused in the dungeon, did you see something?"

This person has an incredibly sharp eye.

Su Wan hesitated for a few seconds. She remembered what Gu Shen had said in the dungeon—"I'm investigating something, but I can't say anything yet."

He wasn't being honest with her, so she didn't need to unilaterally reveal the truth.

But then I thought, what if what he was investigating was the same thing she discovered?

Su Wan typed: "Let's talk tomorrow when we meet."

Gu Shen quickly replied, "Okay."

Su Wan put down her phone.

She woke up promptly at 7:13 the next morning.

I rushed to the window.

Downstairs. An old man selling breakfast. A cart. Fried dough sticks.

A boy in a school uniform came over to buy fried dough sticks.

The old man handed him the third fried dough stick and said—

Su Wan couldn't hear any sound, but she could see the old man's lip movements.

"Be careful, it's hot."

The same.

Su Wan got goosebumps on her back.

My phone vibrated.

System notification: [A new instance has been detected. Player Su Wan will be forcibly teleported in 30 seconds.]

"Not again?!"

This is the fifth instance. Being forcibly teleported within two days is unusual.

Su Wan didn't have time to think much; she quickly put on her coat and stuffed her phone into her pocket. A white light appeared.

dark.

Absolute darkness. Even the air was cold.

The system notification popped up the moment Su Wan landed:

[Instance Name: Abyss Prison]

[Dungeon Rating: S]

[Objective: Escape from prison]

[Note: The prison has seven levels, each with a guard. Guards cannot be killed, only avoided. All players who die inside the prison will be permanently trapped there.]