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

Liu Fang and Zhang Wei are still alive, but the other team members are lying on the ground, their fate unknown.

The Ghost King stood before the altar, his eyes beneath the mask fixed on them.

"Damn it," Liu Fang cursed.

Her sword was broken in two, and her body was covered in wounds.

Zhang Wei was also in bad shape; the dagger had fallen to the ground, and his right hand hung limply at his sides.

Zhou Lang struggled to his feet.

The chainsaw is still in my hand, but the chain has loosened.

"Let's run," Zhang Wei said. "We can't win."

Liu Fang shook her head.

"You can't escape," she said. "The entrance is sealed off."

Zhou Lang turned his head and saw that the passage he had come from was blocked by a black barrier.

"What should we do then?" Zhang Wei asked.

Liu Fang didn't speak, she just stared at the crystal on the altar.

"Destroy the core," she said. "That's the only way."

"But the Ghost King is guarding there," Zhang Wei said.

"I know," Liu Fang said, "so someone needs to hold it back."

She looked at Zhou Lang.

Zhou Lang was stunned for a moment.

"You want me to go and die?" he asked.

"It's not about sending us to our deaths," Liu Fang said. "It's about buying time. You hold off the Ghost King, and Zhang Wei and I will go and destroy the core."

Zhou Lang frowned.

"Why me?"

"Because your chainsaw has the highest attack power," Liu Fang said. "And you just hit the Ghost King, which means you have a chance."

Zhou Lang remained silent for a few seconds.

"What if I die?"

"Then there's nothing we can do," Liu Fang said. "We're all going to die anyway."

Zhou Lang looked at the Ghost King, then at the crystal on the altar.

He was making plans in his mind.

If you manage to hold off the Ghost King, your chances of survival are less than 10%.

But if we don't hold them off, everyone will die here.

"Okay," Zhou Lang said, "I'll go."

He picked up the chainsaw and walked towards the Ghost King.

The Ghost King did not move, but simply watched him quietly.

Zhou Lang stopped ten meters away from the Ghost King.

"Bandages, is that a solution?" he asked himself.

The bandaged man remained silent for a moment.

"There is a way," it said, "but the success rate is very low."

"explain."

"The Ghost King's weakness is behind the mask," the bandaged man said. "If we can break the mask, it will temporarily lose its fighting ability."

How short?

"About ten seconds."

Zhou Lang grinned.

Ten seconds is enough.

He took a deep breath and rushed towards the Ghost King.

The chainsaw traced an arc through the air.

The Ghost King raised his hand, and black mist surged forth.

Zhou Lang did not dodge, but rushed directly into the black mist.

He felt something tearing at his body, but he didn't stop.

The tip of the chainsaw pierced the demon king's mask.

"Click."

The mask cracked open.

The Ghost King let out a piercing scream.

The black mist dissipated instantly.

"Now!" Zhou Lang shouted.

Liu Fang and Zhang We rushed toward the altar.

Liu Fang drew her broken sword and slashed at the crystal.

"Click."

The crystal shattered, and the black light vanished.

The entire three underground levels began to shake.

The Ghost King's body gradually became transparent.

"It's a success," Zhang Wei said.

Zhou Lang breathed a sigh of relief and slumped to the ground.

It hurts, my whole body hurts.

But at least he survived.

"Instance cleared successfully, reward 5000 points of mystery."

A system notification sounded.

Zhou Lang glanced at his unusually low bank balance.

8500 points.

not bad.

The ground tremors became increasingly violent.

"Let's go quickly," Liu Fang said.

The three rushed towards the passage, where the black barrier had vanished.

They ran up the passage, and behind them came a huge sound of collapse.

Finally, they rushed out of the factory.

The sunlight outside was so bright that Zhou Lang couldn't open his eyes.

He collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.

"It's over," he muttered to himself.

When they came out of the instance, Zhou Lang counted the number of people.

More than fifty people went in, but only twenty-three came out alive.

Zhao Qiang and Han Yingying are both still alive, but they look quite badly injured.

Li Feng stood next to the military vehicle, his face expressionless.

"Thank you for your hard work," he said. "The reward will be issued within three days."

After saying that, he got into the car and left.

Zhou Lang watched as the military vehicles drove away.

"That's it?" Wang Lei said. "Not even a word of comfort?"

"What else do you want?" Zhang Wei said, "Just being alive is good enough."

The crowd dispersed and everyone went home.

Zhou Lang walked over to Zhao Qiang.

"How are you?"

"I won't die," Zhao Qiang said. "What about you?"

"Same."

Han Yingying walked over, her face a little pale.

"Five of our team members died," she said.

Zhou Lang remained silent.

"Please accept my condolences," he said.

The three stood at the entrance of the abandoned factory, and none of them spoke.

After a while, Zhao Qiang spoke.

"I plan to take a break for a while," he said. "I don't want to touch anything like dungeons for the time being."

"Me too," Han Yingying said.

Zhou Lang nodded.

"understand."

They said goodbye to each other and went their separate ways.

Zhou Lang returned to his rented room and collapsed onto the bed.

My whole body aches terribly.

"Bandage, I need to get some sleep," he said.

"Whatever," the bandaged man said.

Zhou Lang closed his eyes and quickly fell asleep.

I slept very soundly and woke up the next afternoon.

Zhou Lang checked his phone and saw several unread messages.

One message came from the system, informing me that the reward had been credited to my account.

The other message was from Zhao Qiang, asking if he wanted to have dinner together.

Zhou Lang replied "I'm not going," and then opened the system interface.

Mysterious balance: 13500 points.

There's also a two-star ghost artifact, a wristband.

Zhou Lang put the wristband on his left hand and felt a warm sensation on his wrist.

"What's the use of this thing?" he asked.

"A defensive artifact," the bandaged man said. "It can withstand one fatal attack."

"Only once?"

"right."

Zhou Lang pursed his lips.

"That's not bad either."

He stood up and walked to the window.

The city outside the window looked the same as always, unusually calm.

But Zhou Lang knew that this peace could be broken at any moment.

Horror games are having more and more dungeons, and the monsters are getting stronger and stronger.

Sooner or later, the whole world will be caught up in it.

"Bandage, what exactly is this horror game?" Zhou Lang asked.

"I don't know," the bandaged man said.

"Aren't you a ghost artifact? You should know something, right?"

"I'm just a gadget," the bandaged man said. "Not an encyclopedia."

Zhou Lang sighed.

He walked to the table and opened his laptop.

A news article popped up on the screen.

"A large-scale landslide has occurred on the outskirts of the neighboring province; the cause is unknown."

Zhou Lang looked at the picture accompanying the news article; it was indeed that abandoned factory.

"They're covering it up again," he said.

"Standard procedure," the bandaged man said. "Otherwise, how can we maintain social stability?"

Zhou Lang closed the news and opened a forum for horror games.

The most discussed topic on the forum was this cleanup operation.

Some people said their friends participated in the operation but never returned.

Some say the death rate in this operation exceeded 50%, it was practically suicide.

Some people are also criticizing Li Feng, saying that he doesn't care about the players' lives at all.

Zhou Lang flipped through a few pages and came across a post.

"Shocking! An S-rank player has been spotted during the cleanup operation!"

He clicked on the post, which contained several blurry photos.