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

The man by the window was about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, wearing a black coat. He was looking down at the system panel in his hand, and the noise of the three people coming in didn't even make him look up.

The other two were a tall man drinking water from a water bottle and a woman adjusting her equipment on her belt.

The tall man spoke first, "Did you clear the dungeon? How long?" His voice was loud, as if he was used to speaking in noisy places.

"Six hours exactly," Han Yingying said.

"Not slow at all." He shook the kettle. "I'm Chen Bo, and this is Zhao Ran next to me." He gestured towards the woman with his chin. "The one by the window is Jiang Ye. He doesn't talk much, but he's a good person."

Zhao Ran raised his hand slightly as a greeting. Jiang Ye didn't react and continued looking at the panel.

Zhou Lang glanced at the three of them. "What do you do for a living?"

"Behave yourself." Chen Bo said casually, then chuckled twice. "Just kidding. We know Sister Han. She told us to wait a bit, to meet her, and that we'll be working together in the future."

Han Yingying picked up the conversation, "I contacted them beforehand. There are some things I need to discuss after we come out this time."

Zhou Lang didn't reply. A new notification popped up in the system, with a blue border and a format different from usual.

[Player has achieved a special condition: 100% perfect completion rate for all dungeons (4 times in total)]

[The player has met the eligibility requirements for the Guild Tournament (special channel). Would you like to view the relevant rules?]

He nodded, scanned the rules, and pointed out one of them to Han Yingying.

Han Yingying's expression didn't change much after reading it, but she paused for a moment before passing it on to Chen Bo and the others.

Chen Bo read it twice. "This means... you made it to the finals, but can't get into the instance?"

"It's not that we can't get in," Zhou Lang said. "It's the rules that are blocking us. Players in the special channel have to wait for people in the regular channel to complete their qualification dungeons before they can participate as a whole. During that time, we can't do anything."

"...That's just wasting time."

"right."

Chen Bo paused for a few seconds, then asked, "Do you think this is a normal rule, or...?"

"This is not normal," Han Yingying said. "This rule was originally intended to coordinate different entry channels, but using it here is problematic."

No one continued the conversation, but no one thought that what was said was wrong.

"Let's go out first." Zhou Lang put away the panel. "We'll talk about the rest later."

The X Guild's stronghold is located in the east of the city. Outside is an old factory building that looks quite old. It has been renovated and its exterior is inconspicuous, but the inside is a different story. It has everything from a supply warehouse to a training area, spread over several floors. It is not the largest in scale, but the layout is very practical, and you can tell that the person who planned it knows what they're doing.

When Han Yingying led the group inside, some people in the guild looked up and then continued with their tasks. There was no commotion or disturbance; those who needed to train continued training, and those who needed to organize their equipment continued organizing their equipment. The atmosphere was much better than Zhou Lang had expected.

The meeting room was on the second floor. Six people sat down around the table, and Han Yingying pushed a list onto the table.

"There are 32 official guild members, and the six of us are qualified to participate in the competition." She pushed the list to the center so everyone could see it. "Zhou Lang, Jiang Ye, and I will use the special entrance and can participate directly. Chen Bo, Zhao Qiang, and Zhao Ran will use the regular entrance; we still need three more SS-level dungeons."

"Twice," Zhao Qiang said. "I completed it once last week."

"Then it'll be twice," Han Yingying changed her mind. "We'll arrange it according to the schedule. The fastest plan is for the three of you to team up and go to the SS dungeon. You can finish it within a month and be in place before the first round of the competition."

Chen Bo leaned back in his chair. "So what have you two been doing all this time, just sitting and waiting?"

"The rules are preventing us from entering the instance," Zhou Lang said. "We'll wait for you guys, and train the guild members while we're at it."

Chen Bo said "oh" and didn't ask any further questions. He turned to look at the list and check the information of the other members.

Jiang Ye hadn't said much since entering the room, but finally spoke up, asking, "What's the background of the guild members like?"

"The skill levels are uneven," Han Yingying said. "Two of them came from other guilds and have a decent foundation, while most of the others are beginners. We've been focusing on improving their basic skills during this period."

"Can it be pushed?"

"Give it a try."

Jiang Ye nodded without saying anything else.

The schedule for this period itself is nothing special; training, dungeons, preparation—the process is very routine. The real challenge lies in dealing with the external situation.

The frequency of these strange occurrences started increasing about two weeks ago. Previously, there were three or four anomalies a month, but now there is one every two days. Data from various regions are all telling the same thing—the frequency is accelerating, the boundaries are expanding, and each occurrence is larger than the last.

Zhou Lang stared at this set of data for a long time in front of the system terminal in the training room.

Zhao Qiang brought in a glass of water and placed it next to him. "You didn't sleep last night, and you trained for four hours today. How long are you planning to keep going?"

"After watching this..."

"You've been watching for two hours."

Zhou Lang didn't respond. He turned off the data graph and switched to the real-time records of anomalies reported by each region, scrolling down line by line.

Zhao Qiang sat down beside him and waited for a while. "What are you looking for?"

"There's a pattern," Zhou Lang said. "These abnormal distributions aren't random; they have a source and are spreading outwards, but the direction of this spread is traceable."

"What good will finding the source do?"

"I know where to go next."

Zhao Qiang took a sip of water. The sky outside the window was gray, it had been pressing down for many days, and the rain hadn't come yet, the clouds just piled up there. Zhao Qiang looked at it for a while, then didn't say anything more, sitting there with Zhou Lang until nightfall, the light from the terminal screen shining on their faces.

Two weeks later, Chen Bo and his two companions went to the SS dungeon for the first time.

When they came out, Chen Bo's left arm was wrapped in bandages, Zhao Ran carried his equipment, and Zhao Qiang walked beside him. All three of them were unharmed and in good spirits, except that Chen Bo's arm had an extra roll of gauze with blood seeping out.

"What happened?" Zhou Lang asked.

"Murloc." Chen Bo tugged at the bandage and looked at the wound. "There's a river in that dungeon, and there are murlocs in the river. I guess those things don't see people often, so they're a bit excited and incredibly strong. I got too close and one of them scratched me."

"Why are you standing so close?"

"fishing."

Zhou Lang looked at him, "What?"

"There's a river and fish in the dungeon. I brought my tools with me. Fishing them replenishes my stamina. I made the best use of the situation," Chen Bo said matter-of-factly. "What's wrong with that?"

Zhao Ran added from the side, "He caught one, and the fish jumped up and bit him, only then did he start fishing seriously."

Chen Bo was taken aback. "You didn't tell me this."

"You didn't ask me."

"...Could you please say so?"

"You didn't ask."

Zhao Qiang couldn't help but laugh out loud, covering his mouth and turning away. Chen Bo glanced at him, said nothing, rewrapped his bandages, and turned to Zhou Lang, "Successfully cleared the level, excellent rating, both of you unharmed, just me. It won't affect the next time."