After being poisoned by mushrooms, all the strange creatures became fascinated by me.

Why?!

Why didn't the [Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts] event, which was supposed to trigger at 3 AM, appear?!

Sun Ping didn't go to collect his spoils. The sudden unexpected event almost shattered his reason. He looked around blankly and asked, "Why? Why isn't it here! Why isn't it here!"

Tang Li, of course, had no idea what he was talking about; she could only think he was acting crazy.

Old Yan burst into laughter, admiring his expression as if he were watching a desperate gambler who had won a fortune at the casino but was robbed of everything on his way home.

"Because you bet on the wrong person from the start! You helped the wrong person, and that's the allure of gambling!"

Between laughs, Old Yan, blinking tears of laughter, kindly reminded him, "Didn't you kill Kangqi yourself?"

What?

Sun Ping hesitated, thinking and thinking...

His gaze fell upon the dipper.

There were fighting crickets, scattered corpses, blood-red sand, and wriggling poisonous insects.

There was also a small, pink dead insect head.

A face vaguely appeared in his mind; it was a henchman he had casually tricked into going to his death, a man with a head and pink hair.

Sun Ping suddenly realized what was happening, and then, overwhelming anger overwhelmed his senses, and he gritted his teeth.

He understood two things.

First, what's in the fighting basin isn't crickets, but players locked in a fierce battle and something eerie.

The crab-shell green he tried so hard to help was Jiang Hui, and the copper-headed iron-armed man he secretly killed was the flag-carrying weirdo.

Secondly, Lao Yan is not one of Dean Lei Hong's people at all.

He thought Lao Yan was stalling for time. He thought Lao Yan wanted to wait until after 3 o'clock when the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade would be a done deal. In that case, the Dean would become the real boss of the dungeon and would no longer need to give him files or core dungeon items as a reward.

He didn't expect that Lao Yan didn't care at all whether the dean or Gu Xiaoying was the boss of the bizarre private hospital.

All he cared about was this absurd gamble.

"You're not one of Lei Hong's people at all."

"That's right! That's right!" Old Yan echoed Sun Ping's question, laughing heartily and revealing the few remaining thick teeth in his mouth.

"Old Yan doesn't care about good, Old Yan doesn't care about evil," Old Yan hummed like a lullaby, "Old Yan upholds justice, Old Yan aids and abets evil."

He sang, stretching his arms upwards, his sleeves slipping down to reveal skin wrinkled like tree bark. He spun around the archives like an old tree stretching its branches, singing, "Old Yan only cares about gambling, the winners laugh heartily! The losers shouldn't cry!"

Sun Ping's breathing changed.

How could he not have thought of that? Dean Lei Hong couldn't wait to get all the players to help him deal with Gu Xiaoying, so if that file containing Gu Xiaoying's weaknesses really fell into his hands, he would be eager to spread it far and wide.

How could they possibly assign someone to guard it? Do I need to pass Lao Yan's test to get this file?

This only proves that Lao Yan is a complete neutral party. Who can get something from him depends solely on who can please him.

Oh, he did amuse Lao Yan. He made Lao Yan laugh out loud, laughing at his foolishness in being fooled.

A slight sense of crisis tingled in Tang Li's skin, and she couldn't help but shift her attention from the file folder to Sun Ping.

Sun Ping stared intently at Lao Yan.

Now that he can get the file folder, of course he wants the file folder too.

You can get it by killing Lao Yan.

Tang Li, clutching the file folder, retreated hastily but quickly. Before her, Sun Ping, without a word, spun around and attacked Lao Yan.

Tang Li opened her eyes wide, and in her black pupils, which were somewhat translucent under the yellow light, the world reflected was bizarre and wonderful.

Sun Ping's face was covered in thick black hair, two sharp canine teeth protruded from his upper lip, and his hands grew several dagger-like nails, making him look like a werewolf from a movie. Old Yan still had the same extremely strange appearance as before, his guillotine-like arms were as hard as iron, and when they collided with Sun Ping's claws, they could almost spark.

Her heart was pounding. The two men were blocking her way to the door, and even if she got the file, she couldn't leave.

The illusions she saw were chaotic and confusing, making it impossible to assess the two men's fighting strength. Therefore, she dared not gamble on a scenario where the two fought and she could reap the benefits. However, both men had already revealed their vicious nature; if they had the intention to kill, why would they leave any survivors?

Once one of them completely defeats the other, her life will be in danger.

Tang Li's eyes quickly scanned the archives room, searching for ways to protect herself.

In the bloody labyrinth.

The power of the resurrected Chimera Giant Ghost was not as great as before, but the players had almost used up all their items. The joy they had felt when they saw the Chimera Giant Ghost fall had now turned into despair and fear of dashed hopes.

Screams and wails from players could be heard everywhere. Two or three players desperately tried to squeeze themselves out of the small door, but ended up completely blocking the entrance.

Jiang Hui continued her bloody slaughter of the monsters without saying a word. Qiu Wanting, while throwing props, rushed to the crowded exit.

"Stop," he said, his ordinary voice booming like thunder.

The players who were blocking the exit and desperately pushing their way out suddenly went blank, like robots that had run out of power, standing motionless in place.

In their eyes, the originally dark pupils were completely gone, and words appeared on the whites of their eyes, in bold black Song typeface, size 4: "Stop" for the left eye and "Down" for the right eye.

Qiu Wanting's language, transformed into individual characters, directly occupied the listeners' minds, and the meaning of the characters took over their brains.

Qiu Wanting's skill, [Golden Rules], is now in effect.

Qiu Wanting gave a concise and clear order: "Line up."

As the text changed in the players' eyes, they scrambled to their feet and lined up as quickly as possible. Even players who were very close to the exit did not rush to leave.

Qiu Wanting then nodded toward the exit: "Let's go."

The players began to file out.

Forced by the skill, the players finally began to take their places. Sweat beaded on Qiu Wanting's forehead; controlling so many people at once was no small challenge for him.

Not enough. He thought to himself, holding the curved surgical scissors in his hand, standing next to the exit and starting to cut the door frame.

As the "snip" sound continued, the small surgical scissors actually cut the wall at the exit piece by piece, as thin as paper.

Not fast enough, not fast enough.

Qiu Wanting gritted his teeth, thinking to himself. Behind him, Jiang Hui was already soaked in blood, her arms trembling slightly.

He had a bad feeling.

The curved surgical shears, a core item in the dungeon, did not perform well enough. In theory, a single cut should have been enough to tear apart an entire wall.

Unless, of course, the space they are in is also one of the core items of the dungeon.

The Ghost Story Private Hospital is only a low-level, one-star dungeon; it's impossible for it to contain a maze-sized item. So, did they shrink?

What have they become, and where are they now?