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

"You're alright! You're alright! Tang Li! Tang Li!"

First, an anxious female voice pierced my eardrums.

Then, I felt warm, almost scorching hands cupping my frozen face.

Finally, she realized that warm liquid was gradually accumulating in the corners of her eyes and eventually sliding down her cheeks.

As the world spun around her, as if her soul had returned to her body, Tang Li finally realized that she was still on the basement floor of the Ghost Story Private Hospital.

Jiang Hui was right beside her.

The darkness before my eyes was not because there was no light, but because I couldn't see it.

"I……"

"Don't talk, drink." A straw was roughly shoved into her lips.

Tang Li took a sip without thinking, and the familiar flavor of the golden broth beef spread in her mouth. Only then did she realize that she was starving.

Tang Li swallowed quickly, and the effect was immediate. The layers of darkness in front of her faded away, gradually revealing a hazy light and shadow.

"The soup base stolen from the restaurant? Huh?" Tang Li gulped down a whole bag of portable superpower supplements, completely revived from body to mind. While wiping the blood from the corner of her eye, she made a quick joke.

That night, when she was chased by zombies all night, Qiu Wanting and Jiang Hui tricked her into drinking the supplement in the same way.

"Don't talk nonsense," Jiang Hui said seriously. "What did you see? It's only been a few minutes, how could it have caused a backlash from your supernatural abilities?"

Tang Li recalled the scene she simultaneously received through the eyes of more than a dozen Tang Li figures, and couldn't help but shudder, taking a deep breath.

"Imagine a giant aquarium, with endless glass walls filled with blue water."

Tang Li's voice was low, almost a whisper, "What floats in the water aren't fish, but bloated, grotesque corpses. Some are missing arms, some are missing half a head. Their eyes are always open, watching everyone who walks past outside the glass wall..."

Jiang Hui frowned.

Tang Li closed her eyes. "I...we were looking right into the eyes of one of the female corpses."

"Her entire body was deformed from being submerged, yet she remained beautiful. Her long hair floated like a clump of seaweed, and her snow-white skin shimmered like white rocks washed clean on the beach. Two enormous, fatal wounds crisscrossed her body, forming a blood-filled diagonal cross in front of and behind her..."

"It looks like a beautiful butterfly."

Jiang Hui suddenly gripped her arm tightly.

"What did you say?" Her voice trembled slightly. "A fatal wound...like a butterfly?"

the other side.

Qiu Wanting is someone who can fit in well anywhere.

He was clapping along as he sang "Happy Birthday" with all the children.

The children weren't surprised by the two adults who had appeared out of nowhere. They accepted them naturally, or rather, they were so focused on celebrating Meng Wanwan's birthday that they paid no attention to anything else.

Qiu Wanting clapped her hands while looking around at the children.

—They all look...healthy.

This was Qiu Wanting's first impression.

While some of them appeared emaciated or had disabilities, compared to Gu Xiaoying, who was shrouded in black mist, or the hospital staff with extra noses and eyes, these children showed absolutely no signs of being possessed by the strange entity.

In a dungeon teeming with bizarre occurrences, this is actually a miracle.

What exactly are their identities? Qiu Wanting thought quickly: Judging from the children's attitude towards Meng Wanwan, they are clearly friendly and seem to be welcoming her into their group.

So... these children are the same kind of people as Meng Wanwan?

A tall figure moved among the smaller children; it was Lu Dapeng. He didn't sing along, but instead wandered around, craning his neck and looking around anxiously, as if searching for someone specific.

Qiu Wanting narrowed his eyes and began to stroll around casually, his gaze sweeping over the faces of each child.

Suddenly, Qiu Wanting stopped in her tracks.

His gaze was fixed on a girl.

The girl was short, with a single ponytail, curved eyebrows and eyes, clapping her hands, and a sweet smile.

But she was missing half a face and three fingers.

A name that had long been forgotten suddenly popped into his mind: Zhuge Jiajia.

In a flash, Qiu Wanting understood everything.

Oh my god, oh my god, it's you! How unexpected, how delightful!

basement one.

Jiang Hui covered her mouth with her hand.

"...Han Mengzhen."

She murmured the name.

Tang Li felt the name sounded familiar, and after a moment it dawned on her. She suddenly stood up: "Nannan's hidden USB drive! Was she an experimental subject who entered the Dream Come True Machine?"

Her eyes widened: "Besides Gu Xiaomei and Gu Xiaoying, are there even more victims from the dungeon worlds hidden underground?"

"No, that's not it." Jiang Hui smiled sadly as she looked at Tang Li.

"Why do you think I can identify her just by looking at the injuries you described?"

Jiang Hui sighed deeply, "That's not a victim of the dungeon world, Tang Li."

"Those were players from previous runs of the dungeon, they were... our predecessors."

Subject No. 3, Han Mengzhen.

She was a cute young girl who, before entering the eerie instance, was a rising idol, attracting a wave of fans with her sweet appearance. She died in the [Tales of Private Hospital] instance because, at that time, she and a fan who had always supported and admired her entered a machine called [Dreams Come True] hand in hand.

Her death was both cruel and tragic; two intersecting wounds ran across her body, dripping with blood, like a red butterfly fluttering its wings.

Therefore, her death was edited into the opening animation of the newbie zone by the live streaming platform and promoted for three whole days.