When De Yuechen received the rescue mission before the moon sank, he glanced at the notification and set it aside without a second thought.
It was a dungeon ranked B-rank, about to upgrade to A-rank.
He couldn't even be bothered to lift a finger. He simply waited for the message to expire on its own—either the dungeon would be cleared, or everyone inside would die.
Then the notification would disappear on its own.
De Yuechen didn't care either way.
After that, this S-rank player from District 9 went back to whatever he had been doing.
By the time De Yuechen finished his work, several hours had passed. He noticed the message again—the dungeon was still ongoing.
This time, De Yuechen opened the full details of the dungeon.
The next second, he saw a line displayed below the dungeon name:
(District 5 Temporary Stopover Dungeon)
...
That piece of information actually made him raise an eyebrow.
An upgraded dungeon following a temporary stopover.
Anyone in the know would naturally understand that at the very least, a senior administrator from one of the districts had gotten involved.
In the real world.
On the top floor of a high-rise building, a man stepped out into the open rooftop garden. After taking a moment to breathe in the fresh air, he finally turned his attention to the player information inside the upgraded dungeon.
To his surprise, there was an E-rank player among them.
An E-rank player from District 10, codenamed "Shi," whose status showed as (Alive)—and who also had their main-view livestream turned on.
De Yuechen hesitated for a second, then tapped into the streamer's broadcast. However, his in-game alias was always hidden by a rare item, so none of the viewers in the room noticed that the outside support player the streamer had called in earlier had now entered their livestream.
His timing was also rather coincidental—he joined just a few seconds before the streamer opened their eyes. He had only meant to casually browse, but before he knew it, the dungeon had upgraded yet again.
In the few minutes that followed, the dungeon went through a blacked-out stream, player deaths, bodies vanishing...
...
De Yuechen took it all in.
The train had made an unscheduled stop, and the dungeon had jumped up two levels in a row.
Now, on top of that, a backup identity belonging to someone of unknown origin had just died inside the dungeon.
After a moment of thought, De Yuechen decided to enter the dungeon himself and take a look. But before doing so, he had no idea that the people inside had once again activated the Wheel of Fate.
And then, the very next second, he ran straight into another S-rank player at the entrance of this eerie mansion.
***
Meanwhile, a few minutes earlier in District 2, Yan Shang also felt that the message he received had come rather abruptly.
Their district's administrator rarely issued a direct order, but this time, he was being told to enter a low-tier dungeon.
Yan Shang found it rather puzzling.
Almost the very second he finished reading the instruction, the rescue mission alert sounded.
An upgraded dungeon appeared before his eyes.
Yan Shang quickly scanned through the dungeon details.
The players in this dungeon were originally supposed to enter their District 2 instance.
But now District 5 had held on to them.
From B-rank to A-rank, and then up to S-rank…
Yan Shang swiftly analyzed the stakes involved.
And his superior had just instructed him to enter the dungeon upon receiving the mission and help the players inside clear it. It didn't take much thought for Yan Shang to realize that the Wheel of Fate landing on him had been deliberately arranged.
The one behind all this was most likely their administrator—the one who hadn't shown their face in a long while.
After a brief moment of deliberation, Yan Shang immediately transmitted into the corresponding upgraded dungeon.
But only a few seconds after he entered, an uninvited guest showed up.
***
At the entrance of the haunted mansion, the two top-tier players stood facing each other for several seconds.
The moment De Yuechen saw this right-hand man of District 2's administrator, he basically confirmed that this dungeon did indeed conceal something important.
Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many people gathered here.
In an instant, many thoughts raced through De Yuechen's mind.
He even thought back to a beginner dungeon that had ended not long ago.
The one where an S-rank black card had been revealed.
And he knew that in that previous District 2 beginner dungeon, the administrators of Districts 1, 7, and 10 had all entered it.
Those individuals had even gone into the dungeon ahead of time—before the S-rank black card was announced to all dimensions.
Although De Yuechen wasn't sure what methods they had used to know the black card would appear, the fact that these people had gone to such lengths to fight over a single card inside a beginner dungeon was, frankly, rather strange.
After the full-dimensional announcement, quite a few people had been speculating over the past few days about what kind of card it really was.
The system lag during the final notification was most likely the handiwork of certain individuals as well.
De Yuechen had only been aware of the matter in passing. He knew there had to be a lot of hidden circumstances—and rule-breaking—behind it all. But because he had been focused on his own current affairs, he hadn't found the time to look into the specifics of that dungeon.
Now, however, this dungeon—the one where he'd been called in as outside support—also seemed highly questionable.
De Yuechen even had a vague sense that this dungeon was connected to that earlier beginner dungeon in some way.
A strange intuition…
...
In reality, when the two outside supports first ran into each other, neither of the men standing at the mansion's gate made a move.
De Yuechen's gaze fell on the District 2 agent not far away.
His thoughts raced at lightning speed.
Although not many people knew about this, the sole survivor of that newbie dungeon where the black card had first appeared had ultimately been taken away by District 10.
Originally, that new player should have belonged to District 2—but District 10 had snatched them away.
The card might still be on that newcomer.
And now, this dungeon...
District 5 had deliberately stopped this carriage heading to District 2, and now he ran into this District 2 agent right at the dungeon entrance. It was hard not to be suspicious.
Coincidentally, there happened to be an E-rank player from District 10 inside this very dungeon.
De Yuechen had watched that E-rank player's movements earlier—they really didn't seem like an ordinary person.
For such a newcomer, there shouldn't have been absolutely no information about them before this.
Moreover, they had white hair and blue eyes...
The B-rank player Yue Cheng, who had died earlier, had clearly been protecting this E-rank newcomer as well.
De Yuechen's expression immediately turned serious.
Could it really be that much of a coincidence?
In the dim light, De Yuechen's body remained still, but he had already gathered his skill in his palm—ready in case the other party made the first move. And sure enough, the moment his energy began to rise, the person across from him struck.
...
Before making his move, Yan Shang had also weighed many factors. Although his orders were to rescue the people inside this dungeon, why did he happen to run into De Yuechen here of all places?
This was not something to be taken lightly, and he was well aware of how to prioritize tasks.
For instance, when encountering certain specific individuals, they had to be dealt with first.
And De Yuechen had long since appeared on District 2's elimination list.
Such a rare opportunity—it would be a pity to let it slip by. On top of that, the other party's purpose for entering the dungeon was unclear. To ensure the smooth progress of his own mission afterward, Yan Shang immediately decided to take out De Yuechen first, just to be certain.
When Yan Shang made this decision, he truly hadn't grasped the actual order of "priorities" in the mind of their district's overseer.
***
Second-floor corridor.
Wen Shichun paused for a moment in thought.
If he were any other player, he wondered how they would try to survive in a situation like this.
Ahead, countless ghosts were slowly rising from the ground; behind him, monsters were closing in relentlessly.
It took Wen Shichun less than half a second to reach a conclusion.
Based on his preliminary understanding of this place, the answer would probably be to use an item.
Or—a skill.
So when Wen Shichun, with no items left, turned around and expressionlessly used his main card skill on the ghostly creature behind him—he actually held less than 0.001% hope that it would work.
But... as the saying goes.
What if it does.
"Radiant Golden Rose—all things shall hold affection for you."
"..."
Wen Shichun wasn't sure whether this affection-inducing skill from his main card would work on ghosts, nor did he know what would happen if it did. But since it was the only skill he could use right now, he didn't hesitate to activate it.
The whole process took less than a second. The moment the system notification confirmed that the Golden Rose skill had been successfully cast, Wen Shichun turned and kept running forward—and ahead of him, the green ghosts that had risen again were drawing closer and closer.
He was preparing to charge straight through those ghosts, unaware that the massive ghost behind him—which should have had no consciousness beyond the urge to feed—suddenly hesitated for a split second.
...
Somewhere Wen Shichun could not see.
In the ghost's perception, the figure that had been mere prey suddenly seemed to shift.
That prey had now become something special in its eyes...
Glistening. Sparkling. Utterly beautiful.
The ghost's very being trembled—
"Being"—it shouldn't even have such a thing, nor emotions—
But in that instant, it truly—
Instinctively knew that it could not harm him.
So the next moment, the ghost's multiple tentacles lashed out in fury toward the ugly things ahead of him—those green ghosts that were trying to hurt him.
...
[Huh???]
The ghost's attack not only cleared a path for Wen Shichun, but also flooded the livestream chat with a barrage of question marks in an instant.
[What just happened?]
[...]
[Wait, is this ghost blind? How did all those tentacles manage to perfectly avoid Shi... and hit only the ghosts...] someone asked in sheer disbelief.
[What kind of person is this... a master of outline tracing?]
Fortunately, someone else pointed out: [There's no way that was a mistake.]
[If you've seen the ghost transformations in other District 5 dungeons, you'd know just how terrifying these things really are.]
[What do you mean?]
Watching the ghosts being swatted away again and again by the larger ghost, the person sending those messages also began to sense that something was very wrong.
[Big shot! Hey, big shot up there, keep talking! What's going on now?!]
A few seconds later.
[It's actually pretty simple. Haven't you guys noticed? The monster's reaction right now is basically helping Shi make a run for it.]
[Huh?! Wait, what?!]
[Remember? Shi turned around and faced that monster for just a split second earlier. After that, the monster started acting weird. Something definitely happened between them that made the monster do what it did next. My guess is that Shi used some kind of item or skill on the monster—and turned it into his ally.]
Though that was almost impossible...
After all, no one had ever heard of a monster being controllable by a player before.
At best, players could only restrict a monster's movements.
And besides... the white-haired young man on screen was only an E-rank after all.
So after that explanatory barrage appeared, the livestream chat went quiet for a while.
The viewers seemed to be observing.
Or perhaps they were in disbelief.
But not long after, as they watched the monster's tentacles sweep away one blue-skinned ghost after another that tried to attack Shi:
[Oh my god... it's really true... The monster is actually helping him?]
[Then Shi must have an item of what kind of tier...?]
