The elevator rattled like a coffin being dragged across stone.
Every player inside had gone pale.
Not because of the shaking.
Because of the sentence written in fresh blood across the elevator wall.
NEVER EVER GO TO 4TH FLOOR.
Nobody knew when it had appeared.
Nobody had seen who wrote it.
One second the wall had been rusted steel.
The next—
Blood.
Fresh.
Dripping.
Alive.
Taisha swallowed.
"What does that even an?"
Nobody answered.
Because the lights suddenly went out.
Darkness swallowed the elevator.
For one brief mont Shen Yu felt sothing cold brush against the back of his neck.
Then—
CRACK.
Sothing slamd into his skull.
His vision exploded.
[You Have Died]
A familiar notification appeared.
[Revival Remaining: 999 ]
Shen Yu opened his eyes.
The others were still panicking.
Still screaming.
Still trapped in darkness.
Nobody had noticed his death.
The system had hidden the revival exactly as ordered.
[First Death in Gold Dungeon Achieved]
[Hidden Condition Triggered]
[Guaranteed S-Rank Clearance Bonus Registered]
[SSR Reward Granted]
Shen Yu smiled.
"Dying in Gold Dungeons really pays well."
[Permanent SSR Item Acquired]
24-Hour Ghost Convenience Store mbership
"...That sounds disappointingly useful."
Another notification appeared.
[Yellow Springs Draw Shop Upgraded]
Advanced Functions Unlocked
• Rebate Assistant
• Increased SSR Rates
• UR Tier Unlocked
Now that was interesting.
anwhile the other players still hadn’t noticed anything.
The darkness vanished.
Lights returned.
Everyone was standing exactly where they had been before.
"Power outage?"
"What happened?"
"Did anybody see that?"
Shen Yu yawned.
"Boring death."
Across from him, a handso young man watched carefully.
Rookie Rank #3.
Rojo.
The strongest player in the elevator.
His eyes narrowed.
"That attack should’ve killed sobody."
Shen Yu simply shrugged.
"Guess we’re lucky."
Lucky.
The biggest lie in the elevator.
The dungeon system spoke.
[Gold Dungeon Special chanic Unlocked]
SANITY
Numbers appeared above everyone’s heads.
Taisha — 75%
Xiao — 80%
Luga — 68%
Rojo — 89%
Shen Yu — 100%
Instant panic erupted.
"What is sanity?"
"Why is mine lower?"
"Can it go up?"
Rojo spoke calmly.
"Gold-tier chanic."
Everyone looked toward him.
The veteran continued.
"If sanity reaches zero, you die."
Silence.
Then Xiao almost cried.
"Mine’s already dropping!"
As if on cue—
His sanity decreased.
The number kept falling.
"What?!"
Rojo cursed.
"Fear accelerates it."
Panic spread imdiately.
Which only made things worse.
Numbers began dropping all around them.
Shen Yu quietly opened his inventory.
Fortunately.
He had exactly what they needed.
"Sanity Soda."
Every head turned.
"You have one?!"
Shen Yu smiled.
"Several."
Hope appeared in their eyes.
Then vanished.
"Ten thousand gold per bottle."
The entire elevator exploded.
"WHAT?!"
"THAT’S ROBBERY!"
"WE’RE TEAMMATES!"
Shen Yu shrugged.
"I owe several million."
"THAT’S NOT OUR PROBLEM!"
"Exactly."
Rojo stared.
Then laughed.
"I’ll buy one."
The others imdiately followed.
Nothing motivated spending like the threat of instant death.
The elevator suddenly shook violently.
tal scread.
Cables snapped.
"WE’RE FALLING!"
The entire elevator dropped.
Everyone scread.
Shen Yu calmly pressed Floor Four.
BOOM.
An explosion ripped through the elevator.
The others were thrown into walls.
Several players broke bones.
One nearly lost consciousness.
Shen Yu died again.
[You Have Died]
[Death Crit Activated]
[SSR Challenge Ticket Acquired]
[Challenge: Die 50 Tis in this Dungeon]
Reward:
500 Nether Tickets
Shen Yu’s eyes brightened.
"Interesting."
Far away in the Horror Realm—
Lily suddenly sneezed.
The Ghost Bride frowned.
"Why do I feel like he’s profiting again?"
Back inside the dungeon—
The elevator doors slowly opened.
Floor Three.
A rotten hallway stretched endlessly before them.
Water dripped from the ceiling.
The sll of mold and blood filled the air.
One player pointed.
"There!"
At the far end of the hallway stood a firefighter.
Middle-aged.
Smoking.
Completely normal.
Which was suspicious.
Rojo approached first.
"Sir."
The man looked up.
"Kids?"
"We ca up by elevator."
The firefighter stared.
Then slowly lowered his cigarette.
"What elevator?"
Silence.
"The elevator was removed two weeks ago."
Nobody moved.
"What?"
The firefighter frowned.
"This building is condemned."
"Everyone moved out."
"There is no electricity."
"No elevator."
"No residents."
The cigarette dropped from his fingers.
"Why are you here?"
A chill ran through the hallway.
For the first ti—
Even Rojo looked uncomfortable.
Shen Yu, however, was smiling.
Because clues were finally appearing.
"Why was the building abandoned?"
The firefighter hesitated.
Then answered.
"Room 404."
Everyone froze.
"Murder case."
"A bad one."
"Pieces everywhere."
"The news covered it for months."
As he spoke—
Blood began dripping from the walls.
The dungeon was reacting.
A clue had been found.
The atmosphere inside the apartnt complex had changed.
At first, the dungeon had felt like a haunted building.
Now it felt like a living mory.
Every floor was another fragnt of soone’s past.
Every hallway carried echoes from different years.
And the elevator?
The elevator wasn’t transporting them through floors anymore.
It was transporting them through ti.
Shen Yu leaned against the wall as the elevator doors slid shut again.
His expression remained calm.
But internally, he was thinking fast.
Got to hide my infinite revival from everyone.
The first accidental death had already earned him massive rewards.
If these players discovered the truth, things would beco troubleso.
Especially in a Gold Dungeon.
The fewer people who knew his secret, the better.
The system quietly flashed.
Current Challenge Progress
Death Count: 2/50
Blood Pact Progress: 2/5
Candidate: Lily
Status: Hostile
Shen Yu sighed.
"Still trying to kill ."
Sowhere in the dungeon he could almost feel Lily glaring at him.
Earlier...
The players had regrouped after surviving Floor 3.
Several of them were shaking.
Their Sanity values had dropped dangerously low.
One woman finally snapped.
She pointed at Shen Yu.
"You got that sanity soda. Give one quick!"
Shen Yu looked at her.
"Why are you yelling?"
The woman froze.
"What?"
"You didn’t think about helping anyone when you ran earlier."
Her face turned red.
"We’re a team now!"
"I’m about to lose control!"
"What good is it if I die?"
Another player hurriedly intervened.
"Shen, don’t scare her."
"Na your price."
"We’ll buy."
Shen Yu smiled.
"100,000 gold per bottle."
Silence.
"WHAT?!"
The entire group exploded.
"Why not rob us instead?!"
One player pointed furiously.
"Shen!"
"Leave so room for future cooperation!"
Shen Yu shrugged.
"When you abandoned everyone earlier, you didn’t leave room for cooperation."
The player imdiately shut up.
The woman gritted her teeth.
"Fine."
"I don’t need your stupid soda."
"I’ll survive myself."
Then she walked toward the elevator control panel.
"I’ll prove it."
Shen Yu imdiately stepped back.
A very safe distance.
The others noticed.
"Why are you moving away?"
Shen Yu pointed at the button.
"Because pressing random things in a horror dungeon has historically been a bad idea."
The woman snorted.
"See?"
"No big deal."
"Just pressing a button."
She pressed it.
CLICK.
Nothing happened.
For exactly one second.
Then—
BOOOOOOOOM!!!
The elevator panel exploded.
The woman’s body vanished in a spray of blood.
Silence.
Everyone stared.
Then slowly looked back toward Shen Yu.
"..."
"..."
"..."
One player pointed.
"THIS IS YOUR FAULT!"
Shen Yu blinked.
"She pressed it herself."
"If you hadn’t challenged her—"
"She still pressed it herself."
The argunt died imdiately.
Because nobody could actually refute that.
Then sothing even stranger happened.
The corpse vanished.
Reality distorted.
The elevator walls changed.
The rust disappeared.
The blood stains faded.
The lights brightened.
Suddenly the hallway of the floor the woman pressed looked brand new.
"What is this?"
A young woman carrying groceries walked through the hallway.
A husband opened the door.
"Thanks, honey."
"Careful."
"Don’t hit the TV."
The players froze.
The couple couldn’t see them.
Like ghosts watching the past.
Shen Yu narrowed his eyes.
"Sa floor."
"Different tiline."
Understanding appeared instantly.
"We’re seeing previous years."
The television model looked ancient.
The furniture was outdated.
Even the calendar hanging on the wall was old.
Shen Yu checked the date.
"Twelve years ago."
The mystery was slowly taking shape.
Then voices echoed from inside the apartnt.
A woman crying.
A man shouting.
"Cry, cry, cry!"
"That’s all you do!"
"If you’d watched him, he’d still be here!"
The woman’s voice trembled.
"I only left for a mont!"
"I was boiling water!"
"He vanished!"
The husband slamd the table.
"Then go find him!"
"Don’t co back without him!"
The apartnt fell silent.
The players exchanged looks.
Shiao swallowed.
"Missing child."
Rojo nodded.
"Our dungeon objective."
"Find their missing son."
The system flashed.
Main Objective Updated
Investigate the disappearance of the child from Apartnt 304.
"Finally."
One player sighed.
"A real clue."
Shen Yu imdiately started assigning tasks.
"We split up."
Several players looked surprised.
"Shiao."
"Knock on nearby doors."
"Ask if anyone saw the child."
"Got it."
"You two."
"Search both hallway ends."
"What about ghosts?"
"Run."
The player blinked.
"...that’s your strategy?"
"Works surprisingly often."
Shiao laughed.
The mood lightened slightly.
Only slightly.
Because everyone’s sanity was still falling.
anwhile...
Deep within the shadows of the building...
Soone was watching.
A beautiful woman sat atop a staircase railing.
Her long black hair flowed like liquid darkness.
Lily.
The Ghost Bride.
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