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[Welcome to the B-Level Instance [Dangerous Out of Control]. With humanity's technological advancements came inevitable side effects. At first, it was merely a minor experimental mishap, one that no one paid much attention to. But soon, deformed monsters overran the planet, pushing humanity's living space to the brink of extinction...]

[You are researchers from Laboratory IV. The test subjects have revolted, and you must resolve this situation within three days, or humanity's fate will take a drastic turn.]

[Congratulations on accepting the main quest <Eliminate All Escaped Test Subjects in the Laboratory>. Countdown: 72 hours...]

It had been a long time since Gu Zhan had heard such a pure, unmistakably AI-like system voice.

It had also been a while since he had received such a clear instance mission right upon entering.

It seemed that the difficulty of this instance indeed matched its B-level rating.

Gu Zhan slowly opened his eyes and found himself standing in a pure white room.

After his experience in the last instance, he had developed a slight psychological shadow regarding pure white rooms.

However, he quickly realized that this wasn’t a case of the room being drained of color. The walls were simply white, and the room was devoid of furniture.

It was just an ordinary, normal room.

One side of the room wasn’t a wall but a set of iron bars.

Beyond the bars was a brightly lit corridor.

Looking down at himself, he noticed he was dressed in a white, futuristic outfit that exuded a strong sense of advanced technology.

On his wrist was a black watch. The moment he saw the watch, a stream of memories that didn’t belong to him surged into his mind.

This was a personal terminal, a device used to communicate with colleagues.

Colleagues.

The thought of that word brought his teammates to mind.

This time, Gu Zhan had entered the instance to confirm Qin Yue’s situation.

He also needed to investigate whether the abnormalities in this instance were connected to the Hai Chao, which kept proclaiming its ambition to become monsters.

*P/s. Hai Chao is the pinyin and tidal guild or Sea Tide Guild is the English meaning. I didn’t check my previous translation, so I don’t remember which one I used before, but I’ll stick with Hai Chao*

To keep the team efficient, only Xuyu had entered with him this time.

Gu Zhan opened his personal terminal and casually scrolled through the friend list. As expected, he found Xuyu’s name.

It seemed that this time, both of their identities were the same—they were researchers in this so-called laboratory.

Gu Zhan contacted Xuyu, who quickly responded.

"I'm in a corridor. There are cells everywhere, but the rooms are empty," Xuyu said, sending a location shortly after.

Gu Zhan opened the location and noticed that it overlapped with his own position.

Walking to the cage door and looking outside, Gu Zhan saw that the cells were indeed empty, their doors wide open, allowing anyone to step into the corridor.

However, the corridor was deserted—no sign of Xuyu.

Gu Zhan quickly realized the situation and told Xuyu, "We might be on different floors. Stay where you are, and I'll head downstairs to check."

With that, he moved toward one end of the corridor.

But before he had gone far, a beastly roar echoed behind him, followed by a gust of cold wind.

Reacting swiftly, Gu Zhan dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding a massive bear claw that swiped past his ear.

Turning his head, he saw a grotesque creature—a human body, bear-like limbs, a bat's head, and a snake-like tail. Its twisted face was marked by blood-red eyes glaring ferociously at Gu Zhan.

The earlier roar and attack had come from this abomination.

Gu Zhan frowned. What kind of experiments were they conducting in this lab?

He quickly turned and pressed himself against the wall, putting distance between himself and the creature.

The monster, seemingly enraged, charged at him again.

At the same time, more deformed creatures emerged from the rooms on both sides of the corridor.

There were hybrids like the bear-human creature, others resembling eldritch horrors from myths, and even mechanical, skeletal, or zombie-like monstrosities—a chaotic parade of nightmares.

An absurd thought crossed Gu Zhan’s mind: perhaps this so-called laboratory revolt was a result of the research being utterly inhumane.

But regardless, the one suffering right now was Gu Zhan himself.

Thankfully, the monsters also fought among themselves. Gu Zhan, already keeping his distance, turned and ran when he saw the chaos unfolding.

Just then, Xuyu sent him a message: "I hear noises. It’s coming from upstairs. Is that you?"

Gu Zhan didn’t have time to reply and sprinted toward the other end of the corridor.

At that end, instead of a staircase, there was an elevator.

Racing to the elevator, he opened the door and stepped inside. As the doors closed, one of the monsters lunged, spraying foul-smelling liquid into the elevator.

Fortunately, Gu Zhan reacted quickly, dodging the spray. The liquid splattered against the elevator, releasing corrosive black smoke.

The pungent odor filled the elevator, and Gu Zhan suspected the fumes might be toxic, so he covered his nose and mouth.

It wasn’t very effective.

Luckily, the elevator soon arrived at the next floor. As the doors opened, Gu Zhan stepped out and immediately saw Xuyu waiting outside.

Noticing Gu Zhan's unsettled expression, Xuyu asked, "What happened?"

"Upstairs is crawling with deformed monsters. They’re likely the out-of-control test subjects we’ll have to deal with," Gu Zhan replied.

He walked down the corridor quickly, noticing it was identical to the one upstairs, as if copy-pasted.

"I haven’t checked this floor yet," Xuyu said, pointing to the spot beside the elevator. "I woke up over there."

"Let’s examine the floor first," Gu Zhan said.

He opened his wristwatch and started exploring its functions. As researchers, they had some level of authority.

The two of them walked slowly down the corridor, Xuyu in front and Gu Zhan behind.

When they passed one of the cell doors, a sudden roar erupted from inside. Xuyu tensed instantly, and almost simultaneously, a grotesque "human-insect" creature burst out of the room.

It could hardly be called human. It had the lower body of a mantis, a human upper body, and massive butterfly wings on its back.

The wings were too large for the ceiling to accommodate, and they had fractured into broken, jagged pieces.

The creature seemed to sense human presence and charged toward Gu Zhan and Xuyu.

Gu Zhan was still looking at the map on his wristwatch when Xuyu rushed forward, drawing a weapon—a two-handed sword—and slashed directly at the creature.

The sword wasn’t ordinary. Gu Zhan could even see "sword energy" materializing in the air, sharp enough to cut through anything.

The strike landed precisely on the creature’s antennae. The black antennae fell to the ground and dissipated into black smoke.

However, melee weapons had their limitations, and the monster quickly closed in.

Gu Zhan wanted to help, but saw Xuyu flip his hands, and the cold weapons, the twin swords, instantly transformed into two military-grade firearms, their black muzzles aimed at the monster.

Then, a series of “rat-tat-tat” gunfire.

The monster was instantly riddled with bullets, its massive body turning into black smoke and disappearing down the corridor.

Gu Zhan: "..."

What kind of Gatling Bodhisattva was this?

Only then did he realize that the instance’s restrictions on equipment had severely suppressed Xuyu’s strength all along.

After dealing with the monster, Xuyu nonchalantly stowed his twin swords and turned to Gu Zhan. “It’s cleared. Let’s go.”

---

The two continued walking forward, and ahead, more noises began coming from the rooms...

---

While Gu Zhan and Xuyu were focused on dealing with the monsters, outside the instance, Yu Yezhou and the others were also keeping an eye on them.

The reason only Xuyu was participating this time was twofold. First, Xuyu’s combat ability was high, so he could help Gu Zhan.

Second, the <Dangerous Out of Control> instance was too simple. Most of them had already cleared it.

Yu Yezhou, Yang Lin, Sang Yue... even An Heyan and Xu Ke had been through it.

They could no longer enter the instance and could only stay outside to watch.

The advantage was that as long as they stayed in the same room, they could broadcast the live stream and freely discuss the content of the instance.

Watching Gu Zhan and Xuyu's cautious faces in the live stream, Yang Lin sighed, "This is completely different from when I entered the instance."

She then turned to ask Sang Yue, "How’s the situation with Qin Yue?"

Sang Yue shook her head, "Still can't find Qin Yue's live stream."

They were convinced something had happened to Qin Yue, partly because his live stream had disappeared.

Only a live stream from a dead person would vanish.

Qin Yue's tag hadn't broken, though.

He was definitely hanging between life and death.

The most likely explanation for this situation was a drop in his SAN value, turning him into a monster.

Sang Yue's answer was expected, but it still made everyone sigh.

Yang Lin turned back to watch the live stream, saying, "The instance has definitely mutated."

"This game's instances were already a bit different, but this big a change? This is the first time I’ve seen it." Sang Yue, standing beside Yang Lin, whispered.

Yang Lin replied, "Instances sometimes shut down, you know? The reason we met Gu Zhan is because of his first instance. He blew up the school, and that instance hasn't reopened since."

"Ah?" Sang Yue was initially surprised, but after thinking about it, she realized how Gu Zhan had acted back then, and it didn't seem that surprising anymore.

She smiled wryly, "I only knew instances weren't always the same, but I didn’t expect…"

While they were chatting, Gu Zhan and Xuyu encountered more monsters.

The mutation of the instance also sparked more discussions.

---

[This instance is different from the one I did.]

[I remember there were NPC teammates back then, and a newbie tutorial. It was one of the few instances that was especially friendly to new players outside the rules.]

[The player who cleared it... is called Gu Zhan, right? With him around, anything could happen.]

[Oh right, he's the one whose stream went black but still cleared the instance. How is he still alive?]

People quickly attributed the abnormalities of the instance to Gu Zhan.

Only a few questioned:

[Isn't this the instance that Hai Chao had players join not long ago?]

[It's been a while, Hai Chao's people must have cleared it by now, right?]

Yang Lin saw this comment and turned to ask Yu Yezhou, "Has Hai Chao's group cleared the instance?"

Yu Yezhou nodded, "They've been recruiting new members. It's said that they can help the newcomers safely through the newbie period. Not sure about the details, though. Their guild just established, and even if they’re taking newbies through instances, they probably haven’t finished yet."

All guilds take new players along as part of their benefits.

When Shan Ze was established, they also did so.

But it was rare for a guild like Hai Chao to so openly promote becoming monsters and recruit new members on such a large scale.

Sang Yue said, "Everyone knows they want to become monsters, but does anyone still want to join them?"

Yang Lin shook her head, "The new players don't know about the monster players. They're just fooling the newcomers."

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