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When Gu Zhan opened his eyes again, he found himself trapped in a cramped space.

Something heavy was pressing down on his head, making it impossible for him to sit up.

There was a crack in front of him, through which a beam of light shone directly in. With the help of that light, Gu Zhan could barely make out the scene outside.

It seemed to be a bedroom. His perspective was low, and he could only see one side of the bed and the space underneath.

There appeared to be two people on the bed, holding each other.

Though he couldn’t clearly see what they were doing, the wet, slapping sounds told him that the two were quite "intense" in their actions.

Faintly, he could hear the man and woman’s breathless conversation.

"Hurry up, how long has it been since you’ve come?"

"Isn’t it because your husband is always home..."

Gu Zhan listened for a while, feeling disgusted.

As though responding to his inner thoughts, he suddenly opened his mouth and uttered sounds that didn’t belong to him.

"I’m hungry..."

"I’m hungry, give me food, I’m hungry..."

The emotionless, childlike voice echoed in the room, cutting through the atmosphere filled with ambiguity and desire like a sharp knife piercing through a honey-glazed cake.

The two on the bed froze.

At first, they didn’t hear the voice clearly.

The man seemed to lift his head, asking, "What was that sound?"

The woman’s hand was still on the man’s chest, impatiently saying, "It’s nothing, stop imagining things. My husband is on a business trip, probably still in the air."

"I'm hungry, feed me..."

Gu Zhan's voice sounded again, cutting into the words the woman hadn't yet spoken.

The woman's expression finally changed. She froze mid-motion and asked, "What's going on? Did I really hear something?"

Gu Zhan deduced that he was likely inside a closet, and the heavy objects above him were clothes.

His stomach kept producing noises like "I'm hungry" and "Feed me." However, muffled by the clothing and the closet, the words had become unclear by the time they reached the ears of the people on the bed, making them indistinguishable.

To the couple, it merely sounded like someone speaking faintly.

It was vague and intermittent.

Already engaged in an illicit affair, they lost their mood instantly. The man got out of bed in a hurry, quickly dressed, and rushed out.

The woman stood by the bed for a while, finally mustering the courage to approach the source of the sound.

Gu Zhan watched as she drew closer, but his body couldn’t move.

He thought for sure he would be discovered, but unexpectedly, when the woman opened the closet, she merely stared at the mess of clothes inside. She rummaged through them for a moment but didn’t notice Gu Zhan hiding beneath the pile.

Gu Zhan’s stomach continued to growl, and the woman, now frightened, let out a scream before fleeing in panic.

Watching her retreating back, Gu Zhan felt a strange sense of satisfaction.

In the past, he had always been the player, constantly running from monsters. Seeing things from the monster’s perspective, he realized how illogical players’ behavior seemed.

All he had done was mutter a few vague sentences, and the other party had fled in terror.

Earlier, when the woman was searching, she had pulled away the heaviest and thickest piece of clothing pressing down on Gu Zhan. After she left, he began to wriggle his limbs. Following a difficult struggle, he finally broke free from the tangle of clothing and collapsed onto the bedroom floor.

His stomach continued to growl incessantly, and the gnawing feeling of hunger grew even stronger.

He really did seem to be starving.

Gu Zhan got up, moving his puppet-like limbs, and shuffled out of the bedroom.

To Gu Zhan, the room felt enormous. The spacious living room was relatively tidy. As he walked forward, a fragrant aroma wafted into his nose, intensifying the emptiness in his stomach.

The feeling of hunger was unbearable. Stumbling forward a few more steps, he suddenly noticed a puddle of red liquid spilled across the floor. A viscous substance was slowly seeping along the ground.

When Gu Zhan saw it, the hunger in his stomach became unbearable.

He needed to "eat."

Gu Zhan's gaze was fixated on the red substance as he moved closer step by step.

At that moment, a loud "thud" came from the kitchen.

Gu Zhan was all too familiar with the sound—the heavy chop of a cleaver slicing through bone and flesh, powerful enough to make the cutting board tremble slightly.

The red substance on the floor carried a faint, eerie scent of blood, tempting Gu Zhan even further.

Finally, he reached the red puddle, sprawled across the ground, and buried his face into it.

At that moment, the noise in the kitchen ceased.

Someone began humming a lighthearted tune as they stepped out of the kitchen.

It was the woman of the house.

She seemed to have completely forgotten what had just happened in the bedroom, her focus now on preparing her food with great enjoyment.

Carrying a plate, she walked into the living room.

The moment she saw Gu Zhan lying face down in the red puddle, she screamed, dropping the plate in her hands!

Hearing the commotion, Gu Zhan raised his head and glanced at her.

At this sight, the woman, already terrified, screamed even louder. Panicking, she stumbled past Gu Zhan, accidentally bumping into the corner of a table.

The tablecloth was pulled down, and the various items on top clattered to the floor as the woman screamed and fled back toward the bedroom.

Gu Zhan: "..."

Had she forgotten that he had just come out of the bedroom?

If there really was any danger, the bedroom would be the most dangerous place.

Oh well.

After all, this was Mo Tuo's dungeon. That woman clearly wasn’t a player.

As for the red puddle on the ground, it wasn’t blood or anything sinister—it was just some ketchup spilled on the floor.

Gu Zhan wiped his mouth, stood up, and caught sight of a broken mirror nearby.

A shard of the mirror reflected his current appearance.

Finally, Gu Zhan understood why the woman had been so terrified.

His current appearance could only be described as horrifying.

The puppet he was inhabiting was inherently grotesque: its mouth stitched shut with black thread, now smeared with red ketchup. Its sparse hair, made from coarse yarn, stuck out in jagged tufts.

It was no wonder the woman had been so frightened.

Gu Zhan couldn’t figure out why such a bizarre puppet would appear in Mo Tuo’s dungeon.

Just as he was about to head back to the bedroom to investigate further, he felt the floor beneath him tremble slightly.

Then, without warning, his body began to stretch.

Before he realized it, he had grown so tall that he nearly touched the ceiling. The room around him vanished, leaving him standing on a desolate, fog-shrouded street.

The surrounding buildings were tall, but Gu Zhan realized he was even taller.

Looking down, he saw his elongated arms hanging all the way to the ground. The rapid growth had left his skin loose and dull, sagging over his bones and muscles.

He raised his hand, but his movements were slow and sluggish.

In that instant, he sensed something behind him—a fleeting presence.

He turned his head quickly, catching a glimpse of a human figure darting behind one of the buildings.

Instinctively, Gu Zhan felt that he should chase this person.

He lumbered toward the spot, arriving at the entrance of a dead-end alley. His towering frame allowed him to peer directly into the alley’s depths.

The people inside, however, had no way to escape.

They huddled in a corner, staring at Gu Zhan in sheer terror.

Gu Zhan observed them for a while, unsure if they were players or NPCs.

He had the faint sense that this was an event that had already happened, as if his actions were guided by an unseen force.

Mo Tuo could delve into his past through his memories, so it made sense that Gu Zhan might also be able to visit Mo Tuo’s past.

His past as a monster.

Naturally, "Mo Tuo" hadn’t spared those people. Similarly, at this very moment, Gu Zhan stood at the alley entrance, watched for a while, then reached out and grabbed those people, shoving them into his mouth.

Gu Zhan was startled by his own actions. He definitely wasn’t keen on experiencing a fully immersive "eating humans" scenario!

However, just as the people reached his mouth, his body turned incorporeal.

With a thud, Gu Zhan looked down to see the people falling through his body and landing on the ground.

Everything seemed unchanged, yet somehow, everything felt different.

The players who had been fleeing in terror moments ago were now sitting motionless like wooden dolls, their arms hugging their knees as they crouched on the ground.

Meanwhile, Gu Zhan felt a surge of unprecedented vitality coursing through his body.

It was addictive, so much so that he couldn’t resist seeking out the next player to grab and "eat."

Gu Zhan continued forward. After walking a short distance, he suddenly heard a rustling sound behind him.

Turning around, he saw the players he had just discarded on the ground undergoing rapid transformations.

Their bodies were growing at an alarming rate.

They were gradually becoming monsters, just like him.

Once they completed their transformations, they immediately scattered toward the surrounding buildings.

Gu Zhan had just witnessed the process of monster conversion.

Soon, the entire town was left with nothing but monsters.

Countless lanky, grotesque creatures roamed the streets, searching for their next target.

...

Gu Zhan felt that familiar sense of detachment again, just like the last time.

It seemed he was about to become another character.

When players cleared a dungeon, they left.

But what happened when monsters completed a dungeon?

This wasn’t Mo Tuo’s native dungeon, so once it was cleared, he’d undoubtedly leave.

These fragments of two dungeons seemed to be showing Gu Zhan glimpses of Mo Tuo’s life as a monster.

Had he entered Mo Tuo’s memories, just as Mo Tuo had once explored his own past?

While Gu Zhan speculated about what new dungeon he might face, a hand suddenly reached out from the black mist nearby, grabbing his collar.

With no ability to resist, Gu Zhan was yanked forward, only to find himself face-to-face with Mo Tuo’s furious expression.

Mo Tuo had reverted to his original form, his beautiful eyes fixed intently on Gu Zhan, anger flashing within them.

Gu Zhan paused slightly. Somehow, Mo Tuo’s anger was rather attractive. Unfortunately, it seemed he had gone too far—

"You’re surprisingly resourceful, daring to probe my memories in my own dungeon."

As Mo Tuo spoke, it was as though his upper and lower teeth ground against each other, his frustration palpable, as if he wanted to devour Gu Zhan on the spot.

Yet Gu Zhan still managed a smile and said to Mo Tuo, "Courtesy demands reciprocity."

Mo Tuo froze momentarily before letting out a laugh of his own.

"Very well, if it’s reciprocity you want, I’ll give you a big gift."

With that, he tossed Gu Zhan forward.

Gu Zhan’s vision plunged into darkness once more, and finally, he heard the system’s official broadcast.

[Welcome, player, to the dungeon Son of Light. This is a solo dungeon. Failing to clear it will result in the player being trapped here forever. Proceed with caution...]

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