8: Chapter 8 mission failed? I'll change the rules myself!

Chen Fan's eardrums were still ringing. The dull thud of Brother Dao crashing into the shelves had just echoed through the alley when the system notification pierced his ears like a steel needle: "[Emergency Dungeon Unlocked: Rusty Iron Factory Secondary Purification]."

A chill ran down the back of his neck, and his vision suddenly went black. A sense of weightlessness crashed down on him like a massive boulder—the precursor to a forced teleportation.

The moment the system dragged him through the data turbulence, he reflexively gripped the iron shard in his hand. The jagged edges stung his palm, becoming his only real anchor.

When he opened his eyes again, steam was erupting from the cracked pipes of the Rusty Iron Factory. Eerie green Data Dust drifted through the air like handfuls of crumpled fluorescent paper.

Chen Fan stumbled a few steps, his boots grinding against the dark brown rust residue on the floor. The scene was exactly the same as his first time in the dungeon; even the pile of deformed gears in the corner remained at the same angle from when he had kicked them away.

"Cough..."

A suppressed cough came from his left.

Chen Fan turned his head and saw Brother Dao kneeling beside a pile of scrap metal five meters away.

The man's left arm was as charred as a piece of coal, with fragments of melted metal guards faintly visible beneath the skin. His previously bristly buzz cut now clung limply to his forehead. Seeing Chen Fan look over, he opened his mouth but made no sound, his eyes like crushed lightbulbs that could no longer glow.

*Ding—* [Mission Description].

A pale blue system light screen unfurled before Chen Fan's eyes. He scanned the text quickly, his molars aching from clenching his jaw: "Collect 10 units of Data Dust and feed them into the Master Control Furnace. Time limit: 60 minutes."

Failure... Permanent Obliteration."

Exclamations suddenly erupted around him.

Chen Fan looked up and saw several New Players frantically surrounding a floating cloud of eerie green dust. A kid in a leather jacket swung a steel pipe at it, but the dust passed through the metal like water. The next second, his pupils constricted suddenly, and he screamed while clutching his head: "My head is going to explode!

That thing... it's burrowing into my brain!"

Chen Fan narrowed his eyes.

Veins bulged on the kid's forehead as his gaze grew vacant. He stumbled a few steps before collapsing to the ground, white foam leaking from the corners of his mouth.

The system notification chimed in at the right moment: "[Mental Erosion] stack x1, current progress 30%."

"Fuck!

You can't hit this thing!" another player with dyed yellow hair shouted, stabbing wildly with a dagger. The Data Dust avoided the attacks as if it were alive; instead, every time he missed, eerie green mist rose from his body. "Where are those Data Specterss the system mentioned?

Where—"

Before he could finish, his dagger suddenly plunged through his own left arm.

The yellow-haired man's eyes widened as he stared at the translucent shadow appearing on his arm—a mass of twisted black mist that was burrowing into his body through the wound.

Chen Fan pressed his back against the cold iron plating of the control console.

He remembered what Su Shuang had said on the second floor of the Teahouse before he was teleported: "Electric diversion... that's not a trick an ordinary laborer would know." He hadn't thought much of it then, but looking at the dust floating in the air now, something suddenly clicked in his mind. Old Man Zhou had taught him how to read circuit paths, but why would Su Shuang notice that?

And the Carved Wooden Box she had shoved into his hands...

He reached for the cloth pouch at his waist, his fingertips feeling the square, hard object through the thick fabric.

After a moment's hesitation, Chen Fan turned his back and quickly opened it—inside was a bronze bell. Its surface was engraved with crooked fox-shaped runes that shimmered with a pale gold light, as if sunlight had been kneaded into the metal.

*Ding—*

His fingertip lightly brushed the bronze bell, and its clear, resonant sound rippled through the Rusty Iron Factory.

Chen Fan's pupils constricted slightly. The floating dust suddenly trembled like iron filings drawn to a magnet. Even the shadow burrowing into the yellow-haired man paused, fine cracks appearing on the surface of the black mist.

"So that's how it is," Chen Fan's Adam's apple bobbed.

He quickly tore a strip of cloth from his wrist guard, wrapped the bronze bell into a small bundle, and stuffed it into his sleeve. He feigned a searching look while catching Brother Dao staring at him out of the corner of his eye. The man could still barely lift his right arm, and a glimmer of ruthlessness had returned to his eyes, like a wild dog with a broken leg that still wanted to pounce.

"Let's try this." Chen Fan took a deep breath and deliberately stumbled toward the nearest cluster of dust.

The black mist of a Data Specters surged toward him instantly. He feigned a panicked punch, but the bronze bell in his sleeve gave a soft quiver.

*Zzzt—*

The Data Specters's form suddenly distorted, like smoke being scattered by the wind.

Chen Fan's palm grew warm as three clusters of dust automatically fell into it. The system notification rang out immediately: "[Data Dust Collected x3]."

From the corner of his eye, he saw Brother Dao suddenly straighten his back.

Good.

Chen Fan deliberately "made a mistake" in front of the second cluster of dust—he pretended to be knocked off balance by a Data Specters, but the bronze bell didn't move an inch.

The Data Specters took the opportunity to burrow into his left shoulder. System notification: "[Mental Erosion] stack x1, current progress 15%."

"Ha!" Brother Dao suddenly laughed, his blood-stained lips pulling back into a grin. "I knew you brat were hiding something!" He used the scrap metal pile to haul himself up, his right hand tightly gripping a sharp piece of iron. "Today, I'll—"

Before he could finish, he lunged at the nearest cluster of dust.

Chen Fan watched as he swung the iron shard violently, only for the Data Specters's black mist to instantly envelop his wrist.

Brother Dao's face immediately turned a deep purple-red, and a raspy, guttural sound escaped his throat. The charred skin on his left arm began to peel away, revealing the festering muscle beneath. The system notification sounded like a death knell: "[Mental Erosion] stack x3, current progress 90%."

"Save... save me..." Brother Dao collapsed to the ground, the iron shard clattering at his feet.

He reached out with a mangled, bloody hand, his fingernails scraping against the rusted floor with an ear-piercing screech. "I don't want to die... I don't want to be obliterated..."

Chen Fan tightened his grip on the bronze bell in his sleeve.

He could hear his own heart pounding like a drum—not out of sympathy, but out of a sense of urgency.

The system countdown flickered on his retina: "Remaining Time: 10:00." Seven flashes of white light had already occurred across the server; the players who vanished hadn't even had time to scream.

"Sorry about this," he whispered, and the bronze bell in his sleeve began to vibrate rhythmically.

A series of faint *ding-ling* sounds suddenly echoed through the Rusty Iron Factory.

All the Data Dust surged toward Chen Fan's palm along the path of the bell's sound, like puppets with their strings cut.

The black mist of the Data Specterss shattered into pieces under the vibration of the bronze bell, and even the indicator lights on the Master Control Furnace began to flash frantically—a sign of data overload.

*Ding—* [Data Dust Collected x10].

Chen Fan rushed to the furnace and tossed the final cluster of dust inside.

Just as the system announced "Mission Complete," a red alarm suddenly blared: "[External interference source detected... Tracing source...]"

His fingers tightened, and the bronze bell crumbled into powder in his palm.

Chen Fan quickly crouched down and stuffed the shards into a hidden compartment in his sole—the alarm cut off abruptly, as if someone had strangled it.

"Brother..."

As he stepped out of the dungeon teleportation gate, Xiao Lin emerged from a corner.

The kid's face was pale, and he was still clutching the hemostatic medicine Chen Fan had given him during the first dungeon. "I... I saw you use that bell... What was it?"

Chen Fan stared at the boy's trembling fingertips and suddenly smiled.

He felt the bronze bell shards in his pocket, his voice as soft as the steam in the Rusty Iron Factory: "It's something that lets you hear the system's lies."

Xiao Lin opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, the system notification rang out again.

Chen Fan's vision went black. This time, the sensation of teleportation was more intense than ever, and he could faintly hear the sound of metal clashing in the distance—like the chain-link fence of an abandoned stadium rattling in the wind.

"Next stop..." He clenched his fist in the darkness. "It's the system's turn to panic."