My Computer Leads to an Instance Dungeon

He was the last to leave when they crossed the snake pit.

Before he left, he checked the rope.

When Pat was crossing the rope bridge, the rope didn't break because he was too heavy. It had been cut with a knife.

The person who cut it was meticulous. The cut was made with precision—others could cross without much issue, but Pat was guaranteed to fall. It would then be passed off as his weight being too much, arousing no suspicion.

In fact, even before crossing the snake pit, Fang Zhen had already narrowed the list of traitors down to two people.

Someone had written to Jorent, trying to persuade him to surrender. Jorent might have wavered, but he definitely wasn't the mole.

Laura gave Fang Zhen the letter, so it couldn't have been her.

With Pat's transparent personality, being a mole would require astonishing acting skills. It wasn't Pat.

Karen had no convincing motive, nor did she have the opportunity to make contact with Ellick.

That only left Gwendolyn and Tos.

Fang Zhen trusted Gwendolyn more, but he couldn't rule out the possibility that Ellick had used Spirit control to bewitch her, so he hadn't let her in on his suspicions.

But after the snake pit incident, he was almost certain it was Tos.

And so, he had kept a wary eye on Tos ever since.

Tos's betrayal of the Whig Society had far-reaching consequences.

As he said, Tos was an orphan raised by the Whig Society.

Because of his background, the upper echelons of the Whig Society had placed immense trust in him. That's why they gave him the responsibility of delivering messages to important figures and kept no secrets from him.

His betrayal meant that many of the Whig Society's secret strongholds, its organizational structure, and intelligence on key members were all exposed to the Eternal Night Council.

Combined with the stimulus of the Blood Burst Secret Medicine, a major purge and counter-attack from the Eternal Night Council against the Whig Society was imminent.

The wind was rising, heralding a coming storm.

Fang Zhen had already keenly sensed the prelude to Act Three.

But before Act Three could begin, he had to kill Ellick, a physical aberration, and Tos, a spiritual one.

Tos shook his head slightly.

"I made many preparations to join the Eternal Night Council."

"A few years ago, I came to the Ellick Territory to deliver a message and discovered that the paper here was different from other places. It had a faint fragrance, and its color was slightly different."

"The papyrus here is different from elsewhere."

"I prepared some of Ellick's papyrus paper and wrote anonymous letters to certain people in the Whig Society, including Jorent."

"Before coming to the Ellick Territory, I used this paper to correspond with Jorent several times, trying to persuade him to surrender."

"Jorent is a very meticulous person. After arriving here, he would surely notice the subtle difference in the letter paper and thus suspect Gwendolyn. My goal was to sow suspicion and create a rift among you, making it impossible for the punitive force to work together and threaten Lord Count."

Tos shook his head slightly as he spoke.

"I just didn't expect that everything would be ruined by an accident."

"You, Fang Zhen. Your very existence ruined my plan."

"Moreover, I deliberately left the letter for Jorent behind, hoping to deepen your suspicions. But after Laura found it, she didn't raise any public questions, which foiled my design."

"I plotted so meticulously, yet I lost to a bit of bad luck."

"But it's fine. After all, I still partially succeeded."

"Oh? Did you really succeed?" Fang Zhen retorted, a hint of mockery on his face.

Tos froze.

Fang Zhen reached out and took a small vial from his clothes.

"Master, the antidote we made as a precaution against poison, how effective is it against Decay Powder?" Fang Zhen tossed the vial backward, and it landed precisely in front of Laura.

"Although it's not a perfect match, it can neutralize ninety-five percent of the poison," Gwendolyn answered, perfectly composed.

Realizing what was happening, Laura dropped to the ground and bit open the vial's cork with her teeth.

A foul stench, like rotten sludge, rushed out.

Laura's brows knitted tightly, but then, aside from a sheen of foul-smelling sweat, the feeling of her muscles and bones going limp subsided by eighty or ninety percent.

Laura was astonished and immediately stood up.

Laura quickly smeared the ointment under the noses of the other three. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"It's the antidote!" Jorent's eyes lit up.

In less than a breath's time, Jorent, Pat, and Karen regained their strength and got up from the floor.

Tos watched, dumbfounded.

Seeing this, Ellick's expression turned grim.

Fang Zhen sneered as he looked at Tos.

'Tos's proof of allegiance is now useless. This is going to be awkward for the traitor.'

Ellick's face was grim for a moment, then he suddenly let out a sinister laugh.

"Hehehe... Do you think I would bet everything on Tos alone?"

"If you thought that, you are far too naive."

Ellick raised his hands and clapped a few times.

The sound of his clapping had a peculiar rhythm.

Fang Zhen noticed something.

Ellick had a method for controlling the castle's mechanisms, using sounds of different frequencies and rhythms.

It was unclear how Ellick had arranged it, but whenever a sound wave of a specific frequency appeared, the Ancient Castle would react accordingly.

Following the specially-rhythmed applause, the rumbling sound of mechanisms, like muffled thunder, echoed from all around the hall.

Several passages and corridors, including the one Fang Zhen had come from, began to change.

Before long, Iron Armor Soldiers and... bizarrely shaped aberrations began to emerge from these corridors.

Among the aberrations were the vicious ghouls Fang Zhen had seen before, as well as even more grotesque ones: monstrous abominations with scorpion-like insect legs, over ten human arms growing from their bodies—each arm with an eyeball on it and holding a crossbow—and three heads, two human and one a vicious ghoul's.

Aberrant experimental subjects!

These were special lifeforms Ellick created using aberrant creatures as a base. Each experimental subject had its own traits, but the commonality was that they were all extremely dangerous.

There were eight or nine of these monsters, mixed in among more than forty Iron Armor Soldiers of the Earl's Guard, pouring out from the various passages.

In an instant, the aberrant experimental subjects and the soldiers of the Earl's Guard had surrounded the hall.

Gwendolyn and the others wore grave expressions.

Looking at these monsters, Karen's face was filled with despair.

However, for some unknown reason, no Iron Armor Soldiers or monsters appeared from the corridor Fang Zhen and his party had used to get here.

Ellick watched, then suddenly frowned.

"Strange, why are ten of the Earl's Personal Guard and three experimental subjects missing?"

"They were supposed to be blocking your escape route," Ellick said.

At that moment, footsteps echoed from the corridor behind them.

It sounded like Heavy Armored Warriors walking on the stone tiles.

Ellick's brow relaxed, but then immediately furrowed again.

The sound wasn't right.

Those weren't the footsteps of a squad. The guard squad had at least ten men, but the newcomer was alone.

Fang Zhen turned his head to look at the corridor's exit.

Ellick frowned, his gaze also fixed on the corridor's exit.

A tall female warrior in full armor emerged from the corridor. She was carrying two round gas canisters on her shoulder and holding a greatsword.

The Female Swordsman's armor was stained red with blood, covered in gore, minced flesh, and fragments of dark red and black viscera. Her greatsword was likewise caked in blood.

It was Jilenna!

Jilenna, carrying her bloodstained greatsword and shouldering the gas canisters, walked to the corridor exit and frowned as she looked inside.

"I'm telling you, what the hell were those things? Why were they so hard to kill? Didn't you just say I was supposed to deliver some equipment?"

"If they're this tough, I'm going to have to charge more," the Highland Female Knight said.

Hearing this, Fang Zhen smiled.

"Fine! Get over here and help me kill some people!" he shouted.

"Alrighty!" Jilenna grew excited at the prospect of cutting people down.

Carrying her greatsword and shouldering the gas canisters, Jilenna charged toward the center of the battlefield!