With Mo Bai’s analysis, everything went smoothly.

This time, Ye Pingjun wore the glasses. Guided by the Prying Lenses, the three of them avoided all the players and made their way straight to the basement.

The basement was very dark, but fortunately, Ding Xun had Extrasensory abilities. She also had night vision, so as long as there was even the tiniest bit of light, she could see everything clearly.

And even if there wasn’t a trace of light, it didn’t matter. Ding Xun also had an extremely sharp sense of hearing and smell, so she could still move around freely in the dark.

The trio changed formation, with Ding Xun leading the way while Ye Pingjun pushed Mo Bai right behind her.

A rhythmic mechanical sound came from the basement. Every beat of the sound landed heavily on their hearts, sending chills down their spines.

An ominous feeling stirred faintly in Mo Bai’s chest.

Ding Xun stopped in front of a tightly shut iron door. All the doors in the castle were wooden, only this one was iron. It seemed that something precious was hidden inside.

Ye Pingjun looked inside using the Prying lenses and said, “I see a huge machine inside. No. 1 and No. 2 are lying on it. A few mechanical arms are applying something onto their bodies, and their skin is slowly absorbing it.”

“Probably maintenance fluid to maintain puppets,” Mo Bai said. “Corpses rot. Without regular preservation treatment, they can’t keep looking lifelike like normal people.”

“And… I also saw No.12,” Ye Pingjun added, his voice becoming heavier. “His corpse is being soaked in a container next to them.”

After lunch, they had left the dining hall, and no one went to retrieve No. 12’s corpse. It seemed that his personal maid had taken it away. Now they knew it had been sent here.

Perhaps they intended to turn him into a doll too, and the early-stage preparations were already starting.

The information left the three in heavy silence.

Mo Bai was holding up better, but Ding Xun and Ye Pingjun couldn’t help thinking about the forced instances they survived by clinging desperately to life.

Who knew what happened to the players who were forever trapped in those instances?

“Mo Bai, you were right,” Ye Pingjun said. “If we have the ability, we should find a way to clear the dungeon. Otherwise, sooner or later, we’ll develop inner demons.”

“You didn’t see anything wrong, right? If not, I’m opening the door,” Ding Xun asked.

“No abnormalities,” Ye Pingjun confirmed after carefully checking again.

Ding Xun placed her hand on the door and was just about to open it when Mo Bai suddenly spoke: “Wait a minute. Give me the glasses. I want to check one more time.”

Ye Pingjun handed her the glasses but reminded her, “Your mental energy is already used up.”

“I know,” Mo Bai replied.

She took out a bottle of blue potion and drank it in one go. Her energy bar was instantly replenished.

It was a Basic Nutrient Potion, worth 1,000 points. A player could only bring one nutrient potion per dungeon, and it could fully restore stamina and mental energy at once.

“You only had one, and you drank it now?” Ye Pingjun asked. “I really didn’t see any danger in there.”

But Mo Bai still insisted, “I think it’s necessary.”

She used Environment Optimization on the Prying Lenses again. This time, with her energy bar full, the power was even stronger than before.

Mo Bai poured all her energy into the glasses, boosting them to A-rank for just a moment.

This time, she saw everything even more clearly.

The scene inside matched Ye Pingjun’s description exactly, but Mo Bai’s view was sharper than his.

No. 1 and No. 2 were lying naked on the machine. Their clothes had been neatly folded and placed on a chair nearby.

Mo Bai clearly saw that on No. 1’s brown coat, a brown butterfly was quietly resting.

The butterfly matched the environment’s color so well that it was almost impossible to see with the naked eye. Anyone would think it was just part of the clothing.

It was the Phantom Butterfly.

The Prying Lenses could see through walls, detect invisibility, and even ignore spatial barriers, but they couldn’t see through mimicry. They couldn’t see the Phantom Butterfly’s disguise.

Only after Mo Bai upgraded the glasses into Truth Lenses for that moment, giving them the ability to see the essence behind appearances, was she able to spot the hidden Phantom Butterfly.

The missing Phantom Butterfly had been hiding here all along.

Mo Bai remembered the rules in the Count’s room. Rule 5 indicated that “If the castle receives an uninvited guest, you have the right to drive them out or charge them a 'lodging fee' that satisfies you.”

The Phantom Butterfly was that uninvited guest since it had followed Mo Bai into the Count’s Castle instance. The Count had the right to expel it, but the Phantom Butterfly also had to follow the rules here.

To gain residency in the castle, it paid “lodging fees” to the Count. That is, helping the Count protect these two hidden monsters during the day when the Count couldn’t move freely.

If they barged in now, not only would they fail to kill No. 1 and No. 2, but they would also fall into the Phantom Butterfly’s hands.

Ding Xun and Ye Pingjun would die instantly. On the other hand, Mo Bai wouldn’t die immediately since the butterfly would probably torture her and would only kill her when the instance timer ended.

“We can’t go in.” Mo Bai took off the glasses, her expression serious. “Let’s leave the basement first and find a safe place. I’ll explain everything.”

Even though they hadn’t known Mo Bai long, the two already trusted her. If she said it was dangerous, then it definitely was.

The three of them left the basement.

Before going, Mo Bai took advantage of the lingering Truth Lenses effect and glanced at the basement again.

She saw the brown butterfly flap its wings a few times, seemingly agitated.

That meant that the Phantom Butterfly could hear their conversation and was upset that they were leaving. But it couldn’t break its agreement with the Count. It had to stay and protect No. 1 and No. 2.

Mo Bai had once considered luring the butterfly away herself so Ding Xun and Ye Pingjun could attack the puppets, but now she realized that plan wouldn’t work.

They returned to a deserted corner on the second floor. Ye Pingjun checked the time and said, “It’s already 4 PM. We only have one hour of free time left. If we don’t kill No. 1 and No. 2 within that hour, we’ll face another death threat tonight. We were right at the door, just a step away from killing them. Why did you stop us? Give me a proper reason.”

“This goes back a long time,” Mo Bai said.

She kept it brief and straightforward, explaining the origin of her grudge with the Phantom Butterfly. She also explained that Guest No. 6 was the butterfly itself, and that it was now lurking in the basement, waiting for players to walk into its trap.

Ding Xun, Ye Pingjun: “…”

It took them a full ten minutes to digest what Mo Bai had said.

Ding Xun finally spoke: “So this forced instance has two A-rank monsters working together? How are we supposed to fight them?”

Ye Pingjun added, “You’re telling me you’re just a newbie who entered the Infinite World seven days ago? And this B-rank dungeon is your second newbie stage? And you’re only ‘Beginner-3’? At this rate, even if you clear this instance, how are you going to survive the next?”

Ding Xun said, “I’m willing to fight an A-rank monster to challenge myself, but this difficulty is way too much.”

Ye Pingjun said, “Even if I max out my luck and use up all 50 points in one go, I could maybe save my own life, but definitely not enough to defeat these two monsters.”

The two of them argued back and forth until Mo Bai’s head hurt. Ding Xun even started preparing to write her will, hoping her AI assistant could tell her friends in Peach Blossom Land that she wouldn’t be able to repay the 20,000 points she owed for buying the Nightingale's Voice, so they should just forget about that debt.

If a player has a premonition of death, they could leave a will, which the assistant would deliver afterward.

If it's a sudden death like No. 12, without leaving a will, that opportunity is lost.

Ye Pingjun was calculating whether his abilities could help him survive.

Both were planning their escape routes, but surprisingly, neither blamed Mo Bai for putting them in danger.

Mo Bai had been fully prepared to be blamed.

“You’re not blaming me?” she asked.

“Why would we blame you?” Ding Xun said. “Your first dungeon was that hard, and you were a newbie who didn’t understand the Infinite World. Killing the ‘Enhanced Mutant’ was already impressive. You didn’t bring the Phantmom Butterfly here on purpose, and you can’t control the instance. I'm not that bored to hate you instead of the monsters. My only regret is not being strong enough to beat two A-rank monsters.”

Ye Pingjun said, “You probably don’t know, after hearing that the Phantom Butterfly was in this dungeon, my luck score instantly dropped to –50. I think I can survive on that alone, so there’s no point blaming you. And you’re so strong and pretty, who would even want to blame you?”

Hearing their responses, Mo Bai relaxed and smiled.

She said, “Actually, there’s no need to be that pessimistic. What we just discovered finally completed my plan. I’m more confident now. We can deal with the Phantom Butterfly and clear this dungeon.”

Mo Bai felt this was the moment to counterattack since all the conditions were finally in place.

Both of them turned their eyes to her.

Ding Xun said, “You’d better not just be comforting me.”

Ye Pingjun added, “Alright, strategist, let’s hear what you're planning.”

Mo Bai smiled. “I gathered information on the Phantom Butterfly even before entering the dungeon, and I prepared a card to delay it temporarily. But at that time, I could only delay it, not actually fight it. Now it’s different. What we just saw made me realize something. The butterfly’s ‘lodging fee’ in the castle is protecting No. 1 and No. 2. That’s how it avoids being expelled by the Count.

So… if we eliminate No. 1 and No. 2, won’t the Count expel the Phantom Butterfly from the dungeon?

After all, it didn't properly pay its ‘lodging fee.’”

“Looking at it that way, it makes sense,” Ding Xun said. “But the Phantom Butterfly is guarding No. 1 and No. 2. With its protection, there’s no way we can kill those hidden monsters.”

“And it’s already 4:30. We’re running out of time,” Ye Pingjun said.

“Who said I was planning to act now?” Mo Bai grinned. “Recall all the rules. Was there ever a rule saying that ‘guests cannot change rooms’?”

“That’s right! There wasn’t!” Ding Xun exclaimed.

Mo Bai continued, “And remember the rules in the Count's room? ‘Rule Six: You may visit guests at night, but only one room per night. Visiting too many would be beneath a Count's dignity.’ And ‘Rule Seven: You are a noble Count, not an executioner. Even if you have… obscure preferences, keep them hidden. Do not be too blatant, or you will lose authority over the castle.’

“What do these two rules imply besides the fact that the Count can kill one player per night?” Ye Pingjun asked.

Mo Bai said, “Rule Seven contains hidden information. The Count’s ‘hidden hobby’ is clearly his love for making puppets. So, who does the word ‘people’ refer to, the ones he shouldn’t let know? We haven’t lived here for long, so we don’t count as those ‘people.’”

Ye Pingjun suddenly understood. “‘People’ refers to the maids and the butler.”

“And with ‘Rule Four: The butler and maid are your loyal servants and will absolutely obey you. Do not modify them for personal hobbies.’ Putting these together, I think the rules are telling us that when the Count visits a guest at night, the maids and butler are sent away,” Mo Bai said.

“And the Count only enters one player’s room each night,” Ye Pingjun added.

Ding Xun followed, “Which means… that’s when the other players can act!”

“If we use that time to secretly attack No. 1 and No. 2, the Phantom Butterfly’s ‘lodging fee’ will be ruined.” Mo Bai smiled.