A shiver shot through me—the urge to pry out the gem vanished instantly. This was a clear warning. The fallen man on the ground had screamed it with his life…

*The gem on the wall~ Don’t you dare pry it~*

I crouched to examine the corpse…

Honestly, where did I get the courage to stare this closely at a dead body?

Maybe I was just born with this trait? Naturally unafraid of the dead?

Makes sense—Dad was a grave robber after all. Dragons beget dragons, phoenixes beget phoenixes… the rat’s daughter knows how to burrow!

Guess that’s what they call genetic inheritance.

Lacking basic knowledge, I couldn’t tell the skeleton’s gender. His windbreaker had fused tightly to the jet-black bones, as if melted into them…

I prodded carefully with my short knife but found nothing useful. Still, out of respect, I knelt beside him and bowed twice. If he hadn’t arrived first and risked his life, I might be lying here now with a hidden arrow through my skull…

He’d likely pried off the large gem—but no trace remained nearby. He must’ve been struck the moment he removed it. The gem could’ve slipped free or stayed clutched in his hands. Yet nothing was left. Presumably, a later companion took it.

Where it went? None of my concern.

I stood, reluctantly bidding farewell to the big gem on the corridor’s left wall, and pressed on. As I walked, I wondered: why did I even *think* about prying it loose?

Was my self-insertion ability *that* strong?

Had I unconsciously accepted my role as a “grave robber’s daughter,” acting exactly how she would?

But as calm settled in, I realized—how reckless I’d been!

Trapped in these eerie ruins beneath a mysterious lake, everything here held hidden danger.

I knew nothing of this place. I wasn’t survival-savvy.

And yet I’d recklessly reached for its treasures? Way too arrogant.

I tapped my forehead.

*No matter how tempting the next item looks—I won’t touch it.*

I wasn’t a legendary grave robber. Just an ordinary high school girl.

My only goal: get out alive. Not loot antiques for cash.

I repeated it silently again and again, locking the rule deep inside.

What *is* fate? Maybe no one knows.

Some credit hard work for escaping poverty and claim they’ve mastered fate; others, broken by hardship, blame fate for their suffering.

Maybe fate’s just an unlucky scapegoat. Or maybe it’s a lofty success metric…

Still, “the whims of fate” aren’t nonsense. One second someone feasts at a lavish table; the next, food poisoning takes them. One second someone skips home happily; the next, a reckless car ends it all.

Who can foresee the future? Change it? Know if it’s already changed?

Surely… no one.

Like me right now.

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine an ordinary high school girl like me would be trapped here, fighting for survival in a nightmare.

If I wrote this as a story, everyone’d call me full of it. Odds this happens? Like guessing *every* exam multiple-choice question right.

Yet… here I am.

All I can say: fate’s got one twisted sense of humor.

Lost in thought—suddenly, a red flare flickered far down the corridor.

I froze for seconds, frowned… then joy lit my face. Without hesitation, I sprinted forward.

Monsters wouldn’t use cold flares. Anyone lighting one here *had* to be from our group!

Saved!

A helpless smile tugged at my lips.

I reached the corridor’s end. A vast chamber opened ahead.

Beyond the entrance, rough stone steps descended sharply. I stood on high ground; the main space lay below.

The cold flare’s glow came from down there…

But the moment I looked—my blood ran cold.

The red flare still smoldered on the distant floor. At the edge of light and shadow, a massive shape emerged from darkness: a pitch-black head, two huge red eyes glowing faintly, deeply unsettling.

Worst of all—I glimpsed something writhing inside its gaping maw.

Then I saw it: something crawling weakly ahead of the monster’s jaws. I squinted. *Wu Datong?*

His lower body was gone. He dragged his severed torso forward, intestines painting a long crimson trail.

I snapped off my flashlight, legs buckling as I flattened onto the floor, breath held tight.

Pale-faced, I peered down. The monster’s mouth was grotesquely wide. As it chewed, its lips twitched upward—like a maniacal grin. Chilling. Sinister.

Wu Datong clutched a tiny dagger, a heartbreaking sight.

Then—the flare died. Only two faint red eyes drifted in the blackness.

I didn’t breathe. Didn’t move. Terrified it’d spot me, charge up the stairs… I wouldn’t survive.

Minutes stretched. I heard Wu Datong’s weak, pained pleas… and the monster’s wet *crunch… crunch…*

Then—silence. Absolute silence.

Only when the red eyes vanished completely did I dare shift.

Cautiously, I shifted left, then right, widening my view.

Confirmed: gone. I exhaled in relief. No doubt—Wu Datong was gone. *May heaven have no red eyes.*

Now I hesitated: sneak down to scout? Wu Datong was dead. Mom and the others—unknown. That red-eyed beast… must’ve been the eyes chasing us after the coffin field.

Confirmed: it hunts humans. And it’s huge.