The rundown house of Ergou was impoverished, with its courtyard surrounded not by mud walls but a patchwork fence of branches and sticks. Zhou Yuan gave the fence a couple of pokes to find a foothold, then swung himself over with a practiced motion. The courtyard lay in complete darkness, with no hint of light anywhere. Moving cautiously, he approached the only respectable-looking main house and quietly leaned against the window.

“Mother, I’m so cold,” came a voice from inside.

“Quick, soak in the warm water tub,” replied a concerned woman. “Husband, you mustn't go stealing from the Dragon Palace again. Ergou almost lost his life this time.”

“I swear I won’t go back,” said a weary male voice. “I barely made it out today. No more, ever again.”

“What? Did Ergou not follow my instructions?” another woman’s voice asked, younger but filled with worry. “You can’t offend the Dragon Palace guards, or you’ll end up like my late husband. Ergou needs to be more careful.”

Zhou Yuan guessed this woman to be Cuiniang, Ergou's recently married wife.

“Cuiniang, you told us the Dragon Palace’s entrance, and our family owes you for that. We’d never dare defy your advice. But Ergou miscounted; he was supposed to take thirty-six steps but only managed thirty-two, and that attracted the guards’ attention. Luckily, he ran fast and took only a few jewels. Otherwise, he’d have lost his life.”

“Ah, if only Shitou weren’t so dense,” Ergou’s father grumbled. “If he’d married into our family, he could be the one braving the waters. In this village, he’s the only one we can trust. He lives alone, so if he joined us, our families could become one.”

“Father, don’t talk about that!” Ergou said, sounding embarrassed. “But you’re right. We can only trust ourselves. If someone else learned about the Dragon Palace, they might bury us alive just to get those jewels.”

“Cuiniang, help me add more warm water for Ergou,” Ergou’s mother said. “He needs to get warm again.”

“Coming…” Cuiniang replied.

Outside, Zhou Yuan listened, baffled. Was Ergou’s family delirious from fever? Was there really a Dragon Palace beneath the Clear Sand River, and could Ergou have stolen from it?

“Phew, finally warming up,” Ergou said. “That palace is no place for people. The water there is icy enough to steal half your life.”

“Husband, wife, and parents,” Ergou continued, “we got a dozen or so jewels this time. We’ll be well off, but they must remain secret. If I return safely from military service, we can say they’re my spoils of war. If I don’t make it, tell Shitou these were my relics.”

“Don’t say such things!” his mother chided. “You’ll come back safe, and we’ll move to the city and live well.”

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“But Father, if we all leave, who will mark the entrance regularly?” Ergou reminded. “If a flood shifts the riverbed, future generations might not find it.”

“True,” his father agreed. “When you return, you take Cuiniang to the city, and your mother and I will stay to keep the entrance marked.”

Zhou Yuan heard more of their dreams for a better life before sneaking away from Ergou’s yard.

“Ergou’s family isn’t as simple as I thought,” Zhou Yuan mused. “They’ve calculated every move. They weren’t just being generous when they tried to share everything with me; they were after my solitary status to draw me in.”

“And Cuiniang is smart too,” he added. “If she’d married into a bigger family, they really might have buried her for those jewels.”

Whether the Dragon Palace was real or not, Zhou Yuan was sure there was something under Clear Sand River—something dangerous but rich enough in pearls to be worth the risk. He made his way to the stone arch bridge, the moonlight guiding his steps. The river below was choked with algae, its water murky but steady.

Zhou Yuan stripped down, clenching a machete in his teeth, and plunged into the river. He had expected the entrance to the Dragon Palace to be well-hidden, given Ergou’s family’s obsession with marking it and counting their steps. To his surprise, what was secret to Ergou’s family was glaringly obvious to Zhou Yuan.

On the riverbed, amidst the mud and weeds, a dark whirlpool spun, marked by two lines of text that only he could see:

[Dungeon: Lair of the Clear Sand General]

[Recommended Level: 15, Party Size: 5–10]

“Great,” Zhou Yuan thought. “Clear and game-like instructions. But here’s the problem: my status screen doesn’t even have a level marker. Bug in the system? Or is my game interface not compatible with this dungeon system?”

Seeing a dungeon portal didn’t surprise Zhou Yuan; he’d grown used to seeing health bars over every living thing in the world. But he was puzzled by the level recommendation when he didn’t have a comparable attribute on his status screen.

“Ergou said thirty-six steps to safety,” Zhou Yuan muttered. “He’s got short legs, so I’ll try twenty steps.”

He wasn’t about to back down now; Ergou’s family had tested these waters, and it was too good an opportunity to miss. He dove straight into the swirling portal.

He found himself in a wide corridor, about the size of a four-lane road. The floor was paved with dark red coral, its crevices inlaid with glittering pearls, forming a path of stars. Six shrimp-headed humanoid monsters stood guard along the corridor, motionless but armed with tridents. Their titles and levels hovered above them:

[Level 15 Shrimp Soldiers]

The corridor was freezing, and the water droplets on Zhou Yuan’s skin began to crystallize.

“Plenty of pearls underfoot,” Zhou Yuan observed. “Why would Ergou risk venturing closer to those guards?”

He tried prying one pearl loose with his machete and quickly understood. The pearls were firmly embedded; prying them out broke many, leaving only two intact. Closer to the guards, however, the coral became brittle, and extracting perfect pearls was easier.

Zhou Yuan had come to explore, not to hoard pearls. After collecting six and advancing about twenty steps, he resisted the urge to push further. The Shrimp Soldiers, although stationary, affected the surrounding temperature. No way was Zhou Yuan foolish enough to trigger their aggression.

“The last guy who tried that got his wife remarried, and Ergou’s family still owes that brave soul a big thank you,” he thought.

He began estimating the guards' strength. “Let’s say the game logic starts characters with a base attribute of 1, and each level adds at least 1 point. I’d be at least fifteen points weaker than these Shrimp Soldiers, not to mention any skills they have.”

“Of course, that’s an ideal estimate,” he added. “The real difference could be much worse. With the monsters respawning like they do in dungeons, these guys really are unkillable fiends.”