[Infinity] Three Thousand Worlds

Chang Ying is a high-level player in the Infinite World, a dangerous dimension where players enter dungeons to survive and earn points that can be exchanged for currency in their original worlds. She leads the Lucky Emperor Team, a four-member squad consisting of Li Ruoguang, Jiang Qingheng, and Si Lan. The team is notorious for their misfortune in dungeon draws, consistently receiving brand-new instances with no prior clearance data, which ironically earns them the mocking nickname of the "Cursed Team" despite their official name. Chang Ying views her time in the Infinite World as a job, aiming to clear the game and retire to a peaceful life. During a dungeon run in the SS-rated "Desolate Abyss," the team encounters Qin Li, the guild leader of the second-ranked Azure Star Guild. Qin Li trades confidential information about the "Chosen Dungeon," a mysterious tier of dungeons directly linked to clearing the game, in exchange for the team's low and mid-level clearance data. She reveals that entry into these Chosen Dungeons is not chosen by players but selected by the dungeon itself, a clue that piques Chang Ying's interest.

Following the dungeon settlement, Chang Ying returns to her home world, an ordinary modern society, for a month of rest before the next instance. During this time, she receives an invitation from Shen Ye of the Azure Star Guild to join their organization but declines, preferring to maintain her independence with her current team. She also learns that a player from her world cleared a dungeon over thirty years ago, a lead she hopes to investigate further. When the rest period ends, Chang Ying returns to the Rest Area and reunites with her teammates. Li Ruoguang, who hails from a feudal society world, has successfully resisted family pressure to marry. Jiang Qingheng, an interstellar military academy top student, has secured first place in his mech engineering department. Si Lan, a magical genius, returns after clearing a backlog of potion orders. The team prepares for their next dungeon draw, hoping against hope to receive a familiar instance, but Chang Ying draws "Lament of the Cicadas," another brand-new dungeon.

The dungeon places twelve players in Cicada Chirp Town, a location plagued by an overwhelming cicada infestation. The main quest requires the players to resolve the cicada disaster. Among the twelve players are four members of the top-ranked Sky Standard Guild, led by the experienced Qi Feng. Tensions arise immediately between Qi Feng and a lone wolf player named Qian Xin, who despises Qi Feng's authority. Chang Ying and her team observe these dynamics and choose to keep their findings private, refusing to share initial clues with the Sky Standard Guild group. The team discovers that the cicada disaster has plagued the town for three hundred years, originating from a temple built by a grieving mother who gave birth to a stillborn child after a two-and-a-half-year pregnancy. They also learn that previous cicada exterminators have died under mysterious circumstances, and the townspeople refuse to help with the extermination, offering only lip service.

As the investigation progresses, Chang Ying deduces a horrifying pattern: the number of deaths in the town, including children and elderly residents, seems to correlate with the number of cicada exterminators present. She realizes that the town requires a specific number of sacrifices to maintain its balance, and the current twelve players are likely marked for death if the count does not reach a certain threshold. The team decides to investigate the Zhang family, one of the five major clans that controls the town, and learns that the clan leader is complicit in the town's dark secrets. While Qi Feng and his group focus on the surface-level quest of extermination, Chang Ying's team delves deeper into the historical records and NPC behaviors, uncovering that the locals deliberately avoid killing cicadas, suggesting a symbiotic or worshipped relationship with the pests. The story concludes with Chang Ying formulating a plan to survive the dungeon by understanding the true nature of the cicada disaster and the hidden rules governing the Chosen Dungeon, setting the stage for a confrontation with the town's ancient curses.