Chapter 28

"Um... Based on our experience so far, when we 'discover' something, a monster, or an event, it triggers..." Feng Jue's words were only half-spoken...

The "corpse" in front of them suddenly stood up, and at the same time, a strange laugh pierced the ears of the five people.

Its head slowly lifted, and the face gradually revealed under the flashlight still shrouded in a layer of gloomy and stagnant shadow. Its features were barely discernible, and its skin was ashen.

"Could he not be dead?" Long Aomin whispered.

"Not dead?" Feng Jue turned and moved in front of Long Aomin, walking toward the seemingly reanimated corpse. "That's easy to explain. The lecherous laughter just now must be the survivor's expression of joy at being discovered." He had been wearing protective goggles and now clearly knew that the target of the other party's hostility was himself.

Seeing Feng Jue approach quickly, the monster immediately took the second course of action.

"Ahh—" Ji Mo suddenly screamed from behind.

Not only her, but even Ji Lu was startled, letting out a scream. Wang Tanzhi's scream was choked in his throat, and he turned pale with fear, his heart stopping for a few seconds. Only Long Aomin's reaction was relatively normal, but even he was bristling with goosebumps and took a deep breath.

The walls around the pipe extended countless arms with rotting skin, dark and sinister. A tide of moans and groans instantly filled the sewer.

Ji Mo panicked and retreated, closing her eyes and swinging her golf club wildly. Ji Lu tried to stop her but almost got hit several times.

Wang Tanzhi was almost scared stiff, his eyes wide open, not daring to move, his hand gripping the knife trembling, and his palms sweating.

A few seconds later, Long Aomin shouted, "It's all an illusion! Don't move!" He still had the ability to think and immediately realized that the hands were just illusions because he saw some of the arms on the ground pass through his calves without any abnormal sensation.

"Even if they were real, they couldn't touch us!" Long Aomin shouted again.

Ji Mo calmed down a bit, and Ji Lu grabbed her, whispering a few words of comfort. Although he was also terrified, seeing his girlfriend so panicked made him calmer. He repeatedly told himself that this was just a game, and even the most terrifying scenes were temporary and fake.

About ten meters away, Feng Jue had already walked to the monster's front as if taking a leisurely stroll. The terrifying images and sounds did not affect him at all, not even making him blink. He held a baseball bat in his hand, moved his neck a couple of times, and got ready to swing.

Seeing that the other party was completely unaffected, the monster used its third course of action.

It instantly transformed from a male corpse in dirty clothes into a living beauty... She appeared to be in her twenties, wearing a black strapless mini-dress, with black hair cascading over her shoulders, skin as smooth as snow, and two soft mounds half-exposed, with delicate curves barely visible at the hem of the dress, exuding an indescribable charm.

Feng Jue was stunned for a second, then he actually put the bat back in his bag.

The men behind him all shot him a look of disdain, though they understood him in their hearts...

"Almost forgot..." Feng Jue put the bat away and immediately took out a pipe wrench from his bag. "Since it's a humanoid creature, using this weapon with a bonus effect will earn me skill points." He said casually, swinging the wrench and smashing it into the monster's head.

Bang, bang, bang...

The pipe wrench repeatedly struck the monster's skull, black blood gushing out, a horrifying sight. The moment Feng Jue hit its physical form, the monster's appearance reverted to the original ashen corpse, and the surrounding illusions disappeared as the monster suffered severe damage.

The other four watched Feng Jue's efficient, decisive, and ruthless attack in silence. Three of them were unable to stabilize their fear levels because they were lost in thought, mainly wondering if the name "Feng Jue" had any deeper meaning...

After thoroughly smashing the monster's head, Feng Jue searched the corpse's upper pocket and obtained the Wooden Key, whose item description was almost identical to the Fire Key.

[Current task completed, main task updated]

After picking up the key, a checkmark appeared next to this task, and a new task appeared: [Return to the Demon Gate, restore the seal]

"Done, let's go," Feng Jue said, turning around.

"Um... Brother Feng..." Long Aomin said, "How did you know this monster was so... vulnerable?"

"I knew it as soon as it stood up," Feng Jue replied. "When the arms appeared, I was even more certain. This kind of monster is clearly used to test the players' fear levels. If the team is too afraid to approach, the illusions will gradually escalate, and even if they don't scare people into disconnecting, it will at least make the evaluation at the end very poor." He paused. "When it turned into a beauty, it meant it was out of tricks and could only delay by transforming into something sexually attractive to me." He suddenly stroked his chin. "Wait... How does the system know my sexual orientation? If I were gay or bisexual, what would it turn into..."

Ji Lu said at this point, "When you log in with your ID to the forum, don't you have to fill out user information, including this question?"

"Because the game company has my data, the system 'knows'..." Feng Jue mused. "Alright, let's hurry back."

...

On the way back, the five people tried to speed up as much as possible. They all had a vague feeling that this script wouldn't end so easily. Even if the final boss, Samodel, didn't appear or couldn't appear, there should be a powerful demon as the final boss.

It was impossible to reach the gate before the next darkness, but at least they had to ensure that the final boss wouldn't be strengthened by the next darkness.

Sure enough, while they were halfway back to the square, darkness fell again. This was the fourth time since they entered the script, and with the first darkness and the preceding ten minutes, they had been in the script for nearly two hours.

When the fourth darkness fell, they didn't hear any sounds—no breathing, no whispers, no laughter. Feng Jue felt this was not a good sign. In this horror game, every abnormal change that breaks the pattern indicates that the situation is worsening.

Three minutes after the darkness passed, they returned to the square. Even Long Aomin was a bit out of breath. After nearly two hours of running, fighting, and moving things, everyone's stamina was significantly depleted.

Ji Lu and Ji Mo each consumed over 400 stamina. They were level 7 and 6, respectively, and with the intermittent rest, they still had over 200 stamina left. Long Aomin had the highest consumption; the [Lightning Charge] against the monster baby alone cost him 300 stamina, and he was the main one fighting the blood corpse, with a total consumption of over 700. This was actually less than expected because his non-visible attributes made him consume less stamina while running and fighting, and with the recovered stamina, he still had 289/1000 left.

Compared to the three, Feng Jue and Wang Tanzhi, both level 5, had surprisingly retained a few dozen points of stamina after participating in the battles, which was a miracle.

"The task has been updated, so we should be able to use the keys now," Wang Tanzhi said, panting heavily.

Feng Jue walked to the front of the group, facing the gate, and took out the two keys. He placed the keys on his hand and approached the gate, but after several seconds, nothing happened.

"Something's not right..." Long Aomin said. "Why is there still no reaction?"

"No... I think something has gone wrong," Feng Jue said, looking into the distance. "Look."

The square was wide open, and they could see hundreds of meters around. At this moment, hundreds of monsters were surging from the city's streets. Their appearances were bizarre, but they could be roughly divided into two categories: ferocious and sinister.

These monsters moved slowly, creating a sense of despair. The slower the despair came, the more terrifying it became.

"How is this possible? Did we do something wrong?" Ji Lu panicked, his voice rising. "This situation is a sure death, right?"

Feng Jue also found the current development unexpected. He said, "Samodel can't approach the keys or the seal on the gate. He can't personally come to kill us. The demons also don't want to approach here. They're not afraid of the keys, but they must be afraid of the gate, or rather... afraid of returning to the other side of the gate. That's why this vast square has no demons wandering around." He wanted to stabilize the situation. "Now that they are approaching, it's out of necessity. Let's stand as close to the gate as possible and see what happens."

"What if they don't care about the Demon Gate and just rush at us?" Long Aomin asked.

"Then we'll retreat into the gate," Feng Jue replied.

"Brother Jue... That's the 'Demon World'! What if there are even more monsters on the other side?" Wang Tanzhi said.

"That's not necessarily the case. I suspect the other side of the gate is like a prison, and now that the prisoners have escaped, it might be empty. Besides... dying is dying, right?" Feng Jue replied. "We'll just return to the login space anyway."

The five quickly retreated to the gate, standing with their backs to the Demon Gate. Feng Jue was still thinking about the script... He was particularly concerned about the tree monster's mention of "loops." What kind of loop was this city, which had been extracted from reality, experiencing? Perhaps solving this puzzle would reveal some of Samodel's patterns or weaknesses, or the method to restore the seal...

Many clues intertwined and deduced in his mind. Time was running out, and he reorganized his thoughts: "A puddle isolated from the river of time... darkness every half hour... the disappearance of whispers in the darkness..."

...