Chapter 65: Resurgence of Fear
October 26, Saturday, Earth time.
College sophomore Zheng Qingyue didn't immediately immerse herself in gaming on her day off. Instead, she started her morning by preparing a bowl of instant sour spicy noodles before sitting in front of her computer and browsing the forum.
The daily playtime limit for the game "OtherWorld" was set at 12 hours. In theory, this duration should have been sufficient for most players. However, this game was unique in that it could be played even while sleeping.
Many players would put on their helmets and neck supports before bed, intending to play for just a few hours before logging out. Yet, they often ended up playing through the entire night, losing themselves for eight or nine hours in the process.
In the remaining three to four hours, players would have to strategically time their logins—perhaps during a lunch break or a short session after dinner. They would then eagerly await midnight for the daily playtime counter to reset.
Zheng Qingyue found herself unable to resist the temptation and ended up playing for more than six hours straight. It was only when the game marked an entire in-game day that she realized her precious Saturday game time was dwindling, prompting her to hastily log out.
There was a significant reason why a disciplined and academically accomplished student like Zheng Qingyue broke her established routine—she had finally succeeded in her job advancement.
She was one of the game's prominent top-tier big-shot players, yet she had surprisingly taken this long to complete her first job advancement. The game's uneven class balance was evident right from the start.
Nevertheless, all her efforts had been worthwhile. In Zheng Qingyue's own opinion, the completion of her job advancement and the acquisition of four new skills left her genuinely satisfied.
Upon entering the forum, Zheng Qingyue wasn't surprised to find an experience-sharing (or rather, show-off) post from Blossoming Strokes, who had completed the job advancement alongside her the previous night:
"Hello, everyone! It's me, Blossoming Strokes. My new novel, 'The Prequel of the Wolf Emperor,' is now available on XX Literary City. For those who enjoy fantasy adventure novels, please show your support by reading the official version!
"But I digress… Let's get back to business. I'm thrilled to announce that I've successfully advanced jobs and have finally become an Apprentice Mage! [Image] [Image]
"Though I'm elated, I have to repeat this a thousand times: The job advancement quest for the mage class is truly insane! Not at all recommended for newbies! When this game is officially launched, new players must consider carefully before deciding to play as a mage! It's really too difficult!"
The forum post continued after the long rambling of complaints.
"The four skills of the mage class were shared by Boss Ou Huang a week ago. I'm reposting them here for the convenience of those who missed it—
"Corrosion: Reduces the target's mental resistance by 5%, causing continuous shadow damage.
"Slowdown: Reduces the target's mental resistance by 5%, decreases the target's movement speed by 20%.
"Dark Blessing: Inflicts ongoing shadow damage on non-undead creatures while continuously restoring health to undead creatures.
"Shadow Force: Deals significant shadow damage to non-undead creatures while greatly restoring health to undead creatures.
"Compared to the first-tier skills of other classes, mage skills are simply outrageous! Possessing offensive and control abilities, and capable of both dealing damage and healing!
"Last night, after obtaining these skills, I sparred with my friends. The wanderer class's Basic Wind Manipulation skill can counteract the effects of the Slowdown to a large extent, and it was rather even between me and Give Me Medicine. Perhaps if Give Me Medicine had a bow, my chances of victory would be lower. However, everyone should know how clumsy I am, and I can't compare my abilities to the likes of Boss Ou Huang.
"Against warriors and knights that don't have Basic Wind Manipulation, there's no contest at all. Mages have the upper hand!
"While a warrior's charge allows them to close in effectively, as long as I withstand the initial onslaught, warriors are virtually powerless against a mage.
"As for knights, it's a no-brainer. The attack skill of a first-job squire is currently limited to a basic slash. By applying Dark Blessing to myself, I can negate the knight's damage.
"And these were still internal fights between undead! Shadow Force cannot be used as it would only heal the opponent. If new races are introduced in the future, I suspect that anyone, regardless of race, would find it challenging to surpass the undead mage in one-on-one combat."
Beneath Blossoming Strokes' triumphant post were a bunch of comments that were a mix of despair from non-player forum users, seeking to know when the open beta would arrive, as well as players feeling deeply torn over whether they had chosen the right class to play…
"Why doesn't this game have a pre-registration option? I want to reserve an account!"
"The skill system seems terribly unbalanced. Shouldn't leather armor classes be strong against cloth armor classes? How can it be even?"
"Damn, I've advanced to a wanderer for close to ten days already, and they tell me that mages are the coolest? Can I delete my character and start anew?"
"True to its name, the mage is truly divine! Mages, 666!"
"It's over. Warriors are still just warriors. No chance of turning the tables. Luckily, I've wised up and changed to become a wanderer. A balanced fight is better than a lost one."
"I'm already in the process of transitioning into a mage! I'll definitely complete my job advancement before next week!"
"A mage went for a stroll outside after having a meal. Suddenly, a knight emerged from the bushes, sword in hand, and charged the mage. After a while, the mage asked, 'What do you want?' The knight smiled apologetically and said, 'Just helping you scratch your back.'"
"Hahaha, a backscratch, really?!"
"Gosh, I've advanced to become a knight, while my girlfriend is currently trying for her mage job advancement. Is it too late for me to break up with her?"
"Snap out of it, you don't have a girlfriend!"
Zheng Qingyue finished her breakfast while reading the comical remarks of the players. After that, she did a quick mental calculation of her daily playtime… then resisted the urge to log in and started doing her schoolwork.
Course notes, post-tutorial assignments, unit tests, chapter exercises, a two-thousand-word essay, various diagrams…
Close to eleven in the morning, Zheng Qingyue's phone rang.
"Qingyue, log in quick! There's an event!" On the other end of the phone, her childhood friend, Tang Jia, sounded frantic.
"An event?" Zheng Qingyue instinctively went to her web browser and refreshed the official website. "There's no announcement on the official site?"
"The announcement is in-game, saying that there will be regular weekend events from now on. Oh, come on, stop dawdling and get online. Everyone's waiting for you!" Tang Jia pleaded urgently.
Zheng Qingyue checked on her assignment progress… Then, considering there was still a day and a half left of the weekend, she said, "Alright, alright, I'm logging in right now."
In just a few minutes, academic achiever Zheng Qingyue, who had been itching all morning, logged in with the ID Unceasing Entropy.
While it was almost noon in real-world time, it was currently late night in OtherWorld. Upon opening her eyes, Unceasing Entropy found herself in the dark, desolate streets of Exile Town, without even a streetlight in sight. Since players had night vision capabilities, the darkness or light of the surroundings didn't affect them much.
Her online companions were already waiting for her near the spawn point. Upon spotting Unceasing Entropy, Tang Jia hurried over. "You've finally come in! Quick, check the in-game announcement!"
"…Hmm?" Unceasing Entropy paid no attention to Tang Jia and instead looked around in puzzlement.
It was still the same spawn point of Exile Town and the familiar empty streets, but for some reason, Unceasing Entropy felt a little suffocated, as though she was confined inside a small box.
At this moment, a window popped up in her in-game panel, displaying a message in black fonts: "An ominous atmosphere shrouds Exile Town."
"Um… Why does this feel like playing an immersive single-player horror game?" Unceasing Entropy casually closed the panel and began reading the announcement.
———
With the arrival of civilians, vitality has once more blossomed in Taranthan after long years of desolation.
The undead have proven their respect and concern toward life as they warmly welcome the new residents. They recognize the need to grow stronger to protect their homeland and the people who rely on Taranthan.
Yet, at this moment, an ominous shadow begins to stir. As life flourishes on this land, it seems that a dreadful entity is also gradually awakening on this ancient soil…
Weekend Exclusive Dynamic Plotline: [Resurgence of Fear] is now launched.
Drawn by the allure of human flesh and blood, a terrifying presence descends with the darkness, invading the undead's homeland.
Successfully repelling the corruption will earn contribution points, which can be converted proportionally into Taranthan prestige.
———
After reading the announcement, Unceasing Entropy's first reaction was, "They've introduced a new way to earn territory prestige. Looks like the developer team is finally sensible for once. They must have realized that their requirement of exchanging high-grade materials for territory prestige was unreasonable."
"No, the developers are as damned as ever." Tang Jia deadpanned.
"That's right. We all thought the same at first, only to be schooled by the damned developer team," Jia Luo chimed in wryly. "Qingyue, make a guess as to why we are all waiting so orderly for you to log in?"
"…You guys got wiped?" was Unceasing Entropy's reply.
Tang Jia, Yang Ying, Jia Luo, and the unaffiliated players who were new additions to their small team all nodded.
Unceasing Entropy: "…"
Well, most games have rewarding events, but this game? Maybe not so much…
Party leader Tang Jia added Unceasing Entropy to the team. As they moved together, Tang Jia started to explain the situation, "I didn't play the game while I slept at night, saving up my playtime for daytime. When I logged in this morning, there was nothing going on in the game during the daytime. But then, when it turned to dusk, around 10 o'clock real-world time, the NPCs suddenly 'left work' early. Except for the two in the Merchant Association canteen and the zombie NPCs, all the other NPCs have disappeared.
"We found it strange at first, then we received the notification, 'An ominous atmosphere shrouds Exile Town,' followed by the announcement. But at that time, we didn't think too much about it and just formed a team to go hunt for materials…"
"You're too long-winded, let me take over," Jia Luo interrupted Tang Jia and addressed Unceasing Entropy. "When there's an event, it's a must to participate. So, we didn't go monster farming and instead looked for clues in town. And that's when Sis Ying discovered a commotion coming from a wooden house near the Warrior Guild site."
"Right, right. I found it," Yang Ying took over. "We often pass by that wooden house. I remember it's an NPC-free house. So, I walked closer and peeked inside through the window. There was a bed, a table, and a civilian NPC sitting on the bed.
"At that time, I didn't think much of it. I assumed that this wooden house was also assigned to one of the civilian NPCs we brought back with us. So, I was about to leave…"
At this point, Yang Ying paused, and her tone became somewhat strange. "As I walked a couple of steps away, it suddenly dawned on me… All the NPCs we escorted here were middle-aged or elderly. There was only one young person, and I remember she was assigned to the tailor shop. But the young woman sitting on the bed was someone I had never seen before."
Unceasing Entropy: "??"
Even she was taken aback. "What the hell! Doesn't this sound like the rhythm of a horror game?"
"The scarier part happened next," Yang Ying said with exasperation. "I realized something was off, so I turned back to look. And then, that woman was leaning on the window, staring at me, and her face was less than half a meter away!"
Unceasing Entropy: "…"
Yang Ying seemed to have a high resistance toward horror. While Unceasing Entropy felt a bit unnerved just by listening, she remained relatively calm and continued her narration.
"'You can see me?' That's what she said. We can't interact with civilian NPCs, and we totally can't understand what they say, right? Plus, this NPC's hair was floating, and her eyes were like black sockets—no pupils, no irises, just like our eyes. I knew for sure she wasn't an NPC; she was a monster. So, I swung my sword at her…
"In the end, my sword just went through the monster's body and didn't even cut her. The monster reached out to grab me… and I died in one hit." Yang Ying couldn't help but curse, "Damn it, this event's monster can't be hit. The announcement didn't even make it clear!"
"Exactly!" Jia Luo chimed in. "I saw Sis Ying get instakilled, so I turned to run, but the monster actually teleported. It suddenly passed through my body and appeared in front of me, saying, 'You see me too.' It grabbed me, and that was it."
"Same here," Tang Jia said with annoyance. "I was really far away, the farthest, and yet I couldn't escape!"
Others chimed in with complaints, "Just seeing it leads to instant death? Was the one who planned such a monster some kind of idiot?"
"I think the developers are really incompetent!"
"Damn ridiculous event!"
Unceasing Entropy: "…"
Could at least one of you come and experience the scare with me? Just listening is seriously giving me goosebumps…
Zheng Qingyue suddenly longed for the time when she discovered the spider's nest with Brother Lahong and Study Obsessed. At least those two were normal, with reactions somewhat similar to hers…
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