The plaid shirt player stared at the group, his brow furrowing slightly. He took a few steps forward and shone his phone's light toward them.
The beam of light landed on the person closest to him, but they didn't react at all, their mouth continuing to mutter away incessantly.
The plaid shirt player took a few more steps, standing almost directly in front of the person, and shoved the light right in their face.
He could see that the person's skin was an unnatural, sickly white. Their lips were moving, but their eyes remained tightly shut.
“Excuse me, have any of you seen a snow leopard? It's a tiny cub, about this big,” the plaid shirt player said, gesturing with his hands.
There was no response. The person seemed deaf to his words, their mouth still muttering the same rhythmic chant.
The plaid shirt player raised his voice: “Excuse me! Has anyone seen a snow leopard cub?”
Still no response. The group didn't even turn their heads to look at him.
“Something's wrong. I've got a debuff in my status bar,” the ponytail girl said. She had opened her game system interface at some point, her fingers swiping across the virtual screen.
Several players opened their respective system interfaces, and 【Peony】 also checked her status bar.
Sure enough, beneath her current status, a line of red text had appeared.
【Unknown Contamination】.
“I have it too.”
“Me too.”
Just as the words left their lips, a gust of eerie wind blew from the depths of the hall. It carried a bone-chilling aura that seemed to sink into their very marrow.
The wind whistled past them, making their clothes flutter. It pressed the clothes of the 'haunted house staff' tight against their bodies, outlining the gaunt, skeletal frames beneath.
Then, 【Peony】 saw a mass of darkness surge out from the center of the crowd.
The darkness had no fixed shape; its edges constantly shifted and writhed. When the green glow of the emergency lights hit it, the light was completely absorbed.
The 'staff members' all knelt in unison, their foreheads touching the ground and their arms stretched forward in a posture of absolute submission.
The game system popped up another notification: 【You are being subjected to unknown contamination.】
【Peony】's body began to tremble. It wasn't just the cold; a surge of primal dread was rising in her heart.
She told herself it was just a game, that there was nothing to be afraid of.
But her body was being far more honest. Her teeth chattered, her legs shook, and her knees felt weak, as if she were about to die.
When the thought of 'death' surfaced in her mind, she startled herself.
She quickly regained her composure. So what if she died in a game? She could just respawn.
However, the sensations were currently too realistic. Some primitive fear etched into her genes had been triggered, and she was already starting to regret taking this pet-finding quest.
“Why does it feel like it's getting colder?” the ponytail girl's voice was also shaking.
“Try lowering your character's sensory intensity?” the baseball cap guy suggested. He pulled up his system interface, found the haptic intensity option in the settings, and dragged the slider all the way to the bottom.
This was a virtual reality game; in addition to pain blocking, one could actively adjust physical sensations.
When sensory intensity was set to zero, one couldn't feel air movement, smell odors, or sense the ambient temperature. The game experience would drop significantly.
But in a situation like this, solving the cold issue took priority.
Once he finished adjusting, he looked up to see the others doing the same.
【Peony】 also lowered her perception, dragging the slider to the very bottom. The system interface flashed a prompt: 【Sensory intensity has been set to minimum; some perception functions will be limited.】
She clicked 【Confirm】.
Yet, the chill did not dissipate.
The baseball cap guy's expression flickered. His fingers were still trembling. The cold seemed to be seeping out from the gaps in his bones, as if someone had stuffed a block of ice inside his body.
Refusing to believe it, he checked the sensory settings again. It was already at the minimum. He tried to adjust it again, but the system prompted: 【Currently at minimum value.】
It still didn't work.
“I've set it, but my body is still freezing,” he said, his voice sounding a bit airy.
He had tried this before—setting sensory intensity to zero and touching a flame. He couldn't feel the heat at all, even though his health bar would drop.
But this time, the system's sensory feedback function seemed to have failed. That chill felt as if it were acting directly upon his soul.
“Damn it, it must be another bug. I'm definitely filing a complaint with the game company once I get out!” the baseball cap guy hissed through gritted teeth.
“It's a closed beta, after all. Bugs are normal,” the ponytail girl said.
The group began to vent furiously in the team chat, taking the opportunity to curse the game company's ancestors back eighteen generations.
But no one logged out. Despite feeling miserable, they chose to stay.
An eerie and bizarre scene like this was very likely the opening of a major story dungeon. Anyone who logged out now would be an idiot.
The rare equipment, massive experience points, and the achievements and titles that could only be obtained in dungeons were more than just rewards for closed beta players; they were bragging rights for the forums and might even land them on the game rankings.
So, they absolutely could not log out. Not even if it killed them!
The mass of darkness was still expanding, roiling outward from the center. The emergency lights flickered, and 【Peony】 pulled her hands into her sleeves, gripping the hem of her skirt tight.
...
Outside the haunted house, Yue Shi stood in the shadow of a parasol tree.
He hadn't gone inside, but everything happening within the haunted house was within his perception.
Players had a logout function, making them difficult to control directly. If things felt wrong, they would simply disconnect.
Furthermore, the players' levels were low and their health bars were too fragile; a bit too much force would kill them.
Once dead, there was no telling where they would respawn, which wouldn't help Yue Shi gather information at all.
So, Yue Shi had set this trap.
Finding a pet was merely the bait to lure the players into the haunted house.
The events inside would captivate them, leading them to believe it was a game plot and that they were triggering a hidden mission.
He didn't need to fool every player; tricking one or two was enough.
Their physical discomfort was caused by the erosion of Yue Shi's power.
If such an anomaly had occurred in the real world, they would have fled long ago.
But right now, they thought it was a game. So they stood there foolishly, their bodies growing colder and their status bars showing unknown contamination, yet they still refused to log out. They were waiting for the next development, terrified of missing a key plot point.
The players' bodies were in another world; what entered this world should be their souls or consciousness.
Fortunately, Yue Shi's power worked on both flesh and soul. He increased the intensity of the contamination, allowing it to seep silently into the players' consciousness.
In the hall of the haunted house, a pair of eyes suddenly emerged from the center of the darkness.
The players had no time to react. Primal terror gripped them to the core.
【Peony】's heart skipped a beat in that instant.
System notifications flashed one after another.
【You are being gazed upon by an unknown existence!】
【You are being gazed upon by an unknown existence!】
【You are being gazed upon by an unknown existence!】
Thump!
A dull sound echoed from within the ponytail girl's head. Her body froze, her eyes widening as her pupils dilated. Blood began to pour from her eye sockets, streaming down her cheeks.
On the team chat screen, her avatar turned grey.
Rate on N.U.
