However, the experience Zhao Heng had accumulated from braving other instances still played a role, keeping him from panicking.
Remembering something, he immediately opened his system inventory and found a flashlight.
*Click.* The beam of the flashlight drove away the darkness.
Zhao Heng finally felt a little more at ease, though he couldn’t help but curse, “Fuck!
What the hell is this?” Holding the flashlight, he paced around what seemed to be a small foyer.
He finally found the entrance he had just come through and twisted the doorknob hard, only to find it locked.
He couldn’t get out…
“…” Refusing to give up, Zhao Heng kicked it a few times, but the door wouldn’t budge.
It seemed players weren’t allowed to turn back.
Realizing this, Zhao Heng had no choice but to turn around and push open another door leading deeper into the house.
After his eyes briefly adjusted to the light, the scene on the other side came into view.
It was a very short hallway.
Light filtered in through the cracks of a boarded-up window at the end of the corridor, finally breaking the pitch-black darkness.
This was clearly a house that had been abandoned for a long time.
The wooden boards on both sides of the hallway were peeling off, the walls were covered in cracks, and the paintings hanging on them were too blurry to make out.
The floor was littered with debris that had fallen from the walls.
At the end of the hallway sat a battered cabinet, its doors secured by a chain.
If Wren Lux were the one entering the instance right now, she definitely wouldn’t bother looking at the hallway, nor would she check the cabinet at the end.
But Zhao Heng wasn’t Wren Lux.
He inspected every single spot, even glancing at the paintings on the wall…
This made his progress agonizingly slow.
The creaking of the rotting wooden floorboards beneath his feet was magnified countless times in his ears.
The eerie environment, the omnipresent subtle hints, the anxiety of not knowing what would happen inside the house…
Suddenly.
The sound of something dropping echoed from deep within the house.
Startled, Zhao Heng quickly turned his head and strained his ears to listen.
But the sound didn’t happen again.
Gripping his flashlight, Zhao Heng felt a wave of uncertainty.
After standing in place for a moment, he continued down the hallway.
Once he confirmed the cabinet at the end couldn’t be opened, he turned his gaze to the right.
It looked like a kitchen?
“…” He hesitated for a moment before walking over.
The moment he stepped inside, a stench so foul it assaulted his senses greeted him.
If the woods outside were dominated merely by the smell of rotting leaves, then this kitchen was permeated with the stench of highly fermented corpses and slop!
No matter how strong Zhao Heng’s composure was, he couldn’t help but cover his nose and mouth again.
*What kind of psycho is this Constructor?!
Why make it so realistic!* Covering his nose, Zhao Heng scanned the dining table in the center of the room.
Several plates were scattered messily across the table, filled with lumps of long-spoiled leftovers covered in thick patches of green mold.
Cockroaches scurried across the surface.
There was also an iron pot with its lid on, concealing whatever was inside.
Forcing down his nausea, Zhao Heng stepped forward and lifted the lid.
A dense, rustling sound instantly erupted.
Countless thumb-sized cockroaches, startled by the movement, swarmed out of the pot like a tidal wave.
They scattered into the crevices of the table legs and floorboards, and a few even crawled onto his hand.
“Holy shit!” Zhao Heng’s scalp went numb.
He jerked back, shaking his hand frantically.
*What kind of absolute psycho is this Constructor?!* He finally managed to shake the roaches off.
His skin still crawling, Zhao Heng hurried forward to get away from the dining table.
After all, the disgust for creatures like cockroaches was practically carved into human DNA.
By the time he recovered, he realized he was standing right next to the refrigerator.
Even though deep down he knew he shouldn’t open it, Zhao Heng’s curiosity got the better of him.
He reached out and slowly pulled the fridge door open.
There was no cold air—only a puddle of thick, black, sludge-like liquid that oozed through the cracks of the bottom shelf and dripped onto his shoes.
He had no idea what was stuffed inside the fridge, but it was full of that viscous liquid, which formed stringy webs as the door opened.
“What the fuck is this…” Disgusted once again, Zhao Heng backed away and quickly left the hellish kitchen.
Finally out of the kitchen.
Zhao Heng spotted the stairs leading to the second floor, but he didn’t rush up.
Instead, he leaned against the wall and gasped for air.
Even though the area still reeked of mildew, it was vastly better than the rotting, fermented stench from just a moment ago.
Although he was a top-tier player, the instances he had encountered before were never this disgusting!
This kind of scene, which relied purely on atmosphere and twisted details to torture a person’s nerves, gave him a sense of physical discomfort.
Come to think of it.
Zhao Heng looked at the eerie house before him.
The plot of the instance…
was that he was playing as Ethan, looking for his wife.
But the plot didn’t seem to mention where his wife was at all!
Or what exactly he needed to do!
He didn’t know how to find her, nor did he have any idea what was lurking in this house.
“…” As Zhao Heng pondered, he belatedly realized that the hints in this instance were pitifully scarce, completely unlike any existing instance system…
This made his expression turn grim.
He took a few steps forward and pulled open the drawer of a nearby cabinet, which contained some unknown, creepy junk.
But this proved that there were many places in this house where things could be hidden.
“No way!
How am I supposed to search all this!” Zhao Heng glanced around the gloomy, sinister house, his expression growing even uglier.
At this moment, he was finally certain: this was an original instance.
Then only one question remained, and that was—how on earth did the Constructor of this instance clear it while their memories were stripped away?!
Knowing absolutely nothing.
Only knowing that he was here to find his wife.
And then, while searching, inexplicably ending up inside this house.
At the same time, not a single enemy had appeared so far—just a bunch of disgusting things!
Who the fuck makes an instance like this?!
At this moment, Zhao Heng felt a pang of regret for recklessly running into the instance without a shred of intel.
…
Although he regretted it a little, it was impossible for Zhao Heng to just quit outright.
After all, he had his pride.
So far, this instance only seemed a bit disgusting, with a gloomy atmosphere and a lack of clues.
But since he hadn’t encountered any real difficulty yet, how could he possibly quit?
However.
Even though Zhao Heng was mentally prepared, he truly hadn’t expected that this Resident Evil instance would actually dare to not place a single enemy in the early stages.
He had been walking around the house for half an hour, and he hadn’t seen a single enemy.
This should have been a good thing.
But the longer Zhao Heng played, the more irritable he became.
Because everything about this damn place felt wrong.
Most of the time, there was only the sound of his own footsteps, but occasionally, random noises would pop up, made by god knows what.
If a door wasn’t locked here, it was locked there.
And every room was filled with random clutter: blurry photos, newspapers, televisions flashing static, switches that wouldn’t budge, and a piano whose lid closed on its own…
It felt like it was hinting at something.
But it didn’t make anything clear.
No enemies.
A terrifying atmosphere.
Coupled with his constantly accumulating anxiety.
It was actually even more torturous.
Zhao Heng grew increasingly frustrated.
What was even more absurd was that he was forced to watch a video inside the instance.
The piercing sound of static echoed in the empty living room.
*Click.* Zhao Heng ejected the VHS tape.
Recalling its contents, he couldn’t help but rub the goosebumps on his arms.
The video was simple: some unlucky TV crew went to explore a haunted house…
and the haunted house they visited was the exact same house Zhao Heng was in right now.
Then, they were all wiped out.
This perfectly matched the information from the van when he first entered the instance.
This was Zhao Heng’s first time playing a custom instance like this…
Not only did it have foreshadowing that tied everything together.
But this atmosphere…
Zhao Heng stared at the TV for a few seconds, feeling incredibly oppressed.
Even though no monsters had appeared, and it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen dead bodies or similar things before.
Yet, he still felt suffocated.
If he knew the flow of the entire game, he would probably understand that whether it was the things he encountered on the road or the frustrating elements in the house, they were all actually building tension.
It was exactly this build-up that was slowly inflicting psychological pressure on him.
Unfortunately, he didn’t know.
His experience in clearing system instances was completely useless here.
“…” Zhao Heng remained silent for a few seconds.
Although he was growing more and more uneasy, he still stood up, slowly turning his head to look at the fireplace not far away.
He walked over to the fireplace and fumbled around the spot shown in the video, quickly finding the hidden mechanism.
This was the clue provided by the tape.
He pulled it down.
*Clack.* A mechanical sound rang out.
A hidden compartment nearby opened.
Zhao Heng bent down and crawled inside.
Within was a staircase leading to the basement.
He carefully held onto the steps, intending to make his way down.
But after descending only a few steps, *crack*…
one of the wooden steps suddenly snapped.
With quick reflexes, he hastily grabbed another step, but that one broke on impact as well.
*Thud.* Zhao Heng fell hard, letting out a cry of pain.
The flashlight flew from his grasp, rolled twice on the ground, and went out.
The surroundings instantly plunged into darkness.
In an instant.
Zhao Heng forgot all about the pain.
He lay flat on the ground, not daring to breathe loudly.
In the darkness, he could hear his own heartbeat thumping wildly, terrifyingly fast.
For the first time, he realized that darkness was such a terrifying thing.
Because of the earlier build-up, the VHS tape, and the psychological pressure inflicted upon him, his mind almost instantly conjured an image of someone holding a knife in the dark, slowly approaching him.
At this thought.
He reached out in a panic, hurriedly groping around the floor.
He touched cold dirt, pebbles, and some unknown, slimy substance.
Finally, his hand brushed against the flashlight.
He pressed the switch.
*Click.* The darkness was banished.
Zhao Heng let out a long breath.
Supporting himself on the ground, he slowly stood up, then looked at the damp basement around him…
He felt absolutely awful.
Because in that brief moment just now.
It was as if he had returned to four years ago, back to when he was still ignorant and naive.
That intense sense of fear was completely uncontrollable.
It had been a long time since he last experienced this feeling.
Zhao Heng couldn’t help but curse, “Enemies!
Give me a fucking enemy!
What’s the point of all this hiding!” At this moment.
How desperately he wanted an enemy he could see, an enemy he could hit, an enemy he could vent his stress on.
Because it was truly too suffocating.
But unfortunately, the game’s progression wouldn’t listen to him.
Zhao Heng stood there for a good while.
Finding no reaction, he could only take a deep breath and explore the basement by the faint light.
And the basement was even colder and gloomier than he had imagined.
The rough walls seemed to constantly exude moisture, and the ground was muddy.
Zhao Heng walked forward with his flashlight raised.
When the beam swept across the ground, he realized the passage ahead was flooded.
The water was deep, and its color was completely wrong.
Murky and black, with a greasy layer floating on the surface.
When the flashlight shone on it, he could vaguely see unknown debris slowly drifting in the water.
“…” Zhao Heng stood at the edge, silent for a second.
“Fine.” “You win!” He took a deep breath and stepped straight into the water.
The water was freezing.
And it was sticky.
He had no idea what was at the bottom.
When his shoes stepped down, it felt like stepping into a puddle of gooey mud.
As the water was disturbed, an even heavier, foul stench immediately wafted up.
His expression twisted, Zhao Heng cursed as he waded forward.
The flashlight beam danced across the water’s surface.
The further he went, the narrower the passage became.
The ceiling height ahead also dropped, and the water grew deeper, requiring him to crouch to pass through.
The water rippled.
Soaked in the disgusting water, Zhao Heng barely kept his head above the surface as he struggled forward.
The surroundings were pitch-black, save for the swaying light of the flashlight.
After turning a corner.
He finally saw light appearing ahead.
Zhao Heng’s eyes lit up.
Suppressing his nausea, he immediately sped up his wading.
Closer, closer.
Almost there.
Zhao Heng couldn’t wait to get on dry land, moving faster and faster.
But just as he was about to climb up, the previously calm water ahead suddenly bubbled.
Immediately after.
The next second.
*Splash—* A pale, swollen, scar-covered human face suddenly breached the surface.
Its hollow eyes were wide open, the entire face bloated and white from soaking, staring dead at Zhao Heng.
In that instant.
Zhao Heng’s mind went completely blank.
His whole body gave a violent shudder, and he jerked backward, submerging himself entirely in the water and swallowing a few mouthfuls.
*Gurgle…* *Splash—* “Holy shit!!!!!” Zhao Heng surfaced wretchedly.
Looking at the corpse in front of him, his scalp tingled with a mix of intense nausea and lingering terror.
“Motherfucker!!!” “Can’t you give a fucking warning first!!!” “Making an instance like this!!!” “Scaring people like this!!!” “Fuck!!!” He cursed while desperately scrambling forward.
The corpse, gently carried by the water current, bobbed behind him.
Zhao Heng didn’t dare look back.
He practically fled forward through the water.
By the time he stepped onto dry ground, he was nearly on the verge of collapse.
Standing on the dry floor, Zhao Heng rested his hands on his knees and panted for a few breaths.
Then he glanced back and completely lost his composure: “Psycho instance!” “Psycho Constructor!” “Why the hell would you just put a corpse there!!” “Fuck!!!” He cursed with almost every ounce of strength in his body.
At this moment, he truly wanted to murder the Constructor of this instance!
Truly.
For the first time while clearing an instance, he felt an intense murderous intent toward someone who wasn’t even in it!!
What a son of a bitch!
Messing with people like this!
It took Zhao Heng quite a while to barely recover.
Wiping the cold sweat and water from his face, he raised his flashlight and continued onward.
The entire basement was quite large.
Basically the same size as the house above.
But it was gloomy and damp, with many corners.
Genuinely terrified that something else might jump out from around a bend, Zhao Heng walked extremely slowly.
And the frequency of his furious cursing only increased.
Until.
He saw the small cell at the end of the path, saw the warm yellow light inside it, and saw the woman lying on the bed.
Zhao Heng stared at the woman in the cell for a few seconds, then couldn’t help but let out a long exhale.
“Fucking hell…
finally found you!” Finally!
He could leave this damn place!
Leave this broken-down house!!!