Zhao Heng looked at the woman lying in the cell.
Forgetting about clues for the moment, he rattled the cell door, desperate to get her out of this hellhole.
He needed to get outside.
Not even a dog would stay in this wretched place!
But rattling the door obviously wouldn’t open it.
Zhao Heng scanned the area and quickly spotted a pair of bolt cutters resting nearby.
He sprinted over, unable to wait another second.
“Hey, hey, wake up.” Snapping the chains that locked the cell, Zhao Heng stepped inside and roughly shook the unconscious woman—Mia, the wife of the character he was roleplaying.
Mia stirred awake, looking absolutely terrified by Ethan’s sudden appearance.
But Zhao Heng couldn’t care less about an NPC’s facial expressions.
He brushed off her panic, simply telling her he was getting her out of there.
Then, exactly as Wren Lux had experienced, Zhao Heng followed Mia through the dark, terrifying dungeon until they finally reached the exit she had mentioned.
However, the path was completely boarded up.
There was no door.
Seeing this, Mia suddenly suffered an emotional breakdown…
‘Are you crazy?’ Zhao Heng watched in bewildered unease as Mia grew frantic, screaming that the door was gone.
“Hey?
Are you alright?” But Mia ignored him.
She collapsed onto a nearby couch and went completely still.
“Hey!” Zhao Heng rushed over and shook her vigorously again.
It was no use.
Mia showed no signs of waking up.
“Fuck!
What kind of garbage instance is this?!” Zhao Heng’s eyes widened in genuine fury.
He was losing his mind!
He had never seen an instance so deliberately infuriating!
He thought he had finally figured out the gameplay loop!
The next step was supposed to be fighting his way out with Mia!
Protecting her as they escaped!
And then he could finally leave this godforsaken place!
He never expected this stupid NPC to just lie down!
She just laid down!
What the hell was this?!
Zhao Heng’s face turned pale with rage.
After glaring at the motionless NPC, he had no choice but to explore the surrounding area.
But the moment he stepped into another room, Mia’s terrified scream echoed through the halls.
By the time Zhao Heng scrambled back out, she was gone.
“!!!” “Where did she go?!
Where the fuck did she go?!
Are you messing with me?!
Fuck this!” Finding her missing pushed Zhao Heng past his breaking point once again.
He had finally seen a glimmer of hope for escaping, and now she had vanished!
After all, this wasn’t just a game on a screen.
A game was scary enough, let alone physically standing in such an oppressive, suffocating atmosphere.
The relentless psychological torment was taking a massive toll on his mind.
He just wanted out!
However, screaming obscenities wouldn’t bring Mia back.
Zhao Heng forced himself to swallow his fear and began searching for his in-game wife once more.
But after tearing through every open room and cursing the entire way, he still couldn’t find her.
Left with no other options, he exited the dungeon and headed upstairs.
The moment he stepped out of the basement, Zhao Heng realized that night had fallen.
The sunlight that had symbolized hope was completely gone.
Not only was it pitch black, but a heavy rain had started pouring outside.
Thunder rumbled.
The deafening sound of the downpour echoed through the walls, making the already gloomy, abandoned house feel even more terrifying.
Suddenly, a strange noise echoed from behind the previously locked door beneath the stairs leading to the second floor.
Zhao Heng stood in the eerie hallway, his face ashen.
Listening to the rain battering the pitch-black windows and staring at the door where the noise originated, a profound sense of dread washed over him.
‘What is it this time?!’ He cursed relentlessly in his mind.
Somewhere along the way, he had completely lost his usual composure.
The core issue was the sheer terror of the unknown.
Ever since Zhao Heng became the star player of his guild, it had been a long time since he had gone in blind to clear a new instance.
Every time he entered one, his guild provided him with comprehensive guides and data.
He had forgotten what it felt like to pioneer an instance alone, and it had been ages since he had experienced such heart-pounding terror.
And the Resident Evil instance was exceptionally well-crafted, boasting a flawless atmosphere that was perfectly designed to torture the human psyche.
“Fuck!” The rain continued to pour.
Zhao Heng stared at the rattling door, listening to the distant rumble of thunder.
After standing frozen for a long time, he finally steeled his resolve, marched over, and twisted the doorknob.
Click— The lock gave way.
Beyond the door, a staircase descended into the depths.
The beam of his flashlight only illuminated the first few steps; everything below was entirely swallowed by darkness.
Rain lashed against the house, and thunder rolled across the sky.
The entire building felt indescribably sinister.
Zhao Heng swallowed hard.
Gripping his flashlight tightly, he took a cautious step forward.
The scuff of his shoe echoed down the stairwell.
Zhao Heng instinctively froze, waiting to see if anything reacted.
When nothing happened, he carefully continued his descent.
The environment was pitch-black.
He had no idea how many steps there were, only that they kept going down.
His flashlight seemed to have a loose connection, its beam beginning to flicker erratically.
As he ventured deeper, the sounds of rain and thunder grew muffled.
The only noises left in the suffocating silence were his own footsteps and his ragged breathing.
The sheer psychological pressure of the environment caused cold sweat to bead on his forehead.
Just as his nerves were stretched to their absolute limit, a sound echoed from the bottom of the stairs…
the sound of something crawling.
Zhao Heng stopped dead in his tracks.
Then, out of the darkness, a pale hand suddenly reached up and gripped the edge of a step.
Zhao Heng’s pupils shrank to pinpricks.
Mia, looking like a feral beast stripped of all sanity, crawled up the stairs on all fours.
Her movements were stiff, jerky, and utterly unnatural.
How could one describe Zhao Heng’s state of mind in that moment?
It was akin to the audiences of the past watching The Exorcist for the very first time, witnessing that little girl crawl backward down the stairs in a posture that defied human anatomy.
…Absolute, heart-stopping terror!
Zhao Heng’s mind went completely blank.
Before he could even react, Mia snapped her head up with a guttural shriek.
She lunged forward with terrifying speed, standing up in a flash and rushing right into his face.
Her once-beautiful features were now twisted into the visage of a hideous demon.
Zhao Heng’s body locked up entirely.
He was too petrified to move; even his scream caught in his throat.
In the next second, Mia grabbed him as if he weighed nothing at all and violently hurled him backward.
Bang— Zhao Heng’s feet left the ground before he slammed brutally onto the floor.
His bones rattled, his organs churned, and agonizing pain instantly swept through his entire body.
He let out a hoarse groan…
yet it still didn’t feel real.
He felt like he was trapped in a nightmare, one he could never wake up from.
‘What the hell?!
What the fuck is that thing?!
What is going on?!
How did it turn out like this?!
Why is the monster my own wife?!
What the fuck?!
What kind of twisted plot is this?!’ Screaming internally, he struggled to his feet.
However, the moment he stood up, he found Mia standing right in front of him, her demonic face mere inches from his own.
“!!!!!” Zhao Heng’s eyes bulged, his breath catching in his throat.
Mia raised a steak knife high into the air and viciously plunged it down.
“Ah—” Zhao Heng’s instincts as a top-tier player finally kicked in.
In the nick of time, he threw his left arm up to shield his face.
While he managed to block the blade from hitting his head, the knife pierced cleanly through his left hand.
Zhao Heng let out a bloodcurdling howl.
Acting on pure instinct, he stepped forward, bent his right leg, and delivered a brutal knee strike straight into Mia’s stomach.
Mia doubled over.
But a second later, she used her head like a battering ram, headbutting Zhao Heng in the stomach and sending him stumbling backward.
She immediately straightened up and raised the knife for another strike.
“Wait!
Wait!
Just fucking wait!!!” Zhao Heng clamped both hands around the sharp blade, desperately stopping the tip from piercing his eye socket.
He stared in absolute despair as Mia twisted the handle, driving the pain deeper.
“What the hell is wrong with you?!” They remained locked in a deadly struggle for a few moments.
Slowly, the murderous rage on Mia’s face faded into confusion.
As if waking from a trance, she suddenly yanked the knife free.
She clutched her head in disbelief, acting as though an unseen force was commanding her.
Screaming in agony, she repeatedly slammed her head against the wall before collapsing backward, seemingly unconscious.
“…” Zhao Heng stared at the bizarre scene in utter bewilderment, his hands trembling violently.
It wasn’t until the excruciating pain in his palms registered that he snapped back to reality, his face twisting in agony.
‘What is this?!
What the hell does this mean?!’ He took a few hesitant steps forward, wanting to see what was wrong with her.
But the moment he got close, Mia sprang up from the floor as if she had no bones.
She violently twisted his injured left arm behind his back while grabbing his shirt with her other hand.
“Stay away from me!” she shrieked, her face contorted in rage as she hurled Zhao Heng to the side.
Crash— Wood splintered and shattered.
Caught completely off guard, Zhao Heng flew through the air and slammed back-first into the hallway wall.
The rotting wood stood no chance against the impact, exploding outward as he crashed straight through the wall, tumbling into the adjacent room in a shower of splinters.
“Gah!” Zhao Heng hit the floor hard.
A suffocating pain seized his chest, and his vision went dark.
As the dust and wood chips settled around him, the heavy thud of footsteps echoed from the hallway.
“!!!” Zhao Heng immediately braced his hands against the floor and struggled to lift his head.
Through the gaping hole in the wall, Mia slowly stepped into the room.
She grabbed the steak knife that had embedded itself in the wall and yanked it free.
Schlick.
The blade came loose, scattering splinters.
Gripping the weapon, she began advancing toward Zhao Heng, one slow, deliberate step at a time.
“…” Zhao Heng lay paralyzed on the floor, his chest heaving violently.
Watching Mia stalk toward him, his heart nearly stopped.
…A familiar sensation welled up from deep within him.
It was a feeling he hadn’t experienced in a very long time.
His vision suddenly began to blur.
It was as if he had been transported back to the past.
Back then, he was just an ordinary, nerdy office worker entering an instance with a group of colleagues.
He had no idea what lurked inside the instance.
Nor did he know what was going to happen.
During that run, a monster had hacked off his colleague’s arm, sending blood spraying everywhere.
He had collapsed to the floor, his legs giving out on the spot.
He had even…
wet himself in terror.
Right in front of everyone.
Right in front of the office clerk he had been secretly in love with for two whole years.
The girl hadn’t said a word.
But the look in her eyes…
That look of shock, disgust, and profound pity.
Zhao Heng remembered it vividly to this day.
Mia’s footsteps drew closer.
She gripped the knife, her face twisted in a demonic snarl.
Watching her approach, Zhao Heng began to tremble uncontrollably.
In that moment, he saw his old, cowardly self again.
He had reverted back into that pathetic coward.
He didn’t know what was in this instance.
But more importantly, he didn’t know…
what was going to happen next!
‘What the hell is all this?!’ “No, no, no!!!!” “Fuck you!!!” “What kind of fucked-up instance is this?!?!” “Ahhhhh!!!!” “…” The camera slowly panned out, passing through the boarded-up windows, over the knee-high weeds in the yard, and past the rusted iron gates.
Through the heavy curtain of rain, the Baker Farm loomed in the darkness, eerily silent and profoundly sinister.
A flash of lightning tore across the sky.
For a split second, the blinding white light illuminated the entire house in a sickly pallor.
But in the next second, the darkness swallowed everything whole once more.
Only agonizing screams and hysterical cursing echoed intermittently from within the house, barely audible over the roaring storm and crashing thunder.
…
If the camera were to pan out even further, sweeping past the tree branches bowing under the torrential rain, one would see the storm acting like a heavy shroud, blanketing the entire swamp.
If the camera were to rise even higher.
Higher.
Further away.
One would discover a terrifying truth— There wasn’t just one Baker Farm hidden within this pitch-black swamp.
One.
Two.
Ten.
Dozens.
Countless identical farmhouses, as if copied and pasted, were scattered across the vast, dark wetlands.
And inside every single farmhouse was a player.
Everyone who had entered the [Resident Evil] instance alongside Zhao Heng had been thrown into this nightmarish realm.
The only difference was their progression.
But one thing remained universally true: every single player was having a complete mental breakdown.
Those progressing slowly were currently wading through the flooded basement.
Those progressing faster already had their left hands pinned to the wall with a screwdriver, watching in horror as Mia approached with a roaring chainsaw.
And the fastest among them were already playing a deadly game of hide-and-seek with their new father-in-law.
Yes, that particular unfortunate soul belonged to the Coordination Bureau’s Strategy Group.
“I’ll go back to the dining table!!
I’ll go back and eat!!
I’ll eat whatever you want!!
I’m begging you!!
Stop chasing me!!
I’m only eighteen!!
Please!!!” A hysterical scream echoed from one of the farmhouses.
The camera continued to pull back.
Countless estates.
Countless houses.
Countless agonizing screams rising and falling throughout the stormy night.
The entire swamp was one massive stage of horrors.
And every single player who had dared to enter the [Resident Evil] instance was currently losing their minds.
…
Meanwhile, on the forum.
The sudden appearance of an S-rank custom instance in the public library was now common knowledge.
Threads discussing the topic flooded the boards.
Half a day had passed since the instance was first discovered.
Some users were even starting to ask if any top-tier players had cleared it yet and what the rewards were like.
However, these inquiry threads went largely unanswered, and the few replies they did get were obvious trolls.
That was, until a new thread suddenly appeared: [To the creator named Wren Lux!
You absolute piece of trash!!
Is this instance even meant for human beings to play?!]