At this moment, Malou hunched over and cautiously stepped beyond the faint blue glow of the church’s protective barrier.
The moment one foot entered the true darkness of the wasteland, Malou felt as though he had been thrown into an enormous ice cellar.
The bone-chilling wind drilled straight through the gaps in his oversized beginner’s shorts, freezing him so badly that he shivered several times.
The scarlet waning moon was half-hidden behind the clouds, providing only the faintest illumination.
The distant Black Forest looked like a gigantic beast crouching in the darkness.
From the direction of the Abandoned Village, the occasional sounds of chewing and fingernails scraping across walls drifted through the night, sending chills down his spine.
“Holy crap!
The atmosphere rendering at night is absolutely perfect!”
“It’s just that anyone with a weak heart would probably be scared straight into the afterlife playing this game…”
Malou swallowed hard and tightened his grip on the wooden spear.
His current experience was 40/100, meaning he was still a full sixty experience points away from Level 1.
In other words, he had to sneakily kill at least six Tier 0 monsters in this haunted wasteland tonight.
For the glory of becoming the strongest high-level player on the entire server, he was willing to risk everything!
Malou took a deep breath and pressed himself against the collapsed section of stone wall beside the church, preparing to sneak toward the bushes at the edge of the village.
However, just as he reached roughly fifty meters from the church barrier, something suddenly changed!
In the already thin air around him, a faint layer of black fog had appeared at some point.
The black mist seemed almost alive, slowly creeping upward from his ankles.
“Ding!”
A blood-red warning window suddenly appeared in the upper-right corner of Malou’s vision, making his heart pound.
[System Warning: You have left the deity’s protective barrier!]
[You are currently in a nighttime zone and are experiencing a unique environmental mechanic: Dark Moon Black Fog Erosion!]
[Conducting Sanity Value check…]
[Check failed!
Your Sanity Value is slowly decreasing!]
“What the hell?
A Sanity Value mechanic?
Why wasn’t there one during the day?”
Malou was stunned.
The next second, he personally experienced what a cross-era horror game truly was.
As the black fog enveloped him, the scene before his eyes began to distort slightly.
Dark-red, blood-vessel-like patterns crawled along the edges of his vision.
Whispers began echoing in his ears.
Sometimes they sounded distant, sometimes frighteningly close, as though someone were blowing cold air against the back of his neck.
At other times, they resembled the miserable wailing of a group of women trapped at the bottom of an abandoned well.
Even more terrifyingly, whenever he turned his head, the corner of his eye would catch glimpses of distorted black shadows flashing behind the trees.
Yet whenever he looked directly at them, there was nothing there.
Extreme psychological pressure!
“Damn!
The game designer is definitely a fucking psychological pervert!”
Malou’s scalp went numb with fear.
His calves cramped, and he nearly collapsed onto the ground.
Lynn, watching the livestream from the backstage, also felt a chill run through him.
He finally understood why the indigenous people couldn’t spend the night in the wilderness.
It wasn’t merely because monsters spawned at night.
The environment itself contained a form of spiritual pollution!
Leaving the deity’s blessing was equivalent to roasting one’s sanity over an open flame.
“This damn monkey won’t get scared enough to log out, will he?”
Lynn couldn’t help feeling worried.
But he soon discovered that he had underestimated the determination of a true grindaholic when experience points were on the line.
He watched as Malou suddenly slapped himself twice across the face.
“Slap!
Slap!”
The crisp sound echoed through the silent night.
“Hallucinations!
They’re all fucking hallucinations!”
Malou’s eyes were bloodshot.
Instead of retreating, he gritted his teeth and stared into the darkness, his face once again twisting into that shamelessly crazy expression.
“You think you can scare me away with some mental attacks?”
“In your dreams!”
Malou steadied himself.
Enduring his steadily declining Sanity Value and the ghostly howls ringing in his ears, he cautiously sneaked all the way to the edge of the Abandoned Village.
Heaven rewards those who persevere.
Behind a collapsed mill, he finally found his prey.
Two stray [Tier 0 Corrupted Villagers].
They seemed to have been strengthened by the night’s black fog as well.
Their eyes glowed with a faint red light, and they moved noticeably faster than they had during the day as they wandered aimlessly around the area.
“Two of them?
Perfect!”
Malou didn’t rush forward.
Instead, he mentally replayed the wilderness survival techniques he had frantically studied after logging off.
He quietly picked up a fist-sized stone from the ground and hurled it toward a broken water vat on the right.
“Clang!”
The crisp impact immediately attracted the attention of the two monsters.
They growled and slowly moved toward the water vat.
“Now!”
Malou suddenly darted out from behind the ruins.
His usual frail appearance was nowhere to be seen.
He gripped the hardened, sharpened wooden spear with both hands and used the momentum of his sprint to slide around behind one of the monsters.
As a high-level player, he understood the importance of attacking weak points.
And his attack angle was tricky, vicious, and utterly shameless!
“Thousand Years of Death!
Drop dead, you bastard!”
The wooden spear in Malou’s hands accurately thrust into the Corrupted Villager’s rear.
He even twisted it twice for good measure.
“Awooo!”
The monster let out an inhuman, shrill scream.
A huge red number instantly exploded above its head.
[Weak Point Critical Hit -100]
How could its already-decayed body withstand such a humiliating and fatal blow?
It collapsed on the spot, transforming into a puddle of black water.
[Killed Tier 0 Corrupted Villager.
Experience Points +10, Ash Coins +2.]
[System extracted Faith Value +10.]
Lynn, sitting atop the divine altar, watched the scene and silently crossed his legs.
“That attack is fucking dirty!”
“But I like it.
His monster-grinding efficiency is top-notch.”
Seeing its companion killed instantly, the remaining Corrupted Villager roared and lunged toward Malou.
But Malou had already moved into position.
Using the darkness as cover, he circled around the mill’s stone pillar, kiting the monster.
“Come on, idiot!
You can’t even touch me!”
The monster slammed a claw into the stone pillar, sending chips of stone flying in every direction.
Taking advantage of its attack recovery, Malou immediately circled around to its side and drove his wooden spear precisely into the back of its knee.
The monster lost its balance and dropped to its knees.
Malou reversed his grip and swung the rough end of the spear, smashing it directly into the back of the monster’s head.
“Bang!”
The second monster dissolved into black water.
Experience points and Ash Coins were credited once again!
[Current Experience: 60/100]
“Awesome!”
“This is what you call technical play!”
Malou leaned against the stone pillar, panting heavily as he excitedly watched his experience bar rise.
At this rate, as long as he kited two more groups, reaching Level 1 would be guaranteed!
However, just as Malou prepared to throw another stone deeper into the village and lure out more monsters, the [Sanity Value] icon in the upper-right corner of his vision suddenly changed from yellow to a dazzling crimson.
The eerie whispers in his ears instantly intensified tenfold.
It sounded as though countless insects were gnawing directly at his brain.
At the same time, deep within the dilapidated streets of the Abandoned Village, a lantern emitting an eerie green light suddenly flickered to life.
Then came the spine-chilling sound of iron chains dragging across the old stone pavement.
Clatter…
Clatter…
A terrifying figure emerged from the thick black fog.
It was more than two and a half meters tall, draped in tattered black robes and holding an eerie green lantern.
Its face was completely obscured.
It drifted steadily toward the mill where Malou was hiding.
The moment Lynn saw the lantern-bearing figure through his divine gaze, the lingering memories of the original owner were instantly triggered.
An extreme chill shot straight to the top of his head.
[Tier 1 Aberration: Lantern Nightmare!]
This was a unique nighttime patrol monster of this world.
It possessed no physical weakness whatsoever and specialized in devouring the souls of living creatures whose sanity had collapsed beneath the black fog.
“Holy crap!
How did this guy get lured out?!”
Inside the divine statue, Lynn was so anxious that he wanted to slap his thigh.
Meanwhile, Malou was still foolishly crouching behind the mill.
He cautiously poked half his head out and stared at the terrifying figure holding the green lantern.
He couldn’t help swallowing hard.
“This appearance…”
“No matter how I look at it, this doesn’t seem like a Tier 0 minion.”
“Could it be…
that I stepped in dog shit on my way out tonight and actually stumbled across a hidden world Boss?”