With just this set of actions, the floating fellow villager was stunned.
Specifically, the creepy scream coming from their throat stopped abruptly, and they froze in mid-air, seemingly at a loss for what to do next. Their long hair still hung down, obscuring their face, but one could almost imagine the expression behind that hair was a long row of '???'.
Because the screaming stopped, the lights in the living room also stopped flickering. The bedroom door was wide open, and the pale light shone inside without restraint.
At the same time, a bloody smell, thick and heavy like glue, slowly wafted out. Lu Yuan’s Line of Sight could see the filth covering the bedroom floor and the wall covered in gruesome bloodstains, as if someone had been frantically and wantonly doodling on the wall with their own blood while dying. On the inside of the open door, there were countless deep scratches from fingernails, with blood having soaked almost entirely into the wood—a truly shocking sight.
However, all this terrifying scenery paled in comparison to the thing currently crouching inside the door.
It was a Thing that, from a certain perspective, still maintained a 'Humanoid' form.
It had four limbs, a torso, and a Head, but its body was currently pressed very low, with its limbs crawling on the ground at unnatural angles. It made one feel that it was more like a spider with human skin and only four legs.
As for the Head of that Thing, it still maintained a human appearance. The hair was very long, hanging down to the floor, but it was matted with blood. On the blurred face, a pair of huge scarlet eyes were particularly conspicuous. Combined with the miserable, creepy scratches covering its exposed skin, one could say that this image alone was enough to make a Player's Life drop significantly.
Yet at this very moment, this creepy Thing did not launch an attack on the Player outside the door. It didn't even move, feeling as if it had been just as stunned by the Player's actions as the fellow villager floating in the living room.
According to the normal routine, the Plot for this part should have been: the Player hears the noise inside, leans over to look in, gets scared, and then this monster—neither human nor ghost—starts frantically ramming the door. In the midst of the chaos, the door is broken open, and a series of direct combat ensues between the monster and the Player.
But who would have thought that Lu Yuan would enthusiastically help open the door himself? This operation directly caused a glitch in the program chain.
"Fellow villager?"
""
"Fellow villager? Are you okay? I have a Bandage here."
Lu Yuan asked with concern.
However, he didn't actually get recklessly close to the monster. After the warm welcome from the previous fellow villagers, Lu Yuan knew well that this group of fellow villagers was mostly controlled by the Ark system, and right now, all they could think about was how to kill the Player.
Therefore, Lu Yuan held the remaining half of the baseball bat and cautiously inched forward.
This process took about One second, and Lu Yuan had already reached a distance of less than a meter from the fellow villager.
"Fellow villager, I mean no harm. Could you please not rush over?" Lu Yuan tried asking.
Of course, even with one's butt, one could tell that things couldn't possibly be that simple.
Although Lu Yuan was determined to find a fellow villager with self-awareness, he didn't know that, statistically speaking, the possibility of Data Awakening self-awareness was minimal. Having only experienced two Instances—both of which were Training and Normal Instance—the record of encountering an NPC capable of thinking was basically zero.
This was because only more complex Data individuals had a higher possibility of possessing consciousness. As for monsters like the one before him, they acted entirely according to paths pre-set by the Data; they didn't even have the ability to communicate with Players.
As for why Lu Yuan, despite being a Minion, was able to awaken his own consciousness, it might have been his Luck or some other reason, but that wasn't important right now.
What was important now was that after these short dozen seconds, both the floating and the crouching fellow villagers had found their behavioral routes again.
The floating one was fine; because it feared the slip of paper in Lu Yuan's hand, it only made some creepy sounds from the side. But the crouching one was not so easy to talk to. It seemed completely immune to that strange piece of paper. After a brief moment of being stunned, its whole body shook with a Spasm, its chin tore open at an incredible angle, and with a Yell, it lunged at Lu Yuan.
The speed of the lunge was extremely fast. Fortunately, Lu Yuan was prepared and hurriedly turned to the side, jumping away and barely dodging the strike.
And this strike completely shattered Lu Yuan's hope of finding a fellow villager in this Instance.
Before Lu Yuan could even stand steady, the monster that had just lunged over turned around and attacked again. Its flexible limbs had already reached an inhuman form; seemingly skinny, they were actually extremely powerful. Its legs pushed off the wall, and its Speed increased by another notch in an instant, its hands' fingernails like sharp Daggers.
Lu Yuan only felt a wind carrying a bloody smell rush toward him. Reflexively, he leaned to one side again. However, this time he wasn't so lucky. Although he avoided the vital areas, his shoulder took a solid hit, and a deep gash that exposed the bone appeared instantly.
In this Game, Lu Yuan's pain perception could not be changed, so this hit caused pain that went straight to the marrow. Although this pain was nothing to Lu Yuan, his body couldn't stand it. The muscle Spasm caused by the pain, the nerve blockage, and the impact of the Bleeding on his arm's movement all caused his actions to fail to keep up with his Mind, and he even nearly lost his grip on the paper in his hand.
And if he lost the protection of that paper, he would likely face a certain death.
But the fellow villager didn't care about that. After landing the hit, it seemed even more excited. Its limbs twisted, and it crawled onto the Ceiling like a large spider, its scarlet eyes staring at Lu Yuan, looking like it was about to launch the next attack immediately. It wasn't hard to imagine that if Lu Yuan took this hit, he would definitely be dead.
At this critical moment, Lu Yuan’s Mind didn't have a hint of panic. Countless past deaths had made his thinking clearer the more desperate the situation became. Without a word, he swung the remaining half of the baseball bat and smashed it at the opponent.
This baseball bat was already broken and had almost no attack power. The monster didn't even dodge and took the hit head-on. As for the result, of course, it had no effect other than making the monster even more angry.
Lu Yuan nodded calmly and kicked the idea of 'fighting the opponent head-on' out of his Head. Given the opponent's Agility and this cramped space, blindly dodging would likely only delay his death, not to mention that once the paper burned out, he would still have to face the Beautiful Fellow Villager on the side.
These thoughts flashed through Lu Yuan's Mind in less than One second. Immediately after, Lu Yuan found the most reasonable and suitable plan for the moment.
He twisted his butt and 'whoosh', he dived into the bedroom that had just been opened. He then 'bang' shut the door.
He locked himself inside.
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