Zhao Qian and his teammates left, their minds foggy and disoriented. Everything that had just happened seemed to have been erased from their memories, as if someone had rubbed it away with an eraser, leaving behind only faint smudges of unease.
The twin-tailed girl walked at the end of the group. Her face was as pale as paper, her body trembling uncontrollably as the warmth drained rapidly from her limbs. She retched dryly, unable to vomit anything up. It was a physiological reaction born from extreme terror.
Just moments ago, she had come face to face with that thing and then, an image of eldritch chaos had been projected straight into her mind. Her body’s instincts rebelled, her reason snapped and if it weren’t for the mental stabilizer she had taken beforehand, she would have already gone mad.
The few people walking ahead seemed to have forgotten everything that had just occurred. The twin-tailed girl stared fixedly at their backs, desperately wanting to call out and warn them, but not a single sound could escape her throat.
No one in the group noticed anything strange about her. After a few steps, Zhao Qian suddenly had a thought, turned around and said to the others, “Someone go dig around the ground nearby. Maybe something’s buried there. Ah Peng, the shovel’s on your side, right? You go.”
The person he called was the quietest, most unremarkable one among them, a thin, stooped player whose body looked like that of a starved monkey. Startled to suddenly hear his name, he lifted his head with a dazed expression, then quickly nodded several times.
Zhao Qian didn’t want to leave all the work to one person, so after a glance around, he added, “The rest of us will head toward the mountaintop and see what’s there.”
All the previous times they had ventured into the mist, their instinct had been to go downhill, to try escaping the village. They had never really tried heading up the mountain before.
At that moment, the taller female player finally realized that the twin-tailed girl seemed wrong. She rushed over to check. “Luo Xi, are you okay? You don’t look good at all. Zhao, she seems to be having another episode. I’ll take her to rest somewhere.”
Zhao Qian turned and nearly jumped at the sight of Luo Xi’s deathly white face. His expression darkened immediately. “Alright, find a safe spot first.”
He knew Luo Xi was an unusually perceptive player, sometimes too perceptive for her own good. That kind of sharp intuition often brought her trouble. They had explored many instances together andLuo Xi would always, somehow, end up perceiving hidden truths no one else could sense.
Her mental state had always been fragile and even a small shock could trigger a breakdown. Despite this, her stubborn streak made her insist on entering dungeons with them. Zhao Qian could only feel helpless and worried.
The team split up then, dividing into three groups and moving in different directions.
……
Ye Jinran had reached the outer edge of the village, near the mountain’s slope and walked straight into the thick wall of fog.
He didn’t know what kind of strange power his words carried, but after hearing him speak, the twin-tailed girl’s brain had instantly triggered a self-protective reaction. The others had immediately drawn their weapons, the air bristling with tension.
Fighting was troublesome and pointless. Ye Jinran disliked wasting effort. So, out of mercy, he cast a “Forget what just happened” mental suggestion over them. It didn’t require any item; it was one of the abilities bestowed upon him by the Main God.
The twin-tailed girl, being closest to him, had seen something she should never have seen, probably a glimpse of his superior. The vision had branded itself too deeply in her mind, rendering his suggestion ineffective.
Ye Jinran sighed once again at his limited powers. After a few failed attempts, he gave up and teleported away.
The poor girl, after finally shaking off the effects of the tranquilizer, had unknowingly brushed against the residual aura of the Main God. Between Ye Jinran’s repeated mental wipes and her own fragile mind, she was now completely scrambled, likely unable to regain clarity anytime soon.
Ye Jinran walked along the mountain path, the crunch of dry leaves cracking softly beneath his boots. Beneath the blanket of white mist, countless shadowy shapes slithered forward, shifting from formless illusions into black, desiccated hands. Just as they were about to clutch at his legs, they froze, as though they had touched something terrifying. The next instant, they scattered and fled back into the forest.
Ye Jinran gave a low, cold hum but didn’t bother to look back. Soon the fog began to thin slightly, revealing a mountain cavern ahead.
Inside, the darkness was absolute. There was no light at all. Ye Jinran reached into his system shop and pulled out a flashlight, but after a moment of thought, he put it back and swapped it for a night-vision headset instead.
Once it was securely in place, he stepped into the cave.
The ground beneath him was uneven, the scattered twigs thickening as he advanced, making the path increasingly difficult to walk. After a while, Ye Jinran even had to press a hand against the rock wall to steady himself and keep from tripping.
The deeper he went, the wider the tunnel became, sometimes sloping upward, sometimes downward, enough to disorient one’s sense of direction and distance. Every so often, he would pause, listen carefully, then continue forward only after confirming that there was no sound.
After a while, he finally heard what he’d been expecting. Quickly, he slipped behind a stalagmite, hiding his presence and peered toward the noise.
There were three people in the cave, Zhao Qian, the high schooler and the scrawny man with the shovel. Each of them had a miner’s headlamp strapped to their forehead, beams of light cutting through the gloom.
“I can’t believe you managed to bump into us while digging,” the high schooler said mockingly to the thin man. “What are you doing, digging a tunnel to freedom? Maybe you’ll pop out on the other side of the mountain. No one’s tried that before, it’d be a creative escape route.”
“Alright, enough,” Zhao Qian said, patting the younger man’s shoulder. “At least he found something new. Looks like we were right to dig. Look down.”
The high schooler leaned over and glanced at the ground, then immediately jumped back with a curse. “Holy hell!”
The so-called “twigs” covering the cave floor weren’t branches at all. They were bones.
Pale, ghastly bones carpeted the ground from wall to wall, leaving no empty space in sight.
All this time, distracted by the resemblance of the cavern floor to the forest outside and too preoccupied trying to recall fragments of lost memory, he hadn’t even noticed what he was walking on.
“My god… all of these are bones…”
The scrawny player jammed his shovel into the pile. “Most of them are shattered. Hardly any complete skeletons. Can you tell what kind of weapon this is?”
“Whose work could this be? Daylight God’s? No way, right? These look like… human bones.”
“He kills humans too,” the high schooler muttered under his breath. “And some of the entities look almost human, so maybe the bones are the same.”
“Are you both idiots?” Zhao Qian snapped, frustrated. “There are only five of us in this instance! Even if that lunatic Bai Yan Zhou cleared this dungeon before, there’s no way any traces from back then would still be here. Remember, time resets!”
“Oh… right…” The two exchanged awkward glances, realizing their mistake.
Zhao Qian rubbed his forehead. It wasn’t surprising that their first thought had been of Bai Yan Zhou, the man’s name was legendary among players. He had cleared nearly every high-tier dungeon in existence. Wherever mass death occurred, his presence would inevitably be found.
He was the undisputed number one on the Global Combat Power Rankings, a natural disaster in human form, the sworn enemy of anomalies and the nightmare of every player.
After the descent of the higher-dimensional beings, many organizations had risen across the world to explore and exploit game spaces. Some sought to protect humanity from catastrophe; others hunted for profit and power. All of them needed talented, powerful players. Sending invitations to the top of the leaderboards had become the easiest method of recruitment.
But Bai Yan Zhou ignored every offer. He never joined any group. He never teamed up. To him, random players and eldritch entities were all the same, targets in his way. Over time, everyone accepted that he was a lone wolf. No one bothered trying to recruit him anymore.
After a brief silence, the high schooler spoke again. “Shouldn’t we, uh, deal with the floor first? This place feels wrong. Maybe we should leave.”
Zhao Qian glanced around. His instincts told him that, at least for now, no enemies would appear. He crouched down, picked up a bone and examined it. “I’m no forensic expert. We’ll have to use the shop’s identification service.”
The system shop wasn’t just for buying items, it also provided specialized services like corpse analysis, anomaly identification and more. After all, not every team had the right experts and lacking that knowledge could make exploration nearly impossible.
Zhao Qian had been playing long enough that he was no stranger to the shop’s oddities. But even he had been shocked recently when the shop updated its offerings, it now sold monthly passes.
For just thirty units of real-world currency, no matter your country or exchange rate, you could purchase thirty days of premium bonus rewards and daily login perks.
Who had designed this? A true genius or maybe a ghost the Main God picked up off the street.
The obnoxious ad for the monthly pass now filled the shop’s homepage. Every time he opened it, the stench of pay-to-win mobile games practically smacked him in the face. Zhao Qian forced himself to ignore it and scrolled through the list for what he needed.
Thankfully, the search function was efficient. He quickly found the corpse identification service. The basic tier was cheap, affordable even for newbies, so he bought it without hesitation.
[Identification Result: Human adult male skeleton. Deceased for over three years. Cause of death: sharp weapon. Signs of animal scavenging.]
“So it really is a human skeleton,” the high schooler gasped, staring at the system panel.
Zhao Qian tried a few more bones nearby. The results varied, but two details remained constant: they were all human remains and all bore evidence of animal gnawing.
Finding wild animals in a deep mountain cave wasn’t strange in itself, but these remains clearly hadn’t all died the same way, nor at the same time. Zhao Qian’s gaze swept over the carpet of white bones. This wasn’t something formed overnight.
How could so many people have died here together, only to have their flesh stripped away by beasts?
Even more puzzling, judging by the thickness of the layer, Zhao Qian estimated the number of bodies. There was no way they could have all stood in this space at once, it was far too small. Which meant they must have died elsewhere. Something or someone, had brought their remains here.
Ah Peng, the thin player, stammered nervously, “Zhao… Zhao, could it be that the villagers outside are… these people?”
Zhao Qian’s face grew grim. “It’s not impossible.”
They already knew they were inside a dream. Yet the villagers outside behaved like ordinary people, completely unaware that they were trapped in illusion. Perhaps… they had long forgotten that they were dead.
It was a classic case of earthbound spirits. The villagers’ refusal to leave the village seemed to confirm it.
But according to the data they’d collected before entering, the villagers could send people out, it just didn’t happen often.
So were those who left truly alive or were they dead too?
The question gnawed at them, a misty uncertainty that thickened the fog not only around them but in their minds as well.
✦ ✧ ✦
Nycreth
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
The Realm is pleased. The translator would be even more pleased with coffee.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Blood Moon Town: ShhhChapter 2 · The Mist of Nanjin Village (1)Chapter 3 · The Mist of Nanjin Village (2)Chapter 4 · The Mist of Nanjin Village (3)Chapter 5 · The Mist of Nanjin Village (4)Chapter 6 · The Mist of Nanjin Village (7)Chapter 7 · The Mist of Nanjin Village (6)Chapter 8 · The mist over Nanjin Village (7)Chapter 9 · The Mystery of Nanjin Village (The End)Chapter 10 · Real WorldChapter 11 · Riding The Wind (1)Chapter 12 · Riding The Wind (2)Chapter 13 · Riding The Wind (3)Chapter 14 · Riding The Wind (4)Chapter 15 · Riding The Wind (5)Chapter 16 · Riding The Wind (6)Chapter 17 · Riding The Wind (7)Chapter 18 · Riding The Wind (8)Chapter 19 · Riding The Wind (9)Chapter 20 · Riding The Wind (10)Chapter 21 Part 1 · Riding The Wind (11)Chapter 21 Part 2 · Riding The Wind (11)Chapter 22 · Real World (1)Chapter 23 · Real World (2)Chapter 24 · Golden Sands Fade Away (1)Chapter 25 · Golden Sands Fade Away (2)Chapter 26 · Golden Sands Fade Away (3)Chapter 27 · Golden Sands Fade Away (4)Chapter 28 · Golden Sands Fade Away (5)Chapter 29 · Golden Sands Fade Away (6)Chapter 30 · Golden Sands Fade Away (7)Chapter 31 · Golden Sands Fade Away (8)Chapter 32 · Golden Sands Fade Away (9)Chapter 33 · Golden Sands Fade Away (10)Chapter 34 · Golden Sands Fade Away (11)Chapter 35 · Golden Sands Fade Away (12)Chapter 36 · Golden Sands Fade Away (13)Chapter 37 · Golden Sands Fade Away (14)Chapter 38 · Golden Sands Fade Away (15)Chapter 39 · Golden Sands Fade Away (16)Chapter 40 · Golden Sands Fade Away (17)Chapter 41 · Golden Sands Fade Away (18)Chapter 42 · Golden Sands Fade Away (19)Chapter 43 · Golden Sands Fade Away (20)Chapter 44 · Golden Sands Fade Away (21)Chapter 45 · Golden Sands Fade Away (22)Chapter 46 · Golden Sands Fade Away (23)Chapter 47 · Golden Sands Fade Away (24)Chapter 48 · Golden Sands Fade Away (25) The EndChapter 49 · Main God’s DomainChapter 50 · Anomaly Investigation Bureau (1)Chapter 51 · Anomaly Investigation Bureau (2)Chapter 52 · Item FactoryChapter 53 · Defrosted Friendship (1)Chapter 54 · Defrosted Friendship (2)Chapter 55 · Defrosted Friendship (3)Chapter 56 · Defrosted Friendship (4)Chapter 57 · Defrosted Friendship (5)Chapter 58 · Defrosted Friendship (6)Chapter 59 · Defrosted Friendship (7)Chapter 60 · Defrosted Friendship (8)Chapter 61 · Defrosted Friendship (9)Chapter 62 · Defrosted Friendship (10)Chapter 63 · Defrosted Friendship (11)Chapter 64 · Defrosted Friendship (12)Chapter 65 · Defrosted Friendship (13)Chapter 66 · Defrosted Friendship (14)Chapter 67 · Defrosted Friendship (15)Chapter 68 · Defrosted Friendship (16)Chapter 69 · Defrosted Friendship (End)Chapter 70 · The Real WorldChapter 71 · Matching TimeChapter 72 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (1)Chapter 73 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (2)Chapter 74 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (3)Chapter 75 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (4)Chapter 76 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (5)Chapter 77 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (6)Chapter 78 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (7)Chapter 79 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (8)Chapter 80 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (9)Chapter 81 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (10)Chapter 82 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (11)Chapter 83 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (12)Chapter 84 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (13)Chapter 85 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (14)Chapter 86 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (15)Chapter 87 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (16)Chapter 88 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (17)Chapter 89 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (18)Chapter 90 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (19)Chapter 91 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (20)Chapter 92 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (21)Chapter 93 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (22)Chapter 94 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (23)Chapter 95 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (Complete)Chapter 96 · The Main God Invites You for TeaChapter 97 · The Player ForumChapter 98 · Training GroundChapter 99 · Eternal Night – The Stone-Striker (1)Chapter 100 · Eternal Night – The Stone-Striker (2)Chapter 101 · Eternal Night – The Stone-Striker (3)Chapter 102 · Eternal Night · The One Who Strikes the Stone (Finale)