Chapter 70.1: Altered Spiritual Boundary
Upon seeing this line of yellow text, Give Me Medicine and Ji Tang fell into a bout of silence.
"This domain is… something like a dungeon?" Ji Tang, who hadn't played an online game in years, croaked hoarsely.
"Seems like it," Blossoming Strokes replied blankly.
Ji Tang helplessly gesticulated several times, yet he had no idea how to summarize what he wanted to say or where to even begin with his questions and could only look toward Blossoming Strokes…
As the saying goes, reputation precedes a person. Though the players were divided into three factions and had been competing for the position of mayor, when it came to troublesome quests, players, regardless of their loyalties, wouldn't waver in their trust for Blossoming Strokes and Unceasing Entropy.
The reasons were rather simple. These two ladies weren't just intelligent but also had high moral standards; those with good character were always more popular than others.
"Seriously… the event announcement is so misleading!" Blossoming Strokes exclaimed in frustration. "I thought the non-attackable monsters were the civilian NPCs affected by the 'corruption.' Never would I have imagined they'd be the advanced NPCs, and on top of that, this vague description of 'successfully repelling the corruption'… who in their right mind would associate that with a dungeon?!"
"This is ridiculous!" Give Me Medicine vented his frustrations as well. "Was it necessary to hype up the dungeon like this? Is it even worse than Archmage Angela's quest! [TL note: another WOW reference] Can't they just explain the process in the announcement? Are the damn devs thrilled to see us players die countless times?"
Ji Tang: "…"
Even though it had been many years since he last played an online game, as a millennial, Ji Tang still knew what a "dungeon" was.
Having dungeons in a multiplayer online game is normal, but how is it possible… in this game?!
Isn't this game an "alien planet"? Aren't the NPCs in the game considered "encounters with the third kind"?? How, how can there be dungeons?!
Ji Tang simply couldn't understand.
Blossoming Strokes, on the other hand, seemed more open-minded about it. "Oh, well. It's not the first time the devs have been this despicable. This place is… huh?"
The "dungeon" space the three found themselves in appeared as a forest that seemed to lack any distinct features. At first glance, it resembled the wilderness outside of Exile Town.
But when Blossoming Strokes looked more closely, she realized something wasn't right.
During the expedition quest, players realized that the Taranthan Wastelands, where Exile Town was situated, though not explicitly stated in the background setting, had a relatively low geographical elevation. It was probably located in a temperate region—the vast wilderness was filled with common southern trees like palms, camphors, and cedars. There also wasn't any sign of accumulated freezing in the marshes.
Of course, it was most evident in the civilian NPCs' attire. Although the female NPCs had been all bundled up initially, they didn't seem to be wearing thick clothes like padded coats; they had all been single-layer clothing.
But now, when Blossoming Strokes casually surveyed the surroundings, it was practically deciduous trees all around.
"Given the game's attention to detail… could this design be hinting that the storyline within the dungeon doesn't take place in Taranthan but rather somewhere further up north?" Blossoming Strokes muttered.
"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" Give Me Medicine simply didn't make sense of this line of mumbling.
Ji Tang suddenly raised a finger to his lips. "Ssshh—"
The other two looked at him, and Ji Tang made another gesture, indicating that they should hide in the shrubs. He then took the lead and stealthily moved into the cover of the foliage.
Blossoming Strokes and Give Me Medicine followed suit.
The three had just stealthily crouched in position when they heard the sound of leaves being crushed underfoot.
Crunch… crunch…
Srrrkkk—
The former was the sound of footfall, and the latter… sounded like something heavy being dragged through the thick layer of fallen leaves.
The three exchanged glances, then cautiously peeked their heads out.
Through the tangled underbrush, they saw a boy in a duckbill cap and a thick gray woolen coat who seemed as if he had stepped right out of a nostalgic 19th-century European film. The boy carried a shovel on his shoulder and was dragging a heavy woven bag, slowly making his way toward the bushes where they were hiding.
Astonishingly, this youth was someone they were all familiar with.
Though his face was youthful and he seemed rather flustered, his facial features and contours were unmistakably those of Hal Maxwell, the assassin instructor.
Even more startling was that the woven bag dragged by the younger version of Hal was oozing blood…
Ji Tang was shocked, Blossoming Strokes absolutely dumbfounded, and Give Me Medicine's jaw dropped. At that moment, all three of them had the exact same thought:
Hal was once a criminal who murdered people?!
Ji Tang's eyes narrowed at once.
At that very moment, the younger version of Hal, burdened by the weight of the woven bag and the large shovel, stumbled and fell.
The bag he clutched tightly came loose, and a hairy arm slipped out from the opening and draped over Hal's ankle.
"Aarghh!" Young Hal kicked the arm away and crawled back in panic.
"It wasn't me, Jim! It wasn't me who killed you! I just took their money to bury you—"
A blooded and rather young-looking face slowly revealed itself from the bag's opening…
"No! No!" Young Hal, now on his butt, cried as he retreated. "It wasn't me, Jim! Don't come for me! It has nothing to do with me!"
The direction to which the younger Hal retreated was the bushes where the three players were hiding.
Just a moment ago, the three players had thought that they would be about to witness the so-called "Inner Demon Domain," which referred to Hal's past misdeeds of burying bodies (or getting paid to do so). Little did they realize how far off their interpretations of it were…
From the woven bag came a crawling, bloodied corpse of a young man, who appeared to be around the same age as the younger Hal.
Once the entire upper body of the shambling corpse exposed itself, another head abruptly sprouted from its chest.
This head emerged like a beanstalk, forcing its way out from Jim's chest. First came the head, then the neck, followed by the shoulders, and finally, arms…
After emerging halfway, the "beanstalk's growth" finally halted. With a similarly blood-soaked, maliciously resentful expression, the new face snarled and turned toward the younger Hal and the three players.
Blossoming Strokes' jaw nearly fell to her chest from fright. She had never really been receptive to horror elements.
And this bizarre "perversion" wasn't over yet. Another "beanstalk" sprouted from the neck of the first "beanstalk."
"Arghhh!"
"Arghhh!"
"Arghhh!"
The first scream came from Hal.
The second and third originated from Blossoming Strokes and Give Me Medicine.
Tolerance of fear in men actually wasn't that different than in women; there's no truth to the idea that having more testosterone meant being less susceptible to fear. Men might appear braver when among friends as a matter of pride, but that was just for the sake of face.
However, when faced with extreme situations, face became irrelevant.
Blossoming Strokes, who had lost all sense of rationality from fright, burst out of the bushes and fled. Give Me Medicine, also disregarding saving any face, followed suit and ran out.
"Hey hey—" Ji Tang weakly raised a hand at the two retreating figures.
When he turned back, the "corpse centipede" of three corpses had already started inching toward the petrified younger Hal. With no choice, Ji Tang drew his dagger and stepped forward to confront it.
The corpse centipede inside this instance dungeon was smaller than the one outside; at least, it wasn't so big that one would struggle to even reach it for a strike. However, even after it was transformed into a physical monster within the instance dungeon, it still wasn't something a player could take on alone.
Despite Ji Tang's ability, he could only manage to wear down half the monster's health bar before he was killed and disconnected.
Blossoming Strokes and Give Me Medicine managed to regain their composure and recalled that this was just an instance dungeon. But by the time they turned around and returned, Ji Tang's health had been reduced to a sliver. Despite Blossoming Strokes' frantic use of Shadow Force and Give Me Medicine's attempt to alleviate some of the pressure, they weren't able to save him.
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