Chapter 176: Everyone Peed Their Pants (Fourth Update)

Several people launched the game one after another. By this time, quite a few customers had already entered, and Jiang Xiaoyue, after rushing off to handle the counter for a while, quickly huddled back over, seemingly unwilling to miss even a single moment of seeing the new game.

There was no character selection in this game; just like The Legend of Sword and Fairy, it featured a single protagonist, a male lead.

Gazing at the reflection in the mirror, which showed a blonde-haired, fair-skinned, and reasonably sunny-looking handsome young man, someone remarked, "Just like Resident Evil? A foreigner?"

It wasn't just Resident Evil; in fact, foreigners could be seen in Diablo and Counter-Strike as well, so it had long since ceased to be surprising, and after playing several games, they had even gained a certain understanding of the worldviews and written scripts.

Though they did not know whether such a nation truly existed in the world, they chose to assume it did for now; learning about the artifacts of another civilization was rather novel, imparting an illusion that merely by sitting in this shop, one could travel to all corners of the world.

Su Tianji shook her head with a beautiful, radiant smile, while by this time, Song Qingfeng had already stepped out of the room.

Gained partial memories.

Most of the time, this game required no prompts, for many things were already contained within the protagonist's memories: the English language, the objective, and the entire sequence of events.

Thus, the moment Song Qingfeng stepped out the door, such a memory surfaced in the male lead's mind at just the right moment.

Not only Song Qingfeng and the other players, but even Nalan Mingxue and the rest who were watching from behind blinked in slight bewilderment upon seeing the content of the subtitles on the screen.

"A letter from his wife...?"

From the words in the letter, one could still faintly discern the wife's deep attachment to the protagonist, but...

"His wife died three years ago?"

Everyone's heart skipped a beat as they looked at one another: What kind of situation was this?

An eerie atmosphere began to diffuse through the surroundings, and within the game, Song Qingfeng controlled his character to stand at the edge of a hill, leaning against a railing as he gazed at the village ahead, enveloped in a blanket of thick fog...

An inexplicable chill washed over his body, causing him to shiver involuntarily. "Why does something feel amiss..."

"Zixin... I feel like I don't want to play anymore..." Shen Qingqing instantly lost her nerve.

"What is there to fear!" Xu Zixin encouraged her, saying, "This just proves your state of mind is unstable; you ought to play games like this more often!"

Shen Qingqing: "..."

"I can't help but feel this game is incredibly bizarre..." Standing behind Su Tianji, Fenghua and Yuexin involuntarily huddled closer to each other. "Could there be some sort of problem...?"

"What is there to fear!" Su Tianji snorted coldly. "Let this master see what skills this protagonist possesses."

"Skill panel? Skill panel?"

Having seen nothing after a long while, Su Tianji could only call out to the proprietor, "Boss, where is the skill panel?!"

"There isn't one."

Su Tianji: "..."

Xu Zixin: "..."

Song Qingfeng: "..."

"I might as well look for a handy weapon first," Song Qingfeng muttered to himself. "It should be just like the protagonist in Resident Evil..."

"Wait... Boss! Where are the weapons?!" Not long after, a startled cry rang out.

One had to remember that Chris came equipped with combat techniques, marksmanship, and even a bonus knife!

Soon, he heard Fang Qi's concise reply of just two words: "None."

Lin Shao tested his movements within the game and quickly discovered that this protagonist couldn't even perform a basic split. "Where are the combat skills?!"

"None at all."

"How do you expect me to play when there's nothing at all?!" Su Tianji's face darkened. "Then what does this protagonist actually have?"

"I am sorry, but the protagonist of this game is just an ordinary person."

"..."

All the players were utterly dumbfounded.

The thick fog ahead clearly looked fraught with danger, and there was no telling what lay within, yet now you are telling me the protagonist is just a regular human?!

"An ordinary person is quite excellent!" Standing behind them, Nalan Hongwu offered praise without any skin in the game. "Without the bolster of any external power, the flaws in one's state of mind can be exposed all the more clearly."

"..." Shen Qingqing felt like backing out; fortunately, external communication was currently enabled, otherwise, facing such an eerie environment and such a bizarre turn of events while being nothing more than an ordinary person, she truly wouldn't dare to play.

In truth, the essence of many horror games lay in using psychological suggestions to make players scare themselves; otherwise, if it were merely a matter of finding items and fighting monsters, even if those monsters were unsightly, what would there be to fear?

Fear imposed from the outside world amounted to nothing; only the dread that germinated from within one's own heart was the most terrifying!

This remastered edition of the game was set in a significantly more realistic environment, and the atmosphere of psychological suggestion was far denser; therefore, the less resolute one's mind was, the easier it was to fall prey to such suggestions, thereby birthing terror from within.

Nalan Mingxue remarked placidly, "Though the protagonist of this game is an ordinary person, the fact that he drove all the way here means he intends to go in. Since even a regular person dares to enter, I suppose there is nothing to fear..."

"Exactly, even an ordinary person dares to go in, so it seems it's just meant to bluff people," Lanyuan added from the side. "Even if we encounter dangerous things, they won't be too powerful."

"Is that so..." the rather timid Shen Qingqing said with some trepidation.

"Won't we find out once we go in and look?" This came from the more optimistic Su Tianji.

"Boss! Why aren't you playing?" Fenghua and Yuexin, who were already huddled together, stared suspiciously at Fang Qi.

"What's the rush? I'll watch first and livestream tonight."

"Tonight..."

"Livestream?"

The two exchanged a glance.

These words instantly dispelled the doubts in the hearts of Song Qingfeng, Xu Zixin, and the others. "What is there to fear? It's just scaring oneself! Silent Hill, is it inside that town ahead? Let's just go in and take a look."

"No, that's Mute Village," Fang Qi muttered under his breath.

Nalan Mingxue, Lanyuan, and the others also stood behind, drinking cola while watching, completely bewildered. "What Mute Village?"

"See! I told you nothing would happen!" The further into the thick fog he walked, the more Song Qingfeng felt a deathly silence enveloping the surroundings, and at this moment, he realized no one answered when he spoke?

There was not a single trace of sound around him!

Suddenly, he recalled Fang Qi mentioning during the introduction that external communication would be blocked upon entering the main storyline: "..."

Walking along the mountain path through the thick fog for a long time, he finally entered a graveyard, where he encountered the first NPC and learned of the ominous rumors concerning Silent Hill, as well as clear directions to its location.

The game seemed to grow increasingly bizarre; after several players traversed the deserted mountain road and arrived at the town area, before long, they spotted a trail of blood on the road, and following it with their eyes, they saw a figure staggering into the thick fog...

When they rushed forward to look, they found the person had actually vanished, disappearing completely into the dense mist!

At this moment, let alone Song Qingfeng and the others who were fully immersed, even Dong Qingli and Lanyuan, who were watching from behind, inexplicably felt a chill run down their spines.

"Venturing alone into such an eerie place without being given even a shred of cultivation..." Nalan Hongwu also remarked, "This game is truly..."

Just as several people discovered a radio emitting static noise and a corpse kneeling on the ground, and stepped forward to examine them, they suddenly sensed some movement behind them.

Turning around, that extremely distorted figure had actually appeared right before their eyes!

"Ah—!"

"Ah—!"

"Ah—!"

When had they ever seen this kind of trick before?!

Not only Song Qingfeng and the other active players, but even Nalan Mingxue and the rest standing alongside Fang Qi...

Her lovely face turned deathly pale!

She nearly dropped the cola bottle straight to the ground!

They were all utterly scared out of their wits!

Nalan Hongwu and Elder Fu stared at the screen in open-mouthed shock, completely dumbfounded by the reactions of everyone around them!

.