Chapter 723: Welcome to Mount Massive Asylum

As the regulars of the old branches—such as Zong Wu and Gu Tingyun from the Yuan-Yang City shop, Su Tianji and Song Qingfeng from the Jiuhua City shop, Ning Bi from the Half-City shop, and many others—demonstrated a keen interest in this new game.

Of course, this interest was quite different from that of the fledglings at the new branch.

For instance, the players at the new branch would gather early in the morning, and the moment Boss Fang opened the doors, a swarm of assassins like Elena and elves like Sera would rush in to press him: "Boss, is that 'Outlast' game finally out? When can we play it?"

Meanwhile, the patrons in the old shop would simply amble toward the counter, sending Boss Fang a casual text message along the way: "Boss, is that 'Outlast' out yet? When do the players at the new shop get to play it?"

"I mean... what is wrong with you people, crowding around every single day just to ask if other people are playing!?" Moreover, each of them was inexplicably diligent, turning up day after day to pester him.

"..."

...

Inside the new shop, though players of "World of Warcraft" were growing in number and now made up the vast majority, there was indeed a contingent willing to try fresh things.

After all, online games always possessed a large player base of casual gamers; by now, the earliest batch of players had mostly reached the maximum level. Someone like Sera would merely log on with her in-game friends to snag a first victory in the battleground, then do a few daily quests or admire the scenery. With no dungeon progression to grind and no desire to become a battleground try-hard, she naturally had ample time to play other things.

Sampling a new game was something she easily had time for.

"Ah, 'Outlast'...?" Boss Fang seemed to possess a great deal more confidence today. "It's out, it's out. It released today!"

"Really—!" Sera cried out in surprise.

Boss Fang tapped the small blackboard, and following the direction of his finger, Sera glanced over to find written upon it: New Game Recommendation: "Outlast." Activation Price: 15 Magic Crystals.

"Does that mean we can play right now?" Sera said in delightful surprise. "Then I'll go activate it first! Can you brew me a cup of cappuccino?"

"If you're going to play a game, just play the game. Why bother with cappuccino..."

"None of your business!" She cast a glare at Boss Fang, her face full of haughty pride. "I just like drinking it!"

"Fine, fine, fine." In any case, the money was going into this boss's pockets, so she could be as haughty as she pleased.

Boss Fang happened to want a drink himself, so he brewed a cup for her along the way.

At that moment, a group of elves and assassins excitedly found a row of seats by the window and sat down. Sera took the cappuccino from Boss Fang and, sipping it with immense satisfaction, happily used the balance on her membership card to activate and open the new game.

"Nana, do you want to play together?" Sera asked Elena, who sat across from her.

"This doesn't seem to support multiplayer, does it?" Elena replied as she launched the game. "Let's just play our own games for now, and we can share our experiences and discuss them later."

"Alrighty!" She entered the game, thoroughly pleased.

After all... there was nothing to fear from even an evil god. Having survived the baptism of "The Avengers" before, playing this... "Outlast" made her feel quite secure.

Before her eyes lay a dim and cluttered room, which served as the background screen upon entering the game. Pale lettering outlined several options, such as "New Game" and "Chapters."

Unlike the original version, entering the game presented only two difficulty choices: "Nightmare" was the normal difficulty, while "Insane" was a higher difficulty.

At the very beginning, "Insane" was greyed out, which meant she could only choose Nightmare.

The Insane mode not only forbade saving mid-chapter, but if one died, all progress would vanish, forcing the player to start from the very beginning.

Naturally, it was not meant for players who were just trying the game for the first time.

Another point of divergence from the original version lay in the opening; the original would introduce the protagonist and the game background via text upon entering the game at this point.

But when Sera entered the game, she slowly opened her eyes and woke up, as though she had just had a dream—a dream where she had turned into an elf in another world called the Nora Continent and lived there for a very long time. And now, waking from that dream, she finally recollected that she was actually a reporter named "Miles."

Yes, this sense of realism could even cause a person to fall into an illusion for a split second: that the real world just now was the illusion, while the current game world was the reality.

Even after entering the game, one's memory of certain aspects of reality held an unreal, hazy quality.

In the game, you would even harbor the illusion that the entire universe was strictly materialistic, and that things like magic, Qi, and martial techniques were merely exaggerations found in cinematic works.

This was also due to the players being influenced by the thoughts of the body's original master.

Sera within the game slowly opened her eyes, pondering: "I am now... Miles? A reporter? It seems I wanted to uncover the dark secrets at the heart of that Mount Massive Asylum?"

Sera shook her head, finally rationalizing that this was a virtual game space, and that exiting the game would lead back to reality.

Only after clearing this up did she finally begin the game proper.

By the time she drove toward her destination, it was already late into the night.

Of course, to avoid wasting game time, the driving process could be skipped directly; at this moment, she had already arrived at the mountain path near her destination.

The surroundings were pitch-black, giving off the sensation of driving through an deserted wilderness in the dead of night.

The path she traversed was a narrow dirt lane, so cramped that two cars would find it difficult to pass side by side. The headlights shone forward, revealing nothing but wild weeds on both sides.

Even with the headlights blazing, she could only see a few meters ahead; any further was engulfed in a thick, dense darkness.

Driving forward in this manner felt as though she were steering into an infinite abyss.

After a good while, a light appeared at the end of the dirt road.

Indeed, in this role-playing game, what Sera was currently portraying was a Western reporter, the sort who always wanted to break a massive scoop.

"Have you guys entered the game yet?" Sera asked aloud as she drove.

Because the protagonist himself knew how to drive, the driving aspect was much like the offline mode of "Grand Theft Auto V"—one merely followed the protagonist's memories to learn and act. Combined with the fact that she drove slowly on the night road, she didn't run into any mishaps.

"I've already driven to the asylum, okay!" Elena remarked. "But isn't this game called 'Outlast'? Why is it that after traveling for so long, there isn't a single sign of danger?"

Driving through the open iron gates outside the asylum and parking the vehicle, these Western reporters took up the video cameras from the car and walked inside with curiosity.

The night was incredibly dark, and the asylum seemed utterly deserted at this hour. In places devoid of light, they could only rely on the night-vision function of the video cameras to see their surroundings clearly.

Walking in through a side door, they soon followed a circular corridor inward, past various ornamental plants cultivated along the roadside. The towering structure ahead bore some resemblance to a relatively modern castle.

Of course, this was merely a comparatively ancient hospital.

"Why don't we try starting one of those livestream things!" Sera suggested.

Although the livestreaming software had only just debuted at the new shop, by drawing an analogy to the magical projections of this continent, they knew this would allow them to show off their skills quite clearly.