Chapter 727: If You Have the Guts, Play It Yourself, See If It Doesn't Scare You to Death!

Outside the game, you might be a master of exceptional cultivation and formidable combat power.

But within the game of *Outlast*, one was reduced to a mere ordinary person laboring under a wretched physical state induced by a fall from a high building; even with a powerful will, merely managing the strength to flee was already quite a feat, rendering combat with any monster an absolute impossibility.

"I feel like all the preparations I made before were entirely in vain..." Sera wailed, on the verge of tears as she wandered through the darkness, waving a camcorder around and cherishing it so fiercely that it might well have been her own mother, refusing to let go of it for even a single second.

Having been reduced to a commoner who would struggle to catch a chicken at this point, yet forced to maneuver and survive among so many monsters, Sera felt herself driven to the brink of madness.

The most suffocating part was not the moment of capture, but rather hiding somewhere in the pitch black, listening to the footsteps of that bloated monster, and even watching it search the hiding spots near her—it was enough to make her heart leap into her throat.

Moreover, whenever she was on the verge of completing a task to escape, that priest would invariably thwart her at the critical juncture, rendering all her prior efforts utterly futile and forcing her to continue her investigation of this thoroughly bizarre place.

After playing for a few hours, Sera could only think: "How can this game be so terrifying!"

Before, she could have swaggered directly to the asylum gates to smash them down, but now...

She felt that playing this game was turning her into a complete lunatic!

And at this moment, though she knew not whether she had alarmed the psychiatric patient trapped in the chair, his loud screaming and shouting drew the attention of nearly all the nearby inmates.

These monsters, having been subjected to crazed torture and altered by experiments until their bodies defied normal humanity, possessed physiques far stronger and behavior far more crazed than regular men.

"Ah—!" Seeing them begin to batter the locked doors from the left and right in an attempt to burst inside, Sera felt as though she were suffocating.

It was a headlong rush of screaming and sprinting.

"I don't think this should be called *Outlast*, it should be called Parkour!"

"Hahaha, this elf runs so fast."

Sera declared that she was being frightened to death, so how could she not run fast!

"Where do I run...?"

"It should be this way...!" In utter desperation and blind panic, she flung open a door and dove inside.

"Who is there? You are not one of them, are you?" Just then, a synthesized electronic voice suddenly echoed from somewhere unknown, "If you want to live, get inside this small dumbwaiter."

Sure enough, there was a tiny lift within the room, small enough that it might easily be mistaken for a chimney or a ventilation shaft.

Without a second thought, Sera dove straight inside.

In the next instant, a massive horde of psychiatric patients smashed through the doors and rushed in; before the lift ascended, she could even see them frantically battering against it.

Sera felt as if her heart were about to burst from her chest, but fortunately, the lift had already risen, leaving the danger behind.

Yet just as she was brought up by the lift, a powerful, freakish man appeared—the skin of his upper body looked as though it had been torn away to reveal raw red muscle, his face was distorted, his lower jaw was bound by a filthy bandage, and he wore glasses—and he smashed a fist directly toward her: "You made the right choice, sir."

"Ah—!"

When she woke again, she found herself entirely strapped to a wheelchair.

At this moment, Sera swiftly ripped off her virtual reality headset, only to watch the fingers of the protagonist on the screen being snipped off.

"Ah—!" Remembering her frantic exit from the virtual reality mode just moments ago, she felt relieved that she had withdrawn so quickly.

It was enough to drive one mad!

And afterward, with neither bandages nor any medicine, the protagonist had to explore the remainder of the journey while enduring the raw severance of two fingers.

In the original game, having to constantly look at these two blood-drenched stumps while climbing and parkouring was already eerie enough, but now one had to personally experience that sensation of blood loss, to experience everything the protagonist felt, and continue the game under such circumstances...

She was done playing!

She decisively quit the game and logged off, her pretty face deathly pale.

Her entire mood had turned utterly dismal.

Sera dragged over the boss, who was playing nearby, and pointed at the screen: "Boss! Do you call this playable?!"

...

"Holy crap...! This *Outlast* is so thrilling!" The emotions of the players in the old shop were clearly entirely different; after all, they were watching through a screen.

The group of student parties from the Haotian Academy, along with the bunch of salted fish from Jiuhua City, though they had not played the game themselves, had nearly all stood around watching for most of the day.

Even the group chat was alive with fervent discussion: "The elf I watched ran so fast, hahaha, I spent the whole time watching her run."

"Which one were you watching? The one I watched was that toxic healer elf." Even Thea from the Western Region came over to join the fun.

"What toxic healer elf?" Ning Bi asked in the chat.

"Didn't you watch last time... the healer Boss Fang brought along when he raided the Scarlet Monastery." Thea posted a screenshot after speaking.

"Hahaha! These elves are all incredibly amusing, alright? The one I watched today was the elf who fell under the desk." The enchantress Ning Bi also sent a picture.

Yue Bai said, somewhat caught between tears and laughter: "I wonder if these elves will beat us to death if they find out..."

Mu Qing said: "But it's truly impossible to stop watching, hahaha..."

At that moment, Sera watched her *World of Warcraft* communication group chat flashing continuously, and took a look at the messages.

Her eyes instantly widened: "Eh—?!"

"Ah—?!"

"How did you guys even save screenshots?!" She desperately wanted to crawl through the network cables to silence them all permanently.

The air suddenly fell silent.

"..."

"Why is this elf in the group chat!"

Nalan Mingwei: "...She's my in-game friend (Husky disdain face)."

Boss Fang was right beside them at this moment: "..."

He hurriedly tried to smooth things over: "This was originally a horror game, it would be abnormal not to be scared."

"I always thought this was a comedy game—!" Sera felt an urge to murder this boss.

How does your shop utterly defy the usual conventions! Before, when looking at that evil god or whatever, I was fully prepared to be scared out of my wits, but in the end, you had us laughing like pigs.

Now with this game, filled entirely with monsters of mediocre combat strength, I was fully prepared to put on a display of peerless might, having practiced for so many days just waiting to show off, and the result... let alone being scared out of my wits, you almost scared the crap out of me.

And I was live-streaming the entire time!

Why did you have to show *The Avengers* beforehand anyway?

"It's all your fault!" What a trash boss!

"Err..." Boss Fang rubbed his head, "How is this my fault... clearly you all surrounded me every day asking, 'Is *Outlast* out yet?' and 'If you don't let me play, I'll call you a trash boss every day'..."

"It's your fault, it's your fault!" Did you have to be so blunt! Exposing her on the spot made the other elves nearly die of anger as well.

A large crowd of elves nearby also removed their virtual reality headsets at this time, clearly unable to continue playing.

"Boss, is a mystic realm like this meant for humans to play?!"

"How is it not meant for humans..."

"If you have the ability, you play it!" Several elves glared at Boss Fang as if they wanted to devour him alive, waiting to see if he wouldn't be scared to death!

Feeling that their threat lacked force, they hastily added another line: "Otherwise, we won't come here to play anymore! Hmph!"

Of course, what they actually thought in their hearts was: "If this trash boss resolutely refuses, at worst we'll just shamelessly come back to play later!"

Other mystic realms were one thing; at least one could rely on skill, being able to fight and run, gradually grinding to a mutual understanding, and self-improvement was never an issue.

But now this... could it even showcase a single shred of skill?!

Possessing a wealth of strength and technique, yet unable to bring a single thing inside, how are you supposed to rely on yourself? How are you supposed to show off? Show off with your bare head?

.