The Forsaken Land of the Gods.
The sky was pitch-black at high altitude, with silvery-white lightning flashing from time to time, illuminating the barren, lifeless plains and the rivers where dark liquid faintly flowed.
On the flat land encircled by the river in a zigzag shape, there were faint traces of dilapidated buildings—clearly the ruins of a city-state.
This was the abandoned city-state that housed the "Skeletal Demon Wolf" Leonard needed. It had no name and was only referred to by the upper echelons of Silver City as "Nightmare Town."
This was because once someone entered the town's range, they would be dragged into nightmares that were extremely difficult to escape. Only by making sufficient preparations in advance would one have a chance of waking up.
It was precisely due to this peculiarity that even "Chief" Colin Iliad, a "Demon Hunter," had no way of dealing with the "Skeletal Demon Wolf" inside the town, because it could easily retreat into deeper layers of nightmares—places the Chief dared not pursue.
Moreover, the town was only one day's journey away from Silver City, and the route had already been cleared countless times. Therefore, after Derrick mustered the courage to explain the situation to the Chief, Colin Iliad gave it some thought and agreed to his request. Not only did he suspend the exploration of the former Chief's mausoleum, but he also formed a fairly strong small team to accompany Derrick to the outskirts of Nightmare Town.
This was because Derrick claimed that he had received a talisman "bestowed" by Mr. Fool, capable of pulling the historical projection of the mysterious Mr. Tower into reality.
Although he had only met Mr. Tower briefly, Colin had been deeply impressed by him and took him very seriously. As a result, aside from himself and the "Shepherd" elder Lovia, the team also included another "Demon Hunter," Wate Hillmon, to prevent any accidents.
Though small in number, this team's overall strength could be said to far exceed that of a standard full exploration squad from Silver City.
According to Colin Iliad, this was because while Nightmare Town did not have many monsters, most of them were extremely bizarre. For those with slightly weaker strength, it was exceedingly dangerous and easy to be exploited. Therefore, having fewer people was better than having more—and if there were fewer people, the quality of strength naturally had to be higher.
Looking at the city ahead, surrounded by illusory black rivers and not even fully illuminated by lightning, Demon Hunter Colin removed the two straight swords strapped to his back. Calm and unhurried, he applied silver-gray oil to one blade and poured golden liquid over the other.
He then planted both straight swords in front of him, took three small metal vials from a hidden compartment in his belt, pulled out the stoppers, and gulped down the potions inside.
At the same time, Wate also began making the necessary preparations.
Derrick Berg knew that they could not yet fully trust Mr. Tower or Mr. Fool, so he was not surprised and simply waited quietly for them to finish preparing.
However, he glanced somewhat curiously at Lovia on the other side. Compared to the Chief and the others, this Shepherd elder appeared exceptionally calm, seemingly not worried at all about Mr. Tower's arrival.
As if sensing Derrick's gaze, Lovia turned her head and met his eyes.
Derrick instinctively lowered his head, but then heard Lovia say calmly:
"At a time like this, you should be using your ability to help the Chief and Wate achieve better preparation effects."
"Yes!" Derrick responded, only then coming back to his senses. He felt that Elder Lovia was right. Even though he knew Mr. Tower was not an enemy, at the edge of such a dangerous ruined town, helping them increase their strength even a little was only appropriate.
It seems Mr. Tower's earlier speculation may have been correct… Although Elder Lovia believes in the True Creator, she may not necessarily have betrayed Silver City… just like me…
With emotion rising in his heart, Derrick no longer hesitated. He spread one hand and solemnly intoned in deep Giantish:
"God said: Effective!"
Silently, Colin Iliad and the others felt that the potions they had just consumed, the dawn they had created, and the oils they had applied all became noticeably stronger.
Immediately afterward, a halo filled with warmth rippled outward, granting courage and strength to the entire exploration team.
After Derrick finished comprehensively enhancing the team's attributes with various "Notarizations," Colin glanced at Lovia, who was holding a beast-skin lantern as if merely observing, and then said to the tall young man whose height had grown slightly again:
"Use that talisman to summon Mr. Tower."
After saying this, he looked at Lovia once more and added:
"That Mr. Tower has brought us information from the outside world, food free of contamination from the outside world, and secret techniques that remove toxins and corruption…
"So try not to show obvious hostility. It would be best to first observe some of his actions… to avoid misunderstandings."
Demon Hunter Wate was a burly man with a shaved head, dark green symbols tattooed on his scalp, and a height approaching two and a half meters. He appeared no older than forty-five, but his actual age was close to eighty. At this moment, he glanced at Derrick and said thoughtfully:
"If this Mr. Tower really is reliable, should we invite him to explore the former Chief's mausoleum?"
"There's no rush. We'll have to see."
Colin Iliad, his gray-white hair messy, answered directly without avoiding Derrick.
At this moment, Derrick, who had already taken out the "historical projection" talisman, felt his face flush slightly. It seemed that his excessive concern over the former Chief's mausoleum in recent days had been noticed after all.
That makes sense… How could my thoughts possibly escape the Chief? Fortunately, I listened to Mr. Tower back then and directly brought up Mr. Tower's curiosity about that mausoleum…
While engaging in self-reflection, Derrick ignited the talisman with his spirituality. He then felt his right hand become uncontrollable as it stretched into the void. After grasping a few times, he pulled out a figure dressed in a style completely different from Silver City.
It was Ebner.
…
Within the Ghost Empire, after consecutively breaking through four "worlds," Ebner was once again separated from Xio, Edwina, and Philina in a new "world."
Ebner looked around and discovered that he was inside a modern hospital. However, the equipment was old, and thick layers of dust had accumulated everywhere—clearly abandoned for a long time.
A standard opening for a horror game… Could this 'world' be of the 'supernatural horror' type?
Seeing this scene, Ebner couldn't help but complain inwardly.
After experiencing several "worlds," combined with the memories of Alvin, Danitz, and Giuseppe, Ebner suspected that the "worlds" within the Ghost Empire might all be created based on "games"… only with storylines that were vaguely familiar yet distinctly different from those he knew before.
Just what exactly was that succubus Monica's origin? Or was there something wrong with that unknown "Planeswalker"?
With these questions in mind, Ebner looked down at the school-uniform-like clothes he was wearing. After rummaging through them carefully, he quickly found an old-style sliding phone.
He opened the contact list with interest and discovered that there were only three contacts: Girlfriend 1, Girlfriend 2, and Girlfriend 3…
Seeing this, Ebner couldn't help but grumble inwardly:
Why are all the personas assigned to me so improper? Three girlfriends at the same time during student days? Serves me right to be trapped in this gloomy, terrifying hospital!
Thinking this, Ebner immediately selected one of the numbers and dialed it.
The three contacts obviously corresponded to Xio and the other two—it wasn't hard to guess.
But soon, the universal setting of horror games—or rather, all horror films—made its presence known:
No signal.
"Well, looking on the bright side, even if it could connect, aside from Edwina—who once saw modern urban technology with me on the first floor of the Dream Maze Tower—Xio and Philina might not even answer the phone.
"And this hospital clearly isn't in a 'normal' world. Not being able to connect probably means the three of them aren't in danger right now."
With that thought, Ebner put the phone away and began searching around the room, which looked like a hospital ward. He soon found a note on the table.
He picked it up and glanced at it, seeing red Intis script written on it:
"I'm really going insane!
Are that red liquid and those sticky capsules really medicine?
"And why did this hospital become so run-down overnight?!
"Don't trust the nurses! Don't trust the nurses! Don't trust the nurses!
"No, there are three you can trust… the one you can't trust is the fourth!
"The fourth one didn't lie?!"
What was this? A game clue? A fragment of some rule-based horror text?
Ebner's lips twitched, but he had no intention of solving puzzles step by step. That was the fun of the "Mystery" type; Beyonders of the "Omniscient and Omnipotent" pathway were more accustomed to directly "seeing" the answer.
The symbol of "Omniscience" was that you could know whatever you wanted to know—without the need for decryption or investigation.
Thus, Ebner activated the Pure White Eye.
Playing a game—what's the point if you don't cheat?
(End of the chapter)