With each step, Leon's sense of being trailed intensified, prompting him to frequently glance behind and in front of him as he moved forward. To his dismay, he soon realized that despite covering a considerable distance, the trees remained in close proximity, never straying far from his side.
He turned abruptly, casting a wary gaze towards the looming trees, and began walking backward. As if responding to his actions, the trees uprooted themselves and began closing in on him.
"Holy shit!"
In a desperate bid to escape, he broke into a sprint. However, the relentless trees swiftly encircled him, their advance quickening with each frantic step he took. Their skeletal branches now appeared menacing in the moonlit night, instilling a deep sense of dread within him.
He was cornered, the trees extending their branches towards him in an attempt to suffocate him.
*ding*
[Qi level dropped by 2% ]
"Darn it."
He spotted a small opening, and with his slender, fragile frame, he managed to wriggle through, leaving the trees entangled in their embrace.
"That was close" he sighed in relief.
But this seemed to have made the trees angrier, as they sprinted towards him with greater speed and a more sinister intent. Although they lacked faces, their rage was evident to him.
The branches emitted sharp spines, scratching Leon even when he kept his distance from them.
*ding*
[Tip: The trees are dead, and their trunks are hollow, when struck artistically, will reverberate a beautiful melody]
Leon wasn't in any moment to play music but he knew what the screen meant.
He chose an enormous tree nearby and kicked in the trunk causing him to startle and fell onto the trees behind him.
Their spikes scratched his back, creating a burning sensation as if he had bathed in hot water.
"Sssh! Ahh!" he exclaimed, deliberately attempting to alleviate the burning sensation by rubbing and patting his back.
He observed the trees retaliating against the one he had struck, and a mournful melody echoed from its wounded trunk.
It was his chance to run but with his moment of appreciation for the tree fight he had caught up between them once again.
Amidst the chaos, his tuxedo became entangled in the sharp branches of a tree, leaving him suspended upside down. As the perplexed tree attempted to make sense of the situation, Leon struggled fiercely, fighting for his freedom.
*ding*
[WARNING: Do not move if you want to stay sane.]
He was fine a while ago, but this mention of not moving made him nervous. His legs started to tingle and grow numb as he hung upside down, the tree thrashing violently against its companion.
The tree that had been attacked was reduced to mere firewood, and after a while, all the trees gradually returned to their original positions, as if nothing had happened.
He felt a small stroke of luck as his tree moved slightly closer to the lights he had been following, bringing him within earshot of distant voices.
Hanging there, he silently wished for someone to come to his aid, his vision momentarily obscured by his coat swaying in the strange motion of the tree's branch.
As he was slowly getting accustomed to the disorienting experience of being hung upside down, the tree abruptly and violently flung him.
"AHHHH WHY?!"
Leon was propelled through the air, soaring a meter away before crashing down, his neck snapping upon impact.
*ding*
[Quest failed successfully]
Despite the searing pain in his neck, Leon mustered the strength to sit up. However, his neck refused to stay straight, slumping to the side.
"Tell me I get a neck repair," he grunted.
[Your status has been demoted from Wander Soul to Slave of Sloth]
"I don't like the sound of it," he muttered, squinting his eyes as he walked, his broken head tilted to the side. The destination ahead was now within his sight.
He hadn't expected the place he arrived at to be like this. He had imagined otherworldly realms with castles and dragons, but instead, he found himself surrounded by worn-out houses with peeling paint, giving the area a haunted appearance. Strangely, the voices of people he had heard earlier echoed through the streets, yet there was not a single soul to be seen outside.
*ding*
[ You have now entered the Town Of Mishap ]
"Why thank you, that's the last thing I would want to know," he felt annoyed.
"How do I fix my neck?"
All of a sudden, something caught him off guard and brought him to a halt: it was a mirror. Despite having died and entering the afterlife era, he realized that his physical appearance remained unchanged from when he was alive with cancer, except now he was healthy.
As he gazed upon his reflection, observing his broken neck, sparse hair, sunken face devoid of vitality, and twisted body made him feel like he belonged to this wicked place somehow.
*ding*
[New Quest]
"What the f*ck? Give me a break, will you?!"
[Learn about your Psyche]
[ Quest Rewards: Knowledge about your Psyche]
"Psyche.....Yes, you are my psyche. I have to know what you can do and what I can do to make you helpful--I mean you've been quite helpful to the troubles you get me in," Leon sighed.
"What an interesting young man, talking to himself like that," a tender high-pitched voice spoke from his side.
It was coming from the dark alley, he couldn't decipher who or what was talking to him.
"Who is that?" Leon called out.
"Who are you referring to young man? If it's me, I'm right here," the voice replied.
Just then, Leon mustered the strength to look down, despite the difficulty caused by his broken neck. There, standing before him, was a baby of approximately four or five months old, wearing a tuxedo just like him, holding a pocket watch, and wearing a monocle. It suddenly dawned on him that this baby was the one who had spoken to him.
"What happened to your neck?" the baby tilted its head mirroring Leon.
"I--well, a tree threw me and it snapped," he answered despite himself.
"A tree? Oh the trees from the forest of silence, How unfortunate," The baby shook its head pitying Leon's state.
"You will have to fix that neck of yours."
'Oh yeah,' Leon thought, realizing that he needed to establish a connection with someone in order to navigate through this place. Maybe this strange baby knows its way around this place.
"How do I do that?"
"There's a healer's place in the town square," the baby responded, his voice surprisingly mature yet high-pitched. "However, be prepared for a bit of a challenge, as all the buildings around here look the same."
*ding*
[Double quest: Find the healer's place & Learn about your Psyche]
[ Rewards combined: Knowledge about your psyche + Healed physique]
[Quest failure: You'll achieve the title of "Crooked neck banshee" and will be known as that throughout Purgatory]