It was an absolute crushing force originating from the level of life itself.
"Attack!" Zhao Kun roared without hesitation, and the Scorpion Tail Poison Needle in his hand shot out like a living thing, turning into a ghostly green lightning bolt, straight for Hu Jiu's brow. Wherever the needle tip passed, the air sizzled and corroded.
The other players in the private room reacted quickly, instantly pulling out all sorts of weapons and items. Blades, flames, ice spikes, mental shocks... various low-level game items intertwined to form a deadly net, enveloping the two people at the door.
Du Zhong pursed his lips and didn't move an inch.
Hu Jiu simply raised his hand calmly.
Time seemed to have been paused.
The Scorpion Tail Poison Needle, shot out, froze in mid-air less than ten centimeters from Hu Jiu's brow, its eerie green light flickering in vain. The spewing flames, the sharp ice spikes, the invisible mental shockwaves... everything was frozen in time, as if it had been cast into invisible amber.
The ferocity on Zhao Kun's face froze, and extreme terror erupted in his eyes.
He saw it! He saw a miniature, twisting, rotating vortex forming in Hu Jiu's palm. At the center of that vortex was a darkness purer than the deepest night, and an irresistible, terrifying suction force suddenly erupted!
"Ughhh--!"
Zhao Kun let out a shrill scream, feeling as if his soul was being ripped out of his body! All the blood, muscles, bones, and even the power flowing through his body—the power he was so proud of from the Horror Game —rushed wildly towards the vortex in Hu Jiu's palm like a burst dam!
Not only him, but all the players who launched the attack in the private room, regardless of gender, felt as if an invisible giant hand was choking them. Their bodies convulsed violently, their eyes bulged, their skin withered at a visible speed, and their extraordinary energy was brutally drained from their bodies.
Their screams and struggles were frozen in the air, forming an eerie silent drama.
In just three seconds.
Hu Jiu closed his five fingers, and the tiny vortex in his palm disappeared.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Like dumplings being dropped into a pot, the seven or eight players who had been so aggressive just moments before, along with Zhao Kun, were all reduced to skin and bones, limp and lifeless, lying on the ground.
Du Zhong stepped forward, ignoring the gruesome corpse on the ground, and skillfully removed a ring inlaid with a black gemstone from Zhao Kun's withered finger, then tore a silver necklace from another female player's neck.
Hu Jiu was even more ruthless. After killing people, he would extract their consciousness and interrogate them to obtain information about other players. Even lone wolf players would inevitably interact with other players. One action could have far-reaching consequences, and once Hu Jiu caught one, he could find out about everyone else.
The two turned and left silently, leaving behind a pile of corpses.
The city's neon lights pulsed tirelessly, like the fluorescent blood flowing through the veins of a dying beast. Hu Jiu and Du Zhong walked at the boundary between noise and shadow, the hems of their trench coats sweeping across the polished paving stones and damp alleyways, like two ghosts blending into the night.
Their target isn't the game itself, but rather those "players" who walk in the sunlight of reality, yet possess the power of Horror Games flowing through their veins.
Through probing Zhao Kun's soul, Hu Jiu quickly found his target.
The ancient book restoration area is located on the top floor of the city center library.
ID: "Scholar", Level B player, skilled in information retrieval and low-level mental defense, real identity is Chen Mingyuan, a senior ancient book restorer in the library.
This place should have been a Silence hall, but at this moment, the air was as thick as solidified amber. Chen Mingyuan was bent over a large restoration table, gold-rimmed glasses perched on his nose, his expression focused. In his hand, he held a bone fragment as thin as a cicada's wing, his fingertips swirling with extremely faint, almost invisible spiritual threads, carefully probing into the depths of a tattered ancient book, attempting to repair the words damaged by time and insects.
Suddenly, his body stiffened abruptly, and a chilling sensation, originating from the depths of his soul and locked onto by a apex predator, instantly swept over him.
He looked up abruptly, his pupils behind his gold-rimmed glasses contracting sharply.
The heavy solid wood door of the restoration room slid open silently, and Hu Jiu and Du Zhong stood at the doorway. Against the light of the corridor, their shadows were elongated and cast on the bookshelves filled with ancient books, like two silent Tombstones.
"Who... who are you? This place is not open to the public..." Chen Mingyuan's voice trembled slightly, and then a layer of mental shield, invisible to the naked eye and like ripples on water, quietly covered his entire body.
Du Zhong pushed up his non-existent glasses, examining the ancient book and bone fragments on the restoration table with great interest. "Using supernatural abilities gained from Horror Games to restore cultural relics? Not bad, what a pity..."
Hu Jiu didn't speak, but simply took a step forward.
Just one step.
"Buzz--!"
The mental defense barrier Chen Mingyuan had constructed was like a calm lake surface tossed with a boulder, instantly violently shaking and twisting. An invisible shockwave slammed into his mental core, causing him to groan, his face turning deathly pale, a trickle of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth, and his glasses slipping down to the tip of his nose. His proud defense was as fragile as a piece of paper under the threat posed by a single glance or movement from his opponent!
"No... no!" Chen Mingyuan's eyes were filled with disbelief and terror.
His words came to an abrupt halt. Hu Jiu had already extended his hand, not towards him, but towards the ancient book being restored in front of him.
An invisible, Supernatural fluctuation with absolute dominance enveloped the ancient book. The cover of the book suddenly flipped open on its own, and the pages flew wildly without any wind! The ancient characters and damaged fibers that Chen Mingyuan had carefully probed and guided with his spiritual threads now seemed to be given a violent life, instantly breaking free from the constraints of the repair materials.
Splash--
Countless ancient fibers and ink marks, carrying historical information, were roughly torn off as if by an invisible hand, turning into shimmering fragments that rose from the pages! They swirled and converged in the air, eventually coalescing into an "information stream" composed of countless tiny specks of light!
This "stream" exudes a unique aura, a mixture of historical dust and... the energy of Horror Game.
"No! My research!" Chen Mingyuan's eyes widened in horror. The ancient book wasn't a real artifact, but something he'd brought out from a dungeon of Horror Game. He was trying to decipher the essence of Horror Games.
He has discovered that those chilling instances seem to be more than just games; they resemble real worlds ravaged by disaster.
Hu Jiu gently hooked his fingertip across the stream of information.
"Laugh--"
Like a straw inserted into a drink, the stream of light composed of countless fragments of information and game energy was instantly pulled by a terrifying suction force, transforming into a slender beam of light that directly entered Hu Jiu's fingertip.
Chen Mingyuan felt as if his brain had been emptied instantly, and the power that the Horror Game had given him was also brutally taken away.
"Ugh!" He curled up on the ground in pain, his spirit severely damaged, his body feeling as if his bones had been removed.
Even so, he stubbornly ignored the excruciating pain and asked with difficulty, "Can you read the information in the ancient books? Tell me quickly, what does it say!"
"Perhaps I'll disappoint you, but this is just an unofficial history book that records that Lu Bu was actually a double-star..." Hu Jiu said with a strange expression.
Chen Mingyuan was stunned. At first, he found it absurd, but then he was filled with dread upon closer inspection. "Why would the ancient book I brought out from the Horror Game dungeon contain the historical figure 'Lu Bu'?"
Hu Jiu didn't know the answer to that question either. He didn't even glance at Chen Mingyuan, who lay sprawled on the ground like a rag doll, before turning and leaving.
Du Zhong then followed in Hu Jiu's footsteps.
The door to the restoration room closed silently, leaving behind only the lifeless body of a "Scholar" with vacant eyes.
Hu Jiu and Du Zhong moved to an abandoned industrial area, where there was an illegal underground fighting arena.
Lei Gang, an A-level player with the ID "Bloodaxe," is here. He is a physical enhancement type, and his strength is astonishing when he goes berserk. His real identity is a black boxer and gang leader in the fighting arena.
The deafening heavy metal music crashed against the rusty steel structure, and the air was thick with the pungent smell of blood and tobacco. On the ring, two burly men covered in blood were fighting to the death, and the roars of the audience nearly lifted the roof off.
Lei Gang sat in the shadows of the VIP box, like a lion in a slumber. He took a swig of strong liquor, his thick arms bulging with muscles. He reveled in the savagery and power worship here; this was his hunting ground for honing his combat skills.
Suddenly, the lights in the entire fighting arena flickered a few times and then went out completely. The deafening music stopped abruptly, leaving only a burst of shouts and curses from the audience.
"What happened?!"
"The power is out?"
"Damn it! My money!"
Lei Gang suddenly stood up; his beast-like instincts told him that danger was at play, and this seemed to be more than just an ordinary power outage.
A chilling, deathly aura, carrying absolute malice, instantly filled the entire underground space. Lei Gang's violent energy instinctively surged, and dark red lines lit up his skin.
"Warning! Something's gotten in!" Lei Gang roared, his voice drowning out the chaotic commotion.
However, it was too late.
Footsteps echoed in the darkness. They were unhurried and clear, as if they were stepping on everyone's heart.
Tap, tap, tap...
A figure slowly emerged from the shadows of the entrance.
It is Du Zhong.
His face held an almost eerie calm as he held a constantly spinning Rubik's Cube in his hand. This was a little gadget Hu Jiu had casually given him to pass the time and relieve boredom— Space Chaos Cube that could disrupt the surrounding space, preventing prey from escaping and damaging the terrain.
"Bloodaxe, Lei Gang." Du Zhong's voice stood out clearly amidst the noise, "A-grade physical enhancement, above-average defense, simple and brutal energy structure..."
Before he could finish speaking, Lei Gang had already transformed into a raging hurricane and charged over. In the darkness, he was like a humanoid Tyrannosaurus Rex, his fist, as big as a casserole dish, whistling as it tore through the air, aimed straight at Du Zhong's head. Wherever the wind from his fist passed, even the air itself seemed to explode under the strain.
"Die!!"
Du Zhong didn't move an inch, not even a change in his expression.
Just as that fist, powerful enough to shatter steel plates, was less than half a meter from Du Zhong's face—
The space in front of Lei Gang rippled like water, and a blurry humanoid phantom composed of countless fragmented lights and shadows suddenly appeared in front of Du Zhong. The phantom was not a solid entity, yet it inexplicably gave people a chill down their spines.
Lei Gang's fist slammed hard into the illusory figure.
There was no earth-shattering collision.
There was only one dull, strange sound.
Lei Gang's power, enough to split mountains and shatter rocks, vanished without a trace, like a mud ox entering the sea.
Even more terrifying, a cold, slippery, and highly corrosive illusion surged wildly into his body through his fist.
His rage was like a flame doused with cold water, instantly wilting, and hallucinations flooded his vision: his dead opponents grinning, broken bones piercing his skin, rotting maggots crawling in his veins... Intense physical disgust and cognitive confusion constantly assaulted his brain!
"Ugh! A hallucination! It's a mental attack!" Lei Gang roared in pain, trying to dispel the illusion with his berserk will, but the illusion clung to his nerves like a leech.
Hu Jiu appeared silently beside Lei Gang. He didn't look at Lei Gang's face, which was contorted with pain and anger. Instead, he extended a finger and gently touched Lei Gang's heart.
Pfft--
Lei Gang's reinforced skin and muscles, which were strong enough to withstand small-caliber bullets, were easily pierced.
"No--!" Lei Gang roared in despair as the surging power within him was being frantically sucked away by an irresistible suction force!
His once-powerful body withered and shrank at a visible rate; his skin lost its luster, his muscles atrophied, and the fierce light in his eyes quickly dimmed.
In just two seconds, Lei Gang, who had once resembled a ferocious humanoid beast, was transformed into a skinny, bony, horrified corpse, collapsing limply to the ground.
Du Zhong's Rubik's Cube spun again, the lights came back on, the music resumed, and the audience stared blankly at the now-normal venue, as if the darkness and Silence of the past were just a collective illusion. Only the stark, desiccated corpse in the VIP box silently testified to the horror that had just occurred.
Du Zhong stepped forward and kicked Lei Gang's withered arm with his toe, making a sound like hard objects colliding. "This is too slow. Are you planning to kill them one by one like this?"
"Then do you have any good ideas?" Hu Jiu asked in return.
Du Zhong thought for a moment, "How about... releasing Fierce Ghost? Your previous behavior was clearly very rough and wild, why are you doing this... such a small-scale thing now?"
Hu Jiu: "The past is the past, the present is the present. If the supernatural system in this world were still 'Supernatural,' I would have already taken drastic measures. But when facing an unknown supernatural system, it's best to be cautious. I must prevent my information from leaking out and try my best to gather information about the other side."
Before the audience could fully process what had happened, the two silently disappeared from the blood-soaked, testosterone-fueled underground fighting arena, like shadows blending into the background.
Ten minutes later, the fight arena owner looked at the mummified corpse in the VIP box, his face ashen.
Lei Gang was somewhat well-known among Horror Game players, and his tragic death quickly caused a small sensation...