This Was a Complete Nightmare!

What kind of hellish world was this?

After being killed for the nth time, Fang Zheng sat beside the bonfire, utterly speechless.

By now, he could feel the deep malice this world held toward him.

At first, Fang Zheng had thought this was an ordinary-looking world, but he no longer believed that. If getting taken out by the Knight the first time could be blamed on carelessness, then what about the times after that? Fang Zheng had been fully prepared, yet he was still ruthlessly ground into the dirt. Still, his efforts had not been wasted. After several attempts, Fang Zheng discovered that the "parry" he had initially thought useless was unexpectedly effective. Once he mastered the technique, he successfully blocked and deflected the Knight's attack, then seized the opportunity to drive his sword into its chest.

Fang Zheng had thought it was all over, but before he could even pull out his sword, a stream of strange black liquid suddenly emerged from behind the Knight. It twisted and solidified into a massive monster with a snake's head, then lunged at him with its jaws wide open.

At that moment, Fang Zheng's heart broke down completely.

At first, he had thought this was an ordinary post-apocalyptic world.

Then, he had thought it was an ordinary world where people possessed formidable combat abilities.

But now... what the hell was that monster?!

Was he really supposed to fight gigantic, barely humanoid things like that with nothing but swords and blades?

This world was far too hopeless!

Even the Dark World had monsters, but at least there, he had skills to protect himself!

But here, all he could do was roll, block, and slash? No skills, no magic, no divine artifacts, not even any teammates?

His mentality instantly exploded, all right?

This was a complete nightmare!

Fortunately, Fang Zheng remembered that he had come to this world to train his Sword Skill and combat awareness. Otherwise, he might have preferred to kill himself. Surviving in a world like this required far more than just a strong heart.

Luckily, even in this bleak world, there was a small refuge. After struggling to defeat that Knight, Fang Zheng passed through the gates and entered a place called Firelink Shrine. There, he met a blindfolded young woman—she called herself the Fire Keeper. From her, Fang Zheng learned about this world.

This world had originally been chaos. Then one day, a flame known as the First Flame was born. People discovered the Lord Souls beside the First Flame, and with the power of fire, they defeated the Ancient Dragons. Thus began the Age of Fire, and humanity built a glorious civilization. But fire would eventually go out. To keep it burning, heroes possessing great power used themselves as fuel, prolonging the flame.

And now, all of that had reached its end.

The inherited flame had gone out. The bells rang, awakening the ancient Lords of Cinder from their slumber.

Yet they had abandoned their thrones.

His duty was to defeat these Lords of Cinder and rekindle the embers.

After speaking with the Fire Keeper, Fang Zheng finally understood the general "setting" of this world. To put it simply, this world was like a bonfire. It had once burned, bringing light and warmth. But now, only a pile of ashes remained. What he needed to do was find enough fuel and light that bonfire again... otherwise, everything would be finished.

This truly was a hopeless world.

Still, at least he had the Fire Keeper, a gentle girl who could soothe Fang Zheng's battered heart. She was far better than that muscular blacksmith and the old Witch. Compared with her, those two were practically undead trapped here—oh, and there was also that fellow sitting on the steps with a sword in his arms, muttering incomprehensibly all day long.

After the bitter battle earlier, Fang Zheng had believed he had learned the skills needed to survive in this world. Full of confidence, he followed the Fire Keeper's guidance and used the bonfire to teleport to the walls of Lothric, ready to begin his next adventure. At first, the monsters on the walls truly posed no threat to him. Even the undead wielding huge axes were easily parried by Fang Zheng before being dispatched with a single thrust.

This made Fang Zheng's confidence swell to unprecedented heights... Well, that was not quite right, but at the very least, he felt that he had grasped the essence of combat.

Until he encountered someone called a Lothric Knight.

This fellow, like the Knight Fang Zheng had seen before, was dressed in a respectable manner but completely impossible to communicate with. The instant he saw Fang Zheng, the Knight roared and charged at him.

Fang Zheng was no longer as surprised as before. He had noticed that, aside from the people at Firelink Shrine, everyone he encountered outside seemed to be a mindless beast that knew only how to fight. The moment they saw him, they attacked without a word. So Fang Zheng decisively stepped forward, raising his shield and preparing to parry and execute another opponent.

But what Fang Zheng had not expected was that after charging over, the Lothric Knight simply raised his shield and slammed it into him, knocking him senseless. Before Fang Zheng could recover, he saw the enemy raise his weapon and bring it down... With a swish, the world went quiet.

Fang Zheng finally realized that when it came to cold weapons, he really was still a novice.

Previously, he had been able to defeat Stone by relying on Royal Cross Swordsmanship and the special effect of Shattering the Void. Although Stone had afterward pointed out that Fang Zheng's weakness lay in his shallow understanding of swordsmanship itself, Fang Zheng had not taken it too seriously. In his view, he had not even used all his combat skills. For example, if he had made himself invincible at the start, charged at Stone, and unleashed a Holy Storm, Stone probably would have died even more miserably...

Not to mention that even if he encountered a powerful enemy in the future, could he not just use a Soul Stone if he could not win?

But now, in this world, Fang Zheng understood for the first time just how powerless he was.

Without the Soul Stone's enhancements and unable to use Paladin skills, he was actually this weak!

Since arriving at this high wall, how many times had he died already?

Sitting before the bonfire, Fang Zheng frowned deeply. If he had once possessed enough confidence in his own strength, then his experiences in this world had finally shown him just how inadequate his true power was. Thinking carefully, in his first battle after being reborn into this world, he had escaped death only by relying on the Soul Stone's power. In the Dark World, he had also relied on the Soul Stone to kill Maghda. Those were things the system had given him, but they were not entirely his own power. They were merely cheats bestowed upon him by the system.

Had he already begun to lose his way?

If Fang Zheng had initially come here merely intending to train, then now he began seriously reflecting on whether his earlier way of thinking had been correct. Did he need to rely on the system's help for his entire life? The system could certainly provide him with considerable support, but if he did not grow stronger himself, then what was the point?

"I was still too careless..."

Shaking his head inwardly, Fang Zheng rose to his feet with a bitter smile. Before his rebirth, he had not been a warrior. Although he had received some training, Fang Zheng had never experienced the bloodshed of a battlefield. Thus, he was not very familiar with face-to-face combat itself. Originally, Fang Zheng had not considered that a problem, but now, he had discovered exactly what he lacked.

Perhaps this was why the system had chosen this world for him.

With that thought, Fang Zheng tightened his grip on his longsword, rose, and walked to the edge of the platform. He gazed down at the city below, now reduced to ruins. Amid the howling wind, gloomy, hoarse growls and heavy footsteps echoed everywhere. Those monsters, like walking corpses, still wandered through the city, brandishing their weapons as they tried to kill every living thing they saw.

Fang Zheng did not know who they had once been, what they had done, or what they had fought for. But now, there was one thing he understood more clearly than ever.

Anything standing in his way was his enemy.

With that thought, Fang Zheng gripped his longsword tightly and strode down the stairs.