This is Simply a Nightmare!

What the hell kind of world is this?

After being killed for the umpteenth time, Fang Zheng sat by the bonfire, utterly speechless.

By now, he had fully felt the deep malice this world held for him.

At first, Fang Zheng thought this seemed like a fairly ordinary world, but he no longer believed that. If getting killed by that knight the first time could be chalked up to carelessness, then the next few times—even though Fang Zheng had prepared thoroughly—he was still ruthlessly ground into the dirt by his opponent. But those efforts weren't wasted. After several attempts, Fang Zheng discovered that the "parry" he'd previously dismissed as useless was surprisingly effective. Once he mastered the technique, he successfully blocked and deflected the knight's attack, then seized the opportunity to thrust his sword into the opponent's chest.

Fang Zheng thought it was all over, but before he could pull his sword out, he saw a pitch-black, eerie liquid suddenly emerge from behind the knight, twisting and condensing into a massive snake-headed monster, which lunged at him with its jaws wide open.

At that moment, Fang Zheng's spirit was shattered.

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

Then, he figured it was a normal world with formidable combat prowess.

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

Was he really supposed to rely on slashing and stabbing with a blade to fight these huge, inhuman things?

This world was too hopeless!!

Even the Dark World had monsters, but at least they had skills to protect themselves!

Here, all I can do is roll, block, and slash? No skills, no magic, no divine artifacts, and not even any teammates?

My mindset just exploded, okay!

This was a complete nightmare!

Luckily, Fang Zheng remembered that he came to this world specifically to train his swordsmanship and awareness; otherwise, he'd probably choose to kill himself. Surviving in a world like this took more than just a strong heart.

Fortunately, in this gloomy world, there was also a small sanctuary. After painstakingly defeating that knight, Fang Zheng passed through a gate and entered a place called Firelink Shrine. There, he met a young girl wearing a blindfold—she called herself the Fire Keeper. From the Fire Keeper, Fang Zheng learned about the situation in this world.

In the beginning, this world was nothing but chaos. Then one day, a flame called the First Flame was born. People found the Lord Souls beside the First Flame and used the power of fire to defeat the Ancient Dragons. After that, the Age of Fire began, and humanity built a glorious civilization. But fire must eventually fade. To keep the flame burning, heroes with immense power offered themselves as kindling to sustain it.

Now, everything had reached its end.

The inherited flame had gone out. The bells tolled, 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 talking 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 ashes remained. What he had to do was find enough fuel to relight that bonfire... otherwise, everything would be doomed.

What a hopeless world.

Still, at least there was a soft-spoken girl like the Fire Keeper to soothe Fang Zheng's battered spirit—much better than that burly blacksmith or the Old Hag. Compared to her, those two were like undead trapped here—oh, and that guy sitting on the steps hugging a sword, muttering to himself all day about who knows what.

After that brutal fight, Fang Zheng thought he'd grasped how to survive in this world. So, brimming with confidence, he followed the Fire Keeper's guidance and teleported via bonfire to the walls of Lothric, ready to start his next adventure. At first, the monsters on the walls didn't pose much of a threat. Even those undead wielding giant axes were easily parried and executed with a single sword stroke by Fang Zheng.

This made Fang Zheng's confidence swell to unprecedented heights... well, that's not quite right, but at least he felt he'd mastered the essence of combat.

Until he ran into a guy called a Lothric Knight.

This guy was just like the knight Fang Zheng had met before—dressed up all fancy, but completely impossible to communicate with. The moment he saw Fang Zheng, the knight roared and charged straight at him.

Fang Zheng wasn't as shocked this time. He'd already realized that, aside from the few people in Firelink Shrine, everyone he met outside seemed to be mindless beasts driven only to fight, attacking him without a word. So Fang Zheng decisively stepped forward, raised his shield, and prepared to parry and execute again.

But what he didn't expect was that the Lothric Knight rushed over, raised his shield, and slammed it right into Fang Zheng, stunning him. Before Fang Zheng could recover, he saw the knight swing his sword... shing—the world went quiet.

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

He'd managed to defeat Stone earlier by relying on the special effects of Royal Cross Swordsmanship and air-splitting strikes. Although Stone had pointed out afterward that Fang Zheng's weakness was his shallow understanding of swordsmanship itself, Fang Zheng hadn't taken it too seriously. In his mind, he hadn't even used all his combat skills—for instance, if he'd cast invincibility on himself at the start and charged Stone with a Holy Storm, the guy probably would've died even faster...

Not to mention, even if he ran into a tough opponent later, he still had the Soul Stone, right?

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

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

From the moment he arrived at this high wall until now, how many times had he died?

Sitting by the bonfire, Fang Zheng frowned deeply. If he'd been confident in his abilities before, this encounter in this world had made him clearly see how pathetic his true strength was. Thinking back, in his first battle after being reborn into this world, he'd only survived thanks to the Soul Stone's power. And in the Dark World, he'd killed Maghda with the Soul Stone too—all of this came from the system. But these weren't truly his own strength; they were crutches the system had given him.

Had he been losing his way?

If at first Fang Zheng had only come here with the attitude of training, now he was seriously reflecting on whether his earlier thinking was correct. Did he need to rely on the system's help for his whole life? Sure, the system could give him plenty of support, but if he didn't become stronger himself, what was the point?

"I was too careless..."

Shaking his head inwardly, Fang Zheng stood up with a bitter smile. Before his rebirth, he hadn't been a warrior. Though he'd received some training, he'd never experienced the blood-soaked battlefield. So he wasn't very familiar with face-to-face combat. Originally, Fang Zheng didn't think this was a problem, but now he realized exactly what he was lacking.

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

With that thought, Fang Zheng gripped his longsword again, stood up, and walked to the edge of the platform, gazing down at the ruined city below. Amid the howling wind, he could hear low, hoarse growls and heavy footsteps. Those zombie-like monsters were still roaming the city, brandishing their weapons, trying to kill every living thing they saw.

Fang Zheng didn't know what these creatures had once been, what they'd done, or why they fought. But now, only one thing was crystal clear to him.

Anything standing in his way was his enemy.

With that in mind, Fang Zheng tightened his grip on his sword and strode down the stairs.