Phantasmal Erosion

"Brother Hat. Dead. He's dead?"

Ink Dye Sword Xiao quickly withdrew her hand as if startled, like a fawn. Blood flowed from the features of Forgiveness Hat beside her, and he collapsed to the ground with a thud.

She hadn't even noticed who had killed Forgiveness Hat!

Before they had even entered this small town, everything about it exuded an eerie aura.

Wang Qian, at the opportune moment, feigned surprise: "Your companion was attacked! This kind of death with blood gushing from all seven orifices is like what the village elders say about ghosts claiming lives. Wu Jie. Quick! Come back into town with me, to the mayor's house!"

Xiao Xiao was pulled along by Wang Qian's large hand and walked inside.

"My Lord! Our Lord is still outside!"

Wang Wan, carrying his hunting rifle, walked out of the town: "You go back with my brother first, I'll go find Little Feng!"

"Alright. Be careful. It's okay if Brother Hat is dead, but our Lord cannot die!"

Xiao Xiao was pulled from the sunlit open space into the shadows of the small town.

It was like suddenly stepping into a graveyard at midnight—gloomy and silent.

Along the way, Xiao Xiao saw the elderly and women in the town busy with their own affairs, and no one spoke.

Xiao Xiao's mind was still trying to process what had happened. Wang Qian, who was in front, pulled her directly towards the only two-story building in the center of town.

He mumbled, "It'll be fine once we get to the mayor's place. He'll definitely have a solution. Humans from the surrounding settlements always come to Salt Well Town for help. It's the safest place for us to trade supplies."

"Supplies!"

Xiao Xiao suddenly stopped as if she had remembered something, then broke free from Wang Qian's hand.

"You said trade supplies!?"

Wang Qian replied, "Yeah, Salt Well Town is the largest civilian trading hub in Four Mountains. It's because the mayor is very fair, and no violence occurs here. He can always resolve problems. Even if a horde of Raiders comes, the mayor can suppress them with a flip of his hand."

Ink Dye Sword Xiao listened to Wang Qian's normal words, but felt an extremely jarring disconnect.

She muttered to herself, "Supplies... we came to this town to trade supplies... because we couldn't understand the language of the people in this world, we always followed behind our Lord... when did that start to change?"

After the Lord left!

Suddenly, she could understand what these two people were saying!

"Could it be..."

Xiao Xiao kicked Wang Qian, making him stumble.

Wang Qian angrily retorted, "What are you doing?!"

Xiao Xiao's eyes instantly filled with terror.

"You don't have HP! You're not... alive!"

As soon as she uttered these words, the small town suddenly fell silent. Everyone in the town rotated their necks to an unbelievable angle, staring at Xiao Xiao.

Xiao Xiao, terrified, stumbled back two steps and bumped into someone.

She turned her head to see Wang Wan, who had gone to chase after their Lord, standing behind her at some point.

He said, word by word, "What did you... say..."

As he spoke, blood flowed from the corners of his mouth, and the skin on his head cracked open, revealing a patch of raw, red flesh, looking as if he had been shot in the head with a shotgun.

The smell of blood that had permeated the town upon their entry suddenly intensified.

The townspeople stiffly stood up, their bodies incomplete, as if the corpses from a recently massacred town had come back to life.

Wang Qian suddenly grabbed Xiao Xiao's hand, his head drooping 180 degrees from his neck: "The mayor... wants to see you."

"Ahhhhh! A ghost!!!"

"I'm not playing anymore!"

Xiao Xiao immediately logged off, her body going limp as she lay in Salt Well Town.

Only the information on her smartwatch continued to scroll.

[You have been affected by Phantasmal Erosion, HP is continuously decreasing, HP-1]

[You have been affected by Phantasmal Erosion, HP is continuously decreasing, HP-1]

[You have been]

"Ahhhhh! So scary!"

Li Moxiao suddenly sat up from her bed, ripping off her helmet, the terrifying small town from the game still replaying in her mind.

Only after seeing her familiar bedroom did she breathe a sigh of relief.

She checked the time; it was 10 PM.

She had only played for 4 hours today, and there was still plenty of time before the 12-hour game limit.

Xiao Xiao turned up the lights in her room to the brightest setting and scrolled through her Bilibili backend for a while on her phone, muting a few netizens who were urging her to update. Only then did she feel a little better.

Then, she began to review what had just happened.

"This 'Apocalypse OL' doesn't seem to be just a simple grinding MMORPG; it also has certain horror elements. The small town just now was clearly a horror instance, and we entered it unknowingly, triggering a horror plot. I was startled."

"And the Lord himself... leaving the instance for others to enter is precisely to separate himself from players, preventing us from encroaching on his safe zone. Otherwise, what's the difference between this and a horror movie where you know who the protagonist is? Just follow the protagonist to clear the stage."

After calming down, Xiao Xiao began to counsel herself:

"Those terrifying scenes are just to enhance the atmosphere. I don't need to be afraid. At most, I'll die and then revive. It's all fake! Completely fake!"

"I can handle this!"

Five minutes later.

Xiao Xiao pouted, "But that person's neck fell off... it was really scary. Forget it, forget it. My character is probably dead already. I'll revive tomorrow when I log back in and reward myself with a beauty sleep."

Forgiveness Hat looked at Xiao Xiao beside him, blood seeping from all seven orifices as she slumped to the ground. He frowned slightly.

"Xiao Xiao? Xiao Xiao?"

He touched Xiao Xiao's hand. It was already ice cold. She was thoroughly dead.

Wang Qian, at the opportune moment, feigned surprise: "Your companion has been attacked! This kind of death with blood flowing from all seven orifices is like what the old folks in the village say about ghosts claiming souls. Could it be Wu Jie... Quick! Come back to the town with me, to the mayor's house!"

Wang Qian grabbed Forgiveness Hat's large hand, intending to drag him back into town.

Wang Wan, however, strode out of town with his hunting rifle slung over his shoulder. "You go back with my brother first. I'll go find Little Feng!"

"Let's go! Stop standing there like an idiot! The ghosts will be attacking us soon!" Wang Qian roared, unable to pull Forgiveness Hat along.

Forgiveness Hat looked up at the sunlight, then at the town in the shadows a few steps away, and shook his head.

"I can't go any further, or I'll enter your domain."

Wang Qian was startled for a moment, then feigned confusion: "Our domain? What are you talking about? It's safe if you come inside with me. The mayor will protect us!"

"Stop acting."

Forgiveness Hat took a few steps outward, gazing at the sun in the sky and feeling a warmth. He paced back and forth a few times.

"If I'm not mistaken, your attacks began after our Lord left, right?"

Wang Qian's expression changed drastically.

Forgiveness Hat continued:

"Don't underestimate me just because I'm a delivery person. Observing people is our basic skill. Clearly understanding what our employer wants is our most important skill. You might not know how I got my name. I'm a top-tier delivery specialist in my city, handling the most emotional orders. For the same order, I can tell whether the employer is angry or secretly pleased when they see their partner cheating, just from a few words. Of course, you probably wouldn't understand, you're just a small monster in a game."

Wang Qian had stopped by this point, his expression shifting between anger and uncertainty as he looked at the eloquently speaking Forgiveness Hat.

"So, when you communicated with the Lord in your local dialect and then naturally switched to Chinese when speaking to us, I realized... something was off. Then I started thinking if we had entered a hallucinatory domain. When Xiao Xiao suddenly died beside me, I knew... it had to be."

"Because she's still alive; you've already tricked her into the town. And you, little ghost, stop pretending. Come out."

Forgiveness Hat pointed at his smartwatch. It showed Xiao Xiao's red dot had just moved into the town.

Wang Wan, who had already left, suddenly reappeared next to Wang Qian, his expression grim. "Although I don't understand much of what you're saying, you are a clever human."

Forgiveness Hat chuckled. "Your flaws were too obvious, and you were too eager to trick us into the town. I suspect... the killing trap is inside. You can't make a move under the sunlight; only by entering the town in the shadows can you do as you please."

"And now, I am in the safe zone."

He picked up his mace and pointed it at the two of them: "Little ghosts! Dare you come into the sunlight to fight me!"

At this moment, bathed in the golden sunlight, Forgiveness Hat radiated the brilliance of a powerful warrior, like a god of war.

That's right!

Cheng Shaofeng had known Forgiveness Hat before summoning him!

In reality, he was the top delivery guy; there was no order he couldn't complete!

He was also a seasoned gamer, adept at discovering hidden details in games. He could even find a differently placed stone and uncover the path to a hidden instance.

In the forums, he was known as: Fiery Eyes Green Hat Man!

At this moment, a woman's heart-wrenching roar echoed from within the town.

Instantly, dark clouds gathered, and shadows engulfed the sunlight on Forgiveness Hat.

Gusts of chilling wind swept in.

Wang Qian's head dropped below his neck, Wang Wan's face split open, and they began to shamble stiffly toward Forgiveness Hat.

"The mayor... wishes to see you."

Forgiveness Hat was shocked!

"Holy crap!? They can change the weather? This instance is way too overpowered!"

"I'm only level 1!"

"Lord! Save me!"

Forgiveness Hat turned and ran towards Cheng Shaofeng's direction.

His deduction was wrong!

The sunlight wasn't the safe zone; the area around the Lord was!

At this moment, his smartwatch sent an injury notification.

[You are suffering from Phantasmal Erosion, HP is continuously decreasing, HP-1]

[You are suffering from Phantasmal Erosion, HP is continuously decreasing, HP-1]

[You have been hit by]

PS: Tomorrow is Tuesday, and we're scheduled for a recommendation. Your continued reading is very important, so please keep up with it for now and feel free to take a break the day after tomorrow.

Daily 5k words~ There will be a late-night update.

I'm humbly asking for guaranteed monthly votes for next month. While the current updates are indeed infrequent, I am saving manuscripts, and once the book is on shelves, I will provide 10,000 words of updates daily.