Horror Castle (1)

Horror Castle (1)

The Demon King, an existence feared by mortals, a destroyer and reformer of the current order—the literal big bad villain boss.

It sounded incredibly badass, but it was completely different from what Pei Renli had imagined!

He had somehow been transported to another world, then somehow become a newly appointed Demon King. Given some time, Pei Renli could probably accept these fantastical events. At the very least, he had not blacked out and woken up in a carriage traveling through snowy mountains, with someone gagged beside him...

--His definition of good fortune seemed to be getting lower and lower.

But this Demon King of his was practically a commander without an army. Then, out of nowhere, he discovered that Demon Kings actually faced fierce competition among themselves. From the details in what the host had said earlier, one could even conclude that "there are factions among Demon Kings."

This was like squid on an iron griddle—everyone was curling up under the heat.

Reality did not need logic. No matter how absurd something was, it could happen. Who could have imagined that even after being transported to another world, he would still have to deal with this kind of rat race...

But no matter how many what the fucks Pei Renli was holding back, he had no ability to change the situation. At least, not yet.

The light surrounding him had appeared abruptly, but it vanished just as quickly. It lasted less than a few seconds. When he felt the brightness against his eyelids dim and opened his eyes, he found that he had changed locations yet again.

The first thing he saw was an ancient brick wall. Pei Renli had appeared in a "facing-the-wall" position, with only about ten centimeters between his nose and the wall. Any closer, and he would have slammed his head into it.

Blinking his eyes, still dazzled by the strong light, Pei Renli was about to turn his head when his vision went dark again. A black screen, much like the one from the Demon King System that had covered most of his sight before, appeared before his eyes.

Only this time, it no longer displayed Pei Renli's name and a massive hourglass. In their place was a line of text.

"Survive Horror Castle. Any means are permitted."

The line did not disappear immediately. It was as though it waited until it had confirmed that Pei Renli had finished reading before vanishing along with the black screen obscuring his vision. His sight returned to normal.

Pei Renli was panicking hard.

What the hell? Why was it suddenly about surviving?

Before, things had merely moved too quickly for him to keep up, leaving him confused. Now, it had escalated straight into a matter of life and death.

As a child who had grown up safely and healthily in a normal civilized society, Pei Renli had worried that doing poorly on an exam would earn him a double beating when he got home. He had worried that school breaks were too short to let him enjoy his games properly. But he had never really worried about his personal safety.

After all, public safety in his country ranked among the best on Earth. Besides, he was still young. Why would he worry about something like that? If he had that kind of spare time, he might as well play games.

As they said, life was a book constantly filled with surprises, except there was always more shock than delight...

But neither complaining nor panicking could actually solve anything. Pei Renli had no choice but to take a deep breath through his muddled thoughts and force himself to calm down.

First, he needed to sort out the situation.

Setting aside all the questions that could not be answered for now, Pei Renli believed that he had been transported into a world with magic.

That much could be inferred both from what Lavna had said and from Pei Renli's own experiences.

And magic...

Sorry, but aside from games, the only thing Pei Renli knew about it was Harry Potter. Besides, what counted as common knowledge on Earth was fantasy to begin with. Whether any of it applied to another world was still a huge question mark.

This was a completely unknown field to him. He absolutely had to be extra careful.

Second, he knew that the place he was currently in was called Horror Castle. The Cthulhu-like minotaur calling himself the Elegant Demon King had specifically said that Horror Castle was highly dangerous. Even if its difficulty was "beginner," one still could not let down one's guard. His exact words had been that survival required not only courage, but also wit and luck.

When it came to wit, Pei Renli had some confidence. But as for luck...

He felt that lately, he had gone up and down, down, down, down, down. He just did not know whether some law of conservation of luck really existed, allowing him to bounce back after hitting rock bottom.

Finally, the Demon King System's prompt had added the phrase "any means are permitted" at the end. That had probably not been added casually.

The host had previously mentioned that there were six hundred new Demon Kings, and everyone entering Horror Castle was a newcomer. Judging others by himself, those six hundred might all be unlucky bastards like Pei Renli, but that was not certain. After all, some of the Demon Kings in the stands looked human, while others were so bizarre that even a forensic examiner who specialized in piecing corpses together would be unable to bear the sight.

If all these newcomers were as bewildered as Pei Renli, merely ordinary people in good health, then things would be manageable. But if they differed from him and already possessed some level of power that science could not explain...

Any means were permitted. In other words, betraying teammates was fine. Throwing everyone else you met out to take the hit was fine. And Pei Renli had only just arrived in this world. He had seen this so-called Demon King System less than ten minutes ago. To those people, he was premium-quality cannon fodder.

What was more, the Demon King System had just said, "Survive Horror Castle." Survive for how long? What were the conditions for clearing it? Or did the number of people need to be reduced to a certain level?

He knew none of that. Compared to a group of people who defied common sense, Pei Renli had no advantage whatsoever—not even an information advantage. The situation was overwhelmingly unfavorable to him.

--Agreeing earlier really had been too hasty.

That was the situation. Pei Renli quickly found his place in it.

Hide. Hide by every means possible. Unless necessary, avoid contact with anyone.

He did not know how horrifying Horror Castle truly was, nor did he know whether the people thrown in here with him meant well or ill. The only thing he knew for certain was that he was probably a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

After quickly organizing the current situation and his rough plan of action, Pei Renli finally had the presence of mind to inspect his surroundings.

This appeared to be a small room made of brick and stone, less than ten square meters in size. A milky-white ball of light floated in the center of the ceiling, about five meters overhead. It was probably some kind of magic and provided the bare minimum of illumination.

He was facing one wall. To his left was a crude wooden bed, so shabby that its mattress was nothing more than a pile of straw covered by a yellowed white sheet.

To his right stood a wardrobe, equally crude. It had not even been varnished, and splinters could be seen in many places. It was also very old and worn, its doors hanging crookedly as if they might fall off at any moment.

Right beside the wardrobe was a semicircular window sealed shut with palm-width wooden planks. Pei Renli walked over to inspect it. Through the gaps between the planks, he could see an iron-framed window outside. It too looked as though no one had maintained it for ages, covered in glaring rust.

But when he peered through the gaps beyond the window, all he could see was deep darkness. Nothing else was visible at all.

Turning around, Pei Renli carefully approached the wardrobe.

The Elegant Demon King had said that surviving required wit and luck more than courage. Luck was not something Pei Renli could control. All he could do was make the best of what he could do and try his hardest to stay alive.

So he was being as cautious as if he were dismantling a land mine. He yanked open the wardrobe's broken door, then leaped back. Afraid that something might suddenly slap him in the face, he waited for two seconds. When nothing happened, he finally approached.

There were no clothes inside the wardrobe. The first thing that met his eyes was a large cloud of stirred-up dust. Pei Renli waved a hand to avoid choking, then saw that there was a...

Short rod?

It was iron-gray, roughly thirty to forty centimeters long and two fingers thick. It gleamed beneath the overhead light and appeared to be metal.

He really did not want to touch something whose nature he did not understand. But considering that it was the only thing so far that could barely serve as a weapon, Pei Renli gritted his teeth and touched it quickly. Seeing no reaction, he picked it up.

The dust had made it hard to see before, but once he held it, he noticed a structure in the middle that seemed capable of rotating. He turned it clockwise. With a crisp clang, sections extended from both ends of the short rod. One end was relatively sharp and bright silver, while the other was blunt. It felt as though the rod had transformed into a spear slightly shorter than a lance. When he turned it the other way, it returned to its short rod form.

Having a weapon in hand gave him at least a little reassurance, but how useful could it really be...

He should not expect too much. After all, Pei Renli was no martial arts expert. How could he know how to use cold weapons?

Holding the short rod, Pei Renli turned around and saw a shabby wooden door opposite the boarded-up window. On one side of the door hung a portrait.

But the colors in the portrait had blended together as though they were melting. It might originally have depicted someone in formal wear, but now it looked more like the work of a shrieking ghost. At a glance, it was genuinely frightening.

He had already searched around the bed and found nothing but straw. Although Pei Renli instinctively did not want to get close to that somewhat scary oil painting, he had to admit that it was the only part of the room he had not examined yet.

Not daring to touch it directly, Pei Renli pressed the lower edge of the frame with the short rod and shoved hard. The oil painting was knocked free from the hook holding it to the wall, landing with its back facing upward.

Moving closer, he saw words written on the back of the frame: "Silver is deadly poison to all ghosts."

At first glance, it was a little hard to understand. But when he connected it to the bright silver section at the tip of the short spear...

This hint should be telling him that the weapon in his hand could deal with ghosts. Yet it also made Pei Renli realize that there really were ghosts here!

He had already been uneasy, and now he was beginning to panic again.

Just then, a burst of chaotic shouting faintly reached his ears. At first, it was indistinct and hard to make out, but it quickly grew closer and closer, seemingly coming from beyond the door.

Pei Renli knew his place in this situation very well, but no matter how he thought about it, hiding in this room of less than ten square meters was not a good choice. Its current safety might be something like an initial grace period, but that did not mean it would remain safe forever. Besides, the room was far too cramped. If something really happened, he would not even have room to run.

So when he heard movement outside the door, Pei Renli immediately decided that he had to—and could only—go outside to take a look.