Cleared!

The human brain naturally has a desensitization mechanism.

As long as a horror game was reasonably well-made, most players would feel afraid when they first started playing it.

That fear mostly came from the unknown.

But some mediocre horror games liked to stick to one trick as playtime went on, such as repeatedly using jump scares.

Put simply, they had run out of ideas.

At first, sudden sounds and visuals could still make players' hearts race.

But when the same stimuli were repeated too many times, the brain adapted, and all that remained for players was numbness. Take The Callisto Protocol, for example. Hardly anyone was still scared by jump scares by the later stages.

Was Resident Evil 7 that kind of creatively bankrupt game?

It really was not. Although its horror atmosphere was more or less diluted later on, its scare tactics as a whole ranked among the very best.

But the problem was... Lu Xiu had played the game three times, and she had created this instance herself. She had indeed been afraid at the beginning.

But she had not been afraid of the instance itself. She had been afraid of the combat sections—afraid of fighting.

After all... there was stabbing through the palm, catching blades barehanded, and getting a hand cut off.

Forget playing it. It hurt just watching.

Combined with her sense of identity, and the ingrained belief that the body she currently inhabited was unfit for combat... that was why she had been afraid.

But fear was fear. Lu Xiu's fighting spirit had been awakened, and she had ultimately taken that step.

And humanity's tolerance for pain had not disappointed her.

Lu Xiu did not know when her fear had vanished... Maybe it was when she shot Mia down with a handgun. Maybe it was when she sat expressionlessly at the dinner table watching the performance. Or perhaps it had been when she circled around the garage with her father-in-law.

In any case, by the time Lu Xiu realized it, she was no longer afraid—combat included.

She knew the game's scare patterns inside and out, understood the monsters' mechanics, and knew how to deal with them.

Once combat was no longer a problem, once even losing a hand could be endured, there was nothing left for her to fear.

She no longer even felt there was any real danger. She treated it as nothing more than a game...

Of course, that might have had something to do with Lu Xiu knowing the entire instance's progression.

If those memories had been stripped away, it probably would still have been agonizing... because there would have been no way to predict what would happen next.

In short.

After Lu Xiu finished the first chapter, she completely let herself go... Even when she later watched her father-in-law shovel off that policeman's head, her expression did not change. And while circling around the garage with him, she calmly searched for the key. When she drove into him, her hands did not shake in the slightest.

And when her father-in-law tore off the car roof and taught her to drive hand in hand, like a cat playing with a mouse—

Out of confidence in her driving skills from her previous life... she even drifted, not caring whether it would affect the instance's progression.

"Let go of me! Verstappen isn't even qualified to teach me how to drive!"

There were more weapons later on.

She became even more uninhibited. When her mother-in-law, who no longer looked human, suddenly lunged at her, Lu Xiu still dared to try switching weapons from her inventory—the flamethrower, shotgun, handgun... She even wanted to recreate the feeling of playing with a keyboard.

Because her mother-in-law's mechanic was that after taking a certain amount of damage, she would prioritize turning toward the nearest "hole."

It was not a bug. It really was a mechanic.

The players here did not know that mechanic, but Lu Xiu did.

She used it to deal a little damage, then began manipulating her mother-in-law's movements, switching weapons as she chased after the BOSS and attacked it. She even had time to mock her mother-in-law's appearance.

"You're ugly as hell."

Her brother-in-law's playground was even more of a leisurely stroll.

Traps? Passwords? She ignored them all! As for monsters, she killed every last one!

During the only boring candle-lighting game where she could not fight, Lu Xiu even held the candle and directly threatened the BOSS. "What kind of garbage gameplay is this? Just you wait! I'll shove this candle up your ass!"

In short.

Lu Xiu played like a god of war afterward...

Her speed at pushing through the plot in person was not much slower than playing the game.

In less than four and a half hours, she was already standing before the final BOSS.

Before the final BOSS could even finish its lines, she lunged forward and injected the necrotoxin into its neck...

But it was not over yet.

Because the necrotoxin needed ten minutes to fully kill the final BOSS, after its body collapsed, it immediately fused with the vast amount of mycelium in the house and transformed into a gigantic monster.

...And incidentally flung Lu Xiu away.

Lu Xiu had not even seen what happened.

The next second—

Her vision spun.

Her back slammed heavily into the muddy ground.

Gritting through the pain, Lu Xiu propped herself up for a look, then could not be bothered to stand. She simply lay there and switched weapons, shooting at the final BOSS.

Because there were several hits here that had to be taken, just as Mia was guaranteed to pursue the player. They were all part of the game's progression.

To put it more plainly—

Once players reached this point, as long as they could still pull out a gun, they absolutely would not die. This combat segment existed mainly to give players greater immersion, to create a sense of desperate urgency.

At this point, none of the guns in the player's inventory could kill the final BOSS. They had to wait for Chris's team to drop the handgun called "Albert."

As the instance's creator, Lu Xiu naturally knew that very well.

So she could not be bothered to get up. Lying down and firing a few symbolic shots was enough.

Before her, the entire house seemed to have come alive.

Countless grayish-white strands of mycelium twisted, swelled, and intertwined. Like rotten tree roots, and like enormous blood vessels, they spread from the house and formed a grotesque structure.

At the center of that grotesque structure was the final BOSS's embedded face.

The entire farmstead was shaking.

Lu Xiu had not fired many shots before a massive mycelial tentacle smashed into the ground, wrapped around her left leg, and hoisted her into the air.

"I just wanted a family—!"

The final BOSS's voice was deafening.

Then, with a swing of the mycelial tentacle, it threw Lu Xiu back to the ground again, leaving her dazed and battered.

"Yeah, yeah, sure."

Lu Xiu lay on the ground, looking at the gray sky and breathing lightly as she replied in a completely defeated tone.

Perhaps her defeated tone enraged the BOSS, because a massive mycelial tentacle suddenly swept in from the side.

The muddy ground exploded.

Lu Xiu was sent flying again, rolling several meters away.

"Hiss..."

Lu Xiu grimaced. "I don't remember adding this when I constructed the instance!"

She knew she would not die, but the pain had not been discounted in the slightest.

She braced herself against the ground and sat up.

In the distance—

The gigantic monster was still writhing madly, its mycelium churning like ocean waves.

The entire estate had practically turned into one enormous biological mass.

"The show's about over."

Lu Xiu panted and looked up at the sky.

In the sky—

The shadow of a helicopter swept through the clouds, and then a weapons crate was dropped... It crashed into the mud, rolled several times, and came to a stop beside Lu Xiu's right hand.

At the same time, the weapon inside fell out.

It was the plot weapon.

At the same moment, the watch on Lu Xiu's wrist lit up... Someone from Chris's team prompted her to use the plot weapon to finish the BOSS.

Here it came!

Lu Xiu shifted over and picked up the plot weapon, "Albert," then slowly rose to her feet.

She pulled the bolt.

Loaded it.

With a click—

Lu Xiu aimed at the overwhelmingly imposing final BOSS in the distance.

Massive mycelial tentacles danced through the air.

The final BOSS roared again.

At that moment—

All the pent-up frustration in Lu Xiu's heart suddenly surged up.

More than four hours.

Losing a hand.

Being chased.

Solving puzzles.

Running all over the map.

All sorts of random nonsense!

What kind of stupid rule made the instance creator go in first when creating an instance?!

Furious, Lu Xiu pulled the trigger.

Bang—

The thunderous gunshot rang across the farmstead. The bullet streaked out in a white trail and struck the monster's core dead-on.

The mycelial monster shuddered violently and let out a pained roar.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Lu Xiu kept pulling the trigger, firing as though venting her rage. Every bullet struck the BOSS's enormous face with perfect accuracy.

And when the final bullet hit the final BOSS—

The final BOSS could finally no longer hold on. It violently thrashed, rearing its mycelium-made body high into the air in one last desperate struggle before crashing down onto the ground.

Immediately afterward, the mycelium forming its body began to calcify at rapid speed.

Starting from the middle, it turned white.

Cracked.

Disintegrated.

Until the entire enormous structure collapsed into countless grayish-white fragments that fell like lime.

Dust filled the air.

But Lu Xiu continued pulling the trigger without stopping, firing and cursing at the same time.

"Trying to scare me, huh?!"

"Chasing me, huh?!"

"Cutting off my hand, huh?!"

Click, click, click.

The hammer kept snapping after the bullets had run out.

Until—

The sound of the helicopter appeared overhead. Members of Chris's team descended from the helicopter and brought Lu Xiu aboard.

The instance was truly, completely over.

Only then did Lu Xiu realize... she had cleared the instance.

By then, the ending cutscene had already begun to play.

The system's voice followed.

[Dear Constructor, you have cleared the instance you constructed. Congratulations!]

[The system is generating your clear evaluation—]

[Evaluation: You are a crybaby coward, but also a demon who enjoys provoking BOSSES for fun. The changes you underwent in the instance made people take notice. You are timid, weak, and prone to tears, but you are also cold-blooded, violent, and like a lunatic.

At the very beginning of the story, you panicked when faced with your crazed wife. You retreated again and again, fled for your life in disarray again and again. Like every ordinary person, you stumbled forward through fear. You even cried along the way.

But once you crossed that fear, you began to become terrifying.

You began to take control of the situation.

You even stopped before monsters and critiqued them.

You mocked their appearances.

You threatened their existence.

You began to enjoy combat.

Very soon.

Within the instance.

Traps lost their effectiveness.

Puzzles lost their meaning.

Monsters lost their threat.

Like a seasoned hunter, you began to come and go through this cursed farmstead.

In the end, you stood at the end of the story.

Facing a monster that almost covered the entire estate, you felt no fear.

You could not even be bothered to stand up.

...You've got nerve!]

[Evaluation Summary:]

[At first, you were like an ordinary person who had stumbled into hell.]

[But after you adapted to hell—]

[You began making hell adapt to you.]

[Your growth! Is plain for all to see!]

After a brief pause.

A new notification appeared.

[Dungeon Completion: 100%]

[Overall Clearance Rating: SSS]

[Please view the settlement page for related rewards.]

[Automatic teleportation in 60 seconds.]

Lu Xiu stared at the system notifications before her. After freezing for a moment, she immediately blew up. "Who are you calling a coward?! Who are you calling a crybaby?! Who are you calling a lunatic?! You dare call me—"

She began wildly throwing punches, muttering curses nonstop.

The brief sixty seconds quietly slipped away amid her tirade.

The countdown reached zero.

Before Lu Xiu could react, she was teleported out of the dungeon.