Finally Found Her

However, the experience Zhao Heng had accumulated while tackling other instances still came in handy, keeping him from panicking.

He remembered something and immediately opened his system inventory, finding a flashlight.

Click.

The flashlight's beam dispelled the darkness.

Only then did Zhao Heng feel slightly more at ease, though he could not help cursing, "Fuck! What the hell is this?!"

Holding up the flashlight, he looked around the small room that seemed to be an entryway and finally found the entrance he had just come through. He twisted the doorknob hard, only to discover that it was locked. He could not get out...

"..."

Still unwilling to give up, Zhao Heng kicked the door several times, but it did not budge.

It seemed players were not allowed to return the way they had come.

Realizing that, Zhao Heng could only turn around and push open another door leading into the house. After his eyes briefly adjusted to the light, the sight beyond the door came into view. It was a very short hallway, with light filtering in through the cracks of a sealed-up window at the far end. At last, it was no longer completely dark.

This was clearly a house that had been abandoned for a long time. The wooden panels on both sides of the hallway had peeled away, the walls were covered in cracks, and the paintings hanging on them were so blurred that their contents could not be made out. The floor was littered with debris that had fallen from the walls. At the end of the hallway stood a battered cabinet, its doors secured with a chain.

If Lu Xiu had been the one entering this instance, he definitely would not have inspected the hallway, much less the cabinet at the end of it.

But Zhao Heng was not Lu Xiu. He checked every corner, even glancing at the paintings on the walls... This made him move extremely slowly. The creaking of the rotten wooden floorboards beneath his feet seemed magnified countless times in his ears.

The eerie environment, the hints lurking everywhere, the worry over what might happen inside the house...

Suddenly.

Something fell somewhere deep inside the house.

Zhao Heng jumped and quickly turned his head, listening intently.

But the sound did not come again.

Holding the flashlight, Zhao Heng stood uncertainly in place for a while before continuing down the hallway. After confirming that the cabinet at the end could not be opened, he turned his gaze to the right. That seemed to be a kitchen?

"..."

He hesitated for a moment, then walked over.

The moment he stepped inside, a stench hit him straight in the face.

If the forest outside had merely been dominated by the smell of rotting leaves, then this kitchen was filled with the heavy stench of highly fermented corpses and swill! No matter how strong Zhao Heng's nerves were, he could not help covering his mouth and nose again.

What the hell was wrong with this architect? Why make it so realistic?!

Covering his nose, Zhao Heng swept his gaze over the dining table in the center of the room.

Several plates were scattered messily across the table, each filled with clumps of long-spoiled leftovers covered in vast patches of green mold. Cockroaches crawled everywhere across the tabletop. There was also an iron pot with its lid on, and he had no idea what was inside.

Suppressing his nausea, Zhao Heng stepped forward and lifted the lid. A dense rustling instantly erupted, and countless thumb-sized cockroaches, startled by the disturbance, poured out of the pot like a tide. They scattered into the corners of the table and cracks in the floor, while some crawled onto his hand.

"Fuck!"

Zhao Heng's scalp went numb. He lurched backward and frantically shook his hand.

What the hell was wrong with this architect?!

After finally shaking off the cockroaches, Zhao Heng's scalp was still tingling as he hurried farther away from the dining table.

After all, humanity's disgust for cockroaches was practically carved into its DNA.

And once he recovered, he realized that he was standing beside the refrigerator.

Though he knew deep down that he should not open it, Zhao Heng was still curious.

He slowly reached out and pulled open the refrigerator door. There was no cold air—only a pool of thick, black sludge-like liquid flowing through the gap at the bottom and onto the tops of his shoes.

He had no idea what had been stuffed inside the refrigerator. It was full of viscous fluid that even stretched into strings as the door opened.

"What the fuck is this..."

Disgusted once more, Zhao Heng backed away and hurried out of the kitchen, which radiated the aura of hell.

Finally out of the kitchen, Zhao Heng saw the stairs leading to the second floor, but he did not rush up them. Instead, he leaned against the wall and gasped for breath. Even though the air here still reeked of mold, it was far better than that rotten, fermented stench from before.

Though he was a top-tier player, none of the instances he had encountered before had been this disgusting! This sort of setting, designed purely to torture people's nerves with its atmosphere and perverse details, made him feel physically ill.

Come to think of it.

Zhao Heng looked at the eerie house before him. The instance's plot... had him playing Ethan, searching for his own wife.

But the plot had not said where his wife was at all! What exactly was he supposed to do?!

He did not know how to look for her, nor did he have any idea what was inside this house.

"..."

As Zhao Heng thought about it, he belatedly realized that this instance offered pitifully few hints. It was completely unlike any existing instance system...

This made his expression turn ugly.

He stepped forward a few paces and pulled open the drawer of a nearby cabinet. Who knew what kind of creepy thing was inside.

But it proved that there were plenty of places in this house where things could be hidden.

"No! How the hell am I supposed to find it?!"

Zhao Heng swept his gaze over the gloomy, sinister house, and his expression darkened further.

At last, he was certain that this was an original instance.

Now only one question remained—how had this instance's architect cleared it with his memories stripped away?

He knew nothing.

All he knew was that he had come to find his wife.

Then, while searching, he had somehow ended up inside the house.

And even now, not a single enemy had appeared. There were only disgusting things everywhere!

Who the fuck designed an instance like this?!

At that moment, Zhao Heng somewhat regretted rashly entering the instance without any intelligence at all.

Though he regretted it a little, there was no way Zhao Heng would simply quit.

After all, he had his pride. So far, this instance only seemed disgusting, with a creepy atmosphere and no clear leads. There did not appear to be any real difficulty yet, so how could he possibly withdraw?

However.

Though Zhao Heng had mentally prepared himself, he truly had not expected this [Resident Evil] instance to actually dare to place not a single enemy in the early stages.

He had already been wandering through the house for half an hour without seeing a single enemy.

Normally, that would have been a good thing.

But Zhao Heng only grew more irritated the longer he played.

Because everything about this damn place felt wrong. Most of the time, the only sound was his own footsteps, but every now and then, sounds would suddenly emerge from nowhere, made by God knew what.

Either something was locked here, or something was locked there.

And every room contained all sorts of random junk: blurry photographs, newspapers, a television flickering with static, switches that would not turn on, and a piano whose lid closed by itself...

It was as though they were hinting at something.

Yet nothing was ever made clear.

There were no enemies.

The atmosphere was terrifying.

And with the irritation constantly building up inside him, it became even more torturous.

Zhao Heng grew increasingly agitated.

Even more absurdly, he was being forced to watch a video inside the instance.

A piercing crackle of static echoed through the empty living room.

Click.

Zhao Heng removed the videotape. Remembering what it had shown, he could not help rubbing at the goosebumps on his arms. The footage had been simple: some unlucky production crew had gone exploring in a haunted house... and the haunted house they visited was the very house Zhao Heng was currently in. In the end, every last one of them had been wiped out.

That matched the information from the van when he had first entered the instance.

It was Zhao Heng's first time encountering such an unofficial instance... Not only did it tie its beginning and end together, but this atmosphere, too...

Zhao Heng stared at the television for several seconds, feeling suffocated. Clearly no monsters had appeared, and it was not as though he had never seen death or corpses before.

Yet he still felt oppressed.

If he had known the entire game's progression, he would probably have understood that everything he encountered along the way, as well as the irritating elements inside the house, had all been setting the stage.

Those preparations were slowly exerting psychological pressure on him.

Unfortunately, he did not know that his experience clearing system instances was completely useless here.

"..."

Zhao Heng fell silent for several seconds. Though he was growing more and more uneasy, he still rose to his feet and slowly turned to look at the fireplace in the distance.

He walked over to the fireplace and felt around where the video had indicated. Before long, he found the hidden mechanism.

This was the clue the videotape had given him.

He pulled it down.

Click.

A mechanical sound rang out.

A hidden compartment not far away opened.

Zhao Heng bent down and crawled inside. A staircase leading to the dungeon lay within, and he carefully held onto the railing as he tried to descend.

But after only a few steps, crack... One of the stairs suddenly gave way. He reacted quickly and grabbed another step, but that one broke as well.

Bang.

Zhao Heng crashed down hard with a cry of pain. His flashlight flew from his hand, rolled twice across the floor, and went out.

The surroundings immediately plunged into darkness.

In an instant.

Zhao Heng forgot all about the pain. He lay prone on the ground, not daring to breathe too loudly.

In the darkness, he could hear his own heartbeat pounding, terrifyingly fast.

For the first time, he realized just how terrifying darkness could be.

After all the buildup, the videotape, and the psychological pressure he had been put under, he could almost instantly picture someone in the dark holding a knife and slowly approaching him.

At that thought.

He reached out in a panic and hurriedly felt around on the ground. He touched cold dirt, pebbles, and some kind of unknown slime.

Finally, he found the flashlight.

He pressed the switch.

Click.

The darkness was driven back.

Zhao Heng let out a long breath and slowly pushed himself to his feet. Then he looked at the damp dungeon around him... and felt utterly miserable.

Because in that instant just now.

It felt as though he had returned to four years ago, to when he had still been young and naive.

That overwhelming sense of fear was impossible to suppress.

He had not felt this way in a long time.

Zhao Heng could not help but curse, "An enemy! Give me a fucking enemy! What kind of shit is this, hiding all the time?!"

At that moment.

How badly he wanted an enemy he could see, fight, and vent his stress on.

Because this was simply too suffocating.

But unfortunately, the game was not going to cater to him.

Zhao Heng stood there for quite a while. When nothing happened, he could only take a deep breath and follow the faint light to explore the basement.

And the basement was even colder and gloomier than he had imagined.

The rough walls seemed to constantly seep moisture, while the floor was muddy.

Zhao Heng walked forward with his flashlight raised. When its beam swept across the ground, he realized that the passage ahead had already been flooded.

The water was deep, and its color was clearly wrong.

It was murky and blackish, with a greasy film floating on the surface. Under the flashlight's beam, he could vaguely see bits of unknown debris slowly drifting in the water.

"..."

Zhao Heng stood at the edge in silence for a second.

"Fine."

"You win!"

He took a deep breath and stepped directly into the water.

The water was cold.

And sticky. Who knew what lay beneath it? Every time the soles of his shoes came down, it felt like stepping into a pool of thick sludge. Once the water was stirred, an even stronger fishy stench immediately rose up.

Zhao Heng's expression twisted. He cursed as he waded forward, the flashlight's beam swaying across the water. The farther he went, the narrower the passage became. The ceiling ahead also dipped lower, and the water grew deeper until he had to bend over to get through.

The water rippled.

Soaked in the disgusting water, Zhao Heng barely kept his head above the surface as he struggled onward.

Everything around him was pitch-black, with only the flashlight beam wavering unsteadily.

After turning a corner.

He finally saw light ahead.

Zhao Heng's eyes lit up. Fighting back his nausea, he immediately sped up.

Closer, closer.

He was almost there.

Zhao Heng could not wait to get ashore. He swam faster and faster, but just as he was about to climb out, a bubble suddenly gurgled up from the previously still standing water ahead.

Right after that.

The next second.

Splash—

A pale, swollen, scar-covered human face suddenly rolled up out of the water. Its eyes stared blankly open, its entire face bloated and whitened from soaking, fixed dead on Zhao Heng.

In an instant.

Zhao Heng's mind went blank. His whole body jolted violently, and he jerked backward, plunging himself into the water and swallowing several mouthfuls.

Glug...

Splash—

"Fuck!!!!!"

Zhao Heng surfaced in a miserable state. Looking at the corpse before him, his scalp went numb; he felt both nauseated and terrified in hindsight.

"Fuck your grandfather!!!"

"Couldn't you fucking give me a warning first?!"

"You fucking designed the dungeon like this?!"

"To scare people like this?!"

"Fuck!!!"

He cursed as he swam forward with all his strength.

The corpse was gently carried by the current, swaying behind him.

Zhao Heng didn't dare look back again.

He swam forward as though fleeing for his life.

By the time he stepped onto dry ground, he was practically collapsing from exhaustion.

Standing on the dry floor, Zhao Heng braced his hands on his knees and panted a few breaths. Then he looked back and completely lost it:

"Fucking psycho dungeon!"

"Fucking psycho designer!"

"What the hell was the point of putting a corpse there?!"

"Fuck!!!"

He practically screamed the curse with every ounce of strength he had.

At that moment, he genuinely wanted to kill this dungeon's designer!

Really.

For the first time while clearing a dungeon, he felt intense killing intent toward someone who wasn't even inside it!!

What a fucking bastard!

Who the hell messed with people like this?!

Zhao Heng took a long while to recover. He wiped the cold sweat and water from his face, raised his flashlight, and continued onward.

The basement was quite large.

It was basically the same size as the house above.

But it was gloomy and damp, with countless corners. Zhao Heng was genuinely afraid that something else would jump out from around one of them, so he moved extremely slowly.

And the frequency of his furious cursing only grew higher.

Until—

He saw the small cell at the end. He saw the warm yellow light inside it. He saw the woman lying on the bed.

Zhao Heng stared at the woman in the cell for several seconds, then couldn't help letting out a long breath. "Fuck... finally found her!"

Finally!

He could leave this godforsaken place! Leave this shitty house!!!