Cowardice

Zhao Heng looked at the woman lying in the cell. At that moment, he stopped caring about clues and began shaking the cell door, wanting to get her out of this godforsaken place as quickly as possible.

He needed to get outside.

Not even a dog would stay in this godforsaken place!

But there was no way shaking it would open the cell door.

Zhao Heng scanned the area and quickly spotted a pair of bolt cutters lying nearby. He immediately ran over.

...He could hardly wait.

"Hey, hey, hey, wake up."

He cut through the chain locking the cell door.

Zhao Heng entered the cell and roughly shook the woman lying there—Mia, the wife of the character he was playing.

Mia woke up without trouble, but she seemed terrified by Ethan's arrival.

But Zhao Heng no longer had the patience to care about an NPC's expression. He merely brushed it off, saying that he would take her away.

Then, just like with Lu Xiu.

Zhao Heng began following Mia through the dark, terrifying dungeon. At last, they reached the exit Mia had mentioned.

But the exit had long since been sealed off. There was no door at all.

At the sight of this.

Mia suddenly lost control of her emotions...

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

Zhao Heng watched Mia become increasingly agitated, shouting that it was gone, it was gone. Feeling uneasy and confused, he asked, "Hey? Are you okay?"

But Mia ignored him. She walked straight to the sofa, lay down, and went still.

"Hey!"

Zhao Heng hurried over and shook her hard again.

But it was useless.

Mia showed no sign of waking up.

"Fuck! What kind of shitty instance is this?!"

Zhao Heng's eyes widened. He was genuinely panicking.

He was about to lose his mind!

He had never seen such a nasty instance before!

He had thought he'd figured out how it worked!! Next, he was supposed to take Mia and fight their way out!! Protect her as she escaped!! Then he could leave this godforsaken place too!!

But this fucking NPC!! She had actually lain down!!

Lain. Down!!!

What the hell was this?!

Zhao Heng's face turned green, then white. In the end, he glanced at the motionless NPC and could only explore the surrounding area first.

But the moment he entered another room, Mia's terrified scream rang out.

By the time Zhao Heng rushed back in a panic, Mia had already disappeared.

"!!!"

"Where the fuck did she go?! Where the fuck is she?! Are you screwing with me?! Fuck you!!"

When Zhao Heng came out and found her gone, he broke down again.

He had finally seen hope of getting out.

And now she was gone again!

After all, this was not a game. Games were terrifying enough; being physically trapped in such an oppressive atmosphere was even worse.

The constant psychological suggestion.

It truly placed immense psychological pressure on Zhao Heng.

Zhao Heng really wanted to get out!

But screaming and swearing in frustration would not bring Mia back.

He could only force himself to search for his wife again.

But even after searching every open room and cursing the entire way, he could not find Mia. With no other choice, he left the dungeon and headed upstairs.

And the moment he stepped out of the dungeon.

Zhao Heng realized that, at some point.

Night had fallen.

The sunlight that symbolized hope had vanished.

It had not only vanished, but rain had begun to fall outside the house.

Thunder rumbled.

The clamor of rain came from outside.

It made the already eerie abandoned cabin seem even more terrifying.

Suddenly.

From behind the previously locked door beneath the stairs leading to the second floor came a strange noise.

Zhao Heng stood in the gloomy corridor with a grim expression, listening to the rain beyond the pitch-black windows and staring at the door in the distance where the strange sounds were coming from. He felt utterly miserable.

What was it this time?!

He cursed endlessly inside. At some point, he had completely lost the composure he once possessed.

It was mainly the unknown.

Ever since Zhao Heng had become the star player of his guild, it had been a long time since he had explored a dungeon blind. Whenever he entered a dungeon, the guild would prepare detailed information for him.

He had forgotten what it felt like to tackle a dungeon alone without any prior knowledge, and it had been a long time since he had experienced this heart-pounding sensation.

And the Resident Evil dungeon was precisely good enough, atmospheric enough, and tormenting enough.

"Fuck!"

The rain continued to fall.

Zhao Heng stared at the door that kept making strange noises and listened to the distant rumble of thunder. After standing there for a long while, he finally made up his mind, stepped forward, and twisted open the door.

Click—

The lock turned.

Inside, a staircase stretched downward.

The flashlight could illuminate only the first few steps. Beyond that, everything seemed to be swallowed by darkness.

Rain lashed against the house outside, while thunder rolled across the sky.

The entire house was eerie beyond belief.

Zhao Heng's Adam's apple bobbed.

He gripped the flashlight tightly and cautiously took a step forward. The soft rustle of his footsteps traveled downward, followed by an echo.

Zhao Heng instinctively stopped. Only after confirming that nothing had happened did he cautiously continue down.

Pitch-black darkness.

He did not know how many steps there were; he only knew that the stairs kept descending.

The flashlight seemed to have a loose connection and began flickering.

Then he went farther down.

The rain and thunder became increasingly faint.

Apart from his footsteps, the only sound around him seemed to be his own breathing.

The psychological pressure of the environment made cold sweat bead on Zhao Heng's forehead.

And just as he was at his most nervous.

A sound suddenly came from below the stairs... the sound of something crawling.

Zhao Heng abruptly stopped.

Then.

He saw a pale hand suddenly emerge from the darkness and grip the edge of a step.

Zhao Heng's pupils contracted sharply.

Like some mindless beast, Mia crawled up the stairs on all fours.

Her movements were stiff and bizarre.

How could Zhao Heng's feelings at that moment be described?

Back in those days, when audiences first watched The Exorcist and saw that little girl crawling backward down the stairs in a posture no human should have been capable of.

...Heart stopping!

Zhao Heng's mind went blank.

Before he could react.

Mia suddenly raised her head. With a roar, she abruptly sped up, almost instantly rising to her feet and charging right up to Zhao Heng's face.

Her once pretty face now resembled that of a vicious demon.

Zhao Heng's body went completely rigid. He was so terrified that he did not dare move, and even his scream caught in his throat.

The next instant.

Mia grabbed him and, as though he weighed nothing at all, violently hurled him backward.

Bang—

Zhao Heng's feet left the ground, and then his entire body slammed viciously into the floor. His bones rattled, his organs churned, and searing pain instantly swept through his whole body.

He let out a hoarse groan... yet it still didn't feel real. He kept feeling as though he was having a nightmare—a nightmare he would never wake up from.

What the hell!

What the hell was this now?!

What was going on?!

How had it turned into this?!

Why was the monster his wife?!

What the hell?!

What kind of development was this?!

He roared inwardly as he struggled to slowly rise to his feet.

But the moment he stood up, he saw Mia standing before him, that face like a vicious ghost right within arm's reach.

"!!!!!"

Zhao Heng's eyes widened, and his breathing stopped.

Mia had already raised the dinner knife high and stabbed down at him.

"Ah—"

Zhao Heng's instincts as a top-tier player finally kicked in. At the critical moment, he raised his left hand in front of his face.

He blocked the knife, but his left hand was pierced straight through.

Zhao Heng let out a miserable scream, then instinctively stepped forward, bent his right leg, and drove his knee hard into Mia's stomach.

Mia doubled over.

But in the next second.

She used her head like a hammer and slammed it into Zhao Heng's stomach, making him stagger.

Then she straightened up and stabbed at him again.

"Wait! Wait! Fucking wait!!!"

Zhao Heng clasped both hands around the blade in front of him, gripping it tightly to keep the tip from plunging into his eye socket. At the same time, he watched Mia twist the handle to torment him, on the verge of collapse. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

The two remained locked in a standoff for a while.

Mia's expression slowly changed from savage to confused. Then, as if waking from a dream, she suddenly pulled out the knife.

Next, she clutched her head in disbelief, as though someone were commanding her to do this.

She roared, repeatedly smashing her head against the wall. Then she abruptly fell backward, seemingly losing consciousness.

"..."

Zhao Heng stared at the scene with trembling hands, utterly dumbfounded.

Not until the intense pain in his palm hit him.

Did he snap out of it, his face twisting in agony.

What did this mean?!

What the hell did this mean?!

He took a few steps forward, wanting to check what had happened to Mia.

But the moment he drew near.

Mia suddenly sprang up from the floor as though she had no bones, wrenching Zhao Heng's left arm behind his back with one hand while grabbing his clothes with the other.

"Stay away from me!"

Her face twisted viciously as she roared, then hurled Zhao Heng aside.

Bang—

Wooden planks shattered.

Amid overwhelming shock, Zhao Heng was violently flung away. His back crashed into the wooden wall of the corridor. The rotten boards could not withstand the impact and instantly exploded apart. He smashed through the wall, rolling into the neighboring room along with a shower of splinters.

"Ugh!!"

Zhao Heng hit the ground hard. A suffocating pain gripped his chest, and his vision went black.

Wood chips slowly drifted down through the air.

Then footsteps came from the corridor.

"!!!"

Zhao Heng immediately braced himself against the floor and struggled to raise his head. On the other side of the hole in the wall, Mia slowly walked in.

She grabbed the dinner knife embedded in the wall and yanked it out with force.

Crack.

The blade was pulled free, trailing wood splinters.

Gripping the knife, she walked toward Zhao Heng again, one step at a time.

"..."

Zhao Heng lay on the ground, his chest heaving violently. Watching Mia approach step by step, his heart seemed to stop.

...A familiar feeling.

It rose from within him.

It was a feeling he had not experienced in a long time.

The scene before his eyes suddenly grew a little blurry.

As though he had returned to the past.

Back then, he had merely been a shut-in employee at an ordinary company, entering a dungeon with a group of coworkers.

He had not known what was inside the dungeon.

Nor had he known what would happen there.

During that dungeon run, one of his coworkers had had an arm hacked off by a monster, blood spilling everywhere.

His legs had gone weak on the spot, and he had collapsed to the floor.

He had even... pissed himself.

Right in front of everyone.

Right in front of the office girl he had secretly loved for two whole years.

That office girl had said nothing.

But that look in her eyes.

That startled, disgusted, slightly strange look.

Zhao Heng still remembered it to this day.

Mia's footsteps drew closer and closer. She gripped the knife, her face twisted with savagery.

Watching Mia steadily close in, Zhao Heng began to tremble all over.

At that moment.

It was as though he saw that cowardly version of himself again, as though he had become that cowardly person once more.

He did not know what was inside the dungeon.

More importantly, he did not know... what would happen in the dungeon!

What the hell was all this?!

"Don't, don't, don't!!!!"

"Fuck your mother!!!"

"What the fuck kind of dungeon is this!!!!"

"Ah!!!!"

"..."

The camera slowly pulled back, passing through the windows sealed shut with wooden boards, through the yard where weeds had grown knee-high, through the rusted fence.

Behind the curtain of rain.

Baker Estate appeared and disappeared from view, silent and eerie.

Lightning tore across the sky.

For an instant, the flash turned the entire house a ghastly white.

But the next second.

Darkness swallowed everything once more.

Only miserable screams and broken curses drifted intermittently from the house amid the torrential rain and thunder.

If the camera kept pulling back, passing through branches bent beneath the downpour.

It would reveal that the rain hung like a heavy curtain over the entire swamp.

If the camera continued rising.

Higher.

Farther.

Then one would discover—

That in this dark marshland, Baker Estate was not the only one.

One.

Two.

Ten.

Dozens.

Countless identical farmhouses, scattered across this vast, dark marshland like they had been copied and pasted.

And inside every farmhouse was a player.

Every player who had entered the [Resident Evil] instance at the same time as Zhao Heng had been thrown into this world.

It was just that—

Everyone's progress was different.

But one thing was the same: every player was on the verge of collapse.

The slower ones were still swimming through the dungeon. The faster ones already had their left hands nailed to the wall, watching Mia approach with a chainsaw. The even faster ones had already begun playing hide-and-seek with their father-in-law.

That's right, the unlucky bastards from the Central Bureau's Strategy Group.

"I'll go back to the dinner table!! I'll eat it!! I'll eat anything!! I'm begging you!! Stop chasing me!! I'm only eighteen!! Please!!!"

A hysterical scream rang out from one of the farmhouses.

The camera kept pulling back.

Countless estates.

Countless houses.

Countless screams.

Rose and fell through the stormy night.

The entire swamp—

Was one enormous stage of horror.

And every player who had entered the [Resident Evil] instance was currently falling apart.

Forum.

The appearance of an S-rank civilian instance in the instance library had already become common knowledge, and posts discussing it were everywhere.

After all, half a day had already passed since the instance was revealed.

Some people had even begun asking whether any big shots had cleared it yet, and what the rewards were like.

But most of those inquiry posts received no replies. Even when they did, they were usually just bait.

Until—

A post like this appeared—[That builder called Lu Xiu! You're seriously a piece of work!! Is the instance you made actually meant for people to play!?]