Staye Added You to the Blacklist

After arriving here, Lu Ren discovered that Zhang Qingya, Luo Zixuan, and the others had undergone drastic personality changes, as though they had become entirely different people. Every action they took was abnormal, as if they were possessed by ghosts. Their behavior had become bizarre; they were impatient, irritable, quick-tempered, and completely devoid of patience.

Lu Ren immediately put a safe distance between himself and the three of them, afraid that the slightest matter would make them start punching and slashing at each other, spraying him with blood.

At that thought, Lu Ren was instantly creeped out. At first, his attention had been captured by the bizarre surroundings. Though he had noticed what was happening to Zhang Qingya and the others, he had assumed it was a stress response from falling into this alternate spacetime, where their living environment had changed drastically and their lives were under threat.

By the time they reached the black altar in the center and discovered something was wrong, Zhang Qingya and the others had become possessed. No matter how Lu Ren tried to dissuade them, they insisted on climbing onto the altar, triggering some kind of mechanism that caused the system to summon the so-called Evil God Lana Ye.

After resting for a while, Lu Ren rubbed his face and calmed himself before attempting to call out to the system in his mind.

"System? Cheat? Come out, Pikachu!"

No response?

Lu Ren pondered for a moment, then finally tested the usual phrase out of habit.

"Status Panel?!"

The moment the thought arose, a Character Panel appeared in Lu Ren's mind.

"Name: Lu Ren (Hungry, Lightly Injured)

Spirit: 5 (Proficiency 12/100)

Constitution: 5 (Proficiency 5/100)

Strength: 5 (Proficiency 12/100)

Agility: 5 (Proficiency 6/100)

Skills: None"

Looking at the crude Status Panel in his mind, Lu Ren felt a surge of excitement. It might be simple, but he felt there was no need to demand too much in life. It was not like he was playing an online game.

Fortunately, he could not find any top-up or pay-to-win channels—none of China's usual cash-grab tricks.

Yet after puzzling over it in the car for quite some time, he helplessly discovered that aside from the Status Panel, there were no other functions in his mind, except for some rule-based prompts.

It felt kind of low-end...

His cheat, which he had thought would let him soar to the heavens in a single bound, become incomparably domineering, and embark on an invincible path?

That was it (▼⊿▼)?

Just as Lu Ren was nearly driven to pass out, the silent forest around him abruptly rustled for an instant, then fell quiet again.

His heart jolted. Ever since they had arrived in this bizarre place, there had been no sound besides the noises they themselves made. The trees were motionless, and the river in the distance flowed so slowly that Lu Ren had once thought it was completely still.

At least three minutes passed in silence. There was no sign of life, no movement whatsoever. Everything was deathly quiet! It was as though that sound just now had been an illusion.

The forest looked lush and green, yet the trees' twisted, withered trunks resembled people who had suffered endless torment before death. Just one glance at them sent a chill through his heart.

Only now did Lu Ren realize that the trees, which had looked perfectly normal when they first arrived, had somehow become like this?!

Trying to remain calm, Lu Ren suppressed the unease in his heart and stared at the deep forest ahead. Light from the perpetually white sky struggled through the dense leaves, spilling faintly onto the ground.

"Huh?!"

Faint light filtered down from the pitch-black forest ahead.

Was something standing in there?

He was not the least bit curious. All he felt was shock. In a place this bizarre, curiosity would only hasten one's death. Setting aside whether Zhang Qingya and the others had been controlled, even if they had not been, investigating an altar that looked wrong in every possible way in such a strange place was simply courting death.

They definitely had no desire to live.

"Ding. Staye is secretly watching you and rapidly approaching to give you a hug."

The System Prompt Sound that suddenly appeared in his mind startled Lu Ren. He immediately recoiled on instinct and turned to look behind him, only to see in horror a mass of black shadow pouncing toward him.

It was so fast that he had no time to react. He could only watch helplessly as the black shadow plunged into his body.

It was over. He was screwed?!

"You are suffering a bizarre invasion. Your spirit is under attack. Passive proficiency increase +1."

"You are suffering a bizarre invasion. Your spirit is under attack. Passive proficiency increase +1."

"You are suffering a bizarre invasion..."

Lu Ren felt as though his head were splitting apart. A terrifying icy chill swept through his entire body, as if the blood in his veins had frozen solid. He could not control his body at all, and his vision went dark.

Blurred vision, suffocation, coldness, stiffness.

He could not move at all!

Yet as he endured the bizarre, icy attacks, the system's repeated passive increases to his Spirit Proficiency continuously strengthened his mental resilience, preventing his consciousness from being extinguished.

He struggled on the line between life and death.

Lu Ren clenched his teeth tightly, his eyes bloodshot and the veins on his forehead bulging.

He did not want to die, much less die so inexplicably!

A minute later, the icy stiffness in Lu Ren's body abruptly receded. As warmth returned to his body, his legs gave out and he collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.

"Ding. Staye disliked your resistance, left your body, and added you to the blacklist."

As the System Prompt Sound rang out, saliva, tears, and snot burst forth in an instant as his body returned to the control of his consciousness, triggered by the stress response.

After a long while, Lu Ren slowly pushed himself upright. After wiping his face with his clothes, he stood while bracing himself against a nearby tree trunk, his muscles still spasming and trembling uncontrollably.

Honestly, if the system had not kept issuing prompts and passively increasing his Spirit Proficiency, thereby indirectly improving his mental resistance, there was no way he could have endured that ordeal.

Once everything calmed down, Lu Ren called for the system in his mind.

"Name: Lu Ren (Hungry, Lightly Injured, Mentally Weakened)

Spirit: 5 (Proficiency 18/100)

Constitution: 5 (Proficiency 5/100)

Strength: 5 (Proficiency 12/100)

Agility: 5 (Proficiency 6/100)

Skills: None"

That thing just now had been terrifying. The mass of black shadow had completely possessed him. If the system had not continuously increased his proficiency, strengthening his mental resilience enough to barely withstand that bizarre thing's attack, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

He raised his head and looked at the dark forest. The pitch-black depths made his heart turn cold. What else was hidden in there?

He could not stay in the car any longer. He needed to find a safe place. If the depths of the forest were full of such horrifying things, who knew what else he might encounter?

That altar alone had been terrifying enough.

With that thought, Lu Ren decisively got out of the car and headed toward the edge of the forest. The food in the car had long since been scavenged clean, and they had finished it yesterday.