Return

"Main quest completed. Return to the Main God Platform immediately?"

"...Return! Right no—"

Amid the panic, a cold mechanical voice suddenly rang out beside his ear. But he had not heard much of it clearly at all. The moment he caught the keyword "return," Du Qifeng instinctively shouted.

Before his words had even fully fallen, the young college student, who had been gritting his teeth and bracing the door, suddenly felt the ground vanish beneath him. He crashed heavily to the floor, nearly knocking the wind out of himself. The people beside him also tumbled down in a heap, landing every which way.

His heart went cold!

Without time to think, his body moved even faster than his mind, which was already beginning to go numb. Enduring the sharp pain, the young man sprang up, trying to keep blocking that life-or-death sheet-metal door!

But what met his eyes was an unfamiliar sight. Lights flickered, and figures were scattered across the broad platform beneath his feet. Quite a few people had already turned toward him with looks of surprise.

Only then did he realize in astonishment—he was no longer where he had been before.

"Here again..."

"Main God! Heal everyone, now! Is there a group healing option?!"

"Bloody hell, what kind of arrival is this..."

"Move aside, there are still people coming in. Stop crowding..."

"Are there any veteran seniors here? Can any veteran senior explain the rules here?!"

"Where's my damn knife?! Who stole my knife?!"

Amid the clamor, clusters of white light kept appearing and fading all around them. Along with those faint outlines that condensed out of empty air, as though color and details were being painted onto them, countless figures emerged in the open space within a few breaths, shifting from blurry to clear.

He blankly looked at the few companions around him. The sudden change of scenery had left them all not quite recovered.

It was only when the muddled memories in his head recalled everything that had just happened that Du Qifeng finally understood completely. His group had apparently finished the so-called [Newcomer Trial] and arrived in the so-called "Main God Space."

They seemed... safe for now?

The instant that realization surfaced, he staggered. His entire body went limp, and he half-fell, half-knelt back onto the ground.

At that moment, there was only one thought left in the young man's mind.

—They had finally survived.

Just minutes earlier, while a timer in the main quest ticked forward second by second, still short of the twelve-hour mark—

The few of them, still hiding in a bedroom at the very end of the third floor, had been using every ounce of strength they possessed to hold shut the bedroom door. Outside, the gathering horde of corpses howled madly without awareness, with even greater fervor than concert fans, scratching and pounding tirelessly at the last line of defense before them.

Clearly, the thin metal door itself would not yield to biological tissue and keratin quite so quickly. But Du Qifeng swore that, even then, he had heard the faint creaking of the wooden doorframe under unbearable strain.

Fortunately, the middle-aged man named Lu Yun had reacted quickly. He had thrown aside the chairs, plastic items, and other clutter originally meant to barricade the door, then lunged forward like a mad dog. The few of them had forcibly pressed their combined body weight against the battered door, easing the strain on the frame. Only then had they narrowly prevented the ravenous "foodies" outside from having their fill!

They had no choice. Anyone who looked out the window and saw the corpse horde gathering below—those "corpses" whose lower bodies had nearly torn apart, whose gray intestines dragged across the ground, yet who still relentlessly stretched out their arms and crawled forward slowly and stiffly—

This was not some simple situation where one could look down from a stage and shout, "Let me see your hands!"

Especially when faced with those pairs of gray, decaying arms raised beneath the windowsill, clawing uselessly through the air, their skin dotted with blue-black corpse stains, and those rotting faces opening their mouths with hoarse, rattling breaths, every inch of them filled with "hunger"—no one had the spare attention to care how things had reached this point. Nor was anyone willing to gamble on whether jumping out the window would leave them any chance of survival.

If they wanted a way out, they could only stake their lives on it.

...If they really had to analyze it, perhaps their startled cries when they saw the information screen had vaguely exposed their presence. Or perhaps, with several living people hiding inside, the scent of life gradually seeping from them could not ultimately be concealed, even beneath that nauseatingly thick stench.

In any case, not long after the specific main quest notification was triggered, they noticed that the zombies on the street outside were beginning to gather around the little villa.

Those moving corpses appeared to wander aimlessly, yet it was as though they vaguely sensed something. Naturally, they began lingering around the area instead of leaving.

Soon, as the density of zombies on the surrounding streets steadily rose at a visible rate, everyone inside began to panic.

If they had not learned from Du Qifeng about settings that sounded like pure fantasy—things such as the "Main God Space," "Killing City," "Shadow Street," "Superstring Space," "Horror Academy," "Nightmare Space," and "Death Academy"—they might have risked trying to find another, less exposed house to hide in.

But once they had initially realized that, just as the quest information said, they might be able to leave this zombie-filled city directly if they endured for twelve hours, they gritted their teeth and ultimately decided to keep hiding in this villa, which had clearly already been breached once and was not safe at all.

—They had no choice. The risk of going outside was far too great.

And just as expected, as more and more zombies gathered nearby, a few "lucky ones" eventually began to wander into the little villa by chance.

Clearly, while the people who had suffered under the foul stench had gradually gone numb to the reek of rotting flesh, the zombies forever seeking fresh food still retained some sensitivity to the smell of living humans.

Eventually, one of them wandered all the way to the stairway. Even though the newcomers had spotted the danger early and blocked it with a barricade made from piles of scavenged clutter, a more animated, excited howl came from the zombie's rotten chest.

It had discovered traces of prey nearby!

...The nightmare had officially begun.

Drawn by their companion's howl, the zombie horde gradually found a clear target and gathered around the isolated villa even faster. As time passed second by second, more and more zombies flooded into the house.

Slowly, the barricades piled between the first and second floors, then between the second and third floors, were all smashed through in turn by the converging corpse horde.

And once they were this close, the "fragrance" of living humans on the third floor was impossible to hide, just like freshly baked cream-and-jam bread in an ordinary bakery!

As though stimulated by something, the corpse horde entered a state akin to berserk rage, and even their overall movements sped up noticeably.

In the end, those zombies, densely packed both inside and outside the house like sardines, gathered with clear purpose before a single door and impatiently enjoyed the precious time of "opening the can."

—Unfortunately, even a can opened with great effort could sometimes be empty.

After all, at the most critical moment, the people in the room had stubbornly forced themselves into a struggle against the corpse horde outside, erupting with their potential and somehow enduring that final stretch of time...

Perhaps it could only be said that sometimes, unless people pushed themselves to the brink, they never knew what they were truly capable of!

"Whew... fuck, whew... I actually... actually survived..."

Once he truly realized that they were safe, Zheng Defa, perhaps the most emotionally unstable among them, practically collapsed.

Cold sweat streamed freely down his flushed face from his forehead and temples. His expression had nearly fallen apart as he gasped heavily, his whole body seeming to lose its bones in an instant. The moment he stood, he dropped to the floor with a thud, limp as a pile of mud.

Even his lips trembled. As his body abruptly relaxed after the extreme strain, faint spasms quickly spread through Zheng Defa's body. His wheezing breaths came like a broken bellows, and a trace of pink foam even unconsciously bubbled from the corner of his mouth.

That was often a sign of damage to the trachea or even the lungs.

Under such circumstances, that curse-laced roar had nearly been forced out from the depths of his lungs. It was hoarse, but real.

It could only be said that under drastic shifts in psychological pressure, people often displayed such seemingly irrational behavior to some extent.

Watching him shout like a madman, as though he could not rest until he had let it all out, the others understood him. Or rather, none of them was much better off.

At that moment, everyone had long since abandoned all concern for appearances, either sitting, lying, or leaning against the floor as they gasped for breath. Even Wang Yawen, who had earlier simply torn off half her skirt to use as a temporary rag for the long blade that had ultimately never even been used, was no exception.

...When someone fell into a state of extreme exhaustion, even thinking felt difficult, much less moving.

Even as people nearby, who did not know the full story, cast one or two strange looks their way, none of them cared.

Those who had truly crossed the line between life and death often underwent an enormous change in mentality, a shift in values so open-minded it seemed almost absurd!

—Are you kidding? We had just risked our lives to get back! Do you understand the sheer weight of the fact that if we had been a few minutes later, you would probably have been collecting our bodies?!

Oh, no, wait. Judging by the scene outside that door, they could probably have skipped the body-collection part too!

...Tch. Thinking about it that way, even Du Qifeng had to admit that reality was far too much of a dark joke.

A particularly strained smile appeared on his face.

But as he kept smiling, a few hot tears slipped from his eyes without his noticing.

He had felt nothing while fighting for his life. Only now, after finally relaxing, did the relief of surviving the disaster, along with the even more chilling fear and horror, come flooding into his heart belatedly.

In his intense exhaustion, he dimly realized that he had finally shown weakness. Taking advantage of the fact that no one seemed to have noticed, the young college student sniffed and hurriedly wiped his face.

Thank goodness!

At the end of the day, they had survived! That was what mattered most!

Compared to that, no one was willing to think too deeply about what had just happened—

After all, even though the so-called "quest information" had informed them beforehand that everyone had entered this "Newcomer Trial" in a purely conscious state, and death would not have any actual consequences, no one truly dared to casually experience the thrill of dying.

No one was willing to gamble on whether, if they died there, they would really emerge "completely unharmed"...

Because life's most primal instinct was often to flee death and do everything possible to survive.

Only by living could everything else begin...