The First Foray into the Nightmare

Gold Coins were hard to earn. You could only get them by killing monsters in an official Competition.

Starting the Border City Battle in Hard Mode cost 10 Gold Coins!

Ten Gold Coins!

But Nightmare Mode cost only one!

And that wasn't all.

More importantly, there was the matter of time—

Time in Hard Mode passed in step with reality.

However long you stayed inside, that much time passed outside.

But in Nightmare Mode?

No matter how long you stayed inside, only one second passed outside!

See?

I knew it!

The bigger the waves, the pricier the fish!

A genuine sense of reward welled up in Xu Yuan's heart.

He had broken the Curses, figured out how to open the "Demon, Ghost Entity, and Ghost Monster Shelf," and unlocked the Border City Battle's Nightmare Mode!

And there was that Boss skill!

His first entry into Nightmare Mode was free, too!

What was he waiting for?

Time to take a look!

At a thought from Xu Yuan, everything around him vanished.

His home was gone.

He found himself standing beside a broad road.

The sky was a clear blue.

Warm winter sunlight fell on his face, making him narrow his eyes in contentment.

Pedestrians thronged the streets.

Traffic streamed past.

"Hey, watch it. Don't block the way."

Someone shouted from behind him.

"Sorry." Xu Yuan hurried aside.

Several men and women in work clothes carried a shelf into a nearby shop, panting for breath.

Xu Yuan stared.

This was Border City?

Why was it so prosperous?

A line of faint, glowing text appeared:

"Border City Battle" Nightmare Mode has begun.

Your Identity from Hard Mode has been carried over.

Current time: 24 hours before the disaster.

So that was it!

*The disaster hadn't struck yet. He could move more