Bro, I Was Wrong! I'll Never Be a Tryhard Again!

"Don't tell me... I hit the goddamn jackpot tonight and stumbled into a Hidden Wild Boss?"

Crouched behind the Mill's ruins, Ma Lou stared at the approaching figure with the lantern. Far from being afraid, his narrow eyes blazed with a greedy green gleam.

By conventional online-game logic, any monster you stumbled across in the wild that looked badass and even had its own sound effects had to be an Elite Monster or a Hidden Boss delivered right to your door!

If he killed a monster like that, wouldn't it drop a whole pile of top-tier equipment and materials?

"Take a chance, turn a bike into a motorbike!"

"As long as it has a health bar, it's my perfect stepping stone to level 1 tonight!"

The prospect of claiming First Kill Honor had completely gone to Ma Lou's head.

He even ignored the Sanity warning flashing a glaring red in the upper-right corner of his vision, both hands clenching his sharpened Wooden Spear.

Just as the Lantern Night Terror came within ten meters of him-

"Cough up those coins!"

Ma Lou roared and shot out of the Mill's shadows like a scrawny monkey poised to spring.

Moving faster than he ever had in his life, he closed the gap with a perfect tactical slide and thrust his Wooden Spear straight at the head hidden beneath the black-robed monster's hood!

Whoosh!

The Wooden Spear struck its target with perfect accuracy.

Yet the sensation of wood piercing flesh that Ma Lou had expected never came.

It felt as though he had stabbed into a mass of bone-chilling cotton. The Wooden Spear passed straight through the monster's head without any resistance and jabbed into the empty air behind it!

No physical collision hitbox?

The frenzy on Ma Lou's face instantly froze.

"Holy shit... physical immunity? A magic-type monster?!"

This game wasn't playing by the rules!

Before he could pull back his Wooden Spear, the Lantern Night Terror slowly lowered its head.

Beneath its ragged black hood were no facial features at all, only a constantly writhing mass of dense mist that radiated a ghastly green glow.

Clatter!

The monster lashed out with the iron chain in its hand.

There was no tangible contact, but Ma Lou felt as though a massive iron hammer had smashed into his soul. His mind went utterly blank.

[Warning! Sanity depleted!]

[You have suffered a psychic scourge and entered a state of extreme terror and paralysis!]

"Aaaaaah!"

Scarlet instantly flooded Ma Lou's vision. The whispers in his ears became countless enormous, torn mouths, gnawing madly at his nerves.

He collapsed like a puddle of sludge, his eyes rolling back. He could not move so much as a finger.

He could only watch helplessly as the lantern-bearing monster slowly raised a sharp claw as pale as bone.

Inside the statue, Lin En watched through his god's-eye view, and his heart lurched.

Holy shit. If Ma Lou dies now, rebuilding his body will cost 10 faith points.

This kid only killed two tier-zero monsters earlier. This knife run is a straight-up loss. Is that going to hurt his enthusiasm for working?

As a marginal god with mouths to feed and a fiercely frugal streak, Lin En felt he had to find some way to save Ma Lou!

Lin En hurriedly glanced at his system panel.

He might not be able to descend directly and fight the creature hand to hand, but he was a backend administrator with the highest level of access!

"System! Use my permissions immediately and force the highest-priority warning into Ma Lou's vision!"

"Use the biggest font and the brightest flashing red light! Wake this kid up!"

Ding!

In Ma Lou's despairing vision as he lay paralyzed on the ground, a blood-red pop-up suddenly appeared, pulsing wildly:

[Warning!]

[An indescribable source of psychic contamination has been detected! (First-Tier Aberrant, Lantern Night Terror)]

[This entity is a spirit-type creature. All current physical attacks are completely ineffective!]

[Run! The poison zone is closing in! Return to the barrier immediately!!]

[Run! Run! Run!]

The sudden top-priority red warning and its dazzling red light, combined with the system's forced vibration alerts, actually tore a sliver of clarity through Ma Lou's paralyzed nerves.

The words "the poison zone is closing in," in particular, instantly activated the survival instinct etched into every member of the Fourth Calamity's DNA.

"Physical immunity... a battle royale poison-zone mechanic..."

Using the last scrap of strength in his body, Ma Lou bit down hard on the tip of his tongue.

Protected by reduced pain settings, he did not actually bite his tongue off, but it still produced an intense enough jolt.

He violently broke free of his paralysis and scrambled to his feet.

Abandoning even his Wooden Spear, he stumbled and scrambled toward the faintly blue-glowing barrier around the Church several hundred meters behind him!

"Bro, I was wrong! I'll never be a tryhard again! Stop chasing me!"

Ma Lou ran with tears and snot streaming down his face.

The Lantern Night Terror behind him clearly had no intention of letting such a delicious soul escape. It floated in midair, its iron chain scraping across the ground with an ear-piercing screech.

Its movements looked slow, but it advanced as though teleporting, staying right on Ma Lou's heels.

Every time the lantern's eerie green light flickered, Ma Lou felt a needlelike stab of pain in the back of his head.

"Faster! Come on, faster!"

Ma Lou poured every ounce of strength he had into running.

He could swear that if this thing had chased him during his thousand-meter fitness test back in college, he would have shattered the national collegiate record!

One hundred meters to the Church's barrier...

Fifty meters...

Thirty meters...

Clatter!

The Lantern Night Terror abruptly hurled its iron chain, wrapping it around Ma Lou's ankle.

"Fuck!"

Ma Lou face-planted hard, sliding two meters with his face pressed against the freezing stone slabs.

A bone-piercing chill surged along the chain, frantically draining what remained of his vitality and Sanity.

The Lantern Night Terror's featureless hood slowly approached his back, as though it were ready to enjoy a feast.

"It's over. I'm really going to die here today." Ma Lou closed his eyes in despair.

At that critical instant-

Boom!

Inside the Church less than twenty meters ahead, a brilliant beam of deep-blue divine light suddenly burst from the eyes of the dilapidated Ancient God Statue, sharp as a sword!

He had finally entered Lin En's range.

Lin En had used the divine power he had recovered over this period to forcibly activate the Church's sanctuary barrier!

The deep-blue divine light expanded instantly like a tsunami, engulfing Ma Lou's entire body and slamming hard into the Lantern Night Terror.

Sizzle!

The monster let out an excruciatingly shrill scream, as though it had been drenched in concentrated sulfuric acid.

The iron chain around Ma Lou's ankle instantly shattered into black smoke. The monster's eerie green lantern flickered violently several times, and its entire body recoiled frantically as though electrocuted, until it vanished back into the endless Dark Wasteland.

A deity's sanctuary barrier was a remnant of the laws of the old days. A low-tier aberrant like this did not dare face its might head-on.

"Hah... hah..."

Inside the barrier.

Ma Lou lay sprawled on the ground like a dying dog, drenched in cold sweat and gasping for breath.

"That... that was intense."

Ma Lou rolled over and lay on his back on the cold ground. As he stared at the Church's ruined roof, an utterly deranged grin slowly spread across his face.

"This game... is fucking awesome!"

"The pressure from that magic-type monster, the heart-pounding dash out of the poison zone-that was so fucking good!"