First-Tier Mutated Corpse

The view returned to the dilapidated church in the eerie world.

Crack!

The solid wooden doors, which had held firm for so long, finally succumbed to the monster's assault and were smashed apart.

With a gust of cold air reeking of nauseating decay, the three-meter-tall monstrosity finally squeezed all the way into the church.

The system panel in front of Lin En instantly displayed the monster's details:

[Target locked: Mutated Corpse]

[Level assessment: First Tier (danger level)]

[Traits: Formed from the fused corpses of villagers infected by abyssal aura. Insensitive to pain, immensely strong. The pus coating its body contains a moderately potent hallucinogenic toxin.]

[Recommendation: Run, or pick a dignified pose and wait to die.]

Run, my ass! I'm a fucking rock! How am I supposed to run? Scrape my pedestal across the floor?

Lin En cursed the system in his mind. Where are the people I called in?! Is the server frozen?!

"Roar!"

The Mutated Corpse let out a deafening roar, its pustule-covered lumps of flesh squeezing together as its scarlet compound eyes locked onto Sivir, the nun kneeling on the floor.

In this ruined sanctuary without a trace of life, fresh flesh and blood were as enticing as a searchlight in the darkness.

As the immense shadow engulfed her, Sivir shook like a leaf.

"My lord... have you truly abandoned this cursed world altogether...?"

Just as the Mutated Corpse raised its bucket-thick arm, ready to smash the little "snack" before it into pulp-

Whooom!

Five pillars of pure white light erupted without warning in front of Lin En's cracked stone statue, stretching from the ground to the heavens!

The light was blinding, like suddenly turning a phone screen to maximum brightness beneath a pitch-black blanket.

Even the Mutated Corpse had to shield its eyes with its thick arms, letting out a frightened growl.

The pillars vanished as quickly as they had appeared.

Two seconds later, the white light faded.

Five figures now stood on the magic circle in the center of the church.

The loading time had been so rushed that the system hadn't had a chance to enable character customization, or even put much detail into the starting outfits.

And so, an utterly eye-searing sight greeted everyone!

Five identical, muscular bald men stood neatly in a row, wearing nothing but baggy white boxers.

They looked like five warrior monks who had just broken out of Shaolin Temple.

The air seemed to freeze.

Even the mindless Mutated Corpse stood stunned, its walnut-sized brain apparently crashing.

At that moment, the five players finally took full control of their new bodies.

Lu Ziye, whose in-game name was [Passing Pure-Love Warrior], abruptly opened his eyes.

No lag, no dropped frames, no damned online-game login screen.

Even the smell of mold mixed with a foul stench drifted seamlessly into his nostrils.

"Holy shit..."

He stood dumbfounded for a full three seconds, then abruptly looked down at his hands, clenched his fists, and swung them hard a couple of times.

The sensation of his muscles pulling fed back to his brain, feeling even more real than in the real world!

"You pulled this off in a 1 KB game? Are you out of your mind?"

Beside him, another bald man slapped himself straight on the forehead!

"Damn, that actually hurt!"

"This pain feedback... the system says my pain sensitivity is locked at 5%. But this feels way too real! I could even feel the vibration from hitting my head!"

This bald man was called [Even Monkeys Have Dignity], an ID that made it clear he was another fan of absurd antics.

The third bald man dropped straight to the floor and shamelessly picked at the moss between the floorboards.

"This moisture, this texture of the dirt, and this moldy smell... holy shit, am I dreaming?"

"A 1 KB installer? What kind of god-tier optimization is this?! The big game studios aren't even worthy of shining this developer's shoes!"

As [Kindergarten Boss] spoke, he casually grabbed a handful of dirt and stuffed it into his mouth.

"Ptooey, ptooey! Bitter! With a hint of rust!"

"This game even simulates taste! A masterpiece! This is definitely the masterpiece of the year!"

"Even playing this as a travel simulator would be an absolute steal!"

The five big bald men instantly descended into chaos inside the church.

One frantically did push-ups to test his body's balance, others tugged at each other's boxers to check for censorship mosaics, and another circled a pillar to study its wood grain.

Meanwhile, the Mutated Corpse, which had been left hanging all this time, finally ran out of patience.

I'm a first-tier mutant, for crying out loud! I look terrifying enough to shake heaven and earth, and you five naked exhibitionists are treating me like I'm not even here?

"ROAR!!!"

The monster stomped forward and unleashed a roof-shaking roar, spraying foul yellow mucus from its mouth all over their faces.

Only then did the five idiot players, who had been pinching each other's thighs to test their pain sensitivity, finally deign to turn their heads.

Any normal person faced with a rotting monster worthy of being a horror movie's final boss would have screamed, gone weak at the knees, and lost control of their bladder and bowels.

But these five were the Fourth Calamity, veterans who had slaughtered their way through countless zombie games!

Their reactions were remarkably unanimous.

Rather than retreating, all five stepped forward at once, their eyes gleaming with the ravenous light of hungry wolves.

"Guys, check out this monster's model!"

Lu Ziye wiped the stinking saliva off his face. Far from being disgusted, he was so excited his voice cracked. "The texture of this rotting skin! They even modeled the physical tension of the saliva strands! Incredible!"

"That's nothing! Look over here!"

[Even Monkeys Have Dignity] crouched beside Sivir, shouting as though he had discovered a new continent.

"This little NPC girl is insanely detailed!"

"These tears, these tiny trembling movements!"

"Hey, little girl, are you hungry? Big brother has... uh, sorry, the system didn't give us a beginner pack. My pockets are full of air."

Watching the five bald men appraise both her and the Mutated Corpse, practically one magnifying glass away from examining their faces up close, Sivir's mind descended into utter confusion.

These five apostles summoned by my lord... why do they seem even more unnatural than the monsters outside?

Watching from the altar, Lin En was equally speechless.

I can't let them keep studying the models. If this goes on, my godhead really will shatter!

Lin En immediately mobilized the last sliver of energy in the system and lit up his stone statue's eyes.

In an instant, two majestic beams of blue light shot from the statue's eyes and enveloped the five players.

An ethereal divine proclamation, seemingly descending from the ancient heavens, thundered directly inside their minds:

[Brave travelers from another world, welcome to the world of "Awakening of the Old Gods."]

[An invasion by a creature of darkness has been detected. To defend the last sanctuary, the Main Quest has officially begun!]

Ding!

An extremely simple, translucent quest window appeared in the upper-right corner of all five players' vision:

[Main Quest: Eliminate the monster desecrating the church (Mutated Corpse)!]

[Quest description: Don't chicken out. Just fight! Use your fists or anything you can pick up to send this disgusting lump of flesh packing back to its grandma's house!]

"HOLY SHIT!!!"

[Kindergarten Boss] let out a groundhog-like shriek. "The Main Quest is here! Are we supposed to fight a boss?"

[Passing Pure-Love Warrior] looked around and realized he had absolutely nothing, not even a wooden sword.

But that was no obstacle for a seasoned hardcore gamer.

He bent down, seized a broken section of the church's solid wooden door with both hands, and hoisted it up, veins bulging.

"You can actually pick this up?"

"The physics engine even recognizes door panels as weapons! The freedom in this game is off the charts!"

Holding half a door, Lu Ziye charged first at the three-meter-tall Mutated Corpse like a crazed wild boar, bellowing an outrageously cocky battle cry:

"For the last sanctuary! Kill the bastard!"

"Charge!!! The first kill is mine! Anyone who steals it, I'll crawl through the internet and unplug your power!"

"Here comes the truck!"

Under Sivir's utterly stunned gaze, the five bald hulks wearing nothing but baggy white boxers hurled themselves at the terrifying abomination capable of tearing tigers and leopards apart alive, roaring like five mad dogs off their leashes.