TN: Thanks to “Melos” for the ko-fe donation. I will upload an extra 5 chapters this week. This is 1/5.
(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
Back to 3 AM.
“Look at the moon…”
The first cultist noticed the change in the moon. He turned to look at the new moon hanging high in the sky outside the window and hesitantly asked his companion, “Is the moon… different from before?”
At this moment, the moon was still bright and strangely red. He couldn’t pinpoint what was different but had an instinctual feeling that something was off.
His companion also looked out the window after hearing his words, then shook his head after a moment, “What’s different? Are you seeing things, Neik?”
“Is that so…” Neik, the cultist, furrowed his brow and observed the moon more closely, looking puzzled. His companion couldn’t help but laugh, “Look how nervous you are. Don’t worry; the great Daeis is watching over us.”
His companion patted him on the back, “Don’t be so nervous, you can’t act this way during the ritual.”
“Ah, right…”
They were walking in the corridor leading to the grand hall on the first floor. The prelude to the ritual was already faintly audible, with the sound of instruments that seemed out of tune, creating a cacophonous blend of discordant notes, like the jarring noise of nails scratching a chalkboard early in the morning during a construction project next door.
But the cultists who listened to this sound showed expressions of enjoyment, gathering in the direction of the music like bees drawn to nectar. The air was filled with an excited and restless atmosphere, infecting every cultist who came close.
“Let’s go!” His companion pushed Neik forward, walking straight ahead with a slightly trembling voice due to excitement. “Hurry up! Stop looking at the moon!”
The moon remained red, and it wouldn’t change until dawn, a blood-red as glimpsed by the great Daeis in a dream. Under its gaze, there shouldn’t be any doubt, only fervent prayers for its mercy.
Neik was being pulled along by his companion, enveloped in that fanatical atmosphere as they moved forward. However, he still couldn’t suppress his sense of unease. He stumbled, squeezed in the crowd, and desperately turned his head to look in the direction of the moon. This time, he indeed saw it—the red of the moon was softening, as if fading into the night.
“The moon—” Neik tried to issue a warning, but his voice was immediately drowned out by the noisy music and prayers.
“Praise Daeis!”
“Daeis’s glory endures forever!”
…
3:13 AM.
At the last moment before the final ritual was about to begin, Zhou Qian and Lin De’an were still huddled in a dim storage room, searching for the props they needed.
Zhou Qian had a rough idea of the storage room’s location and characteristics where the props were hidden, but the labyrinthine structure of the second floor was not very friendly to them. Similar small storage rooms were tucked around every corner, and they hadn’t found any of the necessary items yet.
This was the fifth storage room they had checked.
With the dim light from Zhou Qian’s small flashlight, the two of them rummaged through the piles of trash nearly touching the ceiling. They had to be careful not to make too much noise to avoid drawing the attention of the cultists. After hours of searching, even Lin De’an, despite his physical strength, was drenched in sweat. Zhou Qian was gasping for breath and seeing stars, not even having the energy to be afraid if they accidentally touched a dead rat.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Mbgaecjafis, atlr alwf, atflg foobgar kfgfc’a lc njlc. Coafg tjio jc tbeg bo qtsrlmji ijybg, atfs wbnfv jrlvf atf gfwcjcar bo obeg bg olnf vfjv gja cfrar jcv olcjiis obecv atf lafwr atfs kfgf ibbxlcu obg: j glaeji xclof rajlcfv klat yibbv jcv gera jcv j uijrr ybaaif rfjifv klat j atlmx, vjgx gfv, nlrmber ildelv. Ktf ildelv mbcajlcfv lwqeglalfr gfrfwyilcu tjlg jcv ylar bo oifrt, jcv ktfc atf oijrtiluta rtbcf bc la, atfs mbeiv rff yieggs afcajmif-ilxf jcv fsfyjii-ilxf mbcafcar.
[System Prompt: Congratulations on obtaining the item – Rusty Ritual Knife (wounds caused by this item will continue to bleed for 5 minutes).]
[System Prompt: Congratulations on obtaining the item – Decaying Pigment (highly volatile poison/drug, large ingestion can be fatal).]
[System Prompt: Do you want to bind player information?]
[Yes/No]
“You can hold the knife,” Zhou Qian handed the rusty ritual knife to Lin De’an, then showed her own wolf repellent spray, “I have this.”
Lin De’an didn’t waste words, he carefully placed the ritual knife and said, “Put this in your system backpack.” He pointed to the bottle of decaying pigment.
According to the system’s assessment, this substance was highly toxic. Even though the bottle cap was tightly sealed with wax, the faintest whiff could easily kill all the rats in this storage room. It was safer to store it in the system backpack.
Zhou Qian agreed, nodding as she tucked the pigment into her system backpack. “If we don’t use it this time, I’ll sell it in the in-game store, and we’ll split the proceeds fifty-fifty.”
Lin De’an tapped her head and said, “We, the people’s police, don’t take advantage of the masses.”
“I know, alright. Let’s go back and give our comrades in the police force a big hand,” Zhou Qian responded.
Suddenly, she heard a loud commotion outside, and immediately hushed Lin De’an, pointing to the door. When Lin De’an leaned against the wall, ready to confront any potential threat, Zhou Qian cautiously approached the door to eavesdrop on the situation outside.
It seemed that something significant had happened. The voices of the cultists were filled with panic and fear. Zhou Qian heard them loudly pleading for “the mercy of the mother goddess” and shouting something about “the wrath of Daeis.” Some cultists were crying in fear, while others were laughing maniacally. The sounds conveyed a sense of chaos and desperation as if a disaster had struck.
What’s going on?
Zhou Qian bit her lip and, with hushed tones, gestured to herself, then to Lin De’an, and then to the outside, indicating that the big shot was responsible for this.
The appearance of a new situation in a dungeon that had been repeatedly cleared by players like the one they were in was something she hadn’t read about in any guide. The only suspect other than her and Lin De’an was their unknown teammate, the big shot.
But what could the big shot have done to cause such chaos outside?
Zhou Qian pondered, discussing with Lin De’an in whispers whether they should go out and take a look. Suddenly facing such a situation for which she had not prepared in advance left her feeling uncertain, just like encountering a super-abstract question in an exam where she didn’t know where to begin.
Lin De’an was inclined to go out and see, as staying in the storage room served no purpose after finding the items. Moreover, the closed, single-entry small room was not safe, as there would be nowhere to run if any danger arose.
Go out?
Zhou Qian blinked her eyes and asked.
Lin De’an nodded, signaling Zhou Qian to stand behind him. He aimed Zhou Qian’s wolf-repellent spray at the door, ready to spray if there was trouble, and carefully opened the door slightly.
Fear and chaos flooded in through the crack.
…
3:48 AM.
Zhou Qian and Lin De’an stumbled out of the storage room.
No one paid any attention to them. The cultists were immersed in a kind of mindless fear and chaos, as if suffering from an unthinking disease. They were either staring blankly at the moon, crawling on the ground trembling, or going insane, speaking incoherently, with their eyes rolling back, drooling. Zhou Qian suspected that even if they walked right past these people, they wouldn’t notice their presence.
All the cultists were gazing at the moon.
With a little observation of where the cultists’ gaze was directed, one would notice this fact. However, Zhou Qian immediately suppressed her impulse to turn and look at the moon. She quietly reminded Lin De’an not to look out of the window. It was an experience that veteran players had summed up – following the gaze of others into the unknown typically led to no good.
Lin De’an nodded in acknowledgment. His complexion paled slightly, and Zhou Qian willingly extended her arm to support him, indicating that he could lean on her for support. “It’s okay, losing your composure for the first time can be uncomfortable. You’ll get used to it.”
To put Lin De’an at ease, she even used herself as an example. “The first time I lost my composure, I froze like a log and couldn’t move. I almost made my teammates beat me to death. You can still walk and jump, that’s already great.”
So, you’ve just lost your composure because of an unexpected, overwhelming surge of fear. You’ll get used to it. Look at me, I’ve been in this dungeon for some time, and my composure is only at 60. I’m still doing fine.
Haha, hahaha.
Zhou Qian straightened her back, trying to display a reassuring demeanor for the newcomer. However, navigating through the corridor, filled with cultists who had lost their sanity and were scattered on the floor, was challenging. Her resolve was fragile, with her composure at only 56.
This was especially true when one of the cultists, who was lying limp on the ground, suddenly grabbed her ankle and started laughing hysterically. In an instant, all the cultists in the corridor turned their heads and stared at her with icy, eerie eyes, while they emitted a chilling, terrifying laughter in unison.
“——!!!!!!”
“Hey!”
Lin De’an was violently pulled by Zhou Qian and was snapped out of the gloomy immersive feeling, almost losing his mind.
When he saw the girl leaning out of the window, Lin De’an knew that she had fallen into an illusion. He remembered how Zhou Qian had foreseen this scene before and taught Lin De’an the ultimate trick to wake anyone up.
“Right here! Strike hard! Don’t hold back because I’m a delicate flower!” Zhou Qian’s decisive and impactful instructions echoed in Lin De’an’s ear. He pulled her back with all his might, and with his arm raised, he slapped her with all his strength. The resounding slap echoed, and her conscience trembled along with it.
The girl’s fair cheeks quickly became red and swollen, and the pain that made her head buzz successfully pulled Zhou Qian back from the hallucination. Although she was gasping for air and covering her face with one hand, she did not forget to give Lin De’an a thumbs-up with her other hand. “Well played.”
Hiss – was the corner of her mouth cracked?
Zhou Qian murmured in her heart.
Without even taking a breath, she continued “They’re all dead, those cultists are all dead. We’ve been in an illusion since we got out, there’s definitely something here deceiving us!”
The position her body had taken just outside the window a moment ago made it inevitable for her to see the bright, pure white moon in the sky, but before that, she saw the twisted bodies of cultists below the window. Perhaps, just as she almost had, they had jumped out of the window in fear.
The traps meant to ward off external enemies had instead caused their deaths. Sharp wooden sticks in the traps pierced through bodies, resembling a kind of mournful instrument with a terrible tune.
And when she was pulled back from the window, she realized that the hallway was unmistakably empty, devoid of any human presence. Moonlight brushed over every corner like a sheer veil, and all she could hear was the sound of her own gasping breath.
It was too quiet, quiet enough to make one fearful.
“It’s okay, I’m still here, don’t be afraid,” Lin De’an held Zhou Qian tightly as she shivered, trying to give her some sense of security while keeping a vigilant eye out for any potential danger. It was only when he pulled Zhou Qian in from the window that he noticed the sudden and eerie silence surrounding them. It seemed like this building had always been this dead silent, and the chaotic and despairing scene moments ago was nothing more than an illusion brought on by his heightened emotions.
At this moment, Lin De’an even felt grateful for having Zhou Qian as a teammate he needed to protect. She allowed him to suppress the panic and weakness within him, giving him the courage to face whatever might come next.
“Let’s go downstairs,” Zhou Qian grasped Lin De’an’s arm to support herself, “to destroy the altar. That will definitely disrupt the ritual.”
The moon had turned white—according to her impression of the setting where the deity was born at night, the blood moon was a glimpse of Daeis’s descent. The fading moonlight might mean that Daeis had fallen asleep ahead of schedule. Zhou Qian guessed that this might be the escape route of their unidentified big-shot teammate. But no matter what, destroying the first-floor altar was the safest way to disrupt the ultimate ritual.
The time was about right now, it was too early, and the cultists’ alert level could easily lead to capture. Too late, and they wouldn’t be able to prevent Daeis from descending. The recommended time for destroying the altar in the strategy was between 3:30 and 4:30.
Zhou Qian tried her best to focus, not thinking too much about things she couldn’t delve into, like the cultists skewered beneath the window or the overly quiet environment, or the sound in the shadows that the moonlight couldn’t reach, resembling something chewing on something in the hidden corners behind her, and the scrutinizing glances lurking in every blind spot in her line of sight…
“I told you not to scare people randomly.”
Xu Yintang sighed, not very pleased, and knocked on the table to tell the two mischievous kids to behave. They shouldn’t drool and salivate when they see a living player passing by, eating what was on the plate and greedy for what was in the pot.
Even conspiring behind the scenes to scare the players, the cubs tried to frighten them so they would taste more delicious to secretly lick them. As if sneaking a mischievous treat while “Mom” was reading a book wouldn’t be discovered.
Well, if they had taken just a small bite, Xu Yintang wouldn’t have noticed, but what Second Treasure was eating wasn’t a small bite, and the overwhelming fear and helplessness was conveyed to Xu Yintang, leaving him almost choking.
After all, these emotions passed through him directly to Second Treasure.
To be honest, with such a large, sweet, and overwhelming bite of something like medical glucose being pumped in, Xu Yintang felt like he’d be woken up no matter what he was doing. If the mischievous kids kept causing trouble, Xu Yintang would have to put down “Nightmare Secrets” that he was reading halfway and roll up his sleeves to discipline them.
If they didn’t listen, this mom would have to test some of the early abortion techniques from “Nightmare Secrets.”
Author’s Note –
Zhou Qian and Lin De’an: Mutual support, survival in difficulties, full of tension.
Mother Xu Yintang: It’s getting cold again, time to discipline the kids 🙂
Mother Xu Yintang: Can this kid be returned? He’s still in the belly, brand new.
Sorry, “Live goods are not supported under the seven-day unconditional return policy :)”
Lol Xu yintang not hesitating to beat his kids is so real😂
Doesn’t even need a sandal
Thank you for your translation ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
Abortion LMFAO he’s wild