Chapter 1 The Night

Night fell, and Wei Linglan tossed and turned in bed, listening to the crackling rain outside the window, unable to fall asleep for a long time.

If she could, she really wanted to leave this godforsaken place.

To get far, far away and leave the oppressive feeling in the center of her brow, like a maggot in the bone, far behind her.

Unfortunately, she was only a low-level Lv4 player.

In the quest log, a bunch of small words were clearly visible.

Quest Type: Regular Quest

Quest Name: Rhapsody in the Rain

Quest Objective: Find out the truth about the paranormal event in Dusheng Village

Quest Time Limit: 7 days

Quest Reward 1: 300 additional experience points

Quest Reward 2: 400 game coins

Quest Reward 3: Random quality skill scroll *1

Quest Failure Penalty: None

Wei Linglan was a well-known painter, and she should have been living a petty-bourgeois life. She considered herself just an ordinary artistic young woman.

She couldn't compare with geniuses who had fully developed wisdom, mental strength, perseverance, and physical fitness.

Being dragged into this morbidly insane game, she could only struggle to survive. One wrong step and she would fall into an abyss.

"The quest rewards are very generous, generous to the point of being abnormal."

Lying in bed, Wei Linglan thought to herself, "Among all the quest types in the Killing Game, survival quests are the most difficult, because the system believes that players simply surviving is already very difficult.

"Kill quests and puzzle quests are of comparable difficulty, and the latter is even easier in some cases.

"Because puzzle quests mean that the system assumes you don't need intense combat to complete them.

"There are more methods that can be used, and the time is relatively abundant."

The relatively simple quest requirements and the generous quest rewards formed a sharp contrast.

This most likely meant that the system believed she would encounter life-threatening dangers in the process of finding out the truth, dangers that were equal to the quest rewards...

Especially this evening, when she went up the mountain and found that the graves of all the recent dead in Dusheng Village had been pried open.

Who did it?

Ghosts? Passengers? Villagers? Or... other players?

If there really were high-level players with good intentions here, Wei Linglan would definitely kneel down immediately and hug their thighs.

She would do her best to perform "Please carry me, Big Bro, please, waaaah.jpg"

As she thought about it, Wei Linglan felt the center of her brow ache again.

Unlike the faint, dull pain she had been feeling for some time, her brow now felt like it was being pierced with needles, causing a sharp, throbbing pain.

This ability to anticipate danger not only gave her another secret identity in the real world, but also helped her safely survive several life-threatening crises.

Something was approaching this house belonging to the villager Lu He...

Wei Linglan glanced at Tian Youyong and Song Zhen, the couple sleeping soundly in the bed in the distance. She took a deep breath, lifted the quilt, and stood barefoot on the bedroom floor.

For seven months, people had been dying in Dusheng Village, but they were all local villagers.

Shi Derong was the only one who died last night, and the three college students inside the door were unharmed.

Maybe, as long as she didn't overreact, she wouldn't be attacked... right?

Thump, thump, thump.

A heavy thudding sound came from outside, as if someone was pounding on the wall with their fists.

Wei Linglan immediately and silently lay back down on the bed.

She took a small hand crossbow coated with virulent green poison from her inventory and propped up one leg, placing the crossbow to her left side, where the quilt could easily conceal it.

The thudding against the wall never stopped. Wei Linglan maintained an even breathing pattern, her seemingly sleeping eyes constantly fixed on the bedroom door.

"Heh heh heh heh..."

A sob was heard outside the door, coming from a throat.

With the occasional flash of lightning outside the window, Wei Linglan could clearly see a dark, withered hand stretching in from under the bedroom door.

The hand was so thin, the parched skin clinging tightly to the bones. The blood vessels were compressed by the skin, looking like the textured ravines on withered bark.

Wei Linglan instantly held her breath. Her brow felt like someone was drilling into it with a power drill, as if it were about to split open. Every organ in her body was screaming frantically, emitting terrified shrieks.

Her body wanted to pull the trigger of the crossbow, but her remaining rationality resisted the impulse again and again.

Thump, thump, thump, the thudding against the wall continued.

As if she were really asleep, she watched the black hand stretch further into the room, extending a strangely long forearm, groping from bottom to top, finally reaching the doorknob of the bedroom.

Click.

The door opened.

Outside the window, lightning flashed, and Wei Linglan could clearly see a ghostly figure crouching on all fours by the bedroom door, its clothes tattered.

The figure looked like a human, yet also like a beast.

Shoulder-length hair moved without wind, floating behind its head, swaying wantonly like seaweed soaked in water.

Behind that figure, Wei Linglan also saw the source of the thudding sound—

The elderly villager Lu He, who had accommodated Wei Linglan and the driver couple, was being held by the neck by an invisible force, hanging in the air.

Like a sandbag, his forehead was slammed against the wall again and again.

Many red and white bone fragments were embedded in the wall. Lu He's entire forehead had caved in, and pieces of flesh and blood splattered on the ground with each impact.

Wei Linglan's heart was gripped by extreme fear. She trembled all over, watching the figure on all fours slowly approach.

It reached out its hand and gently stroked its rough back across her smooth calf.

This scene had nothing to do with romance.

The figure reached out and grasped Wei Linglan's slender ankle. Just when she thought it was about to bite down,

Lu He's corpse outside the door fell to the ground with a thud.

It seemed like something was standing outside the bedroom door, communicating with the crouching figure beside her in some way that Wei Linglan didn't understand at all.

After a long while, the crouching figure on all fours released Wei Linglan's ankle and walked out the door. Before its figure completely disappeared into the darkness, it turned back and silently looked at her.

Wei Linglan's body was stiff and unable to move. It wasn't until the first rooster crowed in the village at dawn that she regained control of her body.

The bedroom door was still open, Lu He's mutilated corpse was just outside the door, and on her own ankle, a clearly visible, livid handprint remained.