Chapter 1 The Fray

Li Ang waved the fried skewers left and right, easily smashing back a group of monsters. The assault rifle in his hand, fitted with a silencer, fired and accurately hit the heads of the monsters closing in.

These monsters not only had sharp teeth and claws and ran as fast as horses, but they could also climb and leap like apes. Their small bodies contained strength no less than that of wolves and leopards.

Furthermore, they were fearless, completely disregarding Li Ang killing them one by one, or two at a time. They relentlessly pounced forward, determined to drag him down from the treetop, swarm him, and disembowel him.

"Similar to the collective hunting of a wolf pack, but I haven't detected any leader like an alpha wolf.

"Hardened skin, tough muscles. Rifle bullets can't directly kill them by hitting their bodies; you have to pierce their heads. Their individual combat strength is weaker than the Lickers in *Resident Evil*, but their advantage lies in their numbers.

"This mode of operation, combined with their quantity, is enough to pose a threat to modern mercenary legions in urban warfare."

Li Ang's mind raced, his pace slowing slightly, but he still had the capacity to carefully observe the enemy.

"As long as players have high enough agility and sufficient ammunition, they can easily kite them to death..."

Before he could finish speaking, the land below began to tremble slowly, the ground turning to sand and collapsing, revealing one deep pit after another, each about two meters in diameter.

Countless monsters crawled out of the pit tunnels, like endless cockroaches swarming out of a nest, running neatly behind Li Ang, forming a vast, dark mass.

Li Ang shouted, "Crap!" He immediately shook off the corpses of the monsters impaled on the gun barrel, only keeping two in his inventory, and stepped down, suddenly accelerating.

To avoid being surrounded, Li Ang also put on his in-ear headphones, activated his BGM skill, and played "Running" to increase his forward speed while running and jumping.

In a moment, Li Ang barely escaped the encirclement and rushed to the open space at the foot of the mountain. Looking back, he saw the prostrate monsters brake and stop collectively at the edge of the forest, not entering the open space.

"Roar—"

At the edge of the forest, the vast horde of monsters was unwilling, gazing at Li Ang with their scarlet eyes, howling at him in unison.

The two sides were only twenty meters apart, yet they never dared to step out of the forest.

As if they were fearing something.

Li Ang glanced at them coldly. If the occasion wasn't inappropriate, he would have liked to take out a loudspeaker and compete with them to see who had the louder voice.

Or play a few songs like "Above the Moon," "The Most Dazzling Folk Style," and "Lotus Pond Moonlight" to test the monsters' tolerance to square dance sonic attacks.

"I just don't know if their hesitation is because of the manor itself, or because of some factor within the manor..."

Li Ang muttered, turning around to look at the Williams mansion.

After leaving the forest, this Victorian-style mansion, hidden in the shade of trees, appeared even more magnificent and spectacular.

Although it was dilapidated due to disrepair, with mottled and peeling walls, withered flowers in the flowerbeds, and only a pool of stagnant water covered in green algae left in the fountain,

These factors, on the contrary, added a touch of gloom and depth, and an ancient and vicissitudinous meaning to the mansion itself.

Four figures stood quietly behind the flowerbeds, separated by a distance, seemingly talking about something.

After seeing Li Ang, one of the figures waved from afar but did not take the initiative to approach.

Li Ang also did not approach rashly but used the sniper scope to observe carefully.

Among the four figures, one was a tall, blonde, blue-eyed European beauty with long, light golden hair, wearing a heavy brown wool coat and black riding boots.

One was a handsome young man with short gray hair, wearing square-framed glasses, a well-tailored white shirt, and a red suit, with a half-smoked cigarette in his mouth.

One was a serious-looking young man of medium height, wearing a cloth robe and a black top hat.

And one, Li Ang had seen before, was the white youth stonemason he had met in the Aberration World mission.

There may be lucky people among the players who have survived several script missions, but there will never be fools. Since these people dare to show their faces, either they don't care about their identities being exposed,

Or, this appearance is not their true face.

Li Ang observed the four teammates and incidentally memorized the structure of the mansion in his mind. After finding nothing unusual, he put away his sniper rifle and walked towards the four figures.

Before he had taken a few steps, the light in front of Li Ang suddenly went dark, and the senses of hearing, smell, touch, and control over his body were quickly stripped away, even the speed of his brain's operation became extremely slow.

He could only see a human-shaped silhouette of a black shadow, firmly bound by chains, quietly appearing in the void in front of him.

The black shadow, whose face and gender were indistinguishable, was originally kneeling on the ground motionless, but after discovering Li Ang, it suddenly struggled violently, as if trying to break free from the shackles and pounce on him.

"You will die here!"

A hoarse and loud female voice rang in Li Ang's ear. The human-shaped black shadow in front of him suddenly retreated, as if dragged back into the void by something, disappearing.

The five senses returned again, and Li Ang, regaining control of his body, was shocked. He immediately activated the Ripple Breathing Technique, filling his body with surging Ripple energy.

At the same time, he gripped the three-edged bone-tipped spear in his hand and swung it fiercely behind him.

A woman stood behind him at some point. She was wearing a tattered red dress, with disheveled hair, a thin figure, and muddy hands gently resting on Li Ang's shoulders, her fingernails missing.

The three-edged bone-tipped spear, containing Ripple energy, swung heavily, but did not touch any solid object, simply passing through the woman's waist and abdomen.

"You will die here."

The woman, whose face was indistinguishable, muttered hoarsely, a strange laughter coming from her throat, "Find me..."

Li Ang retreated violently, activating the bone spear's blade towards the woman, but to no avail—the other party's figure quietly dissipated, leaving no trace.

Li Ang's expression was gloomy and uncertain. He asked Chai Da Xiaojie, but learned that in her line of sight, she had not seen any human-shaped black shadow or red-clothed woman. She only saw Li Ang's body stiffen, inexplicably pick up the three-edged bone-tipped spear, and sweep it horizontally behind him.

"What's wrong?"

Chai Da Xiaojie asked anxiously, "What happened?"

Li Ang told her what happened, wondering whether what had just happened was real or an illusion,

Whether it was a setting inherent in this script mission,

Or a secret plot by those teammates...

Mental attacks are the most unsolvable. Without props or skills of corresponding quality to offset them, you wouldn't even know how you died.

"..."

Li Ang shook his head and slowly walked towards the mansion, greeting the four teammates according to the appearance randomly displayed by the Face-Changing Mask.

"Hello everyone, I'm Chao Wei Lan Mao, do you still remember me?"