Chapter 29
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"Hey, wait a minute!" Qin Guan suddenly exclaimed. "This corpse isn't Morris!"
"Huh? How are you able to identify a person from his remains?" Give Me Medicine shot him a puzzled look.
"'Identify' skill, you idiot! It can be used on corpses too!" Qin Guan rolled his eyes at him.
With Qin Guan's reminder, the others were suddenly enlightened and began to use "Identify" on the corpse in the wall cavity.
This was the very definition of "One won't cherish what is easily obtained." Among the two groups of players, both Qin Guan and Brother Lahong had initially low Potential and ground for several days to raise their Potential to 40 in order to gain access to the "Identify" skill. Obtaining the skill had been painstaking, so naturally, they jumped at every opportunity to show it off.
On the other hand, players who were pre-equipped with this skill had a much lower utilization rate.
When "Identify" was used, words appeared above the skull of the skeletal corpse inside the wall cavity: [Yarlyn's corpse.]
"Yarlyn?!" Blossoming Strokes stared at Win by Grinding in shock.
Win By Grinding and Jiang Wei also looked toward her with equal astonishment.
Had their previous speculation been wrong? Quest protagonist Morris wasn't the last of the townspeople to enter the underground passage?
"Hold up, Yarlyn is Morris's good friend and is mentioned as the mayor in the previous letter. Yet he died here with Morris's letter to home… Does that mean Morris was already dead before the townspeople were wiped out?" Blossoming Strokes took a deep breath. "Wait a moment! Could the zombie arm that was discovered together with the letter by Give Me Medicine be Morris's arm?!"
The zombie arm was currently in Give Me Medicine's backpack. Upon hearing this, he hurriedly said, "I previously used 'Identify' and it was described as a 'severed arm without a body.'"
"I know, it's impossible to determine who it belongs to based on a single arm. What I meant was that Morris probably died before Yarlyn, which explains why his letter ended up in Yarlyn's hands!" Blossoming Strokes waved her hand and spoke very quickly. "It's also possible that Morris, due to the influence of that 'laugh,' morphed into some kind of mentally deranged monster, becoming the culprit, or one of the culprits, for the annihilation of the townspeople!"
"Whoa! The protagonist was the murderer?!" Guileless Gale and Phantom, who had been quietly listening to the exchange, were stunned.
"Not necessarily, it's just a possibility. In that case, besides finding the remaining letters, we may need to locate Morris's body." Blossoming Strokes paused for a bit. "Now we have two options: one is to go out and meet up with Unceasing Entropy and the others, and the other is to continue searching. Personally, I suggest meeting up with them first before continuing with the search. What do you guys think?"
There were multiple passages in the underground shelter, and judging by the scale of the shelter they found, it didn't seem like it could accommodate all the townspeople. In other words, if they followed the passages and searched further, there might be a larger underground space than the shelter they discovered.
Yarlyn, who probably hid behind the empty crates and suffocated, as well as the third letter they found, gave Blossoming Strokes an ominous feeling. She felt that something bad was bound to happen if the six of them continued to delve deeper into this eerie underground space for the search…
Qin Guan and Give Me Medicine would definitely be supportive of Blossoming Strokes. Guileless Gale and Phantom, the two players recruited by Brother Lahong, had no objections either. The four of them exchanged glances before finally eyeing Win By Grinding.
As players could use Identify to view basic information about each other, Win By Grinding, who was level 1 with a Potential value of 53, naturally held more sway among the numbers-driven players.
Jiang Wei glanced at the other deep passages in the shelter, hesitated for a moment, and reluctantly nodded. "Since… Give Me Medicine is here, it's safer to be more conservative."
Jiang Wei didn't think there would be any problem with taking a risk or being impulsive. After all, they would be wiped out in the worst-case scenario. However, he was also worried that if Give Me Medicine, who triggered the quest, died, it would have an impact on the quest. After all, the quests in this game were both mysterious and hardcore, and he didn't want to take such a gamble.
The group of six arrived at a unanimous decision and quickly retreated from the shelter…
On the other side, Unceasing Entropy's team had been running in the pitch-black passage for a while and arrived at a cave that was rugged, filled with grotesque rocks and covered in stalactites and bizarre mushrooms.
This cave was massive! Enormous! Comparing it to Lord Yang's herb field was like comparing a drop of water to an ocean!
But what was even more terrifying… spiders of various sizes and types infested every inch of this colossal cave, with no end in sight!
Amid the stalactites hung thick, peculiar cobwebs, and wherever the player's gazes fell, spiders of diverse shapes and sizes scurried and wriggled. On the ground, spider-like monsters with eight sharp-as-knives legs resembling mantises scuttled back and forth…
As soon as the five of them stepped out of the passage, without uttering a word, they swiftly turned around and fled at once. Tang Jia and Brother Lahong, who initially had been having an animated discussion on efficient monster clearing, raced ahead, leaving the others struggling to keep up.
Sorry for intruding!!!
Twenty minutes later.
The two groups of players rendezvoused at the predetermined time and location, the small wooden house where Give Me Medicine had triggered the quest.
"Huh, why are there only two of you? Where are the others?" Blossoming Strokes glanced at Unceasing Entropy and Brother Lahong with a perplexed expression.
"Um… they perished," Unceasing Entropy said awkwardly. "We stumbled upon a monster spawn point, and the entire cave was teeming with spider monsters. As we fled, I accidentally fell. Stuffed Gummy (Tang Jia), Yang Ying, and Study Obsessed turned back to save me… I managed to escape, but they didn't make it."
Tang Jia and Yang Ying were Zheng Qingyue's companions, so they would undoubtedly try to save her. As for Study Obsessed, the girl likely felt that since she had been saved once, she wanted to return the favor.
Blossoming Strokes, "…"
"You discovered a monster spawn point?!" Qin Guan exclaimed with excitement, showing zero sympathies for the three girls who had met their demise and kicked offline. "Did you find a safe route out of town?"
"The route is relatively safe. It's beneath the cellar in the northeast corner of town. Just follow the path until the end," Brother Lahong explained. "However, the area where monsters spawn is far from safe. The cave was teeming with monsters, making it impossible to set foot without a large party to hold our ground."
"Let's put aside the matter of the monster spawn point for now," Blossoming Strokes interjected hastily. "That area is connected to the quest. If we don't resolve the quest, the game designers might seal off the passage at any time."
How could Blossoming Strokes not understand the nature of players? If they knew about the monster spawn point, they might abandon the quest and indulge in mindless grinding!
As she spoke, both Qin Guan and Brother Lahong, who had already been tempted, calmed down. Both of them had the means to organize a large party for monster farming, so there was a high chance they would abandon the quest and have a blast.
Subsequently, both parties shared the information they had gathered…
"Morris's wife came searching for him, but she took the wrong path and ended up on the route that led to the monster's lair…" Blossoming Strokes' tone carried a hint of heaviness. As a writer, she was more sensitive and couldn't help but sympathize with the tragedy of the quest's storyline.
Unceasing Entropy carefully examined the two letters found by Blossoming Strokes' group and solemnly remarked, "You've also discovered something remarkable… This game even has a Cthulhu setting?"
"Most likely." Blossoming Strokes nodded. "The inability to judge distances, unheard laughter, losing control, going insane… It all seems like a curse from the Cthulhu Mythos. And most importantly, 'Yarlyn,' the mayor, suffocated himself in the hidden wall behind the empty box. Skeletal structures are bound to be damaged, but there weren't any visible injuries on Yarlyn."
Unceasing Entropy understood. "Exactly. Frightened by what was happening in town, Yarlyn sought refuge underground. But even underground, there were things that terrified him, so he remained hidden and dared not move… No wonder this town was chosen as the undead's resurrection spot by the Black Mage. There's something seriously amiss about this town."
After a pause, Unceasing Entropy continued, "I have another question. Did Morris's wife enter the underground tunnel voluntarily to search for her husband, or did she have to take shelter in the tunnel because she encountered danger on the surface?"
"What danger could there be in this town other than rats? It couldn't possibly be those slow-moving zombie NPCs," Give Me Medicine commented sarcastically.
As soon as he said that, everyone present stared at him intently…
"That's right! Zombies!" Blossoming Strokes forcefully pinched her thigh bone. "How could we forget something so obvious!"
"The zombie NPCs in town used to be the former townspeople? But wait, the letter mentions a general named Charlotte, yet the zombie general near the respawn point is named Lancelot Edgar," Qin Guan said, puzzled.
"Wait, wait!" Suddenly, Unceasing Entropy remembered something and raised the letter found in Yarlyn's possession with excitement. "The letter mentions 'the farmer's son Bierda' as the first person to go insane, and the zombie NPC who assigns the quest to clear the river is named Bierda!"
When players undertook quests, they rarely paid attention to the names of the NPCs assigning tasks to them.
Especially in a fully immersive game like "OtherWorld," players could only recall the names of a limited number of NPCs throughout the entire game, mostly the few advanced NPCs who mercilessly kill players, such as Assassin Instructor Hal, Ranger Instructor Tuttle, Treasure Expert Finley, Weapon Master Rex, and Knight Instructor Jerome.
Other NPCs like the Tailor or the one that sold backpacks probably didn't have their names remembered by players.
The only reason Unceasing Entropy could recall the NPC who assigned the river-clearing quest was because she had worked with Tang Jia and Yang Ying as laborers for a few days…
The players hurried to the vicinity of the river and discovered a zombie NPC with a green name above its head, "Bierda."
Upon spotting the players, this non-intelligent NPC initiated a conversation based on its programmed settings, "Greetings, compatriots. Would you be willing to help me with something?"
"Bierda, do you know Morris?!" Blossoming Strokes eagerly questioned.
The name Morris seemed to trigger something, and the rigid and mechanical Belda, who could only interact according to its settings, uttered new words, "Morris? That's truly a memorable name, I remember him."
"There's progress!" The players became excited.
Blossoming Strokes continued the interaction, "What happened to Morris? Where did he go? Do you have Morris' letter?"
"Yes, I do," Bierda responded only to the last sentence, slowly getting up and entering the small house behind itself.
The players, who would even recklessly barge into the tents where advanced NPCs resided, had predictably attempted to search through the wooden houses where zombie NPCs were before.
However, no player would dare to do such a thing now. While the zombie NPCs might not kill players like the advanced NPCs did, entering their houses would immediately trigger a red warning message: [Player violating the Undead Race Player Prohibition], followed by an immediate forced death and being kicked offline.
In any case, these zombie NPCs were protected by the system, which was even more formidable than advanced NPCs.
The group of players waited for what felt like an eternity as the zombie NPC, moving slower than a centenarian, finally retrieved a piece of sheepskin parchment.
It was the fifth letter the players needed to find, and while the characters were neatly arranged, the writing was hardly legible. Each stroke trembled violently as if the author had lost control of their hand when gripping the pen.
Fortunately, Morris seemed relatively coherent when writing this letter, and the system was able to translate its contents:
"Dear Anna,
I have lost track of how many days it has been since I left you, my love. But I can no longer see you. Perhaps… madness is a form of relief, and rationality would only bring unbearable pain. I despise myself for always being able to wake up, for repeatedly recalling the past with a rational mind, remembering my love for you, remembering how my sinful soul has become numb.
When Charlotte imprisoned those poor souls, everyone secretly rejoiced that the hardest labor would be taken care of by those outsiders. They smugly believed they were not the pitiful worms who had fallen so low… I am just like them, and for that, I am guilty.
Gradually, I realized that the eerie laughter was, in fact, the echoes of despair in the tunnel… While they were alive, we turned a deaf ear to their desperate cries, so close to us. We regarded their suffering as normal, never considering that they deserved compassion. We completely overlooked the most basic common sense—that they, too, are human.
They have returned… I smell the putrid stench emanating from my own body; I can no longer hold you with these hands. Our tainted souls and decaying bodies will forever remain here, our final redemption…
I can't recall how long I was lost this time, but vaguely, it feels like I had a dream. In the dream, I saw you, my Anna. I dreamed that you came for me, walking through the town, calling my name. I couldn't resist approaching you, but you were frightened. In the dream, you didn't recognize me, and you screamed and ran away, giving me immense heartache…
Fortunately, it was only a dream.
Loving you always, Morris."
Blossoming Strokes, "…"
She then passed the letters to her teammates for them to read. Everyone was bewildered by the contents of the letter…
"Have some empathy, you wretched designer!!"
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
"Hey, wait a minute!" Qin Guan suddenly exclaimed. "This corpse isn't Morris!"
"Huh? How are you able to identify a person from his remains?" Give Me Medicine shot him a puzzled look.
"'Identify' skill, you idiot! It can be used on corpses too!" Qin Guan rolled his eyes at him.
With Qin Guan's reminder, the others were suddenly enlightened and began to use "Identify" on the corpse in the wall cavity.
This was the very definition of "One won't cherish what is easily obtained." Among the two groups of players, both Qin Guan and Brother Lahong had initially low Potential and ground for several days to raise their Potential to 40 in order to gain access to the "Identify" skill. Obtaining the skill had been painstaking, so naturally, they jumped at every opportunity to show it off.
On the other hand, players who were pre-equipped with this skill had a much lower utilization rate.
When "Identify" was used, words appeared above the skull of the skeletal corpse inside the wall cavity: [Yarlyn's corpse.]
"Yarlyn?!" Blossoming Strokes stared at Win by Grinding in shock.
Win By Grinding and Jiang Wei also looked toward her with equal astonishment.
Had their previous speculation been wrong? Quest protagonist Morris wasn't the last of the townspeople to enter the underground passage?
"Hold up, Yarlyn is Morris's good friend and is mentioned as the mayor in the previous letter. Yet he died here with Morris's letter to home… Does that mean Morris was already dead before the townspeople were wiped out?" Blossoming Strokes took a deep breath. "Wait a moment! Could the zombie arm that was discovered together with the letter by Give Me Medicine be Morris's arm?!"
The zombie arm was currently in Give Me Medicine's backpack. Upon hearing this, he hurriedly said, "I previously used 'Identify' and it was described as a 'severed arm without a body.'"
"I know, it's impossible to determine who it belongs to based on a single arm. What I meant was that Morris probably died before Yarlyn, which explains why his letter ended up in Yarlyn's hands!" Blossoming Strokes waved her hand and spoke very quickly. "It's also possible that Morris, due to the influence of that 'laugh,' morphed into some kind of mentally deranged monster, becoming the culprit, or one of the culprits, for the annihilation of the townspeople!"
"Whoa! The protagonist was the murderer?!" Guileless Gale and Phantom, who had been quietly listening to the exchange, were stunned.
"Not necessarily, it's just a possibility. In that case, besides finding the remaining letters, we may need to locate Morris's body." Blossoming Strokes paused for a bit. "Now we have two options: one is to go out and meet up with Unceasing Entropy and the others, and the other is to continue searching. Personally, I suggest meeting up with them first before continuing with the search. What do you guys think?"
There were multiple passages in the underground shelter, and judging by the scale of the shelter they found, it didn't seem like it could accommodate all the townspeople. In other words, if they followed the passages and searched further, there might be a larger underground space than the shelter they discovered.
Yarlyn, who probably hid behind the empty crates and suffocated, as well as the third letter they found, gave Blossoming Strokes an ominous feeling. She felt that something bad was bound to happen if the six of them continued to delve deeper into this eerie underground space for the search…
Qin Guan and Give Me Medicine would definitely be supportive of Blossoming Strokes. Guileless Gale and Phantom, the two players recruited by Brother Lahong, had no objections either. The four of them exchanged glances before finally eyeing Win By Grinding.
As players could use Identify to view basic information about each other, Win By Grinding, who was level 1 with a Potential value of 53, naturally held more sway among the numbers-driven players.
Jiang Wei glanced at the other deep passages in the shelter, hesitated for a moment, and reluctantly nodded. "Since… Give Me Medicine is here, it's safer to be more conservative."
Jiang Wei didn't think there would be any problem with taking a risk or being impulsive. After all, they would be wiped out in the worst-case scenario. However, he was also worried that if Give Me Medicine, who triggered the quest, died, it would have an impact on the quest. After all, the quests in this game were both mysterious and hardcore, and he didn't want to take such a gamble.
The group of six arrived at a unanimous decision and quickly retreated from the shelter…
On the other side, Unceasing Entropy's team had been running in the pitch-black passage for a while and arrived at a cave that was rugged, filled with grotesque rocks and covered in stalactites and bizarre mushrooms.
This cave was massive! Enormous! Comparing it to Lord Yang's herb field was like comparing a drop of water to an ocean!
But what was even more terrifying… spiders of various sizes and types infested every inch of this colossal cave, with no end in sight!
Amid the stalactites hung thick, peculiar cobwebs, and wherever the player's gazes fell, spiders of diverse shapes and sizes scurried and wriggled. On the ground, spider-like monsters with eight sharp-as-knives legs resembling mantises scuttled back and forth…
As soon as the five of them stepped out of the passage, without uttering a word, they swiftly turned around and fled at once. Tang Jia and Brother Lahong, who initially had been having an animated discussion on efficient monster clearing, raced ahead, leaving the others struggling to keep up.
Sorry for intruding!!!
Twenty minutes later.
The two groups of players rendezvoused at the predetermined time and location, the small wooden house where Give Me Medicine had triggered the quest.
"Huh, why are there only two of you? Where are the others?" Blossoming Strokes glanced at Unceasing Entropy and Brother Lahong with a perplexed expression.
"Um… they perished," Unceasing Entropy said awkwardly. "We stumbled upon a monster spawn point, and the entire cave was teeming with spider monsters. As we fled, I accidentally fell. Stuffed Gummy (Tang Jia), Yang Ying, and Study Obsessed turned back to save me… I managed to escape, but they didn't make it."
Tang Jia and Yang Ying were Zheng Qingyue's companions, so they would undoubtedly try to save her. As for Study Obsessed, the girl likely felt that since she had been saved once, she wanted to return the favor.
Blossoming Strokes, "…"
"You discovered a monster spawn point?!" Qin Guan exclaimed with excitement, showing zero sympathies for the three girls who had met their demise and kicked offline. "Did you find a safe route out of town?"
"The route is relatively safe. It's beneath the cellar in the northeast corner of town. Just follow the path until the end," Brother Lahong explained. "However, the area where monsters spawn is far from safe. The cave was teeming with monsters, making it impossible to set foot without a large party to hold our ground."
"Let's put aside the matter of the monster spawn point for now," Blossoming Strokes interjected hastily. "That area is connected to the quest. If we don't resolve the quest, the game designers might seal off the passage at any time."
How could Blossoming Strokes not understand the nature of players? If they knew about the monster spawn point, they might abandon the quest and indulge in mindless grinding!
As she spoke, both Qin Guan and Brother Lahong, who had already been tempted, calmed down. Both of them had the means to organize a large party for monster farming, so there was a high chance they would abandon the quest and have a blast.
Subsequently, both parties shared the information they had gathered…
"Morris's wife came searching for him, but she took the wrong path and ended up on the route that led to the monster's lair…" Blossoming Strokes' tone carried a hint of heaviness. As a writer, she was more sensitive and couldn't help but sympathize with the tragedy of the quest's storyline.
Unceasing Entropy carefully examined the two letters found by Blossoming Strokes' group and solemnly remarked, "You've also discovered something remarkable… This game even has a Cthulhu setting?"
"Most likely." Blossoming Strokes nodded. "The inability to judge distances, unheard laughter, losing control, going insane… It all seems like a curse from the Cthulhu Mythos. And most importantly, 'Yarlyn,' the mayor, suffocated himself in the hidden wall behind the empty box. Skeletal structures are bound to be damaged, but there weren't any visible injuries on Yarlyn."
Unceasing Entropy understood. "Exactly. Frightened by what was happening in town, Yarlyn sought refuge underground. But even underground, there were things that terrified him, so he remained hidden and dared not move… No wonder this town was chosen as the undead's resurrection spot by the Black Mage. There's something seriously amiss about this town."
After a pause, Unceasing Entropy continued, "I have another question. Did Morris's wife enter the underground tunnel voluntarily to search for her husband, or did she have to take shelter in the tunnel because she encountered danger on the surface?"
"What danger could there be in this town other than rats? It couldn't possibly be those slow-moving zombie NPCs," Give Me Medicine commented sarcastically.
As soon as he said that, everyone present stared at him intently…
"That's right! Zombies!" Blossoming Strokes forcefully pinched her thigh bone. "How could we forget something so obvious!"
"The zombie NPCs in town used to be the former townspeople? But wait, the letter mentions a general named Charlotte, yet the zombie general near the respawn point is named Lancelot Edgar," Qin Guan said, puzzled.
"Wait, wait!" Suddenly, Unceasing Entropy remembered something and raised the letter found in Yarlyn's possession with excitement. "The letter mentions 'the farmer's son Bierda' as the first person to go insane, and the zombie NPC who assigns the quest to clear the river is named Bierda!"
When players undertook quests, they rarely paid attention to the names of the NPCs assigning tasks to them.
Especially in a fully immersive game like "OtherWorld," players could only recall the names of a limited number of NPCs throughout the entire game, mostly the few advanced NPCs who mercilessly kill players, such as Assassin Instructor Hal, Ranger Instructor Tuttle, Treasure Expert Finley, Weapon Master Rex, and Knight Instructor Jerome.
Other NPCs like the Tailor or the one that sold backpacks probably didn't have their names remembered by players.
The only reason Unceasing Entropy could recall the NPC who assigned the river-clearing quest was because she had worked with Tang Jia and Yang Ying as laborers for a few days…
The players hurried to the vicinity of the river and discovered a zombie NPC with a green name above its head, "Bierda."
Upon spotting the players, this non-intelligent NPC initiated a conversation based on its programmed settings, "Greetings, compatriots. Would you be willing to help me with something?"
"Bierda, do you know Morris?!" Blossoming Strokes eagerly questioned.
The name Morris seemed to trigger something, and the rigid and mechanical Belda, who could only interact according to its settings, uttered new words, "Morris? That's truly a memorable name, I remember him."
"There's progress!" The players became excited.
Blossoming Strokes continued the interaction, "What happened to Morris? Where did he go? Do you have Morris' letter?"
"Yes, I do," Bierda responded only to the last sentence, slowly getting up and entering the small house behind itself.
The players, who would even recklessly barge into the tents where advanced NPCs resided, had predictably attempted to search through the wooden houses where zombie NPCs were before.
However, no player would dare to do such a thing now. While the zombie NPCs might not kill players like the advanced NPCs did, entering their houses would immediately trigger a red warning message: [Player violating the Undead Race Player Prohibition], followed by an immediate forced death and being kicked offline.
In any case, these zombie NPCs were protected by the system, which was even more formidable than advanced NPCs.
The group of players waited for what felt like an eternity as the zombie NPC, moving slower than a centenarian, finally retrieved a piece of sheepskin parchment.
It was the fifth letter the players needed to find, and while the characters were neatly arranged, the writing was hardly legible. Each stroke trembled violently as if the author had lost control of their hand when gripping the pen.
Fortunately, Morris seemed relatively coherent when writing this letter, and the system was able to translate its contents:
"Dear Anna,
I have lost track of how many days it has been since I left you, my love. But I can no longer see you. Perhaps… madness is a form of relief, and rationality would only bring unbearable pain. I despise myself for always being able to wake up, for repeatedly recalling the past with a rational mind, remembering my love for you, remembering how my sinful soul has become numb.
When Charlotte imprisoned those poor souls, everyone secretly rejoiced that the hardest labor would be taken care of by those outsiders. They smugly believed they were not the pitiful worms who had fallen so low… I am just like them, and for that, I am guilty.
Gradually, I realized that the eerie laughter was, in fact, the echoes of despair in the tunnel… While they were alive, we turned a deaf ear to their desperate cries, so close to us. We regarded their suffering as normal, never considering that they deserved compassion. We completely overlooked the most basic common sense—that they, too, are human.
They have returned… I smell the putrid stench emanating from my own body; I can no longer hold you with these hands. Our tainted souls and decaying bodies will forever remain here, our final redemption…
I can't recall how long I was lost this time, but vaguely, it feels like I had a dream. In the dream, I saw you, my Anna. I dreamed that you came for me, walking through the town, calling my name. I couldn't resist approaching you, but you were frightened. In the dream, you didn't recognize me, and you screamed and ran away, giving me immense heartache…
Fortunately, it was only a dream.
Loving you always, Morris."
Blossoming Strokes, "…"
She then passed the letters to her teammates for them to read. Everyone was bewildered by the contents of the letter…
"Have some empathy, you wretched designer!!"
"Hey, wait a minute!" Qin Guan suddenly exclaimed. "This corpse isn't Morris!""Huh? How are you able to identify a person from his remains?" Give Me Medicine shot him a puzzled look."'Identify' skill, you idiot! It can be used on corpses too!" Qin Guan rolled his eyes at him.With Qin Guan's reminder, the others were suddenly enlightened and began to use "Identify" on the corpse in the wall cavity.This was the very definition of "One won't cherish what is easily obtained." Among the two groups of players, both Qin Guan and Brother Lahong had initially low Potential and ground for several days to raise their Potential to 40 in order to gain access to the "Identify" skill. Obtaining the skill had been painstaking, so naturally, they jumped at every opportunity to show it off.On the other hand, players who were pre-equipped with this skill had a much lower utilization rate.When "Identify" was used, words appeared above the skull of the skeletal corpse inside the wall cavity: Yarlyn's corpse."Yarlyn?!" Blossoming Strokes stared at Win by Grinding in shock.Win By Grinding and Jiang Wei also looked toward her with equal astonishment.Had their previous speculation been wrong? Quest protagonist Morris wasn't the last of the townspeople to enter the underground passage?"Hold up, Yarlyn is Morris's good friend and is mentioned as the mayor in the previous letter. Yet he died here with Morris's letter to home Does that mean Morris was already dead before the townspeople were wiped out?" Blossoming Strokes took a deep breath. "Wait a moment! Could the zombie arm that was discovered together with the letter by Give Me Medicine be Morris's arm?!"The zombie arm was currently in Give Me Medicine's backpack. Upon hearing this, he hurriedly said, "I previously used 'Identify' and it was described as a 'severed arm without a body.'""I know, it's impossible to determine who it belongs to based on a single arm. What I meant was that Morris probably died before Yarlyn, which explains why his letter ended up in Yarlyn's hands!" Blossoming Strokes waved her hand and spoke very quickly. "It's also possible that Morris, due to the influence of that 'laugh,' morphed into some kind of mentally deranged monster, becoming the culprit, or one of the culprits, for the annihilation of the townspeople!""Whoa! The protagonist was the murderer?!" Guileless Gale and Phantom, who had been quietly listening to the exchange, were stunned."Not necessarily, it's just a possibility. In that case, besides finding the remaining letters, we may need to locate Morris's body." Blossoming Strokes paused for a bit. "Now we have two options: one is to go out and meet up with Unceasing Entropy and the others, and the other is to continue searching. Personally, I suggest meeting up with them first before continuing with the search. What do you guys think?"There were multiple passages in the underground shelter, and judging by the scale of the shelter they found, it didn't seem like it could accommodate all the townspeople. In other words, if they followed the passages and searched further, there might be a larger underground space than the shelter they discovered.Yarlyn, who probably hid behind the empty crates and suffocated, as well as the third letter they found, gave Blossoming Strokes an ominous feeling. She felt that something bad was bound to happen if the six of them continued to delve deeper into this eerie underground space for the searchQin Guan and Give Me Medicine would definitely be supportive of Blossoming Strokes. Guileless Gale and Phantom, the two players recruited by Brother Lahong, had no objections either. The four of them exchanged glances before finally eyeing Win By Grinding.As players could use Identify to view basic information about each other, Win By Grinding, who was level 1 with a Potential value of 53, naturally held more sway among the numbers-driven players.Jiang Wei glanced at the other deep passages in the shelter, hesitated for a moment, and reluctantly nodded. "Since Give Me Medicine is here, it's safer to be more conservative."Jiang Wei didn't think there would be any problem with taking a risk or being impulsive. After all, they would be wiped out in the worst-case scenario. However, he was also worried that if Give Me Medicine, who triggered the quest, died, it would have an impact on the quest. After all, the quests in this game were both mysterious and hardcore, and he didn't want to take such a gamble.The group of six arrived at a unanimous decision and quickly retreated from the shelterOn the other side, Unceasing Entropy's team had been running in the pitch-black passage for a while and arrived at a cave that was rugged, filled with grotesque rocks and covered in stalactites and bizarre mushrooms.This cave was massive! Enormous! Comparing it to Lord Yang's herb field was like comparing a drop of water to an ocean!But what was even more terrifying spiders of various sizes and types infested every inch of this colossal cave, with no end in sight!Amid the stalactites hung thick, peculiar cobwebs, and wherever the player's gazes fell, spiders of diverse shapes and sizes scurried and wriggled. On the ground, spider-like monsters with eight sharp-as-knives legs resembling mantises scuttled back and forthAs soon as the five of them stepped out of the passage, without uttering a word, they swiftly turned around and fled at once. Tang Jia and Brother Lahong, who initially had been having an animated discussion on efficient monster clearing, raced ahead, leaving the others struggling to keep up.Sorry for intruding!!!Twenty minutes later.The two groups of players rendezvoused at the predetermined time and location, the small wooden house where Give Me Medicine had triggered the quest."Huh, why are there only two of you? Where are the others?" Blossoming Strokes glanced at Unceasing Entropy and Brother Lahong with a perplexed expression."Um they perished," Unceasing Entropy said awkwardly. "We stumbled upon a monster spawn point, and the entire cave was teeming with spider monsters. As we fled, I accidentally fell. Stuffed Gummy Tang Jia, Yang Ying, and Study Obsessed turned back to save me I managed to escape, but they didn't make it."Tang Jia and Yang Ying were Zheng Qingyue's companions, so they would undoubtedly try to save her. As for Study Obsessed, the girl likely felt that since she had been saved once, she wanted to return the favor.Blossoming Strokes, """You discovered a monster spawn point?!" Qin Guan exclaimed with excitement, showing zero sympathies for the three girls who had met their demise and kicked offline. "Did you find a safe route out of town?""The route is relatively safe. It's beneath the cellar in the northeast corner of town. Just follow the path until the end," Brother Lahong explained. "However, the area where monsters spawn is far from safe. The cave was teeming with monsters, making it impossible to set foot without a large party to hold our ground.""Let's put aside the matter of the monster spawn point for now," Blossoming Strokes interjected hastily. "That area is connected to the quest. If we don't resolve the quest, the game designers might seal off the passage at any time."How could Blossoming Strokes not understand the nature of players? If they knew about the monster spawn point, they might abandon the quest and indulge in mindless grinding!As she spoke, both Qin Guan and Brother Lahong, who had already been tempted, calmed down. Both of them had the means to organize a large party for monster farming, so there was a high chance they would abandon the quest and have a blast.Subsequently, both parties shared the information they had gathered"Morris's wife came searching for him, but she took the wrong path and ended up on the route that led to the monster's lair" Blossoming Strokes' tone carried a hint of heaviness. As a writer, she was more sensitive and couldn't help but sympathize with the tragedy of the quest's storyline.Unceasing Entropy carefully examined the two letters found by Blossoming Strokes' group and solemnly remarked, "You've also discovered something remarkable This game even has a Cthulhu setting?""Most likely." Blossoming Strokes nodded. "The inability to judge distances, unheard laughter, losing control, going insane It all seems like a curse from the Cthulhu Mythos. And most importantly, 'Yarlyn,' the mayor, suffocated himself in the hidden wall behind the empty box. Skeletal structures are bound to be damaged, but there weren't any visible injuries on Yarlyn."Unceasing Entropy understood. "Exactly. Frightened by what was happening in town, Yarlyn sought refuge underground. But even underground, there were things that terrified him, so he remained hidden and dared not move No wonder this town was chosen as the undead's resurrection spot by the Black Mage. There's something seriously amiss about this town."After a pause, Unceasing Entropy continued, "I have another question. Did Morris's wife enter the underground tunnel voluntarily to search for her husband, or did she have to take shelter in the tunnel because she encountered danger on the surface?""What danger could there be in this town other than rats? It couldn't possibly be those slow-moving zombie NPCs," Give Me Medicine commented sarcastically.As soon as he said that, everyone present stared at him intently"That's right! Zombies!" Blossoming Strokes forcefully pinched her thigh bone. "How could we forget something so obvious!""The zombie NPCs in town used to be the former townspeople? But wait, the letter mentions a general named Charlotte, yet the zombie general near the respawn point is named Lancelot Edgar," Qin Guan said, puzzled."Wait, wait!" Suddenly, Unceasing Entropy remembered something and raised the letter found in Yarlyn's possession with excitement. "The letter mentions 'the farmer's son Bierda' as the first person to go insane, and the zombie NPC who assigns the quest to clear the river is named Bierda!"When players undertook quests, they rarely paid attention to the names of the NPCs assigning tasks to them.Especially in a fully immersive game like "OtherWorld," players could only recall the names of a limited number of NPCs throughout the entire game, mostly the few advanced NPCs who mercilessly kill players, such as Assassin Instructor Hal, Ranger Instructor Tuttle, Treasure Expert Finley, Weapon Master Rex, and Knight Instructor Jerome.Other NPCs like the Tailor or the one that sold backpacks probably didn't have their names remembered by players.The only reason Unceasing Entropy could recall the NPC who assigned the river-clearing quest was because she had worked with Tang Jia and Yang Ying as laborers for a few daysThe players hurried to the vicinity of the river and discovered a zombie NPC with a green name above its head, "Bierda."Upon spotting the players, this non-intelligent NPC initiated a conversation based on its programmed settings, "Greetings, compatriots. Would you be willing to help me with something?""Bierda, do you know Morris?!" Blossoming Strokes eagerly questioned.The name Morris seemed to trigger something, and the rigid and mechanical Belda, who could only interact according to its settings, uttered new words, "Morris? That's truly a memorable name, I remember him.""There's progress!" The players became excited.Blossoming Strokes continued the interaction, "What happened to Morris? Where did he go? Do you have Morris' letter?""Yes, I do," Bierda responded only to the last sentence, slowly getting up and entering the small house behind itself.The players, who would even recklessly barge into the tents where advanced NPCs resided, had predictably attempted to search through the wooden houses where zombie NPCs were before.However, no player would dare to do such a thing now. While the zombie NPCs might not kill players like the advanced NPCs did, entering their houses would immediately trigger a red warning message: Player violating the Undead Race Player Prohibition, followed by an immediate forced death and being kicked offline.In any case, these zombie NPCs were protected by the system, which was even more formidable than advanced NPCs.The group of players waited for what felt like an eternity as the zombie NPC, moving slower than a centenarian, finally retrieved a piece of sheepskin parchment.It was the fifth letter the players needed to find, and while the characters were neatly arranged, the writing was hardly legible. Each stroke trembled violently as if the author had lost control of their hand when gripping the pen.Fortunately, Morris seemed relatively coherent when writing this letter, and the system was able to translate its contents:"Dear Anna,I have lost track of how many days it has been since I left you, my love. But I can no longer see you. Perhaps madness is a form of relief, and rationality would only bring unbearable pain. I despise myself for always being able to wake up, for repeatedly recalling the past with a rational mind, remembering my love for you, remembering how my sinful soul has become numb.When Charlotte imprisoned those poor souls, everyone secretly rejoiced that the hardest labor would be taken care of by those outsiders. They smugly believed they were not the pitiful worms who had fallen so low I am just like them, and for that, I am guilty.Gradually, I realized that the eerie laughter was, in fact, the echoes of despair in the tunnel While they were alive, we turned a deaf ear to their desperate cries, so close to us. We regarded their suffering as normal, never considering that they deserved compassion. We completely overlooked the most basic common sensethat they, too, are human.They have returned I smell the putrid stench emanating from my own body; I can no longer hold you with these hands. Our tainted souls and decaying bodies will forever remain here, our final redemptionI can't recall how long I was lost this time, but vaguely, it feels like I had a dream. In the dream, I saw you, my Anna. I dreamed that you came for me, walking through the town, calling my name. I couldn't resist approaching you, but you were frightened. In the dream, you didn't recognize me, and you screamed and ran away, giving me immense heartacheFortunately, it was only a dream.Loving you always, Morris."Blossoming Strokes, ""She then passed the letters to her teammates for them to read. Everyone was bewildered by the contents of the letter"Have some empathy, you wretched designer!!"
