"This body... it's killing me. After all this rest and sleep... and I'm already struggling to keep going after just a short walk."
Time remaining: 8 hours.
On the mountain path, Leon had to pause every five steps to catch his breath. His lungs were desperate for oxygen, and his legs shook from lack of exercise and vitamin deficiency. His body was failing him rapidly.
Strangely enough, the religious Arkman showed better stamina than Leon. She clutched her cross tightly, dark circles under her eyes and barely a glimmer of hope in her gaze as she stayed close to him.
Despite Leon's obvious weakness, she wouldn't leave his side.
Leon spotted a structure marked on the map. "There's a farmhouse up ahead. We should take shelter there."
Their flashlight beams soon revealed a stone house built into the mountainside. Single-story, walls cracked - clearly abandoned years ago.
Leon could barely stand. If he pushed any harder, his body might give out completely. No matter how run-down the building looked, they needed the rest.
The moment they stepped inside...
Lightning split the sky, followed by an earth-shaking rumble of thunder.
The rain came down in sheets.
Thankfully, the roof tiles held tight with no leaks. In Leon's condition, getting soaked could mean catching a cold in these final hours - and that would be a death sentence.
They sat against the wall in the main room. Leon quickly dug out some energy bars and cold medicine from his backpack, trying to keep his strength up while warding off illness.
Across from him, Arkman sat unnaturally still. She didn't eat or speak, just gripped her cross while staring into space.
They sat in silence for about five minutes, listening to the rain hammer against the tiles.
Then Arkman spoke.
"You know... this reminds me of the church basement. Dark and damp... The priest always made me stay down there after volunteer work."
"Hmm..." Leon picked up something unsettling in her tone.
"I hated it... but I had no choice. If I didn't bring money home, my father would beat me - worse than the priest did. I had to obey. Being good meant getting paid."
Arkman's voice grew more intense, her fingernails scraping frantically at the dirt floor.
"You know what's funny? I was so close - just months away from becoming a full-time church employee! Regular paycheck, meeting new people, getting my life together. Then it all fell apart! My father banned me from the church. Said he had too many debts, wanted to sell me to pay them off. No... I couldn't let that happen! So I 'dealt with' my father. But when I ran to the church homeless, begging for help... The priest who'd been 'so kind' showed his true colors. Wouldn't let me stay, wouldn't let me work. Even tried to have me arrested! I never wanted this... All I wanted was a normal life. What else was I supposed to do?! TELL ME!"
Suddenly...
Her joints twisted with sickening pops as she shifted from sitting to crawling.
Leon instantly connected with Chen Li through their prison bond, sending a vital message... one that would determine his survival.
Arkman's black hair floated eerily as she crawled.
Leon's suspicions were confirmed - the true evil spirit had been among the six of them from the start.
She moved faster than his eyes could track, her fingers already pressing against his cheeks.
That familiar feeling of death.
Just like his final moments in the hospital when his breathing failed... though this would probably be quicker.
"Wait... let me do it myself. This body was dying anyway."
As he spoke, Leon pulled out a knife he'd prepared and held it to his throat.
His words and actions made the evil spirit 'Arkman' pause.
Leon's reaction was nothing like her previous victims... his eyes held none of the usual terror she saw before death.
She had seen how weak he was this whole time. Someone this weak couldn't possibly escape or survive.
To her surprise, this weak human had caught her interest.
"...You have one minute."
Leon gave a weak smile. "Thanks. Before I go, just one question. Why not kill most of us that first night? The others would forget about the dead anyway, right? No downside for you."
As he spoke, his knife broke skin.
Arkman, amused by her prey's unusual courage and certain of his imminent death, felt no need for caution. She answered his last question.
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"The first few days, I could only kill one person per night! Those were the rules.
Only in the final twelve hours do those restrictions start to fade... Get it? I'll finish you all off in these last few hours.
Don't worry, you'll have company soon enough."
Leon's theory was confirmed.
The 'restrictions' were real.
"Thank you."
Leon didn't hesitate.
The blade sliced deep across his neck, a lethal wound...
His frail body couldn't take such trauma. His eyes went dark as he slumped against the wall, dead.
Soon after.
Arkman received her own system notification.
『Survivor death detected. Cooldown reset: 4 hours... Survivors remaining: 2』
With that, she left, crawling spider-like from the abandoned house and racing down the mountain in pursuit of 'Murray' and his companion.
...
At the bottom of the mountain.
In the abandoned holiday inn's courtyard.
Monica stared up at Murray with hatred in her eyes.
His steam-powered arm had run her through.
"Why..." Monica never imagined she'd die not by the spirit's hand, but by the very person she'd trusted to protect her.
"Because of 'her'!"
Murray glanced at the woman in red standing silently among the trees outside the inn.
"You pathetic commoners were just bait from the moment you entered the Destiny Space. Your only purpose was buying me time."
Murray's carefully crafted 'good guy' act shattered in an instant.
As Monica collapsed, the red-clad woman who'd been lurking in the woods vanished...
Seeing this, Murray let out a long breath.
"Just my luck - the spirit came for me first... I need to find those two weaklings fast and squeeze more 'time' out of them."
After catching his breath, Murray headed up the mountain!
The downpour showed no signs of letting up - it would likely continue until the event's end.
On the muddy mountain path.
A woman in red with disheveled black hair walked toward the abandoned house, completely unfazed by the torrential rain.
When she reached the doorway...
A cleaver materialized in her hand as she cautiously entered the building, body tensed for combat.
Her eyes seemed to possess some night vision capability, allowing her to see clearly inside the pitch-black house.
She methodically searched every corner, ready to strike down any enemies with her cleaver.
After thoroughly confirming there was no danger.
She returned to the main hall and crouched beside Leon's slit-throated body, her red lips whispering near his ear:
"She's gone."
As soon as the words left her lips.
Fungal filaments sprouted from Leon's neck wound, reconnecting the severed flesh.
[Head Separation Experiment]
On the first night at the event location, Leon had secretly conducted this 'experiment' in his room - using a sharp knife to make a deep cut in his neck.
The fungal tendrils from his 'Faceless Head' could quickly bridge the wound and heal it.
Of course, this connection only worked between head and body - other parts couldn't be reattached this way.
This was because Leon's true form was just the 'Faceless Head' that consumed 100 load points.
Nicolas Warren's weak body was merely borrowed temporarily.
As long as the head and cell cluster remained intact, Leon couldn't die.
Using this trait, combined with gathered information and the unexpected side quest, Leon had spent the entire third day in his room meticulously crafting an incredibly complex plan.
This plan required many 'gears' working in perfect sync.
If any single 'gear' was missing, loose, or failed to turn at the right moment, the entire plan would fall apart.
The most crucial 'gear' was the "Possessed Chen Li."
What surprised Leon was that Chen Li proved even more special than he'd anticipated... her unique nature made the plan even more stable.
The most critical phase had just been successfully executed.
The moment Leon confirmed Arkman was the evil spirit, he immediately signaled Chen Li to act.
Disguised as the evil spirit, Chen Li actively pursued Murray and Monica.
This made Murray believe the evil spirit was after him.
Familiar with the 'hidden rules,' Murray would definitely kill the blonde to buy time... and if he didn't, Chen Li would do it herself.
The purpose was to make Monica's death coincide exactly with Leon's 'suicide.'
Leon had learned about the 'killing restrictions' from Arkman. When a squad member died, Arkman would receive a system notification.
Therefore, the evil spirit wouldn't suspect anything about Leon's suicide.
...
After reattaching his head.
Leon let out a deep breath, showing a rare smile:
"Finally made it this far! My theory was right - the evil spirit does have restrictions... with time being the most fundamental hard limit. However, these restrictions will weaken in the final hours, possibly disappearing entirely. Let's go... we need to get back to the inn."
Leon steadied himself against the wall as he stood.
He planned to return to the inn during the evil spirit's cooldown period and execute the final phase with the event characters.
However, Chen Li stood at the bedroom entrance, arm extended, pointing at something.
During her earlier search for the 'evil spirit,' she had apparently discovered something unexpected.
"A secret underground passage!?"
Moving the old bed she pointed at and lifting the carpet beneath.
A pitch-black, deep tunnel was revealed.
"Seven and a half hours until the event ends... only 'Murray' and I remain. The evil spirit's 'killing cooldown' can't be too short, probably at least three hours. Chen Li, let's check it out."
Instinct told him.
"There might be something valuable down there... if not, we'll still have plenty of time to get back to the inn."
Leon descended the damp steps, his flashlight beam leading the way into this mysterious cellar.
"Let me go first."
As they went down, Chen Li took point with her cleaver, protecting against any dangers... showing a distinctly protective attitude.
Moss, vermin, and the stench of decay.
As Leon stepped off the final stair, a familiar system message appeared:
『Hidden Area Discovered - [Corrupted Cellar]』
『Search for clues in this area to trigger corresponding event... Time limit: 15 minutes.』
"Another unexpected bonus!"
Leon's lips curled into an excited smile.
His first side quest came from talking to event characters, now another from finding a hidden area. The specific rewards would depend on what clues they found.
After about ten minutes of thorough searching.
In a corner where the soil looked disturbed, they dug up a notebook.
Written in messy Chinese characters, it detailed how 'a plague had ravaged the area, forcing the evacuation of the local tourist spot, turning [Prince Hill] into abandoned wilderness.'
"Tourist evacuation, all holiday inns abandoned, even villages and farms deserted... so a plague struck here?"
Chen Li spoke up: "My brother and I aren't locals. We only knew the area was abandoned after a plague, so we picked this empty holiday inn to lure Old Lady Wang and her husband."
"Hmm..."
Leon continued reading the diary.
The later pages described the family of five's internal struggles - their slow death from plague infection. As he finished reading, a family photo fell out.
『Hidden Event Activated - [Plague House]』
Requirements: Defeat 5 Plague Entities
Reward: One Destiny Item (matching host level).
The moment the system message ended... the cellar's soil began shifting extensively. Arms covered in small holes emerged from the ground, slowly pulling themselves up.
Five plague entities surfaced, matching the five people in the family photo perfectly.
Long dead, they had returned through the plague's power and the Destiny Space's influence. No longer human, they were just mindless organisms driven by fungal infection.
"Leon... leave these to me."
"Alright."
In his current physical state, Leon couldn't fight these plague entities. Beyond the risk of death, infection would be extremely troublesome.
Of course, Leon wouldn't just stand idle.
His backpack contained 'special items' bought in the countryside before the event started.
Two bottles of cheap, high-proof liquor and several disposable lighters.