NOVEL NEXT Chapter 74.1: Spineless Players
Chapter 74.1: Spineless Players
"Hal was lying," Qin Guan said with certainty.
"On the contrary, I think what he said is most likely true," Blossoming Stroke refuted.
Continuous usage of Illusory Disguise would deplete one's mental energy, which, when translated to players' character panels, manifested as a rage gauge for warriors or a mana bar for mages. The two had hurried out of the Wanderer Guild's hall in haste, finding an excuse to leave just before Qin Guan's rage gauge fully depleted.
Qin Guan couldn't understand where Blossoming Strokes was coming from and asked, "How so? The version of Hal we saw in the instance took on the job of burying bodies for money, but Hal himself claimed his family was well-off. There's a contradiction right there."
"It's not contradictory. He might have been affluent once, but due to his family's downfall, the young master who could once have attended prestigious institutions ended up doing all sorts of odd jobs for money. That's still rather plausible," Blossoming Strokes explained. "In the instance, the Hal we saw, though in a sorry state, was wearing a cashmere coat, which indicates that his family was well-off."
Qin Guan: "??"
"Before synthetic fibers became popular, cashmere was quite an expensive textile. During my childhood, our elders only owned two cashmere coats altogether, unlike nowadays, where you can easily buy cashmere fabric for several dozen yuan." Blossoming Strokes, who was a few years older than Qin Guan, had done a fair amount of research for writing her web s, and her common knowledge was way broader than the former. "The background setting of this game seems to be closer to 19th-century Europe. Under such circumstances, a typical street urchin wouldn't be able to afford a cashmere coat."
"Um… Alright then. So, that means Hal got to know Jim only after he fell on hard times. He's also not willing to talk about what happened after his family's downfall, so how are we going to gather information then?"
Blossoming Strokes replied, "We already have."
Qin Guan: "??"
Blossoming Strokes continued, "The term 'inner demon' has two interpretations. The first one refers to the morality within a person's heart, the duality of good and evil. It can also be understood as defects or obstacles in spiritual, psychological, and conscious aspects.
"The second one, in the domain of idealism, for example in movies, comics, and game depictions, is often represented through 'fantasy' or 'illusions.'"
"…And so?" Qin Guan still didn't get it.
"Evidently, this inner demon instance dungeon in OtherWorld is a combination of these two interpretations," said Blossoming Strokes as she put up three fingers. "In his younger days, Hal did live in the northern regions, and the young Hal we see in the instance is indeed dressed warmly. The body of Jim in the woven bag, whose name we now know, is wearing a knitted shirt and a dungaree. This suggests that Jim was killed indoors in a warm environment, then carried out by Hal. The living conditions of the deceased Jim and Hal are similar. That's one point.
"Two upper-body-only corpses emerge from Jim's body. The first, a topless woman, while the second is a muscular man wearing a jacket; both show an age difference from both Jim and young Hal. These individuals are adults, and from their clothing, it doesn't appear as if they lived in the cold northern regions. They must have been people Hal encountered later in life after moving to a different location. This is the second point."
Taking a pause, Blossoming Strokes raised her final finger bone. "The most crucial point… is the third one. The two adult bodies emerging from Jim's body are only half-formed and distorted in a way that makes it impossible to determine their original appearances. Given the premise that the 'inner demon instance' embodies idealism, we can conclude that the only true guilt Hal bears is related to the debt he owed Jim during his youth. The others are just extensions of Jim."
"Uh…"
"Perhaps… I now understand the true solution to this instance dungeon," Blossoming Strokes said confidently. "When night falls, we can give it a try. If this doesn't work, we can fall back on Qingyue's leg-severing strategy."
Earth time, October 26, Saturday, 10:30 p.m. In the game, players welcomed the night once more.
After having experienced a round of failure before, the three veterans of the closed beta sent a well-prepared team into the instance dungeon.
In the same eerie northern forest, young Hal dragging the blood-soaked woven bag stumbled through the thick layers of fallen leaves.
Young Hal fell, and an arm stretched out from the bag. The corpse came back to life as two upper bodies emerged from the young animated corpse in succession.
"Move out!"
Qin Guan gave the order, and the team consisting of two knights, six wanderers, and two warriors charged forward and engaged the boss in battle according to the experience they had gained from the previous night.
The only healer and mage in the team, Blossoming Strokes, didn't join the fight.
While her teammates held off the boss, Blossoming Strokes went over to the fallen younger version of Hal.
"Hal, isn't that your friend Jim?"
The young Hal, who had been regarded by players as a mere part of the scene for this instance dungeon… raised his head with a horrified expression.
Blossoming Strokes was greatly encouraged and continued pointing at the boss and repeated, "Hal, that's your friend Jim, right?"
"No… nooooo! He's not my friend, I don't know him!" Young Hal suddenly snapped and yelled at Blossoming Strokes.
Blossoming Strokes affirmed, "That's your friend, Jim."
"No, he's not. It's not true! He isn't my friend. I have no friends!" Young Hal trembled violently, and tears started to flow.
Blossoming Strokes remained unfazed and continued, "What did you do to your friend, Hal?"
"I… I…" Young Hal struggled internally for a while before he uttered miserably, "For a gold coin… buried Jim… don't let anyone find out…"
"You were going to bury Jim's body for a gold coin?"
"Argghh! Argh! Argh! Argghh!"
The teenage Hal clutched his head in his hands while sobbing and howling, "If I didn't do that, I would have been killed just like Jim! I had to take the money to prove that I'm a bastard who doesn't care about a friend's death for the sake of money!
"I don't want to be a bastard either, but if I don't become the scum that even I despise, I wouldn't be able to survive!"
"It's working! Blossom, it's effective!" Qin Guan's joyous voice sounded from behind. Blossoming Strokes turned to look and instantly felt invigorated. The corpse centipede boss made up of three bodies was disintegrating. The two other bodies of the boss that were grotesquely attached to Jim's body fell off and dissolved into ash!
This essentially meant that the difficulty of this boss encounter had been cut by more than half!
"I'm the most amazing—!" Blossoming Strokes exclaimed gleefully and turned back, ready to continue berating the teenage Hal…
And then, she froze.
The younger Hal, who had been sitting helplessly on the ground just a moment ago, unable to move, had somehow… stood up.
Hal's slender and frail teenage frame visibly stretched taller and broader within seconds, transforming into the physique of an adult.
Not just that… the boy's puerile face also aged, gradually resembling the adult Hal from the "real" world.
But compared to the "real" version of adult Hal, this version seemed darker and more sinister.
Young Hal's gaze lacked focus when he looked at people, but then, this dark version of Hal, who seemed to possess a sense of self-awareness, fixed his gaze on Blossoming Strokes, who was closest to him.
Even though Blossoming Strokes knew this was just a mirrored replica within the game, she still involuntarily took a step back.
"Everyone knows this… the rule of doing whatever it takes to survive… But Jim never forgave me."
The dark version of Hal stared intensely at Blossoming Strokes like a raving madman, uttering cryptic words, "Every time, every single time… Whenever I relaxed even a little, Jim would find me… How does he manage to locate me? Why does he persistently haunt me? No matter what I do, he always finds my weaknesses… Why is that?"
Blossoming Strokes stood mouth agape and retreated another step.
"I've already become so powerful…
"I've already taken down scoundrels more powerful than the one who killed Jim back then…
"I should be… more than just a scum now!"
As the dark version yelled out all this, he became even more grotesque—his body expanded like an inflated balloon, while his facial features became distorted. Fangs grew out of his mouth, and his skin turned into a leather-like dark bluish. His hair shot out like steel needles, while claw-like, menacing nails sprouted from his hands.
Even Qin Guan and the others standing at least 20 meters away were flabbergasted, let alone Blossoming Strokes, who was up close.
At that moment, a yellow notification popped up on the players' panels: [Congratulations, you have triggered the hidden boss of Hal Maxwell's Inner Demon Domain: Hal's True Inner Demon.]
Players: "What in the world…?!"
"This wasn't the outcome I wanted—ahhh!!" Blossoming Strokes wailed in despair as she clutched her head… and a swipe by the hidden boss's claw sent her offline.
A minute and 20 seconds later, the closed beta veteran's elite team was wiped out.
Elsewhere, Unceasing Entropy's team, who had entered the instance shortly after Blossoming Strokes' team, had been engaged in a battle with the boss for over 20 minutes. After arduously focusing their attacks and managing to sever one of the boss's legs, they met their demise in humiliation as the only healer, whose mental energy was essential for healing, exhausted her reserves. This unfortunate outcome occurred when the boss had less than 10% of its health left…
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