There Must Be Something Wrong With This Game!

Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Desperate Situation

Amidst the Shadow Person’s pleas, thirty seconds vanished in the blink of an eye.

Realizing it was powerless against Duan Fei, the Shadow Person tried to flee the moment the countdown ended. But at that exact instant, Duan Fei activated his Spiritual Armor.

The moment he activated it, Duan Fei found that his surroundings had frozen in time.

In that moment, Duan Fei felt like a nerfed version of Quicksilver, marveling at the wonders of a frozen world.

The fan beside him spun at a crawl. The second hand on the wall clock moved with agonizing slowness. And behind him, the terrified expression of the Female Little Demon—’no, the Shadow Person’—was frozen in place, clear as day.

Seventy-five points in Spirit—even with a third of it allocated to other Attributes—instantly tripled his reaction speed and Power.

Other games had implemented similar features before, but they always felt strangely disconnected, reminding players that the change wasn’t their own but an effect of the game.

But now, Duan Fei could feel this power genuinely augmenting his own body. He couldn’t help but marvel, ’Just how much insane tech is packed into this game, Abyss?’

A translucent Battle Armor materialized around Duan Fei. Though it was merely a fantasy armor outlined in silver-white lines, the Shadow Person behind him immediately felt its cold, aggressive Spiritual Energy.

With a shriek, the Shadow Person spun around to flee, but Duan Fei had already turned and grabbed its head.

His armored hand clamped down on the Shadow Person’s head. Silvery-white Spiritual Energy flowed from the armor, enveloping the creature. An immense surge of Spiritual Power poured into its body, causing it to scream, its eyes to roll back, before it collapsed, unconscious.

Although he didn’t have much Spiritual Power accumulated and could only maintain the armor for a second or two, that was more than enough time.

He tossed the unconscious Shadow Person onto the bed, pulled a blanket over it, wrapped it up tightly, and tied it with a rope. Only then did he scoff, "Useless thing."

On the other side of the monitor, Little Fatty watched, completely dumbfounded.

It had only lasted a second or two, but the sight of that awesome-looking Battle Armor had left a deep impression on Little Fatty.

Grabbing the intercom, Little Fatty shouted in disbelief, "Duan Someone, what the hell did you just do?"

"Nothing much. Just casually used a purple-rarity Skill. Standard procedure, no need to make a big deal out of it."

"And you still say you’re not using hacks!"

"It’s a game feature. Don’t like it? Don’t play."

Little Fatty watched Duan Fei with envy.

He was only joking about the hacks. After all, the game Abyss had been running for over a year without a single cheat program surfacing.

The developers had even encouraged hacking on their official website, stating, "Go ahead and use hacks. We absolutely will not ban you. In fact, we’ll even give you a reward."

The prize money for doing so grew daily, but to this day, it had never been claimed. No one had ever come forward to say they’d found an exploit.

Therefore, Little Fatty concluded that Duan Fei must have activated some special Talent, which only made him more envious.

Finally shaking off his feelings of envy, jealousy, and hate, Little Fatty looked at the Shadow Person bundled up in the blanket and asked, "Duan Someone, is that it? You’re done?"

"What else?" Duan Fei frowned at the monitor, making sure Little Fatty on the other side could see his disdainful expression. "You’re not thinking of... having a go while it’s still warm, are you?"

"How could I possibly be interested in a bizarre creature like that!"

"You can’t judge a book by its cover. Besides, have you checked the screenshots? It might just be your type."

"...Duan Someone, after this instance is over, let’s just blacklist each other. Playing with you is exhausting."

Duan Fei shrugged and turned on every light source in the room, even switching on a flashlight and aiming it directly at the Shadow Person.

He didn’t know if this would be enough to contain the creature, but he figured that for a creature of darkness, it might have some effect.

While the Shadow Person was still unconscious, Duan Fei stepped outside, got some coffee from the coffee machine by the door, and stashed it in his backpack.

As a proper gamer, scavenging every last item was a fundamental principle. Besides, this coffee actually had a useful effect.

After taking the coffee, Duan Fei suddenly noticed something on the side of the machine.

He reached in, hooked it with his finger, and pulled out a slip of paper.

The note seemed to have been written in a hurry and hidden there for the right person to find.

The note contained just one message: "We are all sacrifices. We can’t escape. Whether you survive until morning or not, you’re doomed to die. But if death is certain, why not go down fighting? If you feel you have enough courage, then I hope you can find the way to open every compartment of the safe. Inside, there is a path to the lowest level."

After reading it, Duan Fei crumpled the note into a ball. ’This instance is getting more and more complicated,’ he thought.

When he returned to the room, he saw the Shadow Person on the bed was already awake. It was trapped by the light, staring at Duan Fei with a terrified expression.

Shadow People can move through the shadows of objects and living beings, but now, her surroundings were completely flooded with light, leaving not a single dark corner.

The lack of shadows wasn’t fatal, but the anxiety of being outside her safe environment sent the Shadow Person into a panic. She looked at Duan Fei and cried out, "Sir, please give me a chance! Let me go!"

Duan Fei took out his Crowbar, sat down across from the Shadow Person, and pretended to pick his teeth with it. "That depends on your performance," he said.

The Shadow Person, this Female Little Demon, shivered at Duan Fei’s smile, the memory of his Spiritual Armor crushing her head still fresh in her mind.

’Thankfully, my head is still attached.’

Putting on an obsequious smile, she asked sweetly, "I wonder what Big Bro would like to know?"

After a moment’s thought, Duan Fei asked, "What was the point of trying to scare me?"

To Duan Fei’s surprise, the Shadow Person shook her head. "We weren’t trying to scare you. We were just trying to kill you. Wait, Big Bro, put the Crowbar away! I can explain!"

After she finally saw Duan Fei lower the Crowbar, the Shadow Person thought for a long moment before saying weakly, "Forget it, you might as well take it out again. I don’t really have a good explanation. We just want to kill you."

Pointing downward, the Shadow Person said, "There’s a hole that opened up down there. The other side of it is our homeland. Rain Woman, the Night Whisperer, and us Shadow People—we’re all from that hole."

"Then how did you get out?" Duan Fei asked.

"Someone made a pact with us and let us out. The world inside the hole is boring. There’s nothing there, and everything is fading into annihilation. But someone opened it. At first, the hole was very small, and only little things could get out, like Ye Wen. But fear, death, and despair... these things make the hole grow larger and larger, eventually letting out bigger things. There’s something especially big that’s already waiting. As soon as the opening is wide enough, it can come out."

"I see. I think I understand the plot of this game now."

"What did you find out?" Little Fatty asked hastily. "All I saw was you and that Shadow Person ’communicating’ on the bed for a bit, and now you say you get it? How exactly did you two ’communicate’?"

"It’s always a pain talking to people who aren’t sharp enough. For players with low Spiritual Power, this instance is probably just a horror mission where you survive until dawn. But just as the note said, even if you make it to morning, that’s just the normal ending. The problem seems to be solved, but it actually isn’t."

"Why do you say that?" Little Fatty asked, curious.

"You haven’t noticed it yet? I thought you, on your end, would have realized it sooner."

"Stop with the riddles! Get out of Gotham!"

"Alright, alright. The answer is that even when day breaks, we won’t be able to see it. The environment we’re in is completely sealed. We can’t see the sun at all."

Little Fatty glanced around his room, and cold sweat instantly beaded on his forehead.