26: Wouldn't that be too cruel and terrifying for the players?

Li Zhou withdrew his gaze and, after committing the two hints to memory, began to survey his surroundings.

The clearance requirements stated that the player's starting location was on the fourth floor of the castle.

Looking at the strange sundries around him and the roof structure, Li Zhou estimated that he was currently in an attic on the top floor.

He casually picked up an item from the floor, but the next moment, the object in his hand crumbled into dust particles, flowing like quicksand through his fingers.

Li Zhou spread his palm, his brow furrowing.

“Has it been that long?”

However, he didn't dwell on it; the sundries on the floor all looked identical, covered in dust, likely so decayed that they would shatter at a touch.

Scanning his surroundings, Li Zhou's gaze was soon drawn to a statue not far in front of him.

He unconsciously walked towards the statue, his light footsteps echoing in the silent attic.

As he got closer, Li Zhou quickly saw the full appearance of the statue.

It was a statue of Jesus.

The statue was in the middle of the attic, and the crimson afterglow of the setting sun, streaming in from the skylight, fell upon Jesus's face, adding a hazy, illusory quality to him.

The statue was lifelike but also covered in cracks, as if it would shatter at any moment.

In his clasped hands on his chest, hung an ancient, unremarkable crucifix.

Li Zhou stood before the statue, gazing up at it for a while.

After finding no clues, he withdrew his gaze and began to search for an exit.

When night falls, devils will descend; he didn't have much time to waste.

Soon, Li Zhou found an exit in the corner of the attic.

It was a passage that required bending over to crawl through.

Slightly crouching, Li Zhou looked at the dark passage, and a sense of panic unconsciously rose within him.

It was as if the end of this passage was not freedom, but death.

Forcibly suppressing the panic in his heart, a hint of realization suddenly flashed in Li Zhou's eyes.

He finally knew why he was panicking.

Aside from the environment, which was too real to be an instance, this castle was too quiet!

No, it should be described as deathly silent!

Aside from his breathing and heartbeat, Li Zhou heard no other sounds at all!

That sense of isolated helplessness made him feel suffocated for a moment!

“Interesting!”

Li Zhou licked his lips, a hint of excitement flashing in his eyes.

Many Haunted Houses would spend a fortune on background music, aiming to play scary sound effects to create a thrilling atmosphere when players explored.

But now Li Zhou finally understood that those terrifying and eerie sound effects were simply not worth mentioning compared to absolute silence.

It seems he should tell Fang Xiaolu to use less horror BGM in the future.

Sometimes, having nothing at all and letting players imagine it themselves might yield better results.

Without overthinking, Li Zhou bent down and crawled directly into the passage.

Soon, in a corridor, Li Zhou crawled out of the passage.

Dusting himself off, he curiously looked around.

It was a corridor nearly two meters wide, illuminated by a wall lamp emitting a pale, moonlight-like glow.

The corridor was empty, with no rooms or windows.

Behind him was a wall, and Li Zhou thought for a moment before starting to walk forward.

This corridor was very long, with a wall lamp illuminating it approximately every six or seven meters.

As he passed the first wall lamp, Li Zhou instinctively looked up.

He wanted to see what kind of wall lamp could emit light similar to the moon.

However, the next moment, he suddenly frowned.

Above his head, a large head hung silently on the corridor wall.

The head was rotten, yet still had traces of red and white flesh.

In its hollow eye sockets, two eerie ghostly flames flickered, pale and bizarre.

It turned out that these wall lamps were made from human heads.

Drip.

The ghostly flames scorched the strands of flesh on the head, and a drop of dark yellow blood bead fell, landing on the corridor.

A sizzling sound arose, and upon closer inspection, this lamp-oil-like substance was actually corrosive!

The floor beneath his feet began to emit black smoke, and soon a small hole appeared.

“What the heck! Is this real or fake?”

Seeing this, Li Zhou quickly dodged to the side.

“System, what is this all about?”

Suddenly, a cold sensation came from his forehead, as if something had landed on it.

Li Zhou instinctively reached up to touch it, only to find that his finger was rapidly corroding, revealing stark white bone!

??!

Before he could think further, an extremely realistic stinging pain came.

A dark yellow blood bead slid from his brow, flowed down his cheek, and then across his lips.

A soul-piercing stench entered his nostrils.

Then, Li Zhou's entire head began to rot, flesh sizzling, emitting black smoke... The scene before him suddenly changed.

The familiar attic reappeared.

He touched his forehead, the sensation of corrosion still faintly present.

“What is going on?!”

Li Zhou was a bit bewildered.

The drop of what he didn't know was corpse oil or wax tear that fell from the wall lamp earlier was clearly poisonous.

In just a moment, it had completely corroded his entire head.

That extremely vivid sense of terror made Li Zhou instinctively believe he had died.

“Ding, hint: All venues in the System Mall are equipped with cutting-edge VR technology.”

“The moment players enter a venue, they will experience terror with 100% immersion. If they die, they will be teleported back to the starting point.”

The system prompted.

“VR? Fake?”

Li Zhou was stunned.

But soon, he came to his senses.

Indeed, if it wasn't fake, wouldn't he have already died just now?

“This Devils Castle is quite interesting!”

That feeling of being on the verge of death just now almost made Li Zhou believe it.

“Wait!”

Suddenly, Li Zhou seemed to have thought of something, and his face gradually showed a hint of excitement.

If the venues in the System Mall had VR technology...

Doesn't that mean he could let his horror employees go all out in the future?

After all, they wouldn't really die.

100% immersive... how scary would that be?

Realizing this, Li Zhou was instantly overjoyed.

“Sure enough, 100,000 fright value was worth it!”

“Haha!”

He could already imagine the desperate faces of those players when they saw Goethe's saw falling on them.

But then again, wouldn't that be a bit too cruel and terrifying for those players?

“Who cares!”

If it's not terrifying, what kind of Haunted House would it be?

Coming back to his senses, Li Zhou shook his head and stopped thinking further.

For now, he still needed to clear the instance and get permission first.

That way, he could also let Goethe enter this castle.

After calming himself, Li Zhou looked around, his eyes flickering.

He always felt as if he had forgotten something.

Taking out the parchment from his pocket, and reading its contents once more, Li Zhou's gaze settled on the first system hint.

“One: God will protect you.”

“God?”

Putting down the parchment, Li Zhou looked at the statue of Jesus.