87: Chapter 87 "SAN" Value

"I... fuck..."

These two words ignited a spark in the extreme vacuum.

Outlaw Zhang San and his group, having experienced that "CG animation" like a soul brand and the baptism of the blood-colored mission, had their "sanity" strings stretched to the limit.

And these two words were the final vibration before the string snapped.

Dead silence remained the melody of the Return to Ruins.

But this time, amidst the silence, there was a faint "noise" that couldn't be described or articulated.

It wasn't a sound.

It was older than sound, more fundamental than thought.

It was like a cold, invisible probe that ignored the barriers of flesh, bone, and soul, stabbing directly into the deepest part of every living being's sea of consciousness.

It was a kind of "babble."

It was like the silent screams of billions of drowning people at the bottom of the sea, or the wailing of stars rotting in a vacuum.

It had no tone, no bytes, but it allowed everyone who "heard" it to instantly understand the pure, massive malice and madness contained within, enough to blow up any logical thinking.

Buzz—!

A barely perceptible noise sounded on all players' system interfaces simultaneously.

Right below the blood-red [Save the World] mission, a brand-new attribute bar was forcibly generated amidst intense, glitchy flickering!

[Sanity (SAN): 100/100]

The background color of the attribute bar was a disgusting mix of dark purple and dead gray, with black, glitch-like pixels constantly leaking from the edges, as if it were an ugly tumor growing on the system itself after being infected by a virus.

The very next second it appeared, everyone's sanity bar flickered slightly to the left in unison.

[Sanity (SAN): 99/100]

The lost point seemed to have been greedily and silently sucked away by some existence in the void.

"Damn it..." Charge to the End shook his head violently. He felt as if his temples were being pressed by two red-hot steel rods. He instinctively tightened his grip on his long saber and roared at the chaotic mist beside him, "What the hell is this! Come out!"

However, the mist remained.

Only that omnipresent yet seemingly non-existent "babble" responded to him.

"Stop shouting." Outlaw Zhang San's voice was hoarse. He stared fixedly at the SAN value on his retina, an unprecedented chill creeping from his spine to the top of his head. "This isn't a physical attack; this is... corruption at the rule level."

As the brain of the team, he immediately tried to pull up the combat records to check the system logs.

But all interfaces displayed blankness, as if that missing "1 point of sanity" had been erased directly from the underlying logic of the world, leaving no trace.

Shadowless was in the worst condition.

He was already seriously injured, and now his face was as gray as weathered rock.

His pupils were dilating uncontrollably. In the hallucinations before his eyes, pale arms reached out from the wreckage of the exploded City of Liver Emperor, beckoning to him silently.

"In the city... there are people..." he muttered, his voice as thin as a mosquito's.

"Wake up!" Shield Mountain grabbed his shoulder and shouted in a deep voice.

For the first time, his usually expressionless face showed gravity.

He felt the heavy door-shield in his hand was becoming soft, like melting cheese.

This damn place was distorting their perception!

Meanwhile, the already chaotic official forum ushered in another wave of madness.

["Holy shit! Do you guys have an extra bar? The purple one? Why do I feel so dizzy?" — Posted by: Newbie Shivering]

["SAN value? Sanity? Did this game add new content? Cthulhu mod? The Ancestor is awesome! (Voice crack)" — Posted by: I Love Exploiting Loopholes]

["Coordinates, Eastern Swamp. I saw a frog next to me grow seven legs, then explode into a pile of eyeballs on the spot! My SAN value dropped by 5 points instantly! What kind of hellish drawing is this, goddammit!" ]

["Help! Outside the Holy Land, a Golden Core Elder who was just chasing me suddenly stopped and started gnawing on his own Flying Sword, his mouth full of blood, and he smiled at me! My SAN value dropped too! I feel like I'm going crazy! He's going crazy too!" ]

...

Return to Ruins entrance.

The dozens of streaks of light that were originally aggressive and represented the Majesty of the Holy Land were now trapped in a strange riot.

"Ah—!"

A scream that didn't sound human erupted from a Nascent Soul cultivator wearing the attire of the Heavenly Law Court.

He was originally immortal and elegant, but now his eyes were wide open, bloodshot filling the whites of his eyes.

He gripped his own throat tightly with both hands, making "clucking" noises in his throat, as if fighting an invisible enemy.

"Senior Brother Zhang! What's wrong with you?" His fellow disciples were shocked and rushed forward.

However, what they saw was a terrifying scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives.

Under "Senior Brother Zhang's" skin, something was wriggling rapidly, pushing out one bulge after another of varying sizes.

His spine bent backward at an angle that violated human anatomy, his limbs twisted, and his flesh melted and reshaped like wax!

Within a few short breaths, an enlightened master turned into an indescribable aberration composed of proliferating bone spurs, dripping tentacles, and countless mouths of varying sizes under the horrified gaze of his fellow disciples!

Those mouths opened and closed simultaneously, emitting the very "babble" that was torturing everyone!

"Kill... kill me..."

One of the mouths of the aberration still retained its last bit of sanity, making a desperate plea.

But the next second, it was drowned out by more, insane mouths.

"Blasphemy! This is a blasphemy against the Great Dao!"

An elder was shocked and angry, sacrificing his magic treasure, and a brilliant sword light slashed toward the monster.

The former fellow disciple was now a "source of pollution" that had to be eliminated.

This chaos and infighting at the entrance of the Return to Ruins were seen by Outlaw Zhang San and others.

They watched the once high-and-mighty Nascent Soul cultivator being blasted into slag by angry fellow disciples like a puddle of rotten meat, and everyone's heart sank to the bottom.

This was... the end of the native cultivators.

The deeper the spiritual energy, the deeper the binding with the laws of this "God Prison," and the more fragile they were in the face of the evil god's "babble."

And they, these "extraterrestrial antibodies," although they also felt tremendous pressure, at least... could still maintain their basic human form and sanity.

"Ancestor... damn it..." Charge to the End muttered. For the first time, he developed more complex emotions toward this title other than "changing the golden coffin." "He didn't lie to us... we really are... antivirus programs."

Before he finished speaking, Outlaw Zhang San shuddered violently.

He "heard" it.

In the background of that chaotic, crazy "babble," a very faint but extremely clear "noise" crept into his mind.

It was a woman's voice, gentle and pleasant, with a hint of elusive laughter.

"...See? The old order is collapsing..."

"...Resistance is useless; despair is the destination..."

"...But, there are always smart children who know how to choose the right future..."

Who is it?

Zhang San looked around suddenly, but apart from the nervous faces of his teammates, there was nothing.

The voice seemed to be his own hallucination, but the content carried an unquestionable, seductive power.

His SAN value jumped again without warning.

[98/100]

...

Holy Land, Cloud Top Immortal Palace.

This was the place with the richest spiritual energy and the most stable laws in the entire Central Continent.

But at this moment, even the Immortal Palace could not completely isolate the pollution from outside the world.

The cranes in the palace wailed uneasily, and the golden carp in the spirit pool smashed against the pool walls frantically.

Only Fairy Yunshang sat calmly on the main seat.

The water mirror in front of her presented the tragic scene at the entrance of the Return to Ruins.

The "babble" that could cause even Nascent Soul cultivators to collapse and alienate into monsters was like the most wonderful symphony in the world to her.

She even closed her eyes slightly, showing an expression of enjoyment.

In her field of vision, there was also an attribute bar.

But it was not the purple-gray [Sanity], but a strange, black-glowing golden attribute bar.

Its name was not Sanity.

It was called—[Divine Favor].

[Divine Favor: 1 point]

With the alienation and death of "Senior Brother Zhang," the [Divine Favor] value slowly jumped.

[Divine Favor: 2 points]

"Truly... a wonderful movement."

Fairy Yunshang opened her eyes, a satisfied smile on her lips.

She raised her slender jade fingers and tapped lightly in the void.

A faint trace of divine sense pierced through the barriers of space and precisely locked onto the leader of the players—Outlaw Zhang San—who was frowning deep in the Return to Ruins.

She didn't need to control him.

She only needed to plant a seed of doubt and wavering in his heart.

In the face of the despair of the end, the strongest fortress could also be corroded by a trace of the weakest "possibility."

"Go struggle, my poor 'antibodies'."

She whispered softly, picking up the spirit tea, her movements as elegant as if she were attending a grand celebration.

"Perform to your heart's content, burn to your heart's content, and then... become the most gorgeous decoration on my steps to godhood."

...

Return to Ruins deep.

"Bang!"

Charge to the End slammed his knife into the open space in front of him, making a muffled sound.

"Fuck! I just saw my dad beckoning to me, telling me to go home for dinner!" He panted, his forehead covered in cold sweat.

"I saw a faceless tailor sewing a burial shroud for me," a life-style player said with a pale face.

Hallucinations had begun to affect everyone.

This constantly dropping SAN value was like a Damocles sword hanging over their heads, ready to fall at any time.

Everyone's eyes were focused on Outlaw Zhang San.

He was the soul of this team.

Zhang San took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the woman's voice in his mind.

He looked at the cold, dead [key of the divine prison] in his palm, and then at the endless, chaotic mist that seemed to devour everything around him.

There was nowhere to escape.

The whole world had become a larger, rotting cage.

And they were the only prisoners in this cage who still had the ability to struggle.

"Don't panic."

His voice regained its calm, as if the falling SAN value had no effect on him.

"The CG said, the Ancestor's plan is to restart the [creation furnace]."

His eyes swept over the crowd, sharp as knives.

"The Return to Ruins is the evil god's lair, but it is also the location of the [creation furnace]."

"The most dangerous place is the safest place. This sentence is reversed now—"

He paused and said word by word:

"The most desperate place hides our... only way to survive."

He held the gray-black [key of the divine prison] high.

"This thing is a key, and it's also a coordinate."

"It brought us here, dragged the whole world into the water, and now, it has to be responsible for taking us to that damn furnace."

"Everyone, check your equipment and replenish your status!"

Zhang San's roar dispelled the trace of confusion and fear in everyone's hearts.

"Our new journey starts from this damn place."

"First goal—"

"In this cesspit where even light is swallowed, survive!"