Dell quickly finished reading the book in his hand. He didn’t find anything unusual, so he continued searching. There had to be a secret hidden in this study, at least some clue about the missing boys and girls!
As Dell was searching, his younger brother Ivil stood nearby, watching curiously as Dell painstakingly flipped through the books. Ivil started helping out, and soon handed Dell a black notebook. The cover was adorned with a strange symbol—an amorphous cloud-like pattern standing tall in a small city.
The moment Dell saw the cover, he felt a momentary daze. It was as if countless fragments of memories flashed before his eyes, piecing together a vast and boundless figure. In the thick fog, he glimpsed the faint light of stars, a blend of chaos and darkness, and everything was swallowed within that amorphous cloud.
“Brother? What’s wrong?” Ivil's voice pulled Dell back to reality.
Dell snapped out of it, his expression a bit dazed. He had no idea what he had just seen, only that he felt mentally exhausted. To reassure his brother, he indicated that he was fine before opening the notebook.
The notebook indeed contained details of their father’s plan. On the Day of Divine Glory, their father intended to sacrifice thirty Zerg boys and girls to an evil deity. The method was particularly cruel: first, drain their blood, then peel off their skin, collect the blood in containers made of Zerg skin, and finally decapitate them. The heads were to be soaked in blood for three days before being placed on the sacrificial altar.
Dell read the notes, his face showing signs of distress. He couldn’t fathom how, in this civilized era, his father could still resort to such barbaric and brutal sacrificial methods.
This form of Zerg sacrifice, which was popular in the distant barbaric era of the Curtis Empire, had somehow been fully preserved by his family.
Dell continued flipping through the notebook, where many pages detailed the exact method for summoning the deity—how to draw the magic circle, how to prepare the materials for the circle, and a variety of precise formulas. The precision of these instructions was more meticulous than those used by alchemists, down to the exact proportions of each ingredient.
It was as if someone had already attempted it countless times and finally derived such precise and perfect summoning methods. This thought sent chills down Dell’s spine, and he dared not look more closely. After quickly skimming through the notes, Dell finally discovered the name of the deity—Tarlos, the Faceless God.
This Faceless God was the evil deity that his father had been worshipping all along.
Dell closed the notebook, his expression somber. He realized the unforgivable crimes his father had committed. From the bloody sacrificial methods noted on the pages, it was evident that his father had carried out numerous experiments before, even writing down his insights in this notebook.
As his father’s child, Dell felt deeply ashamed of the bloodline running through his veins. He silently prayed to the God of Light for his father’s sins, holding his younger brother close, hoping that the God of Light would forgive them.
After rescuing those boys and girls tonight, Dell vowed to report his father’s crimes to the sheriff. He was determined to prevent his blood-stained family from further descending into hell.
Ivil hugged his brother back, and after a moment of tenderness between the two, they set off again, heading toward the entrance of the cellar behind the garden. Dell already knew from the notebook where their father had imprisoned the sacrificial victims, and he needed to save them!
So the two left the study, preparing to exit the multi-story building and head to the garden. But as they stepped out, they unexpectedly ran into their sister, who was holding a knife.
Dell dodged to the side, pulling his brother forward, but he failed to notice that as their sister approached, the darkness ahead grew deeper. In the next moment, Ivil was devoured by a vengeful ghost hidden in the darkness, and Dell was stabbed in the chest by his sister.
“Cough… cough…”
In a bedroom on the third floor, Dell woke up from death once more, the pain still lingering in his nerves, and the antennae on his head drooped in response.
But to save innocent lives and his brother, Dell once again stepped out of the room without hesitation. He deftly rescued Ivil, avoided his sister, retrieved the black notebook from the study, and this time, he stayed a little longer in the study. He waited until his sister’s footsteps faded away before cautiously leading his brother out.
Upon exiting, Dell noticed that his sister was pacing near the only exit on the first floor. If they didn’t find a way to distract her, they wouldn’t be able to leave.
Distract his sister?
Dell looked blankly at the axe he had found. He had initially planned to distract her, but all he found was a sharp axe. He didn’t want to harm his sister, but the hand holding the axe was firm. He quietly approached his sister, who was slowly pacing, using the furniture as cover. Seizing the moment when she turned her back, he swung the axe down hard at the spot where her head connected to her body. The fragile exoskeleton shattered on impact, and blood splattered everywhere.
“...Dell… don’t…”
The knife in Vestilan’s hand dropped to the ground as she clutched her broken neck, looking at her brother Dell. Her voice was thick with blood, and there was a faint sadness and reluctance in her expression, as if she were still the gentle and normal noblewoman from the past.
Seeing his sister trying to say something, Dell stood frozen in place, his expression filled with sorrow, tears streaming down his face. He hadn’t wanted to hurt his sister, he really hadn’t.
Before Vestilan could finish speaking, she breathed her last. The antennae on her forehead drooped limply to the ground, and blood stained her cheeks.
Dell wiped the tears from his face and found a key on Vestilan’s body. For some inexplicable reason, he knew it was the key to the garden cellar. Now, all he needed to do was enter the cellar and rescue the innocent victims.
When Ivil saw that their sister was dead, he met her lifeless gaze, and seemed a little scared, gripping Dell’s hand tightly.
Dell comforted his brother before leading him out of the hall, but as they left, a zombie maid slowly approached from behind.
As they reached the garden, Dell noticed the zombie maid Lis following them. He dodged Lis’s attacks with agile movements, but his brother wasn’t so lucky.
“Ahhh!!!”
Ivil died in Lis’s jaws, his blood splattering everywhere. Dell’s eyes were filled with rage, and he wanted to rush over and kill himself to reset and save his brother, but he inexplicably stopped.
While Lis was busy devouring his brother, Dell slipped into the garden’s cellar, used the key to unlock the door, and entered.
Why didn’t he save his brother?
Dell didn’t know what he was doing. He walked on in a daze, finding himself in a vast underground space filled with intricate sculptures and architecture, exuding a heavy atmosphere as if steeped in countless years of history.
Before his eyes stood a magnificent underground palace, crafted with exquisite skill, full of steps and narrow passages that all led to the central altar.
Dell walked up the steps, but soon lost his sense of direction. The overlapping, spiraling stairs made his mind feel disoriented, and his vision seemed distorted.
He finally stopped at a spacious stone platform. Here, he saw numerous iron cages of various sizes, filled with the hollow husks of Zerg bodies left behind after death. The air was thick with the stench of decay, as if countless tormented souls were wailing and sighing.
Dell was horrified by the sight. Every step he took felt as though he were treading on the bones of the tragic ghosts who had died here, sending chills down his spine.
At the edge of the stone platform, Dell finally saw the living Zerg. Dozens of cages held the Zerg boys and girls who had been trafficked here. They were filthy, their clothes tattered, and they were emaciated.
“Wooo—”
“Ahhh! Ah! Ah!”
As Dell approached, he noticed that the Zerg boys and girls in the cages bared their sharp teeth at him like wild beasts, all six limbs touching the ground as they growled with anger or warning. They were fierce, exhibiting a primal wildness reminiscent of their ancient Zerg ancestors, entirely unlike civilized members of society.
Dell’s heart ached as he looked at the feeding troughs beside the cages, filled with nearly rotted scraps of cold food. Yet some of the boys and girls were still chewing it with relish.
What was his father doing, treating these Zerg like livestock? These young people, once full of life, had been reduced to this beastly state.
Dell could no longer bear to watch. He picked up the axe he carried and began smashing the chains, setting the Zerg free. Then...
It seemed that because they hadn’t been domesticated for long, these beast-like youths, after realizing that Dell meant no harm, quickly became obedient to him. Dell successfully led them out of the manor and settled them in a house he had prepared in advance, planning to reveal everything to the Sheriff at dawn.
But who could have expected that the next day, when Dell went to the Sheriff's office to report the incident, he learned that a fire had broken out at the manor the previous night, burning everything to the ground. He was the only surviving member of the Mamble family.
"They're all dead?" Dell muttered, repeating the Sheriff's words, his mind blank.
His father, mother, sister, brother, and all the servants were dead...
Along with the secrets in the cellar, the Mamble family was completely wiped out, except for him.
After informing the Sheriff of the location of the rescued youths, Dell left the Sheriff's office. He returned to the manor he had escaped from the night before, only to find that the once magnificent estate was now nothing but ruins. He walked into the garden and opened the cellar, but the collapsed debris from the manor blocked the entrance, making it impossible to see the mysterious and masterfully crafted underground palace and the altar he had never approached.
Dell collapsed to the ground, dazed.
He didn't know whether this was the god's blessing or punishment. Under the god's watchful eye, everything that happened last night felt like a fleeting dream, with only the desolate ruins in front of him reminding him that it was all real.
【Achievement Unlocked—Broken Reality】
The game screen on the computer returned to the start menu. Ke Su glanced at the walkthrough and finally managed to complete a normal ending. To uncover more secrets, he was ready to begin the second playthrough.
In the second playthrough, Ke Su aimed to unlock the true ending of the game. The so-called true ending reveals the ultimate truth of the game and can sometimes be quite dark.
Ke Su scrolled to the end of the walkthrough and, after a quick read, concluded that this ending wasn't particularly dark—in fact, it seemed pretty ordinary since there were many hints during the first playthrough.
For instance, the younger brother, Ivil, was clearly a character with hidden storylines, far from being just a simple younger brother character.
Reloading the game, Ke Su controlled Dell to open the bedroom door again. This time, armed with the newly spawned Cross item, he decisively headed to the fourth floor.
There, the Zombie Maid Lis was locked up, and using the Cross item, she could be purified, granting a secret scrap of paper and a talisman. With the talisman, one could delve into the darkness without being attacked by vengeful spirits, making it easy to hide during chases.
Skillfully obtaining the brass key hidden behind a portrait, Ke Su clicked on the room where the Zombie Maid was kept. He quickly dealt with her using the Cross, and then collected a scrap of paper and a talisman.
【Dear Tommy, the Master has been dealing with things downstairs lately, and I'm worried about you. I hope you’re well... I know I won’t see you again, but I hope we can meet in the next life—Love, Lis.】
Ke Su skimmed through the letter; he already knew the story. This maid, named Lis, had always been working for the manor owner. Her lover, Tom, was raising meat livestock in the underground palace below the cellar. Recently, Lis had accidentally discovered a summoning ritual and became despised by the manor owner. Knowing she didn’t have long to live, she left a letter urging her lover Tom to run away, not knowing that he had actually died before her and became the vengeful spirit "Ant," who ate ants in the darkness.
A tragic couple.
As a single man, Ke Su was expressionless as he was moved by their tragic love story. Then, using the talisman, he lured out and purified the vengeful spirit "Ant," reuniting the couple in death.
After dealing with the vengeful spirit, Ke Su obtained a sturdy rope, set a trap, and hoisted his sister Vestilan into the air as she passed by, taking the cellar key from her.
Then he saw his sister, clutching the rope tightly around her chest, struggling to say the words she hadn’t finished in the last playthrough: 【Don’t trust Ivil.】
That’s why she died with her eyes wide open, glaring at Ivil in the previous playthrough.
Got it.
Ke Su controlled the character to jump up and down beside his hoisted sister, performing a Samba dance. The game realistically showed his sister getting so angry that her health bar dropped by one segment.
This game’s interaction was pretty realistic.
Ke Su, now even more amused, jumped even more enthusiastically. His sister displayed a 【……】 speech bubble, indicating that she didn’t want to see this idiotic brother anymore.
After having enough fun, Ke Su sprinted to the second floor and dragged Ivil out of his room without a word, bringing him to the third floor to witness his sister’s miserable state.
After seeing Ivil emit a 【……】 speech bubble, Ke Su finally ran downstairs, heading to the garden at full speed, nearly exhausting Ivil along the way, as his health bar dropped slightly.
Ke Su controlled the character to open the cellar and saw Ivil beside him turn as pale as a corpse, his face a ghastly shade of gray in the pixelated display. Ivil smiled and pushed Dell into the cellar.
Ke Su was satisfied, waiting to see the true ending.
Dell was reborn again. He thought this was the blessing of the god, allowing him to make up for all the regrets. So he went to the fourth floor to purify Lis and the vengeful spirit Tom and found a way to obtain the key without harming his sister. Dell was overjoyed and danced beside his sister.
Dell: “……”
Dell was a bit confused. He felt he shouldn’t be dancing since the truth hadn’t been revealed yet, and he hadn’t found out why the manor was destroyed.
Looking up, Dell saw his sister, hanging in the air, giving him the look one would give a madman.
Clearly, the sister was the one who was mentally unstable.
Dell danced while thinking about this. After a while, he went to the second floor to bring his brother Ivil, although his sister had warned him not to trust Ivil, he still didn’t fully believe his sister.
After all, compared to his innocent and adorable younger brother, the words of his mentally unstable sister weren’t very credible.
Ivil looked up at the hanging Vestilan and fell silent, looking at Dell with an expression that seemed to say he was the one with the mental illness.
Since she was already hanging there, what was the point of bringing him over?
No reason.
Dell answered in his mind, grabbing his brother's hand and sprinting all the way to the cellar. For some reason, this rebirth had made him much more cheerful, enabling him to do many things he usually wouldn’t dare do due to noble decorum.
Soon, they arrived at the cellar entrance. Just as Dell was about to go in, he noticed that his brother Ivil’s face had turned corpse-gray and his expression had become hideous.
"You actually found it, what a pity. I had planned to let you enjoy life a little longer." Ivil’s voice suddenly became aged, like that of a man in his thirties rather than a ten-year-old boy.
Shocked, Dell turned around, wanting to say something, but Ivil pushed him down into the cellar. There was a drop from the cellar entrance to the ground, and without using the ladder, the fall was far from pleasant.
“Cough, cough!” Dell felt sharp pain in his back, coughed a few times, and his vision went black. When he woke up again, he found himself in a different place, tied up beside a spacious altar.
Standing directly across from the altar were Ivil and his father, Old Mamble.
"Father? Brother? What is going on?" Dell asked in bewilderment, only to receive a cold laugh from Ivil.
“Hmph! You should address me differently, my poor little Dell. Seeing you like this truly breaks my heart as your older brother!”
Ivil's expression was dark and sinister, completely devoid of the innocence and charm of a child.
Brother? What brother?
Dell's eyes widened in horror, feeling as if he were lost in a thick fog with no clues or way out. Everything was so confusing. He couldn’t understand how his once obedient younger brother could have such a detestable side, nor could he grasp how he had fallen into this situation. Everything felt like an unsolvable mystery, filling him with despair.
As he pondered the situation, perhaps due to his gloomy mood, Dell found himself rolling around. Even though he was tied up like a mummy, he managed to roll around on the altar.
Ivil watched in disbelief as Dell rolled to his feet, his words faltering.
Meanwhile, as Dell rolled around in the underground palace, a group of uninvited guests arrived at the manor.
At the manor’s front gate, seven strangely dressed humans were checking the information panel projected before their eyes.
"We’ve arrived at the instance. This is a newly opened instance... Damn it! What’s up with the Overseer lately, opening instances all over the place like a lunatic? More and more people are dying!”
“Who knows what’s going on, acting like they’re going through a midlife crisis. Damn this Overseer! They even added a pollution index. I’ve never seen that thing’s value go up; it’s completely useless, yet it’s placed right in the most conspicuous spot, highlighted in red. Every time I see it, I want to shout obscenities!"
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