"And recently, we've seen fewer and fewer newcomers joining. Before, almost every day, there would be new recruits. Now, it’s been a whole week without seeing the number on the panel increase," complained Lan Qi, a long-haired girl in the team, while frowning at the information panel in front of her.
Other team members also started discussing the recent oddities in the Overseer's Space. Although they never harbored any illusions of living long while staying here, the unusual behavior of the Overseer still made them uneasy about their future.
"Do you guys feel like... the Overseer seems to be afraid of something?" said a tall team member named A Zhuang, his expression hesitant.
Starting from a certain day a week ago, the Overseer had consecutively sealed off several game instances set in modern backgrounds, even retracting items players had obtained from those instances, and strictly forbidding any discussion related to them within the Overseer's Space. The abrupt and frantic nature of its actions was as obvious as trying to cover up by proclaiming, "nothing to see here."
Anyone with a bit of intelligence could guess that something uncontrollable must have occurred within those instances, something even the Overseer couldn’t manage. The Overseer's frequent adjustments to the panel in recent days, adding all sorts of bizarre detection functions, clearly showed its unease and anxiety.
There must be something that has frightened the Overseer, leaving it as skittish as a startled bird, still deeply shaken. Everyone had a vague suspicion in their hearts, but after Ah Xia voiced it aloud, none of them engaged in the discussion; instead, they exchanged uneasy glances.
Because they couldn’t even begin to imagine what could terrify an entity as powerful as the Overseer, an entity that controlled countless spaces and numerous terrifying game instances, to the point of being so frightened and restless.
This speculation felt absurd to them, even making them doubt their sanity. But considering the Overseer's recent uncharacteristic behavior, it was probably the most likely explanation.
To the Overseer, their lives were nothing more than game data, less than ants, which it could easily erase with a snap of its fingers. So, what kind of overwhelmingly powerful existence could frighten such a powerful Overseer?
The seven of them, who had all been ordinary people before entering the Overseer's Space, fell silent at this thought.
Looking back, before they were drawn into the Overseer's Space, they had led the most ordinary lives: some were regular office workers, some small business owners, and others students, living ordinary days, believing they would live out their lives as ordinary people in the real world, never encountering anything supernatural, and never believing that such things existed. Yet, through some accident, they had fallen into the Overseer's Space, with no escape.
Struggling to survive in the terrifying game instances, they had believed that this was the most terrifying reality of a previously peaceful world, that the Overseer was the most horrifying controller in existence. They dreamt of escaping its clutches but never dared to think of destroying it, knowing it was utterly impossible, even with all of humanity’s combined strength.
However, now they knew that the Overseer was not the ultimate terror. There were even more terrifying beings capable of frightening the Overseer into a state of anxious fear.
This world was far more dangerous than they had ever imagined, like an endless deep sea. As they sank deeper, they saw countless terrifying entities, believing they had reached the most horrifying depths, only to discover that beneath the deep sea lay an unexplored abyss, dark and unfathomable.
No one dared to continue speculating because such thoughts made their souls tremble, shaking their very minds and making them feel even smaller and more pathetic.
"...Enough, let's not talk about this. Let's focus on completing the mission and returning quickly; the longer we delay, the more unpredictable things might become," interrupted Qi Fang, a stern-looking, slender man, and their team leader. He glanced at the mission assigned by the Overseer, his expression stoic.
[Mission: Kill the monsters in the manor.]
The mission prompt briefly introduced the manor's background: an ancient manor inhabited by a wealthy estate owner and his family, where ghostly wails could be heard every night. It was said that the estate owner’s family was involved in worshiping an evil god.
The hints stopped there, typical of a closed-space horror escape game with almost no plot. In the past, such plotless instances were usually very difficult, considering the Overseer's previous tendencies. However, this time it was different, rated only E-grade in difficulty. Li Lan speculated that it was merely a straightforward slaughter mission, something they had done before—just a matter of entering and conducting a large-scale massacre.
Although they didn’t understand the purpose behind this slaughter, they had no other choice.
After the team leader, Qi Fang, and his teammates discussed the specific strategy for the mission, they followed the manor's map provided by the Overseer and entered the sinister-looking manor, shrouded in darkness.
"There's monsters everywhere in here!"
Qi Fang led the team inside the manor, noticing grotesque paintings hanging on the walls—oil paintings depicting grotesque Zerg in human clothing, their expressions hideous and terrifying, vaguely visible in the dim candlelight, adding to the eerie atmosphere.
Entering the living room, they noticed a rope hanging conspicuously from the chandelier. However, after observing it for a while and finding no immediate danger, they continued to delve deeper into the manor, discovering more monsters sleeping in the bedrooms. They decisively decapitated the monsters as they lunged at them, watching as their bodies, still twitching with lingering nerve impulses, writhed like headless cockroaches.
"God... the Nameless God..."
Hiding in a storage room, Vestilan's sister trembled nervously. Through the narrow door gap, she watched as several twisted, grotesque monsters entered the manor and began a brutal slaughter.
She stared blankly at the bizarre limbs of those monsters, which only had two arms. The ends of those arms extended into five short tendrils, their heads soft, covered in black, threadlike strands. The area where a face might be was nothing more than strange, fleshy contours, with eyeless, shell-less orbs exuding an aura of evil.
They wielded terrifyingly strange weapons, wantonly slaughtering the servants sleeping in the rooms.
The screams of the servants echoed far and wide, so far that even in the basement below, they could still be faintly heard.
In the underground palace beneath the cellar, Dell was still tied up, but to prevent him from moving around, the ropes binding him were fixed to a stone pillar at the edge of the altar.
Dell's body finally stopped its restless movements. With malice in his voice, Ivil continued, "I am your brother, the one who personally performed your birth baptism."
As Ivil continued, the truth was finally revealed to Dell.
It turned out that the Mambel family was not native to this land; their ancestors were royalty of the Curtis Empire. After that catastrophic sacrificial ritual, the empire fell, and their ancestors transformed into deformed monsters. Yet, they remained steadfast in their belief that this was a test from the gods and continued to devoutly worship the Nameless God.
As time passed, many Zerg adventurers ventured into that cursed land, and their ancestors intermingled with them, passing down their faith in the Nameless God generation after generation. The deformities in their bloodline gradually diluted, until in recent decades, they no longer displayed deformities before reaching adulthood. To summon the god once again, they left their homeland and came here to reproduce and thrive.
"And you, Dell, you are the most normal child of this generation, the most suitable host for the Nameless God."
Host?
Dell’s expression of despair brought Ivil great pleasure as he explained further. The so-called host was the body prepared for the great Nameless God's descent. After hundreds of years of research, their ancestors had discovered the best method to bring the Nameless God to the Misty Continent—possession.
Once the god successfully descended, the entire Misty Continent would be destroyed by its divine power, and the Curtis Empire would rise from the ruins as the sole victor, once again ruling the world!
This was a gift from the god.
Ivil himself had been the previous host, fully prepared to welcome the god's descent, but he discovered that his deformities worsened with age, making him unsuitable as a host.
Coupled with a series of experiments conducted to summon the god, Ivil's body completely stopped developing, leaving him with the body of a teenager despite being over thirty years old. His body temperature dropped, turning him into a zombie-like Zerg.
Afterward, their parents, in order to summon the god, gave birth to a new child—Dell. The affection and attention that had once belonged solely to Ivil were transferred entirely to this new host.
The stunted growth and neglect from their parents after discovering the failed summoning had completely twisted Ivil's mentality. He was deeply jealous of his brother, envious that Dell could be the host of the great Nameless God, envious that Dell could live freely, unlike him, who could only pray for the god’s blessing in the underground palace.
Ivil resented Dell, but he endured it to witness the Nameless God's descent. To ensure Dell remained in his purest form, he even went so far as to brainwash Dell, pretending to be a loving brother.
But his jealousy only grew stronger. Looking at his brother, bound to the pillar, Ivil's expression was filled with hatred—this idiot of a brother had taken his place.
Fortunately, in just a few days, the god will descend, and at that time, this brother will vanish under the might of the Nameless God, Ivil thought with satisfaction.
Old Mambel, who stood beside Ivil, sighed and said he hadn’t wanted his beloved youngest son to discover the truth so early. However, with things having come to this point, he had no choice but to proceed.
With that, Old Mambel gestured for Ivil to release Dell and place him into the slot at the center of the altar.
The slot was molded precisely to fit Dell’s body, with spiraling patterns inside. The more Dell struggled and tried to escape, the deeper he would sink, until the patterns would eventually grind through his carapace, causing blood to flow and spread across the altar. Only then would it be the optimal time for the host's sacrifice.
Dell, numb to his father’s haunting words, looked up at the two figures. From the faces of his once closest kin, he could see no trace of familial affection. Their cold expressions didn’t resemble those of normal Zerg.
“You’re insane! There is no Nameless God in this world! It’s all delusion! Only the God of Light is real!” Dell retorted fiercely.
Unable to accept the truth, Dell’s mental state became unstable. He grew agitated, struggling fiercely to free himself from the ropes binding him.
“Silence! How dare you blaspheme other heretical beliefs in the presence of the Nameless God’s altar! These false gods are utterly insignificant compared to the Nameless God! To compare them to the Nameless God is a complete insult!”
Hearing his brother Dell blaspheme the god he held above all, Ivil’s face flushed with anger. He raised his hand, ready to slap Dell, but before the blow could land, a sudden change occurred.
Dell broke free from his bindings, his expression ferocious. Ivil and Old Mambel stared in shock and disbelief at Dell.
More precisely, they were looking at the countless soft tentacles and spreading invisible mist that had suddenly sprouted from Dell’s back. Perhaps it wasn’t sudden—looking around, Ivil and Old Mambel saw that the entire underground palace had become enveloped in the Nameless Mist, churning with chaos and darkness, just as described in ancient records.
When exactly had this happened? Had the god descended during the altar ritual a few days ago?
Ivil recalled the ritual from a few days ago. Since then, no summoning rituals had been performed.
The god would not descend without reason. Since no ritual had been held, Dell must have been possessed by the god during that ritual.
A few days ago, Ivil had conducted a ritual to attempt to become the god's host, but of course, it had failed. He had vented his anger on the servant Tom and the maid Lis, who had disrupted the ritual. At the time, everyone had believed the ritual had failed, but unexpectedly, the god had quietly descended and chosen Dell as the host instead of him.
Realizing this, Ivil’s face showed despair.
Dell seemed unaware of the anomaly behind him. Panting heavily, anger and despair intertwined in his heart. He wanted to retaliate but found himself unable to harm his own kin. Perhaps the tragic end of the previous events made him reluctant to hurt his family. Instead, he chose to turn and flee.
“God... the God is here...”
Looking at Dell’s retreating figure, Ivil murmured dazedly, shrinking and kneeling on the ground, tears streaming down his face. He couldn’t believe he had considered performing such an insulting act against the descending god.
“No... forgive me... Oh God... I am unforgivable...”
Ivil’s faith shattered. Unwilling to believe that he was the one who had blasphemed the god, he took the bone-cutting knife originally meant for slaughtering livestock and cut into his own flesh, slicing and dicing until his blood and flesh were completely drained. Enduring the pain, he howled and cried. As a zombie-like existence, he couldn’t die, but the pain was relentless—this was the god’s punishment for his blasphemy.
Meanwhile, Old Mambel also fell to the ground, repeatedly praying. He didn’t dare to lift his head. Although he sincerely worshiped the Nameless God, he had committed an offense and could only tremble in endless fear, full of regret.
They had not anticipated that the god had already possessed Dell. Had they, in fact, bound the supreme god?
The two, growing increasingly fearful, punished themselves in the underground palace. Dell, having crawled out of the cellar, looked up in a daze and saw several terrifying shadows gradually approaching in the nearby garden.
“Captain, there’s another monster, and there’s a cellar here. There might be more below!”
Strange language emerged, akin to a devil’s sinister laughter in the night. Dell’s face turned pale, and he caught the strong stench of blood in his nostrils.
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