The Monster - Chapter 1

[Welcome to the horror instance “Longcheng Psychiatric Hospital.”

[Players who survive in this instance for seven days will clear it.

[Number of players: 7.

[Instance difficulty: F rank.

[Friendly reminder: The instance boss’s mood is unpredictable. Be careful of the people around you.

[Have fun, everyone.]

As the system’s cold electronic voice faded, the mist covering the air gradually dispersed. A deathly silent psychiatric hospital appeared before us.

Seven players stood outside the hospital.

I gave them a quick scan. Four men and three women.

Hmm???

In the thirtieth century, supernatural phenomena had returned across the globe, and horror games had descended upon the world.

In order to figure out the rules of the horror games, the authorities stipulated that players would receive a corresponding cash reward every time they cleared an instance.

Therefore, most of the people who chose to enter horror games were highly capable fighters.

Yet among this group of burly men, one person stood out conspicuously.

A delicate-looking youth with pale, cold skin and a sickly air huddled in a corner, looking so frail and easy to bully.

I glanced at him once, then looked away.

After all, I had entered the horror game to make a great deal of money and cure my gravely ill older brother.

I had to get out alive.

Just then, a muscular man sneered. “It’s only a low-level instance. What a joke, saying the instance boss’s mood is unpredictable.”

He lifted his arm to show off his bulging muscles and said smugly, “I can take down a low-level boss with one punch.”

A purple-haired girl chimed in, “Exactly, exactly. What’s there to fear in a beginner’s village?”

The whole group broke into laughter.

Little did they know that the comments were already flooding the screen—

[These newbies are so unlucky to have entered this instance.]

[The authorities just announced that, due to unknown instability, this instance has been raised from the beginner village’s F rank to SSS rank.]

[None of the players who have entered this hospital instance has survived so far, and no one can find out why.]

[It was supposed to be a beginner’s village, but it turned into a village of death.]

[That big guy is still bragging. I bet he will be the first to die.]

[Lighting candles for them in silence.]

……

We knew nothing about what was happening in the comments.

Before each game began, the system gave the players eight hours to gather information. This period was relatively safe.

After briefly introducing themselves, the players began to act separately.

After all, this was the simplest kind of beginner instance. It should be easy to clear.

We were outside the hospital, where the surroundings were extremely open. No matter how far I looked, there was not a clue in sight.

Just as I was preparing to enter the hospital and explore, a shrill scream suddenly came from somewhere behind me.

I whipped around and saw that the muscular man who had been boasting moments ago had already become a flattened heap of flesh. We could barely identify him by the clothes he was wearing.

The player beside the muscular man was the purple-haired girl who had agreed with him. She had been the one to scream.

The girl collapsed on the ground, her eyes vacant, as though she had suffered an enormous shock.

Only after all the players gathered around did she stammer, “I just turned around, and he had already become like this.

“Really! I swear it couldn’t have taken more than a minute!

“A monster! There are monsters in this instance!”

She broke down. “We’re all going to die here!”

The muscular man’s death was horribly gruesome. It looked as though someone had beaten him to death with punch after punch, and the scene was extremely bloody.

Someone who had been standing beside you one moment could be dead the next, while you had no idea what had happened. Any normal person would be traumatized.

A crew-cut man also broke down. “F-rank instances aren’t supposed to have anyone die on the first day! How did this happen?!”

Fear spread among the group.

Everyone was wondering whether they would be next.

I frowned and stepped forward to reassure them. “F-rank instances are transitional instances prepared by the system for newcomers. As long as everyone is careful, we’ll all get through this safely.

“Don’t scare yourselves.

“Let’s form pairs and search for clues.”

After saying that, I muttered under my breath, “Looks like the boss of this instance is pretty petty.”