61. [Shadow of Nightmare]

The first entity discovered by Beiwwo was a Plague Doctor. Dressed entirely in black, he stood in the shadow of a hill. As the boundary between reality and illusion drew near, he immediately doffed the top hat upon his head and bowed with graceful courtesy.

"Guide of the Stars, at your service."

The others also noticed the prominent Starry Campfire emblem upon his chest.

Realizing this was a puppet, Jiang Heyi relaxed his vigilance slightly.

He stepped forward and asked, "What kind of services can you provide?"

"It seems Mr. Cyber Potato has yet to encounter any of my peers. Compared to them, I possess a distinct advantage."

The Plague Doctor gently clapped his hands, and a flawless white blanket alongside an array of dazzling potions materialized out of thin air.

"The potions you require, we have in abundance. There is bound to be one that satisfies you."

"In abundance?" Jailer Bro argued playfully, "Then give me a potion capable of eliminating every other player except us. How about it, do you have that?"

The Plague Doctor chuckled, his laughter low and sinister.

"I do."

Wait, you actually have that?

"How do we acquire it?" Jiang Heyi asked immediately.

"Come back to inquire about the method after you all possess a certain amount of points. As for right now, you possess nothing at all."

Aside from being necessary for advancement, points served as the mandatory currency in the guild war when purchasing services from these Guides.

Aside from the panacea capable of wiping out players across the entire map, the Plague Doctor also offered some intriguing information.

The prices of goods provided by the Guides were divided into two categories: fixed prices and dynamic prices.

For instance, the real-time scoreboard function displaying the standings of various guilds—something Jiang Heyi had previously considered—required only 5 fixed points to unlock from any Guide.

As for dynamic commodity prices, the Plague Doctor used the ability to resurrect a companion as an example. Currently, it cost only 200 points to complete a buy-back, but as the guild war progressed, this price would become increasingly exorbitant.

"If we take you down, how many points do we get?"

Jailer Bro was back to his usual routine.

This question prompted everyone to instinctively grow wary of the Plague Doctor.

Fortunately, the Plague Doctor neither grew angry nor displayed hostility. Instead, he smiled and offered a word of caution.

"That price is also dynamic, but I advise you not to casually challenge the Guides."

"Among the Guides exist special individuals whose combat prowess is extraordinary."

The pressing priority right now was to scrape together 5 points to unlock the scoreboard function.

Just as he was about to leave, Jiang Heyi abruptly halted his steps.

He turned back and asked, "Can spoils of war be exchanged for points?"

The Plague Doctor responded readily, "Of course, right now you can."

"Then—" Jiang Heyi took off the [Trial Challenger's Gloves] presented by the system and tossed them over. "How much is this worth?"

"Zero point five."

True to form, they wouldn't volunteer information unless pressed.

Accustomed to dealing with his own puppets year-round, Jiang Heyi was already intimately familiar with this style.

If you ask more questions, there are always surprises.

Everyone pooled their gloves and handed them to Jiang Heyi to exchange for points. Combined with Jiang Heyi's helmet and Orange Tea's hat and shoes, they finally scraped together 5 points.

Opening the scoreboard, the [Calcium Oxide] guild temporarily claimed first place, having accumulated 50 points.

Among the 30 guilds, the Reality-Illusion Boundary shared the same wretched fate with 17 other guilds, sitting at the very bottom with 0 points.

After walking through the dense forest for quite some time, gazing at the lush, towering ancient trees surrounding them, Jiang Heyi began to break a sweat.

Wait, where are the monsters?

Where are the various NPCs mentioned by the little flame sparrow?

Why was the journey so dead silent? Forget monsters, they couldn't even catch a glimpse of a wild beast's ghost.

"Meeting no monsters and encountering no NPCs also means running into no danger. In a sense, this is also a kind of good fortune."

Zhong Zemo's remark amused everyone.

The audience watching from the outside perspective was getting quite lively as well. Over the past period, other guilds in the same arena had successively gained points, achieving a breakthrough from "zero."

The leading group was beginning to take shape. Headed by [Calcium Oxide], six guilds that had successively engaged monsters and assisted NPCs in completing tasks were now on the right track, with some unlocking class skills and others acquiring equipment blessed with affixes.

Only the Reality-Illusion Boundary had squandered their starting 5 points the moment they got them and had made no further gains since, the entire team stumbling blindly through the dense forest like headless flies.

From a God's-eye view, the sole advantage of the Reality-Illusion Boundary was probably that the surrounding area was entirely an unpopulated zone, sparing them any need to worry about running into other guilds.

And the disadvantage was equally obvious: a countdown number had appeared in the upper right corner of the projection.

Next to it was a line of small text—Resource Depletion.

The outermost edges of the map would enter a state where NPCs and monsters no longer respawned, leaving only a few special units lingering within the area.

As time passed, this place would no longer yield any items that could directly grant points.

You could choose to hide, but the ultimate outcome would inevitably be elimination by other teams advancing toward the central zone.

Here, standing still was equivalent to falling behind.

Just as the leading guilds had already accumulated 600 points, the "good fortune" of the Reality-Illusion Boundary finally welcomed a turning point.

Beiwwo skimmed across the marsh like a dragonfly skimming the water's surface, startling a series of bubbles as "mud balls" burst forth from the soil.

They were marsh slimes. These darlings of elemental affinity rolled themselves into mud balls, utilizing the dual elements of earth and water to conceal their auras.

With the perception levels of the Reality-Illusion Boundary, it was utterly impossible for them to discover creatures so close at hand.

If not for Beiwwo's exceptional driving skills in her reckless dashes—pulling off a drift that executed a textbook monster pull and leaving them in the dust with only a fluttering cloak to look at—a synchronized volley of elemental orbs would have caught the Reality-Illusion Boundary off guard and resulted in casualties.

This erratic Dark Elf had unintentionally rendered a massive service.

"I can't take it anymore, time to hack and slash!"

Original Flavor French Fries, who had been itching for action without a single kill under her belt, activated [Bloodthirsty Frenzy], leaped into the marsh, and went on a frenzied rampage. A flash of red light whipped the mud in the swamp into fountains shooting straight up toward the sky.

The slimes that scattered to avoid her terrifying momentum ran right into Jiang Heyi and the others, who were equally ferocious.

Original Flavor French Fries had been憋ing (holding it in) for ages, but weren't the others doing the same?

When Zhong Zemo raised his shield and fiercely smashed a slime into a flat puddle of jelly;

when Orange Tea summoned a wind spirit in an attempt to blow a slime high into the air so it would fall to its death;

you ought to know that these marsh slimes had truly chosen the worst possible time to appear before the Reality-Illusion Boundary.

The thirty-odd slimes lurking in the marsh instantly became a warm-up appetizer for the group. Amidst surging magic power, even the strongest giant slime was hacked to pieces by Jiang Heyi, Original Flavor French Fries, and Beiwwo—who had jumped in under the pretext of landing the finishing blow to share in the glory.

Fifty-three points. The Reality-Illusion Boundary, which had hovered at zero for so long, was finally in business.

This was far from satisfying for Original Flavor French Fries. She brandished her blade, breathing heavily near the marsh as she hunted for prey. This handful of monsters was simply not enough!

Jiang Heyi was genuinely curious whether this was her true nature in reality or if she had simply chosen the Berserker subclass. She had outright adopted a new persona to roleplay—after all, roleplaying a single character for too long gets boring.

Her first persona was a Deep One; her second persona was a cold and aloof ice-queen imperial older sister.

Playing a Berserker now had directly transformed her into a somewhat unhinged, bloodthirsty battle maniac...

Diagnosed as too much Berserker gaming.

Many spectators who had kept a watchful eye on the Reality-Illusion Boundary finally breathed a sigh of relief. After all, having no point-acquisition paths appear in the vicinity for such a long time was simply too unlucky.

As long as they got started, the second would follow the first.

"Is this the Reality-Illusion Boundary? It just looks like chaotic brawling with no methodology at all."

Dream Master always managed to pipe up with some discordant remarks just as everyone was immersed in viewing, pulling people right out of the experience.

"You're right, but Dream Master is the kind of person who could be solo-speedrun by Original Flavor French Fries's chaotic brawling across a thirty-person guild."

Just as the bickering continued, a flaming sparrow slowly materialized atop the projection.

"Why is it blocking the dead center of the screen?"

"Is this a bug?"

"Where are the admins? Admin, save us!"

The flame sparrow transformed into a ring of fire. In the center of the fire ring, the appearance of a roulette-like object gradually emerged.

The burning flame pointer ultimately locked onto a blurred, indistinct shadow.

Simultaneously, the same voice echoed in the ears of all the contestants currently participating in the match.

"Stars [Inverted]."

"Starlight has illuminated the unknown destiny..."

"[Shadow of Nightmare] has been added."

"Please be careful, night is about to fall."

Under the gazes of the players, filled with a mixture of confusion and shock, the bright midday sunlight was cast over with a shadow, and boundless darkness surged toward the center of the firmament from all directions.

A bright moon hung high, and starlight dimmed.

In an instant, day and night swapped.

Jiang Heyi hurriedly lowered his head to check the system prompt column, but he found no useful information; it merely displayed the words [Shadow of Nightmare] trial.

"What is that?!"

Beiwwo, who had been excitedly drifting and riding shadows due to the onset of night, slammed hard on the brakes and jumped backward like a rabbit.

Following the direction of her finger, a slowly walking human figure came into view for everyone.

Both hands were cupped over its face, obscuring its features.

Was it sobbing? Vague, wispy sounds of crying lingered in the surroundings.

Zhong Zemo subconsciously conjured a familiar image in his mind: "Witch?"

Jailer Bro was eager for action: "Is there any strategy where I charge up a giant fireball, blast it right in the face, and one-shot it?"

Jiang Heyi rubbed his eyes. Was it his illusion... why did that staggering figure look to him as though it had a double image?

The next second, he watched in astonishment as a phantom "fell" out of that body.

The movements, previously in perfect synchronization, developed a flaw at a certain moment. As it moved, the phantom surpassed the physical body, approaching the Reality-Illusion Boundary with a swaggering lead of one or two seconds over the corporeal form.

It literally looked like a soul detached from its body, pulling along a soulless husk...

The sudden change occurred in a flash. The spirit body, standing a mere ten meters away from the Reality-Illusion Boundary, deformed without warning. After turning into a shapeless mass of black mist, it violently quivered and blinked into existence as a ferocious tiger, lunging forward fiercely straight at Zhong Zemo.

"An illusion?" Zhong Zemo muttered, but the massive shield in his hands had already emitted a deafening bang.

The formidable force made Zhong Zemo's entire body go numb. He instinctively made a forward-pushing motion, attempting to disrupt the opponent's center of gravity and shatter their offensive momentum.

Yet this force pushed against empty air.

By the time he narrowed his eyes at the shouts of the others to get a clear look at the monster towering above his head, he was already covered in a cold sweat.

The tiger's neck stretched out by nearly five meters, winding and snaking past the giant shield to tower mid-air, looking down at Zhong Zemo from above.

Its neck was as slender as a noodle, resembling a flying-head savage from mythology, while its fierce and majestic tiger head had once again morphed into a mass of amorphous black mist.

Not far away, that weeping physical entity still covered its face, emitting faint, ethereal whimpers.

More to come.