NOVEL WEB Chapter 2: 2. Endless Hell
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It hadn't ended.
After the panel, Song Cheng looked up, suddenly glimpsing two lines of numbers floating in the darkness.
[Strength: 1~1]
[Favorability: 100]
Tong Jia dressed herself, pulled on her cotton boots, and walked toward the door.
Song Cheng shouted, "East family."
Tong Jia halted, and those two lines of numbers also came to a stop.
"Still calling me East family?" an audacious voice called out. "We are already so good together, and you still don't dare to admit it? Tell me, is there any place on my body you haven't touched? Speak up!"
Even though Song Cheng couldn't see anything, he could still imagine a young girl standing with her hands on her hips, angry.
He called her East family just to confirm that those two lines of data belonged to Tong Jia.
At that moment, he confirmed for himself.
Thus, he called out, "Jia."
"Call me wife!" came the ferocious voice in response.
"Wife."
"That's more like it."
With that, Tong Jia opened the door, leaving it barely ajar to keep the little warmth inside from escaping, then sidled out through the gap.
She had only half her body out when she quickly withdrew her foot, slammed the door shut, and ran to the bedside.
Song Cheng felt his face being embraced and sensed those two lines of data close at hand.
That pair of palms wasn't very fleshy nor warm.
"Remember, since you've become my husband, you must take responsibility. As long as I'm alive, you are not allowed to die! Otherwise... otherwise, I won't forgive you even as a ghost!" A slightly imperious and demanding voice came through.
Song Cheng nodded.
That pair of hands then withdrew.
The wooden door opened and closed again.
In the darkness, those only two lines of data vanished as well, and outside came the sound of a short wooden stool being dragged along with the "chop, chop, chop" of an axe cleaving wood.
The sound of the axe, mingling with the wind and snow, evoked a sense of desolation and seclusion in the ice and snow, emphasizing the silence indoors and... that precious calm in the chaotic world.
Song Cheng gathered his thoughts, looking at the unexpected changes.
Being a transmigrant, he wasn't unfamiliar with the sudden appearance of information and the panel.
Especially since this panel was the cheat device for game assistance that he himself had written, it was all the more familiar.
As for the game...
He pondered briefly, then shook his head.
'It can't be.'
'That game was a horror one that had once scared a player to death, but from the predecessor's memories, this is just an ordinary chaotic world with perhaps some martial arts, with no connection to that horror game.'
Song Cheng absolutely, absolutely did not want to believe he, along with the panel, had transmigrated into the worldview of that horror game.
'It can't be.'
He stressed it again silently.
Then he carefully examined the panel and data from top to bottom.
According to the panel,
Firstly, longevity was actually a "player" trait, but it was merely longevity, not immortality.
Secondly, a person's strength had a "minimum value" and a "maximum value."
Minimum value: determined by a person's realm. To advance in realm, you must cultivate a cultivation technique. Cultivation techniques enhance your physical constitution, allowing you to wield greater strength, which is your most basic strength.
Maximum value: determined by skills, weapons, etc., with skills taking the largest part. Skills determine how much strength you can wield. The more powerful the skill, the more fearsome it is, but also harder to find.
That Tong Jia displayed "1~1," indicating she was an ordinary person who had never cultivated any skill, so she could only exert a tenth of her strength and couldn't tap into any of her body's potential.
The reason he and Tong Jia's union allowed him to gain remaining points was also because, before transmigrating, he observed the "encouragement to procreate" slogan, thus designing the "cheat points" in this "assisting device." By binding to a wife, he could gain "cheat points" every day as long as he maintained a harmonious marriage with this wife. However, the bound target could only be one, any others were ineffective.
Gradually...
Gradually...
Song Cheng looked at that final line of data again.
[Taboo: Unlocked]
He couldn't believe it and read it over one more time seriously.
Suddenly, an eerily cold sensation rushed up to his brain, the frigid air feeling like countless pale Dead Man's hands caressing his skin, causing a series of goosebumps.
'No, why is this here?'
'When I created the assisting device, I certainly didn't add this option.'
'This shouldn't be here.'
Song Cheng fixed his gaze on the gray "[Taboo: Unlocked]" text.
All other characters were black, except for this line, which was gray, just matching the phrase "unlocked."
But just the word "taboo" dragged Song Cheng back to that terrifyingly extreme game world.
That game was called "Endless Hell."
The general content of the game was a "battle royale."
Escape meant evading the evil spirit.
Slaughter meant killing competitors and seizing resources.
It was considered a kind of "apocalyptic" single-player game.
Initially, that game was loved by many players for its excellent art style and complex, interesting settings, and there were even numerous requests for a multiplayer version so that "Endless Hell" could be played online.
But later, peculiar, bizarre events began to occur.
Many players died while playing "Endless Hell"...
The police investigated but found no injuries on them, nor any signs of murder, as if they had been scared to death, their deaths terrifying, with twisted faces, taut limbs, and bent at bizarre angles.
"Endless Hell" was thus banned.
But before transmigrating, Song Cheng secretly kept a copy.
As a steadfast materialist, Song Cheng would normally listen to "horror movie music" to stay alert, and keep some evil spirit figurines on his desk to prevent nodding off during work.
How could someone like that believe the world had ghosts?
So, when the dust settled, Song Cheng directly attempted to compile a game-assisting cheat device to explore "Endless Hell."
Suddenly...
He was dumbstruck.
Because he discovered he could no longer remember the "Endless Hell" he played, all the events during that period were gone.
In the next moment, he started to shiver all over, limbs cold, as if plunged into an icy cave.
For he understood... the world he had transmigrated to might be the worldview of "Endless Hell," perhaps even larger, more terrifying...
The reason it was "unlocked" might be that he had transmigrated to an era before "Endless Hell's" terrifying worldview had fully manifested.
After some time...
Song Cheng clenched his fists tightly.
'Survive!'
'Survive!!'
He took several deep breaths, looked at the panel, and silently said, 'Allocate points!'
On the panel, a "+" appeared after "Heart's Eye."
Song Cheng tried adding 1 point to "Heart's Eye."
The progress of "Heart's Eye" in the skill bar immediately changed from "Uninitiated (0/1)" to "Uninitiated (1/1)," then jumped again to "Entry Level (0/2)."
A strange sensation flooded in.
It was as if he was leaning on a cane, carefully sensing the world's sounds and touching the shapes of objects, and over the years, he had made progress. This progress meant that even as a blind man, he could vaguely sense the outlines of things around him.
He looked up, scanning around, everything was still black.
But as he brushed his hands over the bed, the touch and sound in his dark world transformed like a drawing pen, sketching a brushstroke of "gray-white" chiaroscuro.
As he brushed over more places, the sketch grew more complete, gradually forming a gray bed made of pale lines in the dark.
In the world of a blind man, shapes had emerged.
This made Song Cheng breathe a little easier.
He looked up into the distance, wanting to use his hands to outline more of the world.
Suddenly, he saw two lines of data.
Those were Tong Jia's data.
Tong Jia was outside the door.
But despite the door, he could still see.
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