Nightmare Despair

Chapter 1 is safe... for now.

Lightning outside tore through the darkness.

Boom!

Taking advantage of the thunder, Zhou Kai pushed open the cabinet door carefully, making sure the rotten wood didn't creak.

He walked out.

This medieval-style wooden house is completely dilapidated.

The roof collapsed, creating a huge gap.

The icy rain, mixed with a fishy stench, was swept up by the gale and slammed hard against Zhou Kai's pale face.

He didn't wipe it.

The rain won't stop.

I wiped it off, but it didn't help.

Out of the corner of my eye, I glanced at the still-running clock on the wall.

“…They’ve come in again,” he thought.

Boom!

The thunder rumbled again. A twisted, dark shadow flashed past the dirty windowpane.

Taking advantage of the roar as cover, Zhou Kai took a deep breath and rushed into the inner room.

Bend over.

roll.

His movements were fluid and graceful. He lay on his back, staring intently at the rotting bed beneath him.

"Four, three, two, one..."

Just as the countdown ended in my mind, a loud bang came from the outer room.

The door panel was smashed to pieces by something.

The wind was getting louder.

The sound of rain grew louder.

But what truly caused his heart to stop was the heavy, damp sound of footsteps mixed in with the sound of wind and rain.

Something has come in!
Tread...tread...

Tread...tread...

An unknown entity slowly paced around the living room.

Suddenly.

boom! ! !
The wardrobe where Zhou Kai had previously hidden was smashed to pieces by a chain hammer dragged in by the wind and rain.

The sawdust exploded.

Countless pieces of debris scattered and flew everywhere.

Zhou Kai's pupils contracted sharply, and he dared not breathe.

If he's still in the closet...

He will die!

He died as a mangled mass of flesh and blood.

This is not speculation.

It's a memory that has happened several times before!

Zhou Kai remained motionless, forcibly suppressing his breathing and heartbeat.

He is waiting.

Outside, the figure dragging the chain hammer was still pacing back and forth, as if searching for something.

After a few breaths, it squeezed open the bedroom door and came in.

A cold wind instantly filled the entire room.

A pair of enormous feet stopped beside the bed.

Barefoot and exposed, it was bluish-purple, like a floating corpse.

When the lightning flashed again, Zhou Kai could even see the congealed dark red bloodstains on the toes out of the corner of his eye.

calm……

wait……

Amidst the stench, Zhou Kai held his breath. Under the shadow of death, he forcibly calmed his wildly beating heart.

It cannot make any sound.

Once discovered... it's death.

A minute passed.

Zhou Kai felt his limbs were stiff, and his back was stinging from the stones and nails on the ground.

"Have they left...this time..."

Last time, he made a slight noise here, trying to shrink himself in a little and adjust his posture.

then.

A hammer fell.

He turned into a pile of minced meat.

This time, he learned his lesson. After hiding under the bed, he didn't make any further noise.

However, whether they can survive remains unknown.

"Every time I die in a nightmare, my real body becomes weaker... I can't die anymore!"

Zhou Kai kept his eyes glued to the shadow cast by those large feet, waiting for a turning point.

Another two minutes passed.

A muffled thud of a tree trunk snapping came from outside, and the chain-hammer-armored warriors seemed to be drawn to it... The footsteps gradually faded into the distance.

Until I can no longer hear it.

But Zhou Kai still didn't dare to move.

He had to consider the possibility that the thing might return.

"Wait for a clap of thunder."

Boom! The thunder roared the instant his thought flashed through his mind.

It's now!

He endured the excruciating pain, rolled out from under the bed, and quickly got up.

Blood seeped from the pierced back, staining the old white shirt with dark red plum blossoms.

I don't have time to worry about these things.

Zhou Kai pressed himself against the window, listening intently.

The wind and rain were fierce, and thunder was booming.

well.

That monster must really be gone.

He's finally safe...

temporary.

……

Zhou Kai, a native of Xishan City, recently graduated from university. His major was the unpopular field of Classical Studies, and he has repeatedly encountered setbacks in his job search.

For the past three months, he has relied entirely on his older sister, Zhou Qing, who works for a well-known pharmaceutical company, for financial support. At his sister's suggestion, he enrolled in a boxing gym, hoping to learn some combat skills and shake off his despondency.

I've only been there for one day.

Nightmares then found him.

He has been trapped in this nightmare for four consecutive days since the beginning of this week.

Today was the first time he had survived for more than five minutes.

With each death, the physical body weakens a little more.

Based on his current state, he could die a maximum of five more times, and in reality, he would die along with them.

We must understand the situation!
Must live!
We must find a way to escape this nightmare!
As long as the monster is not around, the wind and rain will be the best cover.

Zhou Kai can finally begin his exploration.

The bedroom still had that decadent European style.

On the heavy bed, there was a strange stain, like something melted, that had soaked through the blankets.

Zhou Kai reached out and lifted it up.

Wow.

The blanket shredded completely.

The fibers had completely rotted.

After searching, the bedroom yielded nothing but rotten furniture and a few photos whose faces were completely illegible.

"With photographs, we can at least confirm that the time period here is after the 19th century."

Zhou Kai returned to the living room.

Nearly half of the living room collapsed, all thanks to that chain-hammer armored soldier's "masterpiece".

He decided to search the intact half first.

There was a place he had been interested in from the beginning, but he never had the chance to visit.

A corpse in the living room.

He watched from afar as a pair of long boots emerged from the short corridor connecting the kitchen and the living room.

Zhou Kai casually picked up a decorative axe from the wall... The wooden handle was rotten and he couldn't hold it at all.

But this didn't bother him.

He took off his shirt, twisted it into strips, and tied it tightly to the axe.

A simple chain axe was thus completed.

It shook itself, and the wind howled.

The heavy metallic texture gave him a great sense of security.

Posing a ready-to-strike stance, Zhou Kai cautiously stepped into the corridor.

Then, he breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

"This guy... is completely dead."

The so-called "corpse" was actually a skeleton covered in heavy clothing.

But this is a nightmare.

Zhou Kai used the axe blade to crush the skull of the skeleton.

just in case.

I glanced into the kitchen; there was no danger inside, and it was perfectly intact.

Zhou Kai dragged the remains inside and began to search them.

The heavy clothes, resembling a hunting leather jacket and a thermal cotton coat sewn together, were so tattered they were unwearable and emitted a sticky, foul stench.

The deceased was probably a hunter in life.

There was a leather bag in the small pocket inside the clothes.

Inside was a group photo and a badge.

The photo shows one man and two women, with the words "Family, dear Louise, Meme, and me" written on the back.

"Why is my nightmare in the West?"

Zhou Kai suppressed the strange feeling in his heart and examined another item.

That badge.

Made of brass, it has developed a green patina and is engraved with a deity with outstretched arms as if protecting its people.

"What's the use of this?"

Zhou Kai frowned.

The next moment, his expression suddenly froze.

[Item Obtained: Residence Permit (Helen Beckberg Parish)]

[Currently, you can set it to 'Home'. After setting, you can return to the main world.]

(End of this chapter)