Wanjie Game Hall, I sent Kiana to Silent Hill

Volume 003: : Are you playing hardcore?

When guiding new players to experience the game, you definitely cannot increase the intensity right away.

Things like Survivor Mode, Mutation Mode, and Realistic Mode shouldn't be considered. But now that Mutation Mode and Realistic Mode are gone, Wang Xuanqiao concluded that the likelihood of these two modes being canceled is low. If they're not there now, they either need to be unlocked later, or...

Combined with other modes.

It makes sense when you think about it. If the games provided by this system were 100% original, how could they possibly be adapted to the arcade equipment? You can't expect to have to interact with a bunch of cube-shaped people when playing those classic old games in the future, right?

Oh, except MC.

Then let’s just play a standard campaign first!

"Choose the first one to complete the battle, and then..." Wang Xuanqiao, who was about to say that he wanted to adjust the difficulty, found that after he took off the corresponding key, the familiar room setting interface did not appear, but there was an extra row of keyholes on the iron net.

The keyhole is also marked with game maps.

Tsk tsk, this is too concise. Wang Xuanqiao actually began to look forward to the content after the official launch. With the original "Left 4 Dead" gameplay guaranteed, the system unlocks can't turn into a pile of shit, right?

That would really torture this garbage system.

"Choose the dead center, the first one in the second row."

After some thought, Wang Xuanqiao decided to start with the first level of the second part. Hu Tao responded, and the two of them simultaneously thrust their keys into the keyhole.

The iron mesh clicked open, and Wang Xuanqiao took a step inside when a petite figure appeared beside him. It was Hu Tao, but surprisingly, she still looked the same.

It seems that the game does not necessarily involve playing the role of the four survival heroes.

Wang Xuanqiao seemed to be lost in thought. Seeing that he didn't say anything, Hu Tao waved her hand.

"What's the matter, manager?"

As soon as the words left their mouths, their vision suddenly went dark. In the blink of an eye, the helicopter roared away, and the strong wind whipped up by the propellers instantly rushed over. Wang Xuanqiao and Hu Tao had been transported to the birthplace of the battle at the Death Center.

"Oh oh - is this the world of the game?" Walnut took the lead and ran to the edge of the rooftop fence, leaning on the pergola and looking out.

Wang Xuanqiao surveyed his surroundings. The rooftop, where the four survivors should have been, now contained only him and Hu Tao. Considering he was also wearing Clark's glasses in the game, it felt like two modded players playing online.

To be fair, Hu Tao does look like a beautiful two-dimensional girl.

Unfortunately, his personality seems to be rather weird, and most people may find it hard to stand it.

After his random thoughts ended, Wang Xuanqiao walked towards the table where his equipment was placed and called Hu Tao over.

"Let me give you a brief introduction first." Wang Xuanqiao picked up the pistol, the weight of the metal making it very impressive. "The way to play this game is that we start from this starting point and search for a safe house with a red iron gate until we reach the end. Monsters will constantly appear and attack us along the way, so we have to use weapons to fight back and protect ourselves as we rush."

"Yeah, that's easy to understand. I'll remember it."

Walnut didn't grab the gun, but reached for the fire axe.

"By the way, Manager, now that we've explained how to play, could you please introduce the game world? I think this city is quite different from ours! For example, that thing flying in the sky just now was quite interesting."

"That's called a helicopter, a vehicle." Wang Xuanqiao saw Hu Tao taking the melee weapon on his own initiative. After thinking about it, he suppressed the urge to transform and chop the king, and chose the pistol.

This girl obviously doesn't know how to use a gun, so I'll teach her when she's interested.

After all, it’s not impossible to play the game Left 4 Dead even if you kill the boss.

"How should I describe this game world? You could think of it as a disease that has broken out in this world, turning everyone into zombie monsters. Some individuals will further mutate and become even more troublesome."

"The walking dead? Does that mean the people who turned into monsters are unconscious?"

"Well, just treat them as dead," Wang Xuanqiao said as he stuffed the medical packs on himself. He had just discovered that the game no longer had a limit on the number of medical packs. As long as you can carry them, you can even carry four.

"Oh, so we're sending them to the afterlife? This is truly bizarre. I never thought this hall master would be doing this in the game."

"Oh? Hall Master? What do you do for a living?" Wang Xuanqiao asked curiously, carrying four medical bags on his back.

"Yes, I'm the 77th head of the Tomokado Hall, Kurumi. That's me. But if you ask me what I do, you wouldn't misunderstand me if I said I'm the store manager who helps people with their afterlife."

"I see. You are in the funeral industry." Wang Xuanqiao nodded.

No wonder this game is unlocked.

"Funeral industry? Manager, you're right, but not entirely. Hehe~ Anyway, we're going to find that red iron gate now, right?"

Walnut swung the fire axe. Judging from her posture, she had obviously practiced using long-handled weapons. She swung the axe with great vigor and skill.

So that's how it is. It's probably the funeral business like Uncle Jiu. Seeing that Hu Tao was actually proficient in weapons, Wang Xuanqiao didn't hesitate and was the first to push open the rooftop door and march down.

Walnut followed behind him, looking around the corridor curiously from time to time.

Soon, a faint fishy smell and the smell of burning fire entered the nostrils of the two men.

Rather than opening the door politely as in the original, Wang Xuanqiao opted to simply kick it out. The noise of the wooden door being kicked open instantly attracted the attention of the nearby zombies, but Wang Xuanqiao had already dealt with zombies countless times before. With lightning speed, he raised his gun and fired, the bullets roaring out of the chamber, each one hitting the zombie's head!

The zombies that surged forward fell to the ground, and Wang Xuanqiao unloaded the empty magazine and reached for the spare magazine at his waist to reload. This set of movements was as smooth and handsome as flowing water...

...What the hell? Where's the spare magazine?

Wang Xuanqiao felt around his waist but found nothing, so he quickly searched other places, but still found nothing.

...Okay, okay, let’s play it this way, right? Let’s go hardcore, right?

It's uncomfortable not seeing the Northwest Killing King coming out of the mountains, right?

Walnut watched the man before her go from a carefree expression to a scowl. She didn't know the exact reason, but it was certainly fascinating. She looked at the store manager with a smile, then turned to the body on the ground.

Aside from the smell of blood, there was no stench of corpses. It seemed these monsters were indeed not moving corpses, but the living dead.

Compared to zombies, they don't have much independent consciousness.

After the investigation, Hu Tao sighed at how immersive the game felt: the smells, colors, touch—every sense felt immersive. If she hadn't adjusted her pain feedback before entering the game, she would have thought she'd been transported to another world.

No, isn’t this game hall another world?

Interesting! Keqing is very knowledgeable. I might as well try to get him in to take a look next time.

Wang Xuanqiao didn't know that a bunch of ideas had popped up in Hu Tao's head during this short period of time. He briefly recalled the process of the Death Center and vaguely remembered that there were no big guns until he took the elevator downstairs, so he planned to go straight to the dragon's head.

As for weapons? Haha! If we're going for hardcore simulation, let's go all-in!

Going back to the rooftop to get weapons is obviously not hardcore enough, so if you want to play, you have to use local materials!

So Wang Xuanqiao picked up the door panel that he had just kicked off.

"Come with me, Walnut." He held the door panel like a shield, transformed into a big shield brother and strode forward.

"Wow - here I come." Walnut smiled, picked up the fire axe and followed.

Volume 004: : High-quality and low-quality customers

Wang Xuanqiao held his breath as his show-off efforts were unsuccessful.

The door panel, unfit to bear such a heavy burden, opened and closed violently, blasting a bunch of zombies' heads, and ultimately died in the fight with the zombies. Wang Xuanqiao picked up a baseball bat and took over the door panel's job, continuing to perform head-splitting surgery on the zombies that dared to approach.

Even though he was acting like a god of war, Walnut, who was following behind him, still had to fight. Zombies could spawn everywhere in Left 4 Dead, and if a zombie tidal wave hit, enemies would be everywhere.

The fire axe wasn't particularly handy for Hu Tao, but it was heavy. With a quick swing, she bewildered the approaching zombies. There weren't many zombies Hu Tao needed to deal with, which gave her more time to observe.

From the shooting skills after kicking the door to the close combat skills of opening the skull, all of them indicate that Wang Xuanqiao has rich practical experience.

It seems like the store manager has a lot of stories behind him, Walnut thought.

Did these familiar combat skills come from a game that seemed like reality, or did they come from some other source?

Hehe, how curious! Walnut grinned, and suddenly heard a gurgling sound as if someone's mouth was full of water.

Ouch? There's actually a corpse that doesn't scream or yell? I'll just give you the title of "Excellent Customer" for now.

Walnut turned and immediately saw the voice's owner. It was a strangely swollen zombie, looking like a fat person thrown into water and then soaked. Especially since it had a dark green or dark brown liquid oozing from the corner of its mouth, it was simply...

"Uh, that's a bit disgusting." Walnut subconsciously held her breath.

Wang Xuanqiao also heard the noise and recognized it as the special bile monster from The Walking Dead, which was a free thing.

But what Walnut did next made him breathe suddenly.

The pretty girl dodged nimbly, halting the bile monster's movement as it was about to spray vomit. She floated lightly behind the bile monster and swung the fire axe vigorously.

"Fuck! Stop!"

Wang Xuanqiao subconsciously raised his hand to stop him, but the sound was louder than the axe at this moment.

BANG! Like a balloon filled with that stuff being popped, the watery explosion announced to everyone nearby that I was dead.

Immediately afterwards, the howling of zombies began to sound one after another.

"Oh no! Don't let this girl have any psychological trauma!" Wang Xuanqiao quickly turned around and reached out to grab Hu Tao. She seemed to have not yet recovered from the physical shock of being hit and the corpse exploding, but she didn't care about that at the moment. Wang Xuanqiao directly sent her to the nearest corner and then blocked the front.

The zombies attracted by the bile rushed forward madly, but the baseball bat in Wang Xuanqiao's hand was like a harvester at full power, strangling all the zombies that tried to drown the two of them without stopping.

Wang Xuanqiao, swinging his bat, was like a mighty dam, completely blocking the tide of corpses. Flesh and blood splattered everywhere, and the crisp sound of shattering skulls echoed endlessly.

The tide of corpses will eventually end. When the last head bid farewell to "innocence," Wang Xuanqiao stood still and let out a long breath.

Okay, that feels great!

But why do I feel a bit tired? Is it the device's feedback? Perhaps it's because the sensory feedback is maxed out, Wang Xuanqiao thought.

After all, Clark's glasses were still on his face, so it was very likely that he had been affected by this. Wang Xuanqiao pondered this while turning back to check on Hu Tao's condition.

The girl was now leaning her fire axe on the ground, with her other hand on the wall, a smiling expression on her face.

"Thank you, Manager~" Walnut said, "As the saying goes, a friend in need is a friend indeed! This scene deserves a poem. Ahem—"

"Hey, let's not talk about that for now." Wang Xuanqiao quickly interrupted the girl who seemed about to start a poem. "What's wrong with you right now?"

"Aside from the slightly disgusting smell, it's nothing serious. But you can tell this is indeed a game, as the foul spray from that customer dissipated on its own."

"That's good." Wang Xuanqiao breathed a sigh of relief. "That thing is a special infection, a special infected person, which is a monster slightly more advanced than these zombies. What you encountered is a bile monster, which will spit bile at us players. Once the bile splashes on us, it will attract a wave of zombies."

As they were talking, Wang Xuanqiao and Hu Tao turned their heads at the same time.

A strange, shrill laugh came from the other end.

"The one that appears now is also a special feeling. It's called the Jockey. It will suddenly pounce on the player and ride on him, making the player unable to control his body." Wang Xuanqiao continued to introduce.

"Will it explode?" asked Walnut.

"No. As long as it doesn't ride on you, it's no different from an ordinary zombie."

"Then leave this high-quality client to me." After saying this, Hu Tao picked up the fire axe and rushed towards the hunched figure that appeared in the corridor.

Wang Xuanqiao didn't stop her, allowing Hu Tao to charge forward. It was clear that the girl was a bit irritated by the bile monster's sudden attack.

The jockey probably hadn't expected someone to actually call him a customer. Since this person was so kind, he naturally should have given her a friendly hug. But just as he opened his arms, this kind woman smiled and handed him something.

A gift? No, it's an axe.

"Have a nice journey~"

With a dull thud, the jockey was knocked to the ground by the axe. He twitched twice and then became motionless.

Hu Tao pulled out the fire axe, turned around and waved at Wang Xuanqiao.

The two continued on their journey. Zombies were few and far between, and Wang Xuanqiao casually introduced Hu Tao to other special abilities. In this simulated game environment, creatures like the Smoky Horseman weren't a concern. The only real threat was probably the tank.

Soon, the two found the elevator leading to the lower level, which also meant that the first level was about to end. They only needed to cross the fire downstairs to reach the safe house.

That's right, there was a raging fire under the elevator.

As the altitude continued to drop, thick smoke began to appear in the cabin and the temperature rose rapidly.

If it were still the same computer game, the fire scene would naturally have no effect on the player. But now, Wang Xuanqiao felt his breathing become difficult, and his exposed skin began to feel a faint burning pain. He instantly realized that if he couldn't escape the fire quickly, he would be killed by the fire without the zombies.

Wang Xuanqiao glanced at Hu Tao and noticed she was in much better condition. It seemed like it was due to the difference in sensory feedback levels; after maxing out his feedback bar, he was more susceptible to environmental influences.

"Manager, what's wrong with you?" Hu Tao of course also noticed Wang Xuanqiao's abnormality, and hurriedly came over to ask.

"Small problem." Wang Xuanqiao couldn't help coughing. "When the elevator door opens, just run out. The smoke outside will be thick, but there's only one way out. If you follow the path, you won't get lost. The safe house is just outside the fire scene. Just go there and don't worry about me."

"Oh? This doesn't sound like a small problem, Manager." Walnut scratched his head, then suddenly realized, "Oh! Is it because I just turned down the sensory feedback?"

"Probably." Wang Xuanqiao coughed a few more times. The smoky environment had obviously affected him.

"Then, Manager..." Kurumi suddenly blinked, "Do you mind whether I win or lose this game?"

Wang Xuanqiao was stunned for a moment and looked at Hu Tao blankly, not knowing what the girl meant for a moment.

But as the temperature in the elevator grew higher and higher, he suddenly felt as if a flash of electricity had passed between his eyebrows, and he realized what Hu Tao was thinking.

"You don't mean to..."