New Arc: Best Choice
Chapters 693-696
—Horror Game Lobby~Sand Sea Guild—
“Vice President Samael,” a pale-faced, silver-haired young man led a group of people over to the long row of sofas. “These are the new members who joined the guild today. Could you please guide them?”
There was a man sitting on a sofa. He wore a cloak that covered him from head to toe, with a large hood covering his face, revealing only a sharp, chiseled chin.
The man raised his chin slightly and squeezed out a word from his throat: “Okay.”
“Thank you.” Song Yuantian left the uneasy yet excited newbies and turned to leave.
Once Song Yuantian was out of sight, the man slowly stood up from the sofa. His tall figure, like a towering mountain, instantly blocked the light in front of the newbies.
As they looked up at the man before them, he also looked down, observing them.
It seemed Song Yuantian had an obsession with beauty. Once again, he had recruited a group of people who were more attractive than average.
But how long would these players survive in this game?
Samael’s gaze swept over the newbies.
A huge shadow loomed over the newbies, and the intense pressure made them all swallow nervously in unison.
Suddenly, Samael’s eyes focused on a young man with long, blonde hair and a Western face.
When his sharp gaze landed on the young man’s face, the young man twitched slightly, his shoulders tensing up as fear overtook him.
The horror game copies allowed team play.
To help guild members quickly adapt to the horror game, the Sand Sea Guild used a “mother hen leads chicks” method at the beginning, where a high-level player would guide a group of lower-level players through the copy.
This time, it was Samael’s turn to lead this group of newcomers.
Samael didn’t particularly enjoy this task, but it was a duty he had to perform as a member of the Sand Sea Guild, and he had no choice but to comply.
There were six newcomers in total, making seven people with him included.
After forming the team, they were randomly assigned to a copy—[The Lord of Terror].
The next second, a cold, mechanical voice echoed in the players’ minds.
[Welcome players to the C-level horror copy, [The Lord of Terror]. This copy allows a maximum of 20 players, and the game duration is three days and three nights.]
[In the distant, mysterious region in the far West, there once appeared a terrifying Lord. He was cruel, bloodthirsty, and had a twisted obsession with punishment. One day, a poor boy named Charles went missing in X Town. His sister was very worried and hoped that kind people could help her find her missing brother.]
[Completion conditions: 1. Survive for three days and three nights. 2. Find the missing boy, Charles.]
[Friendly reminder: Try to avoid any conflict with the Lord of Terror. If caught, the player will face an excruciating punishment.]
[Good luck and enjoy the game.]
As soon as his body regained control, Samael noticed that the blonde young man next to him was trembling violently.
Samael frowned slightly.
‘So scared? Coward.’
A girl with a ponytail noticed this and kindly tried to comfort the blonde young man. “Don’t be too scared, everything will be fine.”
The blonde young man kept his head down, his trembling voice barely audible beneath his shaking shoulders: “Mhm.”
A muscular young man couldn’t stand it any longer and spoke up with a frown. “How can you be so scared? If you’re already this terrified just hearing the system introduction, won’t you die of fright when we actually face the Lord? What’s your name? Can you even handle it? Don’t drag us down.”
The blonde young man still kept his head down. “My name is Emil. I’ll try my best not to drag you down. If I’m unlucky and get caught, don’t rescue me.”
A young man with glasses in the team moved closer. “We’re a team. How can we just stand by and do nothing if you get caught? Don’t scare yourself. With Vice President Samael leading us, we’ll definitely be fine.”
As he spoke, the young man with glasses looked at Samael expectantly. “Right, Vice President?”
Samael: “I won’t save you. Anyone who drags the team down deserves to die.”
He had already seen through it. The young man with glasses pretended to be asking for the blonde young man, but in reality, he was using the opportunity to ask for himself.
Thinking about getting caught before the game even started was such a loser mentality. Not worth saving.
Glasses’s smile froze for a moment before he quickly regained it. “Then we’ll do our best not to get caught.”
Samael corrected him: “It’s not about doing your best not to get caught. You must not get caught. When a lion hunts an antelope, if the antelope escapes, the lion only loses a meal, but if it catches it, the antelope loses its life. If you don’t understand this, even if you are lucky enough to survive this time, you won’t last long in the future.”
The expressions of the newcomers stiffened instantly, each of them tense as if facing an enemy. Only the blonde young man continued to tremble.
As the game began, Samael watched the backs of the group. Just as he had done before, he silently calculated who would be the first player to be eliminated.
Judging by the looks of it, the blonde young man wouldn’t last three seconds.
He had mentioned his name earlier, but Samael didn’t care. He wouldn’t waste brain cells remembering the name of someone who was about to die.
This was a C-level copy, beginner-level difficulty, and didn’t pose much of a threat.
Of course, that was for him. It was a different story for these newbies.
The dark, dilapidated buildings, littered with skeletons and corpses, relentlessly gnawed away at the newcomers’ nerves, and the air was filled with the stench of blood.
According to the game’s settings, the twenty of them secretly infiltrated the Lord’s castle.
The castle was large, but there were no guards—only the Lord himself would hunt them down.
A group of twenty was too conspicuous and as soon as the game started, the players who didn’t know each other quickly split up and found hiding spots.
In essence, this was a horror version of hide-and-seek.
After eight hours of gameplay, Samael had basically figured out the Lord’s pattern of capture.
The Lord would randomly appear in a location every two hours, and the capture time lasted half an hour.
If the Lord didn’t catch anyone within that half-hour, he would disappear once the time was up and reappear after two more hours.
If the Lord caught someone within that half-hour, the hunt would end immediately, and the Lord would vanish with his prey.
During those eight hours, the Lord had caught two unlucky players.
However, the player count in the top right corner didn’t show any deaths, so it was clear the Lord hadn’t killed them right away.
According to the system’s introduction, the Lord was likely subjecting the players to torture rather than killing them outright. Whether they could endure such torture was another matter.
With his beast-like instincts in the game, Samael perfectly evaded the Lord’s capture during the eight hours.
A very dull copy experience.
Samael thought to himself.
The idea of enduring such a boring experience for three days and three nights made it even worse.
He didn’t understand what the newbies around him were so afraid of, especially that trembling blonde young man.
Another two hours of safe time passed, and a red warning signal appeared in the players’ minds.
The Lord of Terror had appeared!
Several of the newbies hid in the closet, not daring to make a sound.
This time, the Lord appeared very close to them.
Following Samael’s instructions, they hid in the wardrobe of a closet room. The wardrobe had compartments, and each compartment could fit one person. With seven people, they crammed in seven compartments.
The wardrobe wasn’t fully enclosed. The slanted wooden slats on the door created gaps just wide enough to see outside.
They watched as the massive, grotesque Lord passed by the doorway again and again, wandering the corridor.
He was only a few meters away from them.
The oppressive presence made it nearly impossible for the newcomers to breathe.
At one point, the Lord even entered the closet room and stood directly in front of the wardrobe.
The newbies all thought they were dead this time, but the Lord merely admired himself in the full-length mirror before turning and leaving the room.
Terrifying footsteps and growls echoed continuously in the corridor.
Yet the Lord never opened the wardrobe.
The newcomers couldn’t help but feel relieved in their hearts.
Samael was worthy of being the vice president of the Sand Sea Guild—he had found such a safe hiding spot.
They were secure. This time, they were safe.
Just as they thought they were on the brink of victory, they suddenly heard the sound of a wooden door shaking next to them.
In the next second, they all widened their eyes in shock.
For some reason, the cowardly blonde young man had run out of the wardrobe.
He seemed to be scared out of his wits, sitting dumbly by the door, hands braced on the ground behind him, his entire body trembling as he stared in terror at the space ahead.
And directly in front of him.
The four-meter-tall, hideous Lord was staring intently at the blonde young man with its blood-red eyes.
Several people gasped, cold chills running down their spines.
They didn’t dare make a sound.
“Hehehe, look what I’ve found,” the Lord Of Terror cackled. “A little scaredy-cat.”
Everyone watched as a horrifying tentacle extended from behind the Lord, reaching toward the blonde young man.
Just as the tentacle was about to touch the blonde young man, something black was thrown from a corner of the wardrobe.
The object struck the tentacle, causing it to pause.
The next second, the half-hour capture time ran out.
Even with its prey right in front of it, the Lord Of Terror stopped.
It retracted its tentacle and glanced at the blonde young man reluctantly. “You got lucky this time. Next time, I won’t let you go.”
Once the Lord Of Terror disappeared, the newbies emerged from the wardrobe one by one.
“You almost scared me to death just now.”
“Why did you suddenly run out of the wardrobe?”
“Thank goodness the vice president saved you, or you’d be dead by now!”
“Can you be more reliable next time? My heart can’t take it.”
“Hurry and thank the vice president. Please, be more careful next time.”
Samael strode over with his long legs, stretched out a hand from beneath his cloak and picked up the small knife on the ground with his slender fingers.
The blonde young man staggered to his feet, his smooth, golden hair falling slightly, covering his deep blue eyes.
His face was tight as he bowed his head, trembling. “Thank you, Vice President.”
Then he hurriedly headed toward the exit, “Sorry, I need to go to the restroom.”
The other newcomers began whispering among themselves.
“Do you think he wet himself?”
“Hahaha, it’s possible, for someone his age.”
“I just hope he doesn’t drag us down next time.”
Only Samael stood in silence, watching the blonde young man’s retreating figure.
Even though he couldn’t see the other party’s eyes, the tense facial muscles and drooping mouth…
It looked like resentment.
In the restroom, Emil raised his eyebrows, gritting his teeth as he slammed his fist against the flimsy wooden wall.
“Damn it, I was so close! It’s all because of that nosy Samael.”
