“Gwaaaargh!”
The woman in the red dress let out a twisted, inhuman shriek.
Her face contorted, mouth gaping open, tongue lolling out, and a grotesque sound erupted from deep within her throat.
Next, everyone saw her hair fall like rain, her muscles rapidly shriveling.
In just moments, her once-curvy figure turned into a skeletal husk.
Her large, once-bright eyes stretched wide, nearly tearing at the corners.
The whites of her eyes were now laced with countless tiny web-like lines, resembling the compound eyes of an insect.
Her gaping mouth distorted and jutted forward, slowly narrowing into something sharp—thick and needle-like.
Suddenly, several bulges swelled on her back, pulsating with disturbing vitality.
Watching a living, breathing person transform into such a grotesque monster, everyone’s face turned pale.
Their scalps tingled with terror, and their hearts pounded with fear.
“Aaaaaahhh!” one female player couldn’t take the horror anymore and let out a piercing scream.
Swoosh!
At the same moment, the red-dressed woman’s eyes turned blood-red.
The bulges on her back burst open, unfurling into six translucent, membranous wings.
“A-a monster!” a plain-looking young man stumbled backward, cold sweat soaking his head and back.
Just moments ago, she had been completely normal.
‘How could a mosquito bite turn her into something this terrifying?’
‘Had that giant mosquito taken over her body?’
‘Or… had she been infected and mutated?’
Nobody could make sense of it—and there was no time to try.
Because right in front of them, the woman in red had become a full-fledged monster!
***
[System Notification: Player Scarlet Funeral has reached a Pollution Value of 100. Irreversible mutation in progress. Pollution levels rapidly rising within a 200-meter radius. Warning: Pollution level critical. Escape the area immediately or eliminate the pollution source.]
The system announcement echoed just as the players were still processing what they had seen.
But the monster had already moved.
With a flap of her wings, she ghosted through the air and appeared right in front of the plain-looking young man.
Her grotesquely long, needle-like mouth suddenly pierced his chest, sucking blood directly from his body.
“Aaaagh!” The young man let out a bone-chilling scream, as if every nerve in his body were being stripped out one by one!
He wanted to fight back, but his body locked up—he couldn’t move at all.
The others could only watch in horror as his body rapidly shriveled into a skin-and-bone husk.
Slurp!
The red-dressed monster pulled back her mouthpiece, savoring the last drops with delight.
The young man’s body sagged and collapsed backward.
One glance, and it was clear—his eyes had rolled back, his skin had gone dark, and he showed no signs of life.
No—he was definitely dead!
“Aaaaaahhhh!” Seeing someone get killed right before their eyes, several players couldn’t hold back their screams.
Panic exploded among the crowd.
Everyone was gripped by overwhelming terror, desperate to escape.
One player, named Dancing Elephant, processed the system announcement quickly and identified two key points.
Escape the polluted zone—or kill the source.
If not, they were all going to die!
***
“We have to kill it—now!”
Realizing how fast the monster was, and how low the chances of escape were, Dancing Elephant made his decision.
Some players still trembled with fear.
Others began to regain composure.
A few glanced down at the tree branches on the ground, and cold determination sparked in their eyes.
“She’s too fast—we can’t outrun her. The only way we survive is if we kill her!”
Dancing Elephant shouted, adrenaline surging.
He was only nineteen.
He hadn’t even held a girl’s hand before.
There was no way he was dying in a place like this.
Just then, the red-dressed monster made her next move—her eyes locked onto Dancing Elephant, the one who had just shouted.
As her wings stirred the air, he acted before he could think—his body moved on instinct, diving into a ground roll.
Red Dress Monster missed with her first strike but didn’t give up.
She launched another ferocious attack on [Dancing Elephant].
He rolled on the ground, narrowly dodging the second wave.
But the third wave was unavoidable.
‘This is the end!’
Dancing Elephant stared wide-eyed as the Red Dress Monster prepared to deliver the fatal blow, his heart filled with despair.
‘If possible, I really wish I could at least touch a girl’s hand before I die… It must be so soft and smooth… Exciting even…’
Just as the monster’s strike was about to land, a sharp tree branch suddenly pierced through her body.
Her attack came to a halt.
She stared at the tree branch jutting from her chest, stunned.
Then, she let out a piercing screech and frantically flapped her thin wings.
“Eat my fist!” shouted a burly player as he charged in from the side, slamming a heavy, iron-like punch into the Red Dress Monster’s head like a cannon blast.
There was a deep thud.
The intense dizziness and pain slowed the monster’s movements.
“Die!” yelled another player, seizing the opportunity.
He picked up a jagged tree branch that had been sliced sharp by a blade and plunged it hard into her abdomen.
Dancing Elephant grabbed a rock about the size of a papaya, held it with both hands, got up, and smashed it down onto her head.
There was a dull, heavy sound.
Like a blossoming peach flower, blood bloomed from the impact.
The Red Dress Monster twitched a few times, then stopped moving entirely.
“Did… did I just kill someone?” Dancing Elephant’s pupils trembled.
He stumbled backward in a panic, the bloody stone slipping from his hands and falling to the ground.
“No, you just killed a monster.”
The burly player who had landed the heavy punch shook his head.
“Hey! Look over there!” someone suddenly shouted.
Everyone turned to look.
They saw the body of the ordinary young man rapidly melting.
He turned into a puddle of red and white goo.
“Urgh!” someone vomited on the spot.
“The monster’s melting too!”
Sure enough, the crowd witnessed the same grotesque transformation.
A wave of unspeakable nausea and dread surged through everyone’s hearts.
***
[Outside the Game]
The black cocoon of light surrounding the ordinary young man and [Crimson Funeral] vanished.
Along with it, their lives disappeared too.
As more beta testers died one after another, many of the higher-ups in major factions grew increasingly uneasy, tormented by fear and doubt.
Arguments over the game exploded once more, seemingly without end.
***
[In-Game]
After taking down the Red Dress Monster, the group didn’t dare stay a moment longer.
They fled the dense forest in a panic.
Dancing Elephant trailed behind, secretly checking his inventory.
There, a sharp dagger gleamed back at him.
It was a reward from the system for killing the Red Dress Monster.
Suppressing the excitement in his heart, he quietly closed the interface and put on a fearful expression.
***
[Underground River]
“Found something good!” Ye Lian had walked quite a ways when she finally discovered something valuable in a crack along the stone wall.
With swift movements, she used her spear to carve open the rock, retrieving a chunk of low-grade [Wind Crystal] roughly the size of an average watermelon.
‘Back then, I couldn’t purify the materials due to scarcity, which weakened the Wind Spear’s power. Now that I’ve got a Wind Crystal, it’s finally time to reinforce it.’
Saying that, she immediately began the process of purification, tuning, and reinforcement.
Green light flickered in the underground river.
Thirty minutes later, the Wind Spear had been reborn.
Its shape hadn’t changed much, but the length had been reduced by 70 centimeters.
The shaft had become a richer, emerald green.
The power of wind swirling around the spearhead was now almost visible to the naked eye.
‘Attack power up to 200, and piercing capability slightly enhanced. With the shaft shortened by 70 centimeters, it’s now much more comfortable to use.’
Ye Lian gave it a few test swings and nodded with satisfaction.
Back when her strength was lacking, she had lengthened the spear to extend her reach.
Now that she had grown stronger, she could modify it however she liked for better handling.
‘This spear’s been enhanced twice already. Using its old name doesn’t feel right anymore… Let’s call it the [Wind King Spear].’
Tftc!