The Indescribable Diary

When Yu Yi opened his eyes again, the sky was already bright. Although the sun hadn't come out yet, dawn had definitely arrived.

"Good morning. Looks like I won't have to worry about having nightmares now. Mum, your son is really too clever."

He reached out and waved hello at the decoration that looked like an eye. Yu Yi was in good spirits. Although his curse was not lifted, he no longer needed to fear the nightmares brought about by the curse.

Yu Yi was from an affluent family once upon a time. However, he decided to prioritise some other things, so he left his wealth behind and escaped to this place. He was able to get by, but now he had some very heavy baggage. One of the most troublesome one would be the curse on him. Yu Yi was a knowledgeable man, but his knowledge didn't help him learn more about the way to lift his own curse. Every single day, once he fell asleep, his mind would be invaded by nightmares, in which a monster slays him again and again.

However, in a moment of serendipity, Yu Yi learned that although the monsters in his dreams were troubling, there were definitely ways to defeat them. He just needed to find the right way. Since it was in his own dreams, he didn't actually need to have the things he needed. Rather, all he needed to do was to conjure things up in his mind.

At that time, Yu Yi tried to learn everything he could about weapons. However, with the curse constantly changing, physical weapons were no longer effective. Gradually, monsters that were unaffected by physics appeared. For example, last night's Life Predator that only appeared in horror stories.

There was once an old man with a goatee who said, only magic could counter magic. Yu Yi hadn't seen magic in his life, so he had no way to 'think' of a way to counter his opponents. With just a glimmer of hope, Yu Yi had conjured up Yuming, so that she would appear in his dreams. There it was! Now the curse was completely useless. Star Colors, so what? Nothing was strong enough to withstand a single slash from Yuming's Tai Sword.

Never thought that this stupid game had this advantage. So much more interesting than paying cash for DNF. I want to pay money for this game!

That's what he was saying, but Yu Yi had little savings left to put into games.

After breakfast, Yu Yi turned on the television. There wasn't much information about America. Yu Yi turned off the television and unlocked his phone. There was a message for him.

[Reply to me by 9AM Beijing time. Otherwise I'll call you after I wake up. -Juzi]

It was only around 6AM. Without hesitation, Yu Yi dialled Juzi's phone number. He didn't really know what time it was in the U.S., but since Juzi told him to call before 9AM, he should be fine.

The telephone connected quickly.

[Hey, Daocao, you'll never believe this! We surrounded the serial killer today! It was so damn crazy!]

Juzi's voice was filled with excitement.

"Why?"

Yu Yi felt that something important had happened.

[He sustained hundreds of shots without dying and killed seven police officers. He finally died after being strafed three times by 12.7 mm machine gun rounds. When they were examining the body, they found that most of the bullets didn't even get through his skin! That creature was a human who had been dead for years! And his head was sewn on! It dropped off after the slightest touch by bullets. We were just looking at a headless body slaying people with a knife. I felt like I was playing an SC!]

"..."

Yu Yi didn't speak - it was just that he felt like the situation was too preposterous. The world wasn't what it appeared to be. Yu Yi knew that monsters lurked within the shadows. In fact, the curse on him was caused by them. However, the event that happened in the U.S. wasn't a matter of monsters anymore… it was simply his novice instance mission!

"By the way, about the thing that I asked you to investigate. Did you find anything?"

[Oh, that. Yeah, but we hope that you won't be too sad. We found his body. He was wearing a park rangers' uniform, so he was quite easy to find. His chest cavity was impaled from the back, with his head cut off. The head of the monster was in fact Trellis Mitchell's head. Mitchell's body was found at a forest ranger rest area.]

"..."

Yu Yi's character card in the novice instance mission was Trellis Mitchell. He let down his guard after exploding a zombie's head with a flying kick and was promptly backstabbed by the headless zombie.

[Hey? Daocao? Daocao? Was the deceased your friend? My condolences.]

"He wasn't my friend. I can't even say that I know him."

Yu Yi took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

[Then why did you even ask me this? I thought your friend had died.]

"It was me who had died."

[This isn't the time for jokes!"

"I can't explain this to you know, but I know there's going to be huge trouble. Let me put it this way. The deceased, Trellis Mitchell, was one of my character cards in the game. The character died from backstabbing in a novice training mission. Oh, btw, before I tore my card, I destroyed the head of a monster. Also, my training instance mission took place in an American forest. And as the instance mission's description had explained, many people had gone missing. That's all I have."

In a single breath, Yu Yi said everything that he knew. He added, "In all, Juzi, I think we're in deep trouble. The world is in trouble. I can guarantee you that this was my novice instance mission in the game! The body that you found was the character I had been playing. And now, the serial killer that you're conducting an examination on was a ghoul!"

[Wait, this is all a mess. Am I hearing this because I didn't pass my SC? You're saying that this case here was your novice training mission?]

"I'm quite messed up too. It's so horrifying for things in-game to appear in real life, and…"

[And it's a COC instance mission.]

Yup, it's a COC instance mission. If it were DND, Infinite, or Holy Grail missions, there would be no issues. However, for a COC instance mission… one would never know how scary COC was if they didn't play.

"Hmm… maybe I'm a bit crazy because of my nightmares… Did you check the identities of the victims?"

[We're searching for it! However, the majority of the victims couldn't be traced. There's lots of homeless people who were killed. And that Trellis Mitchell, he was the only person with a name tag. However, the Forest Management Agency doesn't have any records of him. I was preparing to sleep now, and now you've given me such a huge surprise. Stop scaring me! I'm going to have nightmares.]

"Yeah…"

All of a sudden, Yu Yi recalled something.

[What happened?]

"When entering the instance mission, was there a notice behind the game that indicated 'Level of Consequence'?"

[There was. 'Level of Consequence on the World after Completion or Failure', to be exact. The one we played yesterday had a 'Low' level.]

"...to which world exactly? The in-game world? Or… reality?"

All of a sudden, there was… so much pressure.

[What should we do? Expose this and make everyone boycott this game?]

"Do you think anyone would believe us?"

[So what should we do? If someone played the Devil Arrives instance mission, what can we do then?]

"Let's just see as it goes. We'll talk to Huahua and Fengye tonight. We have to finish this game tonight, if not we'll be dead."