PFRG: Chapter 39

Chi Ting was slightly stunned.

There were countless images running through his mind. Yet amazingly, at this moment, he actually realized who was dragging him over.

Chi Ting looked up intently and found Yue Ren pinching his jaw, frowning and watching him seriously.

Such a look was clearly an inquiry into his current mental state.

The corners of Chi Ting’s mouth twitched slightly. He opened his mouth under such a gaze. “I’m fine.”

The moment these words came out, Chi Ting could feel the hand pinching his jaw pausing clearly before slowly letting go.

He pushed Yue Ren away. He swayed slightly before regaining his balance.

Chi Ting shook his head vigorously while trying to expel the clamoring voice in his mind.

He replied to Yue Ren like this, but it was obvious that he was affected.

The moment when the murals started to move in his eyes, the legendary story that had been buried deep in his memory seemed to feel an invisible call and rushed out completely.

If someone hadn’t pulled him quickly at this moment, he was afraid he might’ve fallen into a state of confusion where he couldn’t remember who he was.

At this time, Chi Ting broke free from the invisible spiritual suggestion. He looked up again and the ancient murals recording the legend of the heroes were still displayed in place, as if the images that sprung up were just his illusion—if it wasn’t for the surrounding players who were simultaneously affected.

In a short period of time, some people had been shouting crazily due to the strangeness of the murals. Now they had fallen into a deathly silence.

There was no panic. Every player seemed to be immersed in a distant dream, kneeling neatly and uniformly in the direction of the murals.

Their slow kneeling posture was exactly the same as that of the residents outside. Facing the wall with the legend of the heroes drawn on it, their expressionless gazes only had blazing gazes filled with longing left. their heads were slightly raised between their raised hands. Their blank and numb expressions combined with the same gestures as the residents outside the door made the whole picture look quite weird.

Not far behind these players were the slaves they brought into the castle.

It could be seen from their numb faces that these NPCs, like Yue Ren, weren’t affected by the mental shock just now.

So this castle was only aimed at the players…

Chi Ting frowned as he watched the players participating in the pious ceremony. Seeing the various expressions on their faces that showed enthusiasm, excitement, expectation or tears, it was hard to avoid having a bad premonition in his heart.

Finally, his eyes swept over the pink hair that stood up clearly. He saw that Ji Xingque’s relatively dull demeanor was much more normal than the others and withdrew his gaze.

His ears were filled with the murmurs of the residents outside the door, near and far.

Under the trend of these sounds, Chi Ting could feel that the memories that shouldn’t exist and had been pressed down by reason were starting to stir again.

He slowly closed his eyes. After calming himself down, he grabbed Yue Ren’s sleeve and pulled this person to him. He looked up and said, “If you don’t mind, let me borrow you for a little bit.”

“If we don’t need to bring these useless people along, I think we can clear this instance a bit faster.”

Yue Ren was caught off guard by such a pull and almost hit Chi Ting directly. Then he instantly guessed what this person wanted to do and made a direct statement. Still, he obviously didn’t expect to really convince the other person. Therefore, he changed his words without waiting for Chi Ting’s response. “But you won’t listen anyway. Okay, I’ll let you borrow me. How do you want to use me?”

This was clearly the answer that Chi Ting wanted.

Mental control had always been tricky. In this situation, it would be great if Old Song was here. Unfortunately, forget Old Song. Even his own personal skill was in a restricted state. Excluding the possibility of being forcibly awakened by external forces, he could only hope to weaken the mental impact and allow these players to wake up on their own.

A human being’s sense of survival was often the strongest instinct. Even the monsters with human content close to 20% couldn’t avoid this, let alone the humans who yearned for a better life.

It was called defeating magic with magic.

Chi Ting pointed to the figures kneeling in a pious manner and smiled at Yue Ren. “It is very simple. Just scare them. This should be something that suits your preferences.”

“……”

Yue Ren paused for a moment before saying sincerely, “I’m not interested in industrial fear.”

Yue Ren was obviously unhappy with Chi Ting’s approach of using him as a horror box. Then when he raised his head to meet this person’s gaze, the corners of his mouth lowered slightly. Finally, he tsked and said in a low voice, “I know.”

In the silence, the shadows reflected in the light started to wander under people’s feet.

Like a venomous snake with exposed fangs, it twisted and entangled itself bit by bit along the ankle toward the waist. Just like a gust of wind passing by, the atmosphere of the entire castle hall obviously became a bit colder.

Even the slaves watching indifferently changed their expressions slightly.

Under the coercion, they seemed to subconsciously want to move away. Then after Yue Ren silently glanced at them, they had to stand stiffly in place under the absolute sense of oppression.

It could be noticed that the players trapped in the illusion started to change their expressions one by one.

Chi Ting silently gave Yue Ren a thumbs-up. His eyes wandered around before focusing on the door again.

The residents were still performing the ritual devoutly. Then since Chi Ting tried to wake up the others, the eyes that looked steadily toward the inside of the castle clearly showed more gloomy resentment.

Chi Ting captured a clear killing intent from such an atmosphere.

He had no doubt that if they didn’t have the authority to enter the castle, the NPCs would’ve rushed in long ago.

However, Chi Ting’s focus at this time was obviously not on the emotions of the residents of the ancient city.

Ignoring the overflowing hostility, his gaze fell silently on the cuffs that were raised high.

As the NPCs’ arms were raised high, the long sleeves they wore all year round slipped off slightly. The dark metallic color around the wrists was shown.

At this moment, Chi Ting clearly saw the thick bracelets around those thin wrists.

This caused him to glance toward Yue Ren’s neck.

Such a material and style was exactly the same as the special collars of these slaves.

If the purpose of wearing the collars was to limit the demon blood in the slaves, then these bracelets on the wrists of the residents…

“Look at what I am doing. Why look at them?”

Hearing this voice, Chi Ting looked up and happened to meet Yue Ren’s eyes. This man was making a smile that wasn’t a smile. His tone also contained a bit of ridicule. “The thing you have in mind is done. Fortunately, someone woke up.”

Chi Ting looked up and saw Ji Xingque jumping up from the ground. Even the little ponytail at the back of his head stood up like exploding hair. “What type of stupid brainwashing material is this? After becoming a hero, I have to assume the responsibility of building the city in the future? What type of supreme power, what type of status is being respected by thousands of people? Do you think that giving me some power will make me a worker? You must be sick. My job is already tiring enough! Isn’t it good to lie down at home in my free time? It is poisonous to trick people into having nightmares!”

Yue Ren smiled lightly. “Your teammates, no former teammate is quite ambitious.”

“……” Chi Ting stopped for a while and reflected on whether he had instilled some bad values into Little Bird that he didn’t know about.

He didn’t expect that Ji Xingque, who was full of energy usually, would turn out to have an ultimate goal of being a salted fish?

It seemed that he, the captain, still didn’t know enough about his team members.

Since he was full of resistance in his subconscious, Ji Xingque was indeed the first to wake up among the players. After him, the players woke up one after another.

In contrast, the later the people woke up, the worse their mental state was.

At this sudden mental attack, except for Chi Ting who was accurately pulled out of the game before it started, everyone else was basically dragged into the legend of the heroes.

They repeatedly experienced the journey of a hero to the pinnacle of life. However, because Chi Ting let Yue Ren forcibly intervene, the first half of the story might’ve had a fairy-tale like beauty but the second half of the story became a dark fable, like suddenly falling into the abyss.

This caused the spirit of most people to be directly torn in half. After forcing themselves out of the dream under the stimulation of fear. Each of them seemed to have just woken up from a nightmare and couldn’t recover for a long time.

Some of them were immersed too deeply. Once they woke up and saw Yue Ren, they even subconsciously retreated because they felt the familiar, dark aura. There was a hellish look of horror on their faces.

Originally, Yue Ren was just listening to Chi Ting’s request to complete the task. He didn’t expect to encounter such an interesting thing after it ended.

Blinking slowly, Yue Ren faced the panicked expressions of those looking at him and raised the shadows under his feet meaningfully. Finally, he laughed happily at the sight of the figures hurrying away like they had seen a ghost.

He patted Chi Ting’s shoulder in a good mood. “This task you gave me seems to be quite interesting.”

Chi Ting: “……”

Sometimes, he was really speechless regarding this cheerful guy.

Wasn’t it childish to enjoy scaring people so much every day?

There was a full half an hour between Ji Xingque’s awakening and the last player breaking free of the illusion, but what followed was a longer buffer time.

The mental shock suffered by everyone was obviously very serious. For a while, they couldn’t tell the difference between fantasy and reality. They sat down in all corners of the castle hall with pale faces, chests heaving as they tried hard to recover.

Among them, Huang Xinjue’s group had witnessed the power of Yue Ren in advance and woke up quickly after feeling the familiar coldness in the illusion. Compared to the others, they were in slightly better condition and were very active in running among the players at this time. They soon brought back some desired information for Chi Ting.

It could only be said that it was similar to what he imagined before.

The function of these murals on the wall was similar to the copies that Chi Ting made in the bookstore previously. The murals seemed to be intended to allow players to become more involved in the identity of the heroes. This was in comparison with the daily tasks they had been assigned before, where the content vaguely had a subtle suggestion.

Obviously, the later players left the illusion, the more affected they were.

There were already many people who didn’t seem to be able to feel their physical weakness after waking up. Their first thought was to go and find the treasure chest desperately. Fortunately, they didn’t have much strength and were all stopped neatly by Ji Xingque and the others.

As the players gradually calmed down, the surrounding area became quiet again.

Only the murmurs that continued to enter their ears were left. It was coming from the residents of the ancient city outside. The NPCs withdrew their gazes after seeing the players wake up one after another. They were still chanting devoutly.

It was indeed a bit noisy.

Chi Ting frowned and looked up at the inside of the castle.

The central staircase leading to the second floor was covered with an old red carpet. In the center was a delicate window lattice. The moon hung high outside, casting a huge phantom shadow on the ground just through the glass.

Chi Ting glanced at it inadvertently. Then his gaze suddenly paused slightly.

Looking down, he caught the distinct cross emblem.

This was the symbol of the ancient city that had appeared in his mind countless times after he copied the city chronicles.

Such a cross was seen on top of the bell tower and in every corner of the ancient city. At this moment, such a long shadow extended all the way to his feet.

A strange look flashed in Chi Ting’s eyes. As his mind moved, the blood condensed in his pupils spread out to places he couldn’t see.

However, before he could look closely, a hand suddenly stretched out from behind him.

The broad palm easily covered his eyes.

Chi Ting was stunned for a moment before hearing a chuckle from Yue Ren behind him. “So this is the case.”

Chi Ting was surprised for a moment. “What?”

“It seems you don’t have much knowledge of religious matters,” Yue Ren said with a hint of playfulness in his tone. “Do you know the meaning of the inverted cross? It is a mark that symbolizes the devil.”

At this point, he patted Chi Ting on the shoulder with his other hand. He leaned toward Chi Ting’s ear and suggested sincerely, “I truly think that as a human being the devil is trying to seduce you, it is better for you to not continue looking.”

An inverted cross symbolizing the devil.

The world that Chi Ting lived in made him more convinced of the power of human beings. He had always scorned so-called religion. He naturally had done no research on it. At this time, he heard Yue Ren’s words, and countless information flashed through his mind. His thoughts instantly became clear. Finally, he knew where the dissonance he felt since entering the instance came from.

Throughout the ancient city, including the clock tower in the fountain square, these cross emblems with traces of time seemed to carry a sacred brilliance. Now it seemed that what was hidden behind the sunshine was just the lies of the devil that had been laid in front of them for a long time.

The city of the heroes?

No, Aleran had been a city of demons from beginning to end.

In this case, there was a high probability that these so-called contracted slaves with demon blood were probably…

Chi Ting thought of this and was about to look at Yue Ren when he heard someone calling his name in the distance.

“Brother Chi! Brother…”

Zeng Yan ran over in a hurry. Before he could speak, he saw the intimate scene of Yue Ren covering Chi Ting’s eyes and letting Chi Ting rest on his body.

This shocked him. At the same time, the words that came to his mouth also stopped.

Yue Ren raised an eyebrow and held Chi Ting’s shoulder to turn him around.

With his back to the shadow of the cross on the ground, he slowly moved away the palm covering the other person’s eyes.

There was an unexpected tenderness in this process that made Chi Ting glance at Yue Ren. Then he looked at Zeng Yan. “What? Did something happen?”

Zeng Yan’s mind returned and the expression on his face suddenly became serious. “It is time.”

The corners of his mouth pursed slightly. He glanced at Yue Ren and then at the other slaves present with great concern. “It will be 8 o’clock soon.”

In the blink of an eye, it was curfew time again.

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