Chapter 758: My Life Is Still More Important

After a quick glance at the restroom's interior, A'Shu quickly controlled the now operable protagonist and hurried outside.

After all, this cramped and filthy restroom, combined with the slightly dim lighting, felt a bit oppressive. He was afraid that at any second, a ghost would pop out of the toilet to scare him, as restrooms are always high-incident areas in horror games or movies.

Stepping out of the restroom and seeing the scenery outside, A'Shu couldn't help but be slightly taken aback. It wasn't out of fear, but rather confusion. Was this really a horror game?

Surveying the surrounding environment, he could confirm it was a remote suburban area of a small town. In the distance, he could see mountains, forests, and a lake. And surprisingly, it was daytime in the game, not a dark setting like in Outlast or Resident Evil.

If there was anything unusual, it was that the surrounding low walls and roads looked weathered, and the entire town was eerily quiet. But this simply couldn't be linked to horror! If he hadn't known Silent Hill was a horror game, A'Shu would truly have thought he was playing some sort of casual vacation game.

He looked around: barricades, trash cans, and a small car with its door open. This seemed to be the car the protagonist drove; there was nothing special about it. After taking a couple of steps, the game transitioned into an uncontrollable cutscene.

The protagonist in the game slowly walked towards a low wall, and a female voice seemed to speak in his ear, clearly words spoken by someone from the protagonist's memories.

‘In my endless dreams, I saw this town—Silent Hill.’

‘You promised you’d take me back again.’

‘But you didn’t.’

‘Now, I am alone.’

‘Waiting for you… at our special place.’

As these words of recollection faded, the game's background melody also changed. The guitar, sometimes high-pitched, sometimes low, sounded like urgent, fine rain—lively yet tinged with an inexplicable sense of urgency. It suddenly made the entire game's atmosphere feel mysterious and pulsating.

‘I received a letter. On the envelope was written Mary’s name.’

‘That’s my wife’s name…’

‘It’s absurd, it must be fake… I kept telling myself that.’

‘Because someone who is dead… doesn’t write letters.’

‘Three years ago, Mary died from a terrible illness.’

‘But why am I here looking for her?’

‘Our special place… what does that even mean?’

‘Does she mean Lakeview Park?’

‘We spent a whole day there, just the two of us… gazing at the water.’

‘Mary… is she really here?’

‘Is she really alive… still waiting for me?’

After the protagonist James's inner monologue ended, A'Shu could once again control the game's protagonist.

Just then, layers of white fog appeared in the distance. Unlike real-world haze, which is gloomy, this white fog in the game was surprisingly bright. It was a vast expanse of white, completely obscuring anything beyond.

The various graffiti in the restroom, the slightly eerie musical melody, the letter from his deceased wife, the male protagonist who came after receiving the letter, and the quiet town of Silent Hill enveloped in white mist in the distance. Now, A'Shu felt he could retract his previous opinion; he was starting to panic a little.

A'Shu discreetly swallowed a mouthful of saliva, feeling a bit better as he watched the bullet comments in the live stream room. Although there was no intense information yet, unlike Firework, and even though this didn't appear to be a direct sequel to PT, he understood that this game contained monsters capable of killing the protagonist, just like the female ghost in PT that jump-scared players from behind. This potential threat immediately set the atmosphere, making him fear something frightening would appear from nowhere.

After the in-game cutscene ended, A'Shu could freely control the character.

A'Shu clearly noticed some aspects of Silent Hill. For instance, he encountered the long-lost invisible wall in the game. Of course, it wasn't strictly an invisible wall, but rather a restriction preventing him from going anywhere else, leaving only one path forward. If he tried to walk elsewhere, James in the game would softly mutter, “Mary… she might really be in Silent Hill. I can’t leave yet.”

Furthermore, A'Shu discovered that the game had almost no UI interface. This was a feature seen in games like Uncharted and Detroit: Become Human, designed to maximize player immersion.

In those games, this setting was great, but in Silent Hill, well, this setting became a mixed blessing.

A'Shu looked around the scene, finding a map of Silent Hill inside the open car door. This was clearly James's car, which he must have driven to Silent Hill. After arriving, he went to the abandoned public restroom. However, he felt this map was more of a consolation, as it wasn't very useful. Although it marked various locations in Silent Hill, as a paper map, players still had to explore on their own.

“This town looks quite large. Getting those 10,000 slots from Mr. Chen will probably be a suffering experience.”

“Of course, that has nothing to do with us. Our goal is to complete the main story; anything else is irrelevant to us!” A'Shu put away the map he found and declared his objective in the live stream room. As for the bullet comments like ‘That’s it?’ or ‘Brother A'Shu, where’s your ambition?’ he simply ignored them. Whoever wanted to take on the challenge could go; he wasn't going.

The only path currently led down the mountain road. A'Shu took a deep breath and began walking down the road, but as soon as he stepped out, something big happened.

While standing still, A'Shu hadn't felt much. But as he started walking, A'Shu immediately felt a difference.

“Brothers… have you noticed? The fog seems to be getting thicker!”

“And, besides the faint background music, there’s no other sound at all in the game!”

A'Shu controlled James to walk a few steps, then stop. Unlike when he was at the restroom entrance, A'Shu keenly noticed that the fog in the game was getting thicker as he walked down the path. Visibility ahead had become very low. And most crucially, apart from the slightly pulsating, mysterious background music, the only sounds in the entire game were his leather shoes clacking on the ground.

And protagonist James’s heavy breathing. The sound itself wasn't much, but combined with the incredibly quiet environment, it became exceptionally jarring. There were no disgusting scenes, no terrifying monsters, and no absolute darkness.

Even though the game’s screen was quite bright, it made A'Shu feel incredibly oppressed. At first, A'Shu was a little scared that a monster might suddenly appear as he walked. But in fact, he walked quite a distance, and no such situation occurred. But this didn’t mean he wasn’t scared; on the contrary, in this environment, he became even more anxious.

Because as he proceeded, the fog grew thicker. On the small path, A'Shu’s vision could only clearly make out a meter or two around him; anything further was just a sea of white fog. There was no sound whatsoever in the entire game scene; even the faint background music melody had disappeared.

The only sounds in the entire scene were his own footsteps and heavy breathing. A deathly silence. It was too quiet; no insect chirping, no bird calls, no signs of any living creatures, not even the sound of wind. There was only the boundless white fog.

Now, he even hoped a scary monster would appear. However, there was only endless fog. What Silent Hill created could be described as pure psychological horror. It challenged your psychological endurance step by step, until fear completely crushed your defenses.

A'Shu was currently experiencing this oppressive feeling to the fullest. Grand pronouncements before playing, trembling with fear after playing—this was the most accurate description of his current mood.

Looking at the live stream room, where bullet comments were constantly being sent to alleviate the viewing experience due to the deathly silent atmosphere, he hesitated repeatedly before finally making a decision. Glancing at the country road, whose length he still didn't know, and then at the live stream room's bullet comments, A'Shu lightly coughed: “Well, everyone knows that Silent Hill and many other horror games have puzzle-solving elements, which require a high level of intelligence from players.”

“But… my intelligence growth is like that of the Troll Warlord in DOTA; it might be a bit insufficient for this kind of game.”

“So what I mean is… how about we stop here for today? And when I get a bit smarter, we’ll come back and play this game again? Honestly, you can’t expect so much from someone with a cognitive deficiency.”

Ignoring the countless ‘?’ in the live stream room, A'Shu quietly shut down the game. If he could, wouldn’t he want to calmly treat the world of horror games like his own backyard?

But the bloody experience told him that there was a gap between ideals and reality. Compared to being slapped in the face by his own words, he felt his life was still more important.

(End of Chapter) <>