Chapter 761: Simply Insane and Depraved

Out of a sense of responsibility to his friend, and their unbreakable friendship, Zhang Yi bravely suppressed his fear and continued playing the game. His sole purpose was to see his friend's inexpressibly surprised expression on his birthday, when he presented this deeply sincere gift.

But for the majority of players, who were driven by curiosity and aimed for the 10,000 slots or the participation prize, they were thoroughly taught a lesson.

Is this damn game even meant for humans?

Starting in a stained and mottled toilet, coupled with dim lighting, it merely made one feel a bit dirty.

After emerging, although the scenery couldn't compare to games like Uncharted, it could still be described as picturesque.

But what the heck was this after descending the mountain?

Everywhere was thick white fog with visibility of only two or three meters, and what was this scene then?

A graveyard, a deserted and dead-silent town, and then having to enter a dark apartment.

Coupled with the various eerie background music in the game, it was enough to make people wet their pants, wasn't it?

Countless terrified players flooded the community forum with their comments.

“Damn, I really overestimated myself! I thought I could clear it, but I retreated in defeat in less than half an hour!”

“Half an hour? You're too brave. I quit after just strolling around the town entrance once.”

“Damn it, there weren't even any intense scenes, but my heart just kept pounding, and I broke out in a cold sweat!”

“+1, the monsters are pitifully weak, and the beginning wasn't even a dark scene, but I just felt incredibly scared.”

“Exactly, the atmosphere in this game is simply the scariest I've ever played. I still feel a bit creepy inside even now.”

“Freebie failed, I don't want the money anymore, my life is more important!”

Of course, there were also players who, after being terrified, deliberately spoke sarcastically.

“Silent Hill is so much fun! It's the most enjoyable game I've ever played in my life, everyone should come play!”

“Actually, Silent Hill is nothing special, just wandering around a small town, it's not scary at all.”

“+1, those who say this game is too scary, are you just too timid? I'm disappointed in Mr. Chen, this isn't scary at all!”

This situation also caused the popularity of discussions about Silent Hill to soar.

Many players who hadn't dared to play immediately felt a tiny spark of curiosity.

Although they knew that players who said it wasn't scary were most likely speaking sarcastically.

After all, past horror games, and Souls-like games, all had such players.

But the crucial point was that even the players who claimed to have wet themselves, from what they described, it didn't seem that terrifying.

No door jump scares, no turn-around jump scares, the monsters were pitifully weak, and the town map wasn't set at night, but in broad daylight.

As for the fog, what's the big deal?

Which city hasn't had fog all year round?

Especially players located in domestic mountain cities and Great Britain's London, they even showed disdainful smiles.

Who hasn't seen dense fog before?

With these thoughts, many players who weren't prepared to step into Silent Hill also successively paid for tickets and took a ride to this eerie town.

However, these players who entered Silent Hill soon developed different ideas.

Because Silent Hill's horror points were completely different from other games.

In other horror games, one could always pinpoint a specific element of horror.

For example, the bloody zombies in Resident Evil, the mentally ill patients and dark scenes in Outlast, and the Chinese funerary culture with paper effigies at the beginning of Yanhuo.

But what about Silent Hill?

The monsters were indeed hideous and eerie, but as a mere mortal, putting aside Hand Sanitizer Warrior Ethan, who needed no mention...

James's combat prowess could absolutely be considered among the top protagonists in horror games.

As for the setting, upon entering the game, it was heavy fog and broad daylight.

At first glance, there was only one feeling: Is that all?

But in reality, Silent Hill's most terrifying aspect was its atmosphere creation.

As everyone knows, the unknown is the most terrifying.

Resident Evil could be said to have a scientific background, but Silent Hill was different.

Here, everything was unknown, especially the various monsters that appeared; they seemed easily defeated but were incredibly eerie.

Grotesque, eerie – this was the shared perception of all players.

In Silent Hill, all the monsters actually employed the Expressionist art style reminiscent of Francis Bacon.

Every monster was a metaphor; if one understood the entire game's storyline, then looking back at these monsters would reveal another layer of meaning.

The sense of fear in one's heart would also decrease significantly.

But the crucial point was that all players were experiencing it for the first time.

In such a situation, facing all sorts of unknown, grotesque, and eerie monsters was definitely a torment for players.

Not only that, in the game's first scene, thick fog enveloped everything in dead silence, and the streets and alleys only had one type of eerie humanoid monster.

But after reaching the second scene, the game gradually started to become insane and depraved.

Standard horror game tropes like door jump scares, lights-out jump scares, and turn-around jump scares were basically non-existent in Silent Hill.

But the key was the gameplay; by the time he reached the apartment scene, it was truly excessive.

Because it involved puzzle-solving content.

Puzzles could be said to be a very common trope in horror games.

But the puzzles in Silent Hill, compared to Yanhuo where puzzles could be completed by simply following the steps, had a slightly higher difficulty level.

In Silent Hill, players needed to search for various items, and then obtain clues from them, in order to complete the puzzles.

Compared to games with puzzle elements like Uncharted, the difficulty was actually a bit simpler.

But the key is, this is a horror game!

………………

Carrying his sincere friendship for Old Song, Zhang Yi struggled in the dark little apartment.

“So now all the paths are blocked. Do I need to search for clues to open this grandfather clock and then find a way to the third floor?”

Zhang Yi shone his flashlight on the path, exploring the apartment rooms bit by bit.

Heaven knows what he had been through.

The eerie little girl who had earlier kicked away the protagonist's key almost scared him out of the game, like the last straw that broke the camel's back. Thankfully, he and Old Song had known each other for so many years, and their unbreakable friendship made him persevere.

And just after he had barely recovered, moments ago, he had seen an eerie monster holding a large cleaver in the apartment corridor.

It was a gigantic humanoid monster over two meters tall, comparable to Big Pig Uncle, the security captain, from Outlast.

But in terms of appearance, this monster was even more brutal than Big Pig Uncle.

It was bare-chested, its skin an unnatural grey, and it held a massive cleaver in its hand.

What was even more striking was its head; it wasn't a human or monster's head, but a gigantic iron triangular shackle, appearing dark red, like a Pyramid Head.

The only thing that made Zhang Yi relieved was that this monster was blocked by iron bars.

And it showed no intention of attacking, just stood there motionless.

But this was a horror game!

Zhang Yi didn't even need to think; this large monster, like Lady Dimitrescu in the Resident Evil castle and Big Pig Uncle in Outlast...

Later on, he would definitely be hunted down by this guy. Thinking of this, Zhang Yi felt a little nervous.

Of course, that was something to face later; for now, a more serious problem lay before him.

After exploring room after room on the second floor, he finally found a very conspicuous hole in the wall in one of them.

“So now I have to reach my hand in there to find clues?”

In VR's immersive mode, looking at the dark hole before him, with green water flowing from it, and gigantic black moths fluttering around, Zhang Yi felt goosebumps erupt all over his body.

Scenes like reaching into a hole to retrieve something also existed in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.

But the key was, Uncharted was an action-adventure game.

And this was a horror game!

After struggling for a long time, Zhang Yi gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and then controlled his game character to reach into the hole.

A rustling and fumbling sound came from his ears, and at the same time, the haptic vibrator on the gaming pod's hand module sent a jolt of feedback, giving him goosebumps all over.

After about four or five seconds, the vibration disappeared, and Zhang Yi carefully opened his eyes little by little.

It wasn't as intense as he imagined; James pulled out an object resembling a pocket watch from the hole.

Combining this with the information gathered from the accessible rooms in the apartment.

Zhang Yi returned to the location of the grandfather clock, then opened the grandfather clock's cover.

He readjusted the grandfather clock's hour, minute, and second hands to the correct positions, successfully unlocking its mechanism.

Behind the grandfather clock, a hidden passage led to the third floor, to the spot where the little girl had appeared earlier, and on the ground, he could find the kicked-away key.

He picked up the key from the ground, but before Zhang Yi could sigh in relief...

Suddenly, a few shrill screams of monsters came from ahead, startling him.

Although he desperately wanted to leave immediately, it was clear that only by continuing to explore could the subsequent plot be triggered.

Sweat was trickling down Zhang Yi's back and hands.

Slowly moving James's steps in the game, Zhang Yi turned the corner into a room and witnessed an eerie scene.

The Pyramid Head he had seen earlier in the hallway was violently rubbing two mannequin-ladder monsters made of legs against a sink, generating heat.

Then, as if finished, the Pyramid Head dragged one of the mannequins and slammed it heavily onto the ground, repeatedly chopping at the mannequin's body with its cleaver.

The monster on the ground convulsed frantically, letting out shrill roars, but under Pyramid Head's strength, it was utterly unable to resist.

“What... what the heck is this?”

“This is too graphic!”

Looking at the scene before him, Zhang Yi was completely dumbfounded.

This is utterly insane and depraved!

Monsters were violently attacking each other, and then Pyramid Head performed a scene of chopping meat with a big cleaver.

Coupled with the monster's shrill screams, the extremely strong VR immersion, and the eerie atmospheric sound effects...

Zhang Yi was utterly shocked by the scene before him.

Fortunately, this segment was a cutscene in the game.

Seeing this scene, James quickly hid in a nearby closet and turned off his flashlight.

In the dim kitchen, Pyramid Head tirelessly swung its cleaver.

The monster on the ground had already been chopped into a pile of minced meat.

Dragging another monster, Pyramid Head slowly dragged the monster's corpse towards Zhang Yi's direction.

Listening to Pyramid Head's dull thudding footsteps on the floor, Zhang Yi's heart kept pounding.

He was terrified that the monster would discover him.

Zhang Yi observed through the gap in the closet; it was very dark outside, with only a faint glimmer of light.

Judging by the silhouette in the gap, it was slowly approaching the closet step by step.

Suddenly, Pyramid Head's footsteps stopped.

Through the gap in the closet, looking at Pyramid Head's blurry figure outside, Zhang Yi didn't dare to move a muscle.

Although there was a magazine and a key next to the closet, finally giving his previously found pistol some bullets.

But Pyramid Head's sense of oppression was simply too strong; Zhang Yi didn't even think about firing his gun.

After about a few seconds, Pyramid Head turned and left. The dull thudding footsteps and the sound of metal scraping the floor faded into the distance and finally disappeared.

Not emerging immediately from the closet, Zhang Yi was terrified that Big Bro Pyramid Head would pull a 'turn-around jump scare' trick.

After waiting for a full minute and more in the closet, Zhang Yi cautiously emerged.

Looking at the blood-stained ground, Zhang Yi was extremely panicked. This time, he made a decision: he had to go out and catch his breath.

As for Old Song?

Sincere friendship is one thing, but there's no need to risk his own life for it!

(End of Chapter) <>