In the end, Suuankou failed to clear the level at “Nightmare: Sporeggar Mill”.
Although he died more than 20 times in the nightmare, this time around already marked the furthest progress he could achieve. He even felt that after two or three more tries, he might be able to encounter the ultimate BOSS monster.
However, just when Suuankou was about to continue sweeping the mines in person and testing all the traps inside Sporeggar Mill, Lin Yiyi suddenly sent him a bullet text, telling Suuankou to stop killing himself.
Just now, Nieusel came again and delivered ample valuable information. The players on the forum analyzed and discussed the new information enthusiastically based on what Suuankou saw.
In other words, that referred to what had happened before “‘Nightmare: Sporeggar Mill’ was born.
With this new input, many previously confusing things had an answer.
The players also realized that nightmares were the distorted version of history. If they could understand the truth of history, it would undoubtedly help to purify the nightmares.
Again, at least there was a thinking approach to solving the problem.
Suppose the players found out about the corresponding representation of the traps, level design, and monsters in the nightmare. Then, they could figure out effective measures to deal with these obstacles. They would break free from the predicament of not knowing what to do and expending their lifes to identify the solution.
They would complete the investigations before entering the nightmare. This was the mainstream tactic used by the aboriginals in this world to purify nightmares due to the limitations of the valuable erosion rate.
Naturally, Suuankou also understood that if the information available was limited, there was not much room for maneuver.
So when he heard that his sister had obtained new information, he stopped immediately. Instead, he lay at the door of Sporeggar Mill and began to close his eyes and meditate.
Unexpectedly, Suuankou did not trigger any death flag.
He waited until 6 a.m. the next day before finally waking up from the nightmare.
“That is to say, I am lucky. This save point is relatively safe, and nothing will happen if I go AFK.”
[TN: Away From Keyboard [1].]
After Suuankou opened his eyes, he looked at Lin Yiyi, who was sitting by the bed, and spat out the first sentence, “If it’s a critical point that doesn’t let me AFK, I’m afraid I’m already dead inside.”
After Suuankou woke up, he realized that his erosion rate had unknowingly increased to 70%.
After waking up, a new debuff appeared:
[On the verge of madness: Your soul is already overwhelmed, and your desires are sewn into the bottom of your pupils by fear. You are about to go mad.]
[Your Will attribute has a temporary -3 debuff, and hallucinations will occasionally appear. For all the Influences incurred, the time required to produce an echo is shortened to one-third; every time you are about to wake up from a nightmare, there is a small probability that you will immediately enter a new nightmare; an additional 30% increment on all effects of chaos spells.]
“I don’t dare to challenge the nightmare now.” Suuankou gritted his teeth, feeling the pain.
This had happened even at the debuff with a 70% erosion rate.
He was terrified to enter the nightmare.
If the erosion rate becomes 90% or 100%, will it die on the spot?
Will regular people get drawn into nightmares after their erosion rate reaches this level?
So, how on earth did they get wholly corrupted?
Suuankou had zero ideas about this.
After all, he was the first player whose erosion rate reached a critical value.
Other players simply would not die so many times. Players’ total game time and the rare distribution of nightmares in the Noah Kingdom turned them into hungry wolves with green eyes when they saw the nightmares. The nightmares would be eaten cleanly instantly.
The “Shared Experience” of this game was really too difficult to earn.
The direct way to earn level-up was to purify the nightmares that matched the player’s specifications.
After Delicious Wind Goose advanced to the Silver Rank, the nightmares at “normal difficulty” could no longer improve the level of his profession. According to such rules, the players could only rely on the distorted difficulty nightmares for level increment after they advanced to Gold Rank.
Suuankou even wondered if the level they raised and the experience they gained from the nightmare was the experience and level held by the deceased.
However, typically, Suuankou would not die that much.
He would be the first player to reach the critical point partly because he was obsessed with solving the puzzles and the difficulty of this dungeon instance was overwhelming. But the most crucial factor was that he was worried about his sister, Lin Yiyi.
He had witnessed his sister die again and again in the nightmare. Of course, he knew that this was just an insignificant “death”; it would not even bring about Dragonrot [2], loss of humanity, or Blood Echoes [3].
But after all, this was not a game that could be restarted anytime.
—Death was really agonizing.
Even if the player’s pain perception was weakened by a large proportion, the pain was still immense.
As her blood-related brother, Suuankou wanted to do something for her.
His sister had been his idol since he was a child, and she was also the banner standing in the distance in his eyes.
They came to this place not to level up merely by purifying the nightmare several times. Instead, they were here to eradicate the nightmare. Thus, pioneering the hidden part of the game was their duty.
In Suuankou’s approach to decryption and his intuition, he would not have died so many times. The death count would be less than half of the current total count.
However, his duty was to sweep mines in person.
Even if he knew there might be a trap, he had to step on the trap and take a look.
This had nothing to do with his skill and performance.
It was just the awareness of being “willing to bear pain”.
He did not want his sister to endure this struggling, challenging, and tiring work. Instead, he could do it too.
Since he was accompanied by two girls, how could he be afraid of pain and suffering, let the girls be responsible for pioneering work, and reap the benefits by himself?
Suuankou knew that he used to be an introverted person.
It was hard for him to conversate with strangers, and he did not even want to leave his computer if possible. His friends were on the Internet. His smile only appeared when chatting with the silly netizens, and he only talked to his fans, who he did not personally know.
And part of that reason was Lin Yiyi.
As a sister, she was outstanding, which put a lot of pressure on Suuankou.
No matter what he did, he would be compared to his sister. Not just his parents but also relatives and other friends, as well as his teachers.
He and Lin Yiyi went to the same elementary school, junior high school, and high school. The overlap rate of their teachers in middle school exceeded at least 30%.
When he was a child, he felt resentment.
—Why was the other praised for academic achievement with 80 points and 90 points on the test? He occasionally got a 95 on the test but was reprimanded for regressing and being lazy. If that were the case, would a student with poorer performance have better treatment?
—Why could the others happily leave the house and have fun if they were in the top five in the class? However, if he could not get first place, he would be reminded that “his sister always took first place back then”.
—Why did he work so hard to accomplish what his sister had accomplished? Why did he have to work four times as hard as others to get one-third of the joy of others?
—Why did he have such an excellent sister?
She was outstanding and easily became famous, whether it was academically, in popularity, or even being a streamer. Suuankou tried his best to play complex games and arrange comedic reactions, but his number of followers was not as good as that of Lin Yiyi.
Although Suuankou never said it, there was resentment in his heart.
However, things had changed.
He gradually realized the expectations from parents and teachers were the hope passed down to him.
He was not the shadow of his sister but someone who could surpass that.