Even a martial arts champion or a shooting champion, when exposed from behind and unguarded, could hardly withstand a dagger.
When the dagger directly stabbed into the back of Duan Donghuo’s head...
In Duan Donghuo’s mind, he was still thinking about the paid content.
Wen Xishu said:
"A dagger over the word for ’lust’; I chose to stab it into your head, fitting, isn’t it? The power of love is truly immense."
Duan Donghuo could no longer respond to Wen Xishu.
At this moment, it seemed his consciousness had been split in two by that dagger.
Duan Donghuo fell to the ground, dead.
The surrounding zombies slowly crawled over. Wen Xishu took Duan Donghuo’s keys and two guns, ignoring the zombies that lunged to feast on him.
When he returned to the villa filled with supplies, carrying a handgun, a shotgun, a steel pipe, and a dagger, new prompts appeared in his mind.
{Once you possess traits of deceit and cunning, you can disguise yourself as a weakling, trick others into trusting you, and usurp their place. But then again, they died from their own desires, so it’s not unjust. So, you’ve learned the second thing: you must hide your desires. Congratulations, you’ve completed the second challenge almost perfectly in line with the designer’s intention. You proved that you possess the essential qualities needed for survival in the apocalypse. Please continue to maintain this, I hope to invite you to the real world.}
{Reward for the task: Zombie Perception, Combat Skills, Shooting Skills.}
Wen Xishu’s title changed from "Part of Those Who Resist Thirst and Hunger" to "A Small Portion of Combat-Ready Zombie Hunters Who Resist Thirst and Hunger".
Part of the people became a small portion of the people. Wen Xishu’s rarity evolved once again.
Moreover, what surprised Wen Xishu the most was the gun in his hand. It felt almost weightless.
Wen Xishu had a feeling that if he fired now, the recoil would be negligible.
Additionally, he felt as if he had instantly mastered Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Karate, Wing Chun, Muay Thai, and many other combat techniques.
"I wonder if these skills can be taken out of the scenario?"
The Savior Project, after all, must build something real, right?
Wen Xishu felt the reward for this task was very high, significantly higher than the first novice task.
It wasn’t due to the difficulty of the task. He noticed the statement in the prompt—almost perfectly completing the scenario in line with the designer’s intention.
This means if you complete the task using a "non-pay-to-win profession" method, and as much as possible without using any overpowered attributes...
Then you could very likely receive extra rewards.
This time, Wen Xishu found the hint quite obvious.
"There are three skulls in the residential area, but not many monsters, indicating that the monsters might be hiding inside the residences."
"At the same time, the monsters outside the residences are designed to be too weak, suggesting an intention to lure the player to explore the residences."
"But it also implies that these zombies might not actually be here to pose a challenge but serve another purpose."
"Finally, Duan Donghuo’s desires were quite obvious. Using Duan Donghuo’s desires, luring him out to kill zombies..."
"Everything had clues. If at the beginning, I had gone straight for an extreme kick combined with killing soccer and taken Duan Donghuo’s life... maybe I wouldn’t have gained the combat and shooting skills."
Wen Xishu didn’t mind much, after all, he had achieved the best outcome.
He decisively went to the third-floor room and unlocked the chains with the keys taken from Duan Donghuo.
Then he opened the door lock.
A nauseating stench of rot wafted out. Everything was as Wen Xishu had guessed.
Duan Donghuo had hidden a zombie.
But the zombie was not Duan Donghuo’s lover. The title "the power of love" was to tell the player to use "love" to lure Duan Donghuo.
But the zombie hidden in the third-floor room by Duan Donghuo was his mother.
This zombie had been fed well, almost retaining its human appearance.
It was clear that Duan Donghuo had killed many people to feed his mother.
The zombie’s mouth was gagged, unable to make a sound, and its hands and feet were also bound with chains.
There were several metal barrels around, each containing bones, human bones. Beside them, there was a table with a diary on it.
Wen Xishu casually flipped through it; it was roughly about Duan Donghuo’s longing and guilt towards his mother.
Wen Xishu thought it made sense. You never know which side of a person they’ll show you.
In his mother’s eyes, Duan Donghuo must have been a very filial and sensible child. Although his mother no longer had human observation and thinking abilities.
Wen Xishu continued to read through the diary, finding a clue to Task Two—the Giant Python in the Cave.
He immediately felt... contaminated.
The diary read:
"I no longer hope for a lone woman to come to this residential area... I so long to put my giant python into a hole, regardless of whether it’s male or female."
Wen Xishu was thankful... that he didn’t choose Task Two.
"If I had chosen it, I might have been forced to drink that glass of water? If I did drink it... perhaps I wouldn’t die, but the game would present an even darker side, showing players the consequences of easily trusting others in the apocalypse."
"This game’s designer is too cruel."
Wen Xishu couldn’t believe he had been so naive, thinking the Giant Python in the Cave was a task about hunting wild mutated animals.
He shook his head, quickly refocusing on the game itself:
"The most crucial thing now is to find the invitation. So far, it seems none of the paying players have managed to find the invitation."
"Perhaps the next task will give me a chance to find the invitation. Because the prompt said, I hope to invite you to the real world. This might be hinting at the invitation?"
Combining his experience from the first climb up Jack’s Mysterious Tower, the more aligned the intentions of the Tower Climber and the Deceit Tower boss were in certain aspects, the more they could resonate and empathize... the easier it would be to get the invitation.
So Wen Xishu speculated that completing the third task without spending money might provide the chance to obtain the invitation.
And the third task appeared quickly.
After Wen Xishu had eaten his fill and reunited Duan Donghuo’s mother and son, he went straight to the second floor.
Of course, he wasn’t there to watch NTR films. From the start, Wen Xishu realized he was already in a chain of tasks.
Typically, game designers wouldn’t let players linger in a comfortable environment for too long.
Up ahead, Wen Xishu saw the radio station set up by Duan Donghuo.
At this time, an exclamation mark symbol had appeared on the radio station.
This meant he was about to receive information to start the next journey.
Before Wen Xishu triggered the task, he saw a message in his sight.
{Tam: Anyone here has some asset points, lend me some! If I top-up this 6480 asset value pack, I’ll be the savior! I’ve put all my assets into this. Once I return, I’ll pay you back! I’m about to dominate this world!}
Wen Xishu didn’t know what was going on with Tam, but it was clear that the first person harmed by the pay-to-win trap had appeared.
"It hasn’t been long... and this person has already started spending four-figure sums on cheating tools."