A few centimeters above the badge, a crude panel also popped into Zhou Kai’s field of vision.
【Character: Zhou Kai】
【Status: Fatigued, Weak, Wound Infection, Erosion】
【Skills: None】
【Items: Residence Permit, Homemade Chain Axe (Cannot Be Upgraded)】
【General EXP: 0】
【Erosion Progress: 4/9】(Please avoid death!)
“A game panel?”
Zhou Kai was stunned for only an instant before he noticed the key point.
The number for Erosion Progress bothered him a great deal.
4/9!
He had died exactly four times...
In other words, rather than saying he had seen a panel, it would be more accurate to say he had seen a countdown to his death.
What he needed to do most right now...
Zhou Kai clenched the ice-cold badge in his hand.
Find a place and settle down—make it his “home”!
……
The kitchen was filled with the smell of rust and mold.
After rummaging around for ages, Zhou Kai found a Western chef’s knife covered in rust.
The blade was long enough, but its center of gravity was absurdly off. Trying to chop with it would be pure torture for his own wrist.
Still, having it was better than having nothing.
He tucked the chef’s knife into his belt, in a position where he could draw it with a reverse grip.
Carrying that crude chain axe, Zhou Kai stood at the doorway, staring at the pitch-black curtain of rain outside, dark enough to drown a person. He fell silent for a moment, then plunged straight into it.
This smashed-up, dilapidated house was too shabby even to serve as a grave, let alone as a “home.”
If he wanted to live, he had to find a more intact shell to crawl into.
For that, he had to take a risk.
His equipment might have been scavenged scraps, but fortunately, he still had five lives left... Now was the time to gamble with his life.
Taking advantage of the torrential rain and booming thunder, taking advantage of the fact that the patrolling chain-hammer monster had only just gone far away.
Find a safe house!
Get back to the real world!
Zhou Kai sucked in a deep breath, bent low, stepped into the mud, and charged toward the silhouette of the nearest house.
The sound of his footsteps was completely swallowed by the raging rain. Even he himself could not hear them clearly.
This dead silence, drowned beneath the storm, made his heart pound wildly. The monsters could not hear him, but likewise, he could not hear any movement from the monsters either.
Between danger and himself was only a layer of window paper that could be pierced at any moment.
A thick bolt of lightning tore across the night sky, its pallid light lasting nearly two seconds.
Zhou Kai had just rushed to the entrance of the nearest building when he instinctively glanced back in the flash of light.
With that single glance, he saw a furry monster walking on four legs, crawling through the breach in the wall smashed open by the chain-hammer armored soldier, entering the broken house he had just left.
That thing’s legs had so many joints it made his scalp go numb.
Zhou Kai did not dare look again. He shoved the door open and squeezed inside, his heart nearly leaping out of his throat.
Thank goodness. Thank goodness he had left early.
Otherwise, he would have come face-to-face with that furred monster!
“What the hell is this place? Monsters spawn like they don’t cost a thing!”
Zhou Kai raised a hand and wiped the rainwater from his face.
It was so dark here he could not see his fingers in front of him. There were no windows...
Or rather, the windows had been nailed shut with wooden planks.
He could not use the lightning outside to see anything clearly.
But darkness was both danger and shelter.
The fact that no light could get out meant that any light he lit inside would not be discovered by the things outside.
“Choose this place as my 【Home】!”
Zhou Kai stared into the void and silently recited in his heart.
【Please find furniture that can serve as the “Safe House Core” before setting it.】
Soon, subtitles appeared in his vision, trembling twice.
Zhou Kai frowned.
Fine. If he had to search, he would search.
He groped around and pulled the waterproof lighter from his pants pocket...
The fact that he could bring things from reality into this place meant this damned place had been abnormal from the start.
The lighter was not broken. On the third try, there was a click, and a cluster of yellow-blue flame sprang up.
The light was not large, but it was enough to dispel the viscous darkness within three meters around him.
By the firelight, Zhou Kai immediately spotted the oil lamp on the mantelpiece, its glass罩 blackened by soot.
He picked up the oil lamp and shook it. The sound of liquid sloshing came from inside...
There was oil.
After fumbling with it for a moment, the oil lamp was successfully lit.
The dancing flame reflected in Zhou Kai’s brows and eyes, bringing with it a long-lost warmth.
Creak, creak.
Zhou Kai tried adjusting the metal reflector inside the oil lamp.
Now the range of illumination grew wider.
He circled the living room once, and finally, before the fireplace piled full of white bones and damp firewood, new subtitles popped up.
“Use the fireplace as the Safe House Core. Choose this place as my 【Home】.”
Zhou Kai confirmed in a low voice.
A miraculous scene occurred. The badge in his hand lit up, and the green rust on its surface instantly receded, turning it a bright coppery yellow.
【Home has been successfully set.】
【Upon your next rebirth, you will appear directly before the fireplace...】
【The next time you enter the Nightmare, progress will no longer refresh, and personal status will no longer refresh...】
【When you light the fireplace, negative statuses will be slowly dispelled.】
【Hint: A residence permit notarized according to the Territorial Law (Helen Parish) will prevent other residents from easily invading your territory.】
【Now, you may spend a wonderful day with your roommate.】
Once the safe house had been set, even the rotten air in the room seemed to dissipate somewhat.
The fireplace was clearly filled with white bones and rotten wood, yet it gave off a strange warmth.
“Territorial Law? Those monsters actually obey the law?”
Although there were still many suspicious points, Zhou Kai’s heart finally settled back into his stomach.
This time... he was truly safe.
Wait!
Suddenly, Zhou Kai’s eyes widened.
“What the hell? Roommate!? Where the fuck did I get a roommate!”
The chain axe that had already drooped downward was instantly swung up and rested on his shoulder.
By the dim yellow light of the oil lamp, Zhou Kai vigilantly swept his gaze over every inch of darkness around him, his muscles taut, ready at any moment to swing the axe in his hand.
He had to drag this thing out!
Otherwise, what was he supposed to do the next time he came in?
No one liked opening their eyes only to have some inexplicable thing jump into their face and kill them!
“If I can’t beat it, I’ll leave the Nightmare immediately. If I can... then I’ll slaughter it!”
This house was much larger than his initial spawn point, with two full stories.
The first floor had a living room, kitchen, study, and a staircase leading down to the basement.
The second floor had three bedrooms, as well as a folding ladder leading to a rooftop storage room.
Zhou Kai quickly swept through the kitchen and living room, but found no trace of any living creature.
Instead, on the kitchen cutting board, beside a puddle of fresh blood, he found a short-handled axe that was still fairly sharp.
“Oh, now this thing is way more useful than that shirt-and-chain axe.”
Zhou Kai swapped his peashooter for a cannon, then walked toward the study.
The study door was the only one on the entire first floor that was tightly shut.
Zhou Kai held up the axe, pressed himself against the door, and listened closely.
From inside came a rustling sound, like fabric rubbing against the floor.
Zhou Kai’s pupils abruptly constricted.
Before he could push the door open, a jagged black bone spike burst out of the door panel with a puff, its tip less than a foot from the tip of his nose!
Zhou Kai instinctively leaned back, stumbling several steps backward before managing to steady himself.
At that exact moment, the monster inside the study staggered out with the pierced door panel still stuck on it.
That’s right—it was wearing the door.
The thing looked like a middle-aged man dressed in European medieval noble attire. It was bald, its skull deformed and swollen to twice the size of an ordinary person’s.
And on its left shoulder grew a huge spike, black tinged with red, as long as a lower leg.
Just now, it had assumed the posture of an Iron Mountain Lean, using that bone spike to smash through the door panel and launch an attack at Zhou Kai.