The squeaking of rodents echoed sharply and piercingly by his ear.
Chen Lun struggled to open his eyes, a ninety-degree tilted view appearing in his blurred vision, giving him an intense sense of unreality.
"Hey buddy, how should we handle these guys?"
"Heh... According to the priest, they are to be sacrificed tonight."
Chen Lun clutched his stomach, struggling to rise from the ground.
He leaned against the wet, disgusting wall beside him, enduring the fire-like hunger in his stomach.
As his vision slowly returned to normal, Chen Lun gradually regained his sense of reality.
In the dim environment, he focused his gaze towards the source of the voice, looking past the iron bars of the prison, where two tall, thin figures in leather coats stood at the entrance.
They were two men, casually leaning under the torch on the corridor wall, casting a pair of dim, dark shadows. Chen Lun noticed, both men carried a short sword at their waists.
Chen Lun was slightly baffled.
He vaguely remembered that he was engrossed in a holographic online game called Era of Mystery, acclaimed as the pinnacle masterpiece of the new generation—singular in its status, with countless global players spending their sleeping hours in this game.
Efficiently utilizing sleep time had long been recognized as the truth by the new generation, with holographic gaming being one of the main methods. Among them, Era of Mystery led the way and was indisputably rated as the most popular game world.
Chen Lun's memory lingered at the last moment, just when he lay into the sleep pod, the door slowly closed, and he linked to the game world...
"What happened last..."
As he recalled, suddenly a sharp pain shot through the back of his head. Chen Lun gasped, reaching to touch the back of his skull, only feeling a warm, sticky sensation on his palm.
By the faint torchlight, he saw some not fully dried blood stains on his hand.
Chen Lun cursed under his breath.
"Fuck! Was I shot in the head?!"
A scene he once saw in a short video flashed through his mind—a robust man at a barbecue stall swung a beer bottle like splitting a mountain; the bottle shattered on another guy's head, and then he just fell straight, with the comments section filled with 'goodnights'.
Chen Lun slightly shook his head, stopping his wild thoughts.
He didn't know what had happened to him, perhaps there was a malfunction with the sleep pod equipment, and he had peacefully passed away in his sleep.
Am I still in the game? Or maybe...
"Monk Will's team hasn't produced results for several months; hopefully, tonight these guys will bring a surprise."
"Hey, I think you're just craving alcohol, already dreaming unrealistically for that two hundred Copper Kro reward..."
The tall, thin figure couldn't help coughing, as if he had phlegm stuck in his throat. He moistened his throat with saliva, breathed a long sigh, and then chuckled sinisterly:
"The crap our team's working on, shoving a few hundred more lives into it still won't make a difference!"
"What does it matter... Anyway, these guys were all orphans raised by the church; it's time they gave their lives for the church!"
The two guards slowly turned their heads, their backs to the light looking into the cell.
"If they die, they die. If it works out, the priest will be pleased, and we'll get some money too..."
The two pairs of cold eyes swept over Chen Lun, who quickly bowed his head to avoid their gaze.
After a while, the footsteps receded, and Chen Lun faintly overheard the two guards agreeing to go out for a drink, with others coming to take over their shift later.
But Chen Lun still kept his head down.
If someone were to look up at his face from below, they would see his expression filled with shock.
Just now, when the two guards turned back, Chen Lun caught a glimpse of the symbol on the side of their hats: under the torchlight, it was a glowing Red Apple insignia.
"Red Apple Church..."
Chen Lun muttered the name.
How is that possible?
Hadn't the Red Apple Church from the "Era of Mystery" completely perished two years ago? Why is it appearing again now?
Had I traveled back in time?
Chen Lun raised his head and silently recited in his mind.
After waiting for a full two minutes, Chen Lun didn't dare to breathe, but nothing happened.
The semi-transparent data frame that he remembered didn't appear in his field of vision, and his heart sank.
At the same time, he noticed that the prison was also holding seven or eight other young men and women.
In the dim and damp environment, they huddled together, curled up against the walls. Most of them wore only a thin, tattered linen cloth, barefoot, discarded like cattle awaiting slaughter.
Shivering, they remained silent.
Chen Lun shakily stood up, and he was fairly certain of one thing.
He had most likely traveled through time, not only back to the past, but also into the game world of the "Era of Mystery"!
And what awaited him was the sacrifice mentioned by the two guards.
Chen Lun rubbed his face somewhat frantically, completely unaware that his hand, which had touched the wall earlier, had picked up a lot of moss and dirt, making his entire face filthy.
Suppressing a strong feeling of hunger, he weakly lifted his footsteps and slowly walked toward the prison gate.
His movements were gentle and slow, but they still attracted the attention of the other people in the prison. Their frightened eyes now held a trace of confusion, not understanding what this fellow locked up with them intended to do.
Chen Lun's hands touched the cold iron bars, then he firmly grasped them.
He looked left and right, the corridor where a torch hung every few meters was empty.
Chen Lun took a deep breath, then began to exert force with his hands, slightly shaking the iron bars of the prison, but it wouldn't budge. He tried pushing the door too, which was even more solid and heavy than the bars.
"Don't waste your energy."
The sudden voice made Chen Lun jump. He turned to look at a woman in the opposite cell.
Under the firelight, the woman's dirty face was expressionless, her mouth curling into a faint sneer.
"No one captured here has ever escaped."
The woman was sitting at the door of her cell, her head stuck between two iron bars, staring directly at Chen Lun.
"Even if you did get out of here, there are countless guards outside... not to mention those monsters!"
At that moment, Chen Lun saw extreme unease and fear in her eyes.
"Everyone dies, dies horribly...hehehe..."
The woman reached out her hand from the cell, her arm was very pale, but it was covered with wildly moving eyeballs, which destroyed any beauty and instead caused a twisted and grotesque disgust.
"Look! I'm going to die too, just like them, hehehahaha!"
Chen Lun suddenly felt nauseous, his head pounding as if it had been hammered.
He felt dizzy, and his body stiffly fell backward.
A gasp erupted from the people in the prison.
In the moment before he lost consciousness, Chen Lun's mind seemed to hear a voice:
[Witnessing a Mysterious Contamination! Sanity Value decreased by 1 point!]
[Warning! When Sanity Value reaches 0, you will enter a death state! Current Sanity Value is 4/5!]
[Activate character panel!]