409 Dracula’s Castle 1

[BONUS]

[Ren: Go as planned, and let's meet up at the entrance of the Town.]

He then messaged Evie next.

[Ren: I'm in the meadows and on my way to town. If you're also transported here, just follow the wisps. Meet you in the city . . . ]

Ren paused because he felt like his message wasn't romantic at all. It felt . . . formal.

Come to think of it, they didn't call each other with endearments like love, babe, honey . . . He'd like to, but the mere thought of calling each other those names made him cringe.

Still . . . should he add an 'I love you' at the end of the message?

Ren quickly shook his head. Those words shouldn't be messaged but spoken.

So he decided against it and moved forward.

Ren already knew about being separated once transported into this server, so they were already prepared for it.

The other groups before them panicked because they were totally caught off guard when they found themselves alone in the meadows together with the souls.

They hadn't even reached the town and Dracula's Castle, but their numbers dwindled faster than they could count. Amongst the first batch who entered Dracula's server, only a few survived and made it to the city and into the Castle.

Some quickly gave up and forgot about Dracula's Castle, hopping to another server. However, they found out that the other server was more dreadful and scary than Dracula's Castle. Too bad, they could no longer return in the said server.

Ren quickly moved and followed the will o' wisps towards the town. Even if he couldn't see his path, the wisps would lead him into the city as long as he left them alone.

Once he touched or even grazed those wisps, they would start to move away, and he could only wave goodbye to his only chance of getting out of the meadows.

Ren ignored the denizens in the Meadows, mostly souls that were victims of both monsters and vampires. They went about their business in the mist, endlessly replaying a portion of their lives with someone who wasn't there.

It was so realistic that any sane person venturing alone in this place could lose their mind.

As he went his way, Ren noticed that there were some players in there as well. He could hear them and see them as long as they were within ten meters from him, though only in bits and pieces since the mist would hide their figures again.

Ren also came across some monsters that were unknown and unknowable beings. Their body was a hulking mass composed of rotting creatures. They stood twelve feet tall and stretched seven feet wide. On their face was a blank grey mask that hid something even more horrible than the rest of them.

They stalked the meadows, killing and adding their victims to their bodies.

They were no match against Ren, though. With one burst of flame, the monster would turn into candy points without being unable to even stop him from his tracks.

Soon, Ren found a trail of blood leading into a dark cave.

He decided to take a look out of curiosity. After all, the wisps wouldn't move unless he touched them. Other players touching the wisp wouldn't pose a problem to him either since the wisps shown to every player were different.

As he followed it, the trail ended at a young-looking elven girl. She was rocking as she stabbed a pin into a doll that looked like Evie.

Noticing his arrival, she looked over at him with hollowed eyes and asked, "Can you make the nightmare stop?"

". . ." Instead of feeling scared, Ren felt pissed.

How dare she stab Evie right in front of him? Even if it was just a doll, he didn't care.

Ren burned the girl on the spot without any remorse. The Elven girl shrieked as she burned and melted like chocolate.

For other players, it was supposed to be a hard encounter since the Elven Girl's ATP was in the hundreds, and it had the skill to control one of the players.

Unfortunately, when faced with Ren, she was no different from a regular elf.

Ren felt guilty, though. Not because he burned the girl but because Evie's doll burned with her. He very much like to keep it.

After receiving one thousand candy points, Ren left the cave and proceeded onwards to his destination. Not long after, he stumbled out of the meadows and found himself in front of a small town with Dracula's imposing Castle that sat on top of the hill not far from the city.

The sun was setting over the town of Hellsong. The air was crisp and cool, with a slight breeze that rustled through the leaves of the trees lining the path to the Castle, looming up like a dark shadow against the evening sky.

Like the town in The Mad Lab, this city was rundown — rundown and lifeless. It looked like no one had lived there for quite some time. The inhabitants were walking through the streets with fear in their eyes and dread on their faces.

Most hurried to their homes and locked their windows and doors the closer the dark approached.

The town was almost deserted, and it wasn't just because of the rain that was falling down on the buildings. It was because of the vampires and monsters haunting the village every night.

When the clock struck six, there were no signs of life at all.

A mysterious castle and the appearance of an ancient evil — it was the perfect setting for a horror movie. But this was a fantasy world, one where werewolves and vampires existed.

Everyone was both amazed and frightened by these mystical creatures.

At the entrance of the town, Ren found the usual gang waiting for him. There were also some players around, but their faces were grim, and they didn't even pause for a chatter or a small smile to greet other players.

They were weary, tired, and traumatized from the scare and nonstop terror to even function as a human being at this point.

"Ren! I thought that you got lost. What took you so long?" Leonel asked.

( . . . continuation on NOTES)