Creating a zombie in a mountain village terrifies players worldwide.

Chapter 30 SAN Value System (4000 words)
As soon as he took two steps, his footsteps rang out clearly, sounding particularly jarring in the deathly silence.

This shattered much of his newly mustered courage, instantly bringing him back to his senses.

"Holy crap, what's with that deafening footsteps? Is it some kind of way of giving the ghosts directions?"

Akashi swallowed nervously, then bent over and continued forward.

Step by step, each step was taken with utmost care, for fear of making the slightest noise.

His eyes were wide open, scanning his surroundings warily.

Especially in those dark corners, I'm always afraid something might jump out.

"Damn, this corridor isn't pitch black, but the eerie blue atmosphere is creepy."

"But at least I can see the road, so it's not too bad."

"It's just too quiet, it's a bit uncomfortable."

As Akashi muttered his complaints, he continued walking slowly, his nerves taut.

However, everything in the corridor was normal, and nothing unusual happened.

But just as he relaxed his guard slightly and got closer to the living room, a faint "sizzling" sound suddenly rang out.

It sounds... a lot like the static noise that comes out of an old-fashioned TV screen when there's no signal.

"Hmm? There's movement again?"

"It sounds like the TV is coming from the living room."

Brother Akashi paused, tilting his head to listen.

squeak-

Just then, a soft but drawn-out sound of a door opening came from the front.

The sound wasn't loud, but it made Brother Chishi freeze.

He held his breath and stared intently ahead.

With a creaking sound, a thin, pale light shone through the crack in the living room door, cutting off the dark corridor in half.

"Holy crap, bros! The living room door opened by itself. There's definitely something amazing inside!"

At this moment, Brother Akashi didn't dare to move at all.

The light from behind the crack in the door brought no sense of security; instead, it exuded an indescribable eeriness.

"OMG. The high-energy part is here so fast!"

"Can't we just have some fun? This is so bad, it's like they've practically written 'There's a ghost' on the front."

Upon seeing this, the viewers in the live stream immediately started scrolling through the chat.

"It's here! It smells familiar! Brother Shi, hurry up and bring it on!"

"Don't be a coward, streamer! Go in and see which cutie is waiting for you!"

"This door is so cleverly designed, there's definitely something inside!"

"Knowing there were traps ahead, the streamer still had no choice but to go. It was an open scheme, a real scheme!"

"Go, go, go!"

"You can have fun, streamer. I'm leaving now, I won't bother you anymore."

Akashi glanced at the barrage of comments, watching the rapidly scrolling messages and the renewed rise in popularity, and felt a mix of emotions.

He was genuinely afraid, but he couldn't bring himself to back down.

"Ahem... well, brothers, fortune favors the bold!"

"It's just opening a door, what's the big deal!"

"Brothers, elbows! Let's go all out!"

"I'll take the lead and scout the way for you!"

He spoke while bending forward.

The door was just a few steps away, and as the distance closed, the view behind the crack in the door gradually became clearer.

It really is a living room, exactly the same as in the actual gameplay demo.

The door wasn't fully open; it was just ajar.

And the source of the "buzzing" noise was found.

It was an old-fashioned television set placed in the center of the living room.

The screen was filled with flickering static, emitting a blinding and cold white light, becoming the only source of light in the dark living room, cutting out distorted and bizarre shadows of the surrounding furniture.

Akashi stopped in front of the door, but instead of pushing it open immediately, he turned sideways and cautiously peeked through the crack in the door.

"This scene, this atmosphere... I have a feeling something's going to happen."

Before he could finish speaking, the next second, without warning, a wet, bloody head with no chin suddenly peeked out from the crack in the door!
Two empty, lifeless fish eyes stared straight into Akashi's gaze.

Time seemed to freeze.

Akashi's hand, which was about to open the door, froze in mid-air, his mind blank.

All sounds and all thoughts were completely overwhelmed by the sudden and terrifying scene before them.

then
"Your subject, Bu Mu Cao!!!!!"

A completely distorted, heart-wrenching scream pierced through his throat.

"Holy crap!! Holy crap!! Come out! Come out!!!"

Terrified and at a loss, Akaishi tried to escape but lost his footing and tripped.
But he didn't care about losing his composure; he howled and frantically tried to move backward using both hands and feet.

He wished he could get away from that door immediately, away from that bloodied head that was still staring at him through the crack in the door.

Viewers watching the game through the streamer's eyes were also startled.

Immediately, the live chat exploded with comments.

"Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap! That scared the hell out of me!"

"Damn, that scene almost killed me!"

"This ghost actually attacked from the shadows! Holy crap, that scared the hell out of me!"

"Hahaha, the way the streamer ran away in a panic was so cool!"

"Luckily, I was self-aware enough not to watch it on the Skynet, but on my phone, hahaha."

"I was watching it on my phone too, and I was so scared that my hand shook and I dropped the phone on my face."

"My phone almost flew off the plane!"

"I give this opening move a perfect score!"

"Don't be a coward, streamer! Go back and punch it!"

"The headphone party is dead."

"Now I know there's something high-energy here, hahaha, thanks to Brother Akashi for clearing the mine with his own body."

Just as Brother Akashi was still in shock, his heart pounding.

boom--!
With a loud bang, the living room door in front of us was slammed shut.

The corridor returned to deathly silence and darkness, with only the faint hissing sound coming from behind the door.

Akashi remained frozen for several seconds, still using his hands and feet to rub backward.

The ghost didn't chase after them?

He blinked, glanced at the closed living room door, and made sure there was no other movement.

Only then did he belatedly realize that what had just happened seemed to be just a high-energy scare, not a deadly chase.

"Holy crap!"

A wave of exhaustion, as if he had just survived a disaster, washed over him; it was clear that Brother Chishi had been quite frightened.

"Damn, that door-opening attack almost scared me to death!"

"That was so damn sudden! That ghost didn't even have a chin; I didn't even get a good look at what it looked like..."

He muttered to himself as he leaned against the wall to get up.

"Even I, a seasoned veteran, was scared like this. Those who are easily frightened would probably be scared into giving back their money on the spot, right?"

"Fortunately, I'm more skilled and experienced, so I can handle this little situation."

Upon hearing this, the viewers in the live stream immediately started flooding the chat with "yes, yes, yes!"

"My mouth is rock hard, though I'm not hard anywhere else on my body."

"Don't push yourself too hard, we know you can't take it anymore. Ending the broadcast sooner will allow you to go to the hospital for an IV drip."

"Hey streamer, the way you fell to the ground and crawled backwards was so professional! Do you do that all the time? Can you do it again?" "Brother Akashi: Showing off is my last act of defiance."

Looking at the comments, Akashi felt a little embarrassed, so he coughed twice, tactfully put his hands on his hips and leaned back: "Ahem, brothers, I was just pretending just now."

"In order to make sure you have a good time, I really went to great lengths, racked my brains, and thought of everything. Finally, I had a flash of inspiration and put on this show of panic."

"That's all there is to it. You're still 20,000 years away from scaring my brother Chishi. Why aren't you guys sending gifts yet?"

The audience thought, "Wow, you've really put on a show, haven't you?"

So everyone started nitpicking the comments and became rebellious.

What were those comments like, "Please, stop bragging, streamer!" and "If it weren't for your terrified expression, I might have actually believed you."

But Akashi stopped watching the comments and stared at the living room door with lingering fear.

Suddenly, his vision blurred, as if he were dizzy.

Twisting my head, I could see the objects in front of me blurred into shadows.

However, he quickly returned to normal and his vision became clear.

He himself did not feel any discomfort, but the inexplicable dizziness surprised him.

"What's going on? What just happened? Why is my vision suddenly blurry?"

"Are there aftereffects from being startled?"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than an extremely long notification appeared before his eyes.

Your sanity has decreased.

[In the game, supernatural phenomena will occur randomly. These phenomena will lower your sanity, causing dizziness and sluggishness, making you more vulnerable to ghost attacks.]

Please remain rational, because the lower your rationality, the more frequent the supernatural phenomena will occur, and the more often ghosts will appear.

When reason diminishes to a certain level, you will lose it. At that point, good luck.

To regain your sanity, stand in a well-lit area and avoid darkness. You can also collect stress-relief pills to instantly restore your sanity.

After reading it, Akashi looked astonished, his eyes widening in surprise.

"reason?"

"Does encountering supernatural phenomena lower one's sanity? Does lowered sanity make one more susceptible to encountering ghosts?"

"Holy crap, what's this new gadget?!"

To be honest, seeing these few lines of prompts, Brother Akashi was a little surprised.

He's been in the gaming industry for over a decade. What kind of storms hasn't he weathered? What kind of bizarre and outlandish settings hasn't he experienced?

But he had never seen this thing before!
This is the first time I've seen it today, it's truly eye-opening, and he's now both curious and excited, and looking forward to it.

"Awesome, awesome, this developer is something else."

"So my vision blurred just now because I saw the female ghost in the living room? So my sanity has been lowered?"

"Wow, this is the first time I've ever seen such a novel setting in a horror game. If that's the case, as long as I stay rational, like by taking drugs, wouldn't I be able to avoid most of the scary moments?"

"On the other hand, if you want to seek thrills and deliberately court death, then you should deliberately go to dark places, or simply not take the medication and wait for your rationality to drop?"

"Great, great, great! Doesn't this just give the players the choice of difficulty level? Hardcore players can play with low sanity the whole time, while newbies can play with high sanity the whole time. It's amazing!"

Akashi seemed to have discovered a new world, and was quite surprised.

He had never seen this kind of setting in any other game. To be honest, with this design, both the timid and the brave could play!
This move directly caters to both groups, allowing them to freely choose how to play.

Good heavens! Meow! Meow!

Akashi couldn't help but admire the developer's design concept; it was truly amazing.

To date, he has never managed to cater to both brave and timid players in a horror game, or even any game at all.

At most, it offers a difficulty level option, but this only caters to casual players and has nothing to do with whether they are brave or not.

"This developer, O5, right? Good, good, good. It's clear that he put a lot of effort into designing the game. My 1000 yuan support was worthwhile."

"I just don't know what will happen after losing your mind. The prompt only gave a hint of 'good luck,' tsk tsk, now I want to try what it's like to have my mind completely wiped out."

As he spoke, Akashi carefully stepped forward and pushed open the living room door in front of him.

squeak-

A long, grating scraping sound rang out, and the scene in the living room came into view.

Just like in the actual gameplay demo, it's an ordinary living room.

The ghost from before had vanished without a trace, and all the usual furniture was still there, but now everything was shrouded in a deep, dim gloom.

The window seemed to be blocked by something, and not a single ray of light could get in.

The only source of light was the constantly flickering static on the screen of that old-fashioned television.

The pale light stretched the shadows of the furniture into distorted, elongated shapes, casting them onto the walls and floor like lurking monsters—eerie and unsettling.

"Tsk, this environment..." Brother Akashi muttered.

He scanned every corner of the living room warily, especially the direction in which the female ghost had disappeared.

That thing had disappeared without a trace, which relieved him slightly, but his heart was still beating a little fast.

"Calm down, Akaishi-kun!"

He lowered his voice and tried to encourage himself.

"You're a seasoned veteran and a top player in the gaming world; this is just a game."

"Yeah, it's a game, it's all fake! It's models, textures, stuff pulled from an asset library, what's there to be afraid of!"

"Besides, which game starts off with something really exciting? They all progress gradually! That was just a warning shot, nothing serious."

He muttered to himself as he moved slowly, his eyes darting around, as if afraid some surprise might pop up from some corner.

Just as his gaze swept across the sofa in the center of the living room, he suddenly noticed a black videotape.

It was exactly the same as what he saw in the chapter about Chu Renmei.

He promptly stepped forward, picked it up, and examined it; a notification appeared.

You have obtained a mysterious videotape with a sticker on it that reads "Delivery".

"Meal delivery?"

"Oh right, I forgot that the game's description said you play as a food delivery driver."

"So this videotape is about the deliveryman's haunted experience?"

With that, Brother Akaishi picked up the videotape and walked to the television.

Immediately afterwards, the videotape was inserted into the player by itself.

"Alright guys, the game is officially starting!"

"Come here, you damn dog!"

As the video started playing, the static-filled TV screen suddenly displayed a picture.

This is a first-person perspective, with a strong sense of shakiness, and the noise and color distortion characteristic of old videotapes.

The person in the camera is riding a motorcycle and slowly pulling up in front of a deserted mansion.

"Here it comes, the classic haunted house," commented Brother Akashi. "Delivering food to a place like this, this delivery guy is really unlucky."

In the scene, the protagonist picks up a packaged cake box, goes to the door, and knocks gently.

However, the response to the knocking was not human speech, but the creaking sound of the door hinges turning.

The door slowly opened a crack by itself, revealing a deep darkness behind it, where there was no one.

Upon seeing this, Akaishi-kun once again complained.

"Dude, this is an 'automatic door,' even a fool would know something's wrong, right?"

"If it were me, I'd drop the cake and run! Is my life more important than the guests eating?"

"The game only stops running in order to advance the plot."

At this moment, the protagonist of the videotape saw the door open, hesitated for a moment, but still chose to push the door open and enter, arriving at the entrance where the game started.

pat-

Just then, Brother Akashi heard a loud slamming sound from behind him.

He subconsciously turned his head to look, and then...
Behind me, it was no longer a living room, but clearly the mahogany door at the entrance.

Turning my head again, sure enough, he was no longer in the living room, but in the entryway.

At the same time, she was also holding a beautifully packaged cake in her hand.

At this moment, through a seamless transition, he became the unfortunate protagonist in the videotape—the food deliveryman.

Then, something terrifying is about to happen!
(End of this chapter)