Isn't Hope Also a Form of Despair?

Shk, shk, shk...

The sound of players digging into the earth with their 【Relics】 grew steadily louder. With each scoop of dirt, more and more severed limbs were unearthed.

Occasionally, a 【Twisted Resentful Spirit】 would materialize out of thin air to cause trouble.

Unfortunately for them, the sheer number of players was like a swarm of locusts. In an instant, they could turn any spirit into a loot-dropping old codger.

But strangely, the 【Twisted Resentful Spirits】 that appeared here had no 【Relics】 on them at all.

This only made the players more curious about what lay buried beneath the cliff.

Then, a player thrust his sword down and met no resistance. He'd hit empty air.

Peering down, he saw a small, pitch-black hole where his blade had gone. A foul stench wafted up from the opening. It was obvious that a cave-like space existed below.

Wu Wang stepped forward, his expression growing grave.

"Everyone, stay safe! Back away from the hole. Use your ranged 【Relics】 to widen the opening. Watch out for a collapse, and don't fall in."

He recognized the smell.

It was corpse stench.

The odor was so intense that it caused instant physical revulsion. The player who had poked the hole was already hunched over nearby, throwing up. There had to be a massive number of rotting corpses down below.

"Open fire!"

At Wu Wang's command, a barrage of ranged attacks from various 【Relics】 slammed into the ground around the hole. A massive cloud of dust and dirt surged into the sky.

After a moment, a huge opening, over ten meters in diameter, was revealed.

They peered down into it.

The pit was black as ink, its depth impossible to gauge.

Someone picked up a rock and tossed it in. For a long, long time, they heard no sound of it landing. This made them look at each other in dismay.

This was an Instance, after all. None of their 【Relics】 could produce ladders, and ropes were nowhere to be found. Without their usual powers, the players were at a loss, scratching their heads in frustration.

But unexpectedly, Wu Wang walked to the edge of the hole, his expression unchanged.

He said to the people around him, "I'll go down first and have a look. I'll tell you how deep it is from the bottom."

Only then did everyone remember.

That's right! He can still command those two powerful NPCs! Couldn't he go down with their protection?

The Duke narrowed his eyes, worried that if Wu Wang went down first, he might get his hands on the 【Mysterious Power】 before anyone else. He was just about to suggest accompanying him, under the protection of the NPCs.

But before he could speak, everyone watched as Wu Wang jumped down without the slightest hesitation.

The nun and Mary were still standing by the edge of the hole, chatting.

"The gentleman is truly a man of extraordinary courage."

"Yes, and his desire to explore is truly befitting a believer of 【Desire】."

Wait a minute! You two, stop chitchatting! The gentleman you're talking about is about to fall to his death!

The players grew anxious. If this big shot really died so recklessly, would the 【Spirit Venerable of the Sea of Desire】 assume they were responsible? What if It came looking for them back in reality?

For a moment, everyone's hearts were in their throats.

Just as they were all looking at each other in bewilderment, a very faint voice echoed up from within the hole.

"It's a straight drop to flat ground, about a hundred meters down. Mary, use my position to bring the others in."

It was Wu Wang's voice.

This stunned everyone.

Never mind bringing us down. Buddy, you just said it's a hundred-meter drop. You fell that far, and you're still alive?

While they were still dumbfounded, the nun and Mary began to act.

The nun clenched her fists, her nails digging so deep into her palms that a trickle of blood flowed out. This blood fell to the ground and began to move as if it had a life of its own, crawling up the players' shoes and pants.

Finally, it formed thin, blood-red threads that connected them all at the waist. Now, they were truly bound together, like grasshoppers on a string.

Mary raised her hand and waved. Her trailing skirt of flames instantly spread out, forming a series of steps as dazzling as a red carpet.

The players looked at the steps and nodded to themselves.

So this is what a powerful Instance NPC can do! And the High Priest of Suffering is so thoughtful. She was even worried we might fall, so she used those threads to link us together for safety.

The Duke smiled.

"Everyone, let's go."

But at that moment, he saw the nun walk over to the player standing closest to the edge.

She looked at him with pity in her eyes.

"Please prepare for a fall."

Huh? What preparation?

Smack!

Before the player could react, the nun gently lifted him up and tossed him into the hole.

"Hey, wait! Ahhh…"

The cry of alarm quickly turned into a scream that faded into the distance.

That wasn't even the most terrifying part.

The most terrifying thing was what happened next. When the first person fell, the player closest to him was dragged down by the blood-red thread tied to their waist.

Then came the third, the fourth…

The players were yanked into the pit one after another, like dumplings being dropped into a pot.

A few reacted in time, trying to grab hold of those who were falling, but the nun simply grabbed them and threw them down too.

The Duke and Xiezhi looked at the blood threads on their waists with utter despair. They were the last two.

There was no stopping it. How could the two of them possibly pull against the downward force of several dozen people?

Whoosh!

Before they even had a chance to ask anything, they too were dragged down.

At the edge of the pit, Mary smiled and made a gesture for the nun to proceed.

She said softly, "Let's go, Lilith. The path is laid."

The nun nodded slightly and started walking down the red-carpet steps.

But she still asked, a little sheepishly, "Is it alright to treat them like this?"

With her 【Miracle of Suffering】 active, the players naturally wouldn't fall to their deaths. But a hundred-meter freefall was a method of entry most people wouldn't find acceptable, especially since they were dragged down against their will.

Mary replied without hesitation, "Someone tried to embarrass the gentleman earlier. They have only themselves to blame."

The nun asked, puzzled, "But only one or two people were disrespectful to the gentleman, right? Why throw the others down too?"

Mary's expression didn't change.

"Collective punishment."

She made no attempt to hide her protectiveness. The nun didn't say anything more, just silently followed Mary down. She didn't actually care about the players; she was just making small talk. During their hundred years on the cruise ship, their relationship had become as close as that of real sisters.

By the time the two of them walked down the red-carpet steps, they saw the group of players hanging less than half a meter from the ground, stacked like Arhats in a human pyramid. The blood-red threads at their waists had stopped them from hitting the ground.

At this moment, their attention was no longer on their safe landing. Instead, their mouths were slightly agape as they stared at their surroundings in disbelief.

More accurately, they stared at the people on the surrounding rock walls.

If they could still be called people.

"Heavens… what is all this…"

"Did… 【Hope】 do all this?"

"So this is where the 'resentment' in 【Twisted Resentful Spirit】 comes from…"

No one dared to speak loudly anymore.

Wu Wang sat silently, surveying the tragedy etched into the rock walls. They were twisted, mutated husks, embedded alive into the stone.

The chest of every husk had been carved open. Through the wounds, one could see that their internal organs had been completely removed and replaced by a dark green vine that snaked inside. The vine then split into countless tiny tendrils that burrowed into every part of these husks, replacing their blood vessels.

The roots of the vines within all the husks converged in the center of the cave, connecting to a floating, teardrop-shaped seed of alternating white and green.

The seed pulsed with a faint green light, and the vines slowly swelled and contracted in rhythm with it, as if the entire cave were breathing.

But it wasn't the seed that was absorbing something from the husks.

Quite the opposite.

It was injecting nutrients and energy into them through the vines, ensuring they would not die.

That's right. They hadn't truly died.

The reason no one dared to speak loudly was because they could occasionally hear pained wails and gasps coming from the husks' mouths.

No one knew how long each husk had been shackled in this sunless cave. They emanated despair from the inside out. Even their wails and gasps were feeble.

But the seed and vines kept them in a delicate state. They were just barely kept from dying, yet had no extra strength to make any movement.

It gave them the hope to Survive.

This biological instinct, this hope to Survive, was fed back to the seed, providing the energy it needed to grow.

The husks nourished the seed. The seed imprisoned the husks.

The two had reached a bizarre equilibrium.

It was as if eternal despair brought forth an endless supply of hope. A hope full of irony.

Because their despair was brought about by none other than 【Hope】.

Unable to live, yet unable to die…