Cedrea cursed under his breath. This was a complete waste of his time.
How did this count as a horror game?
"Whatever, let's just get this over with. Maybe there is more to this game. It could be one of those games that disguises its true horror until later." Cedrea muttered, trying to give it the benefit of the doubt.
From what he'd seen, the game's quality already blew away every other horror entry at the event.
Taking another deep breath, Cedrea regained his composure and looked around the base for anything interesting. It could be an early hint of its horror elements.
As he looked around, Cedrea marveled at the depths of detail that had gone into the game. The base felt abandoned, and he instinctively tried to walk as gently as possible because he feared the floorboards would collapse.
Of course, Jack wasn't that cruel.
As Cedrea explored, he didn't realize that the sun was rapidly setting. As the horizon engulfed the last sunlight, the atmosphere seemed to change.
"It's nighttime already," Cedrea said with surprise.
He had completely lost track of time. But sensing the change in the air made Cedrea's eyes narrow as he stepped outside. It was dark out, and with the overgrown weeds and plants, he could barely make out a few shadowy figures shuffling past his base.
"Are those the zombies or just regular characters? Damn, I wish I could see more clearly." Cedrea muttered to himself, not realizing that, at some point, he had lowered his volume.
Something about the shadowy figures' movements made his heart race. They were unnaturally clunky, as if parts of their bodies were too stiff and other parts were too loose.
Yet even after whispering, the shadowy figures seemed to have heard him. They stopped moving past him and began making their way towards him.
As they drew closer, Cedrea finally got a good look at them. Their flesh was a disgusting, infected green hue. Some lacked jaws, others lacked eyeballs, and some had maggots and insects sprawling and festering in their bodies.
Yet they didn't seem to care.
Seeing their incomplete bodies that were so realistic that he couldn't tell them apart from real corpses made Cedrea lose his breath. He instinctively faltered and stepped back, feeling his back slam into the cold wooden door.
"What the hell!?" Cedrea shouted without thinking, and he felt his brain start short-circuiting, failing to tell apart reality and fiction.
His heart was thumping inside his chest, causing him to feel pain. His face paled before he finally remembered he was inside a game.
"The plant cards. I need to plant them before those zombies reach me." Cedrea muttered to himself out loud.
Without thinking, he rushed out of the base towards the old truck. Finding the cold metal plant cards he had forgotten to take out.
He ran back to the base and felt his jaw drop. The zombies were nearly here already.
"Aren't these things supposed to be slow? Why are they so fast!?" Cedrea complained.
He picked a random spot before the Slow Walker Zombies and slammed the green-furred Venus Fly Trap plant card into the ground. The feeling of the soil's resistance, the plant card's subtle vibration, and the ticking timer on the card were incredibly realistic and deepened the immersion.
"Ten minutes!?" Cedrea shouted with shocked eyes.
"It's not immediately. What kind of game is this!? Damn, what do I do now?" Cedrea panicked as he looked up.
The Slow Walker Zombies had finally entered his base through a hole. He didn't know why, but Cedrea felt that he could see that the zombies started to drool as they stared directly at him.
Gulp!
That gulp wasn't from him.
Cedrea watched as one of the Slow Walker Zombies Gulp in anticipation as he moved towards him at the pace of a regular human walking. It wasn't slow. It was just slower than other zombies.
Cedrea immediately turned to escape and rushed into the house. In his mind, he needs to get to safety.
Bam!
Slamming the door shut, Cedrea anxiously turned around and felt his heart clench as his eyes welled up with tears.
There was a hole in the door.
One swing from these zombies and the entire door would collapse.
"How is this fair!?" Cedrea shouted as he felt his chest swelling from rage and fear.
His mind went into overdrive from his survival instincts. Just as the Slow Walker Zombies burst through the door, he pulled out a loose floorboard.
Cedrea swung for one of the Slow Walker Zombie's heads without hesitation. A sickening crunch spread into Cedrea's ears as he saw a red symbol float above that Zombie's head.
-3
Seeing that damage, the number sparked a ray of hope in Cedrea's heart, but it also set off something in the Slow Walker Zombies. Their eyes glowed red as their throats squeezed out a monstrous guttural screech.
Immediately, they attacked the floorboard in Cedrea's hand, destroying it before Cedrea could react.
"What the hell? Can Slow Walker Zombies do that!? This is unfair!" Cedrea shouted, immediately turned around, and tried to escape.
The feeling of security he felt from having a weapon was utterly gone.
"Get away from me! Stop! Don't look at me like that! I'm not food!"
"AAAAHHHH!" Cedrea screamed for his life as he was trapped.
Without hesitation, the three Slow Walker Zombies lunged and attacked.
Game Over!
Do you want to play again?
Unfortunately, Cedrea didn't respond as his eyes rolled back into his head. His body collapsed on the floor, causing the system to sense it and kick him out immediately.
"Cedrea!" The goth man shouted and went to pick up Cedrea, who had fainted.
Although he had only just watched through the monitors, his face was deathly pale. But he was in a much better state than Cedrea.
He removed the VR goggles and fanned him to cool down his hot head.
The other students in the room stared in their direction, curious about what had happened.
"What happened there?"
"I think someone fainted."
"Bro, how do you faint when the games aren't even that scary."
"Isn't that Cedrea? The guy who has nerves of steel. Damn, that game was so scary that even he fainted. I have to try it out."
The students' murmurs grew louder as people gathered towards their station. Word quickly spread around that Cedrea had fainted, and even more students gathered with the desire to try out this top-notch horror game.
"Is he okay?" Sarah said with worry.
Her face was also pale, but her eyes showed she was worried.
Betty and Gloria were the same, and they all went up to help.
But the goth man waved them back.
"He is fine. Just give him some space. He should wake up in a second." the goth man said.
Sarah, Betty, and Gloria all hastily nodded their heads as they simultaneously stepped back. They all even breathed a sigh of relief together.
After a few seconds of anxious waiting, Cedrea's eyes fluttered as he regained consciousness. He groaned and sat up before trying to remember what had happened.
Just as his memories began clearing up, Cedrea's face turned pale as he nearly vomited. He only held back after covering his mouth and taking deep breaths.
Only then did the nauseous feeling slowly subside.
"Oh God, I feel like I'm going to puke. Why were those things so realistic? That should be a crime." Cedrea said as he turned to look at Sarah, Betty, and Gloria with a new look.
"You girls are sick," Cedrea said before jumping to his feet.
His eyes sparkled as he walked over to them.
"Can you tell me where you got your inspiration? Why did you make the first level so hard? Also, why did I only do three damages to those zombies? I'm pretty strong." Cedrea rattled off question after question as if he was a fan meeting his favorite person.
Betty and Gloria turned towards Sarah, signaling she should take the lead.
Sarah lightly coughed before speaking, "I'll answer all your questions briefly, but answer this first. Was it scary?"
Cedrea froze before chuckling.
"Yeah, it was the scariest thing I had ever played in a long time. I almost puked from how disgusting and terrifying the zombies were."
Sarah nodded her head knowingly. She smiled with delight.
"That sounds about right," Sarah said with satisfaction, not minding at all at taking the credit.
"Can I finally ask why you made the first level so hard? I can't imagine how anyone else could pass that level on the first try." Cedrea asked with curiosity.
"Uh, the answer is that it's not," Sarah said, awkwardly scratching her cheek.
"What do you mean?" Cedrea asked with shock.
"You just played it wrong," Sarah said with innocent eyes.
"If you read the introduction properly and didn't panic, you could have placed down the green-furred Venus Fly Trap plant and saved yourself." Betty jumped in and couldn't help but feel itchy to start talking about the game.
"I can tell that you wouldn't have lasted until round three, though. That's a tough round. I failed a few times before getting a handle on it." Betty continued with a knowing smile.
Even Gloria nodded her pale head. She looked sick, but she couldn't help but comment.
"Tsk, failing from three Slow Walker Zombies. I'm just saying that couldn't be me."
"..." Cedrea fell silent.
What was he supposed to say about that?