Chapter 65: Strange Phenomenon at the Village Entrance

Fang Yue immediately stood up.

Lord Han also frowned at this moment, telling the man to calm down and describe precisely what had happened.

Lord Han's calm and slow tone gave people a sense of reassurance.

The guard immediately became calmer, breathing heavily and steadying his emotions.

Lin Ling also stepped closer, and with Fang Yue, the three major figures of Gu Yue Cun were all staring at him.

Niu Niu, with his keen sense of smell from afar, also rushed over, drawing the attention of many others.

This pressure made the guard feel a little tense again.

"Quickly, what happened at the village entrance? Did something happen to An Shenyi?"

Fang Yue couldn't help asking—he relied entirely on An Shenyi for his 【Curse】.

"An Shenyi? I don't know about An Shenyi—he probably hasn't even reached our village yet."

Not about An Shenyi?

Fang Yue immediately felt somewhat relieved, but then grew anxious again.

It's almost dawn, and An Shenyi still hasn't come—I won't have the courage to face the day like this…

"Ignore him, keep going—what exactly happened at the village entrance?"

Lin Ling glanced at Fang Yue, silently hoping An Shenyi would arrive tomorrow instead.

Seeing Fang Yue's frightened expression, he couldn't help but feel delighted.

But he couldn't show it in front of Lord Han, so he forced his face to remain expressionless.

"At the village entrance—a large group of walking corpses has appeared! Lord Han, Captain Lin, Deputy Captain Night, please come with me to the village entrance! Everyone is terrified it's another attack by the monsters!"

Walking corpses?

Zombies?

Fang Yue was stunned—was Gu Yue Cun really this cursed? First the monsters entered, now zombies attack, one after another.

That doesn't make sense—this game isn't set in an ancient world, so how could there be zombies?

Fang Yue exchanged glances with Lord Han and the others, then had someone lead them straight to the village entrance.

Niu Niu also felt uneasy, gathering Xiao Hu and some players to quietly follow behind.

The group quickly arrived at the village entrance.

There, a group of Guard Team members blocked the path, preventing anyone from entering or leaving, watching the outside with cold eyes.

Villagers who had come to investigate were mostly held back, clustered together, heads bobbing as they whispered among themselves.

Only when Fang Yue and the others arrived did they suddenly cry out in surprise and automatically clear a path—demonstrating how highly Lord Han was regarded by the villagers of Gu Yue Cun.

The Guard Team members also hurried over upon seeing Lord Han.

"Lord Han! Captain Lin! Deputy Captain Night!"

Lord Han didn't waste time—he immediately ordered a report and observed the outside.

With the firelight, Fang Yue now clearly saw what the so-called walking corpses were.

They weren't zombies at all—they were just a group of people dressed in tattered clothes.

And they weren't corpses either—they were alive, but their eyes were vacant, their movements stiff and mechanical, standing perfectly still a hundred meters outside the village, utterly motionless, looking deeply strange and chilling.

One glance was enough for Fang Yue to feel they looked familiar.

Then he remembered.

Offline players looked exactly like this!

As if responding to Fang Yue's thought, Lord Han spoke up.

"These people aren't walking corpses—they're refugees."

Lord Han smiled bitterly: "You were certainly not on patrol last night—when those refugees first appeared outside the village, they looked just like this: stiff movements, as if soulless."

"Huh? Refugees?"

The guard blinked: "But Lord Han, the refugees we've taken in here are all full of energy—yet these ones…"

"I don't know why—when I first discovered them last night, they were indistinguishable from corpses: no breath, no lifespan, no Human Soul—like walking corpses."

"But shortly after, around midnight, they suddenly came to life, chattering and making noise."

"So I had the night shift guards assign them a makeshift Refugee Shelter, to keep them from being killed by Night Rain, lit some Human Soul Bonfires, gave them basic shelter items, and temporarily quarantined them outside."

"The rest, you should already know…"

Upon finishing, Lord Han looked at Fang Yue.

No, why are you looking at me?

I don't know anything either.

But now that Lord Han said this, Fang Yue roughly understood what these refugees were.

He'd heard… a new batch of Game Watches would arrive and go on sale tomorrow—these refugees were probably the prepared vessels for those players.

Fang Yue studied the refugees outside curiously, noticing there were quite a few—men and women, of various ages and appearances.

A sea of zombie-like figures stood darkly outside the village, a chilling sight.

"Night Rain, you were once a refugee—what do you think about this?"

"Uh… I'm not certain, but I think they'll all awaken tomorrow."

"Awaken?"

"Uh—become like normal people again."

"Oh…"

Lord Han frowned—he realized he understood too little about refugees like Fang Yue.

He had asked many refugees about their origins.

The responses they received were bizarre: some serious people said they came from another world, while frivolous ones claimed they came from Planet M78, were born from the womb, or grew out of the earth—every imaginable explanation existed.

Most importantly, before they "awoke," those bodies had absolutely no lifespan!

Only after awakening did they suddenly gain a lifespan—and according to their own accounts, it lasted only one day.

This was completely unlike the average seven to eight decades of lifespan ordinary people enjoyed.

Despite such a short lifespan, these refugees showed no fear or concern, nor did they seek solutions; instead, they curiosity-driven, exploring wildly and causing trouble, leaving Lord Han utterly perplexed.

It was as if… they didn't care about their own lives at all.

The only ones making any real effort to save themselves seemed to be this group of refugees, led by Fang Yue, who were willing to try integrating into the village.

Lord Han was deeply curious about how the refugees had arrived, how they had evaded strange attacks in the dead of night, and how they could move at all with no lifespan.

Watching more refugees approaching from afar, Lord Han didn't hesitate—he took a step forward.

That single step carried him across a great distance.

"Lord Han?!"

Everyone's faces changed; they cried out in shock.

But Lord Han, following the direction the refugees had come from, vanished into the night, leaving no trace—even without taking a Soul Torch, his body emitted a faint luminescence.

"Go! Follow Lord Han!"

Lin Ling's expression darkened; he grabbed a Soul Torch and prepared to lead others outside.

Fang Yue was still hesitating whether to venture forward when he saw Lord Han reappearing from afar, walking back toward them.

In a few strides, Lord Han had returned to Fang Yue and the others, but his expression was strange.

Everyone hurried over; Fang Yue couldn't help asking, "Lord Han, what did you find over there?"

"I did find something."

(End of Chapter)