I Reincarnated into a Game Filled with Mods – Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The first thing I saw as soon as I opened my eyes was a stone ceiling. Dampness and coldness seeped into my back from the floor simultaneously. I suppressed the goosebumps on my arms and sat up.

I was inside a prison made entirely of stone.

At the sight of the all-too-familiar scenery, my mind quickly grasped the situation. It was a space I couldn’t possibly not recognize, a space I shouldn’t not recognize.

‘This is ridiculous.’

The scene of me clicking the beta tester application link for Brightest Darkness 5 and getting sucked into the monitor with a bright halo flashed through my mind. That was my last memory in reality.

The first emotion that came to me was absurdity. These crazy bastards were now going as far as to drag people into possession by baiting them with fake beta tester selections for a new game.

It was definitely a trap that anyone who had played Brightest Darkness 4 even a little would have fallen for, even if it wasn’t me. I wondered if this level of creativity was required to possess people.

The next emotion that surfaced was regret.

‘I was crazy. Why did I have to clear the enemy-strengthened mode as the world’s number one?’

Well, what kind of world was this anyway?

If it was getting possessed into a novel you followed alone until the end, or a reader who was the only one to follow your work to the end possessing the author, at least you could say it had some basis.

These days, the world was a chaotic mess where you could get possessed into a novel you hadn’t even read, a novel you only dipped your toes into, a novel you didn’t even comment on, a novel you only saw the cover of, a novel you filtered out, a novel you criticized, an author you criticized, a novel you got dragged into once and returned from only to get dragged in again.

And in such a world, a hardcore player with 30,000 hours of playtime? I was the perfect prey for some terrifying beings who were desperate to make humans their achievements.

But what could I do? I had already messed up, and I had actually been marked and dragged here.

I got up from my seat. The floor was too cold to sit on any longer with my bare body. Besides, the first event of this tutorial area would start in a little while.

A plan automatically formed in my head. I had already gone through this section thousands of times. I knew exactly how to move and act here.

ㅡHelp me! Aaaaagh!

As soon as my thoughts were finished, I heard the sound of people running away and terrible screams from afar.

‘It’s started.’

I took a deep breath and positioned myself against the wall farthest from the prison bars. Outside the bars, people were pushing and shoving each other, desperately trying to escape.

The prisoners across from me, with bewildered faces, approached the bars and peered outside. Seeing people collectively running for their lives, they must have wondered what the h*ll was going on outside.

ㅡThump… Thump…

The ground trembled slightly in the distance. As the tremors grew closer, the prisoners looked at each other with eyes that couldn’t understand what was happening.

Finally, the thumping tremors were felt right next to us, and just as one of the prisoners, who had been pressing his face against the bars to look outside, seemed to have confirmed something and collapsed in terror, it happened.

ㅡKuooooooooh!

From beyond the left corridor, a hideous monster revealed itself.

Its body was so grotesquely fat that it almost filled the entire corridor, and its entire skin was covered in hideously distorted scales.

Its legs and thighs were much thicker than the torso of an average person, but because its torso was even fatter, it looked as if it was somehow balanced.

Its arms were less than half the length of its legs. Yet, it held a wooden club almost as tall as itself in one hand. The club was already covered in blood.

Its face was distorted beyond recognition, and its mouth, which was almost torn to its ears, had uneven teeth sticking out haphazardly.

It was the Human Butcher, the boss of the tutorial area.

The prisoners in the opposite cell screamed at the top of their lungs at the sight of the monster. Perhaps their screams drew its attention, as the Human Butcher turned towards the opposite cell instead of coming towards me.

Its massive body bent the iron bars like they were made of candy as it entered the cell. Soon after, I heard the sound of human bodies being crushed along with agonizing screams.

Blood splattered all over the prison walls. This was all exactly as it was in the game. Although, compared to the not-so-great graphics of Brightest Darkness 4, the crushed flesh was so vivid that it made me feel a little nauseous.

True to its name, the Human Butcher, having slaughtered the prisoners, walked out of the cell. Fresh blood dripped from the club, coating the dried blood.

Now, its next target was me. Its massive body started moving again with heavy thuds. The iron bars of the cell door couldn’t withstand even a second and bent.

The Human Butcher, having half its body inside the cell, took another step towards me and raised its club-wielding arm.

ㅡCrack! Crack! Crack!

Just before its arm could strike, large cracks appeared from where it had stepped, and the floor began to split apart. The monster was startled and pulled back its arm instead of swinging the club.

But the cracks didn’t stop and continued to spread until the entire prison floor was cracking apart. It was a precarious sight, as if it could collapse at any moment.

‘This is it.’

The Human Butcher, perhaps thinking I would fall to my death, snorted and turned around. It was true that I would fall along with the collapsing floor behind me.

But I wouldn’t die.

I closed my eyes and braced for the impact. The floor soon reached its limit and crumbled under its own weight. At the same time, my body plummeted into the depths of the underground along with the collapsing debris.

“Cough, cough.”

I coughed because I had inhaled a lot of dust.

I raised my arm and pushed away a stone in front of me, then moved the pile of rubble that had piled on top of me. After repeating this for a while, I was finally able to crawl out.

The place I had fallen into was the lowest level of the prison.

This was where Brightest Darkness 4 truly began. What had happened in the upper prison before I fell here was just the intro in game terms.

I pulled myself together and escaped the cell through the bent iron bars. It was quiet all around. It was exactly the same scenery I had seen in the game.

I never imagined I would experience this myself. It was a strange feeling.

‘I wonder which Past Deed was chosen.’

I looked down at my body. A considerably muscular body clad only in a mantis loincloth. Unfortunately, the Past Deed and body type were separate, so I couldn’t guess from this.

Honestly, I was relieved for a moment that I wasn’t a female character.

‘There’s no point in thinking about it here since I can check it right away.’

I walked towards the nearby stairs. As soon as I climbed these stairs, the first battle with the tutorial area’s mobs would begin, and I would be able to confirm which Past Deed the player character had chosen.

I picked up the crude wooden club placed in front of the landing and carefully climbed the stairs, trying to make as little noise as possible, while listening to the conversation upstairs.

“…….”

I couldn’t hear anything.

‘I’m screwed.’

My face contorted as soon as I realized that.

If you walked up the stairs without making any noise, you would reach the middle and overhear the enemies’ conversation. It was a conversation about how to distribute the loot.

If they mentioned armor, longsword, and shield, the Past Deed was Knight. If they mentioned dagger and magic scroll, the Past Deed was Thief. If they mentioned staff and robe, the Past Deed was Mage. It went like that.

But if you couldn’t hear anything, it meant that the player character’s Past Deed was ‘Abandoned One’. I felt a surge of frustration when I realized that.

‘Out of all the 10 Past Deeds to choose from, it had to be that one.’

Abandoned One was by far the weakest character among the Past Deeds a player could choose. You started at level 1, all stats were 1, and you weren’t given any items, weapons, or armor.

It was the character with the best stat efficiency at the PvP appropriate level range because all stats were 1, but that was the only advantage.

Besides, even getting there was a challenge. Your HP was low, your stamina was trash, your attack power was c*ap, and you had no items or armor.

As they say, Abandoned One was the Past Deed hardcore players chose when they wanted a self-imposed hard mode.

In the game, even if you chose Abandoned One as your Past Deed, you could just clear it with infinite retries, but I was now sucked into the game. Where was the guarantee that I would resurrect after dying?

I sighed inwardly and picked up the club. Anything was better than nothing. I gripped the wooden club tightly and slowly climbed the stairs. The upper floor gradually came into view.

‘As expected.’

As I had predicted, the spot where the items representing the Past Deed should have been was empty. Prisoners in crude clothing were loitering around with wooden planks.

It was exactly the same scene I had seen countless times in the game.

Then, what I had to do would also be the same as what I had done countless times in the game.

I took a deep breath and stepped onto the upper floor.