There Must Be Something Wrong With This Game!

"Alright, let’s continue with the intel on the Pseudo-men. I’m Little Drilling Wind, a person who aspires to become a well-known reporter in ’Abyss’. Every post you purchase will fuel my drive to move forward.

My Profession is Reporter, and I’ve been playing ’Abyss’ since version 0.06. Pseudo-men were officially added as game content in version 0.06, but players had sighted them even before that. The developers were probably running tests and building hype. Now, let’s look at two images."

[Image One]

[Image Two]

Image one showed a red-haired woman. Her clothes were extremely revealing, yet they held no aesthetic appeal whatsoever.

Her body proportions were absurdly exaggerated. Her cow-like breasts were even larger than her head, while her waist was as slender as a single finger. Moreover, she had no facial features, as if someone had brutally wrapped a white towel around her face, giving her an air of agonized restraint.

Just looking at this image triggered the uncanny valley effect in Duan Fei, and he even had the sudden urge to close the post.

Image two looked much more normal.

This image seemed to be a candid shot. The woman in the picture was sitting on a park bench and looked perfectly normal, but something about her was vaguely unsettling.

After staring for a while, Duan Fei abruptly noticed that she actually had teeth in her eyes.

Tiny, dense teeth lined her eyes like eyelashes, impossible to spot without looking very closely.

Once he noticed this detail, the horror from the first image came rushing back. Duan Fei couldn’t help but shut his eyes, hold his breath, and silently count prime numbers for a moment until the inexplicable dread in his heart finally subsided.

’Both of these images must be from the game, but this kind of horror, disguised as reality, is truly terrifying.’

"If your powers of observation are sharp enough, you should have already spotted the problem in the second photo. If you didn’t, no worries. Exit this post, private message me, and I’ll give you a refund. Everything that follows is based on the premise that you can spot a Pseudo-man’s abnormalities. So if you can’t, the rest of this will be meaningless."

After a large blank space, new text finally appeared.

"Okay, that’s enough of a filter to make people leave. Let’s continue. First, Pseudo-men are not human. They are beings born from human consciousness."

"The imaginary friend from your childhood, the man-shaped stain on the wall, the shadow that flits past the corner of your eye... When you perceive them as human, your consciousness provides an opening for a Pseudo-man to be born."

"However, not every opening gives rise to a Pseudo-man. They also need nourishment to grow. And that nourishment... is humans."

"Some Pseudo-men feed on human flesh, while others feed on Spirit. But either way, in the eyes of a Pseudo-man, humans are nothing but food. This is why I say never to trust a Pseudo-man, because they have only one attitude toward their food: to eat it."

"Like in the first image, Pseudo-men initially had obvious non-human features. But with each new game version, their appearance has gradually evolved to resemble what you see in the second image. But no matter how they evolve, their fundamental nature dictates that there will always be something about them that isn’t human."

"On the forums, you can spot the differences in Pseudo-men through observation, but you must be careful in the game. Pseudo-men have evolved a special scent that will gradually blur your concept of the proper human form, causing you to eventually end up as their food."

"So, my advice is, if the instance you’re about to run is known to have Pseudo-men, prepare an image of the Vitruvian Man beforehand—the one by Da Vinci illustrating ideal human proportions. This image will remind you what a normal human looks like and help you break free from the Pseudo-man’s trap. Of course, if your Spirit is high enough, you can ignore this advice."

"The Pseudo-men also have their own organization, established by the Creator. However, there’s no information on the Creator, and it’s unclear if future versions will reveal more. Serving the Creator are four Pseudo-man leaders: Clockmaker, Succubus, Nightmare, and Iron Man. But according to the latest news, Iron Man was deleted due to some programming bugs, so now there are only three. If you encounter any of the other three, run as fast as you can. They are the most powerful Pseudo-men, on a completely different level from the common ones."

The rest of the post covered various methods for distinguishing Pseudo-men, their specific characteristics, and more. Duan Fei nodded repeatedly as he read, feeling his money had been well spent.

While Duan Fei was reading the post, a young man was sipping coffee in an office.

He wore a black butler’s uniform and white gloves. His soft hair lay flat against his head, giving him a somewhat languid air.

He was one of the forum administrators. His daily task was to maintain the game forum’s content, and occasionally, to save people.

Although he was slacking off, his posture was so elegant that it gave the impression that slacking off was part of his job.

Just then, a system notification chimed, forcing him to sigh. He swiveled his chair around and began checking the alert.

’Notification: "Duan Someone purchased ’Intro to Pseudo-men’." That’s nothing. Wait... Duan Someone...’

After a moment of recollection, the man remembered seeing this person in a previous instance and sensing a faint aura of Chaos on him.

With that prompt, his previous memories quickly resurfaced. He recalled how a group of players, all under Level 20, had managed to wipe out a whole pack of Pseudo-men. It was an incredible feat.

"Even with the help of Chaos, their teamwork was excellent. They were a group of very promising players."

’I even gave them a small gift and added them to my observation list. It seems this Duan Someone has just triggered one of the conditions.’

After checking the browsing history for "Duan Someone," the man nodded. He knew Duan Fei was adept at using the internet, so he wasn’t worried about him for the time being.

Upon seeing a cryptic post asking for help, the man frowned. He then took a slip of paper with a string of numbers written on it from his pocket and snapped his fingers.

Without needing a VR headset, he appeared directly in the starting area of "Abyss": the infinitely expanding office.

Treading on the soaking wet carpet that reeked of rot, the man began to run swiftly through the rooms.

The man was now as fast as a bullet, moving so quickly it felt as if he were flying over the carpet.

Moreover, he seemed to have become a Ghost. The walls before him were no obstacle, allowing him to phase through them and cross one room after another with incredible speed.

Following the trail from the distress post, the man soon arrived in an empty room, where he saw the poster on the verge of losing consciousness.

She looked like a female college student. Her expression was numb, and she swayed gently in time with the buzzing of the fluorescent light overhead.

Walking over, the man placed a milk candy in the young woman’s mouth. He then watched as her gaze gradually cleared.

Patting her shoulder, the man said apologetically, "Sorry I’m late. Our access was compromised, so sometimes we can’t see your distress calls. But I recall we did give a hint, telling you to keep posting repeatedly until you were noticed."

The young woman looked at the man blankly, then rubbed her head and said, "My phone died right after I made the post."

"That’s rough. Maybe don’t play on your phone before bed next time."

"Who are you? Where is this?"

"Those are two very complicated questions. It would probably take a long time to explain."

"If you can’t explain it simply, then never mind. Are you a police officer? Can you take me home?"

The man gave a wry smile and shook his head. "Sorry, but you can’t leave this place. At least, not for a while. Not unless you can reach ’the·end’."

"...Are you cosplaying? A Black Butler version of the Riddler?"

"College students have such sharp tongues these days. I’m one of the administrators; you can just call me Gale. As for where we are..."

Spreading his hands, Gale said, "This is ’Abyss’. Welcome, new administrator."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!