[Rolling_Crocodile: My heart almost stopped in that moment... wtf was that thing!?!]

[Blue_Dinosaur: I have played all sorts of horror games in my life, but I must say, I have never seen something this horribly distorted before. A fish with wooden cane like legs and body covered with hanging organs... what kind of abomination is this!?]

[Invincible_Bob: I might not be able to look at those ordinary wooden canes the same way again in my life now... urk.. I feel like vomiting... it was so f*cking ugly...]

[Shining_Lorraine: Ew... I hate fish; I almost had a heart attack seeing that sht!]

[Jumping_Koala: I don’t want to watch this urgh... please god please, give me the option to permanently leave these horrible streams!!]

[Invincible_Bob: If such an option existed, most of the people here would have already left ages ago... Sigh, we can only pray for the safety of our anchor right now and cheer him up from behind...]

[Blue_Dinosaur: Cheering is pointless; he can’t even see the comments or the stream happening.]

[Inivincible_Bob: We should pray for his well-being and hope for his survival. All hail the tank god!!]

’Thanks, you may not know but the support of you all is already helping me keep moving forward...’

In the darkness of the corridor, Zephyr smiled lightly and kept moving forward as the motivation given by his supporters was enough for him to keep struggling.

Moreover, the increased belief of the people and their prayer for his well-being contributed a lot to increasing his Belief Points a lot.

[BP:15,300]

’Nice... it’s increasing quite fast. Just keep going like that.’

With a smile on his face, Zephyr moved forward, and thankfully this time no new monster appeared in the corridor to block his path forward.

After the fish monster left, Zephyr’s path forward became clear, and in just a few minutes he crossed the entire corridor, finally reaching a narrow staircase leading down into the basement floor.

The end point of the corridor was significantly less dark than the rest of the corridor, as there was a torch hanging on the wall nearby, and it was burning with bluish-white flames that were giving a very unsettling feeling.

’I don’t think going near that torch is a good idea...’

It would be good if he could use a torch in this dark place, but those bluish-white flames didn’t seem okay to Zephyr, and he trusted his instincts a lot, so he decided to avoid the torch for now.

"The walls and the floor here seem extremely well-crafted... it was dark in the corridor so I couldn’t see it properly but here I can see the carvings on the walls and the floor..."

There were small patterns of butterflies carved into the walls, and a very beautiful pattern of a tree was carved into the floor near the staircase.

Also, there was a glass box placed on a pedestal with a big gauntlet inside of it, but it was giving Zephyr a very eerie feeling, so he didn’t bother going closer and taking a proper look at it.

’Let’s go downstairs...’

Just as Zephyr tried to put his feet on the first stair, he collided with some kind of invisible barrier and ended up being pushed back by a powerful force.

"What the?!"

Zephyr almost staggered and fell on the ground after being pushed back so forcefully and only barely managed to keep his balance.

’If I was an ordinary person, that force would have blown me away like a cannonball and I would had several of my bones shattered into pieces!’

This horror game world was filled with dangers at every step; even safe-looking things here are extremely dangerous for an ordinary person!

"Is there some kind of wind barrier placed on these stairs? Why is it pushing me back and not letting me walk downstairs? Xinran also didn’t seem to have mentioned anything about a barrier or something like that..."

Just when Zephyr was getting confused about the situation, words appeared on the wall nearby where the unsettling torch was hanging on their own.

{To Witness The Eternal Garden Created By ’Hero’ Layla Jauregia. You must prove your ’determination’ and ’will.’

Go forth, ’Challenger’! Take the Flame of ’Inhumane Torture’ to the Cauldron of Poisons!}

Once Zephyr was done reading them, the words originally written in dark black ink turned into red blood and slid down from the wall, causing the words to be erased.

’Urgh... I don’t have a good feeling about this...’

’At least I can understand these words; that’s already good enough... I can’t expect anything much from this horror game at all...’

The language used inside the horror game world was something completely different from any known language on planet Earth.

Quite a few players in the past had managed to discover ruins of old buildings before, and through carvings on the walls and stone tablets, it was already clear that the players could read this world’s language.

Also, ’Bruno Wells,’ the man that had survived for an entire week in this horror game world before he got killed off by a giant, had also managed to confirm that the beings of this horror world spoke a language that humans could understand instinctively.

Many had theorized before that the game world was translating the language and the words of the beings in the game automatically.

This automatic translation function of the game was the main reason why Zphyr was able to understand and talk with Xinran in the first place.

Bruno Wells, had listened to the giant mocking him in his final moment and before dying, he shouted loudly,

{I can understand what he is saying! This means the horror game is likely not just a passive existence; it also interferes actively at times!}

That last message of Bruno Wells was aimed at the humans back home that were watching him.

He wanted to leave behind some kind of foundation for the players of the future to work on in the future.

Although the message didn’t carry much information and significance in the grand scheme of things, it later became a symbol of fierce resistance against the overwhelming power of the horror game.

People came together to create new protocols and ways to decipher the language of this horror world, and many new organizations that specialized in teaching people survival tactics were born due to that one statement.

Unfortunately, with not many tablets to work on, the language was yet to be fully deciphered.

As if following in the footsteps of his predecessors, Zephyr pointed his finger to the place where those words had appeared before and told the people watching his stream the meaning of those words.

After that Zephyr spoke a few words of encouragement to increase people’s belief in him.

"Fellow People of Earth... No, I should refer to you all from here on as ’Children of Planet Earth!’"

"Sons and Daughters of Terra, I don’t know if I will be there in the future to see humanity win against this horror game’s overwhelming power..."

"But I would like to contribute to that golden future with my hands. Do not feel despair, do not lose hope; even if one dies, another one will appear to carry the mantle of humanity’s hope!"

"Together, we will conquer this cosmic horror no matter how powerful it is!"

Up until this moment, Zephyr was only focused on survival and finding food and shelter at most.

But now, things were different.

Now that Zephyr had fully accepted the fact that he was now stuck in this horror world and he might not be able to find a way back for a long time to come, Zephyr finally decided to find a ’goal’ for himself.

Every being in the universe has a ’goal,’ ’a dream,’ or an ’ambition’ in their heart, and every person has a ’Path’ of their own in life to reach that ’Destination Point’, that goal they so dearly want to achieve in life!

Without a proper goal, without ambitions, without dreams, a person is nothing but a living corpse with no future or destination.

They are just like a boat aimlessly floating in the vast ocean with no destination to reach!

Zephyr was walking around like an aimless being until now with no particular goal in mind, but after seeing the words written on the wall and remembering the bravery shown by ’Bruno Wells’ in his final moments, Zephyr realized his goal.

’If I am already forced to wander this hell hole, I must make this journey meaningful!’

’Yes! I might as well become one of the best outdoor streamers and explore this horrible world and find all of its mysteries!’

’That’s it! Exploring! That would be my life’s goal!’

[Ding! Congratulations! You have realized your own ’Path’ in life!]

[Ding! As a being that has ’awakened’ the realization of a ’Path,’ you have formally become an awakener!]

[Ding! By taking the first step towards your ’Path,’ you have established a firm connection with the ’Law’ of ’Mana’ in this universe!]

[Ding! Congratulations! You have awakened your ’Mana’ and have become the first ’Player’ to achieve this feat!]

[Ding! Congratulations! For achieving this great feat, you have been rewarded with a guaranteed chance to pull... ERRROORRR!!! The ???? of ????, ???? has interfered.... Reward reset in progress... reward changed...]

[Ding! Congratulations! For achieving this great feat, you have been rewarded with a guaranteed chance to pull a unique grade martial arts technique at your next pull!]