Chen Hao looked at the bullet comments and suddenly felt a lump in his throat.

He remembered how he had just been laughing and posting "Enemy defeated, I shall strip him" in the Beacon Fire Town livestream room, but now he couldn't type a single word.

This is the Nightmare World. While you are laughing, someone is dying.

The city walls also began to collapse. A gap was breached in the «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» southern wall, and Mikawa Samurai surged up like a tide.

The Korean Awakened tried their best to plug the gap, but the level gap was too large; one Mikawa Samurai could take on five, ten, or even twenty of them.

The gap grew wider, and more and more samurai swarmed onto the walls.

In the bullet comments, the despair of the Korean netizens had turned into pleas.

【Is there anyone who can help us?】

【What about Great Xia? What about the USA? Who can come and help us?】

【Please, if Jinzhou City falls, all of Korea will be gone...】

【Whatever we did wrong before, we apologize... Please...】

No one responded. It wasn't that they didn't want to help, but that they couldn't.

Under the siege of the double Nightmare Tide, most territories could barely protect themselves.

Chen Hao closed his eyes, unable to bear watching any longer.

Then, he heard a sound. It wasn't from the bullet comments or the commentary; it came from the footage.

A roar erupted from the center of Jinzhou City, like thunder, like a landslide, like a shout from ten thousand people at once.

He opened his eyes.

Choi Jeong-won was suspended in the air above Jinzhou City. He was covered in blood, his iron armor was shattered, and his left arm hung limply, but his right hand still gripped that greatsword.

The flames on the blade had died out, replaced by a blinding golden light that spread from the hilt to the tip, pulsing like a golden vein.

He was chanting something. It was inaudible, yet the voice pierced through the entire battlefield, through the sixty-li city wall, and through the killing cries of eighty thousand Mikawa Samurai.

"Beneath this city, thirty thousand are buried—"

Golden light exploded from the greatsword, like a sun rising over Jinzhou City.

The light fell upon the ground, upon the city walls, and upon every inch of blood-soaked earth.

Then, the earth began to shake.

In the streets of Jinzhou City, beneath the walls, and amidst the ruins, countless pillars of light shot into the sky.

Within each pillar of light stood a figure. Wearing tattered armor and holding rusted blades, their faces were blurred, but their eyes were clear.

Those were thirty thousand undead—thirty thousand skeletons buried beneath Jinzhou City, thirty thousand souls who had once shed their last drop of blood for this city.

Soldiers who defended the city eighty years ago, generals who died in battle fifty years ago, and Awakened who fell in the Nightmare Tide ten years ago.

They rose from the ground, stepped out from the ruins, and emerged from every pillar of light.

Thirty thousand undead soldiers, every single one of them at Level 19.

They were significantly higher level than the Korean Awakened on the walls, and also much higher than the Mikawa Samurai.

They silently surged onto the walls, silently raised their weapons, and silently charged into the enemy ranks.

The Mikawa Samurai's formation was instantly torn to shreds. Those Level 15 samurai were like paper in front of the Level 19 undead soldiers.

Spears lunged, piercing iron armor; sabers swung down, sending heads flying.

The undead felt no pain, would not retreat, and never grew weary.

They only knew how to kill, killing without end.

The Mikawa Samurai who had swarmed the walls were cleared out wave after wave.

Scaling ladders were pushed over, and battering rams were smashed to pieces.

The black tide began to retreat, began to scatter, and began to be driven off the walls.

The bullet comments completely exploded.

【Ten Thousand Souls Returning to the Array!!! This is the Ten Thousand Souls Array!!!】

【Jinzhou City's ultimate wonder move! It can only be activated once every ten years!】

【Thirty thousand Level 19 undead soldiers! The Mikawa Samurai can't block them at all!】

【They're back! They're all back!】

【The walls are held! Korea is saved!】

The Korean netizens' bullet comments turned from despair to ecstasy, from pleas to cheers.

Korean, English, Chinese—"Thank you," "Long live," and "We survived" in various languages mixed together like a flood after a rainstorm, surging and turbulent.

Thirty thousand undead soldiers charged onto the walls, driving the Mikawa Samurai back wave by wave.

Scaling ladders were pushed over, and battering rams were smashed. The black tide began to retreat and scatter.

But that was only temporary.

In the sky, those twelve black shadows did not retreat.

They hovered above Jinzhou City, their black armor stained with the blood of Korea's high-ranking officials.

Choi Jeong-won knelt on the roof of the City Lord's Mansion, his greatsword thrust into the tiles, the golden light on the blade already extinguished.

Priest Lee's corpse still lay on the street, her white robes soaked in blood and her staff broken in two.

The bodies of the two vice city lords crashed into the ruins of the South Gate; one had his chest pierced by a spear, and the other had been decapitated.

Of the six Level 39s, only Choi Jeong-won remained.

The twelve black shadows moved. They dove simultaneously, their target not Choi Jeong-won, but the city walls.

Twelve black figures slammed into the walls of Jinzhou City like twelve meteors.

The forty-meter-high wall was like paper under their feet; with one stomp, the battlements shattered.

With one punch, the wall collapsed. The undead soldiers lunged at them, only to be smashed by a single fist.

The Korean Awakened rushed forward, only to be swatted away by a single palm.

No one could withstand a single move from them; no one could slow them down by even a step.

The Mikawa Samurai surged forward once again.

Without the walls to block them, they poured into Jinzhou City like a tide.

In the streets, in front of houses, and in the center of the squares, slaughter was happening everywhere.

The Korean Awakened were fighting for their lives, but the level gap was too great.

Level 10 against Level 15; even seven against one might not win.

And now, the walls were broken, the formation was scattered, and the command was gone.

They could only fight individually, falling one by one.

The bullet comments were no longer legible. They were entirely in Korean, densely packed like a tsunami of despair.

Some were crying, some were cursing, some were praying, and some had already given up.

Those who had just been cheering "We survived" now only had one word left—"No."

In the bullet comments, the voices of the Korean netizens gradually faded away.

It wasn't that they had left; they were just speechless.

Chen Hao looked at the bullet comments, his finger hovering over the touchpad, unmoving.

He didn't want to look, but he couldn't tear his eyes away. In the footage, Choi Jeong-won stood up from the roof, covered in blood, his iron armor half-shattered, but his back was held very straight.

Gripping the greatsword that had lost its luster, he walked toward those twelve black shadows. One step, two steps, three steps.

Chen Hao closed the Korean livestream room.

His hands were shaking—not from fear, but because of an indescribable something stuck in his throat that he couldn't swallow or spit out.

He remembered how he had just been laughing and posting "Enemy defeated, I shall strip him" in the Beacon Fire Town livestream room.

He thought of the spamming "Lin Feng is awesome" and remembered how he had laughed while watching Lin Feng single-handedly slaughter five thousand Yellow Turban soldiers.

And at that very same time, Jinzhou City was burning, and Korea was perishing.

This is the Nightmare World. While you are laughing, someone is dying.

He switched back to the Beacon Fire Town livestream. In the footage, Lin Feng stood on the city wall, the blood moon behind him, and the Wildfire Spear slung across his back.

The Yellow Turban Army below the wall had been completely annihilated, and the Beacon Guards were heading out to clear the battlefield; everything was in perfect order.

The bullet comments were still scrolling, discussing the battle just now and analyzing how high Lin Feng's damage was and how fast his speed was.

No one mentioned Korea; no one knew that just a few minutes ago, the fate of a nation had come to an end.

Chen Hao leaned back on the sofa, staring at that quiet figure in the footage for a long, long time.

Outside the window, the sky had brightened; it was time for him to go to work.

But he didn't want to move. He just sat there, his mind repeatedly replaying the scene of those twelve black shadows slamming into the walls, replaying the bullet comments that had turned from cheers to despair.

He couldn't bear to watch it again, but he couldn't forget it.

The blood moon of the Nightmare World still hung in the sky.