The purple mist that had enshrouded the campus grew thicker with each passing moment, soon reaching a density where one could barely see their hand in front of their face.
Swish—!
It was like a scene transition in a movie. In the blink of an eye, the surrounding purple fog abruptly vanished. The sudden burst of bright sunlight made everyone squint involuntarily.
Clean, well-lit streets, towering buildings and a TV tower, harried office workers, laughing teenagers, and vibrant cherry blossom trees everywhere...
As far as the eye could see, it was the quintessential, beautiful scenery of a two-dimensional anime world.
Plop—!
Several chubby members of the "Evil Eye Otaku Kings" team fell to their knees, tears streaming down their faces, worshiping the world before them with the devotion of the most pious believers, muttering incomprehensible gibberish under their breath.
The other players were also curiously examining their companions and their own hands, feet, and everything visible, finding this pseudo-anime transformation quite novel and amusing.
Chief directly pulled a hand mirror from his storage space—probably some trinket from a surprise box—and glanced into it. He suddenly exclaimed, "Whoa! What the hell! Why do I look different from all of you?"
Nightmare (Luo Jie) turned his head instinctively and almost burst out laughing.
Chief already had a typical tough-guy face, with muscles as developed as a professional bodybuilder. After the anime transformation, he was now adorned with thick, bold outlines and large blocks of black shading, symbols of a hard-boiled character. This clashed completely with the fresh, schoolyard character style of most people present, giving him a bold, unrestrained vibe, as if wild cursive brushstrokes might pop up behind him at any moment.
Dancer also laughed uncontrollably, teasing, "Chief, did you take a wrong turn and end up on the set of Fist of the North Star?"
Chief looked a bit frustrated, and then an anime-specific expression symbol—three vertical black lines—appeared on his face. This made Dancer laugh even harder, nearly doubling over in pain.
Of course, Chief wasn't the only player with such a drastic style change. All seven members of Japan's "Yakuza Iron Men" team had transformed into the same hard-boiled style, their already prominent tattoos now even more distinct. They might as well have had "I AM A BAD GUY" written across their foreheads.
Just as everyone was still struggling to fully adapt to their new appearances, the quest log on their personal main interface finally updated:
— [Supernatural Academy Apocalypse (Escort)]
— Mission: Protect Komuro Takashi, Miyamoto Rei, Takagi Saya, Hirano Kota, Busujima Saeko, Marikawa Shizuka, and Hilton Alice as they escape Bed City. (Optional)
— Time Limit: 10 Days.
— Upon mission completion, the player's points earned in this scenario will be multiplied by the Protection Target Coefficient to determine the final total points.
— Protection Target Coefficients:
• Komuro Takashi, Busujima Saeko ×1
• Miyamoto Rei, Hirano Kota ×2
• Takagi Saya, Marikawa Shizuka ×3
• Hilton Alice ×5
After reading the quest notification, over a hundred players fell into collective silence, and many faces had turned noticeably grim.
"Wha... what's going on here?"
Chief was confused. Compared to others, this big guy's IQ was clearly below average, presumably because his muscles had grown so much they'd squeezed his brain smaller.
He instinctively looked to Nightmare beside him, having apparently developed a reliance on Nightmare's information analysis skills.
"The mission difficulty just spiked," Nightmare stated flatly.
Dancer shot Chief an amused glance. "Only you'd miss something that obvious, tough guy."
Chief was still a bit confused, scratching his head. "Huh? Isn't it the same as the mission briefing?"
"We don't have identities here," Nightmare explained, frowning as he hadn't expected the illusionary realm to throw everyone such a curveball right off the bat. He unconsciously rubbed his chin. "In the previous two failed attempts, players initially spawned inside Fujimi Academy, the setting of the story. Depending on their situation, they automatically had an identity recognized by the NPCs... or rather, the NPCs were under a cognitive barrier imposed by the illusion, perceiving players as familiar but not well-known passersby on campus. Here, however, this is clearly not Fujimi Academy."
Chief was slow, not stupid. With Nightmare's prompt, he immediately grasped the crux of the problem:
Imagine a zombie apocalypse. Would you rather follow a familiar teacher or classmate, or a complete stranger who suddenly appears with unknown origins and motives?
The goal was to protect these seven NPCs and escape Bed City within ten days. But without their trust, how could they possibly take them along?
The Japanese player teams huddled together, presumably discussing something, before disbanding into smaller groups and disappearing.
Only the hundred or so Chinese players remained, exchanging uneasy glances.
"Hey, what are you folks up to?"
This wasn't a game. A large group loitering on the street was bound to attract attention and suspicion. Whether it was a busybody or someone else, it wasn't long before two uniformed police officers hurried over to question them.
"Officers, hello! We're a tourist group from China," Handsome Jia (Jia Shuai) reacted quickly, improvising a plausible-sounding excuse on the spot. To add credibility, he pulled the rather good-looking Wang Ke to his side for support. "Our tour guide suddenly had a stomachache and went to find a restroom, told us to wait here. He has all our passports..."
Fortunately, the players on this mission were all from civilian teams in China, with members ranging from young to old. They hardly looked like dangerous elements. The two officers didn't suspect them further, merely asking if they needed assistance before continuing their patrol in another area.
Once the officers were gone, Handsome Jia immediately gathered all the team leaders for an emergency meeting.
"Everyone saw what just happened. We're essentially undocumented here. If we stay grouped like this, we'll only attract more police attention, and next time, it won't be so easy to talk our way out... I don't think any of us want to be stuck in a police holding cell when the zombie outbreak hits, do we?"
"Leader Jia, are you suggesting we do what the Japanese did—scatter and lay low?" one team leader asked.
"While this doesn't directly help with the mission, it's the only option we have right now," Handsome Jia frowned. If there were a better way, he wouldn't want to disband the newly formed alliance. "We can't be sure of the exact virus outbreak time, but knowing how these illusionary realm missions usually go, we won't have much prep time. Chances are, it's happening this afternoon..."