For the past few years, the world has been plagued by a mysterious mist that refuses to dissipate.
Since its arrival, there have been numerous missing person cases, especially involving children, who are never seen again.
Consequently, the government has forbidden people from leaving their homes without urgent necessity and ordered them to keep a strict watch over their children.
As a result of this mysterious mist, the world is suffering a severe economic crisis, with many companies forced to shut down.
One of the victims of this economic collapse is a twenty-seven-year-old news reporter named Murphy Grey, who is none other than myself, who lost his job.
All the hard-earned money he spent on tuition to finally reach the point of becoming a news reporter has now gone to waste because of this event.
Truly tragic, isn't it?
However, the man known as Murphy didn't give up, simply because he had a stomach that needed filling.
Since no news media would hire him, he ultimately decided to start a YouTube channel.
But not as a gamer. Obviously, he didn't have the money to buy a gaming PC. Instead, he became a YouTuber who took risks by venturing out into the mysterious mist, armed with nothing but a camera and his guts.
Every video he uploaded consistently generated views that rarely dipped below five hundred thousand.
Profiting greatly from this business, he became addicted and started uploading videos daily, visiting locations requested by his viewers.
In just three months, his YouTube channel gained ten million subscribers and was earning a hundred dollars a day, allowing him to finally survive his financial crisis.
But his story didn't end there.
Murphy, who heard news of missing people on television every day, eventually felt something was off and grew curious about what was actually causing people to vanish.
He also wondered why people disappeared so easily when leaving their homes, yet when he went out and roamed places 'said' to be dangerous, he remained perfectly fine.
Murphy began questioning these disappearances. Was there really a supernatural entity? Or was it a conspiracy of the global elite?
In reality, Murphy was a complete skeptic regarding things that couldn't be explained by logic.
Finally, Murphy's resolve hardened. He told his channel's viewers that he would get to the bottom of what was making people disappear by exploring a place very rarely visited.
And that was the stupidest decision he ever made, though he didn't realize it yet, blinded as he was by money and popularity.
Then Murphy asked his viewers to tell him what he had to do to get 'disappeared,' but said he would only obey the person who donated the most.
Views instantly skyrocketed.
Then, unexpectedly, he received a donation of one million dollars from 'Anonymous969' to perform a specific set of movements: clench his fist over his chest, walk two steps to the left and right, then circle the camera filming him while saying "Kidnap Me" ten times.
He was rich!
Happily, Murphy performed it with a bright smile on his face, thinking it was a truly trivial command for a million dollars.
Then, during the final command, circling the camera, Murphy began to feel a cold chill whenever he was out of the camera's view.
The cold grew more intense every time he successfully circled the camera.
On the ninth step, the cold reached its peak, but Murphy had to keep looking fine whenever he came back into the camera's frame.
On the tenth step, when he stood behind the camera—
Suddenly, a thin black hand with sharp claws appeared from behind his shoulder and covered his eyes.
Before he could scream, another hand covered Murphy's mouth, leaving only a muffled groan.
His body was dragged away from the still-recording camera, watched by over five million people.
Now he realized that the supernatural creatures behind the mist were real. The only reason Murphy hadn't disappeared all this time was because he was always livestreaming on his channel.
It was the biggest regret of his life, truly.
"Argh, what kind of world is this?!" I vomited the entire contents of my stomach as a foul stench assaulted me from the massive, human-like creature splattered in front of me.
"Fuck! *Vomit* Where am I?!" I stepped back, looking around as I tried to process everything.
I didn't know what had happened, but when that long-armed creature grabbed me, I lost consciousness. Suddenly, I was in this terrifying place.
I was in a narrow alley between two incredibly massive ruined buildings—or perhaps, my body had shrunk, because I was no bigger than the twig beside me.
It was currently night; the only reason I could see was the full moon in the sky.
"Wait, wait, why has my body shrunk?" I said in shock, still stepping back from the scattered human flesh.
"Where exactly am I?" I repeated, and then my body bumped into a large black trash bag behind me.
After freezing in place for nearly two minutes, my body finally gave out, sliding down slowly until I was sitting against the trash bag. "Oh God, why did it suddenly turn out like this?"
I touched my temples and massaged them to relax, letting out a bitter chuckle. 'I really never expected to actually get kidnapped and end up in this world.
'Hehe, finally a skeptic like me gets taught a lesson.' While I was still massaging my temples, a small camera suddenly fell from my pants pocket.
I immediately picked it up and checked its memory, which turned out to be empty, and the battery was half full.
"Ah, what should I do now?" My body was completely weak from despair. "How am I supposed to get back home now? Also, what kind of place is this?"
Right now, I really wanted to cry, regretting doing things I shouldn't have done.
'I want to go home and lie down.'
--Ding! --Ding!
'Huh?' Suddenly, an interface window appeared in front of me.
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[Welcome to Nightmares Survivor]
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[Bio]
Name: Murphy Grey.
Age: 27 years old.
Survivor Rank: Amateur.
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[Task 1: Find five Holy Lights]
[Progress: 0]
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"Wait, what?"