Chapter 639 Truth 1

Chapter 639: Truth 1

Hearing the voice, Su Bai turned to see Feng Ling standing beside him and several other members of the Nameless Society whose names he could still vaguely recall.

But whether it was Feng Ling or the others, or even Su Bai himself—everyone was in terrible shape.

"Feng Ling, why is this Forest of Human Faces different from what the guide says?"

Su Bai still couldn't control his body, but the Su Bai in his memory also followed the sound and looked over. The speaker was a Nameless Society member named Yu Jin, whose ability Su Bai vaguely remembered was controlling plants.

With that thought, the fog clouding his memories started to clear, and he began to recall why he had come to the Forest of Human Faces with the Nameless Society.

In fact, they weren’t the only team entering the forest. Other human organizations, including the Candlelight Association, also sent teams into the forest. The root cause was a prophecy.

Prophets were extremely rare among human players—but they were real.

In this world of monsters under the red moon, human players fought these horrors while desperately searching for a way to end it all.

For some, as long as they were alive, they would keep trying to find the source of all calamities.

But more and more players were entering the nightmare world—so many that newcomers who knew nothing outnumbered ability users by ten or twenty to one.

No one knew how many fellow humans they would witness die, nor when their own friends or family would be dragged into the battlefield under the red moon. This hung over every human player like an invisible time bomb.

That's when the prophets stepped up.

During the time when the nightmare game still existed, prophets could do very little. They could predict the direction from which eerie entities would appear and the best timing to escape, but such predictions required extensive preparation, making them somewhat impractical. Although prophets also had vague premonitions about future events, they could only sense whether something good or bad was approaching.

In short, the more specific and important a prophecy, the more preparation time and power it consumed.

Plus, prophets lacked survival skills and attack power, so their existence was often overlooked or dismissed for a long time.

But when human lives were at stake, this power became a beacon in the dark night, shining brighter. More and more people believed the prophets could get them out of this nightmare world for good.

Ultimately, led by the Candlelight Association, which had gathered the most prophets, they formed a prophet team—veterans and newcomers alike. All players with prophetic abilities were brought together.

These prophets were always protected in the safest part of the battlefield, giving it their all to record every word and image from their visions, searching for a glimmer of hope for humanity.

After nearly a year of visions, the prophets and sages together “calculated” an answer step by step through various directions, distances, terrain features, and scattered image fragments.

It wasn't a clear solution—it pointed to a forbidden zone in the nightmare world: the “Forest of Human Faces.”

After the nightmare game vanished, most players stayed away from obviously deadly areas. But before it disappeared, a few had gone into the Forest of Human Faces and made it out, leaving behind usable “guides.”

Relying on these guides, several teams entered the forest, trying to find the glimmer of hope they still hadn’t seen.

“According to the guide, the scary thing about the Forest of Human Faces is that touching a trunk or branch turns you into part of the forest—just like those faces on the trees,” said Yu Jin, who, with his plant-controlling ability, should have been the main force in the forest, but at this moment looked completely exhausted.

“So before, you just had to avoid touching the trunks or branches, watch out for roots that could pop up from underground, and run straight toward the red moon as fast as you could to get through.” Yu Jin shook his head as he spoke. “But now, the situation is very wrong.”

“We have to find something useful here to change the tide of battle, so there’s no way we can take the speedrun route.” Feng Ling’s voice also sounded weak. “Looks like the guide didn't mention that the longer we stay, the thicker these human-face trees get.”

“And the most terrifying situation... everyone's probably already noticed.”

At Feng Ling’s words, everyone fell silent.

Su Bai heard himself say, “The forest is draining our power.”

At this point, Su Bai had already recalled what happened in the Forest of Human Faces. Both Yu Jin and the other team members, both Feng Ling and... himself...

They all died in this forest.

Before this, Su Bai had tried many methods. He tried to open the door in his puzzle world, and the puzzles themselves tried too, but the forest devoured all their surging power.

Every bit of power just turned into still water in this forest.

He had even signed his name on that contract...

“The puppets in the puzzles couldn’t break free from the restraints, so after I noticed something was wrong, I rushed over from Mist Mountain,” Wu Hang’s voice suddenly spoke—but not from the past.

“What exactly happened?” Su Bai tried to contact Wu Hang.

“...” Wu Hang paused, then explained. “The Forest of Human Faces isn't anything special. Sure, it has special rules for humans, but it doesn't devour external power.”

“I only found out after I got there why it ended up like this: the Red Moon Association had buried their experimental area deep underground in the forest.”

“Although the Red Moon Association found suitable experimental subjects, the experiment itself still required an enormous amount of power to consume. So for them, it was a perfect spot.”

“This place was the first to be soaked in the red moon's power. The trees and soil held plenty of power, and there was even a tributary of the Blood Sea flowing through the forest. The power used to be so thick that just stepping in felt suffocating and unpleasant.”

“But when I got here looking for you, the power in the Forest of Human Faces was nearly gone.”