The cold night breeze howled in Minato's ears as he remained on guard, gripping his kunai and preparing for battle at any moment.
However, after walking for a while, all that lay ahead was a road leading forward, surrounded by thick gray mist, with green-glowing lanterns hanging on the houses along the street.
The visibility continued to shrink, slowly reducing to just two meters, as if a misty ninja had cast a mist jutsu—just like when Minato had faced mist ninjas in the past.
However, there was no eerie green lighting back then—under the dim light of the green lanterns, even the mist took on a green hue.
It was bizarre and deep.
Such an environment was the perfect trigger for claustrophobia, fear of the deep sea, and other psychological issues.
Even though Minato didn't have such problems, the fact that he kept advancing without encountering anything, while the eerie background music softly echoed in his ears, made him feel somewhat uncomfortable.
Unable to hold back, Minato turned to Uchiha Kai and asked, "Kai, is this game just about moving forward? Are there no changes or enemies or anything like that?"
The answer came in silence, the low hum of the wind, followed by a crisp, eerie bell sound, and then a sudden complete silence—no background music, nothing.
The abrupt change made Minato's heart tighten. Before he could react, he suddenly felt like something was nearby. He quickly turned his head to look.
As a result, this sight almost caused Minato Namikaze to experience a heart attack on the spot.
Because, just under thirty centimeters away from Minato, a mysterious woman appeared. Her hair was disheveled, her body draped in tattered white clothes, revealing only one eye.
Her face was pale, tinged with blue veins, and a chilling, sinister aura surrounded her. She silently floated in place, her gaze meeting Minato's eye-level.
The eye she revealed was filled with black veins, and her pupil was a deep, pitch-black abyss, full of resentment and hatred. The terrifying gaze seemed completely unnatural, far from anything a human could possess.
Normally, even in broad daylight, encountering such a mysterious woman would make anyone uneasy. In this eerie, deathly atmosphere, with her face so close, it was even more unsettling.
Almost instinctively, Minato reached for the kunai in his hand, prepared to attack this terrifying woman, while also readying himself to use the Flying Thunder God Technique to retreat.
This was a battle reflex Minato had developed over many years of experience.
However, this habitual motion caused Minato to stagger, almost falling backward to the ground. He managed to steady himself only after taking several steps back.
At that moment, Minato remembered that he was currently in a game, inhabiting the body of a regular ninja, and not his own powerful self.
The mismatch between his body and mind caused him to lose his footing.
Nevertheless, Minato was still Minato. Even in such a situation, after stabilizing himself, he suddenly looked up towards the mysterious woman.
But when he looked again, the woman had vanished without a trace.
"Where did she go? Wait… was that even... human?"
Minato began to doubt. The eerie sensation, the eye filled with endless malice, did not seem like something a human could have.
Even in the ninja world, a place full of all kinds of strange beasts and spirits, Minato had never encountered a being like that.
At least, he believed he had never seen such a presence.
"What exactly... was that?"
Suddenly, Minato Namikaze's voice caught in his throat. His eyes widened as his body froze completely. A chilling sensation surged from behind him, the cold wind biting through him like the harshest winter.
The intense external stimuli sent a shock through Minato's nerves, making his hairs stand on end, cold sweat pouring down him. It was a physical reaction he couldn't control.
Next, Minato felt a cold, stiff hand grip his shoulder. The sensation, clear through his clothes, seemed as if his clothing offered no protection at all.
Frozen in place, Minato caught a glimpse in his peripheral vision—a head of black hair and a pale, terrifying face right beside his ear. Then, a chilling, ethereal voice spoke.
"You… can't go back…"
At that moment, Minato's entire body tensed, and his mind trembled. He recognized the voice immediately—it was the same cold, haunting tone he'd heard earlier, the one that whispered the game's name as he first entered.
Before he could react, Minato felt his neck gripped by an icy hand.
It was the hand of death, frozen and lifeless. It tightened relentlessly, applying pressure until breathing became a struggle. The feeling of pain surged through him, overwhelming his mind with suffocating discomfort.
The helplessness of the situation truly made this man feel like he was about to die.
But just in the next moment, the cold sensation and the terrifying woman disappeared, and his completely immobilized state was restored.
However, at this moment, Minato Namikaze's body weakened, and he fell forward. He ended up on one knee, his right hand propped on the ground, left hand pressing against his knee to prevent himself from collapsing completely.
Even so, cold sweat continued to drip from his brow, soaking into the dusty ground beneath him.
The terrifying experience, a mix of 21st-century horror game tactics and the virtual reality of a more futuristic mental network, made Minato, the 'flower of the leaf,' truly experience the ultimate fear of a horror game.
To be honest, for Minato, who was experiencing something like this for the first time, it was a bit overwhelming.
Though it might be a little embarrassing to admit, at that moment, Minato had the fleeting thought of 'Maybe we should stop playing.'
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