"Huff~"
"Huff—"
A faint sigh sounded behind Ethan.
He twisted his head and saw thick mist surging toward him like a rolling tide.
In an instant, he was swallowed by the fog.
Even the kerosene lamp in his hand seemed to have its light suppressed by something.
The kerosene lamp that normally lit up ten meters around him couldn't even illuminate half a meter now. When Ethan lowered his head, he couldn't even see his own hands. All he could see was the dim lamp glow swaying within the silk-like mist.
And around him, apart from fog, there was only fog. Ethan couldn't see anything at all.
A chilling sensation, like being soaked in icy water, surged in from all directions, drowning Ethan and causing goosebumps to rise all over his skin.
That cold wasn't the cold of weather, nor was it a normal drop in temperature. It was more like a chill seeping into the marrow, slowly penetrating your bones, your blood. As if it wanted to freeze you solid.
Ethan breathed out a puff of white air and reached out to touch the self-heating fur coat on his body.
Inside, it was still warm, and it was still continuously releasing heat.
But even so, that warmth didn't seem to be able to warm Ethan's body at all.
Even the hand touching the heated fur coat felt warm only at the tiny area where his fingertips made contact. Everywhere else was nothing but icy cold.
His hand instantly went numb from the cold.
Then came his legs, his feet, and his face and neck that had no protection at all.
Everything came so suddenly. That cold, and that unknown fear, were endlessly eroding Ethan's courage and senses.
Huff~
Huff—
The sounds within the mist were getting closer and closer.
From sounding as if they were far away at first, to now feeling as if the breathing was right next to his ear.
Ethan suddenly turned his head, but beside him there seemed to be nothing except mist. Summoning his courage, Ethan stretched out his hand and waved it around.
Only the light, drifting fog was disturbed slightly. There was nothing.
Yet Ethan could clearly feel, that his body seemed to have stiffened a little more.
The monster in the mist had arrived, faster than Ethan had imagined.
But even now, he still hadn't found a place to hide. Was he really going to be exposed within the monster's line of sight like this?
Ethan hurriedly lowered his head and looked at the snow beneath his feet.
Before, he had managed to survive by hiding in the snow. Maybe this time he could too?
[Too late! Don't waste your effort! Before, you were buried deep enough, and there was also a Large Snow Monster above you blocking the monster's attack. Now don't expect to escape the monster's detection range!]
"Damn it! What kind of garbage prompt is this!"
"Is this how you're supposed to give hints? At least give a solution. What's the point of just hitting people when they're down?"
(ﾉꐦ ⊙曲ఠ)ﾉ彡┻━┻
Ethan was furious and speechless at the same time.
He couldn't burrow underground, and he didn't have any invisibility cloak or escape skills.
Could this really be a guaranteed death setup.
'No way!'
'Impossible. I'm damn well someone with a golden finger.'
'In novels, anyone with a golden finger is usually the protagonist, someone who can't just die.'
'Could it be…'
'That the author of this story is a wicked stepmother?'
'Or like the author of A Song of Ice and Fire, where whoever becomes the protagonist dies?' [T/N: 'A Song of Ice of Fire' is the original book of 'Game of Thrones'.]
'Switching protagonists endlessly halfway through?'
Huff~
Hiss—
Pa-ta!
The breathing was even closer now.
And along with the breathing came an extremely light sound of footsteps.
Or rather, the sound of something stepping on the snow.
The monster was here.
Ethan turned to run…
'If the wicked stepmother(author) won't save me, then I can only rely on agility to save myself.'
But just as Ethan was about to turn around, he realized that his entire body seemed to have been hit with some freezing spell or petrification spell.
His whole body instantly became unable to move.
He was stiff.
( ○ Д ○)
'So that's how it is…'
'Those Snow Monsters before were all instantly stiffened.'
'That's why they couldn't run or resist before dying. Am I really going to be abused to death by a wicked stepmother like this?'
Hiss!
A wave of vicious cold struck.
It instantly invaded Ethan's limbs and bones, making him suck in a sharp breath.
That cold was like needles, piercing into Ethan's skin, blood, bones, and even his brain.
Ethan was clearly wearing a self-heating fur coat, yet at this moment, he felt only one thing.
'So cold!'
Cold to the point where even his blood felt like it was about to freeze.
Pat!
Something lightly tapped Ethan on the shoulder.
Very light, yet very heavy.
Light because Ethan didn't feel his shoulder sink at all, as if the thing patting him had no physical form.
But heavy because that thing felt like it had pinned his shoulder in place, giving Ethan a sense of complete helplessness.
Just like… Sleep paralysis.
Or as if something was pressing down on him.
Thump!
Thump! Thump!
Ethan heard his heartbeat speed up.
At this moment, his entire body was unable to move. The only thing still moving was probably his heart.
The thing on his shoulder seemed to extend forward, quickly reaching Ethan's neck. That thing was like a boneless tentacle, wrapping itself around his neck.
Although Ethan couldn't lower his head to look, he could feel the sensation of something touching his neck. And that icy cold that could freeze his skin numb.
If he could see his own skin, Ethan believed that at this moment, there would be a thin layer of white frost on his shoulder and neck.
Just like a drink that had been frozen in a refrigerator for a long time, then taken out into warm air, causing that layer of white frost to condense on the surface.
Cold. Bone-chilling.
"Uh!"
（〇О〇）!?
At this instant, Ethan felt something poke into his nostril.
It made him really want to sneeze, but he was frozen in place. He couldn't even sneeze.
That thing directly blocked his nose, making him unable to breathe. It even seemed to be drawing out some kind of energy from his body, causing intense discomfort.
There was a strong foreign-body sensation and sharp pain inside his nostril.
Ethan felt like that thing intended to stab straight into his brain through his nose, or somewhere else.nUnable to move. Unable to resist.
Fear instantly surged like a tidal wave, drowning Ethan.
It was even worse than a nightmare.
This feeling, Ethan had only experienced once long ago, during an episode of sleep paralysis.
But even that time, it was only an inability to move. He had never experienced such a vivid case of sleep paralysis before, especially that piercing pain, it was utterly unbearable.
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