"Birthday Death" Died

To the left was the living room. Curtains tightly covered the balcony, and the television opposite the sofa had a black screen, with no sign that it had been turned on.

A plate of peanuts and a jumble of liquor bottles sat on the coffee table.

The second hand of the wall clock above the television ticked away, and the time read 8:04 p.m.

To the right was the kitchen. The dining table near it was laden with dishes and an intricately decorated birthday cake. Xu Xi walked over and looked down to find nine extinguished candles on the cake.

[Nine candles. Does that mean it's a ninth birthday?]

The sight of the birthday cake livened up the bullet comments, and viewers began sharing their guesses.

[But this instance is so weird. We haven't seen a single NPC so far.]

[True. Honestly, it's been a little too peaceful.]

[Maybe it's a relatively easy instance. This newbie's pretty lucky.]

Rather than the sinister scene he had imagined, he was faced with an utterly ordinary apartment. Xu Xi undeniably felt much more at ease. Just as he was about to continue looking for other clues, a strange creak suddenly came from behind him.

"!!!"

Xu Xi's body went rigid. He didn't dare move a muscle, and his heart, which had gradually returned to its normal rhythm, began pounding again.

What was that sound?

Had a weird entity appeared?!

Surely there wasn't an unspeakable thing clinging to his back right now??

Xu Xi had seen too many horror tropes, and his imagination scared him so badly that his legs went weak.

The strange sound, however, had lasted only a second. If Xu Xi hadn't known where he was, he probably would have assumed he'd imagined it.

But he wasn't one of those idiot protagonists who naively believed they really were hearing things.

He was certain something had appeared!

[I don't dare open my eyes.]

[I thought this instance was a little too peaceful, but now I suddenly think it would be nice if it stayed that way.]

[That sounded a bit like something was stuck.]

[Bullet comments, protect me!!! Weird entity, get lost!!!]

More viewers had trickled in after Xu Xi left the bedroom, and they were all trembling with fear now.

Xu Xi tried to glance behind him out of the corner of his eye, but unfortunately he couldn't see anything.

He shakily reached behind himself and felt around at random a few times. Thankfully, he didn't feel anything "as cold as a corpse."

[That said, honestly, watching this newbie feel around in the air is kind of funny.]

[That look of relief is so me. I make the same face when I stick my foot out and explore under the covers at night.]

[What do you get out of making me laugh myself to death, person above?]

[Stop feeling around, stop feeling around. There's nooothing there, just air, my silly baby.]

After feeling nothing and confirming there really was nothing on his back, Xu Xi finally relaxed his tensed muscles.

Swallowing, Xu Xi slowly turned his head. He had even prepared himself to see something or some scene of horror.

But when he turned all the way around, he couldn't help freezing in surprise. There was nothing visibly amiss in sight; everything was just as it had been, without the slightest change.

Wiping the sticky sweat from his palms, Xu Xi tried to calm himself down. He knew panicking was useless now. In a horror instance game like this, only by staying calm could he have a chance of survival.

With those thoughts in mind, Xu Xi cautiously walked over to the coffee table, looking back and forth for the source of the sound.

Just then, the familiar strange sound came from above his head.

Xu Xi looked up instinctively, only to see the loosened ceiling fan falling straight toward him.

[Ahhhhh, nooo, my silly baby!!!]

[Ah, I thought this newbie was pretty steady, but I didn't expect him to die so soon.]

[I'm leaving. On to the next stream.]

As the bullet comments scrolled frantically, Xu Xi watched the huge ceiling fan bear down on him. His heart stopped altogether at that moment, but his body seemed rooted in place, unable to react in time.

Only when a sharp pain shot through his forehead did Xu Xi finally realize, before everything went black, that the earlier strange sound had come from that ceiling fan.

"Ah—!" Xu Xi's eyes flew open and he sat bolt upright, gasping for breath. But when he saw the room before him, he was unusually dumbstruck.

Familiar furnishings came into view.

What... was going on?

Hadn't he been killed by the ceiling fan?!

The faint lingering pain in his forehead told him it hadn't been a dream!

[What's wrong with this newbie? Did he have a nightmare? Why does he look so terrified and disbelieving?]

[Person above, why don't you look at where he is right now?]

Aside from a few with exceptionally strong nerves, most new players were at least somewhat panicked and at a loss at first. As a result, the viewers took Xu Xi's terrified expression in stride and even thought it was perfectly normal.

Xu Xi frantically checked his body and found no external injuries. Feeling the warmth of his body, he finally confirmed that he really was still alive.

Or rather, he really had died, but... had returned to the beginning?

Xu Xi was somewhat dazed.

Remembering the moment of his death not long ago, when his head had been smashed open, made him shudder all over.

In his original world, his sudden death had come so quickly that he'd had no time for any thoughts or emotions. Only after this experience did he learn that watching himself face death really did bring endless fear and despair.

And he had clearly died... so why had he been reborn?

His heart continued pounding for a long time. Propping up his weakened body, Xu Xi began examining the room he was in, deliberately ignoring the television outside the door, whose contents he couldn't make out.

Some of the wall covering in this room had peeled off too, but on the whole it looked a little better than the space outside, and the lighting was brighter.

The sheets and quilt on the bed were printed with cartoon characters, and an assortment of toys sat on the cabinet. A desk stood opposite the bed, with a stack of books on it and a blue schoolbag hanging loosely from the chair. Several certificates on red paper were posted on the wall above, and a small soccer ball lay quietly in a corner nearby.

He turned his head and saw a photo frame on the bedside table. The photo seemed to show a family of three, but strangely, all three faces were blurred.

Without a doubt, this was the bedroom of the child in that family.

[Look, he's started looking for clues!]

[Why doesn't anyone in this family of three have a face? It's like they've been mosaicked out. Can't they show themselves?]

[Person above, be careful or they'll hear you and crawl along the internet cable to your house.]

[Fuck, let them come. I'll take them out with one punch each.]

[Wow~ big brother is so mighty~~]

[We're doomed! A big-brother monster has invaded this stream!]

Bullet comments scrolled past one after another. This time, because Xu Xi hadn't sat there for long, many viewers stayed in the stream.