"Birthday Death" Died Yet Again

"Ahhh!!" Xu Xi broke free of the darkness, gasping for breath. He frantically felt his neck and only stopped when he found his head was still attached.

His trembling body showed that Xu Xi was far from calm. The experience of dying once more had nearly destroyed what little rationality he had left.

From the joy of regaining his life, to the panic of being forced into a survival game, to the terror of dying twice and being revived each time, as though he could never escape death, Xu Xi's nerves had been stretched taut the whole time. Now, they finally snapped.

[What's wrong with this newbie?]

[Don't tell me he's been scared insane already?]

[Could be. It's not unheard of for newbie players to lose their minds before they even start.]

[Another one scared insane. Boring. I'm out.]

The barrage of comments did nothing to affect Xu Xi.

All he felt now was resentment.

Why?

Why had he transmigrated to this world? Why did he have to experience death again and again? Had he been brought here just to keep dying?

He would have been better off dropping dead on the spot back then! At least he wouldn't be living in fear, waiting for death to torment him now!!

Perhaps losing his mind had also dulled his fear, replacing it with a surge of rage. When his resentment and fury reached their peak, they gave rise to courage, and a rush of hot blood went straight to his head.

He yanked the door open, sending it crashing against the wall with a loud bang. Xu Xi didn't care in the slightest whether the noise would wake or attract some weird entity. He even wished something would appear so he could slap those things hard a few times and vent all his fury.

"Have a birthday, will you!"

"Eat cake, will you!"

"All of you can go eat shit!!"

Xu Xi roughly destroyed the dishes and birthday cake on the dining table, leaving the floor a mess before overturning the coffee table. He swept several empty liquor bottles onto the floor, where they promptly shattered just like the plates. If he'd had an axe in his hand, he would have wanted to chop the sofas and chairs in half too.

"Come on, crush me!"

"Crush me to death again if you've got the guts!"

As Xu Xi shouted at the ceiling fan, he didn't know what he had accidentally triggered amid all his yelling and smashing. The television nearby suddenly flickered twice, and the familiar racket rang out again.

Judging by the images on the screen, it seemed to be a nonsensical cartoon.

Just then, someone suddenly knocked on the front door.

Even with the television so loud, the knocking could still be heard clearly.

[Honestly, watching this newbie go crazy is pretty satisfying.]

[Seconded. Compared to watching veteran players act all timid and put-upon, a brave newbie really is more satisfying to watch.]

[Thirded. Brave? You sure you don't mean brainless?]

[Fourth, seriously, is nobody going to pay attention to that inexplicable knocking?]

[Fifth, I have a feeling this newbie's about to croak.]

After watching enough of the other players' desperate struggles to survive, the viewers treated the occasional insane player as a change of pace. As a result, dozens of people had gathered in the livestream, a rare occurrence, and were watching the newbie player's madness with relish while waiting to see how he would end up.

Nobody thought this newbie player could survive.

After all, once someone lost their caution in a dungeon, even an experienced expert player would eventually come to grief.

Just as the comments had predicted, Xu Xi had completely given up on himself. He didn't care who was outside or whether opening the door would be dangerous, and he opened it without hesitation.

There was no one outside, but a sound like casual conversation appeared out of nowhere beside his ear, just like the two strange sounds before it.

But Xu Xi had lost his reason and paid it no mind. Instead, he put his head down and ran out the door.

[What a shame. That should have been a new clue.]

[What's there to feel sorry about? He's going to die anyway, so it doesn't matter whether he has a clue or not.]

As the livestream viewers watched, Xu Xi was like prey walking into a trap, gradually swallowed up by the great beast of darkness.

Waking for the fourth time, Xu Xi sat up expressionlessly.

After venting the emotions he had bottled up, he had managed to regain most of his reason.

Being swallowed by darkness had felt no better than being crushed to death by the ceiling fan or having his head chopped off.

After he had run dozens of meters with nothing but endless darkness ahead, his consciousness had gradually begun to fade, as though countless invisible insects were eating away at his soul. The eerie chill of gradually feeling himself disappear had made his skin crawl.

And he... had been reborn at the very beginning again.

It had happened three times now. Did every death send him back to the start?

But how many more times could he die and come back to life like this?

Xu Xi let out a soft breath, knowing he couldn't reach any useful conclusion right now.

Perhaps this death and rebirth was the golden finger he had gained from transmigrating.

Even though he didn't know how many more times he could use it, leaving aside the pain of dying, there was no denying that the ability was very useful to him at present.

It could even be called his only advantage and his only means of clearing the dungeon.

After all, he didn't think transmigrating had made him any smarter. Besides, in this kind of survival game, even the smartest person wouldn't necessarily survive to the end.

What he needed to do now was use this advantage, though he didn't know how many more times he could be reborn, to find as many clues as possible and clear the dungeon!

Of course, it was best not to die if he could help it. If he failed to revive after one of his deaths, it would really be over.

After offering his unfortunate self some comfort, Xu Xi accepted the fact that he had acquired an unusual special ability and began thinking about how to clear the dungeon.

There were only two places he hadn't explored yet: the master bedroom and the bathroom.

After giving it some thought, Xu Xi decided to explore the master bedroom first.

It couldn't be helped. Bathrooms were high-risk areas in movies, novels, and horror games alike, and he didn't want to set foot in one until he had no other choice.

Even if he could come back from the dead, one less death was still better!

He nimbly jumped out of bed, opened the door, and walked out. Soon, he stopped in front of the master bedroom across the hall.

[Why does this newbie seem so sure of where he's going? Did he find something?]

[Why isn't he searching that first bedroom carefully? There might be an important clue.]

[This newbie seems a little reckless.]

Xu Xi naturally wasn't going to search the children's room again. He had already searched every bit of it two lives ago, and there had only been those two useful clues. There was no need to waste more time.

Standing in front of the master bedroom, he didn't open the door right away. Instead, he leaned close and pressed himself against it once more, trying to hear whether there was any movement inside.

The television had automatically fallen silent as soon as he came out. But even without the extra noise, Xu Xi still heard nothing.

Last time, he had smashed up the living room and dining table, and no one had come out. Maybe there was nobody in the master bedroom?

With that thought, Xu Xi gripped the handle, steeled himself, and turned it.

But the handle wouldn't turn at all, as though the door had been locked from the inside.

Xu Xi: "..."

It looked like he would have to explore the bathroom first.