What Kind of Game Is This?

In the middle of the night, Xu Kai fought to stay awake and finally sensed a pale red Weird Energy fluctuation.

Click.

A dark figure gently pushed open the door, slowly pulled out the key, and slipped it into his pocket. He tiptoed across the floor and finally approached the bed where Xu Kai lay.

Light from the crematorium shone through the window onto the man's head. His massive shadow covered the head of the bed, and he had already drawn a short metal blade. Xu Kai's eyes suddenly snapped open, and he rolled to his right and sprang up.

Clang!

In a split second, the blade stabbed into the bed. Xu Kai quickly reached for it, only to find it covered in Weird Energy. It was swiftly pulled free and sent slashing toward his neck.

Xu Kai crossed his arms to block it, but the chilling Weird Energy passed straight through his hands and pierced his throat.

Xu Kai clung desperately to consciousness, hoping to hear more before he died.

"Phew, someone who's completed a task really is different. He's damn strong. Good thing he wasn't an expert and couldn't use Weird Energy, or I'd be the one dead."

The dark figure put away his blade and breathed a huge sigh of relief. He quietly left, thoughtfully closing the door behind him.

After the dark figure left, Xu Kai didn't die immediately. The man's Weird Energy was of poor quality, and Xu Kai lingered between life and death, enduring the pain until his own Weird Energy ran out. Only then did he finally close his eyes.

On his fiftieth rollback, Xu Kai returned to the moment he had just lain down. He was no longer sleepy at all. The phantom pain in his throat lingered, and he swallowed slightly, barely managing to bring his senses back to reality. Then he sat up in bed and analyzed what the dark figure had said.

The "evil" who had attacked him hadn't completed a task and therefore hadn't received a task reward. Both the quality and quantity of his Weird Energy were inferior to Xu Kai's, yet this weakling, who should have been weaker than him, had used Weird Energy to easily cut his throat.

A flicker of urgency passed through Xu Kai's heart. He had to find a way to coax the method of using Weird Energy out of him. Rubbing his temple, Xu Kai tried to recall the dark figure's movements, committing to memory where he had stood when he came and the motions he had made with the blade.

Strangely, as the rollbacks continued, Xu Kai's memory kept improving. He recalled the dark figure's movements perfectly.

Naturally, Xu Kai climbed back into bed, like a hunter disguised as food, and waited for his prey to arrive.

Click!

The same movements, the same pace and breathing, and the same slash of the blade. But after the dark figure had done it all, his eyes froze.

Xu Kai had dodged as though he knew it was coming, and he threw the entire quilt at the dark figure, trying to block his view.

The quilt flew at the dark figure, but he didn't dodge. Red Weird Energy instantly covered his metal blade, and with a few swift slashes, he cut the quilt into several large pieces. Cotton stuffing fluttered through the air.

Xu Kai watched the dark figure's movements. They weren't fast; in fact, they were much slower. Keeping his eyes fixed on the swinging metal blade, Xu Kai grabbed the dark figure's wrist with one hand and clamped the other firmly onto his other shoulder, his fingers digging into the man's flesh. Just like that, he had the dark figure pinned.

There was no other reason: Xu Kai had memorized it all too well. After the rollback, he remembered the dark figure's position and his habits when retreating and swinging his blade with perfect clarity.

"Ah, that hurts, hurts, hurts! Spare me, I was wrong! It was a task! The Stone Statue Weird wanted me to hurt you! Don't kill me!"

"Heh, why didn't he come himself?"

"This isn't a killing zone, so he can't come here himself. But you're not a player, so you aren't protected by the player rules. That's why he arranged a task to hurt you. Just hurt you! Brother, save me! I had no choice either. I'll be erased if I don't complete the task. Let me give you a little cut, and I'll leave as soon as I'm done."

A little cut? Across my throat, right?

Xu Kai's gaze grew colder. The dark figure still wasn't telling the truth, even with Xu Kai holding him.

"You're lying! That isn't your task!"

Xu Kai tightened his grip on the man's wrist, took the metal blade, and held it to his throat. Then he continued:

"My talent is Discern Lies. You just lied. If I catch another whiff of a lie, I'll cut you into ten thousand pieces! Tell the truth. No matter what it is, I promise I'll let you go today, and we'll call it even."

Gulp. "All right, don't, don't do it. I really had no choice. The task starts tomorrow, and once I complete it and accept the reward, I'll die!"

At the mention of it, the dark figure's restrained body trembled uncontrollably. His fear was far greater than the pressure Xu Kai was putting on him.

"Oh? You'll die if you accept the reward? Who's going to kill you? Talk!"

"The Stone Statue Weird! You, you're a newly arrived material, aren't you? I've already been through this instance three times. I was lucky before; the hearse driver never brought me here, so my task didn't activate. But I know none of the previous drivers survived after receiving their task rewards. The Stone Statue Weird killed them all!"

"Hmm, what else? What's your task? How do you use Weird Energy?"

"Huh? You, you, you weren't using Weird Energy just now? Then how are you so strong?"

"Enough nonsense. Are you going to talk or not?"

Xu Kai pressed the blade against the dark figure's neck, drawing a faint line of blood. The sharp sting brought him to his senses at once, and he hurriedly said:

"M-my task is to oversee the preparation of the body and the coffin, preside over tomorrow's farewell ceremony, and find a way to seriously injure a player! To use Weird Energy, you have to force it through your body. Once it's out, you can control it directly, and Weird Energy outside the body is much stronger than it is inside. The Stone Statue Weird can even use it to create illusions! But for an 'evil' like me, making a weapon sharper is about all I can manage."

The dark figure spilled everything. As Xu Kai listened, he pretended to use his Discern Lies talent and even bluffed him again. After probing him in every way he could, he confirmed that the dark figure was telling the truth.

Then Xu Kai followed the method the dark figure had described, using Weird Energy to pound violently against his finger, as though a worm inside were pushing through his flesh to get out.

Whoosh!

Chilling Weird Energy burst out and began slowly changing shape according to Xu Kai's will. Just as the dark figure had said, the Weird Energy that emerged felt far more violent than it had inside his body. Xu Kai casually directed a few strands and tore through scraps of cloth.

Weird Energy could also change into countless forms at his will. It could cling to an object's edge to make it sharper, or imitate a real object and serve the same purpose.

Xu Kai formed a rope of Weird Energy and bound the dark figure with it, leaving him dumbstruck:

"D-don't you feel pain when you use Weird Energy? Back then, it took me two whole instances of suffering to force my Weird Energy out of my body! All right, I've told you everything I know. Let me go."

"Let you go?"

"What, are you going back on your word?"

"No. I, Xu Kai, have always kept my word. The next time we meet, I definitely won't let you go."

The dark figure breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing Xu Kai actually undo the Weird Energy rope, he even bowed gratefully. Though nothing showed on his face, he was sneering inwardly.

Naive, far too naive! He actually let his enemy go! What a waste of the Discern Lies talent. Such a great talent, so how did it end up with an "evil" who's such a fool? This Xu Kai is really stupid, just like an innocent college student. He probably can't sense at all that I want to kill him, can he? His talent just lets him smell lies, that's all.

The dark figure laughed inwardly. He had already begun planning how to kill Xu Kai after he went back. He had been careless this time. Next time, he would use poison first, coax Xu Kai to sleep, and then slowly torture him!

As he was thinking this, the dark figure looked up and saw an astonishing sight that left him stunned.

The dark figure saw Xu Kai smiling to himself, the corners of his mouth stretched as far toward his ears as they would go. With Weird Energy, he controlled the metal blade in his hand and slashed it viciously down at his own neck. Before he died, he even said to the dark figure:

"Watch closely. When you slash someone like this, they die without pain! See you next time, and that'll be soon!"