It Had Spread

Zhu Yan still remembered the warning he had seen before entering the forum.

It had said, roughly, not to reveal his private information.

Not to let anyone know about [Merry Happy Land] or his identity as a player.

If this person had entered the forum, he had to have seen that warning.

His interest piqued, Zhu Yan got out of bed and washed up while slowly scrolling through the chat history.

The group owner was excited. "Holy shit, let me tell you all about it."

[Merry Happy Land] was bound to descend eventually. In theory, it didn't have to include that warning about revealing private information.

Zhu Yan thought of something and shook his head.

As he saw it, the warning was one of the few kind things [Merry Happy Land] had done.

Even people like his aunt and younger brother could have abilities as lethal as [Complaining] and [Humiliation]. There had to be even more outrageous ones out there.

If someone had an ability like "take away another person's ability" or "kill players to restore health," revealing personal information online would be as good as a death sentence.

There was also the [Hall of Mourning].

As everyone knew, all it took to withdraw money there was a player's left hand. It didn't matter whose it was.

In the early stages of [Merry Happy Land]'s descent, when order was under a frenzied assault and had yet to be rebuilt, there was bound to be tremendous chaos.

Zhu Yan had no doubt that, driven mad enough, people were perfectly capable of forming groups to make others open accounts, then chopping off their left hands.

After all, according to the Pseudo-human in the [Hall of Mourning], one needed a deposit of five thousand Bone Coins, or five hundred thousand yuan, just to qualify to rent a place in [Flock Street], the lowest-tier district.

And those five thousand Bone Coins couldn't be spent. They had to stay in the account.

A moment's thought made it clear that this would be a huge expense.

Zhu Yan finished washing up and ran a comb through his hair a couple of times.

After an excited, jumbled explanation, the group owner actually posted two photos in the chat.

They showed a player badge and an ability card that someone else had received!

The ability card had even been photographed with its text facing up.

Zhu Yan took one look and marveled once again at the sheer variety of people's abilities.

This person's ability was actually called "Fish in Troubled Waters."

The description said that because he had slacked off so much at work, he could also fish in troubled waters in a horror instance, keeping monsters from noticing him while happily getting a share of the communal meal.

Once the pictures were posted, the group erupted in laughter.

"Hahaha, this has to be some fucking prank by your boss."

"I think so too. You're still young, group owner. Don't take it too seriously."

The group owner argued back. "No, absolutely not! Lots and lots of people have died suddenly in Bailu City recently. Haven't you heard?"

"I heard those people all failed to clear their instances!"

"And I'm in Anwu City. My friend's neighbors, a family of three, died suddenly last night too!"

Zhu Yan could almost see the group owner spitting as he talked on the other side of the screen.

"The story's been suppressed. You can't find it online."

"But I swear it's true. It happened at 178 Plum Garden. My friend said he heard crying there last night."

"It went on for about eight or nine minutes, then stopped."

It was true, Zhu Yan silently agreed.

"Go look at the news. Bailu City has announced a lockdown."

"Isn't that obvious enough?"

A lockdown?

Zhu Yan left the chat and opened a news app to check its notifications.

...It really was true.

Unlike the earlier checks on people leaving the city, this time it was an outright lockdown. Nobody outside could get in, and nobody inside could get out.

The stated reason was an unusual epidemic, but no details had been given.

The comments under the topic appeared to have been cleaned up. Nobody mentioned instances descending or Carnival Paradise.

There were only plenty of uninformed bystanders asking what kind of illness could cause sudden death, and why the specific cause hadn't been made public.

The group owner said, "I wanted to ask if anyone in the group from Anwu City got the same badge and ability card."

"Something happened at a big mall here yesterday too, Myriad Forms Plaza."

"That cannibalism incident I just mentioned."

"My friend said he saw how gruesome the scene was in a WeChat group. I reckon it was because of this too."

"An instance descended."

Zhu Yan skipped past the group members' comments about whether the owner was really crazy or just pretending, as well as their musings about lying down and waiting to die, and went straight to the owner's messages.

He wanted to know what had happened at Myriad Forms Plaza afterward too.

But the group owner didn't gossip about that and quickly steered the conversation back.

"So did anyone get these things, guys?"

"Hehe, this is so exciting. I want to line up a teammate in advance."

"DM me. Let's exchange information and team up."

...What an idiot.

He knew the group owner was about his age, but the way he acted was ridiculously stupid.

Zhu Yan left the chat, straightened his clothes, and headed downstairs with his phone to find something to eat.

He had read the texts from those unfamiliar numbers. They were all warnings from the police, and their contents were identical.

The police advised people not to visit Myriad Forms Plaza in the city center for the time being.

If any residents heard strange voices or received a small black envelope, they were to report it immediately to the nearest police security station.

Zhu Yan looked through his phone as he stood on the stairs, but there were no other messages.

He tried to find news about what had happened at Myriad Forms Plaza yesterday, but the term seemed to have been blocked too. He couldn't find it anywhere.

Zhu Yan put his phone away and walked slowly into the sunlight.

The summer afternoon sun was scorching.

Even the streets of the old district were nearly empty at this hour.

Outside a soup dumpling shop, a woman briskly tidied up the steamers while chatting with a man beside her.

"...That video I saw gave me such a fright."

"At first I thought they were doing one of those cosplay events young people like, that Myriad Forms Plaza..."

Myriad Forms Plaza?

Zhu Yan immediately caught the keywords.

He went straight into the shop and ordered a basket of soup dumplings and a bowl of wontons.

The woman wiped down a greasy plastic table and motioned for him to sit.

Then she turned around and, just as Zhu Yan had hoped, continued chatting with the man.

"Hey, let me show you. Look, there are people down all over the basement and first floor, and blood everywhere..."

The video was playing aloud. The person filming was a man, and he sounded panicked.

"I don't know what happened either. The police have sealed this place off. Let me give you guys a quick rundown."

Zhu Yan pricked up his ears.

He was one of the guys. He wanted to hear.

"I was here with my wife just now, and then things suddenly went crazy down here. A kid died."

"The officers came and dealt with it, but then something weird happened. People suddenly rushed out of that coffee shop on the basement floor and started eating people."

"I didn't dare film it. At least ten people rushed out, and they really were eating people."

Those were Pseudo-humans, then.

A dozen or so Pseudo-humans, eating people?

The employees of the [Hall of Mourning] had probably come out for an extra meal.

Why were they being so blatant?

"Look, guys, it's red all over the floor..."

The video ended there.

The woman clicked her tongue a few times and brought Zhu Yan a steaming basket of soup dumplings.

"How awful."

"Scared me to death, seeing people torn open like that," the man chimed in. "My older brother saw a video from the scene too."

"He said those people bit several officers too. They weren't afraid of bullets, and after eating people, they just kept hiding inside the coffee shop."

They had gone back to the [Hall of Mourning].

Zhu Yan silently added that in his mind, then suddenly wondered whether humans could dig deep enough to reach the [Hall of Mourning].

He thought it would be difficult, since there was a parking garage beneath the basement level of Myriad Forms Plaza.

The [Hall of Mourning] seemed more like another overlapping space in a different dimension.

"The whole street's sealed off now... There must have been at least a few dozen dead."

Zhu Yan's wontons arrived too.

The man and woman were still speculating away, but Zhu Yan no longer had the heart to listen.

Sitting beside the old air conditioner at the greasy table, he made sure there were no surveillance cameras behind him, then discreetly stared at the palm of his left hand for three seconds and entered the [Player Personal Center].