[Soul-Shaking Ancient Village] First Entry into the Game
Si Yehan stayed home all day.
He worked out at home, ate, and watched some widely circulated videotapes, along with a few classic horror movies.
As one event followed another, time gradually passed.
When the hour hand of the clock on the wall reached midnight, the walls around Si Yehan were suddenly eroded by a bloody color, and the sounds of wailing ghosts and howling spirits echoed through the room. Countless terrifying, twisted faces appeared in the walls, hands kept reaching out, and blood streamed from hollow eye sockets.
He sat calmly at his desk, a horror movie still playing on his phone.
Then Si Yehan's body gradually turned transparent. In the blink of an eye, he vanished, and scarlet mist seeped into the room. There was only fathomless darkness.
The trees were green, wild grass reached their ankles, and dust swirled along a mountain path as gusts of cold wind blew from time to time.
Four men and four women appeared out of thin air on the path. Screams immediately rang through the mountain forest, startling flocks of birds into flight.
Two men and two women were deathly pale and wailing, with slightly dark circles under their eyes and bloodshot eyeballs. They looked especially haggard, tears streaming down their faces.
A bespectacled young man who looked like a student sobbed violently. He choked out his words, the picture of despair: "I'm about to take my entrance exam. Why did I have to be put in this damn Weird Game? I studied from dawn till late at night every day. I could have gotten good grades, changed my fate, and given my grandparents a good life. Why..."
The disheveled man in a suit looked just as miserable. Kneeling on the ground with his head lowered, he cried out in anguish. He tried his best to hide his emotions, but his grief was too overwhelming to contain. "I just finished borrowing enough money for my mom's surgery. Why did I have to end up here? It took so much for me to get into a good university and find a good job..."
The woman with her hair loose had despair in her eyes. She had been frightened by the scene when she entered the game. After letting out a scream, she went numb and stopped speaking.
The woman in a long white dress had reddened eyes and a deathly pale face. She covered her mouth, her body trembling. "I'm about to marry my boyfriend. Why? Why did I end up here, having to face so many terrifying things?"
Si Yehan watched the scene impassively, finding them somewhat noisy. At the same time, the wretched state of the four gave him a faint urge to laugh.
If there weren't so many people here right now, he would kill the lot of them immediately. He could also keep them around to test the rules of the Weird Game first, then deal with them afterward.
A man and a woman standing farther away both made Si Yehan feel threatened. The man had a crew cut and a burly build, and looked to be 1.9 meters tall. The woman wore her hair in a high ponytail and had a slender figure, and looked to be 1.8 meters tall.
Most unsettling of all, the two had auras somewhat similar to those of the ghosts from before. Si Yehan looked at the man and woman.
As for the other woman, she was dressed as a doctor. Although she looked just as unwell, she hadn't lost control of her emotions and was simply observing her surroundings.
The burly man checked his watch. Seeing that it was about time, he stepped forward and said in a deep voice like thunder, "Newcomers, you've had time to get your emotions under control. Pull yourselves together now and get ready to take on the first instance of your lives. It might also be your last."
The burly man looked at the student, who had stifled his sobs, and softened his tone. "Kid, don't rush to cry. Watch the ghosts' patterns in the instance carefully and stick close to me. You might still have a chance to survive. When the time comes, even without taking your entrance exam, your life will be turned upside down. In just a month, you could move your grandparents into a big villa and give them a comfortable life."
The male student reminded the burly man of his son, who had chosen to end his life years ago because of excessive academic pressure, and he was somewhat moved.
The student rubbed his eyes and forced back his sobs. He was no fool, or he wouldn't have gotten such excellent grades, and he had the necessary ability to understand. His earlier loss of composure had simply been caused by a collapse into despair. In a slightly hoarse voice, he said, "Thank you, sir."
The burly man's attitude toward the other three newcomers who had lost their composure was much worse. "You're all adults. Can't you handle a little pressure? You're doing even worse than I did when I first entered an instance."
The man in the suit stopped crying out in anguish. He silently got to his feet without brushing the dust from his knees. The burly man felt some pity when he looked at him. The man really did have it rough.
The woman with loose hair remained numb, standing there woodenly as if she had been frightened out of her mind. The burly man felt some disdain when he looked at her. A useless thing like her would be eliminated sooner or later, and she was sure to die in this instance. He had to stay away from her, or he might get killed because of her.
The woman in the white dress held back her tears. She knew her boyfriend wasn't here to indulge her little whims, so she naturally wouldn't do anything stupid. The burly man was a little surprised when he looked at her. This young woman had some brains too.
The newcomers this time were of fairly good quality overall. The ponytailed woman had never once looked at the four who had lost control and started crying and screaming. After watching the burly man for a moment, she gazed with interest at the female doctor and Si Yehan, especially the latter.
She had an air of competence about her. Smiling, she said in a friendly tone, "You two have impressive qualities. You didn't lose your composure at all. Maybe you really can clear several instances without a hitch, and we'll meet again sometime."
The burly man also showed the female doctor some goodwill. Offering a tiny bit of goodwill to someone with potential in exchange for a possible friendly ally in the future was a thoroughly worthwhile deal.
As for Si Yehan, who wore a trench coat and had a handsome, aloof face, the burly man instinctively felt uneasy when he saw him. The man before him had killed people, torturing them to death, and had thoroughly enjoyed it rather than being forced into it. He was certainly no good person. There was no use befriending someone like that; he had to be warned.
When he looked at Si Yehan, his tone initially held some admiration. "Young man, you've got nerves of steel. Your killing intent is even stronger than mine. At first, I thought you were a veteran of the game too, but then I noticed you didn't have the aura of a ghost on you, and realized you weren't."
As he spoke, the burly man's voice turned cold, and he made no attempt to conceal his meaning. "Out there, you might be a special forces soldier, an assassin, or even a serial killer, but I don't care. Don't get any crooked ideas in the instance. The people you kill won't turn into ghosts and come after your life, but when facing ghosts, more people mean more room for trial and error. If you get any crooked ideas and act on them, I'll break your bones and feed you to the ghosts."
"I'm not a brainless idiot. I don't need you to remind me. If you want to die, you can make a move and try right now." Si Yehan's expression didn't change. This was the first time anyone had threatened him like this, and in his eyes, the burly man was as good as dead. If the man attacked, he was sixty percent confident he could kill him instead.
The ponytailed woman had appreciated Si Yehan from the moment she saw him and naturally wouldn't stand by and watch him be threatened. Her expression immediately turned cold. "You and I are both veterans of the game. We've gained some of the ghosts' traits and abilities outside instances, but don't forget that none of them can be used inside one. The only difference between us and the newcomers is that we're more experienced. If you really fought him, you might not be able to kill him, and you'd damage our relationship instead."
The ponytailed woman had deliberately revealed information in her words, and Si Yehan now knew a little more about the Weird Game. But everyone present was the same in his eyes, no different from prey, and he wouldn't develop any so-called goodwill toward her because of it.
The burly man scratched his head. The chill vanished from his voice, and he said with a smile, "Don't take it to heart, young man. That's trauma I brought back from an earlier instance. I wasn't deliberately targeting you. I hope we can clear this instance together."
He had exposed Si Yehan so directly just now only to let the other five newcomers know that this handsome young man was no good, so they wouldn't foolishly gravitate toward him because of his looks and lose their lives prematurely, leaving them with less room for trial and error.
As for making an enemy of him, the burly man hadn't given it a thought. He would find an opportunity to deal with the handsome young man in the instance. A young man with such strong killing intent upon first entering an instance brought back some bad memories for him.
The burly man cleared his throat and said, "Listen carefully. Each of us receives a letter after entering an instance. It states the conditions we need to fulfill to clear it, and the letter will spontaneously combust after we finish reading it. As for the so-called new life, it came up in our conversation just now. After clearing an instance, you can use the power of ghosts in the outside world, and it will automatically be rationalized. You only need to keep clearing instances to prevent the ghost from reviving and extend your lifespan."