White, Long, and Tender-Let Me Touch It?

As soon as the words fell, Lu Ce instinctively lowered his head slightly and swept his gaze over everyone in the class from the corner of his eye.

The classroom instantly erupted. Everyone looked around, chattering away as they tried to see whether anyone nearby had experienced it firsthand.

Lu Ce lowered his head. He usually did not have many friends and kept a low profile, so no one paid him any attention.

He secretly thought to himself:

A supernatural event on a global scale, completely beyond scientific explanation. Before anyone knows what the future holds, they should at least wait and see. Anyone who exposes themselves carelessly is an idiot. Surely no one...

"Teacher, me! I was chosen!"

By the window, a boy proudly raised his hand. The smug expression on his face was already impossible to suppress. There had also been the most classmates gathered around him chatting earlier.

Lu Ce: ...

The one who raised his hand was Zhang Tao. Their relationship had always been average. He was the sort who had a little money at home and liked showing off all over school.

When they had first met, Zhang Tao had wanted to bully Lu Ce because he was an orphan. After Lu Ce beat him up, they had barely interacted.

Though he could hardly stomach such idiotic behavior, Lu Ce still looked over, wanting to see what the perspective of another Chosen One was like.

"Oh?" Old Liu's eyes lit up as he looked at him. "Zhang Tao, you were chosen? Did you participate in the game directly, or were you a spectator?"

"I was a spectator. That livestream appeared in front of me," Zhang Tao said weakly, then quickly added, "But I'm qualified to participate in the next game."

As soon as he finished speaking, the entire class cooperatively broke into amazed cries of "Wow." After all, in the stagnant life of senior year, something as world-shattering as this was simply too exciting.

Zhang Tao thoroughly enjoyed everyone's envious looks. The corners of his mouth were harder to suppress than an AK.

"Anyone else?" Teacher Liu sent a message on his phone, then continued looking at the class and asked,

"I hope everyone will report truthfully. This matter is important to the country, and of course, it is important to you as well."

In the quiet atmosphere, no one else raised a hand.

"Alright. Everyone, study on your own for now. Zhang Tao, come with me."

With that, Zhang Tao walked out of the classroom with his head held high, like a victorious general.

"Damn, I'm so jealous! Why did it have to be him?!"

"Zhang Tao never studies anyway... Old Liu used to say he was useless, but now he's being so polite..."

"Study? Study my ass! Current science can't explain supernatural stuff like this. Who are you supposed to study with?"

"Videos are circulating online. Haven't you seen them? That game seems to be some kind of alternate space. You can gain superpowers in there!"

"Superpowers? Is that for real? Will we have a chance to be chosen later? Didn't they say these were the first batch of Chosen Ones?"

The homeroom teacher had simply left, leaving the entire class whispering among themselves. Everyone took out their phones and exchanged the latest news and videos they had seen.

At first, Lu Ce was confused. Why were these people so excited?

The so-called game he had experienced had not been fun at all.

He had been helplessly tied to an operating table, had his limbs amputated, his kidneys replaced, and his abdomen cut open by a perverted woman.

It was only because he had been unable to feel pain since childhood, had endured plenty of suffering, and received that Chosen of Suffering that he had managed to turn his fate around.

Otherwise, that level of torture... probably very few ordinary students could endure it.

But gradually, based on what everyone was saying, Lu Ce realized something.

Everyone's initial game seemed to be different.

Although most of them were tests of some sort, extreme cases like his, where he had been tortured and brutally killed, seemed to be rare.

Moreover, during the game's settlement, it had stated clearly—"No one will truly die in the initial stage, but those who fail to complete the game will have their qualifications revoked."

The implication seemed to be that under normal circumstances, it was possible to truly die in this game...

Yet none of his classmates seemed to care, or perhaps they simply did not know.

They treated Chosen Paradise as an actual game, as though they could enter, kill monsters, level up, and have fun without considering the consequences.

But Lu Ce, who had truly experienced it, could keenly sense the cruelty within it. It could very well be a fight to the death.

"I just saw that someone in America who participated in the game claimed they seem to have some kind of temporary ranking."

"That special forces soldier said he ranked sixty-seventh and received a body-strengthening reward. He said he can now fold a bottle cap in half with his fingers. His strength is insane!"

"Really? If he keeps participating, won't he become Superman someday?!..."

Listening to the nonstop chatter around him, Lu Ce remained silent.

He slipped his hand into his desk and pinched a bottle cap between his fingers.

With all five fingers exerting force, the entire cap seemed to have been tossed into a grinder, easily kneaded by Lu Ce into a small ball.

The corners of his mouth rose slightly as he felt the strength in his hand.

That game was indeed cruel and perverse, but Lu Ce only hoped it would become even more perverse!

Compared to the real world, where rules bound him tightly, he preferred that place. Life and death were left to fate, and everyone relied on their own abilities...

"Hey! What are you smiling about? Did you have a wet dream last night?"

Just as Lu Ce's smile was gradually becoming twisted, a crisp voice beside his ear snapped him awake. It was his female deskmate, Xie Antong.

Xie Antong was Lu Ce's deskmate, and they had sat together for three years.

His childhood experiences had given Lu Ce a sharp eye for people. Although Antong had never acted haughty, from her clothes and mannerisms, he knew they were not from the same world.

But for some reason, the more he tried to keep his distance, the more Xie Antong gradually began teasing him without restraint.

"Nothing. I just thought of something happy."

Lu Ce quietly hid the little ball of bottle cap in his desk and replied without turning his head.

Suddenly, his ear tickled. Xie Antong had leaned right next to him and whispered,

"Still pretending? You were chosen too, weren't you?"

Lu Ce's heart jolted, but he pretended to stay calm as he asked,

"What nonsense are you talking about? Why would you ask that?"

Their eyes met again. All Lu Ce saw were her smiling, narrowed eyes, and for some reason, he felt a little guilty.

There had been spectators for his initial game too. It could not possibly be such a coincidence, could it?

After all, his Chosen of Suffering, the opening of his Gene Lock, and his immediate, decisive killing spree were far more restricted than the things his classmates were discussing. They absolutely had to remain secret.

So he glanced at Xie Antong and tentatively extended his right leg, which had originally been amputated in the game.

"Look, my leg..."

Xie Antong lowered her head and glanced at it. "What? White, long, and tender? Let me touch it." With that, she reached right for it.

Lu Ce: ?!