At a restaurant, five people sat down around a table.
Yuwen Hao's gaze was almost entirely drawn to Gu Mian, because this doctor was the most unusual of all the players.
Not only was his appearance unusual, but his attitude toward the instance was strange too.
"Are you... a doctor?" Yuwen Hao asked after hesitating for a moment.
Gu Mian lifted his eyes from the menu to Yuwen Hao's face. "I suppose I still count as one. At the very least, I was one before this game began."
Yuwen Hao was young, looking no older than twenty-five or twenty-six. He had an ordinary face and looked like a young man who'd only been working for a few years.
But compared to others his age, he was more composed and levelheaded. Though his expression was a little strange, he still managed to introduce everyone to Gu Mian in an orderly fashion.
"Then let me introduce everyone to you first, Doctor..."
How strange. Yuwen Hao was inwardly uneasy as he spoke. This doctor was clearly younger than me, so why did seeing him give me the odd feeling that I was meeting an elder?
"This is Lin Yue'er. She's a college student." Yuwen Hao looked toward the only female player among the five.
Lin Yue'er was just as her name suggested: a petite young woman with glasses. She was shy and seemed not very good at interacting with people, and she kept dodging the gazes of the others.
"Over there, sitting beside Lin Yue'er, is the slightly chubby man. He's Golden Wings."
Gu Mian followed Yuwen Hao's gaze.
Sure enough, a slightly chubby man sat beside Lin Yue'er. He looked a little older than Yuwen Hao, wore a thick dark-brown sweater, and had messy hair. He looked as if he hadn't left the house in ages.
Golden Wings smiled sheepishly. "I... I tend to stay at home."
That much was obvious.
Yuwen Hao continued with the next introduction.
"The young man beside Mr. Huang, the fair and slender one, just graduated not long ago. He studied Chinese literature. His name is Qing Huan."
Gu Mian turned his head slightly.
It was clear Qing Huan was an artistic sort. He was refined and polite, with a scholarly air that seemed to waft from him at a glance.
Qing Huan looked up and gave Gu Mian a polite smile. His face was somewhat pale, apparently from fear.
Gu Mian now knew the basics about the other four.
Since he'd gotten a sense of everyone else, it was time to introduce himself.
"Hello, everyone," Gu Mian began. "My name is Gu Mian. I can still just about call myself a doctor, so you can call me Doctor Gu."
As he spoke, he pulled the large bundle leaning against his chair over to him. "I'm also a doctor who loves music. My guitar's inside."
The others all stared at him as if they'd seen a ghost.
Yuwen Hao was the first to speak, hesitantly. "Doctor Gu, bringing such a huge guitar into an instance... Is that really a good idea?"
Gu Mian seemed determined not to take advice. "It's fine. I think it's great."
Seeing that there was no way to have a normal conversation with this doctor, Yuwen Hao had no choice but to steer the topic elsewhere.
"All right. Now that we've met, let's talk about this instance. My mission is to survive for ten days. What about yours?"
The others all nodded. It seemed they all had the same mission.
"The main theme of this instance seems to be related to a curse. I think it's a bit like the movie The Ring. You've all seen it, right?" Yuwen Hao asked the others.
It turned out that The Ring had a pretty wide audience among horror fans.
The only one present who hadn't seen it was Lin Yue'er, the sole female player. But she'd heard of the movie and knew that Sadako climbed out of the TV to kill the people she'd cursed.
The slightly chubby homebody, Golden Wings, spoke up. "You mean our situation is pretty much the same as that of people cursed by Sadako?"
"Yeah," Yuwen Hao replied with a nod. "In the horror movie, Sadako climbs out of the TV and kills people on the seventh day. But this instance hasn't given us a specific time when the ghost will kill."
"This instance only says that 'it' will keep getting closer to us. We can be certain that the ghost will slowly approach us over these ten days. The closer it gets, the more danger we're in."
Yuwen Hao suddenly stopped talking and glanced around, as if searching for something.
Gu Mian looked at him. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Yuwen Hao frowned. "I just got the feeling that something was watching me..."
After a few seconds, he continued. "Everyone here has been through at least one instance before, so you should know that the ghosts in these instances are impossible for us to deal with."
"Whether it's peachwood swords, Buddhist scriptures, or black dog blood, none of it can stop them. They're practically invincible!"
Yuwen Hao suddenly shuddered as he spoke, as if he'd remembered something terrifying.
Gu Mian, on the other hand, suddenly found himself missing the ghost he'd dragged out from under the bed by the neck.
"But even though the ghosts are invincible, the instances themselves aren't. There must be a way to survive in every one of them. So if we're going to survive this instance, we have to find clues to the way out!"
His words made a lot of sense, and the others were moved.
Even Lin Yue'er, who wasn't much of a talker, asked, "Then how do you think we can survive ten days in this instance?"
Without much hesitation, Yuwen Hao replied, "My guess is that we have to find the source of the curse."
As he spoke, he looked at everyone. "From what I've observed, the five of us live in different apartment buildings, and we all live alone. I think that's to make it easier for the ghost to come after us."
"To find the source, we first have to learn more about the curse. So I suggest we don't do anything unusual for now. Tonight, let's each go back to where we live and see what happens..."
Lin Yue'er began to say something. "But..."
"Don't be afraid," Yuwen Hao interrupted her. "This instance lasts ten days, and it says that 'it' is constantly approaching us. So it probably won't be dangerous at the beginning. 'It' is still a long way away."
"We can use these first few relatively safe days to look for clues about the curse in the instance, and try to find the way out while it's still safe."
As he spoke, he looked at the others. They were all listening attentively, except for the doctor.
The doctor seemed to be spacing out.
"Doctor Gu." Yuwen Hao frowned and tapped the table in front of Gu Mian. "Are you listening to me, Doctor Gu?"
Gu Mian finally turned his gaze to him. "I am. But it looks like it's about to get dark."
Yuwen Hao froze for a moment and turned to look at the window behind him. Sure enough, the sky had already grown dark. Night would soon blanket the area.
He didn't want to walk back at night either, so he got straight to the point. "Anyway, tonight, let's each go back to where we're staying."
"Nobody has a phone, right? The friend system doesn't work in the instance either, so we'll have to contact each other by landline. Try not to sleep tonight. If you notice anything, call the others right away."
The instance felt extremely real. People could get sleepy, hungry, or thirsty inside it. They couldn't starve to death, but it would definitely affect their condition.
When the five of them came out, the sun had just fully set. The others scattered and hurried off toward their homes.
Gu Mian brought up the rear, planning to look around a supermarket. He'd found a wad of renminbi in the place where he was staying.
He finally found a supermarket and bought two big bags of popcorn. Then he went into the video rental shop next door.
Behind the counter, the yellow-toothed owner grinned at him lecherously. "Young man, what would you like to rent? I've got everything you could ever want~"
His singsong tone sounded just like a madam outside a brothel, half-bare-chested and hustling customers.
Gu Mian pulled out some money. "Two copies of The Ring."
Before you continue