Eerie Game Invitation

The heavy, sluggish flesh leaps into the air, The soaring soul crashes to the ground.

--Volume I: Spirit and Flesh

The scent of blood is intoxicating.

A saint smells it and mourns the pain of the dead.

A villain smells it and feasts upon the sacrificial offering of flesh and blood.

Qi Si leaned back in his high-backed chair, taking a deep breath to fill his lungs with the rich, fresh stench of blood.

He held a scalpel, the thin calluses on his fingertips brushing lightly against the blade to wipe away the blood clinging to its side.

"Believe me, I won't call the police, please, just let me go..."

Before Qi Si, a man was tied to a chair with rope, pleading in a voice as thin as a thread.

Several neat knife wounds were lined up across the man's body, blood continuously seeping out, which had transformed him from his initial rude and arrogant state into someone polite enough to engage in a calm, rational conversation.

"Letting you go isn't out of the question; after all, there is no life-or-death grudge between us."

Qi Si smiled, as if catching up with an old friend he hadn't seen in years: "To be honest, your abrupt visit doesn't make me angry. In fact, I investigated you a long time ago--Liu Ajiu."

As the name was spoken, the expression on the man's face shifted within seconds from confusion and bewilderment to sheer terror: "You... who exactly are you?

"If I've done anything to people you know, it was all forced by circumstance. I can make amends to you..."

Qi Si stepped down from the high-backed chair, placed the scalpel against the man's neck, and sighed: "Shut up and listen quietly until I'm finished, or I'll chop you up and feed you to the pigs."

He obtained the moment of silence he desired.

A gentle smile returned to his face: "No need to be so afraid. Besides you, I've investigated many others. Before today, you weren't the most special one.

"'You' all started collecting information on bizarre events from a certain point in time, squandering all your family assets, acting like complete outlaws.

"During this period, some incredible things happened to 'you' to varying degrees. Take you, for example: you were released from federal prison due to insufficient evidence, and your hereditary heart disease was cured without treatment.

"I have reason to suspect that 'you' have encountered some kind of opportunity: an opportunity that requires taking certain risks but yields considerable rewards."

Not long ago, Qi Si was diagnosed with a terminal illness; the doctor said he had absolutely no more than three years left.

It was right then that he chanced upon people who appeared to be involved in supernatural events and had gained benefits from them.

With nothing better to do, he adopted a "nothing to lose" mentality and picked out those among them who were orphans with no family, adding them to a list of "people to capture and study later."

The man before him, Liu Ajiu, happened to be on that list—the type who wouldn't attract much attention even if he were killed.

Qi Si had been a child with excellent manual dexterity, and his execution ability was far stronger than the average person's.

As long as he could achieve his goal, he was capable of doing anything that violated laws, morals, or social conventions.

If all went according to plan, he would have collected enough data, formulated a strategy, picked a target, and then killed them to silence them.

But he hadn't expected Liu Ajiu to burst into his studio—where he made and stored specimens—today with a gun and a hostile attitude.

Half an hour ago, the man had pressed a gun to Qi Si's head, muttering like a lunatic: "I have no other choice, it's your bad luck, tell me where the cash is!"

Qi Si had no cash, nor did he understand why anyone would come to rob a godforsaken suburb, let alone choose a dilapidated, abandoned warehouse.

He had been forced to raise his hands, feigning fear, only to ambush the man once his guard was down, spending considerable effort to tie him to the chair.

His preparations for "supernatural events" were not fully developed, but since the person was already here, it would be a waste to either kill him outright or let him go.

And Qi Si was a thrifty man.

At this moment, he flicked his wrist, pressing the hilt of the dagger against the wound on the man's shoulder, earning a scream like a donkey that had just had its kidney stepped on.

He lowered his eyes, his demeanor innocent and sincere: "People like you are better off dead; tell me everything you know, and I might just spare your life."

The man's head jerked up and then fell, his lips trembling as he spat out a string of phrases: "Not chosen... cannot know... cannot say..."

The speech was fragmented, the keywords seemingly erased by a hard, physical eraser.

Qi Si suddenly realized: "You mean, because of some kind of power's restriction, you can't tell me the information I want, is that it?"

The man nodded incessantly, begging in a near-subservient manner: "Let me go, and I can help you find a way to let you enter..."

Another string of muted words followed. Qi Si lowered his head, his fingers tapping against his thigh in a rhythmic, thoughtful manner, appearing to weigh the man's proposal seriously.

As time ticked by, under the man's hopeful gaze, Qi Si grinned: "You forgot to wear shoe covers when you walked in."

The scalpel pierced through muscle and was pulled out; blood splashed under the slick, tough sensation, lightly and softly soaking his fair fingertips.

Disposing of a body these days isn't easy; quicklime, hydrogen peroxide, and hydrofluoric acid—none of them are easy to get.

But for Qi Si, it wasn't that difficult either.

When he was twelve, he had nothing, yet he still managed to kill someone without even letting his parents find out.

Watching the man's wide, unseeing eyes, Qi Si felt quite good, stroking his chin as he calculated the methods for body disposal.

Without warning, an emotionless electronic voice rang out at the base of his mind:

[Contracted player death detected, currently screening nearby humans who meet the criteria]

Qi Si narrowed his eyes.

A white mist steamed up in the cramped room, dimming the light and casting the space into the hazy, indistinct gloom of the moments before dawn.

Before the man, a black metal card slowly coalesced, hovering in mid-air with a flickering presence.

The surface of the card was engraved with gold-leaf patterns; upon closer inspection, they were the branches of a giant tree, flowing as if alive with the shifting light.

Qi Si raised his hand to snatch the metal card, and a line of silvery-white text manifested in the void:

[Eerie Game Invitation]

Eerie Game? What is this?

Qi Si's gaze lingered on the unfamiliar term.

As if sensing his confusion, a deluge of non-narrative information bypassed his cognitive processes and flooded directly into his mind.

The Eerie Game was created by an entity known as "The Rules." It screened for qualified players worldwide, casting them into instances filled with anomalies and urban legends to solve puzzles and complete missions.

It was a lethal game teeming with ghosts and monsters; if a player failed a mission or died within an instance, their existence in the real world would be erased.

Yet, danger and opportunity coexisted. Players who successfully cleared instances could earn massive amounts of points; with enough points, any wish could be granted.

At this, Qi Si finally understood the nature of the encounter that had befallen the man he had just killed.

—He had entered the Eerie Game, earned massive points by completing missions, and used them to fulfill wishes, including the destruction of incriminating evidence and the curing of his heart disease.

[You have killed the player "Liu Ajiu." You have priority to choose whether to inherit his player qualification.]

The cold, mechanical voice rang out once more, asking with deliberate, measured pacing:

[Do you wish to become a player and enter the Eerie Game?]

Qi Si rubbed the silver bracelet on his right wrist and asked, as if making idle conversation, "Can you cure my illness?"

[In the Eerie Game, you can obtain everything you desire: wealth, power, health... everything you could ever want.]

[All you need to face and overcome is your fear of the eerie.]

The silvery-white text was the height of temptation.

Qi Si tapped his chin with a finger: "How many points does a wish like curing a terminal illness usually cost? Roughly how many instances would I need to enter?"

[Sign the contract, and you will naturally know when the time is right.]

Qi Si lifted his eyelids and asked again: "I know very little about this so-called 'Eerie Game.' Can I make my decision in a few days?"

[Please make your decision within five minutes, or it will be automatically treated as a forfeiture of qualification; you will have all memories related to the game erased and will never again be eligible to be selected as a player.]

Emphasizing the time-sensitive and exclusive nature of the offer was a common tactic for fraud or manipulation, looking exactly like a trap or a scam.

But Qi Si felt that, since he only had three years left to live anyway, he wouldn't lose much even if he lost everything.

He did not fear dying at the finale of a grand performance, but he absolutely refused to be extinguished by a disease.

Whether it was dying a gruesome death in the Eerie Game or suffering a fate worse than death, any ending was better than the mind-numbing boredom of dying from an illness.

Besides, the concepts of "survival games" and "horror instances" sounded quite interesting!

All weighing of options concluded in a single second. A brilliant smile suddenly bloomed on Qi Si's lips, like a child who had just discovered a novel toy.

He stared at the silvery-white text in the void and repeated clearly: "I am willing to become a player and enter the Eerie Game."

[Contract signed. Player information loaded.]

[Instance loading... Loading complete.]

1. Heavy on puzzle-solving and strategy, light on horror; heavy on "suspense" and "deduction," light on "supernatural"; readers seeking pure thrills should proceed with caution.

2. Qi Si is a scumbag with a dark psyche, a pervert, and a degenerate; his values are not human. Normal people should proceed with caution.

3. This is a dark-themed novel, falling between "profit-driven" and "cunning protagonist" tropes, leaning more toward the latter. Those with low psychological tolerance should proceed with caution.

4. The author frequently revises the text; please support the official version, as all plot points are based on the official release.

5. The author writes for love and will not abandon the work, but updates will not be fast (refer to San Zha); proceed with caution if this bothers you.

6. Reading tip: Everyone is capable of lying, especially the protagonist. Do not trust anything the characters say.

7. This is an OC novel. The earliest verifiable record of its creation is July 31, 2022 (on the author's LOFTER of the same name), and the actual conception dates back even earlier. If you wish to accuse me of plagiarism, please check the timelines first. /laugh