Eerie Game Invitation

The heavy body leaped into the air,

the soaring soul crashed to the ground.

--Volume One: Spirit and Flesh

The smell of blood excited people.

A saint smelled it and felt the pain of mourning the dead.

A villain smelled it and relished the sacrificial feast of flesh and blood.

Qi Si leaned against the high-backed chair and took a deep breath, letting the rich, fresh smell of blood fill his lungs.

He held a scalpel. The thin calluses on his fingertips lightly traced the blade, wiping away the blood along its edge.

"Trust me, I won't call the police. Please, let me go..."

In front of Qi Si, a man was tied to a chair with ropes, pleading in a weak, breathless voice.

Several neat knife wounds lined the man's body. Blood continued to seep from them, turning him from the crude, overbearing brute he'd been at first into a polite man with whom Qi Si could converse calmly.

"Letting you go isn't out of the question. After all, we don't have a blood feud between us."

Qi Si smiled, as though catching up with an old friend he hadn't seen in years. "To be honest, your sudden visit didn't make me angry. Actually, I looked into you a long time ago—Liu Ajiu."

At the sound of his name, the man's expression changed within seconds from confusion and bewilderment to sheer terror. "Who... who are you?"

"If I've done anything to people you know, I had no choice. I can make it up to you..."

Qi Si stepped down from the high-backed chair and laid the scalpel against the man's neck. He sighed. "Shut up and listen to me. Otherwise, I'll chop you up and feed you to the pigs."

At last, he had bought himself a moment of quiet.

A gentle smile returned to his face. "You don't need to be so afraid. You're not the only person I've investigated. Before today, you weren't even the most unusual one.

"'You people' started collecting information about paranormal events in large numbers at some point, squandering your entire fortunes and acting like people with nothing left to lose.

"During that time, all sorts of inexplicable things happened to you, to one degree or another. Take you, for example. You were released from a federal prison for lack of evidence, and your family's hereditary heart disease even vanished without treatment.

"I have reason to suspect that 'you people' had some kind of lucky break: one that came with a certain degree of risk, but offered substantial rewards."

Not long ago, Qi Si had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. The doctor said he had no more than three years left.

Around then, by chance, he'd discovered several people who seemed to have been caught up in supernatural events and benefited from them.

With nothing better to do, he'd figured he had nothing to lose by trying. He picked out those who had no parents and no family, and added them to a list of people he could capture and study later.

The man in front of him, Liu Ajiu, happened to be on that list. He was the sort of person whose death wouldn't attract much attention.

Qi Si had been good with his hands since childhood, and far more decisive than most people.

As long as it got him what he wanted, he could do anything, no matter how much it violated the law, morality, or social norms.

If all went according to plan, he'd gather enough information, make preparations, pick some unlucky victim, and then kill him to cover his tracks.

But he hadn't expected Liu Ajiu to barge into his workshop today with a gun and a nasty attitude. The workshop was where he made and stored specimens.

Half an hour ago, the man had held a gun to Qi Si's head and muttered like a lunatic, "I have no other choice. Tough luck for you. Tell me where the cash is!"

Qi Si didn't have any cash, and he couldn't understand why anyone would rob a godforsaken suburb, let alone choose an abandoned warehouse that looked like a dilapidated wreck.

He'd had no choice but to raise his hands and look frightened. Once the man let his guard down, Qi Si ambushed him, then put a great deal of effort into tying him to the chair.

He hadn't been well prepared for a "supernatural event," but the man was already here. Killing him outright or letting him go would both be a waste.

And Qi Si hated waste.

At that moment, he twisted his wrist and pressed the knife handle against the wound on the man's shoulder. The man let out a scream like a donkey whose kidneys had been stomped on.

Qi Si lowered his eyes, looking innocent and sincere. "Someone like you could die and no one would care. Tell me everything you know, and maybe I'll let you live."

The man's head jerked up, then fell again. At last, his lips trembling, he forced out a few broken phrases: "Not chosen... can't know... can't say..."

His speech was halting, as though someone had deliberately erased the key words with an eraser.

Qi Si understood. "You mean some kind of force is holding you back, so you can't tell me the things I want to know?"

The man nodded repeatedly, pleading almost humbly. "Let me go. I can help you find a way to get in..."

Another string of words was censored. Qi Si lowered his head, drumming his fingers against his thigh at intervals, as if seriously weighing the man's offer.

Second by second, time passed. Under the man's hopeful gaze, Qi Si grinned. "You forgot to put on shoe covers when you came in."

The scalpel pierced the muscle, then pulled free. Blood sprayed from the slick, elastic flesh, lightly soaking his pale fingertips.

Getting rid of a body wasn't easy these days. Quicklime, hydrogen peroxide, and hydrofluoric acid were all difficult to obtain.

But for Qi Si, it wasn't that hard.

When he was twelve, he'd had nothing. Hadn't he still managed to kill someone without letting his parents find out?

Looking at the man's eyes, still open in death, Qi Si felt rather pleased. He stroked his chin and began to consider how to dispose of the body.

Without warning, an emotionless electronic voice sounded deep in his mind:

[Contract player death detected. Screening nearby humans who meet the requirements]

Qi Si narrowed his eyes.

White mist billowed through the cramped room. The light dimmed several shades in the swirling haze, making everything indistinct, like the moment just before dawn.

Before the man, a black metal card slowly took shape, hovering faintly in the air.

Gold lines were engraved on its face. On closer inspection, they formed the branches of a giant tree, flowing with the changing light as though alive.

Qi Si reached out and took the metal card. A line of silvery-white text appeared in midair:

[Eerie Game Invitation]

Eerie Game? What was that?

Qi Si's gaze lingered on the unfamiliar words.

As if sensing his confusion, countless pieces of non-narrative information bypassed the process of comprehension and entered his mind directly.

The Eerie Game was created by an entity called The Rules. It selected eligible players from around the world and sent them into one instance after another, each filled with the eerie and the uncanny, where they investigated mysteries and completed tasks.

It was a deadly game full of ghosts and monsters. If players failed their tasks or died in an instance, their existence in the real world would also be erased.

But danger came hand in hand with opportunity. Players who successfully cleared an instance could earn a large number of points. With enough points, they could make any wish come true.

Now Qi Si understood what sort of lucky break the man he'd killed had gotten.

He'd entered the Eerie Game, earned a large number of points by completing tasks, and used them to make wishes, including destroying evidence and curing his heart disease.

[You killed player "Liu Ajiu." You may choose first whether to inherit his game eligibility]

The cold electronic voice sounded again, asking slowly, word by word:

[Are you willing to become a player and enter the Eerie Game?]

Qi Si rubbed the silver bracelet on his right wrist and asked casually, "Can you cure my illness?"

[In the Eerie Game, you can obtain anything you desire: wealth, power, health... You can have it all]

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

The silvery-white text did everything it could to tempt him.

Qi Si raised a finger and tapped his chin. "How many points do wishes like curing a terminal illness usually take? How many instances would I have to enter?"

[Sign the contract. When the time is right, you will naturally find out]

Qi Si raised an eyebrow and asked, "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 you will automatically be considered to have forfeited your eligibility. All memories related to the game will be erased, and you will never be chosen as a player]

Emphasizing that an opportunity was both time-sensitive and unique was a common tactic used in scams and manipulation. It sounded just like a trap.

But Qi Si figured he had only three years left anyway. Even if he lost everything, it wouldn't cost him much.

He wasn't afraid to die at the grand finale of a magnificent performance, but he absolutely refused to vanish from the world because of an illness.

Dying without a body in the Eerie Game, or living a fate worse than death—any ending would be better than a death from illness, the most boring way to go.

Besides, "survival games" and "horror instances" sounded like a lot of fun!

All his deliberation ended in a second. A brilliant smile suddenly bloomed at the corner of Qi Si's lips, like a child who'd found a new toy.

He stared at the silvery-white words in the air and repeated them clearly: "I'm willing to become a player and enter the Eerie Game."

[Contract signed. Player information loaded]

[Instance loading... Loading complete]

1. This story focuses on puzzles and strategy, with less emphasis on horror; it focuses on suspense and deduction, with less emphasis on the supernatural. Readers seeking thrills, proceed with caution.

2. Qi Si is a twisted scumbag, a pervert, and a monster from birth, with inhuman values. Normal human beings, proceed with caution.

3. This is a dark story, somewhere between an "interest-driven" story and a "rabbit-style" story, leaning more toward the latter. Readers with low tolerance, proceed with caution.

4. The author often revises the story. Please support the official version; the official version is the definitive one.

5. The author writes out of love and won't abandon the story, but updates won't be very fast either (see San Zha for reference). If that bothers you, proceed with caution.

6. Reader advisory: Anyone might lie, especially the protagonist. Don't blindly trust anything the characters say.

7. This is an original-character story. The earliest verifiable record is dated July 31, 2022 (the author's LOFTER account has the same name); the actual concept dates back even earlier. If you're going to stir up trouble, check the timeline first. /laugh