Real Doomsday Game

"Christianity has the Last Judgment, Buddhism has the Five Decays of the Heavenly Beings, and every civilization has myths like great floods ending the world or heavenly fire destroying it. All humanity has an indescribable feeling toward the apocalypse—fearful yet fascinated, panicked yet excited. Perhaps it has something to do with the self-destructive tendency embedded in human genes..."

Old Li, the history teacher, was spraying spit as he spoke from the podium. What he was talking about had veered miles away from the textbook, which was why he was nicknamed Li Plain Talk.

It was already the final class of the day. Shen Feng sat in the classroom, listening to Li Plain Talk's rambling while nodding repeatedly.

Setting aside his teaching ability, Li Plain Talk's views on the apocalypse resonated deeply with Shen Feng, an apocalypse enthusiast.

Suddenly, the battered Xiaomi phone in Shen Feng's pocket vibrated sharply. He cautiously took it out and saw a message displayed on the screen:

"Real Doomsday Game welcomes your arrival."

Shen Feng froze. What the hell was this?

Spam advertising?

The name sounded like one of those trashy browser games with slogans like "One Slash to Level 99" or "If You're a Brother, Come Slash Me."

Mobile data collection these days was terrifying. How did it know he had an apocalypse complex?

Thinking this, Shen Feng casually tapped the message, intending to delete it.

To his surprise, the moment he pressed it, an app icon immediately appeared on his phone—a giant blood-red eye—and it began installing!

Fuck, it was hijacking his phone like malware!

What the hell was this thing!?

Shen Feng could not help getting angry. This game software was going way too far!

He immediately held down the icon, preparing to delete it, but nothing happened.

Then another message popped up:

"Device loading level too low. Device environment modification in progress..."

Right afterward, the phone screen went black!

It was infected!

Fury rose in Shen Feng's heart. Though this battered Xiaomi was not particularly powerful, it had been affordable, and he had scrimped and saved for a long time before finally buying it!

Just as he was about to pry out the battery, the screen lit up again and returned to normal.

Meanwhile, the Real Doomsday Game app showed that installation had been completed.

Was it an illusion?

The phone seemed... smoother somehow?

Shen Feng looked utterly baffled, only to discover that Real Doomsday Game still could not be deleted.

He might as well see what the hell it was...

After opening it, an interface resembling that of an ordinary mobile game immediately appeared. There was not even an intro animation. It was undoubtedly a trashy browser game.

The selection screen was completely black, with only two options: "Start" and "Load." There was not even an "About Us" section.

Fortunately, there was a description:

"Players of this doomsday world, welcome to Real Doomsday Game. After selecting Start, you may enter a random doomsday world to experience it, complete missions, and obtain rewards. The disasters in different doomsday worlds vary, and their danger levels are generally divided into beginner doomsday worlds, intermediate doomsday worlds, advanced doomsday worlds, and Black Death Doomsdays. Players are advised to play carefully and avoid permanent death."

"World available for new players: Stone Statue Apocalypse."

Shen Feng could not help chuckling. This crappy game was putting on such a convincing act, and its copywriting was pretty intimidating. If it was really so awesome, could it at least make the game interface look better? At minimum, it should hire that trashy celebrity to film an ad.

"...The intensity of humanity's apocalypse complex is strongly related to the overall social atmosphere across the world. When the economy is doing well and optimism runs high, the apocalypse complex weakens. When the economy is depressed and pessimism spreads, the apocalypse complex spreads as well... All right, class dismissed!"

The moment Li Plain Talk finished speaking, the classroom immediately erupted into noise. The students packed their bags and headed outside.

"Old Shen, be careful after school. I heard Li Chang and his gang are waiting for you at the school gate. Seems like you beat them up last time when they were robbing younger students of their money, and they're coming to get revenge..." A short, chubby boy came up to Shen Feng and spoke quietly. It was none other than his best friend, Ji Xin.

Shen Feng's gaze sharpened, then he smiled and patted Ji Xin on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Old Ji. Those losers can't do anything to me."

Carrying his schoolbag and pushing his bicycle, Shen Feng followed the crowd to the school entrance. Sure enough, Li Chang was standing there furtively with more than a dozen others, searching the crowd for him.

Shen Feng put on his cap, lowered his head, and quickly pushed his bicycle toward the gate. Just as he was about to pass Li Chang and the others, he suddenly leaped onto the bike, turned around, and grinned as he cursed, "You little bastards, waiting for your grandpa?"

Before Li Chang and the others could react, Shen Feng had already pedaled away in a flash.

"Shen Feng, just you wait! You can run today, but you can't run tomorrow! You'll pay for this!"

Their furious curses drifted faintly from behind him, and Shen Feng could not help smiling in satisfaction.

He was not afraid of a fight, but he could not let it delay his shift today.

More than twenty minutes later, Shen Feng arrived at a barbecue stall beside his rental apartment.

"Brother Hai, Brother Wang, Brother Zhou, Old Chang!"

A group of bare-chested men were moving out grills, tables, chairs, and skewers of meat, preparing to open for business. The sign for One Skewer Barbecue had been blackened by smoke.

"Xiao Feng's here!"

"Haha, our chef is here!"

"Quick, get the chef into his battle armor!"

The men laughed and joked. A muscular man wearing glasses approached Shen Feng with a white apron and helped him put it on. This man was Brother Hai, the owner of One Skewer Barbecue.

Shen Feng had been working here for more than two months. At first, he had only helped skewer meat, but one time the barbecue master—Brother Hai himself—drank too much and could not get out of bed. Shen Feng tried grilling in his place and unexpectedly discovered he had a talent for barbecue. From then on, he took over as the chef.

Over the past few days, he had gotten along well with these rough, hearty men. He loved their frank and unpretentious nature. Every night after closing up, he would eat a few skewers he had grilled himself and drink a glass of draft beer. It was one of the greatest pleasures of the scorching summer.

Customers had already begun taking their seats. Shen Feng chatted with several regulars while his hands never stopped moving, grilling one sizzling skewer after another—pork belly, lamb, lean meat, beef, tendon, kidneys, heart tubes, bone marrow, beef tongue, chicken wings...

The food connoisseurs from the surrounding residential complexes came by like old hands, smiling kindly as they settled in at the barbecue stall. With a bucket of draft beer at their feet, they started with salted peanuts and edamame, drinking and eating skewers until they usually finished with a grilled flatbread or a bowl of wontons, then headed home contentedly, rubbing their bellies.

After closing at dawn, Shen Feng had another drink with Brother Hai and the others before finally returning to his tiny rented room. After washing up, he lay down on his bed in complete satisfaction.

As an orphan, he was deeply content with his current life. He could support himself through his own labor.

He casually picked up his phone, intending to browse the news before bed, when he suddenly saw that giant eye icon.

That crappy game still had not been uninstalled.

He opened it casually. It was still the same crude start screen and description.

Fine, he would see what this crappy game had actually been made into...

With that thought, Shen Feng tapped the "Start" button. His vision immediately blurred, and he fell into a deep sleep.

After an unknown amount of time, Shen Feng was awakened by a gust of cold wind and abruptly opened his eyes.

It was already morning, and the weather was unbelievably cold. Shen Feng quickly sat up, only to find himself naked. His clothes and blanket were all gone.

And he was definitely not lying in his own bed!

Looking around, he found himself in an unfamiliar room. Dust covered everything around him, and there were even cobwebs everywhere. He had no idea what was going on.

I've been kidnapped!?

That was Shen Feng's first reaction. Stories about being forced into male escort work and kidney theft immediately flashed through his mind.

His phone was still here!

He jumped out of bed, grabbed his phone, and rushed to the window to look outside.

The sky outside was bright. Beyond the window lay a bustling yet dilapidated street. It was bustling because all kinds of shops stood side by side, their decorations glittering magnificently. Yet it was dilapidated because the road was covered in cracks and overgrown with weeds, while signs everywhere had rusted and collapsed. It looked like an abandoned zone. Quite a few cars were parked on the street, surrounded by weeds and covered in rust.

He had definitely never seen this place before!

Could I be dreaming!?

Shen Feng pinched himself hard and bared his teeth in pain.

It was not a dream...

At the same time, he vaguely saw what seemed to be a figure standing outside the door.

Who was it? A kidnapper?

Not caring that he was naked, Shen Feng picked up a large ashtray from a dusty table and carefully walked toward the door.

Taking a deep breath, he grabbed the doorknob, yanked the door open, and violently smashed the ashtray toward the person's head.

Bang! Crash! The person did not dodge at all. The ashtray smashed hard against his head and shattered, while the impact made Shen Feng's hand ache sharply.

Staring at the figure's appearance, Shen Feng's mouth fell open. He could not believe his eyes.

This was... a stone statue!