I Am Beasthood!

"Wait!"

Hearing Qin Li's voice, Yin Ge stopped in her tracks.

When she turned around, she saw a line of uniformed soldiers walking up behind her.

Yin Ge looked at Qin Li in confusion.

Qin Li spoke with utter respect and solemnity. "If there aren't enough people left in the mall to start a game, there are people ready to go in at any time."

"Once you're inside the game, you can look out for each other!"

Yin Ge was somewhat surprised. Her gaze swept across those resolute faces, and then she nodded gravely.

After that, she did not linger and walked straight into the mall.

Watching her back disappear from view, Qin Li skillfully glanced at his watch.

"Five, four, three, two, one!"

After silently counting five seconds, Qin Li looked at the captain of the security station.

The captain shook his head. "No response from the millimeter-wave radar."

That meant no one had died in the mall during those five seconds.

Which meant the game had not started yet. There were not enough people!

The captain of the security station looked at the first soldier and gave him a military salute.

The soldier returned the salute, then walked into the mall without looking sideways.

At the same time, Yin Ge opened her eyes.

But she immediately realized that she had not entered Godhead Time. Instead, she had arrived in that familiar void.

Before her, six white points of light gleamed brightly.

Did this mean they were still one person short of starting the game?

The instant that thought surfaced in her mind, a seventh white point of light suddenly appeared.

Yin Ge knew that a soldier had most likely entered to fill the final spot.

Now that there were seven people, the game should start soon, right?

She waited quietly, but surprisingly, the game still did not begin!

And the eighth and ninth white points of light lit up as well!

So this Son of Heaven Game did not require seven people... Before Yin Ge had time to think further, she lost consciousness.

When she opened her eyes again, she could no longer control her body and had entered Godhead Time.

"The Son of Heaven Game I entered for this mission has already developed to the second stage. In other words, the initial batch of people who entered have died, and Beasthood won."

"After Beasthood won and left, it was brought under control and revealed everything to the Neutrino Personhood Order Research Center."

"I need to analyze the information, identify the Beasthood from the first round—the Original Son of Heaven Game—and then enter the second scenario."

"The second round must be related to someone who died in the first round. I only need to use that person's experiences to identify Beasthood."

Yin Ge silently sorted through the main objectives of this mission in her heart.

End the Original Son of Heaven Game and enter the second round of the Son of Heaven Game. Then, using the information provided by the Personhood Center outside, the events and circumstances during Godhead Time, the help of her soldier teammates, and her own judgment, select the Beasthood of the second round and end this Son of Heaven Game!

At six in the afternoon, Godhead Time ended on schedule, and they entered the discussion phase.

At the first opportunity, Yin Ge used their code to find the three soldiers who had entered the game with her.

Thankfully, Beasthood had attached itself neither to her nor to any of the three soldiers.

Based on the information in the files, Yin Ge and the three soldiers identified the person carrying Beasthood, ending the first round—the Original Son of Heaven Game—and then entered the second scenario.

When she opened her eyes, the second Son of Heaven Game officially began!

But this time, the Son of Heaven Game's setting was no longer inside the mall. It had become a school.

"A school?"

Yin Ge frowned, recalling the information she had read before entering this Son of Heaven Game.

According to the files, several key figures who had initially entered the first Son of Heaven Game had bullied and assaulted their coworkers.

There was also a shared trait between the victim and the person carrying Beasthood: both had bullied their coworkers.

So the core of the second game might be related to bullying.

"Huh? I..."

As she was thinking, Yin Ge suddenly realized... she had actually become the old dormitory manager who watched over the boys' dorm!

But she quickly adapted to her identity, though she was somewhat surprised inside.

Using the dormitory manager's eyes to observe her surroundings and recalling the files, Yin Ge quickly concluded that they had entered a scene from the youth of the victim's boyfriend in the Original Son of Heaven Game.

The originally mature man was only a high school student in this scenario.

Of course, Yin Ge had deduced this information through observation. She had not actually seen the high school student himself.

That was because the high school student had taken on the state of the Bride Yin Ge had encountered in the game.

In other words, the high school student could still appear in events, but no one could see him.

During Godhead Time, Yin Ge could not control her body, so she kept listing the similarities between the high school student and the person carrying Beasthood in the original game.

For example, both of them had bullied, excluded, and slandered others before.

Following that logic, Yin Ge's next task was to observe whether anyone in the school displayed those behaviors.

During that short day of Godhead Time, Yin Ge did not observe anything unusual.

Soon, time passed, and Persona Time arrived.

The instant their bodies regained freedom, everyone besides Yin Ge was filled with shock and uncertainty.

The three soldiers, who had never truly played a Son of Heaven Game before, were somewhat silent.

After all, in the previous Original Son of Heaven Game, they had already known the answer and quickly identified Beasthood.

But now, they were completely in the dark and had no way to identify anyone.

Aside from the four of them, the rest of those who had entered the game were ordinary people, and their mental states were extremely unstable.

"W-why is this happening again? Didn't the game end?"

"What the hell is going on? I haven't even had the chance to carry the bag I just bought, waaah~"

"Fuck, what are the people at the security station doing? Why didn't they evacuate the crowd earlier?"

To avoid unnecessary trouble, Yin Ge put on a terrified act and said nothing.

During the previous round, she had told the three soldiers not to reveal that they knew one another in front of the others.

Otherwise, people might think they were forming a clique, causing the person carrying Beasthood to target them first.

Therefore, when everyone had just entered Persona Time, no one acted rashly.

Only after Yin Ge found an opportunity did she use the code again to rendezvous with the three soldiers.

This time, when Godhead Time ended and they entered Persona Time, there were nine core figures in total.

The principal, the homeroom teacher, the old dormitory manager, the school beauty, the grade-level director, the school bully, the failing student, the sports committee member, and the high school student—the protagonist of the scenario.

And now, Yin Ge sharply noticed that the soldier who had become the failing student was pale, slow to react, and looked somewhat dazed.

Although ordinary people would most likely react this way upon encountering a Son of Heaven Game, soldiers themselves had excellent mental fortitude. On top of that, he had already gone through one Son of Heaven Game. No matter what, he should not have been scared into such a state.

Unless... Yin Ge took a deep breath.

Unless Beasthood was on that soldier!

Once she found an opportunity, she had to talk to him... Yin Ge made up her mind.

A little while later, everyone dispersed and began searching the store for clues. At last, she found an opportunity and made her way over to the soldier who had become the failing student.

"What happened? You don't look so good." Pretending to search for something, Yin Ge asked in a low voice.

The soldier took a deep breath and said the words Yin Ge least wanted to hear:

"Beasthood is on me!"

Yin Ge's searching motion paused slightly, and for a moment, she did not know what to say.

Because she knew that his complete honesty meant he had already prepared himself to sacrifice his life.

Perhaps sensing her complicated emotions, the soldier forced a faint smile onto his face.

"I once met a White Nighter. He was incredible. He successfully cleared several Son of Heaven Games."

"I believe you can do it too. Do it."

As he spoke, he closed his eyes, but his slightly trembling lips still exposed the fear and helplessness in his heart.

Who wasn't afraid of death?

But now, no one had a way out.

If Yin Ge softened her heart, more people like this soldier would march one after another toward death.

Thinking of this, Yin Ge steadied herself and looked at her wrist—the place where the "Sage" wristband was worn.

Though she could no longer see the wristband, in that instant, a vigorous, life-filled power appeared in her consciousness.

This was... the "Sage"!