Run for Time (Part One)

Peaceful days always flew by. Two days later, it was time to enter another instance.

Ye Chu got up early, pulled on a black hoodie, and went downstairs after a quick wash. A lavish breakfast was already laid out on the table.

When Lu Rui saw him coming down, she beckoned him to sit. "Come on, Ye Chu. Sit down and eat."

Ye Chu nodded and picked up his chopsticks. Wu Lü sat obediently at his feet.

Before long, Pei Yanchuan and the others came bounding downstairs. Pei Yanchuan had said he wanted a haircut, but two days had passed without him getting one. He had simply let his hair grow as it pleased. "I'll cut it after I get back from this instance."

He planned to spend an entire instance deciding what hairstyle he wanted.

Wu You wore her hair in two pigtails tied with bows as usual. She ruffled Wu Lü's head as she sat down at the table.

Su Fengzi had tied his hair up too, gathering his medium-length hair into a ponytail halfway up his head. He looked much more energetic.

"I wonder what this instance will be like." Pei Yanchuan opened his mouth wide and stuffed an entire little bun into it, his words muffled.

"Doesn't matter," Su Fengzi said. "As long as there aren't any bugs."

Remembering how Su Fengzi shrieked whenever he saw bugs, Ye Chu couldn't help chuckling under his breath. Su Fengzi caught it and raised an eyebrow at him. "Chu Chuzi, what kind of instance do you hate?"

Ye Chu stirred his hot porridge with his spoon. After giving it some serious thought, he said, "Me? I hate chase-based ones."

The moment he finished speaking, the system's irritating voice rang out:

[Players, you are about to enter the instance "Run for Time." Please prepare yourselves.]

Ye Chu's face stiffened for a moment at the name. Whatever he dreaded really did come straight for him.

Run for Time had been a very popular domestic variety show a few years ago, and Ye Chu knew a little about it.

[Instance loading progress: 1%...50%...99%...100%]

The familiar white light appeared before his eyes, and Ye Chu felt a wave of dizziness. When he opened his eyes again, he had arrived somewhere unfamiliar. Towering buildings stood everywhere, with roads leading in every direction. It looked... just like their real world.

Ye Chu looked around but saw no sign of his teammates. He sighed silently. By now, he was used to starting without them.

[The rules for "Run for Time" will now be announced:

In this world, humans are divided into two categories: ordinary people and person-eaters. As the names suggest, ordinary people eat vegetarian food, while person-eaters feed on ordinary people. Your role in this game is-ordinary person.

Players must conceal their identity as ordinary people. Person-eaters will pursue ordinary people. Designated person-eaters will immediately pursue any player they see, while non-designated person-eaters will pursue them depending on the circumstances. Players must evade them. Survive for more than one week to successfully complete the challenge.

Additional pursuit rules for designated person-eaters: 1. If multiple ordinary people are within a person-eater's field of vision, the person-eater will lock onto only the nearest ordinary-person player. After a successful capture, the person-eater will not pursue other ordinary people within their field of vision for a short time.

2. When the targeted ordinary person disappears from view, the person-eater will pursue them to the place where they disappeared. If no ordinary people are within sight, the person-eater will enter search mode.

3. Person-eaters will react to sounds, such as phone ringtones and footsteps.

4. Under normal circumstances, these person-eaters cannot remove or climb over obstacles to capture their targets. In such cases, the person-eater will enter a lost-target state.

Remember our game's motto-entertainment to death!!!]

Another survival instance.

Ye Chu felt something strange in his pocket. He took it out and discovered that it was a phone.

The game lets us use high-tech stuff like this now?

Ye Chu switched the phone on and checked it. It only had three functions: messaging, camera, and calls. The contacts list was empty, which meant they could only start using the call function after meeting up.

A sudden commotion came from up ahead. A crowd had gathered in the middle of the street. Ye Chu walked to its outer edge and looked toward the center.

A person in ragged clothes knelt in the middle. Behind him stood a uniformed military officer holding a gun against his head.

"An ordinary person who steals vegetable leaves shall, under our nation's laws, be executed by shooting immediately."

"Sir, officer! I didn't steal any vegetable leaves! I didn't steal them!!" The man's face was covered in stubble, and his hair was a mess. Tears filled his clouded eyes as he trembled uncontrollably. "I didn't steal anything! Please investigate, sir!"

The dignitaries standing before him remained unmoved. They merely watched the kowtowing beggar coldly. "A lowly ordinary person, and you still dare lie?"

The kneeling man immediately raised his head and shuffled forward on his knees, trying to grab the hem of the person's clothes. That person stepped away in disgust.

"Sir! I really didn't steal anything!" His voice shook, his face filled with helplessness.

A young boy in the crowd suddenly spoke up. "My brother didn't steal anything! He only..."

The boy looked no older than twelve or thirteen. Ye Chu instinctively turned toward his voice. Unlike the kneeling man, his clothes were tidy and his face was clean. Only the few holes in his clothing revealed his poverty.

The officer had clearly noticed the voice too. He started walking toward the boy, but just then, the man kneeling on the ground suddenly began struggling violently.

He stood up and grabbed the officer's clothes. "Ptooey-" He spat in the officer's face.

"You-"

"So what if I stole them! You monsters who eat ordinary people, what right do you have to judge us?! What did ordinary people ever do wrong?! Why are we born slaves? Why are you person-eaters born above us?!"

The officer slapped him hard, knocking him to the ground. "You lowly ordinary person! You dare attack me?!" He followed it with a vicious kick.

The man on the ground shielded his head with his arms, but kept shouting, "You self-righteous person-eaters will get what's coming to you one day!! One day, ordinary people will rise up and fight back! We'll overthrow your rule!!"

Bang-

A richly dressed man took the gun from the officer and pulled the trigger, aiming at the head on the ground without a flicker of emotion. The man's head burst apart at once, red and white mingling across the black asphalt.

"Brother-"

The wealthy man merely gave the boy a cold glance, tossed the gun back to the officer, and waved a hand lazily. "Disperse. Just an ordinary person who stole something. What's there to look at?"

The crowd was quickly dispersed, and passing pedestrians kicked the corpse this way and that. The boy pushed through the crowd and hugged the body, crying silently. He didn't even dare sob aloud.

The law stipulated that ordinary people had no right to raise their voices in public.

The instant the man had prepared to fire, Ye Chu had wanted to rush forward, but everything happened too quickly. In a blink, a gunshot rang out, and the man was dead.

Faced with everything that had just happened, Ye Chu had only one word in mind: absurd.

Utterly absurd.

Regardless of whether the man had actually stolen anything, stealing a few vegetable leaves was enough to get him shot. The laws of this country were a truly absurd joke.

The boy strained to move the corpse. Ye Chu did not step forward to help him.

Ye Chu didn't know whether any person-eaters were still nearby. Under this social hierarchy, helping the boy, who was an ordinary person, would immediately mark Ye Chu as one too. He would become food for the person-eaters to hunt.

Once the boy had dragged the body into an alley, Ye Chu quietly followed him. After making sure no one else was around, he appeared in front of the boy.

"Who are you?" The boy stared at the person before him in fear. "Are you a person-eater?"

Ye Chu crouched down. He didn't answer the boy's question, only said, "I won't hurt you."

He hadn't been able to see clearly through the crowd earlier. Now, up close, he realized that the boy looked very much like Pei Yanchuan. His eyes were big and round, his nose had a high bridge, and even his hair was similar. The boy's hair was a little long, with a tuft of red mixed into the black strands.

He was practically a copy of Pei Yanchuan.

"Why should I believe you?" The boy watched Ye Chu warily, his eyes full of suspicion.

"You don't have to believe me." Ye Chu's expression remained unchanged. Even this kid's temperament was a little like Pei Yanchuan's. He was almost beginning to suspect that the boy was Pei Yanchuan himself. "But I think you've already lost everything you could lose."

Those words wounded the boy's young heart. Tears instantly filled his big eyes. He really had nothing left to lose.

His only brother was dead. He had nothing left.