Shen Ru's eyes snapped open to an eerie melody.
The dim overhead light crackled and buzzed. The nauseating smell of rotting wood hung in the air, while the intermittent drip of water sounded nearby.
The young man swiftly surveyed his surroundings and identified the source of the spine-chilling sound: a loudspeaker above him to the right.
There were five others besides him.
Someone's arm rested across his wrist. Shen Ru withdrew his hand without betraying anything on his face, but inwardly revolted, he scrubbed his wrist hard behind his back several times, stopping only once he had rubbed the skin raw.
No sense of boundaries, as expected. Disgusting, no matter when or where.
Where was this?
By the faint, wavering light, Shen Ru could roughly make out where he was.
Yellowed paint peeled from the walls bit by bit, exposing steel reinforcement and concrete.
Rows of shelves stood scattered to one side, packaging littered the floor, and the checkout counter was battered beyond repair-
A convenience store?
How had he ended up here?
Shen Ru had made no rash moves from the start. He forced his breathing to become as faint as possible, even keeping his red eyes narrowed as they gleamed in the darkness.
Though he appeared to lean lazily against the counter, the muscles beneath his shirt remained taut. Veins stood out on the hand braced against the floor, as though he might snap an offender's neck the very next second.
The other four had yet to wake, so he pretended he had never awakened either, tilting his head and waiting silently...
But unbeknownst to Shen Ru, his every move had been watched.
[A germaphobe playing an infinite-loop game?? Go home and drink your milk already!!]
[Are pretty-face streamers coming to beg for scraps in infinite survival games now?]
[Look at him. Can't carry a thing or lift a finger. Nothing but dead weight.]
[I'll stick around a little longer just for this instance.]
The players inside the instance could not see these comments, nor did they know that thousands upon thousands of people were watching their every move.
Soon, panicked panting and helpless gasps rose one after another. Shen Ru knew someone had woken up.
He was just about to pretend he had only now awakened when suddenly-
A shrill, agonized scream pierced the young man's eardrums like a long, slender silver needle.
"Aah-"
Shen Ru's eyes flew open. Holding his breath, he fixed his dark red eyes on the girl who had just screamed, his gaze thick with murderous intent.
Screaming was always the most useless choice. Not only did it reveal one's location, it also spread panic among the others.
More importantly, Shen Ru had severe antisocial personality disorder and could not conform to social norms or obey the law.
He lied habitually and was highly aggressive, even holding both others' lives and his own in contempt.
But to survive within normal society, he could only force himself to scrape by under its rules and restrictions.
So his murderous intent lasted only an instant before he reined in his expression and looked around in apparent bewilderment.
The man beside him reacted quickly, hurriedly clamping a hand over the girl's mouth and looking nervously from side to side, as though some ferocious beast might burst out of a dark corner at any moment.
Once he was sure there was no immediate danger, the man released her, knitted his brows, and snarled under his breath, "What the hell are you screaming for?"
Then, without listening to the woman's explanation, he shifted away in disgust and waved impatiently. "Newbies are such a pain."
A newbie?
Shen Ru raised an eyebrow with interest. Apparently, this was not the man's first time experiencing something like this. He was a veteran.
Perhaps he could coax some information out of him.
Shen Ru was not the only one thinking this. The moment the man finished speaking, the woman sitting by the stairs hurriedly asked:
"What do you mean, newbies? Do you know why we're here?"
The man glanced at her contemptuously and even gave a mocking snort.
"No idea. I ended up here out of nowhere too. Everyone calls this the Eternal Life Game. Supposedly, if you clear it, you can gain eternal life."
Everyone looked unsettled. The girl who had screamed earlier pleaded in a trembling voice:
"I... I don't want eternal life. Please! I just want to go home! Let me go home!"
The girl's sobbing made the man's brow twitch. He interrupted irritably, "Keep it down! I'd advise you not to fall apart so soon. It's not just the instances that are full of danger here. The players might all have their own agendas too."
With that, his gaze swept over everyone, lingering a full two seconds on Shen Ru.
Shen Ru's beauty was vivid and unrestrained, like a delicate rose in full bloom. Slightly wavy black hair partly concealed his forehead, and his red eyes glittered in the darkness. With his long, slender limbs, he looked every inch a glass doll.
At those words, the young man's dark red eyes suddenly lit up. His voice trembled faintly with barely contained excitement as he asked ambiguously, "You can ignore the law here?"
The man's ill-intentioned gaze traveled up and down the young man's body. Assuming he was trembling in fear, he curled his lips into a soft chuckle. "That's right. What good is the law if you're dead? Still... with looks like yours, selling yourself might just keep you alive."
As though he had not understood the man's mockery, Shen Ru's lips curved into a wicked yet captivating smile. The red diamond in his right ear shone brilliantly, and he was as excited as if he had arrived at an amusement park.
Ignore the law!
Wonderful. He could finally kill everyone he couldn't stand!
A bunch of stupid, useless trash.
Hahahahaha!
How was this a game?
This was heaven!!!
He loved, loved this place so much!!!
Seeing that Shen Ru said nothing, the man took him for a pushover and grew even more brazen. "It's not like I haven't had fun with men before. As long as you... ah..."
The young man gave him no chance to finish. No one could see how he had appeared in front of the man. All the man could feel was an iron grip slowly tightening around his throat. Just as Shen Ru was about to apply enough force to snap his neck, he suddenly sensed something flying toward him from behind.
He nimbly dodged to the side. Rather than loosening his grip on the man's neck, he used the momentum to slam the man's head firmly against the floor.
Crack!
A thumb-sized stone drove straight into the wall.
Shen Ru tilted his head slightly. His deep red eyes, like bottomless pools of icy water, turned toward the other man, regarding him as though he were already dead.
Normally, a handsome face drew everyone's attention, but this man's presence and air of detachment were so strong that Shen Ru had merely glanced over him earlier without taking a closer look.
Those jet-black eyes likewise watched Shen Ru, calm and cold, their emotions unreadable and their depths impossible to gauge.
"If you kill him outright, that'll be a problem for me."
Mo Yu spoke in a low voice tinged with coldness. Though his tone was even, it made everyone's heart tighten.
As he spoke, Shen Ru's smile deepened. Provocatively, he pressed the disgusting man even harder into the floor and teased with keen amusement:
"Oh? You're interested in screwing men too?"
Rather than becoming angry, Mo Yu lowered his head and laughed.
"No. I just want to keep a chance for trial and error."
The moment he finished speaking, everyone in the room except Shen Ru turned deathly pale.
In the face of absolute strength, the only purpose of keeping either them or the bedraggled man alive was to serve as guinea pigs.
In stark contrast to the silence inside the convenience store, the livestream chat instantly erupted:
[Wait!! How did that newbie get over there and grab his neck just now??? Did anyone see???]
[Newbies shouldn't have awakened their special abilities yet, right?? He looks too weak to have come in with any special tricks.]
[Holy shit. All I can say is he's fucking unhinged!]
[Aaaaaah, finally someone who thinks like me! Also, can we get a shot of the guy who spoke last?]
A friendly reminder, darlings: antisocial personality disorder is only a character trait here. If you encounter someone like this in real life, call the police!!!!
Before you continue