"Don't be afraid. They like you, Yin Chao."
-Prologue
Yin Chao was woken by a burst of festive wedding music.
"You're finally awake. You'll almost miss the bride's wedding procession."
The bride's wedding procession?
Yin Chao shook his groggy head and glanced around at the dated furnishings, finally resting his gaze on the woman chattering away in front of him.
[Beep, beep. Storyline "The Wedding" triggered. Players must follow the storyline through to its ending. Remember: do not defy the ghosts' will.]
A mechanical voice suddenly sounded in his mind.
Yin Chao was bewildered. He hadn't yet figured out why he was here when he should have been in class, much less what those words meant.
Seeing Yin Chao sitting blankly on the edge of the bed without a word,
the woman began pacing anxiously around the room. Her head hung low, her expression twisted, and she kept repeating the same sentence.
"You'll almost miss the bride's wedding procession. You'll almost miss the bride's wedding procession..."
The air was thick with a damp, moldy smell.
Yin Chao frowned at the woman, who clearly wasn't normal. With little choice, he stood, stepped around her, and made to leave.
He pushed open the room's only wooden door just as a bright red bridal sedan chair passed outside.
Beating gongs and drums, the procession carried the swaying sedan chair forward.
Villagers crowded around to watch. Yin Chao stood on tiptoe to look over the crowd and spotted several people who were also looking around.
They wore modern clothes, completely out of place among the people around them.
After the sedan chair had gone some distance, a piercing scream suddenly rang out from a house.
Someone stumbled out of it.
The man wore a white shirt and suit trousers and looked to be in his early thirties.
"Where is this? You're a human trafficker! Aaaah! I'm calling the police! I'm calling the police!"
He shouted as he charged through the crowd, clutching his head and sobbing.
The lively wedding procession fell silent at once.
Every villager turned their head toward him in unison.
Their faces were expressionless, their dark pupils fixed on the man in the shirt. They looked as hollow and eerie as marionettes.
The fog-shrouded village became terrifyingly quiet.
Watching the spirit money drift through the sky, Yin Chao thought that without the festive music and bridal sedan chair, this really wouldn't look like a wedding.
...It would look more like a funeral.
The man in the shirt crouched on the ground. Something must have set him off; he clutched his head, oblivious to his surroundings, trying to shut out the world.
"He's going to anger the ghosts if he keeps this up."
Yin Chao heard a girl speak from the crowd nearby.
He looked in her direction and discovered that the young man beside her was watching him too.
"What's wrong, Xu Zhou?"
the girl asked.
The young man named Xu Zhou looked away and shook his head. "Nothing."
But he had never felt his heart lurch like it had just now. His instincts told him there was something extremely dangerous over there.
Was it that impossibly beautiful boy? Xu Zhou wondered.
"So we can only stand here and watch him get himself killed?"
the girl asked again.
Only then did Xu Zhou come back to his senses. He inwardly scoffed at his own jumpiness. This was only a B-rank instance. No dangerous figure could possibly be taking part. Perhaps he'd simply imagined it.
He frowned and reached out to pat the girl's shoulder reassuringly.
Then he walked through the villagers, who were frozen in place, and stopped in front of the man in the shirt.
Xu Zhou bent down and whispered in his ear, "Keep quiet if you want to live."
The man looked up at Xu Zhou in terror, only then realizing that something was wrong around him.
Xu Zhou was the only person there wearing modern clothes like his.
He fought to control his trembling body, then stood and nodded.
Xu Zhou stood firm and shouted to the bearers carrying the bridal sedan chair, "The auspicious hour has arrived! Lift the bride's sedan chair!"
Like robots whose switches had been flipped, the bearers' expressions instantly changed from stiff and wooden to lively.
The same went for every villager around them.
As though nothing had happened, the musicians resumed playing and the bearers resumed carrying the sedan chair. The atmosphere was festive and harmonious.
[Beep, beep. Storyline one complete. All players, please gather at the village chief's location.]
The mechanical voice sounded in his mind again.
Once the bridal sedan chair had passed, the watching villagers scattered.
Only the so-called "players" in modern clothes remained.
Yin Chao counted nine people, including himself: two women and seven men.
"What exactly is this place? Who are you people? Why am I here?" Seeing that he was safe for the moment, the man in the shirt asked agitatedly.
The girl who had suggested saving him stood beside Xu Zhou and answered, "This is a game world created by a god."
Perhaps her tone was too cheerful and flippant. The man broke down and began hurling abuse.
"Are you insane? What kind of joke is this?"
Looking displeased, Xu Zhou stepped in front of the girl. At six foot three, his burly frame loomed like a small mountain.
His gaze was cold as he looked at the man in the shirt. "You'd already be dead if it weren't for her. Watch your mouth."
Clearly intimidated, the man in the shirt took two steps back and fell onto his backside.
Seeing the tension, a smiling man stepped forward and obsequiously held out a hand to Xu Zhou. "I've long heard of the famous Mad Dog. I never expected to meet you in a B-rank instance."
Xu Zhou didn't spare the smiling man a glance. He turned and stood behind the girl.
The smiling man showed no embarrassment at the snub. Instead, he bowed toward the girl and offered her his hand. "They say Keeper is a little fairy as lovely as a flower. You must be her."
The girl curved her lips into a smile and replied sweetly, "Thank you. It's just an empty reputation."
But she still didn't take the hand the smiling man kept extended toward her.
Instead, she turned toward the frightened man in the shirt on the ground.
"It's only natural for newcomers to get upset their first time in this world. Xu Zhou and I grew up together, and he can't bear to see anyone bully me. Please forgive him."
She had a sweet face, and her words were deeply reassuring.
The man in the shirt gradually calmed down. He shook his head, silently got up from the ground, and apologized.
"My name is Fang Tang. Of course, the players all call me Keeper," the girl introduced herself.
"I-my name is Yang Fan," said the man in the shirt.
The smiling man maintained his flawless smile. "My name is Mo Nan."
Yin Chao didn't really remember the names of the next few people. He was looking curiously at a tightly shut door.
The wooden door was old, covered in dark green moss.
The moss nearest the ground was so green it was almost black, like thick black blood seeping out.
"What's your name?"
Only when Fang Tang asked him with a smile did Yin Chao realize that everyone except him had finished introducing themselves.
"My name is Yin Chao."
"Which characters do you use for Yin and Chao?"
the girl other than Fang Tang asked.
Yin Chao followed the voice with his gaze, and the girl's face instantly flushed red.
Everyone there understood. Yin Chao's looks were truly exceptional, after all.
Simply standing there, he was a picture in his own right, more beautiful than the polished celebrity photos crafted with lighting and styling.
"Yin is the character for 'lord' without the 'mouth' component. Chao is the character in 'morning sun,'" Yin Chao explained briefly.
The girl nodded shyly and murmured that she understood.
Xu Zhou looked at the nine people before him, his brows drawn tightly together. "This isn't right. We're missing someone."
Everyone hurriedly looked at one another and counted.
Mo Nan said, "There are only nine people here, but a B-rank instance has at least ten players."
Before you continue