Happiness Residential Complex

"Lucky new citizen of the Nightmare World, may the blessings of the Red Moon always be with you. Next, you will take part in another spectacular game, through which you will gain more experience and greater power. May you one day become a citizen truly sheltered by the Red Moon."

"The game is about to begin."

"Four... three... two... one..."

"This is Happiness Residential Complex, the residential complex with the highest happiness rating in the area. No crime has ever been discovered here, and no criminal has ever been publicly exposed. Here, you will experience the warmest family atmosphere and the most enjoyable community life."

"Welcome to Happiness Residential Complex. Everyone will receive a New Residents' Guidebook. Please be sure to read it carefully. The guidebook lists a few very simple precautions that may help you enjoy this game more fully, provided you can still remember them...

Rule one: for certain special reasons, you cannot leave Happiness Residential Complex at any time. For one of these special reasons, please refer to rule four.

Rule two: for certain special reasons, your relatives may not be your relatives, your lover may not be your lover, your friends may not be your friends, and you may not be yourself. For one of these special reasons, please refer to rule four.

Rule three: for certain special reasons, whoever you may be, please play your role properly during the game. For one of these special reasons, please refer to rule four.

Rule four: during this game, all residents of Happiness Residential Complex will experience varying degrees of memory confusion. In other words, you may forget that your relatives are not your relatives, your lover is not your lover, and your friends are not your friends. You may forget who you actually are, and you may even be unable to remember the contents of the New Residents' Guidebook. For your safety, however, we hope you can escape the predicament of memory confusion as soon as possible.

Rule six: all residents who survive for 48 hours in Happiness Residential Complex will clear the game and may choose to leave at any time.

Rule five, and the most important rule: in Happiness Residential Complex, human beings are the most precious of all. Humans are valued at 10 points each, while all other residents are valued at 1 point each. Each side has a total of 100 points. To maintain harmony and warmth within Happiness Residential Complex, humans must ensure that they retain a surplus of points. If their points fall too low, the other residents will become dissatisfied. Humans will bear responsibility for any consequences.

But... are humans really human?"

"Heh heh."

"Special reminder: the White Faction is currently at a disadvantage."

"Enjoy the game."

One Friday evening, a girl who looked about twenty walked through Happiness Residential Complex carrying her luggage. The complex presumably had an underground parking lot, as there were no roads aboveground, only lush green landscaping and pedestrian paths.

The girl walked along a shaded path through the complex, dressed in a simple T-shirt and jeans, her hair in two neat braids. A pair of glasses with slightly faded frames sat on her delicate face. Her nearsightedness was actually mild, but because of her temperament, wearing glasses always gave her a sense of security.

Somewhere in the complex, children were playing together, and she could faintly hear elderly residents gathered in conversation. The wind swept through the trees, carrying laughter along with its chill.

Just as Happiness Residential Complex advertised, this really was one big, warm, happy family.

The girl's name was Feng Ling. She was a freshman at Honghuai Normal University, and every Friday she returned to her home in Building Three of Happiness Residential Complex to spend the weekend with her parents.

At the thought of seeing her parents, Feng Ling felt both excited and a little apprehensive.

Why was she apprehensive?

Even Feng Ling herself did not know.

When she entered Building Three of Happiness Residential Complex, she saw a digital clock oddly positioned straight ahead in the ground-floor lobby. It displayed 19:44, which was perfectly normal, yet somehow strange. After all, the clock's red digits clashed with the rest of the lobby's decor. Feng Ling felt certain she had complained about it before; they ought to replace such a crude digital clock with an ordinary wall clock.

Just then, Feng Ling suddenly heard a soft chuckle nearby.

She followed the sound and saw a young man about her age standing in front of the elevator on the left. His style of dress was completely different from Feng Ling's plain clothes. He wore a black shirt with a subtle pattern, in what looked like the "new Chinese style" her fashion-conscious roommate was always talking about, paired with black trousers decorated with a silk scarf. His slightly wavy, long hair was loosely tied back, and he wore stud earrings and a black ribbon around his neck-a choker, if Feng Ling remembered her roommate's term correctly.

In short, he looked like one of those wealthy young men on campus who pursued fashion and an upscale lifestyle, and he was very good-looking.

The longer Feng Ling studied his profile, the more she wondered whether he might actually be a pretty girl who was rather tall and slender. Still, the chuckle she had just heard had definitely sounded male.

"Hello." The young man in black turned and greeted Feng Ling with a smile. His earlier chuckle did not seem to have been malicious.

Although Feng Ling was a young woman who had just entered the dazzling world of university life, she really was rather plain in her everyday habits. Once she saw him from the front, she could not resist a few more curious glances. His face looked even better from this angle, but... he was actually wearing a black eyepatch over his left eye?

Was... this fashion too?

"Does it look strange?" The young man in black even studied his own reflection in the elevator's metal doors, his expression a little helpless. "I didn't want to wear this, either. All I can say is that everything comes at a price."

Although Feng Ling did not know what he meant by "a price," she felt that he was a nice person, someone easy to warm to.

"No, not at all."

Feng Ling wanted to greet him too, but the elevator doors on the right had already opened. Since the right-hand elevator was closer to her home, she instinctively walked over.

Only when Feng Ling had one foot inside the elevator did she realize that the young man in black had not followed her. Instead, he was still waiting for the elevator on the left. When he noticed her looking and turned toward her, he smiled and waved.

Very friendly, but a little strange.

He was a stranger, after all. A very good-looking stranger, admittedly, but with so many residents in each building, even people living on adjacent floors might rarely meet. Once Feng Ling entered the elevator, she stopped thinking about him.

The elevator had metal walls on every side, and all their reflections showed Feng Ling alone.

After pressing the button for the sixth floor, Feng Ling lowered her gaze and spotted a hundred-yuan note on the elevator floor.

Unlike most people's reaction to seeing money, Feng Ling immediately took half a step back. Although her teachers had taught her since primary school to return any money she found, her grandmother had told her from an even younger age not to pick money up off the ground, not even a single cent.

Feng Ling's grandmother was a village spirit medium. She firmly believed that people sometimes deliberately left money in the road. If someone picked it up, the person who had left it could use that money to buy something from whoever found it.

It might be their luck, or it might be their lifespan.

Her grandmother's constant warnings throughout her childhood made Feng Ling instinctively avoid looking at the money in the elevator. She did not know whether it was an advertisement disguised as a banknote or whether someone had really dropped some money. But even if it was the latter, the person who had lost it would probably want it to stay where it was.

"Ding-"

The elevator doors opened on the sixth floor, revealing a brightly lit corridor with beige tiles on the walls and floor.

Although she had lived in Happiness Residential Complex since childhood, Feng Ling found the corridor before her somewhat unfamiliar. Perhaps university life had simply been too colorful and eventful.

It had only been a few days.

Feng Ling's family lived in Apartment 602. As she stepped out of the elevator, she glanced at the other elevator and saw that it had stopped on the fourth floor. That meant the young man in black she had met on the ground floor probably lived there.

Gathering her thoughts, Feng Ling rather awkwardly took her keys from her travel bag. For some reason, her heart was beating faster as she opened the door to Apartment 602.

"Creak-"

The moment Feng Ling opened her front door, she heard a steady thud, thud, thud. Her mother was probably chopping ribs in the kitchen again.