The real world!

"No, seriously! Where the hell am I? Am I even still in the country?"

"Fuck! Where'd my three-hundred-square-meter mansion go?"

"My kid's still at home! This isn't funny at all!"

Woken by the clamor, Zuo Cheng'an found himself lying in an empty room, with two extra door keys in his pocket.

Apart from a shield and an axe, the room had only a door, not even a bed.

Where was this?

Before he could figure out what was going on, an argument outside drew Zuo Cheng'an's attention. He opened the door and walked out.

Outside was a very spacious corridor, with solid walls at both ends, like a sealed chamber.

Seven people had gathered in the three-meter-wide corridor, discussing things in a panic.

Their voices were what had woken Zuo Cheng'an.

The eight rooms along the corridor corresponded to eight people. It seemed the men and women, young and old, talking in the corridor were the occupants of these rooms.

After listening for a while, Zuo Cheng'an learned that everyone was in the same situation as him,

going about their own business one second and being transported here the next.

Thinking of the recent spate of "disappearances," Zuo Cheng'an knew they had probably become missing persons too.

At first, people had thought the disappearances were isolated cases, but as more and more people vanished in increasingly bizarre ways, they gradually began taking them seriously.

For example, someone in a dorm had heard their roommate get up to use the bathroom, but never heard them come back,

so they got up, jokingly cursing, "Daddy's bringing you toilet paper!" But when they reached the bathroom, it was empty.

When they went back to check the other roommates' beds, the people who should have been sound asleep in them had vanished too.

There were also sudden multi-car pileups with no one inside the vehicles responsible, and people who turned into alleys to take shortcuts and never came out...

There were countless similar cases of disappearances,

and those who had yet to vanish spent every day in fear, both hoping the "disappearance" would happen to them and get it over with, and praying they could live a little longer.

Now it seemed the people who vanished had not died, but had been pulled into a survival game.

Zuo Cheng'an was certain they had been pulled into a survival game because he saw the personal information panel before him,

[We regret to inform you that you have joined the World Survival Game. Please take clearing instances seriously and do your best to survive!!]

[Player: Zuo Cheng'an]

[Level: Not yet on the ladder]

[Sanity: 97/100]

[Constitution: 6]

[Strength: 5]

[Speed: 7]

[Items: Newcomer support gift pack ×1]

[Skills: None]

--

Suppressing his shock, Zuo Cheng'an opened the {Newcomer support gift pack} in his inventory with a thought,

and after a dazzling flash of white light, what appeared was a jumble of garbled characters!

[Congratulations! You have obtained: *u0026#!!ERROR!!￥]

[System repair in progress...]

[Repair failed!]

[System repair in progress...]

[Repair successful!]

[Congratulations! You have obtained the World Survival Game's unique skill: Eye of Truth!]

After a string of blood-red error pop-ups, Zuo Cheng'an's panel finally returned to normal.

He checked it again and confirmed that nothing had changed except the addition of "Eye of Truth" to his skill list.

No! Something had changed.

In Zuo Cheng'an's eyes, beside him and around each of the people discussing things in the corridor,

there floated an eyeball trailing a long, thin blood vessel!!

He was absolutely certain that before he had obtained "Eye of Truth," there had been no eyeballs beside these people!

Just then, lines of floating text appeared in Zuo Cheng'an's field of vision,

[Huh? Look what I found!? A newcomer livestream! Seriously, Everbright Technology, another batch of newcomers, and you didn't even notify your esteemed VIP members!]

[I'm early. Too many people. Guess they haven't started dying off yet.]

[This batch of newcomers looks pretty average. Which instance is this? If it's too hard and they all get wiped out, that'll be no fun.]

[It's just an easy level 1 instance anyway. They even give you free weapons at the start. Even an idiot could clear it.]

Just as the comments appeared, Zuo Cheng'an saw the eyeball following a girl in a short-sleeved school uniform move!

Waving the long blood-vessel tail behind it, it approached the girl's face for a close-up,

while the girl in the short-sleeved school uniform remained completely unaware, still discussing ways to leave with the others.

With one eyeball occupied, many complaints appeared among the floating comments,

[Level 1 instances barely have any cameras as it is! And you took one away for a close-up! We want a wide shot!]

[I've got money, so what? Rent yourself a camera if you can afford it!?]

Zuo Cheng'an finally understood what these eyeballs did. They were used to watch the players!!

--

[Eye of Truth]

[Category: Passive skill]

[Effect: See the real world.]

[Restrictions: None]

[Description: Someone must break the shackles.]

--

Eye of Truth... the real world?

Was this the real world?

Humans were nothing but clowns performing for the amusement of certain beings!??

When Zuo Cheng'an saw his own panel, the others gathered in discussion also saw theirs,

and after learning they could no longer go back and had truly become "missing persons" in the public's eyes,

a woman dressed like a housewife covered her face and sobbed. Before being pulled into the game, she had been cooking in the kitchen. She did not know whether her child had cried upon discovering she was missing, or whether they had turned off the gas stove.

An honest-looking man in plain clothes also clutched his backpack in silence. Before entering the game, he had been at a bank ATM, and the bag held the money for his mother's surgery.

But the World Survival Game would not give anyone time to compose themselves.

[Instance: Screaming Night]

[ID: 1-2441]

[Objective: Stay alive.]

[Time limit: Seven days (game time)]

[Hint: Hunters will appear in the corridor after dark. Intact room doors can provide a certain degree of protection.]

[Five minutes until nightfall.]

The eight people in the corridor discovered that the bricks in one wall had vanished, replaced by a huge carved window.

Strangely, the carvings on windows were usually decorative, but the patterns on this window depicted three monkey-like creatures, each uglier than the last.

What lousy taste.

Nor was there a street or any other natural scenery outside the window as they had hoped,

only a pure white light that revealed nothing beyond telling them it was currently "daytime."

At that moment, a rather mature-looking man in a suit stepped forward:

"I'm sure everyone heard the game's voice. We're in the same instance, so we're teammates fighting together.

"Since that's the case, why don't we get to know one another while it's still 'daytime' and learn what everyone's items do? That way, we can support each other and clear this together."

The man in the suit had a simple, honest face that looked very convincing.