Chapter 1: After the 999th Clearance
"Big brother, play with me."
The 999th time.
This was the 999th time Zheng Xun heard this line.
Zheng Xun lowered his gaze as a little girl in red, standing only as high as his waist, looked up and flashed a stiff smile.
The little girl wore a red cloak, a hood concealing the top of her head, two braided pigtails dangling beside her ears, leather shoes, and white short socks, with a bamboo basket carried on her right arm. Aside from an exceptionally pale complexion, she looked no different from a normal child.
Yet Zheng Xun knew that in fifteen minutes, this little girl's face would split from the center into four petals, resembling an evil, blooming magical flower, every petal's edge lined with sharp teeth while its center spat out a thorny foreign object like a stamen or a tongue!
She had a name: Little Red Riding Hood.
As the final boss of this instance, she disguised herself as a harmless NPC right from the start of the game, lurking beside the player to help them decrypt and provide various hints.
Only after the final scene, "Grandmother's Cottage", appeared would she tear off her false exterior to reveal her true face, devouring the player until not even a scrap of bone remained!
Ordinary players would truly be deceived by her cute and innocent appearance. The moment they reached the cottage and saw the pretty little girl transform into a giant troll-man-eating-flower, nine out of ten would be scared out of their wits.
Yet Zheng Xun, having cleared the game 999 times, felt no fear whatsoever.
Far from being afraid, he was even somewhat numb.
"Big sister," Zheng Xun said, on the verge of tears, "you've killed me 142 times, and I've killed you 857 times. All things considered, we're even. Can you let me go to the next level?"
Little Red Riding Hood blinked her round, expressive eyes.
"What is big brother saying? I don't understand."
"..."
This foolish NPC had no extra voice pack installed; whenever the player spoke a bit too much, it failed to parse and would only reply with "I don't know".
Zheng Xun let out a long sigh, resigned himself to his fate, and walked a few steps to the front right.
His current location was the player's resurrection point, which was the game's starting line. Here, novice players initiated a dialogue with the NPC Little Red Riding Hood, who would guide the player to claim a weapon.
A storage cabinet was placed to the front right of Zheng Xun, serving as the "weapon rack".
The storage cabinet was divided into upper and lower sections that connected internally, the upper half covered by transparent glass and the lower half featuring solid wood cabinet doors. It looked utterly ordinary, but it actually contained hidden wonders.
Spiked clubs, iron axes, person-high scythes... everything was available.
There were ten different weapons in total, and Zheng Xun had long since tested them one by one.
He picked up the most inconspicuous inflatable hammer in the corner.
This inflatable hammer was about 1.5 meters long, decorated in the pink paint favored by tough guys, with two symmetrical star logos on the hammer head, and it even made a squeaking, playful sound when struck.
A children's toy that no normal player would ever choose.
Zheng Xun, who had cleared the game close to a thousand times, naturally had his reasons for choosing it. The inflatable hammer was light in weight and easy to use; the crucial part was that after lifting the cap at the very bottom of the handle, there were buttons for "Normal/Enhanced" modes to switch between. This was a secret Zheng Xun discovered during his 458th playthrough.
However, switching modes required three seconds, which had to be calculated carefully during combat. The inflatable hammer in enhanced mode weighed thousands of catties, and its effect could only be unleashed if he switched modes while executing a downward hammering motion with both hands, otherwise he would strain his lower back.
This was a combat skill Zheng Xun mastered only after straining his lower back three hundred times.
With weapon in hand, the player was ready.
Little Red Riding Hood trotted over in her leather shoes, patter-patter-patter.
"Hello, strange big brother, could you please do me a favor? I am Honghong who lives next door in the Lucky Residential Complex, and Mother wants me to visit Grandmother who lives in the Happiness Residential Complex. I..."
Little Red Riding Hood's voice suddenly grew muffled because Zheng Xun pinched her nose with one hand.
Her eyes.
And her mouth.
Then he put his hand behind his back.
"Why is there no way to skip the cutscene?"
Little Red Riding Hood: ...
After a suspicious NPC stutter, she continued recounting the background story.
Zheng Xun was so bored he picked at his fingernails.
There was no help for it; having tested it several hundred times, NPC dialogues could not be skipped, otherwise he could shorten his clearance time even further.
Finally waiting for the last line, "Then let's set off," Zheng Xun shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, zooming away with a whoosh.
The Little Red Riding Hood instance was divided into three main scenes: the street, the staircase, and Grandmother's Cottage.
The monsters in the first two scenes were not particularly difficult, more than enough for a novice. What made it perverted was that the third scene, Grandmother's Cottage, actually contained three bosses: the wolf, the grandmother, and the final boss Little Red Riding Hood. The three bosses disguised themselves individually, and there was a specific kill order. Novices had to first see through their identities, then defeat them one by one, and finally guard against the "fatal blow given by the 'innocent' Little Red Riding Hood."
Yet all of this posed no problem in the eyes of Zheng Xun, who had cleared the game 999 times.
He sped through the street, slaying three Human-Faced Wolf Spiders respectively at the second, seventh, and ninth intersections, stood at the steamed bun stall on the street corner listening to the boss yammer on for a long time to obtain half an old photograph, and acquired the other half at the bulletin board.
Entering the stairwell, he lowered his body and squeezed into the third-floor water vat to evade the Hanged Woman's pursuit. Only after she wandered back and forth four times did he climb out of the vat, head up to the fourth floor, and enter Grandmother's Cottage.
Inside the cottage, a pair of true and false grandmothers greeted Zheng Xun and Little Red Riding Hood with sinister smiles. Zheng Xun waited for them to finish their giggling-there was no help for it, as this was also part of the script.
Then, without even needing to piece together the clues, he pointed at the one on the left and said, "You are the wolf," and the one on the right and said, "You are the deceased grandmother," giving each a hammer.
"And you."
Zheng Xun turned around and came face-to-face with Little Red Riding Hood, her maw gaping like an abyss. He shoved an inflatable hammer into her mouth.
The game was over.
The old scenery around him crumbled like a sandcastle and slowly faded away.
In the silent darkness, a glowing path stretched ahead. It was a narrow, long road, like a thin thread suspended above an endless abyss. One wrong step, and he would be doomed forever.
But after walking it 999 times, Zheng Xun could have made it to the end with his eyes closed.
Just like before, on his thousandth attempt, Zheng Xun stepped onto the path, walking along with a sigh.
In his previous life, he'd worked 007 overtime and died suddenly. When he woke up, he'd found himself in this damned place. He'd cleared the game a thousand times and still had no idea what the point was. He might as well go to hell.
Could he already be in hell?!
Otherwise, why would he be tortured over and over?!
The thought startled Zheng Xun. One moment of distraction, and his legs went weak. He immediately felt himself rise into the air.
Huh?
Aaaah-
Zheng Xun screamed as he fell into the boundless darkness. After an unknown amount of time, he felt himself slam hard into the ground, and he was dazed for a long while.
"Are you okay?"
He vaguely heard someone speaking.
He thought he was imagining it. When his vision cleared, everything around him was still familiar.
The gloomy sky, the deserted long street, and, in the silence, only a few mournful bird calls.
"Whew, so I'm back at the respawn point."
Zheng Xun felt relieved, yet disappointed. He prepared to begin his 1001st hunt for Little Red Riding Hood.
But this time, something was a little different.
He stared warily at the nine strangers in front of him.
"Who are you?"
The nine people wore different clothes. There were men and women, and they didn't look like they were together. They all looked nervous, too.
A girl in a tracksuit answered timidly.
"We're... all players. Aren't you?"
Players?
New players!
Zheng Xun's eyes lit up, making the girl opposite him think he was going to eat her.
"Don't be afraid." Zheng Xun raised a hand to show he meant no harm. "I just haven't seen any living people in a long time."
"..."