A soft ding rang out—[Fear Points 1]
Fu Yan had barely wrapped up a day's work when his vision went dark and a cold, tallic sound rang out right by his ear.
[Welco to the Horror Survival Ga!]
When the world ca back to him, he found himself sitting on a single bed.
A semi-transparent bracelet had appeared on his left wrist.
As he tapped on it, a status panel blinked into existence.
The panel read:
[Player Notice.]
[Congratulations, dear player. If you can see this screen, you're already well on your way to dying.]
[This is a large-scale real-life horror survival ga. Our mission statent is simple: no one makes it out alive.]
[The only way back to the real world is to gather all eighty-one puzzle pieces. If you kick the bucket in an instance dungeon, too bad—you will die in real life too.]
[The ga is about to begin. Worst of luck~]
"Horror survival ga?" Fu Yan mouthed the words.
He'd heard of this ga before. Its reputation back in his world was, to put it charitably… not exactly impressive.
Swiping through the panel, he found his personal stats displayed on the next page.
[Player Na: Fu Yan]
[Ga Experience: 0]
[Sanity: 0]
[Luck: 0.01]
[HP: 100]
[Talent: Unknown]
[Weapon: None]
[Overall Rank: F]
[Puzzle pieces: 0]
[Player stats are only visible to the player.]
That luck stat. Ha. One might almost call it a complint.
Scrolling further, Fu Yan reached the instance dungeon information section below.
[Instance Dungeon: Who Do You Trust?]
[Mode: Solo]
[Level: Newcor]
[Difficulty: ☆☆☆☆☆]
[Instance Dungeon Objective: Kill the Liar (the non-human)]
[Rule: The dead may not kill the culprit]
[Instance Dungeon information visible to all viewers in the livestream.]
[Friendly Reminder: This instance dungeon is livestread in its entirety. In consideration of player privacy, bodily needs (eating, drinking, using the bathroom) will be suspended for the duration. Players are kindly asked to refrain from any obscene or violent conduct. Any such conduct, however, will be broadcast uncensored.]
Once he'd read the whole panel, Fu Yan's attention drifted briefly to his fear points.
There they were: [Fear Points: 139]. They were carried over.
A horror movie NPC by profession, Fu Yan spent his working hours playing ghosts, zombies, serial killers, monsters, and unassuming psychopaths, collecting fear points from audiences during his performances.
Fear points could be used to enhance personal abilities.
In a world completely overrun by terrifying entities, only the strong had any real hope of protecting themselves.
His world, having been put through the wringer by wave after wave of purges from terrifying entities across its history, had produced a population with broadly elevated horror tolerance. In plain terms, they didn't scare easily.
A month of hard work could go by and leave him with fewer than ten fear points.
Consequently, a paradoxical mix of envy and scorn colored their view of this lower-level dinsion, where a simple shout could send locals into a terrified frenzy.
He didn't know what had co over this inferior ga system but here he was, dragged inside.
Still, the fact that his fear points had co with him proved that the two dinsions ran on the sa points system.
And so, he could rack up points here to level up relentlessly.
Oops! He seed to have inadvertently stumbled across the ultimate cheat code, and since the ga extended such a warm welco, he fully intended to exploit it.
Fu Yan took a good look at the vicinity right after he shut down his status panel.
Faded, yellowing posters clung to the walls of the aging bedroom, while a tangled heap of dark blue blankets rested on the mattress.
On the nightstand sat a frad portrait capturing a middle-aged couple and their two sons.
The youngest, no older than eight, sported two small dimples on his cheeks.
The older brother, in his mid-twenties, had light brown eyes and a high nose bridge, mirroring Fu Yan perfectly right down to the exact design of the suit he wore.
Did he just beco sobody's kid?
A sudden, jarring creak broke the silence as the door swung open just after Fu Yan set the picture down. A timid little boy bundled in a scarf and a floral padded coat peeked through the gap.
Arching a brow, Fu Yan simply stated, "Co in."
Sliding into the room through the crack, the kid greeted him ekly, "Big Bro."
"Need sothing?" Fu Yan asked.
Fidgeting with his hands, a look of sheer panic crossed the boy's face as if replaying a nightmare.
After a long pause, he finally gathered his courage, leaned near Fu Yan's ear, and murmured conspiratorially, "Big Bro, when I went to the bathroom last night, I saw the light on in Mom and Dad's room. I got curious and peeked through the door, and... and I saw... Dad strangled Mom with his tie, and he hid her body in the closet..."
Having dropped the bombshell, the boy stared anxiously at Fu Yan, drained of color and shivering with fright.
“Oh.” Fu Yan simply nodded, acknowledging the grim news.
When Fu Yan didn't react, the boy grew desperate, convinced his brother doubted his story. "It’s real, Big Bro! I swear! Co with ! I'll show you."
With that, he grabbed Fu Yan’s sleeve and tugged him toward the door.
Fu Yan allowed himself to be led, following the boy all the way to the parents’ bedroom.
The boy huddled behind Fu Yan and pointed a shaking finger at the stained, peeling closet. "Mom's body is inside," he whispered, paralyzed with fear.
He took one look at the boy, strode forward, and caught the edge of the closet door with his index finger to pull it open.
Suspense gripped the livestream audience as they collectively stopped breathing, their minds racing with fearful anticipation about what was inside the closet.
[Bad vibes begone! Bad vibes begone! Bad vibes begone!]
[A friendly reminder to my fellow horror buffs behind the screen: you are actually allowed to breathe while watching.]
[Well, well, let's see which poor rookie got stuck with the 'Who Do You Trust’ instance dungeon this ti. He’s so dead.]
[What's so special about this instance dungeon?]
[Luck was on your side if you didn’t get this ‘Newbie Death Trap' when you entered the ga. It is reserved for first-tirs, and so far, nobody has ever escaped it alive.]
[Even the most seasoned veterans haven't managed to crack the underlying clear conditions of this dungeon.]
[Wait, so what’s in the closet? Is opening it an automatic death sentence?]
[No spoilers allowed; just keep watching and you'll find out soon enough.]
As Fu Yan swung the door open, he found nothing but a few lonely garnts and so stray hangers; the corpse the boy described was nowhere to be seen.
Staring at the vacant space, the boy’s brow furrowed in utter confusion as he breathed, "It can't be... I definitely saw..."
A raspy, frigid voice cut through the silence from behind their backs, asking, "What are you two looking for?"
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