Tick, tock, tick...
The rhythmic jumping of the clock's hand echoed through the empty space.
"My head hurts so much..."
"Hello, excuse ... where is this?"
"Sorry, I don't really know either..."
'Where am I?'
'Shouldn't I be... dead?'
As Lin Ya blearily regained consciousness, she instantly felt the lingering, burning pain radiating from her chest.
"Cough... cough! Cough, cough, cough—"
It felt as though she had inhaled boiling gravel. She could not stop the violent fit of coughing.
The instinctive reaction to the relentless coughing caused tears to stream down her face. Every spasm carried the residual sensation of death, her tears instantly blurring her vision... This was not fear, but rather the body's most primal instinct.
She covered her mouth tightly, shrinking her shoulders in a desperate attempt to make herself smaller while nervously and timidly surveying her surroundings.
The room looked sowhat like a luxurious hotel banquet hall, bathed in slightly dim, warm-toned lighting. At a glance, the space was vast enough to comfortably hold over forty tables.
Yet, within this massive area, there was only a single round table placed right in the center. The sheer emptiness of the room sparked a gnawing panic in her chest.
The only other feature was a pitch-black door adorned with chained patterns.
It had no doorknob and could only be pushed outward. It also looked exceptionally heavy.
As far as the eye could see, there was absolutely nothing else—no sofas, no sideboards, no windows, and no second door.
Lin Ya was sitting in one of the seats at this round table.
Twelve people were seated around it, positioned perfectly like the numbers on a clock face.
If the seat closest to the black door was designated as the 'six o'clock' position at the bottom, then Lin Ya was sitting at two o'clock.
Ample heat radiated from deep within the thick, soft carpet, but this warmth failed to dispel the creeping chill in her heart.
A dozen shadowy figures sat around the table, each wearing a different expression. So looked dazed, others helpless, so restless, and others completely silent.
The loud ticking of the giant hand still resounded through the void, slicing away at everyone's sanity.
"...I... fuck... what... what the hell is this?"
A terrified, almost cracked shriek suddenly exploded!
Everyone's gaze snapped over imdiately, and soone even reached out a hand to stop him.
But they were half a step too late. No one saw what he had just been looking at, so no one knew exactly what he had seen.
"Don't touch !"
The short man scread, his entire body trembling like a leaf in the wind as a ragged, gasping sound tore from his throat.
His eyes swept frantically across the table before locking onto the four copper-red circular chips resting directly in front of him.
As if possessed, he suddenly doubled back, snatched the chips, and stuffed them into the pocket of his hospital gown.
Then, he turned and ran!
Using every ounce of his strength, he charged toward the only door in the room!
The door was heavy and cold, covered in chain reliefs, but completely lacking a handle. The short man threw his body against it, his face flushing crimson before he finally managed to push it open just a crack.
Beyond the gap, there was nothing but an impenetrable, suffocating darkness.
Without a second thought, the short man slipped through the crack like a loach.
He lted into the dark.
As the door slowly closed automatically, the chaotic sound of his footsteps vanished instantly.
He had escaped.
After a brief silence, an even louder uproar erupted.
Extre panic boiled over like rolling water, exploding all at once!
"...What's going on? Did he... did he just go out?"
"Have we been kidnapped? No, we must have been!"
"That's not right, I rember... is this a dream?"
Chaotic whispers and screams intertwined.
No one knew the people sitting next to them, yet in that mont, sharing their confusion and unease seed like their only option.
Lin Ya's heart pounded wildly in her chest.
Suppressing her terror, she looked across the empty seats at the man in the suit and glasses at table four. He appeared remarkably calm. Her voice carried an imperceptible tremble. "Brother... should we... try it too?"
The bespectacled man in the suit glanced at her but did not speak.
However, other voices imdiately chid in.
"Are we just going to wait here to die? Let's charge out together, the door isn't locked!"
"What if soone is guarding the outside?"
"In novels, there are death traps outside. If you go out, you get killed by lasers..."
"And I say the traps are inside the room. Read fewer s!"
The argunts grew more intense, yet no one dared to leave alone like the short man had just done.
But right at the mont the bickering reached a boiling point.
Knock, knock, knock.
A sudden knocking sounded from the other side of the heavy door.
As if soone had pressed the mute button, the clamor in the room stopped abruptly.
In the deathly silence, only the fatal ticking of the clock remained.
Knock, knock, knock.
The intervals were precise, the force was steady, neither hurried nor slow.
It felt as though it was hamring directly against everyone's skulls.
There was soone outside the door!
"A... a ghost knocking?" A dark-skinned old man cried out in terror.
"...Is it that young man from just now coming back?"
A middle-aged woman wearing round gold-rimd glasses, who looked like a teacher, could not help but ask, almost as if she were trying to comfort herself.
'No, absolutely not!'
Lin Ya's heart sank.
Even though they had only interacted for a split second, she had already grasped that man's psychological profile.
His flight from the room had been sudden and entirely unplanned, displaying classic traits of high impulsivity.
If he were knocking on the door, it would be much more frantic, irregular, and the gaps between the knocks would not be this long.
'Could this be so kind of opportunity...?'
Having died once perhaps truly made a person bolder.
Lin Ya hesitated for a mont before standing up to open the door.
Right before opening it, her face instantly morphed into a ticulously practiced, highly deceptive smile—sweet, harmless, full of a young girl's innocence and naivety.
She was quite pretty, possessing an incredibly endearing baby face that gave her the aura of a good child.
To judge a book by its cover was human nature, and it was her most flawless sword of deception.
"Hello—"
She deliberately softened her voice, adding just the right touch of childish confusion as she threw her entire body weight into pushing that heavy, icy black door.
Unexpectedly, the door was not that heavy.
As the resistance suddenly vanished, her vision brightened.
It was completely different from before—now standing at the doorway, the scene outside was suddenly crystal clear.
As the sights beyond crashed into her view, the smile on Lin Ya's face froze solid.
Outside the door was a completely desaturated world.
It was as if soone had turned the saturation down to zero and muted all the sound.
A torrential downpour cascaded like diluted ink, and the lightning flashing through the dark clouds was as pale as bone, yet there was no rumble of thunder. Dead, gray-trunked willow trees with black leaves lined both sides of a desolate, empty street.
Dead silence. Voiceless. Black and white.
The vibrant, normal world of the living was long gone.
And the place they were in did not seem to be a hotel banquet hall either... but rather the empty shell of a manor villa.
In this entire world, only this manor retained its bright, vivid colors—the green grass, the clear fountain, the marble cherubs, and those bright yellow walls. It was eerily warm, so jarringly out of place that it was suffocating.
And the person knocking on the door stood calmly against this backdrop straight out of a painting of hell.
'An NPC, a boss? Or... the sort of sadistic Host you always see in these death gas?'
Lin Ya's heart hamred frantically against her ribs. She forced herself to look up at this 'suspicious individual'.
He had slightly ssy black curls and wore black-frad glasses. He was quite tall, at least one point eight five ters. Right now, his face bore an indescribable smile... one tinged with a bizarre sense of delight.
Although he also wore glasses, his aura was entirely different from the man in the suit inside the room.
His age was hard to pin down. His handso face featured the sharp contours of a movie star and his skin was taut, but those eyes behind the lenses and the invisible pressure radiating from him scread danger—deep, commanding, and scrutinizing from on high.
Realizing they were about to make eye contact, Lin Ya instinctively lowered her gaze, scanning the dark gray scarf around his neck and his off-white, slim-fit double-breasted short trench coat...
Suddenly, she held her breath.
Normally, a person's shoes—their style, wear, and dirt—hold a wealth of information. That was why Lin Ya always glanced down at a stranger's shoes upon eting them; avoiding eye contact also lowered her own perceived aggression.
However...
At this mont, Lin Ya clearly saw the corpse of the short man who had just run out, lying quietly at this man's feet like a bag of trash.
The blood covering his head and face had already congealed into a dark crimson. The body was breaking down and weathering at a visible rate, turning into countless specks of black ash.
And on the tip of the knocker's leather shoe, there were several glaring, still-wet drops of scarlet!
They looked almost like so sort of artistic pattern.
A chill shot straight from the soles of Lin Ya's feet to the crown of her head.
She gasped for air rapidly, like soone having an asthma attack, her fingers trembling uncontrollably.
She jerked her head up, once again colliding with the face hidden behind the glasses, and actually managed to read a hint of ferocity in it, like a starving wolf.
"Shh..."
The man pressed a long, slender finger gently against his lips, making a hushing gesture.
The silent warning wrapped around Lin Ya's neck like a cold, venomous snake.
'Run... run back inside!'
But right at that mont—
She saw the man's left hand slowly pull sothing out of his trench coat pocket.
It was a red chip that looked as though it had been forged from flowing magma, wisps of visible, scorching white smoke rising from its surface.
Smiling, he slowly offered this boiling chip to Lin Ya.
"Aren't you going to invite in?"
His deep, magnetic voice rang out. "This 'ga' should be... missing exactly one person, right?"
Lin Ya's heartbeat spiked.
'Take it!'
The thought burst into her mind.
She suddenly realized what the dead silence behind her ant.
The others definitely could not see the hellish landscape outside the door, nor could they see the corpse turning to ash, otherwise, they absolutely would not be this quiet!
If she shut him out—assuming she even could—this abnormal behavior would surely cause the people behind her, who had not seen the truth, to lose trust in her. Once she beca the center of attention, it would be much easier to beco a target.
Conversely, the information from outside gave her a few 'chips' she might be able to trade with the others.
Right now, she and this man shared a 'mutual secret'. With this initial tacit understanding, it would be easier to form a secret alliance, which might just turn out to be an advantage.
An opportunity!
Thus, Lin Ya made her decision. She discreetly reached out and carefully touched the scalding, red-hot chip.
Before she had even fully pinched it, the magma-like chip rapidly cooled and solidified.
Lin Ya calmly hid the cold chip inside the sleeve of her pajamas.
"...Indeed, sir."
Lin Ya did not spare another glance at the corpse on the ground. Her voice returned to its obedient sweetness as she submissively stepped back to make way. "Please co in."
She cautiously used a more distant and respectful term of address.
Perhaps the man in front of her would share a bit of understanding with her because of this? Who knew.
What Lin Ya did not know was...
The instant she offered her invitation.
The invisible, transparent, and sturdy barrier before Ming Po's eyes—the one separating 'players' from 'non-players'—shattered completely, like broken glass!
The thick darkness that had been blocking his line of sight instantly receded, revealing the luxurious interior decor and the eleven terrified, restless figures inside.
'Ah, finally...'
The corners of Ming Po's mouth curved up slightly, his eyes crinkling.
'I see you all now.'
The shock that suddenly blood on their faces proved that they had also finally 'seen' him.
At the sa ti, the abnormal heat radiating from the three chips in his pocket—chips that had been as hot as burning coals, radiating intense pain upon re contact—instantly dissipated, turning them cold and ordinary.
'...Just as I thought.'
'Is one only recognized by this "ga" after receiving a personal invitation from a "player"?'
Thoughts whirled rapidly through Ming Po's mind as his gaze swept imperceptibly over Lin Ya's uneasy yet fawning face.
'Hah, I'm the only one unqualified?'
A full twelve people were inside the room, and only Ming Po had been left outside.
If soone had not accidentally opened this door, he would never have had the right to participate in this ga; Ming Po did not even have any starting chips...
Fortunately, that idiot who tried to kill him the mont he showed up had left him a gift.
What a pitiful, frail creature, even dirtying his leather shoes.
Ming Po looked at the only empty seat at the round table and nodded slightly in a polite manner.
Expressing his gratitude for that unknown gentleman's selfless dedication.
Tap, tap.
His hard-soled shoes stepped onto the wooden floor, making crisp sounds. Just like when he had knocked on the door, the intervals were uniform and unhurried.
"It's right here, sir..."
Lin Ya led the way, instinctively turning her head to et Ming Po's eyes.
But right then.
She suddenly noticed... Ming Po's previously unconcealed, brilliantly cheerful expression had, at so unknown point, morphed into a gentle smile exactly like her own.
It was as if... he had always been this gentle and harmless.
"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here..." Ming Po whispered at a volu so faint that only this woman in the fuzzy nightgown, who looked like a little white rabbit, could hear. "That's written on the wall outside the door. Do you know where it's from?"
The woman did not speak, but Ming Po noticed it—her eyes, swimming with a mixture of fear, disbelief... and a hint of excitent.
Was that the fear brought on by anxiety... and the excitent of confirming an alliance?
'Truly excellent.'
Ming Po rubbed the engraved chip in his pocket, glancing at the closing door with an unfathomable smile.
Although he still had not rembered who he was or why he was here, everyone in this room—probably even himself included—didn't seem to be anything good.
This was simply... wonderful.
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