Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Yu Lingling gave a soundless whistle. In an excellent mood, she held the flashlight in one hand and the rusty dagger in the other as she surveyed the area outside the cellar.

The house was small and badly dilapidated. Through the broken tiles in the roof, a lone blood-red moon hung in a starless sky.

By its dark crimson light, Yu Lingling examined the dust-covered room. In one corner stood a clay vat that had shattered in half and was draped in cobwebs.

The footprints on the floor varied in depth, with drag marks mixed among them. They had obviously been left by the man with the bad leg.

What Yu Lingling found strange was that there was only one set of footprints leading inside. That meant no one other than the dead man had entered this place – and it had been his first time here as well.

Then who had locked them in?

The viewers watching from behind their screens noticed Yu Lingling using the flashlight to inspect the footprints.

“Did she find something?”

“What’s she doing?”

Yu Lingling frowned slightly and grumbled in dissatisfaction, “This doesn’t make sense. How can there be only one set of footprints?”

Even if this was an illusion, it shouldn’t be so crudely made. It wasn’t realistic at all.

Once Yu Lingling was certain no one else would discover her escape anytime soon, she switched off the flashlight and put it away. “And this calls itself a Horror Game? What a shoddy, amateur-hour production.”

The chat fell completely silent at her words. It wasn’t until Yu Lingling nimbly climbed out through the broken window that a bold, black comment finally appeared.

“How dare she!”

How could this rookie player call the Horror Game – where countless people had died – an amateur-hour production?

Yu Lingling moved lightly, using the dark crimson moonlight to survey her surroundings.

This was a village enclosed by mountains. The road had long since been swallowed by weeds, which felt soft and clammy beneath her feet. In the depths of the night, the place seemed especially sinister, desolate, and terrifying.

The weeping and barking Yu Lingling had heard when she first woke now seemed almost like an illusion.

The hut where she had been imprisoned was built right against the mountain, with the deep wilderness directly behind it.

If an ordinary person had suddenly found themselves in such a place, their first instinct would have been to flee deeper into the mountains. Yu Lingling, however, did the exact opposite and headed toward the nearest courtyard.

If she had heard someone crying and a dog barking, there had to be people in this village.

As it happened, Yu Lingling was both fiercely curious and someone who always settled her grudges. She wanted to see exactly what this illusion called the Horror Game was – and which reckless fools had dared to lock her up.

The farther she ventured into the village, the colder it became. Despite the weeds covering the ground, there wasn’t a single chirp from an insect. The entire village was deathly silent. Rather than a village, it felt more like a graveyard.

The moment Yu Lingling reached the nearest courtyard, however, the entire village seemed to come alive.

Even through the earthen wall, she could clearly hear snoring from inside. A stench of mildew and rotting blood drifted out from the courtyard. It should have been nauseating, yet it carried an indescribable, cloying sweetness.

Yu Lingling didn’t recklessly knock on the door. Instead, she circled the courtyard. Her steps were so light that she made no sound at all as she walked over the weeds. After making her way behind the house, she found a small hole in the wall concealed by the overgrowth.

The hole wasn’t large, but it was wide enough for the young and scrawny Yu Lingling. She didn’t crawl through immediately, though. Instead, she took out the flashlight and set it on the ground. With a gentle push, it rolled inside along the floor.
Meanwhile, Yu Lingling clenched the dagger between her teeth and nimbly pulled herself onto the low wall. By the light of the moon, she surveyed the courtyard. Only after confirming that the snoring was coming from inside the house and that there was no danger in the yard did she put the dagger away.

The viewers watching from behind their screens could all guess what Yu Lingling intended to do.

“She’s really cautious.”

Cautious no longer quite covered it. Yu Lingling was practically paranoid.

Though it was called a low wall, it was still nearly two meters high. Yu Lingling had already picked out her landing spot while perched atop it. She jumped down and rolled to absorb the impact. Since she landed in the weeds, she was not only unhurt but had made almost no sound.

After getting to her feet, Yu Lingling first picked up the flashlight from the ground. She put it away, then drew her dagger again.

Once inside the courtyard, Yu Lingling heard labored breathing. She followed the sound.

It led her to a filthy chicken coop. There were no birds inside. Instead, a person was locked in it.

The gate was not locked, only barred with a branch as thick as a child’s arm. In one corner, a woman lay curled up on a bed of straw, shackled with an iron chain. What covered her body could hardly be called clothing – it was little more than strips of filthy cloth. She was emaciated, yet her belly bulged high. Her long, tangled hair clung to her face, hiding her features.

The rotting, bloody stench Yu Lingling had noticed was coming from her.

As if sensing Yu Lingling’s presence, the woman struggled to raise her head and look at her. She opened her mouth, but only faint whimpers emerged, so soft that Yu Lingling could barely hear them.

By the moonlight, Yu Lingling carefully examined the woman. When the woman opened her mouth, Yu Lingling saw that not only were all her teeth gone, but her tongue was missing as well.

That was not all. Both her legs were twisted at unnatural angles. Someone had clearly broken them.

Yu Lingling lowered her eyes slightly. The eager expression she usually wore whenever she anticipated something interesting vanished from her face.

Even if this was only an illusion, Yu Lingling was still angry. She gave the woman one last look, then turned and walked away.

In her current situation, there was no way she could save her. Even inside an illusion, if she – the primary personality – died, she would disappear, and the secondary personality would take control of their body.

She did not want to die yet.

That meant every enemy in this illusion would have to die instead.

Yu Lingling silently approached the house. She still remembered the illusion’s warning.

“Game Reminder: Do not make them angry.”

But this was no longer about whether they were angry.

Yu Lingling was angry now.

Judging by the breathing coming from inside, Yu Lingling determined that there were two people in the house. She used her dagger to pry open an old window and climbed inside. Once her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, she headed toward the room where the snoring was loudest.

The house was pitch-black, but Yu Lingling did not use her flashlight. Holding her breath and keeping her footsteps light, she crept to the head of the bed. The dagger in her hand slashed across the man’s throat with swift, ruthless precision.

The man clutched his throat with both hands. The instant he opened his mouth, the dagger plunged into it.

Yu Lingling twisted her wrist, reducing the inside of his mouth to a bloody pulp. As she pulled out the dagger, she shoved the flashlight into his mouth, muffling every sound he might have made.

At the same time, Yu Lingling pinned him down with her entire body and drove the dagger deep into his heart. She leaned close to his face and stared into his bulging, wide-open eyes. Her voice was soft, still carrying the childish lilt unique to someone her age.

“Once you’re dead, no getting angry, okay?”