Chapter 32
Chapter 32
Chu Yue didn’t hesitate for long. Either choice would do.
In the end, his fingertip tapped one option.
[Loading Instance: “Deity Game”…]
[Game scene reconstruction complete. Waiting for matchmaking…]
Matchmaking?
At the sight of those two words, Chu Yue’s brow creased almost imperceptibly. His thoughts stirred-he didn’t know whether he’d run into Shen Yubi again this time.
[Matchmaking successful. Instance loading complete.]
[Welcome, Player Biyue, to the Nightmare Game]
As soon as he finished reading, his vision flashed white. A violent sensation of weightlessness hit, and his body toppled backward out of his control.
When he finally steadied himself again, the scene before him had already changed.
Meanwhile, Shen Yubi and Guan Doujin were staring blankly at that line of text when a pop-up window suddenly appeared.
[The Redeemer has entered the Level One Instance “Deity Game.” Would you like to follow?]
Guan Doujin glanced at it and immediately opened his System search. Sure enough, he saw the option that was currently in matchmaking.
Before Shen Yubi could choose, Guan Doujin tapped it, then swung back and tapped his own screen.
“Go, go. It’s only a Level One Instance. This mode’s a bit hard, but we can totally handle it. I want to see what that guy actually looks like,” Guan Doujin said with a couple of snickers, completely ignoring Shen Yubi’s glare.
Chu Yue stood where he was and looked around. It was still an empty clearing, with a stone tablet set into the ground. Compared to Li Ergou’s Instance, aside from the different environment, there wasn’t much else that had changed.
Only this time, standing on the stone tablet wasn’t a fox-it was a paper puppet.
A bright red cutout, trimmed into a tiny humanoid shape.
Crimson all over as it stood there, it looked a lot like a character from a shadow-puppet show.
It didn’t move, and it didn’t speak, but Chu Yue knew this thing couldn’t be taken lightly.
There were two other people by the stone tablet besides him, a man and a woman. He couldn’t tell whether they were newbies or Veterans.
Having only just entered this game, Chu Yue didn’t yet understand how it worked. It couldn’t be that Level Zero was all newbies and higher levels were all Veterans.
Then where had the Veterans in that previous Level Zero Instance come from?
When they saw Chu Yue appear out of nowhere, the two didn’t say anything. No crying, no screaming, no furious struggling.
Veterans, without a doubt.
Chu Yue sat down cross-legged not far from them. He more or less understood the general setup of this Instance.
From here, he could faintly make out the distance. This should be an ancient-setting Instance-the buildings far off were unmistakably traditional.
He didn’t wait long before another person showed up.
A young man in his early twenties. Just from that boyish face, you could tell he was a college student.
Same age as that so-called “good little brother” of his, but the aura he gave off was far, far more innocent.
“Where is this? How did I suddenly end up here?”
He looked around, completely dazed.
He scratched his head. “Am I… dreaming?”
Chu Yue didn’t answer. The young man muttered to himself for a while; his gaze flicked to Chu Yue and then quickly slid away.
In the end, he noticed the paper puppet standing on the stone tablet.
He walked over without much caution, lifted a finger, and poked.
“Why is there a paper puppet here?”
But the moment his fingertip touched it, the paper puppet dodged away.
“Hands off! You think I’m someone you can just touch?”
Chu Yue raised his eyes and saw the shock on the young man’s face.
“Th-the paper puppet talked!”
The paper puppet stretched its arms and legs. “Not only can I talk-I can beat you up too!”
As it spoke, it lifted a foot and kicked at the young man’s fingertip, over and over. It landed several rapid kicks in a row, yet it didn’t move that finger in the slightest.
Only then did the young man react, jerking his hand back like he’d been electrocuted.
“Holy shit!”
“Holy shit!”
“This dream is fucking insane!”
He turned toward Chu Yue. “Big bro, did you see that? This paper puppet came to life!”
Chu Yue still didn’t speak, but the woman among the other two couldn’t hold back a laugh.
“Kid, aren’t you misunderstanding something?” She stood up and walked toward him slowly. “You’re not dreaming. This isn’t your dream world. This place is real-and this paper puppet is real too.”
The young man didn’t believe her.
The woman was ruthless. Without another word, she raised her hand and slapped him across the face.
It left him stunned.
“Does it hurt?”
The young man nodded blankly. “Yeah. It hurts.”
“Then you’re not dreaming. This is a horror escape game world. Ever read novels? Do you know infinite flow? Horror stage-clearing?”
The young man shook his head. He didn’t know what she meant by those terms, but he understood the literal meaning.
And honestly, just knowing he wasn’t dreaming was enough-except now that he knew, he almost wished he didn’t.
The paper puppet that had looked kind of goofy a second ago instantly became terrifying.
If nothing else, that thing looked exactly like a prop ripped straight from a horror movie.
He stumbled back a few steps, shaking his head like a rattle drum.
“You’re lying. You have to be lying. Is this some prank show with civilians? Or did some tech bigshot pick me to be a game tester?”
“In your dreams!” The woman rolled her eyes hard. “Look at your face. If they wanted someone on TV, they’d pick a handsome guy or a beautiful girl. Which one are you?”
At that, Chu Yue glanced the young man over.
He wasn’t as hopeless as she made him sound. He was actually pretty good-looking.
The young man looked at all three of them one by one. In the end, for some reason, instead of choosing the woman who’d shown him a bit of friendliness, he dropped down next to Chu Yue.
“Big bro…”
Chu Yue: “It’s real.”
“Big bro…”
Chu Yue: “People really die.”
“Big bro…”
Chu Yue: “Wait.”
The young man: “…Actually, I just wanted to ask-if you’ve been sitting here the whole time, haven’t you noticed your butt’s kind of wet?”