Chapter 150
Chapter 150
On the third day, the number of players abruptly fell to forty-three. No one expected the System to announce new game information.
[Friendly Reminder:]
[1. Human players may steal gold coins from one another. The System has publicly identified every player currently in possession of a gold coin.]
[2. Game duration has been updated to twenty-four hours.]
[3. Player bedroom doors can no longer be locked.]
[4. Two human players have now successfully cleared the special instance Vampires. Their method: murder a player and seize their coin.]
[The System wishes all players a pleasant game.]
Every player’s door opened automatically. The instant they did, unease spread throughout the corridor.
A chill rose in every player’s heart.
Then a girl screamed, and the entire place descended into chaos.
Those who had been murderers in the real world wore savage smiles. They knew that entering one of the four gods’ games meant almost certain death.
But the situation was different now. Players had already cleared the special instance, and the System had even announced the method they had used.
Murder and steal the coin.
Madness glittered in the lunatics’ eyes, every gaze brimming with bloodlust.
“Hahahaha!” they howled with laughter. “The God of the World favors us!”
One murderer raised a dagger and lunged at an innocent girl.
The player fled in terror, racing toward the main hall.
She knew that entering a game was now the safest option available to her!
The other players faced the same threat. Sooner or later, they would go mad too. The number of gold coins was already dwindling.
Not one of the five players locked in the Corpse Cage the previous night had survived.
They might become victims, or they might become perpetrators.
Only on the third day did they finally realize that this special instance was their nightmare.
And no one knew when that nightmare would end.
Xiao Huai was a light sleeper. When he heard the girl scream, he was not particularly surprised.
Something like this had been inevitable. The System would force the players forward.
If the players lost the will to keep playing, the game would naturally resort to even crueler methods to make them continue.
Those who had become despondent and refused to join a game were now forced to flee their rooms.
Some lunatics had already begun exploiting the game’s balancing mechanics to slaughter people indiscriminately.
They no longer cared that killing someone would turn each of them into a vampire. They had become utterly obsessed.
The fewer people remained, the greater the advantages they would receive.
And even if they became vampires, their odds of victory would only rise.
Players flooded into the main hall. To escape the lunatics, they entered random doors without caring what lay behind them.
At that moment, Xiao Huai’s door was pushed open.
Everyone knew he was player number one hundred and possessed a gold coin. Plenty of lunatics were bound to gang up on him.
But the person opening the door was Xiao Qian.
Green blood stained Xiao Qian’s body. A bewildered water-ghost monster lay sprawled on his head, its arms looped around his neck.
Xiao Qian looked thoroughly accustomed to it. He gave Xiao Huai a lazy yawn and said,
“Morning.”
Xiao Huai nodded.
Xiao Qian said, “On my way here, I saw a few lunatics charging toward your room with kitchen cleavers. Then they noticed my name tag glowing and decided to chop me up instead, so I dealt with them while I was at it. Don’t worry. They’re alive.”
Xiao Huai glanced at the name tag and the room number plate. Both were glowing gold.
That marked a player in possession of a gold coin.
Xiao Qian’s eyes shifted toward room number one, and his expression darkened. Several vampires and human players had gathered there.
Unlike everyone else, they wore brilliant smiles, with malice and madness concealed beneath them.
They did not take part in the killing. They simply watched the spectacle.
“Aside from those few, there’s no one else worth worrying about.”
The people in that group were sponsored by gods and possessed a supernatural ability.
Xiao Qian and Xiao Huai headed toward the main hall together.
The main hall was no refuge. It was merely the threshold of another hell.
The players would rather die in a god’s game than be inexplicably murdered by fellow players who had lost control.
There might have been only a handful of those lunatics, but the chaos they created was considerable.
Xiao Huai and Xiao Qian walked through one door, and several people behind them squeezed inside as well.
Once the game reached its player limit, it stopped accepting newcomers.
Anyone wishing to participate would have to wait for the next round.
Given the current situation, someone really might be victimized by the lunatics simply because they could not enter a game.
[Welcome to Ling Chen’s game world.]
[Game world loaded.]
[Ling Chen wishes all players a pleasant game.]
Xiao Huai raised his eyes. The System’s wording had changed. Instead of telling them to “enjoy your game to the fullest,” it said that Ling Chen wished them a pleasant game.
This god seemed somewhat different.
The darkness around them gradually receded as the game environment finished loading. The instant they realized where they were, everyone’s eyes widened.
Each of them had been locked inside an iron cage.
Like untamed beasts, they were surrounded by electrified fencing.
It seemed to warn them that disobedience would be punished.
Each iron cage had four wheels underneath it, yet some invisible force held it in place.
No matter how violently the people inside struggled, their cages did not move even half a millimeter.
There were seven players in total, divided among three separate cages.
Xiao Qian shared one with two girls, while a brown-haired, middle-aged man shared another with a man and woman who appeared to be husband and wife.
Only Xiao Huai occupied the final cage.
The sound of military boots approached from nearby, and light finally appeared in the dim surroundings.
In that light, they discovered that the ceiling was made of earth.
No. They were not aboveground, but beneath it.
This place was dark and damp. They were completely underground.
A long-legged young man in military boots slowly walked toward the players. His long black hair stirred faintly in the breeze, and he idly toyed with a commander’s cap.
Amusement glimmered in his violet eyes. At last, his gaze settled on Xiao Huai, who had been caged alone.
“Welcome. My name is Ling Chen, and from this point on, I am your commander. Obey me, and you’ll be out of here quickly. If you’re lucky, you may even receive a gold coin.”
He spoke with utter nonchalance.
The other players’ expressions had already turned uneasy. What did he mean when he said Ling Chen was their commander?
One of the girls caged with Xiao Qian asked softly, “Um… may I ask, if you’re our commander, then why have we been locked in cages?”
Ling Chen tilted his head slightly and touched his chin. “Did no one ever explain that to you?”
In the next instant, he moved to the girl’s cage too quickly for the naked eye to follow. A dangerous aura washed over them.
“Livestock naturally has to be transported in cages. Otherwise, it would be far too dangerous.”
Everyone fell silent and stared at Ling Chen.
Of all the gods, he was the one who treated human beings least like people, wasn’t he?