chapter 1

Midnight.

Qin Nan received a private message. The content was an unknown link.

He moved the mouse, the cursor settling over the X in the top-right corner. His fingertip clicked the left button-yet the page jumped on its own, switching to a video.

It looked like a movie. In the upper-left corner of the screen were the words: Death Crew.

The film opened with someone plummeting from a great height. A “bang” sound effect hit, and a mangled, bloody corpse was zoomed in until it filled the entire screen.

“What the hell!” Qin Nan, completely unprepared, was startled by the gore on his monitor.

On-screen, the corpse’s head had been smashed into an unrecognizable mess. The only thing that seemed intact were the eyeballs. Those wide, staring eyes were fixed straight on him. Qin Nan even saw his own reflection in the pupils.

A reflection?

He must’ve been seeing things. Qin Nan rubbed his eyes, trying to get a clearer look at what was in front of him.

When he opened them again, the image on the computer had changed. The mangled body was gone, replaced by a black background with a single line of dripping-red words.

Welcome to the Realm of Death.

What the…? Qin Nan’s mind went blank.

“The last Player has arrived.”

He heard someone speak. Instinctively, he looked toward the voice. The moment he lifted his gaze, a blinding white light flooded his vision, forcing him to squeeze his eyes shut.

When he opened them again, everything had been turned upside down.

In the blink of an eye, the gate between life and death swung open.

The dim room he’d been in was gone. The light around him was suddenly bright, the scene in front of him sharp enough to stab into his pupils. His eyes constricted, and he froze where he stood, disbelief locking his whole body in place.

It took Qin Nan a long time to come back to himself. Even then, his body remained stiff; only his eyes moved as he scanned his surroundings and confirmed where he was.

He was on a bus.

From his study to this unfamiliar bus-it had taken less than a blink.

“A newbie?” It was the same voice as before, now edged with surprise.

Qin Nan’s gaze followed it automatically and landed on the speaker. The man was sitting directly in front of him, two rows away-someone in his early thirties. He was half-turned around with one arm draped over the seatback. Beside him sat a young woman in her twenties, the two leaning close in an intimate posture that made them look like a couple.

Qin Nan had never seen either of them.

Before he could react, the bus-previously stopped-began to move.

The unsettling part was that the driver’s seat was completely empty.

The man withdrew his gaze and spoke lightly, as if this were no big deal. “Off we go.”

Qin Nan cursed under his breath.

Faced with something so unscientific and impossible to explain, he suspected he had to be dreaming.

“It’s all real.” A male voice answered, cold and clear.

Qin Nan turned. The speaker sat across from him: a thin man in a white shirt and plain jeans. His skin was pale to the point of looking sickly, yet his expression was unusually icy. Every inch of him radiated a warning-don’t come close.

His eyes were currently on the man who’d spoken earlier, unreadable.

His interruption made the first man turn back again. With a half-smile that wasn’t quite a smile, he looked at him. “You’re as enthusiastic as ever. Too bad-New Players always do nothing but drag you down. I bet he won’t make it through this round.”

As he spoke, the man looked at Qin Nan again. “This is the Realm of Death. You’re very lucky-you’ve become the Realm of Death’s New Player.”

The way he said it carried a malicious edge, and Qin Nan’s guard rose at once.
The Realm of Death.

Qin Nan thought of the words he’d seen earlier on his computer screen.

“A prank?” Qin Nan blurted out. It was, instinctively, the most reasonable explanation for everything in front of him.

The man across the aisle seemed amused by that. He raised a brow. “This is a prank that’ll cost you your life.” As he spoke, he made a throat-slitting gesture.

“Newbie, you’d better be careful. Once you die in the Realm of Death, your life in the real world gets erased too. I’m thinking… you might need a Guide.” The man went on.

Qin Nan’s gaze slid over the two of them. Then he got up on his own and took the empty seat beside the sickly, cold-looking guy. “I’m Qin Nan.”

The guy didn’t soften up just because Qin Nan chose to sit next to him. He gave Qin Nan a chilly once-over. The man in the other seat didn’t seem disappointed either; he just chuckled and turned his head away.

Qin Nan was naturally outgoing. Faced with an unknown world, he was desperate for information. The other might be giving off a “stay away” vibe, but compared to that sarcastic man, this one at least felt safer.

“How should I address you, brother?” Qin Nan put on what he considered his gentlest, friendliest smile.

“Jian Fan.” The guy stared straight ahead, his tone indifferent, but he did answer.

Cold was fine; silence was not. Seeing that Jian Fan was willing to respond, Qin Nan immediately pressed his advantage. “Brother, what is the Realm of Death?”

“No one knows what the Realm of Death actually is. You just need to follow its rules. Survive every Death Game, rack up enough Points, and you get to go back to the real world.”

“Points?” Qin Nan didn’t get it. He didn’t have anything like that. Were they seriously doing special treatment now?

“You only unlock the Points system after you clear the first round.” Impatience started to creep into Jian Fan’s voice. He clearly had no interest in clearing things up for a newbie.

Qin Nan nodded, then kept going. “Brother…”

“Shut up.” Jian Fan cut him off, voice flat. He shot Qin Nan a warning glance, then closed his eyes as if to nap.

He was in a foul mood. This starting lineup was very unfavorable for him.

Qin Nan was still totally in the dark, and Jian Fan obviously had no intention of explaining further. As unscientific as all this was, Qin Nan still believed that in a society ruled by law, how bad could things really get?

With that thought, a sudden sense of “since I’m here, I might as well make myself at home” settled over him, and he closed his eyes to fake sleep as well.

He had no idea how much time had passed when the bus finally came to a stop.

“Get off.”

Qin Nan only opened his eyes when he heard Jian Fan’s voice. The bus doors were already open. The people sitting in front of them were getting off one after another. The man who had spoken to him earlier just happened to turn his gaze over at this moment. He curled his lips. “You’ve got the best mentality of any newbie I’ve seen. I hope you can keep it that way.”

As he finished, he pointed a finger at Qin Nan like a gun, lips moving silently as he mouthed a soundless “bang.”

“Who is he?” Qin Nan’s impression of that man was very bad.

Jian Fan had already walked past him toward the front. At Qin Nan’s question, his steps paused for a moment. “Xia Zeqin. Out of all of us, he’s the one with the highest Points.”

Qin Nan nodded, as if everything clicked. Those two clearly had beef. If that guy was number one, then the one by his side had to be number two, right? Low-Point Players had no business mouthing off to a big shot like that.