chapter 2

Once they got off the bus, the whole group was herded onto an open patch of ground. Qin Nan put away the playful banter he’d been exchanging with Jian Fan and started seriously taking stock of their situation.

He hadn’t looked too carefully on the ride over, but now that everyone was out of the bus, things became clearer.

Including him, there were twelve people in total-nine men, three women. Xia Zeqin and the woman beside him were clearly a couple, clinging to each other with easy intimacy. Around Xia Zeqin clustered another four men. Obviously, the six of them all knew one another.

The remaining four looked like lone wolves-independent, yet with some faint connection between them. They kept a careful distance from each other, not too close yet not too far, but they also weren’t far from Xia Zeqin’s group either.

Which meant…

Qin Nan glanced at the distance between himself and Xia Zeqin.

He was walking at Jian Fan’s side, and the two of them were the farthest from Xia Zeqin. At first glance, it almost looked like the others had collectively isolated the pair of them.

Just how much bad blood is there? Qin Nan rubbed his chin.

“You lot finally made it. Hurry up, we’ve got a mountain of things to do.” While Qin Nan was still mulling it over, a middle-aged man with a big belly came jogging over from a distance, waving them over.

Xia Zeqin was the first to step forward to meet him.

The moment he moved, the others followed suit.

“Bro, what’s going on?” Qin Nan asked under his breath.

“Think of him as the NPC that hands out quests,” Jian Fan said, giving him a quick, simple explanation.

Qin Nan and Jian Fan walked at the back. As they went, Qin Nan took in their surroundings. This looked like a film studio-decently large in scale-but what was odd was that, along the way, aside from the middle-aged man, he hadn’t seen a single other person.

They were brought to a film crew.

Outside the set, a sign had been put up. Qin Nan had good eyesight; from a distance, he made out the words on it.

“Death Crew Filming Base.”

Qin Nan frowned slightly. He was a little surprised, yet somehow it also felt unsurprising.

“I’m the crew manager. Just call me Old Wang. If you need anything, you can come straight to me.” As he spoke, Old Wang glanced at his watch and started barking orders. “We’re short on time, so move it, people!”

They were led to a table with a bunch of tags laid out on it. Each tag had a position written on it: Actor, Camera, Stagehand, and so on.

Xia Zeqin strolled up first and casually picked up a tag. A moment later, his identity information surfaced on it.

Camera – Xia Zeqin.

After Xia Zeqin, the others went up one after another to pick their tags. Qin Nan noticed that Jian Fan chose “Actor.” As soon as Jian Fan finished, someone came to take him to the makeup room. Qin Nan didn’t even get a chance to ask anything before Jian Fan turned and left.

Qin Nan was the last to choose. Only one tag was left on the table-the one for “Stagehand.”

He still had no idea what was really going on here, and with so much uncertainty, he decided not to make waves. He quietly hauled set pieces and props for a while, working up a sweat.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened the whole time, and Qin Nan gradually relaxed. Thinking back to how Xia Zeqin had acted on the bus earlier, Qin Nan gave a short, derisive laugh. So he really had just been trying to spook him, huh?

What an obnoxious sense of humor, he thought.

Qin Nan wiped the sweat from his forehead and let his gaze sweep across the set. Everyone was busy with their own tasks-some were original crew staff, and some, like him, had come off that bus.

He spotted a familiar face: one of the men who had been standing near Xia Zeqin earlier. The guy was chubby, with a naturally comical face. Qin Nan looked at him a bit longer. Like Qin Nan, the guy had also chosen the Stagehand position.

Fatty had a porcelain vase in his arms. He looked clumsy and heavyset, but he was surprisingly nimble on his feet. Qin Nan’s lips had just begun to curve into a faint smile when, in the next instant, his whole body froze in place.
The accident happened in an instant.

Fatty seemed to trip over something. His whole body pitched toward the ground-and halfway down, his head suddenly separated from his body. His entire head was sliced clean off, and the moment it left his neck, blood sprayed everywhere.

From a distance, it hadn’t been noticeable at first. But once the blood splattered, something became unmistakably clear. Qin Nan saw that where Fatty had fallen, there was a taut steel wire stretched tight-now dyed a vivid red.

Drip. Drip.

Blood fell from the wire to the floor. Each drop landed like a knock against Qin Nan’s heart, as if the sound had surround-sound depth, echoing right beside his ears.

Vaguely, something round rolled to a stop by his feet.

He lowered his head on instinct.

It was Fatty’s severed head. Face turned toward him, it was positioned so that Qin Nan met those eyeballs head-on.

Qin Nan stumbled back several steps, putting distance between himself and the head. His mouth moved before his brain could catch up, and he spat out, “Fuck.”

This was a prank. It had to be. None of it was real-Qin Nan tried to reassure himself. Yet Xia Zeqin’s and Jian Fan’s words surfaced unbidden in his mind. After witnessing Fatty’s death with his own eyes, Qin Nan had to admit one thing: he’d come to a terrifying place.

“This world looks like it’s going to be a tough one,” Jian Fan said. Somehow, at some point, he’d already walked up to Qin Nan’s side.

Qin Nan turned to him, teeth clenched. “What the hell is this place?”

“The Realm of Death,” Jian Fan replied-the same answer as before, his tone utterly calm. Fatty’s death didn’t seem to stir even the slightest emotion in him.

“I don’t give a shit what Realm it is. I just want to know how to get out,” Qin Nan said, no longer able to keep his composure.

Jian Fan looked at him, still even-voiced. “Clear it. Accumulate enough Points. There isn’t a second way.”

Qin Nan had a whole stomachful of curses, but Jian Fan was the only person who seemed to understand what was going on. He couldn’t afford to make an enemy of him. Holding onto that, Qin Nan forced his anger down and asked, “So how do we clear it?”

“I don’t know. Every world is different. We have to find everything ourselves. It’s a game where we wrestle with death. We have to leave this place before we die-and we don’t even know if our death might come in the next second.” By the end, there was a hint of self-mockery in Jian Fan’s voice.

A heavy stone seemed to drop onto Qin Nan’s chest, making it hard to breathe.

“What are you standing around for? Hurry up and clean this set! Get ready to shoot the next scene!” Old Wang yelled. Qin Nan didn’t even know when he’d shown up.

Qin Nan was still dazed, but Jian Fan had already stepped forward to help.

Xia Zeqin and the others seemed completely used to this. Without changing expression, they moved Fatty’s body aside. The blood was cleaned up quickly, and in no time the scene looked as though nothing had happened-as if it had all been a dream.

But Fatty was truly gone.

All afternoon, Qin Nan drifted in a fog. Fatty’s death hit him hard. Sometimes he would stop for no reason, and even when there was clearly nothing in front of him, he’d still reach out and feel through empty air for a long time-only daring to move on after he’d confirmed there was no wire.

Fortunately, nothing else happened after that.

By ten at night, Qin Nan’s group was finally allowed to leave. They were taken to a hotel near the set and picked up their room keycards at the front desk.

People who already knew each other paired up and agreed to share rooms two to a room. Qin Nan was new here and had no partner. The only person he could call even remotely familiar-Jian Fan-had already taken his keycard and left. Qin Nan bit down hard and went back to his room alone, keycard in hand.