Chapter 2
Five years ago, all seven billion people on Earth received the same garbled system notification:
[Welcome to the Infinite Horror… Game]
[Every human is a… player]
[Please survive… inside the instances]
[Please do not give up… wait…]
[We…]
After the initial chaos, humanity established a new order.
The game’s global rankings changed by the hour, names rising and falling with every update. Only one had never been displaced—
[Li Jingchi]
On the very first day the horror game descended, Li Jingchi awakened two Talents.
One was [Teleportation]. The other was [Learning].
The benefits of the former required no explanation. The latter was like having an enormous S+ stamped across the growth section of his character panel.
Every organization, great or small, dreamed of recruiting him.
The most infuriating thing about Li Jingchi, though, was that he was both powerful and proud.
He did whatever he pleased, behaved as erratically as he liked, and spared no one’s feelings.
That was why I had been the only person at his side from beginning to end.
Naturally, other people gossiped and speculated about our relationship.
But anyone who watched us closely would realize that Li Jingchi and I weren’t lovers. I was more like his lackey.
And the only reason he had never cast me aside was probably that…
I was very good at coaxing people.
After all, Li Jingchi and I had grown up in the same orphanage. We were childhood friends in every sense of the word.
He hadn’t been like this when we were young.
Back then, his bullying had gone no further than tugging my braids and pulling faces at me.
But whenever he saw one of the bigger children shove me down and steal my cookies—
Li Jingchi would charge at them like a rabid dog.
He would straddle the culprit and hammer fist after fist into their face, refusing to stop even when blood sprayed from their nose.
I would be frantic beside him, begging him to stop.
“Ah Chi, Ah Chi, stop hitting him! He’s already unconscious!”
“I-I know you’re the strongest, Ah Chi! I admire you more than anyone, so please stop, okay?”
Only then would Li Jingchi’s fists still.
The tips of his ears would be bright red.
As we grew older, bullying me became one of Li Jingchi’s habits.
He would put fake cockroaches in my schoolbag or leap out at me wearing a skull mask.
Every time, I screamed in fright. When he went too far, I would even burst into tears.
At first, seeing me cry made Li Jingchi panic. At a complete loss, he would stuff candy into my pockets.
After I had cried often enough, he began standing off to the side and watching with a grin.
“Gu Lin, you’re usually ugly, but you’re kind of cute when you cry.”
With a smile, he would add, “Keep crying a little longer.”
And now that we entered instances, Li Jingchi behaved exactly the same way.
When danger struck, he protected me. No person or entity could come near me.
When there was no danger, he scared me himself. More than once, he didn’t stop until he had frightened me into dry-heaving.
But on the first day the instances descended, I had awakened a Talent, too:
[Translation]
As the name suggested, whether someone spoke English, French, or any other language, I could communicate with them effortlessly.
I would have loved an ability like that back in college, when I had to take the national English exams.
But in this instance-ridden world, where danger lurked on every side, it was utterly useless.
The howls entities made had no meaning. Translating them only produced more ghostly wailing.
So inside the instances, I survived entirely because of Li Jingchi.
But I was trying hard to level up, too.
I didn’t want to be dead weight forever.
At last, a recruiter from a major organization called Gui’an approached me.
They said they saw my potential. They believed my Talent could help them recruit more people from overseas.
I had been overjoyed.
I thought my efforts had finally paid off. I thought someone had finally recognized me.
Yet on my second day with Gui’an—
Li Jingchi appeared at the base’s front gate, looking thoroughly annoyed.
And the recruiter who had praised my potential the day before never gave me another proper look.
Only then did I understand.
I had merely been bait. Li Jingchi was the prize they had wanted all along.
After joining Gui’an, Li Jingchi showed no interest in the titles and authority the organization gave him.
Whenever they rewarded him with rare treasures, he turned around and tossed them to me as casually as throwing out trash.
But given Li Jingchi’s strength, the organization naturally assigned him instances of S rank or higher.
In that elite squad, I alone was both the weakest and the most cowardly.
Everyone knew I was a burden.
Li Jingchi captained the squad. The vice-captain was named Shen Tingxue.
Whenever we went on missions, the two of them worked together seamlessly, and they often chatted back at the base.
“Hey, Li, does that Gu Lin have a crush on you or something?”
Li Jingchi arched a brow. “What makes you say that?”
“Because she’s always fawning over you.”
Shen Tingxue rolled her eyes as she spoke. “She spends all day clinging to you and playing the innocent little saint, flattering you at every turn. What else could she want besides making you like her back? I’m not the only one who sees it. Everyone else does, too.”
Li Jingchi put both hands in his pockets, his stride slowing by half a beat.
“Oh. Is that so?”
“Just ‘oh’? That’s cold. You’re not happy about it?”
“The world is full of people who worship the strong. Am I supposed to throw a celebration for every one of them?”
“Pfft. How heartless. Poor girl, nursing all those tender feelings for nothing.”
I happened to be passing by. Hidden behind the corner, I listened in a daze.
Everyone else thought… I liked Li Jingchi?
If I truly did like him, there could only be one explanation:
he had scared me into a heart attack, and I had mistaken it for butterflies.
Yet the next day, when the entire squad entered an SSS-rank instance that had annihilated countless other teams—
Li Jingchi was clearly distracted, and the mission ground to a halt.
When Shen Tingxue tried to communicate with him, he barely responded.
Only after one member violated a rule and suffered a grave injury did Shen Tingxue finally lose her patience.
She shoved me toward Li Jingchi. “Go. You’re the one who’s good at coaxing him. I don’t care what you say—make Li happy, now, or we’re all going to die in here!”
I had no choice but to shuffle over. “Ah-Ah Chi, are you all right?”
When he saw me, Li Jingchi’s pupils focused as if he had only just returned to himself.
He suddenly reached out and seized my wrist.
“Come with me. I need to tell you something.”
[Teleportation]
Being dragged through a teleportation felt awful. It seemed as if every organ in my body had shifted out of place.
When I looked around again, darkness surrounded us, and the silence in my ears was absolute.
My legs immediately began to weaken.
Li Jingchi was still clutching my wrist.
“Gu Lin, I like you, too.”
Huh?
I drew my attention back to him, still confused. “Oh, okay… Thank you?”
“Thank you, my ass! Who says thank you when someone confesses to them?”
Li Jingchi sounded irritated, but his ears were red, and the corners of his mouth kept threatening to lift. “So you’re saying yes? You’ll be my girlfriend?”
I froze, then instinctively raised my head.
I looked straight into his eyes.
“No.”
Now it was Li Jingchi’s turn to freeze.
The curve that had just touched his lips vanished in an instant. “…Say that again?”
The moment his face darkened, my heart began pounding like a drum.
I didn’t dare lift my head. My voice grew smaller and smaller. “I-I said no… I don’t want to be your girlfriend.”
“Why?”
Li Jingchi’s voice turned colder with every word. “What’s wrong with me?”
I hurriedly waved my hands, denying it and trying to soothe him. “Nothing, nothing at all! You’re wonderful. You’re especially wonderful! Ah Chi, why don’t we hurry back and meet up with the others? It’s so cold here, and there’s a strange smell. This place feels dangerous…”
“I asked you what’s wrong with me.”
Expressionless, Li Jingchi repeated himself.
“Gu Lin, I’m not an idiot. I know when you mean something and when you’re just coaxing me. Do you really think I can’t tell? I want the truth now, or we’ll stay here for the rest of our lives.”
I swallowed and spoke with extreme caution. “Ah Chi, I’m grateful that you’ve always protected me. I really am. But whenever you’re unhappy, you leave me behind. Once, after you disappeared, I threw up… I-I’ve actually been afraid this whole time. I’ve been afraid whenever I’m with you, ever since we were little, because you’re always trying to scare me…”
“I only did that because I liked you—!”
The words died in Li Jingchi’s throat.
The vein in his temple throbbed harder. His Adam’s apple bobbed, and a mocking smile twisted his lips.
“…Forget it. There’s no getting through to a blockhead like you.”
With that, the air warped for an instant.
[Teleportation]
Li Jingchi vanished.
Leaving me alone inside this SSS-rank rule-based horror instance.