Chapter 1 : The Thirteenth Person Outside the Door

Tick, tick, tick

The ticking of a clock's hands echoed through the void.

"My head hurts so much…"

"Hello, excuse me… where is this?"

"Sorry, I'm not really sure either…"

…Where am I?

Shouldn't I… be dead?

When Lin Ya woke up in a daze, she immediately noticed the lingering, searing pain in her chest.

"Cough, cough… Cough! Cough, cough, cough…"

It felt as if she had inhaled scalding sand, and she could not help but cough violently.

The instinctive reaction triggered by the continuous coughing brought tears to her eyes. Every spasm was accompanied by a lingering sensation of death, and tears instantly blurred her vision… That was not fear, but the body's most primitive instinct.

She tightly covered her mouth, trying her best to shrug her shoulders, as she nervously and timidly looked around.

This place looked somewhat like a luxurious hotel banquet hall, with slightly dim, warm-toned lighting illuminating the room. At a rough glance, it would have been more than enough to fit over forty tables.

Yet in such a vast space, there was only a single round table placed right in the center, looking so empty that it made one's heart feel a bit anxious.

In this room, there was only one jet-black door adorned with a chain pattern.

It had no door handle and could only be pushed outward. Moreover, it looked exceptionally heavy.

As far as the eye could see, there was nothing else, no sofas, no sideboards, no windows, and no second door.

Lin Ya was sitting in one of the seats around this round table.

Twelve people, precisely seated to form the hands of a clock.

If the position closest to the black door was designated as the bottom-most six o'clock position, then Lin Ya's position was at two o'clock.

Sufficient warmth radiated from the depths of the thick, soft carpet, but this warmth could not dispel the coldness spreading through her heart in the slightest.

Around the round table, a dozen or so human figures sat in a blur, each with a different expression etched onto their face. Some were blank, some helpless, some anxious, and some silent.

The loud ticking of the hands still resounded through the void, slicing at everyone's sanity.

"…I… Holy shit… What… what the fuck is this thing?"

A terrified, almost voice-cracking shriek suddenly exploded!

Everyone's gaze instantly shifted over, and someone even reached out to stop him right away.

But it was still half a step too late, no one had seen what he was looking at just now, so no one knew what he had actually seen.

"Don't touch me!"

The short man screamed, shaking like a sieve, as a rasping gasp came from his throat.

His gaze frantically swept across the tabletop, suddenly locking onto four red-copper round chips in front of him.

As if possessed, he turned back, grabbed those chips in one motion, and stuffed them into the pocket of his hospital gown.

Then, he turned around and ran!

Using all his strength, he rushed toward the only door in the room!

That door was heavy and cold, covered in chain reliefs, but lacked a handle. The short man pressed his body against the door, and only after his face flushed red did he manage to push it open a crack.

Outside the crack, there was only a clump of darkness so thick it could not be dissolved.

Without a second thought, the short man slipped inside like a loach.

He dissolved into the darkness.

As the door slowly closed automatically, the chaotic sound of footsteps vanished instantly.

He had escaped.

After a brief silence, an even noisier clamor followed.

Extreme panic, like boiling water, erupted with a crash!

"…What's going on? He… he went out?"

"Have we been kidnapped? No, definitely!"

"That's not right, I remember… is it a dream?"

Confused whispers and startled cries intertwined.

People did not know the persons beside them, yet at this moment, they could only share their current confusion and anxiety with them.

Lin Ya's heart pounded wildly in her chest.

Forcing down her alarm, she looked across the empty seats toward the glasses man at table four, who was dressed in a suit and appeared exceptionally calm, her voice carrying an undetectable tremor: "Brother… how about we… give it a try too?"

The man in the suit and glasses glanced at her and said nothing.

From the side, however, other voices rose in agreement.

"Stay here and wait to die? Let's charge out together, that door isn't locked anyway!"

"What if someone is waiting outside?"

"Novels always say that outside is a death trap, you'll be killed by lasers the moment you go out…"

"Then I could just say the trap is inside the room, stop reading so many web novels!"

The argument grew more and more heated, yet not a single person left alone like that short man just now.

But just at the instant the arguing was about to break through the critical point.

Knock, knock, knock.

Knocking sounds suddenly came from outside the heavy door.

As if a mute button had been pressed, the clamor in the room stopped abruptly.

In the dead silence, only the death-summoning click of the clock hands remained.

Knock, knock, knock.

The intervals were precise, the strength steady, unhurried and calm.

It felt like it was knocking on everyone's skull.

There was someone outside the door!

"A… a ghost knocking on the door?" a dark-skinned old man cried out in a dialect.

"…Is it that young man from just now who came back?"

A middle-aged woman wearing round, gold-rimmed glasses, whose temperament made her look like a teacher, could not help but speak up, though it sounded like she was comforting herself.

—No, absolutely impossible!

Lin Ya's heart sank abruptly.

Although they had only interacted for a brief moment, she had already grasped that person's psychology in broad strokes.

His action of escaping this room was quite abrupt yet lacked a plan, a classic trait of high impulsivity.

If he were knocking on the door, he should be more hurried, not so regular, and the intervals wouldn't be so long.

Could this be some kind of opportunity

Maybe having died once really made her braver.

Lin Ya hesitated for a moment, then stood up to open the door.

An instant before opening the door, she immediately layered her face with a meticulously practiced, highly deceptive smile, sweet, harmless, carrying a young girl's ignorance and innocence.

She looked good, possessing the kind of quite well-behaved baby face that gave people the impression of a good kid.

Judging people by their appearance was human nature, and even more so, it was her invincible sword of lies.

"Hello…"

She deliberately softened her voice, carrying a touch of just right youthfulness and doubt, and used all her strength to push that heavy, cold black door.

Unexpectedly, this door did not seem too heavy.

As the resistance suddenly lightened, her vision suddenly brightened.

Different from before, when she stood at the doorway, the scene outside suddenly became clear.

As the outside sight crashed into her view, the smile on Lin Ya's face froze instantly.

Outside the door was a completely desaturated world.

It was as if the saturation had been turned to the lowest setting, and the sound had been turned off as well.

Torrential rain poured down like diluted ink, and the lightning flashing in the dark clouds was as deathly white as bone, yet no rumble of thunder could be heard. Desolate, uninhabited streets were lined on both sides with willow trees that had black leaves and gray trunks.

Dead silence. No sound. Black and white.

—The living, normal world had already departed.

And where they were located did not seem to be a hotel banquet hall either… but a manor villa that was only an empty shell.

In the entire world, only this manor possessed vivid and bright colors, green grass, a clear fountain, marble little angels, and those bright yellow walls. It was unnervingly warm, suffocatingly abrupt.

And that knocker stood composedly right in front of this hellish painting of a background.

An NPC, a boss? Or… the kind of nasty host common in this type of death game?

Lin Ya's heart hammered frantically in her chest. She forced herself to raise her head and look at this suspicious character.

He had slightly messy, black curly hair and wore black-rimmed glasses. He was quite tall, at least over 185 centimeters. Right now, a smile carrying a bizarre sense of pleasure hung on his face… a smile hard to describe.

Although both wore glasses, his temperament was completely different from the glasses man inside the room.

His age felt ambiguous, his handsome face possessed the contours of a celebrity, and his skin was tight, but the eyes behind those lenses and the invisible aura radiating around his body, dangerous, deep, carrying a high-and-mighty scrutiny.

Sensing that their eyes were about to meet, Lin Ya's gaze subconsciously shifted downward, sweeping past the deep gray scarf around his neck, the off-white, slim-fit double-breasted short trench coat

Suddenly, she held her breath.

Generally speaking, the state of a person's shoes, the type, wear, and dirt on the shoes contains a lot of information. Therefore, Lin Ya would look down at the shoes when contacting strangers, and this action of avoiding eye contact would also lower her own aggressiveness.

But

At this moment, Lin Ya clearly saw that the corpse of that short man who had run out just now was lying quietly at this person's feet like a bag of garbage.

The blood covering his head and face had already congealed into a dark red, and his body was decomposing and weathering at a speed visible to the naked eye, turning into countless black flying ashes.

And on the tip of the knocker's leather shoes, there were surprisingly a few drops of striking, not yet dried crimson!

It looked just like some quite artistic pattern.

A chill instantly shot from the soles of Lin Ya's feet straight to the crown of her head.

She breathed rapidly as if having an asthma attack, and her fingers could not stop trembling.

She snapped her head up, crashing into that face hidden behind the lenses again, and actually managed to read a bit of wolf-like ferocity from it.

"Shh…"

The man gently placed a slender finger to his lips, making a shushing gesture.

The silent warning was like a cold, venomous snake, instantly wrapping around Lin Ya's neck.

—Escape, escape back!

But right at this moment…

She saw the man's left hand slowly pull an object out from his trench coat pocket.

A red chip that looked as if it were cast from flowing lava, its surface steaming with wisps of visible, scorching white smoke.

He smiled, slowly handing this scalding chip toward Lin Ya.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?"

A low and magnetic voice sounded: "This 'game' should… be missing exactly one person?"

Lin Ya's heartbeat suddenly became intense.

—Take it!

This thought popped up in her mind.

Because she suddenly realized what that dead silence behind her meant.

The others definitely could not see this hellish scene outside the door, let alone that corpse turning into flying ashes, otherwise it would absolutely not be this quiet!

If she were to lock the opponent outside the door, let alone whether she could lock him out, this abnormal behavior would definitely cause those behind her who hadn't seen the truth to no longer trust her. Once she became the focus, it would also be easier to become a target for all.

And conversely, the information outside the door gave her a bit of "chips" that she might be able to exchange with the rest.

Right now, she already shared a mutual "common secret" with this person. Having this kind of initial tacit understanding made it easier to form a secret alliance, which might not be a bad advantage.

An opportunity!

Thus, Lin Ya's heart stirred. She subtly reached out her hand and cautiously touched that scalding, burning chip.

Before Lin Ya could grip it completely, that chip which was as hot as lava quickly solidified.

Lin Ya composedly hid the cold chip inside the sleeve of her pajamas.

"…Indeed, sir."

Lin Ya did not look at that corpse on the ground again, her voice also recovered that sweet well-behaved quality, while her body submissively stepped back to make way: "Please come in."

She prudently used a form of address that carried more distance and respect.

Perhaps the man in front of her would have a slight tacit understanding with her because of this? Who knows.

And what Lin Ya did not know was

Right at the moment she spoke to invite him.

The invisible, transparent, and sturdy barrier in front of Ming Po that separated "players" from "non-players" suddenly collapsed like smashed glass!

The thick darkness that originally blocked the vision faded instantly, revealing the luxurious decorations inside the room and those eleven anxious, terrified figures.

Ah, finally

The corners of Ming Po's mouth tilted up slightly, and the corners of his eyes crinkled as well.

—I see you all.

The astonished expressions that suddenly surfaced on their faces proved that they had also finally "seen" him.

At the same time, the abnormal heat on the three chips in his pocket, which were as hot as burning charcoal and felt excruciatingly painful just from contact, also vanished completely, becoming cold and ordinary.

…As expected.

Only by receiving a verbal invitation from a "player" can one be recognized by this "game"?

Thoughts spun rapidly in Ming Po's mind, his gaze covertly sweeping across Lin Ya's anxious yet flattering face.

Ha, am I the only one who didn't qualify?

A total of twelve people were inside the room, and only Ming Po was placed outside the door.

If no one had accidentally opened this door, he wouldn't even have the qualification to participate in this game; Ming Po didn't even have initial chips

Fortunately, that idiot who tried to kill him right off the bat gave him a gift.

What a truly pitiful and weak guy, he even dirtied his leather shoes.

Ming Po looked at the only empty seat at the round table, nodding slightly in a polite manner.

Expressing gratitude for this unknown gentleman's selfless contribution.

Clack, clack.

His hard shoe soles stepped onto the wooden floor, making clear sounds. Just like when he was knocking on the door earlier, the intervals were orderly and composed.

"It's right here, sir…"

Lin Ya walked ahead to lead the way, subconsciously turning her head back to look into Ming Po's eyes.

But at that time.

She suddenly noticed… Ming Po's originally unhidden, bright, and cheerful expression had, at some point, changed into a gentle smile identical to her own.

It was as if… he was originally this gentle and harmless.

"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here…" Ming Po spoke in a faint volume that only this woman wearing a fluffy nightgown and looking like a little white rabbit could hear clearly, "This statement is written on the wall outside the door, do you know its source?"

This woman did not speak, but Ming Po noticed it, her eyes, which were mixed with fear, disbelief… and a touch of excitement.

Was that the fear brought by anxiety… and the excitement of confirming an alliance?

Very nice.

Ming Po stroked the engraved chip coin in his pocket and glanced at the closing door, his smile inscrutable.

Although he had not yet remembered who he was or why he appeared here, every single person in this room, including himself, it seemed, probably wasn't anything good.

This is truly… wonderful.

(End of Chapter)