At 11:30 p.m., two buses stopped at the entrance of the dormitory area. The volunteers from Heping Medical College started to board with their simple luggage.
For them, the time was not a matter of question. They simply thought the situation in Quanguang City was urgent and pressing.
Xia Bai followed Zhong Zicang onto the front bus and was about to head to the back seats when Zhong Zicang pulled him to sit in the first row by the door on the right.
The volunteers didn’t dawdle. By midnight, everyone was seated, and the two buses left Heping Medical College one after the other, disappearing into the night.
Conversations filled the bus. Xia Bai, a freshman and the only one in the volunteer group, didn’t know anyone besides Zhong Zicang. Zhong Zicang, lost in thought with his brows furrowed and hands clenched, left Xia Bai to stare out the window.
At midnight, the university town was bustling, brightly lit, with constant traffic.
After more than ten minutes, the buses left the crowded area of the university town. Entering a spacious road, instead of speeding up, the buses turned onto a dirt road and discreetly stopped.
Murmurs of confusion arose in the cabin.
Zhong Zicang stood up, facing the volunteers. “Thank you all for actively participating in this support mission despite the risks and hardships. Out of 3123 students who signed up, we carefully selected 100, including those present here.”
This was heartening. Being chosen from over three thousand applicants meant they were recognized for their merits.
But the joy was short-lived.
Zhong Zicang smiled, but it didn’t ease the seriousness on his face. “I want to tell you about the situation in Quanguang City.”
“Why stop to talk? Why not discuss it on the move?”
“Yeah, aren’t we pressed for time? Let’s hurry.”
Zhong Zicang clarified, “The situation in Quanguang City isn’t what you think. Listen first, then decide whether to proceed.”
“Is it an uncontrollable outbreak?”
“Shouldn’t we hurry even more?”
Zhong Zicang explained, “There’s no outbreak, but the affected areas are much more dangerous than you imagine. I need to explain responsibly.”
He started from the beginning: “The initial anomaly occurred in Qili Village…”
The small TV on the bus showed images of Qili Village and the haunted house incident at Ling Le Amusement Park, nearly identical to what Hua Haoming had described. The photos and videos were the same as those shown by Hua Haoming.
Xia Bai now understood that these incidents were cases used by the Game Management Bureau for educating new players.
When the Game Management Bureau’s people get involved in a game with new players, they have the duty to educate them with simple examples, helping them quickly accept the game’s existence and collaborate with veteran players to complete the game.
Now, due to special circumstances, the volunteers from Heping Medical College were also being educated.
He also realized why Zhong Zicang was able to move to their dorm so quickly. Zhong Zicang was the student council president of Heping Medical College, a player, and a member of the Game Management Bureau.
Zhong Zicang continued, “Quanguang City isn’t facing a pollution source. This narrative is to cover up the presence of the game, preventing widespread panic and chaos in a short time.”
“Games have appeared in various places across Quanguang City. Due to their exceedingly anomalous nature and to prevent ordinary people from getting involved, the city is temporarily sealed.”
The cabin erupted in disbelief, their worldview collapsing.
But Xia Bai noticed some weren’t as shocked. They might be players, or they might have sensed something was wrong with their world.
Having inherited his grandfather’s phone and being largely offline for the first eighteen years, even he had sensed something was off before entering the game, thanks to the elderly in his group chat. The same goes for these web-savvy medical students.
“Please quiet down and let me finish,” Zhong Zicang tried to keep his tone steady.
As others complied and fixed their gazes on him, Zhong Zicang revealed, “In the past week, our Jiangqi City had only six games, while Quanguang City experienced nearly eighty.”
“Every game instance ends in casualties, and some games even end up with complete casualties. Some injuries are beyond our current medical capabilities, and may require players with healing skills. But such players are scarce, focusing only on the critically injured. This is where doctors and volunteers come in.”
“However, volunteers can’t be ordinary people. It could cause panic and leak information. Knowing the situation in Quanguang City, our principal proactively proposed to the Game Management Bureau to form a volunteer team for assistance.”
“Our task in Quanguang City is to follow players with healing abilities, doctors, or Game Management Bureau personnel to game locations and wait for the game to end. As soon as it does, we’ll assist doctors in handling the bodies of deceased players and aid the injured, all without arousing suspicion from the public.”
Zhong Zicang added a crucial point, “If surviving players emerge, it means they’ve cleared the game, and the game has disappeared from that location, making it the safest place for us.”
“But if only dead bodies come out, it indicates the game hasn’t been cleared and is still active in the original spot. Approaching it would pull us into the game. However, this scenario is rare, because if a game wasn’t cleared, it’s highly likely that all the players would perish inside, unable to leave.”
“That’s one of the smaller risks. Another possibility is that we might get pulled into a game while working, due to the frequent games occurring in Quanguang City,” he explained.
Zhong Zicang laid out everything that could be said. The horrors of the game were vividly displayed in photos and videos, and he clearly articulated the dangers involved.
“Now, I’ll give everyone ten minutes to reconsider. We understand if you don’t want to go. Those who choose to leave can do so in the next ten minutes; there are vehicles outside to take you back.”
“It seems less risky than being infected by a pollution source,” a girl commented.
“Going to support is a good idea. We’ll get to know the game better,” a boy added.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“In the end, we’re going to save people,” another girl said. “There’s no difference between a pollution source and a game.”
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After ten minutes, the buses started moving again, heading towards Quanguang City.
Only two students had left.
Zhong Zicang’s eyes sparkled with a smile. “Let me reintroduce myself. I’m Zhong Zicang, president of the Heping Medical College Student Council, and a player of the Game and Anomaly Management Bureau’s External Liaison Organization. I promise to do my utmost to bring everyone safely back to the college.”
“President, can you tell us more about the game?”
“And what exactly is this Game Management Bureau?”
“President, let’s all return to the college together!”
“Alright, once we’ve divided into groups, I’ll explain everything.” Zhong Zicang’s hand gripped the railing tightly, revealing his inner turmoil.
Xia Bai shifted his gaze, looking down at his own hands.
He, too, wasn’t as calm as he seemed, having been slightly touched.
Only one person had left their bus, the rest choosing to stay and head to Quanguang City.
Xia Bai was resolute in going to Quanguang City as he needed to search for his Xishen. If not for them, he wasn’t sure if he would have chosen to come here.
The bus accelerated, speeding along the dark yet lamplit road towards Quanguang City.
The forty-nine people on their bus were divided into ten groups, mostly five per group. Zhong Zicang and Xia Bai were in a group of four, along with two girls, a Year Three undergrad named Zhang Runyue and a second-year postgrad student Wang Wei.
As they neared Quanguang City, the buses split up. The city, with its four districts and six counties, had different destinations for each bus.
Their bus didn’t take the iconic national highway entrance with the city gate but instead took a shortcut through a winding road into Quanguang City.
As they entered Quanguang, everyone tensed up, staring out the nearest window.
But the situation in Quanguang City wasn’t as severe as imagined or reported externally.
At one in the morning, ordinary citizens’ cars were still visible on the road, and many vehicles suggested they weren’t all players or from the Game Management Bureau.
The large malls along the roadside were still open for normal shopping, and there were even street vendors.
They quickly understood.
The game was terrifying, but it didn’t spread rapidly like a contagious disease, affecting everyone.
Eighty games in a week were horrifying compared to other places, but if Quanguang City had been experiencing this for over half a month, with two hundred game maps spread across four districts and six counties, most areas remained safe.
The dangerous areas were completely sealed off, inaccessible. Since the danger wasn’t directly affecting them, the public might not feel an immediate panic, especially since Quanguang City was still open for departure. The temporary lockdown had already lasted a week, somewhat dulling the sense of panic.
However, this didn’t mean they were in for an easy task.
Places in Quanguang City where games had occurred and been cleared were repurposed as safe houses. The bus stopped at one such location, in front of a restaurant.
Inside, the restaurant’s tables were converted into makeshift desks, cluttered with computers, papers, and phones. The sound of ringing phones was incessant, and communication was almost through shouting.
The most conspicuous feature was a large screen facing the entrance, displaying a map of Quanguang City with yellow and green markers.
Just as they approached the entrance, a red dot suddenly appeared on the screen, accompanied by a shrill alarm. “Attention! A new game has descended! Attention! A new game has descended!”
With the alarm blaring, the map with the red marker zoomed in, focusing on Quanguang Orthopedic Hospital.
“A game is starting at Quanguang Orthopedic Hospital! Are there any healing players or doctors available?”
The alarm grew more piercing, and the red dot turned black.
“Large map! The entire hospital’s staff and patients may be involved in the game! We need healing players!”
“Already on it! The game at Jiajia Supermarket, nine kilometers away, hasn’t been cleared. Healing players can make it there, but we need more hands for such a large map. We’re short-staffed there, where else can we get help?”
“Us!” Zhong Zicang raised his hand, his voice cutting through the ringing phones. “External Liaison Department’s Zhong Zicang, leading volunteers from Heping Medical College!”
The restaurant quieted down a bit as the people inside looked at Zhong Zicang and the group behind him, slightly surprised. A woman with long, wavy hair asked, “Young friends, you all aren’t afraid of dead bodies, are you?”
Zhong Zicang’s group nodded in unison. One of the boys confidently declared, “Ma’am, if we, as Year Two and above students of Heping Medical College, are afraid of dead bodies, then no one our age would be fearless!”
The woman chuckled, “Good! Zhong Zicang, bring thirty volunteers with you!”
Naturally, Xia Bai, being in Zhong Zicang’s group, followed along.
As soon as the four of them boarded an ambulance, the driver floored the accelerator and sped off.
After putting on protective gear, Zhong Zicang explained, “We need to be fast. Players might spend days, even over a hundred days, in the game, but in our real world, it might only be half an hour. If they come out and we’re not there in time, players might die due to lack of immediate medical attention.”
Wang Wei commented, “Understood, it’s like the flow of time is different in two dimensions.”
Zhong Zicang nodded, grateful for their quick understanding.
Zhang Runyue asked, “Has the Game Management Bureau developed a way to detect games? That’s impressive!”
“Yes,” Zhong Zicang replied, “the Research Institute developed it. They’ve been immersed in studying the game for the past two years. This detection sensor captures the unique energy fluctuations of the game to pinpoint its location accurately.”
Xia Bai remembered Deputy Director Yang of the Research Institute he saw on the screen, and Hua Haoming and the other Game Management Bureau players. They had used a device to investigate his Xishen’s disappearance at his house.
He vividly recalled the female player’s comment back then, “There’s a slight anomaly, but it doesn’t meet the criteria.”
Now he understood that they had detected the game’s energy, albeit weak.
So, this also indicated that the several Xishens at home had originated from the game.
Zhong Zicang added, “So far, only three large game maps have appeared. 99.9% of game maps are small-scale. Casualties in large maps tend to be more severe. Be mentally prepared.”
The two women nodded solemnly, their faces serious.
Xia Bai snapped back to reality, gazing out the window.
The ambulance swiftly reached the orthopedic hospital in just over ten minutes. The area was already cordoned off, with a line of ambulances parked at the entrance.
“Everyone stay put until someone opens the hospital door, then medical personnel can enter,” announced a voice from the ambulance’s speaker. “All rescue and cleanup operations will be conducted inside the hospital.”
Zhong Zicang said, “After the game ends, people will come out of the hospital. If no one comes out, it means the game hasn’t been cleared, and entering would mean getting pulled into the game.”
The other three nodded in understanding, also grasping why rescue and cleanup were restricted to inside the hospital.
If they went in, it meant players had cleared the game, and the hospital would be the safest place. This would also prevent causing suspicion and panic among the general public.
At 2:30 a.m., everyone outside the hospital was staring intently at the entrance, feeling every tick of the clock in their hearts.
When Xia Bai had emerged from the game at Heping Medical College, everything seemed relaxed. Only through firsthand experience did he understand that such tranquility was backed by chaos and meticulous order.
Just as when he was unaware of the game’s existence, he only saw the peace of the real world.
Time passed slowly, and the silence outside the hospital was filled with tension.
Suddenly, there was a series of thudding sounds from behind the hospital doors.
Everyone tensed up and stood, alert to the noise.
Xia Bai’s ears perked up; the location of the thuds seemed unusually high.
The Game Management Bureau players nearest to the door were the first to open it.
Zhang Runyue a Year Three undergrad, was someone who had taken a year of anatomy and interned at a hospital. She had seen her fair share of cadavers and corpses. Wang Wei, a second-year graduate student, was no stranger to such sights either. Yet, the scene behind the doors left them frozen in shock.
Even Zhong Zicang, who had entered a game before, was stunned.
As the hospital doors opened, a pile of bodies and limbs, higher than the door itself, spilled out, mixed with blood, black hair, and sticky organs.
“All volunteers, please assist in clearing the bodies and limbs, and search for any survivors to bring to any first-floor ward,” came the instruction.
“Let’s go,” Xia Bai prompted. He was the first to spring into action, grabbing a body bag and rushing forward.
The other three quickly followed, along with other volunteers from Heping Medical College.
They all headed towards the mountain of body parts, some faster, some slower. Some stopped to vomit, but none retreated.
Xia Bai was the fastest. He saw a blood-covered person crouching at the doorway. The tiny slivers of his skin that were not covered in blood were milky white. He was surrounded by Game Management Bureau personnel speaking to him softly and cautiously.
Xia Bai only heard someone call him Yang Mei before he hurried inside.
Wang Wei and Zhang Runyue instinctively followed Xia Bai, starting to pull bodies from the pile just like him.
But when Wang Wei pulled out an arm, she broke down in tears.
She dropped the arm and began to pull at the top of the pile, sobbing as she worked.
Zhang Runyue worked silently, diligently bagging bodies, her composure even surpassing Zhong Zicang’s. When Xia Bai’s goggles became smeared with blood, she used the clean part of her shirt to wipe them clean for him.
Under the leadership of their composed classmates, those who were struggling began to adapt, even if some were crying as they worked on clearing the bodies.
Xia Bai froze as he felt the hand he was holding twitch, its fingers brushing against his palm.
He blinked and looked down, confirming it was indeed an arm, long and with well-defined muscles, the hand larger than his, with long and powerful fingers. This meant the arm’s owner must have been tall, with strong, attractive hands.
But it was ultimately just an arm attached to a hand.
Uncertainly, Xia Bai felt for a pulse at the wrist and, to his astonishment, found one.
Xia Bai was even more stunned.
The space behind them was divided into three areas. One area contained broken bodies, one area contained relatively complete corpses, and the other area was reserved for living people. So far, only one breathing person had been found, and he had been sent to the hospital.
Xia Bai was at a loss about where to place this seemingly alive limb. Staring at the hand he was holding, he decided to set up a separate area for it.
Meanwhile, several members of the Game Management Bureau were trying to persuade Yang Mei to get into a vehicle for a check-up, but he remained on the ground, gasping as if in a daze.
Eventually, one of them apologized in advance and carefully lifted him up.
Yang Mei didn’t respond. His body was all stiff and his face was flushed red.
They took him to an ambulance, where he received gentle care – his face was wiped, shoes were changed, injuries were checked – with everyone treading softly around him, hushing even their breathing.
Once the blood was wiped from his face, an astonishingly beautiful, gentle, androgynous countenance was revealed, naturally drawing people in.
Yang Mei’s gaze shot through the window and fell upon the volunteers cleaning up outside, drawn to one of them.
The volunteers were all dressed in protective gear, wearing goggles and masks, covered in indistinct white and red. However, there was one figure that stood out.
He grabbed a leg from another’s hand, then dug into a pile of corpses to retrieve a leg. After scuttling around the pile of bodies, he found a heart… his actions were just like a little hamster scurrying around for broken parts before gathering them.
He secretly moved those things to a corner while others were cleaning up the bodies and searching for survivors. He took off his blurry goggles, unbuttoned his protective suit, and pulled out a needle and thread from inside. Sitting in the corner, he began to stitch up the body—the parts that he had picked up.
Yang Mei’s voice welled up, soft and coquettish, “I haven’t mentioned it yet, but the captain is also in this game.”
“What?!” Everyone stopped in their tracks, looking horrified.
The man in the middle, his voice trembling with nervousness, said, “C-Captain Ling?! Where is he?”
Yang Mei pointed in the direction of the hospital entrance.
Most of the players who died in the game at the last moment had been thrown to the entrance of the medical school, but these volunteers were very efficient and had already cleared away more than half of them, almost reaching the bottom.
There seemed to be no sign of any survivors.
Under Xia Bai’s hands, the corpse gradually became whole. Xia Bai assembled its parts like a puzzle, then carefully stitched them back together, with great dedication and a hint of excitement.
He had never seen a corpse like this in his entire life. Each missing body part still had a pulse.
It was the cream of the crop among the corpses.
Normally, a body in such a state would be beyond saving and cremated. But Xia Bai’s efforts in gathering and sewing it together meant it wouldn’t have to be cremated. It was his achievement.
Finally, Xia Bai finished sewing the body together, wiping the sweat from his face and cleaning the blood off the corpse’s face. He admired his work – the body was as tall as Lin Xiang, but leaner and more muscular. Even with its eyes closed, Xia Bai could tell that the man was more handsome than Lin Xiang.
Indeed, this was the cream of the crop amongst corpses.
As he was closely examining it, he noticed several shadows under the light nearby. Slowly looking up, he saw the group who had been circling around Yang Mei earlier standing behind him, their expressions complex and uncertain.
“You’ve worked hard, student,” said the man in the middle. “Um, we need to take him now?”
Xia Bai removed his goggles but kept his mask on. In the process of stitching up the corpse, blood had smeared across it. Even so, his face conveyed a sense of grievance.
“But I found him. I sewed him back up,” Xia Bai protested.
“…”
The man hesitated, then responded, “Uh, yes, thank you. You can ask for points or other things, but we need to take him now.” His gaze suddenly shifted, lighting up with excitement.
Xia Bai looked down and saw the corpse had opened its eyes.
He felt even more aggrieved.
The author has something to say:
Xia Bai, who had worked in vain again, felt aggrieved: Why are you all like this?
The next chapter will start a new arc.
TL Note: WE FINALLY MEET ML!!! (yes, he’s the stitched-up corpse. it’s love at first sight for xia bai, lol.)
My corpse! T^T
-Xia Bai (probably)
sorry I’m replying to your comments because I kinda need this comment to be noticed.
Hi if anyone has a website that already has translation of this novel then pls tell me, I can get really impatient sometimes when waiting for novels to update, I’ll still read the translated version but can someone pls tell me a free website where I can read the novel? It’s okay if its in Chinese I’ll just use Google translator, but please if anyone has got a free way to read the novel then kinda share the link or website below, I really love this novel so far and I just can’t wait <3
Just copy the Chinese tittle of this one and google search it.
ah! thank you (my peanut brain couldn’t even think of this *cries *)
Also your interpretation of Xia Bai’s reaction is spot on xD
Why my corpse alive 😡💢
-Xia Bai
Why did I not see this coming? 😭😭 Good for you Xia Bai!
Thank for the chapter!!
Waa sorry i accidentally replied to you 😓
After all that hard work and the handsome corpse can’t be his! 😫 Thanks for the chapter!!
Thanks for the chapter! ❤
What a meeting!
Thank you for the update!
❤
just let him keep the corpse 😂😂
When will he finally be able to find a big brother corpse to add to the family? 😩😂
Poor Xia Bai. At least he stitched his future BF back together
Thanks for the chapter
😂not quite the zombie/vampire I was expecting, but pretty fucking close I think lol
Wonder if our new ML will be able his new best friend
Thank you for the chapter!!🧡🧡
Guessing the ml power should be connected to puzzles or puppet body?
Imagine a group of people watching volunteer picking up pieces of the player and sewing it together while knowing volunteer doesn’t know who is he picking up and also being afraid to distract him as he is doing a good job piecing group leader together
xD that’s literally their exact feeling right now…
💀 omg
Oh shit the “corpse” opened his eyes. I would have peed myself and my smartwatch (if I had one) would have logged that I had done an intense workout in 3 seconds. I can’t deal with corpses and even if it’s my loved ones, I would be scared though I heard from many people that if their loved ones came back, they would want to be near them.
I cant wait for more chapters q(^-^q)!щ(゜▽゜щ)
Thanks for the chapter~~
🤣😅 this guy
Lmaooo so is that our ML?
An undead/immortal type! The ultimate tease! Looks like a beautiful corpse, but he’s actually alive(???)!
I wonder if Xia Bai will chase him ( waiting until he dies to grab a new “family member”)
well at least this time Xia Bai will “marry” him without hesitation and gladly call him his “husband” xD
xia bai is what i mean when i say i want a freak
💀💀💀👏👏👏 amen to that
so ML is Buggy from One Piece??!! 😂😂😂
Indeed Xia Bai fell in love at first sight… xD
It’s his corpse!!! He sew him back up!!! Let him be ):<
This novel is literally so engaging why don’t I have 327 chapters to binge read 😂😂😂
I can’t wait to see how this unfolds