This chapter contains sensitive and potentially triggering content, including mentions of rape, eating disorders, and other distressing subjects. Reader discretion is advised.
“Ling Changye… you know him?” Guo Yang, taken aback by his disbelief, asked, “Does he also know how formidable he is?”
Seeing Ling Changye on the screen, Guo Yang was in shock. He was an ardent fan of the strike team, idolizing every member and dreaming of joining them one day. As a result, he constantly followed their every update and move, embodying the traits of both a dedicated fan and a “stan,” making him well aware of Ling Changye despite his low profile.
But now, Ling Changye had died in this game.
He was dead.
Dead.
The shock was too great, leaving Guo Yang nearly incapable of thought.
Gu Quankun clenched his teeth, “Of course, I know him.”
Who was Ling Changye?
Externally, he was known as the most low-profile captain of the strike team, so unassuming that some thought the captaincy was merely an administrative role not requiring direct involvement in clearing games.
The Game Management Bureau consisted of four departments, two institutes, and one station, with the Action Department being the most scrutinized. The prototype of the Action Department was initially the Crisis Management Department.
It was formed when games were first discovered, leading to peculiar deaths. Special investigators were appointed to prevent further casualties, eventually evolving into the bureau and the specialized players for clearing difficult games, forming the crisis response teams.
As the bureau grew stronger, the Crisis Management Department expanded into the Action Division, and the original crisis response teams became the strike team.
“If we were to seal off an area every time a game appears, it might seem safe in the short term. But as more games emerge, the number of personnel needed would reach an alarming figure, gradually reducing humanity’s living space. It’s a form of escapism and a slow suicide. We need a team for assaults, and that’s the strike team,” said the Director of the Game Management Bureau.
The strike team steps in for games that have defeated several waves of players, embodying the bureau’s core and most scrutinized team. They must be exceptionally skilled players, and indeed, they were great. Additionally, they enjoyed special privileges, care, and services.
While many players are well-known, the captain’s identity remains a mystery. As a key figure in the Divine Game Guild, which often opposes the Game Management Bureau, Gu Quankun knew the captain’s role was anything but simple.
He knew that Ling Changye had participated in clearing two of the three major maps, and had successfully managed to leave the game alive each time. It was clear he was more than an administrative figure.
More terrifyingly, the mystery surrounding Ling Changye’s game identity and skills, untraceable even after scouring the leaderboards for a year, suggested he or the bureau deliberately concealed his presence. Rarely entering games, his scores weren’t high enough for the leaderboard, keeping him under the radar for strategic reasons.
The Divine Game Guild considered Ling Changye a significant threat, and now he had died in this very game?
If the man in seat number eight, who had been preoccupied with his fingers, was Ling Changye, then wouldn’t the kid who had been curled up in fear…
Erwa?
He had suspected it, but was still surprised that his suspicions were right.
Gu Quankun turned back to see the Erwa in a young man’s embrace as they both stared blankly at the screen. The young man seemed foolish and weak, yet his other pale hand was pressing down on a terrifyingly crimson ghost hand.
“…?”
Guo Yang, having also realized that the young 9th audience member might be the child star Erwa, abruptly glanced over as well.
“…?”
Just what had happened when he wasn’t looking?
Who in the world was that apparently delicate young man who managed to overpower such a fierce and frightening ghostly hand? Where did this prominent figure suddenly emerge from?
So, there were a whole bunch of players gathered here?
So, he was actually the most ordinary guy here?
So… just how absurd did they find it when he attempted to coordinate everyone?
Amidst their confusion, the ghostly hand managed to break free from Xia Bai’s suppression, hurtling towards Erwa.
The two men did not respond in time, or perhaps they simply wanted to observe without stepping in. Left with no choice, Xia Bai slapped another corpse-suppressing talisman onto the ghostly hand, grabbed the frightened child, and ran.
“Help! Guo Yang! Gu Quankun!”
Xia Bai did not forget his grandfather’s advice despite the urgent situation: when seeking help, call out specific names.
The ghostly hand, not as easily dealt with as the spectral eyes before, tore through the talisman’s restraint with greater strength and speed, its nails dripping with sticky goo as it swiftly lunged at Xia Bai.
Just as its nails were about to tear through Xia Bai’s clothes, he ducked incredibly low, his body flexing unbelievably as he twisted to the side with the child, performing a backflip off the back of a chair and sprinting down the corridor with agile leaps from chair to chair.
Even Xia Bai himself was taken aback by his ability to move with such fluidity amidst danger, attributing it to a surge of latent potential as he rushed forward with an expression devoid of emotion towards the pair ahead.
With the ghostly hand in relentless pursuit, nearly piercing Xia Bai’s back, the child in his arms shifted his focus entirely onto him, staring at his swaying bangs and pretty eyes.
It evoked in Erwa one of his earliest memories, of the wind sweeping past the stars while he gazed up from a wheat field.
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.
The ghostly hand was faster than Xia Bai anticipated, its chilling presence creeping over his neck when suddenly, a black blade plunged into the hand, momentarily slowing it down. Seizing the moment, Xia Bai exclaimed, “I know the death rules!”
As his words hung in the air, a massive, gooey, rosy brown tendril shot out from Gu Quankun’s hand, passing in front of Xia Bai. Having initially mistaken it for a giant python, Xia Bai realized upon seeing the transparent bristles on it that this was actually a colossal earthworm.
This earthworm, magnitudes larger than any normal one, lunged at the ghostly hand, which in turn, grabbed a segment of it with its sharp nails. Gu Quankun, taken aback by the ghostly hand’s strength, paled and stepped back, attempting to retract the earthworm, but the ghostly hand had already torn off a piece.
Gu Quankun broke into a sweat from the pain, but fortunately, the ghostly hand disappeared after grabbing the earthworm. Xia Bai breathed a sigh of relief, grateful for saving at least ten corpse-suppressing talismans.
However, the fierce look Gu Quankun gave him made Xia Bai’s heart race once more. The colossal earthworm had emerged from Gu Quankun’s hand—or, to be more precise, it was Gu Quankun’s right arm transformed. After the ghostly hand tore off a segment, his hand became bloodied, and his longest fingers—the index, middle, and ring fingers—were all shortened by a section.
Holding the child and stepping back with guilt, Xia Bai spoke, “Th-Thank you, sir, for saving me.”
Guo Yang also took a step back, muttering, “Earthworm man?”
Was this the infamous earthworm man ranked within the top thirty of the leaderboard? Indeed, none of the individuals gathered here were ordinary!
Gu Quankun glanced at the small figure in Xia Bai’s arms and struggled to suppress his urge to kill Xia Bai. He spat out words laced with evident anger, “You said you know the death rules, so speak!”
Xia Bai replied cautiously, “First, I need to confirm something. Does your companion have any skills?”
There was no need for Gu Quankun to hide the secrets of someone already dead, so he simply answered, “Yes.”
Xia Bai inquired further, “Is his skill related to eating?” Gu Quankun, momentarily taken aback, finally raised his head to regard Xia Bai seriously.
“Yes, Xu Yue’s skill is a physical ability, Gluttony. Does the death rule relate to this?”
Xia Bai nodded, “I think I understand the death rules now.”
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It was a profession he deeply cherished; his gym, located in Quanguang City, was among the most upscale, attracting numerous well-off women from various backgrounds. In his social circle, it’s an unspoken norm for fitness coaches to be intimately close with their trainees.
Initially, Dong Chao felt restrained, but as such interactions became more frequent, his threshold for excitement heightened.
He grew to disdain consensual affairs, instead favoring the oppression of women who appeared aloof and untouchable. Watching these women struggle before ultimately submitting to him filled him with a perverse sense of achievement, fueling his primitive desire for domination. Over time, his craving for thrills deepened, with normalcy no longer satisfying him.
With Quanguang City under semi-lockdown, the influx of attractive gym-goers dwindled, leaving him restless for new excitement. He thus turned to horror movies, although well aware that films screened in cinemas, heavily censored, lacked the content he most desired. However, thrills were still thrills. Considering his situation, a little something was still better than nothing.
Unexpectedly, a simple movie outing thrust him into a bizarre game.
Before he entered the cinema, he had already sensed an eerie tension from his surroundings and the internet. Many around him grew increasingly restless and tight-wound. It was the reason why many would unleash their true selves; he, too, was like this.
So, when Guo Yang told them they were caught in a bizarre game, he believed it deep down.
Having a premonition and believing in Guo Yang’s words didn’t mean that Dong Chao panicked. Panic was pointless. His muscular physique, which he used to intimidate and oppress others on a regular day, was laughable here.
That seemingly frail boy had flung him, a man standing at 190 cm and weighing a solid 90 kilograms, away with just a few fingers, displaying strength far beyond any ordinary human.
Dong Chao remembered a post he had seen on a supernatural forum, quickly deleted, about someone witnessing a group in the neighboring village using their hands to “suck” a truck over to himself, in which several monsters, neither human nor ghost, were captured.
The world had indeed gone awry. Unbeknownst to them, a sinister game had started, and some humans had even evolved abilities beyond comprehension.
He was suffocatingly frustrated, yet dared not speak, smoldering in silence.
Seeing the kid, he cursed under his breath. Nobody paid him any attention, which only deepened his humiliation.
The only solace during this movie outing was that the film from the bizarre game was much more to his liking than the one he initially planned to watch. Even the stuff he watched on seedy websites couldn’t compare to this movie.
To him, no movie in recent years could hold a candle to this one. The director had a knack for film; everything seemed realistic, and the atmosphere was just right. Dong Chao felt as if he was right there in the movie, experiencing thrills alongside the characters.
The most thrilling scene was when two savage islanders dragged the campus belle into a damp, dark cave.
From the moment she appeared, he couldn’t stand her aloof demeanor. Watching the pristine campus belle being pushed into the filthy mud, his blood boiled, and the smoldering anger in his chest flared into a raging inferno.
Watching her defiant struggles, he found himself mimicking the actions of the movie’s characters, wanting to slap her into submission.
Seeing her male classmate, who not only refused to rescue her but also appeared entranced by the vile scene, Dong Chao felt a deep connection. The fantasy of dominating the unattainable school beauty, now a reality, thrilled him more than anything else. It paralleled his experiences with affluent women who, despite being out of his league, ended up beneath him.
Images of those scenes involuntarily flooded Dong Chao’s mind, stirring his already boiling blood.
Watching the two enter, his legs shook, increasingly violently, his hands restlessly rubbing against the armrest.
He wanted to join them.
He really, really wanted to.
Just as the desire desire burning within him became nearly unbearable, a soft, chilling breath whispered in his ear, sending shivers down his spine.
Before he could turn to look, a cold, soft touch crept up his legs. The drenched school beauty from the movie had supported herself up with her hands on his legs, looking up at him.
Water droplets trickled down from her thick, curly hair onto her neck and his legs, her lips peeking through, tinted purple, possibly from the cold.
This campus belle was far more beautiful than any he had seen online, cold yet pure, her damp and chilling allure seductive to the core.
Her purple lips parted slightly. “Do you wish to join us?”
Dong Chao’s blood boiled like never before. This was a thrill he had never experienced. He swallowed thrice before managing to utter, “Join?”
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He Jiaxiu replied, “Humans are insignificant and powerless. The idea that good is rewarded and evil is punished is a lie. But in horror films, there’s karma, and one can seek revenge for grievances.”
Thus, for the first time in their lives, they chose a horror film for their movie outing at the age of forty-three.
He Jiaxiu was born in a village not too far off, close to a county town where life was decent. The villagers often fantasized about a better life post-relocation, a dream that carried them through much of their lives.
Her tragic life began with her father’s paralysis and her mother abandoning her and her brother, forcing her to drop out of middle school to support the family. She didn’t feel sad at that time because her life at school was even worse.
She washed dishes in a restaurant, but that paid too little to support her family. She worked in KTVs and bars, where she was often harassed and insulted.
After spending what should have been her best ten years in a haze of misery, she married an abusive gambler out of desperation for urgent money.
One night, five years into her marriage, that man let his creditors into her room.
She resisted fiercely at the start. The humiliation and pain were sharp. Yet, as time passed, all these sensations were suppressed by the heavy fog of life to some corner of her heart.
Later, that man left her with a mountain of debt and disappeared.
When she was thrown out of her house by the creditors on a rainy night, perhaps because she looked so pitiable, a lame security guard in her neighborhood took off his jacket to shield her from the rain.
That security guard was Ma Tongfeng.
For the first time in her difficult life, He Jiaxiu felt the warmth of care. She burst into sobs right there in the pouring rain.
Ma Tongfeng, not knowing what to do, ended up getting soaked with her for a long time.
He accompanied her to seek legal aid, humbling himself and always trying to make her smile with caution.
She helped him with household chores, supporting him up the stairs in the wee hours of the morning after his shifts.
And so, they started living together in his rented apartment, which had only one room and no living room.
One day, he nervously told her he wanted to marry her, to take her away from this place that only brought them humiliation and hurt, from this tense environment that couldn’t promise them a stable future. He wanted to return to his hometown, build a brick house, and live a good life together.
She agreed.
That was the day before yesterday.
Before leaving the city that scarred them both, he said he wanted to take her on a date, to end their life in the city on a happy note.
That evening, the warm light from the bulb fell on his nervous yet joyful face. He didn’t know that when he smiled, creases covered his face, making him look like a man over his fifties, nor did he know that even his dark and yellowed skin were unable to hide his blushing cheeks.
Despite being over forty, they were still going on dates.
As He Jiaxiu thought about this, she smiled and made preparations. They had decided to watch a movie, and with the help of a middle school student neighbor, they chose a horror film. She liked movies with ghosts; powerless in reality, they sought the karma and revenge only visible in horror films.
She went to buy drinks and popcorn. Having heard from others that cinema prices were high, she visited a market, which she recalled sold a large bag of popcorn at only three yuan—more than enough to last them through a movie.
One of them was a lame security guard, looked down upon even in his job, earning less than two thousand a month. The other had once had her hand broken and never fully recovered, working in a supermarket for just a bit over two thousand a month. They had a house to build; every penny had to be saved.
Well-prepared, they stepped into a cinema for the first time in their lives.
Unexpectedly, they ended up in a bizarre game.
During the movie, he held her hand tightly.
She was originally panicked and bewildered. As members of the lowest rungs of society, they had struggled desperately just to live to see the next day, leaving them no time or energy left to notice abnormalities in society, dragged into this terrifying game without any mental preparation.
But as the movie progressed, she became engrossed, forgetting her fear.
She wished she hadn’t seen that particular scene. Her memories, suppressed by the trials of life, were returned to the forefront of her mind upon witnessing the school belle’s humiliation. The shame, anger, pain, and despair of the past boiled over, crashing against her sensitive nerves.
She began to tremble, gasping for breath as though the air itself eluded her.
It was as if she had been cast back into that dark room of despair and helplessness, where even tears felt tainted, filled with a rage so fierce she wished to end the beast’s life.
When she witnessed the school beauty’s ghostly revenge, her parched veins pulsed with life, her heart racing with a desire to weep with joy.
“Do you seek vengeance?”
“Do you wish to kill him?”
“The one who struck you time and again, who never saw you as human, who violated you without restraint—they deserve to die! Like this…”
Tears streamed down her sallow cheeks in heavy drops, her expression a twisted mix of laughter and sobs.
The once frightened and helpless soul reached out to grasp the knife extended towards her.
When exactly the horror game descended upon Earth is a mystery that perhaps no one knows.
The earliest substantiated case was the incident at Qili Village Elementary School, definitively linked to the sinister game, though no one knew how the Game Management Bureau confirmed it.
As the disappearance of the students from Qili Village Elementary School began to circulate online, Xu Yue found himself struggling with a binge eating disorder.
For some reason, he was engulfed in anxiety back then, only finding solace in overeating. The more he ate, the hungrier he became, spiraling into a vicious cycle.
One day, his stomach felt as though it would burst from pain, and he realized this path would lead to his death. To prevent further harm, he had no choice but to seek hospital treatment, using medication to curb his appetite, leading to a life dimmed and soulless.
Later, drawn into the game, he thought he would die in that terrifying ordeal. On the brink of death, he abandoned all restraint and ate desperately, even gnawing on the limbs of monsters.
Unexpectedly, he unleashed a strength that allowed him to defeat the monster.
Together with Gu Quankun, who was also trapped in the game, they managed to survive, and from that game, he earned the Gluttony skill.
Only then did he understand that the arrival of the sinister game had taken many lives but also offered a sliver of hope. A select few awakened abilities to confront the eerie and unknown future.
His ability to gain strength through consumption grew with his powers, allowing him to eat more and become stronger.
For many, the game’s arrival was a descent into hell, but for some, it was a passage to paradise. Xu Yue was among the latter.
Back then, upon receiving his skill, he’d laughed heartily, holding the leg of a monster. No longer did he need medication to suppress his voracious, empty hunger. He could eat to his heart’s content, without restraint—eat, eat, eat… What could be better than gaining strength through eating?
His ability proved extremely useful, and alongside the experienced Gu Quankun, they formed a duo that conquered three games in a row, until this one.
Having survived three consecutive games bolstered his confidence. Realizing he had been pulled into another game while watching a movie, he wasn’t nervous at all. He enjoyed the film, searching for something to satiate his hunger.
Despite having just eaten, he was hungry again.
He admitted the movie was disgustingly cliché, but it possessed a certain magic—perhaps the realism or the atmosphere—that completely immersed him, making him forget about the game.
When it came to the scene of the savage islanders dining, he could hardly stand it.
Late night was when his appetite was most easily aroused. For someone like him, seeing others enjoy their meal so immensely was pure torture.
What was drove the nail in deeper was the barbaric way the islanders ate, which perfectly matched his dietary preferences. After consuming monsters in the game, ordinary fruits and vegetables no longer appealed to him; he craved meat, the rarer, the better.
Watching them tear into the flesh of various animals, chewing with abandon, Xu Yue swallowed repeatedly, feeling an unbearable emptiness in his stomach that demanded to be filled, to be stuffed with all manner of flesh.
Upon seeing the savage islanders also partake in cannibalism, Xu Yue felt dizzy and clutched at his stomach.
He had devoured many monsters but never a human. What did humans taste like?
He was unaware of the intensity in his gaze, saliva dripping from the corners of his mouth.
“Do you want to eat?”
“There are so many kinds of meat.”
“Look. There are even fresh fingers.”
Thank you for the chapter!
Oh dear 😰 Did the game specifically choose these people to enter, or did the game/movie change based on the players that entered?
Oooo good chapter! Thank you💜💜
Thank you for the chapter! ❤
Thanks for the chapter!
Oof. What a coincidence reading this right after watching the video of the guy seizing his chance at that train collision yesterday in California.
Oh, so its sympathy.
Wonder if the gane was triggered because of all these people here or if this specific movie was chosen for them
!!!Minor Spoiler About the Reason Why!!!
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Because when Xia Bai first entered the game there was other rooms in the cinema playing movies so I’m pretty sure those games were also involved (btw you also meet someone there… someone who plays a role close to a love river, bro literally started worshiping Xia Bai in the later part of the story and became obsessed with him, but don’t worry he never touched Xia Bai because he knows he got a bf and he cares for Xia Bai beyond his obsession)
Spooky~ Hmmm I’ll go read the rest of your comment after an arc or two
oh don’t worry the info will most likely be in by the end of this arc, (I’m not sure if this is a spoiler, prob a very very tiny one but in case it is for u).
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The obsession only goes deeper in the Wugu village arc where You Yue gains a soul skill and begins really obsessing over MC and worshipping him like a god, you can literally see it in Psychic (an important holy tour guild member) when he says what he saw in You Yue’s soul xD
Pls I am so disgusted right now, this man is absolutely disgusting and I’m glad he died (like I know you are obsessed with food but ghosts, corpses, and human flesh??? +point for staying true to the mukbang nature though), also damn this plot was so revolting I swear I lost my head here, poor school beauty ghost 😢
Thank you for the chapter <3
Poor He Jiaxiu, poor Ma Tongfeng. I wish they could’ve had a happy ending.