A Survival Game Where You Have to Fall in Love with a Madman - Chapter 20

The moment You Yan opened his eyes again, thick, viscous black fluid was actively oozing from the surrounding metal walls.

The ground at the dead center of the town suddenly collapsed inward, giving way to eight black metal chairs rising up to form a perfect circle. The air was heavily saturated with the pungent odor of rust and stagnant moisture; they appeared to be stationed within an enclosed chamber.

The remaining five players materialized one after another, throwing heavily guarded, sharp glances at one another.

Following a sharp crackle of static, a cold, entirely emotionless mechanical voice chimed through the air:

[Attention, idiotic players. Welcome to the Survival Game Instance: The Dark Mist Labyrinth]

[Instance Lore Introduction:] Deep within northern Canada lies a remote, isolated settlement known as Grey Oak Town, surrounded entirely by layers of ancient, suffocating forest. The area is heavily blanketed by a perpetual mist year-round, and the local residents have passed down eerie legends through generations some claim the woods house entities that do not belong to this world, while others assert that the terrain itself is constantly mutating.

In October 1993, an anomalous black mist surged without warning from an unknown locus, entirely enveloping the town. The fog carried a distinct odor of decay; anyone who crossed into its parameters would lose their sense of direction within a matter of minutes, ultimately vanishing entirely.

Before long, the town became a completely deserted ghost town, the whereabouts of its inhabitants entirely unknown. The local government deployed a specialized search-and-rescue unit to conduct an investigation, but every single operative lost contact immediately after broadcasting terrified screams over the radio. Three days later, the fog abruptly receded, but not a single member of the rescue unit returned leaving behind nothing but scattered tactical equipment and a few heavily corrupted, blurry video tapes.

Black metal walls began rising around the perimeter of the town. Within the video files, the operatives appeared to be sprinting through a seemingly infinitely extending maze, with vague silhouettes shifting menacingly inside the fog. In the final frame of the footage, an operative screams directly into the camera lens:

“It’s constantly changing! It doesn’t want us to leave!”

[Instance Difficulty:] A-Rank [Total Active Players:] 8 [Time Limit:] 5 Days [Main Quest:] Escape the Dark Mist Labyrinth alive. [Side Quest:] Uncover the hidden truth and purify the instance. [Special Prompt:] Remember! You must leave here ALIVE…

“Isn’t this System just spouting utter nonsense? If you’re dead, how the hell are you supposed to leave anyway?” A coarse, boisterous voice rumbled through the room.

The speaker was a muscular, bald-headed man. His back was remarkably broad and thick, his muscle groups sculpted to absolute perfection radiating immense, raw physical strength.

“The System’s prompts must be structured that way for a logical reason,” a timid, gentle voice offered in response. It came from a blonde girl standing in a corner, who appeared to be quite young. She possessed a slender, elegant frame and exceptionally pale skin. She was tightly clutching her own arms, looking over at the bald man before fearfully lowering her head.

You Yan fixated his gaze on the two speakers, covertly evaluating them without showing any outward emotion.

Liu Xin tilted his head slightly, dropping his voice to an absolute whisper to address You Yan and He Yanqing. “See that muscular guy? His name is Zhang Wei. He is definitively not someone you want to mess with; his operational methods are incredibly ruthless.”

“He was the teammate of Guo Xuemei and Chang Zhou in the previous instance,” Liu Xin added, shifting his gaze back to You Yan. Noting that You Yan’s face remained entirely expressionless, showing zero visible reaction to the warning, Liu Xin felt a pang of anxiety and quickly supplemented: “You must exercise extreme caution around him. He is notoriously vengeful.”

You Yan merely offered a detached, flat “Mhm,” filtering out any further commentary.

He Yanqing chimed in with a characteristically playful, lighthearted tone: “Hahaha… Ha… Don’t underestimate him, Liu Xin. Our dear Mr. NPC doesn’t possess the hardware to understand what fear is.”

You Yan completely ignored him, shifting his gaze away from Zhang Wei to scan the remaining individuals in the room.

Aside from Zhang Wei and Liu Xin, there were two men and a woman stationed on the opposite side. One of the men wore an impeccably tailored business suit paired with gold-rimmed glasses, presenting a highly articulate, refined demeanor; he appeared to be roughly the same age as them. The woman was dressed in casual attire, sports a clean, no-nonsense shoulder-length haircut that gave off a thoroughly refreshing impression.

For reasons he couldn’t quite articulate, You Yan found this woman distinctly familiar, as if he had crossed paths with her somewhere before.

His gaze finally landed on the last participant a young boy holding a skateboard, appearing to be no older than twelve or thirteen. You Yan’s brows knit together slightly as a cold thought surfaced in his mind: Why is there a child inside the system architecture? Has the structural database leak expanded far beyond my initial projections?

Right at that moment, You Yan felt an exceptionally intense, piercing gaze lock onto his position.

His chest tightened slightly, experiencing a sudden sensation of being completely seen through. He whipped around instantly to trace the source. Sure enough, the gaze originated from the woman standing right next to the young skateboarder the exact same woman who had triggered his sense of familiarity. She was staring at You Yan without making the slightest attempt to veil her scrutiny, her eyes holding an incredibly cryptic, unreadable expression.

The Game Master Arrives

A heavy, rhythmic thud of footsteps began to echo from the shadows, each footfall seeming to vibrate directly against the players’ heartstrings as the sound drew steadily closer.

The crowd’s attention converged instantly toward the source. A figure completely draped in a pitch-black cloak was slowly advancing toward them. The heavy fabric completely enveloped his form, exposing nothing but a pair of black leather boots. His hood was pulled down incredibly low, entirely masking the back of his head.

Furthermore, a stark raven mask completely obscured his facial features, leaving only a pair of cold, detached eyes to peer out through the hollow eye-slits, impassively evaluating the assembled players.

Concurrently, the live stream bullet-chat (danmaku) began to rapidly update across the virtual overlay:

[User ID: July Meets Congyun]: It’s starting, it’s starting! The Boss for this instance looks incredibly eerie. [User ID: Dugu Xixuan]: There are a lot of fresh faces among the players this time around. I haven’t seen most of them before. [User ID: Mo Yu zzz]: The only players worth remembering are those few top-tier Gods anyway. Who else are you trying to keep tabs on?

When the cloaked figure halted exactly two meters away from the group, his upper torso tilted forward slightly, as if systematically indexing their physiological reactions. Due to the total obstruction of the raven mask, the players found it impossible to extract any legible micro-expressions.

Right then, a bizarre auditory broadcast echoed through the chamber. The voice was entirely genderless, seeming to resonate from all directions simultaneously through a heavily distorted, synthetic mechanical filter that left a distinctly skin-crawling impression.

“Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Deadly Werewolf Game,” the voice intoned. “The total active player count for this deployment is precisely eight.” The audio paused briefly before resuming, “Please select a seat so that I may outline the operational rules.”

The announcement caused the players’ nerves to snap taut. They rapidly exchanged guarded glances, every individual harboring an immense level of vigilance toward the upcoming mechanics.

While the majority of the group remained frozen in hesitation, Zhang Wei grew visibly impatient.

“Stop dragging your feet, what the hell are you all waiting for? It’s just a damn chair, look how terrified you all are!” Zhang Wei grumbled loudly. Without a shred of hesitation, he aggressively pulled back the metal chair closest to him and slammed his heavy frame down onto the seat.

The raven-masked entity stood completely motionless beside the circle, waiting silently. It made no attempt to rush the remaining participants, merely utilizing its deep, hollow gaze to passively track every movement.

Once the crowd observed that Zhang Wei had seated himself without triggering an instantaneous trap, the baseline tension in the room eased slightly.

You Yan’s stride, however, remained exceptionally sluggish. He intentionally lagged behind the rest of the group, utilizing the delay to systematically audit the microscopic discrepancies present on every single chair.

The players who had rushed ahead, driven by an instinctive level of mutual distrust, had naturally left empty seats between one another to maintain a defensive radius. Consequently, You Yan, Liu Xin, and He Yanqing were forcefully separated across the layout.

Seated directly adjacent to Zhang Wei was the casual-dressed woman who had been intensely scrutinizing You Yan; her gaze continued to drift periodically in his direction.

Next to her sat He Yanqing, followed closely by the timid blonde girl whose gentle demeanor projected an innate sense of vulnerability.

Adjacent to her was the man in the business suit, his rigid, austere expression making it incredibly easy to speculate regarding a highly disciplined professional background.

Positioned next to him was Liu Xin, whose seat was separated from You Yan’s final position by the young skateboarder. The boy didn’t look like a novice experiencing his first instance deployment; his youthful features were heavily laced with a distinct layer of raw hostility.

Finally, You Yan stepped up to the last remaining vacant chair and slowly sat down.