After the Evil God Pretends to Be a Player [Infinite] - Chapter 1

Damp, cold, and slimy…

It felt as if countless tentacles and appendages were crawling up her arms, waist, the backs of her knees, and between her toes, leaving behind winding trails of water. They gradually tightened, constricting her until she couldn’t breathe…

Just as Lalai was about to sink back into this endless nightmare—watching as her familiar city was shrouded in oppressive darkness and hazy shadows, turning into ruins—a sudden wave of noise reached her ears. Sobs, whispers, and loud curses all burrowed into her eardrums.

Lalai’s eyelids fluttered. Half a second later, she opened her deep blue eyes.

“Dammit! What kind of trash game dares to suck me in! I thought the news was all fake! If I find out who’s behind this, I, Brother Cai, swear right here and now: mark my words, I’ll bring my brothers from two blocks over and overturn their nest!”

Two rows ahead of Lalai, a man with arrogant red-and-yellow-streaked hair, wearing a loose-fitting school uniform and sporting a fierce, “Smart” (shā-mǎ-tè) style look, stood in the middle of the bus aisle. He pointed one hand at the sky and the other at the ground. After finishing his rant, he stomped his foot in resentment.

The girl sitting behind him was startled by the stomp and began to cry even harder. The young man beside her looked pained, calling her “sweetheart” and “baby” as he pulled her shoulders closer, letting her lean into his embrace. It was easy to tell they were a young couple.

The “Smart” man roared: “What are you crying for? Stop it! It’s just a game!”

Watching this scene, Lalai whispered a single word: “Game?”

A young girl across the aisle immediately leaned over. She looked to be about seventeen or eighteen, with a simple ponytail and wearing a standard middle/high school uniform. She was looking at Lalai with curiosity.

“Yeah, didn’t you hear the broadcast? It said, ‘The public beta for the game “Fate” has ended, and it is now officially live’ I was right in the middle of filling out my college applications. As soon as that sentence ended, I was sucked into the computer screen. I don’t even know if I submitted them… You didn’t hear it?”

Lalai thought for a long moment and then shook her head honestly.

The young girl asked: “Then, have you ever played ‘Fate’?”

Meeting her slightly expectant gaze, Lalai pondered and then shook her head once more.

The expectation in the girl’s eyes practically became tangible. She let out a little “Aww,” flew over, and plopped down into the empty seat beside Lalai with a bright smile.

“My name is Meng Luo, and I’m three days away from turning eighteen. Let me give you the full breakdown!”

Meng Luo had been observing this “Sleeping Beauty” for a while. In Meng Luo’s eyes, Lalai looked completely out of place compared to everyone else on the bus.

Her skin was white to the point of being translucent. Her features were extremely delicate yet carried an air of absolute coldness. Her eyes appeared black at first glance, but a closer look revealed a deep, profound blue mysterious and captivating. Looking into those eyes, Meng Luo felt as though her soul was sinking into an endless deep sea.

If most of the people on the bus were rough and unrefined, then she was a fragile beauty made of colored glass.

Meng Luo waited and waited… until she finally found a chance to strike up a conversation with this mysterious player.

What she didn’t know was that the moment she lunged over, Lalai had also quickly scanned the surroundings.

She was currently on a bus that was driving over bumpy terrain, her body swaying with the vehicle. There was a constant, uncomfortable dampness and sliminess inside the bus, seemingly originating from the continuous curtain of rain outside the windows. Even though the windows were closed, the feeling of dampness and gloom seeped through the cracks of the frames.

Including herself and Meng Luo, there were seven people on the bus. Every single one of them was wearing identical high school uniforms, though one person wore a black overcoat over theirs.

Meng Luo lowered her voice and began to recount what had happened:

“Fate” was a Cthulhu-style TRPG (Tabletop Role-Playing Game) that had appeared out of nowhere six months ago. Upon its release, it instantly became a hit across the entire internet.

Its slogan was truly interesting: “In the world of ‘Fate,’ there is no rich or poor, no old or young, no high or low only the roll of the dice decides your destiny.”

The slogan wasn’t false advertising. This holographic online game had no microtransactions and no endless grinding. Whether a player could clear a game basically depended on the luck of the dice roll. Naturally, “Fate” was pushed to the top of every game ranking list. After all, in the real world, resource distribution had become stagnant; top-tier education, healthcare, and entertainment were all held by a few. Who wouldn’t want to experience a bit of fairness in a virtual world?

Positive reviews on the internet increased, and more and more players tried it…

Inside the bus, the lights were bright. Meng Luo suddenly stopped her story halfway through. Outside the window, it was pitch black. One could vaguely hear the rustling of plants, the “patter” of rain splashing on the ground, and the roar of thunder.

Meng Luo asked gloomily: “Sister, do you know what happened later?”

“What?”

Seeing Lalai’s calm face and lack of fear, Meng Luo continued her story with a hint of regret:

A month ago, a mother posted a plea for help on an anonymous forum: “My son has been in the game for three days. Is there any way to get him out?”

Initially, the replies were jokes or mockery: “Your kid finally has a winter/summer break, let him play a bit more, it won’t kill him.” “Big sister, holographic technology is so advanced now. You can roam a game for seven days without starving. Three days is nothing; the game pod will supply him with nutrients.” “…”

However, not long after, a top comment was voted up: “My husband never plays games, but he was pulled in by a colleague this time. It’s been five days since he logged in—he hasn’t gone to work for five whole days! He clearly said he’d only play for a little while?”

As the days passed, more and more similar comments appeared. The records for continuous game time were refreshed again and again: Seven days… ten days… half a month…

The “victims” the relatives and friends of those stuck in the game even formed an “Anti-Addiction” alliance to report the dangers of the game to relevant government agencies. At this point, people still thought the stragglers were simply too obsessed to come out. No one was worried about their health or safety; after all, in a technologically advanced modern era, holographic gaming was a very mature industry.

Until,

Several people from the alliance decided to contact the game developers personally. Since the game pods couldn’t be interrupted from the outside, if the official developers could force players offline from the inside, they would achieve the goal of a forced logout.

However… the phone number provided by the official site was a dead number… When government agencies went to the registered address of the game company, they found the building completely empty…

Governments of various countries established special investigation teams to study “Fate.” Countless scientific resources, funds, and materials were poured in, but the results were like a stone sinking into the ocean. No one knew where this globally popular game came from…

If it weren’t for the thousands of people still trapped in the game, its existence would have seemed like a dream…

After nearly a month of fruitless investigation, just as various governments agreed to categorize the incident as one of mankind’s unsolved mysteries and suspend the investigation, things took a turn for the worse—

“Yes! I saw my grandma disappear with my own eyes… She was watching TV and knitting a sweater, but as soon as I pushed the door open, I saw a brilliant glow being sucked into the TV, leaving only two long knitting needles on the floor…”

The woman wiping her tears leaned out from her boyfriend’s embrace, gesturing excitedly.

Meng Luo sighed softly: “That’s how it is. There were also weather forecast broadcast rooms… movie theaters…”

Following her description, scenes seemed to flash before Lalai’s eyes.  A female weather reporter’s sweet smile being replaced by horror before she disappeared from the audience’s view in the next second.

In a packed movie theater, as the ending credits rolled, some people were packing up to leave while others stayed for a post-credits scene. At that moment, the light on the screen went out, the theater went pitch black, and everyone’s gaze instinctively turned to the screen.

In the next instant, everyone’s bodies gradually became transparent and slowly disappeared… They were terrified by their own changes, questioning, cursing, and even crying out, but they could only watch as their transparent bodies were sucked into the nearest theater screen…

“After that, it was a global broadcast. I don’t know when this game will let us out.” Meng Luo’s expression darkened. She wanted to chat a few more words with Lalai when she heard a loud “Screech”

The bus braked sharply. All the passengers were jolted forward by inertia. Someone’s head hit the back of the seat in front of them. In the chaos, someone yelled “Holy sh*t,” and someone else cursed: “How is the driver even driving? This is truly…”

The sentence wasn’t finished.

A hand with bulging muscles and thick veins suddenly seized his throat. The man with the red-and-yellow hair widened his eyes, his face turning purple from suffocation. His gaze slowly shifted upward, reflecting a sinister and eerie face—

Or rather, a mask.

At first glance, the mask on the bus driver’s face was beautiful—phoenix eyes, willow-leaf brows, and cherry-blossom lips—the quintessential features of a classical beauty. That is, if it weren’t being worn on the face of a muscular, hulking man.

This mask was also different from ordinary masks. Using some unknown craftsmanship, it was extremely light and thin, looking weightless on the man’s face. Rather than a rubber mask, it looked more like.

A piece of human skin that had been completely peeled off.

The “Smart” man was terrified and trembling. The more he feared, the more he couldn’t take his eyes off the mask on the driver’s face. He tried in vain to pry at the giant hand throttling his neck with his fingers, but the hand was like an iron clamp; no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t budge it an inch…

“Cough, cough, cough, cough!”

Finally, the driver let him go. Even through the mask, the man felt the driver’s venomous eyes staring fixedly at him, as if saying: This is just a small punishment, but I remember you.

This scene happened right in front of Lalai and Meng Luo. As the man continued to cough heart-wrenchingly, the masked driver turned around and spoke to everyone:

“The ferry bus has arrived at the station.”

“Welcome to the ‘Pretty Middle School’ instance. I am the Secret Keeper for this round of the game; you may also call me the ‘Host.’”

His mask clearly covered his entire face, yet for some reason, as he spoke, everyone felt they could see a strange smile curling at the corners of his mouth.

“You are all transfer students to Pretty Middle School. You’ve taken the bus here tonight. It’s late, so we’ll arrange your accommodations first. I’ll show you around the campus tomorrow.”

“Now, one by one, in an orderly fashion… get off the bus.”

The Secret Keeper, like a magician, pulled out three umbrellas of different colors from nowhere.

A pale flash of lightning illuminated the pitch-black night. Only half a second later, a roar of thunder exploded beside their ears. The rain outside seemed to get even heavier.

For a moment, no one moved.

“Can we get off a bit later? Wait for the rain to stop…” a hesitant female voice sounded. However, when her gaze met the Secret Keeper’s half-smiling mask, she instantly cut herself off.

Lalai looked up and saw a young woman with exquisite makeup. Her eyes were very large, her nose bridge was high, and her chin was very pointed, but for some reason, her entire face had a strange sense of disharmony. If Lalai had encountered 21st-century humans before, she would know this was the currently popular “Plastic Surgery Influencer Face.” But she hadn’t, so when Meng Luo whispered in her ear, “That woman is a somewhat famous female streamer,” Lalai was confused for half a second: What kind of profession is a female streamer?

However, she ultimately lowered her head with a lack of interest, looking weary. She was feeling a bit drowsy.

In the next second, she suddenly felt a layer of shadow loom over her from above. She looked up. It was a man wrapped in a black overcoat. He had been sitting in the row behind her, but now his back was straight as he walked toward the bus door with a leisurely pace. It was as if he weren’t facing a terrifying Secret Keeper, but rather heading to a banquet.

As if noticing her gaze, the man turned his head.

He had a face that would be unforgettable in any setting. He looked to be about twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, with sharp and handsome brow bones, deep and charming eyes, a smooth and high nose bridge, and thin lips slightly pursed. His black hair proved his Asian heritage, yet his gaze carried a hint of soulful affection, along with a miraculous air of a wealthy European playboy. When he walked through this space, it no longer felt like an eerie bus, but rather a luxury themed banquet at a Michelin restaurant.

He nodded to Lalai from a distance and smiled, seemingly a polite gesture of friendliness, before turning back a second later.

However, from an angle no one noticed, Lalai’s expression changed quietly. The uncomfortable damp and slimy sensation crawled up her spine again. She stared fixedly at the man for quite a while before finally looking away.

“Wait a minute!”

The man’s motion to take an umbrella from the Secret Keeper was interrupted. A hand reached out from the side and grabbed one of the umbrellas from the Secret Keeper’s hand before jumping off the bus.

It was actually the “Smart” man who had been trembling from the Secret Keeper’s intimidation just a moment ago.

The Secret Keeper originally had three umbrellas: red, white, and black. Now, the “Smart” man had snatched the white one, which looked the most harmless.

There were two umbrellas left, and six people still on the bus. The mask hid the Secret Keeper’s expression, but it wasn’t hard to guess that he was watching all the players with great interest.

The female streamer put on a pitiful expression and invited the man from the couple nearest to her: “Can I go with you guys?”

His girlfriend instantly glared at her. The man hesitated but eventually nodded.

“The red umbrella is so pretty. I like this one; it looks festive,” the streamer said cheerfully. They chose the red umbrella and got off the bus.

Besides the Secret Keeper, only the three of them remained.

The handsome man shrugged, took the much-shunned black umbrella from the Secret Keeper, and smiled at Lalai and Meng Luo:

“My name is Li Zhu. I wonder if I have the luck to invite you two to share this umbrella with me?”