Zheng Zha always felt that he was dead in reality—going to work, coming home from work, eating, relieving himself, sleeping, waking up. He didn't know what his purpose was. It certainly wasn't in the greasy smile on his boss's face, nor in the so-called white-collar women he met at bars, and definitely not in this endless steel jungle—this modern urban city.
Zheng Zha felt like he was decaying, decaying from the age of twenty-four until old age, then turning into dust, and eventually becoming just a name. No, not even a name would remain, because no one would remember you. No one would remember a small white-collar worker, whether he was truly sophisticated or just pretending to be bourgeois. He was merely a speck of dust in this world.
He wanted to change something. He wanted to have his own meaning…
"Do you want to understand the meaning of life? Do you want to truly... live?"
When Zheng Zha opened his computer at work today, this message suddenly popped up on the screen. It clearly seemed like some immature hacker's attempt to grab attention. No matter whether he selected "Yes" or "No," the result would be the same—downloading a virus. Zheng Zha scoffed and was about to close it, but when his finger touched the mouse, a strange feeling of anxiety made him stop.
"Do you want to understand the meaning of life? Do you want to truly... live?"
A sense of confusion filled Zheng Zha's mind, and an indescribable attraction made him leave his finger on the left-click button. He then lightly clicked "Yes," and in an instant, he lost consciousness…
Coldness, trembling…
When he woke up, Zheng Zha jumped up from the ground in a panic. He looked around frantically, and for a moment, the office environment in his mind and the current environment around him became confused. But after a few seconds, he had regained his clarity.
"Not bad. You're the most well-behaved one among the new arrivals," a cold voice came.
Zheng Zha turned to look and saw a black-haired young man sneering at him. The young man was around twenty-four or twenty-five, with an ordinary appearance, but several scars marred his face, making him look sinister and terrifying.
The black-haired young man held a cigarette in his hand. He took a deep drag and then looked past Zheng Zha, staring at the people behind him. It was only then that Zheng Zha noticed five people lying beside him—three men and two women. In addition to them, there were more than ten foreigners in the enclosed space.
They were in a moving train car, and the train was traveling at an extremely fast speed. The cold and trembling sensations were caused by the vibrations of the car.
"Where is this place? Who are you? Why am I here?" Zheng Zha kept asking them. Since there were foreigners, he even used English.
The foreigners gave him a brief glance before turning away, but the black-haired young man took a deep breath and said, "Think carefully. It should have implanted all of this into your mind."
"Think carefully?" Zheng Zha began to recall everything in his mind. He only remembered that when he saw the message "Do you want to understand the meaning of life? Do you want to truly... live?" and clicked "Yes" on the computer screen, he lost consciousness…
Wait a minute. Zheng Zha suddenly felt that something had changed in his mind—survival and life…
This was a game. Who created this game was no longer important—perhaps it was the gods, maybe demons, or possibly aliens or humans from the future. In any case, he was now a part of this game, or rather, he had become one of its participants.
Placing a choice in a confused, decaying person in the city, when they choose to enter the game, they are transported to the scenes of various horror films.
"This time it's Resident Evil 1. Newbies, you're really lucky to have encountered such an easy horror movie on your first try. Even if you die, it'll be an easy death," the black-haired young man took one last deep drag from his cigarette and crushed the remaining butt in his palm.
"So you're saying that our consciousness has just entered a computer, like in some fantasy novel? Once we finish this game, our consciousness will return to our bodies and we'll be revived?" A chubby young man sitting on the floor asked.
The black-haired young man pulled out a Desert Eagle pistol from his jacket, fiddling with it while saying, "I don't know if it's just your consciousness, but you'll feel pain, you'll be injured, and you'll die. And you're wrong. After you complete this game, you'll enter the next unknown horror movie. This movie might be one you've seen, or it might be one you haven't. Every time, 'The Main God' brings in new members to replace those who died in the previous horror movie. The number of participants is between seven and twenty people. In other words, Resident Evil 1 is one of the least dangerous horror films, so we only have seven people this time."
The chubby young man sneered, "How do you know those who died haven't already returned to their bodies? Maybe they chose death themselves."
The black-haired young man suddenly looked up. A cold light flashed in his eyes. In that instant, the young man seemed to transform into a black panther. Everyone saw him crouch and leap. In the next second, he was already on top of the chubby man, and the Desert Eagle was pressed into the chubby man's mouth.
"Do you want to try dying? Can you imagine the infinite terror? I've experienced three horror films. The first was A Nightmare on Elm Street 1. There were fifteen new participants, and two experienced survivors who had made it through two previous films. But do you know the result? They were all killed in their dreams. Only I and one other person survived. Do you want to know what it's like to be killed by an absurd dream? Do you want to see everything around you turn into squirming rotten flesh in a creepy factory, while you watch your own body slowly torn apart by scissors? You piece of shit! Do you want to die?"
The black-haired young man screamed madly. The murderous intent in his eyes was obvious. The chubby young man was so terrified that he became limp, and with the gun in his mouth, he couldn't even beg for mercy.
Zheng Zha and the other two men and two women intervened and managed to separate them. The black-haired young man sneered and returned to his previous position, continuing to fiddle with his pistol as he said, "Death in a horror movie is true death, and you'll die in agony at the hands of the demons from those movies. You'll die in the most miserable way possible. So if you don't have the resolve to survive, if I were you, I'd kill myself right now."
A young girl with glasses nearby asked, "So, we have no way of returning to our bodies?"
The black-haired young man sneered and said, "I've been saying this all along. You're not just consciousness entering a computer. Do you really think this game is something human technology can create? No, this is the work of the gods. We are nothing more than insects in their eyes, captured for their amusement and thrown into horror films to struggle. Our bodies and spirits have both entered this world together, and we can't go back. At least, I believe we can never go back."
The girl with glasses, who had a calm demeanor, thought for a moment and said, "From the way you speak, it seems there might be hope of returning?"
The black-haired young man looked at the girl with glasses and said, "You're right, there is indeed hope of returning."
At these words, all six people, including Zheng Zha, held their breath and stared intently at the black-haired young man.
"Every time you complete a task, meaning every time you survive through one of these horror films, you will earn a thousand reward points. These points can be exchanged for many things, such as a hundred days of the right to live in this horror world..." the black-haired young man said淡淡ly.
A middle-aged man next to the girl with glasses said, "Are you crazy? Who would want to live longer in such a terrifying world? Isn't that just asking for death?"
The black-haired young man sneered but said nothing. The girl with glasses, however, placed a hand on her forehead and said, "No, I think I understand what he means. Horror films are divided into many types. For example, Resident Evil is a sci-fi horror film. It can be explained by science and doesn't involve any supernatural demons. In other words, aside from the immediate area where the story is happening, everything else should be a normal world..."
The black-haired young man snapped his fingers, "Bingo! You're right. The extra hundred days you get to live are in normal parts of this world. Think about it. After going through several life-and-death trials, to live peacefully and freely in a normal world—what kind of happiness is that..."
Zheng Zha's whole body trembled. He seemed to understand the purpose of this world. Yes, it was because of the dullness of existence that made him feel decayed, and once he experienced countless horrors and death, a simple, peaceful life would indeed be the greatest happiness.
The black-haired young man continued, "In addition to exchanging for days of life, you can also exchange for many things, such as this Desert Eagle with infinite bullets, which only costs 100 points, or ten days of living rights. Besides that, an individual's average attributes, including intelligence, mental strength, cell vitality, nerve reaction speed, muscle strength, and immune system strength, can also be exchanged for one point of life rights per day. A normal person's attributes are all at 100, which means that as long as you survive this horror film, you can double your strength. If you survive through 100 horror films, you will become a superhuman!"
The girl with glasses calmly asked, "Then, to return to our original world, how many reward points would that take?"
"Fifty thousand points!" The black-haired young man pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, took a deep drag, and then said, "You would need to survive fifty horror films. That way, you can go back."
Immediately, everyone fell silent. According to what the black-haired young man said, surviving fifty horror films without using any reward points to enhance yourself would be nearly impossible.
"Of course, each horror film gives you a thousand basic reward points. You can also earn extra points. For example, when I explained all of this to you just now, according to the 'Main God's' rules, explaining the rules to new participants rewarded me with 100 points. And you've probably noticed the strange watch you're all wearing on your wrists, right?" The black-haired young man raised his left hand, showing a black, pure metal watch that looked old-fashioned and simple.
Everyone looked at their left wrists, where the watch displayed several pieces of information: a countdown of three hours and seven minutes, as well as data like the number of zombies, crawlers, and new participants.
"Every time you kill ten zombies, you earn one reward point. Every time you kill a crawler, you earn a hundred points. And if you kill a new participant… you earn a thousand reward points..." The black-haired young man finished speaking and gave Zheng Zha and the others a malicious look. Among them, only Zheng Zha and the girl with glasses calmly looked back at him.
"Of course, these are negative reward points..."
The black-haired young man sneered at Zheng Zha and the girl with glasses and said, "Alright, any other questions? The horror film is about to start."
The girl with glasses glanced at Zheng Zha, who gave a slight nod, and she continued asking, "I've seen Resident Evil 1, and the ending is the T-virus outbreak in Raccoon City. So, if we escape the lab in this train car before that happens, doesn't that mean we can easily survive?"
The black-haired young man nodded, "Look at your watch. On the top left, there's a name. Read it out loud."
"Matthew Addison!"
Everyone read aloud in unison, and then they were shocked to see one of the foreign soldiers, a black man, emitting a faint glow. The glow lasted only for a moment, and then the man returned to normal.
"This is the mercenary captain from the movie. This movie is a specific regional horror film. The horror plot is confined to the laboratory. The 'Main God' has set restrictions in such films, so we can't stray too far from the story area. If we go more than 100 meters away from Matthew Addison, we'll... Boom, and everything will be gone. Got it? Once he dies in the plot, the restriction will apply to all other characters in the story, and it will be a chain reaction. We can only desperately fight to survive in this horror film," the black-haired young man explained.
Zheng Zha suddenly asked, "What is this 'Main God' you keep talking about?"
"The 'Main God' is probably the entity that manages our entry into this horror film loop. It gives us reward points, and exchanges are done with it. The 'Main God' is a light ball. Honestly, I don't really know what it is," the black-haired young man waved his hand.
The girl with glasses nodded and asked, "Last question... What does the number on the watch represent?" She pointed to the countdown on the watch.
"You need to stay in this horror film for that amount of time. Once the time is up, you'll be able to survive and return to the 'Main God' to collect your reward and face the next horror film," the black-haired young man said as he took a deep drag of his cigarette.
At that moment, the train car began to slow down. The black-haired young man finished his cigarette and pulled the Desert Eagle from his jacket. "Alright, the plot is starting now. From now on, they'll be able to hear our conversation. Remember, if they hear us, we'll lose ten points for each sentence. Negative points will be deducted from the rewards you get next time. Newbies… do your best to survive!"