Chereads / Thriller!Me? The Death Knight / Chapter 71 - The Shift in Game Dynamics

Chapter 71 - The Shift in Game Dynamics

"Knock 7" was a common drinking game, a simple one at that.

A circle of friends would take turns counting, starting from any number they liked—though, the starting number couldn't be a 7, nor could it be a multiple of 7.

The players had to count sequentially, but if anyone encountered a number with a 7 or a multiple of 7, they had to clap or knock on the table to avoid saying the number. The person following would continue from the next number.

If someone failed to react in time and uttered a number with a 7 or a multiple of 7, they lost. They would then have to start the next round, counting again from the beginning.

In the human world, this was just a drinking game, and losing only meant taking a few shots.

But in a horror game, where ghostly children held the cards, the punishment would be far from simple.

"6."

Clap!

The seventh ghost child clapped.

"8."

"9."

The ninth ghost child finished counting and shot a malicious glance at the human players.

Well… Yi Bai and Huan Weng were exceptions.

They licked their lips, their eyes filled with hunger.

"10."

Huan Weng, sitting beside the ghost children, called out without hesitation.

"11."

Yi Bai, calm and composed, followed suit.

"12."

"13."

Two new players counted smoothly, reassuring the others who knew the rules. Their hearts relaxed.

Clap!

Liu Zhen clapped to avoid the 14.

The player, still unsure of the rules, observed the sequence carefully.

Soon, realization lit up his face, and confidence filled his chest.

"15," he called.

"16."

"Seventeen!"

A new player, not knowing the rules and basing his move on the first round, mistakenly shouted "17."

He assumed that only multiples of 7 needed to be skipped, completely ignoring numbers containing the 7 itself.

Unfortunately, and fatally, he was wrong.

"You lost! You lost!"

"Ha ha! The loser must face punishment!"

"Let's see... where should we start eating?"

"His thigh! I want his thigh!"

"No! I think his palm would be better. The bones crack so nicely when you chew!"

"Hehe~ Or maybe his little eggs? I heard from Mommy that they're very nutritious!"

The ghost children eagerly debated, deciding which part of the unfortunate player to feast upon.

The words sent chills down the players' spines.

Especially the one who had lost, his face turning ashen, his mouth mumbling, "How? How did I lose? I didn't make a mistake..."

Too bad.

The ghost children wouldn't explain.

"Silence."

A crisp voice cut through the air, and the room fell deadly quiet.

"I think his eyes look delicious. Let's start with those."

The loli voice rang out, sweet and clear, but it dripped with malice.

The fate of the loser was sealed.

Whoosh!

One of the ghost children was the first to react.

In a flash, he darted in front of the player, reaching out a hand...

"Ah!!!"

The scream that followed was horrifying.

Two bloodied, dripping eyeballs were ripped from their sockets.

Slurp.

The ghost child swallowed them whole.

"Delicious! So delicious!" he moaned, savoring the taste.

"Damn! He beat me to it!" another ghost child grumbled.

"Humph! Next time, I'll be faster!"

The ghost children's chatter soon drowned out the player's agonizing shrieks.

The ghost who had just indulged in the fresh "meal" happily returned to his seat.

Then...

They turned their unnerving gazes on the now eyeless player.

Many of the ghost children began to lick their lips.

He was as good as dead... Yi Bai silently condemned the player to his doom.

In the game of Knock 7, the loser had to start the next round of counting.

The player, wracked with excruciating pain, no longer cared about the rules.

The weight of death crept in, its cold breath brushing against his ear.

He heard nothing, his mind deafened by the overwhelming terror.

It felt as if he was sinking deeper into an endless abyss.

Time seemed to be counting down...

Through the mist of reflection, the voice of Mirror Phantom echoed with excited delight in her amber eyes.

Anyone who dared insult her gentle big brother had to die. Slowly. Painfully.

"Time's up. You didn't start the next round. You failed again."

Her crisp loli voice rang out, sending shivers down the spine.

"This time... I'll eat his tongue."

Her words were cold and decisive, sealing the fate of the doomed player.

If his tongue was eaten, how could he possibly count?

Whoosh!

Another ghost child sprang forward, a twisted smile stretching across his doll-like face.

His small hands pried open the player's clenched jaws with brutal force.

With a sickening rip, the tongue was torn out.

The end was inevitable.

The player's tongue was quickly devoured.

The remaining minutes stretched into a grotesque spectacle of agony and torture.

Every half-minute, Mirror Phantom declared another "failure."

The player, barely clinging to life, was slowly devoured by the ghost children, piece by piece.

Ye Qun and the others couldn't even breathe, paralyzed by fear.

Even the veterans, confronted with such horror, felt their bones shiver in terror.

They suddenly found themselves envying the first player to die.

At least... he died quickly. He didn't suffer through this endless torment.

What they didn't realize, though, was that from the moment they began to curse and blame Yi Bai...

The nature of the game had already undergone a catastrophic shift.