Chapter 2: The Undying Youth is in Good Spirits

*Creak—*

With the opening of the latch, the harsh, grating sound of a door hinge that hadn't been oiled in a long time echoed through the dim hallway of the apartment building.

Returning home from work, he entered the foyer and flipped on the living room light.

The first thing that caught his eye was an obviously old, mosquito-net food cover on the dining table, along with a pink sticky note.

"I prepared 'Chicken Stewed with Mushrooms' for your late-night snack. Just heat it up and it's ready to eat, your dear sister~"

After reading the note, he lifted the mosquito net.

Wu Wang’s mouth twitched.

All he saw was a cup of Master Kong instant noodles with the seasoning packets already added. The packaging clearly read "Chicken Stewed with Mushrooms Flavor."

It really was "just heat it up and it's ready to eat!"

"I actually hesitated for a second, wondering if that girl would really cook?" he muttered helplessly, picking up the noodle cup to add hot water.

He left the cup on the table to steep.

Wu Wang went to his room and took off his clothes.

Looking at his short-sleeved shirt, which was riddled with holes and looked more like a strip of rags, he couldn't help but sigh. "Couldn't you have just stabbed me in the head? Do you even know how to kill someone? If not, I'll teach you in your next life!"

—These were the holes made by the knife of the man who had attacked him at the shop earlier.

That’s right. The first strike from that middle-aged man had pierced his body with pinpoint accuracy, even though Wu Wang hadn't made the slightest attempt to dodge.

In fact, every subsequent strike had landed firmly.

And Wu Wang hadn't shown a single sign of struggling.

But when the guy revealed a look of disappointment and prepared to leave, Wu Wang, who should have been dead, stood up from the ground without a scratch, wearing an even more disappointed expression.

At that moment, it was the other guy’s turn to be afraid.

This was a secret Wu Wang had discovered since his first death at eighteen—he couldn't truly die.

To be precise, whenever he died, his body would instantly revert to its theoretically healthiest state.

Even the blood he had lost would mysteriously vanish and return to his body, which was why his clothes had holes but no bloodstains.

Facing a target that couldn't be killed, how could that murderer possibly win?

"Heh, I must have left quite the psychological trauma on that guy before he died," Wu Wang mocked himself.

After tossing the tattered shirt into the trash, he sat on the bed and pulled a spirit tablet stained with damp soil from his pocket.

Although he didn't follow the news often, he had heard about the serial killings that had been causing widespread panic lately.

The person who attacked him must have been the serial killer. Could this spirit tablet be the secret weapon that had kept the culprit from being caught?

Thinking of this, Wu Wang examined the strange tablet in his hand.

Because he possessed the ability of immortality, he very calmly speculated that this object also held some kind of supernatural power.

"Hmm... there seem to be words carved on it?"

Wu Wang intended to take a closer look at the blurred writing on the tablet, subconsciously raising his hand to wipe away the damp soil.

*Rustle, rustle, rustle...*

As the soil fell away, the writing on the tablet became clearer, finally revealing its true form.

【Holder: Wu Wang — Conditions for registered player account met】

"What the hell! Doxing!"

In this situation, no one would have expected their own name to appear on a spirit tablet carried by a murderer.

Even Wu Wang, whose nerves were thick enough not to blink when being stabbed, felt a jolt.

He thought someone had doxxed him.

*Whoosh—*

Before he could figure out the situation, his vision suddenly plunged into darkness.

It was a black so deep he couldn't see his hand in front of his face—or more accurately, he couldn't even perceive his own fingers.

It wasn't just his eyes; his five senses seemed to have been stripped away, as if he had fallen into an endless abyss.

"Blind? Can I go apply for a disability certificate now?"

The moment this thought flashed through Wu Wang's mind, his consciousness began to stagnate.

He didn't know how much time had passed—it felt like the next instant, yet also as distant as ten thousand years.

Then, a strange voice echoed in his ears—

【Pre-registration instance 1008611 initiated】

【Instance Name: Hide and Seek】

【Instance Brief: You clap once, I clap once, let's play a game together; if you can't find the ghost, your head hits the floor!】

【Personal Main Quest: Find three rules of death within the allotted time】

【Clearance Reward: Final closed-beta player qualification】

【Hidden Reward: Conditions unknown】

【May you all find your own death】

"Why does this voice sound like a Sadako with a thousand-year-old phlegm stuck in her throat, roaring from a public restroom two hundred meters away?"

Far from feeling afraid of the bizarre situation, Wu Wang instead launched into a series of abstract, sarcastic metaphors.

As soon as he finished speaking, his vision instantly brightened.

"Ah! My 24K titanium alloy dog eyes!"

It was bright, alright.

But it was a bit *too* bright.

This place was nothing like his bedroom, which was as gloomy as a vampire’s tomb; the glaring stage spotlights overhead were so dazzling that it took several seconds for his eyes to adjust.

Wu Wang realized he was in a plainly decorated tiered classroom. A ring of stage spotlights above was as blinding as the sun, illuminating the entire room like broad daylight.

Aside from the neatly arranged tiered seating, there was a podium at the very front of the classroom.

A standalone microphone sat there, lonely, as if waiting for someone to go up and start a passionate speech.

Even more bizarrely, there were quite a few people lying scattered around.

He had likely been lying there just like them before he woke up.

A quick glance told Wu Wang there were fifty people in the room, including himself.

"Hiss..."

The man closest to Wu Wang also rubbed his head and slowly woke up.

The moment he opened his eyes, he saw a handsome youth with dead-fish eyes that felt completely out of place, staring at him from a distance so close their faces were almost touching.

The two stared at each other for a moment.

The youth revealed a gratified smile and spoke first: "Not bad, you’re the newcomer with the best mental fortitude I’ve ever seen."

Gratified your grandpa!

This line, so familiar it could be found in almost any infinite-flow novel, made the man’s head ache.

For a moment, he couldn't tell if the current situation was the problem, or if this weird youth was the problem.

But instinctively, he reached for his waist, and his expression calmed down a bit.

Before he could make his next move, he saw the youth run over to another person who had just woken up and start a conversation—

"Congratulations, the prefrontal lobotomy was a success. You’ve forgotten the fact that you’re an idiot."

"Huh? I was never an idiot!"

"See? That’s how successful the surgery was!"

"..."

Then, within just two minutes, everyone in the tiered classroom woke up one after another.

The people Wu Wang had spoken to all wore quite strange expressions.

They were stiff.

Not just their expressions were stiff.

Their fists were fucking stiff too!

However, while they were pondering where this eccentric, foul-mouthed clown had come from, they didn't realize that Wu Wang, who had been running around spouting nonsense, had already hidden himself in the crowd.

He had a rough guess in his heart—

"These guys are all murderers!"

He carefully observed these strangers who had woken up.

Without exception, every person he had spoken to reacted in a peculiar way after their initial confusion.

Some reached for their waists or pockets, likely where they hid weapons that gave them a sense of security; some, while angry, were eyeing his carotid artery or heart, as if they would strike at any second; others, while not reacting aggressively, were far too calm for someone appearing in a strange environment—they were composed, trying to fish information out of him instead.

They seemed to hide it well, but Wu Wang was all too familiar with the gloom in their eyes.

The middle-aged man at the escape room shop who wanted to torture him to death had that exact same look!

These guys were all cut from the same cloth!

"What conditions are needed to enter this so-called instance? Killing people with a spirit tablet? Does that mean, aside from me, these guys are all serial killers hiding in cities with spirit tablets?"

"As far as I know, there’s only been one serial killer in Mingyang City recently, and I already took care of him, so they must be from other cities."

Wu Wang quickly analyzed their identities.

The others felt uneasy in this strange environment; basically, no one was communicating, only staying wary of each other.

About ten minutes later.

*Thud!*

An abrupt sound echoed through the classroom, breaking the deathly silence.

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound.

They saw a man lying on the ground, motionless. His face looked as if it had been trampled and mangled beyond recognition, yet his expression was still extremely twisted, as if he had witnessed something horrific before he died.

"He... he's dead!?"

The person closest to the deceased was a woman, who covered her mouth and said in terror.

Although she didn't walk over to check closely, the guy on the ground was bleeding from his seven orifices, and his chest was no longer rising and falling; it was clear he had lost all signs of life.

The gruesome sight made her legs go weak, and she sat directly on the floor. A nauseating smell of urine wafted from her crotch as pale yellow liquid soaked her skirt.

Not every murderer had strong mental fortitude and resilience.

At the end of the day, she was just an ordinary person.

But no one pointed fingers at her; instead, everyone wore a grave expression.

Because they all noticed a key point—

There was no one around the deceased!

Even the woman closest to him was a full three meters away!

Who could beat someone to that state from such a distance? It wasn't like someone had summoned Star Platinum to give the guy an *ORA ORA* beatdown!

Everyone felt a jolt of shock.

They subconsciously recalled the main quest they had heard—

【Find three rules of death within the allotted time】

Could it be that they had triggered a so-called rule of death?

As murderers lurking in the dark corners of the city, they had experienced the magical abilities of the spirit tablets and used them to unleash the beastly desires in their hearts.

So, regarding their inexplicable arrival in this classroom, most were relatively calm and didn't have an over-the-top reaction.

Cowards like the woman who peed herself were the minority.

But now, the situation had changed.

Beyond just being wary of each other, an inexplicable panic was spreading among them.

It was the fear of an unknown danger.

Humans and ghosts—as long as you weren't brain-damaged, it was clear who should be afraid when those two were put together.

They couldn't even see the ghost!

Weren't they just lambs waiting for the slaughter?