Chapter 1

【Quality Inspection Copy: No. 00024】

【Instance Name: Bloodstained Demon Blade】

【Activation Date: February 11, 2046】

【Number of Streamers: 12】

【Number of Test Players: 0】

In the dim, ancient hall, only the cold sound of rain outside the window could be heard.

That cold rain wasn’t melancholically beautiful — instead, under the low, dark, oppressive sky, it felt terrifying.

At a sudden distant glance, the raindrops appeared to carry a murky, dark hue.

But if you held a faint candle to the window and looked closely, you'd find they were actually a deep crimson — like fresh blood!

The boy holding the candle widened his bright eyes. Facing the thick mist and blood rain outside the window, he swallowed hard and finally turned around, speaking in a tense whisper: “W-what is this place?”

Inside the room stood or sat more than a dozen men and women, looking at each other — no one responded.

Indeed, anyone who had just been sleeping peacefully and then suddenly woke up in this decaying, mold-scented Japanese-style mansion would have a hard time explaining anything right away.

Even the earlier panicked commotion among the group had abruptly stopped when that enormous creature suddenly swept past the window.

The boy uneasily tried to restart the conversation: “That thing crawling past... it was a snake, right? I didn’t see it wrong?”

Finally, a beautiful woman leaning against a young man steadied herself and answered in a stiff, terrified voice: “No way… how could a snake be that big?”

Exactly. The monster that had just flashed past the group was so massive it blotted out the sky — even the spacious hall was plunged into complete darkness by its body.

Even the giant pythons in zoos couldn’t compare to that size.

But that twisting body, those blood-red cold eyes, that tongue and those fangs dripping with a pungent stench… if not a snake, then what?

The boy looked again at the rain outside the window, the fear never leaving his eyes: “I-I only dozed off in class for a second… and now I’m in this hellish place. Why wouldn’t it be possible? What if this is just a nightmare?”

As he panicked, grasping for words, that faint light outside the window suddenly vanished again in a flash.At the same time, a sharp chill ran down the boy’s spine. Just as his scalp tingled with dread, someone suddenly yanked him forcefully away from the window!

He turned around in shock — the candle in his hand lit up the monstrous face of the giant snake. It let out a spine-chilling hiss directed straight at the boy, as if it was about to rush in and slaughter them all, but then, just as suddenly, it coldly turned and slithered back into the mist.

“Be careful.”

The person who had pulled him back spoke in a calm and gentle voice.

The boy, heart pounding wildly, looked up at the tall young man who had saved him from recklessly getting too close.

The man had rare amber eyes, short silver-white hair that seemed to shimmer with moonlight, and skin as pale as snow. Unfortunately, most of his face was covered by a mask, hiding his features and stirring natural curiosity.

The young man tried to reassure him again, “Don’t be afraid. Maybe that snake was just warning us not to leave the room casually.”

His voice carried a quiet, comforting strength. The boy slowly calmed the jumble of thoughts in his mind, placed the antique candleholder back where it belonged, and asked in a small voice, “So what should we do now? I’m completely lost.”

The young man shook his head calmly and looked toward the others in the room, who were all watching them.

Everyone was dressed in ordinary modern clothing, and it was clear none of them knew each other. To be gathered here like this was bewildering.

The boy, clearly the most outgoing of the group, steadied himself and offered a sheepish smile to the others in the room: “I’m Wu Zhi, from West High School Affiliated. Anyway, standing around like headless chickens isn’t helping. Why don’t we look around for some clues?”

A guy with glasses, arms crossed and standing in the middle of the hall, frowned. “Clues?”

Wu Zhi nodded. “Yeah! Haven’t you guys ever tried those escape rooms at the mall? This situation kind of feels like that. Maybe there are traps or hints to find, like, um…”

He trailed off mid-sentence — even he couldn’t keep up the comparison. This dilapidated thousand-square-meter hall, with its thick mist and lurking monster outside, was nothing like a cheaply decorated game room. Plus, despite all their shouting earlier, no one else had shown up — it was as if they could sit here until the end of time, and nothing would change.

Everyone fell silent, thinking it over. Then, in a corner, three girls huddled together whispering. Eventually, the tallest — a long-haired girl — stepped forward.

“You’re right. We’ve already messed with a bunch of stuff in here and nothing happened. Since it’s not safe outside, tearing this place apart is better than just sitting around waiting to die.”

She smiled at Wu Zhi as she finished speaking.

“Hi, I’m Zhu Ge, a freshman at Capital Music University.”

The petite girl beside her spoke up too.

“I’m Tang Yanyan… I’m in my last year of high school. But I study in the Free Shipping Zone — pretty far from your cities.”

As if speaking more could somehow create more safety, everyone followed suit and introduced themselves. They came from all over Huaxia, mostly students, though a few were already working young. All in all, they were ordinary people — nobodies, really — and didn’t seem like the kind of group worth putting together such an elaborate prank for.

Wu Zhi, feeling more hopeful in this renewed conversation, smiled warmly and asked,

“Gege, what’s your name?”

The silver-haired young man blinked.

“Xi Yu.”

Zhu Ge — who seemed delicate, but had sharp instincts — immediately turned her slender neck and spoke up,

“Since none of us knows what’s going on, and we’ll need to rely on each other, why not stop hiding behind that mask?”Xiyu's exceptionally clear eyes showed not the slightest emotion. He casually pulled down his mask and said, “I’m not hiding anything. I think I caught a bit of a cold.”

Everyone fell silent for a couple of seconds the moment they saw his face.

Because Xiyu’s looks were honestly more stunning than the few girls in the room—his pale, delicate, palm-sized face was so flawless it looked almost artificial, like a virtual model. If it weren’t for his height—over 180 cm—and unmistakably male voice, even his gender would’ve seemed ambiguous.

A man who had been lounging lazily in a corner chair suddenly whistled at him, then got up and said, “Alright, enough with the introductions. Since we’ve decided to look for clues, we might as well get to work.”

This guy had kept to the shadows without saying much, so no one had really paid him any attention. But now, all eyes shifted to him—among the eleven others trapped in this rain-soaked locked room, each person was some kind of attractive, unique-looking young adult. Yet this man’s face bore several scars, and combined with his sharp, dark eyes and towering build, he radiated an aura of menace. He looked like the kind of person you’d instinctively avoid on the street.

He didn't care at all about their stares. Taking off his black leather jacket and tossing it onto the chair, the muscles on his arms and even neck—exposed by his T-shirt—were also marked with terrifying scars.

Xiyu stared at the man’s back as he rummaged through a cabinet by the wall. His expression grew dazed, and even his shoulders twitched slightly without realizing it.

The man, clearly alert, glanced back at him and said coldly, “What are you looking at?”

His tone held no friendliness.

Xiyu snapped back to attention and asked, “We’ve all shared our names. What’s yours?”

“In this kind of situation, does a name even matter? Even if I make one up, it’s not like you’d know,” the man sneered. “Luo Xi.”

Luo Xi…

Didn’t seem like a name he’d ever heard before…

Xiyu pressed his lips together and gave up on asking further. He turned around and began carefully searching the grand hall, its light broken and patchy.

Among the group was a bespectacled man named Fang Hao—one of the few working adults and also an elementary school teacher. As fear gradually subsided, he couldn’t help but slip into a leadership role. Raising his voice, he said, “Let’s first look for anything with writing or symbols. That kind of stuff usually holds the most information.”

Everyone responded scatteredly and began moving the collapsed wooden furniture. The atmosphere now felt much more cooperative than when they had just stood around questioning each other.

Xiyu looked around—despite the strong Japanese decor style of this hall, he didn’t know enough about the culture to make any deeper deductions. Still, he couldn’t shake a faint feeling of unease—how could these people go from frightened to actively searching so quickly? Their movements were all so naturally efficient… it didn’t make sense.

Also, though the room was rundown, everything inside had clearly once been refined and expensive. These items looked more like genuine antiques than hastily thrown-together props. Could such things really be used for pranks or traps?

As Xiyu’s thoughts churned wildly, he lowered his long lashes—and suddenly noticed a piece of aged rice paper pinned under a stool leg by his feet. He quickly bent down to pick it up. On it was a black-clad samurai painted in ink, though its meaning was unclear.

At that moment, Wu Zhi shouted in alarm, “Hey! The rain’s starting to flood in!”Xi Yu looked in the direction of the voice. Sure enough, while everyone was busy doing their own thing, the sky outside had grown darker, and the blood rain was falling harder and harder. The dark red rainwater was now seeping and trickling through the tightly shut door.

He quickly walked over to the table where everyone had placed clue-related items and saw a few fragments of xuan paper. He picked one up and examined it—it had remnants of a white flag design.

Xi Yu adjusted the piece of xuan paper and glanced at the chattering crowd, then finally walked silently over to Mr. Fang Hao, who kept giving instructions now and then, and handed the paper fragment to him without a word.

Fang Hao looked at it with confusion, then followed Xi Yu's gaze to the deepest part of the hall. He rushed over and picked up a torn, old scroll painting that had fallen, shaking it off while shouting, “Look! There was a painting here that someone tore down. There are lots of xuan paper fragments in the room—I thought it was odd before. This must be a puzzle game! Maybe this room is just a game-style escape room! We need to finish piecing it together before the rain destroys the painting!”

As he spoke, he jumped onto the wobbly wooden couch and began to hang the scroll back up.

Everyone joined in the discussion, most of them agreeing with the idea, and began searching around busily again. After hanging the scroll, Fang Hao also put on a serious expression and helped search, walking quickly like he had made himself the group's core.

Xi Yu stood in the shadows, hesitating as he stared at the blood water that had started to overflow at the base of the door, feeling a kind of invisible pressure, as if a countdown had begun.

At some point, that fierce-looking Luo Xi came to stand beside him and even let out a low chuckle: “Pretty clever—not trying to be the one standing out.”

Xi Yu calmly looked up at him without any sign of distaste or wariness and simply replied, “You’re really tall.”

Luo Xi: “...?”

In truth, Xi Yu didn’t dislike him, even if he didn’t look like a good person. So he smiled slightly and said, “You haven’t said yet how you got here.”

Luo Xi raised his eyebrows but didn’t answer.

Xi Yu blinked slowly, still feeling like the silhouettes of the young people rushing around the room were unusually unreal. His voice dropped even lower: “Anyway, I don’t remember how I ended up here… I only know, I should’ve died… on an operating table.”