Chapter 125

Chapter 125

[Advancement Instance: No. 01]

[Instance Name: Ten Miles of Red Makeup]

[Activation Time: June 1, 2046]

[Number of Streamers: 12]

[Current Online Viewers: 3,183,518,261]

After being submerged in darkness, Xiyu experienced a few seconds of suffocating breathlessness.

The moment he inhaled oxygen again, it felt like waking from a nightmare—his heart was racing, and he was drenched in sweat.

—Indeed, in this new game world, Xiyu was the unlucky soul who had just escaped a nightmare. Straining to make sense of his surroundings in the darkness, he found himself sitting at the back row of a nighttime intercity bus. Beside him was a long-haired woman with her head bowed in sleep, and scattered across different seats ahead were others—likely the other streamers.

…Where was Luo Xi? Why wasn’t there a familiar face?

Could it be that team grouping had failed this round?

Uneasy, Xiyu shifted his body—and finally noticed something wrong.

Out of habit, he lowered his head to feel around and touched cold, silvery hair trailing down to his legs. More than that… there was a chest?

Though not the first time the system had altered his form, Xiyu was still stunned. He’d rather be turned into a child a hundred times than be turned into a woman even once!

While he was still flustered, the woman beside him finally woke up.

Using the moonlight that occasionally passed through the window, Xiyu peered over—and realized that was no ordinary woman. It was clearly Luo Xi, who had also been transformed into a female body!

Though his features had been softened, his height and frame were no longer as tall and sturdy, it was still unmistakably him—even the scars on his face hadn’t been completely erased.

Luo Xi instinctively looked around for someone familiar and locked eyes with Xiyu, equally stunned.

Xiyu, feeling a mix of annoyance and amusement, grabbed Luo Xi’s hand and pressed it to his own chest.

Luo Xi immediately cursed, “Whoever planned this has a damn screw loose! What the hell is this?!”

Unfortunately… his voice had also been altered by the system—feminine beyond belief.

Boss Luo was on the verge of a breakdown.

But his outburst woke up the other streamers as well. The entire bus filled with feminine voices, and clearly not a shred of male identity had survived.

Since they were seated a bit apart from one another, it was hard to tell who was who. Xiyu steadied himself and said calmly, “Don’t panic. We have no props on us. This bus suggests the instance isn’t ancient-themed, which doesn’t really match the name Ten Miles of Red Makeup. Let’s wait for someone to check with the driver first.”

Xiyu’s voice had become clear and gentle—too pleasant, in fact—unnaturally smooth, clearly processed.

Definitely a trick by the game developers.

He coughed uncomfortably, then lifted the curtain to peer outside—only to see dense fog and the occasional branch brushing against the glass.

Luo Xi fell quiet beside him, then suddenly grabbed Xiyu’s wrist and said, “You’re really beautiful.”

Xiyu, of course, couldn’t see his own female form, and was left speechless: “…”Luo Xi said, “I feel like we’ve got a thigh to cling to now.”

“This instance is about brides—definitely going to be horrifying,” Xiyu muttered beside him. “Haven’t you heard the phrase ‘beauty meets a tragic end’? I’d rather look plain and safe.”

Luo Xi, who now looked very “safe,” raised his eyebrows. The familiar expression on his brand-new face looked thoroughly strange.

Xiyu couldn’t help but laugh.

Just then, as expected, the other streamers unbuckled their seatbelts and stood up recklessly. One of them cursed, “What the hell is this place? Are we supposed to perform a scene just sitting on a bus? Hey, driver! Where are we going?!”

Against the faint light from the front of the bus, all they could make out was the silhouette of a petite girl.

She cautiously walked to the front and tried to tap the driver—but the moment she leaned in, she let out a terrified scream: “Ah—!!!”

Everyone else panicked and asked, “Wh-what happened?”

The girl stammered in fear, “The one driving… it’s a paper doll! Are we being driven straight to the underworld? I hate supernatural horror stuff the most!”

It was a question none of the streamers could answer.

Meanwhile, the bus sped through the fog and unexpectedly crossed a large bridge strung with red lanterns.

The red glow lit up everyone’s faces, making the atmosphere inside the bus eerie beyond measure.

In that moment of hesitation, Xiyu felt a faint tremor and shouted uneasily, “Hey! Sit down!”

The girl who had gone to the front paused, just about to return to her seat—but it was already too late.

The once-sturdy bridge suddenly snapped in two amid the tremor, and the speeding bus shot forward like sand in the wind, lifting into the air and plunging straight into deep water!

The water was red like blood, flooding into the bus from every direction.

There were no emergency hammers onboard—breaking a window to escape was impossible now. Luo Xi instinctively grabbed Xiyu, shouting in panic, “Don’t be scared! I think this is just part of the scripted sequence!”

Xiyu wasn’t actually scared. In fact, having Luo Xi next to him made him feel unexpectedly safe. He furrowed his brow, thinking—Ten Miles of Red Makeup. Twelve girls. Game ends when six are dead. So what’s the real objective here? Based on this little information, figuring out the best course of action seemed like something only a genius—or a ghost—could pull off.

The darkness of drowning stretched on for a long time. When they all finally came to, groaning in pain, the danger had passed. Instead, they’d landed in a new pit dug by the game designers.

Xiyu, still frowning, got up and immediately helped the equally disoriented Luo Xi to his feet.

All twelve streamers had been transformed into women, and they now lay in disarray by the edge of a crimson lake. Standing before them, holding torches and observing them, were old men with wrinkled faces and stiff expressions.

One of the elders wore a short Tang-style jacket, an odd mix of ancient and modern. He didn’t move, didn’t show any curiosity at all.

Luo Xi, clearly fed up with the bizarre design of this instance, was the first to get up and demand, “Who are you? What the hell is this place?”

The old man replied, “This is Yin Bridge Village. I’m the village chief, called Kumu.”

Luo Xi looked around suspiciously.

At that moment, the girl who had checked on the driver earlier suddenly ran up to him in surprise. “Brother Luo!”

Luo Xi tilted his head and looked down to see someone with brown curly hair and big blue eyes. He hesitated. “...Su Ziyan?”The little girl exclaimed excitedly, “It’s me! Why did we all turn into women?!”

The village chief, Kumu, suddenly grew angry. “Of course you’re women—you’re this year’s bride candidates!”

Su Ziyan blinked. “…Brides? I don’t want to be anyone’s bride!”

Kumu sneered at him. “Wishful thinking. From what I see, you don’t even have what it takes. Don’t worry, out of the twelve of you, only one will become the true bride. The rest? You’re just offerings.”

Even though they had been told before entering the game that six out of twelve could survive, his words still stirred unease among the group.

A tall, fierce-looking woman suddenly shouted, “You old bastard, quit your nonsense! Keep talking and I’ll toss you into the lake to feed the fish!”

Xiyu hadn’t had the chance to really observe his competitors before, but now he looked over—and was stunned.

Even with gender changes, streamers were still recognizable by their original features. The defiant speaker was none other than Mu Yuan, someone they’d previously knocked out of the competition.

And hiding beside him, looking gentle and refined, was Zhao Zhusheng.

Xiyu couldn’t help the discomfort that surged at the sight of these old enemies. He looked at them coldly and said, “Looks like getting eliminated once wasn’t enough. Back for another taste?”

Mu Yuan clearly still hated Xiyu, but lacking reliable allies and restricted by the system, he didn’t dare make a move. Instead, he sneered, “Been a few days, and your ego’s already out of control.”

“No matter how out of control I get, I’ll never match your level,” Xiyu replied flatly.

Just then, a beautifully delicate woman cut in, “He’s nowhere near as inflated as you.”

Xiyu glanced over in the firelight and sighed inwardly. Is this some kind of reunion for old grudges? Even Ying Zhixing had shown up.

As if things weren’t chaotic enough, a petite girl with pink hair crawled up from the edge—none other than Fei Ling, whom they hadn’t seen in a while.

Fei Ling looked pitiful and said, “Xiyu… I didn’t expect to see you here.”

Luo Xi gave a sharp laugh. “I didn’t expect you to still be alive. How many backup guys did you throw under the bus to survive this long?”

Fei Ling pressed her lips together, visibly upset. But in this group of cutthroat streamers, she was no longer the adored little idol and could only keep her head down.

And still, the parade of familiar faces wasn’t over.

The tallest of the twelve “women,” though rather plain-faced, clicked her tongue and said, “Tch. The further we get, the more familiar everyone becomes. Looks like this is going to get fun. Just to be clear, I only care about surviving. Competing for the bride role? Not happening.”

Xiyu hesitated, then asked, “Ma Guanshan?”

The reply was curt and cold: “I’m his brother. Don’t try to act familiar.”

Luo Xi chuckled. “We’ll see who gets friendly with who later. —Hey, old man, looks like there’s no way for us to escape, right? You should at least give us a place to stay.”

Kumu seemed indifferent to their arguing, but at those words, he bared a set of sharp, pitch-black teeth in a terrifying grin. “Of course you can’t escape. Yin Bridge Village is an isolated island—unless you’ve got the guts to jump into the blood lake. —As for a place to stay, sure. But the bride selection starts tonight. I just hope that even if I force you to sleep, you’ll be too scared to close your eyes.”

Luo Xi shrugged indifferently.

Kumu shook his torch. “Alright, follow me.”

With that, he turned and floated forward on light, almost weightless steps.

The streamers exchanged looks—suspicious and hostile—but no one had the courage to break away alone. One by one, they followed Luo Xi forward.Especially Su Ziyan—he was acting like a total bootlicker, running up to report, “Luo-ge, it doesn’t seem like the people in this village are actually human. I can’t hear a single footstep, but I can hear voices—talking, laughing, crying…”

Xiyu replied coolly, “Of course they’re not human. Yin Bridge... is a bridge for the dead. This place doesn’t look like the underworld or the mortal world. I’d say the game devs have some serious scares waiting for us.”