Volu 1. Let the Ga Begin
A heavy breathing sound reached my ears the mont the front door opened.
Maybe it was because of the strength of my soul, but over these ten days of recovery, my overall physical condition had been continuously improving.
Now I could clearly hear the sound of breathing coming from beyond the door!
At the sa ti, a strange ‘pa-ji pa-ji’ sound of footsteps rushed toward the bedroom at an extrely fast pace!!
I... hadn't closed the bedroom door when I ca in!
A chill surged into the room even before the footsteps reached the door, making involuntarily shiver!
And at that mont, I suddenly snapped back to my senses and rolled over without hesitation.
I didn’t care that I was still wearing only a thin hospital gown, nor did I care about the rotting, filthy tiles on the floor—I rolled straight under the bed.
In the midst of all this, the pain in my calf almost drove insane, but I could only grit my teeth tightly, not daring to make a sound, enduring the pain in silence, and turned my gaze toward the direction of the door.
At this mont, those footsteps had already reached the doorway!
Pa-ji!
However, at that very instant, I couldn’t see any tangible form at the door at all.
The lightbulb above my head kept flickering.
I was curious why the bulb was still powered in this state, but it was indeed lit—only... its brightness was even dimr than the blood-red moonlight outside.
It could only vaguely illuminate the surroundings to so extent.
But now, the mont that thing opened the door, I noticed... the bulb kept flickering!
Was this... considered so kind of alert in the ga?
Besides the footsteps, was the light another way to alert players of the anomaly’s distance??
Just as I was thinking this, that ‘pa-ji pa-ji’ sound of footsteps suddenly slowed down and stepped... into the bedroom!
I couldn’t see any form!
There was no actual visible body!
And yet... a strange footprint seed to appear on the floor.
Every ti this footprint landed, it was like stepping on sothing slippery, making a ‘pa-ji’ sound.
In the places it passed, a faintly visible bright red footprint would appear.
The strange thing was... this footprint wouldn’t stay for long.
In just a few seconds, it would vanish along with the blood, as if... nothing had ever appeared.
Pa-ji... pa-ji... pa-ji...
The footsteps ca closer step by step.
I watched with my eyes wide open as the footprint... reached the front of my bed.
At that mont, it felt as if my heart stopped!
My palms were soaked in cold sweat as I clenched my fists tightly.
What on earth was that thing above ??
An eerie chill kept creeping around .
The strange thing was, although my skin could feel the cold, the chill didn’t penetrate into my body...
But I had no ntal capacity left to dwell on that.
I stared at that footprint, which had stopped there, while I still couldn’t see any visible form—as if... so completely transparent, living thing was standing in front of the bed.
I could even feel, through the slats of the bed fra, that pair of malicious eyes from the abyss, staring at intently!
But I knew... this was just a hallucination brought on by fear.
It might be looking at the bed fra, but it shouldn’t actually see ... the ga rules ntioned that it wouldn’t actively check under beds or desks.
Which ant... I should be safe right now!
Yes... I should be!
Wait a minute... “actively”?
What did that an??
Did this anomaly have so sort of special reaction to the space under beds or desks?
The ga had ntioned that players needed to observe everything in order to survive or break the ga.
Did it an... this anomaly had so strange sense for the space beneath beds or desks?
I couldn’t figure it out...
I completely couldn’t figure out what hidden aning there might be in this.
To keep myself from screaming in fear, I kept forcing my mind to think through all possible scenarios, diverting my attention to avoid doing sothing stupid from sheer terror.
Had this thing... already discovered ??
Why was it standing in front of the bed without moving?
How long has it been?
One minute?
Five minutes?
Or... ten minutes??
Damn it!
The ga ti was only one hour! If it just stood there like this the whole ti, wouldn’t I die under the bed??
Should I...
Just as I was hesitating, suddenly, the sound of footsteps ca from the hallway.
It sounded... like it ca from upstairs—very hurried, and it sounded like a woman’s high heels.
Right!
There were other players!
Seven passerby players!
The mont that thought flashed in my mind, a heavy breathing sound suddenly ca from beside my ear, and right after that, the ‘pa-ji pa-ji’ footsteps suddenly bolted out!
That speed was completely inhuman—it dashed out of the room in less than a second!
“Survived...?”
I stared blankly in the direction where the footsteps had vanished.
The light above no longer flickered, and the surrounding chill also started to fade away...
“Phew...”
I let out a long breath, cautiously observing for a few more seconds.
After confirming that thing wouldn’t appear again, I finally noticed that my sweat had once again soaked my hospital gown.
“Tsk... I was planning to change clothes after dinner. Guess there’s no helping it now. I’ll just keep wearing this...”
Before I even finished my habitual muttering, a hysterical scream suddenly ca from outside the hallway!
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!”
The movent I made to get out from under the bed froze.
I admit... that scream scared !
Was that... a woman’s voice?
----------------
"This is… where? Why am I here?? Ah! Cockroach?! Th-this this this… how did the room turn into this!?"
Zhang Yu was a nurse on the nineteenth floor.
Today was supposed to be just another normal shift change, but… why did the nurse duty room turn into this during the short mont she secretly dozed off!??
Everything around her looked as if it had been corroded by sothing, revealing a blood-red, decayed appearance.
The wall paint was peeling, the tiles cracked… even her favorite Hello Kitty mug was covered in crimson rust stains.
And right beside her, where the bandages were originally placed, thumb-sized cockroaches were crawling back and forth!
Was this… really the hospital she knew!?
"Xiao Wang? Xiao Wang?"
Zhang Yu looked around in terror.
Everything… it was still the duty room where she had her shift.
Even her backpack was still there… but why had everything turned like this?
Where were the people?
Where has everyone gone?!
Calling out to Xiao Wang, who was on shift with her—this Xiao Wang was always clumsy, a trainee nurse fresh out of dical school.
Though she was pretty, which deeply annoyed Zhang Yu.
She just didn’t like people like her.
She would bully Xiao Wang now and then for no reason, always trying to pressure her into quitting… though she wouldn’t admit it, everyone around knew exactly what she was thinking.
But now… she really wished that Xiao Wang was by her side.
After all… in a situation like this!
However, no matter how she called out, there wasn’t the slightest response in the corridor!
Only her own voice echoed down the empty hallway… accompanied by the occasional rustling sound of cockroaches crawling in the corners.
Zhang Yu’s fear grew deeper as she looked around.
Terror began to spread in her heart.
Although she wasn’t exactly a good person and was quite materialistic, she… was still a human.
And as a human being, in such a desolate setting, fear naturally took hold.
"No… no! What the hell happened here? No… I can’t stay here any longer! Yes! Go downstairs, get downstairs now!!"
Her rational mind had already been overtaken by fear.
At this point, she couldn’t make any calm judgnts.
She grabbed her phone from the table without hesitation.
In such a state of extre fear, she didn’t even notice why everything else had decayed, yet her phone remained completely intact!
She pushed open the door of the duty room and kept looking around… however… everything she saw was not a hallucination.
Everything in front of her was truly corroded and ruined.
The level of decay wasn’t sothing that could happen in a year or two—it would take at least a hundred years!
"What’s going on… what the hell is going on? Where are the people? Where did everyone go!?"
Zhang Yu moved downstairs in terror.
The stainless-steel handrail was now corroded, with pieces missing.
She didn’t dare to grab it and could only walk along the edge of the wall.
In the dim stairwell, the ceiling light barely illuminated anything, just enough for her to make out the floor under her feet.
Suddenly, she rembered the phone in her pocket.
"Right! My phone… the phone!!"
In a panic, she unlocked it.
She didn’t even bother to check the notification bar, instead going straight into the contacts to make a call… her first reaction was to dial 110.
But… when she put the phone to her ear, all she heard was a ‘beep~ beep~’ busy tone.
She tried a few more tis, but still got no connection.
In desperation, she dialed nearly everyone in her contacts, but… the result was always the sa.
Whooooooo—
A cold wind blew from who knows where, and suddenly, a sound of sothing falling echoed with a ‘clang’, reverberating through the silent stairwell.
Panicked, Zhang Yu could no longer think clearly.
She instinctively turned on the flashlight function on her phone!
The light instantly lit up her surroundings, giving her a small sense of safety and quickening her pace.
She didn’t know why… but she didn’t even consider taking the elevator.
Maybe, deep in her subconscious, she already believed that in a world decayed to this extent, the elevator couldn’t possibly still work?
As she hurried downstairs, she suddenly noticed an unread ssage on her phone.
Even though she was terrified, for so reason, she still reached out to open it.
Although her rational mind told her to keep going, she had a strong feeling that this ssage had so strange connection to what she was experiencing now.
And the mont she opened it, the ssage content appeared before her eyes.
"Welco to Honkai. You have been both fortunate and unfortunate to be selected as one of the players in this ga. Please read the ga rules carefully, and do your best to survive."
At this mont, she had reached the seventeenth floor.
"What is this? Honkai?"
Instinctively, she reached out to scroll the ssage upward to see what else was there… however… at that very mont, a bizarre ‘pa-ji pa-ji’ sound of footsteps suddenly charged right up to her, and at the sa ti, a hand—covered in black fur, full of scars, and eerily human-like—strangely… appeared out of the void and clutched onto her phone screen.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!"
Reviews
All reviews (0)