“Don’t trust shady ads, renting a house should be completed through official channels”

Dusk is the worst time for my vision. My eye wanders to the busy street full of humans. The buildings and streets are shifting in and out of focus; it’s like being in a glitched game:

He is lying on the corner of the stairs bringing with him some kind of strange smell, a scent that is a little moist and peculiar. It’s only when passing by, was it known that he had died. That was when it happened.

——edited《Rhinoceros in Love》

“Anyways, things were like this when I got here, I know nothing.” Lin Huai spoke with sincerity and solemnly.

His face was ghastly pale, and his body temperature was ice cold as if he had been badly scared by the corpse, “When I came in, that person was already dead there and the door also disappeared.”

He gestured to the former location of the villa’s front door. It had already changed into a solid wall with a 20X50cm gap in the middle.

Right now, it’s impossible for me to crawl out from that gap. Hmm, perhaps before I could’ve…….

Lin Huai silently compared the difference between his body and the exit, coming to the conclusion that this body could not be folded into a sheet.

He felt that he was very sincere and also thought that this delicate (quite gorgeous) face he had carefully chosen seemed very friendly. But the gazes of the men and women in the villa might be thought of as cold and suspicious ——as if he had committed some great evil.

Lin Huai was devastated by the thought. Ever since he had become human, there were very few people who had looked at him like this. But as a lawful citizen, he sincerely made a suggestion, “Let’s call the police, the police will sort this out. I only arrived today, if I knew something like this would happen…”

I should definitely continue living at the school dorm. And I won’t come out to find some shared apartment, he silently thought, even if his roommate’s feet smelt like the rot of a pile of thousand year old corpses.

“No need.” The girl wearing yellow stopped him, “calls won’t go through.”

Why?

He remembered that a few days ago, he saw uncles and aunties tear down the news base station because of radiation and nodded with understanding and sympathy, “I didn’t realise that people living in Shanghai could be so ignorant. The spread of scientific knowledge still needs to be strengthened… I’m from a nearby university majoring in mechanical engineering. I heard about the incident from some of the communications majors. Once this situation is resolved, I’ll invite them over to write an  article about it and hand out some flyers here.”

He was very proud of his current identity and liked to show it off. Every morning when he wakes up, he’ll take multiple selfies in front of the mirror while checking if he had repaired the skull that had ruptured when this body had jumped from a building.

Just as he finished speaking, a cold harumph came from the crowd, “Are you truly stupid or just pretending to be stupid? It’s already gotten this far, have you still not figured things out?”

“Forget it, looks like he’s just a newcomer who doesn’t know what’s going on.” The girl in yellow sighed, “I’ll introduce myself. I’m Huang Lu, a veteran. I’ve already completed 3 games. You’re the last one to arrive, except for you, everyone here are veterans who have experienced at least 1 game.”

“Game?”

“This is an infinite stream of survival games, clearing the level means you live – but failing means you die. In the game, we fight against ghosts with human bodies according to clues. In the case of failure, our only ending is death, although actually it might be something even worse than death.” It seemed as if Huang Lu had recited the introduction as if reading from a script, or writing a chapter in a novel. Lin Huai thought she probably worked as a copywriter in her daily life, “You look like a newcomer, you came here because of the black letter right? Why don’t you take a look at it?”

“Oh.” Lin Huai obediently pulled out a crumpled flyer from his pocket, “Is this it?”

While speaking, he uncrumpled the flyer. He saw that the flyer was indeed black, made from delicate paper. The dark red words on it were like congealed blood, saying: Shangjin Apartments! Convenient transport, smooth express delivery, and the monthly rent is only 998! Looking for 12 co-tenants, humans, ghosts, men and women are all welcome! Hurry, don’t miss out!

“Basically, the situation is like this.” Lin Huai innocently explained, “Originally I didn’t take it seriously but my roommate’s feet were really just too smelly. When I left today, I was impulsive and came here to join the excitement… no, to rent an apartment. I truly didn’t kill that delivery man. There’s cameras everywhere here, if I really wanted to kill him, I’d definitely choose a much less conspicuous place. I’m a university student with a long future ahead of me and I even want to be a civil servant, so I definitely don’t want a criminal record.”

“Hmm… Okay.” Huang Lu said, “Anyways, is everyone here?”

She counted the number of people. With Lin Huai, there were 11 people standing in the living room. Men, women, young and old, not a single one was missing. Among them, a slim young girl said, “We’re still missing one.”

She wore a blue and white school uniform, she looked like a student from a high school nearby. There was also a man and a woman wearing the same uniform. The man was handsome and the woman was chic.

A slim girl stood with a fashionable young woman. It seemed like they were good friends.

“Someone still hasn’t entered?” Huang Lu frowned, “Or have they already…”

“It’s a man wearing a button-up shirt and jeans right? I saw him.” A man wearing a tracksuit spoke up, he was handsome, with a pair of black framed glasses and a warm temperament, “He should have been the first to arrive, I saw him go to the toilet.”

The direction his finger pointed to was the toilet next to the elevator, covered in darkness and silence.

“He went alone? To the toilet? Poor guy, must have a death wish.” The scene kid coldly hmphed.

Just as a few people were taking turns to speak, the sound of flushing came from the toilet next door. The crowd turned towards the sound and a tall young man in a plaid shirt walked out with a yawn. His features were prominent, he had the look of someone with mixed heritage. His legs were long and slender, his unruly chestnut hair was tangled up and he had an air of nonchalance.

He looked like a male model that came to the wrong set, or perhaps a playboy at a billiards club. Not dissimilar to a fish in water — if you ignore the wrench he’s holding.

A suspicious black liquid congealed on the wrench but looked to have withered up. The young man scanned every person’s face before finally stopping on Lin Huai’s face.

Lin Huai stared at that black liquid on the wrench, his eyebrows uncontrollably jumped.

“When nature calls, you must answer” The youth seemed completely oblivious to everyone’s scrutiny. Smiling casually he said, “Sorry, I’ve kept you all waiting, haven’t I?”

He had such a sunny smile, how could anyone be mad at him?

“Nature calls? She calls for 20 or so minutes?” The scene kid mouthed, “Oh, you don’t have kidney deficiency do you?”

“Kidney deficiency, why don’t you come over here and find out? If you’re not willing to investigate then you don’t really have a right to say anything, little friend.” The young replied casually. He didn’t listen to their discussion, carelessly sitting down next to Lin Huai, “Tell me, what’s going on right now?”

“I’ll introduce myself first.” Huang Lu who was in sportswear said. She had a calm disposition and looked around 40 years old, “I’m Huang Lu, a sales director at a nearby company. I’ve played 3 games so far.”

“Ye Xian, I’m a student from Minghua High School. Two games.” The handsome youth pushed his glasses up, with a cautious look that made him seem nervous.

“Zhang Lu, I’m Ye Xian’s classmate. I’ve played one game.” While speaking, she pulled the hand of the girl who was next to her, “This is my friend Feng Yao, she’s also played two games.”

The young girl holding her hand gave everyone a nervous nod.

Several people introduced themselves in the order of the circle. Including Chu Tian who had just come out of the toilet, there were a total of twelve people, six men and six women. According to age, there were four high school students, four young adults and four of them were middle aged. Whether in terms of gender or age, it was clearly very even.

“Just call me Chu Tian.” The young man holding the wrench said, “I’m a former programmer, there’s nothing else to say… if I have to say more, I’m a firm materialist.”

“Materialist?” The scene kid was speechless, “Here?”

“Spirit beings are also beings.” The young man shook the weapon he was holding, “As long as it can be killed, it’s a being.”

Lin Huai: …

He subconsciously shuffled backwards to the side..

After the youth introduced himself, it was time for Lin Huai, who had been sitting by his side and waiting, to take his turn. Lin Huai tugged his collar, “I’m Lin Huai, currently a student at S University next door. This is my first game.”

“Oh”, the youth gave him a glance, “A newbie.”

Lin Huai ignored him and looked down.

Once everyone had been introduced, Huang Lu turned towards Lin Huai saying, “You’re the only newcomer here so I’ll give you a rundown of the rules.”

“Once you receive the black invitation letter, you cannot quit and cannot start again. All players must gather at the same location as directed by the black invitation letter, entering the survival game of the time and context provided by the game rules. Since you’re a newcomer, just do what we do and don’t be cocky. Cocky people usually don’t live long.”

Under everyone’s probing gaze, Lin Huai nodded, “I’m very obedient.”

He added, “Rest assured, I’ll definitely not take any initiative to be a troublemaker.”

Huang Lu frowned, “Initiative to be a troublemaker?”

Lin Huai’s reply clearly confounded her. Just as she was going to continue asking, the TV screen in the villa foyer lit up.