The words were a bit silly, but they effectively lightened the mood.
The man awkwardly scratched the back of his head and said, “Haha, sorry, I was just joking. I couldn’t stand the stiff atmosphere.”
The others laughed absentmindedly.
“How about we introduce ourselves first? My name is Han Qianqiu,” said the annoying guy, a young man with messy short hair. “I was playing games at an internet cafรฉ1. We had pushed to the enemy’s territory, and one more hit would have destroyed their crystal. But instead, their crystal survived, and I died! What kind of nonsense is that?!”
“It was quite sudden for me too,” said the first speaker, a young man with glasses, a neat side part, wearing a cashmere sweater and jeans, exuding a scholarly vibe. “My name is Zhang Yang. Before coming here, I was reading at home. I got tired and fell asleep, and when I woke up, I was sitting here. What about you guys?”
After speaking, his gaze naturally turned to the person sitting to his right, who was dressed in a well-tailored suit, with gold-rimmed glasses and neatly combed short hair, emanating the scent of expensive cologne.
He carried an air of arrogance and didn’t respond to Zhang Yang. Instead, he glanced at his watch and calmly redirected the question to Yan Xiuyi: “Are you the same as them?”
After spending the night together, Shen Lin noticed that Yan Xiuyi was somewhat aloof and didn’t speak much. Under the gaze of everyone, he remained silent.
The suit-wearing man sneered coldly, “Don’t want to talk? Or are you hiding something from us? Is this your doing?”
Hearing this, Yan Xiuyi looked up, his dark eyes meeting the suit-wearing man’s gaze, and retorted, “Why don’t you go first?”
The suit-wearing man was startled by his gaze and glanced at his watch again. “Fine, I’ll go first. No need to hide anything.”
He paused and said, “I was driving, on my way to work.”
“That’s it?” Han Qianqiu asked.
“That’s it.”
“What’s your name, bro2?”
“Alex3.”
“Fancy,” Han Qianqiu said sarcastically. “I thought your name was ‘Short.’”
Alex remained expressionless and didn’t respond. Unable to provoke Yan Xiuyi, he turned to Shen Lin, who seemed easier to bully, and asked, “What about you?”
Shen Lin hesitated and said, “Let me think…”
Alex checked his watch again, his impatience growing by the second. He tapped his fingers on the table irritably and said, “Can’t remember what happened just a few minutes ago?”
“It’s a normal reaction after a shock,” Shen Lin said seriously. “If you say more, maybe I’ll remember something.”
Alex realized he was being excluded. He glanced at the others and said, “Boring.”
He stood up to leave, but his butt seemed glued to the chair, and he couldn’t get up. He checked his watch again and said irritably, “I have things to do. Can we not waste time here?! What do you guys even want?! I’m calling the police!”
“Do you even have a signal? Stop shouting!”
“We’re all victims here, mysteriously brought to this godforsaken place. Everyone wants to figure out what’s going on.”
“Bro, you said hiding things is pointless. Is this your idea of being honest?” Han Qianqiu, being straightforward, spoke bluntly.
“Idiot,” Alex mocked. “Do you know these people? Why are you spilling everything like beans? You’re not hiding anything? Just playing a game, and suddenly this weird thing happens? And you, reading at home? Fell asleep? You expect me to believe that?”
Alex’s words successfully shattered the peaceful facade, and everyone fell into an uncomfortable silence. A crisis of trust began to spread among them. Just then, Yan Xiuyi spoke up, “Before coming here, I was on a train. The railway was built in the 19th century, spanning over 9,000 kilometers, covering a quarter of the Earth’s circumference…”
“Are you reciting a textbook?” Alex interrupted impatiently.
Yan Xiuyi fell silent for a moment. “That’s all I remember.”
Shen Lin: “?”
Yan Xiuyi looked somewhat dazed and repeated, “That’s all I remember.”
Shen Lin frowned and asked, “You don’t remember me?”
Yan Xiuyi looked at him, his light-colored pupils cold and unfamiliar.
He shook his head.
Shen Lin didn’t say anything. He pursed his lips and said to the others, “I know him. We’re together. I’ll explain. Before coming here, we were on a train. The train, which was supposed to pass through grasslands, suddenly appeared in a deep sea.” He described what he had seen, eliciting gasps of surprise from the others.
“That… I saw it too!” Han Qianqiu scratched his head. “I thought it was a hallucination!”
Zhang Yang nodded and said, “After I fell asleep, I had a dream. I was submerged in the deep sea, surrounded by dense waterโno, more like a gelatinous substance, very sticky.”
Hearing this, Alex also shared his experience cautiously, “Something wrapped around my car’s tires, preventing me from moving forward. I tried to get out to check, but as soon as I opened the door, waves of seawater rushed in and swept me into a vortex.”
They finally found some common ground. Once there’s common ground, explanations can be found. Their gazes eventually fell on the remaining woman.
The group fell into a brief silence.
…It wasn’t that they didn’t want to talk to her, but because she was a caucasian woman with fair skin, brown curly hair, and light blue eyes.
Han Qianqiu: “My english isn’t great.”
Zhang Yang: “It took me three years to pass Level 44. You guys handle it.”
Yan Xiuyi: “?”
Alex didn’t say anything, scanning them with a mocking look. “It seems I’m the only one here who speaks decent english. I’ll have to communicate with the lady.”
Shen Lin ignored him and took the initiative to speak fluently in English to the curly-haired woman, “Ma’am, we’re trying to figure out what’s happening. Could you…”
“I can understand. You can speak chinese with me,” the curly-haired woman said in English, but the others had no trouble understanding her.
Shen Lin asked, “You can speak chinese?”
“No,” the woman said, “but for some reason, I can understand your words. I know you’re speaking chinese, but I can strangely understand it. My experience is similar to yours.”
She said, “My name is Kate. I’m a housewife. I was on my way to buy groceries when something similar to your experiences happened.” The brown-haired woman spoke in detail.
“I saw the octopus I bought suddenly come to life. Huge tentacles reached out from the eco-bag and wrapped around me tightly. I could barely breathe, and I heard the sound of waves. Although I didn’t see the sea, I felt as if seawater was filling my nostrils, salty and bitter. When I opened my eyes, I was stuck to this damn chair. My back isn’t great, and I can’t sit for long. I hope this chair won’t trap me here.”
Shen Lin took off his jacket and handed it to her. “Put this behind your back. It should make you more comfortable.”
“Thank you,” Kate said, looking at Shen Lin in surprise. “You’re a good kid.”
“Now that we’ve mostly figured out the situation,” Shen Lin said to the group, “there’s only one explanation for all this. We’ve encountered something mysterious, summoned here through some means, forced to participate in this game. Before this, I received a game invitation card.”
Shen Lin placed the invitation card on the table and asked, “Do any of you have one?”
The others shook their heads.
Han Qianqiu picked up the card, and his expression changed when he saw the text on it. He teased, “What is this? It looks so edgy. Did you take the train because of this invitation? Oh man, I used to be as passionate and edgy as you when I was young. Youth is great.”
Shen Lin: “โฆโฆโฆโฆโฆโฆ” Shut up!
Shen Lin, his ears red, said, “Since none of you received one, it probably has nothing to do with this invitation. Forget I mentioned it.”
“But what you said makes sense,” Han Qianqiu said. “This must be a game. The rules are written here, but the question is, when will they let us out to explore? How do we get back? Do we need to clear the game?”
“Why us? What should we do now?” Zhang Yang said, confused. “I don’t play many games. Will we fight over equipment? What if we lose? Will we die?”
“It can’t be that harsh, right?”
Shen Lin said, “Usually, there’s a game guide. Otherwise, it’s too unfriendly to beginners.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a muffled sound of a conch shell came from the depths of the sea. The rule card suddenly moved, and then, right before their eyes, it started to act haunted. The entire card flipped over, revealing a paper cutout figure stuck to the back.
The paper figure first sat up from the card, remained still for a moment, then twisted its body, its faceless head turning toward Shen Lin. It raised its round arm and gave an enthusiastic wave, “Hi! My dear friends!”
Shen Lin: “…”
It pushed its hands against the card, trying to pull itself up like a radish, but before it could fully emerge, Han Qianqiu quickly pressed it back down.
Han Qianqiu desperately held down the card, looking at the others in terror, “Itโitโit moved! It moved, it moved, it moved! The paper figure moved on its own!”
The others remained expressionless.
Han Qianqiu’s lips trembled, “…Why are you all so calm?”
Shen Lin: “Isn’t your fear a bit late?”
The paper figure slipped out from between the rule card and the table, striking a dazzling, heroic pose. It bowed to them like a gentleman, “Hello everyone, I am the Keeper of Secrets5 for this game room, Number 98. You can call me KP. I will be guiding you through this round of the game. Considering you’re all beginners, this round will be set to the simplest novice mode.”
“Great!” Han Qianqiu exclaimed.
Zhang Yang asked, “How simple? So simple we can just lie down and win?”
“Not that simple. You’ll still need to move around a bit,” the paper figure said, its movements exceptionally gentlemanly, exuding friendliness. “The basic rules of the game are as you’ve seenโvery simple. You just need to immerse yourselves in the game world set by KP, make use of your identities and skills, explore this world, and uncover the mysteries hidden within.”
“In short, it’s role-playing.”
“Now, let me introduce the background of this game.”
The voice sounded in their ears but felt etched into their minds. A memory that didn’t belong to them clearly surfaced.
[You are students at Lyon Noble University. You have a mutual friend/classmate named Dylan Haino.]
[To celebrate his birthday, Dylan invited you to join him on a luxurious five-day cruise. While passing through international waters, the ship encountered a disaster. You woke up to find yourselves on this unfamiliar beach.]
[Survive here and find a way back to civilization.]
[It is currently daylight saving time, August 13th, 10:16 AM. Please receive your respective character cards.]
- ็ฝๅง (wวng bฤ): Internet cafรฉs are a significant part of youth culture in China, often associated with gaming and socializing. โฉ๏ธ
- ๅ ๅผ (xiongdi): one way to call someone, it means brother in general but considering the young age of the speaker i put “bro” โฉ๏ธ
- Alex: in RAW written in english โฉ๏ธ
- ๅ็บง่ไบไธๅนด (sรฌ jรญ kวo le sฤn niรกn): This refers to the CET-4 (College English Test Level 4), a standardized English proficiency test for Chinese college students. Failing it multiple times is a common joke among students. โฉ๏ธ
- KP (Keeper of Secrets): a reference of tabletop role-playing games like Call of Cthulhu, which are popular in China. โฉ๏ธ
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