Hospital, police station, church, school…
The town had a disturbingly complete set of facilities. At first glance, that might have made it seem like an ordinary settlement, but the more Lin thought about it, the more unsettling it became. A place with this many public buildings had to cover a large area, and in a Game Instance, large scale almost always meant high difficulty.
They continued down the street, passing between buildings of uneven heights. Before long, they spotted an old black Santana parked by the roadside, its driver-side door hanging slightly open as if someone had abandoned it in a hurry.
Song was the first to react. He ducked into the car and searched through the interior, then emerged a moment later with a key he had found inside the glove compartment. At nearly the same time, Jiang used his Tang sword to pry open the trunk. The rusted lid rose with a harsh creak, and a black cat suddenly shot out from within, landing soundlessly on the ground before slipping into the gloom.
Even though Lin had mentally prepared herself, she still jumped.
A black cat.
That was the special clue marker for this Instance. In other words, wherever a cat appeared, there was bound to be some hidden secret nearby.
"How is there a cat here?" Coffee whispered, tugging at Fushi's sleeve. Her voice dropped so low that it nearly blended into the damp morning air. "Should we follow it?"
Fushi hesitated for a moment, clearly weighing the risks, before shaking his head. "Forget it. Stay with the main group."
The game forums were full of walkthroughs and established patterns for clearing Instances. Splitting off to pursue independent clues was a common tactic for players chasing higher ratings, but that sort of strategy required either exceptional strength or exceptional luck. Preferably both. Without those, it was less a shortcut and more a convenient way to deliver oneself to whatever monster happened to be waiting in the dark.
"This should be a house key," Song said after trying and failing to fit it into the ignition. He turned the key over in his hand, studying it with a frown. "Maybe it opens the place we're supposed to use as a base while we decrypt this area."
"Let's move." Jiang shut the empty trunk with a dull thud, leaving the vanished cat and scattered debris behind as he continued down the road.
Lin followed beside him, her gaze sweeping over the surrounding buildings. She vaguely remembered that the key Song had found belonged somewhere nearby, but the problem was that the street was packed with houses. Many had been divided into multiple units, and trying every door one by one would be less an investigation and more a punishment.
Just as she was thinking that, her gaze caught on a third-story window in a nearby building.
A dark figure stood in the center of the open frame, silently looking down at them.
The distance was too great, and the room behind the window was too dim for her to make out any features. Even so, the sight made Lin's breath catch. She grabbed Jiang's arm and pointed upward, nearly blurting out the name he used in the original novel before catching herself at the last second. "Jiang… there's someone up there!"
By the time Jiang and the others looked over, the window was empty. Only a dark, hollow opening remained, staring back at them from the old building.
"Did it scare you?" Jiang asked.
"Are you sure you didn't just see things?" Song asked almost at the same time.
Jiang glanced at Song, then lifted a hand and lightly brushed Lin's cheek. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Lin said, though even she could tell the answer lacked conviction. She was terrified of the Instance as a whole, but this particular scare was not purely from the unknown. She had been actively looking for that shadow, after all. The problem was that knowing something might appear and actually seeing it appear were two completely different experiences. "Should we go check it out?"
Jiang shook his head. "No. We have plenty of time. If that's where we're supposed to stay tonight, it'll still be there later. Even ghosts and murderers have to wait their turn."
Lin stared at him.
The logic sounded twisted, but because it came from the protagonist, it somehow possessed a strange and perverted persuasiveness.
Behind them, Coffee poked Fushi in the arm, and the two began whispering among themselves. There were three men and two women in the group, and Song, who had somehow become the odd one out, suddenly regretted agreeing to join Jiang for this run. What kind of Game Item could possibly compensate for the emotional damage of watching other people flirt inside a horror Instance?
After they walked another three or four hundred meters, the rows of houses finally ended, and the road opened into the town's central plaza.
The square was vast. At its center stood a small church crowned with a crimson cross, while off to one side loomed a massive fenced-in complex that looked very much like a hospital.
"Am I seeing this right?" Song said, his voice rising. "A psychiatric hospital right next to a church? That's rich. Are they trying to say all believers are mentally ill?"
"Should we go in?" Fushi asked. "We finally found two distinct buildings. Are we really just going to leave after looking at them?"
"Let's split up," Coffee suggested. "Walking around like this could take forever. We'll check the psychiatric hospital, and you guys take the church. How does that sound? We meet back here in an hour, or earlier if anyone finds a lead."
"By all means." Jiang made a polite gesture, yielding the choice to them without the slightest intention of stopping them.
As Fushi and Coffee climbed over the fence into the psychiatric hospital, Lin looked up at Jiang. "Are we going in?"
"No. We keep walking." Jiang took her hand again and continued forward at an unhurried pace.
Song opened his mouth as if to object, but after remembering that he had only come along for the ride, he quietly shut it and followed.
For the rest of the morning, the three of them toured the town.
The farther they went, the more anomalies they discovered. Just like the church and psychiatric hospital in the plaza, the school had been built right next to a prison, and both were surrounded by an abandoned amusement park so large it seemed absurd for a town of this size. The hospital, a place meant to save lives, stood in the middle of a graveyard. The police station was tucked between a casino and a brothel. At the edge of town, a massive livestock farm shared its grounds with a circus tent and a zoo.
"It feels like this town was designed by taking everything that should oppose each other and forcing them into the same space," Lin said after a while. Of all the sights they had seen, the hospital in the graveyard disturbed her the most. A place of healing surrounded by headstones and mounds of earth was already morbid enough, but in a Game Instance, that kind of arrangement could not possibly be harmless.
"Let's go back to the plaza," Jiang said, offering no comment on her theory.
He was always quiet and cold in the game. The original novel had described that trait clearly. Inside the Instance, this was the real Jiang: an avenger pursuing the truth behind his parents' fatal car accident.
Lin unconsciously leaned a little closer to him and laced her fingers through his. Unfortunately, she had only read eight hundred thousand words of the novel before transmigrating, and even by that point, there had not been a single useful clue about his parents' accident. The thought left her feeling both regretful and helpless.
"Tired from walking?" Jiang asked, cutting through her thoughts. "Planning to start acting up?"
Lin looked at him in disbelief.
"When have I ever acted up?" She had very conveniently forgotten the earlier scene where she had thrown a tantrum on the ground. In her view, this was slander. Libel, even. A blatant act of mockery committed by a top-tier powerhouse against a low-level supporting character.
Jiang looked at her for a moment, then changed his tone with remarkable skill. "My mistake. I must have remembered wrong."
"Hmph. That's more like it."
Once again, Lin felt she had defended her dignity with complete success. Buoyed by victory, she straightened her back and decided it was time to use the plot knowledge hidden in her brain to reinforce her image as a winner.
"Ahem. Since you apologized so sincerely, I've decided to reward your repentance by sharing my findings."
Jiang nodded, playing along with impressive cooperation. "Oh? Please enlighten me. I'm completely in the dark."
Song had originally been keeping his distance from the sickeningly sweet atmosphere around them, but the moment he heard this, he drifted closer with undisguised curiosity.
Lin put on her most professional expression. "Personally, I think the layout itself is the message. The school being next to the prison implies that the students are bullies who belong behind bars. The hospital being in the graveyard suggests the doctors are probably murderers. The police station being next to the casino and brothel means the cops are most likely corrupt bloodsuckers. As for the priest…"
She paused, then looked toward the church in the distance.
"He's clearly the one who's insane."
Summary:
The group continues their exploration of the mysterious, paradoxically designed town within the Game Instance. After encountering a black cat, they survey the bizarre architectural layout that juxtaposes institutions of care with those of punishment and ruin. Jiang Mo remains stoic as Lin Shuang navigates her role as a supporting character, eventually sharing her suspicions about the town's true, dark nature.
Trivia:
The black cat is explicitly identified as a special clue for this specific Game Instance.
Jiang Mo's cold behavior is a character trait directly lifted from the original novel.
Lin Shuang has read 800,000 words of the original story but has yet to find clues regarding Jiang Mo's parents.
The town's architecture is specifically highlighted as a potential narrative clue regarding the morality of the NPCs.
Notes:
• Lin - A resilient university student and transmigrated "salt-fish" player, she navigates a deadly survival game as the POV character. Outwardly, she shifts between a delicate, bang-styled student and a combat-ready survivor in a high ponytail. While feigning helplessness to gain intimacy, she uses her plot knowledge and tactical skills alongside her partner, Jiang Mo, to forge vital alliances.
• Jiang - Jiang Mo is a 6'3" elite survivalist and formidable leader in the Main God Space. A weary yet fit former athlete, he uses a stoic, cynical exterior to mask his trauma and intense, repressed devotion to his fiancée, Lin Shuang. Driven to uncover his parents' fatal accident, this pragmatic protector balances managing high-stakes combat and logistics with his deeply attentive, budding romance.
• Song - A male player who investigates the psychiatric hospital and discovers the duty roster. A man who joins the protagonist on the game instance and provides initial supplies like a key. A veteran player in the Main God's Game, known for his caustic tongue, chaotic temperament, and sharp, snide remarks.
• He - A fierce, aggressive man who storms into a private training range to confront Jiang Mo over an alleged emotional deception involving his sister. A woman who speaks with strict, anxious bureaucratic formality over the phone. She is the sister of a man who caused an incident at an archery range.
• Coffee - A character who joins the group and suggests splitting up at the town square. A female player and member of a pre-made duo, participating in the elite decryption game instance.
• Fushi - A character who joins the group and initially expresses hesitation about splitting up. A male player found dead in Room 206.
• Man - The given name of He Man, a woman who speaks with strict, anxious bureaucratic formality over the phone. She is the sister of a man who caused an incident at an archery range.
• Lin Shuang - Lin Shuang is a college student transmigrated as a cannon fodder in an infinite game. To survive its horrors, she adopts a detached persona, clinging to the male lead for security while finding solace in small rewards like cake. Navigating the original owner's complex social ties with anxiety, she hides her true self, focusing solely on comfort and survival within the deadly, surreal game world.
• Jiang Mo - A cold, calculated strategist in the Infinite Stream, he masks a predatory nature with a gentle persona. As a former boxer living a solitary, tidy life, he balances lethal survival skills with a guarded temperament. He acts as a devoted protector to Lin Shuang, navigating the game's dangers with detached pragmatism and a methodical, controlled approach to both combat and his personal life.
• Shuang - Lin Shuang is a delicate-featured college student who transmigrated into a web novel as a doomed side character. Anxious to survive the infinite game, she masks her desperation by playing the opportunist. She clings to the male protagonist, Jiang Mo, monitoring game forums and leveraging their closeness to stay safe, even renting an apartment specifically to remain near him.
• Mo - Jiang Mo, or Great God Mo Jiang, is a towering 6’3” martial artist and archer in the Main God’s Game. Formerly a righteous police student, this hyper-vigilant yet calm protector serves as a devoted mentor to Lin Shuang. Their disciplined bond has evolved from rigorous training into a committed, mutual promise of marriage, blending his natural aloofness with deep, unwavering care for her.