On one side, Yi Fengchu was buzzing with excitement, itching to plunge into a new adventure.
On the other side, inside the Bureau of Ability Research and Management, a group of state recruited ability users sat around a long conference table, flipping through the forum post with solemn expressions.
With their bodies enhanced in every possible way, these ability users could read ten lines at a glance. In just a short while, everyone finished scrolling and put their phones down one after another.
Seeing this, Director Luo cleared his throat lightly and asked, “What does everyone think about the contents of this post?”
Meng Siyou was the first to raise his hand. After receiving permission, he stood and reported, “Some of us may still think the so called ‘Future Diary’ is nothing more than fiction but I’ve already confirmed, It not only exists but It has at least begun to grasp the domain of causality…”
The moment his words fell, the expressions around the table shifted, shock on some faces, outright skepticism on others. A few of his usual rivals looked ready to plaster I’m here to oppose you across their foreheads.
Ignoring the reactions, Meng Siyou drew in a slow breath and said steadily, “Just now, before Wensheng and I came into this meeting room, we unintentionally drew Its gaze.”
“The laboratory mutated within one minute, we saw countless possibilities of the future layered over one another. We believe It is, at minimum, a high level existence within the causal domain. The surveillance recordings were wiped clean in an instant but the energy fluctuation detector still holds evidence.”
Silence swallowed the room.
Everyone involuntarily looked toward the middle aged man who had been mentioned. Upon receiving Wensheng’s firm nod, the atmosphere grew even heavier.
“Hiss… if what the forum says is true… if It can even stop time.. ”
Some reacted immediately, murmuring in a hushed and reverent tone, “Then It has already grasped dual authorities, causality and time…”
Meng Siyou’s expression tightened. “The most terrifying part is, we don’t even know if that’s Its limit.”
“This is absurd…” someone muttered blankly, as if struggling to keep up. “An existence like that… actually gazed at this place?”
After a long, suffocating silence, someone finally made the leap from that single moment of attention to the potential meaning behind it, whispering nervously, “This is the first deity to establish direct contact with us in reality. Could this be a warning from the gods?”
A warning not to presumptuously investigate Them, not to attempt to analyze Their domains with mere human power.
Whispers erupted in the room, tension pooling like a dark cloud swirling above their heads.
“Ahem, let’s not jump straight to despair,” Director Luo said, pointing at the forum page projected onto the wall. “Some speculate that this being may belong to a different faction entirely, separate from the known gods. I think that’s plausible.”
The discussion continued for quite some time. Each ability user recorded their experiences across different instances, along with their theories. It was a full half hour before the meeting finally adjourned.
People drifted out, one group after another, until only three remained in the vast conference room, Director Luo at the head of the table and Meng Siyou and Wensheng standing before him.
As if unsurprised, Director Luo’s eyes, edged with deep lines, softened with weariness. “Do you have additional information to report? About that ‘Future Diary,’ I presume?”
Meng Siyou nodded cautiously, hesitating. “Actually… we didn’t just confirm one of Its authorities. We also discovered Its true name, ”
“Shh.” Before he could finish, Director Luo had already raised a hand and cut him off, prepared in advance. “I understand. You do not need to say it.”
“The true name of an unknown existence, regardless of how it was obtained, is extremely dangerous. Unless the situation becomes absolutely irretrievable, you must not let a fourth person know and you yourselves… should avoid recalling It as much as possible.”
He sighed gently, then advised with a gentle earnestness, “Find time to see Shen Yuan for a ‘Mind Sight Scan.’ Keep track of your mental state at all times. If anything unusual appears, report immediately.”
“Yes.” Meng Siyou and Wensheng exchanged glances, answering in unison. A sense of human insignificance in the face of a boundless cosmic sea weighed upon them.
After experiencing Its gaze, the two of them might already have fallen under the attention of that enigmatic god level existence of fate and causality.
All they could do now was limit the spread of the influence, keeping it contained to the few of them, not letting it touch the outside world.
“Midnight bus station… passengers caught between life and death… a mysterious distress signal… This sounds exactly like the opening of a horror film!”
Eager and thrilled, paranormal enthusiast Yi Fengchu tapped his phone.
A line of text slowly surfaced across the screen:
【However, this event occurs within a real world instance of the Gods’ Playground and requires an invitation to enter.】
The Gods’ Playground included not only the irregular mandatory instances but also optional real world instances that players could enter or leave at will.
These real world instances were single use, once activated, one fewer would exist. Theoretically valuable, highly scarce… yet almost no player wanted to waste their precious rest time to rush toward certain death.
Entering a real world instance was simple. Under the right trigger conditions, one only needed to use the item Gods’ Invitation to enter.
As a C rank bound item, the “Gods’ Invitation” was peculiar. Once a player entered any instance, regardless of whether they cleared it or died, they might receive several invitations afterward.
They were distributed like clearance sales, so cheap and abundant that practically every player had a whole stack tucked in their backpack.
Unfortunately, Yi Fengchu was not a player. He didn’t enter instances at all.
If he wanted an invitation, he had only one method: hope some unlucky soul died and dropped one, then snatch it up before it vanished along with its deceased owner by using his phone’s remote collection ability.
Tilting his head back, Yi Fengchu let out a ghostly sigh. He hadn’t found a single “Gods’ Invitation” lately. Even if he were willing to risk his life and dive headfirst into this mess, his phone wouldn’t allow it.
And he knew all too well: If the connection between him and his phone were ever discovered by players or by the Playground itself, what awaited him would be robbery from all sides… or even outright murder.
Even so, he really did have just a tiny bit of interest in urban legends.
Fine, more than a tiny bit. An enormous amount.
At that moment, his phone gave a sudden buzz. Yi Fengchu immediately understood: someone had picked up the Future Diary again.
Following the prompt that appeared on the screen, he quickly typed a line: 【There’s a Hunter behind you. You must leave within ten seconds.】
But the young man in the live feed had no idea what was happening. He repeated the same motions over and over, stomping his foot, rubbing his palms together, stiff, compulsive gestures that suggested some sort of mental disorder.
Anxiety and unease crept visibly across his pale, gloomy face.
“Who are you? Why am I here? Is this a dream? No… no, I took my medication, so why am I still having hallucinations…?”
“It’s a dream. It has to be a dream. I’ll wake up… soon… soon…”
The young man gnawed anxiously at his fingers. His nails were jagged at the edges, uneven from long term biting and blood soon welled from the gaps beside the nailbeds but he seemed completely oblivious to pain, only muttering nonsensical fragments under his breath.
Yi Fengchu blinked in surprise. This was the first time he’d ever encountered a complete newcomer, someone utterly ignorant, who happened to stumble across the Future Diary.
He didn’t hold much hope but he still typed rapidly, compressing his warning to the simplest form: 【This is a real, deadly game. Run!】
For this stranger, Yi Fengchu’s attitude was unusually patient. He understood all too well, what was only a fleeting moment for him might be the last few seconds of life for the person on the other side of the screen.
He had witnessed countless people claw their way upward, reaching the very peak but he had seen even more ordinary people struggling desperately to survive.
Some escaped with their lives; others collapsed before his eyes, the warmth fading from their fingers as they died still clutching their phones.
After seeing so many, Yi Fengchu no longer had the naive belief that he could save every person who came into contact with him.
Failures were frequent. Death was common but he couldn’t stop himself from trying, no matter how microscopic the chance of survival was.
On the screen, the Hunter had already circled silently behind the young man. The prey, still unaware, stood helpless, like a sacrificial lamb waiting for the gunshot that would mark its end.
【Run, run now!】
【Warning: This is not a hallucination. You must escape…】
The young man glanced sluggishly at the messages popping up on the screen but his mind was too clouded, too fractured to understand anything. Those words became the last thing he would ever see.
“So cold… why is it…”
…so cold?
He never finished the sentence.
Frost gathered instantly on his eyelashes. A thin film of ice spread upwards from beneath his feet, crawling over his skin in an instant.
His entire body froze solid, captured in a single silent moment like a statue carved from winter itself. Then, with a sharp crack, he toppled forward and shattered into countless crystalline fragments.
After a player died, the body always returned automatically to its original world. So in a short while even those unrecognizable shards of ice disappeared, leaving behind only one object, a softly glowing invitation.
With a quiet sigh, Yi Fengchu opened the deceased young man’s profile, regret flickering across his expression:
【Chu Fu, Player No. 4583. Ability: “Inextinguishable Flame.” Current Level: 2. Potential Level: 8. Fire Domain: no ranking yet.】
A powerful fire based attack ability…
If he had survived, he could have had a remarkable future.
Before Yi Fengchu could linger on the thought, the phone had already auto locked onto the fallen invitation. A streak of light flashed across the screen and the item appeared before him.
【C Rank Item: “Gods’ Invitation” Chosen ones, by My name, enter the eternal hall of revelry.】
【Usage: Break the wax seal and remove the envelope to enter the game or access a real world instance.】
Yi Fengchu rubbed the envelope thoughtfully. It seemed to be made of some unknown creature’s hide. Written upon it, in a strange, blood red fluid, was the name of the intended recipient, Chu Fu.
“Chu Fu…” he murmured quietly. “May you never encounter the Gods’ Playground again in your next life.”
Whether players, Judges of Retribution or the even rarer Arbiters and Constructors, in Yi Fengchu’s eyes, they were all the same kind of people.
People cursed with catastrophic bad luck. People chosen by the Gods’ Playground.
“To enter this instance, I need an ‘expired ticket’… will a ticket stub count?”
After receiving confirmation, Yi Fengchu dug through drawers and boxes, rummaging until he finally unearthed a ticket stub tucked inside an old photo album from a trip he once took with his mother.
“Hurry, check if there’s a bus stop nearby where night fog rises.”
The phone lagged for a long moment, as if reluctant, unwilling for Yi Fengchu to drag it into danger yet again.
Only after he poked at it repeatedly with eager taps did it respond, slowly and reluctantly:
【Binhai Bus Stop. Distance: 3.2 km. Fog will begin at 2:32 a.m and connect to the instance.】
Yi Fengchu exited to the home screen and checked the time, 8:47 p.m. He decided that before exploring the fog shrouded station, he should rest and recover a bit.
He set a 1:00 a.m. alarm, rolled himself into his blanket like a burrito, plugged his phone into the charger and, out of habit, slid it under his pillow.
“Good night.”
A long moment passed. Only after Yi Fengchu fell into peaceful sleep did a line of text quietly appear on the phone’s buried screen:
【Good night to you as well.】
About four hours later, the alarm blared
Ring ring ring ring…..
Yi Fengchu groaned, poked his head out from the covers, grabbed the phone from beneath his pillow and slammed the alarm off.
He threw a black long coat over his white shirt, tucked his phone into his pocket and headed out the door.
At first, Yi Fengchu tried hailing a taxi but at this late hour, no one else around the student apartments was wandering the streets looking for thrills. There were no cars. No pedestrians. Nothing.
In the end, he had no choice but to walk.
The road was so quiet he could hear his own heartbeat. His shadow stretched long and thin beneath the streetlights as he walked. After nearly half an hour, he suddenly felt the temperature drop sharply around him. A dense, eerie fog thickened, then slowly pulled apart to the sides,
As if a translucent curtain had been violently drawn open.
Yi Fengchu stared at the train station looming in the blackness ahead, massive and silent like a slumbering beast. It took him several seconds to come back to himself.
“…Wait but I remember… Binhai Station is a bus stop?”
✦ ✧ ✦
Nycreth
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
The Realm demands coffee. The Realm is not accepting complaints.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Mysterious letterChapter 2 · Divine MessagesChapter 3 · Gamer ForumChapter 4 · Invitation from GodChapter 5 · JudgeChapter 6 · TerminalChapter 7 · Destruction of recordsChapter 8 · Whale Bone Aquarium (1)Chapter 9 · Whale Bone Aquarium (2)Chapter 10 · Whale Bone Aquarium (3)Chapter 11 · Whale Bone Aquarium (4)Chapter 12 · Whale Bone Aquarium (5)Chapter 13 · Whale Bone Aquarium (6)Chapter 14 · Whale Bone Aquarium (7)Chapter 15 · Whale Bone Aquarium (8)Chapter 16 · Whale Bone Aquarium (9)Chapter 17 · Whale Bone Aquarium (10)Chapter 18 · Whale Bone Aquarium (11)Chapter 19 Part 1 · Whale Bone Aquarium (12)Chapter 19 Part 2 · Whale Bone Aquarium (12)Chapter 20 · Interlude: His ApostlesChapter 21 · Echoes in the pupa (1)Chapter 22 · Echoes in the pupa (2)Chapter 23 · Echoes in the Pupa (3)Chapter 24 · Echoes in the Pupa (4)Chapter 25 · Echoes in the Pupa (5)Chapter 26 · Echoes in the Pupa (6)Chapter 27 · Echoes in the Pupa (7)Chapter 28 · Echoes in the Pupa (8)Chapter 29 · Echoes in the Pupa (9)Chapter 30 · Echoes in the Pupa (10)Chapter 31 · Echoes in the Pupa (11)Chapter 32 · Echoes in the Pupa (12)Chapter 33 · Echoes in the Pupa (13)Chapter 34 · Interlude: Investigation by the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs (1)Chapter 35 · Interlude: Investigation by the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs (2)Chapter 36 · Interlude: Investigation by the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs (3)Chapter 37 · Small World: God’s Chessboard (1)Chapter 38 · Small World: God’s Chessboard (2)Chapter 39 · Small World: God’s Chessboard (3)Chapter 40 · Small World: God’s Chessboard (4)Chapter 41 · Advertisement Coming Soon (1)Chapter 42 · Advertisement Coming Soon (2)Chapter 43 · Advertisement Coming Soon (3)Chapter 44 · Advertisement Coming Soon (4)Chapter 45 · Advertisement Coming Soon (5)Chapter 46 · Advertisement Coming Soon (6)Chapter 47 · Advertisement Coming Soon (7)Chapter 48 · Advertisement Coming Soon (8)Chapter 49 · Advertisement Coming Soon (9)Chapter 50 · Advertisement Coming Soon (10)Chapter 51 · Advertisement Coming Soon (11)Chapter 52 · Advertisement Coming Soon (12)Chapter 53 · Advertisement Coming Soon to EndChapter 54 · Interlude – Tonight No One Sleeps (1)Chapter 55 · Interlude – Tonight No One Sleeps (2)Chapter 56 · Interlude – Tonight No One Sleeps (3)Chapter 57 · Interlude – Tonight No One Sleeps (4)Chapter 58 · Childhood Ghost Stories (1)Chapter 59 · Childhood Ghost Stories (2)Chapter 60 · Childhood Ghost Stories (3)Chapter 61 · Childhood Ghost Stories (4)Chapter 62 · Childhood Ghost Stories (5)Chapter 63 · Childhood Ghost Stories (6)Chapter 64 · Childhood Ghost Stories (7)Chapter 65 · Childhood Ghost Stories (8)Chapter 66 · Childhood Ghost Stories (9)Chapter 67 · Childhood Ghost Stories (10)Chapter 68 · Childhood Ghost Stories (11)Chapter 69 · Childhood Ghost Stories (12)Chapter 70 · Childhood Ghost Stories (13)Chapter 71 · Childhood Ghost Stories (14)Chapter 72 · Childhood Ghost Stories (15)Chapter 73 · Childhood Ghost Stories (16)Chapter 74 · Childhood Ghost Stories (17)Chapter 75 · Childhood Ghost Stories (18)Chapter 76 · Childhood Ghost Stories (19)Chapter 77 · Childhood Ghost Stories (20)Chapter 78 · Childhood Ghost Stories (Complete)Chapter 79 · Interlude: His Kingdom (1)Chapter 80 · Interlude: His Kingdom (2)Chapter 81 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (1)Chapter 82 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (2)Chapter 83 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (3)Chapter 84 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (4)Chapter 85 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (5)Chapter 86 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (Complete)Chapter 87 · Fate casually rolls the dice (1)Chapter 88 · Fate Casually rolls the dice (2)Chapter 89 · Fate Casually rolls the dice (3)Chapter 90 · Fate Casually rolls the dice (4)Chapter 91 · Fate casually tosses the dice (5)Chapter 92 · Fate casually tosses the dice (6)Chapter 93 · Fate casually tosses the dice (7)Chapter 94 · Fate casually tosses the dice (8)Chapter 95 · Fate casually tosses the dice (9)Chapter 96 · Fate casually tosses the dice (10)Chapter 97 · Fate Casually tosses the dice (11)Chapter 98 · Fate casually tosses the dice (12)Chapter 99 · Fate casually tosses the dice (13)Chapter 100 · Fate casually tosses the dice (14)Chapter 101 · Fate casually tosses the dice (15)Chapter 102 · Fate casually tosses the dice (16)Chapter 103 · Fate casually tosses the dice (17)Chapter 104 · Fate casually tosses the dice (18)Chapter 105 · Fate casually tosses the dice (19)Chapter 106 · Fate casually tosses the dice (20)Chapter 107 · Fate casually tosses the dice (21)Chapter 108 · Fate casually tosses the dice (The End)Chapter 109 · Interlude