"Report! Report! Inmate 306 has assaulted... yes, again."
He Zhihan sat on the edge of the steel prison bed, lazily rolling his wrist to soothe the swelling in his knuckles. On the concrete floor, three inmates groaned in agony. One clutched his broken nose. Another curled around his stomach, coughing up blood. The third had wisely decided to remain unconscious.
Outside the reinforced bars, the prison guards didn’t even bother drawing their batons.
"Leave him," one guard told the rookie who had just reported the incident, his tone entirely unfazed. "He’ll calm down if he misses dinner."
He Zhihan clicked his tongue. "They started it."
The guards shot him a warning glare before walking away, their footsteps echoing down the corridor.
He Zhihan couldn’t care less. Pulling a packet of mint gum from his prison uniform pocket, he popped a piece into his mouth and leaned back against the concrete wall. The dark dragon tattoo that coiled up his neck disappeared beneath his collar, though the ink creeping over the backs of his hands remained in full view.
He glanced down and the moment his eyes brushed over the beaten-up inmates, they scrambled backward, trembling with fear.
Unbothered, He Zhihan stretched his arms over his head like a stray cat in desperate need of a nap.
But the moment he dropped his hands to lie back down, a massive, translucent holographic display materialized directly above his face.
A stiff, robotic female voice echoed in his ears.
[Congratulations. You have been selected for the Infinite Endgame.]
He Zhihan arched a brow. "Eh?"
He pushed himself upright, the glowing screen moving with him. He gestured at the interface, his hand passing straight through the light.
Pulling his fingers back, he looked toward the floor. "Are you sick fucks seeing this?"
The inmates only offered muffled groans in response.
Suddenly, the screen flickered, the text shifting rapidly.
[Player Identification Complete.]
[Name: He Zhihan]
[Player ID: 00001076]
[Status: Unregistered]
[Scenario Progress: 0]
[Rank: ??]
[Skills: ??]
[Title: ??]
[Witness: ??]
[Profile: Locked]
He Zhihan’s eyes narrowed into a deep frown. "...Player? What kind of joke is this?"
Before the thought could fully form, the concrete walls, the steel bed, and the groaning inmates vanished.
Darkness swallowed him whole and when his vision cleared, he was no longer in his cell.
He was standing at the back of an old, dust-covered classroom. Roughly twenty other people were scattered around the room, the glowing holographic screen completely gone.
The crowd was a bizarre cross-section of society with a sweating businessman, a high school student clutching his backpack, an elderly woman, a little girl in a green dress squeezing a teddy bear, a doctor still in bloodstained scrubs... and the air was thick with raw, suffocating panic.
"Where the hell are we?!"
"My phone has no signal!"
"This has to be a kidnapping! Do you know who my father is?!"
A terrified man began banging against the classroom windows, but the glass didn’t even rattle.
He Zhihan ignored the screaming. His gaze locked onto the front of the room.
There, a piece of white chalk lifted into the air by itself. It pressed against the grimed surface of the blackboard, scratching across the slate as words began to form.
SCENARIO #1
Hide-and-Seek
Everyone froze.
Difficulty: Nightmare
Historical Survival Rate: 3%
Three percent? He Zhihan cocked his head to the side.
Time Limit: Six hours.
A woman immediately started crying.
"This is fake! A simulation!" Someone screamed.
The classroom door suddenly unlocked.
Click.
Everyone jumped. Even He Zhihan.
[Congratulations. You have all entered the Infinite Endgame.]
[Your lives now belong to the Game.]
[Clear Scenarios. Survive all day long.]
That annoying voice came again, even though there weren’t any visible speakers anywhere in the room.
More words appeared on the board.
Rules:
1. Do not let the Teacher catch you.
The room fell dead silent.
One man laughed nervously. "That’s... that’s it?"
Then... footsteps.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
They were coming from the hallway, slow and steady, like heels clicking against polished floors.
A little boy began sobbing.
"Hide... everyone hide!" Someone whispered fiercely.
Everyone scrambled, flipping over desks and overturning furniture. Some tried to barricade the door, while one woman squeezed herself into a locker. He Zhihan hid behind a desk with the little boy, who was smart enough to hold back his tears.
The footsteps stopped right outside the classroom.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
"Children... It’s time for class." A gentle woman’s voice came through the wood.
Nobody answered.
Then, the doorknob slowly turned.
The door pushed open, shoving away the heavy barricades with terrifying ease.
A woman walked inside.
She wore a faded teacher’s uniform, her hair neatly tied back into a bun with a warm smile on her lips. Everything about her looked completely normal...
Except her neck bent just a little too far to the side. Her arms were slightly too long, hanging past her knees. Her eyes never blinked. She looked like something trying very, very hard to imitate a human teacher.
The trembling boy beside him whispered, "...Is that a monster?"
He Zhihan resisted the urge to smack the child on the back of the head.
Talking during hide-and-seek seemed like an incredibly stupid idea.
The Teacher smiled wider, her unblinking eyes scanning the room. "Are we playing hide-and-seek?"
Suddenly, one terrified man broke cover and bolted for the door.
The Teacher’s head snapped around instantly.
Her smile tore open to impossible proportions, her jaw splitting down to her neck. The man didn’t even have time to scream. She caught him in a flash, taking one bite, and blood splashed across the classroom wall.
The brutal sight, coupled with the sickening crack of shattering bones, triggered screams. Panic spread through the classroom as people burst from their hiding places, desperately trying to escape, only drawing the Teacher’s attention to themselves.
"There you are!" She laughed and began chasing them.
He Zhihan watched the massacre with an unreadable expression. Then, a slow, excited smile spread across his face.
He raised a hand. "I have a question."
Immediately, the voice responded. [Player He Zhihan may ask a question.]
He Zhihan pointed toward the Teacher, who was calmly chewing on a man’s severed arm. "...Can I kill it?"