The unexpected truth ignited the fury in Yin Zhen’s heart, and she decisively chose to step into the game.
The boundless darkness faded, and Yin Zhen found herself standing in a spacious hall.
It was a pitch-black Gothic-style building. The dome was so high that its ceiling was out of sight, and the stained glass windows were painted with ancient patterns.
A card table stood before her.
Made of black sandalwood, its inlaid silver threads had oxidized and darkened. It was covered with dark red velvet, and spiderwebs spread from the candlestick to the table’s corners.
In the middle of the candlelight lay two dark Golden cards, resembling the title pages of ancient books.
A flash of lightning struck outside the window, startling the bats under the eaves into flight as they swept past the blood-red moonlight.
Words emerged on the cards in the candlelight.
[Do you want to become the center of attention that everyone’s eyes follow?]
[Do you want to forget everything and start anew?]
The cards lay quietly on the table, waiting for her to turn them over. Behind them was the new Identity the game was about to bestow upon her.
Yin Zhen stared at the cards, forcing a bloody laugh from her throat.
"My twenty years of life are only worth a little over a thousand words. I don’t need to be the center of attention, nor do I need to start over. Moreover, I will never forget my grudge. I won’t choose either of them!"
The candlelight flickered.
[If you do not choose, you will enter the game with the Identity of a ’Gray Card’ from your original world. That is the lowest of cannon fodder. Danger will be ceaseless, and death will follow like a shadow.]
"Would choosing one stop me from being cannon fodder? If I want to be the protagonist, will you let me?"
There was no response from the darkness.
Yin Zhen’s tone was terrifyingly calm. "I was already cannon fodder. 1,233 words—not even enough for a single Chapter. How much worse can it get? I don’t need the new Identity you offer me. I want to be myself!"
[You have rejected the Identity bestowed by fate.]
[You have chosen to step into the unknown with a ’Gray Card’ Identity.]
The two cards on the table suddenly floated up, turning into millions of light spots in the air, before quickly gathering and condensing into a new card.
This card was very small and thin, with jagged edges, as if it was a corner casually torn off by someone. Its color was strange; the base color was semi-transparent, but from different angles, it would refract fragmented colors of the rainbow.
There were no words on the card’s surface, only the faint silhouette of half a human figure.
[Protagonist Halo Experience Card]
[Explanation: For a brief moment, you made Them feel... it was quite interesting.]
[Effect: For a single moment, you can become the protagonist of your own story.]
[Time Limit: Three seconds]
The card crashed into Yin Zhen. The tall Gothic-style doors behind the card table slowly creaked open, and the blood-red light from outside rapidly swallowed her up.
[Invasion Game initiated. Welcome to the Red Corpse World.]
[Current Round Mission: Survive until the countdown ends to return to the original world.]
[You have rejected all scripts. Now, go write your own.]
A sense of suffocation and a viscous, icy chill enveloped Yin Zhen before an intense feeling of falling suddenly struck her!
SPLASH!
She smashed heavily onto the hard ground. Icy liquid quickly flowed away from her body as she coughed violently, trying to expel the viscous fluid that had choked her nasal passages.
She found herself wearing a white bodysuit straight out of a sci-fi movie, slumped on the ground and completely soaked.
The tiny tubes connected to her body had been roughly torn off, sending a faint stinging pain from the broken ends.
Yin Zhen instinctively tried to get up and suddenly realized she had clear sensation in her lower body.
A wave of ecstasy washed over Yin Zhen. Supporting herself on the icy ground with both hands, she gritted her teeth and attempted to stand.
However, her lower body completely refused to obey her commands. Every attempt ended with her falling awkwardly back to the ground, replaying the despair she had experienced countless times during her rehabilitation training.
Amidst the confusion, Yin Zhen looked up. Sure enough, the countdown in mid-air was still there.
[71:59:02]
Three days!
As long as she survived here for three days, she could return to her original world.
When the time came, she would likely still have to face that fat man. What could she do to break this deadlock?
While pondering, Yin Zhen quickly scanned her surroundings.
It was a pale, brightly lit room filled with a futuristic sci-fi aesthetic, yet it also felt cold and empty.
Massive transparent incubators lined the area. Many young women, soaking wet just like her, had tumbled out of them and were slumped on the ground in bewilderment.
Their facial features, hair colors, and eye colors all varied. Some had Western faces, while others had faces of the East. Their expressions were either blank and confused, or filled with ignorant terror.
A group of people dressed in white uniforms walked among them, like lab researchers in a sci-fi movie.
But every single one of them was extraordinarily beautiful. Their skin was pale without a hint of color, their ears were pointed, and when they spoke, they revealed canines that were slightly longer and sharper than those of normal humans.