The text in the Red Corpse World resembled English but had some subtle differences. This post had been handwritten, photographed, and uploaded.
Following the opening sentence was a lengthy passage written in the first person:
"When I opened my eyes after the countdown ended, I found myself lying in a freezing metal room. I had no memory, no name, and I couldn’t even read the text on the walls.
"What shocked me even more was the view outside the window—a scene straight out of a sci-fi movie. Under a pitch-black, rainy sky stood dense clusters of skyscrapers, flashing with a wild array of neon lights and giant holographic billboards. Drones and flying vehicles filled the air, and the wind carried a damp scent of rust. A woman in a silver bodysuit winked at me from the street corner opposite my building. Then, her face glitched, and half of it turned into distorted gibberish. It was incredibly bizarre!
"I didn’t dare leave my room, nor did I dare touch any of the high-tech devices inside. When I found a mirror, I realized I wasn’t human. I had Western features, pointed ears, and a pair of razor-sharp fangs. I had become a Vampire!
"There was no food in the room—only half a bag of blackened artificial blood plasma left in the fridge. It took six whole hours before I slowly recovered some of this body’s memories, barely managing to understand the text labels around me. The recovered memories were sparse, just fragmented scenes from the past few days. Everything else remained a blank slate.
"Yet, within those tiny fragments, I saw something utterly terrifying: a Blood Feeding Ground belonging to the Blood Clan! Countless people were suspended in mid-air like livestock. They weren’t corpses—their chests were rising and falling. They were all alive. Various tubes were connected to their bodies. Nutrient delivery tubes were shoved into their mouths, going straight down their esophagi to maintain their bare minimum vital signs. Their arms and necks were densely punctured with blood-drawing catheters of all sizes! They were Blood Beasts!
"And I was a worker at that Blood Feeding Ground. Those Blood Beasts were clones created by the Saint Biotechnology Group. From birth to death, they remained there until their very last drop of blood was squeezed dry. It was horrifying!
"The upper-class Blood Clan of Night City survives by feeding on the blood of these clones, while low-level Dusk People like me can only drink low-concentration, or even contaminated, artificial blood plasma.
"By now, you’ve seen the latest mission too, right? Invaders! Those Vampires have invaded our world. If we don’t do something, our world will soon become another Night City. It will be the end of humanity!
"To any transmigrator who can read this letter: please contact me. I truly need us all to unite, fight these invaders together, and survive!"
There weren’t many comments under this post. Most were just three question marks, as the text was completely incomprehensible to ordinary people.
Yin Zhen closed the post just as a local news notification popped up on her screen.
["Vampiric Maniac" Appears in City Center: Suspected Mentally Ill Man Bites Pedestrian on the Street]
She immediately clicked on the news alert. The article stated that a man had suddenly attacked his female companion on Bar Street last night, tearing at her neck with his teeth. This left the victim with severe neck injuries and massive blood loss. The man was shot dead on the spot as he tried to flee. Police preliminarily suspected it was caused by mental illness or drug abuse. Below the report were pixelated photos of the scene and a few top comments:
UltramanLight: *Holy shit, a real-life zombie? Scared the piss out of me! They better check if he was infected with some virus!*
MelonEater: *Didn’t someone say the end of the world was coming a few days ago? Something about a countdown? Could it be true?*
MedSchoolDropout: *Read a book and stop watching so many horror movies. He was most likely high on drugs or having a psychotic break.*
(Error. This post is no longer available.)
The webpage abruptly vanished. Yin Zhen stared blankly for a moment, then realized that the previous post written in the Blood Clan text was also gone. Had the higher-ups already started to notice the anomalies? Could the man in the news be the eliminated Blood Clan invader mentioned in the public mission? Would the people he bit also turn into the Blood Clan?
Yin Zhen couldn’t be certain. The knowledge instilled in S717 only mentioned a blood disaster that had turned the vast majority of humanity into the Blood Clan. It didn’t provide any specific details.
Closing the news page, she scoured the corners of a social media platform and dug up an anonymous venting post that had nearly sunken to the bottom. The poster’s words were chaotic and filled with terror:
[Help! Did anyone else experience this after the countdown ended?]
"After the countdown finished, my vision went black, and then I felt myself hanging somewhere. I was conscious, but I couldn’t open my eyes or move. I felt tubes all over my body. Something was being poured into my mouth. It was disgusting and excruciating. Those tubes felt like they were drawing my blood, and I could hear strange languages and the roar of machinery.
"It was terrifying! This was no dream!
"Three days! I spent three whole days like that. Does anyone understand? The countdown is still there. In three days, I might go back to that state. I’m begging you! Someone save me! Someone tell me how to get rid of this damn countdown! I really don’t want to go back!"
There were only three comments underneath.
AbaAba: *Pat pat. Did you have a nightmare? Slap yourself twice and you’ll be fine.*
LoveHunter: *Drawing blood? Sounds like some kind of human experiment. Can you elaborate?*
BFF4Ever: *Have you been playing too many murder mystery games?*
(Error. This post is no longer available.)
The post vanished just like the others. Yin Zhen stared at the screen, a faint chill creeping up her spine. Combined with the frequent murder cases from last night, a strong sense of crisis enveloped her. For now, she didn’t want to attract any attention, nor did she want to be controlled by anyone. In her current state, if she were suspected, she wouldn’t be able to escape at all. She had had enough of a restricted life.
If these transmigrations cycled every three days, she needed to heal her legs in the real world as soon as possible. If she could bring her Extraordinary Power back to this world, so could others. Right now, there were ten invaders. Would the number increase later? How long could the order of her world be maintained? Even if this was a novel world, it was the foundation of her Player Identity and the place she relied on to survive. She had to seize the initiative and build up her Strength as quickly as possible.
She thought, "Come to think of it, as a cannon fodder test subject without an Identity, I can’t really be considered unlucky."
Although it was cruel and she constantly faced the threat of elimination by death, she had learned the language, combat skills, and firearms in the shortest possible time. She had even awakened her Extraordinary Ability. In the Red Corpse World, she didn’t need to worry about memory or background issues, nor did she have to play the role of someone else. Furthermore, there were clearly still secrets to be unearthed regarding S717’s body, all of which would become trump cards for her survival.
Her only worry now was whether her Extraordinary Ability would be discovered by those researchers upon her next entry into the Red Corpse World. The ’Blood Source Resonance’ that could resist blood source contamination and acquire others’ Extraordinary Abilities... the ’Source Series’ test subjects... This word ’Source’ must hide a massive secret. Perhaps it was tied to the main storyline of the Red Corpse World.
Yin Zhen closed the broken webpage and tapped on the trending search rankings, casually browsing through normal news and topics.
[President of Guanshan Group in Critical Condition After Sudden Car Crash: Murder or Accident?]
[Top Star’s New Drama Begins Filming; Billing Order Dispute Erupts Again]
[Extreme Heatwave Strikes Multiple Countries in Southeast Asia, Killing Thousands]
Acting like a typical netizen, she checked various news articles and gossip, allowing the search engine to record these mundane, harmless browsing habits. Whenever she stumbled across a post about transmigration, she would naturally click to read it rather than actively searching for the topic. There was basically no useful information. The truly smart Players were probably doing the exact same thing she was—silently lurking in the dark.
As she researched, Yin Zhen fell deep into thought. Since she was in a domineering CEO novel world and the lunatic who harmed her was the major villain, could she follow the clues to locate the protagonist of this world, and then extract information about the invasion game from them? But... the closer she got to the protagonist, the greater the plot’s influence would be, and the faster she would die.
Suddenly, her phone rang. Yin Zhen had been so engrossed in her thoughts that she was caught off guard, her heart pounding wildly in her chest. Taking a deep breath, she picked up her shattered phone and saw an unfamiliar number on the screen.