[Character loading...]
[You have been reborn. Unfortunately, you are once again a snot-bubble-shaped Lesser Wandering Ghost.]
[As the weakest of the Inner World Residents, you and your siblings live year-round in the sunless sewers.]
[With your low intelligence, you cannot even communicate. Babbling is your natural state.]
[Crammed among your siblings, you observe the world through a narrow sewer grate.]
[Drawing on the experience of your past few deaths, you keep as quiet as possible to avoid triggering a riot among your siblings.]
[You see the surrounding houses. Old, dilapidated, and mottled with rust, they perfectly fit the profile of an urban village.]
[You spot that girl again. Just like before, she limps unsteadily toward the door on the left. She seems to be waiting for it to open. Someone she wants to see must be inside.]
[But that door hasn't opened in two days. She looks deeply disappointed.]
[Just as you are about to continue observing, the sibling riot breaks out anyway.][It can't be helped. There are simply too many of you. Only the strong have the right to survive in this family.]
[Your "cousin" on the right and your "sixth sister" on the left squish toward you, babbling wildly. Barring a miracle, your fragile body will soon be squeezed until it pops.]
[But you came prepared, and you make your move.]
[Leaning forward, you twist your waist, wrap around your "cousin," and slam him into your "sixth sister" on the left. The two snot-bubbles burst, juices splattering everywhere.]
[Riding the momentum, you bite down on the "eldest uncle" below you and charge at the "second uncle" trying to ambush you, delivering a vicious headbutt.]
[Next is your "eldest brother," your "third granduncle"...]
[You go on a rampage.]
[...]
[Your strength gradually fails.]
[...]
[Heavily outnumbered and utterly exhausted, you ultimately fall one step short. Crushed against the wall by your twelfth brother, you are reduced to a puddle of pus.]
[This journey has ended.]
"Phew—"
As the words [This journey has ended] appeared, the voice in Yan Jing's ears abruptly stopped. He opened his eyes, finding himself back in his garage-turned-room.
Rubbing his tired eyes, he grabbed the dented stainless steel cup from the table and downed it in one gulp.
The metallic-tasting water slid down his throat, moistening his cracked lips and soothing his turbulent thoughts after that intense "family bonding."
Today was his fourth day since transmigrating to this world.
It was also the final day before the Dungeon began.
In this reality divided into the Surface World and the Inner World, a handful of "lucky ones" from the Surface World would be selected and forced into the twisted, rumored Inner World to participate in Dungeon trials as Players.
The original owner of his body had been one of those "lucky ones." Tomorrow morning, he would be teleported into the Inner World to begin his very first Novice Dungeon.
If he died in the Dungeon, he would stay dead. There were no second chances.
The Dungeon was named [Rotten Vegetable Village].
It was the exact same urban village he had just seen from the perspective of the Lesser Wandering Ghost.
According to his searches on the Player forums over the past two days, this Dungeon was considered a "jackpot" among Novice Dungeons.
As long as you had money, the survival rate for this Novice Dungeon was around seventy or eighty percent.
Unfortunately, money was something he severely lacked.
His body's original owner had indeed been wealthy once. However, after a complete falling out with his family, he ended up destitute and cut off, stubbornly living out the "don't bully the young and poor" trope.
Thanks to the original owner, Yan Jing's only hope of clearing the Dungeon rested entirely on his golden finger, the [Ghoulish Life Role-playing Game].
Although it sounded like the "life simulator games" from his previous world, it was entirely different.
For example, Yan Jing had truly entered the Dungeon as a Lesser Wandering Ghost just now, only to die inside.
As for the text broadcasts, they had simply been a voice echoing in his ears.
In other words, it was all narration.
Over the past few days, Yan Jing had more or less figured out how this golden finger worked.
It seemed to select a recently deceased entity within a specified area, allowing him to "borrow a corpse to resurrect" and enter the Dungeon ahead of time.
In theory, a golden finger like this offered massive operational freedom.
That is, if he didn't draw a Lesser Wandering Ghost every single time he rolled for a character...
"Still lacking a bit of luck..."
Yan Jing sighed, though he wasn't too discouraged.
For someone who always hit the pity timer on every gacha pull, this was already a common occurrence.
Moreover, after carefully reviewing his previous run, he felt certain that next time, he would stand out among his family and become the child most qualified to survive.
Each activation of the golden finger came with a half-hour cooldown.
Since he still had some time, Yan Jing set down his cup and began browsing the Player forum on his computer.
He navigated to the Inner World's official website, typed "Rotten Vegetable Village" into the search bar, and pressed enter.
A loading circle began to spin on the screen.
This process usually took one or two minutes.
The internet wasn't great. The only benefits of this garage-turned-room were the 500-yuan monthly rent and the lack of stairs. Everything else was a downside.
The loading circle vanished.
Threads neatly populated the screen.
The topmost thread was marked with a small flame and an arrow icon, indicating it had been highlighted and pinned.
"Click."
Yan Jing opened it.
Even though he had read this thread dozens of times, every detail in an officially recognized post was incredibly important. He needed to make sure he hadn't missed a single thing.
The eye-catching title immediately drew him in.
"Must-Read for Broke Bros! Here's What You Need to Do to Clear Rotten Vegetable Village!"
[All content in this thread simulates the format of the Inner World System to help everyone familiarize themselves in advance.]
[Rotten Vegetable Village: Novice Dungeon]
[Inner World tasks are generally divided into two stages, Stage A and Stage B. Stage A tasks are fixed, while Stage B tasks change according to shifts in the Inner World.]
[This thread is mainly to help everyone understand the Stage A tasks and clearing techniques.]
[Task 1: destiny meal]
[Task Description:
Rotten Vegetable Village is an urban village famous for selling vegetables. The vast majority of Inner World Residents in the village have their own "destiny meal."
Please consume at least one resident's "destiny meal" before sunset, otherwise you will die in an extremely painful manner after dark.]
[Task 2: Please Let Me Stay Overnight At Your House]
[Task Description:
Rotten Vegetable Village is an extremely hospitable place. Please choose any resident in Rotten Vegetable Village and safely spend the night in their home.]
After Stage A was completed, Players would be given a period of preparation time before Stage B began.
Therefore, Yan Jing's most pressing concern was how to survive Stage A.
The thread explained that the danger of the "destiny meal" task lay in the defective goods mixed among the destiny meals sold by the residents of Rotten Vegetable Village.
If a Player ate a defective meal, the outcome would be just as bad as failing to eat one at all.
The key to the overnight stay task lay in choosing the right host.
The Inner World Residents had varying attitudes toward Players. One absolutely had to identify and select residents with friendly dispositions.
There were actually quite a few forum guides summarizing these two tasks.
Players who had cleared the Dungeon generally shared which household's destiny meal they had chosen and whose house they had stayed in.
However, most of the destiny meals they mentioned were incredibly expensive, and the conditions for securing an overnight stay were exceedingly harsh.
This created a severe divide between the rich and the poor in this Dungeon.
Yan Jing read through the post word by word. After silently memorizing the details, he started browsing other threads.
Most of the accessible threads held only average value. He didn't have the permissions required to view higher-level information.
Even so, he read everything very carefully.
"Beep! Beep!"
An icon flashed in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Yan Jing glanced at it. It was this world's messaging app.
He clicked it open.
The chat window displayed the sender's identity:
"Mom"
[Xiao Jing, Mom is heartbroken, sad, and filled with remorse about your current situation.]
[But your dad and I divorced eight years ago, and Mom has a new family now. If anyone is to blame, it's definitely your dad. I shouldn't be the one paying this money...]
Yan Jing gave it a glance and closed the window, feeling no emotional ripples.
He was the one who had asked her for help.
The original owner's relationship with her had been too stiff. Unable to swallow his pride, he had chosen suicide instead of reaching out. Yan Jing didn't share that psychological burden, so he had sent the message.
It was just an attempt. Success would increase his chances of clearing the Dungeon; failure didn't matter.
As for why he hadn't texted the father, it was because the original owner had been blocked right after being kicked out of the house.
"So this is what it feels like to have parents?"
Yan Jing chuckled. For someone who had been an orphan in his past life, this feeling was quite novel.
The thirty-minute cooldown soon ended.
Yan Jing stood up, stretched, and summoned the System Panel. He was ready to continue the Lesser Wandering Ghost's "family game"—he was bound to win this time.
The blue-glowing panel looked clean and simple, displaying only two options: [Draw Character] and [History File].
He selected [Draw Character] and set the location to Rotten Vegetable Village. Watching the orbs of light flashing on the panel, Yan Jing felt a familiar numbness.
After drawing a Lesser Wandering Ghost so many times, he didn't hold out much hope for this attempt either.
But as a green-glowing orb slowly came to a stop in the middle of the screen, his breath hitched.
The Lesser Wandering Ghost's orb had been white.
As the green orb disintegrated, the image of a man in a dress shirt and trousers appeared before his eyes.
The "man" had a tall, straight figure, pairing a white shirt with light blue trousers.
It was impossible to guess his age, but his overall appearance was exceptionally handsome.
Because above his neck, there was no face—only a rectangular prism gleaming with a metallic luster.
It featured buttons, a flash, a shutter... and a pitch-black camera lens right in the center.