Ye Shu found herself teleported into a perfectly square space, a near-invisible barrier standing right before her. Just beyond, a teeming mass of players—tens of thousands—crowded tightly together.
They collected every player from region A-101 here?!
Bang—
She knocked on the transparent wall. The hardness was extreme; no amount of brute force, not even a rocket launcher, could break through.
【Beep beep! The first round of Hide-and-Seek has concluded. Congratulations to the 1,098 players who survived! You’ll have an extra second to choose your transformation in the next round. Eliminated players: your time will be reduced by two seconds.】
【The lounge room is safe—at least, until the game begins again!】
An extra second to choose?
Ye Shu was momentarily surprised. This game almost seemed... considerate, not like before, piling on punishments and ever-shrinking spaces.
Players had just ten seconds to pick their disguise.
The more time you had, the greater your chances of drawing something inconspicuous.
Another second—another sliver of hope for survival.
But if every eliminated player lost two seconds each time, and the event spanned seven days, then... no one could possibly survive till the seventh day.
Ye Shu took back what she had thought about the game’s "humanity."
Doggedly devious, this cursed game—pitfalls everywhere!
"Shushu..."
Before she had time to react, Su Bai threw her arms around her.
Ye Shu didn’t push Su Bai away, letting her cling as she wished.
"Shushu, I lost two seconds. Next round—you’re carrying me to victory!"
"Fine, fine. Whatever you want, as long as you can find me."
Maybe it was after that run in the desert, hearing Su Bai’s voice break, that Ye Shu felt this strange, bone-deep closeness to her.
Meeting Ye Shu’s pitch-black eyes, Su Bai clenched her hands even tighter.
If Shushu could escape two Hunters, maybe she met—him. How could she keep them from crossing paths again, from repeating the tragedy of the last life?
Meanwhile, in another room, the Hunters stared at their monitors, watching the players trapped behind those transparent walls.
Every movement, every word was laid bare for the Hunters’ hungry gaze.
Lin Qingyue watched the two in the corner, wrapped around each other, and his expression grew ever darker.
So, this was the woman who clung to Ye Xiaoshu last round?
Her data was...odd.
She navigated these games too fluently. Guess it’s time to dig deeper.
Lu Xiao followed Lin Qingyue’s gaze to see two women glued together on the screen. Suddenly, something clicked. That damn chicken—it must be one of them!
He’d never seen prey like this before.
This year was much more entertaining than any before.
Even though Lin Qingyue hailed from the higher-ups, Lu Xiao had set his sights; this prey, he had to win.
Besides, this woman—there was something eerily familiar about her, almost as if he’d met her in a dream.
.......
"Ye Xiaoshu."
Suddenly, a male voice cut the syrupy atmosphere between the two women.
Su Bai hurriedly slipped off Ye Shu, warily facing the newcomer.
"It’s you!"
Watching Ye Shu chat so freely with him, Su Bai’s alarm bells quietly blared.
Trouble. Where had this fox come from? Shushu acted so familiar, she’d almost forgotten her own best friend was right there.
"Shushu... Who is this?"
Su Bai bristled, her tone snappish.
"Fu Jingchuan," he said, nodding politely.
He’d thought Ye Shu would never let someone so close, but even she allowed people to cling, as long as it was someone her own age.
"The Fu family?"
Beijing circles were small, and Su Bai recognized him immediately as the Third Master of the Fu family—hard to miss.
"Hello, I’m Su Bai, Shushu’s close companion."
Fu Jingchuan also recognized Su Bai. The Su family had nearly been the chosen match for marriage until the survival game struck, dragging countless Blue Star people inside.
"What luck! We’re in the same region again."
"Yes, yes, lucky—where’s Fu Shiyi? And Pangzi?"
Usually, those two noisy sidekicks were always glued to Fu Jingchuan, and in their absence, the quiet unnerved Ye Shu.
"I’ve contacted Pang Tong—he’s not in 101. Xiao Shiyi...has gone missing..."
Mentioning his younger brother, a shadow flickered through Fu Jingchuan’s glassy eyes.
Since the beginning, he hadn’t been able to reach Shiyi at all. He just hoped nothing had happened.
Seven days for hide-and-seek. All eliminated players were sent back to rest, there should’ve been no way to lose touch entirely. If he weren’t trapped here, Fu Jingchuan would’ve rushed back to the real world to make sure his brother still lived.
"Wait, Shiyi, Pang Tong—when did you get so many friends, Shushu? I didn’t even know."
Hearing those unfamiliar names, Su Bai bristled with dismay.
Ye Shu reached over to smooth her out.
"We’ve got a long game ahead. Let’s focus on getting our strength back."
She nibbled on the ration packs the system provided, focused entirely on eating, too distracted to sense the rising tension filling the air.
For a fleeting moment, Ye Shu felt the weight of a watchful gaze.
But then, she remembered—the man was on this level. The rest would unravel in time.
Hunter’s chamber.
Lin Qingyue saw that all-too-familiar face. His eyes darkened with chill.
A Fu, here in this region too? Convenient. He had a few spare bullets to use up.
Lu Xiao shot a sideways glance. Did their superiors have some personal score with the prey?
Not that it mattered. Right now, his only focus was to pinpoint the damn chicken among those two—and get his kill. Never in years had any prey managed to wound him. And he longed to know—where had the chicken gotten that rocket launcher and spatial tool?
Day two of the game.
【Ding-dong! Hide-and-Seek is now online!】
【Round two will begin in three minutes. Random teleportation starts now.】
Ye Shu’s sight went black. She reappeared in the same ruined amusement park.
The system’s voice boomed out again.
【Players, pick your transformation for this round. Time limit: 11 seconds. If you do not choose, the system will assign you one.】