An Unusual Life Beginning with Evil Spirits

Volume 1. Let the Game Begin

A heavy breathing sound reached my ears the moment the front door opened.

Maybe it was because of the strength of my soul, but over these ten days of recovery, my overall physical condition had been continuously improving.

Now I could clearly hear the sound of breathing coming from beyond the door!

At the same time, a strange ‘pa-ji pa-ji’ sound of footsteps rushed toward the bedroom at an extremely fast pace!!

I... hadn't closed the bedroom door when I came in!

A chill surged into the room even before the footsteps reached the door, making me involuntarily shiver!

And at that moment, I suddenly snapped back to my senses and rolled over without hesitation.

I didn’t care that I was still wearing only a thin hospital gown, nor did I care about the rotting, filthy tiles on the floor—I rolled straight under the bed.

In the midst of all this, the pain in my calf almost drove me insane, but I could only grit my teeth tightly, not daring to make a sound, enduring the pain in silence, and turned my gaze toward the direction of the door.

At this moment, those footsteps had already reached the doorway!

Pa-ji!

However, at that very instant, I couldn’t see any tangible form at the door at all.

The lightbulb above my head kept flickering.

I was curious why the bulb was still powered in this state, but it was indeed lit—only... its brightness was even dimmer than the blood-red moonlight outside.

It could only vaguely illuminate the surroundings to some extent.

But now, the moment that thing opened the door, I noticed... the bulb kept flickering!

Was this... considered some kind of alert in the game?

Besides the footsteps, was the light another way to alert players of the anomaly’s distance??

Just as I was thinking this, that ‘pa-ji pa-ji’ sound of footsteps suddenly slowed down and stepped... into the bedroom!

I couldn’t see any form!

There was no actual visible body!

And yet... a strange footprint seemed to appear on the floor.

Every time this footprint landed, it was like stepping on something slippery, making a ‘pa-ji’ sound.

In the places it passed, a faintly visible bright red footprint would appear.

The strange thing was... this footprint wouldn’t stay for long.

In just a few seconds, it would vanish along with the blood, as if... nothing had ever appeared.

Pa-ji... pa-ji... pa-ji...

The footsteps came closer step by step.

I watched with my eyes wide open as the footprint... reached the front of my bed.

At that moment, it felt as if my heart stopped!

My palms were soaked in cold sweat as I clenched my fists tightly.

What on earth was that thing above me??

An eerie chill kept creeping around me.

The strange thing was, although my skin could feel the cold, the chill didn’t penetrate into my body...

But I had no mental capacity left to dwell on that.

I stared at that footprint, which had stopped there, while I still couldn’t see any visible form—as if... some completely transparent, living thing was standing in front of the bed.

I could even feel, through the slats of the bed frame, that pair of malicious eyes from the abyss, staring at me intently!

But I knew... this was just a hallucination brought on by fear.

It might be looking at the bed frame, but it shouldn’t actually see me... the game rules mentioned that it wouldn’t actively check under beds or desks.

Which meant... I should be safe right now!

Yes... I should be!

Wait a minute... “actively”?

What did that mean??

Did this anomaly have some sort of special reaction to the space under beds or desks?

The game had mentioned that players needed to observe everything in order to survive or break the game.

Did it mean... this anomaly had some strange sense for the space beneath beds or desks?

I couldn’t figure it out...

I completely couldn’t figure out what hidden meaning there might be in this.

To keep myself from screaming in fear, I kept forcing my mind to think through all possible scenarios, diverting my attention to avoid doing something stupid from sheer terror.

Had this thing... already discovered me??

Why was it standing in front of the bed without moving?

How long has it been?

One minute?

Five minutes?

Or... ten minutes??

Damn it!

The game time was only one hour! If it just stood there like this the whole time, wouldn’t I die under the bed??

Should I...

Just as I was hesitating, suddenly, the sound of footsteps came from the hallway.

It sounded... like it came from upstairs—very hurried, and it sounded like a woman’s high heels.

Right!

There were other players!

Seven passerby players!

The moment that thought flashed in my mind, a heavy breathing sound suddenly came from beside my ear, and right after that, the ‘pa-ji pa-ji’ footsteps suddenly bolted out!

That speed was completely inhuman—it dashed out of the room in less than a second!

“Survived...?”

I stared blankly in the direction where the footsteps had vanished.

The light above no longer flickered, and the surrounding chill also started to fade away...

“Phew...”

I let out a long breath, cautiously observing for a few more seconds.

After confirming that thing wouldn’t appear again, I finally noticed that my sweat had once again soaked my hospital gown.

“Tsk... I was planning to change clothes after dinner. Guess there’s no helping it now. I’ll just keep wearing this...”

Before I even finished my habitual muttering, a hysterical scream suddenly came from outside the hallway!

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!”

The movement I made to get out from under the bed froze.

I admit... that scream scared me!

Was that... a woman’s voice?

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"This is… where? Why am I here?? Ah! Cockroach?! Th-this this this… how did the room turn into this!?"

Zhang Yu was a nurse on the nineteenth floor.

Today was supposed to be just another normal shift change, but… why did the nurse duty room turn into this during the short moment she secretly dozed off!??

Everything around her looked as if it had been corroded by something, revealing a blood-red, decayed appearance.

The wall paint was peeling, the tiles cracked… even her favorite Hello Kitty mug was covered in crimson rust stains.

And right beside her, where the bandages were originally placed, thumb-sized cockroaches were crawling back and forth!

Was this… really the hospital she knew!?

"Xiao Wang? Xiao Wang?"

Zhang Yu looked around in terror.

Everything… it was still the duty room where she had her shift.

Even her backpack was still there… but why had everything turned like this?

Where were the people?

Where has everyone gone?!

Calling out to Xiao Wang, who was on shift with her—this Xiao Wang was always clumsy, a trainee nurse fresh out of medical school.

Though she was pretty, which deeply annoyed Zhang Yu.

She just didn’t like people like her.

She would bully Xiao Wang now and then for no reason, always trying to pressure her into quitting… though she wouldn’t admit it, everyone around knew exactly what she was thinking.

But now… she really wished that Xiao Wang was by her side.

After all… in a situation like this!

However, no matter how she called out, there wasn’t the slightest response in the corridor!

Only her own voice echoed down the empty hallway… accompanied by the occasional rustling sound of cockroaches crawling in the corners.

Zhang Yu’s fear grew deeper as she looked around.

Terror began to spread in her heart.

Although she wasn’t exactly a good person and was quite materialistic, she… was still a human.

And as a human being, in such a desolate setting, fear naturally took hold.

"No… no! What the hell happened here? No… I can’t stay here any longer! Yes! Go downstairs, get downstairs now!!"

Her rational mind had already been overtaken by fear.

At this point, she couldn’t make any calm judgments.

She grabbed her phone from the table without hesitation.

In such a state of extreme fear, she didn’t even notice why everything else had decayed, yet her phone remained completely intact!

She pushed open the door of the duty room and kept looking around… however… everything she saw was not a hallucination.

Everything in front of her was truly corroded and ruined.

The level of decay wasn’t something that could happen in a year or two—it would take at least a hundred years!

"What’s going on… what the hell is going on? Where are the people? Where did everyone go!?"

Zhang Yu moved downstairs in terror.

The stainless-steel handrail was now corroded, with pieces missing.

She didn’t dare to grab it and could only walk along the edge of the wall.

In the dim stairwell, the ceiling light barely illuminated anything, just enough for her to make out the floor under her feet.

Suddenly, she remembered the phone in her pocket.

"Right! My phone… the phone!!"

In a panic, she unlocked it.

She didn’t even bother to check the notification bar, instead going straight into the contacts to make a call… her first reaction was to dial 110.

But… when she put the phone to her ear, all she heard was a ‘beep~ beep~’ busy tone.

She tried a few more times, but still got no connection.

In desperation, she dialed nearly everyone in her contacts, but… the result was always the same.

Whooooooo—

A cold wind blew from who knows where, and suddenly, a sound of something falling echoed with a ‘clang’, reverberating through the silent stairwell.

Panicked, Zhang Yu could no longer think clearly.

She instinctively turned on the flashlight function on her phone!

The light instantly lit up her surroundings, giving her a small sense of safety and quickening her pace.

She didn’t know why… but she didn’t even consider taking the elevator.

Maybe, deep in her subconscious, she already believed that in a world decayed to this extent, the elevator couldn’t possibly still work?

As she hurried downstairs, she suddenly noticed an unread message on her phone.

Even though she was terrified, for some reason, she still reached out to open it.

Although her rational mind told her to keep going, she had a strong feeling that this message had some strange connection to what she was experiencing now.

And the moment she opened it, the message content appeared before her eyes.

"Welcome to Honkai. You have been both fortunate and unfortunate to be selected as one of the players in this game. Please read the game rules carefully, and do your best to survive."

At this moment, she had reached the seventeenth floor.

"What is this? Honkai?"

Instinctively, she reached out to scroll the message upward to see what else was there… however… at that very moment, a bizarre ‘pa-ji pa-ji’ sound of footsteps suddenly charged right up to her, and at the same time, a hand—covered in black fur, full of scars, and eerily human-like—strangely… appeared out of the void and clutched onto her phone screen.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!"