The Trial Game of Life

T/N: Here’s an update: The Character Guide has been added with 9 new characters!（‐＾▽＾‐）

Under Xiao Tong and Mr. Crow’s gaze, Zheng Yingying wandered in the asylum’s corridor holding the dagger, but she didn’t directly seek out any monster.

Her combat power was still too weak. Even with the aid of [Infinite Forms] and the [Nameless Dagger], she wouldn’t become stronger in such a short time, so she chose another method —

She could use [Infinite Forms] to disguise herself as an ally of the monster doctors, then use the [Nameless Dagger] to stab them in the back. Although her own strength wasn’t noteworthy, her moves were incredibly fast and ruthless, without the slightest hint of hesitation.

The monster doctors were originally players and still retained their memories, but they couldn’t stay conscious at all times. This meant that she would be able to win over them in most cases.

“This 404Short for Zheng Yingying’s player number ‘26404’. Coincidentally, this is also the website status code for ‘Page Not Found’, which is often used as a slang when certain things go missing., did she add all her points to Intelligence?” Mr. Crow, while undeservingly playing the role of a gossipy spectator, bounced on the top of the bookshelf and talked especially loudly: “The [Nameless Dagger] can devour souls. Every time she kills, she can become a little stronger. The more she kills, the stronger she will be. In the later stage, even if she doesn’t have any skills, the powers she devours will be enough to hammer other players to death. Heh, she really has the guts to use the [Nameless Dagger], so adorable.”

Xiao Tong propped his chin: “Isn’t the [Nameless Dagger] the weapon that attempted to kill God? Yet Mr. Crow is so delighted about it?”

Mr. Crow snorted coldly: “The dagger is the dagger, the player is the player. There are only evil players and no evil weapons. Do you think the great and clever Mr. Crow wouldn’t understand that?” 

After a pause, he continued: “Not to mention, the [Nameless Dagger] has been cursed. It’ll curse the person whom it attacks and curse its owner at the same time. The more souls 404 devours, the more likely she’ll receive a backlash. What is this called? In your human terms, isn’t it like  — ‘For a greedy snake, even an elephant isn’t enough’贪心不足蛇吞象 is a Chinese idiom about greed. It could be metaphorically translated as ‘a man who is never content is like a snake trying to swallow an elephant’.? Snake and elephant are both innocent creatures, why do you use it as a metaphor?”

Xiao Tong: “Do you know what this act of yours is called? It’s called ‘crow mouth’.”

“Damn humans!” Mr. Crow jumped again: “You always tease the great Mr. Crow unscrupulously!!! You deserve to be cursed! I curse you all!”

Really a crow mouth.

Xiao Tong’s lips curled up. Seeing Mr. Crow hopping around, he felt rather pleased. Anyway, he wasn’t a player, so the crow mouth’s curse would have to fall on Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo’s heads.

He only had to wait and see.

“I curse you too!” Mr. Crow had been dealing with Xiao Tong for so many years, so how could he not know what Xiao Tong was thinking behind that smirk? Mr. Crow was so angry, so much so that wished he could shit on Xiao Tong’s head.

If they weren’t for them being colleagues as civil servants, Xiao Tong The Warden must be the first on his Blacklist.

If that had been the case, Mr. Crow would definitely have killed him off barely a few minutes into a dungeon.

While the crow jumped around and Zheng Yingying went on with her massacre, Tang Cuo was still dancing disco with the tombstones.

In the past ten minutes, another cell phone tombstone exploded because the battery was exhausted. This time, Tang Cuo deliberately stood far in advance and waited for the soul to rise before absorbing it.

This soul was much darker than the previous one, and its colours were mixed, looking not very clean. After sucking it in, Tang Cuo’s Intelligence points increased by 3, then he spent a few minutes to calm the turbulence of his spirit ocean.

After two consecutive attempts, he had mastered the routine of this gate. With the two clearance conditions being six hours or six survivors, Tang Cuo naturally wouldn’t consider the latter, so only the first one remained.

But looking at the elapsing speed of the battery of different phone models in this Cemetery of Souls, even the tombstone with the highest battery wouldn’t last for six hours.

Unless Tang Cuo cleared the game in advance, these tombstones would all explode.

The system stated that only the souls in the three tombs were alive and had to be found by the player, then verified by opening the coffin. If he opened the wrong coffin, he would be punished.

This should be different from the automatic explosion of the coffin. In that case, what would be the punishment?

As a fearless warrior, Tang Cuo certainly wanted to give it a try.

At the same time, on the road of ‘Branching of Life’, 28 players including Jin Cheng and Leng Miao had successfully passed the ‘Birth’ checkpoint, and they now came to a road that heavily branched into many routes like a tree diagram.

This was when they would select their birthplace.

“Goddamn, Beijing, Shanghai or Guangdong?!” 

“There’s also Jiang ZheBeijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Jiang Zhe (an abbr. for two separate provinces Jiangsu and Zhejiang), sometimes acronymed as B-S-G-J, are collectively known as the four richest places in China, out of the country’s 22 provinces, 4 municipalities and 5 autonomous regions. Fun fact: half of the country’s Internet usage and 60% of the country’s 500 richest people come from these 4 places.! Why does Yong Ye City want to divide us like that, do you give free shipping? We don’t need express delivery, how about we go directly to somewhere with better scenery to retire?”

“Might as well head to Chengdu to play mahjong.”As you might’ve already guessed, Chengdu is a place famed for their mahjong culture. Mahjong is even dubbed as ‘the city’s favourite pastime’.

“Don’t choose Beijing, don’t choose Beijing, don’t choose Beijing, I don’t want to drift north in this life…”

“Are you sick in the head? The game is giving you a choice to be born in Beijing, who asks you to drift north? Isn’t it good to be born in the capital city?” 

This multiple-choice question really stimulated everyone’s mind, and the atmosphere was no longer as calm as before. Everyone wasn’t able to choose their birthplace back when they were alive, but if they could choose now, wouldn’t it be great?

But soon everyone quarreled, and almost none of them thought that the other person’s choice was correct.

Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong were too crowded and challenging to live in, while the third-tier cities were too small and mediocre. If life was a cage, the difference seemed to be the size of the cage.

Freedom, after all, was a false proposition.

“Don’t make any noise! ​​What we should think about now is which path would allow us to clear the game smoothly and meet with fewer obstacles. Isn’t it better to choose a place where life is relatively simple? Even if you’re born in Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou, can you f*cking get a place in the School Districts HousesSchool District Houses, a policy that came into effect in 1995 in China, are houses within a school district that allow students free admission to the nearest school. Students who take advantage of school district houses can enter the nearest school without exams.?”

“Is the School District your biggest concern? You might as well go to the mountainous area and wait for others’ donations! Compulsory education is just to improve literacy rate. Being born in Beijing, Shanghai or Guangdong means you can be in a better place, go to a better school and lay a better foundation. Then you can live a smooth life, and you’ll be able to solve any problems easily. Living peaceful days in quiet towns? What a joke. One serious illness or one accident can kill your whole family! In a small city, it’s incredibly tough. You can only live like your grandpa and grandma’s small-fry grandson, and everyone who’s been blabbering that they’d do you a favour turns out all useless. The moment you get on Weibo, everyone else’s life looks glamorous, their salaries reaching millions of RMB. Why am I even thinking about this after I die?! Because I’ve been tortured to death by my sh*tty life! “

The middle-aged man who spoke was very triggered. He seemed to be a new player. No one knew what he had encountered before he died. He was rambling with so much zeal that his saliva was flying everywhere, and it almost looked like he might squat down, clutch his head and burst into tears any second now. 

The rest of the players were at a loss for words. Now that they thought about it, the man wasn’t wrong.

After they died and entered Yong Ye City, they only reminisced about the good moments in life. Those beautiful times were mere illusions that covered up all the hardships. Facing those things once more, the feeling of suffocation started slapping them on the faces.

Jin Cheng and Leng Miao silently watched from the side. One man’s eyes remained completely calm, while the other’s eyes were totally indifferent. Leng Miao didn’t like to listen to the words of the mortal realm. Compared with that world, he would rather stay in Yong Ye City.

So he turned around and left, picking a road that directly faced him.

This was the intersection of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong or Jiang Zhe.

The memory of his life before death was too far away, but Leng Miao was actually a native of Shanghai, one who used to live in a back alley of that dazzling city. He didn’t have any special hobby and simply liked eating fried dough sticks with milk tea. Outside the alley, in front of the famous old-style breakfast shop on the left and the new-style milk tea shop on the right, there were always long queues.

He still remembered the quarrels and screams of the couple living above him in that cramped building, which always fused with the cry of a child. The uncle living opposite him sat at the door and smoked every day, so much so that even Leng Miao’s body reeked of the smell of cigarettes. When Leng Miao went to school, the teacher thought that he secretly smoked, so he was given a scolding and disciplined to stand in a corner. 

Leng Miao willingly took up the punishment, because the air was cooler in the corridor.

Leng Miao’s choice surprised everyone. The emotional middle-aged player wiped his eyes, then resolutely followed Leng Miao without casting another look at the other players.

One after the other, the remaining players looked at Jin Cheng. Jin Cheng shrugged: “This is just the beginning, do you already find it so difficult?”

Everyone was stunned. Staring at the lonely roads that lead to nowhere, they suddenly came to a realisation. Indeed, life has just begun.

In this barren land, there was nothing but the roads in front of them, so they could only go forward, no matter what they might encounter later.

Jin Cheng immediately lifted his foot to keep up with Leng Miao’s pace.

In the warden’s monitoring room, Xiao Tong leisurely watched all these humans and refilled his cup of coffee. Mr. Crow had already left, for he wanted to take a close look at Zheng Yingying. Although the little girl was ruthless, her endurance wasn’t high. The one time she didn’t succeed in backstabbing the monsters, she was caught at once, and the monster doctor dragged her by the ankle into the consulting room.

The trail of blood on the ground could truly send chills down anyone’s spine.

Xiao Tong liked to watch desperate people struggling to fight back. There was beauty in such thrilling moments, but at this moment, his attention was mostly on Tang Cuo, who didn’t seem to be facing any particular challenge.

The more he watched, the more he felt delighted, because in these four gates, it seemed that only Tang Cuo was seriously playing the game.

Jin Cheng and Leng Miao were skilful veterans who could crush any game with their own strength. Meanwhile, Zheng Yingying walked the evil path; she was all by herself, thus naturally she wouldn’t hesitate to ignore the rules to achieve her goal.

Meanwhile, at the Message Forwarding Company, heads continued to explode, leaving no room to pique Xiao Tong’s interest. 

Only Tang Cuo had the courage and fearlessness to break the rules, as well as the brain to see through the rules. He was good at observing and constantly tried to verify his thinking. Tang Cuo wasn’t not as ostentatious as Jin Cheng, but such a person could live to the end as long as he wanted to.

For example, at this moment, Xiao Tong could confirm that Tang Cuo had found more than one way to break through this game, and among those, he had identified the most beneficial one.

Every movement and every subtle expression of his was captured by Xiao Tong.

Tang Cuo might be a lazy man, but he wouldn’t be lazy at a critical moment, because it only meant wasting more time to make up for the loss afterwards.

The easiest way was to destroy all the tombs with force, or wait for them to blow up due to insufficient battery. But since this was a gate which the system had given him a specific method to pass through, the rewards for clearing it must be way better than through forceful destruction.

He tried to open the coffin on his own volition, and as a result, a very aggressive soul jumped out. He had to fight this soul, and only when he won, the soul would turn into a ball of light and be absorbed by him.

Fighting with a soul was seriously troublesome, because it had no tangible body. Hence, Tang Cuo directly sacrificed the reward he obtained in the dungeon [Before Dawn] — the [Horror Doll].

Throwing the doll at the enemy could release a frightening scream that had a 15-meter range, causing a mental shock that lasted for 5 seconds.

The moment the soul was under the impact of the shock, Tang Cuo raised his sword and slashed at once. The Holy Light of Judgment spread out and chopped off the soul in half. After letting out a racking scream, the soul twisted in pain and soon condensed into a ball of light. The only difference was that its colour now was more transparent than before.

Without any hesitation, Tang Cuo attacked again and scattered it apart with three strikes.

Of course, the soul’s spiritual-energy attack also caused him some damage, but as Xiao Tong had said, Tang Cuo’s soul strength was remarkably high, thus such damage could be quickly recovered.

The number of points obtained this time was 2. It could be seen that the number of points earned from opening a coffin was similar to that of waiting for it to blow up when the battery went out.

After a little pondering, Tang Cuo made his choice — rather than force, he should use his brain.

He re-checked the contents on the cell phone tombstones. Because he had read them once, a preliminary impression of all the tombstones lingered in his mind. This time, Tang Cuo swiftly discovered the hidden connections among these tombstones.

The first was time: 25th June 2019.

Time was the factor that was always discovered the earliest. After seeing a few tombstones, Tang Cuo could immediately learn that — they all fell on the same day.

In between 24 hours of the same day, there were all sorts of time points. Since the hours were so close, there must be a relationship between the owners of these tombstones.

For example, for the takeaway staff who didn’t have time to deliver food due to the rain, the interface of the ordering application was displaying his current location. He stopped at a place called Xishan Road.

As for the girl who decided to break up because of her boyfriend’s cheating, the location of the last message was also Xishan Road. After searching through more than a dozen tombstones, Tang Cuo found a piece of information hidden in their dialog boxes.

On Xishan Road, a brutal stabbing incident took place.

Following the incident, one after another, ambulances and police cars arrived, as well as crowds of curious onlookers. With this heavy rain, the intersection was bound to be blocked. Apart from the takeaway staff, who else was stuck at the intersection?

How long did this rain last?

Tang Cuo remembered that there was a cell phone screen that seemed to show the weather forecast of the whole day. He quickly turned around to look for it, but unintentionally caught a glimpse of a live streaming screen, where a cold light was flashing.

He frowned and looked over immediately.

A girl was doing a game live stream. While joking and chatting with the audience, she occasionally stopped to chew on seafood noodles. She was smiling from ear to ear, but behind her, in the shadow that was blocked by the toppled clothes rack, there appeared a tall, blurry figure in black.

“Why is there the sound of water?”

“Is the water leaking in your house?”

Someone in the comment area raised his doubts.

“Patter, patter —” Along the corner of the man’s shirt, the rain drops slipped to the floor. Having not noticed his presence, the girl said with a smile that she had just moved in, the landlord was very nice and the place was newly renovated. So how could there be a leak?

As her voice fell, the screen went black.

Followed by a scream.

Which became louder and louder.