Mo Yu opened his eyes to the hum of his ceiling fan. It spun lazily above him, stirring warm air and the faint smell of leftover rain.
He blinked slowly. His body felt heavy. Damp.
The lights were still on. His half-finished economy rice sat on the table, exactly where he'd left it.
The flat was the exact same.
"啊...原来只是梦."
He exhaled and sat up groggily, rubbing his temple. Then he felt it—what was on his hand.
Something cold and heavy, with a weird texture to it. He looked down.
The scissors.
The same scissors he received in his 'dream'
His entire body seized.
"靠!"
Shit!
With a yelp, he threw the scissors, watching them skid violently across the floor until they hit the base of the door. Breathing hard, he stared at his hand in disbelief.
"这...这怎么可能?"
His other hand twitched. And that's when he saw it.
The Red Thread.
Wrapped tightly around his wrist. Not knotted, not clipped. Just… a part of him now. He pulled at it.
Once. Twice. Harder.
He tried sliding it off. Tried biting it. Tugging from different angles. Nothing worked. The thread wouldn't budge.
"干,你开什么玩笑..."
Hands palming his forehead as if a headache was coming, he lie back down slowly, chest rising and falling in uneven waves, closing his tired eyes.
"不是梦."
"我真的进去了."
And then came the worst thought:
"我真的...答应她了."
His eyes snapped open and he reached for his phone with trembling hands.
His first instinct—text Ren Jie. Call Yu Fei. Ask Ling Ling if she'd felt anything strange. His thumb hovered over their group chat. But just as he unlocked the screen—A notification slid down. No app name. Just a card icon, with a star enclosed within a diamond-shaped frame.
"这又是什么鬼..."
He tapped it. The screen went black for half a second, then an app interface flickered to life. Stylized like a glitchy OS—black background, red flickers along the edge.
[SYSTEM INTERFACE]
Welcome back, Player.
Profile ID:#7e2d1904-bX5
Age: 21
Wen Balance: 400 Wen
Ongoing Mission:★★★ Mission – 殯雨之追問 (The Funeral Rain's Inquiry) – Time remaining: 89 Days
"系统...连我的名字都不显示?"
He scrolled. A tab labeled [Mission Log] pulsed faintly.
[Mission Log]
★ 殯雨 (The Funeral Umbrella)
Completion Date: Today, 22:49
Duration: 00:54:33 (Real Time Elapsed: 5 hours 26 mins)
Reward: 400 Wen
""六小时?不可能...我在里面才待一小时!"
The shock hit him like cold water. He scrolled down in disbelief.
Beneath the log — A final locked tab:
[Shop – Access Denied]
Greyed out and flickering faintly. He stared.
"这是什么鬼游戏..."
Suddenly—
A new prompt appeared.
A card has been drawn for you. Please use the card within 24 hours.
Before Mo Yu could react, a physical card appeared out from the coffee table. He stared at it. The gold trim shimmered and ★★ could be seen on the back of the card, encased within a diamond shaped outline—same as the app.
"又来了..."
The moment his fingers touched it—The world folded inward.
Mo Yu stood in darkness. The same void he experienced and felt before the first mission. There was ground beneath him—but no walls, no sky, no body. In front of him, a single glowing mission prompt
[SYSTEM INTERFACE]
★★ Card Used – 饭桌餵魂 (The Hungry Table)
Mission: Make an offering to the table. Observe the rites of the table. Do not eat. Do not speak unless spoken to.
Time Limit: 01:00:00
Reward:
• Reinforcements: ???
• Monetary Compensation: 600 Wen
Awaiting Players : 30 seconds
Total Players : 4
Awaiting the countdown from the system, Mo Yu narrowed his eyes at the glowing characters.
"饭桌餵魂..."
He read the lines again, voice quiet in the abyss.
"供品...不能吃...也不能说话."
"听起来...像是拜祖先?可是...是给什么鬼吃的?"
"'不能吃'...如果有人吃了,会发生什么?"
The void didn't answer. Just pulsed. And then—folded open.
Mo Yu landed hollow thud on the plastic flooring of a kopitiam. Dimmed with buzzing lights, a single orange round table stood in the center, filled with steaming hawker dishes: char kway teow, lor mee, tau huay, and satay— all fresh, untouched.
Three people already sat around the table. Two strangers, and—A familiar voice.
"...你也在?"
Mo Yu turned and His heart jolted at the scene before his eyes.
彦宁?
Yan Ning looked pale. Confused.
"你怎么也在?" Yan Ning
"卡...桌上突然有张卡.然后我就到了这里..."
"别讲话."
The girl across from them, tense-eyed, gestured to the last empty chair.
"等它开口."
Then—
The chair filled. It wasn't human, it was a grotesque figure. Bloated and oily. its Skin sagging in slippery flabs over the edges of the plastic seat. Its arms were horrifyingly long and its stomach ballooned outward, distending with each breath. The smell hit them like a wall—rotting grease, sour flesh, wet garbage left in the sun.
No one spoke. They didn't dare to. The creature then picked up a spoon.
* Clink.
* Clink.
"吃."
A tension spread across the table. No one moved.
"吃."
The man beside Yan Ning snapped.
"我不玩了!我不想死在这里!!"
He stood up, grabbed a plate of food and threw it at the creature. It splashed across the monster's flabby belly and hit the floor. The air curdled. The creature snorted—a wet, greasy laugh gurgling from its gut.
It stood up, towering all of them. The smell was unbearable now—so thick you could taste it.
It lunged, like a cannon and grabbed the man with both hands. Forcing his mouth open, it began stuffing the food back in. Plate after plate. Oil and noodles spilling down his face, the man struggled, hands and legs contorting from the pressure as it gets harder to breathe. Barely audible, the man said:
"住...手——!"
But it didn't. Satisfied with the stuffing, it threw the man back onto his. Taking deep breaths, the man thought that he was spared. But shortly after, he would find out that it was the other way round. The man's face twisted, stomach swelled and limbs twitched uncontrollably. He bloated—grotesquely.
Screaming as if all hell broke loose, veins bulged under his skin. His screams were cut off—
* BOOM
He exploded. Chunks of flesh, broken bones, mixed with bits of food and rancid blood sprayed all across the table, splashing onto the monster and players. The lights went out.
"啊啊啊啊啊——!!!"
Someone screamed. Mo Yu couldn't move. The only thing he could feel—Was the Red Thread, pulsing like a second heartbeat against his skin and the stench of death, thick in his nose.