Chapter 1: Don’t celebrate too soon, things could still go wrong!

A solemn and dignified memorial service. 

A young man in his twenties laid in the middle of a wreath undisturbed. He looked serene as if he was in a peaceful slumber. 

In the young man’s surroundings, faint yet continuous sobs could be heard nearby. A 50-year old couple supported each other as they stood. Tears of sadness streamed down their faces while looking at a picture of their deceased son.

The young man’s name was Wang Ze. He had tried to save a woman from being robbed but in a desperate attempt to escape, the robber stabbed him dozens of times, resulting in his heroic but tragic death.

Today was his funeral. 

His friends and family had all gathered to mourn for the death of this unfortunate young man.

In the corner of the funeral parlor, a young man dressed in black from head to toe lowered his head. His shoulders trembled and his throat produced odd sounds as if he were crying.

He was Wang Ze’s best friend. On this important day, he had even skipped out on going to his graduation ceremony just to see his good brother off one last time.

At this moment, he had successfully concealed his excitement, expressing deep pain and sorrow just like the others. He even managed to let out a tear from his eye.

But upon closer inspection, his eyes did not show any traces of despair, instead, there was explicit joy in its place.

Once Wang Ze’s remains were cremated, the relatives and friends unfamiliar to him dispersed in twos and threes.

Bai Yan also left the funeral hall with a group of people who came and participated in the procession.

The grief of seeing one’s child die before oneself could not be easily appeased, even by time. At this grieving moment, any words of consolation were rendered ineffective, so the only thing that people could do now was to leave and give some space to the sobbing elderly couple. 

……

Wang Ze had died during a hot summer.

After leaving the overly hot and stuffy funeral, Bai Yan took out a pitch-black umbrella. The tears on his face were still streaming down, glistening beautifully under the intense sunlight.

Under the continuous harsh rays of the sun, Bai Yan used a cab-hailing app to call a ride, finally escaping the torturous heat. When he got home, the first thing he did was to close all the curtains and open the air conditioner.

After experiencing a short mindgasm, Bai Yan grew a little tired, and so he removed his coat and contentedly laid down on the sofa, slowly drifting into sleep. When he was suddenly awoken by a gloomy ringtone, the room had already turned pitch dark.

Surveying the darkroom, Bai Yan’s thoughts were in disarray. But thinking of the cremated youth’s body turning into a pile of ashes, a smile unconsciously floated onto his face.

Even though he had taken a nap, the mindgasm still lingered in his head, and waves of pleasure surged into the depths of his soul, causing Bai Yan’s originally pale face to flush an evident shade of red.

“Wang Ze…Good people don’t obtain good karma…You were so young yet you died just like that and abandoned your old parents…It’s truly…unfortunate!”

Now that he was away from the funeral filled with normal people, Bai Yan did not need to conceal his twisted smile.

After being sincerely happy for a while, Bai Yan suddenly got up. He quickly walked to the tableside and opened a drawer, taking out a picture of the two of them from college. He then cut off his side of the picture into pieces, leaving behind only Wang Ze standing in the picture.

Then, he stuck the picture in a conspicuous area, and calmly admired it for a bit with an innocent smile on his face.

He wanted to preserve this happiness for a little longer.

Back then, he could never understand the meaning of a friend. But now, he finally knew the value of one.

When Wang Ze was alive, he was not interested in making such fake relationships. But once he heard about Wang Ze’s death, these kinds of relationships gave him incomparable joy.

Wang Ze, just as you said, I did not choose wrong for you to become my friend.

You said that you could make me happy.

And you truly… managed to do it.

….

After standing in front of the photo for a long time, Bai Yan became a little hungry, so he reluctantly looked away, took out his phone, and got ready to order takeaway.

However, once he unlocked his phone, he froze.

All the icons on his phone had mysteriously disappeared without a trace. Even the system’s initial applications were completely missing.

Only one app remained that was placed at the center of the screen, making it eye-catching. It had a pitch-black background and a blood-red font, the three bloody words read ‘Frontline of Hell’.

Was this a virus?

Bai Yan held the app with a long press, trying to delete it, but the trash bin had also disappeared along with the other missing apps.

After pondering for a moment, Bai Yan decided to turn off his phone.

Once the screen had turned completely dark, Bai Yan discovered something strange.

The weird app that was displayed on the screen showed a terrifying luster of blood!

Even when the phone was turned off, the app continued to run. This was utterly abnormal.

Bai Yan licked his lips and became aware that he may have encountered a supernatural event.

And so, after realizing this, he immediately pressed the app open without another thought.

With a blood-red flash, Bai Yan lost consciousness.

…Until he woke up feeling indescribable pain and yelled out…

……

“…Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! It hurts!”

“Hand! My hand!”

As soon as he woke up, Bai Yan screamed in pain. With bloodshot eyes, he twisted his head to see where the pain was coming from.

As if to punish his lowly hand, his right hand that was tightly gripping the phone had five of its fingertips all chopped off! 

All five fingers were still connected to the palm, so the physiological tears flowed out his eyes uncontrollably. The view before Bai Yan was blurry but he widened his eyes and desperately continued to look above the missing knuckle.

He unexpectedly found a sinister and terrifying ghost standing beside him! 

The evil ghost carried a cold ax, hacking away at Bai Yan’s fingers. After chopping off his fingertips, the ax started grinding against the knuckles, severing them off one by one. After several blood-curdling screams, Bai Yan finally quieted down. Because after the evil being finished chopped up his hand, it used a knife to slit his throat, splitting his head in half and causing it to helplessly roll down the side.

Bai Yan stared wide-eyed as the evil ghost did whatever it pleased with his lifeless body. His eyes were even cut up into four pieces. But what was even scarier was that, despite being cut up into chunks, his eyes were still able to see things, so there was no way to avoid seeing this horrific scene.

The evil ghost cut his body up into eight chunks, butchering him up like a pork chop and cutting along the bones of his body. At this point, Bai Yan had already turned dizzy from acute pain. Even if his brain had turned into mush and had splattered everywhere, he, who was supposed to be dead already, could still feel every bit of pain everywhere. From his head to his toe, no place was spared from the agony.

Moreover, rather than destroying a person’s will, this form of inescapable death was beyond preposterous and could even push a person over the brink of insanity.

Seeing the evil being’s sinister face, Bai Yan felt his sanity leaving him. Just when he was about to lose it, information suddenly flooded into his mind, which helped ease the pain a bit and allowed him to breathe for a moment.

It turned out……. that this damned game was called ‘Frontline of Hell’ and anyone who clicked on the app would automatically become a player in the game.

Players needed to advance through all 12 levels to escape this horrifying game. In this game, one could not escape death. Any player who committed suicide before clearing the game would suffer for all eternity!

Reading this piece of information, Bai Yan had a mysterious premonition. As long as he agreed to participate in the game, he would be able to escape this unbearable torture.

Not wanting to turn into a disgusting paste and allow the evil ghost to keep stomping on his head, Bai Yan wholeheartedly agreed to participate in the game.

……

After he gave his approval, the evil ghost suddenly disappeared, and what appeared before him was a bright white room.

The room’s light was so bright that Bai Yan couldn’t stop his tears from rolling to his cheeks.

While Bai Yan pulled out a handkerchief and lowered his head to momentarily wipe away his tears, two loud cries could suddenly be heard around him.

Out of curiosity, he quickly dried his tears and raised his head to look for the source of these cries.

He was sitting on a wooden chair and in front of him, was a large square table. On his right side was a crying girl. The makeup on her face was messily washed away by her tears, making her face lose color, and her attractive face became unsightly, causing people to be unable to look straight at her.

Other than the woman’s sobbing sounds, across Bai Yan was another figure. It was a junior high school student who was wailing as if the world were ending.

The student appeared to be experiencing puberty. If the girl’s noises were slightly bearable, then the student’s wails could incite someone to strangle him without a second thought.

The two people’s miserable cries could undoubtedly make him happy, but now was not the time to savor the moment. The more Bai Yan tried to block out their sobs, the louder they became, so he decided to concentrate his attention on observing the room instead.

The room had only one door, but no windows and the door was sealed shut. The ceiling lamp was the only thing that illuminated the room.

The square table that was properly positioned at the center of the room had each of its sides perfectly parallelled to the wall.

Additionally, the room was filled with wardrobes, tables with delicious food, and cabinets with random junk. Ignoring the bloodstain on the wall, generally speaking, the room was filled with the homey atmosphere of a sweet house.

While Bai Yan looked around, another person had finally appeared, sitting on the last vacant chair.

The instant the newcomer appeared, everyone’s phones began to vibrate.

Feeling her phone’s sudden movement, the girl, who resembled a chicken with her neck pinched, stopped her weeping. Wiping away her tears, she slowly lowered her head to look at her phone.

The junior high student also followed suit. Seeing this situation, he stopped crying and fumbled around in his pocket to fish out his phone while sniffling.

After stealing a glance at the newcomer, Bai Yan pulled out his phone. Without needing to unlock the screen, he saw the bloody words written on the screen.

[Successful Matchup]

[Number of Players: 4 players]

[Level of Difficulty: Easy]

[Level Description: This game this round is called ‘Supernatural Jigsaw.’ Inside the room, there are four shuffled jigsaw puzzles. Find and solve any one of them to clear the level. The time limit is 30 minutes. Failure to complete a puzzle within 30 minutes will result in a loss.]

[Game Rules:]

[1. Players are not allowed to steal puzzles completed by other players.]

[2. The jigsaw puzzles need to be solved on the table. When solving the puzzle, leaving the table is not allowed.]

[3. After solving the puzzle, a 5-minute stay time will be issued. After the end of this period, press the ‘Return’ button to leave the game.]