Chapter 8: If you don’t want people to know

The scene in front of him flashed before his eyes, Bai Yan was free from the game and finally returned to the real world.

Discovering that he was back to where he was before, the first thing that Bai Yan did was to inspect the room’s wall clock. He was inside the game for half an hour. However, only a minute had passed in the real world.

‘So 30 minutes inside the game was equivalent to a minute in the real world, or no matter how much time passed by in the game, it will always be one minute in the real world?’

This thought flashed through Bai Yan’s mind. But before he could continue pondering about it, a sudden burst of vertigo suddenly struck him out of nowhere.

Since noon, he hadn’t eaten or drank anything due to him being, at that time, extremely agitated. He had momentarily forgotten about this matter, so after a while, he was finally able to relax. The fatigue caused by the game and hunger from starving for a day, came in thick and fast, surging in his body to express protest.

“I can’t even call for take out in this kind of circumstances. Forget it, I’ll just eat whatever I have.”

Bai Yan stared at the blood-stained floor. Because of his dripping clothes, the floor was colored by bloody water and had even spread through the surrounding area.

Additionally, because his balance earlier was unstable, resulting in him propping his hand against the wall to support himself, a clear bloody handprint was left on the wall. If people were to see it, it may be impossible to fool them with the excuse that it was just art.

After being soaked thoroughly in blood, he didn’t know if he could still use it…

The diary needed some time to be completely dried. Although Bai Yan slept for a long time at noon, he was still feeling groggy. And so, he turned off the lights, closed his eyes, and drifted off into dreamland.

……

At 5 AM, Bai Yan’s body clock naturally woke him up.

After consuming his oatmeal for breakfast, Bai Yan opened his cellphone and clicked on the black and red app.

Unlike the first time he pressed on it, this time, when he clicked on the app, he was not transported into the game.

The app showed round checkpoints with the numbers from 1 through 12 on them.

Among them, the ‘1’ icon was illuminated, indicating that he had already cleared that level of the game. The following numbers from 3 to 12 were not unlocked yet, but the 2nd level had a countdown to it. Bai Yan looked at the timer. The time showed that there were six days left, which was the next Monday.

In addition to the 12 level icons, on the upper right side of the app, there was an interesting icon. Bai Yan clicked it open and discovered that this was a forum. Inside the forum were full of posts regarding the game ‘Frontline of Hell.’

[A noobs’ must-read! The forum’s most comprehensive game tutorial!]

[Five veterans discuss their experiences on surviving the game. Enter to take a look.]

[Noob Requesting for Help: I’ve just survived the newcomer level, the first level’s easy mode was already so hard. Wouldn’t the second level’s ordinary mode be more chilling? Seeking an expert’s guidance!]

[OP Seventh Level God! Looking for reliable teammates! Players who don’t suck can enter!! Looking for a team! Looking for a team! Looking for a team!]

…

There were all kinds of weird threads on the forum, but most of them discussed information about the game. Bai Yan followed his interest and spent the whole morning browsing through the forum. The forum provided lots of information regarding the nature of the game and also summarized some important information.——

1. According to the forum’s earliest post, ‘Frontline of Hell’ was a game that first appeared a year ago.

2. The game has a total of 12 levels. The first level was in easy mode. The second to the sixth level was an ordinary mode. From seven to nine, the difficulty was raised to hard. And finally, from level 10 to 12, the levels were on hell mode. 

According to a popular theory of an old gamer, once the game was successfully cleared, there would be a grand prize waiting for the player. The prize was to fulfill a wish that the player had. However, currently, only a few gamers have reached the 10th level, which was currently the highest level entered. After they have entered the 11th level, there wasn’t any news on these players in the forums, reckoning that they must’ve died inside the game.

3. ‘Frontline of Hell’s’ purpose was still unclear. Many talked about conspiracy theories in the forum, but they still lacked trustworthy evidence. However, there was only one thing that the veteran gamers agreed upon, which was that ‘Frontline of Hell’ didn’t force its players to die. Each level in the game had a corresponding life path and death path. Avoiding the death path would be a really big help in clearing the game.

4. You must properly protect your phone. All levels of the game require the use of the app’s ‘return’ button to finish the game. But players don’t need to worry about their phone’s safety. No matter if your phone was a counterfeit or was a slot machine, just as long as the app is downloaded, your phone will be water-resistant, fire-resistant, and shock-resistant.

5. Every seven days, players need to advance to the next level. The total number of days to reach level 12 is 78 days, which was around three months. From the time the first post on the forum was up, the game had already progressed through four cycles.

6. The game levels have the same corresponding rules and regulations. 

a. According to the priority rule, gamers who are playing the same difficulty will be prioritized to be matched together. For example, ordinary level to ordinary level and difficult to difficult level. 

b. Players who start the game at the same time will also be matched together. 

Because of this rule, players prefer looking for teammates in the forum, trying to find reliable support. Through the real world, they exchange each other’s contact information and agree upon a good time for them to enter the game at the same time.  

…

After reviewing the new information, Bai Yan came back to the app’s home page and was baffled by the ‘gift’ icon on the twelfth level.

“If clearing the game means I can get my wish granted…then did that also include reviving someone?”

Bai Yan blankly stared at the icon, his expression gradually becoming more peculiar.

After Wang Ze’s death, it was his first time experiencing ecstatic bliss. But unfortunately, it wasn’t him who stabbed Wang Ze to death. In the end, this made him feel unparalleled regret, and every time he thought about it, his heart would feel empty.

But now, he had the chance to bring him back to life. And then, after that…he’ll stab him to death himself.

Throughout Bai Yan’s life, there were only occasional happy matters that made him feel incomparably satisfied. Then, if there were two events, two happy events that coincided together, it would surely bring him to double the happiness. Thinking of the expression that Wang Ze’s would have, he was already itching to see it.

Having a new goal, Bai Yan’s attitude towards the game wasn’t as casual anymore. This game’s mortality rate was exorbitantly high. If he had a playful attitude during the game, sooner or later, he would suffer a setback in some level.

Moreover, according to the veteran gamers’ information from the forum, the further he went into the game’s levels, the more likely he would encounter acquaintances. If he had allowed himself to let loose and later met with an old acquaintance, it would be extremely easy for them to target himself.

If it were before, Bai Yan wouldn’t mind if someone took vengeance on him. It would be a beautiful and joyful experience, an early death means an early transcendence. However, now, he only had thoughts of clearing the game and obtaining that reward. So, he decided that from the games that had happened, later on, he was going to be a ‘nice’ person. He was going to sincerely repent for what he had done and fix his mistakes, turning himself into a good Samaritan who helped others.

After confirming his plan of operating, Bai Yan decided to restrain himself a bit during future games. He would act low key as though he were playing PUBG until he reached the 12th level.

Lowering his head, he looked at the time. There were still a couple of minutes until noon. He opened the app’s forum and intended to scroll through a few more technical posts, then go out to buy white paint, followed by eating lunch.

As a result, when he had opened the forum, he found an unlucky thread——

[Encountered a psychopath in the game! Be careful when you meet him!]

[Reply 1: I was a newcomer, who had just passed the easy level. The game I was in was called the ‘Supernatural Jigsaw.’

Because it was my first time entering the game, I felt terrified. In the end, I still managed to clear the level in a struggle but couldn’t clarify the situation. I’ll roughly explain what had happened. Everyone, please help me figure out what went wrong. 

(P.S. The game design had four players)

This was how it went. The game required us to complete a puzzle while sitting on the chair for 30 minutes. The puzzle was easy to find, so everyone had found it pretty quickly. 

But, there were ghosts in the puzzles. So, a middle-aged man began to forcibly take a junior high student’s puzzle piece. As a weak lady, fear overcame my body and made me look the other way. 

However, at this moment, a young man bravely stepped forward to help the junior high student, despite him looking like a feeble chicken. In the end, the middle-aged man had snatched away the young man’s puzzle. I thought that the young man was a good person and even admired his courageous act.]

[Reply 2: What happened after? Wait for the plot twist.]

[Reply 3: After this young man had given back the junior high student’s puzzle, he received the middle-aged man’s puzzle, which had ‘a large ghost’ on it. The young man then grabbed a pile of clothes and sat at my left. 

Because I was curious about his actions, I struck a conversation with him and asked why he took a lot of clothes with him. 

Towards me asking him from out of the blue, this little brother didn’t feel annoyed. Instead, he used his precious puzzle-solving time to explain to me his reasons. He even pointed out to me that the snacks I got from the table were an offering to the starving ghost to help me survive. (My head wasn’t in the right place and I was under a lot of pressure, so I grabbed some food and was planning to eat them. I even took a bite from a chocolate bar.)

When I heard his analysis, I felt that it was very reasonable. I immediately worshipped this young brother and was even prepared to hug his thighs. This situation was quite normal up until here. But the crucial point was what happened afterward when I found out that this little brother was, in reality, not a good person at all…]

“…” That’s right. This familiar plot must’ve come from the girl he had met in the game.

As soon as he planned to ‘sincerely repent for what he had done and fix his mistakes,’ he was caught off guard and was exposed. Bai Yan deeply experienced what was called ‘appropriate retribution.’

However, Bai Yan didn’t abandon himself to despair just because of this.

The author has something to say: 

Tomorrow, I will update the follow-up of the MC’s exposure and continue enjoying the exposure time.