Chapter 99: Realm of Mortals (2)

Chapter 99: Realm of Mortals (2)

What was the criteria to judge that a soul was still alive?

Tang Cuo carefully looked through Pao Pao Qis Moment and found that it was nothing more than chicken soup for the soul articles and pictures of her elegant life.

Her beautiful day started in the morning, accompanied by coffee and light meals that looked all pretty, then followed by exquisite dinners and occasional bits of exciting nightlife.

This person seemed to live a very fulfilling life. Of course, Tang Cuo couldnt be sure whether it was true, or whether she actually enjoyed it.

Tang Cuo directly walked to the front, starting from the first tombstone.

The first one was probably an office worker whose cell phone display was an unfinished PowerPoint deck. It was about the future development of a P2P networkShort for person-to-person network, a micro-lending model via the Internet where small amounts of funds are gathered from different people to lend to people who are in need of funds.. The first few pages were still very carefully analysed, where the tables were clear and the texts were concise. But from the seventh page, the person who made the deck started to become irritable, with scribbles of go to hell filling up all the pages.

[Go to hell go to hell go to hell go to hell go to hell] The small red letters were densely packed, easily sending chills down anyones spine.

The second one was a takeaway staff. The phone showed a delivery interface. The takeaway should have been delivered at 12:30, yet the phone already showed 12:47. There were six missed calls.

Ting ting The phone rang.

Tang Cuo slid to answer, and the call actually got through. On the other end was a man with a slightly grumpy voice: Hey? Why dont you answer all my calls? Are you delivering the food or not? Its already past the time, dont you know?!

Tang Cuo: Im sorry, theres a jam on the road.

Man: Even if its jammed, you still have to deliver my food. Ive been hungry for a long time! I wouldnt have ordered takeaway if it wasnt raining outside. You bring it to me quickly, or Ill file a complaint! My time is precious. I wont have time to eat if you dont bring it now!

As his voice fell, the phone was immediately hung up.

Tang Cuo pondered the words raining and wont have time to eat, but he couldnt yet make any deduction for the time being, so he looked at the next one.

The next phone screen was dark. Tang Cuo found a button on the side to light it up and the battery showed 26%. The time was 13:30 pm on Tuesday, 25th June, and the lock screen was a couples selfie.

The photo had been edited and a line of words was added at the bottom right 12th June 2019, the 100th day of our relationship!

Without facial recognition and fingerprints, passwords were the only way. Tracing back from 12th June, the first day they met should be 5th March.

So the password should be: 190305.

Tang Cuo got through.

The interface that popped up was a chat history, where the girl and her boyfriend had started breaking up. The boy sent her countless messages to try to keep them together, each of his sentences laced with sincere words. He spoke so very carefully.

But his words also revealed a fact he cheated on her.

A boringly common topic.

The girl couldnt bother to drag the conversion any further. Although she seemed to still harbour feelings for the boy, she put up a firm attitude, determined to never look back. The last chat between the two of them ended at 11:59, when the girl uttered only two words No way.

The boy didnt say anything else. Had he given up? Or had he not seen the message?

Tang Cuo went on to look at a few more. Their identities and genders were all different. They were people from all walks of life, from takeaway staff, express delivery man, student to white-collar executive. All that could be found from their phones were trivial matters of life, and nothing seemed too special at a glance.

There were 99 cell phone tombstones. It seemed that this battle would last quite a while.

At the same time, the solitary road that Jin Cheng and the others were walking on finally showed some changes. A group of monsters suddenly appeared in the middle of the road, blocking everyones path.

They were oddly shaped, with saw-teeth lacing their bodies and horns protruding out of their heads. Some were standing while some were walking on all fours, their sizes a mix of big and small.

Leng Miao felt that they looked familiar and his eyebrows creased a little.

Jin Cheng also noticed it.

The monsters snarled at them, making a ho ho sound in their throats, as if something was stuck in there, making them unable to let out the words even though they wanted to say something. Although they had different looks, pain and despair could clearly be seen on their faces, while those crimson pairs of eyes were exuding so much fury, so much resentment.

The most important thing was that in those eyes, a hint of consciousness occasionally flashed amidst the chaos.

Karma serving process, special dungeon. Jin Cheng came to a conclusion.

The others, except Leng Miao, were all stunned. What special dungeon? What karma serving process? There was a significant difference between the dungeons triggered in Zone E prison and other zones, that was, the players from all zones were mixed together and no division was required. Here, there were Leng Miao from Zoe A, Jin Cheng from Zone E and newcomers from Zone F. They might not even know what the karma-serving process was.

Jin Cheng explained to them a little bit. In a nutshell the monsters here were those who committed suicide in Yong Ye City before the suicide ban was lifted.

The players eyes widened in horror as he looked at the scene in utter disbelief. A few seconds later, he suddenly snapped out of it, shook his fingers and turned his head back to continue typing.

Quick!

Quicker!

After he typed into the chat box, a coloured ribbon imprinted with the word boo! instantly appeared on the screen, which then turned into a cruel thorn that pierced his mind.

Everyone, be careful, this gate is about mental attack! Every sentence is trying to wreck your mental state! If your Intelligence points are not enough, please pay special attention! A loud reminder came from a player sitting near the corner. Not paying any mind to whether the other players could hear him through the headphones, he continued shouting

If you cant hold it, drink the potion immediately. Inside your mind, visualise your own martial arts skills and transform them into attacks to resist the sound in the headphones!

And from the headphones that fell into a pool of plasma because the player wearing those had had his head blown up, a sound was still coming out at this moment. It was full of pure malice and curses, sometimes ridden with wicked laughs over someone elses suffering, tinged also with smug intent that was as sharp as a knife.

Go f**k yourself.

Werent you trying to seduce men with those clothes? What kind of decent girl would wear like that? You deserve it.

What a slut, gross.

If you want to die, go ahead, why are you still here being all hypocritical? If you have the guts, go to hell! Why are you still alive and kicking? Complain for what?!

The most disgusting thing is really sasaeng fans [nao can fen], is lit. translated as damaged brain fan. In Asian and specifically South Korean culture, a sasaeng fan is an obsessive fan who stalks or engages in other behaviour constituting an invasion of the privacy of idols or public figures. like you. Your mother didnt give you a brain when she gave birth to you, did she? Whatever your mouth spews is so filthy. Does your idol know that youre barking here? What a whore.

Different voices and different tones, from men, women and even children, no one holding themselves back.

In addition to the Third Gate, there was a Fourth Gate This World Is An Asylum.

The little girl in the red cloak was sitting on the red cross hanging outside the hospital, swinging her two slender legs while humming an unfamiliar, dissonant folk song. She looked down at the restless crowd in the hospitals backyard and muttered to herself: Im back here again

The system announcement came.

We welcome players to stay in this asylum. All players, please immediately head back to your respective wards and wait for the doctors to check on you. During this time, please dont walk around. Offenders will be severely punished.

The players gaped at each other. How did they get trapped in an asylum? According to this game rule, there would be doctors checking on their wards later and punishment for not staying in the wards. Neither of those sounded like it would end nicely, no?

What should we do?

Should we head back to the wards?

How on earth did we trigger the mission, shouldnt we figure this out first???

Amidst differing opinions, across the corridors, someone caught sight of several figures walking past the window on the second floor. He immediately raised his finger and exclaimed: Are they the doctors?!

The others also looked at the direction he was pointing and saw the monsters that were exactly the same as those Jin Cheng had encountered. It was just that these monsters here were wearing white coats, with stethoscopes hanging around their necks, their hands clutching syringes that were as huge as firecrackers.

The syringes gleamed with a cold light, making everyone shudder and feel that the afternoon sun had suddenly become much colder.

Whether to go back or not to go back, this was the question.

Zheng Yingying stood up atop the red cross. The wind blew her red cloak, revealing her eye that had been covered by a black eye patch. Slowly, she raised one hand to caress the black patch, while her intact eye emanated a hint of pity and sadness, but it was overwhelmed by her firm resolution just a split second later.

A crow stood on the opposite roof and peeked into the distance. Putting its wings behind its back and holding its head up proudly, the crow couldnt hide its fondness and admiration for its current target.

Kill, kill as much as you want. Throw away all your mercy, just kill It whispered.

The four gates had different contents, but they shared the same conditions for clearance. 96 players, either they survived for six hours, or only six people remained alive.

Current death toll: 1

Tang Cuo were totally clueless about the other gates. He was still walking alone in the empty cemetery, doing his tombstone investigation. As the ding dong, ding dong prompts came at him one after another, 77 out of 99 cell phone tombstones lit up.

One phone had shut down by itself due to insufficient battery.

Bang The moment the battery was exhausted, the tombstone exploded. The rocks and dust heavily smacked Tang Cuos body. If it werent for his always-on vigilance and his dexterous movement, he might have been buried right here.

His HP now dropped to 44. A really unlucky number.