Chapter 1

On the bustling commercial pedestrian street, pedestrians were like a weaving loom. Li Ang and Wang Congshan, taking advantage of the weekend to stroll around and relax, sat in a roadside beverage shop, sipping cool and refreshing milk tea.

"As long as everyone contributes a little love, the world will become a beautiful place."

Li Ang looked at those fair, long, snow-white legs that swayed beautifully under short skirts in the slightly chilly autumn wind, and sighed from the bottom of his heart.

Wang Congshan didn't hear what Li Ang was saying. Her fingers swiped across the screen, occasionally tapping the keyboard to enter text. The expression on her face was a bit irritable.

Li Ang sucked a tapioca pearl into his mouth and asked, "What are you looking at?"

"The family WeChat group." Wang Congshan pouted. "My uncle wants to have a second child, and my parents are advising him to wait a few more years. In theory, this kind of thing shouldn't be discouraged, but you know, there have been a lot of strange things happening lately..."

The information control and information segmentation targeting abnormal events was not as strong as imagined. Some things, no matter how much they were covered up, could not completely eliminate the impact.

A village somewhere was suddenly shrouded in thick fog and has been incommunicado ever since. All the animals in a zoo in a certain city overnight grew extra, redundant limbs. All the passengers on a small cruise ship abroad collectively jumped into the sea with smiles during a live online broadcast. A clown in an amusement park suddenly took out his eyeballs and chewed them during a performance...

As for bizarre and strange homicides, frequent underground pipeline explosions, and inexplicable building collapses, the masses have expressed that they are already accustomed to them.

On the surface, modern society is still singing and dancing, everyone lives and works in peace, movies and TV are watched, and Douyin and mobile games are played, but anxiety and tension are still spreading slowly like infectious diseases.

The better the information blockade, the more it cannot prevent the spread of gossip. Of course, there may also be secret guidance from the Special Affairs Bureau behind this—to gradually allow the public to adapt to all these changes step by step.

Wang Congshan, who had been in direct contact with a homicide, put down her phone, her face a little gloomy. Presumably, her father's dissuasion of her uncle from rushing to have a second child was also out of consideration for the current situation.

Ordinary people have almost zero resistance to abnormal events, and have no choice but to escape and deceive themselves. No matter how afraid they are of the unknown future, they still have to return to the daily necessities of life.

Wang Congshan sighed, "Oh... I hope the world doesn't become so strange."

"Look on the bright side," Li Ang laughed, "Maybe the vast majority of humans, including you and me, will die in the global nuclear explosion before being killed by all kinds of strange things? But I personally hope my death can be more tragic and beautiful."

Wang Congshan squinted her eyes. "Like stuffing firecrackers in your asshole and then lighting the fuse? That's not only tragic and beautiful, but also very auspicious."

"So eloquent? Is your little mouth smeared with honey?"

Li Ang curled his lips and sucked up the last bit of milk tea: "Let's go, aren't you going shopping?"

"Yeah." Wang Congshan perked up. "My mom's birthday is coming up, so I'll pick out two clothes for her first, then buy my dad a new watch, then we'll go to the jewelry store to browse around, and finally have a nice meal."

Li Ang came out shopping, one to relax, and two to see if he could trigger any system tasks—according to the luntan, in addition to abnormal event central nodes like Qianhua Road, the distribution of other urban legends has no pattern to speak of, and wandering around is the best way to trigger tasks.

Of course, there are also some timid luntan netizens who have been staying at home since becoming players, and do not actively trigger tasks.

Such netizens often disappear after their first post, either because they have cut off all contact with the outside world, or... because they have not triggered regular tasks, have not improved their level, and have died in increasingly difficult mandatory script missions.

Avoiding doesn't solve any problems.

Whether ordinary people or players, in this increasingly crazy and morbid world, they are always in danger.

Li Ang accompanied Wang Congshan back and forth on the commercial street, buying several clothes, selecting an inexpensive watch, and finally eating grilled fish on the fifth floor of Longheng Shopping Mall—Wang Congshan treated, to repay Li Ang for helping her fix her computer that day.

Just as the two, full of food and drink, walked out of the mall door, a system prompt suddenly sounded in Li Ang's ear.

Mission trigger conditions met.

Mission type: Script Mission [Teamwork]

Mission name: Hide-and-Seek

Mission objective: Go to the main hall of Longheng Shopping Mall at 12:00 tonight and wait for the next mission prompt

Mission reward: To be announced when the next mission prompt is received

Failure penalty: Obliteration

Li Ang's gait out of the door did not change, but his eyes instantly turned cold.

This was the first time he had encountered a teamwork script mission in the real world.

The mission name was easy to understand. Most people had played the game of hide-and-seek as children.

One person plays the "ghost" and, after counting down one hundred seconds with their eyes closed, goes to find a group of people hiding in different locations within a certain area. The first person found will be punished and will play the new "ghost" in the next round of the game.

Hide-and-seek, an ancient game that can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty, has endured for a long time due to its unique fun and competitiveness, but in the unique context of the Killing Field Game, the ghost catching people may be the literal meaning of the ghost catching people...

As for the mission objective... the Killing Field Game this time was quite considerate in giving about four hours of preparation time. Moreover, Longheng Shopping Mall closes at 10:30 in the evening. At twelve o'clock in the morning, the mall is empty except for security guards, which is very suitable for players to play freely.

Although the mission reward was not clearly stated, since it was a mission that required an entire team of players to complete, the reward would naturally not be too low.

As for the failure penalty of obliteration... it can only be said that as the player's level gradually increases, the difficulty of the missions they face also rises.

Li Ang's mind raced, but he didn't show it. He turned his head and said calmly to Wang Congshan: "Are your parents home?"

"Yeah, what's wrong?" Wang Congshan squinted her eyes and said, "Don't tell me you still want to come to my house for dinner."

"What are you thinking, we just ate." Li Ang said, "I'll take a taxi to send you back."

"Eh?" Wang Congshan widened her eyes and looked at Li Ang in disbelief.

He was usually very stingy, with a tendency to emulate the miser Grandet. He relied entirely on buses, subways, bicycles, and his own two feet for transportation. Why was he changing his personality and taking a taxi today?

Could it be that this kid has finally seen the light?

The two got into an online car-hailing vehicle. After sending Wang Congshan home, Li Ang asked the driver to go to Wanhe Community.