As the host had said before, he didn't mince words or beat around the bush.

He bluntly told the people below the outcome of their failure in the game…

"'Losers,' you have two choices…" the host continued, "First, after the game, my subordinates will take you back to where you boarded the vehicle, and then you can go back to doing whatever you were doing." He paused. "Second, you can choose to stay on the ship and accept my 'protection'…" As he said this, a meaningful smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. "Whether you're facing huge debts or imprisonment outside, you don't have to worry… As long as you stay with me, I can solve all such problems for you and ensure that your family and friends won't be burdened in any way."

"But…" Here, he changed the subject. "From now on, you will lose all the rights of a 'human being.' Your 'later life' will become my 'property,' and I can squander and use it as I please."

His words were firm and sonorous. As his voice fell, a ripple of murmurs arose from the crowd below.

Greed, hesitation, impulse, unease,侥幸 (jiao xing, a fluke), excitement, overconfidence, and prudence… All kinds of emotions emanated from these masked "playthings," intertwining and rising in the air.

The host stood high above, silently watching these people's reactions, enjoying it all…

As someone who had seen hundreds of such "shows," he could discern the emotions of those people through their body language and other details, even through their masks.

And he… greatly enjoyed this feeling of being high above, looking down on all living beings.

Just as some people like to travel, some like to exercise, and some like to watch movies… This host's favorite thing was to watch the spectacle before him.

For him… material, or rather, physiological pleasures, could no longer satisfy him.

Delicacies, beauties, luxury homes, and famous cars… things that most people might not be able to pursue in their entire lives, he had possessed countless numbers of them since he came into this world.

Although he was still young, he had long been numb to these things.

Delicious food, fine wine, beautiful women… It wasn't that he disliked these things, but… they no longer gave him any "excitement."

He had tried many forms of entertainment, from the lower classes, to the middle-class rich, and then to high-ranking officials; finally, he naturally tried behaviors that were not allowed by law…

For more than a year, the host was also keen on "hunting humans."

The emergence of this interest was also a coincidence…

It was one day when the host was eighteen years old, he and several netizens he met online who had suicidal intentions embarked on a "suicide trip."

At that time, he was mingling in some "suicide websites" out of interest, and he pretended to be an ordinary high school student who was bullied at school online.

And with him on the suicide trip were two thirty-year-old stay-at-home sons, a middle-aged gambler who was divorced, and a female college student who was dumped after being kept as a mistress.

That morning, the host drove a car that he claimed to have "stolen from home," carrying the four "companions" to a mountain.

At first, the atmosphere between the few people was fairly harmonious.

The host was also in a good mood, he was very much looking forward to seeing the reactions of those who were about to commit suicide before they died.

And so, at eleven o'clock in the morning, they arrived at a deserted place in the deep mountains.

As soon as they got out of the car, the host excitedly began to encourage everyone to commit suicide.

However, the gambler proposed… that he wanted to be a "full dead ghost," and eat his fill before setting off.

After he said this, the two stay-at-home sons quickly agreed, and the female college student had no objection. Helpless, the host took out the food from the car and distributed it to these people to eat.

But as they ate, the gambler began to nag sentimentally, saying that when he was richest, he had everything in the way of wine, women, wealth, and temper, and in those days, he ate lobster every meal, but now that he was about to die, he could only nibble on instant noodles here.

As soon as he said this, the two stay-at-home sons said… you should be satisfied, at least you've been glorious before, we're still virgins. Then they ranted, complaining that their parents were useless, complaining about social injustice… and said that they were blind when they were reincarnated, born into a poor family and destined to suffer, and that there was no hope in life.

The host was disgusted by this utterly low-level theory, and almost vomited out the few snacks he had just eaten. But in order to play the role of a "suicide," he had to pretend to agree with these guys beside him.

Finally, it dragged on until one o'clock in the afternoon, and these people were full.

At this time, the host intended to incite them to set off again.

Unexpectedly… one of the two stay-at-home sons suddenly said "I don't want to die a virgin," and shamelessly proposed to the female college student to have a round in the wild before dying.

Even someone who wanted to commit suicide would not agree to such a request. The female college student was not easy to mess with, and immediately cursed the stay-at-home son, saying extremely nasty things… In short, she sprayed all over his appearance, ability, character, and economic strength, with the intention of venting her resentment.

The stay-at-home son suddenly became angry and lost his mind, and rushed towards the other party on the spot. He cursed mouth after mouth "b*tch" (sorry, those two words in Chinese will be shielded), and intended to violate the other party in front of everyone.

The other stay-at-home son and the gambler originally wanted to stop him, but when they saw the young body under the ripped clothes of the female college student… the actions of the two stopped.

A primal instinct quickly suppressed their reason, and the two simply exchanged glances, and turned from standing by… to participating.

And standing aside, seeing this scene, the host… after a brief silence, smiled.

This was the first time he had directly faced the dirtiest part of human nature at such close range, and he suddenly realized… that this might be what he had been looking for – a toy that would never be boring.

…………

That day, the female college student did not die, nor was she violated.

When she looked at the three men who were pressing her to the ground, and let out a desperate cry…

With a "bang," the middle-aged gambler's head was smashed open.

The gushing brain matter and blood caused the woman on the ground to scream with all her might, and also caused the two stay-at-home sons to instantly stop their violence and collapse to the ground in horror.

When they came back to their senses, they found that the "weak student who was being bullied," was standing there expressionlessly with a blood-stained shovel in his hand.

This was obviously not the first time the host had killed someone.

For him, it was not difficult to experience the feeling of "killing"… so he had already experienced it long ago.

First with a gun, then with a knife, and finally with his bare hands… He had tried all kinds of killing experiences one by one according to the psychological burden when killing.

So today, he smashed the man's head cleanly, neatly, and nonchalantly.

A minute later, the stay-at-home son who started the violence first got up from the ground and staggered into the forest; and the other… looking at the approaching host, his legs were too weak to stand still, and he had peed his pants.

The host just killed him from the front, and then… turned around and came to the female college student.

"Do you want to kill that person just now?"

He asked the other party this question with a smile on his face, while putting a coat on her.

His smile and words at that time still remain in the woman's mind.

After a moment of stunnedness and hesitation, she gave a positive answer…

And so, that day became the host's first day of "hunting."

At dusk, the two of them finally tracked down the "prey" who had been exhausted from running away, and killed him under a tree only ten meters away from the road.

After that day, the female college student returned to her life; she never told anyone about that day again…

And the host, after that, began a "hunting activity" that lasted for more than a year.

In order to pursue this interest, he directly had his subordinates operate suicide websites at night, and pretended to be people with suicidal tendencies, constantly looking for prey for him.

In those days, he went "hunting" two to three times almost every week.

What the host found ironic was that none of these so-called "suicide trips" were "completely successful," and he had not even seen a single person complete suicide.

He also saw… that people who were really going to commit suicide didn't need to find a group of people to go on the road together, they would just take care of things at home; and those who were lured by him and became his prey – had neither the courage to face life nor the courage to end their own lives.

In short, in the subsequent hunting activities, the host witnessed time and time again the nature of people when they approached death; situations like the one that happened during the first suicide trip also happened later; of course, there were also many other strange situations that appeared.

Every time, the host could find a lot of fun, in his own words… "Besides watching the show, I can also exercise my body by the way."

About half of those "prey" who had been hunted by him died; and the other half… survived, and from then on, they never had the idea of committing suicide again. In fact, many of the survivors had a turnaround in their lives after that.

Perhaps this also shows that – when a person's attitude towards life changes, then life will also change to respond to it.

…………

In any case, after a year and three months, the hunting days came to an end.

Because the host… took "hunting" as an opportunity and came up with an even more interesting game.

When hunting, he almost always encountered people from the bottom of society; as the days went by, the types of prey became monotonous, which inevitably caused a sense of repetition; many times, the performance of several prey gave him a strong sense of déjà vu, and their reactions to various situations were very similar.

What the host hates most is this lack of freshness, he needs something new.

So, after some deliberation, the host came up with a model, which is the prototype of today's "show"…

Gathering a large group of people who are in, or have been in, the upper-middle class of society with money, and let them compete with each other through some kind of "game" – the winner will make a comeback, and the loser will be doomed.

This design allows him to see… to see the faces of those so-called "successful people" in certain extreme situations.

As a result… the first activity was a "great success" (in the host's opinion).

Even the host himself was surprised by the actions of these "elites," and he unexpectedly found that these people generally had a lower bottom line than the lower classes, and also had the courage to cross the line further.

At this point, the host finally determined that… organizing and watching such performances was his ultimate "entertainment."

Even if it costs a lot of money to do it every time, he thinks it's well worth it…

…………

"I think… everyone should be able to understand what I'm saying, right?" Two minutes after saying the previous sentence, the host spoke again, "If anyone doesn't understand, you can ask now."

"Excuse me…"

At this time, someone really raised their hand to ask a question.

It was a man wearing a golden crying face mask, his voice was high-pitched and bright, very ear-catching; his figure was also tall and sturdy… In addition to being close to 1.9 meters tall, he also had a body of solid muscles that was hard to hide even when wearing a suit.

“…How do you specifically define the ‘squandering and use’ you mentioned?” The man asked a question that many people wanted to ask, “For example… if you ask me to kill someone, do I have to go?”

"Yes." The host replied without thinking.

This answer caused another uproar in the crowd.

"Then…" At this time, a man with a beer belly, wearing a Peking Opera mask, and a deep voice raised his head and asked, "After killing someone on your orders, will you guarantee the safety of the person who did the killing for you?"

The host listened, smiled, and replied, "Not necessarily."

"What?" The short, fat man questioned, "What do you mean by not necessarily?"

"Is there any need to ask?" The next second, Feng Bujue, who was standing in the corner, interrupted before the host could speak, "After you shoot someone to death, do you immediately throw away the gun, or do you take the gun away and continue to use it next time?"

This sudden question caught the short, fat man off guard: "This…"

"There's not much to think about, the answer is 'it depends on the situation.'" Feng Bujue said, "If it's convenient, take it away, if it's not convenient, it's okay to throw it away."

"Hehehe…" At this moment, the host smiled again, he took over Jue Ge's words, and said, "This gentleman is right… A 'person who has become my property' is no different from a 'thing' in my eyes, and I will not give any promise to a 'thing'."

"But… at least for us at this moment, you will still keep your promises… right?" The golden mask man asked again at this time.

"Heh… of course." At this moment, under the host's mask, there was a sneer, "Everyone… is my 'guest'."