Chapter 1 The End and the Beginning

Uncle Yan Hui was away on business, or maybe he wasn't.

Mingmei, having endured three consecutive days of all-day classes, finally breathed a sigh of relief upon confirming she only had two online courses tomorrow, and pre-recorded ones at that. She planned to dive into the game and earn some much-needed credits.

As soon as she logged in, she discovered a new installment in the survival game series. Seeing the wailing in the game's comment section, Mingmei sensed trouble.

This ominous premonition was completely confirmed when she entered the game: *Lady黛薇's Villa*.

At this moment, Mingmei observed her surroundings. She was standing in the back garden of a European-style villa. The crimson moonlight of the full moon cast a soft, pinkish glow on the white roses huddled in the corners.

Perhaps it was her imagination, but she thought she saw human faces on those white roses.

*Was this going to be another paranormal survival game?*

Mingmei thought, then looked down and felt a wave of absurdity.

She looked at her hands.

They were the hands of a doll, not human hands.

From her hands, up her arms, to her chest and stomach, ran crude, dark stitches.

*The stitcher's skills are really lacking,* Mingmei thought in an self-consoling way.

The next second, she realized something else. Even with her own face, some people didn't buy her boxed lunches.

(Lu Xiaoyao, I'm talking about you, pointing fingers.jpg)

*Wouldn't it be even harder to get people to recognize me and buy my boxed lunches now?*

"Xiongxiong, what are you doing here?"

Just as Mingmei was sinking into the sad emotions of selling no boxed lunches, a slightly hoarse female child's voice suddenly sounded behind her.

Mingmei shuddered, turning her clumsy body around. When she turned her head, she saw a face so close that it made her hair stand on end!

The eyes of the little girl in front of her were completely black, constantly oozing crimson blood. Large patches of blue and purple bruises covered her face, seemingly telling Mingmei that this NPC was not human!

Mingmei subconsciously wanted to scream, but when she opened her mouth, she realized something else – her mouth seemed to be sealed with stitches.

She couldn't make a sound.

"Aiya, Xiongxiong, do you want to talk?" The little girl opened her mouth and let out a spine-chilling giggle. Mingmei wanted to turn and run, but her hand was tightly grasped by the other party, unable to move.

It was then that Mingmei realized that she seemed to be about the same height as the little girl.

"Why does Xiongxiong want to leave Vivian? Isn't Vivian good enough to you?" The little girl was wearing a wine-red Gothic lace-trimmed dress. Mingmei immediately saw the specks of scarlet on the snow-white lace, and she mentally screamed for help.

[Guigui! Save me! Save me!]

Guigui: [Host, relax. You're not a player.]

[So... does that mean she's the boss this round? Huh?]

[One of the bosses, maybe. Host, don't be afraid. You have to know that you're a professional NPC. Under normal circumstances, the boss won't do anything to you~]

[But... aren't you scared when the boss hugs you and drags you around?]

While Mingmei was talking to Guigui in her mind, her entire doll body was being dragged forward by the little girl in a kind of "chokehold."

After passing through the back garden, Mingmei turned her head to look at her reflection in the glass wall a second before entering the villa.

Never mind, better not to look.

It was a toy teddy bear, ugly and hideous.

She could imagine how the players would feel when they saw this toy bear, covered in stitches and with half of its eyeball hanging out of its face, greeting them.

Help!

She was collapsing herself!

Just as Mingmei clearly realized her inner collapse, the little girl, who had been "choking" her, suddenly straightened up as if sensing something. She quickened her pace, dragging her up the stairs. While running, she heard the other party say, "Must hide well, can't be discovered~"

[What do I do now?]

Watching herself being taken away to hide by the little girl, Mingmei felt that she probably wouldn't be able to sell boxed lunches again tonight.

[Wait and see, Host. It's not your time to appear yet.]

Guigui comforted her, and also proposed a brilliant idea, [How about I broadcast Lu Xiaoyao's live stream to you, Host~]

Mingmei: "..." Isn't that supposed to be the default?

...

On the other side, Lu Xiaoyao, who had just entered the game, was already stunned by the game and the number of players in this round.

There were a full ten people.

Lu Xiaoyao, Lu Gui, Mu Chen, the Zhen brothers, Julian, Wang Wenfei, Bai Xiao, Yuan Fang, and Madison.

"My God, are we all the same identity in this round?"

Lu Xiaoyao looked at the others around her. Everyone's clothes were exactly the same as hers.

Unlike the medieval European-style villa behind them, they were all wearing modern security guard uniforms.

"Looks like it."

Julian held a newspaper with the recruitment advertisement for the Lady 黛薇's Villa theme hotel catching everyone's eyes.

"High-paying recruitment of night hotel patrol security personnel..." Lu Xiaoyao leaned closer to look at the recruitment advertisement in the newspaper, and couldn't help but click her tongue, saying, "Wow, daily pay, 500 U.S. dollars a day, this salary..."

"There's a problem." Before Lu Xiaoyao could say it, someone else had already said it. There must be something fishy about this!

"As for what the problem is, I think the headline on the front page of this newspaper can explain it."

Wang Wenfei also flipped through the front page headline of the newspaper she had brought to apply for the job – about the cases of wild animals attacking guests at the Lady 黛薇's Villa theme hotel for three consecutive nights.

This time, their hotel was also hiring these night security patrol personnel at a high salary to eliminate the wild animals that attacked at night.

"Aha! As expected, high salaries are a trap. It would be weird if there weren't wild animals in a hotel built in the depths of the mountains!"

Hu Yue looked around. Except for the faint lights coming from the gate of the theme hotel behind them, the surrounding environment was extremely dark, and the sound of insects could be heard from time to time.

Very wild.

"Speaking of which, why is this hotel in the depths of the mountains?"

A group of people walked towards Lady 黛薇's Villa. Because everyone had the same identity, it was not difficult to exchange information with each other along the way.

"I heard that Lady 黛薇's Villa was a house built in the mid-20th century by an U.S.A. businessman for his mistress. After that, upper-class banquets and dances were often held here. For a period of time, Lady 黛薇's Villa was almost synonymous with upper-class luxury banquets.

Many years later, it was rebuilt into a theme hotel, still using this as a gimmick to attract celebrities and wealthy people to come here for dinner and parties."