Chapter 1: Labyrinth Survival 1
[Integration at 100%. Game initialization complete! System random deployment in progress…]
[Welcome to the Survival Game! Number of players in this round: 2,000.]
[You are currently in the Underground Labyrinth instance. You must survive and escape as quickly as possible.]
[Attention: The labyrinth’s layout changes every 48 hours. Please seize the optimal opportunity. Failure to escape means being trapped forever. Death in the game equals death in reality. Those who escape and perform well will receive generous rewards.]
A cold, mechanical system voice echoed from above.
No matter where they were, everyone was teleported by an unknown energy to a strange place. This illogical and absurd phenomenon filled everyone with panic. They suspected it was a dream, but this scene was actually happening.
Ten minutes ago, at 7:50 AM Beijing Time.
Outside the window, the sky was clear and the weather was beautiful.
Inside her cramped rental apartment, Chu Yun was devouring her breakfast elegantly yet rapidly. She had planned to go out and buy groceries for the upcoming week after she finished eating.
This was her first month since transmigrating back from the apocalypse.
In the apocalyptic world, supplies were scarce. For just a few bites of food, she had joined the city security squad, working bitterly day in and day out. Now, even though she still had to do odd jobs to earn money for meals, at least her life was stable. She didn’t have to tie her life to her waistband, constantly risking death.
Who knew that not even a month would pass before she heard the system prompt announcing the game’s initialization? Immediately after, she was pulled into the game to do this deadly survival mission.
Chu Yun cursed this broken game in her heart, but her body honestly and rapidly adapted to her surroundings.
She checked herself. Besides the long, solid black tracksuit she was wearing, there was nothing else. Just before the system’s final syllable dropped, the military knife and backpack full of dry rations she had casually grabbed had vanished into thin air.
What a scam!
Chu Yun sighed. She had no weapons and no food. The current situation was completely unknown, and the unknown was what caused the most fear. The system had just mentioned the labyrinth map changed every 48 hours, which meant the optimal escape window was two days. She had to take the opportunity to escape this place as soon as possible.
She looked around.
It looked like she was underground. It was dim and lacked sunlight, with a visibility range of only twenty meters; beyond that was pitch black. She stood in the middle of a corridor. It was so quiet that she could only hear her own heartbeat. She called out, and a few seconds later, only her echo returned. The sound had a strange, distorted feel to it.
She let out a confused “Huh,” and her body couldn’t help but shiver. Goosebumps popped up on her skin, and she didn’t dare to shout again.
The narrow, two-meter-wide corridor connected to one fork after another, so many that it was dazzling. On both sides were towering dirt walls that reached the ceiling. The dirt walls were incredibly thick and soundproof.
If she hadn’t been told this was a labyrinth, Chu Yun would have suspected she had been teleported into an underground catacomb.
After observing for a moment, she walked forward. Her footsteps were light, and she left marks on the dirt walls as she moved.
About four hours passed. Not only had she passed through repeating routes several times, but she hadn’t even seen a single person. It seemed this labyrinth instance was unimaginably huge. With a distribution density of 2,000 players, she had walked non-stop for four hours with zero chance of encountering anyone.
Her usually calm mood began to waver.
Dirt walls. Turning at a fork, still the exact same dirt walls. The action of repeating this thousands of times gave her a surreal illusion: had she fallen into a time loop, constantly repeating her previous actions and passing through the exact same paths?
Continuous fast walking consumed a lot of energy. Moreover, she hadn’t replenished her water or calories. Chu Yun was a bit tired now, and she prepared to stop, adjust, and rest.
She sat on the ground, leaning half against the wall, tilting her head up to observe her surroundings.
This labyrinth was different from any she had seen before. First, its area was exceptionally large; second, it lacked any patterns.
Chu Yun rapidly simulated in her mind: the Seven-Star Array, the Eight Trigrams, the Twelve Zodiacs, the Twenty-Four Solar Terms—none of these formations could be applied.
If it really was a labyrinth without a pattern, relying purely on luck would be risky. After all, luck was always a rather mystical thing.
Chu Yun felt a massive headache.
Suddenly, Chu Yun felt a gust of sinister wind blow over her head. The superhuman perception she had trained in the apocalypse made her exceptionally sensitive to danger, far beyond ordinary people. She quickly stood up, focused her mind, assumed a defensive stance, and stood ready.
Chu Yun didn’t look up, but she knew there must be something bizarre above her. She could feel an icy chill gradually spread from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. That bone-piercing coldness felt exactly like the disgusting gaze of an ogre wanting to swallow a living person whole back in the apocalypse.
She held her breath and concentrated, completely blending into the environment. In an instant, she spun around rapidly, her fists viciously striking at the two unidentified masses lunging at her.
Accompanied by ear-piercing shrieks, her powerful fists sank into something cold and sticky. A direct hit!
The two unknown masses were sent flying against a side wall by the formidable force. Only then did Chu Yun clearly see their true faces.
It was two ghosts, one black and one white. Their faces were pale and so emaciated that only bones seemed left. With only upper halves to their bodies, they floated in mid-air, lightly supporting each other to straighten their battered forms.
The looks they gave Chu Yun carried shock and fear. This human woman was different from all the previous players they had met. She could react in time even with her back turned, and she could actually punch them into a wall! How terrifying!
Chu Yun saw the red health bars floating above their heads—Remaining: 97%—and understood. The monsters here were digitized. Because she had attacked them, their health bars were now slightly shortened.
The white ghost turned its head and spoke coquettishly to the black ghost, “Hubby, I’m hungry. I haven’t eaten in so long, I want to eat her.”
That skeleton-like face actually possessed the charming voice of a young girl. Chu Yun felt a wave of chills and couldn’t help but shake off a layer of goosebumps.
The black ghost retracted its fierce expression and instead comforted the female ghost beside it: “Wifey, don’t rush. Wait until I beat her, then we’ll have a good meal.”
As soon as food was mentioned, their two large mouths grinned to an extremely exaggerated degree, and long strings of drool leaked from the corners of their lips.
Fuck! She had encountered two starving ghosts, and they were starving ghosts showing off their PDA.
Not giving them a chance to catch their breath, Chu Yun sprinted forward, ready to deal them a fatal blow.
Coming head-on was the male ghost. He opened his massive mouth and flailed his arms wildly, planning to tear Chu Yun to shreds.
But Chu Yun didn’t let him succeed. She swiftly dodged the male ghost’s attacks, throwing a left hook and a right kick, beating him until he was grimacing in pain and dizzy.
Seeing her husband getting beaten, the female ghost immediately disregarded everything and charged forward with a hysterical scream.
“You dare hit my hubby?! I’m going to eat you!”
Chu Yun sneered coldly. Heh! She’d beat them up one by one, or take them on as a pair.
Having tested their strength, Chu Yun struck without hesitation. She seized the opportunity, grabbed the female ghost by her hair, and yanked outward with all her might. The force was so great that she directly ripped off half the ghost’s hair, exposing the bleeding scalp.
“Ahhh! My beautiful hair! You damn human!” the female ghost howled in heartache as she looked at her hair scattered on the ground.
Chu Yun kicked off fiercely with her left foot, her body lightly flashing behind the female ghost. With one hand, she grabbed its hair and yanked, while her other hand forcefully rained down punches on its head, every strike landing squarely on its skull.
The rushing male ghost tried every method to get close to Chu Yun, but every time, Chu Yun used the female ghost’s body as a shield. Several times, he was moving too fast to pull his punches, and all his attacks landed on his own wife. The pain made the female ghost, who supposedly felt no physical pain, howl in agony.
Having suffered fatal blows, the female ghost lost health very quickly. Before long, her health bar hit zero.
Chu Yun tossed the female ghost aside, wiped a few drops of cold sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, and turned to stare at the male ghost, who bore a conflicted expression.
Only one left!
Seeing Chu Yun’s cold and ferocious gaze, the male ghost cowered slightly. This woman was a freak!
He turned around, wanting to flee the scene. But Chu Yun had long seen through his intentions. She rushed forward, planted her left leg, and unleashed a flying kick with her right, stomping viciously into the male ghost’s abdomen. The male ghost had no power to parry.
Health bar at 0.
Grumble.
Damn it. Not having eaten all morning, plus enduring a fight that consumed a massive amount of stamina, Chu Yun’s stomach began to protest.
……
After the health bars of the two ghosts lying on the ground hit 0, they dissolved into black smoke and dissipated into the air within five seconds. In their place, two gift boxes materialized on the ground. They were tightly wrapped, making it impossible to see what was inside.
The usually calm Chu Yun finally felt a ripple of emotion. What girl didn’t like the joy of opening a blind box?!
She carefully wiped both hands on the hem of her clothes, praying internally: Bless me, Lady Luck! Let me strike gold!
As soon as she touched a gift box, the system popped up a virtual interface with an explanation.
[Congratulations on defeating the labyrinth mob “Starving Ghost Couple”. Personal Interface unlocked. Acquired 60 Gold Coins (30×2).]
[Mob Drop Gift Box x2, please claim! Produced by the Survival Game, quality guaranteed!]
Chu Yun felt it out and quickly summoned her personal interface. It displayed:
Name: Chu Yun
Gold Coins: 60
Items: None
The rest of the interface was blank.
Following that, she carefully opened the first exquisite gift box. Inside lay a single card in the empty space.
It was a weapon item card that read: Indestructible Spiked Mace (Material: Steel, Specs: 63cm long, 27 spikes).
The other gift box contained food and water: 500ml Purified Water x1, Chicken Burger x2.
Chu Yun took out the card and clicked “use,” and a spiked mace immediately appeared on the ground. Exactly identical to the picture printed on the card, five large words were inscribed on the mace’s handle: Produced by Survival Game. Once an item card was used, it could only exist in physical form, so Chu Yun had no choice but to carry it with her.
She tested the mace out; it was very comfortable to wield. The sharp spikes just looked a bit terrifying. It would be too lethal against a human, but it was perfectly suited for smashing system monsters. This was the only offensive weapon she had obtained so far, and it was excellent for self-defense.
The chicken burgers were still steaming, as if fresh out of the oven. She ate a whole burger and drank half a bottle of water, instantly vastly improving her starved state. She stuffed the remaining one in her pocket; she didn’t know how much farther she still had to go, so she’d save this burger for later.
After resting for a moment, she prepared to hit the road again. It was consistently dim in here, and without a watch, there was no concept of time. Staying here too long made it easy to lose oneself. Based on her strict sense of time, about five hours had passed since she entered the game.
The monotonous dirt walls, the narrow and gloomy path, and the monsters hiding in unknown spaces—walking this whole way gave Chu Yun a hint of physiological nausea.
It was exceptionally quiet all around, with only the soft tapping of her footsteps on the ground audible. Another two hours passed, and still, she hadn’t encountered a single person. At this point, Chu Yun actually hoped a few game mobs would show up for her to beat up, just to farm some gold coins and food.
Just as she was thinking this, Chu Yun noticed an anomaly on a section of the dirt wall up ahead, close to the ground. Its color was slightly different from the rest. Had she not been observing carefully the entire time, an average person wouldn’t have noticed this minor detail.
She squatted down and ran her hand back and forth over the dirt wall, suddenly stopping at one spot and knocking on it with the back of her hand.
Knock, knock, knock!
The sound here was different from the rest. It sounded like there was an empty space inside.
