Chapter 1

I was so damn lonely. So, when I stumbled into this twisted game, I embraced it.

The long-haired ghost who actually *listened* to me? She became my little sister. The Shadow Boss who didn't *hate* me? He was my husband. And those ancient spirits, the ones who could slice through players like butter but actually ate my cooking? They were my parents.

First time we met, my new sister and I were playing cat's cradle.

The Shadow Boss was over there, smirking.

I got mad. "Don't you dare laugh! You try it, you can't do any better!"

The Shadow Boss's shadowy form rippled, solidifying into distinct limbs, and he glared at me, his teeth gritted.

"Are you saying *I* can't?"

0A flash of blinding white light, and I was standing in a perfectly ordinary village. A creepy mechanical voice whispered in my ear.

"Welcome to the 'Happy Hill Village' dungeon.

"Survival time limit for this dungeon: 7 days.

"Initial players: 30; Currently alive: 30.

"May your game be… unpleasant~"

I'm a total social butterfly when I'm scared of being alone, so seeing a whole crowd of people crammed together just made me even more excited.

I looked around, first spotting a student girl who was openly weeping.

"Waaah, where am I? I want to go home!"

I immediately rushed over, threw my arms around her, and tried my best to comfort her. "It's okay, it's okay! Look, we're all here together, it's actually pretty great, hahahaha!"

Next to us, a blonde guy named Brendan, with a short temper, snapped at me. "Do you even know where this is? What's so great about being stuck here?"

Just then, a man and a woman, Seraphina and Jax, introduced themselves as veteran players. They kindly began to explain things to us.

This was an infinite-flow game, only for those who had already passed away.

If you cleared all the dungeons or accumulated the legendary 9999 points, you'd earn the right to be resurrected.

The moment "resurrection" was mentioned, someone instantly pressed for details. "So, how many points do we get for clearing one dungeon?"

Seraphina explained. "It depends on your 'Scare Value' when you clear it. If your Scare Value hits 100, you die instantly. If you clear it with 99 Scare Value, you only get 1 point. And so on."

Scare Value, as the name implied, was how terrified you were.

Veteran players, once they got the hang of the game, could usually keep their Scare Value below 60.

I rubbed my chin, then asked, "What if you clear it with 0 Scare Value? Do you get 100 points then?"

The moment I said that, in places I couldn't see, countless bullet screen comments were mocking me.

[This newbie is full of big talk! Happy Hill Village is an S-rank dungeon, these new players aren't even a warm-up for the big boss!]

[Oh no, this random match-up only has Seraphina and Jax as veterans. Looks like another total party wipe. Hope they last long enough to scout some info for us.]

[Wasn't Sterling from the First Guild taken out here last time? He lasted until the sixth day, but then...]

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