Arc 2: Internet Addiction Treatment Center
Chapter 26: Extra Points Reward
Source: https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=5039729
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com
“A headless corpse came in at midnight.”
Hua Qingjiu is a cold person, but he doesn't have the same arrogance of CEO Zuo Chu from being high and mighty for too long. He really doesn’t care much about things around him. You can’t even see the usual fear that normal people have on him. He talks and acts in a very short and simple way.
It’s a big contrast from Tang Zihang.
This wasn’t a good place to talk. After eating a quick breakfast, they went back to class. During the break, Qin Dongwan also told the other two what happened yesterday. It seemed like something serious happened last night. Several people didn’t make it through the night full of demons dancing around, and now the classroom looked a lot more empty.
"You don’t know how tragic Qi Sheng died last night. He was pulled by a hand that came out from the window. I wanted to help but I couldn’t! Later I got knocked out by something. When I woke up, there were guts and organs all over the floor..."
After Qin Dongwan finished telling the story, Tang Zihang jumped in and talked about his own terrible experience from last night. He waved his hands like crazy while talking, like he was scared people nearby wouldn’t see it. Qin Dongwan is eloquent and quick-witted, Luo Shu is super strong, and out of the three, only Tang Zihang felt out of place. Hua Qingjiu even started wondering why those two brought along a guy who is clearly a baggage.
"Please move your arm away. You just hit me."
After getting hit by Tang Zihang’s arm for the third time, Hua Qingjiu finally couldn’t stand his monkey-like behavior anymore. He got up and went back to his seat. The heavy mood got lighter right away because of those two, and Qin Dongwan quietly let out a breath. She was a little worried before that Hua Qingjiu might not want to help, but now it looked like she was just overthinking.
But no matter what, she couldn’t just watch that Zhu Jiancai keep acting so arrogant.
****
The whole morning passed quickly, and free time was set for the afternoon. Right after lunch, the group met up again. Hua Qingjiu acted fast and moved on his own, while the other three kept watch on Teacher Zhu to see when he would leave the treatment room.
The whole treatment room seemed like Zhu Jiancai’s kingdom. He had the power to kill or spare, dealing with students sent for shock treatment however he liked, and no one could report him. Everyone in the internet addiction center was in cahoots with him, which made this villain’s days extra easy and carefree.
After lunch, he even took a nap. A whole hour later, the man finally came out of the treatment room and headed straight south. Qin Dongwan, who was watching closely, gave the signal. Luo Shu, the fastest of them all, quietly followed right away. She held a piece of broken glass she picked up from the ground, like a wild beast ready to strike at any moment.
“Is this jerk going to the basketball court?”
After following for a bit, Tang Zihang, who was staying far behind with Qin Dongwan, noticed the path looked familiar. He could not help but lower his voice. What they saw at the basketball court yesterday was something they would never forget, so he remembered the route clearly. As Teacher Zhu walked faster and faster, Tang Zihang got nervous and sped up too.
“Shhh—”
Even though this was their first time tailing someone, this wasn’t some fun spy game. They were dealing with a real ghost, and if they slipped up, they could fall right off a cliff into a deep abyss. After going around a wall, Luo Shu used her small and flexible body to crouch down behind a short bush. Qin Dongwan quickly pulled Tang Zihang back just as he was about to follow. She leaned her head out a little and saw that Teacher Zhu had stopped walking and turned his head to look back.
She quickly pulled her head back in like a good student.
The waiting time felt extremely hard to bear. Every minute and second passed like being burned alive. Qin Dongwan didn’t even dare to breathe loudly. While trying hard to keep quiet, she glanced at Tang Zihang and saw him pressed flat against the wall, holding his breath with a serious face. Only then did she turn back.
“Fuck, this is a bit spooky.”
The man’s voice came with the wind. It was quiet but still made Qin Dongwan let out a breath. The sound of leather shoes walking away got softer and softer, and after she made sure the man had gone far, she peeked out again and quickly followed.
But what they didn’t notice was right after Tang Zihang left, the old professor suddenly appeared from behind the wall corner. He was staring in the direction they went with a gloomy face. His facial features looked really weird. His teeth, which were supposed to be yellow and dirty, were now all clean and white. One of his arms was longer than the other. His whole body looked like it had been put together wrong.
He ground his shiny sharp teeth together with a creaking sound. The old eyes full of crow’s feet narrowed a little, with a hint of murderous intent.
****
Teacher Zhu kicked the door open.
His usual habit was to take a nap after eating lunch, then come over and pick out some strong and young unlucky kid to use as a tonic. Young people's blood was fresh and tasty. The heat that flowed in their veins was full and burning. It was the sign of spirit and energy.
Everyone dreamed of living forever and staying young. But how many could really make it happen? Even he didn’t want to be like the old professor, using someone else’s skin just to barely stay alive. So he had to live by drinking blood. That’s why the Internet Addiction Treatment Center kept bringing in more young kids to suffer. It was all to serve them. Fame and money were nothing. What they really wanted was to keep their lives going forever.
He took out a lighter and lit a cigarette.
His picky eyes looked over each person one by one, and at last, they stopped on a strong-looking boy. Teacher Zhu rubbed his hands together and stepped forward with big strides straight toward the boy.
But right at that moment, the door got kicked open hard. A small figure flew in like the wind and punched him heavily.
“Ugh—”
The girl threw a fast punch, then kicked him right in the vital spot. Teacher Zhu's face twisted from the pain. Even though he was a ghost, because he survived by drinking human blood, he still had the same five senses and could feel pain just like people. Before he could react, Luo Shu jumped up and smashed a fist hard into his temple. The tall man blacked out and fell straight to the floor. The cigarette in his mouth also dropped onto the tiles.
"He's bleeding..." Tang Zihang, who was standing behind, muttered.
"That’s from his lip getting cut on his teeth. Don’t mind him. We need to move fast."
Ten days sounded like a lot of time, but the Internet Addiction Treatment Center was already starting to fall into chaos. It was clearly not a place they could stay in any longer. The sooner they escaped, the better their chances of surviving. Since they chose to take on this side mission, they had to escape in the next couple days. If Teacher Zhu was found or if he woke up and got out, they would really be in big trouble.
Qin Dongwan and Tang Zihang worked together to shove Teacher Zhu into the small room in the very back. But once they looked inside, they saw it was fully stocked with tools. He really did know how to “enjoy life”.
This guy looked skinny but wasn’t light. They first pulled off the bed sheet and used it as a rope to tie him up. Then they put the bloody knife and scissors far away from there. After doing everything, they finally felt at ease. But as they stepped out, they saw Hua Qingjiu already standing next to Luo Shu. His usual blank face showed a small crack when he saw them.
"You guys are too careless. That old professor followed you here and you didn’t even notice."
"The old professor!?"
Free activity time was usually when the teachers at the Internet Addiction Treatment Center all gathered for meetings. The old professor, being a top administrator, was definitely supposed to be at the meeting. Everyone naturally thought it was impossible for him to show up.
"Yes." Hua Qingjiu, who rarely sounded tense, spoke a bit fast, "He came out of the office still smiling, and he was holding a piece of chocolate in his hand. I lured him away before coming here, but the escape plan has to happen today. Otherwise, it'll be hard to hold out any longer."
"And also, I went to the library earlier. I saw a record saying there was a fire at the Internet Addiction Treatment Center that burned quite a few teachers to death. I forgot to tell you guys. I didn't find any other useful information."
It was still okay if Teacher Zhu was missing for one day, but if they delayed any longer, there was no way to keep it hidden. The sudden attention from the old professor caught them off guard. Even if he wouldn't come after them right away, just waiting around for death to come felt even more nerve-wracking. It was already too late to try and steal the key again. Qin Dongwan glanced at the lifeless people lying around on the ground, and a flicker of pity flashed through her eyes:
"So are we going with Plan Two for sure?"
"Plan One doesn’t have time anymore. Let’s begin."
To avoid accidents, they came up with two plans yesterday. The second one was actually similar to what Qi Sheng tried: create chaos. This kind of chaos could come from those who had already lost their minds. Once they got out, they would definitely alarm all the teachers at the Internet Addiction Treatment Center.
The gate guards would surely come out, and during the mess, they could use that chance to escape. Climbing over the electric fence or searching for a key was too dangerous, too slow, and too tiring. This was already the fastest way.
A bunch of blank, lifeless eyes looked toward them. The mouths with cut-off tongues could no longer make a sound. Deeply buried under confusion and numbness were the still-young souls of teenagers.
Hua Qingjiu was the first to act. The others followed him, squatting down and starting to untie the ropes around the kids. Qin Dongwan had just loosened one rope when she saw deep purple scars around the boy’s ankle in front of her.
He looked up and pulled his thin body back. There was fear and panic on his young face. But the shape of his lips said something that made Qin Dongwan understand right away, even though she did not know how to read lips.
Source: https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=5039729
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com
He was almost completely numb, but he still mouthed the words:
"Thank you."
….
Maybe it was from a burst of emotion, or maybe all the pressure from the past few days came pouring out at this moment. The sour feeling and the guilt filled up Qin Dongwan’s eyes in an instant, and her hands stopped moving without her meaning to.
She was a person first, and then a player in this game. Maybe when the moment came, she would choose to save her own life. But right now, when things hadn’t gone completely hopeless yet, she just couldn’t push these people out to die.
Even if they were NPCs, they were still people living inside this level. They had their own joys and sorrows, and a life that should have belonged to them. The iron claws from hell had already crushed the wings that were supposed to spread open. If she let these people out now and the teachers thought they were the ones who caused Teacher Zhu’s problem, it would be like adding salt to injury.
“…Luo Shu, do you want to go do something big?”
Luo Shu had just untied three people. She looked back, and right at that moment, saw the tears shining in the eyes of that naked boy.
….
After a whole day of living in fear, when the review class after dinner started, Qin Dongwan kept feeling like the old professor’s eyes were sticking to her and Tang Zihang. He also stared at Hua Qingjiu from time to time. The chill on her back felt like a sharp thorn, as if the old professor who was smiling gently on stage right now could show a scary face the next second and charge into the crowd.
Right before the bell rang, after making sure everyone finished writing their self-reflection, the old professor suddenly cleared his throat. He opened the drawer on the podium and pulled out a photo, and his face looked very excited. From the way his duck-like voice rambled, it turned out this was a photo he took with a student who left the center a while ago. After leaving, that student thanked him again and again, treating him almost like a second father.
These shady treatment centers, besides using force, also used brainwashing or threats and tricks to make students spread good words about them. They covered up everything with a sweet and warm-looking shell to fool outsiders. While talking, the old professor also walked around and showed the photo to every student one by one. From time to time, he got a few fake compliments from the crowd.
He became even more full of himself.
The photo reached Qin Dongwan. She felt the old professor’s gaze holding a deeper meaning as he looked at her. The hand resting on her shoulder still had a normal human temperature, but it was not the kind of hand that grew with old skin full of wrinkles. This one was young, a little rough, with the skin only men had.
The warmth coming from it slowly turned into cold waves wrapping around her. Qin Dongwan held her breath on purpose so she would not smell the disgusting scent coming from his body. Instead, she focused hard on the photo.
The photo really was taken just a few days ago. The date was clear. The boy’s happy face didn’t look fake. The old professor also had a very pleased look, with his wrinkled old face smiling like a blooming chrysanthemum. It really looked like a touching scene of “being thankful to a great teacher.”
Wrong.
The moment a spark of light flashed in her mind, the old professor had already pulled the photo away and handed it to the student behind her. If she asked him to take it back now, it would make her look too suspicious. Today had already drawn enough attention, and she couldn’t stir up more trouble at this time. Qin Dongwan clenched her fists in worry. When she turned her head, she saw Tang Zihang and Luo Shu sitting behind her, staring at her strange expression without blinking.
The eyes, the eyes, look at the eyes.
Qin Dongwan pointed to her own eyes, then secretly pointed at the old professor.
Luo Shu didn’t respond. But Tang Zihang stuck his head out and looked at the old professor, then looked at her again, with a bit of confusion on his face.
“Pho-to!”
To keep from using too many words that were hard to understand, Qin Dongwan mouthed the word and used hand gestures to help. But in the end, it still made nearby classmates look over, so she had to sit back down awkwardly and stay still.
Time passed second by second. When the bell finally rang and most people left the room, Luo Shu walked up and gently touched her fingertip. Her voice was so quiet that only the two of them could hear it:
“The eyes are almost exactly the same.”
There was indeed something wrong.
The earlier quick look only made things feel a bit off. It needed more time and careful watching to finally reach this conclusion. Qin Dongwan thought about what Zhao Yuju and Yang Chunyan had told her before, and now a blurry path slowly started to become clear.
As long as the Internet Addiction Treatment Center kept bringing in new people, the students’ tragedy would keep repeating, over and over again, never ending. They knew the students would turn into fierce ghosts, but they were not afraid at all. That was because the two most important people here, the old professor and Teacher Zhu, both had the power to live forever.
These two were also the most evil beasts.
At noon, they could have used the chance to let out those people trapped by Teacher Zhu at the basketball court. That would most likely let them escape during the mess. But Qin Dongwan did not want to. No matter how bad this place was, it was only the first level of the game. The difficulty was not that high, so she dared to take a risk.
Teacher Zhu stayed alive by drinking the blood of young kids. The old professor stayed alive by killing people and taking their body parts to patch himself together. Teacher Zhu was knocked out and could not drink blood for now. But the old professor only needed to follow the rules of the game, pick an unlucky one who made a mistake, and he could kill again.
Today, she would be that “unlucky one.”
The old professor was walking fast. He was hurrying to his own office. Usually, after class, he always picked on someone for doing something wrong. Then he would either send them to the electric shock treatment room or ask them to go into his office. Anyone who came out without missing an arm or a leg was really very lucky.
But today, he looked relaxed. He did not waste time after class at all. This was very different from how he usually acted.
Qin Dongwan ran in the opposite direction, heading for the other stairwell.
When she reached the office door, panting hard, she really did see that boy from the photo sitting inside, writing and drawing something. She quietly gripped the glass shard she had found earlier, knocked on the door, and walked in.
The girl was young and pretty. She was tall, with perfect curves, and her body shape was nearly flawless. Her long dark brown hair was smooth and lay softly behind her back. Her delicate face didn’t look aggressive at all. It made the boy excited right away, and his eyes began to look around at her body in a restless way. Qin Dongwan used one hand to scratch her neck gently. She softened her voice on purpose and said:
“Excuse me, is Professor Zhou here?”
“My… Professor Zhou went out to teach. He should be back very soo—”
The sheep that looked gentle and easy to bully suddenly tore off its mask. The boy felt a chill on his neck. A sharp piece of glass was already pressed against it. Qin Dongwan did not hesitate at all. The shard cut through the thin layer of skin, and blood started to seep from the wound. It hurt so much that the boy gasped.
“Don’t move if you don’t want to die!”
Because players could only move around inside the Internet Addiction Treatment Center, ghosts could only appear inside the center too. This guy clearly just came sometimes to help his father act out the show. If not, the old professor would not have been that excited. Qin Dongwan kept the shard pressed to his neck while stepping back. Soon, she was standing in the corner next to the desk.
The night grew deeper, but the streetlights outside still didn’t turn on. Only the dim light inside the office made it possible to see the old professor walking this way. His hunched back from far away looked like a kind and gentle old man at the end of his life. The files also wrote about him like that. Seeing the curtain in the office half pulled down, the old professor started walking faster.
Tap, tap, tap.
The sound of leather shoes felt like a heavy hammer, hitting the heart again and again.
Sweat slowly began to come out from Qin Dongwan’s palm.
The person who came in had no shadow. When his eyes landed on her, his look changed from surprised to full of killing intent. The old professor opened his mouth. The red half-cut tongue moved slowly inside, wiggling with every word. His voice was rough and harsh, like torn cloth being ripped apart:
“Let him go—”
“Then let’s see whose move is faster—yours or my glass shard!”
The old professor’s son was a bit shorter than Qin Dongwan, so her line of sight could just go over his head and lock straight onto the evil ghost at the door, ready to strike. Under the dim light, that whole face turned a scary bluish-gray color. Both eyeballs were swallowed up by cloudy white, packed full of blood veins. After Qin Dongwan finished her tough words, that dry, peeling mouth also pulled into a stiff twitch.
Five fingers turned sharp like spikes, and one claw tore through the silent air, going straight for her face. Qin Dongwan pushed the glass shard forward, cutting a deeper line into his son’s neck, almost touching the artery.
That sharp ghost claw stopped hard just two steps in front of her.
Dirty blood mixed with yellow pus slowly dripped from his rotting claw. The professor’s bloodshot eyes looked especially empty. Even without pupils, Qin Dongwan could still feel that creepy stare stabbing at her face like it wanted to poke a hole straight through.
The foul stench was right in front of her nose. Death was just nearby. Every second pulled her nerves tight. She didn’t even dare to blink or breathe too deep. Each breath felt like drowning in killing intent. Qin Dongwan quietly counted numbers and pressed a little harder with the shard...
A cry of pain came out from the boy’s throat, and at that moment, it fully enraged the old professor. The roaring ghost charged straight forward, and Qin Dongwan could even see his ugly face growing huge right in front of her eyes. That salty-smelling drool dripped onto her body. Time stretched into a slow crawl, and the stinky air made her head dizzy.
The window was suddenly shoved open with a loud bang. The next second, an ear-piercing scream exploded right beside Qin Dongwan’s ears. A burnt, nasty smell quickly spread inside the room. Qin Dongwan quickly let go of the boy and stepped back, leaving him to stumble and crash onto the desk nearby, his face full of shock.
“Dad—”
The screaming ghost rolled around wildly in the flames. In just a few moments, it melted into a pool of blood. Its skin got emptied out, bones scattered everywhere. Inside the burning fire, the ghost’s shape slowly turned see-through, waving its claws, trying to stand up. Qin Dongwan didn’t dare stay any longer. She rushed out the door.
“Where are Tang Zihang and Hua Qingjiu?”
“Both of them are already at their spots.”
Standing behind the window was Luo Shu. The firelight from inside lit up her small body, and it made her blank face look kind of spooky. The boy’s heartbroken wails came through the window, but to her, it just felt annoying.
“Are you done? If yes, then hurry up.”
“Let’s go.”
There was no time left. The two of them said just a few words and then split up. Qin Dongwan took the lighter from Luo Shu’s hand, turned around, and dashed straight toward the nearby treatment room.
Tonight, the Internet Addiction Treatment Center was fated to be a sleepless night.
The night was thick like a puddle of ink spread over the sky. It was stuck and didn’t move slowly. There were no stars or moon up high, and the cool wind that used to brush past the ears was also gone. Deep inside the Internet Addiction Treatment Center stood an old small building. It looked broken, but this was the real center.
If the entire center was the devil, the treatment room was its heart and lifeline. The dirty water that flowed slowly was like blood sent from all directions. It kept taking life to feed its evil and strange power. It raised the little demons of this hell.
The electric current in the water slowly became clear. Sparks could be seen flying a little. Qin Dongwan picked up a long tree branch, lit it, and threw it out. All in one go.
She turned around and ran.
“Boom—”
The crackling explosions sounded like someone pressed the switch of the real night. The Internet Addiction Treatment Center shook, like something under the ground was struggling and trying to break out. The gray shadow lying in front of the dorm building suddenly started to move slowly. The empty music room suddenly played sweet piano music... In every classroom, office, and even in the muddy ground, strange figures shot up like crazy.
The darkness began to fade. Thick light-gray clouds rolled non-stop in the sky. A huge thunderstorm started to brew. But the treatment room, which had stood for many years in the Internet Addiction Treatment Center and was never torn down, and somehow was hidden from everyone, was the first to be swallowed by another big fire before the storm came.
The ivy on the wall got burned. The white walls had turned gray and black. The paint peeled off little by little and fell into the flames. The fire licked every corner wildly and greedily. Qin Dongwan ran desperately, she didn’t look back, but she could smell the burning stink mixed with the smell of dead bodies.
The screams and curses got closer to her ears. She could hear the happy voices of students climbing over the gate and running out. Some were NPCs still suffering, and some were players like them. Closer and closer, she saw Hua Qingjiu quickly dodge the crowd and climb over the gate. She also saw Tang Zihang, who was hiding from people while peeking around.
“Run—”
Now was not the time to talk about loyalty!
Too bad her voice got drowned in a second. Tang Zihang didn’t hear it. He was still standing on a high place, looking eagerly to see if his teammates came back. Qin Dongwan didn’t have time to care about him either. She was about to run to the gate too, but someone next to her bumped into her hard and made her stumble. The screaming hurt her ears. When she turned her head, she saw the Dorm Teacher running this way in high heels like crazy.
Her face had somehow been burned black, but even in the night it looked very clear. Qin Dongwan’s nerves jumped. The short distance made hope burn bright. She forced her legs, which were almost numb, to run like mad.
Swish swish swish—
Pale arms broke out from the ground and reached up to the sky. They didn’t care who was who and started grabbing unlucky people’s legs to drag them down. The ghost students here had some with deep grudges piled up for a long time. Their minds were fully wiped, and they just wanted to drag everyone to hell with all their might.
At the moment she rushed to the gate, Qin Dongwan turned her head by instinct. She saw a small figure in a bright black dress charging through the crowd like a tank. Blood sprayed like a fountain wherever the blade in her hand passed. The chopped-off hands were kicked away by little patent leather heels, spinning in the air. Luo Shu’s pale little face was covered in blood. Her crazy look made her seem even more like a demon from hell than the ghosts in the Internet Addiction Treatment Center.
A killing machine without feelings. A Shura battlefield girl.
As this sentence flashed through Qin Dongwan’s mind, that blood-stained, extra-beautiful little face was already right in front of her eyes. Her face was cold, and the killing aura she hadn’t fully shown before burst out now. Bringing a bloody storm in a low-level level—that was the real pose of the killing god Luo Shu.
“Not leaving?”
“…Leaving.”
The thunder dragon rolling in the sky let out its final roar. A moment later, it raised its head high and dived down, crashing straight into the treatment room burning with crackling fire. One bolt of thunder after another struck from the sky. The last thing Qin Dongwan saw was bricks and tiles breaking and flying, and the pale arms that had burst out of the ground all frozen in the moment of destruction. They stretched straight to the sky and dug strong roots in this dirty, muddy mess.
The loud, sorrowful cries slowly faded into the rumbling thunder.
I'll roast a fresh brain for you,
I'll roast a fresh heart for you,
I'll put makeup on you, to cover the little corpse spots,
I'll help you take out what you won’t need in the future,
You’ve got to fly high on the track.
Child, speak, Mom and Dad love you.
Child, speak, we’re teaching you to become successful. [1]
The children grew up strong under the “great blueprint” made by their parents and the teachers at the Internet Addiction Treatment Center. But the price they paid was their soul and life. The Internet Addiction Treatment Center, wrapped in fake shiny skin, looked bright and nice on the outside, but inside it was held up by rotten flesh and mud.
Sexual assault, electric shocks, and all kinds of pain cruelly broke the wings that hadn’t even grown yet. While shouting about love, they pushed their own kids straight into endless hell with their own hands.
No one knows how many more guests from all over the country this already sick and rotten Internet Addiction Treatment Center still has to welcome. The sad stories of people like Yang Chunyan and Zhao Yuju, Wei Zi and Xiao Qin—how many more times must they be repeated?
The only way to truly stop this kind of thing is to make the Internet Addiction Treatment Center disappear completely.
….
[Congratulations on clearing and escaping the Internet Addiction Treatment Center. Number of survivors: 9]
[Player Qin Dongwan current points: 200 (Because you triggered a hidden plot, your rating this time is S. You get 100 bonus points plus 20 extra reward points)]
When she opened her eyes, she was back in the same supermarket. But this time, the fear from before was gone. After a wave of dizziness, Qin Dongwan barely stood firm. Then she saw Tang Zihang next to her with a shocked face, and Luo Shu with no expression.
“Fuck, I got over a hundred points? Isn't that awesome?”
Even though Qin Dongwan was the main one to trigger the side plot, Tang Zihang was part of it too, so he also got to share the point bonus. His score shot up right away. The rewards this time were especially rich. Both Qin Dongwan and Luo Shu got full points, which are usually easier to get only on the first level.
“Not bad. We’ll probably reach the second level in the next round.”
The higher you go, the harder it gets. But the rewards will also grow. For someone like Luo Shu, who was extremely capable, staying on the first level was just a waste of time and effort. The girl smiled with real joy for once and casually picked a bag of tomato-flavored chips and held it:
“Better make good use of your time. If you come out of the third round alive, the rest stop will move to a new place.”
After working together for two full rounds, Luo Shu was fairly satisfied with Qin Dongwan. At least her so-called kindness wasn’t the kind of dumb, useless kindness. She had seen many people betray their teammates and run away at the key moment. She had also seen people throw themselves in just to save others and end up dead. This kind of kindness had a bit of sharpness. That was just right.
After grabbing some snacks and ingredients, the group walked out from the dark chaos. With the experience from last time, they quickly found the resting spot for clearing this round of the Internet Addiction Treatment Center. The setup of rest stops was mostly the same. There weren’t many people. Qin Dongwan went into the kitchen first and made two simple home-style dishes—shredded potato with pork and tomato egg stir-fry. She saw Hua Qingjiu standing alone nearby, so she quickly waved to him in a friendly way.
“Brother Hua, wanna try joining our team?”
After handing him a bowl and chopsticks, Qin Dongwan heard a “Thank you,” and right after that, almost without pause, came a “Okay.” Her face showed surprise.
Hua Qingjiu was strong, calm, and never panicked. He had excellent game sense, and it was clear he was someone who could make it to the later stages. Thinking of the tragic ending for the “Qin Dongwan” and Luo Shu in the original book, which all had to do with the female lead, the idea of building her own team started to take root in Qin Dongwan’s heart from this round on.
She thought Hua Qingjiu was a lone wolf, she didn’t expect him to agree so easily.
The man's cold and deep temperament was somewhat similar to Luo Shu's, but compared to the berserk loli who'd throw punches at the drop of a hat, he was even more lacking in human warmth, almost as if he didn't even have a temper of his own. Outside, Qin Dongwan would probably have a hard time getting along with someone like that, but under the pressure of a death game hanging over everyone’s head, filling out the team as soon as possible was the only way to slightly increase the survival rate.
The food at the Internet Addiction Treatment Center was really nothing to write home about. A lot of people who came out of there headed straight to the kitchen to make instant noodles or throw together a quick dish. For a while, the place was actually quite lively with people coming and going. After Hua Qingjiu agreed to join the team, he went completely silent, eating with his head down and not saying a word. Only after he finished eating did he register formally as a member. The rest didn’t have the energy to discuss much either and went back to their rooms to rest.
In the room.
[Next level unlocks in: 2 days.]
[The advanced level has opened. Now announcing the players entering the second level: Qin Dongwan, Luo Shu, Hua Qingjiu, Tang Zihang, Yan Lei, Jiang Wantong.]
[Some team arrangements have changed. Teammates will enter the level together. If there’s a level difference, the team will be temporarily changed. Players with the same level will challenge the level together.]
As the broadcast sounded, three cards suddenly appeared in front of Qin Dongwan.
The words “Draw a Card” shimmered faintly across them.
Author's Note:
[1] From “Child, We Love You”.
The next level will be set in a Chinese horror background, and the difficulty will increase. By the way, starting tomorrow, the update will be late during the National Day holiday. Sorry, I will go out to play during the day and come back to write at night. After the National Day, I will save the draft to ensure the update time!
The article will probably be revised after the National Day holiday.
—
T/N: “Child, We Love You” is a poem posted by a zhihu user named Xi Xiaolin (汐小林) as answer to a zhihu question “How do you evaluate Yang Yongxin?”
Poem goes:
I give you a brand-new Auschwitz,
I give you a finely crafted hell,
I give you a plump and juicy body,
I lift your skull and steal your tender brain,
The intestines I dug out are a bright red, very cute,
The green flies on your rotting body look crystal clear,
I'll roast a fresh brain for you,
I'll roast a fresh heart for you,
I'll put makeup on you, to cover the little corpse spots,
I'll help you take out what you won’t need in the future,
You’ve got to fly high on the track.
Child, speak, Mom and Dad love you.
Child, speak, we’re teaching you to become successful.
Child, speak, You love us.
Child, speak, You love the world.
—
-Zhihu is an online Q&A platform similar to Quora
-Yang Yongxin is a Chinese psychiatrist who advocated and practiced a highly controversial form of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) without anesthesia or muscle relaxants as a cure for video game and Internet addiction in adolescents.
Despite widespread criticism and media investigations into his methods, he continued to operate his treatment center for years. The practice of ECT was banned in 2009, but he later switched to a different method called “low-frequency pulse therapy,” which former patients claim is even more painful.
He is currently the deputy chief of the Fourth Hospital of Linyi (Linyi Mental Hospital), in the Shandong province of China.
