***
Bonus chapter! Thank you to --- for the donation! ^^
***
Ruan Qing’s eyes widened. The moment he sensed the passage shifting, he tried to run toward the two men—but he was too slow. He could only watch helplessly as the rising wall cut off his view of them.
Then he slammed into the wall himself, the impact sending him stumbling back until he fell to the ground.
No… If he hadn’t slowed down at the last second, the wall would have crushed him into pulp.
This maze was trying to kill him.
This was the first time Ruan Qing had ever truly felt killing intent—directed at him.
Something had interfered with this game, this carefully woven trap meant for him.
Yes, a trap meant for him alone.
He’d known for a long time that this game was connected to him. Even though the dungeon bosses all looked completely different, the aura they carried was identical—obsessive, suffocating, barely restrained madness.
As if… they all came from the same being.
The endless cycle of games only proved it further. 'His' power was too overwhelming, too domineering, with an invasive, corrupting influence. His avatars had spread throughout the entire game world.
NPCs, players, even the people who had raised Ruan Qing in his own world.
Though these avatars were deranged and obsessive, desperate to trap him or force him to stay in the dungeons, they had never truly wanted him dead. He had never sensed real killing intent from them—until now.
Just moments ago, he had detected a trace of power that didn’t belong to 'Him'. Faint, almost imperceptible, but undeniably real.
Someone had interfered with the game. And this interference was likely the cause of the dungeon’s sudden changes.
Whoever had intervened must know everything—about Ruan Qing, and about 'Him'.
—Xiao Mingyu.
The name flashed through Ruan Qing’s mind. The one interfering with the game… it had to be Xiao Mingyu.
Everything about Xiao Mingyu was suspicious. After all, those targeted by Death Call rarely survived more than five days. Even the vice president of the Yong’an Guild had only lasted six. But Xiao Mingyu was different.
From the moment he began self-harming to his final jump from the building, nearly half a month had passed. He was the only one who had held on for so long.
His target… was Ruan Qing.
Did Xiao Mingyu want to kill him? Was Xiao Mingyu 'His' enemy? Or… Ruan Qing’s own?
Ruan Qing lowered his gaze slightly. Then, bracing himself against the wall, he pushed himself up and slowly walked away.
As he walked, he closed his eyes and hypnotized himself in his mind, forcibly changing the thing he feared.
He wanted to see Xiao Mingyu. He wanted to know what had really happened back then. And he wanted to know—who was that person he had been determined to meet, even after losing his memory?
He wanted to know if that person… was 'Him'.
If the system refused to tell him, then he would find the answers himself.
Within the rules of the Infinite Horror Game, no power could surpass the dungeon—not even the game's main system.
And the core of this dungeon was the Nightmare World. As long as he altered the thing he feared, the Nightmare World would inevitably change with it.
When Ruan Qing opened his eyes again, the surroundings had already transformed, taking on the appearance of reality.
The live-stream audience, who had been watching the entire time, was stunned.
[Holy shit!!! My wife is so badass—he actually also managed to forcibly change the thing he fears!]
["Also"? Has someone else done this before?]
[Yeah, that big shot Feng Ye from the Yong'an Guild. He forcibly altered the Nightmare World once, but he wasn’t as OP as my wife. My wife changed it in the blink of an eye—how insane is that?]
[Shit, now I’m worried. Changing the Nightmare World too many times will assimilate you into it. Feng Ye fell in this dungeon exactly like that, remember?]
Assimilation into the Nightmare World would blur the line between reality and nightmare, eroding memories and perception until the victim died within the nightmare.
Yet aside from the viewers who had witnessed Feng Ye’s demise, no other players knew that the Nightmare World could assimilate people.
Not even the players waiting in the game’s main hub to watch the stream were aware—because they couldn’t find any livestream of the <Death Call> dungeon. It was as if no players were currently inside.
But the problem was, four high-level players and six mid-level players had just entered this dungeon. There was no way none of them had opened a live stream.
Clearly, the <Death Call> dungeon’s streams were no longer accessible to players. And the players inside the dungeon… had no idea.
***
Morning.
The university campus bustled with students—some on their way to class, others heading to breakfast. Everything seemed peaceful and ordinary.
Then, a scream shattered the calm of the dawn.
"Ahhh!!! Someone's dead! Someone jumped off the building and killed themselves!"
"It looks like Xiao Mingyu! Xiao Mingyu jumped!"
"Call an ambulance! Hurry, call an ambulance!"
"He's dead! He's already dead! Call the police!"
The moment Ruan Qing heard the commotion, he knew he had succeeded. He quickly pushed through the growing crowd.
On the lawn behind the teaching building lay an unnaturally twisted corpse. Dark red blood pooled beneath it, staining the grass and the earth below.
Some of the blood on the grass had already dried, proving that Xiao Mingyu hadn’t just fallen—he had been dead for a while.
Yet, despite that, Xiao Mingyu’s corpse still had its eyes wide open, staring unblinkingly in one direction with hollow pupils filled with unmistakable resentment and unwillingness.
And that direction was straight at Ruan Qing.
At some point, all the surrounding noise had vanished. The students were gone.
The entire world seemed to consist only of Ruan Qing… and that grotesque, twisted corpse.
Then, suddenly, the corpse moved.
Like something reanimated, ‘Xiao Mingyu’ turned his empty eyes and fixed them directly on Ruan Qing. His lips curled into a ghastly smile as he began dragging his mangled body forward, inch by inch—as if determined to pull Ruan Qing down into hell with him.
Even though Ruan Qing had mentally prepared himself, facing this nightmare-inducing scene still drained the color from his face.
He stood frozen, fingers clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
Had he guessed wrong?
Was Xiao Mingyu not the one interfering with the game? Was his target not him after all?
The deformed corpse was now within arm’s reach. After surviving so many dungeons, Ruan Qing was no longer the helpless, fearful person he’d once been—yet he made no move to attack. Instead, he turned and ran.
If the System didn’t care whether he cleared the dungeon or not, then even his avatar’s words couldn’t be trusted.
Meaning, killing the thing he feared might not be the right choice. Acting recklessly could instead trap him in this dungeon forever.
The corpse, with its broken joints and twisted limbs, couldn’t move very fast, so Ruan Qing managed to keep a safe distance without too much effort.
Taking a deep breath, he suppressed his nausea and terror. As he ran, he stole a few cautious glances back at the corpse. It showed no signs of independent thought—only a single-minded determination to kill him.
The corpse was neither an avatar of 'Him' nor any conscious entity—let alone the Xiao Mingyu he had been searching for.
The so-called nightmare world seemed to be nothing more than an illusory construct, shaped by the subconscious of those trapped within it.
Yet, even if it was an illusion, it was deadly all the same. Ruan Qing's strength was already waning from the relentless chase, but the corpse pursuing him showed no sign of fatigue.
At this rate, it was only a matter of time before he was caught.
Ruan Qing decisively shut his eyes, attempting to alter the nightmare world once more.
But just as he began to focus, hurried footsteps echoed behind him. In the next moment, he was pulled into a warm embrace.
"Are you alright?"
The scene felt eerily familiar—only this time, the "hero" had changed. Now, it was the male classmate from the study hall who had "saved" him.
Ruan Qing stared at the classmate in stunned silence, finally realizing the crux of the problem. If this person had been secretly following him all along, the real Xiao Mingyu would never dare show himself.
Whatever Xiao Mingyu's motives were, he was clearly no match for 'Him'—otherwise, he wouldn’t have died in the nightmare world before Ruan Qing could reach him, nor would he resort to covertly manipulating the nightmare to strike at Ruan Qing.
Every sign pointed to one truth: Xiao Mingyu wouldn’t appear while 'His' avatars were present.
Ruan Qing's face was nearly translucent from exhaustion, his entire frame trembling with an air of fragility. Nothing about him seemed out of the ordinary now.
Even the way he had closed his eyes earlier could easily be mistaken for despair—a surrender to fate. Ji Nanyu, too, seemed to interpret it that way.
With his head pressed against Ji Nanyu's chest, Ruan Qing could only force out a whisper, his voice quivering as though shaken with fear.
"...I'm fine."
Their brief delay had allowed the corpse to draw closer. Though Ji Nanyu was capable of fighting back, he didn’t hesitate—instead, he grabbed Ruan Qing’s hand and sprinted forward, dragging him along.
When Ruan Qing’s pace proved too slow, Ji Nanyu abruptly swept him up into a bridal carry and kept running.
Too drained to resist, Ruan Qing stiffened in his hold. Still, even as he was carried, he refused to cling to Ji Nanyu—his hands remained clenched tightly over his own stomach, fingers twisting into the fabric of his shirt, as if desperate to avoid any unnecessary intimacy.
Suddenly, Ji Nanyu seemed to step on something, causing him to lose his balance and stumble forward.
The discomfort of weightlessness made Ruan Qing’s eyes widen, his beautiful pupils filled with panic and unease. Instinctively, he wrapped his arms around Ji Nanyu’s neck, pressing himself even closer to him.
The moment Ruan Qing clung to him, the corners of Ji Nanyu’s lips lifted almost imperceptibly—but the next second, his expression returned to normal as he steadied himself.
Ji Nanyu looked down at the trembling figure in his arms and spoke unhurriedly.
“You’ve seen how dangerous the Nightmare World is now. There’s no way you could survive alone.”
Ruan Qing’s slender body shivered slightly, his face growing even paler. His fingers tightened around Ji Nanyu’s neck, clearly overwhelmed by fear and distress.
Ji Nanyu was pleased with the reaction. His gaze locked onto Ruan Qing with intensity.
“Beg me.”
“If you beg me, I’ll kill whatever it is you’re afraid of.”
