Excellent, an Evil God Has Its Eyes on Me

The Fourth Death Rule.

Those four words slammed into their hearts like stones. The very air seemed to solidify, making it difficult to breathe.

Why was there a fourth Death Rule?

Didn't the quest say to find three?

"Why did you all only see the words 'Main Quest' and not pay attention to the prefix?"

Wu Wang asked with a brilliant, sunny smile.

【Personal Main Quest, Find three Death Rules within the allotted time】

The prefix was 'Personal'.

The glasses-wearing man's expression changed drastically. The fear he'd felt from making a sound in the darkness vanished, leaving only rage and resentment toward Wu Wang.

"Ah, yes. That's the look," Wu Wang said, his words dripping with cold sarcasm. "Regret, anger, even hatred, as if I'm the one who killed you. You've completely forgotten that you chose to walk into this classroom yourselves."

"Those who kill will be killed in turn. It's as simple as that."

Did this pack of vicious murderers really expect him to show compassion?

He had noticed this word trap from the very beginning. The word "Personal" meant the quest had to be completed by one person, standing alone at the microphone to state the three Death Rules and make an 【Accusation】 against the ghost.

That was why he had deliberately guided the others, letting them mistakenly believe that simply finding the rules was enough. He explained them one by one, ensuring that only he had fulfilled the Personal Main Quest.

Logically, only the 【Accuser】 in this Instance could survive and clear it.

But Wu Wang had also deduced that the ghost had to be hiding in a shadow. During the day, there were fifty shadows. It was impossible to find the ghost in time without knowing its method of movement.

Only in the darkness of night, when the ghost was forced to hide in the sole remaining shadow, that of the 【Accuser】, could it be caught.

But the irony was that the 【Accuser】 would be erased along with it.

In other words, the only condition for clearing the Instance was, in fact, also a dead end. This damned Instance never intended for anyone to get out alive.

"Thank you all for performing in this wonderful show with me, with your lives as the price of admission," Wu Wang smiled. "And now, farewell. I wish you all a pleasant journey to your deaths."

He tapped the tip of his right foot next to his left, spun his right hand twice before placing it over his chest, and bowed a perfect thirty degrees. He was like an elegant gentleman taking a final bow before the audience as the curtain fell.

As his curtain call began, a piercing wail erupted from the shadow beneath his feet.

The ghost had been caught.

The light faded from the eyes of the murderers below. One by one, they collapsed to the floor as if boneless, devoid of life. Death had come for them in an instant.

The man with glasses wanted to say something more, but in the next second, he too fell silent and died.

Wu Wang had fulfilled the condition for clearing the Instance. The failures were now being purged.

At the same time, in the real world, the live stream chat had exploded. A flood of question marks blanketed the screen.

"If this guy is a newbie, I'll eat my keyboard!"

"Which veteran got their hands on a hidden item and snuck into the tutorial?"

"So how did he ignore the Death Rules?"

"You're asking me? You might as well ask God. I can arrange a meeting."

Whether they were veteran players of the Spirit Calamity Game or the old masters observing from the shadows, all were stunned.

From start to finish, this newcomer had played every single murderer for a fool. With such strategic mastery and a contemptuous attitude toward the Instance's rules, it was no wonder people suspected he was a veteran playing on an alternate account.

"Wait! Look at his feet!"

Someone suddenly noticed that Wu Wang, who should have been the sole victor, had abruptly sat on the ground.

His legs had already vanished up to his knees.

The one who cleared the Instance was also being purged! This was a situation that had never occurred in the Spirit Calamity Game before.

Click.

【Live Stream has ended】

【The final Closed Beta Player account has been issued】

【Please look forward to the game's Open Beta】

Before more people could notice the anomaly, the game system shut down the live stream. This only made the players more restless as they began to heatedly discuss what that final scene could have possibly meant.

Unfortunately, they had no way of knowing. The system had announced from the start that this was the last Pre-registration Instance. The app only streamed newcomer Instances, which meant there would be no more live streams.

But as one of the few who knew the inside story, the strange woman in the seaside villa simply smiled.

She knew the sacrifice had been completed.

"With this, I have the qualifications to contend for Administrator Privileges."

Filled with bright hopes, the woman took out a Spirit Tablet. She bit her fingertip, letting the blood flow freely, and wrote her own name upon it.

Now, she had to control Li Guoqiang's corpse to retrieve the 【Advent Item】. It was an item tinged with the aura of an unspeakable entity, and the key to unlocking the true face of the Spirit Calamity Game.

According to her investigation, it was supposed to be a piece of clothing.

Inside the Instance's classroom, only half of a head remained on the lectern.

The next second, the cut at the base of the skull began to squirm madly. Bone, flesh, nerves, skin, and even hair grew with insane speed, all within a single second.

In an instant, Wu Wang reappeared.

He slowly opened his dead-fish eyes and sighed.

"Just as I thought. It's not that easy to die. What a pity."

BOOM!

Before he could finish his sentence, a massive roar shattered the classroom's dead silence.

An earthquake-like tremor followed. The entire building, no, the entire Instance screamed, emitting harsh cracking sounds as if it were about to break apart.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

All the stage lights shattered. The once-new chairs began to show spots of rust, and the wooden floorboards creaked as if rotten.

The classroom, which should have been plunged back into darkness, was now cast in a dim, blood-red glow. A bizarre red sun had inexplicably appeared in the sky, illuminating everything.

Whoosh!

A corpse, ignoring gravity, shot up like a missile toward the red sun. Then, all the corpses rose into the air, slamming violently into it like moths to a flame.

During their flight, the bodies continuously twisted and rotted. Some sprouted countless eyes, gills, scales, and even tentacles, organs that did not belong to humans.

In the blink of an eye, only Wu Wang remained. Before he could process what was happening, the system's cold, mechanical voice echoed through the classroom.

【Instance 1008611 is being corrupted by %&*#】

【Intercepting! Interception failed!】

【Data anomaly! Forcing player Logout!】

【Logout failed!】

"Seriously, buddy? Is your game's optimization this bad? The tutorial has bugs?" Wu Wang complained helplessly. "And a logout failure! Are you Akihiko Kayaba or something?"

Although he didn't know what was happening, it was clearly not part of the normal game flow.

Womm...

A strange hum exploded inside his skull. His eyes filled with blood, and his ears filled with chaotic, unintelligible whispers that assaulted his consciousness. He could feel his own mind gradually collapsing.

In a daze, he seemed to see his feet fuse into webbed appendages, coarse brown fur sprout from his skin, and his fingers twist into writhing tentacles.

"At this rate, I won't even need makeup to play an NPC in a haunted house..."

Before his remaining consciousness could finish the thought, Wu Wang saw a sight he would never forget.

The red sun blinked.

Splat!

His body, which had turned into a mess of mangled flesh, exploded as if unable to withstand some immense power. A Spirit Tablet that had emerged from within his body exploded along with him, its wooden form instantly turning to dust.

But the next second, the scattered pieces of flesh on the ground squirmed and reattached themselves.

Wu Wang was resurrected, back in his normal human form.

Restored to a healthy state, his eyes held a crazed excitement. He hadn't even noticed the appearance and disintegration of the Spirit Tablet. His entire attention was on the sky.

"This is it! This is what I'm talking about! It might actually be able to kill me for real!"

At this thought, Wu Wang painstakingly raised his head, trying once more to meet the gaze of the red sun.

But just as their gazes were about to meet, a system prompt appeared at the most inopportune moment.

【Instance 1008611 core data has been damaged】

【Destroying Instance content】

【Player forced Logout successful】

【Compensation rewards have been distributed】

【Hidden condition met, please check your rewards】

The moment the voice sounded, Wu Wang found himself back in a sea of darkness. This place was very similar to the falling void he was in when he first entered, but now he could move freely.

Before he could take a step, a glowing message appeared before him.

【Welcome to the Spirit Calamity Game】

【Player #9527 has been successfully registered】

【Please enter your nickname】

Seeing the user-friendly keyboard panel, Wu Wang subconsciously raised his right hand to type. But as he did, he noticed something was wrong.

A simple, red, stick-figure-like vertical pupil had appeared on the inside of his wrist.

Staring at it, he could feel the strange, blurry whispers returning to his ears. His thoughts turned sluggish, and his sanity value began to plummet. It took no thought to know where this mark came from.

Wu Wang immediately turned his head away, but a storm was raging in his heart.

"Dammit! They even slap on a quarantine tag! Has that peeping tom, Lord Cthulhu, taken an interest in me?"

That thing in the sky hadn't been a red sun at all. It was an eye as enormous as the sun itself. A being whose mere gaze could cause an Instance to collapse deserved to be called an Evil God. Besides, that thing was as indescribable and unseeable as Cthulhu.

To avoid picking a random name while his mind was muddled from looking at the Red Vertical Pupil, Wu Wang put down his right hand and raised his left. He skillfully typed out a line of text.

【MyAnusWillBeScreened (Nickname available)】

He didn't confirm it. Instead, he deleted it and tried again.

【Zhang Wei (Nickname available)】

【Dont↑Love↓Me, NoResult (Nickname available)】

【3.1415926 (Nickname available)】

In the dark space, Wu Wang spent half an hour trying all sorts of nicknames. Some were vulgar, some were common, some involved religious beliefs, and some were even the names of great historical figures. No matter what he typed, the system always displayed that the nickname was available.

"A little interesting," Wu Wang mused. "It seems this game has no connection to any country or religion. Alien technology? Or a God-Host Space like in the novels?"

He wasn't just being childish. He wanted to see where the game's limits were. Anything designed by humans would surely have some kind of bottom line, some forbidden words. But apparently, this one didn't. He could even name himself after certain physiological organs and it would pass. This thing was practically without taboos.

After some more deep thought, he finally typed the player ID that would follow him for life into the panel with extreme seriousness. This was not something to be taken lightly.

【Confirm nickname "Pending Death"?】

【Confirm】

【Pending Death#9527 has been successfully registered】

【Unlocking personal information panel…】