[ The Cyber World welcomes every young person who carries a dream. ]
[ Unfortunately, the dazzling skyscrapers and neon projections of the Upper City have nothing to do with you. The Industrial Waste Gas and Electronic Trash Block Cemetery of the Lower City are your true home. ]
[ Instance: Neon Death Escape has been generated. ]
[ Player identity unlocked: Two-legged Sheep. ]
[ Main Mission: Survive Seven Days. ]
As the mechanical voice faded, Jiang Huaying felt the invisible barrier around her vanish, and the damp air, laced with the sour bitterness of industrial pollution, suddenly choked her lungs.
” Cough, cough, cough, cough… ” She couldn’t help but bend over, coughing hard.
Even though she tried her best to suppress it, her coughing sounded especially jarring in the silent, oppressive atmosphere.
Everyone around turned to look at her.
The delicate girl was like a pearl that had fallen into the mud.
Platinum blonde hair clung messily to her face, half-covering her innocent, naive features.
An ill-fitting T-shirt hung crookedly on her body, the oversized collar revealing large swathes of delicate, snow-white skin that rose and fell with her rapid breathing.
Her emerald green eyes glistened with a thin mist, and the skin around her eyes was tinged red from the violent coughing.
Unconcealed, pitying gazes fell upon her. Such an immaculate pearl would soon be utterly crushed.
Jiang Huaying finally caught her breath and looked up at her surroundings.
She was standing with a large group of people in some kind of enclosed space.
All around were dark gray alloy walls. The frail crowd was squeezed together, about a hundred people in all—each one unable to survive in the Lower City.
Most of the faces were numb and vacant, like sheep penned in, waiting to be slaughtered.
But there was a small group—no matter how much they tried to hide it—the look in their eyes and the air about them was completely different from those around them.
These were the Players.
The game “Eternal Domain Contract” launched four years ago, spreading like a virus across the internet.
A year later, the game shut down—and descended upon the world.
All over the globe, things called “Domains” began to appear at random.
Everyone within a Domain would be pulled inside, entering a game Instance.
Only by clearing it could they survive.
Jiang Huaying had struggled through three years, yet still couldn’t escape the fate of becoming a Player.
The whirring of machinery pulled her back to reality.
The surrounding walls slowly sank down, finally revealing the true environment.
They were in an abandoned city, long deserted, the ruins everywhere a testament to the decline that followed the peak of technology.
Whispers began to rise around her.
“So this really is the Adam District.”
“I heard that after the Adam District was sealed off back then, there were still a lot of ordinary Monsters inside that weren’t killed…”
“So many years have passed, maybe they’re all dead by now. And anyway, no Monster is scarier than the Butcher.”
A huge metallic mechanical eye flew overhead, above Jiang Huaying and the others.
After circling around like it was inspecting them, a blinding beam of light shone down on everyone, and a cold mechanical voice echoed through the skies of the Adam District.
“Welcome to the Two-legged Sheep Death Game!”
“All your actions will be broadcast live. Do your best to win the favor of the Upper City!”
“The last remaining Golden Lamb will have all debts wiped clean, and receive a Wish Opportunity from the MindForge Group!”
A golden “MindForge” symbol suddenly glowed in the mechanical eye, dazzling and bright.
“—Give thanks for the MindForge Group’s blessing!”
Jiang Huaying heard the people around her, as if brainwashed by a cult, shout together: “Give thanks for the MindForge Group’s blessing!”
As their voices faded, the deathly silent, dark Adam District seemed to come alive.
\Multicolored neon lights flickered on one by one, like an amusement park opening for business.
But to Jiang Huaying, the scene before her felt unspeakably eerie and disturbing.
Brilliant fireworks exploded in the night sky. After a ten-second countdown, the death game officially began!
The crowd scattered at lightning speed.
Jiang Huaying was swept along, but before she’d gotten far, she heard terrified screams.
“The first round of harvesting has begun!”
“Run! The Butcher is coming!”
“It’s over… We’re all dead…”
At some point, a massive holographic projection appeared in the sky.
On a rusted, vintage flip clock, a blood-red three-minute countdown ticked away.
Jiang Huaying only glanced at it before being pushed by the fleeing crowd into a narrow alley, swept forward in the chaos.
Gone was the previous numbness—instead, panic and terror twisted every face.
People shoved and pushed like a herd of stampeding wildebeests, and anyone who ran even a little slower was knocked to the ground by the frantic tide.
As someone who’d only ever passed gym class thanks to teachers going easy on her, Jiang Huaying, a hopeless klutz, of course became one of those knocked down.
Afraid of being trampled to death, she quickly curled up to protect her vital parts, rolling aside a few times to escape the stampede.
Some unlucky soul, a second too slow, was instantly swallowed by the rushing mob.
Jiang Huaying ignored the pain from her fall, scanning the chaotic, crowded buildings, and crawled into a cramped pipe.
She curled into a tiny ball, emerald eyes wide with fear, hands and feet scrambling to cover the pipe entrance with debris before finally daring to breathe a sigh of relief.
A tiny camera drone buzzed in through a crack, hovering in midair to find the best angle, broadcasting the scene to the Upper City.
Across the skies of the Adam District, countless cameras diligently filmed everything.
The fate of a hundred Two-legged Sheep became after-dinner entertainment, served up for the Upper City to enjoy.
Inside the top club of the Sky Tower, the distinguished heirs found this trial show utterly boring.
Until a face appeared before them—a face so beautiful and exquisite it seemed favored by God. Only then did these pure-blooded nobles show a hint of interest.
“Look, it’s an innocent little lamb.”
“Only Arnold would be interested in such a pretty waste… How dull.”
“What a pity. She’ll be one of the first to die.”
They discussed it carelessly, their casual, arrogant attitude like someone who, upon seeing a beautiful butterfly, accidentally crushes it beneath their shoe—never slowing their step, only grinding the remains underfoot.
“Well, the Butcher’s here.” The young man called Arnold swirled his wine glass, bored, and looked away.
Amid the chaos, the thud of combat boots striking the ground rang out.
Each heavy footfall made Jiang Huaying’s scalp tingle.
She hesitated for two seconds before carefully peeking out, looking through a gap.
From the shadows, a towering figure over two meters tall emerged.
His upper body was bare, muscles bulging in a perfect inverted triangle.
Wheat-colored skin gleamed with a bronze-gold sheen over his powerful frame.
A pair of loose work pants hung from his sturdy waist, the cuffs tucked into worn black combat boots.
He gripped a ten-kilogram double-edged great axe, its blade still stained with dark, dried blood.
As he stepped into the light, Jiang Huaying finally saw the Butcher’s true form.
A bleached-white ram skull glimmered coldly under the mottled neon, a pair of thick black horns like devil’s scimitars, radiating a savage, feral menace.
In the skull’s jet-black, empty eye sockets, a dangerous crimson electronic light flickered.
The Butcher’s appearance stunned many, but some, driven to the brink of terror, lost all reason and desperately tried to fight back.
“I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die—ahhhh!”
One man, wild-eyed, screamed as he charged the Butcher, swinging a short knife he must’ve picked up somewhere.
The Butcher’s stride was undisturbed.
A flash of silver, and the man’s scream abruptly cut off, the thick scent of blood filling the air.
Jiang Huaying forced her eyes to move.
The man’s body had been cleaved in two at the waist, intestines and organs spilling onto the ground.
The Butcher’s slaughter continued.
Jiang Huaying didn’t know how much time passed before the once-chaotic alley fell completely silent.
Only she remained…
Jiang Huaying held her breath, hands clamped over her mouth and nose, not daring to make a sound.
But that bloody figure seemed to know there was still a little mouse hiding in the pipe.
The red electronic glow in his eye sockets locked onto her, and he walked straight in her direction.
The blood-soaked great axe dragged carelessly along the ground, sending sparks flying with each step, its harsh scraping sound grating on the ears.
The hand gripping the axe handle was corded with bulging blue veins, running up his forearm.
As the Butcher drew closer, Jiang Huaying felt her heart being squeezed tighter and tighter by some invisible force.
Suddenly, a crisp sound rang out, like metal snapping.
A new System Prompt appeared at that moment.
[ Detected: Player’s former pet has undergone complete corruption. ]
[ Personal mission… Activate #@*$ Affection…&%#^ Activating… Activating… ]
Jiang Huaying ignored it.
But after the glitched message appeared, it started spamming the screen, as if infected with a Virus.
[ Affectionate interaction? ]
[ Affectionate interaction? ]
[ Affectionate interaction? ]
The blood-red, warning-like prompt merged with the ever-approaching red electronic light.
She remembered…
In the game, she had once sold an unlikable Monster for a low price to buy a new pet.
When she first started playing, Jiang Huaying was curious and clueless about everything, wandering the streets of the Cyber World radiating an aura of innocence and gullibility.
A merchant NPC blocked her path, spinning a silver tongue to sell her a defective item at a steep price.
That defective item was the Mutant-Headed Butcher.
He was a failed product of the Cyber World.
Before being experimented on by an Underground Doctor, he had been a top-tier Mercenary, but now he’d lost all his memories.
The merchant NPC tried hard to sell the Butcher’s merits.
Though he was ugly, burly, far too large, and possessed brute strength that didn’t fit the Mainstream Aesthetics at all, he would become the most loyal Dog—no matter what, even if you told him to die, he would never hesitate.
Jiang Huaying only listened to the first part.
While they spoke, the towering, terrifying Butcher stood quietly by, his monstrous skull lowered. As he breathed, the thick iron chains wrapped around his body dug deeper into his muscle.
Some secret, hidden thing in the new Player’s heart was gently prodded.
She thought, that hardly counted as a flaw.
So Jiang Huaying got her first pet.
Back then, the Butcher was clumsy. Wherever she went, he’d silently follow.
If she told him not to follow, he’d obediently stay put.
He’d let birds perch on his black horns without moving, or crush a malicious Floating Car with one hand.
He executed every command perfectly, indulged her every whim, and no matter how she bullied him, never got angry.
But the dazzling game world was full of temptations.
Jiang Huaying soon encountered other Monsters—lovelier, more beautiful, more charming, more noble, more rebellious.
She collected more and more pets, until all five slots were filled.
When her spending power could no longer bring her convenience, she had to make a choice.
Silent, unsociable, uncompetitive for affection—compared to the other attentive pets, the Butcher became the one to be abandoned.
Jiang Huaying wasn’t short on money—she just wanted to get rid of him quickly to make room for a new pet.
In the end, she sold the Butcher for next to nothing.
Now, the blood-soaked Butcher before her was clearly no longer the good-natured oaf in her memory.
She trembled at the thought, shrinking back, but there was nowhere to run.
The pipe was sealed at the end.
The Butcher’s grim, eerie skull had already appeared at the pipe entrance, emitting the heavy, animalistic sound of rough breathing.
He slowly raised his axe, the sharp edge ringing softly in response.
Jiang Huaying’s pupils contracted in terror, her heart nearly stopping.
Dang—Dang—Dang—
The three-minute countdown hit zero, and the chimes of celebration sounded.
The first round of harvesting was over.
The atmosphere across the Adam District instantly relaxed.
But not in this dim, hidden corner.
The heavy air wrapped around the two of them, forming a world of their own.
The Butcher suddenly stopped his attack, but still held his previous stance, his body radiating the burning bloodlust of slaughter, every muscle tightly strung.
It was a state both dangerous and ecstatic.
Jiang Huaying didn’t dare relax for a second, only praying that the rules of the death game were absolute.
As the standoff dragged on, even the air in the pipe seemed to grow thick and sticky with heat.
Finally, the Butcher moved.
The pale skull loomed oppressively closer.
His Adam’s apple bobbed twice, exhaling hot breath that scalded Jiang Huaying’s skin.
The red electronic eyes burned like twin furnaces.
Jiang Huaying felt like she was about to die.
But the next second, the Butcher stepped back.
He lowered his great axe, turned away indifferently—like a machine executing a finished command—stepping through the sticky crimson, disappearing into the darkness from whence he came.