It was an empty hospital ward, with a flickering incandescent light overhead.

Alexander's gaze was vacant as he stood at the center of a corridor's crossroads, trying to regain his senses.

“Where am I?”

He realized he was wearing a thin blue hospital gown and was barefoot, without even shoes.

“So cold…” Alexander hugged his arms, feeling the night air chilling him to the bone.

Suddenly, a piercing scream echoed from not far away.

“What happened?”

Startled, Alexander quickly calmed down and cautiously walked toward the source of the scream.

The atmosphere around was eerie, with scattered papers on the floor occasionally rustling in the wind.

Though Alexander considered himself fairly brave, a cold sweat trickled down his forehead as an unshakeable fear gripped his heart.

He hadn't walked far when he caught the nauseating scent of blood.

He knew this smell all too well, having graduated from forensic science and worked in the medical college's evidence identification department, occasionally visiting crime scenes.

The sickening stench unmistakably indicated that there was a corpse nearby, one that had died from massive blood loss.

Turning a corner, he stumbled upon a gruesome body—or rather, a mass of flesh.

“Was it attacked by a large predator? How could it die like this…”

Alexander was dumbfounded. The body was in shambles, with viscera and intestines spilling out in a heap, the abdominal cavity torn open.

What on earth had happened? Why was he here? How did this person die?

A flood of questions raced through his mind.

“No, I can't stay here. If there's really a murderer, or a large beast capable of attacking an adult male, I’m defenseless.”

The structure of the pelvis and certain "parts" led him to conclude it was an adult male corpse.

Regardless of what caused the death, Alexander knew he shouldn't remain there.

Perhaps he shouldn’t have come at all.

This thought suddenly popped into Alexander's mind, but it was too late.

"Pant...pant..." A rapid breathing sound approached slowly from behind him.

Unable to resist, he turned his head. From the dark shadows, something emerged.

“What the hell is that?”

Alexander turned pale as he saw a bizarre creature. It had a humanoid form, with twisted limbs and sharp claws like a spider, crawling on the ground.

Its body was split open from the skull, exposing its entire chest cavity, as if its torso had been sliced vertically.

—Inside the split body were rows of sharp teeth, resembling the maw of a giant monster.

The next moment, Alexander did the only sensible thing—he ran!

Without a second thought, he dashed away. This creature was undoubtedly supernatural, or some product of black technology; such an aberration couldn’t exist in nature.

“That person must have been killed by that thing…”

As Alexander ran, he glanced back, and his heart nearly stopped. The horrifying creature leaped onto the ceiling, defying physics, and quickly chased after him, barely half a foot away.

“Roar!”

The monster let out a howl, pouncing from the ceiling, its clawed hands swiping down.

“Watch out!”

A figure suddenly rushed out from the side, knocking Alexander aside, helping him narrowly avoid the attacking creature.

“Run…”

The figure was a strong middle-aged man who pulled Alexander along, running deeper into the corridor.

They rushed into a staircase and quickly shut the iron door behind them.

“Bang!” “Bang!” “Bang!”

A few knocks later, silence resumed.

“The monster won't come in; they don't seem to enter stairwells…”

The middle-aged man patted Alexander's shoulder and said in a deep voice, “Let's quickly head up one floor; there’s a safe zone there.”

Stolen story; please report.

“Safe zone!” Alexander exclaimed, surprised.

The middle-aged man didn’t explain further, simply making his way up the stairs.

Though bewildered, Alexander had no choice but to follow.

Upon reaching the short flight, he looked up to see a sign at the landing that read “Safe Zone.”

“Come in; this entire floor is a safe area, free from monster attacks.”

The middle-aged man pointed upwards.

“As for the floor above, it's shrouded in darkness, an untouchable zone. Enter at your own peril!”

Alexander looked up to the next floor, where darkness swallowed everything beyond a few steps up the stairs.

“What is this place?” Alexander couldn’t help but ask.

“If I told you it’s hell, would you believe me?”

The middle-aged man threw out this line and walked inside.

“Hell, huh?” Alexander could only muster a wry smile as he followed him into the floor.

…

This floor was incredibly bright, every light on, bathing the surroundings in white.

The space was astonishingly large, unlike any hospital. When Alexander and the middle-aged man reached a large hall, he was too shocked to speak.

In the center of the hall stood a massive tower of televisions stacked on top of each other, two meters tall, with countless wires extending from it, though no signal connected them—all screens displayed static.

Besides Alexander and the middle-aged man, there were a few others here.

“Is this the last one?”

A bespectacled young man leaned against the corner and asked.

“Three are dead; he’s the last one I found.”

The middle-aged man shook his head, sighing, “With so few of us, I wonder if we can clear this…”

“Having fewer deadweights isn't necessarily bad,” the young man coldly replied.

“Hey, one of you better explain what's going on here.” A burly man stormed over, grabbing the young man’s collar and shouted.

“Don’t you know who I am? I know everyone in Binhai City's underbelly. You’re trying to mess with me? You’re too green.”

The young man gently pinched the burly man's wrist, causing him to bend over in pain, unable to stand.

“Pinocchio, explain to these rookies!” the young man shouted after releasing him.

In an instant, the static on the TV tower flickered, revealing a long-nosed puppet. Strings attached to its body, the puppet moved in a deliberate manner.

“Welcome to the Spirit Realm, dear 'patients.' This is a chamber of chaos and delusion, a theater of blood and massacre. Here you will experience a wondrous time, akin to the most primitive chaotic nightmare!”

The puppet named Pinocchio spoke with an abundance of words, each one laced with malice.

“Cut the crap and get to the point!” The young man with glasses snapped, veins bulging, clearly irritated by the puppet’s chatter.

“Who are you? Please, let me go home. My husband and children are waiting for me!” A middle-aged woman dressed like a housewife pleaded tearfully with the puppet.

“Yes, do us a kindness, let this old bag of bones go. You see, I’m no one special. There’s no point in keeping me…” pleaded an elderly man, leaning on a cane, with a sorrowful expression.

The burly man slammed a fist on the table with his fleshy belly.

“You want money? Just say the word. Why gather us here for this charade? What's the point?”

But despite his grumbling, the puppet Pinocchio ignored him, merely chuckling, before responding slowly.

“Let you go home? Sorry… that’s impossible!”

What does that mean?!

“Because your lives no longer belong to you…” it drawled, word by word.

“You're nothing but the dead!”

In that fleeting moment, everyone recalled memories from before arriving here...

Alexander finally remembered—just moments before, the taxi he was in had an accident. The windshield shattered, a sharp shard of glass pierced his eye, entering his brain, the pain as if his brain was being churned, vividly replaying in his mind.

Meanwhile, the burly man began frothing at the mouth, his face turning ashen as a foul odor emanated from his mouth.

The elderly man clutched his heart violently, as though it were about to burst.

And the middle-aged woman bore a strangulation mark around her neck, her tongue protruding from her mouth, her face turning a ghastly shade of blue.

“How about that!”

Pinocchio’s sinister laugh brought these terrifying anomalies to a halt, leaving the occupants gasping as if rescued from drowning, exchanging silent looks of horror.

“Have you all remembered? You’re already 'dead.' Your survival is because you’ve entered the Spirit Realm, where your thoughts, bodies, and lives continue by mere whim!”

It warned them that their lives were in its control.

“Those who follow the rules can return to their lives; defiance means certain death!”

As Pinocchio’s words ended, Alexander felt a searing pain in his left hand, as if burned invisibly. His hand throbbed red and swollen, a flame-like mark appearing on it.

This is!

To his shock, a number appeared on the blazing emblem—a zero!

More intriguingly, as he stared at the flame mark, his mind displayed values and information, resembling a special interface.

Name: Alexander

Race: Ironborn

Constitution: 10

Strength: 7

Agility: 5

Spirit: 40

Besides these visible stats, the rest were a series of question marks.

“This seems like some form of ability data. Why is it like a game?”

As he looked up, he noticed everyone else was staring at their hands, but from Alexander’s perspective, they didn’t have similar marks.

“The mark on your hands is visible only to you…” the young man explained, easing Alexander's mind.

“In a few minutes, we’ll enter the first scenario world.”

“What is a scenario world? What exactly are we supposed to do?” Alexander quickly asked.

The young man glanced at him, replying coldly, “Have you seen movies, played games? The so-called scenario world is like them, with different plots and tasks. You must complete the plot to clear it. Failure means Bad End…”

“Simply put, complete the tasks and clear the scenario, but while it sounds easy, it’s exceptionally difficult in practice. Surviving is a matter of luck…” the middle-aged man added.

“Who are you people, and why do you know so much…?” Alexander asked again.

The young man pushed up his glasses, smirking, “We’re just like you—a group of survivors struggling in this chaotic world. Here, no one can help you. To survive, you must rely on yourselves…”

“Xu Lin, don’t say that.”

The middle-aged man interjected sternly, “I’m Carmen, he’s Xu Lin. Once we enter the scenario world, we’ll do our best to help you, provided you follow our orders…”

“Hmph, pretending to be the good guy,” Xu Lin chuckled cynically.

“Helping one is better than none…” The middle-aged man sighed, while Xu Lin shook his head helplessly and addressed the others.

“Listen up, you all have a flame mark on your hand, the symbol of the Spirit Realm. It has many functions, but the main one is displaying your survival value. Rookies start at 0, and you must earn survival points within the scenario world. If you return here without 300 survival points, you will be eliminated.”

Xu Lin continued, “Besides, the mark has many functions, but time is short. Once in the Spirit Realm, I’ll explain one by one.”

“When we’re in the Spirit Realm, the ‘strategists’ will be grouped together, and we’ll coordinate your actions,” Carmen reassured the group.

“Let us lead, and you’ll survive.”

Just then, the hall’s lights dimmed, all illumination vanishing. Only the television remained lit, displaying several lines of large text.

“The scenario world is generating, countdown to commencement!”

“‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’ auto-creating… unlocking elements… ten, nine, eight, seven, six…”

(What, The Shadow Over Innsmouth? Does this mean it’s the world of Cthulhu…)

Alexander's expression shifted. Though obscure, the name wasn’t unknown to sci-fi enthusiasts.

As thoughts raced through his mind, the timer on the screen counted down rapidly to the end.

“Zero!”

In the next second, everything before Alexander plunged into the deepest darkness.