Chapter 2: The Immortal Teen Is in Good Mental Condition

Creak—

Accompanied by the unlocking of the latch, a shrill creak echoed through the dim corridor of the residential building, caused by hinges that hadn’t been oiled in years.

After work, returning home, I enter the foyer and turn on the living room light.

The first thing to catch my eye was the obviously aged mosquito net draped over the dining table, and a pink sticky note with a message written on it.

“I prepared chicken stewed with mushrooms for your late snack—just reheat it and eat. Your loving sister~”

After reading the note, I lifted the mosquito net.

Wu Wang’s mouth twitched.

All he saw was a bucket of Kangshifu instant noodles, already packed with seasoning, the packaging boldly labeled “Chicken Stewed with Mushrooms Flavor.”

So it really is just a matter of reheating!

“I actually hesitated for a second wondering if that guy could really cook?” he muttered bitterly, picking up the noodle bucket to heat water.

The noodle bucket sat on the dining table, waiting to soak.

Wu Wang returned to his room and took off his shirt.

Looking at the short-sleeved shirt, riddled with holes from front to back, nearly reduced to rags, he couldn’t help but sigh: “Why not just stab me in the head? Will it kill me? If not, I’ll teach you how in your next life!”

—These were the puncture wounds made by the man who attacked him in the store earlier.

Yes, the old man’s first strike had pierced Wu Wang’s body with perfect accuracy, while Wu Wang made no attempt to dodge.

In fact, every subsequent strike had struck him squarely.

Wu Wang showed no sign of struggling at all.

But when the man’s expression turned to disappointment and he turned to leave, Wu Wang—who should have been dead—rose from the ground unharmed, wearing an even more disappointed look.

At that moment, it was the man’s turn to be afraid.

This was the secret Wu Wang had discovered since his first death at eighteen—he could not truly die.

Precisely speaking, when he died, his body instantly restored to its theoretically healthiest state.

Even blood lost from his body mysteriously vanished and returned to him, which was why his clothes had only holes and no bloodstains.

How could a murderer possibly defeat a target who cannot be killed?

“Heh, I gave that guy quite a psychological scar before he died,” Wu Wang mocked himself.

He tossed the now-ruined shirt into the trash, then sat on the bed and pulled from his pant pocket a spirit tablet stained with damp, sticky soil.

Although he rarely watched the news, he’d still heard about the recent string of murders that had thrown the city into panic.

The man who attacked him must have been the serial killer—and was this spirit tablet the very reason he’d never been caught?

Thinking of this, Wu Wang examined the strange spirit tablet in his hand.

Since he himself possessed an immortal ability, he readily assumed the tablet might harbor some strange power.

“Hmm… there seem to be some characters carved on it?”

Wu Wang intended to examine the blurred inscriptions closely and instinctively raised his hand to wipe off the damp soil.

“Shhh… shhh…”

As the soil fell away, the characters on the tablet grew clearer, finally revealing their true form.

【Holder: Wu Wang—Eligible for Registered Player Account】

“What the fuck! Box strike!”

Under these circumstances, no one would ever expect their own name to appear on a spirit tablet carried by a murderer.

Even Wu Wang’s thick-skinned nerves—unfazed even when his body had been pierced—twitched.

He’d thought he’d been boxed.

Huh—

Before he could make sense of the situation, his vision plunged into total darkness.

It was a darkness so absolute—not just blind, but so complete he couldn’t even perceive his own fingers.

Not just his eyes, but all five senses seemed stripped away, as if he’d fallen into an endless abyss.

“Blind? Can I apply for a disability certificate now?”

The moment this thought flashed through Wu Wang’s mind, his thoughts began to stall.

He didn’t know how long passed—perhaps the next instant, perhaps ten thousand years.

Then, a strange voice sounded in his ear—

【Pre-registered Fuben ID 1008611 activated】

【 Fuben Name—Hide and Seek】

【 Fuben Intro: You clap once, I clap once, let’s play a game—catch the ghost before your head hits the ground!】

【Personal Main Quest: Find three death rules within the allotted time】

【Clearing Reward: Final beta player status】

【Hidden Reward: Conditions unknown】

【Wishing you all the death you deserve】

“This voice gives me the feeling of a thousand-year-old phlegm stuck in a Sadako’s throat, screaming from a public toilet two hundred meters away?”

Wu Wang didn’t feel fear at the bizarre situation—instead, he launched into a series of abstract, satirical analogies.

No sooner had he finished speaking than his vision suddenly brightened.

“Ah! My 24K titanium alloy dog eyes!”

It was bright, alright.

But it was too bright.

This place bore no resemblance to his vampire-cemetery-like bedroom—blinding lights stabbed his eyes, forcing him to squint for several seconds before adjusting.

Wu Wang suddenly realized he was inside a modestly decorated lecture hall, a ring of stage spotlights blazing overhead like the sun, illuminating the entire room as if it were daytime.

Besides the neatly arranged tiered seats, there was a podium at the front of the classroom.

On it sat a single standing microphone, as if waiting for someone to step up and start yelling into it.

Even stranger, numerous people lay sprawled haphazardly around the room.

He himself had probably been lying like that before waking up.

A quick glance told Wu Wang there were fifty people in the room, including himself.

“Huh…”

The man closest to Wu Wang also rubbed his head and slowly woke up.

The moment he opened his eyes, he saw a handsome young man with an unsettling pair of dead fish eyes staring at him—face nearly pressed against his own.

They locked gazes for a moment.

The young man smiled with satisfaction and spoke first: “Good. You’re the new recruit with the best psychological resilience I’ve ever seen.”

Satisfaction your ass!

This line, so familiar it could be found in nearly every infinite-stream novel, made the man’s head throb.

For a moment, he couldn’t tell whether the situation was weird—or this strange kid was.

But he instinctively reached for his waist, and his expression calmed slightly.

Before he could act further, he saw the boy sprint to another person who had just woken up and begin speaking again—

“Congratulations. Your frontal lobe lobotomy was a success—you’ve forgotten you’re an idiot.”

“Huh? I was never an idiot!”

“See? The surgery worked perfectly!”

“...”

Within two minutes, everyone in the lecture hall had gradually woken up.

Those whom Wu Wang had spoken to all wore strangely uneasy expressions.

Stiffened.

Not just their faces.

Their fists were fucking stiff too!

Yet while they pondered where this eccentric, foul-mouthed weirdo had come from, they didn’t realize Wu Wang—who had just been running around spouting nonsense—had already hidden himself among the crowd.

He’d formed a rough hypothesis—

“All of these people are murderers!”

He carefully observed the strangers who had just awakened.

Without exception, every person he’d spoken to reacted in a peculiar way after their initial confusion.

Some patted their waist or pockets—likely hiding weapons that gave them comfort; some, though angry, scanned their own neck arteries or hearts as if ready to strike at any moment; others showed no overt reaction, yet remained unnervingly calm, unlike any normal person would in an unfamiliar environment—they were too composed, quietly probing him for information.

They thought they hid it well, but Wu Wang knew that shadow in their eyes too well.

The middle-aged man who’d tried to torture him in the escape room had looked exactly like that!

These bastards were all the same breed.

“What conditions are needed to enter this so-called Fuben ? Do you need a spirit tablet and to kill someone? That means, besides me, all these people are serial killers carrying spirit tablets hidden somewhere in the city?”

“As far as I know, Mingyang City has had only one serial killer recently—and I already took care of him. So these guys must be from other cities.”

Wu Wang rapidly assessed everyone’s identities.

The others, meanwhile, felt uneasy in this unfamiliar environment; almost no one spoke, only watching each other warily.

About ten minutes passed.

Thud!

A sudden noise echoed through the classroom, shattering the deathly silence.

Everyone turned toward the source of the sound.

They found only a man lying motionless on the ground, his entire face crushed and mangled beyond recognition, yet still twisted in an expression of utter terror—as if he had witnessed something horrific before dying.

“Dead… dead!?”

The woman closest to the corpse covered her mouth, speaking in fright.

Though she hadn’t gone closer to examine him, the man’s seven orifices bled, his chest no longer rose or fell—he was clearly lifeless.

The gruesome sight made her legs buckle, and she collapsed onto the floor; a foul stench of urine rose from between her legs, staining her skirt with pale yellow liquid.

Not every killer possesses strong mental fortitude or resilience.

In the end, she was just an ordinary person.

Yet no one pointed or whispered at the woman; instead, all wore grave expressions.

Because they had all noticed a crucial detail—

No one was near the corpse!

Even the closest woman was fully three meters away!

Who could have beaten the victim into that state from that distance? Could it be some fishmonger summoning Star Platinum to brutally beat him to death?

Everyone’s heart jolted.

They involuntarily recalled the main quest they’d heard—

【Find three death rules within the allotted time】

Had they just triggered one of these so-called death rules?

As killers lurking in the city’s shadows, they had experienced the miraculous power of the spirit plaques and used them to unleash their inner beastly desires.

So, upon inexplicably appearing in this classroom, most had remained calm, without hysterical reactions.

Women who wet themselves like that were rare.

But now the situation had changed.

Beyond mutual suspicion, a nameless panic was spreading among them.

It was the fear of the unknown.

Between humans and ghosts, just putting the two together made it obvious to anyone with a functioning mind who should be afraid.

They couldn’t even see the ghosts’ presence!

Weren’t they just lambs waiting to be slaughtered?