After the heated discussion in the square, the man in charge of the testing darkened his face, and the crowd instantly fell silent.
“Vampire identity…” The examiner’s expression turned slightly complicated as he looked at the staff registering people. “Go notify them.”
Three minutes after the test results were announced, a luxury car stopped outside the square. Without knowing why, Su Er was invited into the car.
Inside, a sachet hung from the rearview mirror, giving off a slightly pungent scent.
“Sigh…”
The man half-lying on the seat adjusted his posture, stretched, and sat up. “Welcome to the family.”
Su Er stared at him for a few seconds before asking slowly, “Vampire?”
“Smart!” The man clapped, then turned to reveal rare heterochromatic eyes. “Name’s San Hua.”
Hearing the name, Su Er’s brow twitched slightly, but his face didn’t change as he reached out his hand. “Su Er.”
San Hua’s hand was cold as ice.
“Those who gain the vampire identity get one to three opportunities to extend the lives of the dying. To them, we’re like an oasis in the desert.” His tone was mocking, but soon eased. “To avoid being kept and exploited, vampires banded together to form families. We respond with a hundredfold vengeance if even one member is unfairly treated.”
Su Er said, “Looks like we’ve got powerful backing.”
With life-extending abilities and such arrogance, they would’ve been wiped out and locked away long ago if they had no support.
San Hua nodded. “Use your gift well.”
Su Er lowered his eyes in thought. For vampires, finding a powerful backer wasn’t difficult—especially with a vampire clan behind them; that influence was equivalent to uniting all the top forces.
San Hua didn’t say much more. After flipping through a photo book for a bit, he tossed the magazine over his face and fell asleep.
There was a small TV in the car. Su Er flipped through each channel for a few minutes. Coupled with the information he’d gathered earlier from a girl in the square, he now had a rough understanding.
Setting aside the keywords “identity” and “ability,” this instance was likely the most closely aligned with the real world so far.
A country, society, schools… the whole system was basically the same, and the worldview was normal, with no bizarre ideology dominating things.
However, this world was still full of dangers. Some animals had evolved over time into dangerous beasts, and some sinister cultists dreamed of building their own kingdom.
At a red light, San Hua didn’t open his eyes but spoke through the magazine muffledly, “The academy admission letters should arrive in the next couple of days. Be sure to attend the orientation class tomorrow. There’ll be a dedicated instructor explaining the specific rules you need to follow after awakening your traits.”
“Where is it held?”
“No need to worry,” San Hua replied. “There’s a shuttle.”
Suddenly, his phone vibrated. Sanhua tossed aside the magazine and glanced at the message. “Parents are both deceased. Looks like we’re spared the trouble of contacting them.”
Su Er didn’t respond. He was already used to playing the tragic loner in these instances.
The car drove all the way to the outskirts and finally stopped in front of a gothic-style manor.
Surrounded only by trees and utility poles, the distant cawing of crows could be heard. After a few seconds of silence, Su Er asked, “Is this land legally owned?”
“Of course.” San Hua stepped out and opened the car door for him like a gentleman. “There are only ten vampires in the entire city.”
Then he winked at Su Er. “Now there are eleven.”
The door creaked open with a long, heavy groan.
The interior was vintage in style but completely lifeless. Sanhua plopped down casually on the carpet as soon as he entered. “Everyone else has work. Just me today. You can pick any room above the third floor.”
Living alone on an entire floor—more than luxurious, it felt like an oppressive, suffocating kind of solitude.
Fortunately, this instance was merciful: the night passed without incident.
The next morning, the car outside honked several times. Su Er, having packed early, rushed out at the sound.
It was a school bus filled with students from the area who had successfully activated their identities.
Su Er noticed a few players still wearing their name tags. Everyone sat silently in their own seats without speaking for now.
The training center was inside a well-known local university. Since it was vacation time, only those attending the orientation were on campus. Within ten minutes, three buses had arrived.
Four teachers stood at the front, each holding a roster.
A woman in workwear held a loudspeaker. “When I call your name, step forward.”
Su Er didn’t like crowds and stood at the end of the line, unable to see what was going on up front, so he focused on listening.
One hundred students were evenly split into groups. The remaining twenty-five—all players.
Among them, Su Er saw a very familiar face—someone who looked nearly identical to Ji Heng. The only difference was slightly softer features and paler skin, with a hint of youthfulness and vitality.
Sensing someone watching him, the young man turned his head, and Su Er caught sight of his name tag.
Ji Heng.
The name couldn’t be faked.
Su Er raised a brow… Reversed aging?
Ji Heng signaled for him to look around. Su Er glanced at the other players and realized—everyone looked around sixteen or seventeen years old.
He had taken two years off school in real life, so he was just twenty, and he hadn’t noticed any change in his appearance.
But judging by everyone else, the instance had forcibly reverted their ages by several years.
“Why go to such trouble?” Su Er asked as they climbed the stairs together. “Usually, they just give us an identity and throw us in.”
Like an NPC in a game—what they see is the generated stats and data.
“Stay sharp.” Ji Heng deliberately slowed his pace so they would fall to the back of the group and lowered his voice. “The instance only gets this cautious when there are uncontrollable elements involved.”
Su Er pressed his lips together, sensing just how unusual this mission was.
The classroom was spotless—someone had clearly cleaned it beforehand.
There was now some chatter among the players. The more familiar ones sat together; some still kept to themselves. Suddenly, someone gasped, clearly surprised.
At first, Su Er didn’t know why—until he looked at the male teacher on the platform and froze, staring again and again, stunned by the marvels of creation.
It was a face of unprecedented perfection—breathtaking when your eyes lingered, yet somehow ordinary the moment you looked away.
“I am your host for this round, Mister Pu Liu. First of all, congratulations on passing yesterday’s Awakening Test…”
Mister Pu Liu spoke for nearly five minutes about irrelevant matters.
“What’s the mission?” a player in the front row got straight to the point. “It’s already been a day.”
The longer the delay, the more it harmed the players' interests.
Mister Pu Liu raised his hand slightly, gesturing for calm. “First, let me clarify the rules. In this round, player-on-player killing is not forbidden.”
Su Er glanced around and noticed that most people didn’t react much to this announcement. Then again, he realized—experienced players already had countless ways to sabotage teammates without direct confrontation.
“The task you must complete is…” Mister Pu Liu’s gaze turned cold. “Who killed the host?”
For a moment, dozens of eyes fell upon him simultaneously.
“Ten days ago, a host was leading players through a standard mission. All of them perished.” Mister Pu Liu added, “This total annihilation included the host.”
A host died?
It was the first time Su Er had ever heard of such a thing.
“This time is different. You have one month to uncover the truth.”
No one felt any relief upon hearing that—they only grew more heavy-hearted. Su Er felt the same. If even the host could die, the danger level of this instance was beyond imagination.
Mister Pu Liu’s expression turned solemn. “Although player-killing is not forbidden, I advise you all to cherish your current identities. Pool your strength. Make use of every resource you have.”
The moment he finished speaking, Su Er could feel the shift—he had become the center of attention.
With dual identities as an incubus and a vampire, he was a natural magnet for forming alliances.
Ji Heng interrupted the stares directed at Su Er. “How much information from the previous instance can be disclosed?”
Mister Pu Liu replied, “The original instance was called Snatch from the Tiger’s Mouth—a game where victory meant successfully stealing any item from the Wanbaolin Auction House, the most famous and heavily guarded auction site in the country.”
He stepped down from the podium and handed out sheets containing the identities of the deceased host and players from that previous round.
Su Er quickly scanned it. There had only been four players total. In such a small-instance group, the death rate normally didn’t spike until the very end. In other words, it was at most a mid-to-high difficulty mission.
What terrifying twist had occurred to not only wipe out all the players, but the host as well?
Mister Pu Liu then spent the next stretch of time carefully explaining how to fully utilize abilities. There were three main evolution channels: meditation, practical combat training, and consuming energy fluid.
After 30 minutes of instruction, most players were able to manifest their powers, though the effects were limited and the durations short, as they were still beginners. Ji Heng’s awakened identity was werewolf—strong and fast.
“Staying in the dorms is mandatory during the training period,” Mister Pu Liu emphasized. “As for the daytime, as your training instructor, I’ll grant you maximum freedom to explore outside.”
Since it was the first day of training, most students coincidentally chose to eat in the cafeteria.
Because it was holiday season, only two chefs had been hired for meals.
Su Er had barely sat down in the cafeteria before people began approaching him. He didn’t put on airs and responded with a calm and friendly manner. Before long, a crowd of students had gathered around him. When Ji Heng arrived with his tray and saw Su Er surrounded, he chuckled helplessly and chose another seat.
“What exactly is an incubus’s ability?”
“Can you demonstrate it?”
Many were curious about his powers.
Propping his chin with one hand, Su Er gave a lazy smile. A captivating glint flowed in his eyes—those who made eye contact with him felt a shiver of pleasure rush through their bodies.
One player watching this scene gave a soft sigh. “Looks like he’ll be forming his own faction pretty soon.”
And indeed, that’s what Su Er did. That afternoon, students had time to go shopping for toiletries and tidy their dorms. Su Er seized the chance and—with a crowd of students around him—walked out of the school under the pretense of “a shopping trip.”
From a distance, the group—composed of both guys and girls—looked like a constellation orbiting its center, and even from behind, the image exuded charm and flirtation.
7 PM.
Dark clouds covered the sky—it looked like rain.
During training earlier that day, the players had exchanged contact information and created a group chat. They had agreed to meet in the classroom at this hour to share clues.
Twenty-four of the twenty-five players showed up. Su Er was the only one missing.
Mister Pu Liu scanned the room and let out a cold laugh. “Looks like someone’s trying to be a lone beast.”
Ji Heng frowned. That wasn’t like Su Er. Even if he were planning to form a faction, he wouldn’t cut himself off from the other players so deliberately.
Just as he was about to call Su Er, his phone vibrated first.
“Ji Heng.” The voice on the other end was hoarse, with a hint of grievance.
Ji Heng had never heard Su Er speak like that before. He immediately knew something serious had happened and shot up from his seat, startling those nearby.
“Don’t panic. What happened?”
A moment of silence on the other end.
Ji Heng’s voice softened, more gentle than usual. “You have to say it so we can figure out a solution.”
“…I got caught in a hotel… in a prostitution raid.”
A few seconds of stunned silence. Then Su Er’s voice rose in pitch, tinged with indignation: “Does that make any sense?! I’m an incubus! Why the hell would they arrest me?!”
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