Fu Songcheng pushed up his black-framed glasses and walked out of the office building. It was already 3 a.m.
For the past month, the world had been like a severely aging machine, its parts falling off uncontrollably.
First, a park in the West had collapsed into nothingness before everyone’s eyes.
Then several intersections in the country had mysteriously vanished, along with the citizens who had been walking through those areas.
Eventually, these events had become everyday disasters.
Fear gripped the populace. Only the internet industry still displayed a morbid prosperity.
With large numbers of residents staying home to avoid danger, the user base of the social app Fu Songcheng was responsible for had surged, pushing server throughput to its limits.
As the lead architect, he’d been working overtime at the company for three consecutive nights.
Even if the apocalypse came, you’d still be a beast of burden.
The late-night streets were eerily empty. The cold white streetlights stretched his shadow out long and thin.
Fu Songcheng walked quickly with his head down, his mind still churning over those fluctuating load metrics.
But as he crossed some invisible boundary, everything around him suddenly froze.
The distant sound of traffic vanished. Even the sultry summer breeze was abruptly cut off by some irresistible force.
The next second, the world collapsed.
The asphalt beneath his feet cracked like a fragile cookie struck by a heavy hammer, splitting into dense fissures.
From those cracks surged countless rolling, roaring streams of crimson code.
“This is—”
Fu Songcheng didn’t even have time to cry out before his body was seized by a violent sensation of weightlessness.
He was instantly swallowed by the blinding red light. The real world before him dissolved into darkness like a crumpled stage curtain.
[Notification: Barrier breached.]
[Eligible lifeform detected. Forcible uploading in progress…]
[Welcome to Death Party version 3.0.]
[Screening players…]
[Screening complete. Loading instance…]
The feeling of weightlessness receded like the tide, followed by the dull thud of a heavy fall.
Fu Songcheng felt his back slam against the cold, hard floor, the impact making him suck in a sharp breath.
He rolled over quickly, steadying himself in a highly alert half-kneeling position, his sharp gaze sweeping across his surroundings like a cold arrow.
It was a library—absurdly huge.
The vaulted ceiling soared into the clouds. Countless bookshelves stacked upon one another, stretching into the thick darkness at the far end of his vision.
The air was thick with the musty scent of old paper mixed with a faint, lingering hint of rust.
[Loading instance: Silent Library (Novice)]
[Current players: 10/10]
“Silent Library.”
Fu Songcheng repeated the words silently in his mind.
Around him, nine other men and women were scattered about.
Some were frantically checking their limbs in terror, some stared around in bewilderment, and one burly, brutish man was clenching his fists warily—clearly no pushover.
Before he could even recover from the shock of his surroundings, a glaring red notification forcibly popped up in front of Fu Songcheng.
The prompt floated in midair, visible only to him.
[Death Party 3.0 Update Notice: New “Identity” system added.]
[Player Fu Songcheng, you have been forcibly assigned an identity:]
[Lover].
[Assigned target: Yu Huaiting (ID: Y-071)]
[Current status: In-instance (A-rank)]
“Lover?”
Fu Songcheng’s brows knitted into a tight knot.
Immediately after, the rules for the identity appeared.
————————————
Rule 1 [Life Sharing]: Regardless of distance, if one party’s vital signs cease, the other will die instantly.
Rule 2 [Damage Synchronization]: When one party suffers physical or mental damage, the damage will be proportionally shared between both parties (HP deducted), and corresponding wounds will manifest on both in real time.
Rule 3 [Lover’s Attraction]: Matchmaking instances will prioritize placing both parties in the same faction.
“Will lovers become lifelong partners—or bitter enemies? Fate always has its ways.”
————————————
“In other words, if that guy named Yu Huaiting dies in a high-level instance…”
“Am I supposed to just die along with him?”
Fu Songcheng’s heart sank to the bottom.
He hated this kind of uncontrollable random risk.
He didn’t even know who Yu Huaiting was or what kind of person he was—and now they were bound together in fate.
As if to confirm the reality of these rules, a piercing, agonizing pain suddenly exploded from his left forearm without warning!
“Mm!”
Fu Songcheng let out a muffled grunt, his body staggering.
He dared not make a sound—the word “Silent” in the instance name Silent Library forced him to swallow the painful whimper in his throat.
On his black suit sleeve, the fabric had split open out of nowhere, and bright red blood instantly seeped through, dripping onto the cold floor.
[System Notification: Bound target Yu Huaiting has suffered a heavy blow. HP lost: 7%.]
[Damage Synchronization activated: You have taken 3.5% physical damage.]
“Three point five hurts this much…”
Fu Songcheng gritted his teeth, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
He could feel it—in some distant other space, that person named Yu Huaiting was fighting a brutal, desperate battle.
Just then, a young man with bleached hair broke down screaming.
He stared at the eerie surroundings around him, slapping the bookshelves in a frenzy.
“What the hell is this! Is this a movie? A prank show? I want to go back! Let me out!”
In the silent library, the roar was especially jarring.
Fu Songcheng turned his head in pain, wanting to warn him to be quiet.
But it was too late.
A massive shadow suddenly slid out from the darkness of the bookshelves—moving far too fast to be physically possible.
It was a monster in a black tailcoat, its body as thin and jointed as bamboo, its head featureless, and a work badge reading 【Librarian】 pinned to its chest.
In an instant, the Librarian stood behind the young man, its hands gripping both of his shoulders.
“Rip—”
A sickening tearing sound rang out, accompanied by the young man’s piercing shriek.
The Librarian’s razor-sharp fingers sliced through the air—and the bleached-haired young man’s scream stopped abruptly. A clean, level cut remained across his neck.
His head tumbled to the floor. Blood sprayed from the severed body, splattering the bookshelves nearby.
Death. True death.
The remaining nine fell into utter silence. Some, overcome with terror, clamped their hands over their mouths and collapsed to the ground, trembling violently.
The Librarian, meanwhile, took out cleaning supplies and began tidying up the scene with slow, deliberate care.
As if it were ordinary trash—not a pile of hot, steaming flesh.
[Instance Rules Officially Released:]
[1. Objective: During the borrowing activity, collect the books with the highest total value (all are autobiographies).]
[2. Loud noise and improper borrowing behavior are strictly prohibited. Violators will be immediately executed by the Librarian.]
[3. Each round lasts 10 minutes. Maximum of 10 books per loan. Books must be returned to the safe zone for scoring.]
[4. After each round, the player with the lowest total book value will be eliminated. Total of three rounds.]
The cold, mechanical voice echoed in everyone’s mind, like a death sentence from the Grim Reaper.
Fu Songcheng endured the searing pain in his left arm, his gaze quickly sweeping the scene.
He noticed a heavy, warm object had appeared in his left pocket.
He reached in and pulled out a palm-sized cloth doll.
The doll was exquisitely crafted—white medium-long hair tied up in a small bun. The stitched face actually exuded a defiant, unyielding air, with narrow peach-blossom eyes tilted slightly upward. It wore a black leather jacket.
[Obtained Item: Sympathy Doll (Yu Huaiting).]
[Description: Lover’s exclusive keepsake.]
[Hint: Interacting with the doll grants temporary attribute bonuses.]
Fu Songcheng stared at this doll named “Yu Huaiting.” He’d already dragged him into taking damage right from the start—surely milking a little benefit from him wasn’t too much to ask.
He took a deep breath, extended his slender finger, and tentatively stroked the doll’s soft cheek.
Hmm—
A strange warmth flowed from his fingertip through his entire body. The weakness from his arm injury faded noticeably, and even his vision grew sharper and more acute.
[System Notification: Interaction successful!]
[Bonus gained: Agility +5%, Mental Resistance +3%.]
At that very moment, in an A-rank instance fighting NPCs, Yu Huaiting suddenly felt someone touch his face—the strange sensation giving him goosebumps all over.
In that instant, Fu Songcheng could have sworn he heard a low, startled curse from a man’s voice, piercing through layers of reality into his ears.
But the next second, he had no choice but to focus all his attention on his own instance.
Dong—
The bronze bell at the center of the library struck without warning—its dull toll landing like a heavy blow on everyone’s heart.
[Round 1 Borrowing begins! Countdown: 10 minutes.]
The other players snapped out of their daze and scattered in terror, darting into the labyrinthine jungle of bookshelves.
But Fu Songcheng didn’t rush blindly toward the countless shelves. Instead, he ran straight to the bookshelf stained with the bleached-haired young man’s blood.
If it was about “highest value,” then in a hostile instance like this, blood and death were often the most direct annotations of value.
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