Chapter 008: Execution!

Page (1/3)

Game, start!

In the next instant, the scenery around them twisted and shifted. By the time everyone regained their senses, they found themselves standing at the center of Sakura Academy’s main athletic field.

“We have to find the key hidden somewhere in the school before dawn to open the survival passage? This school is huge—where are we supposed to look? And nobody even knows what the key looks like.” Nobuo Arano spat on the ground, cursing to mask his unease and fear.

Su Cheng drew the katana from his waist, calmly observing their surroundings. His intuition warned him: something terrifying was lurking in the black mist, secretly watching them.

“Reiko, the atmosphere here is so frightening—I want to go home.” The short-haired girl’s face was pale with fear, regretting that she’d let herself be coaxed by Arano and the others into playing this horror game.

“I’m afraid we won’t be able to leave until this game ends.” Su Cheng’s fingers trembled slightly. Amidst the terror and tension, he felt a rare flicker of excitement.

Reiko Sato’s expression changed. She looked into Su Cheng’s eyes and asked, “What do you mean?”

“Didn’t you hear? The sound of the school gates closing. If you want to leave here alive, it’s best to follow the instructions and find the key before dawn.”

At that moment, a disdainful voice sounded next to Arano. “Hey, what gives you the right to boss us around? Reiko, are you really going to listen to this stranger?”

Su Cheng raised his gaze, his eyes piercing the mist to fix on the speaker—a tall, thin man with glasses, clearly sent by Arano’s faction to stir up trouble.

“Idiot.”

He couldn’t be bothered with this bunch of reckless players. Even now, they were thinking about infighting; once they encountered the butcher, they’d have no idea how they died.

“Baka!” The man with glasses was infuriated by Su Cheng’s contemptuous attitude and lunged, as if to land a punch.

But the cold gleam of Su Cheng’s katana kept him from making any drastic moves.

“Yamazaki, there’s no need to argue with someone so uncivilized,” his girlfriend snapped, glaring at Su Cheng with undisguised disgust.

Suddenly, Su Cheng’s expression changed sharply. He raised his sniper crossbow, aiming it at the aggrieved man with glasses.

“What—what are you doing?” The man stammered in terror as Su Cheng pointed the crossbow at him.

“Shut up.”

Su Cheng offered no explanation, his gaze chilling instantly.

Yamazaki opened his mouth to protest, only to notice the faces of his companions distorted in horror, all staring at him with terror-stricken eyes.

What was happening?

A strange chill crawled up Yamazaki’s spine—the fear threatened to drown him.

“Yamazaki, behind you…”

Yamazaki stiffly turned his head. Within the black mist behind him, a grotesque, terrifying pig’s head appeared.

More precisely, it was a killer wearing a pig’s head mask.

Fear—spreading like a virulent contagion—began infecting every player’s heart.

The pig-headed figure was unusually tall, draped in the black robes of a cultist. His gaze was cold and merciless, devoid of any human emotion.

Page (2/3)

A thick arm was wrapped with iron chains; in the other hand, he brandished an executioner’s axe, like a deranged killer straight out of a film, radiating a chilling aura.

The Butcher!

“Run, run!” Someone screamed hysterically. Terrified by the sudden appearance of the butcher, the players scattered like headless chickens.

Su Cheng’s face darkened. Running blindly like this would only give the butcher opportunities to hunt them down one by one.

Yamazaki’s trousers were soaked; under the crushing terror, he had no strength to flee, only able to watch helplessly as the pig-headed killer advanced step by step.

The killer’s cold gaze swept over Yamazaki. With a sudden swing of his arm, the chains snaked toward him like a venomous serpent.

“No!”

In panic, Yamazaki instinctively shoved his girlfriend toward the killer.

“Yamazaki…”

The girl’s neck was ensnared by the chain. Her face was incredulous as she was yanked before the pig-headed killer.

“Help me,” she pleaded, eyes wide with terror and despair, reaching out to Yamazaki and Arano, who were only a few steps away.

Arano gripped his baseball bat, hesitating but not daring to intervene. He hid instead.

Yamazaki’s girlfriend knelt before the pig-headed killer in a pose of execution. Without hesitation, the cold-blooded killer raised his axe and brought it down in one swift stroke.

A warm spray of blood splattered across Yamazaki’s face. The girl’s head tumbled from her neck, rolling to his feet.

“Mako!”

Watching his girlfriend executed in front of him, the shock nearly drove Yamazaki mad.

“Ah! He’s killed someone!” The players, who had only thought this a test of courage, were utterly stupefied. Some shakily pulled out their phones to call for help. Strangely, their devices seemed infected—stuck on the monster strategy game interface, unable to exit, with no signal whatsoever.

None of them had imagined that someone might actually die.

Now, it was too late to quit.

After executing the girl, the pig-headed killer, axe in hand, charged at the panicked players.

But as he rushed forward, an arrow whistled through the air.

Sensing danger, the pig-headed killer raised his hand to block the deadly missile, but the sharp arrow pierced his palm and drove deep into his left eye.

A piercing, animalistic howl echoed through the darkness.

Had he not blocked it, the MP9 anti-terror sniper crossbow would have easily pierced his skull.

With the strike landed, Su Cheng silently drew his katana, springing forward like a leopard and slashing at the killer’s throat.

Page (3/3)

The pig-headed killer, though blinded in one eye, reacted quickly, swinging his axe to deflect Su Cheng’s katana and kicking at him.

But Su Cheng had anticipated this, sidestepping the attack and driving his blade deep into the killer’s left flank.

Strangely, no blood flowed from the wound. The cold-blooded killer in the pig mask seemed not human at all—only a spirit of slaughter.

After grappling with the killer for a while, Su Cheng gradually figured out his opponent’s strength and attack patterns. In fact, while the killer’s power was far above ordinary peoples’, it was still within human bounds—not exaggeratedly strong. If the players worked together, they could take him down.

The problem, however, was the killer’s extraordinary resilience. Any normal person, blinded in an eye and stabbed in the side, would have lost the will to fight. Yet the pig-headed killer was like a tireless killing machine—no matter how many wounds he suffered, he would not fall.

“It looks like we’ll have to sever his head completely to kill this butcher. Interesting.” Su Cheng licked his lips. Though his strength was inferior to the butcher’s, his reflexes were much faster, making him hard to catch. Moreover, the butcher’s attacks were simplistic, and Su Cheng’s keen vision let him dodge with ease.

Even Su Cheng himself hadn’t realized how nimble he’d become since improving his constitution.

After half a minute, the pig-headed killer, realizing he couldn’t overcome this human, abandoned the hunt and retreated into the mist.

The cold-blooded butcher—had fled?

Reiko Sato and her companions were dumbstruck. The terrifying killer had actually been driven off by Su Cheng.

“Too bad, he got away.” Seeing the killer disappear into the mist, Su Cheng chose not to pursue. No one knew what traps lay hidden within the school; falling into one could be fatal.

“We’re saved. Arano, what’s going on with this game? You said it was just a regular test of courage—why did such a terrifying killer appear, and why has someone died?”

Several players, furious, rushed to confront Nobuo Arano. They had just watched their companion executed, and the shock had rattled them badly.

It was only then that Su Cheng realized these players had been coaxed by Arano into joining the horror game group. Aside from Su Cheng and a few others, the rest were novices.

Arano, the instigator, had received a points reward in-game for successfully recruiting friends to the horror game.

Faced with his companions’ anger, Arano tried to change the subject. No one noticed that he kept glancing at Su Cheng’s weapons and backpack, as if plotting something audacious.

Just then, the deranged Yamazaki suddenly rushed over, grabbing Su Cheng’s collar, his eyes bloodshot as he shouted, “Baka yarou! If you’d acted sooner, Mako wouldn’t have been killed. It’s your fault—her blood is on your hands! I want you to pay with your life!”

“Yamazaki, calm down. Mako’s death isn’t Su Cheng’s fault. If he hadn’t driven off the killer, we’d all be dead.” Reiko Sato stood up for Su Cheng.

Arano’s eyes flashed with malice, deliberately shifting the blame. “I think Yamazaki has a point. If he’d acted in time, maybe Mako could have been saved.”

“You didn’t just watch her die because she insulted you earlier, did you?”

With Arano’s words, the other players’ gazes toward Su Cheng changed instantly.