Welcome to the Bizarre Games

Chapter 2 Landlady
Zhou You suddenly woke up with a start.

He was no longer in the stairwell, but in a strange space where pages of a book floated.

But he didn't pay attention. The first thing he did after regaining his senses was to forcefully touch his neck.

Steady and unharmed, without a scratch, his head still attached to his body.

—I am still alive.

The moment Zhou You realized this, his body suddenly relaxed.

In a daze, cold sweat had soaked through his back. Even though he knew he was not dead, his heart was still pounding like a drum, and he even felt a sense of suffocation.

Was that all a hallucination?

The doubts that had just surfaced in his mind were immediately dismissed by Zhou You himself.

No, this is not a hallucination; I really did just die.

His head was severed by some unknown object, and he died a very thorough death.

So, the reason I'm still standing here unharmed is because of that so-called 'resurrection'?

Only then did Zhou You raise his head and look at the yellow paper floating in mid-air.

At the same time, that mechanical female voice also rang in his ears.

"you are dead."

"It's a worthless death."

"You didn't uncover any erosion points, nor did you advance the plot in any way, so you won't receive any reward for this death."

"Since the player is still in the beginner stage, they can use 10 Soul Stones (free for the first use) to replay the ten seconds before and after their death. Would you like to replay?"

Erosion points, plot progression? Soul stones... what do all these mean?
His mind was still somewhat muddled from his recent death. Zhou You frowned and pondered for a while, but still couldn't glean any real information from those few words.

In the end, he still chose the death replay.

The only clue now is the fragment of the scene of his death—at least, he needs to know who the murderer is and how he died.

Soon, a video-like scene unfolded before his eyes.

It's a bird's-eye view.

It was around the time he had just stepped out of the building; the sun was shining brightly outside, Zhou You's expression was normal, and everything seemed fine.

However, just a second later, as he was about to step outside...

A line of blood suddenly appeared on his neck.

Then came the sudden separation of the head and neck.

With a gush of blood, Zhou You's head tumbled off, rolling into a pile of trash in the corner of the stairwell, where it landed next to a heap of black plastic bags.

There was no murderer, no monster, not even a trace of a sign. It was as if his head was never part of his body. If he took that step, he would collapse like a building block.

Nothing was gained?

wrong.

Zhou You didn't look at the scenery before his death, but instead replayed the ten seconds after his death.

His head fell off, blood spurted out, rolled backward, and then landed in a garbage dump.
...That's definitely not right.

Zhou You frowned as he thought about it.

—According to the inertia of a normal person walking forward, when taking a step, the body's center of gravity will lean forward, so when the head falls, it should roll directly out of the door, and should never fall back behind the door.

So Zhouyou then rewinds, slows down, and pauses.

After repeating this process several times, he finally managed to see less than ten frames of footage through the crack in the apartment door just before his head fell off.

—It was a ripple of light, and hidden beneath that light, a pale, distorted, yet extremely strange face that flashed by.

And the other person was smiling.

"You have discovered an erosion point."

"You have received a reward of 10 Soul Stones."

"You have gained a temporary white talent: Keen Observation."

"Through careful observation, you may occasionally glimpse some easily overlooked traces."

"You can spend 50 Soul Stones to retain it. Do you wish to retain it?"

Without a second thought, Zhou You immediately chose "no." After all, he was penniless and had no money to pay for the procedure.

However, he also gained a lot of new insights from these words—at least he knew that he could gain talents and other enhancements in this game, and he also knew how to spend these 'soul stones'.

Especially that erosion point, which seems to be one of the core mechanics of this scenario.

But then the question arises again: what exactly is this thing?
Is it some kind of hidden trap?

What kind of malevolent ghost is it?
Or is it an anomaly that differs from the normal world?
After a long pause, Zhou You still shook his head.

The amount of information was still too little. To find out the truth about the game, I had to go back to that eerie stairwell.

just
Zhou You touched his neck.

If something goes wrong, will I have to experience this real death again?

But soon, he suddenly laughed.

Compared to the death sentence given by the doctor, compared to the despair of spending all his money and still not getting better treatment, what is the pain of this mere beheading?
Looking at the floating yellow paper, Zhou You didn't hesitate to select "confirm" again.

Then, the scenery changed again.

In the blink of an eye, he was back in that stairwell once again.

—It was still the same dilapidated scene.

But this time Zhou You didn't rush to step out; instead, he cleared his throat first.

Then, as if his face had changed, his expression suddenly turned to one of utter terror, and he shouted towards the door with an incredibly piercing scream.

"Help!! There's a ghost!!!! Someone please save me!!!"

The sound was shrill and high-pitched, as if a dying person were pleading for help. However, the people in the distance seemed not to hear it at all, continuing to play and make noise as if no one noticed the pitiful person trapped in the corridor.

I guessed it was useless.

The screams stopped abruptly. Zhou You pursed his lips, showing no regret on his face. Instead, he looked around, grabbed a suitably sized garbage bag from the corner, weighed it in his hand, and then tossed it outside—

The next moment, the black plastic bag instantly split in two.

But just like before, it was still impossible to see what had done it, and not a single piece of garbage or debris had spilled outside, not even a drop of rotten soup had escaped.

It's as if an invisible barrier stands in front of the unit door, dividing the inside and outside of the door into two worlds that are absolutely insurmountable.

—It seems this path is indeed blocked.

Zhou You craned his neck and glanced at the other passage.

The old steps connect the two floors. The old house seems to be poorly lit. Although it is a bright and sunny day outside, the stairwell is dark. At first glance, it looks like the gaping mouth of an invisible monster, waiting for its victims to walk into its trap.

Zhou You hesitated for a moment, but still took a step and started walking upwards.

The second floor is a little cleaner than the first floor, but it's still not very clean. There are only four unit doors on this floor, and the narrow corridor is filled with all sorts of clutter. Dust is everywhere, and there's a strange stench coming from somewhere.

Zhou You frowned, then knocked on each door in turn.

There was no response from doors one through three; it was deathly silent, as if no one lived there at all. But when they knocked on door four, a panicked male voice rang out.

"Landlady? I... I really don't have any money left. Please, please give me a few more days' rent. You see, I... I've been very polite and haven't broken any of your rules. I haven't disturbed any other residents, haven't gone to the fourth floor without permission, and haven't messed with the storage room on the fifth floor. Please, please give me a little more time. I'll get the money soon, really, I'll get the money right away, really!"

In the end, all that came was a series of desperate screams. The other person seemed to have completely lost their mind. After that, only irregular screams and shouts remained.

When the voice finally lowered a little, Zhou You wanted to knock on the door again to ask some specific questions, but suddenly, a hand patted his shoulder.

Zhou You turned his head and saw an old woman who was thin, withered, with a face full of wrinkles and a nose that was half rotten, looking like a withered locust tree.

Before Zhou You could say anything, the old lady suddenly opened her mouth.

—The next second, he suddenly lost all control of his body.

He could only stand there, watching the old woman's mouth grow bigger and bigger, quickly exceeding the limits of what a normal person could achieve, but it didn't stop there. Instead, it gradually widened, with her pale white teeth and oral cavity protruding, eventually forming a dark, gaping hole.

The hole swallowed him up.

Then, they suddenly closed together.

Next, only the sound of chewing remained.

"you are dead."

"Died at the hands of the landlady."

(End of this chapter)