I went berserk in the game of gods.

Chapter 3 Funeral
Cao Yu's vision distorted rapidly, and the scenery in his eyes changed quickly... After the dungeon teleportation ended, he found himself in a spacious hall.

The hall was dimly lit, with a cluster of fresh flowers and an ice coffin in the center, flanked by wreaths and elegiac couplets, and mournful music playing softly.

Is this... the farewell hall of a funeral home?

Cao Yu was standing in the corner of the hall at that moment.

Besides him, there were seven other people in the corner, two of whom were acquaintances of his.

One of them is his good friend Chen Ran.

The other one is Zhou Fan, who was the first to shout "I've got superpowers!" in the classroom.

Cao Yu wasn't surprised to run into his classmates in the instance. The 53 people in the classroom, including himself, had all torn open their invitations and become players almost simultaneously, so their player IDs must have been very similar.

The first dungeon for new players is matched by the game based on their ID number and region, and they will only be matched with new players.

In other words, all the players who come here are definitely doing this dungeon for the first time.

Cao Yu noticed the other five people in the corner, all of whom were wary and scrutinizing, not at all like people attending a funeral home farewell ceremony. If nothing unexpected happened, they were probably also players who had been teleported here.

On the other side, Chen Ran also saw Cao Yu, his eyes showing joy, but he quickly concealed it and pretended to be a stranger.

Zhou Fan was the same.

Once inside a dungeon, if you encounter someone you know, pretend you don't. This might play an unexpected role at a crucial moment—this is one of the training contents of the Fourth Academy.

Everyone silently surveyed their surroundings. Upon recognizing it as a funeral home, their expressions varied; some were tense, while others frowned.

At this time,

Cao Yu's player panel suddenly popped up automatically, displaying the following information:

The E-rank dungeon "Girlfriend" is now open.

[Background: Du Ruo has a girlfriend who loves him very much, and he loves her deeply in return. The two are inseparable all the time, as if they have endless things to talk about.]

One day, Du Ruo's girlfriend died in a car accident, and he was devastated.

Seven days later, Du Ruo discovered that being single wasn't so bad after all...

[Note: There is only one deceased person, who has no desire to be resurrected.]

【Mission: Survive 12 hours】

'girlfriend……'

After reviewing the instance information, Cao Yu noticed that the player panel still displayed the time—11:00 AM.

Before he entered the instance, it was afternoon in the real world, so this must be the time inside the instance.

In the corner, besides him, Chen Ran, and Zhou Fan, the other five people were also looking at the air in front of them—presumably looking at their player panels.

This detail helped Cao Yu confirm the identities of the five players.

Currently, there are a total of eight players participating in this instance, including him.

One of them was wearing a hood that completely covered his face, only revealing his eyes, nose and mouth. Judging from his build, he was male and looked like he was there to rob a bank.

The hooded man was the first to break the silence:

"Tsk... Why did I have to come to such an unlucky place right away!"

"This looks like a funeral home? Uh... it does look a bit unlucky."

The person who answered was a young man who looked to be in his early twenties. He wore light makeup, had his hair styled in a side parting with a lot of hairspray, and was dressed in a stylish casual suit. Overall, he looked like a male model going to work at a nightclub.

Then, the model guy continued:
"You guys are players too, right? Have you received the dungeon information yet?"

“Received. It's an E-rank dungeon called 'Girlfriend.' The background mentions that Du Ruo has a girlfriend… The dungeon quest is to survive for 12 hours.” A man with a respectable appearance replied, then asked, “Is this your dungeon information?”

"Yes, exactly the same." The voice came from a woman with a delicate and frail demeanor.

Everyone else nodded.

The hooded man, the model guy, Zhou Zheng's face, the weak woman... Cao Yu looked at the last player. The other party was slender and thin, with long legs. She was wearing a hoodie, and the hood was pulled down to cover the upper half of her face. Only her nose, mouth and smooth white chin could be seen.

The stunning beauty of the lower half of her face alone drew the attention of everyone present, who wanted to explore what lay beneath her hood.

Humans can never escape their instinct to be attracted to good-looking people.

"I'll just call you 'Pretty Girl' then..." Cao Yu withdrew his gaze and observed the people who had come to attend the funeral.

They gathered around the flowers and the ice coffin, whispering among themselves.

Some people cast curious glances toward the corner where he was—mainly at the hooded man, wondering about his bizarre attire.

So far, no one has expressed doubt or inquiry about the sudden appearance of these eight people, which must be due to the cover-up by the evolution game.

However, the funeral was not large in scale and there were not many participants, so there was no situation where people could not be recognized... These eight strangers came to attend the funeral, and no one came to ask about the situation?

Players should have a reasonable role in this instance.

Thinking of this, Cao Yu rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a police ID—An Xin, Ge Tancheng… It seemed this was his alternate identity. Tucked inside the police ID was a photo of an unfamiliar man and woman, standing very close together, seemingly in a close relationship.

The other players noticed Cao Yu's actions and followed suit, each pulling out their police ID and photos.

“No wonder no one came to ask us what we were doing,” Zhou Fan said, examining the identification. “In this instance, we’re supposed to be connected to the deceased, so it’s not surprising that we’re at the funeral. But what’s the meaning of this photo? Could the person in it be me?”

“Um… I think we should be focusing more on the ‘deceased’ mentioned in the instance prompts than on the photos,” the frail woman suddenly said nervously. “The dead… could there be a ghost here?”

Instance notification: There is only one dead person, who has no desire to be resurrected.

If "the dead" and "resurrection" are used literally...

"Not only the dungeon prompts, but the story of Du Ruo mentioned in the dungeon background also seems off."

Chen Ran also became a little nervous and offered his analysis:

"Du Ruo's girlfriend died in a car accident, and seven days later, Du Ruo had the idea that being single wasn't so bad... Don't you think this sounds a lot like the 'seventh day after death' tradition? It's like Du Ruo's girlfriend became a ghost after she died, and then came back on the seventh day after her death and haunted Du Ruo."

It's obvious that she's a little afraid of ghosts.

It's not surprising that Cao Yu, who knows Chen Ran, is aware of the concept of "the first seven days after death."

The Federation and his previous life's Earth share many similarities in culture and customs, making them seem like two parallel worlds.

"Hmm...now that you mention it, it does seem like the seventh day after death." The model guy confirmed Chen Ran's deduction and casually praised, "You have a strong ability to make connections."

"If it really is the seventh day after his death, then this is troublesome."

Zhou Zheng's face turned serious at this moment, and he spoke:
"Our mission is to survive for 12 hours. Since it's a survival mission, there must be many dangers in this instance. We must know what dangers there are and how to avoid them."

The only breakthrough in intelligence at present is Du Ruo, mentioned in the background story.

"Du Ruo is very likely being haunted by a ghost now..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but everyone understood what he meant—going to find Du Ruo would most likely lead to encountering a ghost.

Suddenly, Cao Yu, who had been silent until now, spoke up:

"Du Ruo is dead."

He met everyone's gaze and pointed to the center of the farewell hall, where an electronic display screen was hanging.

In the rectangular farewell hall, the deceased's information was placed next to the ice coffin, while the eight people stood in a corner at the entrance, some distance apart, making them difficult to see clearly.

However, the huge electronic screen was playing the deceased's life story, and at that moment it displayed the deceased's photo and name—Du Ruo.

Du Ruo is actually dead?

This was unexpected by everyone.

It was at this moment that the farewell ceremony officially began.

A solemn atmosphere filled the hall as the host spoke, leading everyone into a moment of silence.

The funeral music grew louder.

As Cao Yu listened, he sensed something was amiss… Amidst the mournful music, faint cries had begun to drift in:

“…Anxin…Anxin…Anxin…”

An Xin—that's the name written on his police ID.

This is his identity in the game.

"Anxin!!!"

The soft shout suddenly turned into a roar, exploding right next to Cao Yu's ear, as if someone was standing beside him yelling.

Driven by his physical instincts, he suddenly turned his head to look... but saw nothing.

Chen Ran, who was standing not far away, noticed Cao Yu's unusual behavior.

She feigned the demeanor of someone dealing with a stranger, and asked in a low, puzzled voice, "What's wrong?"

"...Didn't you hear the shouts?" Cao Yu asked.

"Shouting?"

Chen Ran listened carefully, and then said:

"Is that right... Anxin?"

A deep, resonant male voice suddenly emerged from her throat.

"...!?"

Cao Yu suddenly stepped back.

Chen Ran then gave him a chilling smile, the corners of his mouth slowly spreading to his ears...

(End of this chapter)