Infinite: Dawn Game

[Game countdown 00:03]

In a hazy state of consciousness, Yu Shijiu floated in a void of darkness and moved her fingers.

[Game countdown 00:02]

The decreasing numbers in his ears made Yu Shijiu slowly open his eyes. It was as if something was piercing his flesh through the sound, slowly probing towards his heart.

Yu Shijiu closed her eyes blankly, her amber gaze fading into the surrounding darkness, revealing a dazed look of not yet fully awake.

Where is this?

The next second, accompanied by the countdown in his ears, several huge red characters suddenly appeared in front of Yu Shijiu's eyes.

[Game countdown 00:01]

In an instant, the surrounding darkness seemed to come alive, writhing and coiling together like snakes, frantically surging into Yu Shijiu's body. It seeped into his veins and blood vessels bit by bit, devouring the boy completely through his flesh.

The pain of being chewed instantly invaded his mind. Yu Shijiu groaned in pain, his already skeletal body trembling, his bones making a crisp cracking sound, as if he was about to fall apart at any moment.

Extreme pain enveloped his entire body, and Yu Shijiu's consciousness was about to disappear. In the darkness, he silently stared at the black mist writhing inside his body, and the urge to kill surged up in his heart again.

Just as his heart was about to explode, a crisp mechanical voice suddenly rang in Yu Shijiu's ears:

Welcome to Dawn Games!

After those ten words were uttered, the black mist that had been devouring everything froze in place. The next second, Yu Shijiu watched as it was drawn out of his body like a tide, quietly returning to the surrounding darkness.

"What—" Yu Shijiu instinctively tried to speak, but before he could utter a single word, the surrounding darkness suddenly twisted into a vortex—

Yu Shijiu fainted.

------

When Yu Shijiu opened her eyes again, a bloody woman's head suddenly came into view.

The woman's long hair was hanging in a crevice not far from the ceiling, and at first glance it looked like a human head flower growing out of the crevice.

Yu Shijiu: "..."

He stared silently at the woman's head, which was almost touching his face. When he saw the smile on her pale, purplish face almost tearing at his ears, he felt a splitting headache and closed his eyes.

Was my hallucination getting worse? Otherwise, how could I be seeing something like this?

and many more!

Yu Shijiu's heart skipped a beat as he suddenly remembered what had happened in the darkness.

Just thinking about it made the lingering illusion of near death in his muscles and nerves spasm, and the phantom pain made him subconsciously want to open his eyes.

But Yu Shijiu stubbornly held back.

Although he had been forcibly given various medications to treat mental illnesses over the years, which had indeed made him somewhat mentally unstable, the woman's head he saw just now... did not seem to be a hallucination.

If it's not a hallucination, and I'm clearly already dead, then...

What was that distinctly mechanical voice talking about, "Dawn Game"...?

As he was thinking, he suddenly felt an itchy sensation on his face from the movement of hair strands. Yu Shijiu's thoughts were interrupted, and he immediately realized what was on his face.

If that woman's head wasn't a hallucination, then the itching on his face now—could it be that she was observing him...?

Seemingly sensing the boy's emotional fluctuations, the woman let out a sharp laugh, and the itching sensation from the wriggling hair slowly disappeared.

But Yu Shijiu remained motionless, lying on the bed like a corpse, even his breathing was extremely soft, as if he would stop breathing at any moment.

Perhaps she was really too tired and in too much pain, Yu Shijiu actually fell asleep while thinking about it.

After falling asleep, the boy, who was so thin he was just skin and bones, turned over and curled up on the bed in a position that showed extreme insecurity, like a wounded little animal licking its wounds in its sleep.

In another space unseen by Yu Shijiu, many men and women sitting in what could almost be considered a cramped room looked up at the sleeping boy on the screen with mocking eyes.

"He's too careless."

"He'll probably die very soon."

This is one of the comments.

"Isn't there another chance to be resurrected? Not necessarily."

"It's uncertain whether he'll choose to die on his own."

--------

"Is this newcomer too relaxed?"

In a fairly spacious room, a blue-haired woman wearing a camisole nightgown took a bite of bread and pointed at the sleeping boy on the screen.

The fat man next to him was covered in sweat. He wiped the sweat from his face and sighed.

"That just shows he's brave. If it were a timid newbie, they'd probably scream the next second after seeing that female ghost—"

"Then the newcomer will have his head bitten off and die."

The woman took another bite of the spicy snack she had just bought and commented.

Fatty: "..."

He chuckled and said, "That's why I said he's brave; he actually dared to sleep in the dungeon."

As he spoke, the fat man turned his head to look at the boy who was dozing off with his head down, and called out:

"Xu Han! What do you think?"

The boy named Xu Han was taking a nap on the sofa when he was woken up and frowned in annoyance.

"Don't call me!!!"

After saying that, he glanced at Yu Shijiu sleeping on the screen and clicked his tongue:

"Rather than saying he's brave, I think he's more like he's mentally ill."

The blue-haired woman looked at him and smiled: "What did you find out?"

The fat man was also momentarily speechless: "...Why?"

"I guess," Xu Han rubbed his eyes and yawned.

"His eyes looked like he wanted to kill someone when he opened them just now, didn't you notice, Sister An?"

Such an obvious sign of mental instability... He seems to be the kind of person who's good at pretending to be normal.

The blue-haired woman, referred to as Sister An, raised an eyebrow, and when she looked at the screen again, her eyelashes drooped slightly.

Sometimes, people aren't born this crazy.

--------

When Yu Shijiu woke up again, it was almost dawn.

He blinked wearily in the darkness, and after confirming that the woman's head was no longer around, he slowly got up.

The room was dark, with only a faint moonlight filtering through the loosely drawn curtains, barely enough to make out any light.

Yu Shijiu looked out the window for a while, then got out of bed barefoot and walked to the window. He fumbled for the light switch on the wall and pressed it.

"Click."

The lights then came on, dispelling the surrounding darkness.

Yu Shijiu finally saw his surroundings clearly.

This is a fairly well-decorated room with snow-white walls. To the left of the bed, near the window, is a desk covered with various study materials and messy draft papers. The handwriting on the draft papers is chaotic, indicating that the person who wrote them was in a terrible state of mind.

Besides that, there's only one wardrobe.

Yu Shijiu subconsciously looked up at the ceiling. Instead of a bloody woman's head, there was a surveillance camera wrapped in clothes.

This is all too familiar. When he was confined in the mental hospital, there was always a red-glowing surveillance camera in his room, watching him day and night to prevent him from suddenly going insane...

It's a memory that makes me want to kill someone just by recalling it.

Yu Shijiu narrowed his eyes slightly, staring at the covered surveillance camera, his brain working at a rapid pace.

A woman's head, a surveillance camera.

What is the relationship between these two things, and what exactly is the nature of "Dawn Game"?

"Boom boom boom!"

There was a knock on the door suddenly.

Yu Shijiu looked over and saw that the door lock, which should have been locked, was being turned by a key from the outside, about to be opened.

"Baby, are you awake?" A woman's gentle voice came from outside the door.

"Mom's coming in."