Chapter 1

After finally getting a day off, I was wearing big beach shorts and holding an ice-cold coconut I had just cracked open.

Who would have thought that the damn newly updated system would not even say hello before kicking me straight into the S-rank instance known as certain death, “Scarlet Family Compound.”

【Ding! Welcome, player, to an S-rank instance!】

【Current survival rate: 0.001%.】

【Please try your best to survive...】

The electronic voice in my head was so noisy that my brain hurt.

I took a sip of coconut juice and stared speechlessly at the gloomy, rundown walk-up apartment buildings around me.

Amazing, I had worked overtime for three hundred years, and even on vacation, I could still be dragged back for forced labor?

“Yo, that’s quite the outfit, bro.”

A sneer came from beside me.

The three players who had entered with me were looking me up and down.

When they saw my vacation-style casual clothes, plus the completely out-of-place coconut in my hand, their eyes lit up instantly.

The scar-faced leader sneered and stepped closer, reaching out as if to pat my face, but I tilted my head slightly and dodged him.

A trace of cruelty flashed in Scarface’s eyes, and he spoke with a fake smile.

“Bro, you’re a newbie, right? You’ll live longer if you learn to read the room.”

A skinny guy beside him joined in. “Boss, this kid’s probably scared stupid, he can’t even talk.”

The only female player crossed her arms and glanced at me coldly.

“Bringing him along will just make him dead weight, so when we run into an anomaly, we might as well push him out to block the blade.”

I ignored them and silently sighed.

At that moment, a translucent live-comment screen suddenly appeared before my eyes.

This was a feature of S-rank instances, a forced livestream to the entire network.

And right now, the comments had already gone crazy, with the whole screen mocking me.

【Hahahahaha, it’s over, this guy looks like pure cannon fodder!】

【Wearing floral beach shorts into an S-rank instance? Does he think this horror game is the Maldives?】

【I don’t think he’ll last even one minute, because the alley ahead is the territory of “Auntie Li the Dismemberer”!】

Following the comments’ hint, I bit down on my straw and strolled toward the dark alley ahead.

Scarface and the other two exchanged glances, then immediately followed behind me, completely treating me like a pathfinder.

At the mouth of the alley, an icy wind blew, and the smell of blood rose to the sky.

Auntie Li was crouching on the ground, laboriously stuffing several bloody human heads into her broken grocery basket.

One eyeball was even popped out, rolling right up to my flip-flops.

When Auntie Li heard footsteps, she raised her head while cursing. “Which blind bastard...”

Before she could finish speaking, her gaze met my helpless one.

“Clang!”

The grocery basket in Auntie Li’s hand crashed straight to the ground.

The heads she had just stuffed in all rolled out and scattered across the floor.

Her green-faced, fang-filled face turned even greener at a visible speed, and the sinister energy around her instantly collapsed.

I walked over, bent down, and patted her stiff shoulder.

Then I said in a volume only the two of us could hear, “Auntie Li, I’m off today.”

“Don’t make a fuss, do what you’re supposed to do, and just pretend you didn’t see me.”

Auntie Li trembled like a sieve, nodding frantically with such force that the rotten flesh on her neck almost flew off.

Then she hurriedly stuffed the fallen heads back into the basket in a panic.

Before leaving, she even forced out a fawning smile at me that was ten thousand times uglier than crying.

Then this fierce monster, who terrified veteran players at the mere mention of her name, fled in panic with her basket.

The three players beside me, who had been ready to watch me get torn apart, were completely dumbstruck.

Next, under their terrified gazes, we ran into the hanged ghost and Sadako again,

but they were like elementary school students seeing their parents, not only terrified of me, but also making way for me.

This time, the comments were also in an uproar.

【What the fuck? What the fuck fuck fuck? What just happened?】

【Why did Auntie Li run away? She’s a dismembering maniac who chops up anyone she sees!】

【What did this newbie say to her? Did he trigger some hidden path to survival?】

The female player beside me covered her mouth, and the way she looked at me also changed from disdain to terror.

【No!!! Did you see the hanged ghost and Sadako making way for him just now!!】

【This is a damn S-rank instance! Is this guy inspecting his own backyard?!】

【What did Auntie Li’s nod mean? Why did the hanged ghost listen to him?!】

【Is the system bugged?! Who the hell is this guy???】