The game forum

Late at night, on a niche gaming forum in China, the popularity of a particular post was quietly surging.

This was the copy exploration thread started by a druid. However, it had always been lukewarm in terms of attention, as cosmic horror games were a niche market, and this one was a new release from an unknown company with only a handful of pre-orders.

But things changed after Druid uploaded a certain picture.

After his in-game death, Druid routinely opened the exploration thread to continue live blogging his experiences. However, when he opened it this time, he noticed something was off.

What is going on? Why are there so many views on the post? Is his obscure little game going viral?

Druid looked closely and saw that his post was still on the level where he had obtained the crucial key. To show off, he had taken a photo of the key and uploaded it.

Right, where is the key?

Druid quickly checked his system inventory and sadly realized that the key hadn’t been carried out of the game. Oh well, the beta test is over anyway, so he figures the developers won’t let him exploit this loophole

Setting aside the matter of the key, Druid also discovered why the post had gone viral.

It was all because of the last photo he had uploaded. The key wasn’t the focus—the real attention was on the picture of the boy in the hospital gown that was under the key.

As Druid skimmed through the comments, he realized that, as expected, people were drawn to the person in the photo.

77th Commenter: “Front row! OP, hand over the info on the person in the photo—he’s my new husband now!”

78th Commenter: “OP, are you there? Is this NPC a character in the game? If so, I’m downloading it immediately!”

79th Commenter: “Wow, Dezi ^[1]a playful nickname for “druid.”, you’ve gone viral! Where are you?”

80th Commenter: “Is he still in the game? What’s up with this NPC?”

81st Commenter: “He hasn’t come out yet, probably didn’t make it. Let’s all spit on him before we leave (dog head emoji).”

82nd Commenter: “Is this where the photo came from? OP, you’ve blown up! This picture is everywhere online now! The game is going mainstream!”

Druid hurriedly switched to his online browser, and sure enough, a quick search for the keywords “game” and “patient” brought up the photo he had uploaded. People had even photoshopped out the key and enhanced the image’s clarity.

What was left was a 360-degree beauty appreciation.

Honestly, Druid hadn’t paid much attention to that photo at the time; he was too busy running for his life. Later, when he met the person in real life, the photo was the last thing on his mind. But now, looking at it closely, he suddenly understood why the front desk nurse had become so vicious after she took the photo.

After some thought, Druid’s lips curled into a mischievous smile. Without hesitation, he started a new thread and uploaded the system recording.

“Just died, sharing my new wife with everyone—I’ve become the white moonlight of my wife!”

—-

After crushing the small white orb, Ranen realized he could now see a familiar yet strange gaming forum in his mind. When he saw the game’s name, it hit him like a bolt of lightning.

Damn! He’d played this stupid game before!

He hadn’t expected that he hadn’t been reborn, but rather transported into the game.

—

Dive into the cosmic horror of “Wheel of Fate,” a fully immersive online game inspired by tabletop RPGs. Set in the mysterious city of Arkham, players are free to choose any identity and embark on a journey of exploration and discovery. Unlike typical grind-heavy MMOs, this game offers a more immersive experience, focusing on unraveling mysteries, solving puzzles, and confronting the creeping madness that lurks in the shadows.

According to the official description, it was a groundbreaking attempt to combine online gaming with tabletop role-playing.

Ranen had joined the game relatively late, after it had already become hugely popular. He’d only tried it out because of the strong recommendations from people around him. By then, Arkham, the game’s initial fictional city, had already been closed off, and the game had evolved into a stage dominated by wizards, cultists, eldritch entities, and unruly players.

Who would’ve thought he’d be transported back to the start of the game? If he’d known, he would’ve memorized all the major historical events in the game.

Ranen scratched his head and decided to check the forum to see how far the game had progressed.

Upon entering the player forum, Ranen immediately noticed a prominent thread. He couldn’t help but see it, as it currently had the most replies in the entire forum, far outstripping all the other game strategy posts.

“Just died, sharing my new wife with everyone—I’ve become the white moonlight of my wife!”

Ranen’s eye twitched as a sense of foreboding settled in his mind.

The video started playing.

The first thing that appeared was someone Ranen found extremely familiar. Upon closer inspection, isn’t that the young man he’d saved back then?

Sure enough, it was him. In the video, the brown-haired youth originally had a face full of despair, waiting for death. Suddenly, the door behind him opened, and a pair of arms pulled him into the room, covering his mouth in the process.

“Shh—don’t make a sound.”

The camera slowly panned upward.

The comment section exploded.

[I’m covering my wife’s face!]

[No peeking, no no no! qwq You’re not allowed to see my wife!]

[To the person above, your wife is amazing (dog head emoji).]

[Unbelievable, is this even a face humans can imagine?!]

[The modeling and art team really nailed it; the game planners should be thanking them on their knees.]

[Just for this NPC, I’m sold, brothers!]

[Fake beauty: “He has emerald green eyes, his looks as beautiful as an angel in a mural.”  

Me: …  

Real beauty: “His appearance score is 99.”  

Me: I can’t resist that!]

Ranen: …

He knew this body’s appearance was a bit over the top, but this reaction was excessive.

The video continued, showing the scene where Druid originally intended to leave but then bent down to see a pair of red high heels outside the door.

[Warning: High tension ahead!]

[Thanks for the heads-up!]

[You thanked too early because the rest is all high tension qwq.]

Just as the comments mentioned, the video continued with Druid and Ranen both trapped inside the ward. First, they were harassed endlessly by the red-haired nurse outside the door, and then the sound of nails scratching the walls followed.

[This is insane, is this what a high-level copy is like? This is way too difficult.]

[Druid is so brave. If it were me, my sanity would have hit rock bottom and kicked me out of the game qwq.]

[Am I the only one who cares that Druid got to sit next to my wife?]

[Something’s off with this druid guy. Didn’t he used to only like female characters?]

The second wave of comments exploded when Druid lifted the curtain, revealing the red-haired nurse outside, her body twisted in an impossible angle as she craned her head and opened her bloody mouth wide, staring inside.

[Aaaaaaahhhhh!]

[Help me! Help me! Where are the comments?!]

[Holy crap, playing dead like a rabbit? This boss is something else.]

The screen was flooded with comments like ‘Aaaaahhhh’ and ‘Help,’ covering the whole display. Ranen couldn’t help but scratch his head. Is it really that scary? Maybe because he had already resigned himself to his fate at the time, he didn’t feel particularly frightened, and even thought the red-haired nurse’s design was quite unique.

At this point, the video had reached its climax and most critical moment. The wall had been breached, and the monster from the neighboring ward had burst in. At that moment, the first to step forward was none other than Druid, who had previously been trembling in fear. The comments played along, flooding the screen with:

[The anthem of humanity is the anthem of courage!]

[Whoa, this moment actually got me a little fired up.]

[Well done, Dezi, you didn’t let us veteran players down.]

[Charge!]

Of course, these kinds of comments only lasted for a few seconds before the tone shifted.

[…Pfft, turtle punches.]

[Well, but seriously, are the system’s dice rolls ^[2]the random outcomes that realistic?]

[Didn’t even break through the defense, why am I starting to laugh?]

[I’ve bet everything on this dice roll!—Oh hey, big failure! (doge)]

Just as before, Druid didn’t inflict any damage on the hospital-gown monster in the video. Despite the teasing and meme-filled comments, there were still those who understood and admired him. In his final moments, Druid did his best to stall the monster’s advance.

Facing Ranen, his face covered in blood, Druid’s smile—bursting with the brilliance of someone risking their life—carried a certain infectious cheerfulness.

“Survive.”

[…Tsk, although I don’t want to admit it, this guy has some substance.]

[Shameless old thief! Don’t use your life to win my wife’s favor, woo woo woo, doesn’t that leave me with no chance at all?]

[Upstairs, you never had a chance anyway.]

[Got me laughing hahaha]

The barrage of comments varied from outrage to humorous banter, with only a few high-level comments remaining calm.

[Although, I don’t think it means much. Based on the earlier footage, did you notice that this NPC has been very calm the whole time?]

[Indeed, the two monsters blocking the door seem to be targeting the NPC, and with such an absurdly high appearance rating, I have a bad feeling about this.]

[Thanks, now I have PTSD from Nyarlathotep ^[3]Nyarlathotep is a powerful and enigmatic entity in the Cthulhu Mythos, a universe of horror fiction created by H.P.Lovecraft. He is often depicted as a shapeshifter, capable of appearing in various … Continue reading.]

[Could it be what I imagined?]

As the video continued, Ranen began to sense something was off. Why is the video still recording after death? Wait, he recalled that the game had a death linger feature, which meant that the events following… 

The ominous premonition came true.

When Ranen saw his own figure appear on the windowsill, calmly opening the window, the barrage exploded in unison. Ranen silently covered his face.

In the video, the inhumanly beautiful youth stood impassively, his expression devoid of sorrow or joy, watching the two monsters in the room fight each other.

He resembled a noble high above the gladiatorial arena or a deity watching worshippers offer up a battle in his honor.

In the end, as the monsters’ fight concluded in death, he walked over the corpses of the two monsters as if stepping over insignificant ants. Since the video was shot from Druid’s perspective, it appeared as if the youth was approaching the viewers outside the screen. He crouched down, and for the first time, there was a slight shift in his cold eyes, as if a corner of a millennia-old iceberg had melted.

The barrage of comments fell silent for a moment, and for the first time, the popular video displayed large areas without any comments.

Ranen’s face had already reached the limits of human perception of ‘beauty’; adding even a fraction more would venture into the realm of madness. When expressionless, his face resembled a flawless deity in a temple, gazing down upon the world from a lofty height.

Now, however, the cold, perfect deity’s eyes showed compassion for the first time.

Everyone present who saw this video felt as if they had been struck by a heavy blow. If there had been a system prompt for sanity checks in reality, someone might have gone temporarily insane on the spot.

He raised his hand as if to close Druid’s eyes.

The video ended here, likely because Druid’s time of death had come, but the barrage of comments finally began to react.

[……The first time I’ve seen an indescribable level of beauty. Druid, you were bent to no fault of your own; looking like this really has nothing to do with sexual orientation. (Dazed)]

[I’ve always struggled to understand how beautiful a 99 in appearance on an app can be. This probably provides the best explanation; really, adding even a fraction more would enter a realm beyond human comprehension.]

[My wife is heaven! My wife is heaven!]

[The classiness is too high. Tsk, I wouldn’t believe it if you said this wasn’t some evil god.]

[Who’s feeling sour? I won’t say.]

[[Lemon][Lemon][Lemon][Lemon][Lemon][Lemon]]

The video ended here, but the shock it brought to the viewers had no outlet, especially with Druid’s disdainful headline, which directly broke the defenses of the newly minted Ranen fanbase.

Druid: Heh heh, see this NPC? Guess if your wife will remember me or remember you?

22nd comment: Ahhhh, don’t say it, don’t say it, wuwuwuwuwu!

23rd comment: Heh, why would he remember you? Would a deity remember an ant? His identity is clearly not simple. According to the new rules, human beauty limits at 90, and anything above 90 on the app is basically not human. His charm in the video is outrageous; though the official didn’t give a value, I estimate it’s over 95.

I don’t know if you noticed, but Druid had at least two failed secret rolls after seeing him, which probably explains his abnormal behavior. At this level, I wouldn’t believe it’s not an evil god.

24th Commenter: But in the video, he clearly had no intention of taking action at first. He didn’t care about the monster outside the door. So… did he only decide to act after seeing Druid’s death?

25th Commenter: I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it, ahhh!

26th Commenter: An evil god obviously wouldn’t be moved by humans. If what was said above is true, it’s still hard to say if he is an evil god.

27th Commenter: Heh, have you seen a god? How do you know what a god thinks?

28th Commenter: Stop arguing. I just want to know when this game will start internal testing. When can I meet my wife?