Chapter 1: Yin Luo

Yin Luo stood before the sink, staring at his reflection in the mirror.

The boy in the mirror looked to be about thirteen or fourteen years old. His black hair was soft and fluffy, his complexion fair, his features delicate and filled with an innocent naivety. He was holding a rabbit-shaped plushie in his arms.

Although his expression was blank and utterly devoid of vitality, limited by that face, his entire person still appeared soft and harmless.

Yin Luo pinched the soft flesh of his cheek harshly. The figure in the mirror synchronized the pinch.

That hurt.

He quickly rubbed his face, confirming that this body was indeed his own.

But, did he really look like this?

Or rather, did he look this young?

He was a little puzzled.

Ever since he got sick, his past memories had become increasingly blurry, and his thinking process had slowed more and more. For a moment, he couldn’t even recall whether this was his face or not.

Just then, the sky suddenly darkened. The bathroom light flickered and dimmed, as if the connection was faulty. His vision instantly blurred.

Simultaneously, a few lines of scarlet writing appeared stroke by stroke on the inside of the mirror above the sink. It was as if some invisible presence was staring intently outwards as it wrote these words.

Yin Luo’s heartbeat quickened. An unknown fear surged forth, abruptly diluting the confusion in his mind.

He subconsciously clutched the rabbit plushie in his hands tighter, holding his ground against the bloody words for a moment. In the end, reason lost out to the stirring curiosity. He leaned closer to look.

[Players will enter this world in six hours. The main mission is about to begin. Please prepare in advance.]

The bloodstains were still trickling, the rusty, metallic scent filling his nostrils.

But upon closer inspection, he realized they were actually appearing inside the mirror, untouchable.

Six hours later, players? Main mission?

What is this? Am I in a dream or a game?

Yin Luo pursed his lips. He clearly remembered lying in bed and just closing his eyes. Why had he woken up alone in this unfamiliar house?

And this strange bloody text on the mirror.

Prepare? Why should he prepare? What could he prepare?

All sorts of questions piled up in his head, making his mind sluggish.

Before he could even think, perhaps due to the dim light, the longer he looked at the reflection in the mirror, the more unfamiliar it seemed.

Suddenly, the figure winked at the person outside the mirror.

Yin Luo’s breath hitched.

He hadn’t blinked at all just now.

Holding his breath, unable to think of anything else, he rushed out of the bathroom without looking back, then swiftly shut the door behind him.

With only a door separating them, the gentle light from outside softly illuminated his face.

What came into view was a luxuriously decorated yet elegant corridor. Above him was a cleverly designed high-transparency glass skylight ceiling, wiped very clean, with high visibility. He could even see the stars twinkling in the night sky. It was like two completely different worlds compared to the bathroom behind the door.

His heart seemed to settle a little. Yin Luo very naturally ignored those anomalies and wandered around.

This was probably inside something that could be called either a villa or a manor. There were many rooms; not counting the basement, it had four floors.

Inside, there was a spiral staircase connecting the first and fourth floors, a large balcony leading to a second-floor hanging garden and a third-floor gym, large and small reception rooms, a home theater, a gym, and even a medical room.

There were a full three indoor elevators, including one for the master’s use and ones for the servants.

But without exception, in this house clearly decorated with lavish spending—from the ornaments and paintings to the furniture and light fixtures, every detail meticulously planned—he encountered not a single person.

The world was utterly silent.

Yin Luo felt this scene was somewhat familiar. His heart, which had only just calmed, threatened to speed up again.

But he wasn’t exactly afraid, nor was he panicked.

Ever since the changes occurred in his body, all thoughts and desires had faded away, leaving only a longing for anything different from the stagnant, unchanging world.

So even though he’d suddenly opened his eyes in a strange world and seemed to have encountered some inexplicable phenomena, Yin Luo was more curious than afraid.

Besides, he had never felt so good.

A healthy body, a sharp mind, boundless energy—like being reborn.

It was a world of difference from his previous self, plagued by constant drowsiness, muddled consciousness, and memory loss, barely existing in a hospital ward day and night.

Thinking of this, Yin Luo’s mood actually improved.

He bounced on the spot, light as a crane.

“Pearl?” A gentle female voice came from behind him. “Why are you awake?”

Yin Luo was startled. He turned around and looked up at the person who had suddenly appeared.

She was a woman with a gentle and elegant temperament, delicate features, and fair skin.

Her brown hair was pinned up with a pearl hair clip, jade earrings hung from her ears, and she wore a French-style long dress. She looked to be in her early thirties.

“Can’t sleep?” The woman’s gaze was caring and gentle.

Yin Luo had never seen her before. This face had never appeared in his memory.

But from her attitude, she seemed to know him.

‘Pearl’ was indeed his name—a nickname, feminine-sounding and known to very few people.

Besides his mother, almost no one called him that now.

So, Yin Luo was silent for a moment, then slowly nodded.

Maybe he had forgotten her? After all, even his mother said he had forgotten many things.

The woman seemed very familiar with him. She leaned down slightly, straightening his flipped-up collar, and said softly, “Alright, Pearl, go back to sleep now. It’s so late; running around can make you sick.”

Yin Luo pursed his lips, unsure of how to react, unconsciously clutching the plushie in his arms tighter.

The woman noticed his little gesture and found it a bit amusing. “Still just like when you were little, taking it everywhere?”

She looked carefully at the white rabbit with the ruby eyes, thought for a moment, and said, “Mm… I remember, its name is Little Bear, right?”

“Mm!”

Yin Luo generously showed a big smile.

The reason he kept holding this rabbit plushie named “Little Bear” was because, besides the pajamas he was wearing, it was the only thing he’d brought with him from his previous hospital bed into this world.

In this unfamiliar world, familiar things always brought a sense of security.

So he had forgotten her. To know his nickname and Little Bear’s name, she must be someone very familiar.

Yin Luo immediately let down what little guard he had.

So he obediently turned and headed towards the bedroom he’d woken up in.

Before leaving, the boy holding the rabbit plushie suddenly remembered something and turned back. “…The bathroom.”

“Hm?” The woman’s gaze was still gentle and calm. “What about the bathroom?”

“Something in the bathroom mirror moved. I’m scared.” The boy lowered his head, clutching the plushie even tighter, seeming very uneasy.

It sounded like something a young boy might say deliberately to get an adult’s attention, but the woman believed him.

She frowned slightly, touched Yin Luo’s head, and said, “It’s okay, Pearl. Go back to sleep first. You were probably too tired and saw wrong. It won’t be like that tomorrow.”

“Really?” The black-haired boy looked up and asked.

“Really.” The woman’s tone was firm.

After watching the boy in pajamas and fluffy slippers return to his room and close the door, she turned and walked toward the bathroom.

Her originally gentle eyes were slowly tinged with red, filled with frost.

…

Standing before the door of the bedroom he’d just woken up in, Yin Luo instead felt hesitant. He didn’t know if the air conditioning was turned up too high, but even before entering, a wave of cold air hit him.

This bedroom was very large. In the exact center was a large, soft bed. The ceiling was painted a bluish gray, with playful golden star-shaped lights hanging down.

On the nightstand was an astronaut-shaped lamp. In front of the sunny window was a white desk, on which lay an open exercise book and a pen without its cap.

Judging from the decoration, the parents had clearly put a lot of thought into it, fitting the needs of a child this age.

But what was strange was that, apart from the basic light fixtures, all the other decorations and ornaments in the entire room were plushies.

All kinds of plushies.

Whether on the wardrobe, the nightstands, the chairs, or the bookshelves, and even on the bay window, the carpet, and the ceiling—there were various plushies placed or hung everywhere.

These plushies were numerous and of diverse forms. There were cloth dolls filled with cotton, exquisitely fragile handmade ceramic dolls, resin-cast BJDs precise and lifelike, as well as ones made of metal, woven grass, carved wood, and more.

But no matter the form, no matter where they were placed, they all had one thing in common.

—They were facing outward, looking at him.

Yin Luo clutched the rabbit plushie even tighter, almost crushing it against his chest, and slowly moved from the doorway to the bed.

He quickly covered himself with the blanket, lay down, turned off the light, closed his eyes, and prepared to sleep.

The actions were fluid, his behavior a matter of course, as if he were lying in his own bed.

His body instantly relaxed, sinking into the soft bedding. His nerves soothed, slowly emptying, until he drifted into sleep…

Yin Luo turned over.

He burrowed deeper under the covers, pressing the blanket over his face to try and block out the faint, lingering, inescapable gazes from the outside world, trying hard to clear his mind of all thoughts, entering sleep once more…

After a while, he suddenly threw off the covers and opened his eyes.

In the darkness, something was staring back at him.

A princess-dressed doll with golden hair and resin eyes had slightly turned its body, seeming to stare at him.

A pig plushie with button eyes lay on the cabinet, but its head was raised, also looking at him.

A little prince figurine, its body cast entirely from glass without even pupils, was smiling in his direction.

Clearly inanimate objects, yet now they seemed to possess their own thoughts and will. Inside glass cabinets, on tables, hanging, sitting in corners… all of them, every single one, was looking at him.

Yin Luo couldn’t sleep.

These gazes were substantive, like slimy insects clinging tightly to his body.

Feelings of disgust and irritability intensified to the point of physical nausea.

After struggling with his eyes closed for a while, he simply got up, stepped barefoot onto the carpet, ran over, and turned these dolls and plushies face-down one by one.

Those that could stand were all turned to face the wall; those that couldn’t were laid flat, made to lie face down.

For some hung rather high, he deliberately moved a low cabinet over, stood on it, and turned them around.

Just like that, after dealing with all the dolls and plushies, who knew how much time had passed.

Yin Luo finally felt the discomfort in his heart fade. He sighed in relief and fell into peaceful sleep.

The shallow breathing of the boy sounded in the room. The surroundings quieted down, and the curtains stopped drifting.

Suddenly, one of the resin dolls closest to the bed, as if moved by the wind, slowly turned its face, originally facing away from the bed, by 30 degrees.

Then, the largest wooden doll, hanging directly above the headboard, swayed, its head slowly lowering.

Yin Luo, in his sleep, seemed to sense something, frowning, uncomfortably turning over.

It seemed the wind outside blew a little stronger. More and more gazes appeared, converging from all directions.

Just at the moment Yin Luo was about to startle awake, the long-eared white rabbit doll named “Little Bear,” buried in his arms, also moved.

It twitched its ears and, with a gentle motion that wouldn’t wake the boy, carefully crawled out from under the covers.

Then, it stood up, laboriously using its two soft paws to neatly pull up the half of the blanket that had slipped off when Yin Luo turned over, meticulously covering him.

Operating two fluffy stuffed arms was somewhat difficult, so it slowly, bit by bit, tucked in the corners of the blanket.

Only after doing all this did it use its ruby eyes to sweep the room, its scarlet gaze passing over each and every one of the dolls and plushies present.

The doll halfway through turning face-down lay flat. The plastic clown, whose head had bent into a strange angle, didn’t dare move. The little wooden figure making strange clicking sounds also froze in place. The other dolls and plushies, large and small, played dead on the spot, as if nothing had ever happened.

Seeming quite satisfied with all this, the little red-eyed rabbit’s eyes shimmered. Only then did it puff and pant, burrow back under the blanket next to the boy’s body, and go still.

At this moment, the world was truly, utterly silent.