"Ahhh—!!" Xu Xi tore himself out of the darkness, gasping wildly. He fumbled at his neck like a madman, and only when he felt his head still attached did he stop.
His trembling body showed he had not calmed down. Having died again left what little sanity he had almost shattered.
From the initial joy of regaining life, to the panic of being forced into a survival game, to the horror of dying twice in a row and reviving as if death would chase him forever, Xu Xi's taut nerves finally snapped at this moment.
[What's up with this new player?]
[Could he have actually been scared into losing his mind?]
[Maybe. It's not unheard of for newcomers to freak out before even starting.]
[Another one who went insane. Boring, I'm out.]
The barrage of comments didn't affect Xu Xi.
Right now he felt nothing but seething resentment.
Why?
Why did he have to be transmigrated into this world? Why make him experience death again and again? Was his being brought here just an excuse to keep killing him?
He would have been better off dying from overwork in the first place! At least then he wouldn't have to live in constant fear of the next death!!
Perhaps losing his last threads of reason had dulled the fear, and it instead erupted into blazing fury. Unwilling anger transformed into sudden courage, and a boiling blood rush flooded Xu Xi's mind.
He flung open the door with a violent yank. The door slammed against the wall with a deafening crash, but Xu Xi didn't care whether the noise would wake or attract any supernatural beings. He almost wished something would appear so he could slap it hard and vent his rage.
"I'll make you celebrate your birthday!"
"I'll make you eat cake!"
"Eat shit, all of you!!"
Xu Xi smashed the food and birthday cake on the dining table roughly, leaving the floor in chaos. He then overturned the coffee table. A few empty liquor bottles were sent crashing to the floor, shattering like the plates; if he had an axe in hand he would have hacked the sofa and chairs in half.
"Come on, hit me!"
"If you can, go ahead and kill me again!"
While shouting at the ceiling fan, Xu Xi might have accidentally hit something else. The television flickered twice, and suddenly the familiar noisy audio burst back to life.
From the screen it looked like a nonsensical cartoon was playing.
At that moment someone knocked on the front door.
Even with the TV loud, the knock sounded clear.
[Not gonna lie, this newcomer going crazy is kind of entertaining]
[Second that. Compared to the old players who timidly suffer, a brave newbie is more fun to watch]
[Brave? Upstairs, you mean brainless, right?]
[Is it just me, or is no one else paying attention to this weird knock?]
[I have a bad feeling. This newbie's about to croak]
Having watched other players struggle to survive, viewers sometimes toggled to the freak shows to change the mood. So dozens of people had gathered in the stream, all savoring the sight of this new player's meltdown and waiting to see how he'd end.
Nobody expected this new player to live.
After all, once you lost caution in an instance, even seasoned veterans could eventually be undone by a small mistake.
As the comments predicted, Xu Xi had completely given up now. He didn't care who might be outside the door or if opening it would be dangerous. Without hesitation he opened it.
No one stood outside, but a casual-sounding conversation once again appeared in his ears, as if materializing out of thin air just like the previous strange sounds.
But a man without reason paid it no attention, and he strode headlong into the outside.
[What a shame. That could have been a new clue]
[What's the point? This guy's going to die anyway, clues won't save him]
The viewers watched as Xu Xi, like prey walking into a trap, was gradually swallowed by the encroaching darkness.
...
When he woke for the fourth time, Xu Xi sat up expressionless.
Having vented his pent-up emotions, his rationality had mostly returned.
Being consumed by the dark felt no better than being smashed by a ceiling fan or having his head chopped off.
After running dozens of meters and still encountering endless pitch black, his consciousness had blurred as if countless invisible insects were gnawing at his soul. That creeping chill of vanishing life sent shivers down his spine.
And then… he was reborn at the very beginning again.
Three times now. Did every death return him to the start?
But how many more times could this dying-and-reviving cycle repeat?
Xu Xi exhaled softly, realizing he couldn't draw any useful conclusions yet.
Maybe this death-and-rebirth was the special power he got from transmigrating.
Even without knowing how many times he could use it, he had to admit that, aside from the torment, the ability was very useful right now.
It might even be his only advantage to clear the instance.
After all, he didn't suddenly become clever just because he transmigrated. In a survival game, even the smartest person might not make it to the end.
He needed to use this limited rebirth advantage to find clues and clear the instance as thoroughly as possible.
Of course, not dying at all would be best, because if one day he died and didn't revive, that would be game over.
Comforting himself with that bleak consolation, Xu Xi accepted his odd special ability and began thinking about how to clear the instance.
Only two unexplored places remained: the master bedroom and the bathroom.
He decided to check the master bedroom first.
No choice—whether in films, novels, or horror games, bathrooms are high-risk zones. He refused to step into one until the end.
Even with respawns available, avoiding one death was still worth it.
He hopped down from the bed, opened the door, and quickly stopped at the master bedroom door across the hall.
[Why does this newbie look so focused? Did he find something?]
[Why doesn't he thoroughly search that other bedroom? Maybe there's an important clue there]
[This newbie seems reckless]
Xu Xi certainly wouldn't re-search the children's room. He had already gone through it thoroughly two runs ago; only two useful clues existed and rechecking would be a waste of time.
Standing at the master bedroom door, he didn't open it immediately. He pressed his ear to the doorframe again to listen for any movement inside.
The television sound had stopped automatically as soon as he left, and without that ambient noise he still heard nothing.
Last time he trashed the living room and dining table and no one came out—maybe the master bedroom was empty.
Thinking that, Xu Xi gripped the handle and gave it a determined twist.
But the handle seemed locked from the inside and wouldn't budge.
Xu Xi: "……"
Looks like he had no choice but to explore the bathroom first.