I Wasn't Born Lucky

The darkness in this prison was absolute.

In the past in other instance worlds, even if the lights were turned off, there might still be moonlight outside the window. Even if there were dark clouds or stormy weather, there would still be weak light coming in from the outside. However, this place had no windows, only copper or iron walls. This led to the fact that once the lights were turned off, the people locked inside would lose sight of even their fingers. It was as if a black cloth was covering their eyes.

In the first 10 minutes after the lights were turned off, there was no movement outside.

Xiao Li lay on the hard bed. He closed his eyes and could sense Park Heesoon's amplified nasal sounds to the left as well as the movement caused by turning over. He waited in bed for a while but didn't hear any other sounds from the passage.

Xiao Li simply turned over on the bed and stood up. Since the room was too dark, he almost fell directly off the bed at first. Fortunately, Tan Li supported him with her hair. He slowly came to the door, leaning against the door with one hand and looking out at the passage through the glass of the door. It was dark and there were no visible figures.

Xiao Li put his hand on the door of the room and pushed with a slight effort. He could leave here now because the door was actually unlocked.

After hesitating for a moment, he gave up on the idea of going out and lay back down again.

It was strange. Xiao Li opened his eyes and stared at the darkness in front of him while thinking. It was such a huge prison and based on the introduction displayed in the little yellow book, it shouldn't be a simple place. After coming in, it was actually fully automatic.

He didn't know what type of self-help site this was. Leaving aside other things, where was the jailer? Where were the security guards? In addition, this program…

He fiddled with the brooch on his chest. He took out the communicator and pressed on it slightly to start it. There were no other indicator buttons on this machine. After a short loading time, the screen of the live broadcast room appeared.

During the time when the reincarnators were on the bus, they had already checked the brooch and communicator. However, these things were turned off until they entered the prison. It was the same when they were standing in front of the prison. No broadcast screen appeared.

Now the brooch had activated by itself and the broadcast screen appeared on the communicator without Xiao Li touching it.

He looked at the progress bar and found that the camera had started automatically after entering the prison.

The broadcast room of the communicator was just like the live broadcast room of the game anchors, except that the current broadcast screen was completely dark. There was no source for the barrage but occasionally, a few barrage messages would flash. [Why do I feel like he looks a bit familiar? Does anyone know what his name is?]

[Who needs to remember his name? He is very fresh and tender.]

[Fresh, fresh, fresh.]

[So good, I'm really envious…]

[He can walk. Great.]

Xiao Li briefly thought for a moment. Then two fingers covered the brooch while he watched the communicator. The communicator's image had a two minute buffer time compared to reality. After two minutes, he saw the image in the broadcast room become blurred like something was pressing on it.

[He is testing us. So cute.]

[Hahahahaha, I'm laughing wildly!]

[Is it useful? It is useless. He should cherish the rest time now. Ah, I will go to the other broadcast rooms to see.]

The barrage’s tone was strange. Xiao Li had seen a few horror game live broadcast rooms and the audience wouldn’t use such a tone when sending the barrage, unless&#k2026;

The owners of these messages weren’t human at all. It was why the adjective such as &#k2018;fresh’ appeared. It was because humans were just a pile of walking ingredients in the eyes of the ghosts. It included the one who said it was envious. It was probably envious that the ghosts here had a batch of fun and delicious &#k2018;food.’

No wonder why this was the most popular variety show. How could such an 'eating broadcast' not be popular in the ghost world? Xiao Li released his finger and fumbled around the brooch. However, he didn't find the switch for it.

He tried to remove the brooch and found that the perspective of the broadcast room would change with the brooch. It could be removed but only for half an hour at most. Otherwise, the brooch would automatically return to the clothes on his chest.

Just as Xiao Li was playing with this brooch, some rustling sounds came from outside. The source of this sound wasn't the fork at the end of the passage but the other side, where there were densely packed rooms and the low platform.

Bang. There was a dull sound like some type of object was being dragged from there. Every time the owner of the sound passed by a room, it would stop for half a minute before leaving again. It was gradually approaching Xiao Li's room.

Xiao Li got up from the bed while holding the phone in his hand. He wanted to take this opportunity to see what the 'jailer' outside looked like. Footsteps gradually approached. There was a loud whimper from a distant room but it soon disappeared, like the mouth was suddenly covered.

Bang, bang.

It was close to Xiao Li. It stood in front of Xiao Li's room, staring at him, a vague shadow appearing on the door's glass.

It passed by Xiao Li.

The footsteps were fading away.

Xiao Li released his hand. He didn't press the phone screen as he returned to bed and closed his eyes.

He fell asleep.

***

At the same time, a certain room in another passage.

A beautifully dressed woman was curled up on the bed. Her high heels had long been lost and couldn't be found anywhere. Her naked feet were injured.

The woman who originally cherished the skin of her feet had no time to worry about it. She tightened her feet under her dress and covered her ears, not wanting to hear the footsteps that were getting closer and closer to her outside.

If any reincarnator was present, they would find that this woman was the big star from the opening CG, Lian Susu.

Lian Susu might've put on a cute and lovely appearance in front of the camera but as early as when she first came in, she had felt very disgruntled. Her dissatisfaction reached the peak when she followed the prompts and found her room.

What type of rotten script was this? It actually had her, a big star worth millions of yuan, live in such a place? The director was really bad.

She sat in this room and cursed her agent for accepting this more authentic variety show. Although this type of variety show was popular now, most of them were just acting and there were cameramen shooting them. How could there be such a variety show without any staff and only cameras?

Still, she exclaimed on the surface, "Oh, this is a real prison. Let's see if there are any clues in it."

Lian Susu fluffed up her hair and pretended to check the place. She checked the bed and any place where clues might be placed. Then she opened the door of her room. "Since there are no clues here, let's go out and take a look."

During the preliminary inspection here, she had passed her companion's room but the woman inside had no intention of coming out. The woman was bending down to investigate the bed and she still controlled her voice, "I don't know if there is a person under the bed like in those vulgar horror movies….

Before she finished her words, her gaze shifted to the door and she met Lian Susu's eyes.

The woman asked, "Sister Susu, did you just check it?"

Lian Susu smiled on the surface but she was inwardly gritting her teeth. The player in front of her was a popular young star, three or four years younger than her. Now she kept emphasizing their age difference in front of the audience.

She pretended not to hear anything and replied, "I've seen it all just now. I want to go outside to check. Shui Miao, how is your side?"

Shui Miao turned her head to the side, this action better highlighting the tip of her nose that had earned countless praises. "I haven't found anything but I haven't checked the other places here. You go first. I will come later."

Lian Susu replied positively and turned away. She maintained her smile as she walked into the passage marked 'cafeteria.'

As she walked, she absently took out the communicator. It was allowed by the program so she would first look at the audience's reaction and adjust her response. If the audience thought she was currently too bold then she would act a bit surprised.

[A little closer. Oh, you look so delicious.]

[Maintaining your composure. Hurry up and scream. Your fear will become my favourite food.]

[……]

Lian Susu, "???"

This was too far away from the barrage she imagined such as [Susu, jiayou. I am supporting you as always.] What were these things? Psychopaths?

Or was this a stage specifically set by the show? Perhaps the director was hiding behind the camera and laughing. It was an ingenious method to record real reactions. No wonder why the show was so popular. It was too cruel to its players.

Lian Susu's heart was full of twists and turns but on the surface, she took a step back and she almost dropped the communicator in her hand. "God, what is going on? Director, is anyone there? Staff members?"

Her voice echoed in the corridor but there was no answer.

"What is going on here? Is it haunted?"

Lian Susu muttered before putting away the communicator and continuing to walk forward.

***

She had already explored everything here. There was really no one else. It seemed there were only two contestants, her and Shui Miao.

She came to the cafeteria and found there were already meals prepared. It was the standard of a company's cafeteria. Two dishes and one side dish were divided evenly. There were only two lunches with an apple each.

The food was too bad but she was used to losing weight.

Lian Susu picked up the plate and was full of smiles. "Wow, it's so rich. I just happened to be hungry."

She picked up a plate and sat at a table. She absently poked at the vegetables on the plate with chopsticks while thinking about how to quickly complete the mission and escape. However, this place was too big and deserted. It always made Lian Susu feel a bit strange.

Was there really such a variety show? They didn't care about anything after putting the contestants inside and they didn't even give any tips? She hadn't seen other variety shows but there would always be notes to let them solve a puzzle. Most of the time, the director would even appear in person.

Lian Susu cast aside the uneasiness in her heart and in a rare manner, she looked forward to Shui Miao's arrival. She had been eating for half an hour when another person appeared in the cafeteria. Lian Susu had started to feel fear so she happily welcomed this person. "Shui Miao, sit here. The meal is over there."

She was really excited so she didn't discover that something was wrong with Shui Miao. Shui Miao mechanically held the plate but didn't come over to sit. Instead, she sat nearly. She grabbed the food with chopsticks and directly stuffed it into her mouth. No, she wasn't pretending in front of the camera?

Lian Susu's face was hot from being ignored but she wasn't angry as she thought about tomorrow's hot search. She asked, "You aren't going to sit here?"

Shui Miao stopped her actions. She shrugged and abruptly laughed. Her laughter was sharp and not beautiful at all. It was like a mechanical doll's recording. The most frightening thing was that the laughter didn't come from Shui Miao's mouth. It seemed to come from other parts of her body.

The author has something to say:

@Say it to Sherlock bot, Sherlock is live broadcasting!!! Not for humans but for us!!!

[??? I'll come as quickly as possible.]

[These barrages… you… don't you recognize who this is?]

6th Anniversary Event Page (Final Submission Date: 15th November)

Proofreader: Tofu