The System Teaches You How to Be Human

Chen Mengxi anxiously watched Si Yisi, who seemed “scared to tears.” She gently tugged Si Yisi’s arm, her face filled with worry. What if her cheap cousin angered that burly man?!

Even if they combined their arms and legs, they probably couldn’t match the thickness of that fierce-looking man’s thighs!

Si Yisi felt the overwhelming collapse of tears pouring down like they cost nothing. He looked up at Chen Mengxi, and his gaze startled her so much that she let out a low cry and collapsed to the ground.

What—what’s going on?! How could my timid and trembling cousin, who always acted like a frightened woman, have such a terrifying expression? I must have seen it wrong!

Yes, she definitely saw it wrong.

Si Yisi continued to cry expressionlessly, clenching his hands as he urged himself to stay calm; Calm down!

He glanced at Chen Mengxi and thought of the ghost that would be following her in the future. That thought gave him extra motivation to force himself to remain composed.

It’s just a character role; I can stick to it!

The slimy and cold touch of Ah Tu coiled around his wrist, trembling so hard that its horns were about to break. In a flash, it shrank its head beneath its body to hide.

The burly player’s words didn’t resonate with many. Instead, his fiery tone seemed to ignite dissatisfaction, agitation, annoyance, and other negative emotions among the new players.

An elderly man raised his cane, swinging it toward the void in front of the burly player. But halfway through, he hesitated, clearly intimidated by the man’s size, and withdrew his swing.

“Damn you! Who the hell are you? Why should we listen to you? Are you the one who brought us here?!”

“Pfft, pretending to be all high and mighty!”

“If all of us rush him together, you think we can’t take on his group?!”

“Grandma, Grandma! Where is this place? I want ice cream, fried chicken, fries, mashed potatoes, and wings!!” a bratty child cried and threw a tantrum.

“Heh.” The burly player let out a cold laugh, raised his hand, and pulled out a gun from who knows where. He fired several shots into the air!

“Ahhh—!” The loud curses instantly turned into shrieks.

Several newcomers instinctively shielded themselves, either cowering down or falling to the ground.

After the wave of screams, silence fell over the scene like death itself.

Si Yisi didn’t need to pretend to strike a pose, his legs were already weak, and he had collapsed on the ground. Tears continued streaming down his face, as unstoppable as a breached dam.

However…

He glanced at the original owner’s cousin, Chen Mengxi. She seemed to be reacting like someone scared out of her wits, but Si Yisi clearly felt how she had instinctively pulled his body forward, using him as a shield.

Thinking about that, the tears flowed even harder.

Si Yisi: “…” Endure for now, and you’ll enjoy relief later!

Si Yisi heard someone in the small group trailing behind him mutter quietly, “Tsk, if it weren’t for the points you get from explaining things to newbies, who the hell would bother with these idiots!”

Points…?

And that gun, which must have been exchanged from some system.

Si Yisi wasn’t surprised. He had seen countless worlds of this type before. He just didn’t know if the exchangeable items here would include cultivation techniques that Ah Tu could use to train.

The burly player impatiently introduced himself and began explaining: “Can you all understand human speech? Huh?! I’m Qi Muyang, and for you worthless newbies…”

He waved his gun around, gesturing at the terrified people in front of him, the threat in his movements unmistakable.

No one dared to refute the word “worthless” he used.

Si Yisi, however, knew that this player was the type who acted tougher than he really was. He had only survived one or two games more than the other newbies, and now he was acting so recklessly. His ambitions weren’t small either; he was clearly attempting to recruit other veteran players from this game into his fold.

Tsk… If you don’t court death, you won’t die.

From Shen Chen’s fragmented memories, Si Yisi knew this burly player didn’t even survive halfway through the game.

The memories were so scant that Si Yisi couldn’t rule out the possibility that the burly player’s death was due to malicious competition from other veteran players in the group.

“Listen up and pay attention!” Qi Muyang shouted. “You all—heh, are now trapped in a never-ending survival game. No one can escape…” He lowered his voice, adding, “You’ll be playing some very fun games with ghosts and monsters. If you get caught or killed… well, you’ll wish you were dead.”

Si Yisi finally managed to stop crying for a moment. Taking advantage of Chen Mengxi’s presence to block other players’ line of sight, he quickly wiped away his tears.

He listened to Qi Muyang’s explanation, keeping his head lowered, his demeanor timid and uneasy.

During this time, Si Yisi noticed a peculiar look of disdain directed at him; it came from Shen Chen’s cousin, Chen Mengxi. He couldn’t fathom where Chen Mengxi’s sense of superiority came from. She was just as disheveled and pathetic as Shen Chen, yet she judged him as a failure?

Instinctively, Si Yisi felt that whatever fate awaited Chen Mengxi; hidden from Shen Chen’s memories, couldn’t be anything good.

Beep!

“Happy New Year, Happy New Year, wishing everyone a Happy New Year~ We sing, we dance, wishing everyone a Happy New Year~”

Out of nowhere, a cheerful song began playing from all directions in the sealed room. The lyrics were festive, but the sinister, clownish voice singing them was deeply unsettling, sending chills down everyone’s spine.

“Here’s a kind reminder… when the door opens, don’t just run outside. Haha!”

Qi Muyang abruptly stopped speaking.

The veteran players behind him herded the other players toward the still-closed door as if corralling sheep. The loud cursing and shouting had ceased after a small but effective warning, but Si Yisi could still feel the trembling shoulders of a frail woman pressed up against him.

The door slowly opened, allowing ice and snow to pour in from outside. What greeted them was a world of swirling snow, with fierce, biting winds that seemed capable of breaking a person’s will.

Some stepped back, trying to avoid the violent blizzard.

“Don’t move!” an experienced player barked, pressing a gun against the back of someone who had tried to shift, threatening them into submission.

Si Yisi knew they were in for a long wait. The snow and cold would erode their resolve. He could feel the crowd beginning to shove and jostle, unease brewing among them. Some even entertained the idea of shutting the door, but the veteran players stood as a human barricade, guns raised, blocking any route of retreat.

“I want out! I want out!” one player, forced to stand at the very front, finally screamed. He bolted, running madly toward the snow-covered expanse outside.

Si Yisi’s pupils reflected the silhouette of the fleeing player.

The player had barely taken a few steps before an old, battered bus came barreling through, running him over in an instant. His scream was abruptly cut off as the bus didn’t stop. It rolled directly to the door where they stood.

Everyone, however, had seen the grisly sight of the player’s death.

His body had been torn apart, shattered into pieces of flesh as though pulverized by the wheels; a scene that defied normal logic.

Thick blood stained the snowy ground, but then they all heard it; an eerie, grotesque chewing noise. It was the sound of meat and bone being ground together, each crunch as dreadful as the tolling of a death knell. What was worse, the amount of blood on the snow gradually diminished, shrinking until, finally, not a single drop remained.

Terror gripped the players’ hearts. Some began to retch softly, while others cried quietly. Everyone reacted differently, but the one commonality was that all kept their sounds as quiet as possible, fearful of provoking whatever monstrous thing might lurk in the snow.

Beep, beep, beep! The bus’s bell rang, urging the players to board.

The veteran players were the first to step inside, followed by the newer players, who had been forced to realize the deadly nature of this escape game.

***

Inside the bus, it was surprisingly warm; almost too warm for such a rundown vehicle that looked like it belonged to a decade ago. The cold vanished the moment they entered, replaced by comforting heat. Some players even relaxed slightly, their taut nerves easing with the change in temperature.

The bus driver was a gloomy-looking woman, but no one dared to dwell on whether she was human or something else.

The players sat quietly in their seats, too afraid to move even an inch.

The bus began to move slowly, passing the shattered corpse of the first dead player.

Si Yisi noticed something peculiar; small, crude paper figures suddenly sprouted from the fragmented pieces of the corpse.

The tiny paper men, densely packed, all faced toward the players, their mouths stretching into sinister grins seemingly painted in fresh blood. If those faces were human, the smiles would have split their mouths all the way to their ears.

“Ah!” one player let out a stifled cry of alarm.

Si Yisi stared unblinkingly at the scene, tears streaming from his eyes only to be dried by the bus’s warm air.

From the paper men’s vividly red mouths, he heard a chilling voice spill forth. “You… will… all… die… die… die… DIE—!”

Si Yisi murmured under his breath, his face blank.

‘You’ will all die.

Yes, killed by me.