The Trial Game of Life – Chapter 147

Table of Contents | Character Guide

Chapter 147: Project Paradise

The Vaccine Research Institute’s motive was very clear. They wanted to bring Lilith into a dungeon, possibly a very special dungeon at that. Although Lilith rushed to set off the flare, it was too late.

Since the number of people on both sides was far too large, it would be difficult to get Jin Cheng to see the signal.

Amidst the brawl, Lilith kicked over a researcher and a blade popped out from the top of her black leather boots. Even if the target didn’t die, he would lose at least half a jin of blood. Stepping over in one large stride, she pressed one knee on his wound and pinned her two blades on his neck, asking with a stern tone: “Talk. What on earth are you trying to do?”

Drenched in pain, the man’s face was as white as a sheet, but still, he kept his mouth tightly shut. As the other people came to surround her, Lilith showed absolutely no fear: “If you dare to make a move, I’ll kill him and run away.”

Killing a man and getting sent to jail was also a way to escape.

Those people were truly frightened. But the next second, the person caught by Lilith suddenly started to tremble. Lilith caught a glimpse of something being bitten on between his lips and quickly squeezed his chin, but it was too late.

His whole body immediately exerted a large force, as though he felt no pain at all, and he pushed Lilith away.

A living corpse.

Lilith’s heart sank. This bunch who knew how to play with poison was truly difficult to deal with, just like Scarlet. These damned creatures that were neither humans nor ghosts seriously deserved to die.

But what surprised Lilith most wasn’t that these people were willing to turn themselves into living corpses to stop her from escaping, but that from the very beginning, they were martyrs that were willing to hide corpse poison in their teeth, always acting carefully and ready to resort to the cruellest method. Moreover, their strength was nothing like that of players in Zone C at all. At the very least, they were on par with the elites of Zone B.

In Yong Ye City, the Vaccine Research Institute was a place with all kinds of medicines and biochemical equipment, which allowed it to become the origin of relatively rare skills. Although Lilith was an elite of Zone A and was taught by Jin Cheng, she was also losing her ground under such an attack.

The surrounding players watched as Lilith was dragged into the mission wall by them, and the whole thing was too fast for them to react. The person walking at the very end threw something out and said loudly:

“Tell Jin Cheng, the antidote for corpse poison is here. We never want to stand against him. This item is in exchange for her. The deal is done!”

The antidote for corpse poison?!

As the players were shaken to the core, the entire game hall instantly blew up like an oil pan that had fallen into the water. Everyone stared at the small glass bottle thrown on the ground by the researcher with both greed and fear in their eyes. They looked at each other, each feeling extremely thrilled, but no one took a step forward.

Half a minute passed.

A minute passed.

Just when everyone thought the situation was going to reach a stalemate, a gust of wind suddenly blew and rolled the glass bottle over everyone’s heads. As though hearing a signal from the starting pistol, all the athletes rushed out of the starting line.

In just barely one breath, the colourful light of various skills drowned most of the game hall. Another breath later, half the outer wall of the hall, which had been destroyed by Lilith earlier, collapsed again.

By the time Jin Cheng and Jiang He arrived, what they saw was such a mess. Just as their eyebrows were about to furrow, a person suddenly squeezed out of the crowd. He breathed a sigh of relief, as if he had survived the catastrophe, and seeing the two of them, he put up an honest smile.

It was Extreme Luck Yu Yiyi’s teammate.

“Sirs, would you have some time for a chat?”

Time returned to ten minutes ago. Yu Yiyi and his teammate, who were crouching in a corner of the game hall like mushrooms, watched in astonishment as Lilith sparked a battle.

After the shock, Yu Yiyi said: “Look, wasn’t I right in saying that we should remain here? It’s called waiting for the stars to align. Since we pick such a good position in advance, there’s no worry that we won’t be able to watch the show.” 

The teammate asked grumpily: “What stars are you waiting to align? Are you planning to intervene again? We’ve done Jin Cheng a favour twice; the first time was when we gave the information regarding the phylactery, and the second time was when we helped Tang Cuo. What are you really trying to do? Are you trying to make him look great?”

Like a primary school student getting into a fight, Yu Yiyi patted him hard on the face: “You don’t understand. Have you seen those people? Those crazy folks from the Vaccine Research Institute in Zone C aren’t peaceful metaphysics practitioners like us. All of them are lunatics in hiding. Since they’re now fighting with Lilith, I think it’s very likely they have something to do with the living corpses. Even if they aren’t the ones behind the scenes, they must be involved somehow.”

“What does that have to do with us then?”

“I have to tail behind them to take a look.”

“When did you become so enthusiastic?”

“F**k you, this is called the guidance of fate. If this Extreme Luck appears at such an important occasion, yet no one else is here, what does it mean? It means it’s time for me to shine.”

The teammate didn’t really understand Yu Yiyi’s rules of making his appearance, but since Yu Yiyi himself had never made any wrong move even though he had been a player for so long, let’s believe him for the time being.

Yu Yiyi used just a bit of force to put a spell on his forehead. This invisibility spell lasted for 5 seconds.

He quietly followed, quietly entered the mission wall, and quietly put his hand on a researcher’s shoulder.

“We obviously have only twelve people, how come there are thirteen players participating in this dungeon?!” 

An angry voice resounded in the dungeon and everyone was alarmed at once. But as they looked around, surrounding them were all familiar faces and they weren’t able to detect any additional presence.

“Is it the setting of the dungeon?” Someone asked hesitantly.

“That’s right, maybe it’s a trap set by the dungeon. There’s an NPC among us.”

After some discussion, they still came to no conclusion. They dispersed to investigate further but still couldn’t find any suspicious character. The group leader, a gentleman wearing glasses, frowned and said: “The most important thing is our business; there’s no need to care about the rest. Even if someone sneaks in, he won’t be able to get out of here in a short time and will be stuck anyway. Do what we need to do first, and let’s move quickly.”

In the end, he added another sentence: “And stay alert.”

As he hid in the dark, Yu Yiyi’s face was covered with bright yellow talismans, and he had to lift them up to see the situation in the distance. He looked around with suspicion, Why did the people from the institute bring Lilith here?

If they wanted to dodge Jin Cheng’s vengeance, it made sense to drag Lilith into a dungeon with them. Judging from their act of giving out the antidote to the corpse poison, it seemed that they really didn’t want to make enemies with anyone.

But Yu Yiyi still felt strange, and soon, the change that took place in the dungeon gave him the most fitting explanation.

Two researchers guarded Lilith, while the rest spread out, constantly taking out potions and pouring them on the ground. This was a field inside an ordinary dungeon. In the distance was a small village with smoke drifting up, where people could be vaguely seen. But looking at these people, they didn’t seem to care about what kind of dungeon they had entered nor the requirements for game clearance.

Soon, the grass and trees on the ground began to wither, showing a strange bluish-yellow shade. An unsettling smell lingered in the air, like a grey fog swirling around them.

A bird flew over their heads, and with a “thud”, it fell to the ground and died.

Yu Yiyi was stunned but quickly covered his mouth and nose, not daring to make any sound.

In less than an hour, the dungeon was completely changed, turning into something like Hell. The plants wilted, the birds and monsters went dead, and screams were constantly heard from the village in the distance.

F**k, is this Resident Evil?!

Countless speculations instantaneously flashed through Yu Yiyi’s heart, each no less terrifying than the former. He suddenly looked at the man with glasses whose expression had remained very steady from the beginning till now. Standing not far from Lilith, he slowly took off his glasses.

This person didn’t look too outstanding, and with his glasses, at most, he could be labelled as ‘gentle and graceful’.  But the moment he took off his glasses, those upward-slanted eyes immediately showed their sharp edge.

Yu Yiyi was thinking about where this elite came from when he suddenly heard the familiar chime of a bell.

“Ding!”

“Congratulations to the players for unlocking the ‘Wasteland’ achievement, triggering the Easter Egg game [Eternal Oasis], part of the [Simulation Sandbox] series. There’s no time limit for this game. Please use the best of your imagination to build your own paradise!”

“Happy surviving!”

As the announcement fell, Yu Yiyi saw mosaics emerge from the void and the surroundings begin to flicker, as though the game was loading.

He knew for certain that this place was no longer the original dungeon.

An Easter Egg game, a simulation sandbox. If he remembered correctly, a sandbox game was where creativity took flight. Players could plant trees, build houses and even construct a whole new world in the game.

There was no time limit for this game. Doesn’t it mean that…

“Success! It’s really a success!”

“Project Paradise is real. The book is right, we really can succeed!”

“A new world? Can we really create a new world here? Do we really never have to go back to Yong Ye City?” 

Their exhilaration broke through the shackles in their hearts, and everyone couldn’t keep their emotions in control any further. Slanted Eyes was the only one on the scene who remained calm, with only a tiny hint of excitement revealed through his eyes.

When everyone finally calmed down a tad bit from their ecstasy, he stepped forward and said: “Yes, a new world is coming. [Eternal Oasis] is a zombie world. We have all the research results from the Vaccine Research Institute, and now we have our ‘First Angel’. It’s perfectly okay to build a life here.”

As he spoke, the corner of his mouth slowly tugged up into a smile and his expression softened, which made his somewhat unsympathetic face exude a hint of saintliness: “Since this game has no time limit, according to the book, we may be immortal in this new world. We don’t need to live in constant fear in Yong Ye City, and we don’t need to continue to move from one dungeon to another. We are the masters of this new world. Yes, we are the kings of everything.” 

The moment his voice fell, everyone showed some sort of expression with their fists clenched tightly. They might be thrilled or apprehensive, but they couldn’t help feeling a tad worried either.

Someone boldly expressed their concerns: “What if the other players discover this place? The people who left behind the book must’ve also implemented Project Paradise before, so what happened to them? Won’t Yong Ye City find out that we’ve shaken free from their control and…”

Slanted Eyes said: “Don’t worry. Isn’t Yong Ye City a place without history? That book was discovered by accident, and there can be no other place like this. As for Yong Ye City, as long as our actions don’t violate the dungeon’s rules, nothing will go wrong.” 

The other person immediately said: “That’s right, nothing will go wrong. And didn’t we make so many preparations just for today? From setting Scarlet free to obtain her corpse poison to capturing Lilith to make her our ‘First Angel’. Even if the latter happened by accident, if we’re exposed, people from Yong Ye City, especially that Jin Cheng, will try to pull us apart. There’s no turning back.”

“Even if someone else has obtained the ‘Wasteland’ achievement by whatever means, that person and we won’t trigger the same dungeon.” Slanted made a final conclusion, tilted his head and looked at Lilith, who was still unconscious, the corner of his mouth slightly raised.

Hearing their conversation, Yu Yiyi, who was hiding in the dark, failed to describe how flabbergasted he was. He only felt that his heart was beating very fast and his palms were turning extremely cold. He clenched his fist to force himself to calm down and carefully brushed the fine hair on his hand —

Judging from their conversation, this group of people should’ve obtained a book by chance, and the book recorded something called ‘Project Paradise’. As they began to carry out this plan, the first step was to release Crimson and obtain the corpse poison. What they dumped on the ground just now should be an enhanced or improved version of the corpse poison.

Yu Yiyi knew in his heart that although Scarlet’s corpse poison was powerful, it was only a means to assist her ‘Corpse Manipulation’ skill.

Project Paradise should’ve been left behind by previous veteran players. There was no way to know their age, but it was very likely that they didn’t know Scarlet. So Scarlet became the goal of the people from the Vaccine Research Institute because they wanted to obtain that ‘Wasteland’ achievements.

Once a wasteland was formed, an Easter Egg game would be triggered to let them create a new world.

They had corpse poison in their hands, and there was that ‘First Angel’, which was likely a sort of antidote. Adding one and one together, wasn’t it like they were trying to initiate the lifeblood of this world? If they could remain in this dungeon and never had to come out —

Wouldn’t it be as good as coming to paradise?

A false but self-indulgent utopia where they could enjoy themselves to the fullest without being forced to go into dungeons. Even if Yu Yiyi thought that this was too absurd, he had to admit that the player who came up with Project Paradise was a f**king genius.

Lilith, who was lying on the ground not far away, was feeling seriously distressed.

She had, in fact, snapped out of it way earlier, but she didn’t dare to open her eyes or make any moves. ‘First Angel’ was the name of the medicine the people of the research institute discovered after drawing blood from her.

These people brought her here without a single shred of fear to make her into medicine!

They were really a bunch of scums that should be slashed a thousand times.

Lilith’s acting skill was the worst in the entire team. Seeing the scene before her eyes, she was very close to exploding with anger, but all of a sudden, a pair of hands suddenly touched her cheeks, causing her to shudder.

Slanted Eyes’ voice came to her ear, a magnetic tone with a slight hint of a smile in it: “You seem to be shaking, are you scared? Don’t worry, as long as you follow us obediently, you’ll be fine.”

“Your name is Lilith, right?”

“It sounds like the name of a beautiful angel. You’ll like it here, my angel.” 

Outside the dungeon, Jin Cheng and Jiang He frowned as they listened to Yu Yiyi’s teammate.

Now it seemed that the Vaccine Research Institute did have something to do with Scarlet, but since they had kidnapped Lilith and gone to hide in the dungeon, things wouldn’t be easy to deal with. They might have to return to Scarlet to find a way out of this.

It never gave anyone a good feeling when things that were going well suddenly turned upside down.

On the other side, Leng Miao and Rong Yi, who went to Zone G, didn’t have it good either, because they couldn’t find Lin Yandong. Xiao Tong seemed to be in a bad mood. He said that Lin Yandong was in a dungeon, so neither of them dared to show their doubts.

Waiting was the only option.

The only person who had things go smoothly was K. After talking for hours on end, he finally got the story he wanted from Scarlet. Before Jin Cheng and Jiang He returned, he pushed open the door and returned to the silverish-white space made exclusively for him.

This was his mental maze.

It was the same scene as last time, where the walls were entirely covered with bookshelves whose tops couldn’t be seen and a huge chessboard stood at the center. But this time, only one cushion was placed next to the chessboard, and there was only one cup of tea.

K walked around the chessboard, pushed a piece named ‘Ji Ning’ to the center, and after some contemplation, he changed the positions of several other pieces before putting down the golf putter and walking to the bookshelf.

He took a blank book, pulled out a feather pen from the void, and wrote down Scarlet’s story. With this being his mental maze, it took only a few seconds to write a whole story. After writing, he stuffed the book back on the shelf.

He then took a step back, gazed at the wall of books and nodded his head in satisfaction.