Volume 1: Days Moving Bricks at the Construction Site
Confession Game
Every game participant carries guilt
What’s going on outside?
Or rather—what is outside?
The newcomers showed panic on their faces, but the old players were unmoved.
Yun Shengjin calmly said: “It seems you have already realized the unusual nature of this place.”
The sky was already dark, with cicadas and crickets chirping tirelessly. Several street lamps on the construction site lit up, and the small light bulb in the cafeteria emitted a dim yellow light.
The foreman left and did not return, and fourteen players sat together to eat. Glasses and Golden Retriever also sat at the edge of the table.
Brother Long mocked him: “Spineless.”
Golden Retriever turned pale and didn’t care about this kind of harmless teasing anymore. He hadn’t recovered from the shock of the brief, astonishing glimpse earlier, and his hand holding the chopsticks was trembling slightly: “I can’t believe… is this not a reality show?”
He still thought everyone was participating in a reality show.
He and another cold, icy man joined later and did not hear Yun Shengjin explain the game to everyone. The cold man looked like an old player, but it was clear he was not the type to actively explain things to newcomers.
Yun Shengjin was very patient, tirelessly saying: “Then I’ll say it again, for any newcomers present who still don’t know…”
Icy Cold put down his bowl and chopsticks, stood up, and said to everyone: “Please continue eating at your leisure.” After speaking, he walked out of the cafeteria and into the night.
The otaku, Ding Hou, muttered: “Acting on his own, isn’t he afraid…”
The girl, Snowflake, also stood up, silently put down her empty bowl, and walked outside. It was unclear whether she knew Icy Cold and wanted to talk with him for a moment, or if she was simply full and didn’t want to listen to Yun Shengjin discuss knowledge everyone already knew.
Yun Shengjin said indifferently: “No need to mind them; they are all old players and know their limits. Besides, nothing usually happens on the first night.”
“Tch—” Brother Long smiled contemptuously and called to his follower, “Binzi, let’s go too.”
The two of them got up from their seats, patted their backsides, and left.
“What kind of people are they! Brother Yun, you’re the best! Please, don’t take them seriously!” Ding Hou hurriedly flattered Yun Shengjin, fearing that if Yun Shengjin got angry, he would stop talking to them.
“No problem, I’ll continue.” Yun Shengjin displayed extraordinary patience and an easygoing nature, “I already explained to some people before: all of us are in a game, and the game’s name is 《Confession Game》, with the ‘confession’ of tell and ‘explanation’ of explain.”
Xiaolou, for some reason, did not leave and sat beside Shen Maomao, casually picking at dishes with an elegance that seemed out of place in the greasy cafeteria of a construction site, resembling more like she’s in a high-end Western restaurant.
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Shen Maomao felt a sense of disharmony.
How to put it…
To put it bluntly: Xiaolou’s appearance is really quite ordinary, so ordinary that Shen Maomao fundamentally doesn’t know what words to use to describe her looks—she can only say her appearance has no merits, nor does it have defects. But her every gesture is particularly elegant, making her body and face seem like they belong to two different people, creating a strong sense of disharmony.
Of course, she isn’t saying that people with ordinary appearances cannot be elegant, but none of them give her the strong sense of disharmony that Xiaolou does.
Shen Maomao’s thoughts wandered wildly, while on the other side, Yun Shengjin continued to introduce the game—
“This game has many players, all of whom, like you, were suddenly pulled into the game. No one knows what standards it uses to select people, but there is a saying among the old players.” He looked around the circle, waiting until everyone focused their gaze on his face before continuing, “Some people believe that the game is a product of ‘God.’ The purpose of the game is very likely to punish sinners and make them repent…”
Shen Maomao, who was always observing Xiaolou, noticed she gently lifted the corner of her mouth, yet that slight smile quickly disappeared. Holding her bowl, she stood up, walked into the kitchen, and then the sound of water came from the kitchen, as if she was washing dishes.
“Old players have discovered that every game participant carries guilt—killing, arson, robbery, fraud… all sorts of crimes are included.” Yun Shengjin laughed, “Of course, they aren’t necessarily major crimes; petty theft and bullying the weak are also included. You don’t need to be nervous; everyone is a sinner, and we are all the same.”
Glasses lowered his head and adjusted his glasses, making it impossible for others to clearly see the expression in his eyes.
Golden Retriever clenched his fists: “F*ck! So I hit someone, right?! It’s not like I didn’t give them money! If it weren’t for me, they wouldn’t earn that much money in their lifetime, okay?!”
Three newcomers in Yun Shengjin’s team also looked uncomfortable, as if recalling things they had once done…
Only Shen Maomao looked completely puzzled.
What? What’s going on? How does she not know what she might have done?
Could it be because she poked an ant nest as a child? Or because she pulled her deskmate’s pigtail? Or because she didn’t study well? Or perhaps because she argued with her mom during her rebellious teenage years?
Her life experiences are particularly ordinary—she was very naughty as a child, teasing cats and dogs, climbing mountains and wading through water; during school, she didn’t study well and her grades were always struggling in the middle of the class; in adolescence, she adopted a non-mainstream hairstyle, but didn’t dare to smoke or drink, at most got into fights and permed her hair, quarreling daily with her mom over these things; in high school, she worked hard to study because of a crush on a boy with good grades, ended up in a not-so-great second-tier school, while the boy got into Qinghua University, so the crush ended without any result…
In university, she cut her hair into interwoven yellow and black, started keeping it short, and sat in class playing on her phone to pass the time. However, she never caused trouble, didn’t skip classes, and no longer got into fights; she never failed an exam…
She believes that 80% of those born in the late ’90s or early 2000s have done the same things she experienced. If all that counts as being guilty… then wouldn’t this game’s server explode?
—Can it handle that?
But she also didn’t know what the game’s standards for determining guilt were, so she kept quiet and continued listening to Yun Shengjin as he explained common knowledge to everyone.
“Where the Confession Game comes from and how it selects people isn’t important. What matters is that we have been forced into the game and can only act according to its rules.” He looked towards Golden Retriever and Glasses, “Just as you saw earlier, this game not only has people but also ghosts.”
Shen Maomao: “!!” Damn! She thought it was about having a serial killer or like the game Werewolf where factions confront each other!
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The concept of ghosts was beyond her capacity to handle!
Xiaolou finished washing her bowl and chopsticks, walked out of the kitchen, but didn’t leave. Instead, she sat back in her original position to continue listening to Yun Shengjin’s explanation.
Yun Shengjin: “Things in the game cannot be explained by science. The number of people in each game is not fixed, and the difficulty is unknown. We can only spend a maximum of seven days in the game. During the first six days, ghosts won’t randomly kill people; only those who commit taboos will die…”
Luo Xingbang couldn’t help but interrupt, anxiously asking: “What are the taboos?”
“No one knows,” Yun Shengjin said in a deep voice. “Different games have different themes, and the taboos in each game are not the same. We need to explore on our own to find out what the specific taboos are…”
Golden Retriever: “So we just sit and wait to die?”
Yun Shengjin kindly advised: “In the game world, ghosts are almost invincible. I advise you not to act rashly.”
“F*ck…” Golden Retriever angrily struck the table, and the already not very sturdy wooden table shook twice and then collapsed.
The entire tabletop tilted toward Golden Retriever’s direction with a “crash clatter,” and the bowl and chopsticks in front of him shattered all over the ground.
Before more bowls and chopsticks could fall, the people around the table quickly reached out to help steady the table.
Yan Nan angrily said, “You don’t do your work, and you just create trouble for others!”
The unknown environment and fear turned Golden Retriever into a firecracker, ready to explode at any moment: “Isn’t it just a f*cking bowl? When we get out, I’ll buy you a hundred sets!”
Aside from Golden Retriever, several men lifted the table, while Shen Maomao, Xiaolou, and Yan Nan quickly cleared away the bowls, chopsticks, and plates, covering the leftovers with plates and throwing the dirty bowls into the water basin.
As the three women got busy, Yun Shengjin glanced at Golden Retriever, still not angry, and calmly said, “No one knows what consequences maliciously destroying items in the game might have. You’d better clean up the mess on the ground later, or if there’s any problem, don’t blame us for not warning you.”
Beidou, who was with him, emitted a disdainful snort from his nose: “A fool who knows neither life nor death.”
The broken bowl, soup, rice, and dirt on the ground mixed together, looking very disgusting. Golden Retriever’s face changed repeatedly as he stood still in place.
No one paid him any attention. All the plates were taken away, and several men tidied up the unusable table legs and threw them out, leaving the tabletop leaning against the wall.
The cafeteria’s clock showed it was already eight thirty. Yun Shengjin and his team left, with Xiaolou closely following, leaving only Shen Maomao and Golden Retriever, who stood like a pillar in the middle with his head down.
Shen Maomao noticed his red-rimmed eyes.
He looked like he was not yet twenty years old and it was unclear if he was even an adult.
She sighed, picked up the broom leaning in the corner, and walked over to help him sweep the floor.
Golden Retriever knocked the tool out of her hand: “Who wants your fake kindness!”
Shen Maomao also got angry, raised her hand, and poked him on the shoulder: “If it weren’t for your young age, a little brat like you would have been beaten down by me long ago! Can you speak properly? When someone helps you, you just need to say thank you, understand? If you keep babbling nonsense, I’ll slap you in the face to show you why tonight’s starlight is so bright!”
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Golden Retriever, a big young man, was pushed back repeatedly by her, finally forced to lean against the corner and listen to a girl shorter than himself lecturing him, tears of grievance streaming down his face.
Shen Maomao eventually softened.
She sighed, went to sweep the glass fragments into a dustpan, and took them outside to dispose of them.
Just as she walked out of the cafeteria door, she saw someone standing against the wall on the left side of the door.
The light above the cafeteria door was directly over her head, casting a layer of mysterious shadow on her face, making her originally ordinary features appear three-dimensional, as if there was a kind of magical power within…
In Shen Maomao’s words, it was—
“Xiaolou, do you know? Right now you especially look like a fairy descending to earth!!!”
Xiaolou: “…”
