I Took a Cake Delivery—and Rode Straight Into a Live Horror Game

Su Lai’s left eyelid had been twitching non-stop since morning.
His earphones had also fallen to the ground and been stepped on by a passing child.

They were broken, producing only a crackling, staticky noise.
Su Lai felt a pang for his earphones and had an inexplicable premonition that something worse was about to happen.

As expected, his luck today was particularly poor.
After opening the delivery app and waiting for nearly an hour, Su Lai finally received his first order.

The item note on the delivery slip was ‘cake,’ the kind of order delivery riders disliked most.
Cakes were easily damaged, and compensation for a ruined one just wasn’t worth it.

“Ah Lai, heading out at this hour?”
Old Lady Chen at the alley entrance stopped fanning herself.
A fly landed on her philtrum; her cloudy eyes rolled upwards.
“‘The pollution is so heavy these days, and there are so many strange rules… things aren’t peaceful…’”

Old Lady Chen had been blind for years, and her mind was a bit addled.
She always sat at the alley mouth, muttering and rambling incoherently.
No one could understand what she was saying.

“‘But those slippers of yours are festive.
‘They’ll like them.’”
Old Lady Chen pointed at Su Lai’s feet and let out a cackling laugh.

On Su Lai’s feet were a pair of pink flip-flops, a very eye-catching color.
But no matter how eye-catching, a blind person shouldn’t have been able to see them.

Su Lai glanced at his flip-flops, then met Old Lady Chen’s murky gaze.
“‘Bridgehead Night Market, five kuai a pair.
‘Buy from my friend, and you’ll get two with one free.’”

“‘Shouldn’t be worn by me.
‘Don’t dare to.’”
Old Lady Chen waved her hand, then suddenly opened her mouth.
The fly, which hadn’t had time to fly away, was caught by her tongue.

Old Lady Chen neither chewed nor swallowed.
She merely licked her dry lips before grinning widely at Su Lai.
But the fly had vanished.

Su Lai was taken aback for a moment, thinking he must have been mistaken.
‘Perhaps there had been no fly at all.’

“‘Ah Lai, come back clean from this trip.
‘Don’t get contaminated.
‘Your grandmother chopped meat today, said she’ll make wontons for you tonight!’”
Old Lady Chen uttered the words “make wontons” with gritted teeth, as if it was her own family’s meat being chopped.

Su Lai couldn’t pinpoint what was strange, but a madwoman’s words weren’t worth dwelling on.
He twisted the throttle, riding his battered little e-moped into the evening rush hour traffic.

Su Lai usually covered the east side of the river.
But today’s pickup location was on the west side.
He didn’t know what glitch the platform was having, assigning him such a far-flung order.

He wasn’t familiar with this area.
It was said this district used to be a village.
With the city’s rapid expansion, it had become an urban village.
After entering the urban village, Su Lai’s navigation kept drifting.
He turned into a narrow alley following the map.
The further in he went, the worse his signal became.

[Due to poor current network conditions, route is being recalculated…]
[Route has been recalculated for you…]

Towering, densely packed “handshake buildings” stood all around in the urban village.
In such a populous residential area, it should have been bustling with people during the evening rush.
But the alley, which should have been lively, was eerily empty.
Only Su Lai’s vehicle passed through, surrounded by utter silence.

His eyelid twitched violently again.

Su Lai pulled out his phone to check the navigation again.
The loading map directly showed a 404 error.
Even his phone signal had disappeared.

Su Lai stared at his phone screen.
The surroundings grew quieter, a strange, unnatural silence.

‘Had the twenty kuai phone credit he’d just topped up at the start of the month run out already?’
‘Today was truly unlucky.’

Su Lai wandered around the urban village for a while longer.
Not only did he fail to find the address from the order, but he even got lost himself.
He kept circling in the maze of twisting alleys, returning to the same spot.

Su Lai dialed 10097.

“Beep—” The call connected.
[Welcome to our company.
To improve service quality, our company is currently undergoing a system upgrade.
All services will be suspended during this period.
We appreciate your understanding…]

Su Lai was speechless.
Trying to top up his credit only to hit a system upgrade.

But just as he was about to hang up, a piercing burst of static screeched from the phone.

From the other end came the sound of unsettling, labored breathing—
[Get out of here!
They are watching you!]

Su Lai was baffled.
“Who’s watching me?”

[Everyone…]
The breathing turned into a cackling laugh, chilling to the bone.
[All of them are watching you!]

It sounded like a customer service rep who had worked overtime until they lost their mind.
‘Gone completely mad.’

Su Lai said flatly, “My phone seems to have been suspended due to insufficient credit.
Can you restore my network for a bit so I can top up?”

The sharp laughter cut off abruptly.
The voice on the other end repeated [They are watching you], this time lower, the warning more pronounced.
After saying this, the carrier directly hung up.

Su Lai: “…”
‘Wasn’t there a rule that customer service couldn’t hang up on customers?’

But when he tried calling back, even 10097 wouldn’t connect.

Su Lai rode around the maze-like urban village for a while longer.
His phone screen showed it wasn’t even 6 PM yet.
But darkness had fallen prematurely, forcing him to turn on his bike’s headlight.

Not a single soul was on the road.
He kept circling in the winding alleys as if stuck in a supernatural loop.
Despite it being a summer evening, an indescribable damp chill crept in.
The air felt thick and sticky.

The self-built houses around him sank into the shadows of dusk.
Not a single window was lit.

Yet Su Lai felt an odd sensation of being watched.
It seemed as if countless pairs of eyes were staring straight at him.
Their gazes felt cold, damp, and clinging.

In the fuzzy twilight, these self-built houses also looked different from usual.
The posters plastered on walls and windows had a dated feel.
Even the small ads on the utility poles looked retro.
The contact numbers listed were landlines.

Above, amidst a tangled web of wires resembling a spider’s web, red dots of light flickered intermittently.
They were starkly conspicuous in the pitch-black neighborhood.

Su Lai turned off his headlight and peered closely.
He realized the light points seemed connected to cameras.

‘Was the feeling of being watched coming from the impenetrable darkness, or from the surveillance lurking behind it?’
‘The entire district felt as if it had died.
‘The cameras hidden behind the tangled wires were recording its process of decay.’

A flash of Old Lady Chen’s words from before he left home crossed Su Lai’s mind—”‘Come back clean.
‘Don’t get contaminated!’”

Far from feeling fear, he found it all increasingly interesting.

Su Lai restarted his e-moped.
But the moment he rode out, a figure suddenly darted out from an alley.

Su Lai slammed on the brakes.
The screech of tires tearing against the ground shattered the deathly silence.
The vehicle rocked violently, nearly tipping over.

The figure halted in front of the leaning e-moped.
The headlight illuminated its slight frame.
It was a boy, but his face was a pale, blurry mass.
His features seemed to melt into the bright light like a lump of kneaded white dough.

Damn.
Su Lai’s heart skipped a beat, followed by a wave of intense regret.

‘If he’d known this kid wasn’t alive, he should have just hit him.
‘Why bother braking?’
‘Ghosts weren’t afraid of being hit.
‘He was the one worried about his little e-moped.’

The ghost boy held a black cat plush toy in his arms.
It stood under the headlight, tilting its head.
It locked eyes with Su Lai for half a second.
Then it darted into the adjacent alley at a speed barely perceptible to the eye.

Su Lai turned his head to look into the alley.
The sensation of being watched solidified around him like a physical weight.
The red lights of the surveillance cameras behind the wires pulsed.
Their flickering frequency increased.

A normal person encountering a ghost midway would be scared half to death, fleeing in terror.
But Su Lai was no normal person.

He immediately got off his e-moped and walked towards the alley where the ghost boy had vanished.
The streets of the urban village were too narrow, rarely seeing sunlight even at noon.
At dusk, they were enveloped in gloom.
The self-built houses stood like haphazardly stacked building blocks, swallowed by the vast shadow of the city.

Just then, his phone, which had completely lost signal, rang again.
It was a call from a number not displayed—

“Hello?” Su Lai answered without hesitation.

[Do not gaze into the darkness.]
It was the same customer service voice, now issuing the warning in a more severe tone.

Su Lai paid it no mind.
He continued walking boldly towards the alley.

[Do not gaze into the darkness!]
[Do NOT gaze into the darkness!!]
[Do NOT gaze into the darkness!
You will regret it!]

The voice on the phone was frantic, shouting itself hoarse.
Su Lai merely replied with a faint “Oh.”
“Thanks for the reminder.”

Perhaps Su Lai’s tone was too calm.
The other party was momentarily stunned.
Then it continued its warning in an even more piercing shriek.

“‘Do not gaze into the darkness, is it?’”
Su Lai thoughtfully repeated the phrase.
Click. He turned on his phone’s flashlight, setting it to maximum brightness.
He raised his phone, shining the light into the pitch-black alley.
“This is easy to fix.”

The alley was instantly illuminated brightly.
The darkness receded like a tide.
The sense of eeriness vanished completely in the blink of an eye.

‘If you’re not supposed to gaze into the darkness, just turn on a light.
‘Wasn’t that simple?’
‘His phone was a bit old, but the flashlight was exceptionally bright.
‘It could probably perform a physical exorcism on any monster or ghost.
‘Even a rooster seeing it would be tempted to crow.’

[……]

“It just uses up battery a bit fast.”
Su Lai gripped his increasingly hot phone.
The battery percentage was visibly dropping.

Beep beep beep…
The noisy warnings ceased abruptly.
The unknown caller hung up again.

The illuminated street was a dead end, piled high with household garbage.
The ghost boy’s figure had vanished along with the darkness.
Only the black cat plush toy remained, hanging in the middle of the path.
There was no wind, yet the cat toy swayed incessantly.

Su Lai finally got a clear look at the cat plushie.
The black velvet had faded and matted.
Its body was covered in crooked stitches, as if it had been torn and sewn up repeatedly.
Its two ears were slightly curled.
One side had lost some stuffing.

‘Was this the ghost boy’s true form?
‘Or was it just its pet?’
Su Lai pondered this while locking eyes with the cat plushie.
‘It didn’t matter.
‘If they made eye contact, that was enough.’

The plushie’s original eyes were gone.
In their place were two huge, precariously sewn red glass beads.

The black velvet on the toy seemed to absorb light.
Soon, the surrounding illumination dimmed.
A dark red fluid seemed to swirl within the glass beads.

Su Lai stared intently.
Suddenly, with a snap, the thread suspending the cat toy broke.
The plushie landed on Su Lai’s foot.

Su Lai himself had a cat.
Being a cat owner gave him a soft spot for all things feline.
Even though this black cat plushie was tattered, with twisted limbs and a distorted expression, to Su Lai it appeared delicate and charming.
The longer he looked, the cuter it seemed.

‘Humans really couldn’t resist little cats.
‘Even if it was a ghostly plushie.’

“If no one claims you, I’m taking you home, okay?”
Su Lai announced openly.
He didn’t even wait for a possible ghostly reply.
He happily picked up the cat plushie.

The plushie’s dangling red glass bead eyes didn’t look friendly.
Su Lai simply plucked off the two incongruous beads.
Then he hung the eyeless cat plushie on the handlebars of his e-bike.

A broken cat plushie and a battered little e-moped—they were a perfect match.

‘He thought he’d wash the doll when he got home.
‘His cat would probably like it.’
‘The glass beads were too dangerous, though.
‘The cat might accidentally swallow them.
‘Better to remove them first.’

Su Lai hung the cat plushie he’d appropriated from the ghost boy.
He rode his dilapidated little e-bike, setting off once more into the gathering dusk.

* * * *

The flickering frequency of the surveillance camera indicator lights grew faster and faster.
On the system’s backend screen, a series of question-filled comment streams flashed by—

[Was that character just now… really not a player?]
[No way? I didn’t see his streamer ID.]
[But his actions don’t seem like an NPC’s at all.
Could it be a system delay in posting?]
[It’s not a delay.
The player count for this stream is already full.
That guy isn’t on the list.]
[If he’s not a player, it’s such a pity.
I was really looking forward to his performance.
His style seems wild.
And he’s strikingly handsome too.]
[Seriously though, if that face isn’t a player’s but an NPC’s, I’d spend all my stream rewards to buy his merch.]
[I love his pink flip-flops!
I want a pair!]

[Stream chat prohibits sharing shopping links.]

[I don’t believe it!
I bet 996 coins this guy is definitely a player, and a role-play master at that.]
[Shh, players have already entered this zone.
Whether the delivery guy is an NPC or not will be clear soon.]

* * * *

The moment Bai Ke opened his eyes, dusk had already fallen.
He found himself in an unfamiliar neighborhood.
This was the second time he had been dragged into this so-called “Contaminated World.”
It had happened suddenly, leaving him completely unprepared.

[Reality detachment complete.
Instance loading finished.]
[Congratulations on successfully entering the Contaminated Zone: Spring Breeze Community.]
[Also known as Spring Breeze Village, it is surrounded by the rapidly expanding city.
While retaining some original residents, it has also become an “urban village” housing a large population of migrant workers and low-income individuals.]

[Survival Task One: Become a resident of Spring Breeze Community.]
[Survival Time Limit: 6:30 PM.]

The moment the system voice faded, Bai Ke found himself deposited into Spring Breeze Community at dusk.

The surroundings were deathly quiet.
The entire urban village felt devoid of life.

Drawing on his experience from one previous instance, Bai Ke forced himself to calm down.
He analyzed the survival task as quickly as possible: Become a resident.
The instance background mentioned the area housed many migrant workers.
If he wanted to become a community resident—
He had to become a tenant!

Renting was undoubtedly one of the fastest ways to become a resident of an urban village.

It was now 5:40 PM.
He had 50 minutes to find a rental.
As a seasoned office worker, Bai Ke had considerable experience with renting.
Not far from his drop point was a community bulletin board, densely plastered with small ads.

Bai Ke quickly scanned the board.
Finally, amidst a sea of ads for haircuts, massages, and appliance repairs, he found a handwritten rental notice.

Handwritten usually meant it was a direct listing from the landlord.

Bai Ke’s eyes lit up.
He quickly tore off the rental ad.
It listed the rental address and the landlord’s contact number.
Unfortunately, after entering the contaminated zone, his phone signal was blocked.
He couldn’t call the landlord to reserve the place.

Phone navigation was also unusable.
Bai Ke had to resort to the most basic method: searching street by street.
But the self-built houses in the urban village all looked similar.
An outsider could easily get lost.
Bai Ke, with his poor sense of direction, wandered around for nearly fifteen minutes.
Without any guidance items, he encountered a supernatural loop, ending up back where he started.

Bai Ke clenched the rental ad in his hand, panting from running.
He felt both panicked and anxious.

Then, a strong beam of light appeared at the end of an alley.
It was followed by the buzzing sound of an e-moped.
Uncertain if the approaching figure was human or ghost, he decided to hide behind a utility pole to assess the situation.

Only after seeing the rider wearing a helmet and the advertisement on the rear box reading “Su Lai Delivery” did he relax slightly.

He had never heard of this delivery company.
But the guy’s pink flip-flops looked utterly real.
He seemed like a delivery rider hustling to make a living, probably a player dragged in suddenly just like him.

The instance mechanics weren’t clear yet.
Bai Ke didn’t mind exchanging information with another player.
Besides, if he continued wandering aimlessly like this, he might not survive long enough to find the rental landlord.

After some consideration, Bai Ke stepped out from behind the utility pole.
He waved at the approaching rider, Su Lai, signaling him to stop.

Su Lai immediately turned his bike and rode towards the waving figure.

Bai Ke stood his ground, nearly blinded by Su Lai’s headlight.
‘How could anyone use such a bright headlight?’

“Hello.
Could I get a ride?
I’m lost and a bit pressed for time.
Sorry.”
Although Bai Ke guessed the other was also a player, his prior experience made him cautious.
He didn’t mention the main task or renting, only asking for a ride.

Through the helmet visor, Su Lai sized up this polite stranger.
The other wore glasses.
Young, but his hairline was already receding.
His eyes looked listless, with dark circles beneath them—the classic look of an office drone.

“Taking my ride requires payment.
Is that okay?” Su Lai asked.

Bai Ke was momentarily taken aback by the directness.
He folded the rental ad in his hand, hiding the rental info.
He only pointed to the address.
“About how much to get here?”

“To here… it’s not exactly close…”
Su Lai pretended to think, though he actually had no idea where it was.
“But ten kuai should be enough.”

Bai Ke, who had been worried about an exorbitant price, immediately felt relieved.
Hastily, he asked, “Ten Survival Coins, right?
I’ll transfer them to you.”

“Survival Coins?” Su Lai sounded puzzled.
“I meant Renminbi.”

Now it was Bai Ke’s turn to be confused.
“What?
Renminbi?”

Su Lai: “A transfer will do.
Do you scan me, or should I scan you?”
“Oh, wait.
No network.”

Bai Ke cautiously took a step back.
He hesitated for a moment, suspicion dawning on his face.
“Rider, sir… are you not human?”
He was starting to doubt whether the other was a player.

Su Lai: …?
“Who’s ‘not human’?
Watch your language.”