Revel Till You Rot

The broadcast studio flickered with firelight, bright sparks dancing in the wind.
At first glance, it looked like the studio equipment was on fire. Looking closer, the rising sparks were actually burning spirit money.

What appeared on the screen as floating red static wasn’t ashes from the spirit money, nor a signal reception failure, but a continuous stream of shrunk names.

Densely packed, blood-red names scrolled across the screen like crimson insect eggs crawling over the host’s face.

The screen suddenly froze for a moment. The smile remained on the host’s face, but the thick foundation on his face flaked off, revealing a large patch of corpse spots underneath. His skin was even more mottled than the walls of the urban village self-built houses.

Bai Ke, who had a piece of roasted pork skin on his chopsticks, froze. His gaze darted back and forth between the pork skin and the host’s face a few times. A wave of nausea hit him; his stomach churned.

The host ignored the corpse spots on his face and read the lines in a tone even more jubilant than usual——

“Good evening, dear viewers! Welcome to tonight’s ‘Spring Breeze Live Report.'”

“Today is a wonderful and peaceful day. All residents of this community have been law-abiding, life has proceeded in an orderly fashion. Even more excitingly, every single resident is healthy, with no suspected cases of infectious disease detected.”

Su Lai immediately caught the keywords: wonderful and peaceful. Meaning no outsider would be punished today?

But the atmosphere in the studio felt wrong. His instincts told him something was off.

“Thanks to the self-discipline of every resident. It is through everyone’s joint efforts that we have a peaceful and healthy community environment.”

In the burning spirit money studio, on the corpse spots-spreading face of the host, the more excited and uplifting the tone, the more chilling it became.

“Today is a day worth commemorating and blessing-g-g-g-g—”

The screen froze again. The camera lingered on the host’s cakey, corpse spots-covered face.

Normal order had already been lost. An inverted reality was invading.
The contaminant’s alarms continued to sound. The mental stability of the players in front of the TV began to drop uncontrollably.

The moment the broadcast froze, the phone in the living room rang.
Su Lai, Bai Ke, and Bei Yao exchanged glances. Bai Ke went to answer it, since he was the primary reporter, having filled in over a thousand names with his own hand.

“Hello, may I ask…” Bai Ke was apprehensive, his palms sweaty.

The staff member on the other end was no longer business-like. Her flat tone now carried a hint of gritted teeth.
“Congratulations. Your answer is correct.”
“You found the peepers in the community.” The ruthlessness in her voice grew more distinct.
“All of them.”

Bai Ke was stunned.
“Ah…”
He didn’t know whether to be surprised or worried, since the tone on the other end wasn’t congratulatory.

He even suspected the staff member was crawling through the phone line at that very moment, ready to devour him alive.

“You reported all the peepers!” The staff member’s emotions were increasingly out of control.
“You reported all of us!”
“This community does not welcome such selfish and unsociable tenants!”

Bai Ke was at a loss from this threatening call. Su Lai, standing nearby, heard everything clearly. He took the receiver and said to the voice on the other end:
“Why are you so hypocritical?”

The village committee was the one that demanded finding all the peepers in the community and reporting them. Now its own staff member was threatening the reporter.

Beep beep beep——
The staff member had already hung up. Confronting Wang Xiaosi always ended badly for her. She didn’t want to lose again.

“The village committee staff are composed of original residents.” Bei Yao added from the side.

It was after work hours now. The staff member had taken the side of the original residents.

“How can this be? Even if the collective task answer is correct, it still triggers the reporter’s anger?” In the players’ understanding, only wrong answers led to NPC berserk punishment. Correct answers only brought rewards.

Su Lai: “Them admitting they’re peepers doesn’t stop them from taking their anger out on you.”
“That’s what Dong Suzhen’s words meant.” Dong Suzhen was the staff member’s name.

“But the host in ‘Spring Breeze Report’ clearly said today was peaceful and wonderful. How could…” Bai Ke was incredulous. A bad feeling enveloped him.

“Maybe… there’s a time lag in the broadcast. The host was talking about the situation up to now. Didn’t say anything about the second half of the night…” Bei Yao said, equally worried.

Su Lai: “That host already has corpse spots. Can you trust what he broadcasts?”

Broken. Order was broken. The whole community was broken!
The rotting corpse spots on his face and the spirit money flames on the screen conveyed exactly that message.

“Then what do we do…” Bai Ke’s question was met with a brief silence among them.

Suddenly, all the players’ systems dinged——

[Congratulations, players, on successfully completing the village committee’s task of 「Finding the Peepers in the Community」! You have found all the peepers.]
[Others are hell! All of us are peepers. In this community, we… in our lives…]

[Collective task completed. All players rewarded with 48h survival time (Note: This time will not be deducted if resident affection decreases).]
[Please note… has gradually alienated, fallen into berserk state, causing the original main quest to be difficult to continue. Currently, the main quest has deviated. System…]

“f*ck! It’s not the seven-day survival main quest anymore! What’s the point of rewarding 48h survival time?!” Bai Ke couldn’t help cursing.

Just then, he received a personal system notification——

[Player Bai Ke, greetings. You are the reporter for this collective task. You have reported all residents to…]
[Your report was undoubtedly wise and decisive. For this, the system rewards you with the following messages.]

[Bad news: The hatred of over a thousand residents of Spring Breeze Community will be concentrated on you. The system deeply apologizes for this.]
[Good news: As the reporter, you receive a reward of 1000 survival coins; 50 points of mental stability to… unlocked; additional survival time +36h; privilege 「Reporter Protection Privilege」 unlocked *1; item 「Golden Bell Shield」 unlocked *3; item 「Freezing Agent」 and 「Sedative」 unlocked *2.]
[Among these, the 「Reporter Protection Privilege」 has been automatically activated. The hatred of the original residents will be evenly distributed among all outside tenants. Please… again… as the brave reporter… once again resolve the current predicament.]

Bai Ke listened, dumbfounded. The reward of survival coins and mental stability was indeed unprecedentedly generous. Survival time was now worthless. But this 「Reporter Protection Privilege」 meant sharing the residents’ anger among all players?

The system’s intention was nothing more than to make the audience watch the players and original residents confront each other, making the reporter Bai Ke the target of the other players’ resentment again.

[Attention all players! The system has finished evaluating the main quest.]
[「Survive in Spring Breeze Community for Seven Days and Seven Nights」 is changed to → 「Entertain to Death! Revel Until Dawn!」]

[Curfew restrictions lifted!]
[The entire urban village is your stage for revelry.]

“What kind of bullshit main quest is this!” Bai Ke cursed again, repeating the new quest several times.

Su Lai, having gathered enough information from the constantly chattering Bai Ke, said calmly:
“Entertain to death probably means we have to go crazy and die. Crazy is the state, death is the result.”

Bai Ke: “…”
“Cousin, do you feel the power of berserk?”

When Bai Ke made the report, he had included all the players’ names. Since they lived here, they were inevitably part of the peeping crowd. Being reported meant they would correspondingly go berserk.
Bai Ke could already see his combat stats rising.

After a moment of silence, Su Lai nodded.
“I have this urge to hit someone right now.”
“Especially you.”

Su Lai was honest. He could clearly feel his muscles tensing up, the urge to fight stirring. At certain moments, his fist would involuntarily want to swing at the reporter, Bai Ke.

Su Lai’s eyes were deep. Being stared at so calmly and intently, Bai Ke felt a chill run down his spine.

“I… you helped me report them, Lai-ge…” Bai Ke instinctively took a step back. Lai-ge’s words didn’t sound like a joke.

Su Lai waved his hand. The dangerous look in his eyes dissipated in an instant.
“Relax. I held back.”
“After all, you’re my cousin. Mom wouldn’t want to see us cousins fight.” Su Lai turned to Wang Chunying at the dinner table.
“Right, Mom…”

He didn’t get the “Mom” out smoothly. Wang Chunying and Uncle Wang, who had been eating, stood up stiffly.

Wang Chunying held her two meat cleavers. Uncle Wang grabbed his beloved watermelon knife. Both blades pointed neatly at Bai Ke.

Su Lai shut his mouth.

Bai Ke’s voice trembled.
“… Cousin, your mom and uncle are on the list too.”
“You might be able to hold back, but your mom definitely can’t!”

Thump thump thump! Worse still, a large crowd of neighbors, armed with weapons, had already arrived at 444, Fourteenth Lane. They were banging on the door with knives and axes.

The iron door, already weakened from last night’s assault, couldn’t take much more. At this rate, in less than a few minutes, Wang Chunying’s door would be broken down by the berserk neighbors!

Players were bound by rules. They couldn’t recklessly attack original residents.
Even setting that rule aside, the remaining player force of five could hardly confront the original residents.

Although the players’ combat power had also increased due to the berserk state, over a thousand original residents were swarming out. They had an absolute advantage in numbers.

Plus, with internal and external troubles—Wang Chunying and Uncle Wang inside with their weapons, and the berserk neighbors outside ready to strike.

Entertain to death. Maybe they really would go crazy and die.
Bai Ke once again deeply understood the insidiousness of the contaminated world.

“What do we do, what do we do…”
Bai Ke opened his item slot.
“I just got freezing agent as a reward. Could use it to cool down the berserk residents, slow them down.”
“And sedative. Can put some residents to sleep…”

As he spoke, his voice grew smaller. Even he found it laughable.
This pitiful amount of items against thousands of berserk residents was like a drop in the bucket. Totally useless.

The other top players, the Qi siblings, had been missing all day. Bai Ke didn’t expect any help from them.
At times like this, they could only rely on themselves.

“We could use the sedative inside the house first. Put your two relatives to sleep. Then figure out how to deal with the crazy mob outside. What do you think?” Bei Yao suggested.

Using sedative in an enclosed space would have the best effect. Plus, there were only two original residents in the house, Wang Chunying and Uncle Wang. Relatively easy to control.

“Wait a moment.”
Wang Chunying’s eyes had lost their luster, becoming as murky as on the first day.
“Mom.”

Su Lai hadn’t given up. He called out again clearly.

The “Mom” he called showed no reaction. She started accelerating with her knives, charging towards them.

Su Lai pulled the protective charm from his pocket. His tone remained calm.
“I’ve been keeping it on me.”

Holding the charm, he aimed the pixelated red eye on it at Wang Chunying.
“You told me to keep this. It carries your thoughts for me. Can protect me in danger.”

Wang Chunying’s murky gaze spun around, finally fixing on the charm.

A blur of emotion flashed across her face. Her pupils gradually shrunk, becoming clearer than ever before.

She slammed on the brakes, catching the flying cleaver mid-air. Her face regained its peace.
“Little Four… Mom’s memory hasn’t been good lately… I keep forgetting that you’ve come home… you came home… brought your non-blood-related cousin Wang Xiaoer home… this is your home… you can bring anyone back with you… don’t be afraid… Mom is really happy…”

Wang Chunying muttered fragmentedly, speaking to Su Lai, and speaking to herself.
She was trying to convince her berserk self.

Su Lai nodded firmly.
“Mom, I’m home.”
“What are you doing with those knives? Busy chopping meat for the late-night wontons?” He pretended nothing had happened.

Potential domestic violence could often be extinguished by playing dumb.

“Yes, Mom needs to prepare wontons… for your breakfast tomorrow… for the wonton shop getting back on track…” The berserk Wang Chunying calmed down.

Su Lai: “You’re too tired. I’ll make the late-night snack like I promised.”

Wang Chunying suddenly glanced sideways at Uncle Wang, who was itching to swing his knife. With a swift move, she chopped the watermelon knife out of his hand and scolded him.
“Are you crazy! Pointing such a big knife at Little Four and his cousin! Do you even care about me and my son?!”

Uncle Wang was completely stunned. He didn’t even dare roll his eyes.
It seemed that even though Uncle Wang had gone berserk, he was still afraid of his wife.

He was just a simple, honest NPC, acting according to the rules without personal feelings. Now, being scolded by Wang Chunying, his programming was thrown into chaos. He didn’t know what to do.

He couldn’t put down the raised watermelon knife. He couldn’t go back to sitting and eating or watching TV. Uncle Wang stared blankly, his gaze fixed on the kitchen over Su Lai’s shoulder.
After a moment, he found an excuse.
“I’ll go cut some watermelon for everyone.”

Wang Chunying blocked him with her knife arm.
“What watermelon now? The neighbors are already at our doorstep! By the time you finish cutting watermelon, they’ll have chopped us all into mincemeat!”

Suddenly, with a loud BAM, the iron door collapsed again. A throng of berserk residents flooded into the living room.

Bai Ke reacted quickly. He immediately activated the protective shield item he’d just obtained and started preparing to deploy the freezing agent and sedative.
A drop in the bucket, sure, but buying some time was better than nothing. With that densely packed of knives coming down, who could withstand it?

In desperation, Bei Yao turned to Su Lai.
“Xiao Si-ge, what’s the cooldown on that skill you used last night? Can you use it again tonight?”

Su Lai: “Cooldown aside, with this many people, who could afford to buy them off?”
He had already done the mental math. With 「Money Makes the Ghost Turn the Mill,」 the price only went up. At the minimum rate of a thousand per person, they’d need over ten million to quell this riot.

Might as well be throwing money away.
This mill was too expensive. The ghost could skip it.

Su Lai even considered bribing the leaders of this mob, then having the leaders calm the others. But he quickly realized these berserk residents were completely unified. There were no leaders.
Even the village committee staff member, Dong Suzhen, was mixed in the crowd, berserk along with everyone else.

The money method wouldn’t work. They couldn’t fight and win. The only option was to run.
Since the system had lifted the curfew, running was a viable option.

But where would be safe to run…?

In a flash of inspiration, Su Lai had an idea.
Hide somewhere the original residents dared not set foot. That would perfectly avoid this riot.

He thought of a good place.

“Cousin, how many uses of Hot-Teen Ghost do you have left? How long can the Golden Bell Shield last?” Su Lai asked Bai Ke.

Bai Ke estimated. Su Lai nodded, then turned to Wang Chunying.
“Mom, hold the fort with my cousin for a bit. I’m going upstairs.”

“What for?” Wang Chunying asked quickly.

“Getting ready to run.” Su Lai said as he ran upstairs.
“That living mummy is still up there. It’s the client’s property. I have to take it with us.”

He was, of course, referring to the cocooned Huo Lang.

“At a time like this, he’s still thinking about his client’s mummy! Our Little Four is so dependable!” Wang Chunying praised her son’s virtue, gritting her teeth and fighting on with renewed vigor.
But that promised late-night snack from her son… she probably wouldn’t get to eat it tonight.

In Wang Xiaosi’s room.
The cocooned Huo Lang had also received the system message and heard the commotion downstairs. But trapped in his self-made cocoon, he couldn’t go anywhere.

Although he’d gained 48 hours of survival time, he didn’t dare come out of the cocoon easily. Not to mention the knives in the original residents’ hands, just the staring eyes of over a thousand people would kill him on the spot.

“Wake up. Time to run.” Su Lai spoke rapidly, hoisting the cocoon and running.

Cocoon: 「Run where?」

Su Lai: “Where you came from.”
“Tianlong Hotel.”

A question mark slowly appeared on the cocoon.

Su Lai: “Isolation zone. Unauthorized personnel not allowed.”
These berserk neighbors were unauthorized personnel. They were afraid of catching the social phobia virus and wouldn’t dare go near the isolation zone.

Cocoon: 「Oh.」
But the more he thought about it, the more wrong it felt. He’d finally called a delivery guy, spent a fortune to get rescued, and now he was going back into hiding. Didn’t that mean the ten-thousand delivery fee was a complete waste?

The cocoon suddenly realized he might have been scammed.

But the delivery guy was right. Staying at Wang Chunying’s place, his cocoon would eventually be torn apart by the berserk residents.

Decision made, Su Lai moved quickly.

“Cousin, Bei Yao, follow with the defensive items. We’re running.” Su Lai, carrying the human-shaped cocoon, came down the stairs.

Bai Ke immediately understood. Without a word, he followed behind Su Lai and activated the Golden Bell Shield. Su Lai grabbed a drying pole with his free hand and started whacking any berserk residents blocking the way. Empowered by his own berserk state and shielded by Bai Ke, he actually managed to carve a path through the mob.

The little e-bike was parked not far from the door. Under the threat of Su Lai’s pole and the protection of the shield, the surging residents fell back, clearing a path.

“Lai-ge, the Golden Bell Shield won’t last much longer.” Bai Ke was sweating.

Su Lai: “Don’t worry. I’m fast enough.”

Bei Yao, following behind, couldn’t help asking.
“Are the three of us going to fit on one little e-bike?”
She had ridden on the back before. She knew how small it was.

“No,” Su Lai said.
“Four people.”

Bai Ke: “Huh? Where’s the fourth?”

Su Lai: “The one on my shoulder.”

Bai Ke and Bei Yao looked at each other. Huo Lang on Su Lai’s shoulder stayed silent. When there were too many people, he wouldn’t speak. The tape recorder was quiet.

But the situation was critical. They didn’t have time to ask questions. Whether three or four, if Lai-ge could carry them, that was fine.
There were no traffic cops in this world. No worries about being pulled over for overloading.

The three quickly got on the bike. Su Lai perched half his butt on the driver’s seat. Bai Ke was squished like a meat patty in the middle. Bei Yao reluctantly sat on the very back.

Su Lai handed the human-shaped cocoon to Bai Ke.
“I’ll drive. You hold this.”

“Good grief, Lai-ge, I don’t have your arm strength. I can’t carry a whole person… Hey…” Before Bai Ke could finish, Su Lai had already dumped Huo Lang on his shoulder. No room for negotiation.

“Hold on tight.”
In the midst of the surging berserk crowd, the battered little e-bike, carrying four people and a cat plushie, sped away.

The mob’s target was the outsiders. After Su Lai and his group left, the berserk residents lost interest in Wang Chunying’s house and shifted direction, chasing after the e-bike.

Wang Chunying stood at the broken-down iron door, watching the crowd come and go in a rush. She said nothing.

Uncle Wang: “Chunying, should we go help Little Four?”

Wang Chunying was silent for a few seconds, then shook her head.
“Little Four’s grown up. He has his own plans. He’ll take care of himself.”
“Him leaving now… it’s best that he left… this isn’t a good place. My thoughts have found their rest. It’s complete.”

Four people and a cocoon were crammed onto the battered little e-bike. Overloaded, the engine groaned. But with the 「Hot-Teen Ghost」item’s empowerment, the bike felt light, its wheels even lifting off the ground as it sped.

Behind them, thousands of neighbors followed, a vast, dark tide.
Empowered by their berserk state, they ran almost as fast as the flying e-bike. Some even took shortcuts and blocked the road ahead. Su Lai hit the high beams, blinding them, and swerved just in time to avoid the obstacles.

Su Lai glanced in the rearview mirror at the vast crowd of men, women, old, and young. As the contamination deepened, their yelling grew louder. Their fangs and claws waving appearance, chasing after them, looked like zombies biting at their heels.

Bei Yao, pale-faced, gasped for breath. Bai Ke looked like he was about to cry. Even Huo Lang, wrapped in his cocoon, had his heart pounding, audible through the silk.

Only Su Lai, driving the e-bike, was mentally stable. He was even a bit excited.
Being chased through the urban village alleys at night by over a thousand people wanting to kill him—what an interesting experience!

If only the thing on Bai Ke’s shoulder was a Gatling gun instead of a human-shaped cocoon.
He could speed along, firing a luxury Gatling gun, blowing up the street.

How could a night of “entertain to death” be complete without fireworks?

Su Lai just thought about it, regretting the missed opportunity for such a “beautiful scene.”
But just as he rounded a corner and accelerated, a loud BANG sounded not far away. Bai Ke jumped, thinking the tire had blown.

Then, a firework rose from amidst the forest of self-built buildings. It exploded right in front of Su Lai’s path, instantly illuminating the urban village night, illuminating the ant-like buildings crouching in the ruins.

It was like a bright eye, watching over everyone and everything in the urban village from the highest point.

Everyone looked up, startled at the firework exploding in the night sky.
Was this a signal from the Qi siblings? Or a prompt from the system?

Before anyone could react, the multicolored colors faded, leaving only the afterimage of smoke.

Su Lai took a deep breath. He liked the smell of gunpowder after fireworks. Pungent, strong, refreshing.

Bai Ke: “Lai-ge, what do you think that was?”

Su Lai said matter-of-factly:
“Entertain to death. Fireworks to transcend us, maybe?”

“Huh? Transcend who?”

“All of us going crazy.”
Su Lai was a bit curious. Whoever had the same idea as him had good taste.