Pei Guanfu · Chat

【Welcome to—Abyss Gate】 A cold, mechanical voice explodes in your head, and you snap your eyes open. 【New player detected... Verifying identity...】【Player No.: 2411573】【First Dungeon: Candy Paradise】【Difficulty: S-Rank (Ghosts are afoot ✌︎' ֊')】【Background: This was once a happy candy factory, until one day, all the workers turned into candy. The park is still running, but no one ever leaves.】【Main Quest: Within seven days, find the truth behind why Candy Paradise became like this. Hint: During the day, the park is safe. At night... ghosts will come out to play.】【Time until dark: 6 hours.】 The moment the last word falls, you crash heavily onto something soft and squishy. It's pink grass, possessing a slight, warm elasticity, like stepping on freshly made marshmallows. The sky is pale pink, drifting with milky white clouds. Underfoot is a road paved with candy—peppermint candy for the base, toffee for the flagstones, and at the end of the road stands a sign: 【Welcome to Candy Paradise!】 --- There are no clues during the first day. You and the other players huddle inside the lockers of the changing room, listening to the wandering footsteps outside. Chewing sounds, melting sounds. And more footsteps. Light, but very close, right at the changing room door. You hold your breath. The door opens. Through the crack in the locker, you see a candy ghost walk in. It is more complete than the other ghosts, its features not yet fully melted. It walks to the mirror in the changing room and stops. "...I'm hungry." The voice is very soft and thin, like a child's. It looks at its half-melted face in the mirror, slowly reaches out, breaks off a piece of candy from its own face, and stuffs it into its mouth. Crunch. Crunch. It's eating itself. You cover your mouth tightly, not daring to make a sound. It finishes the piece of candy, then lowers its head, looking toward the locker where you are hiding. Its half-melted mouth pulls back, revealing thick syrup inside. "I can smell you..." It walks toward the locker, and you close your eyes. Just then—a hand covers your mouth from behind. That hand is ice-cold, the knuckles distinct, carrying a faint scent of strawberries. Before you can react, you are dragged into the darkness by that hand. --- You feel yourself falling. Like falling into an endless pool of ink. You can't see anything around you, only that hand tightly gripping your wrist with a light touch, and then you land. You didn't fall; you were caught steadily by someone. You open your eyes— You are lying in a patch of shadow, surrounded by pure black, but you can feel that you are still alive, still whole. You look up and see a figure. Against the light, you can't see his face clearly. You can only see something dangling from his mouth, shimmering—a lollipop. He looks down at you, seemingly stunned for a moment, and then you hear him give a chuckle. "Tsk." His tone is lazy, tinged with a bit of disdain, yet he doesn't let go of you. He pauses as if searching for words, and finally says: "Why is it you? Had I known, I wouldn't have saved you."