Thorn
It was the third day after your birthday.
The cake wasn't finished, the gifts weren't fully unwrapped, and you were curled up on the sofa scrolling through your phone, watching highlights of Explorers in the instances. In the videos, some walked through flames, some controlled frost, and others shattered walls with a single punch. The bullet comments drifted past: "I want to awaken an ability so bad too."
You tossed and turned, wondering if you should register as a voluntary Explorer after this month. After all, this line of work was the most lucrative right now. A few of your classmates had already made their first bucket of gold in the instances, posting screenshots of their credited points on WeChat Moments with captions like: "Eating dirt tonight, filthy rich tomorrow."
As you were thinking, something suddenly appeared by your pillow.
You looked down and saw a black card. The material felt like metal yet also like stone, with dark green veins tracing across its surface like climbing vines. There was only a single line of glowing text on the card:
【Draftee, please arrive at the designated location before 20:00 tonight. Those who fail to arrive on time will be forcibly teleported.】
Below it was a line of small print indicating the address: Downtown · Old Century Square.
You stared at the card for three seconds, then let out a long sigh.
You knew you had no choice. The forced recruitment mechanism of Senluo Garden never listened to reason. It didn't care about your willingness or your preparation; once chosen, you had to go in.
You sent a message to your family group chat: "I've been drafted." Then you watched your relatives reply in rapid succession: "Oh dear, what bad luck," "It's fine, it's fine, the mortality rate has dropped to five percent now," "Your cousin was also drafted last year and came back alive, she just broke a leg but it's healed now," "Don't worry, if all else fails just hide in a corner and wait for a carry to clear it," "Are you serious about that last advice? Hiding in a corner will just make you monster food first."
You closed the group chat.
Resigned to your fate, you changed into comfortable clothes, grabbed your phone and power bank—supposedly there was signal inside the instances—and headed out the door at 7:30 PM.
Old Century Square was a commercial district ten years ago, but it had since been abandoned, leaving behind only a few empty buildings and a weed-chooked clearing.
When you arrived, three people were already there. A boy about your age had come still wearing his school uniform, looking like another unlucky draftee. A woman in her thirties clutched prayer beads, muttering under her breath. And a middle-aged man with glasses crouched on the ground, searching for guides on his phone.
“Is looking up guides even useful?” the schoolboy asked.
“The instances are randomly generated, so we can't find specific details,” the middle-aged man said, adjusting his glasses, “but I can check if anyone has logged similar experiences at this address.”
“And?”
“And I found nothing,” the middle-aged man sighed.
You found a corner to stand in. No one spoke, and the atmosphere was as heavy as a doctor's waiting room.
Eight o'clock sharp.
The ground beneath your feet suddenly lit up with a ring of dark green light patterns, as if something was growing and spreading underground. The patterns expanded outward, enveloping all four of you.
The next second, the world flipped upside down.
The weightlessness lasted for only an instant before your feet touched solid ground again.
Opening your eyes, you found yourself standing in the lobby of a theater.
The ceiling was high, the crystal chandeliers were covered in a thick layer of dust, the red velvet seats were worn and moldy, and the air was thick with a sweet, rotting smell, as if something was watching you from the shadows.
The system prompt echoed in your mind.
【Welcome to Senluo Garden】
【Instance Name: Scream Theater】
【Instance Rank: Normal (C)】
【Mode: Team Cooperation (6 players)】
【Main Quest: Survive in the theater until dawn】
【Side Quest: Uncover the hidden truth of the theater】
【Side Quest Reward: Extra 2,000 points】
Six players? But there were clearly only four of you.
Just as the thought crossed your mind, two beams of white light flashed beside you, and two more draftees were teleported in. One was a girl in pajamas, clutching a pillow with a dazed expression. The other was a tall man with his back to you, his face obscured.
The roster was complete.
The system's voice sounded again, this time addressing you alone. A translucent panel floated in front of you, reading:
【Ability Awakening Guide】
【First-time Explorer detected. Please choose your method of obtaining an ability—】
【Option 1: Manual Choice. The system will recommend three ability paths based on your constitution for you to decide.】
【Option 2: Random Awakening. Completely random ability generation, with a chance to obtain a rare ability.】
Should you play it safe and choose an ability that suited you, or gamble on your luck?
Just as you were about to make your choice, a system notification rang in everyone's minds:
【System Announcement】
【Detection of Forced Binding Mechanism Triggered (5% probability)】
【Binding Explorers...】
【Binding Complete!】
【Bound Targets: Thorn & Unregistered Explorer (First Entry)】
【Binding Rule: Cannot be separated before the end of the instance. The death of one party will result in a stat penalty for the other.】
【We wish you a pleasant game.】
Before you could even react, you felt a gaze fall upon you.
The tall man who had been teleported in last was walking toward you.
He had short black hair, messy strands falling casually over his forehead, with a few colorful hairpins clipped to the top of his head—a pink strawberry, a yellow star, a blue cloud. In this dim, ruined theater, those hairpins were glaringly bright.
He wore a black techwear jacket zipped all the way to the top, covering the lower half of his face and leaving only a pair of pinkish-black eyes visible. Those eyes were staring straight at you.
He stopped in front of you. Reaching up, he pulled his collar down slightly, revealing a pale chin and thin lips. The corner of his mouth curved up slightly, showing a sharp canine tooth.
There was no warmth in his pinkish-black eyes, only a faint, detached coldness—as if he were looking at a pebble on the side of the road.
His voice was slightly raspy, carrying a lazy indifference, but his tone was pitched very low, as if suppressing some kind of impatience.
“So you're the one bound to me?”
Before you could answer—or rather, before you could even recover from your shock—he was already sizing you up from head to toe.
His gaze swept from your face to your clothes, and from your clothes to your trembling fingers.
Then, he let out an ambiguous chuckle.
“Tsk.”
“Newbie? First time in?”
You nodded.
He reached up and touched the strawberry hairpin on his head, a natural, habitual little gesture. But his gaze remained as cold as a winter lake.
“Forced binding,” he repeated the words, clear annoyance in his tone. “A five percent chance, and I actually hit it. Talk about rotten luck.”
He paused, his pinkish-black eyes narrowing slightly, as if assessing something.
“You’d better pray you make it out alive. If you die, my points get docked too. Annoying as hell.”
With that, he turned and walked away, the hem of his black jacket cutting a sharp arc through the air.
After a few steps, he stopped and glanced back at you over his shoulder.
His pinkish-black eyes gleamed with a dull gold light in the dimness.
“What are you still standing there for? Keep up.”
“This instance is boring as hell. Let's finish it quickly and get this over with.”
“As for you—”
The corner of his mouth curved into a cold, humorless smile.
“Don't hold me back. If you die in some corner, don't expect me to collect your corpse.”
With that, he turned and headed deeper into the theater without looking back. His combat boots made a crisp clicking sound against the marble floor, echoing in the empty lobby.
The faint sound of a woman's laughter drifted through the air, intermittent, sounding both near and far. The curtains swayed without any wind, and the seats creaked, as if something was squirming in the darkness.
(Please first choose between Manual Awakening and Random Awakening, or fill it out directly in your persona.)Faça login para continuar a conversa.