Welcome to the Bizarre Games

Chapter 19 Hopscotch

—No need, Uncle is already playing a game, a really awful and trashy one called 'Weird'.

Zhou You struggled to swallow his words, then racked his brains to recall how his aunts and uncles coaxed children, and then imitated them in a very convincing way: "Little brother, what game do you want Uncle to play?"

Unfortunately, the other person completely ignored his performance—or rather, didn't care about his answer at all—and instead shouted and laughed into the alley.

"Someone's here to play games again! Let's see what they want to play this time!"

Ever since.

On the charred wall, numerous heads kept emerging. At first, they were just children's faces, but soon the faces became a motley collection, including the old and the young, men and women, and in the blink of an eye, they filled the entire alley, and all the faces were shouting the same word in the same voice.

"play games!"

Shouts reached my ears, and although they were all shouting about playing games, Zhou You felt that they conveyed a different meaning.

That is.

"—Join us."

"The player has triggered the side quest: Escape."

"Requirement: Pass through this 'Locust Tree Lane' in any way."

"Reward: Based on your performance before this scenario, you will receive a corresponding green talent."

Upon hearing the system notification, Zhou You muttered to himself, "What's this? Just another special mini-game that's supposed to be a staple of RPGs?"

"Uncle, what are you saying?"

Upon seeing this, someone simply curled their lip.

"Uncle didn't say anything. He was just praising you for being kind, cute, and handsome."

"Really?" The child tilted his head as if he didn't understand, but quickly revealed that innocent yet cruel smile again.

"Uncle, you don't want to play games with us?"

The next moment, as those words fell, the temperature in the alley suddenly soared, as if a furnace had been suddenly lit, the intense heat scorching the surroundings, even causing a burning sensation on the skin. The faces, congealed in the ashes, all turned to Zhou You, revealing expressions of ravenous desire.

Clearly, they were eagerly anticipating Zhou You's response.

But Zhou You completely ignored him. He glanced at his charred arm and then put on an even more amiable smile.

"How could that be? Uncle loves playing games the most, really, from the bottom of my heart. I just don't know how you plan to play?"

"Hmm," the child said, resting his chin on his hand, seemingly deep in thought for a moment, before turning his head towards the wall covered with countless faces. "I'm having trouble choosing. What do you all want to play?"

"Live dissection!"

"hide and seek!"

"Deadly magic!"

"Let's play chess!"

Hopscotch

All the voices gradually converged and finally became one sentence.

Hopscotch!

"Alright, it seems everyone has made their decisions," the child said with a smile. "Uncle, would you please play hopscotch with us?"

Zhou You replied with a smile, "Absolutely no problem, but I don't know how you'd like to play?"

“It’s very simple.” The child pointed to the alley in front of him. “There are many squares at the bottom of this alley. Uncle, you just need to jump onto the correct one and keep going until you walk out of the alley.”

"That's all?"

That's all~

"—So, you're not going to sing?"

The moment she heard those words, her innocent smile vanished.

The child, with his dark, gaping mouth agape, stared at Zhou You for a long while with incredibly cold eyes before finally speaking.

"It seems you've already received the news, Uncle. But I also need to tell you in advance that even if you understand the rules, this game isn't so easy to complete. Please be prepared, Uncle."

"Remember, I can sing, but after I finish singing, you only have five seconds."

As soon as he finished speaking, the floor of the alley suddenly changed.

Zhou You also understood what it meant by "it's not that simple".

Numerous faces also emerged from the floor, and unlike those on the wall, all of these faces bore the same design, their mouths agape, their pale eyes fixed intently on Zhou You, eagerly anticipating his mistake.
Then, with a 'snap', it was bitten off in one bite.

The next moment, the singing began.

“A man died,” “A man died,”

"A good-for-nothing man,"

"Too lazy to bury him in a grave,"

"His head rolled off the bed."

"His limbs were scattered around the room."

Is this Mother Goose Rhymes? This question is way too easy!
Without hesitation, Zhou You jumped forward and stepped on the face of a man whose body was painted with the words "dismembered man".

—The face wasn't bitten off, but instead let out a miserable howl and shrank back into the ground.

A sigh came from the surrounding area.

The child didn't seem to mind and continued singing after a pause of about 5 seconds.

“A twisted man,”

"We've taken a winding path,"

"Holding a twisted sixpence, stepping onto the twisted stairs,"

"Buy a crooked cat, and the cat catches a crooked mouse."

They lived together in a crooked little house.

It's still Mother Goose nursery rhymes.

This time, Zhou You jumped onto a crooked and strange face without hesitation.

"—That's great, Uncle. Now I'm going to make it a little more difficult!"

The charred child cleared his throat and then spoke again.

"The orphanage was filled with laughter and joy."

"The director and the nurses are kind and approachable."

"There is no pain or crying here."

“All disobedient children will be sent to the operating room.”

Zhou You was taken aback.

This wasn't a Mother Goose rhyme, but it wasn't any nursery rhyme he knew either.

But the moment the singing stopped, he still quickly found the relevant information about the operating room—a head with a scalpel inserted into its eyeball—and then jumped on it without hesitation.

Unharmed, but the singing behind them grew faster and faster.

"The amount of food and water I eat and drink each day is getting less and less."

"The aunties are scolding me more and more."

"There are no more sweet dreams in the orphanage."

"Amidst the scars."

"The remaining bones are so cold."

Zhou You quickly looked around and finally found a face painted with a morgue image, then jumped onto it with all his might.

Fortunately, it landed safely.

However, the singing continued.

"But one day, the master visited this place."

"He was dressed in fine clothes, adorned with gold and silver."

"This stands in stark contrast to the poor children."