Welcome to the Bizarre Games

Chapter 480 Arrival
The figure remained silent after hearing this, and slowly drifted away, finally disappearing into the flickering candlelight.

The yellowed pages floated up again, and upon touching them, a few lines of text appeared before my eyes.

"Script: A Chronicle of Bloodshed and Turmoil"

Type: Unknown.

"Erosion level: Extremely high".

"Number of resurrections: 0"

Background: Unknown.

"Goal: Survive and discover the true nature of this world."

Reward: Unknown

"Please note that this scenario is divided into two parts. The first part is 'The Record of Blood Rain' and the second part is 'The Record of Bloodshed'. When players complete the first part, they will be temporarily excluded from the scenario and can only re-enter when the scenario is fully developed."

"Please note that this is a completely corrupted scenario. You will receive very little help in this scenario, and there will only be countless evil creatures trying to devour you completely."

"Due to the system's difficulty in intervening, you are almost completely immersed in the identity of this character in the script. Some of your abilities and items are unusable, but you can choose to unlock them after completing certain key milestones. Would you like to proceed?"

These were the usual prompts, Zhou You shrugged and was about to enter—however, at that moment, the text on the pages suddenly became blurry.

Then, at the very bottom, a few lines of text suddenly appeared.

"For unknown reasons, players will receive two buffs."

"First, players can retain their bloodline characteristics when entering the scenario."

"Second, in each scene, players can gain the ability to be fully unleashed twice—within half an incense stick's time, you will gain all your power, and you can also use any items in the Celestial Ring at will."

"Please treat everything in this scenario with care. We wish you a pleasant gaming experience."

Zhou You was taken aback, seemingly not expecting any extra blessing—but he quickly looked away, walked to the book page, and made a selection.

"I choose to enter—"

My head is throbbing terribly.

It felt as if someone was chiseling at my skull, or as if a red-hot iron block was burning my brain. All that remained in my brain was the sensation of pain.

—The pain was so intense it felt like I could go crazy at any moment.

A strange, intense itch spread throughout my body, like a dense swarm of ants crawling all over my nerves, gnawing at me from the inside out.

The pain and itching sensations blended together, like the cruelest form of torture, leaving one unable to live or die.

Consciousness was floating in a daze, and the body was unable to move. The only thing that could be guessed from the swaying was that they were in a car.

for a long time.

One finger finally managed to tremble slightly.

—This is a good thing; at least it proves that I am still alive.

Then, the second one.

Willpower eventually suppressed the discomfort and gradually regained control of the body from the torment.

I don't know how much time has passed.

Zhou You finally managed to open his mouth with difficulty and utter a single word.

"water"

Just one word caused an instant uproar around him, and soon a water pouch was placed to his lips.

With the last of his strength, Zhou You took a few sips and finally felt the pain subside a little. After catching his breath, he mustered all his strength and forced his eyes open.

The first thing that catches the eye is a strange sight.

A rough wooden fence lay across the view, dividing it into two parts—outside was an endless, rocky wilderness, while inside was a pile of smelly hay.

It was like a livestock shed.

Wait, no, not the livestock shed, I'm in a prison cell?

Zhou You frowned and tried his best to sit up, but his body was too weak. After struggling for a couple of moments, he collapsed back down as if all his strength had been drained.

It even caused my vision to go black for a moment.

Upon seeing his action, a gasp of surprise immediately came from the side.

"What are you doing? Are you out of your mind?!"

Then, a small hand pressed down on his body, forcing him to lie back down.

Only then did Zhou You realize that there were other people imprisoned in this cage.

Perhaps, many people.

I craned my neck and looked around with difficulty: I saw a group of ragged children sitting around the cage. The oldest was about twelve or thirteen years old, and the youngest was about six, seven or eight years old. There were both boys and girls, but they all looked the same.

—He was disheveled, pale and emaciated, and you could even count the ribs that were sticking out.

At that moment, the voice I had heard before rang in my ears again.

"You're already thankful to be alive, how could you go insane again so soon after opening your eyes?"

Zhou You turned his head and saw a small, thin girl, as thin as a bamboo pole, staring at him. Although the people around her were also thin, they had a kind of mature air about them.

Zhou You took a breath and then spoke.

"Little sister, where is this? Are we all prisoners?"

However, upon hearing this question, the little girl paused for a moment before replying.

"Have you lost your mind from the fever? You don't even know where you are?"

Zhou You wanted to say something, but the little girl had already put her hands on her hips and said.

“This is a vehicle from the Five Aggregates Temple that is transporting disciples. And who are you calling little sister? — Look at you, you're not much older than me, are you?”

Ok?
Zhou You stood there stunned for several dozen seconds, then struggled to raise his hand and glance at it.

Like its surroundings, it was withered and thin, like a piece of firewood, but at least it was recognizable—it was very small.

Then, he pinched his own face.

He was severely malnourished, but judging from his physique, he was probably only twelve or thirteen years old.

After a long pause, he finally uttered a vulgar curse.

"Damn it, that damn black book! It's bad enough that it sealed all my abilities, but why did it put me in a child's body this time?"

However, the little girl assumed he was just going crazy from a fever and called over someone else. "Aqua, this guy's awake, but he doesn't seem quite conscious yet. Should we give him some more water?"

At his call, a mud-covered child emerged from the group of children, took a water bag from the roof of the car, and then, with a silly grin, offered it to his mouth.

"Brother, drink water, drink water!"

Zhou You frowned as he looked at the dirty bag, but still took it with one mouthful and slowly drank a few mouthfuls.

—It tastes terrible. The water has a muddy, sandy smell and a foul odor from being left out for a long time. It was clearly drawn from the river and not even boiled before being given to these kids as drinking water.

But he still frowned and swallowed it down little by little.

—His stomach upset is secondary; given his current condition, if he doesn't replenish his fluids quickly, he'll probably die of dehydration very soon.

He only put down the water bag after he had drunk almost all of it, took a few breaths, and was about to ask another question—

However, just then, a mocking voice suddenly rang out outside the cage-like carriage.

"When I heard the noise, I thought something had gone wrong again. I didn't expect that the guy who was almost a corpse could actually survive—I'm not kidding, you're as tough as that rat."

Turning my head to the side, I saw a young man dressed in a Taoist robe.

He looked to be around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, riding a donkey, with two expressive mustaches, and was quite handsome, but for some reason, he always gave people a mean and cold feeling.

The moment this person appeared, the cage fell silent.

Everyone, including the precocious little girl and the child who handed out water, lowered their heads in fear, pursed their lips tightly, and remained silent.

Fortunately, the young man seemed to have just come to take a look. After scanning the area, he didn't pay any attention and instead tossed a bundle in.

"Alright, it's feeding time. Since that guy isn't dead, I don't have to deal with the corpse—be careful while you eat, and don't let me catch you fighting or scrambling, or else, hmph hmph hmph."

Before he could finish speaking, the young man had already slapped the donkey's rump and walked ahead.

The moment his figure disappeared, all the children ran toward the package as if they had gone mad—but no one made a sound. They all tacitly grabbed their share, and even if there were conflicts and a few shoving between them, they would quietly run to a corner and start eating in silence.

The little girl and the mud child ran a bit late and only managed to grab some leftover scraps—but the mud child still eagerly ran over, broke off half a piece, and handed it to Zhou You.

"Big Brother, eat, eat!"

Only then did Zhou You see what it was.

—A piece of bread.

It could be described as a cake made with an unknown amount of sand and soil, coarse grains, and some wild vegetables.

Honestly, let alone in modern times, even in peaceful times in ancient times, it was rare to see such poor-quality grain—usually, this kind of stuff was only used to feed livestock.

However, just like with the water, after a moment of silence, Zhou You first thanked them and then refused their attempt to feed him. Instead, he endured the pain all over his body, barely managed to sit up, and then began to swallow the water little by little with the help of the water bag.

Seeing that he was willing to eat, the mud child smiled even more happily, picked up his own piece of cake, and began to swallow it in large gulps.

After a while, the little food was gone. Zhou Youzai carefully licked the crumbs off his hands, then looked at the little girl sitting on the other side and asked her a question.

Excuse me, may I bother you?

The little girl hugged the pancake tightly in her arms and replied cautiously.

"What? I've already done you a favor by helping you once. I can't give you this."

—Oh well, it seems I'm being mistaken for someone who snatched a little girl's lollipop.

Zhou You shook his head and smiled wryly.

"That's not what I meant. I just wanted to ask a few questions."

"You seem like a different person after you woke up. What's wrong? Tell me."

"Actually, it's nothing much. It's still the same question as before—where are we, and what are we going to do?"

The little girl stared at Zhou You for a while before muttering something.

"It seems you're really delirious from the fever. Fine, I'll explain it to you—but remember, you owe me a favor."

The little girl quickly stuffed the remaining pancakes into her mouth, then snatched the water bag from Zhou You's hand without hesitation, gulped down the food, and then spoke.

Listen to me.

Although the girl appeared very mature, her speech was not very fluent due to her limited experience and age. It took Zhou You quite a while to piece together the current situation.

The body's owner also had the surname Zhou, but no one knew his given name. All that was known was that he seemed to be the eldest son in his family, so he was usually called Dalang.

The little girl herself, and the mud-covered child, were bought onto the bus midway through the journey—or rather, every child in this cage was bought. A small number of them were abducted by human traffickers, but most of them came from families so poor that their parents took them out to exchange for a few bags of food.

The original owner of this body got on the train relatively early and was a righteous person. He helped the mud boy several times, so the boy treated him like an older brother. However, because of his righteousness, he made a big commotion during a fight for food. The young man—whom the children here called 'senior brother'—was taken out and beaten a few times. After being sent back, he fell into a coma and developed a high fever. It was clear that he was going to die.

As for what happens next, we can probably guess.

It's no surprise that the kid couldn't hold on and eventually died. The empty body was then put to good use by the Black Book, who stuffed himself inside.

but
"What is the Five Aggregates Sect? And you say it wants to take us as disciples, but to me, it seems more like transporting prisoners or livestock?"

The little girl looked at him with utter contempt when she heard this.

"Which backwater did you come from? Isn't this how sects recruit disciples these days? This is still considered good. Every time the Shangyuan Sect near my house recruits people or goods, they have to kill each other first before they even take the rest into the sect."

However, these words seemed to have triggered something, and a child nearby said in a trembling voice.

"But I heard from my neighbor that the Five Elements Sect takes children up there to use them as medicinal ingredients."

Soon, another person chimed in, stammering.

"What I've heard is that the elders of the sect eat human flesh, so every year they take in a batch of children and turn them into various dishes."

"What I heard was that they used children to make human elixirs."

"I heard"

Soon, amidst various speculations, a clamor arose like a tidal wave.

These children were all quite young, and during this period they had been living in fear and suffering from lack of water and food. With something to vent their frustrations, some of them immediately burst into tears.

At first, it was just seven or eight-year-old children, but soon eight or nine-year-olds joined in, and in this shared experience, those around ten years old also started to cry.

Seeing that the commotion was getting bigger and bigger, the little girl tried to stop it, but she was outnumbered and her voice was quickly drowned out by the crying.

Until.

Suddenly, the sound of a whip slicing through the air rang out.

Looking further out, the man referred to as "Senior Brother" was riding a donkey, standing outside the cage, and speaking with a smile.

"What? I've only been gone a short while, and you're already making a scene again? Who started this? Stand up yourself, so I don't have to go through the trouble of looking for you."

(End of this chapter)