[Ding! The Ultimate Tycoon System has been activated!]
[Today's random reward has been delivered! Congratulations, Host, you have received: Hell Currency *1,000,000!]
[Balance: 9,755,000,000,000 (Nine trillion, seven hundred fifty-five billion)]
[Mission One: First Expenditure! (Incomplete)]
[Mission Objective: Spend over 100,000 in total (0/100,000)]
[Mission Reward: Cashback Critical Card *1, Nine Nether Soul-Cleansing Wine *10]
At eight o'clock in the morning, Lin Yu was awakened by the voice of the system in his mind, leaving him rather helpless.
Ever since he had crossed into this parallel world, the system had been with him.
When he first discovered that he had unlocked the Tycoon System, Lin Yu, given a second chance at life, had been thrilled. He thought he was about to live a life of wanton extravagance in this new world.
But the reality… was a cruel slap in the face. The money given out by this blasted system turned out to be Hell Currency!
When withdrawn, it manifested as eerie copper coins or banknotes issued by the "Bank of Heaven and Earth." Totally unusable in the human world!
Left with no choice, Lin Yu could only pretend the system didn't exist.
He had originally planned to rise to the top through cryptocurrency investments, but… in this parallel world, cryptocurrencies didn't even exist!
Switching tactics, he wanted to plagiarize classic novels and music from his past life to break into the arts and entertainment industry. But after some research, he discovered—to his dismay—that all the celebrities and writers he remembered… already existed here!
All the shortcuts usually available to reborn transmigrators had been completely cut off!
In the end, Lin Yu could only study diligently, got admitted to a decent university, and even saved up some money from part-time jobs.
Today was the first day of winter vacation.
Originally, Lin Yu had planned to find a temporary job to earn some extra cash.
But this morning, after the system woke him up on time and he shut off its panel, a brand-new "notification" suddenly appeared before his eyes—
"Congratulations! You have obtained qualification for the fifth batch of beta testers for the Horror Game!"
"Dungeon countdown: 15:59:59."
Two blood-red lines of text floated in front of him!
Unlike the natural, soul-deep voice of the system, Lin Yu could instinctively tell that these words did not belong to the system.
Compared to the system, this writing reeked of crude workmanship—cheap and shoddy.
"What the hell is this?"
Lin Yu froze for a moment, thinking it was just an illusion.
Then he recalled the rumors he had seen online…
In the past two years, mysterious incidents had been cropping up everywhere, more and more frequently!
Wealthy moguls dying under strange circumstances, entire neighborhoods disappearing overnight, serial killers obsessed with skinning people alive…
The authorities' attitude remained vague and ambiguous.
Lin Yu had also come across a few posts about the so-called Horror Game!
It was said that the chosen would be dragged into a world filled with vengeful spirits, forced to survive, with the chance to gain control over ghosts and other supernatural entities. Supposedly, the various mysterious events across the world were the result of Horror Game "players" returning.
Some even claimed that the newly founded Ninth Investigation Bureau was specifically established to deal with matters related to the Horror Game!
But without exception, such posts always vanished quickly.
And Lin Yu, being familiar with online patterns, knew: the faster a post disappeared, the more likely it was the truth!
Now, faced with the two bloody lines floating before him, his suspicions were confirmed.
The biggest difference between this parallel Blue Star and his original world wasn't the absence of cryptocurrency—
It was the existence of this Horror Game!
The words "fifth batch" were further proof—the game had been around for quite some time!
Which meant that in sixteen hours, at midnight, he would be dragged into it!
"What a bloody scam…"
Lin Yu felt utterly helpless for a moment.
Because no matter what the rumors said—or even just judging by the name—the Horror Game was undoubtedly a place of near-certain death, a one-way ticket to the grave!
Sure, Lin Yu had a vague hunch that the Hell Currency provided by his Tycoon System was meant to be used in the game.
But he couldn't be sure whether it would guarantee his safety.
After all, there's an old saying, "Money makes even ghosts turn the mill."
But that's just a saying!
What if the ghosts in there didn't care about money… and only cared about eating people?
Worse still—"an innocent man gets himself killed for his treasure." What if offering Hell Currency as bribes only made the ghosts greedy, leading them to kill him just to rob him?
There was no way of knowing.
"Although the system's Hell Currency is probably useful, which is a good thing…"
"I can't rely on it too much!"
He had to gather intel about the Horror Game first.
With that in mind, Lin Yu quickly started digging through the internet.
And just as he expected, although the authorities were frantically scrubbing information, it was impossible to delete everything.
Perhaps they even left some crumbs intentionally—for those chosen by the Horror Game, a slim chance of survival.
Before long, Lin Yu pieced together a few key points from various posts:
First: The ghosts inside Horror Game dungeons cannot kill at will! Both ghosts and players must act according to rules. Only by breaking the rules—or fulfilling the conditions of a ghost's killing rule—would one be slain.
Second: The basic rules of each dungeon are usually revealed at the very start, in a direct and obvious manner. But there will always be hidden rules as well.
Third: The difficulty of a dungeon and the strength of the ghosts are somewhat tied to the number of rules. The more rules, the harder it is to survive.
Because reliable information was so hard to come by, Lin Yu ended up spending nearly the entire day on research.
After a brief rest—
The Horror Game dungeon… opened!