To David Lee's surprise, Caleb was right; the number of customers at Night Owl tonight was significantly higher than in previous days.
"These people are probably like me, restricted by the game system's long matching intervals, right?"
During a break in the performance, David Lee pulled down his large sunglasses, scanned the crowded venue, and leaned closer to Caleb, saying, "This setting is really a trap. Aren't I clear about my heart's endurance? Even something scarier… I could… I could still handle it." His words clearly showed he was willing but lacked the strength, suggesting the first game had scared him quite a bit.
It wasn't until 2 AM that the Night Owl party ended, and the customers left, fully satisfied.
"Come on, let's go for a late-night snack together?" David Lee, with a newly hooked-up May Zito, walked over to Caleb, who was tidying up equipment, and called out.
Caleb looked up at May Zito, who was wearing heavy makeup and a mini-skirt, and had a curvy figure, then smiled, "I won't go. You go have fun."
David Lee returned a knowing smirk, put his hand on May Zito's hip, and left with her.
After driving his maglev motorcycle home, Caleb, as usual, first checked himself with a heart rate monitor. "My heart rate is between 40-45 beats per minute, not much different from the last reading."
After checking his heart rate, he went to wash off the sweat clinging to him and changed into dry clothes. By the time all this was done, it was 3 AM.
Normally, at this time, he would start to sleep with a sense of unease. He dared not enter a deep sleep state, because deep sleep would cause his heart rate to slow down, and Caleb was afraid his heart would stop during sleep, causing him to die. Every night he would be frequently woken up by several alarms he had set, and over time, heavy dark circles and bloodshot eyes became prominent features on his delicate face.
However, tonight was destined to be different. Because Pale Dawn had officially opened to global players at 8 o'clock.
After lying down on the bed, he put on his holographic game helmet and quickly logged into the game.
His created character once again stood in front of the fitting mirror in the simple cabin. His character's appearance hadn't changed much from before: a distinctive silver-white hair, a white T-shirt paired with black suit pants. Only an eagle-shaped medal was added to the left chest of the T-shirt, representing his newly acquired status as a third-rate Explorer.
Approaching the workbench, he noticed an ancient-looking scroll and a thick black leather notebook that had newly appeared next to the green tin mailbox.
After opening the scroll, the content displayed was the Escape Leaderboard rankings. All 100 spots were filled by players from various parts of the world.
ID: Azure Star Sky, points: 55. A professional high-level player from the Nebula Gaming team? No wonder… He then scrolled to the end to check the 100th-ranked player—Salty Rice Dumpling, points: 10. His 5 points from the Beginner tutorial were no longer enough to even rank.
"The initial point gap isn't too obvious. I guess the leaderboard will only show a significant polarization after all players have played a few more games." This conclusion was also based on Pale Dawn's disgusting matching interval time setting. This setting directly resulted in inconsistent game times for all players. Those who were bold and not easily scared would definitely have significantly more game time than those who were timid. If this pattern continued, the point gap between the two would only widen.
The black leather notebook next to the scroll was the 'Mission Log'. Upon opening it, Caleb found the hidden side quest [The Secret of the Sculpture] he had received in the Beginner tutorial, with 'Mission in progress…' displayed next to it.
With everything ready, Caleb then walked towards the cabin door.
The screen first went dark, then turned into that swirling black smoke.
A short video appeared in the black smoke:
This was on the rooftop of a high school teaching building. A robust blond teenager in a school uniform stood dejectedly at the edge of the rooftop, his eyes filled with despair and lifelessness, gazing at the sky filled with evening glow in the distance.
"Andrew, I order you to come down immediately, do you hear me?"
The camera moved to the bottom of the teaching building, where many teachers and students stood. Firefighters had already begun to set up an air cushion below. The portly, bald principal stood with one hand on his hip, holding a megaphone, and shouted unpleasantly at the teenager on the roof, "If there's any problem, we can come down and talk properly. There's no need to seek death here."
"He's really jumping, but he's just putting on a show to clear his name." Among the onlookers, a male student said, as if afraid the matter wasn't big enough.
"Yeah, after doing something like that, if it were me, I'd have no face to continue living in this world…" Another skinny male student added fuel to the fire.
"Hey, both of you, say less." A middle-aged woman who looked like a teacher interrupted, but she did not reprimand the two male students who were making sarcastic remarks. Even her own gaze towards the jumping boy held no hint of pity.
The camera cut back to the rooftop. The jumping boy, Andrew, seemed to be in an unconscious state and didn't notice the firefighters behind him trying to approach him through conversation. Suddenly, he took half a step forward, and half of his body immediately hung over the edge of the rooftop.
"Oh, oh…" The onlookers below gasped in unison.
"Andrew, hey, Andrew, are you listening? Your parents are on their way to school. Don't you want to see them one last time?" The firefighter responsible for negotiations also broke out in a cold sweat and quickly spoke to calm the teenager.
"Mom and Dad… I've implicated you…" It was fine not to mention his parents, but once they were brought up, a complex emotion of fear and regret flashed in the teenager's eyes. He then painfully closed his eyes and took another step outward.
"No… Andrew!"
"Oh my God!"
"Oh my gosh!"
Amidst a series of screams. The teenager standing at the edge of the rooftop missed his footing and fell straight down from the height of five stories…
When the short video ended, the black smoke gradually dissipated, but Caleb's vision remained completely dark. He found himself seemingly sitting on an iron chair, his head fitted with some heavy object, and two iron pieces in his mouth, like hooks, pressing against his tongue and upper palate respectively. A rusty taste spread in his mouth.
He couldn't speak, only making muffled 'woo woo woo' sounds. In his ears, there was a 'drip… drip…' electronic sound like a timer, and the slight creaking of gears turning. His hands and feet were not restrained. When his hand touched the object on his head, it felt like a rough metallic texture, like an iron frame in the shape of a helmet.
"Such a beginning… is really strange."
Thinking this, he tried to pull at the iron frame on his head with his hand, but the thing didn't budge, firmly clamped to the lower part of his jawbone.
At this moment, a series of 'clunking' sounds came from above. Several rows of spotlights were lit one by one, and the dim, yellowish light immediately illuminated the surroundings.
Once his vision cleared enough to see, Caleb finally understood his situation: This was a room about ten square meters. He was sitting on the only iron chair in the center of the room. The room was simple and clear at a glance: four unpainted, rough concrete walls, a heavy iron door, and in the front right corner, an old bedside cabinet with a 17-inch television on it.
On the wall directly opposite Caleb hung half a glass mirror. Caleb saw his current appearance in the mirror: His head was fitted with a hideous clamping mechanism. The main body of the mechanism was an iron animal trap opened 360 degrees—a normal animal trap can only open to 180 degrees; opening to 360 degrees means the iron teeth of the trap are closed in reverse.
The mechanism designer had clearly modified the spring device on the animal trap, and also added two sets of special gear structures to the left and right sides of the trap (now corresponding to Caleb's left and right cheeks), allowing the trap to remain maximally open without snapping back. Furthermore, the lower iron teeth of the device were clamped onto Caleb's jawbones on both sides, and a half-palm-sized iron lock hung on the right side gear, firmly locking the opening of the mechanism. Unless a key could be found to open the iron lock, it would be impossible to remove this mechanism from his head.
Shasha… Shasha… Not long after the lights came on, the 17-inch television on the bedside cabinet suddenly turned on, displaying a flickering static screen.
After the static screen distorted and focused, a strange puppet wearing a black suit and a red bow tie appeared on the screen. The puppet had a sinister, pale, square face. Two red swirls were painted on its protruding cheekbones, and its red-sclera eyes slowly rotated with its body, looking towards the camera.
"Hello, Caleb White, I want to play a game with you." The puppet's mouth opened and closed as it spoke, emitting a deep, heavy voice.
"You are wearing my proudest creation, a mechanism called the jaw ripper. When this video ends, its timer will be triggered. Ten minutes later, if you still cannot remove it from your head, it will unleash astonishing power, and your skull will be mercilessly torn apart like this dummy's…"
The television screen then switched to a plaster head wearing the jaw ripper. As the mechanism was triggered, the iron teeth of the animal trap violently clamped together, making a loud 'bang,' and half of the plaster head was immediately crushed into powder. Caleb's pupils contracted slightly. With this video demonstrating the power of the jaw ripper, this mechanism could easily instill a shadow of fear in the wearer's heart.
"All this time, you may not have known how to speak, nor how to express yourself accurately, yet you are engaged in a profession that most requires 'speaking'." The camera returned to the puppet, which again spoke in that heavy voice.
"You are accustomed to reporting facts you witness by cutting off the beginning and end, and fabricating them, guiding the development of events in a direction you believe will attract more public attention, even at the cost of harming others' lives. You know that only by doing so can the page views and comment numbers you seek bring you immense profit and fame. Selfishness has corrupted your soul, making you lose the professional integrity a journalist should possess."
The puppet paused, then continued:
"Now, I give you a chance to reform. When you exit that iron door, you will meet three people who share your predicament. They are either accustomed to lying or glorify violence. Selfishness has made their souls base and defiled. And now, only you can save them. Will it be a call to conscience? Or will you sink into hell? Make your choice!"
Then, the screen distorted and reverted to static.
A main quest also popped up before his eyes:
[Redemption? Or Destruction?]
[Quest Description: 'You have learned about your current situation from the video, so if you don't want to die, you'd better do exactly as the other party says.']
[Quest Objective: Complete all 3 'Redemption and Destruction' events.]
At the same time, Caleb also noticed a ten-minute countdown appearing at the very top of his vision, and the 'clanking' sound of gears slowly turning came from his ears.
[Fatal Danger: In 10 minutes, the jaw ripper on your head will automatically activate, causing 100% damage to your health.]