Su Yining collapsed onto her room's floor, utterly exhausted. She dragged her body toward the bed.
Today, her stepmother had truly challenged her last thread of patience. Before she knew it, she had snapped and poured her beloved coffee onto her head!
Now, she had no coffee to drink.
She let out a sigh. Maybe it was worth it for the temporary peace. Zhao Yuyin wouldn't provoke her for the time being after she had made such a fuss.
"What a greedy and vain woman." Su Yining lamented and shook her head.
She still hadn't changed a bit. Since she was twelve years old, this woman had always schemed against her, making her look like a troublesome child who couldn't accept her dad remarrying.
At first, just like other caring dads, her dad would still try to understand and coax her. If it happened two or three times; or maybe only during a few weeks, it was still acceptable. But what if the child always threw tantrums and was unwilling to understand?
All her actions, orchestrated and twisted by Zhao Yuyin's words, gradually wore away Su Mingze's patience. He cared less about her, going as far as wanting to send her away to his ex-wife.
The father believed more in the stepmother's words. He then also became a stepfather.
Su Yining knew how cold her mother was toward her. Because of the divorce, she chose her father, the parent who was less strict and closer to her, believing his love and fatherly affection would never change.
She was sixteen years old. Unwilling to endure the same treatment in her mother's house, who also just recently remarried, she decided to live with her grandparents.
In her grandparents' house, she was no longer oppressed by her stepmother and stepsister, so her personality also became less restrained.
Su Yining shook her head. Why recall such an unpleasant past?
She grabbed her phone and scrolled through some video games, clicking the list of easy to play and interesting farming games. The most important thing was that most of them didn't need her to pay.
Her eyes caught sight of a cute chibi silver wolf standing beside various crops as the game's thumbnail. She instantly clicked on it.
"This is a farming game?" She lifted her eyebrows in wonder. "The name of the game is Apocalypse Arrival, though." It sounded more like an apocalypse game from the title alone.
She read the description. It was interesting. Building an underground base in the apocalypse that relied on farming?
The characters were also cute. There was a silver wolf chibi of a beastman with fluffy ears and long smooth tail, then a lion and even a snake. All of them in cute chibi versions.
Su Yining didn't hesitate to download it anymore. In an instant, she almost regretted it. Why was the size of the game so big? She consoled herself. Maybe because of the high-quality visuals?
The download process took a bit long, so she tossed the phone onto the bed and went to the bathroom to take a bath. She came out ten minutes later, all refreshed. She threw herself onto the bed and sighed in contentment.
The game had been downloaded. She opened the game.
Her heart jolted in shock when a zombie face greeted her. Its face was no longer unrecognizable whether they were a woman or a man. The head was all bad with some flesh missing on the cheek. The wound dripped with reddish-brown blood.
The most noticeable thing was the zombie's brown and purplish skin. It looked like it was rotting. The eyes appeared as if they almost jumped out of their sockets–absolutely horrifying.
She wondered whether she had been scammed and it was a horror video game instead. Just as Su Yining was about to throw the phone away, the loading process was finished.
Letting out a huff, she stared at her phone screen.
At first glance, she marvelled at the beautiful graphic design. There was an image of a majestic castle. She clicked on it but…
It was gone.
A dark prison appeared on the screen. She was bewildered. She shifted the screen and was immediately startled.
A ferocious face of a wolf showed up in front of her, almost giving her a heart attack. Su Yining once again cursed the game developer. What a jump scare!
The wolf was strange, though. It walked on his two feet. His head looked like a wolf with long dark gray snout, but his body resembled a bulky man. The wolf also had a tail. How odd.
Su Yining remembered the description. They were called beastman–a half-beast and half-human creature.
The wolf beastman was looking at something chained inside the prison. She hurriedly moved the screen to take a look. Once she did, she gasped.
There was another beastman. His hands and waist were chained to the walls. As for his lower part of the body… it wasn't feet at all. Instead, a long snake tail lay unmoved.
His amethyst long hair cascaded down like a waterfall. Unfortunately, he had injuries everywhere. In the area right below his waist, there was a deep wound where blood poured out.
Some parts of his snake tail's scales were gone. Su Yining instinctively winced. They must have hurt, right?
She moved the screen to his upper part of the body, nearly looking away when she noticed the bare chest.
Eh? She was surprised. The game censored his chest? Suddenly, the picture on his chest became blurry.
His face was unclear, hidden in the dark where the stream of moonlight couldn't reach.
"Why bother giving food to a corpse?!" She saw a text bubble above the dark gray wolf beastman's head.
She witnessed the wolf beastman throwing the food on the plate to the ground, scattering around and mixing with the dirt. The word annoyed appeared above his head.
However, he wasn't the only one annoyed right now. Su Yining also felt a bit bothered because of his actions.
[Metal chains are binding the main character. Do you want to release him? Yes/No]
After the wolf beastman left, she saw a pop-up text. She didn't hesitate to click yes.
The chains binding the snake beastman abruptly released him. He fell to the floor. She grimaced. Fortunately, it was merely a game. If someone with a lot of wounds like him fell down, it must have hurt a lot.
So, the amethyst snake is the main character, huh?
[Do you want to help the main character escape from this place? Yes/No]
She clicked yes again. However, this time, nothing happened. Su Yining scratched her head. What did this game want her to do? She thought she would see the prison door opening by itself.
It didn't happen.
This game was confusing and hard, she thought, wanting to exit the game. She accidentally clicked the shop icon, revealing various items.
Most of them were still locked.
The only available one was an item called the newbie package. The price: free.
She didn't hesitate to buy that one. Once the package appeared in her inventory, she opened it. There was a key and some other items like rice seeds, gems, gold coins, and healing potions.
The key should be for unlocking the prison room, right? She clicked on it. In the video game, it appeared to hover in the air. She had to struggle to put the key in the keyhole, nearly twisting her fingers.
The prison room opened with a click.
Suddenly, there was an incoming call. Su Yining was forced to close the video game.
Unbeknownst to her… after she left, a pair of golden eyes opened. His pupils, resembling a snake's, glimmered in the darkness.