Volume 1. Let the Game Begin
One step... another step, I was moving forward almost at a snail's sprint speed, and behind me, though the footsteps were gone, I could still feel that piercing coldness lingering around me...
I didn't know the principle behind the substitute doll, whether it was to replace myself and stop the monster's movement for ten seconds, or if the game's rules were forcibly making it unable to move, but if it was the latter, then I was certain that this guy was staring at me with those goat eyes, just waiting for that fleeting ten seconds to end and then tear my body apart.
‘Two...’
My body grew heavier and heavier, and I could no longer see the scenery that my field of vision should have captured, except for that pitch-black hospital gate ahead, everything else gradually became dim...
‘Three...’
Struggling to hold onto the crutch, my body gradually started to freeze, the inside of the hospital, which should have been somewhat warm, became so cold, and at this moment... no one knew how much I missed... hot pot.
‘Four...’
My foot... seemed to have lost feeling?
From the waist down, there was almost no sensation, but in my mind, I still knew... I was walking.
‘Five...’
My left calf seemed to be flailing... hmm, not sure if I could still make it out.
‘Six...’
Was this the seventh or eighth step?
‘Seven...’
Ah~ was this... was this a life-flashing-before-my-eyes moment?
No! I didn't want to relive a life where I didn't even have a girlfriend!
‘Eight...’
My thoughts began to freeze... everything felt a bit surreal, and my vision started to distort.
‘Nine...’
Counting... why was I counting?
Oh... right, the watch... the watch... my hand...
‘Ten...’
A click sounded in my ear, and I didn't even know when I had prepared the watch, but the moment the countdown to ten seconds finished, my hand instinctively pressed the pause button on the watch one last time.
‘Five...’
I lifted my head and continued walking by instinct... the door... where was it?
Why couldn't I see anything?
‘Four...’
Only one thought remained in my mind... keep moving forward, but my eyes could no longer see anything, only darkness ahead...
‘Three...’
My brain gradually began to clear up, my heart suddenly trembled violently, and a strong surge of heat burst from my heart and spread throughout my body, my vision suddenly brightened, returning to normal colors, my hearing sharpened, and everything around me became so clear.
‘Two...’
Was this... the last flash before death?
Instinctively, I turned my head and glanced back, and at this moment, I clearly saw that goat-headed monster, its skeletal goat eyes glowing green, staring straight at me...
So it was true... at the brink of death, one could see these things?
How sad... about to die, and not a single familiar face came to greet me, the crimson moonlight shone through the window, illuminating the hospital lobby and the rotten, broken road ahead of me.
‘One...’
Time was up... just like that... give up...
Looking at the hospital gate less than three meters away, my body instantly collapsed, everything became weightless, my body... completely lost control and fell forward...
Death?
I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die...
Don't want to die don't want to die don't want to die don't want to die don't want to die don't want to die...
But, my body wouldn't obey at all, and at that instant, time seemed to become eternal, everything slowed down.
I don't want to die... I don't want to die!
But... what could I do...
No!
I still had a way!!
Everything in front of me pulled forward in an instant, I saw my own eyeballs, I saw my optic nerves, I saw my brain, and finally... my vision pierced through my skull, scalp, and hair...
‘Buzz!!’
A strong desire to ‘eat’ surged through my mind, but... at that moment, my desire to survive overwhelmed the greed for ‘eating’, and in an instant, clarity spread through my mind, rationality took over, and once again, I saw... myself.
The lower half of my body was still inside the flesh, but my upper body had completely separated from it!
I could still control my body, but it was very difficult.
I forcibly twisted my waist, and at the same time, I felt a sudden movement in my left leg.
The broken bone, under the enhancement of the spirit body, quickly returned to its original place.
The bones forcibly clamped together, although the cracks weren't healed, the leg could move normally again!
Luckily, the upper half of my spirit body had separated from the flesh, otherwise, the pain would have instantly made me lose consciousness.
The lower body regained normal movement, and from the blood flow in my legs, I knew that my heart was still holding on...
My vision began to rise, my perspective stretched... my body started to distort.
At that moment, my overwhelming desire to survive drowned out the urge to eat.
The spirit body suddenly turned around and faced the goat-headed monster!
"I~~~don't~~~want~~~to~~~die~~~aaahhhhhh!!!"
A sharp female voice and a deep male voice roared out at the same time.
The goat-headed monster, as if provoked, opened its skeletal mouth and let out a roar from its throat!
‘Rooooar!!!’
‘Pa ji pa ji pa ji!’
The goat-headed monster frantically charged at me, its goat eyes glaring at me fiercely, and it reached out to grab the spirit body.
Its height was only about two meters, but... my height was over three meters, with arms at least one and a half meters long.
Before it could grab me, I directly stretched out my shriveled black arm and grabbed its neck, and at that moment... the spirit body that couldn't touch physical objects tightly clutched the goat-headed monster's neck.
The moment I touched it, I could clearly feel the icy coldness coming from the goat-headed monster.
Grabbing the goat-headed monster by the neck, I tried to lift it up, but it seemed that the spirit body couldn't overpower this guy... it was far stronger than me.
“Roar!!!!”
The goat skull opened its big mouth and let out a sharp roar, then suddenly lowered its head and bit into my spirit body's arm!
‘Ahhhhhh!!!’
The soul-wrenching pain instantly made me lose focus, but it was only for a moment.
As a fierce anger burst from my chest, I controlled my body to move backward, then suddenly bent down, opened my mouth wide up to my ears, and bit hard onto its shoulder!!
A stench of rot and formalin rushed into my nose, but... amidst it, I tasted an incredibly sweet flavor.
This was... the flavor of the goat-headed monster's soul, far more delicious than Aunt Zhao's soul...
Ah~
So this was how sweet a soul could be.
I ripped a large chunk off its shoulder in one fierce bite, and though this action enraged it, limited by physical conditions, its mouth was that of a goat, no matter how wide it opened, it couldn't be bigger than mine.
So while it kept devouring my left hand, I kept biting it back, and in less than a second, the spirit body's left hand was completely devoured by it, while I had torn off its entire shoulder, grabbing its left arm and stuffing it constantly into my throat!
Under the crimson moonlight, inside the decaying building, two unknown beings, neither human nor object, were devouring and tearing at each other.
The goat-headed monster sinister and terrifying, the spirit body grimacing ferociously, both sides desperately devouring each other, all for the sake of survival.
If any sane person stood here, they would probably be scared to wet themselves, right?
But even in a situation like this, I still knew that I had to survive.
Controlling the parts of my body that hadn't detached from the flesh, slowly retreating step by step, even though the hospital gate was less than three meters away... at this moment, the devouring speed between me and the goat-headed monster was beyond human eyes' ability to track.
I kept tearing and biting its body, and it kept tearing and biting mine, as if for spirits, biting was the strongest weapon.
And with my mouth able to open wider, I clearly had a huge advantage.
Although it was stronger than me, each bite I took let me taste incredible sweetness, and the goat-headed monster howled.
The spirit body's devoured left arm kept regenerating, and its left shoulder, torn off by me, also kept regenerating.
At this moment, it seemed that the contest was not just about who could eat more, but also about who could regenerate faster.
However... from beginning to end, I never once thought of perishing together with it.
My body was now less than one step away from the gate!
The upper half of my physical body was limp and bent forward, with arms dangling and swinging, while the lower half was still under my control.
When I bit into its shoulder one last time, I suddenly remembered something: if I bit its neck, would it be even more effective?
Thinking this, I opened my mouth again, bit hard into its neck, and tore off a large chunk of spirit body.
The sweetness lingering in my mouth, while its gnawing motion froze for a moment, then suddenly it used its right hand, which had just been grabbing me, to guard its own neck...
At that moment... I smiled.
Reflected in its goat eyes was that hideous and eerie smile... that grin stretching all the way to the ears.
Eat it?
No... I never had such a thought, because I wasn't stronger than it, and even if I tore it up completely, it would still be a losing deal, because... I was a living person.
I could hunt spirit bodies freely in the human world.
I could bite every person's shoulder along the street, continuously strengthening myself without affecting their lives, and one day, I could crush this goat-headed monster head-on.
But now... if I fought it to the end, if my physical body completely lost control, or if my sanity was completely consumed by desire, then I would be trapped in this world forever.
By then... in the next game, the stronger side would become me, wouldn't it?
With the spirit body chunk from its neck still in my mouth, I began to fall back into my physical body, while controlling my lower body to leap backward...