Nurturing Humanity

Good Work Playing Dead

The black book had few words in it, yet the contents nonetheless made anyone who read them shudder. It seemed that the game was more than just a sandbox evolution game, and it was not just about spores evolving after all…

The parts of the sandbox game that they managed to explore so far seemed to be but the tip of the iceberg.

“Damn, this is game is awesome! So awesome that you definitely can’t find another like it!”

“I initially thought such a sandbox game would be weakest at background setting in exchange for being very free. But this one, man, this setting really is something.”

“Come on, come on. Time’s up. Close the book already. The giant boss is coming back. No need to get everything sorted out. Let’s just kill the boss first!” someone shouted from afar.

There was a very huge, very tall giant slowly approaching.

Xu Zhi came back with his lunchbox in his hand.

He had no idea that he after he left in a hurry, those idiot players went to mess things up further for him, taking a peek at his notes regarding his experiments.

All those people thought the lines were some kind of a hidden plot and the discussion raged as they came up with all manner of theories and explanations to complete the background setting of the game world. They were practically treating the developers of the game like gods by then.

“Well, now that I’ve settled the LDR thing with that brat, let’s get back to testing the new species. There’s also a score to be settled with that Racer of Mount Haruna dude as well.”

He went back to the sandbox.

The miniature mountains and rivers were all quiet now. There was no longer the scene of weird beings charging and shrieking that normally happened when the giant showed up.

It was apparent that they took the opportunity to hide behind the chair, getting ready to turn against him.

He, on the other hand, hardly cared. He stuck to his usual routine and slowly returned to his chair, opening the lunchbox and began to eat, feeling curious as to how they were about to set him up.

“Let’s take a look at what’s in the box today.” He sat on the chair and opened up his lunchbox. It was the usual delicious, lovely dinner with carrots, a fried egg, and other leafy vegetables. The contents looked appetizing.

He then felt a pinch on his arm.

A bunch of weird-looking bugs were actually biting down hard on his arm. It felt something similar to mosquito bites.

So, this is how it is eh? A distraction?

Xu Zhi grinned and realized what they were up to right away—they had bugs biting his arm and had sneaked some kind of poisonous creature into his lunchbox while he was distracted, to poison him to death when he ate said creature.

They are actually risking their lives to get my attention, so to make time to sneak that poisonous creature from that Racer of Mount Haruna guy into my lunchbox then. Xu Zhi grinned.

Nice plan! That’s indeed a bunch of veteran players who are often getting into raids. They actually managed to nail down such a fine strategy just to take down the giant boss that is me.

He then flashed a devil-like smirk.

“Insecta Nest mind, turn their sensations up by force. Make them feel pain at 50 percent.”

Turning sensations up to 100 percent would be making them feel like how they would feel in reality, thus making death in the game feeling like having undergone an actual excruciating, painful death.

He decided that subjecting them to a true death experience would be a little too much. He was not some kind of bully after all.

But then again, those people would nonetheless be all feeling numbed and paralyzed from dying at 50 percent sensation. That would still hurt enough to give them a nightmarish impression of the memory for the rest of their lives.

Slap!

He clapped down on the bug that bit him after the sensation of pain was increased.

Arrgghhh!!

That player was reduced to a bloody mush, and a painful shriek was heard.

That pain was comparable to the torture meted out in ancient times, causing that player to shriek like pigs getting slaughtered, and he sounded so frightening that all the others were shivering from it.

“Didn’t I turn sensations all the way down to zero?”

That player pulled off his VR headset when he logged out of the game, breaking out in cold sweat as he panted.

His clothes were already drenched in cold sweat, and his muscles were spasming, being subjected into intense convulsion. The pain from the experience of dying in that game was so real that he felt himself almost thoroughly exhausted.

All the other players in the game knew nothing of that at the moment. All of them were putting up their thumbs.

“Gosh! Your acting for the sake of killing the boss is surreal, brother! That shriek of yours when you died really, really got to the soul!”

“Seeing how passionate you are at the first go makes me wanna get myself up to task.” One of the players was feeling very gleeful as he continued, “Witness me! I’d be bringing my flock up next, and I’d sure shriek worse and be more real with it than he did!”

“Go get him, brother!”

“We need a tank for killing the boss of this ‘Huge Chair Raid’ on the first day of the second testing, taking on all the aggro from the boss!”

The others around him sang his praises to him and made him feel very pleased with himself. That player then climbed out of his hiding place in the chair, cranking his sensation of pain to zero as he brought his group with him, getting onto Xu Zhi’s arm and bit down like the last one had done.

Clap!

Xu Zhi clapped him down before he was able to bite.

That impossibly huge hand loomed over the bugs like a mountain, falling down on them.

That player was then reduced to a bloody mush by Xu Zhi’s hand.

Arrgghhh!!!

Sh**, it f**kin hurts!!

That bug let out an eerie shriek of intense pain.

He sounded even more tortured than the last one who had squashed. He felt as if he had just experienced the most intense pain he had ever experienced in his life. All the others shuddered to the core as they heard that shriek.

“Awesome!”

“Your death is surreal, brother!”

“His performance is indeed more real than the last guy, and he sure as hell shouted like he was in hell!”

All the others around him were getting really hyped.

They were all getting very, very excited.

You see it? Now this calls for an Oscar!!

This is the sh**!

Holy cow, that dude is really, really getting into it. I’ve never seen a death feeling more real than that!

Rounds of applause were heard from them. All of the others thought that the player was putting his soul into his act, giving all he had for the sake of putting down the giant boss.

“My turn to draw the boss’ aggro now, brothers. The two of them sure sounded very pained, but shrieking like that was just too goddamn fake, and I think even the giant boss would feel something is off with them. This time around, I’m gonna put on the act of a tough bug and I swear, you can kill me, and I’m not gonna make a single sound!”

Yet another bug emerged from the chair quickly, climbing up onto Xu Zhi’s arm and getting ready to chomp.

Clap!

Yet another bloody, messy red smear.

Arrgghhh!!

It hurts, god**amn it!

He shrieked even worse than the other two that came before him.

His eerie shriek filled the entire place. It seemed like he was being subjected to hellish torture and then was having salt poured all over his wounds. The pain was simply indescribable.

“Dude, didn’t you say you’re gonna do it differently?”

“You said you’re gonna play the tough bug, right? Why the hell did you shriek so badly then?”

“I guess he’s just some idiot who’s trying to mess with us.”

The others shook their heads as they saw what had happened and suspected nothing as they continued to lurk at a corner of the chair, setting up plans quickly to take on the boss.

With those three drawing the giant boss’ attention and giving their lives valiantly to the undertaking, and the ‘dumb’ giant boss being busy with clapping down on the bugs, he was totally oblivious to the Final Chicken taking the opportunity to sneak onto his pants and approach his lunchbox.

“I’ll be the one to distract him then… I’m not a joker, and I’ll really be playing the tough bug this time. I swear, the boss could render me into an even messier pile and make my parts fly all over the place, yet you all still won’t hear a sound from me!”

Clap!

Death by another clap.

Arrgghhh!!!!!

Damn you!! F**k!! This hurts!!

He shrieked at the top of his lungs at that instant.

His shriek sounded even more torturous, being so loud that it was heard even in the heavens. One could practically feel the pain just by hearing the shriek alone.

“Heh! What happened to the tough bug act eh? In the end… ohmygodithurts all the same. But damn, he really knows how to act and he sure sounds like he got reduced to a bloody mess, like he had been subjected to some inhumane torture in an instant. That sure as hell deserves a like.”

Like!

Like!

The others chatted away about what happened.

Yet another player emerged at the moment. It was none other than the weird thing with five arms called ‘I am Hunyuan Thunderbolt Hand, and I want to evolve into Kun, the legendary fish’. He was very well-known among the players and he simply shook his head quietly to what was happening before him with a serious look. “Brothers, I, the Deformed Prince, is unlike any of them. Now watch me put on the act of a truly tough bug.”

Wow, the true tough one is coming up this time!

The others grew quiet.

A lot of the players had been in touch with that player for quite some time and knew him to be someone calm and collected, unlike the jokers who came before him. He looked serious and everyone thought that he was not going to be deceiving anyone. Everyone thought that he was truly going to put on the tough bug act.

“Now, witness my true, dashing act for the greater cause, the martyr who is gonna…”

Clap!

Yet another clap from that huge hand.

Arrggghhh!!!

Sh**, sh**, sh**!!!

He shrieked even more painfully than the ones who came before.

That deformed creature of that player was again reduced to a bloody mess, and even the stout arms were broken and all five of them were flattened into a sticky pulp. The disgusting black goo and sticky puddle of bloody fluids made it so that one was unable to tell its head from its arms. One could see how pitiful an end it was, just by looking at what remained.

At the same time, he shrieked as if he was really being tortured in hell at that very instant. It sounded so devastatingly painful that the other deformed bug players were shirking in the corner, shuddering over what they just heard.

The players were really puzzled.

So, this is your tough bug act?

That one shrieked more than everyone else. Is that guy having the wrong idea about the term ‘tough bug’?

All players were feeling very confused and remained silent for over ten seconds.

They then looked and beamed at each other. “Gosh, even a serious veteran like him would actually joke with us. Why the hell are all these people playing games? They would all win Oscars if they were to get into acting instead! What a waste of talent with them being here.”

“Hell, you couldn’t have put it better. Those deaths were as real as they could have been.”