After lying on the lounge chair in decadence for quite a while, Mu Anqi finally struggled to get up. She thought, maybe she would have a chance in the future to go again to the Seven Nights Hotel or the cinema in the Shattered Mirror Continent to watch those movies or programs that required payment.
Just going to an amusement park normally was already really exhausting. Mu Anqi dragged her tired body, took the newly bought pajamas, and walked into the bathroom to wash up and go to sleep.
Tomorrow, it should almost be time to start the next game, right? She wondered if this time it would again be the Taiyin's home field. While showering, Mu Anqi thought: she really did have a fateful connection with ghosts.
…
A new day began with washing up. Mu Anqi changed into sportswear, carefully counted the items in her backpack, packed what she should carry with her, then slung the backpack over her shoulder and began the game!
[Drawing game project…]
[Ding! Special mark detected! Detecting invitation…]
[Ding! No special invitation detected! Entering Shattered Mirror Continent…]
[Bee—! Dungeon activated: Animal Village!]
[Entering… please wait…]
[Bee—! Passive skill · Heaven's Chosen Girl activated!]
[Congratulations, player, you have obtained 1688+500 Guan Si.]
Animal Village?
It couldn't be such a coincidence, right? She had just been sighing about her fate with ghosts, and they immediately threw her into the Underworld?!
Mu Anqi sized up her surroundings. Was she locked up in a cell? She looked at the white iron bars and the lock in front of her, then at the bed and bathroom inside the room, her head completely filled with question marks.
Why? Why was the opening scene of Animal Village inside a prison? She hadn't done anything, and she was already shedding tears behind bars?
Just as Mu Anqi was still stunned and doubtful, she heard the loud sound of someone kicking hard against the iron bars. However, as soon as that sound rang out, a shrill alarm blared, and the whole room flashed with blinding red light.
Mu Anqi heard an angry curse, followed by the screeching sound of a door opening. Peering out through the gaps in the bars, she saw a massive iron door being pushed open, and then… a huge black bear walked in. This black bear had three claw-scar marks across its chest, making it look especially "bully-like." In a rough, gruff voice it shouted: "What are you doing!? All of you, behave yourselves!"
[Prompt: Please survive in Animal Village for one week~]
A survival-type game, huh. Mu Anqi scratched her head as she looked at the big black bear—this should be a black bear demon, right?
"Seriously, pull yourselves together! The guests will be here soon!" the black bear demon snarled viciously. "If we still can't sell you off, none of you will be eating!"
Mu Anqi tilted her head, thinking this bear demon's acting was actually pretty good. Who knew how many times this script had been played before. Ah, so the Underworld's game was actually this kind of immersive murder-mystery roleplay?
"Sell us?" Mu Anqi heard a player in the next cell voice a question: "You're going to sell us?!"
"Yelling so early in the morning for what! Annoying the hell out of this bear! If you're not sold this week, I'll send you all to the crematorium!" the black bear demon roared angrily. "I've let you freeload in this pet shop for so long, and you still expect me to provide for you till your death?"
Ah, so it was identity substitution. They had become "pets," "commodities," while the demons had become "owners," "buyers." Mu Anqi had read novels of this type before. She suddenly felt a bit relieved: compared to directly becoming livestock and facing the risk of being eaten, becoming a pet was really much luckier. Mu Anqi thought optimistically.
As for what the black bear demon said about sending the unsold ones to the crematorium, Mu Anqi couldn't help but think of the stories she'd heard about some pet shops euthanizing pets that couldn't be sold. So after the identity swap, was this about experiencing life from the perspective of a pet?
Living together with fluff for a week…
Even though she knew this was an escape game and couldn't possibly be that easy, but—but Mu Anqi figured she had her Guan Si, her blessings, and if worse came to worst, she still had 130 demon-slaying bullets. If the demon who bought her this time happened to be a fluffy one… that didn't sound so bad either.
Mu Anqi still wanted to see what the other players were doing, what kind of commotion there was, but unfortunately she couldn't see. From the sounds though… they didn't seem to be making any moves either. Maybe it was because they couldn't figure out what this game was about or what the storyline was, so they decided to just go with the flow and see?
Mu Anqi didn't keep standing. She walked over to the bed and sat down, just waiting for the plot to progress naturally, to see how those demons would keep acting it out.
At the same time, Ji Huaichu, who was also watching Mu Anqi's game progress, stared at the screen, her fingers lightly tapping the table. The Underworld… since when did it have this kind of escape game? She raised her head, took out her communicator from the drawer, and asked, "What's going on with that Underworld Animal Village game?"
On the other end was one of Ji Huaichu's confidants, who usually worked outside gathering intelligence and didn't live in the General's Mansion. That ghost froze for a moment, not knowing why the General cared about this, but quickly checked the information and explained: "It's a newly launched game over there, taken on a voluntary, reviewed basis. Basically, it lets players become the pets of those demons. And throughout the entire process, those demons won't ever show their human forms."
"Hm?"
The ghost on the other end hesitated for a moment—was he supposed to keep explaining? After thinking it over, he decided to lay out everything he knew in detail.
Though the Shattered Mirror Continent had demons and monsters, it also had plants and animals that had never developed intelligence. Some demons even kept unintelligent animals as pets. But where there were many demons, there would always be malicious ones. For example, once a fox demon and a dog demon didn't get along—so the fox demon went to a pet shop, bought a puppy, skinned and dismembered it, then threw it at the dog demon's doorstep just to provoke him.
When such incidents piled up, naturally they had to be dealt with and protections put in place. But these weren't ordinary demons—some had done cruel things in private, and even if they cleaned up after themselves, there was no way to punish them. Some demons felt it was wrong, while others thought it was making a fuss over nothing—after all, demons and unintelligent plants or animals were two different species, with no connection between them. Just livestock, nothing more—kill them and that was that.
"Of course, the situation is much better now, and protections for pets have become far more complete. But there are still some demons who don't care, and take pleasure in tormenting those without intelligence. Cases of powerful demons bullying weaker ones also happen from time to time."
"This Animal Village game—every demon chosen for it is no good sort, but there's never been a proper chance to teach them a lesson. So they stuffed those guys into the game. Either way, they're tormenting players—if they succeed, they produce plenty of emotional value; if they fail and get thoroughly taught a lesson by the players, that's just as good."
Ji Huaichu fell silent. Matters of the Underworld weren't something she could easily interfere in. But what was the point of this game? Wouldn't it be better to deliberately create a game, throw those degenerates inside, and then make it into a repeatable "dungeon," letting players learn the background and then "educate" them over and over again? And if people thought that couldn't serve as conviction enough to win acceptance…
Then just bag them up at night, drag them over, grind them through a few dungeons, and send them back. Do it cleanly, without leaking a word. If any came out and dared to protest, sending them back into the dungeon to sober up would be just as good.
Ji Huaichu's thoughts wandered. Watching on the screen the little "money tree" sitting on the bed with a faint look of expectation on her face, for some reason irritation rose within her. A trace of viciousness surged in her eyes as she slowly muttered, "For this kind of thing, what need is there for any lesson." Once the words left her mouth, Ji Huaichu realized her own murderous intent, yet only grew more stifled.
On the other end, the ghost subordinate froze, startled by that remark. Unable to grasp what General Ji meant, he couldn't help but softly ask, "My lord?"
"It's nothing." Ji Huaichu cut off the communication, her gaze still fixed on the screen. Looking at Mu Anqi's expectant, excited expression, she could almost guess exactly what that little money tree was thinking.
Most likely she was hoping for a cute, fluffy, beautiful great demon to buy her.
…
Mu Anqi was indeed looking forward to something fluffy. She even sprouted an improper delusion: she hoped it would be a round, chubby one that adopted her! She had grown this big and never once gotten to rub a national treasure!
Even if it wasn't a chubby one, then—a white fox would also be excellent. If not that, cats or dogs, even a wolf would be fine. As long as it had thick fur and looked cute or handsome, Mu Anqi felt she could accept it. When the time came to follow the fluff home, who was the real pet of whom might not be so certain.
Mu Anqi's hopes were beautiful, but reality was harsh. She was bought by a giant lizard.
At first, Mu Anqi didn't even know whether the lizard was male or female. She watched that massive reptile slowly walk in, casually glance over the displayed "players," and then point at her cage, saying, "That one." Only then did Mu Anqi realize it was a male lizard.
This giant lizard was worlds apart from anything fluffy. Its tail bore black-and-yellow ringed patterns, its whole body was an earthy yellow, and its back was dotted with small yellow spots. It was at that moment that Mu Anqi remembered the lizard's fancy nickname: "Five-Clawed Golden Dragon." Her expression instantly became one of indescribable awkwardness.
Maybe, maybe… it was just because this lizard didn't look pleasing enough?
Mu Anqi silently pulled out 100 Guan Si to generate a red envelope and tried to shove it at the lizard: "Here, take this. Can you not choose me?"
That was what Mu Anqi was thinking—what if the demons' sense of aesthetics was completely different from humans'? In the lizard's eyes, maybe she was no different from the other players. Just picking a different one, and on top of that earning some extra money for free—wouldn't that be great!
Who would have thought that as soon as she said that, the giant lizard turned its eyes on Mu Anqi, its whole neck puffing up as it let out a piercing hiss, looking utterly enraged. But the black bear demon gave it a slap, as if to remind it of the script, and only then did the lizard angrily turn its head and say: "I've set my sights on this one. She cried out so cheerfully—she must really like me and feel a bond with me. I'll pay however many Guan Si it costs. I'm taking her right now!"
Mu Anqi nearly laughed in fury: You ungrateful ugly lizard, I was being kind enough to let you off the hook—this is what you asked for!
In that cell, Mu Anqi coldly locked eyes with the ugly lizard, but then couldn't bear to keep looking and shifted her gaze away. Her heart ached: what would the ugly lizard use to repay the fluffy one it owed her?!
Was her luck really this bad? Why was it that the more she wished for something, the less she got it? Next time, should she try making reverse wishes instead?