The Labyrinth of the Monsters

Pain!

Pain, pain, pain!

Aside from the pain, there's only an abyss of fear: I'm going to die, about to die. What does death feel like? It surely won't be like time travel. From now on, no matter which world, there will be no more of me. Even this thought, this fear, will vanish into thin air.

No!

I don't want to die!

Gao Yang struggled to open the half of his eye squeezed by the tentacles, and something seemed to float before him.

He saw it clearly, a semi-transparent hexagram emitting a faint golden glow. It spun quietly, as if waiting for someone to touch it.

Gao Yang didn't know what it was, but instinct told him this was his last struggle before death.

He used all his strength to lift his left hand, inching it closer to the hexagram in the air.

Almost... almost there.

"Ah!" The intense pain drained the strength from his body, and his left arm fell.

"Is this what humans are like? Human blood, human taste..." Li Weiwei was too excited, her voice filled with gasps, "So beautiful! So wonderful!"

Gao Yang's head was like a raw egg in Li Weiwei's hand, ready to be crushed with a squeeze.

She couldn't bear to break him so quickly; she restrained herself, holding back from crushing her prey's skull. She wanted to savor the fear and despair of a human's dying struggle to the fullest.

These emotions were too precious.

She might never have a second chance in her life.

Finally, the climax was approaching, and Li Weiwei's body trembled with excitement: "Gao Yang, you're a good person. I like you... I love you..."

"I want you!"

"Give me, please give me everything you have!"

The strangling force of the tentacles loosened for a moment, a sign of exertion.

Gao Yang seized the moment, suddenly raising his hand to hook the hexagram in the air with his middle finger.

[Beep—]

[System activated]

[Loading user information...]

[Loading complete]

[Name: Gao Yang. Age: 18.]

[Gender: Male. Race: Human.]

[Status: Awakening.]

[Talent: Luck. Serial Number: 199. Rune Type: Miracle.]

—Are you a system? Or a cheat? Whatever! I want to use my talent!

Gao Yang couldn't speak, but the voice in his heart could still be recognized by the system.

[Luck is a passive talent, cannot be used]

—Then what use are you! I'm about to die! Save me! Someone save me!

[Access ended, system hidden]

[Beep—]

The system disappeared.

Everything happened in an instant, the hexagram before Gao Yang's eyes vanished, and he still couldn't do anything. So unwilling, but there was no hope left.

He closed his eyes, awaiting death.

...

Strange! Why am I not dead yet? Why is the pain starting to lessen? Why is the force strangling my head gradually retreating?

"Whoosh—" The tentacles softened, retracting into Li Weiwei's arm.

Gao Yang fell to the ground, freed from suffocation and pain, clutching his neck and coughing desperately: "Cough, cough... cough, cough!!"

He coughed while looking up.

Li Weiwei's arms had already returned to normal, her eyes wide open, a look of confusion on her face, tears in her eyes: "Why...?"

Gao Yang's gaze slid down from Li Weiwei's face to her chest, which was stained red.

Li Weiwei looked at Gao Yang with unwillingness, trying to reach out to him: "You... are my..."

"Shhh—" A long Tang Blade pierced through Li Weiwei's heart from behind, her body arching backward like a fish speared by a harpoon.

"Move aside." A voice came from behind Li Weiwei.

Gao Yang trembled as he stood up, finally seeing clearly that it was Qing Ling. She stood behind Li Weiwei, both hands gripping the hilt of the Tang Blade, maintaining a crouched assassination stance.

"Qing Ling? How are you... here?"

"Move aside!" Qing Ling repeated coldly.

"Okay..." Gao Yang quickly stepped back.

"Stand behind me." Qing Ling said.

Gao Yang complied.

Qing Ling swiftly withdrew the blade, blood gushing from Li Weiwei's chest, spraying the ground in front a bright red.

Gao Yang forced himself not to vomit, then noticed that the Tang Blade in Qing Ling's hand was silver-white, not stained with a drop of blood.

Qing Ling held the black hilt with one hand, placing her slender index finger on the blade's tip, gently sliding down the edge. The nearly 150cm Tang Blade disappeared instantly, as if folded into another dimension.

Gao Yang was stunned.

Was this magic? Sorcery? Or a superpower?

Qing Ling didn't even glance at Gao Yang: "Don't ask anything, go home immediately. I've already destroyed the nearby surveillance; everything that happened here has nothing to do with you."

"But..."

"You know nothing, say it." Qing Ling's gaze was sharp as a blade.

"I... know nothing."

"Say it again."

"I know nothing."

"Say it again."

"I know nothing."

"Good." Qing Ling lightly leapt, flipping over the two-meter courtyard wall, disappearing into the darkness.

...

Late at night, Gao Yang quickly left the scene, running all the way home.

His parents were already asleep, only his sister was still curled up on the sofa with her phone. She was startled when she saw Gao Yang at the entrance, his face full of wounds.

"Wow, what happened to your face?"

"Oh, this..." Gao Yang was so eager to get home that he forgot about the injuries on his face.

"Ah, I know!" His sister suddenly understood, "You're cosplaying as a zombie!"

"Ah, right... exactly!" Gao Yang went along with his sister's words, "This special effects makeup is realistic, right?"

"Realistic! Just like the real thing." His sister grinned mischievously.

This girl, who knows which of her words are true and which are false.

Forget it, what happened was too sudden and absurd, his mind was a mess, and he had no energy to deal with it. If his parents woke up and saw him, it would be even more troublesome.

Gao Yang rummaged through the cabinet in the living room for a medical kit and ran straight to his bedroom.

He closed the door, calmed himself a bit, took out disinfectant and cotton swabs, and disinfected the wounds on his face, applying band-aids. Then he disinfected the wound on his arm, wrapping it with gauze, gritting his teeth in pain, sweating profusely.

After simply treating his wounds, Gao Yang lay exhausted on the bed.

Fear and shock replaced sadness, and Gao Yang only felt that everything that happened tonight was extremely unreal.

Li Weiwei... his childhood sweetheart, they had been together for over a decade, trusting each other with no secrets, but suddenly, she turned into a man-eating monster?!

Gao Yang would rather believe she was eaten by a monster and then impersonated by it. Like in the story of Little Red Riding Hood, where the wolf eats the grandmother and then pretends to be her.

But is that really the case?

Why did the Li Weiwei who wanted to kill him still speak like Li Weiwei, as if she was Li Weiwei herself, just with a second personality?

Too many things were unclear.

The wounds still throbbed with pain, am I infected? Will I wake up tomorrow morning as a man-eating monster too?

Gao Yang was restless.

The hexagram in the air reappeared at some point, quietly floating in the air before him.

Gao Yang sat up, reaching out to touch it.

[Beep—]

[Enter system]

[Congratulations! You have survived for 3 hours]

—What's there to congratulate, I almost died just now!

[You can gain 3 Lucky Points]

—Why?

[Talent: Luck. Serial Number: 199. Rune Type: Miracle.]

[Effect: The talent holder gains 1 Lucky Point for every additional 60 minutes survived]

—So that's it, what can Lucky Points do?

[The attribute panel has various attribute values, you can use Lucky Points to permanently increase any attribute value]

—Open the attribute panel.

[Physical Strength: 10 Endurance: 10]

[Strength: 10 Agility: 10]

[Spirit: 10 Charisma: 10]

[Luck: 0]

...

Gao Yang studied it, having played games before, he roughly understood that these six main attributes corresponded to health, defense, attack, speed, magic, and control. As for what "Luck" represented, maybe dodge, or the chance of getting rare items?

With only 3 Lucky Points, adding to anything felt meager, Gao Yang's gaze returned to that glaring number.

[Luck: 0]

—Luck? Isn't my talent Luck? What's the difference between the two?

[Luck is a talent. Luck is an attribute value]

—That explains nothing.

A quick look at /2p9emv8w will leave you more fulfilled.

—I feel like this Luck talent isn't that great, can I switch to another talent?

[No]

—Open the talent list, let me see.

In an instant, a densely packed talent chart appeared before Gao Yang.

Gao Yang immediately saw the top "Serial Number 199," which was his "Luck." Strangely, the talent names and notes for Serial Numbers 198-1 were all hidden.

—Why can't I see anything?

[The system cannot display unexplored information for you]

—This system is so useless! Why is it different from the systems in web novels?@@novelbin@@

"Knock, knock, knock." Someone tapped on the window.

[Access ended, system hidden]

[Beep—]

Gao Yang sat up abruptly, the system automatically ended.

A shadow had already opened the window, easily jumping into the room.

It was Qing Ling, wearing her usual training shorts and short sleeves, her long limbs white as jade under the moonlight.

She deftly kicked off her sneakers, undoing her ponytail with one hand, letting her black hair fall softly, draping over her full chest.

"You..." Gao Yang was about to speak.

Qing Ling lightly jumped onto the bed, her bare foot pressing on Gao Yang's chest, pushing him back onto the bed: "I ask, you answer."

"Okay..."

"Do you like men or women?"

"W-women."

"Alright." Qing Ling crossed her arms, grabbing the hem of her shirt, quickly pulling it off, removing her short sleeves: "Let's do this."