The human mind has a powerful capacity for imagination.
Influenced by subjective consciousness, many people subconsciously fill in the gaps of the unknown with logical assumptions.
For example, if an official related to real estate land is wealthy, adorned in gold and silver, and lives in a villa, many would instinctively assume he is corrupt and mentally construct a detailed embezzlement process.
Evidence becomes irrelevant—this self-created logic feels more reliable than any proof, convincing the person of their own “deduction” beyond doubt.
At this moment, Zhang Huairan felt the same facing Huaru.
The girl’s deeply ingrained acting skills had clearly succeeded.
The benefit of successful acting was that she was openly labeled a “fragile woman,” relying on powerful allies to barely survive the first game. Zhang Huairan truly believed this person to be an innocent young lady, firmly convinced of the scenario she imagined:
This girl named Zheng Wen must be a young lady from a wealthy family, usually confined to school and home, so naturally shy and pure.
Her graceful behavior is surely the result of good family upbringing—big families always emphasize such things.
This girl is somewhat pitiable, and since she’s pretty, her future should be bright if she grows up.
But unfortunately, in the dark world, she likely has no future.
Zhang Huairan was certain the scenario she imagined was flawless, a hundred times more accurate than Sherlock Holmes’ deductions.
Finally, the question remained: why was this young lady here?
Meanwhile, the woman wiping her body with toilet paper had already imagined a “perfect” backstory: this Zheng Wen was probably still a pure and innocent girl, her thoughts lingering in the ideal world shown on the news broadcasts, believing that people live happily and peacefully; even if things aren’t good now, they soon will be. So, she was trying to persuade the “lost lamb”!
Zhang Huairan gave a self-mocking smile, while the kind-hearted young lady’s gaze seemed filled with pity.
She truly regarded Zhang Huairan as a “lost lamb,” as if she wanted to save this lamb with the radiance of a saint.
“Get out.”
Huaru silently cursed inside.
They had barely exchanged a few words before the other party started kicking her out. The pace was strangely fast.
But she didn’t intend to give up just yet—after all, they hadn’t even achieved anything, making the effort to enter Room 2 meaningless.
Gathering her emotions, she raised her head and stared unwaveringly at the naked woman.
That gaze seemed capable of piercing the soul, making Zhang Huairan freeze as if struck by electricity. It took her two seconds to recover.
In those eyes, she seemed to see her past self—once so innocent and naive.
Perhaps stimulated by that gaze, she clenched her fists and shouted almost like a roar, “What do you want me to do? I’m already someone who’s going to die! If I don’t do this, what else can I do?”
The ‘little girl’s’ pure appearance stabbed at her whole body painfully.
She wished she were a good person, hoped to be someone useful to society rather than a harmful element, but reality forced her to act against her desires.
“When God closes one door…” Huaru began, but her words were cut off.
“Nonsense. When God closes one door, He leaves a window open, right? I can say those things too, but do they help? Can shouting slogans and spouting philosophy change the world? Can it fill your stomach? Can it prevent sickness and death?” Zhang Huairan lost control, her wild expression truly frightening.
“Listen, this is my fourth time coming here.
Everything I told you before was a lie. I’m not a model, I haven’t come here twice, my name isn’t Zhang Huairan, and even this body isn’t real.
I’ve been lying to you all!” She was almost mad, wildly flailing her hands like a crazed lion, never stopping her mouth as if trying to reveal all her past. “Are you pure? Huh? A month ago, I was just like you—I was a freshman in college…”
A month ago, Zhang Huairan was still a freshman named Zhang Ran, male, 18 years old. Back then, he was an outstanding student until a strange version of QQ popped up on his phone and everything changed.
He was very similar to Huaru at that time.
After joining that strange QQ group, he secretly observed and, like Hua Hualong, was called out just one hour after entering—a very unlucky coincidence.
Two people added him as friends and privately chatted with him, ostensibly senior guiding junior, but actually playing a double act to trick him into creating a character.
The initial 100 points for buying weapons and equipment were quite tricky.
One of the double act’s purposes was to deceive newcomers not to buy weapons or armor.
It wasn’t just the Hamster Team; others in QQ groups also used this trick to deceive new players.
Zhang Ran lacked Hua Ru’s sharpness and foolishly fell for it all. His appearance was entirely created according to the scammers’ data, so upon entering the dark world, he was immediately targeted. Worse, he even revealed his real-world address to others.
Zhang Huairan could never forget what happened the first time he entered the dark world.
It was a game where only three of fourteen could survive.
Still unfamiliar with this world, he was deceived by one person’s sweet talk and ended up betraying his teammates.
Only near the end did he realize he had been fooled.
Four people remained: three men and one woman—he was the sole woman.
Since there was no restriction on attacking others, those three naturally committed beastly acts, taking turns assaulting her.
But it was actually someone’s conspiracy.
While the others indulged themselves, that person raised his slaughtering knife, intending to earn extra points by sneaking a kill on the other two men.
This was common in the dark world.
The game hid many bonus points, and human life was worth even less than 200 points.
Of course, the three men ultimately suffered a lose-lose situation.
After killing the other two, the remaining man was severely wounded.
He was one of the beneficiaries of the double act in the QQ group.
He had long known Zhang Huairan’s identity and had planned everything. Newcomers were easy marks—just a few sweet words exploiting their ignorance of the dark world’s rules could easily rope them in. Even enemies could be tricked.
Until that point, everything went according to that person’s plan.
The only exception was the last moment… he failed to kill Zhang Huairan. He made the fatal mistake of underestimating her and died inside that fragile woman’s body.
The delicate exterior was extremely deceptive—like a primary school student, even if this student had the power to kill with a single strike, one would instinctively underestimate them.
That man was counterattacked by the seemingly weak Zhang Huairan.
She picked up the blade on the ground and drove it hard into his chest.
The very first time entering the dark world, she had killed with her own hands.
She and Huaru were very similar—both deceived, both plotted against, but both lucky enough to win by relying on their enemy’s ambition.
However… despite both achieving victory, the two had taken completely different paths.