The King's Game (Jiu Yi)

"Click, click click..." The sound of tapping on a keyboard.

Scene locations, character appearances, character actions, and dialogue.

On the computer screen, the number of words in the document increased until the final punctuation mark was typed. The black-haired youth sitting in front of the computer raised his left hand from the keyboard to cover his yawn.

"Wu..." Looking at the first draft that had just been completed, Gu Huai slowly lifted his hand and rubbed the tears that were in the corner of his eyes.

Gu Huai, as a screenwriter, had a resounding reputation in the industry. Since he'd entered the profession, he'd seized the trophies for all major awards. In his house, there were trophies of all sizes, each one representing honour. Sadly, these golden objects of honour were once rejected by their owner for occupying space.

The year was 2037 and the progress of making web novels into movies was in full swing. Gu Huai had just finished the first draft of the adaptation of a novel that was very popular in Jinjiang Literature City.

But finishing the draft was just the beginning, there was still a lot to refine and modify. That said, the youth's head still drooped lower and lower, and before long, it was completely pillowed by his arm.

A moment later, after the youth had just rested his head, a mechanical sound suddenly rang in the room.

"Beep-Sir, with all due respect, you can't afford to take a break right now. There are only five days left before the deadline and you've run out of the number of drafts you set yourself this year." The intelligent robot, created by advanced technology, entered the room with a cup of hot coffee and moved towards the youth.

2037 was an era when artificial intelligence had become relatively popular.

"..." The rich scent of coffee floated over. Gu Huai's right eyelid twitched. He'd programmed his housekeeping robot with a non-cancellable reminder function. Now, he couldn't say if he regretted it or not.

"Well, I know." The black- haired youth sighed and sat up again. His eyelids drooped habitually, revealing three-points of laziness.

The robot moved to his side and Gu Huai reached for the coffee the other had brought him, but right then, an unscientific, magical event took place-

The intelligent robot's shining blue eyes darkened suddenly, as if it had lost power. Its mechanical arms dropped and the mug in its hand fell straight to the ground.

The unscientific point was that the cup didn't fall to the ground and shatter, but hovered immobile in the air.

"Welcome to the King's Game."

With a tone as monotonous as if someone was repeatedly pressing the same bass keys with the same intensity, this low voice suddenly appeared in Gu Huai's brain.

The difference between the human voice and a mechanical sound was obvious.

Gu Huai, who had intended to pick up the mug, suddenly stopped. The virtual screen that appeared before him a second later made Gu Huai blink.

After the opening remarks, the voice directly explained the rules of the game. It didn't ask if Gu Huai was willing to play, and it didn't seem to care whether he actually listened or not.

Taking the time to calmly save his cup, Gu Huai silently listened to what the other party said. The only action he made was to slightly rub the cup's handle with his index finger.

He was thinking that this matter was probably not going to be good.

As a professional screenwriter, Gu Huai needed to have calm thinking, a rich imagination, and strong, logical reasoning. Knowing what was happening to him at this time was an unscientific but real event, Gu Huai recorded a rough summary of the voice's words in his mind.

To put it simply, he'd been chosen by the other party to participate in this "King's Game". The key point was that if he refused to play the game, he'd die.

According to the requirements of the game, the selected person must cross into various worlds. Each world was equivalent to one level of the game, and in order to go to the next world, he had to reach a 100% clearance value in the current world.

He was only allowed two failures. What sort of consequences he'd face for failing more than two times, the other side didn't say. But Gu Huai speculated that he'd face the same ending as refusing to play the game.

Having only lived till the age of 23, Writer Gu didn't want to become the protagonist of a tragic script.

"What's the reward for winning?" The black-haired youth peeled the wrapper off of a piece of candy and stuffed it into his mouth, eyes narrowing as the sweetness spread.

"Become the [King] and you can obtain whatever it is you desire."

This kind of plot could really match the sum of all the magical adventure screenplays he'd written before. Writer Gu pressed the tip of his tongue against the candy in his mouth and didn't speak.

"You can think of me as a system. Like the ones in novels."

"Oh." Eating his candy, Gu Huai gave a vague reply.

System: "Before starting the game, you need to select a world."

"Different worlds have different clearance difficulties?" Gu Huai raised his hand and poked at the virtual screen that appeared in front of his eyes. A row of cards spread out on the screen. Of course, for now only the back of the cards were visible. As expected, he had to select a card in order to select a world.

An intricate pattern of dark gold outlined the back of the cards, adding a touch of mysterious beauty.

"Luck is also a type of strength."

On this point, Gu Huai actually agreed. As a big shot who'd been banned by several gaming groups, for Writer Gu to make this sort of draw wasn't unexpected.

Gu Huai stretched his hand towards the second card on the left. Clearly, it was only a virtual screen, but at the moment of contact, the card felt substantial. He flipped the card over. "Block A is the era...."

He spoke up to that point, then the youth's voice ended abruptly. He lost consciousness and his body fell against the back of the chair.

His eyes closed then reopened. Despite there only being darkness before him, Gu Huai knew that he'd already crossed over.

"System, I want some clothes." Gu Huai found himself curled up on his side, but the surroundings were dark and unknown so he temporarily maintained this position and didn't immediately move.

His body was naked and there was a feeling of some unknown sticky liquid on his skin. For the first time, Writer Gu doubted his luck a little.

In fact, he didn't expect the system to respond to his request, but just as Gu Huai slowly finished this sentence, the feeling that he was wearing clothes made him feel a bit stunned.

"The plane transfer is complete. This is the 'Block A' world you've selected. The current clearance value is 0."

Clothed again, Gu Huai looked at his current situation logically. He found himself in a narrow area without light or sound. It was probably a completely confined space.

And now he was shut inside.

"System, do you think I'll suffocate in here if I can't get out?" There seemed to be a hint of a smile to the black- haired youth's voice. His narrow and beautiful eyes were faintly upturned and looked very good. He lifted his hand and touched the top of the narrow space.

"Don't rule out the possibility," the system replied indifferently.

Gu Huai's smile dwindled a little. After all, he wouldn't really joke about his life. He knocked on the top of the space with his hand. The barrier at the top wasn't too hard and was probably brittle enough that forcibly destroying it from the inside would be feasible.

"Crack."

The cracking sound echoed in the dark, secluded cave. The sound came very suddenly, neither heavy nor light, but it made the cave, which was originally as quiet as a pool of stagnant water, instantly reach a boiling point-

Countless pairs of cold, cruel eyes, completely lacking any human emotion, opened. The inhuman scarlet pupils glowed, lighting up the surrounding darkness.

Hidden in the darkness, the unknown creatures stirred restlessly, their eyes locked onto the same place. That is, the origin of the sound.

"Crack, kacha-" With another heavy strike, Gu Huai created a not-big-not- small hole in the top of the narrow space that trapped him inside.

Outside, there was basically no light. Gu Huai immediately became aware of this fact.

It was a little unexpected, but Gu Huai didn't stop his actions. He continued his efforts to destroy the narrow space. When the hole had expanded enough, he sat up in a nimble motion. This time, his upper body was finally outside.

Gu Huai had watched all kinds of horror movies, but nevertheless, what he saw next made him reflexively hold his breath.

Numerous eyes were locked on him and were beginning to draw near. In the extremely dim environment, Gu Huai could just barely make out what kind of creatures those ice-cold eyes belonged to.

Each part of the alien creatures' bodies seemed tailor-made for combat. The cold, glossy shells appeared indestructible, the forearms were like serrated blades, and as for the extremely sharp teeth... there was probably no one who'd doubt their biting force.

Each one was at least several times the size of an adult. These terrifying creatures no doubt had the ability to rip apart their prey easily.

"The current world is based on the interstellar setting and the creatures in front of you are called Zergs. You should be familiar with this race."

Haha. If not for the abnormal circumstances, Writer Gu would really like to laugh at his family's system. After all, he was fond of writing scripts with a futuristic interstellar background.

"Well, very familiar," Gu Huai replied.

The big shot who was used to having a maxed-out luck stat would have his luck reversed today.

While talking to the system, Gu Huai had completely broken away from the narrow space.

The moment he broke free, the originally restless Zergs became even more agitated. But Gu Huai naturally didn't have time to care about the Zergs' reaction. Seizing this opportunity to escape was more important.

There weren't many gaps in the encirclement; he only had one chance. If he couldn't get away, then he could resign himself to becoming a snack for the Zerg in this cave.

Seeing a gap, Gu Huai didn't hesitate to run towards it.

The Zergs' hisses echoed in the dark cave the moment the black-haired youth began to move, and they immediately began to swarm. The sound of the group's high-speed movement was enough to make one's scalp feel numb.

In the face of such a large number of Zergs, even the Earth Federation's elite army who'd received special training would be terrified.

"Don't run." The system abruptly spoke these two words just after the black- haired youth started running. The cold voice seemed to hold a hint of another emotion.

It was dim and the youth didn't have night vision.

The dark cave was like an intricate labyrinth. Distracted by the system, Gu Huai accidentally tripped over something. He staggered and after a few steps, he felt his ankle stinging with pain.

"Hiss." The noise of the youth's sharp inhale was very soft, but it was clearly a sound of pain.

Almost as soon as the light sound was made, the chasing Zergs seemed to simultaneously enter a state of rage, their constricted pupils filling with bloodlust and the urge to kill.

"I want to run but I can't," Gu Huai responded to his family's system.

"No need to run."

Gu Huai: "...?"

Listening to these four words, Gu Huai seized a considerable amount of information. From this, he came to an incredible conclusion that he couldn't quite believe.

"You aren't human now and they aren't going to attack you."

As if to confirm what the system had said, the Zergs, which had surrounded the youth again, made no move to attack.

At that very moment, they were quiet but extremely alert. He could tell from their eyes that this group of cruel and ruthless Zergs would instantly tear any living creature that dared to break into their encirclement to shreds.

They were not besieging him but guarding him.

Driven by instinctive will, the Zergs were protecting a precious thing more important to them than their own lives by a hundredfold...

"You are their new king."