Chapter 122: The Temporarily Ended Terror

Won.

As the heavy metal door above the Red Team slammed shut with a final, echoing metallic click, the entire space plunged into an eerie, deathly silence.

On the Red Team’s side, the survivors were like puppets with their strings cut, collapsing one by one onto the ground, indifferent to the insects crawling over their bodies. Ropes slipped from their exhausted hands, thudding against the floor and scattering a mass of black scorpions. But no one cared anymore. The numbness of surviving a brush with death, mingled with the searing pain of bites and stings, left every mind a complete blank.

They had won.
They had survived.
...

Meanwhile, this brutal game, unfolding deep beneath an unknown, isolated island, was being broadcast to every corner of the world through countless screens. The internet in Jiangcheng, and indeed across the entire nation of Xia, had reached a fever pitch.

"Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit! I’m speechless beyond profanity!"
"Is this really a live broadcast? Is it some viral marketing scheme by a film studio? The special effects are too realistic! A rain of scorpions, are you kidding me?!"
"Don't be naive, the authorities have already stepped in! This is real! That madman has hijacked every signal!"
"The 'Resurrected Guy' is just too cool! That god-tier command at the end—it made my scalp tingle! He got stung by a scorpion; his hand is swollen like a pig’s trotter!"
"Wuwuwu, my heart aches for our Resurrected Guy! Please, you have to survive!"
"Survive? Look at the other group—that’s a living hell! This game is not meant for humans!"
"Where are the agents? The military? What are they doing? It’s been a day and a night, and they still can't find them?!"
"Don't be delusional, upstairs. You think they don't want to act? They can't even get a lock on it! This is clearly a case of dimensional strike!"

The overwhelming public outcry swept through every government department like a tsunami.

At the Jiangcheng City Investigation Branch Command Center, the atmosphere was suffocating.

"Still no signal trace?!" Yan Zheng slammed his fist onto the table. His eyes were bloodshot, his chin covered in thick, dark stubble; he looked ten years older than he had two days ago.

A day and a night.
A full twenty-four hours.
That mysterious man was like a demon, using his omnipresent signal to occupy the entire network, repeatedly grinding the dignity of the investigators into the dirt.

"Captain Yan..." a technical agent with heavy dark circles under his eyes reported in a raspy voice. "It’s no use... The signal source is hopping at ultra-high frequencies globally. One second it's in North America, the next it's in South Africa. Our equipment can't lock onto it."

"He’s like a phantom. We have no idea where he is..."

These words added a layer of desperation to the already heavy air of the command center.

Su Qingzhu stood before the massive electronic screen, wordless. Her face, usually defined by coldness and capability, was now etched with inseparable worry and exhaustion. She stared intently at the figure on the screen—blood-stained, yet standing straight. Watching his hand, swollen high from scorpion stings, and the jagged wounds on his face, her heart tightened again and again.

But she could do nothing.
A sense of powerlessness washed over her like a tide.

Just moments ago, intelligence from headquarters had arrived: the place where Chen Yu had been taken was likely an unrecorded private island in international waters. Within that stretch of ocean, there were over a hundred islands of varying sizes. To search them one by one, utilizing all available maritime forces, would take months.

Months...
By then, it would be far too late.

At the same moment, in a living room, the television was playing those shocking live scenes. Liu Hong was curled up on the sofa, wrapped tightly in a cashmere blanket, yet her body continued to tremble uncontrollably. Her eyes were red and swollen, and her stunning face was covered in tear tracks, making her look utterly pitiful. She watched the man on the screen, watched him struggle on the brink of death time and again, watched him covered in maggots, gnawed by fire ants, and stung by scorpions... Her heart felt as if it were tearing apart.

"Chen Yu..."

She reached out, wanting to touch the blood-smeared face on the screen, but her fingertips met only the cold, hard surface. A crushing sense of grief and helplessness made her vision go black, and she collapsed.

Yet, all of this was unknown to Chen Yu, far away on the desolate island.

...

In the underground prison, Chen Yu shook his hand to ease the throbbing pain, but the numbness and swelling were intensifying. While absentmindedly swatting away the remaining few fire ants and scorpions, he turned his gaze toward the transparent wall.

He finally understood why that pervert Shen Feng had specifically set a thirty-minute time limit.

Because the true torture only began the moment the competition was decided.

Across the wall, the hole above the Blue Team had opened completely. The black scorpions were no longer a "rain," but a massive, singular black pillar connecting the ceiling to the floor! Countless scorpions cascaded down like a waterfall, piling up into a thick layer that was visibly rising by the second.

"Ah—! Help! Save me!"
"I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"
"You devil! You are a devil!!"

The shrill wailing, curses, and pleas for mercy came through the thick wall, sounding slightly distorted, which only made them more ghastly. The survivors of the Blue Team had completely snapped. They scrambled like headless flies; some frantically pounded against the wall until their hands were slick with blood. Others tried to climb over each other, desperate to put distance between themselves and that terrifying "black carpet." Some had already been submerged up to their shins, then their thighs, by the rising "sea of scorpions."

The expressions on their faces were a type of despair Chen Yu had never seen before.

*Breaking their spirits!* Chen Yu cursed silently.

That son of a bitch Shen Feng wasn't trying to determine a winner. He wanted the victors to watch the losers, in their endless agony and terror, be slowly drowned alive.

This wasn't a game anymore.
It was a full-blown, one-sided slaughter show.
A bloody feast served to the entire world.

"Damn pervert," Chen Yu spat under his breath, his eyes cold.

Even though they were rivals, and even though they had been fighting tooth and nail just moments ago to survive, watching this scene brought no joy of victory. Only a dual sense of physical and psychological revulsion remained. He even began to hope that the damned timer on the wall would move faster.

Faster.
Just give those poor wretches a quick end.

Li Qing walked up to his side at some point and followed his gaze. One look was all it took for her blood-stained face to turn deathly pale.

"Ugh..." She covered her mouth, her stomach heaving; she nearly vomited on the spot.

"Don't look," Chen Yu said without turning his head, his voice raspy. "It’ll dirty your eyes."

Li Qing took a deep breath, forcing down the nausea, and shifted her gaze to Chen Yu’s heavily swollen hand. "Your hand... are you alright?" Her voice trembled, whether from fear or concern, she didn't know.

"I won't die," Chen Yu replied.

He looked away, unwilling to watch that hellish scene any longer. He leaned against the wall, feeling waves of weakness wash over him. *Damn it, the physical exertion was too much.* And the scorpion venom—while not lethal, it was numbing and painful, severely hindering his movement. He had to find a way to recover his strength as soon as possible to deal with whatever might come next.

The red numbers on the wall’s timer ticked down mercilessly:
[00:05:12]
[00:05:11]

The screams from the other side had gradually weakened, but the remaining sound—that dry, rustling movement—made one's skin crawl. The black "scorpion pillar" continued to pour out, and the "sea of scorpions" on the ground had already piled up over a meter high. The people who had been alive just moments ago were now completely invisible. They were like objects cast into quicksand, struggling, then swallowed, leaving not a trace behind.

The survivors of the Red Team watched this scene in silence. No one spoke. The entire space was filled only with heavy, ragged breathing and that sickening rustle from beyond the wall.

Finally, under everyone's gaze, the timer slowly hit zero.
[00:00:00]

*Buzz—*
A dull hum echoed. Immediately after, the hole in the ceiling above the Blue Team slowly closed. The terrifying black pillar vanished.

It was all over.

Just as everyone thought this torture had finally come to an end, *crackle... crackle...* a jarring sound of machinery turning echoed through the room.

The floor beneath the Blue Team’s cell split open, a massive fissure widening from the center! The gap expanded until it became a bottomless black abyss.

*Whoosh—*
The mountain of insects, along with the corpses that had been mangled beyond recognition, were dumped into the abyss like refuse.

It took barely ten seconds.
The space that had been a living hell moments ago was suddenly clean, as if nothing had ever happened. This highly efficient, cold-blooded "cleanup" dealt another massive psychological blow to the survivors.

Before they could recover from the shock, a familiar, lighthearted voice echoed through the speakers across the underground space.

"Congratulations to our fifty lucky winners from the Red Team for successfully advancing!"

It was Shen Feng’s voice.

"As the victors, you will be granted a brief rest."
"So... for the next game, see you tomorrow."

As the voice faded, a loud *clanging* sound erupted. The massive metal door in front of them slowly rose. Beyond it lay a bright, white-carpeted corridor and the elevator doors leading back to the surface.