Giving Interstellar Players a Horror Ghost Game Shock - Chapter 83

“Dear friends and family, welcome to the very first Military Academy Horror Game Tournament!”

The first thing to appear on the shared livestream screen was the virtual avatar of the well-known game streamer, Jade Willow.

【Whoa! What a surprise—it’s actually Sister Yu!】

【Is she going to play live today too?】

Liu Yuling smiled at the flood of enthusiastic comments.

“I’d love to join the game too, but unfortunately, I’ve just been dragged here by my boss to work as the host. The real stars today are someone else— That’s right, the 2,000 players from Central Military Academy and First Military Academy who’ve already logged into the virtual space through their connectors!”

【Wooo! This is so exciting! It’s my first time seeing so many cadets all in one place!】

“Alright, let’s skip the small talk,” Liu Yuling said after glancing at the time—only one minute left until 9:00 sharp.

“You’ve all read the tournament rules, so I won’t repeat them. In the livestream pool, you’ll find all active squads that haven’t been eliminated. Teams from First Military Academy are marked in blue, while Central Military Academy teams are marked in red. Feel free to follow whichever livestreams you like. The algorithm will also continuously recommend the most interesting streams based on viewership trends.”

“Important note: once a player dies in the game, they’re considered eliminated and can’t rejoin.
If all members of a squad are eliminated, their stream will be removed from the livestream pool.”

“And now… the tournament officially begins!”

As soon as she finished speaking, Liu Yuling’s avatar shrank and floated to the very top of the livestream pool display.

Below her were hundreds of mini windows showing each squad’s game login screen.
Viewers in the virtual space could lock onto any window to instantly enter that team’s stream.

At that moment, hundreds of squads from both academies began the game almost simultaneously, following the host’s cue.

As the audience surged into the livestream pool, many viewers immediately searched for the stream with the ID Mang’ge.

That’s right—Liu Mang had taken his strategist’s advice and spent several days hyping up First Military Academy before the competition even started.

He publicly revealed that An Zhi had already been defeated during the demo version, and took every opportunity to trash-talk Central Military Academy while boosting his own school.

Of course, Central Military Academy didn’t just sit back and let their reputation be dragged. Plenty of students tried to fire back, but in the end, they couldn’t keep up with the other side’s relentless flood of shameless trolling.

After all the chaos, one line managed to stick in everyone’s minds—

That guy with the ID Mang’ge claimed he was the real deal and his confident that he could clear the level without dying even once! Everyone had to tune into his stream—it was going to be epic!

Some people actually believe his lies. With so many livestreams to choose from and limited time, it made sense to focus on the teams that were already being hyped up.

Thanks to the aggressive self-promotion, First Military Academy succeeded in grabbing the spotlight right out of the gate. Once Liu Mang’s stream was located, viewers rushed in, bringing their friends along. Within minutes, the view count surged past ten million and was charging straight toward a hundred million.

Online betting had already started over which side would win. Most people played it safe, observing quietly before committing.
But some had already gone all-in— And unsurprisingly, the majority bet on First Military Academy over Central Military Academy.

Now, in Liu Mang’s stream—

He and his teammates stood inside the gloomy login space. The environment was dim, the music slightly eerie… but honestly, he wasn’t scared at all. There was no way something this tame could rattle him.

He couldn’t see the view count—control of the stream was in Doudou and the devs’ hands— But based on the sudden flood of bullet comments flying across the screen, it was clear he was getting a ton of attention. 

He instantly puffed up with pride.

“Relax, everyone—you made the right choice! The so-called ‘scariest horror game ever’? Pfft.
To Mang’ge, it’s nothing!”

“Every cadet at First Military Academy is a true warrior. No matter what kind of ghost shows up, I’m gonna make it wish it stayed dead! There won’t be any fancy tricks on our end—we’re all about one thing: fastest clear time!”

The viewers in the comments—half skeptical at first—were quickly fired up.

【Yes!! That’s exactly what we want to see—fastest clear or bust! If you’re slow, we’re out!】

【Better be careful, Mang’ge—talking that big, you better not wipe out early.】

“Heh, come on, don’t joke around. There’s no way we’d ever—”

Zzzzk…

The ambient background music, which had been playing faintly this whole time, suddenly glitched like it had been hit with a virus. Bursts of static crashed through the melody— And for those with sharp ears, a low, agonizing wail could just barely be heard beneath the corrupted soundtrack.

Liu Mang’s heart skipped a beat. The words on his lips froze mid-sentence.

Instinctively, he turned around to look at his teammate—

Only to be startled by what he saw: the straight path ahead of them had suddenly split into two forks!

“What the hell, Kezi?! What are you doing?!”

The bespectacled strategist known in-game as “Kezi” (real name: Wang Ke) stiffly turned his head to look at his team leader. His voice trembled slightly.

“I didn’t do anything… It just hit the start time, so I clicked to begin the game like normal…”

Liu Mang swore under his breath, then forced himself to calm down.

“Looks like this game designed by that Miss Ye really does have some tricks up its sleeve.
But that’s as far as it goes! Let’s go—we’re clearing this in one play!”

Without hesitation, he grabbed his only teammate and stepped onto the obviously abnormal path the game had indicated.

That’s right—Liu Mang, ever confident in his courage and leadership, had deliberately skipped the standard three-player team format and opted for a duo. And his chosen teammate wasn’t even a combat specialist or elite—just a tech support type with no physical prowess, a so-called “dog-headed strategist” who seemed utterly useless in a horror game.

Wang Ke was actually feeling pretty uneasy. Neither of them had played this game before.

Most of the other cadets from First Military Academy had at least tried the demo to get familiar with the mechanics. But when some of Liu Mang’s usual crew suggested doing a trial run together, they got laughed off.

“What? Have you also been infected with the cowardly disease? Are you so scared that you have to find out the details in advance?”

In short, Liu Mang had flatly refused to touch the demo beforehand.

He was holding a grudge.

Back when Central Military Academy chose a restricted, off-limits new map as the tournament field—skirting the rules just enough to be legal—he’d pretended not to care. But in truth, it bothered him like hell.

So before this horror game tournament began, he publicly declared on his personal account:
He wouldn’t touch the demo, wouldn’t practice ahead of time— He’d beat the game in one life, pure skill, no crutches!

Even if it was his first time playing a completely unfamiliar game, he’d still come out on top.
Which meant Central Military Academy only lost last time because they couldn’t adapt— Not because First Military Academy used dirty tricks!

Liu Mang could already picture his future glory—stepping on An Zhi’s name, humiliating Central Military Academy, and rising to fame.

For once, he actually felt a little excited about the game. 

With high spirits, he charged forward, full of bravado.

As soon as they set foot on the designated path, all the laughter and chatter from the other route vanished.

Only a chilling, eerie soundtrack echoed around them, setting their nerves on edge.

Rows of trees lined the path, twisting and clawing at the darkness like grotesque monsters.

Liu Mang walked for a while before stopping.

Frowning, he studied the soil beneath the trees.
And noticed something strange.

The farther they walked, the redder the earth on either side became.

He stepped up to one of the trees and crouched down. A sharp, metallic stench instantly assaulted his nose.

“Was all this soil stained red with bl00d? Just how many people had to die for that…?” Liu Mang’s heart tensed.

He’d seen plenty of gore in games before, but this… felt different.

There was no visible bl00d dripping from corpses. Instead, the earth itself had soaked it in, silently whispering of past horrors and unseen massacres, leaving everything to the imagination.

Still, aside from the creepy atmosphere, the path so far had been relatively safe. So both of them gradually let down their guard.

They weren’t completely clueless about horror game mechanics.

A game like this—narrative-driven—wouldn’t throw you into the real horror right away.

It usually started with a prologue.

This path must just be a mood-setter. Nothing bad would actually happen yet.

Ahead of them, a glowing white ring of light had appeared. Once they stepped into it, the real game would begin.

Liu Mang’s cautious pace subconsciously sped up. After spending so long in darkness, the sudden appearance of light naturally drew him in. A primal pull, like an insect to a flame.

But just as he was about to step out of the path—

His body froze.

Something clamped onto his ankle.

It was a hand.

Cold and desperate, like it had just found a lifeline.

It grabbed hold and refused to let go.

“Don’t go…

Stay…

Stay with me…”

T/L notes:

Hello, dear readers! I’m back! I know it’s been a little over two weeks since I last updated my translated novels. I’ve been swamped with semester-end requirements, but now I’m finally done! As a small thank you for your patience, I’m releasing four chapters for free today. 🎉

Then, I’ll continue to posting advance chapters while I enjoy my academic break. I’m hoping to use this time to get a bit of a “diligence boost” and stock up on chapters, so I’m ready when summer classes starts next week. I never know when things will get busy again, but I’ll do my best to keep the updates coming!

For now, enjoy this chapter and thank you so much for your continued support! 💖