Giving Interstellar Players a Horror Ghost Game Shock - Chapter 87

So, among the hundreds of livestreams running, what exactly were the military cadets—who had finally reached the main storyline’s first stage of Feeding the Spirits game—going through?

It’s hard to say for sure, but it was probably something like: screams and tremors flying hand in hand.

Most students from both military academies had already played the demo,l especially those from the Central Military Academy, where under An Zhi’s influence, practically everyone had tried it. But what they played was the toned-down version!

In their minds, this stage was supposed to be easy. If chosen to participate, as long as they followed the rules and didn’t do anything reckless, they’d be fine. Aside from the chilly wind, nothing really happened. If they were bystanders, they just needed to avoid wandering off when they heard strange sounds, and they’d survive too.

But now? This full version didn’t seem like the same game at all! What was with that creepy little girl who casually ripped her own finger off like it was nothing? And why had all the trees around the game area turned into willows?!

Take one group from the First Military Academy—a team of two boys and a girl. When it was the boys’ turn to spectate while their teammate played, one of the boys turned around and froze:

Why were all the trees behind him now weeping willows, with drooping branches swaying in the wind?!

Sure, it looked kind of pretty, but he clearly remembered those trees didn’t look like that when they first arrived!

He had a decent memory and vaguely recalled the NPC mentioning something about a ghost story involving a “senior under the willow tree.” Swallowing nervously, he tried to edge away from the area.

But just as he turned to find a safer spot, he was horrified to realize that behind him was the dark trunk of a willow tree—

He didn’t even know when he had ended up standing directly beneath one!

What was happening? Could these trees pull up their roots and walk or something?

Ever since entering the game, everything he’d seen had already shattered his understanding of what a normal game should be like.

He even had a sinking feeling: maybe putting their hopes into this game wasn’t going to help them at all.

While he was still spiraling, a voice suddenly called out near his ear—it was his teammate. He relaxed for a split second, turned around—

—and was met with a rotting face!

“AAAHHH—!”

“Aaahhh!!” Liu Mang shrieked and instinctively threw a punch at the decayed face in front of him.

In their team, both were male and had been chosen to spectate. To avoid getting separated, he and Wang Ke had stuck close together the whole time, not daring to let each other out of sight.

But even so, it hadn’t been enough. In the blink of an eye, Wang Ke had somehow been replaced by a skeleton without Liu Mang even noticing.

Now, caught off guard by a monster up in his face, Liu Mang screamed and swung.

WHAM!

The sickening thud of flesh hitting the ground echoed around them, followed by the trembling voice of an NPC:

“W-why did you punch Kezi?!”

Liu Mang blinked, stared hard, and his face immediately darkened.

The one he’d just punched, now lying on the ground clutching a swollen cheek and groaning in pain—was his teammate Wang Ke.

A tidal wave of shrieking rose from the livestream chat—wave after wave of horrified or hysterical reactions that wouldn’t stop.

Viewers had gone from collective fear and shock, to stunned silence, to numb resignation—all in just a few minutes.

【I don’t even know what to say anymore… here, let me just give you six points first……】

【I’m actually speechless. This is the “strength” of military cadets? Especially the First Military Academy? Weren’t they supposed to dominate??】

【Turns out they’re the ones getting dominated lmao】

【Especially that guy “Mang Ge”—didn’t he brag about being unstoppable? Now look at him!】

【Let’s just move on. You’re better off watching Central Military’s An Jie instead. Her squad seems to have found a ton of clues already, and no one’s even injured!】

More and more viewers flooded into An Zhi’s squad’s stream. Even though they were playing the same game, her team hadn’t suffered a single casualty—not even a minor injury.

One spectator hadn’t been hunted by the ghost girl at all. In fact, she’d even discovered some new clues… Wait, hold up?

【Guys, why is this Qing Ye girl so lucky? She didn’t even get chased by the willow ghost!】

【It’s not luck. If you watch more streams, you’ll notice a pattern: when the one left alone is a boy, there’s like a 100% chance the ghost girl will come for them. Their survival depends on not turning around. But if it’s a girl, and she purposely avoids willow trees, the ghost rarely seeks her out.】

【Huh? I thought ghosts didn’t discriminate? What’s with this selective treatment?】

【No clue. Might be some hidden mechanic with the willow ghost. We’ll have to wait and see if it gets revealed later.】

【Alright, alright, why are you guys seriously analyzing this now? Hurry and look at An Jie and Xiao Ji playing the game over here! An Jie is seriously fearless—she hasn’t even flinched from beginning to end! And Xiao Ji too! With a name like that, I thought he’d be timid, but he’s actually doing amazing!】

And it’s true—ever since the ghost targeted him, Ji Yu had practically turned to stone. He couldn’t even move a muscle, holding on by sheer willpower. His SAN value instantly dropped by 10—a minor plummet.

If that ghost girl had done anything else, his mental fluctuation would’ve gone past the threshold and triggered the emergency protection protocol, instantly booting him out of the game.

But of course, the audience couldn’t see any of that. What they saw was Ji Yu getting approached by a ghost and yet showing zero panic—he didn’t turn around, his posture didn’t even waver. He looked incredibly calm!

【Earlier I saw this kid flinching like crazy on the way here and thought he might be Fish General 2.0… but looks like I was definitely wrong!】

【Of course you were wrong. Xiao Ji is basically clever and brave incarnate, okay? If it were the Fish General in this situation, he would’ve screamed ages ago! No way he’d hold out like this without turning around!】

【Never thought I’d see fellow Fish General fans in a military school stream. As a three-year veteran fan, let me just say: this kid absolutely isn’t the Fish General! No way Fish General could be this composed and brave!】

…

Luckily, after officially entering the main story, all cadets were cut off from the livestream chat to prevent getting help via bullet comments. If Ji Yu could see what people were saying right now, he’d definitely be feeling all kinds of complicated emotions.

Off-screen, Liu Yuling glanced at the AI-generated stat report, cleared her throat, and read it out loud.

“As expected of Miss Ye’s horror game—eliminations have already begun! As of now, the Blue Team’s First Military Academy has more player deaths than the Red Team’s Central Military Academy! Looks like they’ll need to pick up the pace!”

Ye Yuxi was momentarily stunned by Liu Yuling’s professional, sweet broadcaster voice.
Wait, Senior Liu, weren’t you supposed to be the cool and aloof anchor type? You’re breaking character!

Meanwhile, the audience’s reaction to the results was… well, pure entertainment.

Sure, there were a few who had bet on First Military and were now lamenting their bad luck, but most viewers were here just for the fun. Losing a bet didn’t matter—it was all part of the experience.

Still, some viewers were puzzled.

【I’ve played the demo too, and it wasn’t this hard… don’t tell me the full version is way harder? Is Miss Ye done pretending and ready to wipe us out? sob】

Part of Liu Yuling’s job in this stream was to introduce the new tiered difficulty system in the updated game, so she immediately clarified:

“Everyone who’s curious but worried about the difficulty—don’t worry. The new game supports tiered difficulty modes. What the participants are playing is a special extreme mode. You can choose easier modes.”

【Whoa!! Miss Ye is amazing! I was just wondering if they could add difficulty tiers to accommodate different players, and now here it is!】

A lot of viewers were reassured. Watching others suffer through a high-difficulty mode was fine, but having to play it themselves? That would’ve been a nightmare.

But not everyone was satisfied.

【Why the special treatment? Aren’t military cadets human too?】

【Yeah, why were they specifically assigned the hardest mode? Doesn’t that count as the game provider hiding information and violating their rights?】

Ye Yuxi hadn’t even responded yet when Liu Yuling already looked displeased—
What’s that supposed to mean? Are you accusing us of doing this on purpose?!

“Everyone, calm down. Don’t misuse new vocabulary just because you learned a couple of terms. This wasn’t us trying to make things harder. The First Military Academy themselves requested not to be treated like regular players—they said it would be an insult to their abilities. So, to show our respect, we worked overtime to customize a more ‘worthy’ challenge for them. There’s no concealment or rights violation here.”

Speaking of this, Liu Yuling looked tired just thinking about it. The last-minute difficulty rebalancing had her running back and forth to the game bureau multiple times!

She snuck a glance at Ye Yuxi, who was standing off to the side in a livestream blind spot, worried she might be upset by the earlier complaints. So she added with a bright smile:

“And let’s also thank Miss Ye for working tirelessly through the night to bring us this terrifying feast!”

And at that very moment, the cadets who were being served this “feast of terror” were in complete misery. It was easy to imagine what would happen once the unfortunate students from Central Military came out of it.

Oh, so it was you guys from First Military who suggested we all suffer together, huh?
We’re not letting this go until we beat you into the ground!