The moment Shen Jiayi ran, the chase began. The tall monster only needed to take a few steps to make up the distance that Shen Jiayi made. Yet, it didn't reach out to capture Shen Jiayi. Instead, it waited for a while before moving again. This continues again and again which made Shen Jiayi feels like the monster was playing with him.

'This god damned psychopath!' Shen Jiayi cursed in his brain as he continued to run.

Half an hour passed, and Shen Jiayi felt himself reaching his limit. In the first place, he wasn't athletic. He spent most of his time gaming, and even if he did exercise in order to take care of his health, a constant running for half an hour was not something he would normally do. His legs muscles and his lungs were burning. His legs and arms felt heavy. His breathing laboured.

Shen Jiayi had the thought of stopping, of giving up. 'Maybe the death won't be as painful…' he thought to himself. But as he remembered the scene of the mangled body from before, he doubted it. The death of that corpse, just by looking at it, he knew it was a slow painful death.

[Run little rabbit]

Shen Jiayi suddenly heard strings of sounds coming from behind him. He couldn’t make a head or tail of what it was, but for sure, he knew it was the monster speaking.

[Keep running little rabbit. This lord will now begin the hunt! This lord hopes that you can entertain me longer than the little rabbit from before!]

‘It spoke again! Is he trying to communicate?’ Shen Jiayi wondered. Shen Jiayi was just about to turn his head in order to take a quick glance behind him when he heard a whistling sound, followed by a cold wind hitting the side of his face. Moments later, there was a loud sound of impact and the floor before him cracked. Further down the hallway, Shen Jiayi saw a large machete embedded on the floor.

As he ran past it, he could see that the machete itself was bloody, and was even taller than him. Thinking that this weapon had just flown past him at close proximity, Shen Jiayi no longer had the thought of stopping. Instead, he pushed his muscles to the limit as he continued to escape.

‘But I’ve been running for a while now, I didn’t even see a single door, let alone another turn. Don’t tell me the hallway is only straight!’ as the thought crossed his mind, dread filled his heart. ‘If the hallway is indeed straight then, how can I throw this monster off?!’

Shen Jiayi felt extremely wronged. When he agreed to record a video blog, he did not expect that this would happen. Everything felt unreal.

‘Wait, unreal? Maybe this is a dream?’ Shen Jiayi wondered. But he was too scared to even try to find out whether this was a dream or reality. To him, the risk of dying was simply too real.

[Little Rabbit, dodge!]

Shen Jiayi once again heard that incoherent string of sounds. He didn’t know why, but he felt an immediate sense of danger. Quickly turning his head, he saw the huge machete was flying towards him once again. Out of instinct, he jumped sideways, getting out of its trajectory path. As he did, he ends up hitting the wall of the hallway and groaned in pain. This pain was enough to tell him that this was not a dream.

[Oh~ that was a good dodge!]

This time, Shen Jiayi was looking at the monster as it spoke. The monster raised both hands, clapping them a few times as it speaks.

[Good. Very good! You really are worthy to be this lord’s new entertainment!]

Although Shen Jiayi couldn’t understand what it was saying, he knew that the monster was mocking him. Gritting his teeth, he turned to run again.

“You know what? Fuck you and your ancestor!” Shen Jiayi cursed out loud. “There’s no way I am dying here!”

While Shen Jiayi was running, the monster simply stopped in its track. Then, it raised one hand up to its chin, slightly scratching it with its sharp claw.

[Did he just curse me out along with my ancestor? How very interesting...]

[To kill him like this is such a waste. What to do...]

Shen Jiayi heard the voice getting farther but he didn’t dare to dally any more. Soon, he could no longer hear the voice, nor the sound of that dreadful footsteps that continued to follow him before. Finally turning his head, he saw that the monster was nowhere to be seen, and only then did he stop in his track. “Did he… give up?”

There was only the sound of his laboured breathing, and Shen Jiayi tried to focus on the path he had ran from, to see if the monster would return to chasing him. A minute passed, then another. After a full five minutes, Shen Jiayi had already gotten his breathing back to normal. Though he was still exhausted from running earlier, he still didn’t dare to sit down and rest.

“Since he’s not chasing… let’s just continue walking,” Shen Jiayi said to himself as he dragged his tired body through the hallway.

Each step feels like he was carrying a heavy load and just as he thought that the hallway will never end, he suddenly saw a door by the end of the hallway. Shen Jiayi blinked his eyes, then carefully rubs them with the sleeves of his jacket. “That… clearly wasn’t there before. Am I that exhausted that I’m starting to hallucinate?” Shen Jiayi wondered to himself.

[Little rabbit! Here I come!]

Unfortunately, Shen Jiayi didn’t have any time to think as he heard that familiar, unpleasant voice. Looking back, he saw the monster now walking towards him, the large machete in hand.

“Fuck!”

With the curse as a cue, Shen Jiayi once again, forced himself to run. He didn’t know if the door is real, or if it's a mere hallucination. But what he knows is that right now, it was his only chance. He remembered the door that he had stepped out to before had disappeared so he had decided to try and bet with his survival.

‘If doors can appear and disappear at any time, I hope that it’ll disappear the moment I enter it!’ Shen Jiayi prayed. The closer Shen Jiayi got to the door, the louder the sound of footstep that came from behind him.

The monster was still hot on his heel and Shen Jiayi finally reached out to the door handle. Twisting it, he pushed the door open before he closed it. He then locked the door out of habit before taking a few steps back. He watched the door, half hoping that the door would be his saviour, half expecting that the door would be broken.

But as time goes on, he realized that there was no sound coming from the other side. ‘Is he gone?’ Shen Jiayi crept slowly towards the door. He pressed his ear to the door and tried to listen for any movement from the other side.

There was only an eerie silence from the other side and Shen Jiayi let out a sigh of relief. ‘It looks like my conjecture was right. Doors can appear and disappear at will… That monster probably won’t be able to find me—!’

[???: Linking completed. Analysing host’s condition… all green.]

Shen Jiayi didn’t even get to finish his thought when he heard a robotic voice speaking directly in his head. It was so sudden that Shen Jiayi almost thought that his heart was about to stop from the shock.

[???: Welcome, host, to the NightMire. This is a place where the soul of a dying person transition between the realm of living to the afterlife. Usually, the soul would be escorted directly to the afterlife…]

“Wait, wait wait! What do you mean a place between the realm of the living and the afterlife? What kind of joke is this?!”

[???: Host, I assure you. This is not a joke. Back in your original world, the host has indeed died. Do you not remember?]

Shen Jiayi tried to recall, but no matter how hard he tried, he still came up blank.

[???: It seems that the host himself is unsure of how he had died. This is indeed a problem.]

After that, the voice was silent for a while and it made Shen Jiayi wonder if his mind was simply making everything up. ‘Maybe I have gone crazy…’

[???: Do not worry, host. Your sanity level is still green. You have not gone insane.]

[???: But I have brought up the matter of you forgetting how you died to my master, and he decided to give you a chance.]

[???: How about it, host? Do you agree?]