Chapter 2 - The Escape of the Poacher (Part 1)

The magician’s hand beneath the bandage itched slightly, but his body uncontrollably leaped onto a tree branch, coming to a halt beside Luo Yiran.

He was about to speak when his right knee suddenly gave way, causing him to half-kneel, and his bandaged hand lay flat before the exquisite doll.

His posture resembled that of a loyal knight facing a king.

The momentary intent to kill was unmistakably real. Luo Yiran glanced at him lightly, then stood up and stepped onto the magician’s hand, walking step by step up his arm, finally sitting back down on the magician’s shoulder.

Luo Yiran smiled sweetly, “Let’s go.”

His body was being pulled in a certain direction. The magician said, “I once heard you humans say a phrase, ‘Fortune’s wheel is always turning.'”

Luo Yiran paused, thought for a moment, then his expression turned serious, “You’re right.”

He then manipulated the magician to walk to a tree, watching as the magician tore the hem of his suit and used a cloth strip to bind his own mouth.

The magician: “…”

Luo Yiran got down from him, clapped his hands with a smile, “A puppet with its own consciousness, I don’t need that.”

With that, he resolutely turned and left.

Not long after he left, the magician silently removed the cloth strip.

Mr. Gardener appeared at some point, arms crossed, teasing, “How does it feel to have someone else control your body?”

The bandage on the magician’s face shifted, revealing an exaggerated smile. He hugged himself, ecstatically saying, “If it’s him, it feels very comfortable.”

Mr. Gardener looked strange, “But he doesn’t like you at all.”

The doll, who needed a puppet for protection, was examining his own body.

Hidden behind a small pile of fallen leaves, he stared at his arm, then suddenly raised his hand and tried to pull-

Click.

The ball joint separated from the wrist. Luo Yiran looked expressionlessly at the hand he had removed-it didn’t hurt, truly a doll.

After the experiment, Luo Yiran reassembled himself.

Moving his wrist, Luo Yiran felt no discomfort, but after staring at his index finger, he thought for a moment, then removed it and laboriously buried it in the soil in front of him.

To cut off future troubles.

After finishing all this, Luo Yiran stood up, ready to go find the rabbit’s home. But just as he steadied himself, a trembling voice came from behind him, “Y-you… are you a player? Or a monster?”

Luo Yiran turned his head. His doll-like appearance featured ruby-red eyes and features so delicate they looked almost artificial. Perhaps because he wasn’t used to it yet, he didn’t control the movement well, and his head spun a full 180 degrees.

The person behind him, dressed in a school uniform, froze. Before he could let out a scream, he reflexively covered his mouth, tears streaming down his face. His muffled voice escaped through his fingers, “Wah… am I going to die…?”

After a brief moment of surprise, Luo Yiran frowned. “Instead of crying, you should run.”

The person collapsed to the ground, crying so hard it was almost pitiful. “I’m too scared… I can’t move…”

Luo Yiran kept his head still and turned his body around. He looked at the despairing figure in front of him with a mix of exasperation and concern. “Xia Lang, how did you end up here?”

The familiar name coming from the eerie doll’s mouth finally made Xia Lang realize that the voice was also oddly familiar. He stared for a long moment, tears half-falling, before stammering, “R-Ranran?”

Luo Yiran’s expression turned stern.

“Ran-Ge!” Xia Lang quickly corrected himself. He took two steps forward but then stopped, hesitating. “…Is it really you, Ran-Ge?”

Luo Yiran: “Not long ago, you asked me to bring you grilled cold noodles.”

Xia Lang was convinced. He rushed over and picked up the doll, his eyes swollen from crying like two poached eggs. “Ran-Ge, Ran-Ge… I thought it was a dream, but so many people have died… wahhh…”

“Ran-Ge, which instance is this for you?”

“My first one.” Luo Yiran dodged Xia Lang’s tears with a hint of disgust.

Xia Lang froze, then rolled up his school uniform sleeve to wipe his face. He pushed down all his fear and anxiety, trying to sound brave. “This… this is my third instance. I’ll protect you, Ran-Ge.”

“…”

Luo Yiran: “Your third?”

Xia Lang felt a sudden sense of responsibility. He picked up the doll, crouched low, and ducked into the nearby grass. The half-person-high grass shielded his body, giving him a bit of security. Only then did he speak, “Yeah, this is my third instance.”

Luo Yiran immediately recalled Xia Lang’s recent withdrawn behavior, but he didn’t press further.

However, Xia Lang, aside from being a crybaby, was also a chatterbox. “Ran-Ge, I didn’t expect this to be your starter area. A lot of veteran players like to target and kill newcomers here… but don’t worry, you’re a special species. If you just pretend to be an ordinary doll, you should be fine…”

Xia Lang was still a bit flustered, his words stumbling slightly.

Luo Yiran interrupted him, “What’s a special species?”

Xia Lang paused, then, influenced by Luo Yiran’s calm tone, he took a deep breath and explained, “They’re players who don’t have human bodies. I encountered one during my starter area…”

Luo Yiran frowned, “Then why do veteran players target and kill newcomers? Shouldn’t the goal be to focus on the game itself?”

Xia Lang went quiet for a moment, his hands trembling slightly. “Because the starter area is mainly for screening. Usually, only a few are selected out of a group of ten or twenty. Newcomers are the easiest to trust others and are the most vulnerable.”

“So, eliminating them before they can adapt makes it easier for veteran players to clear the instance.”

Luo Yiran looked at him with his beautiful eyes.

Xia Lang held back his tears, feeling deeply wronged. “They almost killed me just now, saying I’m worse than a newcomer.”

Luo Yiran: “…”

Xia Lang sniffled softly, “I was just lucky. Someone saved me during my starter area, and in my second instance, I ran into the same person who saved me. I’ve been carried through, really. We even agreed to team up for the next instance, but I was suddenly summoned into the game.”

“Suddenly summoned?”

Xia Lang then realized that Luo Yiran was still completely unfamiliar with all of this. He quickly explained, “The veteran players in the starter area are randomly selected to enter. That’s what we call an emergency summon. Normally, you enter the game between 9 PM and 12 AM in the real world.”

Xia Lang paused, then added with a grimace, “You have to enter the game every day, and you must participate in at least one instance per week.”

Luo Yiran asked the question he cared about most, “What happens if you don’t enter or participate?”

Xia Lang’s face turned pale. “If you don’t enter the game, you’ll be forcibly pulled in. If you don’t participate…” He shuddered. “You’ll be publicly executed, and your soul will be trapped here forever, unable to leave.”

“Also, people outside the game will completely forget about you.”

Luo Yiran narrowed his eyes-perhaps being forgotten was even more terrifying than death.

“If you lose, you die. If you don’t participate, you die.” Xia Lang’s tears, which he had been trying to hold back, finally spilled over, dampening Luo Yiran’s clothes. “And I can’t keep winning forever.”

Luo Yiran had grown up with Xia Lang and was long accustomed to his friend’s tendency to cry.

Without changing his expression, Luo Yiran shook his clothes. “Stop crying. If you keep this up, I won’t get you grilled cold noodles when we get out.”

Xia Lang froze, then quickly held back his tears. Suddenly, a glimmer of hope appeared in his eyes. “Ranran, what’s your ability?”

Luo Yiran: “?”

Xia Lang explained again, “Special species all have unique abilities. For ordinary players like us, it’s just a slight enhancement in physical abilities.”

Luo Yiran opened his mouth, about to say he didn’t have one, but then he paused. After a moment, he said, “Stage magic.”

“I can perform stage magic.”

“Your young master hasn’t come looking for you yet,” Mr. Gardener said with a hint of schadenfreude.

The magician ignored him. He focused intently on sensing Luo Yiran’s location and realized that the little doll hadn’t moved for quite some time.

After standing still for a moment, the magician got up and headed in the direction of the doll.

Mr. Gardener leaped up to the treetop, quickly surveying the current state of the forest. Finding nothing that needed maintenance, he followed the magician, eager to witness the drama.

“Just a little relaxation won’t cause any trouble, right?” Mr. Gardener thought to himself as he soon caught up with the magician.

The magician was staring at the ground. After a while, he crouched down, his long gray hair brushing the soil, but he paid no mind as he began digging into the dirt with his hands.

In no time, he unearthed a finely crafted doll’s finger.

Mr. Gardener was momentarily stunned, about to burst into laughter, but the magician turned to him first and asked, “Do you think he removed this himself, or was it someone else who harmed him?”

Before Mr. Gardener could respond, the magician seemed to lose interest in his answer. He gently touched the index finger, his voice trembling with an emotion hard to distinguish-sorrow or excitement-as he continued, “If someone hurt him, and I don’t know who it is… maybe I should just cut off everyone’s fingers here.”

“…”

“???”

“You don’t belong to this instance. Anything you do that isn’t controlled by the doll is considered a bug,” Mr. Gardener said with displeasure. “And bugs need to be eliminated.”

The magician carefully wiped the doll’s finger clean and placed it in his pocket. Then he pressed down on his tall magic hat and asked, “Do you want to eliminate me?”

Mr. Gardener thought for a moment. “No, I’ll just return you to the doll.” Dealing with you would be far too troublesome.

The magician let out a satisfied laugh.

But the next second, a mechanical voice suddenly echoed in everyone’s ears:

[“Due to the mother rabbit being killed by a certain player, the instance ‘Seven Rabbits’ is officially changed to ‘The Escape of the Poacher.'”]

[“Mr. Gardener, the regulator, has failed in his duties and is temporarily stripped of his regulator status.”]

“…”

After a brief silence, Mr. Gardener’s eyes were completely overtaken by blackness. His hair, now sprouting branches, flew up, the tips blooming with vibrant flowers. He swiftly turned and locked onto the mother rabbit’s location, then vanished on the spot, leaving behind a roar of shock: “Who was it?!”

The sound nearly reverberated through the entire forest. Luo Yiran, who was blocking a rabbit hole, looked up in confusion and saw Mr. Gardener, his hair now writhing like Medusa’s, appear beside him. Staring at Luo Yiran, his voice was icy and venomous: “So it was you.”

Luo Yiran: “?”

Luo Yiran: “She’s really dead? That fragile?”

His face showed genuine surprise, but this only fueled Mr. Gardener’s anger. “What exactly did you do?!”