Suddenly, thick black fog poured in and filled the whole space inside the hurricane walls, looking like a deep pit full of heavy, dark smoke.
Deep inside this black mist lay a dark labyrinth. It seemed like a creation straight out of hell, oozing an eerie aura of death. Unless someone was completely out of their mind, no one would ever want to step foot inside.
If any military veteran who had served for over twenty years were to see this maze, their face would turn pale, and their hair would stand on end.
Twenty years ago, this labyrinth hidden in the dark mist had swallowed tens of thousands of lives. Almost none of those who entered survived. Even the rare survivors either went completely mad or ended up with shattered, broken bodies—missing limbs or vital organs—only to pass away shortly after.
“The Devil’s Playground.”
That was what everyone called it back then.
oday, there was only one survivor left in Hualan who had actually been through that maze. She used to be a powerful Atavist and led a strong squad. But now, she’s stuck in a psychiatric hospital, her mind completely lost.
“Come on, time for your medicine,” a nurse said gently, walking into the ward.
The woman on the bed turned her head. Her eye sockets were completely empty, hollowed out. Both of her arms had been amputated from the shoulders, leaving only empty sleeves, and only her left leg remained.
The nurse fed her the medicine with immense tenderness, gently stroking her head and planting a soft kiss on her forehead. “Good night,” she murmured before turning to leave.
The woman on the bed had completely forgotten who she was. She didn’t even realize that the sweet, gentle nurse taking care of her was actually her own daughter. But every time this nurse came to give her medicine, she somehow behaved a little better. If anyone else showed up, it was a totally different story.
“Mrs. Lin is recovering very well. It won’t be long before you can take her home,” the doctor told the nurse in the hallway.
The nurse nodded with a soft smile.
“Have you ever asked the Tribunal Division if there’s any Atavist who could help restore her memory?” the doctor inquired.
The nurse shook her head. “No. I think… it’s better if she just forgets. Remembering would be far too painful.”
The doctor let out a heavy sigh, realizing she was right. Remembering how her husband and teammates had been killed by her own hands would indeed be a living hell. Everyone else had forgiven her, and even her daughter understood her completely, but she would never be able to forgive herself. That was why, the day after she submitted her final report, she lost her memory entirely and went mad.
There was a time when the daughter couldn’t understand it either. Why did her father suddenly vanish? Why did her strong, dependable mother leave her all alone to face the cruel world? But later, one of her mother’s former colleagues showed her the mission report. Only then did she really understand why her mother couldn’t face reality.
[Year XXXX, Month X, Day XX – Captain Lin Xiao’s Fog Labyrinth Exploration Report]
[Stage One Clear Condition: Please give me a pair of eyes.]
We refused to hand over any eyes. The devil appeared and personally gouged out the eyes of our squad members, Zhan Mingxiao and Wei Ting.
[Stage Two Clear Condition: Please give me an internal organ.]
We refused to give up an organ. Then the devil showed up again. You can’t beat the devil—no matter what physical or magical attacks you try, they don’t work. Squad members Tang Wen and Zhou Jia had their kidney and liver taken by force. It’s clear now that if we don’t willingly hand over what the devil wants, he’ll just take twice as much.
[Stage Three Clear Condition: Please give me a heart.]
We could not defeat the devil. To allow the team to keep moving forward, squad member Zhou Jia voluntarily sacrificed himself, carving out his own heart. He died on the spot…
[Stage Four…]
[Stage Five…]
To make it to the final stage and finish the mission, the team members willingly gave up their own bodies. In the end, they had nothing left to give, so Captain Lin Xiao had to make the sacrifices for them. One of those members was her husband—a guy who wasn’t even an Atavist but had learned Atavist medicine just to be by her side.
Lin Xiao had paid an unimaginable price, finally passing all ten deadly stages to stand before the mastermind.
Fueled by pure hatred and agony, Lin Xiao had nearly beaten Qiao Ming to death. Unfortunately, at the very last second, Qiao Ming was rescued and escaped. Although they failed to capture him, the black mist maze dissolved, and the squad technically completed their mission. But the price they paid was far too devastating.
“I hope that devil named Qiao Ming is already dead,” the nurse muttered, clenching her teeth. Every single night, she prayed that the monster had been torn into a thousand pieces.
Failing to kill Qiao Ming and letting him escape must have been her mother’s greatest lifelong regret. That was why, even through her memory loss and madness, she would still often mutter his name in her sleep.
Twenty years later, this very labyrinth had appeared once again.
And this time, Jing Pei and Qiu Fa were trapped inside.
The two of them were confined in a perfectly square, sealed room. In front of them was a gray stone door adorned with a black relief. The relief was a faceless figure with long, seaweed-like hair, making it impossible to tell their gender.
Qiu Fa had already tried punching the surrounding walls and the door. However, they seemed to possess some sort of absorption property. No matter how much force he put into his fists, the impact simply vanished, completely swallowed up. Even the kinetic feedback and recoil were entirely gone.
At the very center of the labyrinth—which functioned like a high-tech surveillance room—Qiao Ming stood watching them. The smooth wall in front of him acted like a massive screen, clearly displaying Jing Pei and Qiu Fa.
Back when Qiu Fa was beating up Shi Gang, Jing Pei had been continually trying to finish Qiao Ming off. Even though he had been protected by his squad members, his face had still been severely clawed, looking like it had been shredded by a feral cat. This made him completely loathe her.
So, while his primary goal was to stall for time to complete the mission, he decided he was going to torture her to death in the process.
As a Siren Atavist, he possessed two powerful abilities: [Guiding Voice] and [Despair Labyrinth].
Among them, [Despair Labyrinth] was an absolute group-kill move. No matter how powerful a fighter was, once they were dragged into this maze, they could forget about leaving in one piece.
Let alone this little tail Qiu Fa had brought with him. To Qiao Ming, she was like a tiny kitten that had accidentally wandered into a natural disaster zone. Sure, she was agile, could jump around, and could scratch with her claws, but one solid hit would reduce her to absolute dust.
“Let’s play a game,” Qiao Ming‘s voice echoed around the room. At first, it sounded beautifully musical, but if you listened carefully, there was a deeply disturbing, terrifying tone underneath. “You’re inside a maze created by my power. Only by following the rules and clearing the stages can you reach me. It’s a fair game. While it’s going on, I’m trapped here too and can’t leave. So, if you make it to the end, we’ll meet.”
Blood dripped from the wounds on Qiao Ming’s face, but his lips curled into a bizarre, twisted grin. “Of course, even if you don’t want to play, you have to!”
The moment he finished speaking, a line of text slowly materialized on the stone door with the black relief.
[Clear Condition: Give me a finger]
Beneath the words, a countdown began ticking away: 60… 59… 58… 57…
Qiao Ming sneered. He had done this on purpose. Watching the panic, horror, and despair build up bit by bit made it way more thrilling. Either Qiu Fa or that woman had to give up a finger. Otherwise, the game’s gatekeeper would show up and forcefully take two fingers from them.
And since the gatekeeper always extracted the toll from the weaker target, the one who would get two fingers brutally snapped off was bound to be that woman.
Qiu Fa’s eyebrows knit tightly together. Memories of a cold case file from many years ago flashed in his mind. He instantly recognized what was happening. This guy was Qiao Ming—an international fugitive just as notorious as Shi Gang, perhaps even more evil. When Qiao Ming first committed his crimes, he was only fourteen years old, and his very first victims were his own family and fellow villagers.
Twenty years ago, the government had paid a massive price to hunt him down. Although they successfully drove him away and forced him into hiding for two decades, they had never managed to fully map out his abilities.
As the countdown ticked down, the relief on the door seemed to grow darker and more prominent, looking as if it were about to break free from the stone. Qiu Fa stepped in front of Jing Pei, shielding her. “Stand back.”
He was prepared to trade blows with this “invincible devil” from the archives to test its strength. But then, Jing Pei’s hand reached out from behind, gently tapping his shoulder. “Hey, it just wants a finger. That’s not a big deal. Let’s just give it what it wants.”
Her touch felt like a sudden jolt of electricity, making Qiu Fa flinch slightly. “You! Just speak, don’t go touching me!”
He stared at her in utter confusion. He knew this information broker who had turned the entire world upside down couldn’t possibly be stupid enough to actually slice off her own finger or his. But how on earth was she planning to get out of this safely?
When the countdown hit 5, the carving completely detached from the door. It stayed a pitch-black, faceless figure, standing about three meters tall. Giving off a freezing, terrifying vibe like a demon straight from hell, it towered over them and slowly stretched out its hand, demanding its toll.
“Hold on a second,” Jing Pei told it. She reached into her pocket, fumbled around for a moment, and then pulled out a glistening, oily, spicy chicken foot.
“Here’s four. Keep the change,” Jing Pei said, elegantly placing the chicken foot onto the entity’s palm with a polite smile.
Qiu Fa: “…”
The Entity: “…”
As the game’s gatekeeper, the entity had clearly never encountered anything like this in its entire existence. Even though the countdown had hit 0, it stood frozen, staring blankly at the shiny, oily chicken foot in its hand, which was even speckled with red chili flakes.
After a long silence, it kept its hand cupped around the chicken foot, slowly and stiffly retreating back into the stone door. The massive door, which Qiu Fa hadn’t been able to scratch, slowly creaked open.
In the surveillance room, the smug grin on Qiao Ming’s face completely froze. He stared at the screen in absolute disbelief.
“That’s a chicken foot! I asked for a finger! Are you out of your mind?! Are you completely insane?! How does that even count?!” Qiao Ming screamed, feeling utterly insulted.
However, once this ability was activated, even he had to abide by the system’s internal rules. The gatekeeper operated strictly on logic and didn’t care about Qiao Ming’s personal outrage.
And why shouldn’t it count? The rule simply asked for “a finger” (which shared the same character for “toe/talon” in Hualan). It never specified whose, or even what species. Since the game rules had a massive loophole, they couldn’t blame others for exploiting it.
Jing Pei wiped her fingers, tossed her wavy hair back, and gave Qiu Fa a playful, charming wink. See? Easy.
As they walked through the door, they entered another identical square room.
[Clear Condition: Give me a palm.]
Jing Pei elegantly reached into her pocket and pulled out a boneless duck palm.
[Clear Condition: Give me a kidney.]
Jing Pei reached in again and gracefully produced a savory marinated chicken gizzard.
[Clear Condition: Give me a leg.]
This time, she elegantly hauled out a massive roasted pig trotter.
Qiao Ming was so furious he literally flipped his desk. He loved playing this game because he relished watching his victims turn on each other or engage in tragic self-sacrifices. That was why he never specified whose body parts the maze wanted. Who could have guessed that someone would show up and completely break his game?
When he designed the rules, he knew loopholes existed. But so what? Who on earth walks around with a pocket full of cooked poultry and meat? Who could have possibly anticipated meeting him?
Yet, he had run into this absolute freak!
Qiu Fa stared blankly at Jing Pei’s seemingly bottomless pockets. His neat freak tendencies seemed to flare up. The fact that she kept these greasy snacks in her pockets and was touching them with his leather gloves was causing him physical pain.
Misinterpreting his pained expression, Jing Pei rummaged around her pocket again and offered him a small tin of canned tuna.
Qiu Fa snorted, turning his head away. “We’re not that close.”
“Suit yourself, then,” Jing Pei muttered, stuffing the can back.
Her regular pockets obviously couldn’t hold that much food. This was actually a spatial Atavist item she had borrowed from one of her recruited subordinates. It looked like a tiny, ordinary pouch, but it could store a massive amount of items.
By now, Qiao Ming had lost every shred of his elegant composure. He was completely enraged.
[Clear Condition: Give me your eyes!]
Let’s see you wriggle out of this one!
Jing Pei blinked, while Qiu Fa’s brow furrowed deeply, a terrifying wave of killing intent washing over him. He was absolutely going to slaughter this disgusting piece of trash.
“Well, thank goodness I came prepared,” Jing Pei laughed.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, airtight container. Floating inside was a pair of stunning beautiful human eyes.
In the surveillance room, Qiao Ming sneered through the speaker. “Ha! Do you honestly think you can fool the gatekeeper with that? It clearly said your eyes! Trying to trick it with someone else’s will only bring down double the punishment!”
To his absolute horror, however, the gatekeeper accepted the container, paused for a few seconds, and then quietly melted back into the door.
“How is that possible?” Qiu Fa asked, his voice trembling a bit as he grabbed her wrist, his eyes fixed on her beautiful, undamaged eyes.”
“Oh, those are just my cloned eyes,” Jing Pei explained. “With the medical technology these days, as long as you’ve got enough money, you can clone as many of your own organs as you want. Even though cloned Atavist organs don’t contain any active Atavist cells, they’re still genetically mine. The gatekeeper can only verify if the DNA matches the target; it can’t tell if there are active Atavist cells inside.”
