SWBG - Chapter 3

Gu Jing Sheng tried her best to avoid looking at the rabbit's increasingly red eyes, but her mischievous gaze refused to obey her brain's earnest admonitions.

——But this was normal. If she could actually control herself, she would've long stopped staying up late binge-reading novels, ordering midnight takeout, wiping dust off the treadmill, and tossing potato chips, chocolate, and soda into the trash to destroy the evidence.

Gu Jing Sheng leaned back in her chair, relaxing her body as she massaged her knuckles in a hand exercise, forcing herself to focus.

If her judgment of Zhou Qing Qing's song melody and its background was correct, then the card the other party had chosen should be [The Handsome Man Strolling in the Garden].

The man depicted on the card was surrounded by garden flowers. With his right hand, he plucked one and was passionately inhaling the fragrance of its petals in deep rapture.

Gu Jing Sheng didn't want to guess what that man was actually smelling—after all, inside each flower was the severed head of a young girl with closed eyes. Under these circumstances, bad breath would already be a rather conservative assumption.

Before the countdown ended, Gu Jing Sheng casted her vote. Her movements were calm, but her heart was in turmoil—the perfect embodiment of "outwardly steady as an old dog, inwardly panicking like hell." Playing games wasn't the real thrill, gambling with her life was the true excitement. TAT.

[From: Happy Board Game

Countdown has ended. Scoring will begin.]

Upon receiving the new message, the white rabbit's ears twitched, and its head turned toward Gu Jing Sheng.

Under the gaze of those red eyes, Gu Jing Sheng felt her palms grow cold and clammy with sweat.

Wait, what did this mean? Had she guessed wrong?

Gu Jing Sheng's body stiffened instantly. From head to toe, even the keratin at her extremities was ready to flee, but the chair stubbornly clung to her, its persistence rivaling endless pop-up ads. In the end, she could only slump against the backrest in despair, making her final confession—if having too much musical knowledge was a sin, then in her next life, she'd skip class with absolute dedication. TAT.

[From: Happy Board Game

Participant 08321-6 Score: 4

Note: Dear participant, have you found enough carrots yet?]

Gu Jing Sheng began contemplating with a blank expression: If she immediately ordered carrots for this rabbit on Taobao and chose SF Express, could the package arrive before she got chewed to bits?

However...

Gu Jing Sheng stared at the verb placed before "carrots" in the message, a cold sweat breaking out on her back as she frantically scanned her surroundings.

There were no carrots under the chair.

The rabbit opened its mouth toward her.

The table was equally barren—aside from the interior of the Board, which lacked the means or conditions for thorough inspection, the rest of the furniture adhered to an industrial minimalist style that could be assessed at a glance.

A nauseating stench of blood wafted from the depths of the little monster's maw.

Gu Jing Sheng forced herself not to tremble as she urgently shoved a hand into her pocket. Earlier, while adjusting her position, she'd noticed the hem of her top felt unusually heavy, as if weighed down by some unseen attachment.

Sure enough, nestled at the bottom of her pocket were four carrots that hadn't been there before.

The matching numbers made Gu Jing Sheng suspect the carrot count was directly tied to her in-game score. A cold sweat broke out across her back—had she been even slightly slower, this little monster might have come hopping over to forage for itself. And as for the specifics of its foraging methods, she need only recall Ren Song Sheng's unfortunate example.

She swiftly grabbed a vibrantly red carrot and tossed it into the rabbit's gaping maw. The little creature stared at her for a moment before slowly shrinking its mouth back to its original size and beginning to chew. Gu Jing Sheng noted that its pupils had darkened to a near-black crimson.

As the rabbit ate, two of the five static-filled screens surrounding Gu Jing Sheng abruptly cleared, revealing headless corpses behind them: Participant 08321-2, Jiang Ping, and 08321-1, Zhou Qing Qing.

Gu Jing Sheng's breath hitched for a moment as she stared at the sky-blue dress now stained deep purple. According to the game's rules, her four-point score proved her vote had been correct—and that at least one other participant had voted wrong.

Therefore, when the first round ended, the describer must have scored exactly three points.

Under these circumstances, Zhou Qing Qing's fate could only mean one thing: she'd failed to find the rabbit's carrots in time.

Gu Jing Sheng was beginning to piece together the system's reward mechanics—clearly copy-pasted from some pay-to-win gacha game. The game delivered the items, but whether players could locate the "mailbox" or unpack the delivery in time was entirely up to them.

[From: Happy Board Game

Current surviving participants in Room 08321: 4

Reserve members: 4

Full members: 0

Recruit additional players? No]

Gu Jing Sheng pressed the phone screen nearly against her nose, her face ashen—whether from the screen's glow or her red blood cells collectively clocking out, it was hard to say.

By now, she understood: "Marvelous" required at least three players to start. Yet after just one round, with her own score barely scratching the surface of thirty, their numbers had already nearly halved.

At this rate, Room 08321 would swiftly conclude the game—via total participant annihilation.

Gu Jing Sheng refused to believe Happy Board would let the last two players casually guess each other's cards. By then, they'd either recruit more players or...

Never mind. Gu Jing Sheng shook her head. She'd rather get hit by another meteor than follow that train of thought further.

[From: Happy Board Game

Round two begins.

System replenishes cards.]

[From: Happy Board Game

Participant 08321-7, provide your clue within 10 seconds.

Countdown: 10, 9…]

The static veil before Xia Xiao Yun dissipated, revealing her slightly disheveled hair and a visible gash on her shoulder.

"Surgery."

Her voice was quiet but firm. After delivering the clue, she vanished behind the static once more.

Gu Jing Sheng frowned, feeling the same confusion as encountering a softball question in an international competition—unless intentionally misleading, Xia Xiao Yun's clue was suspiciously specific.

The clarity left her no trouble selecting the only matching card: [Busy Operating Room].

The card depicted three masked, scrub-clad figures gathered around a girl on the table, cutting and snipping. One held a spider the size of a fist, attempting to stuff it into the patient's kidney.

This wasn't an organ transplant.

It was outright murder.

[From: Happy Board Game

Participant 08321-6 score: 6

Note: Your rabbit thinks a nap sounds lovely—after a full meal, of course :).]

Gu Jing Sheng immediately checked her pocket. Sure enough, the carrots had increased to five.

Nothing in life came free. Anticipating dormancy next round, she fed the creature two carrots before its maw shrank back to normal.

[From: Happy Board Game

Round three begins.

System replenishes cards.]

[From: Happy Board Game

Participant 08321-6, provide your clue within 10 seconds.

Countdown: 10, 9…]

Because Xia Xiao Yun had been so clear in her earlier description—even though she had also scored three points in the first round—she now had no carrots left. And with the number of survivors just one step away from the danger line, it was definitely wise for Gu Jing Sheng to hold back a little when giving her clue...

Before she could finish the thought, the static before Participant 08321-5, Lin Shen He, abruptly vanished.

Thanks to Happy Board's impeccable censorship, no one could interrupt during another's turn. The only ways to reappear were taking one's turn or experiencing a permanent reduction in elevation.

Lin Shen He's case differed from Ren Song Sheng, Zhou Qing Qing, and Jiang Yan. The latter three's injuries had conveniently spared anything below the neck. Lin, on the other hand, aside from his head still attached, featured several overly detailed cross-sections of muscle tissue.

His death had been brutal.

[From: Happy Board Game

Surviving participants in Room 08321: 3

Reserve members: 3

Full members: 0

Recruit additional players? No]

Three was the minimum player count. With Lin Shen He eliminated, "going easy" shifted from advisable to absolutely necessary. Though it wasn't visible, Gu Jing Sheng was sure her complexion wasn't anywhere near the shade of rosy right now.

Lin Shen He's pocket had bulged conspicuously—meaning he'd failed to find the carrots for two consecutive rounds.

So what had his rabbit eaten after Round One?

Recalling the unnaturally vivid hue of those carrots, Gu Jing Sheng wondered whether a microscopic examination would even reveal cell walls.

With the countdown nearing zero, she took a deep breath. "Birthday Party."

[From: Happy Board Game

System shuffling cards.

Shuffle complete.

Revealing cards.]

Three cards materialized midair:

[Blindfolded Girl Singing Happy Birthday], [Tuxedoed Gentleman], [Balloon-Filled Amusement Park].

Gu Jing Sheng scored no points this round, but fortunately, the table's rabbit had fallen asleep, and no further participants were eliminated.

[From: Happy Board Game

Round four begins.

System replenishes cards.]

[From: Happy Board Game

Participant 08321-4, provide your clue within 10 seconds.

Countdown: 10, 9…]

The static before Wei Jia Shi dissolved, revealing the college student's pallid face, disheveled hair, and blood-spattered clothes. Thankfully, the wound on his right forearm had stopped bleeding.

Gu Jing Sheng exhaled in relief—his non-fatal injuries proved he at least understood the game's rules and how to care for the rabbit's basic needs.

...

[From: Happy Board Game

Participant 08321-6 score: 31

Game over.

Note: Game in moderation sharpens the mind; addiction harms the body. Manage time wisely for a healthy lifestyle.]

"..."

How has your moral balance not been suspended by the carrier yet?!

Gu Jing Sheng stared blankly at the message. She'd seen plenty of rogue apps, but unless Happy Board had a sibling called Happy Antivirus, it undoubtedly took the crown for the Year's Most Shameless.

Translator's Notes

肥宅快乐水 (féi zhái kuài lè shuǐ)

• Literally "fat otaku happy water"

• Slang for soda (especially Coca-Cola/Pepsi), implying it's the favorite drink of homebody gamers/otaku

稳如老狗 (wěn rú lǎo gǒu)

• Literally means "steady as an old dog"

• Internet slang meaning "calm and composed" (often used sarcastically when someone is pretending to be calm but is actually panicking)

前车之鉴 (qián chē zhī jiàn)

• Idiom: "warning from the cart ahead"

• Means learning from others' mistakes (referring to Ren Song Sheng's gruesome fate)

Enjoy Reading ~~~