Chapter 1: Hello, Infinite Terror

"Do you wish to understand the meaning of life? Do you want to truly... be alive?"

[Yes or No]

Qian Gu tapped the LCD monitor in front of him. Unfortunately, his family's age-old remedy of electrical therapy failed to yield any results.

It wasn't a virus.
It wasn't an advertisement.
Even though Qian Gu's computer skills barely extended to bypassing firewalls, he could tell this was no ordinary thing.

After all, what sane program would display something in the center of the screen even when the power was cut?

"Damn, I've come across the real deal," Qian Gu muttered.

He opened a can of ice-cold Coke, took a swig to steady his nerves.

The dialogue was iconic—straight from the legendary progenitor of infinite flow novels, "Infinite Horror." For Qian Gu, a bookworm who had lived two lives, it was instantly recognizable.

Yes, Qian Gu was now a man of two lives.
In his previous existence, he was a bona fide college student. Once he left campus, he became a model office worker, dyed by the vast cauldron of society and had his rough edges smoothed away.

He finally stood tall once, saving a little girl and, in the process, giving a dump truck a boost in performance.

He had thought he would embark on a cheat-code journey in another world, but whether due to insufficient funds or luck, he had landed in a parallel world instead—a standard modern technological setting.

Sure, he started out with a cheat, but it was useless.

He lived an ordinary eighteen years, walked the well-trodden path of orphaned parents and a protagonist's journey of self-discovery.

Now, life was stable enough: a tiny apartment, food, and drink never in short supply.

And now, this?

Qian Gu placed his hand over his heart, feeling the warmth that had remained unmoved for eighteen years. Even now, it was as stagnant as a dead pool—unchanged.

A transmigrator's gift, a golden finger.

But—

It was useless.

At least, Qian Gu couldn't make use of it.

Having it was as good as not having it.

"I'm already eighteen, and now this?"

He tapped lightly on the table.

The measured rhythm echoed softly. The monitor's blue glow illuminated Qian Gu's face, shrouding him in a blue haze, his gaze unreadable.

"Really..."

Click!

...

Coldness. Tremors.

Blinding white light dragged Qian Gu from unconsciousness. His mind felt as if a red-hot iron rod had been plunged in and stirred about, so muddled that he could hardly sense his brain—only an empty void.

"Not bad. You're the best among this batch."

A chilling voice sounded from the side.

Qian Gu turned stiffly, and saw a young man with short, tough black hair. His face was crisscrossed with scars—not from knives, but as if sloppily healed after being cut with scissors, adding a sinister and terrifying aura to his otherwise ordinary features.

He pulled out a cigarette, stuck it in his mouth, exhaled a white ring of smoke, and glanced at the group behind Qian Gu.

"Well, looks like you're not a one-off. This batch is decent."

"Where is this? Who are you? Why am I here?"

Someone behind him was speaking, even repeating the questions in English—decent business English, unmistakably the sort learned by an office worker accustomed to international dealings.

Qian Gu felt like a machine that had been sealed away for a thousand years: worn, rusted, barely operating on the verge of collapse, every movement mechanical and stiff.

Of course, that was only the shell, not the core.

His mind was working.

His sharp eyes took in the surroundings, mapping every detail to his memories.

A moving train compartment.
The scar-faced youth.
The young male office worker.
A foreign mercenary.
And three—no, two men and two women lying on the floor.

No mistake.

'So this really is my second transmigration!'

He'd researched out of boredom once; there was no archer named Ming in this world!

Let alone the fact that the time when he impulsively clicked "yes" was in 2024!

It's 2024 now. Even if this is the Lord God Space, it should be at least the fourth or fifth generation. How could he possibly be teammates with Zheng Zha and the others?

Impossible.

Apart from this being a second transmigration, there's no other explanation.

How did he end up here, so impulsively?

Now he was on a pirate ship.

"If you think about it, it must have implanted all this into your minds already."

Yes.

No need to think hard.

As Qian Gu recalled, the background settings about "survival and life," "gods and demons," rose to the surface of his memory, nearly overwhelming everything else.

Lord God Space.

A place of infinite possibilities, where, through cycles of life and death, you excavated the power called "gene lock," ultimately becoming a "sage."

In theory, that's the gist of it.

The reason for "in theory": first, the Lord God's omnipotence comes with a caveat; second, the "comedy" of a certain six-tier powerhouse permeates the entire ancient infinite multiverse, making it inconsistent at times, but certainly full of plot holes.

Like the classic Trap Calendar.

Add to that the so-called "deviation state" setting, and who knows what his current situation really is.

But...

Qian Gu placed his hand over his chest. His heartbeat was rapid, as if he had just finished a sprint, pounding as if it might burst from his chest.

If that energy in his heart had one benefit, it was ensuring Qian Gu would never suffer from heart disease. The frenzied beating soon calmed under its influence, settling into a deathly stillness.

All in all, things were getting interesting.

"This time it's Resident Evil Part One. Rookies, you're really lucky," said the scar-faced man—Zhang Jie—taking a deep drag, then extinguishing his cigarette in his palm with a cold smile.

"First time in, and you encounter such an easy horror movie. Even if you die, it'll be a painless death."

Young office worker Zheng Zha.

Glasses-wearing girl Zhan Lan.

Middle-aged man Mou Gang from the van.

The trembling old lady with no name.

Timid high schooler...

Wait, high schooler?

Qian Gu glanced at the lineup and was stunned.

'Oh no, the Thousand-faced Demon Lord is still here, so I'm the chubby guy!'

The talkative fat kid, always chattering.

This one was gone.

The numbers hadn't changed, but the person had.

More importantly, the one who changed wasn't gone early.

'This start is tricky.'

Without the fat kid to chatter away, Zhang Jie would only test his gun as a pure showman—no chicken to kill for the monkeys.

Though, that warning wasn't much needed anyway.

Fortunately, Zheng Zha's batch of newcomers was, in a way, exceedingly capable—no greedy officials, drug dealers, gangsters, street thugs, or cowardly students who turn berserk in their final moments...

Except for two—now just one—almost all could handle the basic opening.

"Can we... go back?" asked the girl with glasses, Zhan Lan.

"Go back?" Zhang Jie sneered, "Ever played with fighting crickets? We're like crickets in a cage, entertaining gods and demons. There's no returning—at least, I think there's no going back."

Still retaining her intelligence and composure, Zhan Lan thought for a moment and countered, "From your tone, it sounds like there is some hope?"

"This batch of newcomers really is impressive," Zhang Jie raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, there is hope. If you complete a mission—survive a horror movie—you'll earn a thousand reward points. With those, you can exchange for many things, such as one hundred days' right to live in this movie's world...

"And also, a return to the starting point."