The Creatures That We Are

The rainbow light flew to Lin Dajian. For a moment, they were all shocked and confused.

Why?

The wish the genie granted worked, but not the divine dragon?

Gao Yang was the first to figure it out: Zhou Jing’s wish did come true. The game would end, but Zhou Jing hadn’t specified when the game would end! So the game continued regularly, and it would end after three minutes!

That’s a foul move!

With the buff to clear their minds and calm their emotions, the others came to the same conclusion.

“Telescope!” Lin Dajian said the word at the last second, resigned.

“Lens,” Mi Shi followed.

“Moment (pian ke).” Then Edmond.

Ding.

Followed by the notification, the moderator said, “A moment has passed. The game is shortened by 30 seconds.”

You’re a fucking genius, Edmond!

Gao Yang threw the man an admiring glance. Edmond accepted the silent praise with a smile.

“Ke...ke...” Ke Yo stuttered, then she said, “Memorable like bones getting cut and heart being stabbed (ke gu ming xin).”

Gao Yang was surprised. Good job.

Ke Yo had managed to come up with something ending with xin, heart. That meant they would be able to make another wish.

But his joy was premature.

“Aghhhh—”

For a moment, everyone held onto their chest and collapsed to the ground in pain.

It hurts.

It hurts so much!

It felt as if every single one of their bones were being gnawed at by worms, and their hearts were cut and sliced by countless blades. The great pain robbed them of their ability to think.

The rainbow light jumped to Gao Yang.

“Wish (xin yuan)!” Gao Yang shouted. Fortunately, he had been thinking about repeating the word, so he was able to call it out on instinct without thinking.

“Five, four, three..”

But the moderator hadn’t stopped counting down.

Is it that repeated words aren’t allowed?!

“Two, one...”

At the last second, Gao Yang tamped down the pain and racked his brain for a word. Finally, he thought of something that could relieve them of the torment. “Burst of joy (xin hua nu fang)!”

Instantly, the pain was gone. Kneeling on the floor, Gao Yang felt a strong wave of indescribable joy.

“Haha!”

“Hahaha...”

It was the same for the others. Although they were playing a game for survival, they couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

“Five, four, three...”

Vermilion Bird continued the game while laughing. Without even thinking about it, she blurted out, “Haha, fang...haha...herding cattles (fang niu)...”

Moo—

A large buffalo appeared in the house. On its back was a child herding the buffalo.

“Hahaha...”

“Hahaha...”

Inside the realm, their laughter overlapped.

It was Qiu Qiu’s turn. He laughed in joy. “Hahaha, fucking A (niu bi)...”

“Five, four, three...”

It seemed that swear word didn’t count.

“Milk (niu nai)...haha, hahaha...” Qiu Qiu quickly said another word.

A second later, a bottle of milk appeared in the room.

“Haha, nai...nai haha...” Can was going to say nai yo, butter, but her uncontrollable laughter had left her breathless, and she ended up repeating the same syllable, uttering nai nai, grandmother.

Boom!

A pixelated old woman appeared on the sofa in the room.

“Haha...”

Gao Yang was still laughing uncontrollably, but two seconds later, his eyes reddened.

Although the old woman’s face and body were pixelated and thus didn’t have the details, Gao Yang could still recognize at first glance that it was his grandmother.

She had a handful of candies in her hand as she reached out to Gao Yang, smiling kindly at him.

Calm down!

It’s not real! It’s only a projection of my feelings!

Gao Yang continued to laugh.

Then Zhou Jing said the word after five seconds. “Haha, dairy cow (nai niu), hahaha...”

Moo—

A dairy cow appeared in the room, further filling up the realm.

Another cow?!

While laughing, Lin Dajian decided to go with a different kind of word in order to break them out of this strange loop, thinking outside the box. “Haha, bull market (niu shi).”

Suddenly, the nine of them lifted into the air, drawn by a gravitational pull in the opposite direction.

“Whoa...”

They flew out of the topless house until they hit the ceiling of the realm, leaving a trail of a red arrow.

Gao Yang grumbled inwardly, So it’s a bull market. We’ve become limit-up stocks! At least we’ve finally broken out of the forced laughter. Now we can think calmly.

“Shi...” Mi Shi paused for two seconds. “Mayor (shi zhang)!”

Boom!

A pixelated suited middle-aged man appeared beside them, holding a megaphone as he declared, “Li City is our home. Being civilized relies on everyone...”

Five seconds later, Edmond said, “Chang...Changjiang[1].”

Splash.

A large volume of water rushed into the house through the window, quickly filling the house by half. It was thanks to the nine of them soaring to the top of the realm that they avoided the fate of getting drowned.

But the water continued to rise. Soon, it would fill the entire realm.

Gao Yang had been keeping time though. There were 180 seconds in 3 minutes, and they had been saying a word every 5 seconds. In total, they would need to chain words 35 times.

Thanks to Edmond’s word, moment, they shortened the game by 30 seconds, which meant that they only needed to chain 30 words.

From Edmond’s cigarette to Changjiang, they had chained 26 or 27 words already. Soon, the game would end. They just had to succeed four or five more times. They must succeed!

“Jiang...jiang...” It was Ke Yo’s turn again. She was going to say jiang he, river, but that would make the water rise faster. If the water filled the space fully, they wouldn’t be able to talk and thus wouldn’t be able to continue the game.

Pressed for time, it seemed that she couldn’t think of a better word, and she ended up blurting out, “Out of ideas (jiang lang cai jin)!”

The next second, a limit was imposed on all of them. While they could still think flexibly, they couldn’t come up with any words or idioms ending with jin.

The rainbow light jumped to Gao Yang.

“Five, four, three...”

Shit, I’m dead! I can’t think of anything!

You’ve cornered me, Ke Yo!

Oh, I almost forgot. I still have my dear system!

[Access granted.]

[You have acquired...]

—Got it!

[Access ends.]

“Do your best (jin li er wei)!”

Instantly, their condition changed from being at wit’s end to doing their best.

It was now Vermilion Bird’s turn. She quickly said, “Serve as an example like a teacher (wei ren shi biao).”

Their condition changed again. Their vocabulary increased once more, becoming well-educated.

Five seconds later, Qiu Qiu shouted, “The book matches the cover!”

Then Can followed suit, “Godspeed!”

Rumble.

They fell to the floor.

Everything that had been conjured during the game vanished, and the space turned back into the enclosed room they had been in.

“The game ends. The Strange Realm lifted.”

Rumble.

Gao Yang felt his head become suddenly heavy, like he had been hit with a club.

He blacked out.

1. The ‘zhang’ of mayor is the same Chinese character as the ‘chang’ for changjiang, the longest river in China ☜

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