This is the most complete story of the game, and it is the full information they can see only before leaving.
The newspaper reported that the principal of this kindergarten was a true philanthropist. She saw the tragic situation of many “problem children” and felt compassion, so she single-handedly established this kindergarten, only admitting children with criminal records, because these children were more likely to be abandoned. She wanted to correct their behavior and give them warmth, guiding them onto the path of normalcy.
The government had no effective measures to supervise these little criminals and was struggling with how to place these wayward children. The establishment of the kindergarten perfectly solved their major dilemma, so with the help and support of the authorities, the kindergarten began enrolling children nationwide.
Soon, more than a dozen children were admitted.
However, problems soon arose. The principal, relying solely on her compassion, believed that love alone could bring about change, neglecting the impact of family factors on these children. They had grown up in an environment of parental violence, and changing their behavior was not so easy.
Children continued to die, in horrific ways, with causes that were chilling. Yet the principal had no way to intervene, and neither did the government. These little criminals were too young to be sentenced, and even juvenile detention centers would not accept them. Because of their records, they could not find adoptive parents. If expelled from the kindergarten, they had nowhere to go, and could only maintain the status quo in silence.
Fearing a significant social impact, the media reported the murders as “accidents.”
In the end, the principal also “accidentally” died. Without the only authority figure, the children began to devour each other like insects, until none were left, and the kindergarten was completely abandoned.
Xin Meng instinctively flipped through the pages and was surprised to find a blank sheet of paper fall out. He bent down to pick it up and saw that it seemed to be a torn diary page. The handwriting was somewhat crooked, with many unfamiliar characters annotated in pinyin, and the words were filled with childish innocence, likely written by a child.
[XXX Year XX Month XX Day Sunny to Overcast
The principal mama is a good person, but we are all sinners.
Because our parents are sinners, we have been guilty since birth.
XXX Year XX Month XX Day Overcast
The principal mama said she wants to save us, to make us all good children, but she doesn’t know that we cannot be saved. Even with clean water, warm food, a comfortable bed, and a lovely doll, in such a good home, we still cannot become good children.
We follow our instincts, cursing each other, beating each other, and killing others at will.
Just like our parents did.
XXX Year XX Month XX Day Light Rain
This noon, I saw the principal mama pushed to the ground by everyone, her head hitting the floor hard, blood flowing so much that it seemed it would never stop. Fortunately, an ambulance came quickly and took the principal mama away.
Will the principal mama be okay?
Sure enough, just as everyone said, we are sinners, born as demons.
XXX Year XX Month XX Day Heavy Rain
All the teachers have left. They are afraid of us and don’t want to see us, fleeing this once warm home in a panic.
I heard them say that the principal mama is going to die.
She was killed by us.
The adults are gone, and we have become abandoned orphans. Everyone is crying, and after crying, we continue to beat each other.
My ear was bitten off by Sha Sha, and I bled a lot. Will I die too?
XXX Year XX Month XX Day Thunderstorm
The principal mama is back!
She looks very weak, with a bandage on her head that is still seeping blood, looking very tragic.
She didn’t blame us, but smiled at us, saying she would never leave here again, and then returned to her office.
I secretly followed her and saw her sitting in her usual chair, closing her eyes, never to open them again.
I was very scared but didn’t dare to go in, so I quietly closed the door.
It has been raining for several days; when will it stop?
XXX Year XX Month XX Day Torrential Rain
Today is my birthday. I wore the red dress that the principal mama bought for me last year.
I love this red dress the most.
Unfortunately, this year the principal mama isn’t here to celebrate my birthday. Her office has been smelling bad for some reason lately, and there are many flies buzzing around, just like the kitchen. No one dares to go in.
Doesn’t the principal mama mind the smell? Why doesn’t she come out?
Ping Ping and the others said they prepared a birthday gift for me, placed in the tool room.
I have a bad feeling.
Should I go or not?]
There was nothing more, but everyone knew that the child went, and… never came back.
The owner of the diary was indeed the little girl in the red dress.
After reading this diary, everyone felt heavy-hearted. This twisted state of existence was suffocating, and the cruelty of children was shocking.
Are the children at fault? Of course, they are, but the greater fault lies with whom?
With the parents who gave birth to them but did not educate them properly, even setting a terrible example.
“This is the heaviest game I’ve ever played,” even the carefree Dou Dou sighed, “It made it impossible for me to play the game with an excited mindset.”
The others: “…”
In any case, the puzzle was completely solved. In this kindergarten, there had once been more than a dozen children living, but later not a single one remained alive, and the murderer was the victim, who was also the murderer.
It was different from raising insects; there was no strongest survivor, but rather none at all.
After all, they were fragile human children. How long could they survive in such a closed space?
But fortunately, this was just a game, exaggerated and distorted, not reality; otherwise, it would be too terrifying—ten thousand times scarier than a horror game.
When the last ghost child died, the exit from the game was opened, right above the charred ground outside the first floor.
Xin Meng held Yu Yi’s hand, took one last look at this abandoned building, which would never again echo with the laughter of children, and stepped into the black vortex without looking back.
Dou Dou and Jie Zi exchanged glances. Jie Zi stretched lazily, “Finally done, but Xin Meng’s problem isn’t solved. We probably have to go to another game. You should be more careful in the future; do what you can by yourself and don’t always make me come help. I have my own tasks too.”
Dou Dou kicked him, “You have no heart at all! I can help you too!”
Jie Zi twitched his mouth, “Forget it, just not making things worse for me is good enough.”
The two bickered and entered the vortex one after another.
…
Back in the mission’s transition space, Dou Dou received a notification that the bug had been eliminated and the mission was completed.
He showed it to Jie Zi, who was also taken aback, stroking his chin, “What’s going on? Didn’t Xin Meng say she was an NPC? An NPC turning into a player to traverse the game definitely counts as a bug. Why didn’t the system detect it?”
On the system notification panel, all records of this mission could be queried.
First was the game of the ten little black people, which the system detected as having a bug. Dou Dou then entered to manually search and fix it, becoming one of the players for convenience.
The first detection was rather vague, unable to determine whether the issue was with the players or the game itself, so Dou Dou didn’t focus on anything specific at that time and found no clues. It wasn’t until they continued into the next instance that the bug remained, confirming that the key point lay with the players in the team.
At this time, Jie Zi came to help.
Initially, both thought that Yu Yi, who resembled a bug the most, was definitely the target, but who would have thought that it would turn out to be Li Wenjun? He probably regained his memory in the little black people’s instance, which is why the system issued the mission.
Next, Li Wenjun died, but they discovered that Xin Meng was unusual, so they concluded that there were actually two bugs in the team. They hadn’t figured out how to resolve it when they cleared the level, thinking that Xin Meng’s issue would be left for the next game to solve. But what was happening now?
All the bugs were gone?
“Could it be that we were deceived by Xin Meng?” Dou Dou speculated, looking confused. “What if she’s not an NPC at all, just an ordinary player!”
Jie Zi thought about Xin Meng and Yu Yi’s behavior at the time and shook his head, “Doesn’t seem like it. She can’t possibly deceive even Yu Yi, and looking at Yu Yi’s expression, he seems to have known about this long ago. Their statements match up.”
“What if they teamed up to trick us?” Dou Dou countered.
“Trick us? What’s the benefit?” Jie Zi laughed. “Attracting the attention of the staff and making themselves out to be bugs? Wouldn’t that hinder their own clearance?”
Dou Dou racked his brain for a long time, finally slumping his shoulders, dispirited, “Indeed, there’s no benefit, but there are plenty of drawbacks…”
Jie Zi thought for a moment, “If you’re particularly concerned, we can ask someone to check.”
Dou Dou nodded vigorously, “You have a good relationship with the girl in the data room. Let’s ask her for help! Quickly use your charm!”
“Bang!”
Jie Zi kicked him against the wall.
The two continued to bicker all the way back to the main god space, went to the data room, and through Jie Zi’s “charm,” successfully charmed the girl in the data room to search for Xin Meng’s name on a small computer.
Because there were too many game worlds, the database was also very large, so a simple search took a long time. Fortunately, the computer had excellent performance and wouldn’t lag or crash.
While Dou Dou and Jie Zi took turns teasing the girl, they waited idly for the results. After a full half-day, the result they received was—
“Search complete, no such person found.”
“What!” Jie Zi immediately stood up, incredulous, and walked to the small computer, leaning in closely, almost pressing his eyes against the screen, “It can’t be a mistake!”
“How could it be a mistake!” The girl was a bit unhappy. “This computer is directly connected to the system’s main database. Unless the entire game system has a problem, it’s absolutely impossible to be wrong! It hasn’t missed anything for many years!”
“But… but how could there be no such person?” Dou Dou was already stunned, “Not just NPCs, but even players don’t have this name? This is unbelievable?!”
The girl knew their profession was to find bugs, and seeing their reaction, she was also a bit at a loss.
It was Jie Zi who quickly calmed down, decisively saying to her, “Search with a different name, search—’Xi Meng’!”
The girl quickly entered the keyword to search.
After another excruciating wait, the search result was still—
“Search complete, no such person found.”
Jie Zi looked at these shocking eight words, dazedly murmuring, “Huan Le Dou, you were right. This time it’s really… seeing a living ghost…”
