The hide-and-seek game ended, and when they left the abandoned residential building, everyone's mobile phones automatically switched on and the signal was restored.

It was daylight when they came in, but it was already dark when they went out.

The light from the mobile phones shone on each of their faces. All six of them were pale and they looked like lonely ghosts floating in the wilderness.

Although they had escaped from the residential building and managed to get reunited, there was no joy on any of their faces.

After being trapped in the dark for hours, followed by such a sick game where they saw their loved ones die one by one, all six of them felt lucky to still be standing at that moment.

They looked at each other wearily. Just when they were about to find a way to contact a driver to take them back, they saw the police car.

It turned out that when they entered the residential building, their phones automatically switched off and the live broadcast feed was forced to stop.

All six people's phones were cut off at the same time and they were never heard from afterwards. A popular live horror broadcast was over before it had even started, and all the viewers were confused.

At first, everyone thought it was a marketing ploy by the platform's website and they made a fuss to get an explanation from the platform.

The platform was busy with the anniversary party, how would they have time to make such a thing to happen. Like the viewers, they instead thought it was a marketing ploy by those six people.

But when the platform manager called Bao Guangyuan and the others, but none of them got through, everyone panicked.

It didn't matter if they were sitting not stars, it was a big deal if someone was killed during a horror broadcast.

One person was already trouble, six people missing together was a big deal.

The platform pulled up a replay of the broadcast while calling the police.

Considering the social impact, the police immediately dispatched staff to investigate.

During this period, a few staff members who were not afraid of death turned on the live broadcast again.

The traffic of this anniversary party and the horror live broadcast was already high.

Now that the anchors for the live broadcast were missing, the platform's anniversary party had been stopped, and the police had entered into the mix, such a strange and bizarre thing immediately aroused everyone's interest.

The entire internet exploded, and countless viewers who had no interest in the live stream were attracted.

When Bao Guangyuan, Song Yuelin and the others were taken to the police car, they still didn't know that all their names were hanging on the hot search at that moment.

Before today, they were still just newbies on the platform, but after that incident, these few people would have undergone earth shattering changes in both their popularity and their status in the circle.

Bao Guangyuan said to Yu Ning and Ji Mingxia: “Since then, our accounts became completely popular, and we gained a firm foothold on the platform. Although we are not big stars or anything, no one dared to bully us again and the income brought by each live broadcast and video has improved everyone's life and changed everyone's fate ......"

Ji Mingxia said, "Yeah, Li Youzi and Lin Siyun's lives were completely ruined."

Lin Siyun changed from an ordinary girl to a stunning beautiful and day by day, gradually became a shadow of her former self. Finally, she died in front of the school on the eve of the college entrance exams, but she still didn’t have peace even after death.  She turned into a ghost manipulated by the mysterious item and wanted to go on a killing spree in school.

If it hadn't been for Ji Mingxia and Yu Ning, there's no telling how many people would have perished at Lin Siyun's hands.

Although Li Youzi's appearance didn’t change much, she was completely devastated after Lin Siyun's death.

Having invited the remaining six people to this forest, the young girl who was originally beautiful had now become a rotting corpse hiding in a stitched-up monster.

Those two may have ended up like that partly because they could not resist the temptation, and then one wrong step led to another one wrong step.

But what if the blood red ring had not fallen into their hands in the first place.

They clearly had no part in that game.

"I had forgotten how they got the rings ......" Bao Guangyuan covered his head in pain.

That incident made such a big deal.  It made the hot search and the police and netizens were curious as to what they had gone through in there.

However, all the six who escaped were mentally traumatised.

Among them was Bao Guangyuan, the youngest, was just in junior high school.

The young boy who thought he was unafraid of the sky and the earth, and was the smartest in the world, thought he had seen through the vicissitudes of life at a young age.

Until he encountered that incident. It was completely beyond Bao Guangyuan's ability to bear. When he saw his mother at the police station, Bao Guangyuan blacked out and fainted.

When he woke up, he had lost the memories of the incident.

He didn't know how the other people dealt with the aftermath, but his family never mentioned it to him again.

Bao Guangyuan and the others, who were originally internet friends, would only say what they wanted to say in the group when they went online.

No one in the group mentioned the incident again. Bao Guangyuan had lost his memories of that day, and because people didn't talk about it, he just thought that the hot search was a grand marketing scheme.

He was previously a content creator for funny videos and was fortunate enough to explode in popularity because of that incident. However, it took Bao Guangyuan almost six months to heal from the psychological trauma. By the time he came back to create content, all his previous fans had pretty much run away, and his account, although it looked popular and lively, had few real fans.

During his treatment, Bao Guangyuan's family bought a golden retriever to keep him company and to soothe his mind.

Seeing that all his fans had run away, Bao Guangyuan took the opportunity to transform and he became a pet blogger since then.

He said with guilt and fear: "Lin Siyun was a little odd during this period, followed by Li Youzi ...... I forgot about that day and I also didn't believe in *gods and ghosts, so I thought I was overthinking things."

*Freaky and strange things

He was the youngest of the group, and people would not seek him out to discuss anything important.

When Lin Siyun and Li Youzi became abnormal, it was even more unlikely that anyone would take the initiative to bring up the events of that day with him.

It wasn't until the first night of his stay in the forest, when he saw Lu Liang die before his eyes, that Bao Guangyuan, stimulated by death, finally remembered everything.

Ji Mingxia said, "Then how exactly did Lu Liang and Shi Wei die at the beginning?"

"I ......I am not very clear on that." Bao Guangyuan broke off and said, "Before Lu Liang died, I didn't even think about what happened back then, so I took this trip as an ordinary holiday. I buried my head in organizing my things, took pictures, and didn't even bother to listen to what everyone was saying.”

"Everyone's expressions were a bit off at that time and I thought it was because of Lin Siyun. Everyone looked at Li Youzi whenever she spoke, I thought they were trying to look after her emotions...."

Bao Guangyuan said wearily, "I asked Xinyi, but she refused to say anything. But I think Li Youzi had given everyone the right to choose."

The right to choose?

Ji Mingxia was stunned for a moment and quickly understood.

She was returning the choice of the order of death to Song Yuelin, Meng Xinyi and the rest of the group.

Back then, Song Yuelin and the others had her and Lin Siyun the rings, and after all these years, Youzi and Lin Siyun weren’t stupid to not notice something wrong with the rings.

With the ring in her hand, Li Youzi held a portion special energy and had the power of speech.

She used the ring as a bargaining chip to torture them all over again, just like back then at the abandoned building.

Back then, the choices were a depressing psychological game.

But it was different this time.

No one wanted to be a sacrificed when their lives were involved.

Bao Guangyuan did not elaborate on the aftermath, but Ji Mingxia roughly guess what happened. The group must have imploded under the pressure, and with the deaths of Lu Liang and Shi Wei, they distrusted each other and the whole team was eventually torn apart.

"Li Youzi's aim is to kill all of you." Ji Mingxia said.

"Probably." Bao Guangyuan whispered.

Most of the truth had surfaced so far.

Whether it was the origin of the rings, Lin Siyun's death, and what led to this forest predicament.

But at the same time, more mysteries had emerged.

Who gave them the invitation, and who was the man who hosted the game back then?

That game seemed gruesome, but Ji Mingxia, who had already come into contact with mysterious objects, was not too so of it.

That man could take out the blood red rings so he must have more mysterious items on hand.

He used an abandoned residential building to set the scene, not even the current Yu Ning was able to do it.

What was that man's purpose?

The incident made such a big deal back then, but no investigation was conducted in the end. It has been years and unless that man takes the initiative to show himself, it would be difficult to find out the truth ......

In fact, from a certain point of view, this group of people in the forest could all be considered victims.

But when they escaped their predicament and had a choice, they transformed from victims to perpetrators.

Ji Mingxia summarised all of his thoughts with Yu Ning, and he wanted to hear his opinion.

"My thoughts are similar to yours." Yu Ning said. Seeing that Ji Mingxia wad looking at him expectantly, he couldn't help but add a few more words, "The blood red rings needs human blood to nourish them. The more people that die, the more energy the rings will have. Once they reach their peak and are merged, the two rings would inspire new abilities.’

"That man made that game to use that group of people and when the sacrifices are complete, he will definitely find a way to take the rings, so sooner or later, he will show himself."

Ji Mingxia froze and glanced at the ring on Yu Ning's hand, "You mean that he will come for us sooner or later?"

Yu Ning said, "It's also possible that he's already here."

A chill ran down Ji Mingxia's spine as he turned his head to look around. He felt as if there were prying eyes everywhere in this forest, watching them in secret.

‘I thought that a monster and Li Youzi were hard enough to deal with, but I never thought that there might be other enemies lurking in the forest......’

Of course, all this was not without warning.

The monster that suddenly appeared yesterday had a mysterious triangular golden crest above its head, and Ji Mingxia still hasn't figured out exactly where he’d seen that pattern before.

It must have been something extremely important for it to make an impression on him, but the harder he tried to think of it, the less he could recall.

He was in his tent when the monster came yesterday, so he did not see it with his own eyes. He hoped that after he would be able to remember some clues if he saw the monster again.

By the time Bao Guangyuan finished recounting those past events, the morning had already passed by.

The truth of the past was shocking, but the present was more important to them.

The monster was no longer following a regular pattern and it could reappear at any time. They had to be completely prepared, and the first step was - not to go hungry.

As soon as it was time to eat, Yu Ning began to prepare lunch for Ji Mingxia.

Buttered pineapple buns, ham and meat, crisp egg yolks, melon seeds and spicy sticks ......

Bao Guangyuan had been talking all morning and his stomach had long been rumbling with hunger. Meng Xingyi had not only stolen Yu Ning's bag, but even the wild fruits in his inventory.

At the moment, Bao Guangyuan’s eyes were round as he saw Yu Ning taking out so many delicacies from Ji Mingxia's backpack like magic.

Even though it was Yu Ning who was preparing lunch at the moment, Bao Guangyuan could not help but speak out with shock, "Didn't Meng Xinyi take away all of your food?!"

Ji Mingxia gave Bao Guangyuan a strange look, "She only took one bag, the other bag is still here."

"But wasn't the food always in Yu Ning's backpack, and he was in charge of carrying it?" Bao Guangyuan asked.

This was not something he had made up, but something they had seen with their own eyes along the way.

"Oh!" Ji Mingxia said, "It was originally like that, but Yu Ning had nothing to do last night so he organized the backpack. He sorted all the food and useful items into my bag, so don't worry, we still have plenty of supplies."

Bao Guangyuan's eyes widened as he looked at Ji Mingxia and then at Yu Ning.

Yu Ning was performing magic, taking out one delicious food after the other and placing it in front of Ji Mingxia for him to choose.

No matter which delicacy, all were delicious in Bao Guangyuan's eyes, but unfortunately, none of them belonged to him.

He swallowed and suppressed his appetite, but he couldn't help but ask in curiousity, "There are so many food items in your bag, then what is in the bag that Meng Xinyi took away?"

Bao Guangyuan had known Meng Xingyi for so many years. Although she was a soft and delicate girl, she would not give up in something as long as she had her mind set on it.

Such spirit is good when it comes to career, but when it leads to stealing things…

Anyway, she certainly wouldn't go empty-handed. Even if she was in a hurry again, she would certainly notice if she was carrying an empty bag ah!

Ji Mingxia, "Speaking of which, Yu Ning and I have to thank her. Thank you, Meng Xinyi, for your contribution to the cause of forest environmental protection."

Bao Guangyuan looked at Ji Mingxia in confusion.

Ji Mingxia said with some embarrassment, "Although Yu Ning and I were well prepared, the more things we had, the more rubbish we had after use for example, food packaging boxes, tissues, changing clothes etc were are all in that bag. We originally planned to take it out and throw it away, but we didn’t expect…”

Bao Guangyuan: "......"

Who would have thought of that.

He suddenly felt pity for Meng Xinyi.