Chapter 3

Her voice was soft and sweet as she whispered, “Thank you, Mommy.”

Huh? Mommy?

I… became a mom just like that?

Holy crap, this is insane.

You have to understand, in real life, I’ve heard way too many horror stories about women dying during childbirth. I’ve always dreamed of having a family, sure… But giving birth? That’s my biggest fear.

After coaxing the little girl to take a nap, a mechanical voice suddenly echoed in my ear:

【Initial players: 30 | Current survivors: 20】

What? Ten people were already dead? Just from choosing rooms?

I grabbed my phone, held it right up to my face, and barely managed to make out the text on the screen. It was the player chat group, where everyone was frantically sharing what they’d learned, mainly how people had died.

Apparently, the hot-tempered blond guy and three others fought over the third floor. The blond guy barely won and moved in. But the moment he knocked on the door, a creature with a human body and a dog’s head stepped out. Its jaws split open, revealing rows of bloody teeth, and it swallowed him whole.

A few seconds later, it chewed noisily and spat out a few white bones still clinging to bits of flesh.

Through the half-open door, the other players saw piles of bones inside. They guessed those must’ve been the remains of past victims.

After witnessing that, everyone’s adrenaline spiked. By now, aside from Elaine and Jethro, every new player’s Fear Value had already hit 50 and it was only the first day.

One middle-aged man died the instant he stepped into the tenth floor; his Fear Value shot straight to 100. Others were dropping in all kinds of ways, scared to death, ripped apart, or just losing it from sheer terror.

Of course, none of that had anything to do with me.

While my little girl slept, I grabbed a mop from the bathroom and got to work. I scrubbed the place from top to bottom. The blood-red floor tiles? I managed to scrub them until they were almost white. Pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.

The dried red stains on the walls wouldn’t come off, so I picked up a scraper and started chipping away at them instead.

By the time I finished, it was already afternoon. My back was killing me, so I collapsed onto the couch beside the little girl and fell into a deep sleep.

When I woke again, a chill had crept through the air.

The room was dark. Standing in front of me was a shadowy figure, its outline barely visible.

Even though I couldn’t see his face clearly, the moment he spoke, that deep, magnetic voice made my heart skip a beat.

He laughed in a low, sexy voice, “Heh, interesting. You actually survived this long in Lily’s hands.”

Then Lily’s cold voice piped up, “You better not touch her. This mommy looks fun. I want to keep her to play with.”

The man didn’t answer. He waved one big hand and sent Lily flying off the sofa. She slammed into the balcony glass with a crash, and there was the sickening sound of bones breaking.

He sneered, “Who gave you permission to speak to me like that? You really think you’re my daughter?”

I couldn’t take it.

I scrambled up off the couch, muttering, “Who let you talk to a kid like that? What kind of father are you?”

I meant to slap him across the face, but my hand slipped and landed on his abs instead. Damn, that felt good! I couldn’t help touching them a couple more times.

Seeing him on the verge of a furious explosion, black energy crawling off him, I quickly tried to make amends…