# Chapter 3: The Shocking Small Thousand World (12)
In a dimly lit, cluttered warehouse, a suffocating stench hung thick in the air.
It was a taste impossible to describe, like a piece of meat left in a sealed room, rotting and rancid, eventually sucked dry by maggots and reduced to a puddle of dried bl**d.
This odor festered in the cramped space until someone finally pushed the door open.
And that someone was Lin Nan, the brave (or perhaps foolish) soul who dared enter, almost passing out from the horrid smell as it hit her like a brick wall.
Nearby, on the nearest wooden bed, lay a grotesque mound of who-knows-what, with drips of bl**d leaking onto the floor, forming a large dark puddle beneath.
Taking a deep breath and fighting the urge to gag, she slowly approached the source of the horrendous odor.
The dim light from the fire allowed her to observe for a while, but the moment she figured out what this mess was, the discomfort in her stomach surged forth.
“Ugh… ugh…”
She dashed to the corner and began to heave.
Wiping away tears caused by her gag reflex, she could hardly believe things had descended to such a horrific situation.
“No need to be disgusted, because you’re about to become one of them,” came Song Chuan’s voice from the other side of the warehouse.
“Boom…”
The fire in the brazier flared up like it had been doused in oil, illuminating the warehouse and revealing its full horrors.
Lin Nan finally got the complete picture—the warehouse was surrounded by several narrow exits, and many male players, previously blocked outside, were now half-broached into the room, looking like they were about to burst from anticipation.
“Unforgivable… unforgivable!” Lin Nan repeated coldly.
Song Chuan cackled, “Unforgivable? Do we need forgiveness? No way!
You think you’re hot stuff because you’re an old player, right?
And you have a golden ticket to survive, while we don’t?
Forget about how we were tricked into this hellhole—an ancient city meant for 400,000 suddenly flooded with 4 million players.
So tell me, what are we supposed to eat?
For the first two days, we got handed a bun here and there by the guilds, but after that? Zip! Zilch! Nothing! The guilds are just clawing at each other for whatever little rice they can scrounge up.
Don’t preach the ugliness of humanity to me! Come on! If you were a newbie player, would you still be alive if you didn’t resort to cannibalism by now?
In the real world, we’re law-abiding citizens!
But here? What can we do? We didn’t want to end up like this!”
As he spoke, Song Chuan suddenly broke into tears.
His pale face twisted dramatically, those formerly rotten lips coming together, now resembling a huge syringe from afar.
And it wasn’t just him—around them, other players transformed into similar grotesque figures, some sprouting flimsy, insect-like wings from their backs.
From a distance, they looked like oversized mosquitoes, especially their elongated mouthparts, dripping with saliva under the fire light, making them utterly terrifying.
At last, Lin Nan understood how those remaining bodies of women with barely a layer of skin had ended up on that bed.
Every last drop of fluid inside them had been sucked dry.
Driven perhaps by a last vestige of guilt or some bizarre collection compulsion, they had stacked the drained bodies like clothes, but allowed the thin skins to rot away.
Lin Nan took a step back, horrified.
She never imagined witnessing something this bizarre in the Asking Dao Continent’s world of fantasy. What kind of bizarre mutation had befallen humanity? What the heck was going on?
“Come on, Lin the Beautiful, become a part of us! I guarantee you won’t feel a bit of pain during the process, no, you might even experience a touch of pleasure. You’ll leave this world fully satisfied,” Song Chuan proclaimed, arms outstretched, his voice humming with an annoying buzz.
He was clearly the leader of these mosquito-like fiends, with the edges of his mouthparts shimmering with a golden hue, just like an elite monster. But now, the System seemed as dead as a doornail, offering no assistance whatsoever.
“Before I d*e, can I ask why you guys have turned into this?”
By now, Song Chuan’s tears had vanished, replaced by a glint of madness in his eyes.
“Maybe this is fate! Who knows?
The first girl I killed was my girlfriend.
She had a neck as long as a swan’s, skin like porcelain, flawless in both reality and the game, a real beauty.
We entered the game together, ready to explore the beautiful Asking Dao continent. I even had a wedding ring ready! Can you imagine how happy we were in those first few days?
But alas, the good times didn’t last.
We got trapped in Sky Sword City, our spirit coins barely enough to buy a bun, so we turned to the guild for help.
But the next day, the guild kicked us out to fight, saying if we didn’t conquer a certain district, we’d starve to d*ath that day.
But we had always been law-abiding, never seen bl**d.
During that battle, she and I cowered in a corner, terrified to harm anyone. After the fight, we thought we could snag a couple of buns, but we got reported and kicked out of the guild without mercy.
We wandered the streets, cold and hungry.
Those days were the worst memories of our lives.
Finally, after a couple of days without a single drop to drink, we collapsed in an alley, barely alive.
Holding hands, we were prepared to leave for the afterlife together.
But at that moment, a figure appeared, telling me that to survive, I had to relinquish all dignity as a human.
Your girlfriend seems quite tasty; don’t you want to be together forever?
I fulfilled my wish.
She’s inside me now.
We are thoroughly fused, never to be apart again.
Right, A Ling…
A Ling gave me strength and the will to live again.
So, I kept recruiting newcomers and teaching them how to survive.
Compared to stinky men, the taste of women is far more delicious. Every time we find a woman, we keep her skin as a memento.
And you, you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.
Don’t worry, we’ll keep you nice and preserved; in the cold, we’ll dry you out and hang you in our base to remember the wonderful times we once had together.”
Lin Nan retorted, “As a scumbag, you sure do like to talk. I can’t stand chatty men—like annoying cicadas, they just drone on and on!”
Song Chuan laughed heartily, “Oh, sharp-tongued woman, don’t you feel a little heavy in your body?”
