Chapter One: Do You Wish to Know the Meaning of Life?

Outside the window, the sound of firecrackers crackled endlessly. This was an utterly ordinary neighborhood, yet even though the New Year was still a month away, every household had already begun setting off firecrackers.

Liu Mengchao sat dazed on the floor. Behind him stood an enormous bookshelf, packed with works on psychology—from Freud’s “The Interpretation of Dreams” to the latest treatises on behavioral psychology, “Microexpression Analysis,” “An Introduction to Behavioral Psychology.” His parents had long since passed away, leaving him only a substantial inheritance and this house full of books.

Books had always been Liu Mengchao’s best friends. His fascination with psychology had become so intense that, when interacting with others, he unconsciously perceived their deepest thoughts… Contempt… Fear… Disgust… His excessive insight into human affairs hadn’t opened the doors to society for him; on the contrary, it had locked him further into his own world.

Until the advent of the internet. It was as if another door had opened for him.

A delicate laptop lay before Liu Mengchao. The 16-inch screen was frozen on an image—a tram halted in place, motionless.

Yet none of this meant anything to Liu Mengchao now.

His chest was drenched in blood. The bright red had already soaked through his white shirt.

“Big brother…”

A faint, barely audible cry for help came from behind him.

Liu Mengchao’s parents had both been only children, and so was he; he had no siblings. By all rights, with the year’s end approaching, who would come to spend the festival with him in his home?

“Help… help me…”

Another cry for help, mingled with the blood on the floor, spreading across the white tiles, slowly turning them red.

The four white walls were now mottled with crimson spots. Even Liu Mengchao’s most cherished bookshelf was stained with swathes of blood.

“None of it matters anymore.”

Liu Mengchao staggered to his feet. Everything he once cared for had changed. Because of one moment’s negligence, it was all lost.

This morning, Liu Mengchao had forgotten to lock the door, and a little girl had pushed it open.

“Big brother… I want some candy.”

The girl wore a pink dress, a yellow bow in her hair, her eyes large and bright. When she smiled, she looked just like a porcelain doll.

“Where are your parents?”

Liu Mengchao paused the video he was watching and crouched down to look at the girl, who barely reached his chest. He always found holidays hard to endure.

Holidays only heightened his longing for family. For Liu Mengchao, all his loved ones had become black-and-white photographs hanging on the wall. As the saying goes, even the best doctor cannot heal himself; no matter how adept he was at psychology, Liu Mengchao could not soothe the loneliness in his heart.

“I don’t know. Big brother, I want candy!”

The little girl tilted her head, stretched out her small hand, and opened her palm.

“All right, come in first.”

Liu Mengchao felt helpless. He was just a high school student, after all; he surely couldn't let the girl stay for long. Sooner or later, he’d have to send her home.

From the moment he welcomed her in, everything that followed felt dreamlike to Liu Mengchao.

There is nothing more moving than warmth delivered in loneliness.

Even the most mundane variety show, with the host’s awkward jokes, became a source of genuine laughter for Liu Mengchao and the little girl.

She… Liu Mengchao glanced at the phone in his hand. Perhaps he could wait a while before calling the police—just let him enjoy a little longer this rare moment of companionship.

“Big brother, big brother! Let’s play Old Maid!”

The girl had somehow produced a deck of cards.

A simple deck—fifty-four cards.

“All right, let’s draw a card first to be the ‘old maid.’”

“No, no!” The girl suddenly lunged at Liu Mengchao, snatching the cards from his hands. “There’s already a card missing in this deck!”

“A card missing?”

“Yes, yes! Big brother, let’s play Old Maid, Old Maid~”

The little girl shook her head as she divided the deck into two piles.

“Big brother, what’s your name? Baiya told me that when you meet someone, you should ask their name; that’s polite. Oh, and I have a name too—my name is Joanna!”

“I’m Liu Mengchao. All right, let’s begin.”

Liu Mengchao adjusted his glasses and looked down at his cards.

A pair of twos, a pair of aces, a pair of kings…

He realized, to his surprise, that his hand was unusually neat, as if he had no single cards at all.

“Yay! Big brother, I’m out of cards!”

Bang!

Suddenly, the door was kicked open!

Damn!

Liu Mengchao’s heart leapt as the door crashed inward. As the year’s end approached, there were always desperate souls—those with no money to return home, forced into a corner, who took up a knife and tried their luck, looking for a careless household they could rob to get through the harsh winter.

The man before him was clearly such a person.

He was in his forties, clothes tattered, hair a tangled mess like roots struck by lightning—black and reeking of a foul odor.

The man’s gaze shifted restlessly, betraying uncertainty. He was no hardened criminal; desperation was the most plausible explanation Liu Mengchao could think of.

But that made it all the more dangerous. Under the immense psychological pressure of robbery, the man could easily snap.

His face was smeared with dirt, but the gleaming fruit knife in his hand made Liu Mengchao wary of making any sudden moves. Even standing up might provoke a frenzied attack.

“You…” The man peered inside, his voice low and sinister. “Don’t be afraid. It's almost the New Year, and with no adults home, I won’t give you a hard time. Give me some money and I’ll leave.”

Money?

He’d broken in, knife in hand, with only Liu Mengchao and a little girl in the house. Was he really here just for money?

The man’s raised arm was clearly defensive. Mentioning “adults” was just a pretense, Liu Mengchao realized.

He was afraid—his first break-in, and the occupants turned out not to be frail elders or helpless children.

Liu Mengchao knew a thousand ways to exploit psychological loopholes to defeat the man, but this was no game. If anything went wrong, Joanna, a child, would be caught up in it.

“Big brother, big brother, who is he?”

Joanna, innocent as ever, pointed at the vagrant by the door, oblivious to the tense atmosphere.

“He… he…” Liu Mengchao’s mind whirled as he thought of a way to reassure her. “He’s here to collect the water bill. I promised to pay him last time.”

“Oh,” Joanna nodded obediently, then suddenly said, “But, big brother, you forgot to take the old maid!”

Old maid?

Liu Mengchao gave a self-deprecating smile. Even now, she was still thinking about the game—truly a child.

“All right, all right…”

“What are you doing? Stop right there!”

The vagrant shouted as he saw Liu Mengchao bend down to pick up something from the table. On the table lay the scattered playing cards—and Liu Mengchao’s phone!

“Don’t think about calling the police!”

Now was not the time to back down. Liu Mengchao noticed the man’s posture shift—from defensive to an attacking stance, arms at his sides, body leaning forward. The initial nervousness had passed; if Liu Mengchao retreated now, it could escalate to murder, robbery—or worse.

Liu Mengchao, versed in psychology, knew never to underestimate human desire. He had to be resolute, or the situation would spiral out of control.

“Don’t frighten the child!”

Liu Mengchao shot the vagrant a cold glance, picked up the old maid card, and slipped it into his pocket.

“Come with me. The money’s in the bedroom. Take it and go; I won’t call the police.”

He stepped in front of Joanna and slowly walked toward the vagrant, increasing the psychological pressure.

“Stay away!” the vagrant shouted, waving his knife. His stance reverted to defense, arms raised.

That was enough. Any further provocation, and the tension could snap, beyond what the vagrant could withstand.

“All right, all right… Let’s take it slow, don’t scare the child… You want money, we just want to stay alive. No need for bloodshed during the holidays.”

Liu Mengchao retreated a few steps, gesturing politely.

“What are you doing!” the vagrant yelled as Liu Mengchao turned. He hadn’t anticipated Joanna’s sudden dash. According to his assessment, she should have sat quietly on the sofa, watching curiously!

Damn!

Everything that happened next felt like a dream. Joanna dashed forward, lunging at the vagrant, her rosy lips chattering, “Baiya said anyone who demands money with a knife is a bad guy!”

Thud!

It was just a fruit knife, wielded by a starving vagrant, but—

A pool of bright blood spread before Liu Mengchao.

It all happened too fast—so fast it felt unreal, too fast for the vagrant himself to believe he’d actually killed someone—a single stab, and a girl not yet ten years old was dead.

Snatching up a flower vase, Liu Mengchao swung it with a whoosh, smashing it into the stunned vagrant.

Crash.

The vagrant staggered, dropping his knife.

A perfect chance!

A wild beast seemed to roar hoarsely within Liu Mengchao. Grabbing the knife, he drove his knee into the vagrant’s chest and stabbed down hard.

Blood gushed from the wound like a spring.

“Big brother…”

A faint cry for help came from behind Liu Mengchao.

“I won’t let you die.” He put the knife on the table and turned to the small, blood-soaked girl.

Joanna—a foreign-sounding name for a girl who looked like a doll.

A girl he’d only met that very day.

A girl who, because of him, now hovered between life and death.

“I’ll call an ambulance right now. Hold on a little longer.”

Sigh…

A soft sigh sounded at Liu Mengchao’s side.

“Who’s there!?” He immediately shielded Joanna. Besides himself, the vagrant, and Joanna, who else could be in the room? It was a woman’s voice, he could tell, older than himself.

“Anna can’t wait for the doctor.”

“You can save her? I’ll do anything, whatever it takes!”

“There isn’t enough time. Within five minutes, you must find a willing participant for the Lord God Game, and a suitable world for Anna.”

“I—I volunteer!”

Liu Mengchao’s eyes reddened as he almost shouted.

“You?” The voice was laced with mocking disbelief.

“Why not? I volunteer! I’m completely willing!”

“Take the card from your pocket and look at it. All of this… is fate.”

A card?

He pulled out the card from his pocket. In the game of Old Maid, you draw a card, remove the pairs, and whoever’s left holding the odd card is the “old maid.”

What he held was the old maid—a gray joker.

But this joker was not the usual jester, but bore two simple words: Lord God.

“Now you understand… For reasons unknown, Joanna chose you as her Lord God proxy. The contract was sealed the moment you drew the gray Lord God card. But there’s no time for explanations—of the five minutes, only three remain.”

Three minutes!

Damn it! Think, think!

At this moment, it felt as though the world was collapsing, and he was powerless.

“Help… help…”

The vagrant’s voice grated on Liu Mengchao’s nerves.

Wait!

“How do I get someone to join the Lord God Game?”

“Two minutes left—it won’t help to tell you. You must find someone and ask, ‘Do you wish to know the meaning of life? Do you want to truly live?’ If he agrees, you’ve succeeded—but it’s impossible.”

“No!”

Liu Mengchao sprang up, snatched the knife, and pressed it to the vagrant’s throat.

“Save me… save me…”

Slap!

A sudden slap brought the blood-drained, barely conscious vagrant back to his senses.

The knife, gleaming silver, was gripped in both Liu Mengchao’s hands, hovering before the man’s eyes.

“I ask you: do you wish to know the meaning of life? Do you want to truly live?” The vagrant’s eyelids fluttered, just as he opened his mouth, Liu Mengchao pressed the knife closer, and a bead of blood welled on his lid.

“If you say no, I’ll kill you right now!”

“Yes! Yes! I want to! I want to!”

A rank stench of urine reached Liu Mengchao’s nose, but he couldn’t care less.

For at that moment, a celestial chime sounded in his ears.

“Ding…

Lord God Game participant detected.

Number of participants: 1

As the Lord God is comatose, a proxy is responsible for world selection and mission issuance.

Current pool: 10.”

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