Chapter 1: The Mysterious Blood Flower

  In the pitch-black room, a cigarette was quietly burning, its dark red ember flickering on and off, casting a hazy reflection of a tired face shrouded in smoke.

  Playing games really has no future? What should I do to change my fate?

  In the darkness, Su Hong sat numbly in his chair, his face filled with anxiety and confusion. He lit one cigarette after another, but never took a puff, just staring blankly into space as if making some difficult and painful decision.

  "Cough... cough..."

  A series of coughs, painful yet desperately suppressed, came from outside the house, and Su Hong's heart suddenly tightened with worry. He quickly got up and walked hastily to his familiar computer desk.

  Su Hong pressed the bright button to turn off the LCD screen, opened QQ, and found a very lewd **** head from the dead party column. She sent a message asking: "Haozi, how's the thing I asked you to do before? Is there any news?"

  "Hey, I've taken care of it. Don't worry? I've already contacted a top-notch game studio in the country and they're very interested. They've agreed to your price of 300,000 yuan, just waiting for you to make the transfer. But as your brother, I still want to remind you again, are you really going to sell all these gaming equipment and accounts that you've poured your heart and soul into? I know your mother's health is not good and she needs surgery funds urgently, but doing it this way may alleviate the immediate pressure, but how will your family make a living in the future?"

  Su Hong fell silent, which was also the source of his previous entanglement and distress. As a professional player, he spent almost all his time playing games except for eating and sleeping. He had played all popular online games on the market, and with his excellent gaming talent and keen insight, he became well-known in the gaming circle, at least able to support his family through his own efforts.

  But just as his career in the gaming industry was starting to take off, he received devastating news at home: his mother had been diagnosed with lung cancer and needed surgery as soon as possible to prevent the spread of cancer cells.

  Su Hong's family was not well-off, his parents had retired early due to an accident and were idle at home. The family didn't have much savings, and the cost of treating his mother's illness was high, with just the initial surgery costing tens of thousands of yuan, plus the expensive treatment fees afterwards, they needed to prepare at least 300,000 yuan.

  This large sum of money is an unbearable burden for Su Hong's family. After thinking repeatedly for a whole day, Su Hong had no other way but to sell his game account and equipment.

  So, despite having a lot of reluctance in her heart, Su Hong gritted her teeth and replied: "Haozi, I've already made up my mind. The digital card passwords for those game accounts and equipment will be sent to your email soon. You help me sell them, okay?"

  Hao Zi sent a sighing expression from the other side, and didn't say anything else. A minute later, Su Hong's mobile banking secretary sent a text message notification, showing that a sum of 300,000 yuan had just been transferred to his account, which means the transaction was completed.

  Su Hong smiled bitterly and shook his head, knowing that from this moment on, those high-level game accounts and top-notch equipment had already gone far away from him. If he wanted to start all over again, it was no longer possible. In online games, especially for professional players like him, falling behind by one step meant falling behind by every step, making it difficult to catch up.

  But soon Su Hong tidied up her emotions, stopped thinking about it, took out a bank card from the drawer, stood up and walked out of the house.

  In the living room, Su Hong's mother, Wang Chunjuan, finally stopped coughing and asked with guilt when she saw Su Hong come out: "Xiao Hong, did I scold you? It's all my fault for getting this illness, affecting the whole family and making no one live in peace."

  Seeing the bloodstains at the corner of her mother's mouth that had not been wiped clean, Su Hong's eyes reddened slightly. She picked up a towel and walked over to help her mother wipe it clean before taking out the bank card and saying: "Mom, from now on, you're not allowed to say things like that again. It's me, your son, who should be feeling guilty for spending all day playing games and not taking good care of you. I've already prepared the money for your hospital treatment. Tomorrow morning, we'll go to the hospital. Fortunately, it was discovered early, and it's still in the early stages of lung cancer. As long as it hasn't spread, there's hope for recovery. With medical advancements these days, I believe you'll definitely get better, Mom."

  "How did you get so much money for hospital treatment?" Wang Chunjuan asked, holding the bank card in her hand, somewhat at a loss.

  Before Su Hong could respond, his father, who was decocting Chinese medicine in the kitchen, walked out after hearing the commotion and asked with a soft sigh: "Didn't you sell your game account and equipment that you've worked hard to build up over the past few years?"

  Su Hong's father, Su Jing, was only in his early forties, but years of depression had made a middle-aged man who should have been strong and energetic look like an old man. His hair was already gray, and his face was full of deep wrinkles, making him look much older than his peers.

  "Dad, take mom to the hospital tomorrow, treating her illness is the priority, don't worry about other things, I'll handle them." Su Hong said with a smile.

  "Son, it's all my fault that I'm useless. You and your mother have suffered for so many years. Once we get through this tough time, I'll go out and find a job to help share some of the burden with you." Su Jing's face was filled with complex emotions, his eyes towards his son full of guilt. Since he got out of prison, he had been drowning his sorrows in drink every day, muddling along aimlessly. If not for Su Hong making money through gaming to supplement their household income, who knows when they would have gone hungry.

  "Dad, your body has been poor for a long time, don't force it anymore. Don't worry, I'll hold up this family. It's getting late, you guys should rest early, and we have to get up early tomorrow to go to the hospital." Su Hong smiled and patted his own chest, not wanting the atmosphere to be too sad, and turned around to walk towards his own small house.

  Su Hong had never thought his father was incompetent, but rather too honest. After accidentally discovering the middle school principal's molestation of a young female student, Su Jing, who was then a teacher, chose to report it to the police without hesitation. However, just as he was about to seek justice for the victim, the principal unexpectedly used his connections to reach a private settlement with the victim's family and even framed Su Jing, sending him to prison where he suffered greatly. To this day, the unjust charges have not been cleared, and since then, his father has been disheartened and depressed, drowning his sorrows in alcohol every day.

  Su Hong knew that his father was an honest and kind person, and he also understood the bitterness and depression in his father's heart, so he wouldn't blame his father for anything.

  After returning to his small house, Su Hong habitually walked to the computer desk, but just as he sat down, he suddenly woke up with a start and couldn't help but smile wryly. He had already lost the capital to be a professional player, and if he were to start again from scratch, it would take an enormous amount of time. But what he lacked most now was time. The 300,000 yuan seemed like a lot, but with the exorbitant hospital expenses, it was hard to say how long it could last. He had to make plans early and think of ways to make money.

  Su Hong roughly calculated an account, his parents' medical insurance was cut off by the principal of that school through connections a few years ago due to the accident. In the absence of any medical reimbursement, 300,000 yuan can barely support half a year at most, and the time left for him is not long. How to make as much money as possible in this limited half-year period is his main concern.

  Just as Su Hong ruthlessly deleted all the games and opened the webpage to log in to the job recruitment website to see if he could find a suitable job, his computer screen suddenly went completely black, with a beautiful blood flower blooming from the center of the screen, instantly rendering the entire screen a strange bloody red color.

  "Are you poisoned?"

  This was Su Hong's first reaction, but soon he shook his head. Not to mention that his computer configuration is extremely high, and in order to protect the security of his game account, he installed the world's best antivirus software. He himself is also a computer expert, and no matter what kind of hardware or software problem, he can easily handle it with one hand. And having played computers for so many years, he really hadn't seen such a strange screen phenomenon before.

  There was another point that made Su Hong most puzzled, and that was the blood flower that occupied the entire computer screen was too eerie. It was vividly lifelike, with each petal seeming to burn like a flame, emitting a crimson glow that captivated one's soul.

  Su Hong bent down to restart the computer, but what shocked him was that the computer had no reaction. Even when he cut off the entire power source in a fit of anger, his computer screen still glowed with an eerie, blood-red light that grew more and more intense.

  "Only in a true death game, after being tempered by blood and fire, can one obtain the strongest bloodline inheritance. Want to control your own destiny? Then start a real death game."

  Just as Su Hong was in a state of shock, the strange blood flower on the computer screen changed again. A line of blood-colored text appeared before his eyes, accompanied by a countdown timer that began to tick backwards.

  "Is there only a ten-second decision time?" Su Hong couldn't help but laugh, and regardless of how strange the whole thing was, beyond reason, just this sentence alone had a strong inducing effect. Who wouldn't want to truly control their own destiny? At least for him, in order to cure his old mom's illness, to make his disheartened dad regain his spirit, to continue his gaming career, he really wanted to tightly grasp the throat of fate, vent freely, and then trample it underfoot.

  But is this possible?

  Su Hong shook her head and smiled lightly, thinking that this was just an extremely clever prank. She didn't care about the so-called "death game" or what the strongest bloodline was. She prepared to bend down again to check once more, wondering if she had made a mistake earlier. Hadn't she turned off the power source?

  But Su Hong couldn't laugh for long, because as his thoughts gave a definite answer, that strange blood flower actually passed through the computer screen, transformed into a bloody light, and merged into his body. A scorching burning sensation surged from his left chest heart area, and before he could lower his head to look, his entire person was completely enveloped by the strange blood halo.

  ……