Han Jiang's golden eyes suddenly narrowed.
A blinding white flash swallowed everything around him.
In that split second, the sea of bodies vanished completely. All the heavy pushing from thousands of shoulders, all the noisy panicked voices, they were gone just like that.
Now only cold open air hit him. It carried a strong sharp smell of rust and old metal, the kind you find on a dirty warehouse floor that no one ever cleans.
He blinked a few times, hard. His new sharper vision slowly adjusted to the change.
"Can't be right?" he muttered under his breath.
This place looked exactly like the game he remembered from his last life. That children's game that turned into a nightmare — Red Light, Green Light. But something felt very wrong here.
Under his sneakers, the ground was not the usual packed dirt or sand. It was smooth cold concrete, cracked in some spots, with faint brownish-red stains that looked way too much like dried blood.
Above his head, the sky stretched out as nothing but pure endless black.
No moon showed up. No stars. Not even a single cloud.
Yet light still came down anyway. Harsh white artificial glow poured straight from two giant floating screens that hung high up in the darkness ahead.
Left screen flashed a bright red digital countdown:
**10:00**.
It stayed frozen. Not moving at all yet.
Right screen only showed one huge white number:
**1,000**.
Han Jiang stood somewhere in the middle of a loose crowd, about a thousand people scattered behind that glowing yellow line on the concrete. The line kept pulsing like it was breathing.
Chaos broke out right away.
A middle-aged man in a wrinkled business shirt suddenly yelled, his voice cracking hard. "Why only one thousand people here?! The doll said over a hundred thousand! Did it mess up? Are we the only ones left?!"
Right beside him, a young woman in pajamas hugged her own arms tight, tears already running down her cheeks. "This can't be real… I just read that stupid forum post because I couldn't sleep! Now I'm stuck here? Where did everyone else go?!"
A tall guy in a hoodie pushed forward roughly, almost knocking an old woman over. "Get out of my way! I need to check the front! Maybe there's an exit behind those big screens!"
"Watch where you're going!" the old woman snapped back, stumbling a bit but steadying herself. "We're all in the same mess, you idiot!"
Not far away, a college student with messy hair waved his dead phone high in the air. "No signal at all! Nothing! And only a thousand people? That doll lied! Or… or maybe it split everyone up. One thousand per game, something like that. The rest must be standing in the same kind of field somewhere else!"
Han Jiang kept scanning the huge screens again and again. His enhanced senses caught every little detail. The concrete under his feet felt way too cold, and that metallic-rust smell grew stronger, sticking thick at the back of his throat.
"It seems the game hasn't started yet," Han Jiang muttered under his breath, almost like talking to the empty air around him.
But Wang Bo, the guy who somehow stuck right next to him after the teleport, caught every word.
Wang Bo's chubby face looked white as paper right now. That dark shoe-print bruise on his cheek stood out even sharper. "Bro… you're Han Jiang, yeah? This is crazy. Only a thousand people here? We were just drowning in that huge crowd of over a hundred thousand! Feels like they split us into small groups or something. And that countdown… only ten minutes left? What the hell is going to happen after ten minutes?"
Han Jiang opened his mouth to reply, but he never got the chance.
All around them, more voices suddenly exploded in panic, rising like a messy wave that swallowed everything.
A skinny teenager suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs. "We should form groups anyway! That doll said no teams, but who cares! Strength in numbers, right!"
"Yeah!" another voice shouted right after. "If we all stick together and run, maybe that thing can't watch every single one of us!"
Right then, a woman in her thirties burst into loud crying. "My baby is still at home with the babysitter… I can't die here like this! Please, someone, anyone, help me!"
The whole place turned messy fast. People started shoving each other hard. Elbows jabbed into ribs. Feet crushed toes without care. A small bunch tried to push their way to the front, but others who wanted the same spot shoved them back even harder.
"Stop pushing!" an older man roared out loud. "You'll get us all killed before this thing even starts!"
In the middle of all the pushing and shouting, a calm but strong voice suddenly cut through the chaos.
"Everyone, please! Just listen to me for a second!"
The one speaking was a tall, athletic young man wearing a clean school uniform. White shirt, dark trousers, and that student council armband still stuck on his sleeve. He looked about nineteen or twenty, with short black hair and a serious face that stayed steady.
He lifted both hands high, trying to make the noisy crowd settle down.
"I'm Li Wei, the president of the student council at Jiangnan No. 3 High School. I know everything feels scary right now, but panicking like this won't help anyone. Let's think carefully about what that doll actually said."
People slowly turned toward him. Some stopped shoving.
Li Wei kept talking. His voice stayed calm, like nothing could shake him.
"The doll called this game 'Red Light, Green Light — Squid Edition.' It took that old children's game and twisted it bad. When it says Green Light, you run. Run hard toward the finish line three hundred meters away. When it says Red Light, you stop. Freeze completely. No moving. No twitching. Nothing at all. If you move even a little… boom. You are gone.
It also said we play this alone. No real teams. Because the Lost One — Liu Wei — wants to watch who still remembers him deep inside. Still, that doesn't stop us from staying calm. We can think smart when the chance comes."
He lifted his hand and pointed straight at the big screens.
"Look. The countdown shows ten minutes left before it begins. Use this time. Breathe slow. Move close to the yellow line but don't step over it. Get your mind ready. Stop wasting breath on fights. Save every bit of strength for the running part."
His eyes swept over everyone around him. The air felt heavy. No one spoke right away. The cold floor under their feet made the waiting even worse.
A few people around nodded slowly. Their faces looked a little less tight now. Someone finally sounded like he knew what he was talking about.
But not all of them felt the same.
"Easy for you to talk, pretty boy!" a big construction worker with thick arms suddenly growled. His voice was rough and loud. "You look like you run every morning. Some of us here are already out of shape!"
"Yeah!" a short woman jumped in right after. Her eyes were wide with worry. "And what if that doll is lying? What if just freezing still not enough? What if breathing too hard already counts as movement?!"
The words hung in the cold air. A few others shifted on their feet, suddenly nervous again. The yellow line on the ground seemed closer than before.
Li Wei tried hard to hold things together.
"We must take the rules exactly as they are," he said, voice still steady. "That doll looked... childish. It likes to see us scared. So just stay calm. Run only when it says Green Light. Stop right away when it says Red Light. That is the only real chance we have."
Han Jiang stood there quietly. He watched this self-appointed leader with a bit of interest. Li Wei had that kind of presence. The type that made others listen, at least for some time.
Then another voice cut in. Sharp. Full of confidence.
"Li Wei, like always. Acting like you know everything."
The one who spoke was a girl around the same age. She also wore a school uniform, but an armband for vice president sat on her sleeve. Long black hair tied into a neat ponytail. Sharp eyes. She gave off a quiet feeling of authority.
She stood a few meters away from Li Wei. Arms crossed tight over her chest.
The air between them suddenly felt heavier. No one dared to speak for a second.