Dreadful Radio Game

“Bang!”

There was one thing faster than the paper man’s knife.

A bullet.

In the stories of Dreadful Radio, everything would be enhanced.

Take the dead white-collar lady for example: she turned into something like a zombie. The paper man was horrible— its scissors were even faster and more powerful than a bullet; but right now, this was the real world, not the story world of Dreadful Radio.

Therefore, though the paper man was scary, it was much weaker than it had been in the story world. Definitely neither so horrible nor so creepy. Su Bai was sure about that.

Su Bai had kept one of his hands in his pocket; actually, he was keeping the gun against this man sitting on the bed in front of him.

Facing a guy who was capable of murdering two people in such a cruel way, Su Bai would never let his guard down. Besides, who Liu He had killed were his own roommate and ex-girlfriend, not some random irrelevant people.

“Thump…”

Liu He fell off Chen Chu’s bed. He lied there on his side, with blood running out from a bullet wound on his chest. That paper man who was ready to attack Su Bai from behind had also fell down helplessly and became an ordinary paper man again.

Su Bai stood up and walked to Liu He.

“You are carrying… a gun?” Liu He said, a little desperately. Then he smiled sadly; there was blood coming out from his mouth.

“Just took it from a friend. I had no choice. I’m not so confident to face you.”

Just then, the door opened. Su Bai thought it was Chu Zhao who had hurried up after realizing his gun was gone, or students from other rooms coming to check out, but the person who came in was Childe Hai.

Childe Hai’s thick hair in front of his forehead was waving up and down, and he was breathing heavily. Apparently, he had come at a really high speed. Behind him, several fireflies turned into red and then exploded.

“Plop…”

“Plop…”

“Plop…”

There came several muffled sounds.

“Are you nuts? Fire in a dormitory? Are you really capable of handling social affairs? Even I can’t deal with that!”

Childe Hai was apparently very dissatisfied with Su Bai, but Su Bai understood. Childe Hai hurried here and helped to muffle the sound of that shot with his capability.

“Or what?” Su Bai stood up and looked at Childe Hai. “Wait until you kill him?”

Childe Hai looked at Su Bai with a little astonishment. “You knew?”

Su Bai shook his head, “Not much. But one thing is clear, if I kill him in the real world, I will get extra points in Dreadful Radio; at least I’ll make a good expression.”

“Ha ha. That really sounds like what Dreadful Radio would do.”

Childe Hai was a little weird. He said he was mad at Su Bai before, but now he seemed to be so calm.

“In fact, I am more willing to believe that nothing will ever happen to me even if you didn’t cover up for me with that shot.”

Childe Hai touched his nose. Then he crouched down by Liu He’s body, confirmed his death and started searching Liu He’s bed without any more chatting.

“How come there’s nothing useful? Tut, metaphysics followers are hard to come across, and I have been expecting to get something from him! Turns out he didn’t have even one instrument of the lowest level!”

Childe Hai seemed upset.

“I don’t think he controlled those paper men in the same way as you do. He himself is psychic.” Su Bai said, “So he was relying on some untold connection between him and the paper men instead of anything else.”

“So he was really talented?”

Childe Hai looked at Liu He in the blood and shook his head, “What a shame! It’s a great pity he was shot to death here. If he was chosen to be an audience of Dreadful Radio, he would have taken off like a bug in the system.”

“Dreadful Radio would want this kind of person?” Su Bai wondered, “A murderer?”

Saying this, Su Bai suddenly remembered that he himself was a murderer too, and he had killed even more people than Liu He did; although those people he killed were not innocent, they didn’t deserve death.

“Don’t think Dreadful Radio as justice after only two experience stories. It’s not Zhong Kui[1] or Judge[2]; this is only an entertainment program- a horrible entertainment program, and we are just its humble walking-on actors that can be sacrificed anytime for creating some atmosphere or plots… Hum, among the audience, there are so many creepy psychos; even those who were not psychopath will become psychopath after several stories.”

Su Bai nodded.

“What are the other rules of this radio game?” He asked.

“Such as?”

“Such as, don’t make random kills or attack other audience at will in reality?”

“Well, that’s true.” Childe Hai nodded, “It’s not absolutely forbidden to kill someone in reality, but if you have killed too many innocent people or kill without any reason, you will be listed in the next story, and there will be someone assigned to enter this story and kill you. Then, when you die in the story, you die in reality in a natural way, causing no suspicion. Attacking other audience in reality is even worse than attacking normal people, unless you do have deep hatred against each other. See, sometimes, the radio game is reasonable and fair.”

“And in the story?” Su Bai continued.

“In the story, limitation is actually not as strict as in reality: audience can attack each other if they want, as long as the plot is not affected. Of course, the precondition is not to destroy the story.

“Those two guys had deceived you to that rented apartment because they didn’t dare to force you by that time. Since you were apparently a participant in that story- you were an original participant and an audience- they were afraid of making too much influence so they couldn’t simply capture you and bring you there.”

“So, when I entered that room, they immediately attacked me, because I was already unable to make any influence on the story, right?”

“Bingo. They were wrong about the time. In fact, about this case, all the audience had made some investigation, therefore we all had some rough knowledge about its details and other information; but they still made a wrong judgement about the time. They did the wrong thing at the wrong time and tried to attack you, a character that shouldn’t die at that time, so the consequence… was quite simple: the paper man showed up. Because it was not the right time, only one hand appeared, but it was enough.”

“How about you?” Su Bai looked at Childe Hai.

Childe Hai narrowed his eyes and shrugged his shoulders. “I didn’t make a wrong judgement about the time. During that period, Chen Chu and his girlfriend had already been killed, that particular plot had already happened. After that, there would be no possibility of changing that plot, because we, the audience, had become the supporters; it was because we had become the walking-on actors in the story that the story was able to move on.”

Then, Childe Hai looked at the body again and smiled to Su Bai. “Now, I can show you the terrible part of Dreadful Radio. Since this guy is written in a story of Dreadful Radio, killing or executing him in reality will also be part of accomplishing the task of Dreadful Radio. So you will not get extra story points, but you will make a good impression, as you have guessed. A good impression will help you get a little good luck in the next story.”

Childe Hai opened the door and hinted Su Bai to go out with him.

The door was wide open and the lights in the room were still on.

Just then, a student woke up and went to the toilet. He seemed to have ignored Su Bai and Childe Hai. When he walked past this room, he took a quick glance and then burst into a sharp scream!

Next, the whole building was disturbed, the gatekeeper came and even Chu Zhao had come upstairs. Chu Zhao rushed into the room, made a quick check and immediately cried:

“Heart attack! He’s in shock! Call 120[3]! Call for help!”

Su Bai saw Chu Zhao carry Liu He out. There was no trace of a bullet hole on Liu He’s body, but his lips were dark, his face was pale, and his hands and feet were cold.

Su Bai took out the gun and pulled out the clip; he was surprised to see that the bullet he shot to kill Liu He was still in there… Not a single bullet was missing from the clip.

Childe Hai moved his face closer to Su Bai’s shoulder and said quietly:

“Don’t you think it’s creep? Because…

…the day you become an audience…

…you…

…will feel as if you’re entirely stripped off from the world.”

—————————————

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Zhong Kui: In Chinese folklore, Zhong Kui is a god that can beat off evil.

[2] Judge: In Chinese folklore, there is a judge in hell judging dead people’s souls. It is said that the Judge may have a vicious face but he is actually kind and fair-minded.

[3] 120: In China people call 120 for medical help; it’s similar to 911 in the U.S..