My name is Shu Hua.

I’m so scared.

I don’t know why I came to this place, but it really terrifies me.

The sky here is red all the time, and the smell in the air makes me want to vomit.

The kind people all died a few days ago. The people who survived are all so frightening.

I finally found a can that had been expired for a long time, but those people actually came with knives to rob me.

I’m so hungry, but I can’t beat those people at all…

Will I starve to death… or be beaten to death?

I hugged the can and hid in a corner, my whole body trembling. What’s going on with this place? Those older brothers and sisters who came out with me all died in just three days…

I miss them so much…

I wonder if Sister Qin Dingdong is okay?

She said she was going out to find food, but she hasn’t come back for three days…

“Hey! I see you!”

Hearing this, I was startled. I looked around—those people hadn’t actually seen me. They were clearly trying to trick me.

A man shouted from the distance, “I advise you not to piss us off! Kid, where can you keep running to?”

Even though I didn’t want to cry, tears kept falling down.

I need to escape… I can’t stay here anymore…

But how can I shake off these people?

When I turned around, I suddenly noticed an iron door behind me.

After thinking for a moment, I gently threw the can in another direction, then opened the iron door behind me and hid inside.

They wanted the can. As long as I gave them the can, I’d be fine.

I picked up a stick from the ground to brace the iron door, then walked further inside.

It was very dark inside the iron door, and it smelled even worse than outside… What should I do?

“Is… is anyone there…?” I carefully walked forward a few steps, but the next second I heard my own echo.

It seemed this room wasn’t very large.

I was so terrified… I needed to find a place to hide.

But it was so empty in here. How could I possibly hide…?

I kept groping around the room when I suddenly heard footsteps outside the door.

Those people were coming!

I was so scared I ran a couple steps, but tripped over something. I only felt that what was under my feet was soft and sticky.

“Hey! Are you in there?!”

The iron door received an impact.

“You better come out right now!”

The iron door kept being struck. Each booming sound felt as if it was hitting my body, making me tremble uncontrollably…

“The… the can is yours!” I wanted to shout with authority, but my voice cracked as soon as I spoke. Still, I forced myself to say, “I don’t have the can anymore! I… I… I won’t eat it… you guys eat it…”

“What stupid nonsense are you saying…” The man outside kept shaking the iron door. “Fuck, there are four of us! Four grown men eating one can?!”

“Then… then what do you want to eat?!” Right after I asked, I felt a bit of regret.

My scalp began to tingle, spreading to every part of my body. I couldn’t even stand properly anymore.

So I wouldn’t be beaten to death or starve to death… I would be eaten by these people.

I cried until I couldn’t breathe. I really didn’t know what to do anymore.

My blurry eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness in the room. Through the dimness, I seemed to see something dark lying in the center of the room.

Was it… a person?

I mustered my courage and stood up. At this moment, I had no other options. If there was someone else in this room… could he save me?

I groped my way over and stepped on it with my foot. His body was very hard, like a mannequin.

“He… hello?” I asked bravely, slowly approaching him, but smelled an even stronger stench.

He seemed to be dead, and had been dead for a long time.

I felt his body. He seemed to be wearing a very worn suit, but why would he die here?

“Fuck… this door is braced…” The muffled voice from outside came again. “Move aside, I’m going to ram it open.”

It’s over. I might die.

My whole body was terribly cold, and my hands were trembling. In my confusion, I touched something furry.

It was a mask.

“Ah!” I let out a startled cry.

I’d seen this kind of mask before. These were what the “Referees” wore!

This was my only option. As long as I wore this mask, I could pretend to be a Referee!

In this dark room, this mask would give me a one percent chance of survival…

I took the mask off. I could clearly see that the person’s face had completely rotted. Some blackened skin had stuck to the mask. When the mask left the body, some sticky red threads pulled away from his face, leaving behind a bright red face.

I didn’t have time to think so much now. I could only endure the stench and put it on my own head.

“Bang!”

With a loud crash, the iron door was rammed open. The dark red light from outside shone in, and only then could I see my surroundings clearly. This was an abandoned warehouse, pitifully small in area.

I stood dumbly by the wall, not daring to say a word.

I had wanted to bluff with a self-introduction to scare them away, but I didn’t even know what animal was on my head.

“Mouse…?” The leading man looked at me with some confusion.

“Mouse? Right… mouse…” I nodded forcefully. “I advise you to leave quickly… I, I’m a ‘Mouse-Man’…”

“Mouse-Man?” The leading man was stunned, then burst out laughing. “Hahahaha!”

I knew then that I didn’t even have a one percent chance of survival anymore.

They weren’t afraid of me.

“And you’re fucking calling yourself ‘Mouse-Man’…” The leading man slowly came to my side. “You can’t even pretend properly.”

“You… please let me go…” I felt my legs go weak, and I was about to collapse to the ground. “Please… I’m just an ordinary student…”

“No, no, no.” The leading man shook his head. “After today, you won’t be ordinary anymore. We’ll first turn you into a ‘woman,’ then use you to fill our bellies. You’ll be our savior.”

“What…”

Hearing this, I finally collapsed to the ground.

Before me were four tall men holding sticks and knives. They blocked the warehouse’s only door. What should I do?

“Bro, do we kill her first or play first?” one man spoke up.

“Kill her first, otherwise she’ll keep moving around.” The leading man walked over with his knife.

Watching him slowly approach, I felt my mind go blank. I found myself missing Grandma.

I still haven’t gone back to cook for Grandma…

At the instant the knife was about to fall, another person suddenly appeared in the room.

When he appeared, he was still holding a bloody human head in his hand—it was the leading man’s.

What was happening…?

In the span of a few flashes, this completely naked man was somehow holding four human heads. Crimson blood splattered all over my mask.

Looking again, those four headless bodies slowly fell down.

The naked man threw away the heads in his hands, then helped me up.

Looking at his strange appearance, I couldn’t say a word.

He brought his face close to my body, sniffed gently a few times, then said very gently, “Little sister, you are ‘Man-Mouse,’ not ‘Mouse-Man.’ If you say it wrong, it could be troublesome.”