National Fate: My Shadow Is a Snake That Only Eats Uncanny Wives

The National Destiny Horror Game descends, and Xia State draws a hellish scenario from the start. Ninety-nine players enter the Midnight Medical College. Seven rules are written in blood on the wall. The nurses never smile. The morgue lights must never go out. If another version of yourself is standing in the elevator, close your eyes at once. The players in my group die one by one, black insect eggs pouring from their mouths, noses, eyes, and ears. Everyone is trembling, frantically memorizing every rule. I’m the only one who crouches down and says to the snake in my shadow, “Hungry? Go eat.” The shadow splits open, and a giant black snake raises its head. It doesn’t bite the nurse. It bites the rule itself. The moment the rule shatters, a woman in a Republican-era nurse’s uniform kneels amid the light. She looks up, a beauty mark at the corner of her eye. “My name is Su Wanqing. My little sister is still waiting for me to come home.” 【System Notice: Release progress for the Ghost Bride: 1/999. Xia State’s National Destiny ranking rises to 39th.】 The live comments go wild. A woman from the Rule Research Institute grabs my wrist. “Your snake will make you its next Ghost Bride.” I look down at the golden slit pupils in my shadow. It is staring into her eyes. Rules are chains for other people. Rules are food for my snake. Xia State rises from 47th place to number one in the world. The price is that her face has begun to grow on the back of my hand.