Chen Jin, a former detective and instance-game player. Three years ago, he pocketed an old red invitation from a missing-person case. It was dated 1992 and addressed to Zhang Yi, a Chongqing factory worker who had been missing for thirty years. He had pored over it a thousand times without finding anything unusual, but still couldn't bring himself to destroy it.
On the day players were assigned their instances, the preview showed the words Wangshou Hollow · A Joyous Funeral. The village name matched the one on the invitation exactly. He didn't use a delay or request a reroll. He got on the bus.
On his first night in the village, five vermilion name plaques hung outside the four rooms in the guest courtyard. The first bore his real name, spelled exactly right, even though he'd never told it to anyone. At the banquet, one of the eight signature dishes was missing. The invitation in his pocket, which should never have been there, changed on its own, adding his birth date and time at the bottom.
No one had invited him. Wangshou Hollow had saved him a place.
And Zhang Yi's name had been nailed to the village's guest graveyard thirty years ago.
