[Rule-based horror + infinite realms + System + sweet on the outside, dark within + sharp-tongued + sunny disposition + counterattacks + subverting expectations + two equally powerful leads]
Lin Wan, an office worker who’s just been laid off, accidentally travels back to her senior year of high school while delivering takeout.
Before she can even reminisce about her youth, a shrill, eerie laugh rings out over the school broadcast: “Welcome, players, to the exam hall death game.”
You can’t eat in the cafeteria. You can’t sleep in the dormitory. Every answer you write in the exam hall determines your own fate.
The rules grow more absurd with each passing moment. Break even one, and the System will erase you on the spot, leaving not even your name behind.
As an adult who’s been beaten down by reality, Lin Wan returns with her hard-won experience of being cheated by employment contracts, ready to exploit the dungeons’ bugs.
Expect comedy, absurdity, deduction, warmth, and twists, along with pointed questions about exam-oriented education.
Five stages grow increasingly challenging: the cafeteria, the dormitory, the classroom, the exam hall, and university applications. Each dungeon has its own rules, yet they overlap, and every stage brings us closer to the truth behind the college entrance exam System. It isn’t designed to select talented people, but to decide who’s worth exploiting further.
Everyone is struggling: not one of the villains in the dungeons was born evil. They’re parts stripped of their value by the System, workers whose contracts renew automatically, and broken remnants who’ve been crushed by society only to be dragged back into the dungeons and put to work again.
A sweet-on-the-outside, dark-within upperclassman × a clear-eyed office-worker heroine: The upperclassman is a hidden powerhouse who sits at the edge of the dungeon eating crispy noodles. The System reclaimed his name and erased his identity, putting him beyond the reach of its rules. Cold-faced and cold-hearted, he has waited decades to test his theory for breaking the System.
Twists come thick and fast: everyone you think is a villain has a hidden identity, and anyone you believe is an ally may be standing behind the curtain. The story continues
