Chapter 2: Midnight Diner

On a blood-red slip of paper, the task description stood out starkly:

[Within the campus at midnight, there exists a cafeteria that opens its doors only at the witching hour. When the clock strikes twelve, the kitchen fills the air with a metallic tang, and platters of crimson dishes are set upon the tables. Dim candlelight flickers through the dining hall, awaiting a gathering of peculiar guests... You are a server at the Midnight Cafeteria. Please arrive at the school cafeteria before twelve o’clock. As a qualified server, being late is an unforgivable mistake.]

Chen Mu glanced at the time—it was half past nine in the evening, two and a half hours before the task began. The walk to the cafeteria would take no more than ten minutes; plenty of time to make it there.

Unlike Chen Mu’s calm composure, the others were visibly terrified. The classroom was in an uproar. For the past two weeks, rumors of these uncanny tasks had circulated among the students, but none had expected that it would truly happen to someone so close.

“My god, this sort of thing is actually real!”

“What do we do? Someone get a teacher! I heard these weird tasks can kill you!”

“What good would that do? Can’t you see the homeroom teacher is sitting right there? He’s powerless.”

“When faced with something so horrifying, all we can do is hope they survive.”

“Isn’t there any way to avoid doing the task? I want to go home...”

“Not going? Are you trying to die faster? Just a few days ago, in my apartment complex, a man got one of these weird tasks. He was too scared to go, so guess what happened? The moment the task was supposed to start, a red line appeared around his waist—and he split clean in two. They say he struggled for over ten minutes before dying in agony.”

“Those who get chosen are so unlucky. With something this terrifying, who knows how many will still be alive come morning.”

“I just hope I’m not chosen. I’ve always been lucky.”

Chen Mu noticed his deskmate casting him a pitying glance, tinged with a hint of schadenfreude, and quietly inching away as if afraid to catch his misfortune.

He was used to this by now.

Such is human nature!

Those spared from selection believed they could watch from a safe distance, gloating over others’ misfortune, oblivious to the fact that they too were part of the game.

Chen Mu knew his deskmate would receive a strange task of her own in two weeks’ time, and be torn to pieces by a vicious specter during it.

As the final bell rang, students slung their backpacks over their shoulders and hurriedly left the classroom. Not being chosen, they dashed away, hoping the Midnight Cafeteria’s task wouldn’t somehow catch up to them.

The school grew emptier, classroom lights flickering out one by one, until only Chen Mu’s classroom remained illuminated.

The handful of students who had received the task gathered together, each clutching their red slips, faces etched with terror and despair, hands trembling uncontrollably.

Apart from Chen Mu, the rest were all girls from his class.

This didn’t surprise him.

After all, Chen Mu was in the humanities class, where girls far outnumbered boys.

Now, these girls were pale as death, shivering with fear, two of them quietly sobbing.

By contrast, Chen Mu seemed extraordinarily calm.

Five years surviving the apocalypse had steeled his heart; what horrors had he not already witnessed? Besides, he now held a trillion in ghost currency, had already completed this task once before his rebirth—what was there to fear?

What occupied Chen Mu’s mind was how to buy the Midnight Cafeteria.

If he remembered correctly, the Midnight Cafeteria was a hidden gem with immense potential for appreciation. In the latter days of the apocalypse, it hired many top-tier ghost chefs and became a famed luxury hotel.

Countless hungry specters flocked to its doors, some even willing to serve as enforcers for a single meal.

Thus, Chen Mu resolved that his reign through the eerie apocalypse would begin with purchasing the Midnight Cafeteria!

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The cafeteria stood across from the school’s sports field. To avoid being late, the group gathered early at the entrance to wait.

At night, the cafeteria was pitch-black and silent, showing no sign of life.

Minutes ticked by.

With three heavy tolls, midnight arrived.

Within the darkness, candle flames flickered to life, shadows darting just out of sight. At the same time, a faint metallic scent of blood wafted from the cafeteria doors.

“Welcome, young servers, to the Midnight Cafeteria.”

From within, a figure in uniform emerged.

Chen Mu recognized her at once: the cafeteria manager, a female specter.

She wore a crimson uniform and a fitted skirt; if not for the traces of blood at the corners of her mouth, she would have been quite beautiful.

The manager surveyed the group. Amid the trembling girls, Chen Mu’s calm stood out.

She gazed at him twice, apparently surprised by his composure.

“The shift has begun, new servers. I am the manager of the Midnight Cafeteria.

For your own safety, I must explain the rules. Please, remember them well:

1: You must never defy the manager’s orders. Carry out my instructions faithfully.

2: Every guest is a customer. Treat them with courtesy, and whatever they ask—no matter what—you must fulfill their requests. Even I must do so.

3: Your shift lasts two hours. During this time, you may not leave the cafeteria or damage any property within. Violation will be punished.”

With that, the manager beckoned them forward, signaling for Chen Mu and the others to enter.