Vol. 1 Chapter 1

Midnight. Siliken City.

A husky ran happily through a remote alleyway, its stride confident and agile. It leapt over the mechanical prosthetic remains scattered on the ground, and then—

The dog’s face smashed straight into the pavement, sliding half a meter forward.

“Wooaao!”

A full-body wipeout like that would socially kill a human on the spot, but for a husky, it was standard procedure.

Without the slightest embarrassment, it sprang back up, proudly raised its dog head, and charged forward again full of energy.

Along the way, it knocked over three homeless men squatting outdoors to relieve themselves, kicked away a food can in front of a crow with one paw… and, out of curiosity, briefly bit the big black bird’s metal head.

Crunch! Bzzz—

The electronic surveillance crow issued a dying warning:

“Please do not damage the city security system! Malicious destruction will result in joint prosecution by Sunny Corporation and the government—bzzz!”

The husky chewed the large lump of metal in its mouth a few times, then spat out a mouthful of mechanical parts in disgust.

Chaos erupted behind it.

But a good husky never looks back at the demolition site, just like a real man never looks back at explosions.

The dog enthusiastically sprinted onward again, leaving behind the neon lights of Siliken City—including the nonstop electronic advertisements mixed together with curses shouted through the streets:

“What the hell just hit me?! Fuck, I fell face-first into shit!”

“Welcome to Siliken City!”

“High-end mechanical prosthetics, premium neural chip implants—Sunny Corporation, your best choice.”

“Am I seeing things? Was that… a dog? Holy shit! A living animal! Even in Siliken City, only rich people can afford those expensive things. How did one end up in a place like this?”

“—Why are you still standing around? Chase it! Maybe there’s profit to squeeze out of it!”

Urgent, heavy footsteps echoed through the alleyways, only to be drowned out again by the citywide electronic advertisements:

“…Sunny Corporation will officially launch public welfare services in half a month.”

“All visitors holding proof of financial hardship, regardless of whether they are legal citizens of Siliken City, may receive free mechanical prosthetics and neural chip implants, including future upgrades and maintenance…”

There were always foolish two-legged creatures who tried to chase down a husky without a leash.

In the darkness, the husky turned back provocatively and snorted lightly, almost like a horse.

Its sleek, muscular body flashed through the winding alleys like a black-and-white bolt of lightning. Under the dumbfounded stares of the homeless men, it leapt effortlessly onto the top of a five-meter-high brick wall.

The smog over Siliken City never dispersed year-round. The night was darker than in any other era.

Standing atop the wall, the husky gazed down through the dense darkness. Its shockingly blue eyes looked like two ghostly flames burning coldly in the night.

“…”

The homeless men instinctively stopped in unison, their expressions twisting strangely.

Weird.

Too weird.

That was obviously just a dog, yet somehow, from those ghost-fire blue eyes, they sensed an untouchable superiority and an authority that instinctively robbed them of speech.

Moonlight pierced through the haze and poured down.

The dog slowly raised its head.

“Awooooo—”

“…”

The homeless men were instantly awakened from the atmosphere by the horrible howl:

“—Holy fuck! That sounds awful! Is this dog deliberately provoking us?! Did it just grin at me?! It— it even gave me side-eye! Fuck, don’t stop me! I’m gonna kill this thing!”

“Calm down. That dog… looks like a husky, right? Dogs of that breed are all like this. Universally immoral. But… how the hell did it jump that high? Can normal dogs even do that?”

“Are you stupid? Its owner definitely installed prosthetics in it! And those eyes are probably modified too. Since when do dogs have eyes like warning lights that glow blue through the smog? Anyone else would think they’d run into one of those special ops cyborg soldiers that kill without blinking. Scared the shit out of me…”

【Bzzz——】

A sharp electronic screech suddenly rang out without warning.

It pierced through their eardrums, overpowering every other sound until only a cold electronic voice echoed in their ears:

【Welcome to the Infinite Flow Game.】

【Please state your name within three seconds. Failure to comply will result in elec—】

“Woof!”

Unable to bear the noise, the husky arched its back and scratched at its ears with a paw.

【Player name registered: Wu Wang】

The emotionless electronic system announced:

【Loading instance.】

【3】

【2】

【1】

【Ding……】

 •••

It was a pure white room.

So white that the walls themselves seemed to glow.

The room was a regular hexagon with an extremely high ceiling. Judging by the height, if it were built for the husky newly named “Wu Wang” by the electronic idiot system, at least a dozen loft floors could fit inside.

—Yet there wasn’t even a single door.

The electronic voice continued speaking human language, showing no intention of adapting flexibly:

【■■ Time: 12 o’clock sharp】

【Arrived at Black Tower World C426983.】

【Mission: Survive for ten days.】

“…”

The dog paid no attention to it.

Wu Wang’s fluffy dog face vividly displayed humanlike shock. One raised paw froze stiffly in midair, creating the exact expression of a meme that read:

“Running free with the wind is fre—wait, where the hell did you bring me?”

Even its tail curled into a confused question mark.

“What the—where is this?!”

A startled human voice came from nearby.

Wu Wang instantly regained the familiar comfort of “Ah, there are humans here. This really is home sweet home.”

Relaxing immediately, it dropped its front paw, plopped its butt down, and looked over.

It saw a young face.

The other person looked clean and delicate, like a recent college graduate. His naturally smiling lips gave off an approachable feeling, the type obviously beloved by elders.

If there was one flaw…

it was that his complexion was far too pale.

Pale like a corpse that had already gone cold.

The crimson beauty mark at the corner of his lips stood out vividly against that pallor.

“How is there a husky here—no, wait, why is a dog wearing a pocket watch… Are you a player?”

The two-legged creature moved somewhat stiffly, his expression uncertain.

“Hello? My name’s Xiao Tao.”

“…”

Wu Wang replied with the wise gaze unique to huskies.

Humans constantly trying to speak human language to a dog was something Wu Wang had long grown used to.

Lowering its head, it began sniffing around with its wet nose, naturally assuming the posture of the room’s owner as it padded around inspecting its suddenly reduced zoomie territory.

The completely ignored Xiao Tao: “…You’re really a dog? —No, wait.”

He silently edged closer, concern and friendliness appearing on his bluish pale face.

“Listen, friend. Only one person can stay in this room. If there’s more than one, you could be in danger. Do you have a teleportation item? Hurry and leave this place—switch to another room!”

“Woof!”

Wu Wang cooperatively stopped walking and looked back at the urgently persuasive two-legged creature, wagging its thick fluffy tail happily and amicably.

“Right.” Xiao Tao revealed an encouraging expression. “You have an item, don’t you? Go to the next roo—”

CRUNCH!

Wu Wang was, in fact, not a particularly affectionate dog.

When it wagged its tail, it clearly wasn’t because it was happy to see a human.

It was the prelude to tearing down the house.

Xiao Tao watched in horror as the husky that looked perfectly obedient one second abruptly turned around the next and opened its massive jaws toward the corner wall.

“—?!?”

Listening was impossible.

Only demolition and happiness existed.

Using both teeth and paws, Wu Wang bit and clawed at the snow-white wall of unknown material, producing strange crunching sounds. Amid those chaotic noises, however, another sound seemed to come faintly from somewhere farther away…

A dull thump. Thump. Thump.

Wu Wang’s ears twitched sharply, but it didn’t stop demolishing.

Crunch crunch… woof!

Suddenly, something heavy struck its sensitive ear tip.

A warm, wet sensation spread across it.

The stench of blood quickly filled the white room.

Xiao Tao, dumbfounded beside it, blurted out in alarm:

“Shit, why is blood dripping from the ceiling? Did someone upstairs die?! Hey, stop biting already! I couldn’t damage this wall at all—what can a dog possibly do? Hurry and switch rooms already! Don’t tell me you don’t have a teleportation item? Is that why you keep chewing the wall? You should’ve said so earlier! I’ll lend you one!”

“Woof?”

Wu Wang tilted its head, glancing at the overly talkative two-legged creature.

The sticky blood felt unpleasant. It shook its ears—nearly flattened into airplane ears from the impact—but continued gnawing tirelessly, forehead pressed tightly against the wall.

Its flattened furry head tilted at a 45-degree angle as its gaze slanted toward the ceiling.

A normal dog’s static vision range was about fifty meters.

This room was tall, but only around thirty meters high. Wu Wang could clearly see the ceiling.

There were no cracks at all.

The blood dripping down looked as though it were falling out of thin air.

The ceiling remained immaculate, like illuminated white jade radiating a pure and peaceful glow.

Beside it, Xiao Tao’s voice had somehow become hoarse, mixed with audible swallowing.

“I’m serious, friend, can you control yourself a little? I already said I’d give you an item to switch rooms. You’re just chewing wall paint—you won’t achieve anything—”

CRACK!

“…”

Xiao Tao abruptly fell silent.

Eyes wide, he stared at the dent Wu Wang had chewed into the wall. After a stiff pause, he suspiciously scratched the wall with his fingernails.

His nails were sharp—abnormally sharp—and seemed extremely hard. They scraped against the wall with a sound like knives scratching tempered glass.

The noise was awful enough that Wu Wang instantly pinned its ears tightly against its furry head.

The wall remained completely unmoved.

Unwilling to give up, Xiao Tao pulled out a strangely engraved dagger glowing with bloody light from his waist and slashed hard at the wall.

Not even a speck of dust came off.

Xiao Tao: “??”

His previous calm persuasion gradually transformed into shock, then panic.

“—Stop! Stop chewing already!”

Flustered, Xiao Tao reached out to pull Wu Wang away, only to nearly get bitten. Clutching his almost-punctured hand, he anxiously tried persuading it again:

“Friend, think clearly! We don’t even know whether there’s a human or ghost behind that wall. If you bite through it, wouldn’t that basically be delivering yourself right to their door?”

He opened his mouth to continue—

when suddenly, from beyond another wall, came a younger, trembling voice:

“B-big brother… the guy next door? A-are you human?”

“…”

Xiao Tao instantly shut up.

For some reason, his expression subtly changed, and his body tensed slightly with caution.

Silence fell over the room.

—Except for the nonstop sounds of demolition.

Xiao Tao: “…”

Wu Wang glanced sideways at him while chewing.

Crunch crunch.

Xiao Tao: “…………”

The neighboring voice spoke again.

“B-big brother?”

The speaker sounded like a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old student. Just raising his voice seemed to require all his courage, causing his strained tone to sound somewhat unnatural.

Clearly, this did not help establish trust.

Wu Wang noticed Xiao Tao tense his face before finally smoothing his expression and replying:

“I am. Are you?”

Xiao Tao then reasonably questioned him:

“If you’re human, why didn’t you say anything earlier when you heard us talking? Forget it. Let me ask you this—how many players are left in this instance?”

“I-I just arrived in this room! I don’t know!”

“You’re a newcomer? But how would a newbie end up in an instance like this…”

Xiao Tao muttered to himself—though it wasn’t clear who he meant to hear it.

“Check your pockets. There should be a pocket watch now. Open the cover and a holographic screen will appear, showing how many players are left in the instance—”

“Ah, found it! Player count: 7/50…”

The student’s joy vanished quickly.

The exam-trained speed of his thinking immediately grasped the implication.

“F-fifty players and only seven left… Is this instance really dangerous? I-I don’t know anything! One second I was studying for my entrance exams in class, and the next I was in this roo—”

His panicked rambling abruptly stopped.

…The distant thumping sound had suddenly ceased.

Wu Wang’s ears turned sharply toward where the sound vanished. A few seconds later, it caught another strange noise slowly approaching from afar—

then stopping in the distance.

“…Seems like it stopped where the thumping came from,” Xiao Tao whispered. “Hey, newbie next door.”

“You said you were preparing for entrance exams, so you’re a middle school student, right? Middle schools have music classes. I don’t know much about music appreciation, but doesn’t that sound kind of like church music?”

“…Bro, what kind of misunderstanding do you have about middle school music class? I’ve never heard church music before either! But my first impression is similar too—it feels holy and majestic…”

Yet in their current environment, anything holy only felt horrifyingly ominous.

The student pleaded urgently:

“Bro, can you let the husky try tearing down the wall between us? I want to come over—”

“AAAAAAHHHHHH!”

A shrill scream suddenly echoed from afar, accompanied by the sound of bones snapping and chewing.

“—The player count changed to 6/50, bro!”

The student’s voice turned sharp with tears.

“Please! I don’t want to be alone!”

“Well, it’s not that I don’t want to help, little brother,” Xiao Tao said awkwardly, glancing repeatedly at Wu Wang. “But only one person can stay in each room. And this husky—I seriously can’t control it! Earlier I tried getting it to demolish a different wall, and it almost bit straight through my hand. Wait, let me think… this dog… huh, there’s a collar around its neck?”

“Hurry and see what its name is!” the student urged anxiously. “Maybe if you call its name, it’ll listen!”

“I’ll try…”

Xiao Tao immediately agreed and leaned toward Wu Wang again.

He wasn’t very tall, but compared to a husky, his figure still completely overshadowed it.

Whether from hunger or something else, Xiao Tao’s eyes remained fixed on Wu Wang’s ear tips. His Adam’s apple bobbed constantly, his staring gaze carrying a ravenous desire.

“Woof?”

Wu Wang stayed sprawled where it was, continuing to crunch the shattered wall between its teeth while glancing up at him with ghostly blue eyes.

Its black lips curled slightly, exposing sharp white canine teeth.

The supposedly indestructible white wall was crushed apart by those terrifying jaws and fangs, making the dog seem fully capable of rivaling the man-eating monster outside.

“…”

Xiao Tao froze, ultimately not daring to move closer.

“Let me see… Cassie? Huh? That’s not right. Its registered player name is Wu Wang. So some unlucky player somehow ended up in a dog’s body…”

“Bro!”

The student interrupted impatiently.

“Stop overthinking weird stuff! Just let me over there already! Player names are entered through voice recognition, right? If it’s really a dog, then all it could say would be ‘woof woof’!”

He paused, suddenly sounding confused.

“But bro…”

His voice turned hesitant.

“Dogs can’t talk… so how did you know what player name the game system registered for it?”

“…”

The atmosphere instantly froze.

And at that exact moment, the damn system chimed in like it had sprinted over carrying a barrel of gasoline to throw onto the fire:

【Ding!】

【Icebreaker Mini-Game: Quick Answer!】

【Question: Three friends sit in a row. How many of them are not human? Please answer within 10 seconds!】

The “friends” present: “…”

How the hell was this an icebreaker?

The student immediately began panicking aloud:

“N-no way! I don’t know! Does the dog count as human? Does it? Big bro next door—are you even human? Why do you know the husky’s registered player na—”

Xiao Tao: “Shut up, I’m thinki—”

Wu Wang: “Woof!”

The bark rang out loud and clear.

The student and Xiao Tao, who had nearly started arguing through the wall: “…”

【Correct.】

【Reward: Lucky Dice ×1】

A thumb-sized lucky die fell from the ceiling and disappeared into the thick fur along Wu Wang’s back.

The student: “…”

…Why did the language system suddenly switch?

…Could it have interpreted “woof” as “one”?

…Huh????