My Name Is Zhu Yan

Perhaps from sleeping too long, Zhu Yan felt extremely dizzy, with a slight ache in his head.

In a daze, he forced himself to open his eyes, waiting for his vision to slowly clear.

Zhu Yan wasn't sure if he had a nightmare—

There were no images in the dream, only a voice constantly clamoring two phrases: "Ability loading complete" and "Congratulations on becoming one of the first closed beta players."

A moment later, it blurted out another nonsensical sentence.

"Players, please remember to check your identity badges and ability cards."

"Repeating, players, please remember to check your identity badges and ability cards..."

The voice in the dream only came to an abrupt halt after these words were deeply imprinted in Zhu Yan's mind.

Zhu Yan raised his hand and wiped his forehead, which was drenched in cold sweat.

Unlike his usual dreams, the memory of this one was exceptionally clear.

Those voices seemed as if they had actually been broadcast in the real world!

Zhu Yan got out of bed.

His aunt was in the living room scrolling through videos, the playback sound drifting into Zhu Yan's ears at a moderate volume.

"...According to reliable sources, 200 people in our city have suddenly died in their homes. The cause of death in all cases is cardiac arrest, and the police department has preliminarily ruled out homicide."

Right. In the past week, the number of sudden deaths in his city, Bailu, had surged, and the conditions of the bodies were quite bizarre.

Marketing accounts and news outlets were constantly talking about it, even making it onto trending searches. Even Zhu Yan, who rarely watched short videos, knew about it.

Players, closed beta, ability cards... could they be related to the recent large-scale death cases?

Zhu Yan made an absurd connection.

He got off the bed and turned the knob of his wooden bedroom door.

"Aunt?"

Zhu Yan's parents died early, so his guardianship naturally transferred to his uncle and aunt.

His uncle's house was very small. Two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom were tightly packed around the living room.

On the small sofa, a heavily made-up woman turned her head, her lifeless eyes looking at Zhu Yan through thick eyelashes.

"If you're awake, do some chores."

She pointed to a broom on the side, then pointed to the front door.

"Sweep the floor and take out the trash. Don't be ungrateful. It's all your parents' fault for leaving such a huge mess..."

Zhu Yan glanced up at his aunt, knowing that the best way to make her shut up was to obey her orders.

He pretended to be obedient and tied up the full trash bags, and sure enough, his aunt's complaints took a different turn.

"Your brother is stopping his tutoring classes starting tomorrow. Clear out your room and sleep on the sofa."

"I found someone to arrange a job for you. Next month, when things outside get better, you'll go to work."

Zhu Yan gave a couple of sounds of agreement and carried the trash downstairs.

His aunt treated him quite poorly, but she at least let him eat his fill and attend school.

In fact, because she neglected to discipline him, his days were somewhat happier than those of his uncle's biological son.

Zhu Yan didn't care about these minor orders, as long as this family didn't interfere with his upcoming plans.

He familiarly threw the trash downstairs, then went to the courier station along the way to pick up his university admission letter.

According to his aunt's original plan, Zhu Yan's only future purpose was to be a blood bag for his younger brother.

He was supposed to take the "arranged job" from his aunt's acquaintance, enter an electronics factory, and have his wages directly transferred to his aunt's bank card.

Zhu Yan would never do that.

His college entrance exam scores were actually quite good. He had filled out his applications behind his aunt's back and was accepted into a university thousands of kilometers away.

He had saved up some money from working part-time these past few days. He planned to take advantage of the fact that his uncle and aunt were too scared to go out these next two days to make his escape first.

The sun shone warmly on Zhu Yan, finally dispelling the chill in his heart.

Zhu Yan quickly tore open the courier packaging and tucked the envelope sent by the school onto his person.

He habitually checked the empty courier bag, but actually found something left behind in the corner.

"What is this?"

In the corner of the courier bag lay a small black envelope.

The envelope was only the size of Zhu Yan's palm, looking just big enough to hold a bank card.

Printed on the envelope was a gold-stamped pattern. It looked like a tangled ball of yarn, yet it possessed a bizarre sense of rhythm.

Zhu Yan squeezed it. It was hard inside, seemingly containing a card and a coin.

"...It couldn't be a meal card, could it?" Zhu Yan muttered to himself. After checking the bag again to ensure nothing was left behind, he stuffed the tiny envelope into his pants pocket.

"They actually use this kind of design? So trendy."

Zhu Yan decided to go home and hide in the bathroom to take a good look at it.

As for the large envelope containing the admission notice and other things, he didn't plan to take them back.

There was nowhere to hide them if he took them back, and it would only arouse their suspicion.

Zhu Yan suppressed his excitement and walked into the somewhat dim stairwell.

The stairwell of the old-fashioned tube-shaped apartment building was not very clean, with clutter piled up by residents at every corner.

Zhu Yan lived on the top floor, the 6th floor. At the landing between the fifth and sixth floors, there was a dust-covered mirror.

The mirror was leaning against an old plastic bucket. Zhu Yan had checked it beforehand; the bucket only contained some trash and dust, so no one would touch it.

He carefully squatted down and hid the admission letter seamlessly inside the bucket.

The mirror vaguely reflected Zhu Yan's image—

His black hair, un-trimmed for a while, had reached his shoulders and was casually tied into a ponytail.

His facial contours were smooth, and the outer corners of his eyes tilted slightly upward.

Below these beautiful eyes were a high-bridged nose and a sharp-cornered mouth, casually bringing out a hint of slyness.

The only flaw on this face was its half-dead expression, giving off a slightly alive vibe of someone who could go crazy in perfect calmness.

Zhu Yan didn't linger in front of the mirror for too long.

After confirming everything was fine, he walked briskly upstairs to head home.

"What took you so long?" his aunt complained, her sharp eyes scanning Zhu Yan.

Seeing that he wasn't holding any suspicious items, his aunt relaxed again and absentmindedly continued scrolling through videos.

Zhu Yan hid in the bathroom.

He carefully tore open the black envelope and pulled out the hard card inside.

The card was black, with striking crimson text printed on one side.

"Player Ability Card—Your ability is [Roleplay]."

"You have a talent for acting. You frequently create alternate accounts online, playing people of different genders and personalities to test how people react to them."

"This is your instinctual self-protection, and also the cornerstone of your journey in [Carnival Paradise]."

"Current Ability Level: Lv. 3. Please confirm if you accept this ability. Upon acceptance, the stat card will merge with you."

"If not accepted, the ability will be automatically activated once the instance begins."

"Note: The instance will begin within 3 hours!"

Zhu Yan's mind went blank for a moment, then his hair stood on end, and an ominous tingling exploded across his scalp.

[Carnival Paradise] and the instance matched the information from his dream.

He had dreamed of an ability card, and upon waking up, he had received the exact same thing in a completely unscientific way!