Chapter 1: The Diary That Lies

As the saying goes, if you survive a great disaster, good fortune follows. 

Qinghe ate undercooked green beans from the school cafeteria and got food poisoning. She thought she was surely going to die, but instead she was reborn and transmigrated.

Only…

“Why this world?!” The girl with long black hair, dressed in coarse cloth, collapsed despairingly on the bed.

Tears flowed from her reddened eyes.

Despair Abyss was the newest domestic game. Its Cthulhu-style apocalypse was grotesquely twisted, filled with ogres, zombies, and even witches wielding supernatural powers. In this world, danger was almost everywhere.

Qinghe was close to breaking down. In her view, this kind of apocalypse was at least ten times more dangerous than an ordinary zombie apocalypse. ‘Can she really survive?’

What made it even harder was that Qinghe had transmigrated into the female protagonist of Despair Abyss.

The protagonist was a cursed girl. Every time she woke up, she lost all memories formed after the curse. Only a magical diary allowed her to recall what had happened.

But the most unbearable part was that even if false content was written in the diary, it would still be implanted into the protagonist’s mind as real memories.

Qinghe smiled bitterly.

In truth, this ability could be considered half a cheat. As long as she wrote in the diary, every time she read it she could fully relive everything she had experienced and perfectly reconstruct it, provided what was written was true.

However, what was truly terrifying was this—

This game was not a normal game at all.

The original owner even had a malicious, perverted, yandere neighbor who constantly thought up ways to torment her.

In the very first chapter of the original plot, the neighbor discovered the secret that the original owner lost her memory and relied on the diary to live. At night, the neighbor moved all the food out of the house and then secretly altered the diary.

The altered line in the diary read—

My food has run out. The lady next door said she can help me and let me move into her house tomorrow. She said she will give me food, I just need to help her with a bit of work…

What followed in the plot was naturally—

Cold sweat poured down Qinghe’s back. Just thinking about it made her scalp tingle. After transmigrating, Qinghe’s mind had already synchronized with the original protagonist’s memories. By coincidence, Qinghe shared the same name as the game’s heroine, and when accepting the memories, she felt an extremely immersive sense of identification.

The original protagonist was a kind and weak girl, and Qinghe felt she had been slightly influenced by that temperament.

‘What point in the timeline is this?’ ‘Has the neighbor already discovered my secret?’

The urgency made Qinghe’s heart race. She quickly scanned the room, trying to find evidence to confirm the time, but there was nothing.

When her gaze passed over the window, she suddenly caught sight of a pitch-black shadow that flashed by.

‘What was that?!’ The sudden fright made her limbs go weak and her breathing tremble.

The world setting of Despair Abyss was extremely cruel. The protagonist lived in a single-story house in a village, with no other human settlement within a hundred miles.

Because it was a single-story house, anyone hiding beneath the window could spy on Qinghe at any time.

Goosebumps rose instantly.

Someone had been spying on her just now.

‘Who?’
‘Should I chase after them?’

Based on her past-life experience watching horror movies, Qinghe could figure out with her toes that chasing after them would definitely trigger some mysterious CG.

Either she would get messed up beyond recognition or trigger a death ending.

Qinghe restrained her urge to act and pretended nothing was wrong, merely letting out a soft sound of surprise.

“Ah, there isn’t much food left at home…” Qinghe stood up, turned her back to the window, and checked the remaining food in the room.

Before long, this food would likely be stolen. She had to hide some elsewhere. Otherwise, without food, even if she was not controlled by the neighbor, she would still be in serious danger. Right now, Qinghe was just a fragile little girl.

The gaze outside the window clung like a shadow. Even with her back turned, Qinghe could feel an intense sense of being watched. She was under constant surveillance.

‘…It can only be the neighbor.’ ‘So the timeline is already at the point where the neighbor knows my secret.’ ‘When will she make her move?’

Cold sweat covered her slender back. Even though she had barely done anything, Qinghe already felt somewhat exhausted.

Ten minutes later…

There was no opportunity to hide the food. She was being watched the entire time.

The feeling of being watched was like a thorn, deeply embedded in her back. She pressed her lips together and decided to check the diary.

The diary was stuck to the back of the door. On the wooden board beside it was a small line of text that read Open the diary.

Qinghe opened the diary, her breath catching slightly.

The content was normal, just a survival log.

Wait—

Qinghe frowned.

On the title page of the diary, there were several data fields.

Corruption: 0

Incongruity: 0

Sanity: 15 (You have forgotten who you are)

Status: Memory Curse, Weak

‘What?’

Only then did Qinghe suddenly remember that in this world setting, not sleeping at night would rapidly reduce sanity, and even by the next morning it would not recover.

‘But… why is my sanity only fifteen?!’

Lower sanity meant it was easier to be watched by some unknown existence, and implanted false memories would feel even more real.

But according to the game’s settings, the initial sanity should be 100. ‘Could it be… this is not the “start” of the game?’ ‘Or did something already happen before I “woke up”?!’

‘…Is this a data bug?’ ‘Memory confusion caused by transmigration and memory fusion?’ ‘Or something else?’

‘It can only be a bug, right?’ ‘Right?’

Cold sweat streamed down Qinghe’s back.

The lower the sanity, the less the incongruity value would rise. In the game’s settings, incongruity was how one judged whether memories were real or false.

If sanity was very low, incongruity would barely increase, making it easier for the neighbor to implant false memories.

‘What should I do?’ ‘I really can’t make sense of this…’ ‘Didn’t I just transmigrate?’ ‘It must be a bug.’ ‘It has to be a bug!’

Grief welled up inside her. She clenched her teeth, her small pink hands curling into fists. ‘What sin did I commit to be thrown into this damned world?’

The ever-present sense of being watched remained focused on her back. Qinghe felt wronged, but she did not even dare to cry.

‘I can’t let the neighbor notice anything abnormal… absolutely not…’

After steadying her emotions, Qinghe slowly pulled herself together.

“What time is it…” She muttered deliberately and looked out the window.

Once again, the familiar black shadow flashed past.

Qinghe pretended to be calm and nodded slightly.

“It’s getting late…” The temperature was somewhat hot, so it should be summer. Outside the window was a dim yellow sunset. It was probably close to seven o’clock in the evening.

Tomorrow, she would forget everything that happened before she fell asleep today. She had to write a diary entry for her tomorrow self.

At the same time, she had to guard against the neighbor taking her diary and also prepare for the worst. If the neighbor took the diary and altered it, she would definitely see the message Qinghe left for her tomorrow self.

‘What… should I do?’ ‘What should I write?’

‘I’ve got it…’