Help! I No Clipped into the Game of Death

"It's 3 am already?" Yvette glanced at the time, only to realize several hours had unknowingly passed when she was happily scrolling through some sussy content on the internet. She hastily closed the web pages and lay in bed, turning off the bedside lamp. But just as she was ready to sleep, she discovered her phone wouldn’t turn off. "What's going on? Hmm...I don't remember having this app on my phone......" Yvette muttered, feeling a bit puzzled. The app icon was a snake, with its head meeting its tail, forming a closed loop. It was an ouroboros. Driven by curiosity, she tapped on it, suddenly feeling dizzy and everything around her turned pitch black. Silence enveloped her surroundings, even the constant, annoying ambient noise was gone, and the whole space felt as still as stagnant water. She lost consciousness. After what felt like an eternity, Yvette regained control over her body, she found herself in an unfamiliar place. It was a room, yes, but one stripped down to its bare essentials: a single bed with a plain white duvet, a basic wooden desk paired with an unassuming chair, and a small bathroom that boasted functionality over form. The starkness of the room was a stark contrast to the complexity of her situation. Her phone, an unexpected companion in this journey, lay beside her on the bed. The only app visible was the one marked by the ouroboros symbol, a silent reminder of the surreal turn her life had just taken. With no other choices available, she tapped on the app again. This time, no strange things happen; no dizziness, no darkness, just a simple account registration window. At this moment, Yvette really didn’t have any motivation to think of a good game id. She was not even certain if she could live. So, without thinking, she typed in the name she had been using in all her games as a child — ‘Gamergirl123’. Yes, she knew that name was cringe, but whatever. After completing the registration, she was assigned a number tag ‘5064’, a line of text then appeared on her screen. [Welcome to the Game World, you are the 5064th player to join.] What? Was she not the only one who had entered this ‘Game World’? When the sentence faded, Yvette got access to the main menu. There were six tabs under the main menu: 'Points', 'Stats', 'Leaderboard', 'Shop', 'Inventory', and, most importantly, 'Rules'. Yvette clicked on the last tab, 'Rules'. The game rules were surprisingly succinct, with only three lines: 1. Death within the Game World or any game instance means death in the real world. 2. Players are forbidden from killing each other. 3. Upon completing ten game instances, players may choose to return to their original world and permanently exit the Game World. After finishing reading, Yvette felt an increasing sense of dread. This was no ordinary game; it was a matter of life and death. As she was still processing everything, the screen began to flicker with a red glow, and a blood-red line of bolded text emerged. [You are about to enter a hazard-level D instance: ‘Cinema of Death', please be prepared.] And before she could process what was happening, the room around her dissolved, replaced by the dimly lit lobby of a modern cinema. The transition was seamless yet jarring, leaving Yvette standing in the eerie quiet of the cinema's entrance. A few metres out, there was a dark, thick fog surrounding the whole area, making it impossible to see the outside. A transparent panel appeared in front of Yvette. [Instance: Cinema of Death Hazard-level: D Background: You and a group of friends come to watch the latest release but soon notice something off about this cinema. Feeling bold and adventurous, you decide to investigate. Task: Identify the hidden murderer within the cinema.] After reading the dungeon information carefully, Yvette took a deep breath to calm herself and began to look around. She noticed a few people standing nearby, displaying varying degrees of confusion and fear, with a few engaged in hushed conversations. Then, a cold, neutral AI voice intruded everyone's ears. The voice seemed to come from nowhere, yet it was everywhere. "All players have arrived, the game will now begin. Players can now proceed to the counter to purchase your movie ticket. Each player will receive 50 cash, which cannot be traded or gifted. Please use it wisely." After the announcement ended, Yvette felt a weight in her pocket. Reaching in, she found a pocketful of coins similar to those from her world. According to the instructions, she should go in the building and buy movie tickets, but she couldn’t bring herself to. She was afraid. And a bit uncertain. But deep down she knew that standing idle wasn't a solution either. "Let me go home! I don't want to be part of some twisted, prank reality show! Listen here, director, don't think you're safe behind the cameras. Filming me without my consent is a violation of my rights to my own image, and I can sue you for that!" As she hesitated, a middle-aged man began cursing and shouting at the air. Instantly, all heads turned to him. "What are y'all looking at? Go ahead and film if you want, but don’t block my way!" The man then started walking in the opposite direction of the cinema. He reached the edge of the fog and, without hesitation, stepped forward. "Aaaahhh—" A male scream cut off abruptly. Before they knew it, the guy who had been clamouring to go home had burst into a mist of blood, dead. His blood rained down upon the ground, and soon it was almost like he never existed. '!!! ' Yvette felt her stomach churning. This was the first time she had witnessed a living person die right before her eyes. No, it wasn’t even death; even worse, it was as if he had been squeezed by an invisible hand. The surrounding players were also looking pale, they couldn't help but feel a wave of relief, grateful they hadn't attempted to leave. It seemed the only option was to enter the building and follow the instructions. With this thought, everyone advanced into the cinema under a heavy, unspoken collective dread. Fear was spreading. After entering the cinema, Yvette found that the interior was not much different from the ones in her world, yet a faint sense of dissonance seeped into her heart. As she pondered the origin of this feeling, a man wearing gold-rimmed glasses waved everyone over, as if he had something important to say. Yvette walked over with the other players. “Ahem! Hello everyone, my username in the Game World is ‘Mr.plzwin,’ so far I've cleared three instances. From what I’ve observed, most of you are new players, so let me share some basic knowledge that you should know,” the man began, “Firstly, instances—the worlds we are in right now—are categorised into six levels: D, C, B, A, S, and SSS. Hazard-level D is the least dangerous among them, but of course, that doesn't mean people don't die……you've all just seen that.” Everyone was silent for a moment. “At this point, I should mention that each instance has its unique death conditions, and triggering these conditions usually results in guaranteed death. However, the creatures inside generally do not kill arbitrarily; they are bound by rules, unless a mass killing is triggered. So as long as you avoid the death conditions, the chances that you will survive is still considerable. But even if you end up failing to clear the instance, you will be trapped in this world forever, losing all of your memories and becoming an NPC.” “NPC?” a player repeated. “Yes, the characters, for example the ticket seller over there, we all call them ‘NPC’s, similar to those in video games.” “What are the death conditions for this instance?” Yvette asked. The man spread his hands and shrugged, “I don’t know; we have to discover that ourselves. Let me share some relatively good news, though. After clearing an instance, there’s a week's holiday time.” After listening to the explanations, everyone understood that some supernatural force had brought them here, and to leave in one piece, they had to grit their teeth and clear the instance. However, it seemed that this wasn't impossible to complete—with caution and some luck, one could make it out. “Thank you for enlightening us new players, I am ‘Supernova,’” a young female player expressed her gratitude, and the other players followed suit, introducing themselves with their usernames. When it was Yvette's turn, well…she admitted she regretted her name choice. “...Gamergirl123.” To her relief, hardly anyone else was any better; it seemed that initially, no one had taken this seriously. When she heard a guy with spiky brown hair stuttering out the name ‘mehotcockroach,’ she felt somewhat comforted.