Chapter 1

“Name?”

“Zhou Mo.”

“Age?”

“Twenty-eight.”

“You’ve read all the clauses in the agreement, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Can you accept the potential unexpected dangers or accidental bodily harm?”

“I can.”

The bespectacled man nodded, heavily stamped the document, and told me to go change clothes and wait for the experiment to begin.

Two months ago, I lost my job. I begged the manager to pay me my back wages, and in return, I got a beating.

A month ago, my one-year-old daughter was diagnosed with a terminal illness. She needed an astronomical sum for surgery just to stay alive.

Half a month ago, while I was working as a temp at a factory, a coworker’s operational error sliced off one of my fingers. The factory boss dropped me off at the hospital with only thirty thousand yuan and left.

A week ago, I masked my face and grabbed a sharp knife, intending to rob a jewelry store. I squatted outside from six in the morning until nine at night, but even after the streetlights went out, I couldn’t take that step into crime.

I was a man pushed to the absolute brink, but I still wanted to be a good person.

It was late that night when I saw a recruitment ad in a newspaper. A foreign company was conducting a sociological experiment, offering a hefty sum for volunteers. It was a half-month stint, with rewards that could reach up to a million dollars.

My wife was worried it was a scam, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. I had nothing left to lose, so what was there to be scammed out of? A drowning man will violently grasp at even a floating weed; it’s an animal’s instinct for survival.

Just like that, I squeezed in with a group of people from all over, rode a boat for two days and two nights to a deserted island, signed a volunteer agreement, and waited for the experiment to begin.

Around six in the evening, an ear-piercing bell rang out, and everyone was gathered in a large house. I scanned the room; there were about seventy or eighty people. Some looked incredibly anxious, while others acted completely nonchalant. The youngest looked to be only sixteen or seventeen, and the oldest was a white-haired old lady.

“Don’t be nervous, everyone. Our social experiment this time is sponsored by the Qinlian Corporation. The purpose is to test the limits of human psychological endurance, hence the experiment is named ‘Reach the Limit’. You all should have read the agreement; before each round of the experiment begins, you have the right to voluntarily withdraw.” A middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses stood in front of a microphone, explaining to us. “You must be exhausted from your journey. We have prepared a rich spread of food for you, please enjoy. The first experiment will begin tonight at 9:30. Volunteers who complete this experiment will be rewarded with one hundred thousand US dollars.”

It was like a bomb being dropped into the crowd. The entire hall erupted into a clamor. A hundred grand—I would have to work seven or eight years at my old job to make that much. Earning it from one simple experiment? Was this real? Everyone’s faces showed a mix of intense excitement and doubt. The middle-aged man clapped his hands, and several staff members dressed in black wheeled in boxes. They forcefully flipped open the lids, revealing what was inside.

“Damn, we hit the jackpot!”

A bald guy standing next to me roared. His shoulders and neck were covered in tattoos, and he looked like someone you didn’t want to mess with.

Four large boxes, packed tight with stacks of US dollars. The sheer volume of cash delivered a massive visual shock. My throat suddenly felt itchy, my mouth dry.

After two days and nights on the boat, everyone was starving. The food in the dining hall was exquisite: Chinese and Western cuisine, desserts, snacks, fruit cakes, premium caviar… Every dish emitted a fragrant, mouth-watering aroma. No one cared about keeping up appearances; everyone dug into the gluttonous feast. The tattooed bald guy was the messiest eater of all, grabbing steaks with his bare hands and shoving them into his mouth. His movements were crude, making loud, gross chewing noises that drew side-eyes from everyone around him.

“Brother Zhou, do you think this experiment will be dangerous?” a timid young girl with a ponytail asked me. She was only nineteen, and she had also joined this experiment to earn money for her mother’s medical treatment.

Her name was Xiaodie. When I was seasick on the boat, she gave me medication. She was a very kind-hearted girl.

“Probably not. Didn’t that man say we could quit early? If it’s dangerous, we can just choose not to participate.” I smiled at her, putting down my utensils to wash my hands.

A while later, that grating bell rang again, and we were led back to the empty hall.

“Brother Zhou, look.” Xiaodie raised her hand, pointing upward.

A chill ran down my spine. The first time we entered this hall, the ceiling was completely empty. But this time, it was densely packed with micro-cameras, looking like a swarm of locusts pressing down on our heads. They crawled and twisted across the ceiling, giving off an invisible, suffocating pressure.

What the hell is going on?

A drop of sweat slid down my forehead. Before I could process it, the refined-looking man stepped up to the front again. He was still smiling, but under the dim red lights, his smile looked eerie. A bizarre thought crossed my mind: his expression looked exactly like a venomous snake rearing back, ready to strike its prey.

“The first experiment begins now. The content of this experiment is very simple. From this moment on, you are not allowed to sleep for 72 hours. The cameras above are here to capture your movements and expressions from every angle. Of course, prolonged sleep deprivation will cause some harm to your bodies. You can choose for yourselves whether to participate or withdraw.”

All the volunteers fell silent. Staying awake for three days and three nights… was it even possible to endure?

Regardless, when exhaustion reaches its peak, falling asleep becomes uncontrollable, right?

The man pushed his gold-rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose: “Those who choose to withdraw can leave now, and we will arrange for you to be escorted off the island. For those who choose to participate: if you fail, you receive one hundred thousand dollars. If you succeed, you receive two hundred thousand, plus a bonus of one hundred thousand.”

So that was it. Even if we fell asleep halfway through, we still got a share of the money. What was there to hesitate about?

“Fuck it, I’m in.” The bald guy raised his hand.

“I’m in.”

“Me too, let’s get started.”

Voices of agreement echoed one after another. All eighty-two volunteers participated in the experiment. Just like that, more than half the lights in the hall slowly dimmed, and the experiment officially began.

The journey to hell had also officially raised its curtain.