The speaker’s voice, similar to his usual tone, was light and soft from being intentionally lowered. The words “trump card” were delivered with an especially friendly air.
“Cough…” He Yang choked out several mouthfuls of blood.
Zhou Qi’an didn’t immediately pull out the Trident. Instead, he yanked the man’s collar down. A thin layer of red clothing was stuck to the flesh beneath, impossible to peel off. The surface of the garment was outlined with gold-thread patterns, covering the body like a tattoo. Now, as He Yang was dying, the color of the clothing’s texture dimmed along with him.
“So you really did become one with the artifact,” Zhou Qi’an narrowed his eyes. “No wonder you were wrapped up so tightly.” A high collar and long sleeves, with a jacket over it, which he hadn’t even taken off when he went into the water.
Zhou Qi’an took half a step back, tilting his head slightly, his pupils clear and bright. He asked seriously, “Does it feel secure, using abilities plundered from an artifact?” The wedding dress was now completely parasitic on He Yang, like a leech inside his body.
He Yang just stared at him, his eyes filled with hatred.
“The Ghost Market administrator said you’re a group of madmen who answered the game’s call to become instance designers. Did you design the Silent Museum too?” Zhou Qi’an’s tone carried a faint disdain. “The design is pretty mediocre.” He clicked his tongue. “Even you were played like a dog by me.”
The members of the Whalers’ Association shared a common trait: intense arrogance. To get information out of them, one had to first crush their pride and then show contempt to possibly provoke them into revealing something.
The college student, standing to the side, looked horrified upon hearing this. Instance designers? The legendary Whalers’ Association were the ones who designed the instances? Didn’t that mean they were participating in the instance while knowing the answer key! He recalled what Brother Zhou had said in the artifact world, that they were madmen who couldn’t reach the new world.
The college student forced down the heart that was about to leap out of his throat and subconsciously looked at He Yang. The exposed skin was not human at all, but was as thin as a cicada’s wing and bore the pattern of a wedding gown. So, after they plundered the artifacts’ abilities, they became too powerful, were classified as monsters, and couldn’t leave the instance?
“No…” He was still not as powerful as his Brother Zhou. Didn’t that mean he plundered for nothing?
Having his design skills denied and being told he was like a dog, now under the college student’s “you’re so lame” gaze, a strong sense of venomous resentment rose in He Yang.
“If… it wasn’t for you… you getting us laid off, many instances… would have long since… been perfected.” Once they had perfected the instances, ten lives wouldn’t be enough for Zhou Qi’an to die.
Zhou Qi’an was thoughtful. In other words, the Silent Museum instance was only half-designed when the Whalers’ Association was laid off. Now that the instance had directly entered a public beta state, the loopholes had to be temporarily filled by the association’s members. For example, in the first task of identifying the ghost, to prevent all players from coming in teams and covering for the ghost, a member was needed to pretend to be a player and plug this loophole. There were more than a dozen people in their batch, and the number of players in other batches was probably similar.
Zhou Qi’an narrowed his eyes. Among the currently living players, there must still be members of the Whalers’ Association hidden.
He Yang’s breathing was already extremely weak. Zhou Qi’an suddenly said, “What’s the point? You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” The game wouldn’t grant players long lives while also allowing them to retain their special status in instances, letting overly evolved players enter the new world. There was no reason for the Whalers’ Association not to understand the price they had to pay.
It was just a thought muttered to himself; Zhou Qi’an hadn’t expected to get an answer from him. But just as he withdrew his gaze, no longer looking at He Yang, the latter actually spoke intermittently, “Because… someone will succeed.”
“…The captain’s divination is never… never wrong. You…” He stared at Zhou Qi’an. “You will have everything.” That was why even when Zhou Qi’an had acted strangely in the past, the captain hadn’t investigated too deeply and had even proposed with him to have the game place the holy artifact.
He had thought he’d have a chance to gain everything by following along, but this person had gone against the current, returned to the original world, and then charged back with the holy artifact, getting them laid off by the game. How could they not hate him for that?
The saying that a dying man’s words are good was not at all appropriate for He Yang. He was only telling him the reason because he wanted to see the result. When both the prophet and the prophesied know the predetermined outcome, will the course of fate deviate?
“I’ll be waiting…”
He Yang’s head suddenly drooped, and he stopped breathing. His eyes never completely closed, and in the narrow slit, his eyeballs melted on the spot. The wedding dress, which had been burned in the artifact world, began to madly consume the corpse, seemingly trying to repair itself, but the nourishment from this bit of flesh and blood was a drop in the bucket.
“Divination,” Zhou Qi’an repeated softly. After a moment, he concealed the deep thought in his eyes and walked over to the college student. “Can you still hold on? We need to go down first.” Who knew how much power this wedding dress still had left? It would be bad if it started on them after finishing the corpse.
The college student struggled to get up. “I’m fine, Brother Zhou, I can walk.” He had lost an arm, but fortunately, it didn’t affect his ability to walk and run.
The two quickly went downstairs. Just as they did, a player who had just entered the Risheng Pavilion saw them running down with blood on their clothes, got scared, and retreated back out.
The air in the courtyard was damp and smelled of blood. The well had returned to its initial clarity. No one could imagine the countless grotesque corpses below. The bodies of the players who had died in the water earlier had not floated up either. It was easy to guess that they had sunk to the bottom of the well, forever becoming one of those tiptoeing corpses.
There were far fewer players around the well than before. Most had already resumed viewing the artifacts. Zhou Qi’an’s gaze fell on the remaining Risheng and Ridie Pavilions. He wondered about Shen Zhiyi’s and his boss’s progress.
“Should we go in?” the college student asked.
Zhou Qi’an shook his head. “Back to town.”
Ying Yu should have healing items, which could prevent the college student from over-exerting his skills. After healing his own arm, the college student’s blood loss was now even more severe. It would be dangerous for him to go back alone.
Without acting immediately, Zhou Qi’an waited in place for a moment. It was better to be cautious when dealing with madmen. To prevent He Yang from having a final trump card in death, he had contacted Shen Zhiyi with the skull ring the moment he got out of the artifact world. The latter should be on his way to meet them soon.
Before long, a familiar figure walked out of the Ridie Pavilion. The courtyard was crowded, making it impossible to have a detailed conversation. After their gazes met in mid-air, Zhou Qi’an walked directly towards the main gate.
Under the tree, the Goat-Headed Man was organizing its cultural products. Hearing footsteps, its eyes, which had narrowed to a slit, moved, and its grooved mouth asked, “Buying cultural products?”
Zhou Qi’an walked past without stopping. “Next time for sure.”
The evil goat eyes seemed to want to pierce through the young man’s back and dig out his heart.
“Never tasted the good stuff.”
Zhou Qi’an pursed his lips. He suddenly realized that Mr. Si was actually quite worldly. The stupid rabbit used to covet the holy artifact every day, and later aimed for the Taisui meat, but it remained relatively calm when faced with the five-star fish eye inside him. Looking at this Goat-Headed Man, it was as if it wanted to sharpen its head to pierce through his chest.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. Zhou Qi’an cursed again, “Country bumpkin.”
The three words floated back with the wind. The Goat-Headed Man’s back teeth clenched, and it almost crushed the cultural product in its hand.
Zhou Qi’an walked a little further away and stopped. Shen Zhiyi arrived soon after. After walking side by side for a distance, Zhou Qi’an realized that something was not right. Shen Zhiyi was too quiet. After hearing his final conversation with He Yang through the skull ring, with this person’s usual style, it was impossible for him not to say anything. But now…
Zhou Qi’an glanced sideways. In his peripheral vision, he couldn’t read the man’s expression, but he could observe his current state from his shadow. The shadow was as black as if it had been fished out of ink. Shen Zhiyi was angry.
“What’s he angry about?”
Zhou Qi’an pondered carefully. Was it because He Yang said he had lost an arm? But thanks to the feedback energy and the college student’s healing, it was now just a minor flesh wound.
The college student suddenly took a quick half-step forward, and from a little ahead, he secretly mouthed four words: “Intimate plunder.”
An onlooker sees most of the game. The college student hadn’t fully grasped the feud between the Whalers’ Association and Zhou Qi’an, but his reading comprehension skills told him that the key was the phrase ‘the more intimate a person is when they die, the higher the probability of successful plunder.’
Hearing this, Zhou Qi’an blinked, finally realizing something. Was it because of this? Actually, Shen Zhiyi should be well aware that probability issues are always determined by the game. The fact that the Whalers’ Association had violated the game’s will was the key to his successful plunder.
Along the way, Shen Zhiyi became even more silent. This round was originally intended to lure out the Whalers’ Association and verify the connection between the artifacts and this blasted association, but the plunderer route was an exception. Subconsciously, that should have been an intimate route that only he and Qi’an could walk. The latter would continuously kill his nightmare forms, drawing strength from his flesh and soul, and they would be forever inseparable. Yet now, Qi’an was first injured, and then he would rather kill someone else than kill him.
Shen Zhiyi looked up. The sky was falling.
Zhou Qi’an: “…”
It was just big fish eating small fish. His boss wanted to run into someone else’s house to eat. What on earth was this person thinking?
The air around them fell into silence. After the downpour, the sun only revealed a corner. The thin sunlight fell down on the mountains, creating a continuous stretch of coolness.
Shen Zhiyi secretly regretted not insisting on the plunderer plan in the past, leading to someone else getting there first. As he was thinking, the stagnant gaze in his gray-white eyes suddenly moved. He looked down in surprise. He saw that the two shadows on the ground had changed.
Zhou Qi’an had approached a little at some point. The newly grown arm, as the distance between them shortened, looked at first glance as if they were holding hands. Shen Zhiyi was stunned. Although it was just an overlapping of virtual images caused by misalignment, it still felt warm to his eyes. The ink-black shadow’s color lightened a bit. Shen Zhiyi stared coldly at his own incarnation. Useless thing.
The next second, his own pupils slightly dilated. The shadow almost stood up.
A cool palm unexpectedly reached out, and where their fingers met, an exceptionally warm power was transmitted. Zhou Qi’an had actually turned the virtual into reality and taken his hand.
“At the Hao Hui Sha Group, I asked you…”
Zhou Qi’an said slowly, “Have I also chosen to go against you?”
“…Actually, the answer to that question was what I cared about most that night.”
As for the gatekeeper, the Whalers’ Association, they all came after that question.
The scene from that night appeared in Shen Zhiyi’s mind.
—’Your goal has always been clear, and so is mine.’
After he answered, the young man had fallen into a deep sleep. He had always thought that the other person hadn’t heard him.
Zhou Qi’an turned his face to look at him and smiled. In an instant, Shen Zhiyi felt that the gloomy wind blowing on his body was like a clear breeze on a sunny day, and the terrifying black mountains in his eyes were also a stretch of green hills as before.
The low pressure around them disappeared. The college student walking in front found it incredible. Just holding hands and a single sentence was enough to coax him. So spineless.
Putting away this dangerous thought, he let out a sigh of relief without showing it. The previous atmosphere was suffocating. The college student said at the right time, “If Auntie were here, she would be very happy.”
He wouldn’t have to be pestered about getting married to a rice cooker. He was genuinely happy for Brother Zhou from the bottom of his heart.
Shen Zhiyi automatically translated this as Zhou’s mother would definitely approve of their relationship. This comforting sentence made him decide to slightly separate his prejudice against the Taisui from the college student.
The three continued to walk on the mountain path. Behind them, behind a large boulder, several players were almost slumped on the ground. Red Hood had taken the limited copper coin. Thinking that these people were a team, they could follow them to get clues about the popular cultural products. For this, their team had even used a high-quality concealment item.
After secretly following for a while, their consciousness gradually fell into chaos during the movement. At some point, they began to walk like zombies. They were clearly awake, but their minds had fallen into a boundless nightmare world. In the end, they could only resort to extreme means of self-harm to try and wake up from the dream. Just as their bodies and minds were about to collapse, the invisible pressure suddenly disappeared.
“What… what happened?”
After waking up, the group gasped for breath, the wounds on their bodies still bleeding, the stinging pain reminding them that they were back in the real world. One of them had sharp eyes and saw some scattered parts on the ground where the three had walked… The secretly installed listening device had been shattered to pieces.
“Let’s go.”
The leader of the group had an extremely ugly expression. They had definitely run into a tough nut this time. “A mental-type skill?”
The man didn’t know why the other party had let them go at the last moment, but in any case, it was better to run before they changed their minds.
When escaping for their lives, there was no time for concealment. The sound of hurried, messy running came from behind.
Zhou Qi’an’s sharp ears twitched, and he was about to turn around.
Shen Zhiyi: “Just a few little ants.”
It had to be said that those few people were quite lucky. His rare good mood made him choose to let them go.
Hearing this, Zhou Qi’an no longer paid attention. When he looked forward again, his expression became a bit more solemn. It was estimated that they would reach the town in another ten minutes or so. He wasn’t in a hurry. With Ying Yu’s abilities, and with Yuan and the hound assisting, the probability of something happening was very small. But Red Hood was another matter. If the limited copper coin was wasted, they would have to go through a lot of trouble all over again.
·
Silent Town.
The Silent Town, which even the daytime sun couldn’t illuminate, was always shrouded in a gray color. In front of a small courtyard on the south side, a petite figure was frowning slightly. The hound sat quietly to the side. Yuan looked into the courtyard from time to time. Ying Yu had been inside for a while.
Not long ago, the hound had tracked Red Hood’s scent to this small courtyard. Ying Yu went in alone to investigate the situation, while she stayed outside to keep watch. The hound’s nose suddenly twitched. It subconsciously wanted to bark twice, but held back and swept its tail against the girl’s arm.
Yuan nodded, indicating that she had smelled it too. The smell of blood wafted through the air. It was there when they first arrived, but now it was much stronger, almost to the point of being pungent. With this level of smell, the amount of bleeding was definitely not small. Just as Yuan was considering whether to go in and check, the old courtyard gate was suddenly pushed open.
Yuan and the hound instantly became alert. A handsome figure walked out. Seeing who it was, the on-guard Yuan let out a sigh of relief.
Ying Yu’s slender hands were covered in blood, and there were blood spots on his glasses. He quietly wiped off the blood that wasn’t his from his hands and looked up at Yuan. The latter understood the look and went in with the hound.
The original owner of this house was a young woman. The original owner was now lying by the well, her delicate face turned upwards, long dead, her expression frozen in unwillingness and resentment. About ten meters away, Red Hood was breathing faintly, with a suspicious piece of meat next to her long leg.
Yuan walked closer and saw that it was half a tongue. When she saw Red Hood’s appearance clearly, Yuan was stunned. Her mouth was smeared with blood all over her chin. Red Hood’s lowered face was cut to the bone, clearly disfigured, and there were also large-scale knife wounds on her body. The healing item had prioritized the slow growth of her tongue, and the wounds on her face showed no signs of healing.
Her broken fingers moved slightly. She struggled to stand up and pointed at the corpse with her relatively intact fingers. The hound picked up the corpse of the dead courtyard owner from the ground. Communication was impossible in the Silent Town; everything was done in silence.
Turning around, Ying Yu was gone.
Yuan helped Red Hood a little, and the two walked out of the courtyard.
There were no pedestrians on the street; it was very deserted. But behind the doors, there seemed to be many prying eyes, staring at them through the courtyard gates.
The two gritted their teeth and walked towards the town entrance. When they finally passed the huge rock with the words “Silent Town” written on it, Yuan let out a slight sigh of relief. At the same time, the hound released its teeth, and the corpse fell heavily to the ground, kicking up dust from the cracks in the bricks.
Red Hood didn’t stop. With her slightly recovered arm, she continued to drag the corpse and throw it under a tree. The smell of flesh and blood instantly attracted flocks of crows. They flapped their wings, their sharp beaks constantly tearing and pulling at the flesh and blood that was delivered to their mouths.
Red Hood stood to the side, watching the crows devour the corpse bit by bit. “She got off easy.”
Speaking pulled at the wounds on her face, and blood began to ooze out again. Red Hood’s eyes were full of ruthlessness. The crows eating the corpse was, one, to relieve the hatred in her heart, and two, to completely eliminate the possibility of reanimation.
When Zhou Qi’an and the others arrived, the corpse had just been eaten down to half a skeleton, with some remaining bits of meat hanging on some of the bones.
The college student ran to the side. “Bleh…”
Without looking too much at the corpse, Zhou Qi’an frowned when he saw Red Hood’s bloodied and mangled face. Red Hood couldn’t speak, so he turned to Yuan and asked, “What happened? Where’s Ying Yu?”
Yuan didn’t know the details of many things. In the end, it was Red Hood who explained. After using the last healing item, Red Hood spoke again. “He Li is from the Whalers’ Association.”
She started from when she snatched the copper coin from the bottom of the water.
At that time, many red thin lines had appeared on He Li’s body, entangling the nearby competitors. Red Hood was feeling amazed when, as the other party swam with large movements, she vaguely saw the Whalers’ Association’s tattoo, which was why she had ambushed He Yang and snatched the copper coin.
“After getting the copper coin, I felt that something was not right.”
How could the Whalers’ Association make such a low-level mistake? However, it was too late.
When she was forcibly teleported to the town with the copper coin, several townspeople immediately surrounded her, their faces gray and lifeless, repeatedly repeating two words: “Speak up.”
They repeated it over and over, like the life-claiming calls of hellish ghosts. Red Hood naturally did not dare to open her mouth.
In the end, she was forcibly taken away by a town resident. Throughout the process, Red Hood was completely suppressed by the rules, and any resistance was futile. The town resident who took her away even used various torturous methods. Red Hood endured it all. Although she didn’t know where the trap was, she was very certain that she would die if she spoke.
With the limited copper coin on her, Zhou Qi’an would definitely come or send someone to find her for the coin. As long as she didn’t die before then, there was still a chance of survival.
Hearing this, Zhou Qi’an couldn’t help but look at her with new respect.
Her strong will to live allowed Red Hood to wait for Ying Yu. Then she fainted. When she woke up again, she vaguely saw Ying Yu peeling something off the woman who had tortured her.
“I gave the limited copper coin to Ying Yu.”
The game had always liked to play word games. The limited copper coin couldn’t be traded, but it never said it couldn’t be given away for free or snatched.
The wind carried the smell of blood, lingering around. Halfway through listening, Zhou Qi’an looked at the remains being pecked by the crows and lowered his eyes. “This one should also be from the Whalers’ Association.”
The shock made Red Hood forget the physical pain for a moment. After a brief moment of surprise, she didn’t doubt this conclusion at all. “No wonder.”
Under normal circumstances, NPCs wouldn’t be obsessed with torturing players. She had spread rumors wildly on the forum before; the Whalers’ Association must have wanted to cut her into a thousand pieces.
Having just been disfigured and had her tongue pulled out, Red Hood brushed aside the thought of pondering the details. From He Li to the townspeople, there might be more members of the Whalers’ Association in this instance. Her overly clenched fingers almost twisted again. The next time she ran into them, she would strip their skin at all costs.
“Ying Yu should have already found a town resident to communicate with. I’ll go have a look.”
Zhou Qi’an had the college student stay outside the town first, while he and Shen Zhiyi went in.
Yuan didn’t say anything from beginning to end, just stared at Shen Zhiyi’s back. After a long while, she fell into deep thought. Compared to the last time they met, Shen Zhiyi’s current state was very strange. His expression was gentle, and he even had a somewhat scholarly air about him. There was even a faint smile on his lips.
…He’s actually found happiness in the middle of an instance?
The more she thought about it, the more horrified she became. Yuan immediately considered the possibility of a player being replaced by a ghost. Before long, Yuan discovered a new problem. “What the hell, even his shadow is a translucent white.”
The college student had just finished throwing up and was dizzy. Yuan grabbed him and asked seriously, “You guys came over together. Don’t you think Shen Zhiyi is a bit strange?”
The college student was stunned. His brain took two seconds to react, and he actually understood what she was trying to convey. He shook his head and said, “Not strange.”
After thinking for a moment, he specifically added, “He’s in love.”
Yuan’s brows furrowed even tighter. “That shouldn’t have anything to do with it. He wasn’t like this in the morning.”
“He just fell in love.”
On the road.
Yuan: “?”
The heavily injured Red Hood: “??”
The hound’s tail even perked up: “!”
