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Chapter 26: Sisyphus’ Eternal Punishment
After lying down, An Wujiu calmly lowered the hand that had been clutching his chest, pretending that nothing had happened, despite the pain in his heart.
Exposing vulnerability in front of someone didn’t seem like a rational thing to do.
But Shen Ti didn’t appear to be that rational. His every move was filled with emotion. He did whatever he wanted, no matter how strange it seemed.
For example, at this moment, he was lying beside An Wujiu and was staring directly at An Wujiu’s profile from an almost negligible distance.
An Wujiu could feel the intense and direct gaze, like a leopard locking onto its prey.
Just as An Wujiu was about to ask why he was staring, Shen Ti spoke first.
“Your profile looks…”
He paused for two seconds, seemingly searching for the right adjective, which piqued An Wujiu’s curiosity.
“precise.”
“Precise? What do you mean?” An Wujiu turned his head to look at Shen Ti’s face, no longer paying attention to the “ceiling” of the container. He spoke softly, as per Zhang Yirou’s instructions.
As he turned his face, Shen Ti added, “Your face as well.”
Shen Ti’s expression was somewhat childlike, as he answered An Wujiu’s previous question, “It just feels like… it’s a very suitable face to be used as a representation of the human appearance for modeling.”
After saying that, he added, “If I had to choose just one human.”
This statement sounded strange, to the point that An Wujiu didn’t immediately grasp the profound compliment within it.
What he was more concerned about was why Shen Ti seemed to set himself apart from humans as an observer.
But there was one point he could agree with, so he said to Shen Ti directly, “You give me a sense of… being different from my kind.”
If either of them were replaced by someone else, their conversation would probably not flow smoothly.
Shen Ti, upon hearing this, smiled and offered an insightful interpretation of An Wujiu’s comment.
“Then it means you think I’m very special.”
Seeing his self-confidence, An Wujiu didn’t know how to respond, so he responded vaguely, “Maybe.”
“I see your face, and it’s like I can see what you looked like when you were a child,” Shen Ti returned to the discussion of “precise,” “but in a proportionally smaller version.”
An Wujiu closed his eyes and said, “I can hardly remember what I looked like as a child.” He just knew that in his dreams, he looked small and indistinct.
“You looked pretty.” Shen Ti gave his answer without any hesitation, as if he had actually seen An Wujiu as a child.
For some reason, due to Shen Ti’s words, An Wujiu’s heartache seemed to gradually subside, but some unnamed emotion slowly crept up, engulfing him.
He raised his hand and covered his face.
So, Shen Ti’s subject of observation was forced to become An Wujiu’s hand.
The fingers were long and slender, white as if covered in snow, but the prominent veins gave a subtle sense of strength.
There was a number on the back of the hand—99.
“Did you tattoo this number too?” Shen Ti’s voice came again, and An Wujiu lowered his hand and shook his head.
“No, this appeared after entering the game.”
After saying this, he turned to look at Shen Ti. “Don’t you have one?”
Shen Ti shook his head gently. He thought for a moment and then said, “But I’ve encountered others in the game who have numbers on them, although not 99.”
An Wujiu thought for a moment. “Maybe it’s done by the Holy Altar.” He just hadn’t figured out the purpose.
They were just competitors in the same round of the game, so their conversation should have been polite and superficial. But perhaps because Shen Ti’s peculiarity was so distinct, he couldn’t treat him as an ordinary person.
Even though he had convinced himself, all of these behaviors might be a carefully designed deception by Shen Ti.
“Why did you enter the Holy Altar?” An Wujiu asked a deeper question.
But he regretted it after asking, feeling like he was crossing a line. Because this was similar to the question he had asked Shen Ti right after leaving the game factory.
He probably didn’t want to answer such a private question yet.
Maintaining a position for a long time was uncomfortable. Shen Ti moved a bit, and his head accidentally bumped into An Wujiu’s head, and it stayed there without moving.
“I’ve told you, I wanted to die.” He repeated his previous words but also provided more. “Hmm… from what I remember, from birth to entering the Holy Altar, it seems like I’ve been repeating the same thing, and it’s very painful.”
But perhaps due to the brain’s self-preservation mechanism, he couldn’t remember exactly what it was.
“I can’t find relief and want to find a meaningful way to die.”
An Wujiu listened, and a mythic story popped into his mind.
Sisyphus, who incurred the wrath of the gods, was punished by pushing a massive stone to the mountaintop. Once he reached the summit, the stone would roll back down, and he had to repeat this work endlessly.
An Wujiu looked at him.
“Perhaps death is not the release.”
Shen Ti turned his face and looked into his eyes.
“Then what is?”
An Wujiu’s face displayed a resolute and tranquil expression.
“Finding meaning in living on.”
The night grew colder, and the air became frigid.
But for the first time, Shen Ti felt a non-physical warmth, which gave him an immense sense of strangeness.
So much so that he couldn’t sleep well the whole night, with his eyes closed, intermittently listening to An Wujiu’s even and faint breath.
This unprecedented serenity lasted until morning. He woke up as the daylight was breaking, sitting on the floor. His hands were folded on the edge of the bed, and he gazed quietly at An Wujiu, his slightly rising and falling chest, then extending his index finger.
He pressed down on the loose end of An Wujiu’s long hair scattered on the bed and let go before the other party could notice.
The morning’s boring yet fulfilling activities continued for half an hour, and An Wujiu also woke up.
He always appeared quite dazed upon waking, able to stay absorbed in thought for a long time, much like a mushroom.
Until the voice of Zhong Yirou penetrated the iron walls of the shipping container.
“It’s time to go!”
So, the four of them embarked once again on their journey back to the holy altar.
This time, their emotions became increasingly complex. On the aircraft, Wu You kept staring at the rearview mirror but remained silent.
He was a child who didn’t like to talk.
After parking the aircraft at the game factory, he followed his brothers and sister, not uttering a word, until they selected a random game pod and prepared to step inside.
Zhong Yirou said many words, probably conveying good wishes to everyone. Before entering, she helped An Wujiu tie up his hair high at the back of his head.
And just before closing the glass pod door, Wu You said, “You’ll all make it out alive, right?”
The robotic arms inside the game pod appeared and inserted the feeding tubes into An Wujiu’s arm. His eyes looked at Wu You in the adjacent pod.
“I’ll do my best, and you too.”
Shen Ti couldn’t quite grasp the will to survive but nodded.
“Of course!” Zhong Yirou shouted, “Next time, I’ll make roast chicken for everyone!”
Wu You pursed his lips, “That’s… not necessary.”
Unlike when they entered the game with no prior knowledge, this time An Wujiu smiled slightly, prepared, and with the promise he had made to others.
In his state of kindness, he was entirely opposite to Shen Ti; he was someone who easily formed emotional connections with people, had strong empathy, sympathized with others, and was willing to reach out to help others.
So, people around him were also easily influenced.
A familiar voice emanated from the game pod.
“Database interface is connected.”
At the moment the holy voice sounded, An Wujiu felt like a beautiful dream was shattering.
Their peace was merely a pause.
“Loading survival data.”
“Loading…”
“Environment configuration successful, variable initialization…”
“Welcome back.”
He experienced a brief moment of blindness and deafness, as if falling into a serene white.
“Loading warm-up game settings.”
In an instant, countless blue particles appeared in his field of vision, gradually converging to form a dark space.
Unlike the previous warm-up match on the rooftop of the building, this time he found himself in a dimly lit hall, with the only source of light being a skylight in the center of the hall.
Soon, a massive birdcage appeared beneath the skylight, with a circle of cylindrical, low platforms placed around its outer edge. An Wujiu noticed the quantity; there were a total of six.
In the very center was another birdcage.
Seven people?
He was about to turn his head when he felt a gentle tap on his right shoulder. He turned to the right but found no one there, yet there was a voice on his left.
“What a coincidence.”
It was Shen Ti.
A rather childish trick.
An Wujiu turned his face to look at him, and Shen Ti had a lollipop in his mouth, one cheek puffed out, and he mumbled unclearly, “We’re competitors again.”
An Wujiu nodded, “Isn’t this situation quite common?”
Shen Ti pretended to think seriously for a moment, “Maybe it is, but I can’t remember their faces.”
The holy voice appeared once again, “Welcome, players.”
“You are all survivors from the previous game, having arrived here after a life-and-death struggle. There’s no need to go over the rules of the warm-up game.”
For some reason, An Wujiu felt like this time the holy voice was more human-like.
Perhaps it was because someone had tried to escape from the very beginning last time, and it had been quite bloody.
Soon, he spotted a familiar figure wearing high heels in the dark shadows opposite.
“Yirou is here too.”
“Yirou?” Shen Ti repeated that phrase, but it was not a question; it seemed more like a surprise term of endearment for An Wujiu, having dropped her surname.
An Wujiu misinterpreted and pointed to the opposite side. Zhong Yirou also spotted them, waving elegantly.
The holy voice began the introduction.
“In this round of the game, there are a total of seven players. Please gather in the center of the hall and familiarize yourselves with each other’s names.”
Following the rules, An Wujiu and Shen Ti walked to the center of the hall, and his gaze scanned the surroundings, surprised to find Wu You there as well.
Wu You remained quite composed, even though he was also surprised by their reunion.
On one hand, An Wujiu felt pleased because there were familiar faces, but on the other hand, he couldn’t help but feel uneasy, as they had once again become competitors.
An Wujiu noticed that directly across from him stood a tall, young woman with a low ponytail tied behind her head. She had a three-dimensional silhouette and soft Eastern facial features with perhaps a hint of Russian heritage, but she had a certain kind of attitude that would not be appreciated by strangers.
She was dressed in black suit pants and a crisp white shirt with the buttons done up all the way, giving her the appearance of a professional woman or a researcher.
But An Wujiu quickly dismissed his own speculation.
Why would a researcher be here?
Her name appeared on the holographic display.
[Yang Erci]
It sounded quite Chinese, confirming the mixed heritage.
His gaze shifted to the other side. Next to Yang Erci, he saw an adult man, quite tall, with a topknot on his head, dressed in a blue-gray, robe-like outfit.
“A Taoist?” he couldn’t help but murmur; this was a character he’d only seen in books.
Shen Ti also looked over, “What’s a Taoist…”
He only saw that the Taoist looked pretty good, with the appearance of a scholar-like pretty boy.
But he had a mole at the corner of his eye, and Shen Ti shook his head for An Wujiu in a pretentious manner.
Definitely not serious.
Seemingly having heard An Wujiu’s voice, the Taoist opposite him made a slight bow.
His name was “Nan Shan”.
An Wujiu nodded toward him as a gesture of courtesy, and then he looked to Nan Shan’s left. There was a young boy of European appearance, looking slightly older than Wu You, with a pale complexion and slightly curly brown hair falling over his cheeks.
His name was “Josh”, a common Western name.
Including the four of them that An Wujiu already knew, everyone had gathered in front of the birdcage in the center of the hall, quietly waiting.
“The name of the warm-up game is ‘Caged Bird,'” the holy voice spoke.
Soon, from somewhere in the hall, a faint nursery rhyme could be heard.
[Caged bird, caged bird, little caged bird, when will you come out to play?
The night has passed, and the day has dawned. Escaping with the crane and tortoise, can you guess who’s causing a ruckus behind you?]
In the spacious and dark hall, this voice seemed especially ethereal, echoing above the high and wide dome. It might have been a trick of An Wujiu’s eyes, but he seemed to briefly see a child standing in the birdcage, hands covering their eyes, with their back to them.
But in the blink of an eye, the child had vanished.
“Now, I announce the game rules. Please note that during the entire game, you’re not allowed to make any sounds.”
With the nursery rhyme playing, the holy voice explained, “As you can see, there is a platform inside the birdcage in front of you, and outside the birdcage are six platforms with numbers from 1 to 6.”
“At the beginning of the game, one player must voluntarily step forward to be the ‘Caged Bird.’ They must blindfold themselves and stand on the platform inside the cage.
Anyone can volunteer to become the ‘Caged Bird.’ If there are multiple players volunteering, the system will randomly select one from the volunteers.
If there’s no ‘Caged Bird’ in the first round, each player will lose 5 points.”
“The player in the cage, who can’t see what’s happening outside, will call out an integer between 0 and 6. The other players will stand on the platforms outside the cage and move a corresponding number of steps clockwise, based on the number called out by the player in the cage.”
“For example, if they were initially on platform number 1, and the ‘Caged Bird’ calls out 3, they will move three steps clockwise to platform number 4.”
“After moving, the ‘Caged Bird’ will remain stationary and try to guess who the ‘Birdcatcher’ is behind them.”
“If the ‘Caged Bird’ guesses correctly, they will win and get 10 points.
If the ‘Caged Bird’ guesses incorrectly, the ‘Birdcatcher’ will get 5 points, and the other players outside the cage will get 3 points. The ‘Caged Bird’ will lose 5 points.”
This was a blindfolded guessing game where you couldn’t hear or touch anything.
“There are four rounds in total. The birdcatcher in the previous round will automatically become the caged bird in the next round. After entering the cage and counting, the people outside the cage can choose according to their own will and stand on the platform outside the cage.
After four rounds, the player with the highest total score will win.
If there are multiple players with the same high score, a tiebreaker will be held.”
“If a player makes a sound during the game, doesn’t move according to the rules, or leaves the platform, it’s considered a foul, and they will be disqualified from the match.”
“The game will start in 1 minute.”—
The author has something to say:
Shen Ti: He’s special to me. (confident)
An Wujiu: I feel like you just learned how to be human a few days ago.
This game is derived from a children’s rhyme game where participants form a circle, and one person stands in the center as the “caged bird.” The people in the circle sing the nursery rhyme, and when it ends, the person in the center has to guess who is behind them. Some adjustments have been made to the rules, such as blindfolding and scoring.
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