Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 52
Mist enveloped the tops of the trees; the valley was spacious and silent, devoid of any chirps of birds or hums of insects. The witches’ base was situated in a particularly quiet utopia.
As far as the eye could see, bungalows were densely packed, and vegetables and fruits were flourishing.
The witches going about their tasks had abandoned all modern equipment. They carried water on their shoulders and personally worked in the fields, looking extremely busy. But they all seemed to feel that they were doing the right thing, so their faces were filled with joyful smiles.
Their actions were in perfect alignment with the slogans posted everywhere here—”The development of technology is the original sin”, “Abandon technology, return to nature”, “Stay away from electronic devices, communicate with the universe”…
Looking around, Zhou Qian then turned his gaze to the cemetery in front of him. Quickly, he found the tombstone belonging to Lily. According to her mother Eva, buried beneath the tombstone was her favorite hairpin.
Looking at the tombstone, Zhou Qian quickly reviewed all the expressions of Eva in his mind. He realized he couldn’t find any flaws in Eva’s demeanor.
When accused of murdering her daughter, if Eva were to constantly refute, weep, and express sorrow for her daughter’s death, it might seem unnatural, perhaps with a hint of acting.
But Eva wasn’t like that. While sad, Eva had pride in her eyes, believing she was exorcising evil spirits, doing the right thing, and fulfilling her beliefs.
So, regardless of the true story of this instance, what Eva told them, at least in her eyes, was the truth and fact. Meaning, within her understanding, she hadn’t lied.
At this time, Zhou Qian was reminded again of the diary written by Lily that he had read.
An important part of the diary was the description of the fireworks at the music festival.
Lily mentioned that after the fireworks burst, they were like thousands of falling stars. Stars had always been associated with wishes. So, she made a wish, hoping it would come true.
Logically and chronologically speaking, this diary must have been written after she returned from the music festival.
Based on this, the tone and mood of all the contents in the diary indeed seemed to be written by Lily herself. Before the music festival, she recorded trivial daily life, occasionally complaining about academics; after the festival, she became increasingly angry. From the entire diary, the choice of words, grammar, and such, were all Lily’s habits.
Even when Lily later hated her own mother and wrote words of wanting to report her on the back of a photo, it was entirely logical.
She grew up in a town where everyone hated witches. After being locked up by her witch mother for a long time, she couldn’t escape. In her breakdown, the sentences that kept coming up in her mind were all the ingrained sayings she had heard since childhood, like “witches are evil; they should be burned to death.”
So, perhaps she was obedient and loved her mother before, but after being imprisoned and even being treated as an “evil spirit”, and suffering many tortures, her fear and hatred of her mother, and even thoughts of reporting her, were reasonable.
This diary had led Zhou Qian never to believe that Lily was really possessed. If she was really possessed by an evil spirit, or if her body was taken over, would the spirit need to write these entries? What would be its purpose?
Even if he ignored the behavioral logic, another strong evidence was that the thick diary recorded various trivial matters. The handwriting went from crooked to neat, but it wasn’t difficult to find that the handwriting in the diary was indeed from one person from beginning to end.
If Lily was really “possessed” at the music festival, why were the few sentences written after the festival not different from the handwriting before the festival?
Would the evil spirit need to imitate her handwriting? Or in other words, Lily really wasn’t possessed by any so-called evil spirit?
Now the most crucial question came. If Lily wasn’t taken over or possessed, if her mother Eva indeed didn’t lie…
Under such circumstances, how should Lily’s “monsterization” be explained and her act of extracting her friend Lina’s heart with her bare hands?
The sound of Eva urging everyone to go to their residences reached Zhou Qian’s ears. He shifted his gaze from the tombstone to her. “Can I ask you something?”
“Feel free to ask,” Eva said.
Zhou Qian asked her, “Have you read the diary written by your daughter?”
“No. I respect my child’s privacy,” Eva answered. “I have never read her diary.”
Eva had never read Lily’s diary before, and even after confining her, she never looked at the diary on the desk.
“What’s wrong?” Eva asked him.
The diary was now in Zhou Qian’s bag.
But he didn’t say anything and just shook his head at Eva. “Let’s go.”
……
When the players first entered this instance, they were in a closed study and had no sense of time.
Now they had learned that when they arrived, it was around 9 a.m., and now it’s almost noon. Eva had arranged two rooms for them to rest a bit, and she would take them to the dining hall for lunch later.
The witches had a very uniform schedule, and by rule, no one could cook their meals, and everyone must eat in the dining hall three times a day. The dining hall prepared meals for everyone, and there were strict rules on how much everyone could eat per meal—no more, no less.
“You are new here, so the dining hall hasn’t prepared your meals in advance. I’ll go and tell them to prepare seven more portions.”
After saying this, Eva prepared to leave.
Zhou Qian walked her to the door, seemingly whispering a few words to her, then returned to the room and closed the door himself.
In Zhou Qian’s room were Zhou Qian himself, Qi Liuxing, and Wu Ren.
Under Zhou Qian’s strong request, Ke Yuxiao went to the next room with Situ Qing, Yin Jiujiu, and Li Buhui.
Seeing Eva had left, Qi Liuxing looked at Zhou Qian. “When we go eat, we’ll have to eat together with others. We won’t be able to keep wearing our masks. What do we do? We can only eat after taking off our masks.”
Qi Liuxing blurted this out and was stunned by his words.
He couldn’t help but frown at Zhou Qian. “Why did you give me this voice changer with such a voice? Zhou Qian, you really…”
“The first method is to say President Sarah said, just in case, we better wear these so-called… clothes with protective spells for a while longer. As for the masks, of course, cannot be taken off. As for the second method…”
Zhou Qian smiled at Qi Liuxing and said in an encouraging tone, “Shall we go order some wigs and makeup?”
Qi Liuxing decisively said, “No thanks. I think the first method is good!”
Zhou Qian didn’t tease Qi Liuxing anymore.
He turned his head, opened the window, and looked at a large single-story building not far away through the thick black veil.
That should be where the kitchen and dining hall were located.
Smoke was currently rising from the large chimney; someone was cooking lunch.
“Actually, compared to this…”
Zhou Qian whispered, “Don’t you feel that the story, from the beginning to now, seems very strange and awkward?”
Wu Ren responded, “Indeed strange. Aren’t witches supposed to fly on brooms? Why haven’t I seen any?”
“Right. Just looking at the places in Beautiful Flower Town that are supposedly ‘corrupted by evil spirits’, there are strange butterflies and bizarre flowers and plants. It indeed feels like a fantasy drama.”
“But if this is really a fantasy drama, witches who can summon the dead and set protective barriers for the entire town… should logically be able to fly and escape easily, right?”
Zhou Qian shook his head. “But they are not. The so-called husband of Luna was gutted and dismembered. Sarah said herself that it was man-made. The reason for the brutal treatment of the body was just to fabricate lies, making people believe that witches did it.”
“Sarah said many seemingly strange events are created by people using the words ‘magic’ and ‘spell’ to escape guilt and ultimately blaming the witches. Moreover—”
“The witches plant crops and cook with their bare hands; the way we came here was by bus…”
“Do you think there’s a possibility that there’s no magic in this instance world?”
The road from the mountainside to this secluded valley was perilous and required a driver with very high driving skills.
If the players were brought into the valley by some eagle or even a dragon summoned by the witches, or if the witches directly flew them down on brooms, Zhou Qian would not doubt the worldview.
But the current experience was giving him an increasingly severe sense of dissonance.
A reasonable worldview should have balanced forces of good and evil.
Meaning, if the “villains” of this world were humanoid butterflies, flowers with human faces, and evil spirits capable of corrupting an entire town causing countless deaths…
Then correspondingly, the “heroes” like the witches, should at least be able to ride brooms, use magic wands for planting crops, and such. How else would they fight the villains?
But as present, the witches’ magic wands appeared to be purely decorative.
Zhou Qian hadn’t seen them having any actual use.
Qi Liuxing thought for a while and said, “If witches can’t perform magic… Could this be a normal world?”
“Yes, I think this world is probably similar to the real world we live in. Apart from this strange game, in ordinary people’s regular lives, there are no magical or metaphysical elements.”
Zhou Qian said, “In the world of ordinary people, technology brings absolute convenience to everyone. Mobile phones, computers, airplanes, high-speed trains—these are what people really need. In a normal world, bizarre monsters or plants will not appear, nor will there be witches who truly can perform magic. Under such circumstances, this President Sarah…”
Looking out of the window, his pupils shrank slightly. Zhou Qian’s mouth hooked, continuing, “She seems like some sort of ‘charlatan’ propagating a cult.”
“Look at the slogans in this village and the letter Sarah wrote to Eva. The words are all about ‘abandoning technology and communicating with nature,’ which is very obscure and impractical. She didn’t say to abandon technology and return to magic, claiming magic can make our lives more convenient. So—”
Zhou Qian concluded, “We can assume that there is no magic in this world. The so-called ‘magic’ is a big hoax created by Sarah.”
“Where there’s a will to condemn, there’s a way. Some seemingly inexplicable events, or sensational murders, can all be blamed on witches. As a result, many people indeed harbor resentment against witches.”
“But by the same token, events like ‘this person’s illness suddenly got better’, ‘the lost child was found’, and such, can also be attributed to witches, claiming it’s due to the power of witchcraft, guidance of the crystal ball, and such…”
“Simply put, public opinion can be manipulated. And due to herd mentality and other group effects, people are easily brainwashed.”
“The townspeople can easily believe that evil witches can curse and kill at will. Witches who joined this association, under each other’s influence, can also be easily brainwashed by Sarah, thinking they can communicate with the universe and obtain the power of magic.”
At this point, someone rang the bell outside.
Immediately, an authoritative female voice followed. “Everyone, please come to the dining hall to eat within one minute. During this critical time, be frugal. Everyone must finish their food and cannot waste. The food allocated to each person is limited; no extra is allowed.”
Hearing this, Zhou Qian added in a deep voice, “The Witch Association has a kind of militarized management style. Sarah seems like the one who leads everyone. Under such circumstances, the people living here are even more likely to be brainwashed.”
Wu Ren couldn’t help but ask, “If this world doesn’t have that kind of real magic, then we weren’t brought here by magic. How did we come here? Besides, why did those children turn into monsters, which we saw with our own eyes? Why did the city’s flowers and plants become like that? Finally… are these witches, in this instance, good or bad?”
Zhou Qian replied, “Regarding your questions, I have some guesses, but nothing is confirmed. If we find an opportunity to visit the Strawberry Music Festival, maybe we will know everything.”
Wu Ren fell silent for a while and then said, “Alright. The most crucial thing now is the food issue. They asked us to arrive within one minute and mentioned no waste. We-we can’t avoid it—”
“We can.” Zhou Qian smiled. “When I took Eva out just now, I told her not to let the kitchen prepare extra food for us. So, there won’t be our share.”
Three seconds later, Qi Liuxing realized something and looked at Zhou Qian immediately. “Then you were still thinking about buying wigs and cosmetics just now!”
Zhou Qian grinned and turned to Qi Liuxing. “Xiao Qi, your voice is really cute now.”
Qi Liuxing: “…………”
……
Zhou Qian sent messages to Ke Yuxiao and Situ Qing through the system, asking them not to go out for meals and continue to pay attention to Li Buhui and Yin Jiujiu.
After that, Zhou Qian kept observing the situation from the window.
In about 15 minutes, all the witches finished their lunch efficiently.
During this period, Zhou Qian counted and found that the number of witches here wasn’t too many—less than 20.
After that, Zhou Qian continued to monitor the situation outside. He noticed that Sarah left with a few people, not sure if she went to Beautiful Flower Town again.
Compared to Zhou Qian’s calmness, Wu Ren seemed somewhat anxious. “What’s the current situation? There are no obvious minor checkpoints or plots for us. I-I only have 5 hours left to live! Hey, wait—”
His tone changed. Wu Ren said, “It’s strange… Have you guys noticed? The countdown has slowed down!”
Indeed, the countdown had slowed down.
Zhou Qian took out his life point card. By rights, he should have 22 points left, and with the one-hour countdown almost ending, he would be left with 21 points immediately.
But now, surprisingly, he still had a full 23 points.
The countdown below the points, denoted in hours, continued, but the speed at which the seconds decreased had slowed significantly.
What was originally one second might have slowed to three seconds.
After a while, Zhou Qian put away his card, thoughtfully placing his hand on the black robe he wore and studying it a bit more.
Wu Ren took a deep breath, his voice steadier but still somewhat worried. “Although the time for point deduction has slowed down. I am still worried… I won’t be so unlucky, right? Even with an additional 6 points, am I still in last place? It seems like everyone else isn’t worried… We can’t wait here, let’s go find the plot.”
Unexpectedly, not long after he said this, a plot really emerged.
Suddenly, there was a commotion outside.
“Many of the reports of witches in the past were done by warlocks!”
“It’s their turn now!”
“To avoid evil spirits, they dare to disguise themselves as women and blend in! Luckily we found out!”
“He must be put to death!”
“Take him to the ‘Square of Deliberation’ and burn him!!!”
“Agree! He must be burnt!!”
“All those who haven’t received a mission, gather at the square!”
“Quickly! Gather!”
Hearing this, the three men in the room exchanged glances.
It wasn’t hard to infer from these words that a man has disguised himself as a witch and had been discovered. Even if Sarah was here, let alone her absence, she probably couldn’t stop it—all the witches want to execute the warlock.
So, what Sarah said before was indeed mild. If a man disguised as a woman was accidentally discovered, he would really be killed by the witches. The longstanding historical conflicts between the two sides had reached a point that was very difficult to reconcile.
This incident also validated Zhou Qian’s speculation from another angle.
If they really knew countless magics, they should have ten thousand ways to punish the warlocks. Why must they use burning?
Moreover, when Eva recounted the incident, she also said that she injected anesthetic into the unconscious Lily.
If she could really control others with magic, why would she need anesthetics?
Regarding the subsequent events of cutting hair, fingers, and summoning spirits… She couldn’t really summon her daughter’s spirit. Whether this magic was really useful was also unverifiable.
Going to the window and glancing outside, Wu Ren asked, “Is this the plot? Should we go to the Square of Deliberation to see?”
“We can’t go,” Zhou Qian decisively said. “Now we clearly know that once our identities are exposed, the consequences are unthinkable.”
At this time, through the window, Zhou Qian saw four players from the next room had already gone out, seemingly wanting to check out the commotion.
His gaze became sharp, revealing a clear chill.
He said in a deep voice, “The place where we live is relatively remote. If anything happens, we can still escape in time. If we really go to the ‘Square of Deliberation,’ we would be unable to escape by then.”
After saying this, Zhou Qian narrowed his eyes, opened the door, and went out, seeming to want to stop those four players.
Qi Liuxing and Wu Ren exchanged glances and hurried to follow.
Then, unexpectedly, they found Eva walking over with five witches.
Eva, coming face to face with the seven players, couldn’t help but ask, “Are you going to the Square of Deliberation? What happened, you heard it, right?”
“We heard.” Zhou Qian stepped forward and asked her, “Where are you going?”
“We plan to explore Weir Mountain,” Eva said. “It’s the origin of evil spirits. Maybe we can figure everything out there. Do you want to come? We are short of hands. I can teach you how to find evil spirits.”
This time, the players seemed to be in a dilemma.
Now it seemed there were two plots to choose from: one was to go to the Square of Deliberation to watch the warlock being burnt; the other was to go to Weir Mountain, a place that once hosted the Strawberry Music Festival. Undoubtedly, the latter was a very important plot.
Zhou Qian didn’t answer for a moment, instead looking at the others, seemingly waiting for some of them to react.
However, the answers everyone subsequently gave were to go to Weir Mountain, including Yin Jiujiu, whom he most suspected.
Seeing this, Zhou Qian, under the black veil, couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows, but for now, he didn’t show any emotions or reactions. In his view, the Peach Blossom Legion might have sent someone else to kill him. If that person wasn’t Wu Ren, then the most likely person would be Yin Jiujiu.
The plot of “warlocks being burned” was likely not for players to pass levels and gain life points but rather for mutual sabotage. Traps for teammates to sabotage each other were hidden everywhere in this game. Now, the setting that “witches are hostile to warlocks” could undoubtedly be used well.
Moments ago, news had just come from outside that a warlock was to be burned at the Square of Deliberation. The four people next door went out immediately without discussing with Zhou Qian. In his view, they were likely deliberately led by someone. And that person was likely Yin Jiujiu.
Once all the teammates were brought to the assembly square, surrounded by many witches, if Yin Jiujiu revealed Zhou Qian’s male identity, then, without her doing anything, Zhou Qian would be attacked by many high-level witches. It would be hard for him to escape, and he would be burned to death.
From Yin Jiujiu’s perspective, there wasn’t even resentful energy here for Zhou Qian to use because all that was buried beneath the graves were clothes. As for Beautiful Flower Town, though many people died there, it was too far away—far beyond Zhou Qian’s skill range.
With this consideration, when Eva asked if everyone wanted to go to Weir Mountain with her, Zhou Qian didn’t intentionally answer; he was waiting for Yin Jiujiu’s reaction. But Yin Jiujiu quickly answered that she wanted to go to Weir Mountain. Li Buhui, who was clinging to her, quickly echoed.
With this, Zhou Qian wondered if he was overthinking or if they discovered that they could go to Weir Mountain and suddenly decided to do the main mission first.
Many thoughts crossed his mind in an instant. However, Zhou Qian’s tone didn’t reveal any change; in fact, everyone was wearing veils, so he didn’t even need to disguise his expressions. He just responded to Eva in the sexy female anchor voice: “Can you teach us how to find evil spirits? That’s great. We can’t just freeload here. We have joined the Witch Association; we should also contribute to the public!”
……
Another hour later. Zhou Qian and his seven companions, along with five witches, arrived behind Weir Mountain by bus.
The witches said that the road ahead was impassable by bus, and everyone needed to walk. Then they all got off the bus and began to climb the mountain.
After learning that the climb would take another twenty minutes, Zhou Qian asked Eva, “Have you sent people here before?”
At this moment, Eva was fully armed, wrapping her body tightly. She answered, “Yes. Six people came here this morning; only four returned. We don’t know where the other two went… We have to check. Hopefully, they are alright.”
“Oh right, I will give you the crystal ball later. You can’t learn advanced magic now. I’ll teach you how to detect evil spirits first… It’s really simple. Just look if the color of the crystal ball changes. If you find any evil spirits, call me. We will deal with it.”
Zhou Qian nodded seriously.
At this moment, he suddenly heard a clear “uh”.
He turned around to see that the sound came from Wu Ren. Zhou Qian walked over to him without changing his expression and asked, “What’s wrong?”
But he saw Wu Ren, pale, pull out his card. “It-its countdown has accelerated!!! I, uh…”
“Are you feeling okay?” Zhou Qian noticed he stumbled a bit.
The five witches were leading the way up front; Wu Ren glanced at them and quickly turned around, opening his black robe, revealing his sleeve. At this point, Zhou Qian and he both noticed something wrong—his skin had dense smallpox, and the color of his skin was faintly turning purple and blue.
“What the hell is this…” Wu Ren’s demeanor changed to one of horror.
His usually gloomy temperament was gone, and he was somewhat trembling.
Meanwhile, behind them, Yin Jiujiu sent a message to Li Buhui. “Be ready to cooperate with my actions.”
After sending this message, Yin Jiujiu looked in Zhou Qian’s direction. Zhou Qian, Wu Ren, Qi Liuxing, Ke Yuxiao, and Situ Qing were standing together. Situ Qing lagged behind, looking around.
If one looked carefully, they would notice that Yin Jiujiu’s gaze wasn’t on Zhou Qian but on Situ Qing. Facing another girl in the team, for the first time, a distinct killing intent appeared in Yin Jiujiu’s eyes.
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