Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 126

Alayne’s voice came through the night, her tone filled with doubt, trouble, and difficulty.

Even to Bai Zhou, her voice sounded very faint, due to the considerable distance between her and him.

After asking Village Chief Ab a question, seemingly reading something from his expression, Alayne immediately asked more intensely, even with a hint of accusation, “I was faster than everyone in this year’s game of Drop the Handkerchief. I shouldn’t be the one keeping watch. I’m the best one! I clearly won the competition! Where exactly are you taking me?”

Then, the somewhat stern voice of Village Chief Ab followed. “You are the one indicated by the oracle. You are our hope!”

“Oracle? What do you mean?” Alayne couldn’t help but ask.

Ab said, “You know, every year we have to sacrifice many people… The sacrificed are far more than the newborns. If this continues, our four great families will be destroyed!”

“I-I know. My mother told me. She said your hair has-has all turned white,” Alayne said. “But what does this have to do with me?”

“You know, I’ve always been looking for a way to defeat the Red God. But even though I’ve racked my brains and spent sleepless nights, I’ve never found a solution,” Ab said. “Fortunately, half a year ago, I and a few workers saw an oracle in the mine. It was written by the gods on a stone—

“One who is born with a lotus possesses the greatest speed. Only they can outrun the Red God and defeat the Red God.”

“Alayne, look. You’re only ten years old and already have such speed… Even those who are deemed most talented by them can’t compare to you. And through your mother, I know you have a lotus on your body, right? So, you are the one hinted at by the oracle—the one who can defeat the Red God!”

For a long time, Alayne didn’t speak again, falling into silence, not knowing what to think.

Ab continued, “Alayne, you are a gift from the heavens to Nameless Village, the hope of the four great families! I beseech you to face the Red God.”

“Beseech?” Alayne said. “This isn’t beseeching. This is coercion. Otherwise, why would there be so many people following us with knives? Besides, even if I am talented, how can I, a human, defeat the Red God? How could I possibly kill her?!”

The girl’s voice became increasingly panicked. “This is a sacrifice. You’re sacrificing me alone. I told my mother, I suspected this wasn’t normal! I told her not to tell others about the lotus on my body. Why would she…”

Alayne’s voice abruptly stopped, replaced by the howling wind—she had run away.

Ab’s tone immediately turned furious. He shouted, “Chase her! Chase her down!”

“But Lord Ab, she’s too fast!”

“No matter, we just need to surround this mountain! That way, to avoid us, she can only run towards the mountaintop. The Red God is at the mountaintop this year!”

“Ha ha, let her run… Let her run directly into the arms of the Red God!”

……

At this moment, all sounds abruptly stopped.

It was as if the distant Ab, Alayne, and all of the village chief’s men had all vanished.

Why would such a phenomenon occur?

Bai Zhou could only attribute it to everything happening in a future timeline.

In this conversation, Ab mentioned that Alayne was already ten years old.

But when Bai Zhou and the other players played the game of Drop the Handkerchief with the little girl, she was only eight.

Thus, the theory about the three heads controlling three directions of time and space was probably true.

Bai Zhou guessed the reason he could hear Ab and Alayne’s conversation was because he heard the voice from another timeline.

The three heads, with Bai Zhou located within the range that one of the heads’ eyes could see.

As for the Ab and Alayne he just heard, they were in the gaze of another head’s eye.

Another head’s eye changed color, illuminating that area with the future scene. Thus, Bai Zhou, who was in the past, could hear the voices of Alayne and Ab in a future timeline.

All sounds stopped abruptly, likely because the statue’s eye changed back, and the future timeline suddenly disappeared.

What Bai Zhou didn’t understand was why Ab, whom he had killed in the present, could be alive in the future.

He even found that the villagers around him weren’t ghosts but were actually people.

When communicating with the Red God Amei, Bai Zhou noticed her voice was very different from humans’.

If it were an ordinary person, they probably wouldn’t understand her at all. That he could comprehend her speech was likely purely because he was a Rank God player.

Yet, the voices of Ab and the other villagers around Bai Zhou sounded exactly like humans.

This indicated they had indeed been resurrected, rather than being so-called “souls returned from the dead”.

Moreover, these resurrected individuals lacked a segment of memory. They were unaware of what Bai Zhou had done to them.

At this moment, Bai Zhou recalled a phrase the Red God Amei had said to him before leaving—”What has happened cannot be changed.”

Thus, perhaps the story of Nameless Village was set in stone. Whatever the players did, it wouldn’t bring any change to the fate of this village. No matter how many times Bai Zhou killed Ab and the others, they would resurrect time and again.

From another perspective, everything happening here was like an animated movie. The three heads on the statue were like three projectors, each looking towards three large areas, projecting different stories for each area. The projectors had different colors, corresponding to different segments of the animation they played.

Players, being in the animation, were subjected to various bans and restrictions. As outsiders, they might die here, but they wouldn’t make any substantial changes to the fate of Nameless Village itself.

In the eyes of the Red God Amei, what was meant to happen had already happened.

Samhain, a period that didn’t exist in time, a season where both space and time plunged into chaos.

Perhaps all the chaos would only cease at the end of Samhain.

Maybe then, the players would discover what the real mission to clear the instance is.

As Bai Zhou was thinking this as he walked, he suddenly noticed that Ab beside him had stopped. He immediately guessed Ab’s intention.

Sure enough, Ab said, “Wait, please stop. We took the wrong way.”

Bai Zhou remained silent.

“Please go this way! We need to go somewhere first!” Village Chief Ab turned around, and seeing Bai Zhou didn’t move, tried to grab him, looking very anxious.

Of course, the place Village Chief Ab wanted to take Bai Zhou to was still in the direction of the altar.

It seemed that the resurrected Ab indeed lacked a segment of memory, so he still wanted to continue taking Bai Zhou to the altar to kill him.

Bai Zhou looked at him and asked, “Samhain has arrived. Aren’t you afraid of wasting time?”

“It’s… already past midnight?” The village chief was stunned for a moment, then said, “Oh, this time, confusion is prone to occur… You see, we all don’t know when we got separated from you! But please follow us! I’ve thought of a strategy to protect all of us!”

Indeed, his excuse was exactly the same as before.

“Why aren’t you moving?”

“Come with me, I’m doing this to save all of us!”

“I’ve thought of a way to get rid of the Red God!”

As Ab was persuading Bai Zhou, he signaled the others with his eyes, probably worrying that Bai Zhou had discovered their conspiracy and was unwilling to go, suggesting to the others that they might have to forcibly take him to the altar.

Seeing Bai Zhou still didn’t move, Ab looked back at him, raising both hands in a gesture to grab his arm.

In the next moment, there was a flash of cold light, and Ab didn’t even feel the pain before his head hit the ground. Along with him, the remaining thirty or so people died again.

Having dealt with them swiftly and violently, Bai Zhou sheathed his Breaking Dawn and continued towards the mountaintop. He moved quickly, as if eager to return to a certain place.

At this point, the players’ tasks had become relatively clear. The game of Drop the Handkerchief divided the players into two groups: “keeping watch” and “going home”.

Both sides likely had important clues, so it was best for the players to split into two teams, participate in both tasks separately, and cooperate in the subsequent game, sharing information without reservation.

Initially, everyone thought that keeping watch was the most dangerous because it meant being sacrificed to the Red God, likely facing her head-on.

But now that Bai Zhou knew the story of the Red God Amei, he suspected that the players, as “deserters from the Land of Silence”, actually helped her, so she had no direct malice towards the deserters and might even hint at the bans to them.

Thus, the real danger might instead lie with the players staying in the inn.

The Red God Amei appeared and then disappeared. On this side, the real enemy facing the “keeping watch” players was actually just the continuously resurrecting villagers.

The only crisis they faced was not letting their blood fall on the altar. However, the danger faced by the players at the inn might be the truly dangerous individuals—such as, the innkeeper Tartar.

Aside from Tartar, the Red God Amei likely also went to the inn.

Although she had no direct malice towards the players, that didn’t mean her stance couldn’t change. In summary, Zhou Qian and the others were in a very dangerous situation. So Bai Zhou needed to hurry back to the inn.

However, before returning, he wanted to take advantage of this chaotic time to look for more clues. There must be important information he hadn’t discovered yet.

Every scenario in an instance has a clear design trace, a confirmed pattern.

In this game, risk and reward are always proportional.

Logically speaking, the crisis faced by “keeping watch” players isn’t minor. If someone with a slightly weaker combat strength were to lose even a drop of blood in a fight with the villagers, they could be easily killed.

Bai Zhou was unharmed purely because he was a Rank God player. High risk corresponds to high reward. There must still be important information on the “keeping watch” side.

“1 or 31”—this phrase directly led to Village Chief Ab leading the villagers to kill Bai Zhou.

But from another perspective, considering the game’s design philosophy, they were actually preventing Bai Zhou from going to the place they had agreed with the Red God to play games this year.

Therefore, Bai Zhou was now heading in that direction.

How would the Red God come to the human world? If the two worlds intersect, would her inn come to the human world?

Walking along the mountain path, bathed in the light of the stars and moon, Bai Zhou reached the mountaintop.

In front of him, indeed, appeared a very strange-looking building. Its appearance had some color of raw wood, but the material didn’t seem to be wood. Its strangeness lay in its shape.

Buildings are typically square or round, with designs considering factors like suitability for living, space efficiency, and aesthetics, usually featuring regular shapes.

However, the building Bai Zhou saw defied any regular pattern, looking very unfit for living, with parts jutting out here and a random circle there, devoid of any aesthetic appeal.

If one were to attempt mapping it from an aerial view, it would resemble a raw egg smashed on the ground, resulting in a chaotic, irregular polygon.

Circling halfway around this building from a distance, Bai Zhou found the entrance.

The door was strikingly red, with a sign in red as well, featuring a bizarre, irregular red symbol.

—That was the sign of the Red God’s inn.

At the entrance of the inn were several pots of meat soup. Their aroma wafted over from afar, with a few oddly shaped people eating there.

After a while, someone came out of the inn and said to the people at the door, “Let’s go. Samhain has arrived. We should go to the village for something better. We’re tired of the Red God’s stuff!”

“Oh yes. There’s no concept of time here… I forgot it’s Samhain. Let’s go, let’s go.”

Thus, the ghostly figures left the inn in small groups, heading towards the village below the mountain.

Seeing this, Bai Zhou reached into his pack and pulled out a costume. It was one of the ghost disguises prepared by the innkeeper Tartar for everyone.

Moments later, dressed in a bizarrely shaped horror robe and wearing a skull mask, Bai Zhou stepped towards the Red God’s inn.

As he approached the entrance, Bai Zhou caught a stronger whiff of the meat soup aroma, indeed very different from what innkeeper Tartar cooked.

According to what those few ghosts said, unlike the human world, the other world lacks a conventional concept of time.

This is probably why the delicacies here could be provided to the ghosts incessantly.

But in reality, these foods never appeared or disappeared; they exist perpetually. At the same time, life here simply exists without birth or death. Everything in this place is meaningless. Becoming the Red God, in a sense, is like finding a prison to trap oneself in.

Upon stepping into the inn, Bai Zhou discovered that there were hardly any people around, and even the few remaining were running outside. It was rare for them to go to the human world, so they were probably all in the village by now.

Bai Zhou was able to enter the inn without any obstacles.

The interior of the inn was quite unique as well. In the center, there were two large pools; one contained stewed meat, and the other was filled with alcohol.

As for the ground around, it was covered with various types of blankets for the guests to sit or sleep on.

The Red God’s inn had only this one floor. Unlike typical inns, it had no rooms or even partitions. A pool of meat, a pool of alcohol, and blankets spread all over the floor constituted the entirety of the inn’s facilities, available for people to come in to eat, sleep, or leave at any time.

It was an eternal banquet hosted by beings from another world, the Red God’s banquet.

However, there was a main seat in the inn—

In the eastern direction, there was a luxuriously decorated chair, probably where the Red God usually sat. Only she had the authority to sit in this chair.

In front of the chair, there was a statue.

Surprisingly, many coins were scattered around the statue, as if someone was worshiping it. Or rather, it was like ghosts were enshrining the statue.

Bai Zhou walked up to have a closer look at the statue and found it to be a bird—a golden bird.

“Never kill birds” was the fourth prohibition that players hadn’t yet deciphered.

Who did the bird refer to?

The statue was golden. Was the golden feather stolen by Amei related to it?

If Amei’s sufferings were real and her hatred towards the villagers was genuine, she would probably hate the golden feather just as much.

Then, if the golden feather was indeed related to a golden bird, why would Amei worship its statue in her inn?

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The author has something to say:

The Red God’s “Hell” has endless delicacies, and animals being the spirits that communicate between two worlds are some concepts from Irish mythology.

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