All the doubts, guidance from intuition, and deliberate or unintentional tests had found their answers at this very moment. The last bit of uncertainty had finally become certainty. Staring at the person in front of him, Zhou Qian thought—all that’s left is for him to admit it.
Not far away, the northern side of the wetland was ablaze with rising flames and billowing smoke.
Zhou Qian, having evolved through continuous mutations, was hardly affected.
However, Ryan was clearly apprehensive. Despite wearing an advanced mask with strong filtration, when he caught a glimpse of the surrounding black smoke, he frowned and coughed involuntarily.
Ryan then glared at Zhou Qian with clear anger, madness, resentment, and a hint of fear in his eyes, signaling that he was still under the influence of the “Sarah” state.
Seeing his reaction, Zhou Qian’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, so you’re not allowed to break character, huh?”
It seemed Ryan didn’t understand and didn’t reply. With an intimidating tone, Zhou Qian asked, “But because of you, I was punched several times by Wu Song. How will you settle this score?”
Another gust of smoke swept over, coating Ryan’s clothing and mask with ash. For a moment, Zhou Qian could barely see his expression.
After sizing him up, Zhou Qian finally decided to move, leading him further south, where towering trees and dense mutated shrubs could temporarily block the smoke.
After a short walk, they indeed found a location almost untouched by the smoke and flames. Glancing thoughtfully at Ryan, Zhou Qian laughed, but there was a hint of cunning and cruelty in his eyes.
“Alright, so no breaking character. Make sure to keep that up.”
As he spoke, Zhou Qian took out several items from his bag. Among them, a wig and contact lenses were purchased from the system trade. The set of witch robes was something he had removed from his own attire earlier.
Soon, the noise of propellers and engines echoed as several helicopters hovered nearby. They were obviously looking for Mayor Ryan. Due to the interference from the smoke and towering trees, they couldn’t pinpoint Zhou Qian and Ryan’s exact location.
A loud broadcast then rang out, “Monster! Release Mayor Ryan! Or you will be annihilated!”
Hearing this, Zhou Qian smiled at Ryan. “Your people speak so strangely. Since they’re going to kill me anyway, why should I release you?”
“What do you want?” Ryan clenched his fists, looking visibly paler.
Zhou Qian glanced at him with an “I’m just watching your performance” look and said, “Why don’t you transform into Sarah? I’m quite curious about how you do it.”
Ryan: “…..”
Zhou Qian stepped closer, reaching for Ryan’s collar, and searched for a zipper. Once found, he began to unzip Ryan’s outfit.
“I know, you’re not transforming because you’re hoping your troops will come any moment now.”
After instructing the vines to loosen their grip, Zhou Qian removed Ryan’s jacket and continued, “Actually, I’ve always been curious about something. Why did some of the top officials in your army aid and abet you? Now I think they were deceived by you.”
“They believed it was just an accidental scientific experiment and that telling the public would only cause unnecessary panic, which is reason one.”
“Reason two, you might have told them that letting those kids live would spread radiation to others. After all, these army officials don’t really understand your research.”
“They believed you were working for the greater good. In their eyes, killing some children now is better for the long-term good of the town. They thought the technology you were developing at the base would bring tangible benefits to the town. But if—”
“What if they find out you’re actually Witch Sarah? Moreover—”
“What will happen when the witches from the Witch Association find out that the witch they respect is actually Mayor Ryan, who has killed many of their kind?”
Seemingly realizing what Zhou Qian was getting at, Ryan’s pupils dilated in fear. He immediately said in a low voice, “My device, it’s useless to you! Only I can activate it! I will never tell you how to use it. You can’t possibly contact anyone—”
He couldn’t finish his sentence because he saw Zhou Qian holding something—a cell phone.
“When I was at the Witch Association’s base, I asked Eva for a phone. Now, it’s time for her to know the truth. For a mother like her, knowing the truth means realizing she has killed her own child, implying that her lifelong beliefs will crumble from this point on—”
“But she shouldn’t live a lie. She deserves the truth.”
By this point, Ryan’s fear was palpable. But moments later, he managed to regain some composure.
As if reading his thoughts, Zhou Qian said with a smile, “You might think you can justify it to the government troops. And you might consider giving up on the witches. They’re few in number and can’t pose much of a threat. They could set up their base largely because you, posing as Mayor Ryan, covered for them. Without you, they’re nothing, right?
“But what if—there’s more I can do?”
“What… What are you implying?”
Ryan suddenly looked terrified, shaking uncontrollably. It was the kind of reaction a person has when facing the collapse of their dreams—a mix of anger, despair, and unwillingness. How could he accept everything he’d meticulously planned being destroyed? How could he accept the adoration and love of thousands collapsing?
No way.
This monster couldn’t possibly achieve that!
But Zhou Qian intended to do just that. Holding up the phone, he said to Ryan with a cruel smile on his face—
“At the government’s fertility center, I got the phone numbers of all the pregnant women. Your tech is indeed advanced. This phone supports group chats with so many participants. It’s like I’m hosting a live stream for all the pregnant women… or even everyone in town.”
Upon connecting the group video call, Zhou Qian personally fitted Ryan with a golden wig. During the process, a butterfly, commanded by Zhou Qian, held the phone’s camera focused on Ryan.
Next, Zhou Qian put blue contact lenses on Ryan, ensuring that the butterfly gave a close-up of Ryan’s eyes for the viewers.
The townspeople and the government troops, who saw this via the broadcast, initially worried about their mayor’s fate after being kidnapped by this terrifying creature. Their hearts ached for him; some wished they could trade places with him.
Meanwhile, the witches uniformly watched through Eva’s phone. Initially, they gloated over the mayor’s predicament, hoping for his demise.
But no one expected Zhou Qian to put a wig and contact lenses on Ryan and then produce a dress.
Zhou Qian then spoke. At first, he seemed malicious, but upon closer listening, there was an inexplicable teasing tone.
“Do you want me to undress you and then put this dress on you? Or will you transform for them to see?”
A cobblestone path winded through the forest, leading to high towers, power stations, and other places. This path was originally built for the convenience of the workers. The forests on either side were once ordinary trees, but due to exposure to a special form of radiation, they changed along with the entire mountain.
Now, this forest was directly bathed in a sea of fire.
The fire’s origin was in the middle of the path, where gasoline was poured around the six humanoid creatures in multiple circles. Once ignited, the flames quickly spread to the surrounding forest, and, aided by the wind, the fire spread to a large area north of the wetlands.
By now, evening had fallen. The evening glow was spread across the sky like blood, but its color had darkened and would soon disappear with the onset of night. The birth of this massive fire seemed to extend this brilliance, as if attempting to set the entire sky ablaze.
The fire was immense, so vast that it seemed as if all oddities would be completely buried.
History would be consumed by the flames. Millions of years later, perhaps no trace of this event would be found.
Most of the drones had dispersed, and most of the helicopters had left, leaving only one helicopter hovering overhead.
Onboard, the pilot kept an eye on the fire, ready to evacuate if necessary. One side of the helicopter’s cabin door was open. Inside was Mayor Ryan, or rather Witch Sarah, holding a camera, broadcasting live for her townspeople.
Sarah always enjoyed the feeling of being the center of attention, being celebrated and adored by everyone. She personally covered the monster-killing scene, holding the camera and even reporting live, all to show her love and concern for the people—
Look at how much she thought about them and risked her life for them! She wasn’t afraid of being attacked by the monsters and didn’t care about the risk of the fire possibly reaching her. She bravely stayed, all for them. She wanted to ensure the destruction of the evil spirits. She did all this to protect each and every one of them.
“Everything I do is out of love for you. So, you need to give me all your love in return.”
“Once I’ve merged you all, I can have all of your eternal love.”
“But until that day, before I truly absorb you all… I have to do many things in secret to make you love me continuously. Whether you love Witch Sarah or Mayor Ryan.”
“I want all of your love and attention. And I want your love for me… to never fade.”
These words, however, weren’t spoken by Sarah. They were from a woman outside the game, viewing this scene through a tablet screen.
The woman sat on a swing in this virtual space, appearing to be eighteen years old, the age of innocence.
A peach orchard bloomed behind her.
With a smile, the orchard blossomed in radiant pink. She frowned as countless peach blossoms fell, turning the ground into a pink carpet.
Hearing these words, Priest looked up at her. He hadn’t seen her during her god ascension, but he’d watched the video later—
Her beauty had left everyone in awe. She seemed heartbroken, tears flowing, and as they did, all the peach blossoms behind her withered.
From that moment, she was known as the [Peach Blossom Goddess].
Most people knew that the Peach Blossom Legion was founded by the Peach Blossom Goddess. Few, however, knew her real name: Xie Huaying.
Priest walked up to her, looking at the screen from her perspective. The fire on Weir Mountain was raging; nearly half of the hillside was ablaze.
The six players in the frame were completely engulfed in the flames, presumably with no chance of survival. Sarah probably thought the same, which was why she was broadcasting without any concerns.
“Priest, do you think they’ll die? Given the situation, is there any chance of survival?” Xie Huaying asked innocently.
Priest smiled, walking behind her and giving the swing a gentle push. “In my opinion, you shouldn’t be asking if Zhou Qian has a chance of survival, but rather how he plans to deal with Sarah.”
Bending down to glimpse Xie Huaying’s expression, Priest said, “Zhou Qian did this on purpose. He deliberately surrounded himself with flames to make Sarah overconfident, thinking he would surely die. And Sarah took the bait. She didn’t leave but sat smugly in the helicopter—”
“I think we will soon see Zhou Qian’s real plan.”
Xie Huaying thought for a moment, frowned, and then said, “If that’s the case, Zhou Qian has anticipated every step of the instance’s design. He even captured Sarah’s entire character accurately. He knows she craves love and has a desire to perform; he knows she would definitely stay.”
“Yes.” Priest smiled. “At its core, Sarah’s motive for everything she does is to acquire the undying love of everyone and everything.”
“The consequences caused by the Mirror of All Things are irreversible. The genes of the entire town, even the world’s human population, have subtly changed. The radiation is there—it cannot be eliminated or altered. Zhou Qian can’t intervene in this world from this angle.”
“So what he needs to do is destroy what Sarah desires most—everyone’s love for her.”
“I see…” Xie Huaying sighed lightly, looking contemplatively at the screen. “Zhou Qian is truly cunning. He can manipulate people’s emotions even better than a god.”
……
Inside the game. From the moment the gasoline was poured on the path, the six players huddled closely together.
Of course, Zhou Qian tried his best to avoid physical contact with them, to prevent any merging of their bodies.
Everything progressing to this point was still within Zhou Qian’s calculations. He found that communicating mentally was very efficient and extremely convenient for commanding his teammates, though at times, their voices in his head were overwhelming.
Damn, Ryan really used fire!
Fuck Zhou Qian, how did you guess that?
Are we really not going to die?
…
At the moment the flames roared to life, Wu Ren couldn’t hold back any longer. “We’ve completed the main objectives! We just need to escape Sarah’s attack to clear the game! Why do we have to deliberately trap ourselves in a sea of flames?”
Qi Liuxing said seriously, “Because we have to save the townspeople!”
Wu Ren: “Damn it, please wake up! The real reason is that Zhou Qian is tricking us into completing his side mission!”
At this point, Wu Ren couldn’t help but look at Zhou Qian. By now, Zhou Qian’s face had undergone significant mutations, rendering his original features unrecognizable.
However, Wu Ren could still see the look in his eyes.
Those eyes radiated a hint of cunning but also an unusual intensity and compelling allure, making one unconsciously want to follow him.
Subsequently, Wu Ren heard Zhou Qian say to him, “You are our king, after all. So—”
“King, lead us to victory.”
“King my ass! I’ve always been just your fucking puppet!”
“Lead to victory, my foot! It’s your victory, not ours! Damn it…”
Wu Ren couldn’t help but curse.
But when he met Zhou Qian’s shining eyes, inexplicably, his voice gradually softened, and his momentum involuntarily deflated.
Immediately following that, a loud “boom” sounded not far from them—the noise of the tree’s oil igniting in a fiery explosion.
The moment the sound echoed, a fierce blaze shot up into the air. As Wu Ren was still looking at Zhou Qian, Zhou Qian’s pitch-black eyes were instantly illuminated, shining brilliantly. Turning to look around, Wu Ren realized that he was completely engulfed by a sea of fire.
For some inexplicable reason, prompted by Zhou Qian’s gaze, Wu Ren felt a sudden urge to fight.
Taking a deep breath, he exclaimed, “Fuck it! Fine, if we’re going to go big, let’s go all out!”
An intense burning sensation immediately emanated from his fingertips. He lifted his hand to inspect it, and sure enough, his fingers were aflame.
Strangely, though, his arm wasn’t burning.
Moreover, at the burn on his finger, a brown, semi-transparent resin-like substance began to ooze out. It flowed over the wound like water, and the wound healed instantly.
Suppressing the shock in his heart, Wu Ren swallowed hard.
Zhou Qian was right!
Could this strategy actually work?!
…..
The reason for Wu Ren’s bodily transformation was, of course, due to a certain mutation carried out under Zhou Qian’s guidance.
About an hour ago, right after Zhou Qian proposed utilizing a mutation to counter Sarah, the team’s subsequent discussion revolved around one main question—how do they combat her?
Were they supposed to search the forest for wild beasts, mutate into fierce creatures like tigers, and then use their sharpened claws and teeth to attack Sarah?
Probably not? Given Sarah’s status as Mayor Ryan, she could marshal significant military force. And moreover, where would they even find such beasts?
The high wall encircled a portion of the mountaintop, creating a confined area. The players entered from the northernmost part and initially split into three groups to advance.
There was a vast wetland in the center of the entire area, with a purification station on each side—A11, which Yin Jiujiu first found, and A13, which she later destroyed.
After acquiring all the memory fragments at the tower located 300 meters south of A13, they left the tower and made their way around the wetland to the southern part of the walled area. They found purification station A12 and replenished some life points.
Thus, they had thoroughly explored the wetland and its northern surroundings without encountering any exotic creatures.
Could it be… that they needed to delve deeper into the southern part of the area to search for fierce beasts?
This was a shared thought among several players as they followed Zhou Qian southward.
The southern forest was incredibly dense, filled with trees of various shapes and colors, indicating a rich diversity of species before mutation. However, after their transformation, it became challenging to identify their original species.
As they ventured deeper into this forest under Zhou Qian’s lead, it became clear that instead of searching for wild beasts, Zhou Qian was closely observing the plants and trees. It seemed as though he was trying to identify their original forms prior to mutation.
Wu Ren curiously asked, “Zhou Qian, what are you looking for? Why are you focusing on plants? To face Sarah, shouldn’t we need something more aggressive? What sort of attack can a plant offer?”
Zhou Qian retorted with a question. “How do you think Sarah plans to deal with us?”
Wi Ren: “Um…”
Ke Yuxiao interjected, “To kill us, she will certainly use her military power. But how would she justify it to the soldiers and the public? She would need a plausible reason, like… claiming we are evil spirits.”
“Exactly. Using the name of evil spirits to execute others is a tactic Sarah has employed many times. Many of the town’s children met their end due to her lies. If we don’t prepare in advance, we’ll share their fate.”
“When it came to executing the children, she used the witches. And as for the method of executing us… Do you remember the photos we first saw in the study? Witches were tied up and burned alive. Only the fiercest flames can destroy the most terrifying evil spirits.”
It seemed Zhou Qian had discovered something. As he moved towards a mutated plant to inspect it closely, he continued, “Without a doubt, Sarah is someone who desires admiration and has a strong penchant for performance. She would leverage her identity as ‘Mayor Ryan’ and punish us, the so-called evil spirits, in the name of a savior. She would proclaim to the world that she is the hero saving everyone.”
“The way she deals with witches is actually a hint given to the players in this scenario. Based on this, we have good reason to suspect that Sarah would use fire against us.”
Qi Liuxing couldn’t help but ask, “What does this have to do with plants?”
“Of course, there’s a connection,” Zhou Qian replied, turning to him. “Do you know that some plants are fire-resistant?”
After some effort, Zhou Qian thoroughly investigated the southern region.
He then instructed everyone, “There’s an abundance of redwoods here. They are referred to as living fossils, and their wood is as tough as steel. They are not afraid of fire.”
“Theaceae is also fire-resistant. It contains a lot of moisture, with its leaves having a water content of up to 45%, and a very low oil content.”
“Lastly, there’s the Dahurian larch. The bark of the larch is thick and doesn’t contain resin, making it hard to burn through completely. After being burned, the inner part of the bark can secrete a resin that heals the ‘wound’.”
“Therefore, what we need to do now is get close to these plants. After acquiring their genes, we should mutate ourselves to become fire-resistant.”
“Of course, it’s not possible for us to remain completely unharmed. Leaves and outer bark will still catch fire, but as long as the fire doesn’t penetrate into our inner bodies, we’ll be fine.”
“Remember, we are currently just six ‘brains’. Temporary damage to the body doesn’t matter. As long as our ‘brains’ are intact, we can control many things within these high walls to counter Sarah!”
……
Time returned to this moment.
Up in the air. The helicopter’s propeller made a loud noise.
Yet, despite the noise, Sarah, with her strong desire for attention and love from people, passionately spoke to the camera, showcasing her hard work and bravery.
During this, Sarah took a distant look over the high wall where the fire was spreading. There was no chance her lab rats would survive in such a blaze.
She had the data she wanted.
Once those few people were gone, no one would know her secret. Given time, she would achieve her long-held wish!
What Sarah didn’t expect was that the fire to the north of the wetland, which had been intensifying, suddenly extinguished in one spot on the road. It was like a rock wrapped in cotton. She thought the whole thing was on fire, but now she realized that only the outer cotton was burning. When the cotton burned out, the fire would be extinguished because the rock inside couldn’t burn.
Stunned, Sarah noticed a giant butterfly flying towards the fire’s origin. It emerged from the flames, carrying six creatures with it and heading straight for her!
In shock, Sarah’s first reaction was to turn off the camera so that these “monsters” couldn’t reveal her secrets. Her second thought was to use her walkie-talkie to mobilize her military forces.
But it was too late.
By the time she shut off the camera, the butterfly, under Zhou Qian’s control, had flown the six players to her side. As she picked up the walkie-talkie, Zhou Qian showed her a pill and said something to her.
The twilight had completely faded.
But the fire on the mountaintop continued to light up all of Weir Mountain.
At the intersection of red and black in the sky, the helicopter hovered, and a giant butterfly emerged from the depths of the flames, hovering opposite, as if confronting each other.
At first glance, it seemed like a standoff between human technology and some monster. But in reality, they were both products of technology, though the latter was a result of its misuse.
The butterfly was no longer just a butterfly. It had strange human feet and a broad back. On its back sat six highly mutated creatures. Zhou Qian was in the front, controlling the butterfly. He looked at Sarah and said, “Dalang, it’s medicine time.”
With that, Zhou Qian immobilized Sarah before she could call upon the town’s military forces with her walkie-talkie. This effect could last for three minutes.
Others would soon notice the anomaly here. The military force here was formidable. Just their electric guns alone could overpower the players. Through the cockpit, Zhou Qian saw the pilot looking their way in horror, seemingly speaking into his walkie-talkie. But fortunately, Sarah was now easily controlled.
Zhou Qian had the butterfly move closer to the helicopter. Then he reached out with his burned, tree trunk-like arms, grabbed Sarah by the shoulders, pulled her out of the helicopter, and placed her on the butterfly’s back.
The butterfly took off and, under Zhou Qian’s command, descended inside the southern part of the high wall. While the fire spread in the northern area, the water-rich wetlands acted as a natural fire barrier. The southern area was smoky, but there was no sign of any fire.
The butterfly was fast, taking less than 30 seconds to fly from the helicopter and land. And at the very moment it almost touched down, a robust man dressed in traditional Eastern attire, looking completely out of place, appeared.
[NPC Name: Wu Song]
[Rank: A]
[Specialty: Close combat]
[Detected high-intensity aggression from Wu Song towards player Zhou Qian. Players, be on your guard.]
By now, the players had gradually left the back of the butterfly and landed on the ground.
After Zhou Qian and Sarah jumped down, he glanced at Wu Song, who was approaching step by step, but chose to ignore him for the moment. Instead, he gazed deeply at the “Mayor”, who was watching him warily.
The man now had Sarah’s mind and Ryan’s body. His eyes were as green as a serene lake and as precious as jade. Staring into those eyes, Zhou Qian seemed to be trying to read something deeper. However, he didn’t have much time to dwell on it, as Wu Song was already by his side.
True to his status as a Rank A NPC, with every step Wu Song took, it felt as if the earth of Weir Mountain trembled. Just as his sharp fist was about to strike Zhou Qian, Zhou Qian quickly ducked, narrowly evading the blow.
Even so, the gust from the punch caused the numerous petals and vines on Zhou Qian’s body to flutter, inflicting a tingling pain.
Having been affected by the fire earlier, Zhou Qian’s health had dropped to 40%.
Now, a new notification popped up:
[Player Zhou Qian’s HP has dropped to 30%.]
Wu Ren, who was closest to Zhou Qian, couldn’t help but say, “Do you think you can handle Wu Song with your poor combat skills?”
“What do we do now? The town’s military force is powerful! They could find and kill us at any moment!”
No sooner had Wu Ren finished speaking that everyone received a system notification:
[Players have accumulated 24 points, discovered Ryan’s secret hidden within the high wall, and evaded Mayor Ryan’s murderous intent. Main task completion: 100%. Hidden achievement unlocked.]
[The southern gate of the high wall is now open. Players who exit through this gate will clear the game.]
[This instance has multiple endings. After exiting the southern gate, players cannot log out temporarily. The system will play the ending cinematic based on the current situation.]
[Rewards will be distributed after the cinematic ends.]
In addition to this, Zhou Qian received a separate notification, which was shared with the others through their shared brains—
[Zhou Qian’s side mission is not yet complete. He can choose to continue or abandon the side mission and exit the southern gate.]
After a three-second pause, Wu Ren hesitantly asked, “Qian, Qian Ge should we… retreat?”
“Why retreat now? We haven’t seen the ending,” Zhou Qian replied, rising from the ground. He glanced at the motionless Ryan, under the influence of the drug, and said to Wu Ren and the others, “The side mission is my personal task. The rest of you can leave.”
Qi Liuxing, worried, asked, “But how will you deal with the town’s military force all by yourself?”
“By holding the emperor hostage, you can control his subjects,” Zhou Qian replied with a smile, looking at Ryan in front of him. “I’ll tie him up.”
As he spoke, numerous vines, under Zhou Qian’s mental command, slithered over like snakes. They wrapped around Ryan, pulling him to a large tree and quickly tying his limbs to the trunk.
“Tie him up? And then what?” Wu Ren asked, somehow feeling that Zhou Qian’s expression and tone when looking at Ryan were reminiscent of a bandit leader confronting a captive maiden.
“Then, of course, completely thwart his schemes.”
As Zhou Qian spoke, NPC Wu Song, utilizing his powerful jumping ability, leapt into the air and aimed another punch at Zhou Qian. This massive blow could drain a player’s health by half in one hit.
It was like unleashing an ultimate move!
As Zhou Qian swiftly ducked to avoid the punch, the butterfly, under his command, charged at Wu Song, shielding him from most of the damage. Immediately, countless vines emerged from the ground, entangling Wu Song’s legs, dragging him toward the wetland, and eventually tossing him into the swamp.
With that, Zhou Qian had rather effortlessly dealt with this Rank A NPC. Although his health was now only at 20%, he felt he still had the upper hand.
Meanwhile, due to the limited opening time of the southern gate, the other players had to proceed and clear the game, leaving only Zhou Qian and Ryan within the vast, high walls.
Finally, in the silence, without the constant chatter in his mind, the world seemed to quiet down, allowing Zhou Qian to have a proper chat with the “Ryan” in front of him.
At this moment, Ryan… his tall and slender figure was wrapped and bound to a tree by vines. The sight somewhat reminded Zhou Qian of God Epoh. However, during that time, Epoh wasn’t wearing any clothes, while Ryan was now dressed very thoroughly.
To protect himself from radiation, he wore a clear face mask, and the special material of his clothing tightly covered all of his skin. Now, through his face mask, his pair of jade-green eyes looked calmly at Zhou Qian, peaceful as a windless lake.
Ryan was now completely bound, like a fish ready to be slaughtered. On the other hand, Zhou Qian’s body was now covered in roses, cacti, and various other plant leaves, making him barely recognizable as human.
Moreover, he could now control all the flora and fauna within the walls of this place, as if he was a god ruling over this domain.
Staring into Ryan’s eyes, Zhou Qian took steps toward him.
“The last time I ate an apple, I also transformed. But back then… I still somewhat resembled a human. Now, I’m a complete monster. Ryan, are you afraid of me?”
Under the drug’s influence, Ryan couldn’t move or respond to Zhou Qian’s words. He just kept his eyes on Zhou Qian. When Zhou Qian reached him and paused, he smiled after a moment of silence.
Without making any physical moves, Zhou Qian thought for a moment. Soon, the vines that had become symbiotic with him began sliding over Ryan’s body as if searching for something.
After about 30 seconds, countless vines, acting like hands, pulled out a gun, stun baton, phone, and other items from Ryan’s pockets and threw them all in front of Zhou Qian.
Zhou Qian looked at the scene with satisfaction, then looked up at Ryan. “Now, even when the drug wears off, you won’t be able to escape my control.”
Three minutes later, as the drug’s effect wore off, Ryan could finally speak. He blinked at Zhou Qian, his voice sounding somewhat weak. “What do you want to do with me?”
As Ryan spoke, the smile on Zhou Qian’s face disappeared.
Zhou Qian stepped forward, whispering in Ryan’s ear. His demeanor seemed gentle and his voice soft, but where Ryan couldn’t see, his eyes were intensely serious, full of stern questioning and inquiry.
“Using a pill on the same target three times will summon Wu Song. So, can you tell me… why would this tool consider Epoh, Jiang Yuqing, and Ryan as the ‘same target’?”
After leaving the top floor, the players walked down floor by floor and found that aside from the tenth floor with cacti, the ninth to the first floor were all empty. No one was present, and there was no equipment to be seen. Therefore, the last memory fragment could very well be on the last floor, which was where Situ Qing and Yin Jiujiu went.
As the four of them took the elevator to the second basement, they started to communicate telepathically without realizing it.
Qi Liuxing: Once we gather the four fragments, that should mean we’ve completed the mission, right? From what I see, this main task seems straightforward.
Ke Yuxiao: It’s not that simple. You heard what Wu Ren said, right? The stations that add points can be ‘destroyed’, but the places that continuously deduct points will always exist. There’s likely a plot behind this by the designers of this instance.
Qi Liuxing: Hmm… I think I sort of get what you mean…
Ke Yuxiao: Once a player’s life points reach zero, they die immediately. At the same time, these points can be taken from others. Given this setup, the chances of players cooperating are quite slim. They’ll always be suspicious of each other.
Ke Yuxiao: With such suspicion and doubt, once they enter this high wall and discover the stations can be destroyed… Xiao Qi, what would you do in this situation?
Qi Liuxing: I’d have two suspicions. First, high-point players, being overly confident, might destroy the stations to target those with fewer points. Second, the life points these stations offer might be finite and have a cap. So—
Qi Liuxing: Once I find a station, I’d naturally recharge my life points to the highest possible amount.
At that moment, Wu Ren interjected telepathically: Station A11 can’t recharge us anymore. The life points these stations can provide players indeed have a limit. We only have Station A12 left.
Ke Yuxiao continued in thought: Once inside this wall, it’s easy to find places that decrease life points, like the ink grass patch. Unlike the stations, these places can’t be destroyed.
Ke Yuxiao: In other words, usually, players would think that they could decrease their points anytime they wanted, completing the 24-point task with ease. But since stations can be destroyed, opportunities to gain life points could be lost.
Ke Yuxiao: Therefore, as Xiao Qi just said, upon entering this instance, players would choose to first recharge their life points to a high number before exploring. But this is, in fact, the deadliest mistake!
If players maintained high life points, they would never undergo mutations, and thus, they couldn’t integrate with the plants, obtain memory fragments, or uncover the secrets hidden by Ryan.
So, even though memory fragments were conspicuously placed within the instance for everyone to touch and collect, most players would find it extremely challenging to accomplish this.
Thus, without completing this main task, even if players gathered 24 points, they wouldn’t be able to clear the game.
Moreover, the evil spirit purification stations had a limit to the life points they could provide. Once the life points of all three stations were depleted, the players’ life points could only decrease and wouldn’t increase again. Under such circumstances, they might miss the critical value of “24”.
For instance, if seven players were alive and their life points continuously decreased, their combined points would drop by seven every 20 minutes. If their total points dropped from 30 to 23, they would’ve skipped the “24” requirement.
By that time, even if they started mutating, uncovering the instance’s secrets, and finding the memory fragments…
They still wouldn’t clear the game—
The evil spirits purification stations couldn’t recharge, other point-increasing items would be depleted, and they couldn’t reach the “24” points.
Having figured everything out, Qi Liuxing mused: Just as Zhou Qian surmised, game designers do love to play tricks on players!
Qi Liuxing: I get it now. Our easy fragment collection is because our life points intentionally or unintentionally became very low upon entering the instance, leading to our mutations… It all seems simple, but it’s challenging to achieve.
Qi Liuxing: Speaking of which, we should thank Zhu Qiang. He never imagined that forcing our life values to decrease would make us more likely to uncover the instance’s mysteries.
Wu Ren: Hey, I just realized, communicating like this is really effortless.
Qi Liuxing: Ever thought that maybe soon you won’t have a voice or even a tongue?
Wu Ren: …
Throughout this, Zhou Qian, not wanting anyone to hear his thoughts, muttered silently: X*%bala…
Qi Liuxing: Who keeps chanting?
……
The elevator doors opened, and four people entered the second basement level. The bright lights illuminated the hall. It was still very empty, with only a metallic coffin placed in the middle of the room.
The coffin lid was scattered in a corner, and at the moment, Situ Qing and Yin Jiujiu were standing nearby with complex expressions.
Approaching the coffin, Zhou Qian noticed a name engraved on the lid–”Shirley”.
It seemed to be the name of the body that was supposed to be in the coffin.
However, the body wasn’t lying inside. It was sitting. Half of its body was inside the coffin, and the other half was exposed. Technically, it couldn’t be considered a corpse since its eyes were still blinking, clearly alive.
But she also couldn’t be fully considered a living person. The only part of her that seemed to move were her eyes.
This was a highly mutated person, with fish-scale patterns on her face.
Except for her eyes, all other facial features had disappeared. The exposed upper half of her body had become tree-like. Her original arms were gone, replaced with many branches growing from her torso, covered in various shades of green leaves. Occasionally, sharp thorn-like objects could also be seen.
If players didn’t know about the mutation in advance, at first glance, they wouldn’t think she was ever human. They would assume she was a tree-like monster that just happened to have human eyes.
At this moment, the players heard each other’s astonishment almost simultaneously.
Previously, we had to merge with plants. Having the memory of plants was still acceptable. Merging with animals was also bearable. But now, merging with a person, or rather, a body? …So disgusting.
Indeed disgusting. But we have to complete the mission.
Shortly after, the players indeed experienced the most challenging “merge” and subsequently gained memories of the person named “Shirley”.
The scene wasn’t in the tower’s second basement but in a futuristic space. Shirley appeared to be a lab worker, spending a lot of time alone at a console, inputting data.
After a while, the metal doors slid apart, and a person entered, carrying something about human height under his arm. It was covered with a black cloth, and Shirley couldn’t see what it was.
Shirley looked at the visitor, surprised at first, and then a blush crept up her face. “Mayor Ryan, why are you here? Today is the Strawberry Music Festival. I thought you went to the plaza halfway up the mountain.”
“I had something come up. I need you to turn on the furnace. I want to destroy something,” Ryan said.
Shirley seemed puzzled by his request. “Ah? That’s the old abandoned generator—”
“Just turn it on!” Ryan interrupted sternly.
“Understood, I’ll do it now.”
It was rare for Ryan to be this harsh. Shirley, not wanting to question further, quickly followed his instructions and started operating the console.
After a while, the high-powered furnace began to operate, burning fuel with a fierce wind and producing a bright red flame that reflected in Ryan’s blue-green eyes. Ryan soon walked to the furnace, uncovering the black cloth, revealing what seemed like a mirror.
Ryan tossed the mirror into the furnace, which produced a loud “clack”.
About three minutes later, Shirley, who had been watching Ryan, noticed his frown. She peered into the furnace and saw that the mirror remained undamaged.
How strange. How is this possible? What kind of mirror is that?
As Shirley pondered, she suddenly heard Ryan say something strange.
“I preserved your consciousness, personality, and even your goodness out of curiosity about you. I wanted to experience the feeling of having everything with you. But why did you repay me this way? Do you know how much effort I put into collecting the raw materials and refining them? It’s a work of art!”
Confused, Shirley blurted out, “Mayor Ryan, what are you talking about?”
She felt as if Ryan had suddenly become a different person. However, he turned and smiled at her.
“It’s nothing. Shirley, please turn off the furnace and start the cooling process.”
Confused, Shirley complied. Once the cooling was done and the fuel cooled, Ryan retrieved the undamaged mirror. Shirley felt something was different about his demeanor.
Suddenly, Ryan’s face contorted in pain and rage, but after a moment, he returned to his usual self, as if nothing had happened.
Later, Shirley saw him approach a wall, input a code, and open another door.
She couldn’t help but remind him, “Mayor Ryan, isn’t that the reactor? You said it was too polluted and dangerous, and you decided not to use it anymore?”
“It seems the only way to completely destroy it is to use the reactor’s energy.” Ryan mumbled, then walked into the newly opened room. The door closed behind him, and Shirley couldn’t see anything.
When Ryan emerged half an hour later, he was draped in the black cloth he initially used to cover the mirror, looking bizarre. Equally strange were his expression and eyes, which carried an inexplicable and bizarre quality.
Ryan was so odd tonight.
Why did she feel on several occasions that he didn’t seem like himself at all?
The words Ryan said next also seemed very strange to Shirley. “I never imagined that to destroy it, you would go to such lengths… Let’s start my large-scale experiment ahead of schedule. You forced me into this… I had no other choice…”
Shirley suddenly realized with horror that there seemed to be a glow of fire coming from the room where the reactor was located.
But before she could get a good look, the metal door closed again.
Shirley couldn’t help but blurt out, “Mayor, it’s not… on fire, is it?”
“You saw it wrong. It’s fine,” Ryan replied, giving Sherry an inscrutable look. “I have to go. I’m off to the Strawberry Music Festival. I promised the kids I’d sing them a song. You stay here and keep watch. I’m looking forward to seeing you next time.”
Shirley blushed again.
It was evident that she had some special feelings for Ryan.
The mayor said he’s looking forward to seeing me again…
Is that true?
Did I hear him right?
“I wonder what you’ll look like the next time I see you?”
After repeating this sentence, Ryan wrapped himself from head to toe in the black cloth and left.
……
As he witnessed this memory, Zhou Qian had already pieced together the entire truth in his mind.
Sarah used the “Mirror of All Things” to merge her essence with Ryan’s body, or, in other words, she absorbed Ryan. She didn’t immediately intend to completely erase Ryan’s consciousness, so she let him live alongside her. Their condition resembled a split personality—one body but housing the wills of both Ryan and Sarah.
One day, Ryan took control of their shared body. He brought the “Mirror of All Things” here, intending to destroy it. He did this, naturally, to thwart Sarah’s schemes.
But Ryan found out that the massive boiler meant for power generation couldn’t destroy the mirror. So, he decided to use the reactor.
It was likely that Sarah only regained control over the body after Ryan had placed the mirror in the reactor and started its process. By that point, she could no longer prevent the mirror’s destruction. Her only choice was to induce a reactor burn and subsequent explosion, shattering the mirror into countless pieces. These fragments, carried by the explosive and radiative dispersal, would “infect” everyone.
From that point on, the special radiative substance swept through every child attending the music festival. The myriad shards of the “Mirror of All Things” hidden within it, much like the hand that opened Pandora’s box, forever altered the town.
When Ryan, or rather Sarah, initiated the reactor explosion, they wrapped themselves tightly in radiation-proof black cloth. Even Sarah couldn’t predict the consequences of the exploding reactor and the effects of the mirror shards. She left Shirley behind, turning her into her primary observational subject.
That was the entire truth behind the supposed fireworks and accidental explosion on the night of the Strawberry Music Festival.
……
Now, as the players could communicate mentally, Zhou Qian didn’t need to verbally recount the story; everyone else understood the plot through him.
Qi Liuxing frowned and said, “The ‘cry for help’ we heard from the plant… could it have come from Shirley? She was closest to the radiation! Sarah is heartless!”
Ke Yuxiao added with a stern face, “Indeed. The ‘Mirror of All Things’ might not be something even Sarah fully understands. Her initial plan was to experiment gradually. But Ryan’s attempt to destroy the mirror disrupted all of Sarah’s plans. To prevent the mirror from vanishing entirely and to continue her experiments aiming at merging with all beings, she induced the explosion.”
“As for the consequences of that explosion, even Sarah couldn’t have predicted them. So she needs to continue her experiments. We are undoubtedly her guinea pigs.”
“Yes, agreed.” Zhou Qian added, elaborating on Ke Yuxiao’s words, “Based on Sarah’s original plans and the actual effect after merging with Ryan, she aimed to—after merging with other plants and animals—change her genetic code at will and control her physical form entirely. Like Sun Wukong’s 72 transformations, she could become anything she desired.”
“But Sarah’s experiments weren’t mature. She had only merged with her brother, whose genetic code was already similar to hers. She hasn’t tested it on other plants or animals.”
“Hence, the explosion was her last resort, and she couldn’t anticipate the outcomes.”
“Subsequent events show that under the influence of the special radioactive substance, the mirror spontaneously caused everything to merge. But now, Sarah faces the issue of not being able to control any of it.”
“Since she couldn’t control it, she had to set up barriers, temporarily isolating everything. Moreover, she must find a way to regain control over the ‘Mirror of All Things’, achieving her goal of merging with all beings and dominating them.”
“As Ke Yuxiao said, we are her guinea pigs. She needs to observe and study us to achieve her goal of becoming the master of all.”
[Players have collected a memory fragment: “Unexpected”.]
[Memory Fragment Progress: 4/4]
[Players have found the secret hidden by Ryan here. The mission completion rate is 50%.]
After obtaining all the memory fragments, the players left the tower and began to walk around the wetlands in the direction of the tower, heading to the A13 Evil Spirit Purification Station.
The four male players had previously replenished enough life points at the A11 Purification Station.
But the two girls were almost exhausted.
By the time they reached the A13 station, Situ Qing only had 1 point left.
During the time the two girls were “recharging” inside A13, another incident occurred.
Qi Liuxing and Ke Yuxiao accidentally bumped shoulders, and their arms immediately merged together.
Seeing this, Ke Yuxiao couldn’t help but become serious: It seems we need to hurry out.
Wu Ren: Now the four of us men have 5 points each, which is 20 points. The two girls just charged 2 points, Yin Jiujiu has 7 points, and Situ Qing has 3 points. So, we have a total of 30 points. That’s good.
Wu Ren: If we want to reduce it to 24 points, we just need to lose 6 points. Just right, one less point per person. We’ll head to that ink grass, time it right, and get in and out quickly!
However, Zhou Qian said, “Wrong.”
The thoughts of the two girls also merged with everyone else’s.
The rest of the group thought simultaneously: What’s wrong?
Zhou Qian said, “Firstly, at the beginning of the game, the system stated that the maximum number of points is 24. At that time, 1 point was equivalent to 1 hour. This might be hinting that the game might not exceed 24 hours.”
“Secondly, if such a thing really happened in the real world, a few hours of experimentation would definitely not suffice. Sarah would conduct the experiment strictly based on scientific principles, setting up control groups and iterating…”
“But after all, this is a simplified version of a complex setup in a game instance.”
“While the story is largely logical, there are also many idealized elements. For instance, in a world where technology has advanced to the creation of the ‘Mirror of All Things’, would there still be an ignorant and backward town?”
“Considering these two points, I think Sarah’s experiment only happens this afternoon. We are just her lab rats for this one experiment. She won’t sustain us forever. Do you really think—”
“That when we accumulate 24 points and achieve 100% of the main mission, Sarah will let us go when she appears?”
“Would she really let us live in Beautiful Flower Town peacefully, as she promised?”
“Exactly, she won’t.” Ke Yuxiao immediately agreed with Zhou Qian’s judgment. “If she could merge everything directly, she wouldn’t care. But the accident changed her plans.”
“At this stage, she can’t merge everyone directly, can’t make everyone obey her mind commands. Under this circumstance, she still needs to keep her conspiracy hidden.”
“That’s right.” Zhou Qian continued, “Earlier on the tower’s top, we almost saw the entire layout of this level, but we didn’t find the location of the boiler or reactor building. This means the power station has been demolished.”
“Meanwhile, Shirley and the cat were both moved to the underground floors of the tower, hidden from the world.”
“So, at this stage, Sarah is really afraid of others knowing her secret.”
“The only ones who know her secret are us. She won’t give us a chance to reveal them.”
“Once this afternoon’s experiment ends and Sarah gets the data she wants, we’ll be useless to her. She will kill us.”
Upon hearing this, Qi Liuxing felt a heavy burden in his heart and frowned. “Once we leave this high wall, in the eyes of all the townspeople, we are monsters. Remember, they all think this is the work of a witch. We will be seen by the townspeople as accomplices of the witch. It would be a matter of course for Ryan, as the mayor, to execute us.”
“Damn… this game…”
Wu Ren cursed. “If we don’t accumulate 24 points, we can’t wait for Ryan to open the door. But once he opens the door, he might kill us. How do we handle this?”
“In this world, there’s a satisfying way to take revenge.”
Suddenly, Zhou Qian stood up, smiled, and said in a deep voice, “That is, when someone sets a trap, you turn it around and use it against them.”
Ke Yu Xiao seemed to have sensed something.
Before he could ask, he already heard Zhou Qian’s thoughts in his mind.
Qi Liuxing hadn’t had time to digest Zhou Qian’s lightning-fast thoughts when he heard Zhou Qian speak in a familiar, bewitching tone.
“Sarah keeps us here like lab rats, watching us mutate. Well, we’ll show her a mutation.”
“Sarah wants to create monsters. Then let her be destroyed by the monster she created.”
The familiar, passionate excitement from Zhou Qian’s words surged again, and Qi Liuxing immediately stood up.
Drawing his long sword, barely holding it with what could be called a hand, Qi Liuxing decided to join Zhou Qian in a big fight.
Suddenly remembering something, he asked Zhou Qian, “By the way, what’s the deal with your side task? With the main task four memory fragments found, your side task is also 50% complete?”
“The main task is split into two parts: first, reach 24 points; second, find the four memory segments. It’s a hidden achievement.”
“As for my side task, it’s probably another ultimate hidden achievement. My side task is also split into two parts. The first is those four memory segments. As for the second part…”
At this point, the sunset appeared in the sky.
Zhou Qian’s silhouette stretched a long shadow in the reddish sunset.
Without looking back, he said, “I’ve already planted a solution. Just wait and see.”
Wu Ren: From what Zhou Qian is implying… it seems like everything is under control? Should I just sit back and watch us clear the game?
Qi Liuxing: No! Don’t get too excited too early! Knowing him… he’s going to go big! You might not be able to handle it! But… even so…
He once mocked me for being childish. But his plan now is just as silly!
Wait for our bodies to mutate and become stronger—deal with Ryan, eradicate the conspiracy—save the world, where am I wrong?!
Ke Yuxiao: Ahem, apart from thinking about how to mutate and become stronger, we also have a math problem to consider.
Situ Qing: If you need manpower for a fight, call me. Just don’t make me solve math problems.
Yin Jiujiu: See, who’s the one with the low IQ?
Qi Liuxing: What math problem?
Ke Yuxiao: It’s quite simple. We just need to be careful during the process. As the six of us may continue to “fuse”, once fused, when entering A13 to increase points, it’s synchronized. When going to the ink grass area to reduce points, it’s also synchronized.
Qi Liuxing: Right. In the extreme case where all six of us are fused into one entity, when we increase or decrease points, it will be in multiples of six. If we’re not careful, we’ll never reach 24.
Ke Yuxiao: Exactly. While we follow Zhou Qian’s method to find plants and animals that can strengthen us, I’ll simultaneously do the calculations to ensure we reach 24.
About an hour later, under Zhou Qian’s mental guidance, the players completed their mutations, and their combined life points reached 24.
At that moment, they were standing next to the bizarre ink grass area. They had just left the ink grass after reducing their life points and walked onto the main road.
The system quickly sent a message.
[The combined life points of surviving players reached 24. Mayor Ryan is pleased. Task completion rate 100%.]
Almost instantly, there was a noise in the sky.
Several drones flew by.
In an instant, the cameras on the drones all focused on the players.
Six highly mutated creatures, amidst the exotic flora, appeared on the TVs of countless homes in Beautiful Flower Town through the drone cameras.
A helicopter soon arrived and hovered above the players.
Ryan’s voice, broadcast loudly, reached the players and the townsfolk:
“I’ve found the root of the evil spirits! This wall hides the witches’ secrets. These six monsters… are their creation. Look at how terrifying they are! We must kill them all!”
“Fire can cleanse all evil. The once beautiful Weir Mountain has been corrupted. I must set it ablaze. Let’s burn it all, burn the evil spirits, and burn the monsters birthed from them!”
After Ryan finished speaking, more helicopters flew in, pouring buckets of gasoline over the players.
Following that, fire was ignited.
A small box dropped from a helicopter, automatically opening upon landing, releasing flames that quickly ignited the gasoline, engulfing the players in a sea of fire.
Despite their mental preparation, all players, except Zhou Qian, couldn’t help but panic.
Wu Ren: Damn it, Xiao Qi was right. Zhou Qian went too big… I’m starting to regret this.
Qi Liuxing: We’re past the point of no return. We have to continue! We have to save Beautiful Flower Town and all of humanity!
Wu Ren: Fuck, why did I end up on a team with an extremist lunatic and a childish teenager?
The bright red rose was unparalleled in its charm and loved by countless people.
Sarah shone as brilliantly as a rose, wanting to be loved by all just like it. She relished the attention and adored being on top, controlling everything.
The rose taught her to enjoy attention and care, but it also taught her a lesson—it would wither.
A wilted flower was no longer loved.
An aging beauty would also lose favor.
Why does everything experience cycles of prosperity and decline? Why does prosperity inevitably lead to decline?
Why must beauty fade? Do all heroes eventually meet their end?
Why is health always accompanied by illness?
Why can’t the human body coexist peacefully with all viruses and bacteria?
Why are the boundaries between all species so clearly defined?
Is there a way to break these boundaries and control everything?
*Physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature.
The world was born out of nothingness.
In the distant beginning, the world was chaotic.
Everything emerged from this chaos. The Eastern philosophy told of the Taiji* producing the two primary forces, which then gave rise to the four elements, which in turn gave rise to everything. The same principle applied.
*Chinese philosophical cosmological term for the “Supreme Ultimate” state of the world and affairs—the interaction of matter and space, the relation of the body and mind.
So, why couldn’t it be reversed?
Why couldn’t everything return to its original state of chaos?
It should be this way.
All things in the world should be unified.
When everything became one, Sarah believed she could reign over it all.
She would be the universe and everything in it.
The world’s tides and blooms would be subject to her whims; flowers would bloom and wither at her command.
She wanted to become the god of this world and achieve true eternity.
The rose had accompanied Sarah for years. Now, as Zhou Qian looks at the vibrant rose, he not only extracts memories of Sarah from it but also seems to resonate with her on some level, understanding her thoughts more easily.
At this moment, Zhou Qian and all the players received a system notification.
[Players have collected a memory fragment: “Sarah’s Legs”.]
[Memory Fragment Progress: 2/4]
Beside him, Wu Ren took a moment to process what Zhou Qian was saying. “Merge? Holy… What…”
Zhou Qian replied, “At first, I thought that when Ryan cross-dressed, he used a voice changer and contact lenses for his eyes. Now I realize that they might be some sort of symbiotic entity. If we stretch our imagination further—”
“His eyes can change color at will, and his body can switch between male and female.”
Wu Ren exclaimed, “Change body at will? Wait, isn’t that a bit exaggerated? We can’t control our body mutations, but if he’s really like you said… Does he have a key to change his genes at will?”
“Perhaps that’s the secret about him we’re looking for,” Zhou Qian speculated. “The only question now is, with Ryan and Sarah’s bodies merged, what about their minds?”
Wu Ren pondered and said, “These two siblings… have distinct thoughts and personalities, almost polar opposites. From the memories we’ve seen, the brother is more normal, gentle, and kind-hearted.”
“As for the sister, she’s more fanatical and obsessive, wanting power and control over others. Given her fanaticism, I feel she dominates their shared body. But—”
“The current ‘Mayor Ryan’ seems to be doing good deeds, like building barriers to protect the townspeople… So, maybe he retains both personalities.”
Zhou Qian reflected for a moment. “There are several possibilities. First, after their bodies merged, their brains might have combined to form a new consciousness. Second, all of this might be Sarah’s plot. She wants to reign supreme, so she might have found a way to always keep her consciousness dominant.”
Pausing for a moment, Zhou Qian added, “Based on the information from the rose, I lean towards the second possibility. Regardless of the scenario, if we let things progress, we’ll lose our willpower. We can’t let her succeed.”
……
Leaving the vicinity of the rose, Zhou Qian and Wu Ren continued eastward.
After a while, they reached a cliff. Sensing something amiss, Zhou Qian peered down and, sure enough, found Qi Liuxing and Ke Yuxiao lying at the bottom.
Using the flying rope, Zhou Qian quickly reached the bottom of the cliff to check on the condition of the two people. Fortunately, the cliff wasn’t very high. Luckily, both of them had worn armor and helmets as soon as they entered this instance, so their HP both dropped to around 30%, and they weren’t in mortal danger.
After waking the two up, Zhou Qian immediately asked them what they had encountered before the wetland. According to Qi Liuxing, as he walked towards the wetland, he suddenly saw Zhou Qian running frantically towards the east.
Qi Liuxing, unsure of what was happening with Zhou Qian and out of concern, quickly followed him. To his surprise, he stepped into a void and fell off the cliff, knocking himself unconscious.
Upon hearing this, Zhou Qian revealed a relieved smile. He looked at Qi Liuxing and said, “It seems the wetland can make people see their most terrifying memories. Have you ever dreamt of me falling off a cliff? So this became your worst fear? So you were really worried about me. I’m touched.”
Qi Liuxing sincerely replied, “I think you’re overthinking it. I just had a hallucination.”
“Brother Sword God is the most tsundere.”
Zhou Qian chuckled, then turned to Ke Yuxiao. “What about you? Did you fall off the cliff because of me as well?”
Ke Yuxiao replied with equal sincerity, “Qian Ge, you’re overthinking. It seems Xiao Qi was the first to be trapped in the illusion. I was fine at that moment. I just saw him suddenly run eastward and chased after him. But later on the way, I too experienced a hallucination.”
“I’ve mentioned before, I had depression, so… I won’t go into detail, but I remembered a terrible past experience. I thought I was standing on a rooftop. Feeling desolate, I jumped off, not realizing it was a trap.”
Hearing this, Qi Liuxing looked at Ke Yuxiao with concern.
“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine.” Ke Yuxiao shook his head.
Zhou Qian was about to jest again when a thought crossed his mind.
Ke Yuxiao’s expression doesn’t seem right. Should I ask more? But that’s his private matter; maybe I shouldn’t pry? Yet, it seemed he tried to ‘end his life’ in that illusion. This isn’t right. How can I help him if I don’t understand?
It seemed like something Qi Liuxing might say. But he hadn’t spoken. How could Zhou Qian hear his thoughts?
This should be something Qi Liuxing would say. But he didn’t speak, so how could he hear him?
As he thought this, another phrase suddenly popped into Zhou Qian’s mind. I wasn’t actually trying to kill myself just now. I’m really okay. It’s all in the past. But it seems like Xiao Qi is really worried about me? I’ll have to explain it to him properly later…
This voice, however, was in the tone of Ke Yuxiao.
Can I hear their thoughts?
Could it be that all of us…
Wait, if I’m hearing Ke Yuxiao’s thoughts directly, it means… everything he just said is true.
With this realization, all hints of a smile vanished from Zhou Qian’s face, replaced by a serious demeanor.
Zhou Qian had never fully trusted Ke Yuxiao.
His earlier teasing was actually an attempt to probe Ke Yuxiao. He was desperate to know what had happened to Qi Liuxing and Ke Yuxiao that led them both to the bottom of the eastern cliff during the illusion.
He didn’t believe it was a mere coincidence. It seemed more like a well-crafted setup.
Zhou Qian’s suspicion was consistent—the Peach Blossom Legion wouldn’t use the “Gourd kids saving their grandfather” method against him.
After Situ Qing failed and they had a sufficient understanding of him, they would definitely make a big move, ensuring that their plan to kill him was foolproof.
Simply relying on Yin Jiujiu and Zhu Qiang wasn’t enough to take down Zhou Qian; the Peach Blossom Legion knew this. With the knowledge that Yin Jiujiu was merely a pawn, Zhou Qian became even more suspicious. Besides Zhu Qiang, there must be other members of the Peach Blossom Legion among his team.
If that person wasn’t Wu Ren, then it could only be Ke Yuxiao.
Given the strength of the Peach Blossom Legion, it was possible for them to find Yin Jiujiu, who bears a grudge against Situ Qing. Knowing that Qi Liuxing was recruited by Zhou Qian, they targeted Qi Liuxing and possibly embedded a mole, Ke Yuxiao, into the team.
Moreover, the series of plots later orchestrated by Zhu Qiang made Zhou Qian even more suspicious of Ke Yuxiao.
The trap in this level’s wetland area was essentially the Peach Blossom Legion’s trump card. In fact, their use of Yin Jiujiu points exactly to this. If Yin Jiujiu could kill Situ Qing, that would be best, removing a threat and leaving Zhou Qian with one less ally.
But even if Yin Jiujiu failed, it wouldn’t matter; their sole aim was to force Zhou Qian to choose the most dangerous path in the middle to prevent Yin Jiujiu and Situ Qing from fighting each other.
Therefore, the Peach Blossom Legion’s grand setup was to ensnare Zhou Qian into the swamp in his dream.
They would want to ensure that this setup is foolproof. But how could it be foolproof if Qi Liuxing and Ke Yuxiao were always with Zhou Qian?
Why did all three of them fall into the dream at the same time?
Why did Zhou Qian find them both missing when he looked back?
Zhou Qian couldn’t help but suspect that Ke Yuxiao was also a pawn of the Peach Blossom Legion. Perhaps he tampered with Qi Liuxing covertly, leading him eastward and ultimately off a cliff.
With Ke Yuxiao as their pawn, the Peach Blossom Legion’s plan could be deemed complete. Their only miscalculation was not anticipating that mutated players could control plants and animals due to their insufficient information about the instance.
Thus, Zhou Qian believed his suspicions of Ke Yuxiao were entirely justified. But at this moment, he could suddenly hear Ke Yuxiao’s inner thoughts. Ke Yuxiao had actually chosen to jump off the roof to commit suicide because of past trauma.
From the looks of it, Ke Yuxiao probably couldn’t lie under these circumstances.
So, he was innocent?
Could it be that Zhu Qiang had laid other tools in advance, leading Ke Yuxiao and Qi Liuxing towards the eastern cliff, so they wouldn’t save Zhou Qian when he entered the swamp?
But now, with Zhu Qiang dead, Zhou Qian couldn’t inquire further. Even if Zhu Qiang was alive, Zhou Qian doubted he’d get any answers.
Zhu Qiang, consumed by hatred, would hide everything Zhou Qian wanted to know, including matters about Ke Yuxiao as well as the whereabouts of Situ Qing and Yin Jiujiu.
Thinking of these matters, Zhou Qian unconsciously furrowed his brows. Unexpectedly, when he glanced up, he noticed Ke Yuxiao looking back at him with a slight frown, while Qi Liuxing had a face full of disapproval.
Blinking, Zhou Qian then looked at Wu Ren, who had an expression that read, “I’m embarrassed for you.”
Now, with everyone able to share thoughts, everyone else had naturally become aware of Zhou Qian’s earlier suspicions of Ke Yuxiao.
However, Zhou Qian fully embraced the principle of “as long as he isn’t embarrassed, others are”. So, acting as if nothing had happened, he bypassed the cliff and continued walking east.
“All these rules about killing to steal life points, accumulating 24 points, and draining your MP after a kill are just system tricks. What’s the point of schemes when our thoughts are connected?”
“Let’s first head to A11 for a ‘recharge’, then search for the two girls. Zhu Qiang probably knew he couldn’t clear the game alone, so he didn’t kill them. We need to get out of here as quickly as possible.”
Moments later, the four male players headed east, first stopping at Station A11 to replenish their life points. Then they moved to Station A13 in the west, trying to find clues about the two girls’ whereabouts.
The ground inside the station was wet, with a clear scent of alcohol. It could be deduced that Situ Qing and Yin Jiujiu had been there. Not knowing where the two had gone, they started searching nearby.
Since the four were walking far apart without physical contact, they hadn’t experienced the “merging” situation that Yin Jiujiu and Situ Qing had.
Circling Station A13, Zhou Qian discovered a tower 300 meters away, hidden behind tall trees. He almost immediately speculated that the two girls might be there.
Compared to Situ Qing and Yin Jiujiu, Zhu Qiang was far inferior in combat*.
*Fight against a five scum/trash (战五渣) This is a reference to Dragon Ball where Raditz first land on Earth and, using his combat analysis lens, measures a farmer with a combat power of only 5 (the scum in this case basically means a five combat powered trash). It’s now slang used to refer to someone who performs poorly in battles or competitions.
It was unlikely he’d confront them directly, even if he wanted to capitalize on their conflict. His main goal was to prevent them from aiding Zhou Qian. He needed to quickly check on Zhou Qian’s situation, so he wouldn’t waste too much time and energy on them.
Thus, Zhu Qiang probably used a teleportation tool, setting a trap to relocate the girls and temporarily confine them somewhere.
The next step was to think about where Zhu Qiang would choose to trap them.
He likely received a lot of information on the instance through the Peach Blossom Legion. He probably also knew where the core secrets of the instance were.
But such places were usually very dangerous, so he’d need someone to scout and assess the risks.
Therefore, Zhu Qiang’s strategy was likely to kill two birds with one stone—transfer Situ Qing and Yin Jiujiu to the place closest to the truth to scout and take risks, while also ensuring they were trapped there, with no chance of aiding Zhou Qian.
Finally, the tower 300 meters away was the only man-made structure they had seen since entering the walled area, apart from the “Evil Spirit Purification Stations”. Given its elevated location, it was likely the secret research base, the place “closest to the core truth”.
Considering everything, the probability of the two girls being in the tower was very high.
All of these thoughts flashed through Zhou Qian’s mind in an instant. Just as he was about to voice his suggestions, he heard voices in his mind.
Qi Liuxing: So that’s how Qian Ge thinks… He’s so quick; I almost couldn’t keep up.
Ke Yuxiao: I agree with his perspective.
Wu Ren: Zhu Qiang is that Li Buhui, right? This guy has a dark heart. However, since Zhou Qian could guess his intentions, Zhou Qian is probably just as dark. Haa, people these days—their schemes are just too dirty.
Zhou Qian: “……”
In that moment, he had two thoughts.
First: This instance is really annoying.
Second: Well… Hiss? I kind of wanted to experience this with Bai Zhou. I really want to know what he’s thinking. If only I could see his memories. Hmm, I wonder what I look like in his memories?
Then several thoughts popped up in Zhou Qian’s head—
Qi Liuxing: What’s the deal between him and that Bai Zhou guy?
Ke Yuxiao: Xiao Qi, you’re too young to think about this.
Qi Liuxing: ??? But when he last met Bai Zhou, he was younger than I am now.
Ke Yuxiao: Oh, so Zhou Qian had an early romance. Don’t follow in his footsteps.
Wu Ren: Bai Zhou? Early romance? Who had an early romance? What are you guys talking about?
Zhou Qian: “………”
Wu Ren: Oh, it seems Zhou Qian is getting angry. But he shouldn’t think of scheming against us. Now we can directly hear his thoughts. Hahaha…
Zhou Qian smiled faintly. “Then I’ll take care of you outside.”
Wu Ren, Qi Liuxing, Ke Yuxiao: “……”
……
Ten minutes later, the four of them arrived in front of a tall tower.
The metal door on the first floor of the tower was wide open, so the four of them walked in without any hindrance.
Inside, they found the hall empty. There was a spiral staircase to one side and an elevator in the middle.
Suddenly, with a “ding”, the elevator doors opened.
Wu Ren, being the main attacker, immediately made a move.
A steel needle appeared out of thin air, aiming towards the elevator. In case a monster came out, the needle would attack it immediately.
However, as the doors opened and he saw what was inside, Wu Ren quickly retracted the needle.
Though, strictly speaking, what appeared from the elevator could be described as a “monster”.
Inside the elevator were Situ Qing and Yin Jiujiu. However, their legs and arms were now fused together, sharing three legs and three arms between them. Their hands had transformed into cat paws, complete with pink pads. The paws themselves looked cute, but the combined appearance was quite eerie. What made it even more bizarre was that they were both covered in a net.
The Sky Net was indestructible, but fortunately, items in this game had a time limit. Once the time limit passed, they wouldn’t be separated, but at least they wouldn’t be bound by the net.
Zhou Qian asked, “Did you come from above or below?”
Yin Jiujiu replied, “From below. After finding the elevator, we didn’t dare to go further down. We saw that we could come up to the first floor, so we decided to try it. We didn’t expect to run into you.”
Hearing this, Zhou Qian checked the elevator panel and found that the tower had a total of 12 floors above and two below.
Yin Jiujiu and Situ Qing had been on the negative first floor, where there was only a cat and nothing else. They came up to the first floor after finding the elevator. It’s unknown what’s on the negative second floor.
In the end, the six players decided to go to the top of the tower together.
They all took the elevator to the top floor. As the elevator doors opened, they found that they couldn’t step out. The entire floor was covered in huge spikes, which, upon closer examination, were giant cacti.
After a quick glance outside, Zhou Qian looked at the elevator buttons. He pressed one with a door opening icon, ensuring the elevator doors would stay open.
Sticking his head out for a closer look and then returning inside the elevator, Zhou Qian said, “According to what Yin Jiujiu and Situ Qing said, the cat that Ryan and Sarah have raised since they were kids was put here… So, as expected, this is the core area.”
“Sarah needed to stay here for a long time to conduct experiments, so she brought the cat for company. However, maybe because the cat mutated, she didn’t want others to know, so she kept the cat here. So…”
Looking at the cacti in front of him, Zhou Qian continued, “Maybe we can obtain the third fragment of the memory from these cacti. However, we need to have the cactus gene.”
“We shouldn’t,” Yin Jiujiu quickly said, pulling Situ Qing back. “Or I fear we might prick each other to death since we’re too close.”
Situ Qing nodded in agreement. “Given that these plants and animals don’t actually harm us… You four can stay here, and we’ll go check out the negative second floor.”
So, three minutes later, the two girls went to the negative second floor. The four men stayed on the top floor, waiting for cacti to grow on them.
During that time, Wu Ren glanced at the rose blooming in his palm and exclaimed, “A cactus and a rose… growing together. Huh… It’s both strange and romantic.”
Qi Liuxing commented, “I feel as if we’re standing by the elevator, waiting to transform and then go save the world.”
Zhou Qian couldn’t help but shake his head. “Xiao Qi, you’re so childish.”
Ke Yuxiao: “It’s nice that Xiao Qi thinks this way.”
Zhou Qian: “……”
Moments later, Zhou Qian’s prediction came true. Spiky cacti started growing on parts of the four of them. At the same time, a memory was implanted in their minds.
The memory took place at the top of this tower. However, looking down from the window, the landscape wasn’t as it appears now.
A vast wetland stretched out, its waters reflecting the sky like a mirror, surrounded by trees of varying heights, normal birds, and running animals. Not far away, the roses growing in the rose garden were the most ordinary kind—a beautiful red dot amidst the green.
Inside the top of the tower, the first thing that appeared in the memory was a thin computer screen. There were a few cacti on the table next to the computer, and at that moment, Sarah was sitting in front of it.
Next to the computer, to Sarah’s right, was a full-length mirror. But it clearly wasn’t just a mirror. The surface flowed like liquid gold, like streaming sunlight, yet it wasn’t blinding.
Sarah glanced at the mirror, her eyes becoming fervent and obsessed. She then looked at the cactus with a meaningful gaze.
“I really don’t understand why Ryan likes these spiky plants. When he gave it to me, he said it could absorb radiation. Well, looking at you during breaks isn’t too bad,” Sarah mumbled to herself. “Ryan is doing charity at the orphanage again today. I truly admire him. How can he be so selfless?”
“If it were me, if I had the chance to go out, I would never come back. The small towns around here… can’t compare to the outside world. It’s so exciting!”
“People here are so ignorant. Like those girls, so naive… I just mentioned magic, and they believe me. Such backward humans… Do they really deserve to live? Even if they do, Ryan shouldn’t bother with them. Why should smart people like us sacrifice for stupid humans?”
“He’s my own brother, yet I don’t know what he’s thinking. How can this happen? No, I want to get close to his mind. I want to know… why are there good people like him in the world?”
For a moment, Zhou Qian found that Sarah’s words resonated with his own thoughts. He often wondered —Why are there people as good as Bai Zhou in the world?
He even thought today —If only he could know what Bai Zhou was thinking.
“Ryan and I were born from the same mother, yet we can’t understand each other. It’s so unfair. The foolish heavens—why arrange this? Why are we so different even if we have the same parents?”
“Well, I can start my experiment. Who should I merge with first? The stupid humans in the town aren’t worthy. Such a grand experiment… It should start with my dearest brother!”
With that, Sarah picked up something like a phone and sent a voice message. “Ryan, come to the experimental tower tonight. I have something to tell you.”
The scene shifted. The location was still this high-rise building, but the time had changed from day to night.
The elevator door opened, and Ryan, looking weary, probably from consecutive days of charity work, walked out.
Waiting for him at the elevator was a pale gold mirror. Suddenly, the golden surface shattered, spilling particles that seemed to dance like sunlight. They flowed onto the floor, crawled to Ryan’s feet, and swiftly enveloped him.
“Sarah? W-What have you done? You actually—”
Ryan couldn’t finish his sentence as the luminous particles sealed his mouth, flowed into his throat, and spread throughout his body.
Then, Sarah appeared, walking over from the side. At this moment, there was still another part of the pulsating light on the ground. In the same manner, this portion of light completely enveloped Sarah and poured into her body through her eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, reaching every single cell within her.
Soon, both individuals’ facial features, limbs, and bodies were no longer visible. Standing on the ground in front of the now empty mirror frame were just two human-shaped, pale golden streams.
Approximately 30 seconds later, these two streams suddenly fell to the ground, turning into two jelly-like liquid forms, wiggling and bouncing on the floor. Immediately, they surged towards each other, merging into one, and gradually rose, solidifying into a human shape.
Finally, the golden glow left the human form, transformed into pulsating particles, crawled along the ground back into the mirror frame, and once again restored itself to something resembling a mirror surface.
Thus, a new, fused individual was born.
Gradually, the person walked over and stood in front of the full-length mirror, seemingly wanting to look at their reflection. However, since the mirror wasn’t real, it couldn’t reflect their appearance.
At this moment, through the memory frame, players could only see the bare back of the figure, with the area below the waist obscured by cacti and other plants, hidden in the darkness of night.
[Players have collected a memory fragment: “Mirror of All Things”.]
[Memory Fragment Progress: 3/4]
The author has something to say:
Zhou Qian: I want to merge with Bai Zhou.
Zhou Qian: “Zhou Ge, they say that it was puppy love. What do you think?”
Kinky Thoughts:
I mean, one way or another, you’ll certainly be connected with Bai Zhou…
While following Zhou Qian through the wetlands, Wu Ren said, “Look, thanks to the card you gave me at the beginning, with two cards, I was able to restore the points for both cards simultaneously at the ‘Evil Spirit Purification Station’.”
Zhou Qian nodded in realization. “Right. So, people should always do good deeds.”
“Ahem…” Wu Ren, sensing Zhou Qian’s insincerity, changed the topic. “Why did you want me to play the ‘king’ at the beginning?”
Zhou Qian: “I was just testing you. I thought you were in cahoots with Yin Jiujiu.”
Wu Ren: “…”
So it was like that.
As Wu Ren was about to ask more, Zhou Qian stopped walking. Seeing his serious expression, Wu Ren took a step back nervously. “What’s wrong?”
“According to my gambler, Qi Liuxing and the others went east from here. Be careful; this place can trap you in illusions. But if we keep talking, we should be fine,” Zhou Qian said and started walking eastward.
“An illusion? Aren’t you afraid?” Wu Ren asked.
Thinking of something, the serious expression on Zhou Qian’s face disappeared, and he said with a smile, “Because I remembered someone.”
Upon seeing his expression, Wu Ren joked, “Oh, you’re thinking of a woman, right? Zhou Qian, I didn’t expect you to be so sentimental. Heroes do have a weakness for beauties…”
Before Wu Ren could finish, Zhou Qian interrupted, “Oh no, you misunderstood. I was thinking of a man.”
Wu Ren: “???”
Zhou Qian: “He is quite handsome, perhaps even more than many beauties.”
Wu Ren: “…”
Brother, what’s your deal?
Shaking his head, Wu Ren observed Zhou Qian’s silhouette, thinking that no beauty would find them attractive in their current state.
“If we stand next to a beauty now, it would be like Beauty and the Beast. Ah no, Beauty and the Monster…” Wu Ren mumbled.
Zhou Qian halted again.
“What’s wrong?” Wu Ren asked.
Suddenly, Zhou Qian’s chest burst into blooming red roses.
From Zhou Qian’s body sprouted dark grass, making him shed his clothing. His body was almost completely transformed into a plant, with no human skin or flesh left. The tips of these grasses started budding, then blooming one by one.
With grass growing and flowers blooming from it, Zhou Qian looked exceedingly strange, a sight that made Wu Ren frown. But when Wu Ren glanced down, he saw roses sprouting from his chest as well.
After the mutation, Wu Ren’s body resembled stacked leaves, and now petals began to grow on these leaves. He took a moment to process it but then shrugged it off, as the bizarre had become the norm in this instance.
A moment later, Wu Ren twitched his nose, as if he had smelled something, and then turned to walk towards a small path nearby. After not going far, he indeed saw clusters upon clusters of roses blooming there. It was likely that under the influence of these roses, both he and Zhou Qian had acquired the genes of roses in their bodies.
The vibrant red roses blossomed profusely, diluting the unpleasant smell of the place and replacing it with a rich fragrance. What was even more remarkable was that, apart from being much larger in size, the shape of these flowers had not undergone any significant change. At the sight of them, one couldn’t help but feel a sudden sense of returning from an otherworldly realm back to the world of humans.
But after all, this place wasn’t the ordinary human world.
Clusters of roses stretched for miles, and roughly in the middle, there stood an exceptionally large rose, almost as tall as a person.
At that moment, Zhou Qian also turned his gaze to this giant rose.
After realizing that he too had acquired the genes of the rose, his previous speculation about a massive species fusion undoubtedly seemed more plausible. He quickly made an attempt—commanding the roses in his mind, testing if he could control their blooming and wilting.
However, Zhou Qian failed. The roses temporarily couldn’t respond to the commands from his brain.
After pondering for a moment, Zhou Qian motioned for Wu Ren to join him, and together they approached the massive rose in the center. Zhou Qian wanted to try and make more contact with it, to be “sensed” by it a little longer.
Perhaps after waiting for a bit longer and merging more thoroughly with it, he might gain control over the roses.
Unexpectedly, shortly after Zhou Qian approached that giant rose, a memory suddenly appeared in his mind out of nowhere.
It was during an evening.
Roses were planted all over the balcony, and many roses were also placed inside the room. Roses, cosmetics, beautiful dresses… All these items indicated that this was a girl’s room.
In addition, there were some unusual things in the room—magic wands, crystal balls, and books recording magic. It seemed that the girl living here was a witch.
The door opened, and indeed a girl entered.
Zhou Qian was very familiar with her—it was Sarah. She had beautiful eyes, and her hair and eyelashes were a light golden color.
However, she was sitting in a wheelchair, being pushed in.
She had no legs.
The one pushing Sarah was a maid. She carefully lifted Sarah onto the bed. Sarah then looked at her and said, “I’m useless now, aren’t I?”
The maid shook her head, went to the balcony to pick a fresh rose, placed one on Sarah’s head, and put the rest in a vase.
The maid said cautiously and gently, “Dear Sarah, you’re the most beautiful girl in the world. You’re not useless. You’ll stand again. Young Master Ryan will heal you.”
Holding the rose in her hands, Sarah sighed. “Even the most beautiful roses will wither. I’m just like them. You all say I’m beautiful… but without my legs, surely no one would love me. A rose without appreciation loses its luster. If no one loves me… I’ll age quickly and die in loneliness and oblivion.”
“I can’t bear such days. Life is passionate… I hope everyone has me in their eyes. That would be nice…”
“The more people care about me, the happier I live. But now everything has turned into an illusion.”
“Miss Sarah, please don’t say such silly things. You will get better!” The maid admonished, looking more anxious, as if afraid of angering Sarah.
“Look, my promotion of witchcraft… seems like a joke. I founded the Witch Association and brought so many girls into it. But when they find out that I can’t use magic to heal my own legs… what then? I’ll become a joke.”
“I lost. Completely lost.”
Sarah said, “I vowed to Ryan that I would prove him wrong. I wanted to prove that science and technology were wrong. But now… was the path I took correct?”
“You see, even if you’re comforting me now—” Sarah sighed, “you must be laughing at me in your heart. Originally, I was just bitten by a venomous insect, and I refused to go to the hospital… until amputation was the only option. You must be laughing at my ignorance and stubbornness.”
The memory ended here.
The scene shifted.
Then another memory appeared.
It was in a ward.
There was a girl lying on the bed who was pale, but her eyes were bright, and her mouth wore a joyful and content smile.
It was still Sarah.
Surprisingly, looking through the thin quilt, one could see the outline of two legs. It was as if her legs had grown back.
Then someone else entered.
This time it was a familiar face—Ryan.
Except for the color of their eyes, Ryan and Sarah did indeed look very similar. They had different auras, and their facial features were also different upon close inspection, but from their body shape and facial contours, it was clear they shared a close blood relationship.
The room was filled with roses.
Ryan entered holding a bouquet. After pouring water into a vase and placing the roses in it, he sat next to Sarah and began to speak.
“Feeling better? Can you walk?” Ryan asked.
“Yes, thank you. Indeed, I’ve grown legs and can walk. It’s amazing.” Sarah laughed, pulling back the quilt to reveal a beautiful dress. Beneath the dress were two slender, pristine white legs, as if newly born without a single flaw.
Sarah gently touched her leg and covered herself with the quilt again. “I’m still adjusting, but there are no major issues. It’s wonderful.” After a pause, she looked at Ryan, hesitated, and then said, “I’m sorry. I misunderstood you in the past.”
“It’s okay. It’s good that you can see things differently now,” Ryan replied.
“Yes. I was… too stubborn before,” Sarah said with a wry smile. “So I’ll start learning about technology now. It’s not too late, right?”
Ryan said, “Of course there’s time. After I went outside, they tested my IQ and said it was extraordinarily high. They even said they’ve never seen someone with such a high IQ. It shows that Beautiful Flower Town has been isolated from the world for so long that they don’t even know the capabilities of the people here…”
“In any case, you are my sister. You should be like me. What I can learn, you can also learn quickly.”
“Ha… that’s great.” Sarah laughed. After laughing, she looked a bit melancholic. “Wait, what about the Witch Association? I built it from scratch. Every day I tell everyone to return to nature…”
Ryan paused. “Yesterday… a witch was burned. Do you know what happened?”
“I don’t know.” Sarah blinked.
When Sarah said this, Ryan didn’t notice anything. But Zhou Qian saw Sarah’s hand secretly clenched into a fist, and a shadow passed through her eyes.
The beautiful girl had a strong resentment in her eyes, as if…
As if she wished all the witches were dead.
“Isn’t the witch execution done by the mayor? The current mayor is quite annoying. It would be great if you could be mayor in the future.”
“Anyway… I don’t know why, but the townspeople now really hate witches. Haa… I’m thinking about how to dissolve the association.”
“I’m just worried that they learned to return to nature and study magic because of me. In the end, they find out there’s no magic in the world, and now I’m studying science… I’ve become a joke.”
“Sister, you shouldn’t care too much about what others think,” Ryan said. “We just do our thing. Look, I can heal your leg and treat the diseases of others in the town. Everything we learn will benefit everyone. Beautiful Flower Town will get better and better.”
“Yes, you’re right…” Sarah pinched a rose and looked at the setting sun outside the ward. “But this is far from enough.”
Ryan frowned, somewhat puzzled. “Sarah, what do you mean by that?”
The setting sun painted Sarah’s fair face red. The evening glow accentuated her eyes and the rose, which made her look somewhat enchanting.
She whispered, “Our mother died of heart disease. Now you can make a heart. That problem is solved. But there are many other problems.”
“I was bitten by a venomous bug and had to have an amputation because of an infection. Our father died of pneumonia… You said it was caused by a virus. Why can’t we coexist with viruses and bacteria?”
“Ryan, do you think there’s a way… some technology that lets us coexist with them? Or… I’ve always worried that if I get old and unattractive, no one will love me. But plants don’t age! If I could be like a tree or grass, could I live for ten thousand years and stay young?”
Holding the rose in her hand, Sarah turned her head to meet Ryan’s gaze.
Her eyes had a captivating power, hinting at underlying madness. “Is there a technology that can turn us into gods? Ryan, I want the roses in the world to never wither.”
……
These two memories faded away. Not only did Zhou Qian see these images, but Wu Ren did too.
Wu Ren felt he should have broken out in cold sweat, but his back was already full of leaves. He said, “Did we see all this from the perspective of the rose? Are these the rose’s memories?”
“That seems to be the case,” Zhou Qian said thoughtfully, looking at the huge red rose. Such a beautiful flower would be wonderful if it never withered. But did beauty always mean it was right?
Moments later, Wu Ren continued, “Wait… We thought that Ryan and Sarah were opposites, one pursuing science and the other magic. Ryan was a tech fanatic! He was so obsessed with his experiments that he caused accidents, created these strange plants and animals, and sent us here… but now I feel… that the real tech fanatic is Sarah?”
“You’re right,” Zhou Qian replied. “Sarah founded the Witch Association. She seems like the kind of person born to be in a cult—good at convincing people with her speeches and persuasions. She said she wanted everyone’s attention. Perhaps that’s why she founded the association. But when she realized she couldn’t achieve everything through magic… she turned to ‘technology’.”
“But Ryan is the one who’s into technology…” Wu Ren said, puzzled.
“Is it possible that Ryan is Sarah and Sarah is Ryan?” Zhou Qian suggested.
“That’s what we thought before—that Ryan is pretending to be a woman—”
Wu Ren was interrupted by Zhou Qian, “But what if… it’s not cross-dressing?”
Wu Ren: “?”
Zhou Qian lifted his hand, looked at the ink-colored grass and red rose in his palm, and whispered, “Could they have merged together?”
The author has something to say:
Zhou Qian, did you fall for the male town mayor, the witch, or…???
‘What the hell is this? It’s one thing to be connected to someone else, but why am I stuck with Situ Qing like this?’
‘Yin Jiujiu, you’re seriously messed up. Apart from me, everyone here is a guy. Wouldn’t it be more inconvenient for you to be fused with a guy?’
‘So annoying! Why can she hear my thoughts directly?’
‘I don’t want to hear it either! If you’re so smart, stop thinking altogether!’
‘How can I control that?’
‘You’re so annoying.’
‘Fuck off! Did I speak out loud?’
‘The “you” in my head is very loud!’
……
Without uttering a word, Situ Qing and Yin Jiujiu could somehow hear each other’s thoughts directly. This made things extremely awkward and troublesome.
However, through this unique connection, Yin Jiujiu made an unexpected discovery—regardless of whether Situ Qing was good or bad, she realized that Situ Qing truly didn’t kill her friend.
After all, while one could lie with their mouth, it was much harder to hide instantaneous thoughts.
‘So… damn it, should I apologize?’
‘Huh? She wants to apologize? This is becoming even more awkward. Should I accept? I could, but not immediately… I have my pride too, and she almost killed me twice…’
‘Situ Qing, aren’t you the noisy one now?’
‘You claim to be smart, right? Figure out what’s happening then.’
‘Then stop distracting me. Let me think.’
After a full five minutes, the two girls finally stopped their mental bickering and managed to move forward despite sharing a leg. Taking a deep breath, Situ Qing heard words related to ‘genes’ and ‘cloning’ in Yin Jiujiu’s thoughts. Not understanding, she forced herself to ignore it. About five minutes later, a strange thought suddenly popped into Situ Qing’s head. ‘Mew, I want some dried fish.’
“Yin Jiujiu, you’re really weird!” Situ Qing blurted out loud.
Yin Jiujiu shot her a glare, retorting, “You’re the weird one! At a time like this, you’re craving dried fish?!”
After a brief pause, Situ Qing frowned. “I… I didn’t think that. I assumed it was your thought.”
Yin Jiujiu’s gaze at Situ Qing grew complicated. A chilling realization dawned on them both.
Without realizing it, had they begun to share thoughts with a third entity?
Wait, the one craving dried fish… might not be human.
With a sinking feeling, Yin Jiujiu redirected the flashlight to herself and Situ Qing. They saw that both of their hands had grown fur, and their nails had become very sharp… as if a part of their bodies had transformed into a cat.
The passage was eerily quiet, so quiet that they could hear their own heartbeats. As they continued forward with a foreboding feeling, they soon saw a cat.
Or perhaps, calling it a simple cat would be an understatement. It was roughly ten times larger than an ordinary cat, with a pair of bird’s wings on its back and its limbs adorned with scattered leaves and grass, looking extremely bizarre.
The moment they saw the giant cat-like creature through a net, Situ Qing immediately grabbed her bell, while Yin Jiujiu quickly took out a liquor gourd.
Both were on high alert, but the creature seemed merely curious, even blinking at them.
‘Huh? New humans? It’s been a long time since I’ve seen humans…’
‘Do they have any dried fish?’
This thought sent chills down Yin Jiujiu’s spine, even more so than when she found herself attached to her enemy, Situ Qing.
At least Situ Qing was human. But now, they were communicating with a cat!
“What kind of experiment did Mayor Ryan conduct?” Yin Jiujiu muttered. “At first, I thought we might have the genes of other species. But now, it seems far more complex.”
“It’s as if all beings—humans, plants, animals—are merging. If we all become one entity, whose thoughts will dominate? This is terrifying. We need to leave.”
Situ Qing furrowed her brows, not speaking aloud but thinking, ‘What is she talking about?’
“Look, who’s the one with low intelligence now?” Yin Jiujui couldn’t help but retort upon hearing her inner thoughts. She then explained in a more serious tone, “First, find out Ryan’s secret; second, collect 24 points. These are the two tasks the system has assigned us in this level.”
“At first, I wondered if there are places in this level that can add points and places that can subtract them. Wouldn’t the task of collecting 24 points be easy? Now, I realize I was wrong. There is a third, hidden task in this level—a time limit.”
Si Tu Qing asked, “What kind of time limit?”
Yin Jiujui explained, “Think of it this way. In the end, all people, plants, and animals will merge into one giant monster. If Ryan doesn’t erect any barriers and allows the radiation to spread across the entire planet, the planet will eventually become a single entity. In that case—”
She paused, then continued, “Plants don’t think, and animals are rather primitive. So, their wills would likely be suppressed easily.”
“But there are so many humans. Each one thinks, each one has a brain. Whose will would the planet follow?”
Situ Qing seemed to grasp something and said with a mix of astonishment and seriousness, “Initially, the system said we were seven tourists visiting Beautiful Flower Town. But actually, we can consider our true identities as just seven ‘brains’.”
“Our bodies may mutate and blend with the environment and perhaps even control plants and animals from miles away. Thus, our physical forms might not matter.”
“We belong to the environment, and the environment belongs to us. This is similar to that mystical concept…what’s the word…”
Yin Jiujui filled in, “You’re thinking of ‘The Unity of Heaven and Man*’. Or you could say, ‘I am the world, and the world is me.'”
*(天人合一) A Chinese philosophical and spiritual concept that emphasizes the interconnectedness and interdependence of humans and the natural world. It reflects the belief that humans should live in harmony with the natural world and follow its patterns and rhythms (the harmony between man and the universe).
Situ Qing nodded. “Exactly. Our bodies uncontrollably merge with everything, but what we truly possess and can control are our brains and spirits. We seven players are seven ‘brains’.”
“If a single entity has multiple brains, who will it listen to? In the context of this level, if the seven of us become one entity, there will inevitably be a struggle for control over the ‘body’. When that time comes, it might become a ‘7 into 1’ situation.”
“This is the time limit I’m talking about. We have to complete the task and leave before the great merge!”
Yin Jiujui looked seriously at Situ Qing. “You’d better pray that the two of us don’t continue to merge!”
At that moment, they both suddenly felt something and simultaneously looked towards the cat. The cat raised its eyes, locking gaze with them.
Instantly, the same scene played out in their minds.
It was a graveyard.
Row after row of gravestones stood neatly aligned. One particular gravestone looked newer than the others, perhaps recently erected.
While the other graves were unadorned, this new grave was decorated with fresh flowers, suggesting recent visitors.
It seemed to have rained recently, leaving muddy paths and footprints all around. The crowds that had come for the memorial had left, leaving only a boy and a girl behind.
On the tombstone, there was a photo attached. The woman in the photo was very beautiful, with a head of golden hair, making her the most popular blonde. Her eyes were as blue as a lake, reflecting the brilliance of everything in the world.
In front of the tombstone, a young girl held a cat in her arms, silently crying as she gazed at the tombstone, seemingly overwhelmed with sadness due to the departure of a loved one. Beside her, a boy picked up his bag, ready to turn around and leave.
In the moment he turned to leave, the girl grabbed his arm. “Ryan, are you really leaving this place?”
“You’ve been deceived by that so-called doctor! It was him insisting on performing that surgery on her, which led to her death! The so-called ‘technology’ killed her! I hate it! I hate the doctor and this so-called technology! Why are you leaving to pursue this ‘technology’?”
“Sister, you’re wrong. The people of Beautiful Flower Town are too ignorant. Mom fell ill because she didn’t have advanced help and overworked herself. Her accident during the surgery wasn’t due to medicine or technology being at fault, but because our equipment here wasn’t advanced enough.”
“I’m grateful to the doctor who came from the outside world. Thanks to him, I realized how the world outside of our town is… I must leave this place and bring back real technology.”
The young man’s steps grew distant, fading from the scene.
All that echoed in the emptiness was the girl’s resolute voice. “You’re wrong. You must be! I’ll make sure you realize that you are wrong!”
The scene ended there.
Yin Jiujui and Situ Qing were taken aback for a moment before reacting.
Both felt something peculiar, as if… as if a memory that didn’t belong to them was directly implanted into their minds.
‘Could this scene be about… the younger days of the head of the Witch Association, Sarah, and Mayor Ryan? They were siblings. After their mother’s accidental death during surgery, the siblings took two different paths—the sister despising science became a witch, while the brother left the town in pursuit of technology?’
‘Yes, it seems so. But where did this memory come from? How did we suddenly have such a memory?’
‘It’s the cat! The young girl had a cat in her arms!’
‘Could it be that before this strange cat mutated… It was the pet of Ryan and Sarah when they were young? We… We really got its genes and can access its memories?’
‘It’s very possible. But I don’t know why it’s trapped here.’
At that moment, due to this scene, all the players received a system notification.
[Players have collected a memory fragment: “Between Siblings.”]
[Memory Fragment Progress: 1/4]
……
At the same time.
Elsewhere, with 30 seconds left on his life timer, Zhou Qian successfully reunited with Wu Ren, gaining 3 life points.
Later, while searching for Qi Liuxing and Ke Yuxiao, they unexpectedly obtained the second memory fragment.
Zhu Qiang, with his legs feeling weak, could barely stand. He gripped the Rib of God in Zhou Qian’s hand as if it was a lifeline, and with his other hand, he clung to Zhou Qian’s shoulder to support his body.
“What… What are you talking about? What did I overlook?”
Zhou Qian smiled and said, “You said it yourself. You’ve seen my analysis in ‘Apple Paradise’ about how game designers like to play with people’s hearts—the most dangerous places often offer players the greatest opportunities.”
“So what makes you think that I would really be trapped by these plants?”
Zhu Qiang: “You…you…”
“In fact, if you used your brain a bit more, you would have found the issue. But when you entered this instance, you thought you had obtained enough information. That was information the Peach Blossom Legion worked hard to collect; it’s very important and very reliable. So, with such a premise, you lost the motivation to think independently.”
“You focused all your thoughts on dealing with me and neglected the information in the instance itself. This is actually the most critical. After all, our real goal is to clear the stage, not to use the so-called traps in the instance to kill each other.”
Zhu Qiang’s face became paler and paler, and Zhou Qian’s smile became more and more pleased.
“So now, let me give you the answer to the puzzle.”
“‘Ordinary tourists cannot survive here… Maybe some changes will occur in you to adapt to this environment.’ —This is what the system told us at the beginning.”
“A very key piece of information revealed by this sentence is that the changes in us are produced to adapt to the environment.”
“Besides, before entering these high walls, the words of Mayor Ryan are also worth exploring. He said we are gifts from heaven, and we can adapt to the ‘evil spirits’.”
“So in my opinion, ‘evil spirits’ refer to some kind of radiation in this instance that ordinary people can’t adapt to. Ryan’s words imply that we can coexist with this radiation, and our life forms may deviate from the norm and undergo great changes.”
“Lastly, it’s all the clues related to ‘genes’ given from the beginning until now.”
“Qiang Ge, why not think outside the box? What forms do you think species or life exist in?”
Zhu Qiang couldn’t answer Zhou Qian’s question at all.
He even somewhat didn’t understand the meaning of the question itself.
Zhou Qian continued, “Wu Ren has leaves growing on him with very unique patterns, like the patterns on marble. We have seen such leaves—when we just ascended Weir Mountain, there were many of those trees.”
“Wu Ren, having the lowest life points, mutated first. And when his mutation began, there were those trees around.”
“The same goes for Ke Yuxiao. He has special ink-colored grass growing on his arms, just like the grass around us. I calculated the time and found that when he began to mutate, he was passing by this ink grass area.”
“Therefore, I suspected at that time that our body’s mutation is related to the environment at that time.”
“And it proved that my guess was correct. Look, I mutated in this place and indeed grew ink-colored grass.”
“Now we can conclude that—when we start to mutate, the ‘mirror’ in the instance will implant the genetic code of the plants nearby our location into our bodies, changing our genetic code and causing rapid mutations. But what’s next?”
“Shouldn’t this ‘mutation’ have some meaning?”
“After my body grows the ink-colored grass, what will I become, and what can I do?”
At this point, Zhou Qian glanced at the location of his left wrist and then looked at Zhu Qiang. “After escaping from the swamp, I received a message from Wu Ren. He briefly mentioned Yin Jiujiu wanting to kill Situ Qing. Additionally, he provided me with an important message—”
“He said that he felt a bit cold while sprinting, and then the leaves, which looked similar to those growing on him, actually went to surround him, as if warming him up.”
After a slight pause, Zhou Qian continued, “This sentence undoubtedly confirmed some of my guesses. So I came to try it out. Indeed, I guessed correctly.”
The voice of Zhu Qiang had already become hoarse to the point of weakness. “Zhou Qian, you, damn it, stop fucking beating around the bush. You—”
“Qiang Ge, look. If time could go back, when you got your first payment from this game, you should have gone to school and supplemented your knowledge instead of being brainwashed into calling for violence all day long. When one acts, relying solely on cleverness won’t do. You still have to weigh your own abilities, especially with technical tasks like killing.”
“Look, I’ve spelled it out for you. How can you still not understand?”
When Zhou Qian looked at Zhu Qiang, his eyes were full of undisguised mockery.
“I asked you just now if you knew that there could be many forms of life. Now, let me tell you a fact—in this instance, after we mutate, we can become a special form of life with the corresponding plants.”
“Take me and this ink-colored grass as an example.”
“I possess their genes, and part of my body has indeed become like them. You verified it yourself just now; I don’t even have blood anymore. But at the same time, these grasses don’t think. I, however, have a brain.”
“The mask on your head should be protecting your brain from being influenced, so you don’t fall into illusions.”
“Furthermore, the reason you haven’t mutated is also due to this mask’s added effect. You think it saved you. But in fact, it also completely stopped you from discovering the truth of this instance.”
“The truth is, after the mutation, I have completely symbiosed with these ink-colored grasses; we have formed a collective living entity. This is a very special form of existence. They, without a brain, will share one with me. In other words… they will obey my commands.”
Zhou Qian’s gaze became profound, and the smile at the corner of his mouth became exceedingly pleasant.
“So, the reason you could see me being entangled by the grass was because I commanded them to do so.”
“As for those chicks finding their way… Haha, sorry, which chicks got trapped by the grass, and which chicks could safely walk up to me, were also temporarily commanded by me.”
“Qiang Ge… There are no so-called traps here.”
“You, from the beginning to the end, have just been played by me!”
By this point, Zhu Qiang had finally understood.
Not long ago, he thought Zhou Qian’s limbs were trapped. He couldn’t even lift a finger because there were traps in the ink grass! He thought Zhou Qian, in his panic, had blundered into a trap and got himself stuck!
He also thought Zhou Qian used a “provocation strategy”, just to provoke him into the trap so that they would both be trapped here.
So, to demonstrate his willingness to kill Zhou Qian, to break these traps, and to walk into the ink grass field, he used the chick props capable of pathfinding, using them to avoid the traps to prevent himself from being entangled by the ink grass…
He was so proud, thinking he could easily see through and break every move Zhou Qian made.
Even just now, when he realized he fell for the card duplication trap, even if he knew he would die immediately, he just thought he had lost in this final step!
But he was wrong! He was completely wrong from the beginning to the end!
Now he knew, all of this was Zhou Qian’s performance!
Zhou Qian was never controlled from the beginning to the end! He could even control these ink grasses, making every strand of grass follow his command!
Zhu Qiang vomited several mouthfuls of blood violently. The frustration in his heart was beyond words.
All his pride, all his meticulous calculations… had become a complete joke!
Throwing knives to test the grass, carefully holding the lighter, sending out chicks to scout…
The actions he took at that time… in Zhou Qian’s view, were probably like watching a monkey show, right?!
Zhou Qian had been toying with him from the start!!!
If, if he hadn’t worn such a mask, he would have mutated too! Being in this ink-colored grass, he would also have possessed their genes and become a symbiotic life form with them!
In that case, he would have noticed! He would have found out that he could also command them!
But he… wore the mask.
Suddenly, Zhu Qiang remembered Priest, who appeared before him before entering the instance.
“All tools are prepared for you, especially that mask. It’s crafted by a high-level player blacksmith. Our goal is to lure Zhou Qian into the illusion. This mask can keep you unaffected by the marshland swamp.”
“Go. We will succeed in killing Zhou Qian.”
The confidence of the past had now become a complete joke.
The mask that could protect his brain, that could protect him from the so-called illusion erosion… It also blocked him from discovering the truth, reducing him to just Zhou Qian’s toy.
After a moment of shock, Zhu Qiang suddenly thought of something and immediately raised his left wrist to take a look.
But the system panel’s message menu was empty, showing nothing.
His gambler, Priest, had sent no messages.
In fact, Zhu Qiang had immense faith in Priest’s abilities.
Before Zhu Qiang entered the instance, Priest’s speculations about genes were very similar to what Zhou Qian had said. He didn’t know the real secret of this instance because he hadn’t witnessed it firsthand. But now, having observed the situations of Wu Ren and the others from his perspective, he should be able to guess!
He should have come to the same conclusion as Zhou Qian: that after humans mutate, they can form a life symbiosis with corresponding plants and subsequently control them…
But why didn’t he tell me or warn me?
No matter how much he doubted, Zhu Qiang could no longer wait for Priest’s answer.
He looked up at Zhou Qian, a mix of desperation and extreme fatigue in his eyes. “So… what are you trying to say? You lowered your health to the minimum… just to watch me act like a monkey in front of you? Why didn’t you just command these plants to kill me?”
“For someone like you, simply killing you would be boring,” Zhou Qian replied. “Your expression now—that’s what’s interesting.”
“Enough. It’s about time to send you on your way.”
As Zhou Qian said this, all the ink-like grass bindings on him withdrew on their own.
In Zhu Qiang’s desperate gaze, Zhou Qian made a simple move—grasping the Rib of God, pulling it from the terrified and weakened grasp of Zhu Qiang, and gently pushing him.
Using the Rib of God, Zhou Qian froze time in a small area.
But outside this area, time flowed normally.
If Zhu Qiang stepped out of the time-frozen area into the normal time zone, it would be as if he’d leapt nearly two minutes forward.
Zhu Qiang had dared to enter this time-frozen area earlier, thinking he could afford to spend extra time tormenting Zhou Qian, relying on the fact that he had picked up four cards totaling 24 health points.
But those were duplicated fake cards, utterly useless.
So, when Zhou Qian took the Rib of God and pushed Zhu Qiang out of the time-frozen zone, Zhu Qiang returned to the regular time point. His health instantly depleted, and he collapsed, no longer breathing.
Life points were a special setting given to players by the instance.
The higher the radiation in an area, the faster these points would deplete. When they reduced to a certain level, players would face imminent death and be in the utmost danger.
However, precisely at this time, players could discover an incredibly crucial hidden setting within the instance.
Players would absorb the genetic information of animals and plants from their surroundings during mutation and begin to mutate rapidly.
If a particular animal or plant was abundant in the environment, players would prioritize obtaining its genetic code, most likely manifesting related mutations first.
When Zhou Qian entered the ink-colored grass zone, his life points decreased rapidly, triggering mutations, and his body grew ink-colored grass. Whether human, plant, or animal, all were affected by the “mirror” within the instance.
Thus, while Zhou Qian was influenced by the grass, the grass was also influenced by him. In a sense, Zhou Qian formed a symbiosis with the grass. The grass could understand the signals from his brain and obey his commands.
Everything happening now validated Zhou Qian’s suspicions.
But he still had one lingering doubt.
If the game simplified an intricate sci-fi setting, then Zhou Qian could predict the subsequent progression—each person’s mutation direction would be fixed. Right now, Zhou Qian mutated under the influence of the ink grass, grew ink grass on his body, and commanded the grass, but that would be the extent of it.
However, if the game didn’t simplify but instead developed based on a more realistic sci-fi setting, the course of events would become complex. If Zhou Qian mutated next to fish after replenishing and then lowering his life points again, could he then also form a symbiotic relationship with the fish?
What if, taking things further, the six players could also absorb each other’s genetic codes? In appearance, everyone would still be distinct, but in reality, all might become the same person.
Excluding Zhu Qiang, suppose only the six players entered within the high walls. Their genes would influence and alter the environment, but they would also be changed by it…
Would everything within the walls—every animal, plant, and human—ultimately merge into one life form?
That life form would become the god of this place—every blade of grass, every drop of water, every butterfly obeying its command. They would merely be parts of its life. It would become the true master of all things.
If things did progress to that stage…
Whose brain among the six players would dominate?
As these thoughts raced through Zhou Qian’s mind, he quickly moved out of the ink-colored grass zone.
He now had only one minute. After sending a message to Wu Ren, he hurried in the direction Wu Ren had indicated. Wu Ren had previously sent Zhou Qian a third message that he hadn’t told Zhu Qiang about—[I’m at the purification station. Only two cards can be ‘recharged’ at the same time.]
After verifying that he could indeed command the grass, Zhou Qian had them wrap around him while he gave his location to Wu Ren, asking him to send over a recharged card, adding, [Don’t come from the wetland side. It’s easy to get trapped in an illusion.]
Thus, only after confirming he wouldn’t die, did Zhou Qian dare to lower his life points rapidly and put on a show using his ability to control the grass.
Wu Ren had informed Zhou Qian of the clearing station’s location, but in order to assist Zhou Qian as soon as possible, he was already on his way with a “recharged” card.
Now, Zhou Qian was on his way to meet up with Wu Ren.
Throughout this time, constant messages flashed across Zhou Qian’s wrist.
[Zhou Qian, you didn’t need to do that. You could have just had the grass bind Zhu Qiang. Why did you toy with him?]
[You took such a risk just to mock Zhu Qiang! How were you so sure Wu Ren was trustworthy? What if he didn’t give you the card or lied about the purification station’s location? Was it worth it to punish Zhu Qiang by reducing your time to just one minute?]
[Forget it, what’s done is done. But you need to put on those speed shoes and hurry to the purification station! Why are you walking so leisurely? What if Wu Ren changes his mind and doesn’t give you the card?]
……
“Hiss…” Zhou Qian quickly glanced at the messages, immediately looking away.
He raised his head, looking up into the void. He wasn’t sure Li Xuehai could see his face from this perspective, but…
He still said, “Doctor Li, you’ve become quite talkative for someone who’s usually so aloof and old-fashioned.”
Li Xuehai responded with: [……]
Zhou Qian smiled, then turned serious. “You heard my conversation with Zhu Qiang, didn’t you? So, I think… rather than worrying about Wu Ren, you should consider which of your colleagues might be a problem. This game isn’t simple. And… where do you think Qi Liuxing and Ke Yuxiao went? When I saw the illusion, you didn’t see it with me, did you? Did you notice where they were?”
Li Xuehai: [They headed toward the east side of the swamp, one ahead of the other and quite far apart. It seemed like they were both trapped in the illusion. They didn’t go south into the swamp. They just headed east. I’m not sure what’s there.]
Zhou Qian didn’t look at the system again and continued heading northwest. He had less than a minute left. He had to ensure his own survival first and then find Qi Liuxing and the others. Finally, he also had to locate Situ Qing and Yin Jiujiu. These two girls were powerful fighters and would be useful later.
Meanwhile, on the other side, in a pitch-black corridor.
Situ Qing and Yin Jiujiu were still trapped in the [Sky Net].
Moments earlier, Situ Qing had used a flashlight to inspect their surroundings and realized they were in a tunnel beneath the ground. The tunnel was lined with high-grade metal and was spacious enough for both of them to walk side by side.
Currently, considering the rate of decrease in life points, Situ Qing had 120 minutes left to live, while Yin Jiujiu had 140 minutes.
Unable to communicate with the outside world, they had to find a way out or locate tools to restore their life points.
“The range of the ‘Universe Shift’ is within 500 meters, so we’re not far from Station A12. We can get back to the surface,” Yin Jiujiu said. “Moreover, the Sky Net’s effect lasts for one hour. After that, we’ll be able to leave. When the time comes…”
“When that time comes, if Li Buhui kills Zhou Qian, do you really believe he’ll take you with him?” Situ Qing retorted.
Yin Jiujiu glared at her. However, she knew this wasn’t the time for internal conflicts. They had to work together to find an exit.
They moved strangely, shoulder to shoulder, legs entangled, both trapped by the net. Using the flashlight, they inched forward like snails, dragging the net with them.
After posing her question and getting no response, Situ Qing glanced at Yin Jiujiu and asked, “Honestly, how did Li Buhui deceive you? I’m not making fun of you. I once had contact with a terrifying group. They told me if I killed Zhou Qian, I could join them. I tried to kill Zhou Qian and failed. Afterward, I decided to follow him. So, understand? If you’re not with that group, then you were used by them. Li Buhui must be associated with them.”
Yin Jiujiu frowned, clearly reluctant to engage in this conversation. But she knew she had been used, and the existence of the group annoyed her.
After some hesitation, she said, “During a time when I was rapidly leveling up, I met Li Buhui. He was useless, just a freeloader. But he was willing to run errands for me, so I let him tag along. I genuinely didn’t see anything wrong with him.”
“Now that I think about it, he only started sticking to me after discovering I had a ticket to enter ‘Flower of Evil’. Actually, I had the entry ticket to this hidden instance for a long time but didn’t dare to enter because it was challenging. It wasn’t until Zhu Qiang casually chatted with me, mentioning players like Zhou Qian and Situ Qing entering…”
“That I decided to join.”
After a while, Situ Qing said, “I’m not a good person. One thing I deeply regret is killing Gao Shan. But before that, I didn’t kill anyone without a good reason. Like when out of five players, only four could survive, we had to fight. If I had Zhou Qian’s wisdom, perhaps I could find a way to clear the game without harming anyone. Actually, my gambler back then probably knew a way, but he wanted to see me kill someone for him, so he didn’t tell me.”
“I’m not saying this to vindicate myself. But I’m not a born killer. Especially after the first time I did it, I broke down for a long time.”
“In this game, I remember the name of every person I’ve killed. But I haven’t killed any of your friends. I think there’s more to this story. From the beginning to the end, you’ve been used.”
By the time their conversation reached this point, they had already traveled a significant distance in the tunnel. Situ Qing didn’t hear a response from Yin Jiujiu, but suddenly a thought crossed her mind—She’d never believe me. She’s just afraid I might kill her again.
“W-What did you say?” Situ Qing asked Yin Jiujiu.
“What? I didn’t say anything,” Yin Jiujiu responded instantly.
“You said you’d never believe me,” Situ Qing persisted.
“I…” Yin Jiujiu’s eyes widened. “You can read my thoughts? I only thought that for a moment…”
Then, another thought popped into Yin Jiujiu’s head—Is she dumber than me? After all that’s been said, she still doesn’t believe me. At this point, why would I lie?
“Situ Qing, it’s enough for you to fucking mock me once. Who would take someone like Li Buhui seriously? I was just careless. I’m not stupid!”
Yin Jiujiu shouted, then noticed Situ Qing’s puzzled gaze. “You can… You can read my thoughts too?”
The moment their eyes met, both of them felt utterly puzzled.
Just then, with a “snap” sound, both of them lost their balance and unexpectedly fell to the ground together. The instant their four hands propped them up from the ground, they both grabbed the Sky Net. Then, they tried to stand up one after the other, but their legs were uncoordinated, like they were tangled with each other, causing them to fall down again.
In the end, they both propped up their upper bodies with their hands and turned to look at their legs. As a warrior, Yin Jiujiu obviously had better physical strength. She propped herself up with one hand, while the other hand held up a flashlight.
The two girls, one with a fiery temper and the other cold as an iceberg, had both seen their fair share of challenges and could usually handle sudden situations with calmness. However, after shining the flashlight on their legs, they were both rendered speechless.
Somehow, Situ Qing’s left leg and Yin Jiujiu’s right leg had fused together.
The author has something to say:
I want to explain Zhou Qian’s ability.
Zhou Qian’s skill is to slow down or even stop time. Take the instance when Gao Shan died: if both he and Zhou Qian were in the area where time was stopped, they shouldn’t be able to speak since everything stops in frozen time, including vocal cords, and sound cannot be propagated.
But in this story, there’s a concept where the holder of the “Rib of God” stands outside of time. Meaning, the person holding the Rib of God isn’t affected by any time constraints. So, when Zhou Qian freezes time and everyone else is still, unable to hear or speak, both he and Gao Shan, by touching the Rib of God, can communicate “outside of time”.
When time resumes, Gao Shan reaches the point in time where he dies.
Zhu Qiang experienced a similar phenomenon.
Some readers might not understand this, so I wanted to explain it further.
The sky had darkened slightly. The color of the eerie grass became even more ink-like.
The color of the plants was bizarrely unpredictable, and the invisible substances floating in the air were extremely dangerous. They constantly read the DNA of humans, simultaneously integrating the genetic codes of other animals and plants at random, altering humans and causing rapid mutations.
Behind his transparent mask, Zhu Qiang was unaware of the principles behind these phenomena.
He simply looked up at Zhou Qian, who stood among the inky grasses, like a fish on a chopping board that had given up struggling and didn’t even bother to move.
For the “last question” that Zhou Qian had posed, Zhu Qiang was evidently unwilling to answer. He suddenly realized that Zhou Qian wasn’t just casually talking about his life principles or his thoughts.
Zhou Qian was clearly trying to extract information from him. Was Zhou Qian’s objective to get revenge with the help of that Rank God player?
After a moment, possibly recognizing Zhu Qiang’s reluctance to answer, Zhou Qian said, “Hmm. It seems you’re too afraid to answer this question. Even if I were about to die, you still wouldn’t dare. Well, that’s fine… I won’t ask you anymore. But I have something to tell you. In this game, one has to be utterly ruthless to make it to the end.”
“What do you mean?” Zhu Qiang frowned, seemingly not grasping why Zhou Qian would make such a comment.
Zhou Qian looked up at him with a hint of madness in his eyes. “Do you know what I would do if I were in your place? If I saw you tied up here, unable to move, I wouldn’t just stand outside talking. I would come in and kill you myself. Don’t you get it? If you let the trap in this level kill me, my death will be attributed to the trap, and you’ll gain nothing. But if you kill me yourself, you can take my life point cards. Although I don’t have many points left, who knows? Maybe those points will save your life in the end. To kill me means gaining points, but it also means you have to come in and consume more of your own points. However, if you’re fast enough, killing me would be beneficial.”
Considering the situation, Zhou Qian couldn’t be playing any tricks, could he? He shouldn’t be able to.
“Ha ha…”
Zhu Qiang’s hesitation made Zhou Qian burst into laughter, further infuriating Zhu Qiang. “What are you laughing at, Zhou Qian?!”
Zhou Qian responded, “Of course, I’m laughing at your cowardice and fear. Look, even in my current state, you’re still afraid of me. You don’t dare come in.”
Zhou Qian continued with a smirk, “I walked straight into a trap set by the Peach Blossom Legion. You claimed that even though the legion planned it, you were the executor. Yet here I am, bound and unable to escape, and you… you can’t even approach me.”
“Admit it, Zhu Qiang. You’re a coward!”
Zhu Qiang was unwilling to admit it, but he had no choice but to acknowledge one thing—Zhou Qian was speaking the truth.
It was clear that the person who was bound and waiting for death was Zhou Qian, and he, Zhu Qiang, was the one looking down upon him from above!
However, their states were incredibly disparate.
Zhou Qian might have appeared to have given up struggling, but he was genuinely calm and composed, while Zhu Qiang felt like he was just putting on a show. Clearly, Zhou Qian was the one in the position of the captured prey, and he was the hunter who captured him!
Yet, when Zhu Qiang looked into his eyes, he paradoxically felt like he was the prey who had walked into a trap.
Because of this twisted perception, Zhu Qiang’s first reaction to Zhou Qian’s suggestion that he come and kill him was indeed—as Zhou Qian said—hesitation.
Zhu Qiang had long decided to kill Zhou Qian.
He even adopted the alias “Buhui*” to showcase his determination.
*Clarity: [Buhui] (不悔) means no regrets/unrepentant.
But in the end, why did he hesitate to take Zhou Qian’s life? Why shouldn’t he?
He should definitely end Zhou Qian’s life and take his life points!
Zhou Qian, being the kind of person who holds grudges, just wanted to mock him one last time in the final moments of his life!
Or perhaps, realizing that he couldn’t survive, he wanted to provoke him to walk into the trap and die here with him!
That was all there was to it. Zhou Qian could only possibly play these two tricks!
He obviously didn’t need to be afraid! He could go in and kill him with his own hands!
“Zhou Qian, of course I dare to kill you. Thank you for reminding me that I can also obtain your life points card by killing you with my own hands.” Zhu Qiang sneered and took out some items from his bag. It was surprisingly live pet chicks purchased at some unknown time.
[Player Zhu Qiang used item: Scouting Chicks]
[Function Description: Can’t decipher maze traps? No problem. The chicks are here to help! Five clever chicks know how to navigate mazes and identify traps; there is always one that can find the correct path!]
[Grade: B]
Five chicks came out in a line, landing on the ground. Zhu Qiang used them as scouting tools, each taking different paths towards the ink-colored bushes.
They were all fine walking in the outer area, but as they approached Zhou Qian, they fell into traps one by one, entangled by the ink-colored grass. Finally, only one chick didn’t step into a trap.
It successfully reached a spot very close to Zhou Qian and then temporarily stopped moving.
Seeing this, Zhu Qiang’s eyes curved in amusement.
That was enough; as long as he got to where the chick was now, this distance… was sufficient to kill Zhou Qian himself. As long as he followed the path it just took, he wouldn’t step into any traps.
Nevertheless, facing the overly intelligent Zhou Qian, Zhu Qiang still didn’t dare to let his guard down.
He looked at Zhou Qian and examined him carefully once again. Indeed, Zhou Qian’s limbs were all tightly bound. The ink-colored grass penetrated every part, even entering every crevice of his ten fingers, wrapping around each one of them.
Besides, the grass growing from Zhou Qian’s body itself was intertwined with this ink-colored grass, seemingly inseparable. From top to bottom, even Zhou Qian’s fingertips were trapped. He absolutely couldn’t lift his hand or move his fingers; he couldn’t even take any items out of his bag now!
The only thing Zhou Qian was holding, also entangled by countless ink-colored grasses, was his Rib of God. But there wasn’t resentful energy for him to use here, and he couldn’t harm himself to below 10% health to unleash his ultimate move. Secondly, his regular skill induced illusions, but Zhu Qiang was fully prepared against this.
To avoid being affected by the swamp, Zhu Qiang prepared a mask in advance. This transparent mask, given by Priest, was very thin but highly effective, ensuring that the brain nerves wouldn’t be disturbed by any external factors.
Thus, wearing this mask, Zhu Qiang wouldn’t fall victim to the illusions created by the swamp or Zhou Qian’s skills.
Unable to use ultimate and his regular skills were ineffective against Zhu Qiang, and there was absolutely no possibility to get other items from the bag…
That meant Zhou Qian only had one remaining skill—to slow or stop time.
But this could only delay his death. Even if he stopped time, when his mana was exhausted, he would inevitably meet his demise.
After confirming this again, Zhu Qiang felt temporarily relieved and took out two items from his bag—a knife and a lighter.
The knife was just a regular one; Zhu Qiang held it and threw it towards the chick nearest to him that was entangled by the ink-colored grass. His aim wasn’t bad. The tip of the knife accurately sliced the ink-colored grass; thus, he discovered that this type of grass could still be cut by a regular knife.
Even with the chicks scouting the path, Zhu Qiang was still wary. He tested the magical grass with the knife to ensure he could cut it to free himself if needed.
Zhu Qiang believed he was adequately prepared, unlike Zhou Qian, who fled here in a panic, holding the self-rescue knife and fire in his hands. After taking a breath and gripping the items tightly, Zhu Qiang eventually stepped into the area with the ink-colored grass.
In the beginning, Zhu Qiang took steps very slowly, observing the situation as his points decreased.
He wasn’t calculating whether the points gained from killing Zhou Qian, subtracted by the decrease in his own life points, would still yield any profit.
After all, his entering proved that he wasn’t afraid of Zhou Qian’s schemes and dared to kill him with his own hands; this was the main goal.
Zhu Qiang just wanted to roughly calculate the speed of the points decrease to ensure that he wouldn’t foolishly die here due to a delay, and then he would dare to act.
After making sufficient preparations, Zhu Qiang, step by step, followed the path found using his props and arrived very close to Zhou Qian. Here, he could kill Zhou Qian and also easily pick up the life point card that fell from Zhou Qian’s body.
But at this moment, Zhu Qiang suddenly noticed something abnormal. He saw several cards scattered behind Zhou Qian.
The system had mentioned that many items that could increase life points were randomly hidden in the instance.
Could it be that these cards were hidden in such places?
That is great!
Zhu Qiang thought about it carefully and found this design very reasonable.
Cards conspicuously marked with life points were the ultimate temptation tool. They lure the players closer! But once the players approached, they would find themselves trapped in a place where life points were rapidly drained; they not only failed to increase life points but also perished completely!
Lifting his foot to walk in that direction, Zhu Qiang subsequently withdrew it, looked at Zhou Qian in front of him, and laughed. “Is this your plan? You want me to die with you? Hahaha…”
“At this point, Qian Ge, I have to thank you. When watching you play ‘Apple Paradise’, I remembered something you said through the screen. The designer of this game likes to play with people’s minds. Placing cards that increase points in places that decrease points is his trick. The most tempting places are the most dangerous! And the most dangerous places are relatively safe… tsk tsk tsk—”
“You wouldn’t have been trapped because you were unintentionally running in that direction to pick up those cards, would you?”
“It proves that the illusions in the swamp still greatly affected you. When you hastily escaped here, indeed you didn’t have time to clear your thoughts. That’s why you fell for it so easily.”
“Haa, it’s a pity. You’re more meticulous than I imagined. A miscalculation.” After sighing lightly, Zhou Qian seemed to have completely run out of words. He just lowered his head, his face completely pale.
Zhu Qiang sneered at him and then took out five chicks to help him scout the way, eventually successfully reaching the place where several cards with life points were scattered.
After comparing the first card he drew, Zhu Qiang found no problems with these cards and picked them up.
Four cards, each with 6 points, and the countdown below the numbers hadn’t appeared yet; this was reasonable. Zhu Qiang knew from Wu Ren’s situation that when the points on the drawn cards were cleared, only then would the countdown on the subsequent cards begin.
Thus, Zhu Qiang found that he had gained 24 points in one go. In this instance, excluding the special areas where points dropped faster, 1 point in the normal areas was approximately equal to 20 minutes.
This meant he now had an additional 480 minutes!
He didn’t even have to rush; he had plenty of time to torment Zhou Qian!
After putting away the cards, Zhu Qiang returned to Zhou Qian’s side and then saw him make a move, tightly holding the bone in his hand and muttering something.
Subsequently, Zhu Qiang felt a slight distortion in the space; when he walked towards Zhou Qian, everything was normal at first, but when he got in front of Zhou Qian, his steps uncontrollably slowed down.
Sure enough, Zhou Qian could only use the time-slowing move!
He had slowed the time in the small area he was in. The smaller the area of slowed time, the slower the mana consumption.
But what use was this? Was he still hoping someone would come to save him?
In order to synchronize with Zhou Qian and not feel awkward when killing him, Zhu Qiang reached out and directly gripped the bone in his hand; thus, they both stood outside of time together.
Lifting the knife in his hand, Zhu Qiang said to Zhou Qian, “It’s the most common knife. It helped me deal with those grasses just now in case of an emergency and can be used to kill you. Is there any meaning for you to stand outside of time?”
Zhou Qian suddenly looked up at Zhu Qiang. “Let’s go back to the initial question. How do you know Zhang Yanjun?”
Zhu Qiang didn’t answer; he just decisively stretched out his hand and stabbed Zhou Qian in the chest with the dagger. But he found that no blood flowed from Zhou Qian’s body.
“Oh my, it seems like I’ve mutated. I don’t even have blood.” Zhou Qian smiled at Zhu Qiang. “Qiang Ge, it seems you have to think slowly about how to kill me. Why not chat a little more? At least I won’t be lonely before death.”
“You son of—” Zhu Qiang was extremely furious, feeling a sense of being played.
But how could he give up? If Zhou Qian’s entire body had turned into grass, then he might as well just burn him!
Right. Burn him! Only by burning him can he be completely destroyed!
Yet, he heard Zhou Qian say, “Not far away, there’s grass that seems to cry for help. From its speech, it seems to have memories of the night of the accident at Weir Mountain. But if you listen closely, it’s just mindlessly repeating those words, as if it recorded that segment of memory like a video tape or a recorder, but it itself currently has no thoughts.”
“So, we can temporarily rule out the hypothesis that one of the researchers here has turned into grass. It can be understood that the grass, after mutating, has gained a part of human memory. Perhaps memory can be stored in genes. So, this implies… there is something within the high walls that can duplicate genes.”
“When a person looks in the mirror, a reflection appears. The ‘mirror’ inside these high walls seems to directly reflect the genetic code of humans, splice it into different segments, copy these segments onto other animals and plants, and finally, make them grow rapidly…”
Surrounded by ink-colored grass, Zhou Qian, who was outside of time, looked at Zhu Qiang and said, “If such a world truly exists in reality, it is undoubtedly terrifying. Luckily, we are still in an instance. I am just slowly becoming like grass, but I haven’t grown butterfly wings yet. It’s as if I also haven’t read the most feared memories of Qi Liuxing.”
“If such a situation exists in the real world, it is undeniably frightening. The appearance of this ‘mirror’ would mostly cause unpredictable and uncontrollable changes to species.”
“But in the game instance, since there’s a way to clear it, it must not be entirely random.”
“Otherwise, it would be too hard for the players, without even a 5% chance of clearing it. Tell me, if the memories of seven players are intertwined, who could distinguish the truth and escape from the illusion?”
Zhou Qian asked Zhu Qiang, “So, tell me, among so many players, there’s no reason that you could only read my memories. Right? The ‘mirror’ read my most feared memory and ‘reflected’ it to me in front of the swamp, causing me to enter a hallucination. But you didn’t receive the ‘reflection’ from the ‘mirror’ like I did, did you?”
“Can I assume that the Peach Blossom Legion has been watching me for a long time and has checked all my information?”
“Or let’s simplify the proposition. So many people in the insane asylum are involved in this game. How could the doctors and nurses know nothing? Have some of the doctors also been involved?”
Zhou Qian asked Zhu Qiang, “They could see my medical records and thus know about the existence of Zhang Yanjun. Moreover—”
“Why are so many murderers, like Dong Xiang and you, identified as having mental problems? Which doctor handled all this and deceived the police?”
Hearing this, Zhu Qiang said, “Zhou Qian, you don’t need to talk to me about this. Really. The more you guess, the more I think… the likelihood of your dying in the game increases. How could they let you take these secrets out?”
“Qiang Ge, I am already at your mercy. You can even burn me. But just burning me is a bit of a waste. I have guessed a lot about this game, the legion, and the system. Do you want to hear it? For instance, have you ever thought about a problem—”
Zhou Qian narrowed his eyes and asked Zhu Qiang, “The legion is so powerful; they could let you, who should have been a murderer, leave prison and enter a mental hospital… So why don’t they just kill me in reality? There are people among the doctors who could poison me or secretly kill me… It’s actually easier than in the game. After all, I have no special abilities in reality. So why don’t they?”
By this time, Zhu Qiang had already taken out a machete, intending to directly chop off Zhou Qian’s head. But because of Zhou Qian’s question, he actually stopped his hand.
Yes, why? Their power is so strong.
I could escape from the role of murderer because of Priest’s help. So why… don’t they kill Zhou Qian in reality?
“This means gods do exist,” Zhou Qian said with gleaming eyes. “Players can make wishes to the gods. And as I said before, there’s a Rank God player, my master, who can resurrect me. Even if I die in reality… he can wish for me to live.”
“So killing me in reality is meaningless for the legion’s people. Death in the game is actually the real death, right?”
“Dying in the game of the gods means you’re truly done for, with no chance to start over.”
When the conversation reached this point, Zhou Qian’s expression became somewhat dimmed.
“Of course, if that’s the case… it’s a real pity for Gao Shan. He won’t have the chance to revive again. Well wait—”
“Perhaps we can see it from a different perspective! Maybe it’s just that people who die in the game don’t get a chance to re-enter this game created by the gods, that’s all.”
“Just think about it… There are no unprovoked enmities in this world. Why would the Peach Blossom Legion kill me? And at such a great cost? It can only be because if I continue to stay in the game, I will, in some ways, really affect their interests in the future. Although I don’t know the specific reason… it can only be this. In short, they can’t let me continue to participate in the game.”
“If they killed me in reality outside the game, I can be revived by my master and re-enter the game. But if I die in the game, even if my master revives me, I no longer have the opportunity to come back in.”
“Well…” Zhou Qian sighed, and the eyes that had dimmed just now regained their brightness. “In this way… Gao Shan still has hope. I was too pessimistic just now.”
Zhou Qian kept chattering on.
From gene replication to game mechanics to speculations about the Peach Blossom Legion, he talked so much that even Zhu Qiang found it tiresome.
Finally, Zhu Qiang couldn’t bear it anymore and raised his machete, ready to act.
At this moment, he suddenly heard Zhou Qian say, “Qiang Ge, there’s one more thing I forgot to ask you. I swear this is really the last question I’m going to ask you—”
Zhu Qiang: “What the hell do you want to ask?”
Zhou Qian: “Did you not do well in math?”
Zhu Qiang: “………”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
At this point, Zhu Qiang was both annoyed and a bit confused.
“Let me teach you a simple math problem,” Zhou Qian said softly. “When I came to this place, I had 17 life points left. Calculating each point as 20 minutes; originally, I could live for 340 minutes.
“But as soon as I entered this patch of grass, my life points dropped sharply. I can only live for 5 minutes. That means the rate of life point decrease here is 68 times that of other normal areas in this level. You can calculate this, right? Just divide 340 by 5. As for you—”
“You, me, Qi Liuxing—we are the top three with the most life points. I originally had 24 points, and Qi Liuxing had 16. You, who were originally second, lost 6 points in the small level where we were looking for the murderer and surprisingly still remained in second place…”
“This can only mean, you initially drew 23 points. So, after reducing 6 points, you have 17 left—one more than Qi Liuxing, allowing you to remain in second.
“So, by this calculation, when I first entered the ink-colored grass, I had 17 points left, and you had 10.”
“Have you calculated how many more minutes you can live after entering this ink-colored bush?
“Your remaining 10 points originally could sustain you for 200 minutes, but due to the 68 times faster life point decrease in this ink-colored bush area, you can only live for 200 divided by 68, which is 2.94 minutes.”
“You released the chicks twice to find the path, which probably took about 1 and a half minutes. And right now, we have been chatting outside of time for so long, which took another one and a half minutes…”
At this point, Zhou Qian laughed. “You are fine now because we are standing outside of time and space. But the flow of time outside is normal. Once you let go of the bone in my hand, you will return to normal time and space, equivalent to instantly jumping to 90 seconds later… By then, you will die immediately because your life points will be depleted.”
“You, you’re spouting bullshit!” Zhu Qiang immediately raised the four cards in his hand. “I have so much time! What kind of joke are you making?”
“But… these are all fake cards. I duplicated them,” Zhou Qian said with a smile. “Haven’t you thought that I deliberately left them there?”
“Cut the crap!” Zhu Qiang said harshly. “Haha, of course, I have had such suspicions. But that’s impossible! Zhou Qian, don’t try to scare me. The system said cards cannot be copied!”
“Skills and items related to duplication, theft, and plundering are ineffective against cards recording life points.”
“The only way to seize a card is to kill the corresponding player.”
Zhou Qian repeated these two rules and then said, “When these two rules appeared at the same time, I was wondering—does the system mean that, after copying a card, the points on the duplicated card cannot be used as life points, making it a fake card, or does it mean that the cards cannot be duplicated at all?”
“So, when I received the reward from Ghost Lina, I deliberately didn’t give the card to Wu Ren immediately. When the card was fumbling between my hands, I had already copied one with the copying prop hidden in my sleeve.”
“It was then that I confirmed that the card could be copied, but the points wouldn’t be effective.”
“As the friend of my gambler, you should know that I am good at cheating.”
“Moreover, generally speaking, even if my actions were noticed at that time, everyone would definitely think that I gave Wu Ren a fake card. After all, such a precious life card should be kept for oneself.”
“This is the danger of a fixed mindset. But I did give Wu Ren the real card. Later, when you all found out Wu Ren did indeed survive… Naturally, no one thought that I had played any tricks in the delay. So, this little episode was rightfully forgotten by you all.”
“It’s impossible!” Zhu Qiang interrupted Zhou Qian vehemently. “I haven’t experienced any mutations! If my points are as low as you said, how could I possibly have been fine from start to finish?!”
“Zhou Qian, I’m not so easily deceived! Don’t think you can lie to me!”
“Oh, why haven’t you mutated?” Zhou Qian looked at his mask and laughed again. “Is it because of your mask?
“You didn’t expect that—the mask protecting you, in the end, is harming you? Tsk, it made you let your guard down. Haa, when analyzing problems, all factors should be considered. How could you forget about your mask? However—”
“Thank you. You helped me solve a big problem. I don’t know about the real-world situation. But once turned into a game, in this simplified setting, the key to mutation is likely related to the brain nerves.”
Hearing every word, Zhu Qiang almost stumbled, and then he felt a tightness in his chest, and he spat out a breath with great effort.
He almost crushed his molars.
He clutched Zhou Qian’s shoulders, exhaled a breath with the taste of blood rust, and said with an extremely hoarse voice, “So what, Zhou Qian? You are trapped by the grass! You can’t get out either! You were wasting time talking to me about illusions, Zhang Yanjun, and Bai Zhou, for a minute! You only have one minute left! We might as well die together! Hahaha…”
“I’ll still kill you! I reached this step. Even if it costs my life, I will succeed in killing you!!!”
“Silly Zhu Qiang. Of course I won’t be trapped.”
Zhou Qian seriously looked at him and spoke lightly as if he were just helping a classmate solve a problem. “Actually, if you hadn’t fallen for the fake card just now, that would be fine. I would stop acting and deal with you in a normal way.”
“However… the reason I wanted to act this out is that, without elevating you to the highest, how can I enjoy watching you fall from grace as your plans fall apart?”
Zhou Qian wore a pleasant smile, but the gaze he cast on Zhu Qiang was profoundly deep.
“Zhu Qiang, how do you feel now?”
“Don’t be angry. Consider this revenge for being stupid.”
“I don’t believe… Zhou Qian, I don’t believe you can get out of this grass…” Zhu Qiang spat out another mouthful of blood.
Zhou Qian was trapped by the grass. How could he have other ways?
He just wanted to anger him to death! He just wanted to make him angry!
“I think, the reason you’re so confident is because you acquired a lot of information through the Peach Blossom Legion. But after just a few words of conversation with you, I know that you haven’t understood the real setting of this instance. So… one should rely on oneself in everything, and not overly depend on information given by others.”
Zhou Qian smiled. “Actually, the system gave us hints for the solution from the beginning. You keep wanting to use the traps in the instance to kill me. But how come you didn’t even understand its most basic principle?”
“The water you drunk is sweeter, my little sweetheart.”
“I want your son.”
……
Not far away, Zhang Yanjun lay motionless on the big bed. Looking at his big belly, Zhou Qian repeatedly recalls the words he had said. His face, limbs, and every word he spoke were extremely nauseating.
Suddenly, Zhou Qian’s memories overlapped with the illusory scene.
He saw Zhang Yanjun covered in blood. The vivid red blood ignited his own blood like fire. He became furious and irritable. Every cell in his body was clamoring—telling him to kill Zhang Yanjun.
But just as Zhou Qian clenched the knife, the blood color suddenly overlapped with the sunset again.
It seemed like he came to a certain ward in a trance. He opened his eyes and could see the sunset slowly disappearing into the night outside the window.
Hearing some noise, he turned his head and immediately saw Bai Zhou by the bedside.
Bai Zhou was peeling an apple.
The fragrance of the apple covered all the bloody smell, gradually soothing all of Zhou Qian’s restless emotions.
In this faint fragrance, Zhou Qian heard Bai Zhou’s voice—he said with a slightly emphasized tone, “From this morning, we have been together all the time.”
“We have been together all the time.”
After experiencing immense panic and anxiety in his childhood, Zhou Qian deeply remembered this sentence.
Once the truth came out, he would tell this to everyone.
Bai Zhou was his alibi.
But now, when Zhou Qian thought back to that memory, he realized, if looked at from another perspective, could it be interpreted as—
Actually, Bai Zhou was making himself act as his alibi?
Yan Ya once said: “Bai Zhou called this morning… said he was going to deliver homework to Xiao Qian… I gave him the address…”
And after Zhou Qian ran out of Zhang Yanjun’s villa, Bai Zhou found him in just five minutes.
So… maybe Bai Zhou had already sensed what had happened?
Now recalling the past, Zhou Qian realized that his cut was indeed very shallow.
Generally speaking, it would be difficult to kill someone with a piece of broken glass without protecting oneself. If he were to use enough force to actually cut someone else, his own palm would definitely be cut as well.
All the details of the memory, intentionally blurred by the brain due to the excessive pain, appeared incredibly clearly in Zhou Qian’s mind at this moment.
Zhou Qian clearly remembered that he wasn’t injured at the time.
So, under the circumstances where his palm wasn’t cut at all, the wound he inflicted shouldn’t be fatal.
When he was a child, he had limited cognition and thought that all the blood in Zhang Yanjun’s body had drained.
Now, through his memories, he found that Zhang Yanjun actually didn’t lose much blood, so he definitely didn’t sever his abdominal artery.
In other words, Zhou Qian could now be pretty sure that he didn’t kill Zhang Yanjun.
But Zhang Yanjun still died in the end.
Who did it?
Could it be Bai Zhou?
The hospital was only a few minutes away from the Purple Banquet Villa by running.
During the time he was unconscious in the hospital, Bai Zhou could have finished the job.
But Bai Zhou… Why didn’t you tell me?
Clean and flawless you, why would you tarnish yourself with this?
Closing his eyes and opening them again, Zhou Qian found that the environment in front of him had changed again.
He curled the corners of his lips and, without hesitation, made a motion to grip the knife in his hand tightly, taking a big step forward.
In the trees not far away, Zhu Qiang watched excitedly as Zhou Qian indeed stepped into the quagmire step by step and surprisingly didn’t struggle at all—Zhou Qian was completely immersed in the illusion! He was beyond saving! Beyond saving!!
Due to excessive excitement, Zhu Qiang even started panting heavily.
Then he watched as Zhou Qian, with half of his body already in the quagmire, started struggling as if waking up from a dream.
But how could one struggle in a swamp?
The more Zhou Qian struggled, the faster he sank.
Endless mud and sand were like countless ghost hands extending from the depths of hell, trying to drag him into the underworld!
Zhou Qian is doomed.
He’s dead… He’s finally dead!
Zhu Qiang let out a long breath, unable to suppress his laughter.
Zhou Qian is done for.
Zhou Qian, who seemed omnipotent, is dead!
Who accomplished all this?
It was me! Only me!
Many people wanted to kill Zhou Qian, but they all failed! Only he succeeded!
This was definitely something worth celebrating!
The Peach Blossom Legion would heavily reward him! Maybe he could even infiltrate the management layer!
Zhu Qiang didn’t want to hide anymore.
He jumped down from the tree and couldn’t help but laugh out loud, then walked step by step to the edge of the swamp.
At this moment, he couldn’t control his desire to gloat. He wanted to walk up to Zhou Qian triumphantly and tell him—Look, I killed you! So I am stronger than you!!!
A moment later, Zhu Qiang reached the edge of the swamp.
Facing Zhou Qian’s back, he shouted out. “Zhou Qian! I bet you never thought you would die by my hands, did you?! Hahaha…”
In the swamp, Zhou Qian turned around upon hearing this and looked at him in shock, his eyes filled with disbelief. “You, you… Why? Li Buhui… I have no grudge against you. Wait… Is it just because you want my card? No…”
“Of course it’s not just about the card. Haha, even you have times when you can’t figure things out.”
Zhu Qiang said with a mocking tone, “What Li Buhui? You haven’t recognized me yet?! Hahaha! You’ve been deceiving everyone. Now you’re finally deceived by me, right?”
“Let me tell you! My name is Zhu Qiang! Because of you, I got involved in this game! Yu Xian… Yu Xian was also killed by you! Today, I am going to avenge him and myself! Once I kill you… I will be the king of this game!”
“Oh. So, it’s Zhu Qiang.” Suddenly, all the shock and horror on Zhou Qian’s face vanished, and he looked incredibly calm.
His expression was one Zhu Qiang knew all too well—it was the expression of someone who has succeeded in scheming.
But that’s impossible!
What could his countermove possibly be?!
Zhu Qiang swallowed, continuing mockingly, “I know, you’re very capable. Your basic skill is creating illusions. Last time, you subdued Situ Qing with it, didn’t you? But did you ever think that this time, you would be the one to fall for it?! You are dying in your own illusions and inner demons!”
However, Zhou Qian responded, “Yes, I pretended to be caught. If I didn’t pretend… how could I draw you out while you’re so self-satisfied? If you could bear not to come out, then my feigning distress would have been in vain. Thank you, you didn’t let my acting go to waste.”
“You, you… What did you say?” Zhu Qiang’s hand subconsciously trembled.
During their conversation, Zhou Qian didn’t struggle, so his body was only slowly sinking.
At this moment, his two hands were still exposed, and Zhu Qiang saw him quickly take out a mirror from his bag.
It’s the [Universe Teleportation Mirror]!
Impossible.
Impossible…
Zhu Qiang’s face instantly turned extremely ugly.
All of today’s events weren’t solely planned by him but by Priest from Peach Blossom Legion.
Priest made very comprehensive plans and had intended to buy the [Universe Teleportation Mirror] from the trading hall very early on.
So, in Zhu Qiang’s knowledge, once this mirror appeared in the trading hall, it would immediately be bought by people from the Peach Blossom Legion. How could Zhou Qian have it?!
Besides, it was a rare item. The chances of getting it from the treasure box were extremely low.
Each time a player cleared an instance, the video could be seen by Rank S people. Priest had watched all of Zhou Qian’s clearance and told him that he didn’t earn this mirror from any of the rewards.
So how could he possibly…
While surprised, Zhu Qiang heard Zhou Qian say, “From your expression, I see clear surprise. So… the mirror disappearing immediately after appearing in the trading hall was you, wasn’t it?
“But you shouldn’t have so much money. Hmm… so this is related to the Peach Blossom Legion, right? They actually found you. What, high-level players can’t enter low-level instances, so they could only send you?”
“Where did you get that mirror?” Zhu Qiang couldn’t help but ask.
“My master gave it to me.” Zhou Qian smiled, then took a deep breath and, with the mirror, sank into the swamp.
However, his body didn’t enter the swamp. With the help of this mirror, he instantly went to another place.
At the edge of the swamp, Zhu Qiang, who witnessed this scene, almost gritted his molars to pieces.
But fortunately, he had other tricks up his sleeve!
The scope of the Universe Teleportation Mirror was only 500 meters, so Zhou Qian couldn’t have escaped too far. To the south, the terrain remained marshy, so it was likely still a swamp, or perhaps there were even more dangerous things. Zhou Qian wouldn’t go that way. He could only turn and head north!
Pulling out a mask and putting it on, Zhu Qiang quickly turned and headed north, in the direction they had come from.
Zhu Qiang felt he had the upper hand, mainly because the Peach Legion Army had some information about the instance.
Actually, the system originally had restrictions on this kind of thing.
If a player knew how to pass all the levels in an instance, then the level of the monsters in the instance would multiply; thus, even if the player knew the answers to the puzzle, they would still be unable to clear the instance easily.
This kind of restriction didn’t matter in instances meant for ordinary monster fighting and leveling up, but it did in instances involving puzzles.
This was one way the system prevented spoilers in special instances with an exploratory nature.
In addition to this, players who cleared a hidden instance couldn’t explicitly provide information; otherwise, hidden instances in the game would be permanently closed to them, preventing them from acquiring hidden achievements.
The Peach Blossom Legion collected information about “The Flower of Evil” from various sources. They pieced together scant bits of information, forming a small portion of intelligence, which constituted Zhu Qiang’s current reliance.
This time, their seven people were divided into three teams. Yin Jiujiu took the western route, Wu Ren and Situ Qing took the east, and Zhou Qian, who went south through the middle, happened to be in the most dangerous route.
Just south of the marshland they were in was the core area of the level. The information Zhu Qiang received was limited. He didn’t know what was in the core area, but he knew about the area from the entry point to the swamp.
The player with the lowest combat power would draw the card with the highest life points. This piece of information was known to Priest.
Yin Jiujiu, who had a grudge against Situ Qing, was naturally attracted to this instance following Zhu Qiang under Priest’s arrangements.
When the players followed the witch up Weir Mountain for the first time, Yin Jiujiu made a move and tried to kill Situ Qing, which was all within Priest’s expectations.
Therefore, based on the conflict between the two girls, Zhou Qian intentionally separated them after entering this level, which was also within Priest’s calculations.
Zhou Qian arranged for his teammates to act separately, chose to go through the middle himself, and walked into the most dangerous area, eventually being influenced by illusions and entering the swamp to die.
This was the result Priest meticulously designed and could foresee.
As to why Priest was sure Zhou Qian would experience illusions, it was also due to external information he obtained.
According to the information controlled by the Peach Blossom Legion, the effect of the swamp was extensive. Almost all players who head directly south towards the swamp would experience a condition—seeing the most terrifying nightmare in their memory.
That swamp was like a mirror. The intermittent water not only reflected the color of the sky but also people’s memories.
The images and sounds of these memories could even be captured by plants.
It was like the jungles near the swamp had many plants that could talk in human language.
They probably had no thoughts. But when someone’s fearful memory was remembered by the swamp and “played” on a stormy night, the neighboring plants also remembered it and mimicked the cries for help.
“This is an interesting dungeon. I feel like the inside of the high wall is a large… gene-editing related experiment. You feel it too, right? Sometimes we have ‘past life’ memories. Why? Because it’s very possible that memories can actually be stored in genes and passed down through generations.”
“Some device inside the high wall has the function of reading and copying genes. When a person approaches, it reads their genes and, hence, their memories. It can even completely copy a person’s segment of genes and implant it into the surrounding plants… This way, plants have a part of human genes and memories.”
“In this view… that device inside the high wall seems to be the hand of God. Humans, plants, animals… What they eventually grow into is determined by genes. Now it has broken and recombined all species’ genes. What kind of world will it create?”
“Oh, I’ve gone off topic. Let’s get back to the point. In short, there is a device within the high walls that can fully capture a person’s memory.”
“As for that marshland, it can project the most horrifying nightmares from one’s memory, creating an illusionary dream. Players will get lost in this illusion, wander into the swamp, and eventually die.”
This was what Zhu Qiang had heard from Priest himself. He didn’t quite understand the talk about gene duplication. But there was one thing he knew—once Zhou Qian approached the swamp from the south, he would see his most feared memory.
From what Zhu Qiang heard, many players weren’t able to escape, and all died in the swamp.
Occasionally, a few who managed to escape did so, like Zhou Qian, using an item that allowed instant teleportation after suddenly waking up. This was why the Peach Blossom Legion monopolized all teleportation items.
It was unexpected that Zhou Qian could actually obtain such a mirror. Fortunately, Priest had a backup plan. After all, countless people had died on this perilous road, and it was far more than just a trap in the swamp.
Now, Qi Liuxing and Ke Yuxiao were also missing, presumably falling into some sort of illusion. They didn’t enter the marsh, but they must have walked into some other trap and gotten entangled. Without any help, Zhou Qian was simply a sitting duck.
With a determined mind, Zhu Qiang put on a mask that prevented him from being affected by the marsh and searched inch by inch to the north.
About three minutes later, he found Zhou Qian.
It was a place covered with dark green grass.
Zhu Qiang immediately recognized the situation of this place.
According to the information provided by the Peach Blossom Legion, once a player entered this place, their life points would drop exceptionally fast. So, Zhu Qiang stopped immediately, not daring to step further.
Taking a light breath and standing outside this area, he looked inside and couldn’t help but laugh again upon seeing Zhou Qian’s situation.
The dark green grass accelerated the depletion of life points. If players quickly realized this and left the area promptly, there would be no issue. In a way, this was also a hint given by the instance level—that there are traps inside, so don’t continue forward.
Zhu Qiang thought to himself, normally, Zhou Qian would certainly have noticed something wrong with this area and left in time.
But Zhou Qian had just been trapped in the swamp, so he must not have had time to adjust the coordinates when he used the teleportation item, so he set a random place to the north and, unfortunately, landed here. Or maybe he landed nearby and ran hurriedly to avoid being caught, not having the time to check his life points…
In any case, Zhou Qian accidentally delved deep into this dark green grassland and finally fell into the trap.
Zhou Qian’s limbs were all entangled by the dark green grass, completely immobilized. At the same time, his life points must be rapidly decreasing. Zhu Qiang realized that he didn’t even have to do anything now; Zhou Qian was going to die.
“Zhou Qian, ha… You can’t get out, can you? Any last words?” Zhu Qiang asked him.
Zhou Qian lifted his expressionless, somewhat pale face. After a moment, he said softly, “Before being completely entangled by the grass, I glanced at my card. According to the current countdown speed… I probably won’t live more than 5 minutes.”
Zhu Qiang sighed in relief and sat down on the grass. “5 minutes… that’s actually enough for us to have a chat.”
“Chat?” Zhou Qian lifted his eyes to look at Zhu Qiang and suddenly said, “Hmm. I indeed wanted to talk to you. Did you know, I have suspected you for a long time.”
“How could that be?” Zhu Qiang scoffed.
Zhou Qian said, “You revealed your flaws long ago. I just didn’t know who you really were, so I just made that probe earlier. I didn’t expect that you are Qiang Ge.”
Zhu Qiang frowned and asked him across the dark green grass, “What did I say that was flawed? I don’t believe you.”
Zhou Qian said, “When Mayor Ryan took Situ Qing and Yin Jiujiu away, you said—you had the opportunity to enter this instance because you hugged Yin Jiujiu’s thighs. You had to listen to whatever she asked. You were just trying to survive.”
“You wanted to express that you just wanted to blend in, and you didn’t want to do anything. If you don’t enter the instance on time, you’ll die. You’re just completing the task. But if so… why did you let Yin Jiujiu bring you to this hidden instance? That’s so risky.”
“Entering a hidden instance, either you want to farm achievements, level up fast, get a lot of gold coins, meet the so-called gods in this game, and have them grant your wishes; or you have ulterior motives. But in any case, it shouldn’t be ‘you just want to survive’. So—”
“At that time, I knew you were lying.”
“Cough… Alright. So?” Zhu Qiang shrugged indifferently. “You knew I was lying at that time, so what? You knew I had ulterior motives. But seeing me being ‘ordinary’ from start to finish, impossible to achieve great things, you simply look down upon me, don’t you? Zhou Qian—”
“Don’t play the wise man after the event. Regardless of the process, the result is here—you have already lost!”
“…Heh, yes, I have lost. I admit defeat. But what are you so proud of? Is the person who defeated me really you?”
Zhou Qian gave a cold smile, his gaze full of mockery as he looked at Zhu Qiang. “You thought I was really caught in the trap and about to die, so you couldn’t wait to appear and even voluntarily reveal your identity—”
“What? You are afraid that even as a ghost, I wouldn’t know who harmed me? Qiang Ge, you are really proud. But…”
“Is the one who defeated me really you? I’m afraid not. I’m very curious. Who is the person directly commanding you behind your back?”
“It was I who defeated you!”
Zhu Qiang couldn’t restrain his anger.
This Zhou Qian is simply too hateful, provoking me even when he’s at death’s door!
But soon, realizing Zhou Qian’s intention, Zhu Qiang laughed in anger.
Reminding himself not to fall into the trap, Zhu Qiang took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. After a while, he even mimicked the nonchalant expression that Zhou Qian often had and asked him softly, “Anyway, it was I who defeated you. Are you unwilling to accept?”
“Qiang Ge, who actually defeated me, you and I know well. It’s the power of a legion. They could deal with me like this… Who knows what they will do to you in the future? Look at Situ Qing’s fate.”
“Why did Yin Jiujiu appear? The legion was using her to kill Situ Qing. Looking at Situ Qing’s fate, do you think you’ll have a better future?”
Hearing Zhou Qian say this, Zhu Qiang restrained himself for a while but seemed to be unable to hold back in the end and burst into laughter. “Zhou Qian, indeed, your purpose was this! You’re out of moves, so you would say such divisive words, right?”
“This kind of trick… I saw you use it on Situ Qing. She had issues with her gambler, so you succeeded. As for me? Would I fall into the trap? Don’t joke, haha… Really…”
“I never thought I’d see the day—you, in desperate straits—could also resort to such amusing tactics.”
“Zhou Qian, whatever you want to say, feel free… I won’t save you! Hahaha!”
Zhu Qiang shrugged. “Alright, I admit. It wasn’t me personally who defeated you. But you don’t have to belittle me. I can still continue to be proud. Even if the legion helped me plan a lot, after all, the person who successfully implemented all this in the end is me!”
“I want to defeat you and feel extremely proud because of it…”
“You have seen through this, so besides sowing discord, you want to disgust me one last time before your death and make me uncomfortable, right? Hahaha, unfortunately, I won’t be. Zhou Qian, seeing you die… As long as you die… I’ll be happier than anyone!”
“And doesn’t this prove the power of the legion?”
“Before, killing you in this game? I wouldn’t even dare to think about it. But I actually did it now!”
“The Peach Blossom Legion is really strong. They enabled me to kill you. In the future… it will bring me more and more.”
“Zhou Qian, you will die. And I, will get what I want the most!”
After that, Zhou Qian fell into a long silence.
It seemed like he had been outmaneuvered by Zhu Qiang in every word.
Now, even he was completely out of options. He could only accept his fate.
After a long time, Zhou Qian seemed to finally give up struggling and choose to accept his fate.
He was pale, with no spirit in his eyes.
Zhu Qiang looked up at him, hearing him ask, “Oh? What do you want to gain from this game?”
Zhu Qiang immediately replied, “After getting close to godhood, any wish can be granted. I can even bring Yu Xian back. Right?”
“Killing him at that time… was my last resort. I will bring him back!”
Hearing this, Zhou Qian actually laughed.
“What are you laughing at?” asked Zhu Qiang.
He’s going to die. What’s he laughing at?!
But Zhou Qian asked, “I’m laughing because… haven’t you thought that I can also be resurrected?”
“Who would resurrect you?” Zhu Qiang gave a cold smile. “Qi Liuxing and the others? Those few have been fooled by you and became part of your team. They will be targeted by the legion!
“Now we’re all in a low-level instance, so there are restrictions. High-level players can’t enter, but it won’t be the same in the future! Everyone will be upgraded to Rank S soon! By then… they can encounter legion members anytime!”
“Can they beat the Peach Blossom Legion?”
Zhu Qiang concluded with a cold voice. “Zhou Qian, everyone will die because of you!”
“You misunderstood, Qiang Ge. What I’m talking about isn’t these little kids.” Zhou Qian said, “You forgot, I just said that I have a master.”
“A master? Who is your master?” Zhu Qiang narrowed his eyes.
“My master is a Rank God player.” Zhou Qian smiled. “So, I’ve realized, since I can resurrect, what am I afraid of? My master will definitely save me. Hmm… your expression has become interesting again. You want to ask who my master is, right?”
Zhu Qiang clenched his fists, his expression involuntarily becoming serious. Meanwhile, he noticed that not only were Zhou Qian’s limbs tied by the dark green grass, but his whole body was almost turning dark green at a visible speed—many dark grasses were growing inside his body.
Wu Ren had the lowest life value and was the first to show mutation reactions.
Now Zhou Qian was like this, indicating that his life value was also rapidly declining, showing a mutation reaction!
Zhou Qian was about to die!
He really had no chance of surviving!
So, what he just said was very likely to be true. After all, Zhu Qiang had also heard Priest mention—that gambler called Mu Sheng loaded himself into the game but encountered a terrible attack from a Rank God player!
“Do you want to know… who that person is, right?” Zhou Qian glanced at his arm, now grown with dark green grass, felt somewhat uncomfortable, and hooked his mouth. His smile looked rather innocent. “Hiss, it’s really weird having grass growing on the body. I just hope my head doesn’t turn green.”
Zhu Qiang: “……”
Zhou Qian looked up at Zhu Qiang again. “Oh, let’s get back to the point. I probably have three more minutes. Do you know why I woke up from that illusion?”
“It’s weird, right? Normally, I should have taken that knife and slashed Zhang Yanjun to pieces, right?”
Zhu Qiang indeed found it strange. He paused for a while, then asked Zhou Qian, “Then why didn’t you do it?”
Zhou Qian smiled; his eyes suddenly became very gentle, as if recalling a beautiful memory. “If it only concerned me, I could act as I pleased and kill if I wanted to kill. But this matter involves Bai Zhou—”
“Do you know that I am a principled person?”
Zhu Qiang didn’t know why Zhou Qian asked this, and he didn’t really want to deal with Zhou Qian. But for some reason, when he saw Zhou Qian’s eyes at that moment, he still shook his head at Zhou Qian.
Seeing Zhu Qiang shake his head, Zhou Qian smiled satisfyingly. Then he said gently, “Because there are too many bad people like you in this world. I haven’t met many good people in my life. So, good people are rare creatures in this world. They should be protected.”
“Bai Zhou is a good person.”
“He has good grades, is handsome, has a good personality, has been the class president since he was a child, and even his sports scores are good… How could such a perfect person be a murderer? So, if time could go back, I would definitely not do that.”
“Now, I have ten thousand ways to give a life worse than death to scumbags like Zhang Yanjun, so tell me… Why should my hands, especially Bai Zhou’s hands, be stained with blood?”
After a while, Zhu Qiang looked up at Zhou Qian and felt a very strange feeling. All the complex emotions brought about by the thought of “I defeated Zhou Qian”… suddenly disappeared. It seemed like he was the one who was sick and couldn’t feel emotions.
Zhou Qian’s eyes seemed to have magic. Or, his ability to empathize and control people was too strong. So strong that Zhu Qiang now dared not look into his eyes, as if he were a god that mortals couldn’t face.
Realizing something, Zhu Qiang quickly averted his eyes.
Then he said, “Hmm, yes. You make sense, Zhou Qian. But—”
After taking a deep breath and adjusting for a while, Zhu Qiang finally dared to raise his head to look into Zhou Qian’s eyes again. “But the choices you made can only happen in illusions. What has happened has happened, and time cannot reverse. And you’re about to die. I don’t think you have a chance to resurrect. Even if you have the so-called ‘master’, even if he is a Rank God player. How can he fight against the entire Peach Blossom Legion alone?”
“Is that so? Let’s not talk about my resurrection. Let’s talk about my illusion. Then do you think… Does Zhang Yanjun deserve to die?” Zhou Qian suddenly asked, “He’s scum; you have no doubt about this, right?”
“He’s definitely scum.” Zhu Qiang replied, “I admit, I am not a good person. I’m selfish and greedy. But in my eyes, adults who hurt children are not human!”
“Oh. Is that so? Then let me ask you one last question before I die.”
Zhou Qian smiled lightly, staring into Zhu Qiang’s eyes with his dark pupils, and asked again, “Why do you know… who Zhang Yanjun is? Why do you know what he has done?”
Boys actually tended to easily admire their own fathers.
To Zhou Qian at that age, Zhou Chongshan’s only flaw seemed to be that he rarely came home, causing his mother to worry and be upset.
With his concepts of right and wrong still not fully formed, he didn’t yet understand that his father’s gambling addiction was something that was incredibly improper.
Zhou Qian was really too young; he thought his father was very trendy and would play with him, letting him wear the best clothes, ride in the most expensive cars, eat the best food, and buy the most expensive toys… It seemed like he was very good to him.
After all, when he was dropped off at school in luxury cars, many classmates would say, “I’m so envious of Zhou Qian for having such a good dad.”
Zhou Qian admired and loved his own father.
Until he heard that sentence from Zhou Chongshan in the casino.
He suddenly realized that to his father, he might just be an object, just like the colorful chips on the gambling table. It was like he later understood that his father married his mother just because he found her attractive and presentable.
However, after a brief moment of fear and doubt about his father’s attitude, the young Zhou Qian regained his composure, even managing a smile. He felt that everything in the casino couldn’t prove anything. Zhou Chongshan might have just been impulsive at the moment and would surely not really give his own son to a pervert.
Mm, it must be fine. If Zhou Chongshan really lost, he could just pay more money. He was willing to spend money on himself. No matter what toy he wanted, no matter how expensive, Zhou Chongshan was willing to buy it!
But the facts proved Zhou Qian wrong.
Zhou Chongshan did lose, and then actually made an appointment with that “Lao Zhang” at the Purple Banquet Villa 09, on this Saturday.
On Friday evening, after school, Zhou Qian was picked up by the driver and had dinner with his mother.
His mother, Yan Ya, who had long been alone and seldom socialized, looked spiritless and had no vitality, even though she was still quite young.
For Yan Ya, her whole daily life consisted of lying in bed until noon after waking up in the morning, eating a bit at noon, watching TV on the sofa in the afternoon, and waiting for Zhou Qian to come home from school.
The only busy time for her was in the evening because Zhou Qian would come home for dinner. But all she had to do was pick the dishes and give the list to the cook.
That night, after Zhou Qian finished eating and drank a sip of the bitter brain-nourishing soup made from numerous herbs, he looked at Yan Ya, who only ate a few bites of vegetables to maintain her figure.
Taking a breath, Zhou Qian asked, “Tomorrow morning, no, tonight. Mom, can you take me away?”
Yan Ya put down her chopsticks, looking at Zhou Qian somewhat blankly. “Leave? Where to?”
Zhou Qian took another breath and then said, “Zhou Chongshan lost a bet. He wants me to go to the Purple Banquet Villa to play with Uncle Zhang tomorrow.”
Yan Ya’s gaze paused for a moment; her face became even paler.
Then she lowered her head, avoiding Zhou Qian’s eyes, and picked up a slice of cucumber with her chopsticks, softly asking, “You don’t want to go play?”
Zhou Qian retorted, “Do you know what he means by ‘play’? Zhou Chongshan thinks I don’t know. But our health teacher just taught us.”
Yan Ya’s hand trembled a bit, but she didn’t say anything.
Zhou Qian threw his chopsticks, stood up abruptly, and slammed his bowl. “Mom, you…you know everything?”
His voice involuntarily became sharp. It was because what he was witnessing was too unbelievable.
After a long silence, Yan Ya looked up at Zhou Qian, her eyes filled with pleading. “Zhou Qian, last month I forgot to order the limited edition sneakers you wanted. You were angry with me for a long time. But do you know those shoes might cost as much as your classmates’ living expenses for a year? You want the best in food and clothing. If we leave here with just me, how can I afford to raise you? Besides—”
“Your dad can’t offend that man. If he doesn’t purchase from our company this year, the company may face financial issues, and we may go bankrupt. We…”
Although Zhou Qian was still young, he knew he and his mother didn’t need to continue this conversation.
She was a caged canary; without Zhou Chongshan, she didn’t know how to survive.
That night, Zhou Qian took advantage of Yan Ya going to take a bath, sneaked into her room, and found the sleeping pills she needed to take regularly. Yan Ya needed to take medicine every night to sleep. The doctors who prescribed this kind of medicine had strict dosage limitations. Zhou Qian, fearing she would notice something amiss when she picked up the medicine bottle before going to bed, didn’t dare to take too much, only taking three tablets.
Then he returned to his room, picked up a paper cutter, and his bright eyes gradually became dark and heavy.
Zhou Qian maintained a posture for a long time, motionless, lost in thoughts.
Later, his phone rang.
It was Bai Zhou calling him from the home landline.
The phone rang for a long time. Zhou Qian just stared at it but forgot to answer. Only when the call automatically hung up and Bai Zhou called again did Zhou Qian finally pick up the phone, as if awakening from a dream.
At that time, touchscreen phones weren’t prevalent, and Zhou Qian’s phone had buttons. He pressed the green answer button with his thumb, and then he heard Bai Zhou’s voice.
“Zhou Qian, why did it take you so long to answer the phone? Is everything alright?”
“It’s fine. Hey, what’s up?”
“Not much, just a reminder about the class group activity tomorrow. We meet at 8 am at the school’s west gate, then a school bus will take us all to the zoo—”
Before Bai Zhou could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by Zhou Qian. “I’m taking a leave; I can’t go tomorrow.”
Hearing this, Bai Zhou asked him worriedly, “You were very enthusiastic when I was collecting opinions about where everyone wanted to go. Didn’t you really want to go to the zoo? Why are you taking leave? Are you sick?”
After a long silence, Zhou Qian, gripping his phone, said, “Do you remember the case mentioned by the teacher in the health class last week?”
Zhou Qian was fortunate to attend a good school.
Regarding the health education class, initially, the school intended to let the homeroom teacher conduct it. However, as the homeroom teacher was quite conservative and old-fashioned in this respect, and after the school leaders observed her superficial approach to the subject, they specially hired a young psychology expert to come and teach it instead.
The expert, worthy of the title, not only spoke openly and directly, presenting many real-life cases from reality, but also knew how to soothe the students’ psychology, enabling them to form correct perceptions so they wouldn’t feel excessively fearful or utterly repulsive when talking about “sex.”
“This matter, when you all reach adulthood, under the circumstances of taking protective measures and mutual consent, happening between people who are in love, is very wonderful. It’s precisely because your parents came together with love that you all exist.
“However, at your age, if an adult asks you to do such things under the pretext of ‘playing with you,’ it’s absolutely not allowed. This is criminal behavior. At such times, everyone must tell their parents and seek help from the police. Everyone must know how to protect themselves!”
As for seeking help from parents, Zhou Qian failed.
He felt there was only one path he could take.
In Bai Zhou’s somewhat static voice that night, he asked, “What happened, Zhou Qian? Why bring this up all of a sudden?”
Staring at the three white pills and a sharp paper cutter on the desk, Zhou Qian eventually just shook his head and understated, “It’s nothing. Just some family matters. I won’t be going. We’ll talk about it some other time if there’s a chance.”
His family always appeared immaculate in front of Bai Zhou. He had always been domineering.
How could he let Bai Zhou discover that his arrogance was all bluff—that he couldn’t rely on anyone in this home?
How could he let Bai Zhou know… that he got involved in such a dirty matter?
The next day, Saturday morning.
Yan Ya didn’t appear, either due to her habit of getting up late or not wanting to face Zhou Qian. Zhou Chongshan, who rarely stayed at home, was exceptionally at home that morning, even warmly heated milk for Zhou Qian with unprecedented gentleness.
He also kept observing Zhou Qian’s expression as if wanting to know if he had discovered anything.
In the end, Zhou Chongshan even personally sent Zhou Qian to the car and reminded him, “Your Uncle Zhang isn’t here right now. You can play with the housekeeper first. He should be back by around 10.”
Zhou Qian was planning something in his head based on the information revealed by Zhou Chongshan’s words. On the surface, he just pretended to be ignorant and asked, “Does Uncle Zhang have Transformers models? Oh, also, I want to play with the toy train.”
“He has many toys there. Take a look. If anything is missing, tell the butler uncle, and he will buy it for you.”
Subsequently, with a “bang,” Zhou Chongshan closed the car door.
In that instant, looking out through the window, Zhou Qian seemed to see that Zhou Chongshan’s expression was a bit complicated. At the same time, his hand was lifted and placed back on the car door, as if he wanted to change his mind and open the car door again.
But in the end, Zhou Chongshan did not change his mind; he silently withdrew his hand.
Redirecting his gaze, Zhou Qian remained silent, leaning back in the rear seat and closing his eyes.
At 9:30 in the morning, Zhou Qian arrived at Purple Banquet Villa No. 09.
An elderly man met Zhou Qian at the door.
Undoubtedly, he was the “butler” Zhou Chongshan mentioned.
The old man looked at Zhou Qian with a complicated expression, but eventually welcomed him in with a kind and gentle tone.
He must have done this many times.
He was also an accomplice.
Zhou Qian understood immediately.
However, Zhou Qian still appeared obedient and innocent on the outside, even acting overly lively, bounding around as soon as he entered the house, scanning almost every room. The elderly butler, holding his waist, had to chase after him to keep up.
Finally, Zhou Qian ran to the kitchen and saw things like red dates and goji berries boiling in a glass container.
He asked the butler, “Is this what Uncle Zhang wants to drink?”
“He doesn’t drink this.” The butler smiled. “This is for me.”
He poured some of the goji berry and red date soup into a glass cup. He didn’t cover it, probably waiting for it to cool down. It seemed like he intended to drink it soon.
Zhou Qian understood and left the kitchen, heading towards the second floor, saying, “So boring. I’d better go upstairs and wait for Uncle Zhang. Which room is he in? Oh yes, please get me a bottle of water.”
“Do you want juice or something?” the butler asked.
Zhou Qian counter-questioned, “What does Uncle Zhang like to drink?”
“He only drinks a specific brand of mineral water. In the fridge—”
“Oh, then could you please get me a bottle of that mineral water.”
10 minutes later.
Zhou Qian was sitting in Zhang Yanjun’s bedroom.
It was the end of May by then, and the weather was already very hot.
But after finding the air conditioner remote, Zhou Qian deliberately increased the temperature.
Midway, through the window, Zhou Qian noticed the butler leaving the villa and going to a small house in the backyard. He faintly heard barking from the yard. He guessed that the small house was for dogs, and the butler went there to feed them.
Seizing this opportunity, Zhou Qian went downstairs to the kitchen and put a crushed sleeping pill in the butler’s cup of soup, then went back to the second floor, looking at the bottle of mineral water on the table.
He had added two sleeping pills to the water.
The room temperature was getting higher and higher.
Zhou Qian was sweating on his forehead and back, but he endured.
Until 10:10, Zhang Yanjun indeed came back.
Through the window, Zhou Qian watched his car go directly into the underground garage, then he likely took the elevator inside the house to the second floor, not seeing the butler at all on the way.
Zhou Qian didn’t know if the butler had fallen asleep, but Zhang Yanjun not talking to the butler and coming directly to the master bedroom obviously facilitated his subsequent plan.
The moment the door was pushed open, Zhang Yanjun saw the less-than-10-year-old Zhou Qian holding a deck of cards and smiling. “Uncle Zhang, you’re back. What do you want to play with me today? Can you teach me how to play poker? My dad is always so impatient. He never plays with me! You are so nice!”
“Poker? Haha, alright. Hiss… I feel that you are a sensible and obedient child. I will play cards with you for a while. Will you… also play a game with Uncle later, okay?”
Zhang Yanjun approached; his eyes fixed on Zhou Qian.
Zhou Qian pretended to be naive and just smiled. “Sure, I wonder what game Uncle wants to play with me.”
Moments later, Zhang Yanjun sat on the sofa and indeed started playing cards with Zhou Qian.
Soon, he couldn’t stand the heat; loosening his tie and removing his suit didn’t help, and he felt extremely thirsty.
“The temperature isn’t right… Why is it so hot?”
Zhang Yanjun stood up and checked the air conditioner, finding that the temperature was set very high. “Hey, what’s going on—”
Zhou Qian exclaimed with a “Ya”. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have touched things. I was playing with the remote.”
Zhou Qian, who also got up from the sofa, picked up a bottle of mineral water from the bedside and pretended to unscrew it with effort. Then he handed the water to Zhang Yanjun. “Uncle Zhang, drinking some water will cool you down. Don’t worry, I haven’t drunk from this bottle.”
Zhang Yanjun gave Zhou Qian a profound look, pinched his face in response, and then took the bottle of mineral water, saying hoarsely, “What does it matter if you have drunk from it? The water you drunk is sweeter, my little sweetheart.”
The room temperature was already over thirty degrees. Zhang Yanjun almost finished the bottle of water in one breath.
As expected, he soon felt sleepy.
After yawning, he lay on the bed and patted Zhou Qian’s head before closing his eyes. “Oh, it seems uncle is old… played too late last night… Now I’m very sleepy. Let uncle sleep for a while, and when I wake up, I’ll play with you…”
Watching Zhang Yanjun close his eyes, Zhou Qian didn’t act immediately.
He first took a pair of plastic gloves from his bag and put them on. After confirming that Zhang Yanjun was asleep, he took out a mobile phone from his pocket.
The phones at that time were flip phones, and the batteries could be easily removed.
Zhou Qian directly removed the battery from Zhang Yanjun’s phone and threw it under the bed to prevent him from calling for help later.
Next, Zhou Qian unplugged the telephone line of the master bedroom’s landline and went downstairs to check.
Zhou Qian found the housekeeper in the butler’s room on the first floor. He was indeed asleep, even forgetting to close the door.
After closing the doors and windows of this room, Zhou Qian left. When the door was closed, he noticed that the sound of the housekeeper’s snoring was immediately inaudible.
It seemed that the soundproofing in this room was very good.
After unplugging the telephone line in the living room, Zhou Qian finally returned to the master bedroom.
He took a glass, went to the bathroom, closed the door, broke it without waking Zhang Yanjun, then collected all the fragments with a towel, brought them back to the master bedroom, and spread all the pieces on the floor.
Then he stuffed the towel into Zhang Yanjun’s mouth, undressed him, raised a piece of glass, and was ready to take action.
Up to this point, everything was smoother than Zhou Qian had imagined.
Because he hasn’t used the paper cutter yet.
It was originally prepared for himself in case his plan was exposed. If he was exposed, he would use this knife to fight Zhang Yanjun to the end, even if it meant perishing together.
But now, Zhou Qian found that he had thought too simply.
Holding the glass piece, he couldn’t do it.
This was a decision Zhou Qian had made after thinking for several days. He even felt anxious last night.
He knew clearly that hurting or threatening Zhang Yanjun was useless.
He had much more power and influence than the Zhou family, and if he only angered him this time without killing him, he would only be harassed by him in the future.
Now he was unguarded, and the best thing to do was to get rid of him.
As for the method to get rid of him, of course, there was only one—kill him.
Zhou Qian took several deep breaths and finally acted after constantly persuading himself for three minutes—
He cut Zhang Yanjun’s belly with the glass piece.
But what happened next was beyond his imagination.
The sight of blood gushing out, the yellowish-white layer of fat overflowing, and a short piece of intestine-like structure protruded…
Seeing all this, Zhou Qian began to tremble uncontrollably.
He subconsciously took out a second towel to cover Zhang Yanjun’s belly, but soon that towel and his hands were all stained red.
Blood…
How could there be so much blood?
How could a person bleed so much?
Zhou Qian, not yet ten years old, was actually a very emotional, exceptionally delicate, and sensitive person.
He loved Zhou Chongshan and Yan Ya very much, so he was extremely heartbroken by their choices.
Such a person was definitely not a born killer.
All rational analysis told him that if he didn’t want to get hurt, killing Zhang Yanjun was the only way.
But now he simply couldn’t make the second stab.
The sleeping pills Zhang Yanjun took weren’t many, and under severe pain, he quickly woke up and struggled.
However, because of the towel in his mouth, he couldn’t make a sound.
But his limbs began to shake violently, undoubtedly causing more blood to gush out, spraying all over Zhou Qian’s face and arms.
Zhou Qian couldn’t take it anymore; he was on the verge of collapse.
Reacting to something, he used all his strength to push Zhang Yanjun off the bed, making him fall onto the pile of broken glass. He then quickly turned and ran away.
Zhou Qian fled from the villa without looking back, darting into the woods behind the villa area.
He quickly took off his blood-stained clothes, vigorously wiped his face and hair clean, then placed the bloody clothes into his backpack and changed into clean clothes he had previously prepared and placed in his backpack.
Then, he started to feel scared. His clothes were quickly soaked with cold sweat.
Is the villa under surveillance? Can sleeping pills be detected?
No…… There are just too many flaws. I simply can’t kill anyone either.
And I don’t seem to have actually killed him. The cut was quite shallow.
I’m not actually sure if the intestines came out… It might have been just fat and flesh…
I didn’t manage to kill him. He’ll get back at me. He’ll get back at me when he’s saved!
Big deal. In the worst case, I’ll turn myself in. I’m still young. I won’t get the death penalty.
Even if I go to jail… it’s better than being molested by him.
Yes, it doesn’t matter if I go to jail…
If this kind of thing was leaked, the shame would fall on my parents and Zhang Yanjun. It absolutely wouldn’t be on me! Everyone will sympathize with me! I’m the victim here!
As Zhou Qian’s mind was in a mess, he felt a vibration coming from his thigh area.
It was only then that he realized it was his cellphone.
Zhou Qian took out his phone and answered it, hearing Bai Zhou’s voice. “Zhou Qian, where are you?”
At that instant, Zhou Qian didn’t know why, but tears overflowed his eyes all of a sudden. He gripped the phone and couldn’t answer. Under Bai Zhou’s constant questioning, he couldn’t hold it back any longer and cried out “Wah”.
After only 5 minutes, Bai Zhou had found Zhou Qian.
In the face of Bai Zhou’s inquiry, he didn’t say a word, except that he felt uncomfortable.
The nearest hospital was only less than a kilometer away from here. Bai Zhou quickly and compulsorily took Zhou Qian to the hospital.
Zhou Qian just cried all the way. He suffered from anxiety and insomnia all last night. Now he had just experienced something extremely frightening. The scene of blood gushing from Zhang Yangjin’s body as he struggled began to flash in front of Zhou Qian’s eyes over and over again… Besides being frightened at the same time, he also felt dirty and nauseated.
Zhang Yanjun’s disgusting, bloodstained body seemed to have merged with his own image. Zhou Qian felt as if he had become equally dirty and disgusting.
When they arrived at the hospital, Zhou Qian was on the verge of a mental collapse; even his blood pressure became abnormal.
In the end, Bai Zhou helped him get a bed in the emergency room, and the doctor prescribed him medication through an intravenous drip.
Under the effect of drugs with a slight calming effect, Zhou Qian’s emotions that were on the verge of going out of control gradually calmed down, and then he fell asleep.
When he woke up again, it was already nighttime.
It was twilight, and the emergency area seemed incredibly noisy.
Amidst the clamor, Zhou Qian opened his eyes. His beautiful eyes stared straight at the white lights on the ceiling, looking a little confused.
It was only after a while that he recalled what had happened.
And when he turned his head to one side, he saw Bai Zhou, who was sitting in front of the hospital bed, peeling an apple for him.
“Zhou Ge—” Zhou Qian blinked and asked him in a dry voice, “You didn’t go through my book bag, did you?”
“No. What, afraid I’ll check your homework?” Bai Zhou smiled and handed him the apple. “Eat it. After you eat, I’ll send you home.”
After a moment’s pause, Zhou Qian asked him again, “You’ve been—”
“I’ve been guarding you at the hospital today.” Bai Zhou’s eyes darkened a little, staring intently into Zhou Qian’s eyes as he added emphatically, “The two of us have been staying together since this morning.”
That night, Zhou Qian felt quite uneasy on his way home.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt that his actions were too hasty.
His plan of trying to create a scenario where Zhang Yanjun broke a cup, fell on broken glass, and died accidentally was simply full of flaws.
On top of that, he had no idea where to stab to cause a person’s death.
The more Zhou Qian recalled, the more he felt that he had only made a very shallow cut. Zhang Yanjun would definitely not die.
Since he wouldn’t die, his own end would definitely not be good.
Also… did Zhou Chongshan know about this matter now? What will he do to him?
After returning home, Zhou Qian saw his parents, whose expressions were permeated with a different sense of strangeness.
From their mouths, Zhou Qian learned that Zhang Yanjun had died.
Zhou Qian then heard Zhou Chongshan ask, “You went to the Purple Banquet Villa in the morning… and then what?”
Zhou Qian said, “While the housekeeper went to the yard to feed the dogs, I ran away. I know what you guys mean by ‘play’. I couldn’t stay there. I had to run. I stayed with my classmate all day today. His name is Bai Zhou.”
Immediately after Yan Ya spoke up, she jumped in front of Zhou Chongshan and almost knelt down, her face pale as she said, “You’re really overthinking this. How could Xiao Qian do something like that? I did receive a call from Bai Zhou early in the morning. He asked me where Zhou Qian had gone and said he wanted to send him his homework. I told him the address and asked him to find Xiao Qian later… They must have gone together, ah? Xiao Qian is not even 10 years old. What makes you think… He could do something like that?”
This matter, including Zhang Yanjun’s blood, had become Zhou Qian’s most terrifying nightmare.
For a long time, he would feel scared whenever he thought about this incident.
Even when he saw his parents, he would shiver involuntarily, feeling endless pain.
So, he forced himself to close off his heart, not allowing himself to experience intense emotional fluctuations.
That way, he wouldn’t feel the pain anymore. He would still have the courage to face such parents and continue to live in this home.
But from then on, the way he viewed the world was never the same.
Later on, this whole incident had almost forcibly been removed from Zhou Qian’s mind, deliberately so.
Especially Bai Zhou in this matter.
Zhou Qian absolutely didn’t want him to know what he had experienced, so he gradually blurred his memory of his connection to this incident.
Over time, he succeeded; his memories of everything that happened during that time became increasingly unclear.
Until this very moment.
Because of an illusion, memories that had long been buried all rushed into Zhou Qian’s mind in an instant.
It was also at this moment that he discovered many suspicious details.
Like the role Bai Zhou played in this story.
But now Zhou Qian had no time to think carefully.
Because he was still in the illusion.
The illusion didn’t meticulously enact everything that happened in reality.
In the real timeline, a few days passed after the casino incident before it came to the Saturday that could be said to have changed Zhou Qian’s life.
But in the illusion, the casino, constructed of hazy lights, dice, and poker, quickly receded. The scene then shifted to the master bedroom on the second floor of the Purple Banquet Villa.
On the big bed, Zhang Yanjun had fallen asleep under the effect of sleeping pills.
Zhou Qian saw himself holding a knife at the door.
A voice told him, “Go over there. Take the knife and go kill him. You can’t be soft-hearted anymore. This time, you must kill him with your own hands!”
Seeing Zhang Yanjun, all the repressed negative emotions inside Zhou Qian truly surged forth.
He became angry and irritable, desperately needing an outlet for release.
Zhang Yanjun was like a fish, ready to be slaughtered. Zhou Qian undoubtedly wanted to rush forward and cut him to pieces.
He was no longer the child who couldn’t bring himself to do it.
He could easily kill Zhang Yanjun, just as he had killed Li Dafu, who was similar to Zhang Yanjun, in the instance.
Killing should indeed be very easy!
Venting anger should also, inherently, be an easy thing!
He just needed to hold the knife in hand and go over there!
There was nothing simpler than this…
On the other side.
Zhu Qiang, perched in the tree, laughed sinisterly.
With a voice only he could hear, he said in a low and gloomy tone, “Yes, Zhou Qian… Take the knife. Go there. As long as you go… you can have your revenge.”
“Two more steps forward… and you’ll fall into the swamp. Then you go to the underworld—and take your revenge!”
Kinky Translations 