Zhou Qian and his party left the plant that emitted the eerie cries for help and continued to head south.
As they walked, Ke Yuxiao was the first to encounter a problem. He paused, feeling great pain on the back of his hand.
Quickly lifting his hand to look, he watched as a black hole appeared on it. A grass, moving like a sentient blood vessel, suspiciously moved under the skin of his hand before finding the black hole and… abruptly crawled out from within.
Finally, it even shook a little, as if it was satisfied with the current situation—it had sprouted from inside.
At this moment, Zhou Qian and Qi Liuxing had also stopped, both frowning at this curious scene.
Judging by the life points, Ke Yuxiao was the third from the last and also the third to exhibit strange changes after Wu Ren and Situ Qing. After watching the strange grass for a while, Qi Liuxing reached out his hand, seemingly wanting to touch it, but fearing injuring Ke Yuxiao, he eventually retracted his hand.
This grass was probably now a part of Ke Yuxiao’s flesh and blood, so it absolutely couldn’t be carelessly pulled or cut off.
Moreover, unlike the green color of ordinary grass, this grass was more of a dark green, with a more complex texture on it, like the strange patterns on marble or batik, even having some artistic beauty.
“Wait a minute—” After a moment, the one who spoke was Zhou Qian. “Have any of you noticed… that this grass looks very familiar?”
“Familiar as in…” Qi Liuxing didn’t understand his meaning for a moment.
Zhou Qian side-glanced at Qi Liuxing. “We passed a meadow earlier. It had a lot of this kind of grass.”
Qi Liuxing: “Eh?”
“I think you two were too busy chatting and didn’t notice.”
Zhou Qian shook his head and walked back the way they came, wanting to go back and check for further confirmation.
After walking briskly back for about half a minute, Zhou Qian stopped and pointed.
Following his finger’s direction, this time Qi Liuxing did indeed see the part of the grass hidden in the strange forest. There were so many bizarre plants here that a patch of dark green, intricately textured grass didn’t seem out of place among a bunch of exotic plants; it was even amazing that Zhou Qian noticed it.
“Let’s go. Let’s get closer and have a look.” Saying this, Zhou Qian took a few steps forward.
But the moment he stepped onto the dark green lawn, he felt something was wrong—the air here was extremely unpleasant, almost pungent. He looked at the card, noting the life points, and saw that the countdown had indeed accelerated rapidly.
Turning his head, he saw Qi Liuxing and Ke Yuxiao walking towards him. Zhou Qian seriously shook his head at them and then led them back to the main path, quickly opening the system map to take a look.
On the map, all the explored areas were clearly visible and could be marked by players. The unexplored places were still in a non-displayed state.
Zhou Qian reviewed the route they had just taken on the map and marked the area where the dark green grass was located with a red mark, noting it as “Life Points Rapid Reduction Area”.
“I temporarily don’t know why the grass on Ke Yuxiao’s hand is the same as the one here. Xiao Qi, keep an eye on his condition in case of any accidents.”
After reminding them of this, Zhou Qian held the Rib of God in his hand, turned around, and headed south again.
Their primary goal now was to find the purification station to increase life points. The exploration of clues can be put on hold for now.
This time, after about a minute and a half, Zhou Qian finally entered a relatively open area.
It was a large wetland-like area.
They had been walking in a dense forest, and the already tall trees had become even more colossal and robust after mutation, blocking out the sun and making the area poorly lit with limited visibility.
Now it was different. The wetlands were vast, with no tall trees in the middle, providing excellent visibility. Looking up, they could see meadows, lakes, low shrubs, and some exposed mud pits.
It wasn’t yet evening at this time, and the weather was still quite bright. The sky was clear, extending into the endless blue, meeting the green wetlands in the distance, and ultimately forming a light gray.
Such a scene, ordinarily common, became anomalous, surrounded by bizarre plants.
“Moving further, we need to be careful. There could very likely be swamps hidden in this wetland.”
After Zhou Qian said this, he didn’t hear any reply.
He frowned and looked back. There was no one behind him. Qi Liuxing and Ke Yuxiao had actually disappeared.
What happened?
He didn’t hear any noises, so how could they have disappeared?
Zhou Qian raised his wrist, about to try to contact Qi Liuxing through the system, but found the system to be completely blank.
He blinked again. Even the watch on his wrist had disappeared.
Zhou Qian almost immediately realized that he had unwittingly entered some kind of illusion.
Whether this was a trap inherent to the instance itself, Zhou Qian wasn’t sure.
Fortunately, his consciousness was still clear.
Soon he heard voices that should never appear here—
“Raise!”
“I’m all in!!”
“Hahaha, Lao Zhang, you’re likely going to bleed a lot today!”
Zhou Qian was all too familiar with such voices—a casino.
He had been exposed to gambling since he was a child, influenced by his father Zhou Chongshan.
He had been to the casino too many times.
Currently, Zhou Qian had only heard the noise of the casino, yet he was still in the wetland.
But soon the scenario changed. The surroundings, like a colorful ink painting, had water splashed onto it. The colors mixed and rotated, becoming distorted, sticky, and mixed. Eventually, the whole painting turned gray black but in a flash, a new scene was painted—
Zhou Qian had arrived at the casino.
He saw himself, who was less than 10 years old.
From a viewpoint high above, Zhou Qian watched his younger self carried by his father, step by step, enter the casino.
Then, at some point, as if his soul had descended, Zhou Qian fell from the void and into his younger self, viewing this strangely lively and subtly dangerous world from the eyes of his younger self.
Zhou Qian had been pretty since he was a child; his eyes were particularly attractive and clear. When he stared innocently, he appeared pure and naïve.
Such a him, whether in temperament or age, seemed utterly out of place in the casino, but Zhou Chongshan didn’t care and brought him in anyway.
Dice, poker, colorful cocktails, joyful shouts, sad and angry roars… The casino, filled with all kinds of novelties, was an incredibly novel world for the young Zhou Qian.
This bizarre world made him curious but also frightened.
But perhaps inherently fond of such games, Zhou Qian, held by Zhou Chongshan, watched them play cards and began to calculate in his mind. Gradually, he found it enjoyable and forgot his fear.
At this moment, a game of poker was unfolding.
Zhou Chongshan was at a crucial stage of a game against a pot-bellied middle-aged man.
“Raise?” The man asked.
A bead of sweat dropped from Zhou Chongshan’s forehead, but he decisively said, “All in.”
“Lao Zhou, let’s play big. I’ll add ten million more. You can add a little more. Do dare you?”
“Ha… Lao Zhang, you’re really in high spirits today. What do you want?”
“Your son!”
The one called “Lao Zhang” looked at Zhou Qian, who was less than 10 years old, with a sort of sticky, sinister gaze, then he said with a husky voice, “If you lose, give your son to me. Do you dare?”
Zhou Chongshan was stunned for a moment, but soon he decisively said, “What would I not dare? Hahaha—”
Inside the casino, the hustle and bustle continued.
Zhou Chongshan didn’t notice that Zhou Qian, whom he was holding with one hand, instantly broke out in a cold sweat.
Zhou Qian’s gaze seemed unchanged, appearing to be in some kind of vacant state, still looking innocent. Only, this time, within the innocence, there was also a touch of confusion. Not a single so-called adult present, who saw his gaze, knew—in fact, he understood everything.
The room, seemingly narrow from the outside, felt surprisingly spacious once inside. The nearly gray-white walls displayed a noticeable metallic texture, devoid of any pattern.
Outside the window, myriad strange grasses and different blooming flowers could be seen, and occasionally, a bird flying by revealed scales on its body.
In such an environment, no one could feel at ease.
Now, Situ Qing faced the intense killing intent brought by Yin Jiujiu, undoubtedly feeling more weighted. But she decisively said to Wu Ren, “You should leave. You’re running out of time. Save yourself first. Don’t worry about me.”
Wu Ren was quite moved for a moment. “Situ Qing, if Yin Jiujiu dares to act here, she surely is prepared. Since she and Li Buhui have arrived here in advance, there must be an ambush. You—”
“If you stay here, it’s like sending yourself to death with me. It’s pointless. Just go.” Situ Qing extended her hand, clutching the bell tightly, and looked seriously at Yin Jiujiu.
A breeze came from outside the door, causing the bell to jingle. Amidst the crisp sound of the bell, Situ Qing added, “I will try to delay as much as I can. Maybe after you save yourself, you can notify Zhou Qian, and they can come to rescue me. Even if I… never mind. Just… go.”
In the end, Situ Qing wanted to say, “Even if I die, you will know who the murderer is, and can avenge me.” But she realized that perhaps no one would avenge her, so she said nothing.
Unexpectedly, Wu Ren responded, “Sister, thank you. You are quite righteous. Don’t worry, I will figure something out. If anything happens to you, I will definitely avenge you!”
Situ Qing glanced at Wu Ren and noticed he left with teary eyes.
At that moment, her heart started to beat faster.
Is this what it feels like to do good deeds?
Her past life was actually a life despised by others. Because of her birth mother Situ Xue, she was despised by Mu Sheng’s mother, by Mu Sheng, by neighbors, acquaintances, and even Situ Xue herself neglected her.
It was even more so in the game.
She, abiding by Mu Sheng’s demands, walked every step unscrupulously and ruthlessly, earning everyone’s disdain. She thought she was used to it. She thought she didn’t care about the gazes of others. But at this moment, she realized what she truly desired was acceptance and acknowledgment from others.
At the same time, Situ Qing discovered something else. Previously, in life-or-death situations, her first reaction was to raise her left wrist and check the messages from Mu Sheng. She was pushed into traps by him, yet always waited for his redemption.
But this time, she didn’t instinctively look at the system panel on her wrist. She made the choice for herself—to let Wu Ren go and face Yin Jiujiu alone. Whether life or death, it was a duel between her and Yin Jiujiu.
As a result, at this supposed tense moment of life and death, when Situ Qing further realized what she truly wanted, she became extremely relaxed.
…..
30 seconds later.
Wu Ren and Li Buhui, each wearing a pair of fast-walking shoes, were running through the forest of strange flowers and plants. When passing a tree trunk, Wu Ren suddenly stopped. Behind him, Li Buhui, caught off guard, found a visible nail appearing on his forehead.
Li Buhui dared not take another step forward and had to step back until his back was against the tree trunk. Sweat dripped from his forehead as he feigned fear. “Ah, Wu Ge, what are you doing? You can’t delay any more. You are about to…”
Wu Ren coldly interrupted him, “Tell me where the purification station is right now. I’ll go myself. Then you go back and save Situ Qing. Otherwise—”
“I will kill you now! If I kill you, I will get your life points. What fear do I have of death?!”
“Ah… Wu Ge, you yourself said before, we shouldn’t kill each other for life points. If we set such a precedent, the consequences are unimaginable. We would be falling into the system’s trap of making us slaughter each other.”
“Can’t you spare me? I promise you, isn’t my promise enough?!”
Li Buhui, with a grin yet not really smiling, put his hands together in a gesture of pleading.
However, he saw Wu Ren reach for his hidden weapon with his right hand and quickly take out a pill from his bag with his left hand.
“Open your mouth. Otherwise, I will kill you right now! Or we can die together if need be!”
Wu Ren spoke harshly. Li Buhui tightened his lips, then had no choice but to open his mouth again. Wu Ren immediately threw the pill into his mouth and watched him swallow it.
[Player Li Buhui consumed the pill: “I Can Only Speak the Truth”]
[After consuming the pill, the player can only speak the truth when answering the administrator’s questions; otherwise, they will die on the spot.]
[Effective Time: One minute.]
“Were you thinking of casually deceiving me and misleading me haphazardly? You think I won’t have enough time, and after I die, what threat would I pose to you? How about now? Didn’t expect I had this kind of pill, did you?” Wu Ren sneered coldly. “Firstly, quickly tell me the real location of the purification station. Secondly, go back and protect Situ Qing.”
“Wu Ge, really, why use such a drug? I have no intention of harming you, nor do I intend to harm Situ Qing. Right now, we are actually on the periphery of this small instance. We have no idea if deeper inside, there are demons or monsters hiding. If you two key damage dealers die, how will we continue playing?”
Li Buhui looked sincerely amiable. “Look, I didn’t die, did I? I am speaking the truth! I am sincere!”
As he spoke, seeing the nail hovering in front of his forehead moving forward and about to touch it, Li Buhui could even clearly feel the chill of the sharp point of the nail. He dared not waste words and quickly pointed a way for Wu Ren. “Go, please go. I will go back now to check on Situ Qing’s situation!”
No one could lie under the effect of the “I Can Only Speak the Truth” pill. Wu Ren got quite a satisfactory answer from Li Buhui and then quickly sent a message to Zhou Qian, informing him of the situation here.
Li Buhui, or rather Zhu Qiang, actually did return to the clearing station A13, where the two girls were.
This time, no one except his gambler could see Zhu Qiang’s expression, so he no longer needed to pretend and laughed unrestrainedly.
Under those circumstances, he had no choice but to swallow that pill. But indeed, everything he said was the truth; he had no intention of causing Wu Ren’s death arbitrarily. He had no grievances with Situ Qing and had no intention of harming her…
Besides, Yin Jiujiu was actually quite sharp. If he truly intended to harm her, he probably wouldn’t have survived until now.
So Zhu Qiang didn’t exactly lie in front of Yin Jiujiu; what he said in front of Wu Ren wasn’t lying either.
He only said he didn’t intend to harm Situ Qing but didn’t say he wouldn’t go back and make other moves. Under such circumstances, he naturally didn’t trigger the effect of the pill; he just concealed some truths.
In that life-and-death situation, with only a few minutes left to live, Wu Ren didn’t have time to think deeply about his words.
As for Zhu Qiang, his only goal from the beginning to the end was just Zhou Qian.
His strongest reliance wasn’t his own damage output, but the information he got from the Peach Blossom Legion about this instance and Zhou Qian himself. He felt he had completely seized Zhou Qian’s weakness.
With the help of the speed shoes, Wu Ren quickly returned to clearing station A13. At this moment, the battle between Yin Jiujiu and Situ Qing at A13 had reached a fever pitch.
Neither of them used their ultimates, probably saving their critical mana for the possible “monsters” they may face soon. However, the scene was still thrilling.
The jingling sound of the bells continued nonstop; the walls, ceiling, and floor were all covered in layers of ice and snow. In contrast, the wine spilled from Yin Jiujiu’s gourd, different from the sharpness and solidity of ice and snow, was boiling hot, pouring out and flowing freely, intending to melt all the frost.
At this time, Yin Jiujiu could barely see where Situ Qing was. Her vision was completely blocked by the layers of snow. Luckily, water was pervasive. Suddenly, Yin Jiujiu found an opening, instantly controlling the flow of the wine to form a pillar, piercing through a gap in the ice and directly attacking Situ Qing’s chest.
“Swish, swish, swish.” The sound of melting snowflakes falling.
In an instant, Situ Qing’s feet were quickly covered in flowing water. The ground became slippery, making walking inconvenient.
With the naked eye, Situ Qing saw the protective wall she erected of ice had found its gap, the water pillar coming straight at her like iron.
In a flash, Situ Qing swiftly dodged against the wall; her left shoulder was hit by the water stream, and blood gushed out immediately.
At the same time, due to the slippery ground, she lost her footing, stumbled, and fell. The ice and snow immediately fell to the ground with her.
Seeing the situation, Yin Jiujiu was overjoyed and instantly took out a semi-automatic bow and arrow from her bag, aiming it at Situ Qing and preparing to launch it.
However, Situ Qing, having been through life-and-death situations many times and being a strong Ice Queen, utilized the flowing water around her to reduce her charging time significantly. She immediately created a wall of ice on her chest to act as a barrier.
On the other side, just as Yin Jiujiu was about to shoot her arrow, ice swiftly attacked her wrist, freezing her entire forearm. Yin Jiujiu’s right arm almost instantly lost sensation, forcing her to release her grip. The arrow fell to the ground with a “ding” sound.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Situ Qing, who had fallen to the ground, immediately stood up and initiated a new round of normal attacks by shaking the bell. Yin Jiujiu, meanwhile, used another normal skill as a new wave of ice approached, with water continuously flowing from the gourd’s mouth, spreading out to cover the sky and the ground.
Both of their skills were long-range attacks. It seemed like a battle in the air, but the scene was no less thrilling than any close combat. The view in the room was clear for only half a minute before it was again covered by numerous flows of water and ice and snow.
Further obscuring their vision was a flash grenade thrown by Yin Jiujiu, covering the chilly ice and scalding liquor in colorful smoke of a fantasy punk style.
The combination of fog, snow, and liquor created the perfect cover for Yin Jiujiu. During the fight, she intentionally positioned herself near the doorway.
At this moment, if she left the room and activated the [Sky Net] she had set up in advance with the remote control, she could trap Situ Qing inside, making her a sitting duck. Then, she could take out another bow and arrow or any blade to kill Situ Qing.
Everything was under control, and everything was going incredibly smoothly. Yin Jiujiu thought the developments would continue as she expected. But just as her hand touched the door, a trap hidden in the wall suddenly activated!
The indestructible Sky Net began to close, cutting through all the colorful smoke and ice and snow, trapping both Yin Jiujiu and Situ Qing.
The net closed up and hung from the ceiling. Yin Jiujiu never expected that she and Situ Qing would be trapped together. Peering through the net, she vaguely saw someone entering and placing something bright on the ground, which flashed in her eyes.
However, due to the obstructed view, she couldn’t see who it was. All she could do was shout angrily, “Who are you? What did you put on the ground? What are you trying to do?”
Yin Jiujiu didn’t receive any response. The person seemed to raise their hand, and she felt the net that bound her start to fall!
What is this person trying to do? Does he want to drop us to our deaths?! But this height isn’t enough!
While she was wondering, there was a clinking sound, and Yin Jiujiu felt like she hit some glass. She and Situ Qing were both confined in a pitch-black space.
Yin Jiujiu suddenly realized something and exclaimed, “[The Great Shifting Mirror of the Universe]! Who brought us here?!”
“It’s…” She suddenly understood something. “It’s Li Buhui. The [Sky Net] was given to me by him. But the remote control is with me. How did he…? …Was I deceived by him…”
Yin Jiujiu’s heart sank heavily. In the darkness, she couldn’t see Situ Qing’s face, but she could hear her exhausted voice close by. “Yin Jiujiu, I dropped out. I didn’t even finish high school. I always thought I was uneducated and not smart. But now I realize… maybe you are even more stupid than I am.”
Hearing this, Yin Jiujiu could only clench her fists and remain silent.
After a while, she heard the rustling of clothes. It seemed like Situ Qing sat up from the ground, trying to do something.
Then she heard Situ Qing’s voice filled with worry. “Where the hell is this place? Why can’t I send messages through the system?”
After a deathly silence, Yin Jiujiu swallowed a mouthful of saliva and said, “It… It’s the effect of the [Sky Net]. It can block system messages, preventing anyone from calling for help. This is… a literal, inescapable Sky Net*.”
*Clarity: The item is called [天罗地网] which is a metaphor referring to a situation where one is surrounded by a tight, inescapable net or trap, much like a spider’s web that covers both the sky and ground. This prop used is literally the meaning of that.
Another deathlike silence ensued, and then Yin Jiujiu once again heard the exhausted voice of Situ Qing. Only this time, her voice carried a trace of mockery.
“Didn’t expect this scenario… did you?”
“Then prepare yourself to die here with me. Or—”
“Do you want to continue fighting with me inside this net?”
Deep in the jungle, such faint cries for help continued to emanate. Zhou Qian frowned and asked Qi Liuxing and Ke Yuxiao beside him.
“Did you guys hear that?”
Qi and Ke, one holding a sword and the other holding a flute, both nodded seriously and said in a low voice, “Heard it.”
At this moment, all three were thinking: Are there other people here as well?
Did Ryan conduct some secret live experiments here? Did he artificially create some monsters?
With great doubt in their minds, the three exchanged glances and still moved towards the direction of the sound.
Along the way, they encountered strange trees and huge flowers taller than a person, growing in clusters with countless stamens swaying between them. The piece of paper that looked like a human face seemed to mock the players passing by.
Soon, the three passed through several strange trees and flowers and arrived at a relatively open area.
Unlike the densely packed weird plants they encountered along the way, there were hardly any plants in this area, and no animals could be seen, making the only grass in the center especially conspicuous.
The grass was tall, reaching Zhou Qian’s shoulders.
It had several slender stems and leaves, swaying gently in the breeze and dancing with the wind. And when they approached it, it was easy to hear that the cry for help was coming from it.
“Help me…wuwuwu…”
“Why is there an explosion… “
“It shouldn’t have… such an accident…”
“Hurry… notify the mayor…”
After the grass muttered several phrases, it repeated the cries Zhou Qian first heard. “Help… Help me…” After that, it kept repeating senselessly.
When he heard it repeat all the sentences in a set order three times and discovered that it was just swaying in the wind without any other abnormal reactions, cold sweat broke out on Qi Liuxing’s back. He couldn’t help but say, “Is this something like a recording device? Or did it mutate into a human and learn human speech? However, it seems to have no thought… it’s just like parroting.”
“I don’t know.” Zhou Qian also frowned. “But what it said seems to depict the scene on the night of the accident at Weir Mountain. For example, some researchers stationed at this experimental base might have said these words after the accident. However—”
“Let’s not worry about what it is. Our goal is to pass the level, not to really study genetic mutations. The system said, our task is to find Ryan’s secret.”
“Yes. Zhou Qian… What do you think about the 24 points?” Qi Liuxing asked him.
“It’s essentially a time-limited task. I, the one with the most points, now have only 18 points, and all our points are rapidly decreasing. If all the items that can be used to increase points are used up, and if our total points are less than 24, and we haven’t found the ‘truth,’ there will only be a dead end for us.”
Zhou Qian said, “So I hope… our teammates won’t foolishly destroy the device that can steadily increase points.”
Taking out his notebook and recording what the grass said, Zhou Qian turned and continued to walk south. “We need to find an ‘Evil Spirit Purification Station’ as soon as possible. I bought a concealment item. We will hide it first. I’m still worried about Yin Jiujiu.”
……
On Yin Juijiu’s side, the progress of her plan was smoother than expected.
She didn’t act immediately but planned to leave after adding 2 life points with Li Buhui, which meant 40 more minutes.
During this time, she and Li Buhui searched and found that this “Evil Spirit Purification Station” was numbered: A11. Not only that, she also learned about two other purification stations, A12 and A13.
There was originally a fourth station, A14, but it was abolished.
Additionally, the A11 station not only marked the names of the other two stations but also drew their directions, undoubtedly greatly facilitating Yin Jiujiu’s search process.
So, in just 5 minutes, Yin Jiujui and Li Buhui had found the A13 Evil Spirit Purification Station, which, by visual estimation, was the nearest and most likely to be found first by Situ Qing’s team.
However, the two didn’t leave but instead set up traps inside the station, waiting here and increasing their life points quickly, expecting Situ Qing’s team to show up.
At this moment, Situ Qing and Wu Ren, oblivious to what was about to happen, were searching for the purification station.
After treatment in the government building, Wu Ren could move without issues, but the mutations in his body were undoubtedly getting more severe. Situ Qing saw his neck had almost completely turned green; some parts indistinguishable from leaves.
What kind of monster would humans turn into as Ryan wanted to create life that could grow under radiation?
Soon, Situ Qing realized her condition wasn’t much better. Her hand itched, and blisters were appearing.
When she raised her hand to see, the blisters looked like budding flowers, ready to bloom at any time.
Seeing this, Situ Qing felt a chill and simply turned her hand back away—out of sight, out of mind.
Time was running out for Wu Ren, and even though his body was feeling unwell again, he gritted his teeth and moved quickly. About 10 minutes later, he and Situ Qing finally saw a room clearly marked “Evil Spirit Purification Station”.
They exchanged a glance and a smile and hurried in, only to find Yin Jiujui and Li Buhui already inside.
What’s going on?
Had they circled around and met so quickly?
It shouldn’t be…
The place was vast, and they hadn’t walked along the wall; this shouldn’t have happened…
Situ Qing sensed something was wrong and then saw Yin Jiujui press a button.
“What…what did you do?!” Wu Ren roared.
As he entered, he quickly checked his cards. He sighed in relief when he saw the countdown reversing—finally, a rescue!
However, before he could rejoice and before his points increased by “1” unit, the countdown started again! He had only gained a few more seconds compared to before entering this room. In a flash, Wu Ren immediately guessed what Yin Jiujui had done.
“Are you sick, woman?! If you want to deal with Situ Qing, can you discuss it outside? You’ve messed with her twice, but actually, it affected me! What is your problem?!”
After cursing, Wu Ren seemed shrouded in a gloomy aura, as if he was ready to perish together with Yin Jiujui.
Yin Jiujui calmly looked at him, handed him a pair of shoes, and said, “I have no grudge against you, I won’t harm you. These shoes are still usable. It only takes two minutes to go to another purification station. You won’t die.”
Wu Ren was a bit confused and asked with a frown, “What do you mean? You want me to leave so you can deal with Situ Qing alone? Can you even handle her? And, I can tell Zhou Qian about this now!”
“You don’t have much time left, right? Maybe not even five minutes. If Zhou Qian knows about this, before your points are exhausted… you won’t know where another purification station is. Look here—”
Yin Jiujui uncovered a curtain and pointed. “You see, each purification station has directions to the other two. So, after I found mine, I quickly found and destroyed the remaining two.”
“Are you fucking crazy—” Wu Ren raised his hand. Numerous silver needles seemed ready to strike Yin Jiujui down.
Yin Jiujui said, “Let’s make a deal. Li Buhui will watch you go to the only remaining clearance station in this instance. If he confirms that you haven’t told Zhou Qian, he will guide you to the right location.”
“Wu Ren, I don’t need you to do anything. I just need you to leave. I want to leave this place to Situ Qing and me. Even if I am not as strong as her… I want to fight her to the death. I could suppress my hatred when I didn’t see her. Now I can’t control it. Situ Qing—”
Yin Jiujui turned to Situ Qing and said coldly and murderously, “How do you feel? I heard you want to be a good person now? So now… will you spare Wu Ren and let him go?”
At this moment, in a hidden corner unseen by everyone, Li Buhui, who seemed to be an indifferent and ordinary bystander, finally couldn’t control it and revealed a mocking smile.
If things went as expected, the current President Sarah and Mayor Ryan were likely the same person.
However, it was improbable that Ryan had been disguising himself for over a decade; hence, Zhou Qian suspected that the real Sarah could be someone else. It was likely that Ryan assumed her role after a certain incident.
Despite Ryan potentially being adept at cross-dressing, this wasn’t plastic surgery. To impersonate flawlessly among numerous witches, he and Sarah must have had some resemblances. In addition, Ryan must deeply understand Sarah’s habits and tones to mimic her without any flaws. Upon synthesizing all these factors, there was a high probability that they were relatives, possibly siblings.
Therefore, Zhou Qian tentatively asked whether Ryan had any sisters. The relationship between Ryan and Sarah, who represented seemingly conflicting camps in this instance, must be crucial. As expected, not only did Zhou Qian perceive from Ryan’s expressions that he indeed had a sister or sisters, but he also unexpectedly triggered a side plot.
It seemed that uncovering the relationship between Ryan and Sarah was indeed a pivotal step in resolving the situation.
At this moment, the thick clouds in the afternoon sky blocked the sunlight, making the air absolutely uninhabitable for ordinary people.
Zhou Qian’s group was forced to travel in a commercial vehicle through a forest of bizarrely shaped trees to reach this secluded mountain top. Behind the high wall lay the town’s and Ryan’s deepest secrets.
Before him, Ryan’s emerald green eyes were as profound as a lake yet also as blazing as the sunlight.
Hearing Zhou Qian’s words, Ryan narrowed his eyes, then lowered his golden eyelashes towards Zhou Qian’s hand holding his. He looked up and said, “My sister’s lover… Why haven’t I heard of you? You must be mistaken.”
“Is that so? Alright, let’s assume I was mistaken. However—” Zhou Qian smiled, whispering into his ear, “You are so handsome; your sister must be a beauty. Since I am going to stay in this town, why not introduce me to your sister? We might become relatives. Didn’t you say that I am a gift from God?”
While asking, Zhou Qian wondered—is his sister dead?
According to Zhou Qian’s current speculation, Sarah was Ryan’s sister. For some reason, their relationship wasn’t known to the rest of the town. Subsequently, an explosion occurred on Weir Mountain, and the radioactive dust infected many children. Ryan went to his sister, hoping she would help him conceal everything.
Agreeing to this request would mean harming the lives of many innocent people. Sarah, of course, refused.
Therefore, it was very likely that Ryan might have killed his own sister and then assumed her place.
“Of course, I can introduce you,” Ryan replied with a deep look while holding Zhou Qian’s hand tighter. “Wait until you come out. My sister will welcome you then. But for now, let’s not waste any more time.”
“My gift, please enter this enclosure. You will receive the reward I’ve prepared.”
“Oh yes, there are three ‘Evil Spirit Purging Stations’ inside. If you feel uncomfortable, rest there. I will come to find you guys after a while. Please listen to the broadcast.”
Three minutes later, all seven players entered the high walls. The gate closed silently, and the walls merged seamlessly with the environment.
Zhou Qian walked forward to touch the barrier where the wall had been, feeling an invisible shield. This was probably why the witches have never truly approached the truth—the wall was made of a highly advanced invisible material.
Turning back, Zhou Qian looked ahead—before him was a vast forest of mutated trees and peculiar flowers and grasses. Occasionally, strange creatures resembling long-legged butterflies would momentarily reveal themselves before vanishing.
What monsters might be hiding inside this forest were still unknown.
At this moment, everyone’s mood was rather somber.
Li Buhui was the first to ask, “What should we do now… Should we go in and explore first?”
Ke Yuxiao’s serious voice immediately rang out. “After entering here, our life points are rapidly decreasing.”
Wu Ren’s face had almost turned ashen. He said, “I only have 1 point left. But looking at the speed of this countdown… I can only live for less than 20 minutes.” After saying this, he looked at Zhou Qian.
Zhou Qian looked back at him and asked gravely, “Do you trust me?”
Even though Zhou Qian asked this, he actually knew that Wu Ren’s attitude had changed significantly compared to the beginning. Back when they were in Lily’s study, Wu Ren didn’t have much time left, having drawn only “2” points.
At that time, he had strong murderous intent toward Zhou Qian. But now it was different. He had truly sided with Zhou Qian.
Firstly, Zhou Qian gave him a “6” point card, which had sustained him until now. Secondly, during their first visit to Weir Mountain, if not for Zhou Qian, Wu Ren might have been taken away by the witches.
At this moment, Wu Ren clenched and then released his fists. His small eyes looked tired and lifeless, but there was no murderous intent or doubt within them. “Of course I trust you.”
“Good. Then everyone listens to me now.” Zhou Qian nodded. “The so-called ‘Evil Spirit Cleansing Station’ might be able to replenish our life points. Let’s find it first. Wu Ren, you are still our ‘king’. We will all help you.”
“We will split into three teams and search in three directions.” Zhou Qian turned towards the peculiar forest and continued, “Based on your previous conflicts, Li Buhui and Yin Jiujiu will be in one group, Wu Ren and Situ Qing in another, and I will be with the remaining Sword and Flute duo.”
“I want to remind you all, everyone’s life value will decrease rapidly. The primary task now is to find a place that can replenish life points. Attempting to settle personal scores at this time would undoubtedly be foolish.”
Having said that, Zhou Qian looked forward. “My group will go in the middle. The other two groups will go in the left and right directions. Everyone can contact each other through the system at any time and inform others promptly after finding the target.”
Zhou Qian knew that even though he had reminded everyone to prioritize finding the target station, Yin Jiujiu, who joined this game solely for revenge, would most likely not miss such an excellent opportunity to kill teammates.
Additionally, Zhou Qian had another concern regarding whether the Peach Legion Army really hadn’t done anything.
Given these concerns and the potential dangers in this unknown domain, it was best for everyone to stick together.
However, Wu Ren really didn’t have much time left. Without his strong output at the forefront, not only would the team be extremely unstable internally, but the danger everyone faced when needing to attack NPCs would also increase. Zhou Qian, helping Wu Ren, was essentially helping himself.
Zhou Qian made such a three-way split arrangement in an attempt to prevent internal conflict as much as possible. His first priority was to prevent Yin Jiujiu from attacking Situ Qing, so he separated them.
Wu Ren, although lacking in life points, still had his attack power, so pairing him with Situ Qing was relatively safe for both. Also, by placing himself in the middle, Zhou Qian could relatively reduce the chance of Yin Jiujiu and Situ Qing running into each other.
After saying all this, Zhou Qian observed everyone, seemingly watching their reactions. At this moment, everyone received a message from the system.
[Players trigger main task 1: Explore thoroughly, survive, and uncover the secret that Ryan has hidden here.]
[Task 2: Mayor Ryan is very fond of the number “24”. When the players’ life points total “24”, the experiment ends, and he will come to take everyone away.]
[Hint 1: There are three “Evil Spirit Purification Stations” where life points can be replenished.]
[Hint 2: Some areas are densely infested with “evil spirits”, and the rate of reduction of life points will accelerate; please enter with caution. Some areas have tools that are dropped that can clear “evil spirits”. Using them can also increase life points.]
The system’s hints were undoubtedly aligned with Zhou Qian’s previous speculation.
So, temporarily, no one raised any objections. At least on the surface, it seemed like everyone agreed with Zhou Qian’s suggestion—to prioritize finding the “Evil Spirit Cleansing Station” first. So, they quickly split into three teams and proceeded in three different directions.
The high walls encircle a summit area.
The players were located to the north. Zhou Qian’s group was heading south, while Yin Jiujiu and Li Buhui were heading west.
Upon entering the forest, the light dims considerably. Yin Jiujiu held the card with life points in her hand, and after observing that the countdown speed didn’t continue to accelerate, she moved forward.
Li Buhui, also known as Zhu Qiang, scurried ahead of her and said awkwardly, “Let me go ahead. Just in case these mutant plants and animals attack us!”
Yin Jiujiu didn’t comment and just looked around.
She had always been fearless, but everything she saw still made her frown.
It was simply because everything was too bizarre, like an animal corpse she just stepped over, which surprisingly has the body of a fish and wings of a bird.
However, to Yin Jiujiu’s and Li Buhui’s surprise, their group’s progress was extremely smooth, and within five minutes they saw a bungalow.
Approaching the bungalow, they saw it boldly marked “Evil Spirit Purification Station”.
Li Buhui and Yin Jiujiu looked at each other, both gripping their weapons, and cautiously opened the door.
But there was nothing inside that could attack them. Upon entering, they both felt their breathing become smoother.
Checking the card in hand, Yin Jiujiu discovered the countdown had changed significantly.
Originally, the countdown was reduced from [59:59] by an hour unit, but now the value not only reset but began to rise from [00:00], and very quickly at that.
It almost felt like charging oneself. Once it was fully charged by an hour unit, the player’s points would increase by one.
Li Buhui and Yin Jiujiu both let out a sigh of relief.
Then Li Buhui asked, “Do we… need to tell everyone about this?”
Yin Jiujiu pondered for a while but shook her head.
She scanned the room and walked to a spot.
There was a control desk with a red button marked “Destroy”, and a note beneath—“Press the button to destroy the current ‘Evil Spirit Purification Station’”.
Li Buhui seemed to sense something. He swallowed and asked Yin Jiujiu, “You want to…”
Yin Jiujiu pulled out two pairs of shoes from her bag.
[Item: Thousand Mile A Day* Shoes]
*(日行千里) Idiom from the Book of Wei Tuyuhun Biography. It refers to running a thousand miles in a day, describing traveling at an extremely fast speed. Note: The mile is a Chinese mile (li), which is about 1/3 of an English mile.
[Effect: Experience the feeling of flying; take off, I want to take off, I can’t stop at all]
[Grade: B]
Yin Jiujiu said, “Zhou Qian intentionally separated me and Situ Qing. But I won’t let her go. I have no intention of harming Wu Ren. After finding them, I will tell him the coordinates here alone. But the premise is that he cannot protect Situ Qing by listening to Zhou Qian. This is a deal. To make him have to agree, we have to leave him with no other choices.”
Looking at Li Bu Hui, she continued, “Put on these shoes. Let’s go the way Situ Qing and the others went and destroy the station there first. If necessary, also destroy the station where Zhou Qian and the others are. In this way… Everyone can only beg me.”
……
On the other side.
Zhou Qian, Qi Liuxing, and Ke Yuxiao were taking the route straight south.
About three minutes out, Zhou Qian heard a faint female voice. “Help. Help me.”
“Mayor, my child is already 6 months old, a boy, and I also want to name him Ryan. It is an honor for all of us to have a mayor like you in Beautiful Flower Town!”
Upon seeing Ryan in the production center, the pregnant women all gathered around to speak. It was evident that Ryan was dearly loved by the townspeople.
In the face of everyone’s enthusiasm, Ryan responded with a polite and gentlemanly smile, advising them all to be careful. After kindly shaking hands with everyone, Ryan went to the doctor’s office to inquire about everyone’s conditions.
Upon hearing that all the pregnant women and children were healthy, Ryan showed a very relieved smile. When leaving, he received many bouquets, each with a pink card inside. The female doctors and nurses sent out bouquets with shy smiles, leaving one to wonder about the content on the cards.
Before getting into the elevator, Zhou Qian stopped Ryan. “Wait.”
“What’s the matter?” Ryan asked Zhou Qian.
Zhou Qian asked, “Where are we going next?”
Ryan said, “How about going back to the reception room? If you are hungry, you can also get something to eat. When your friend wakes up and the interrogations of the two girls are over, if they are indeed not witches, I’ll escort you out together.”
“Do you have a place to stay? I would be delighted to welcome you to stay in Beautiful Flower Town; I can arrange houses for you.”
“That sounds great,” Zhou Qian responded naturally. “Can you arrange a house by the mountain and river for me?”
“No problem. I will have someone arrange it,” Ryan said.
“During the waiting period, we have nothing to do… Can we walk around on this floor?” Zhou Qian said, “My sister’s child was killed by a vile witch. Unfortunately, unlike these pregnant women, she hasn’t been able to walk out of the pain. I want to ask some pregnant women about their experiences in adjusting their emotions to help my sister later. Can you give me… one hour?”
Ryan’s beautiful green eyes narrowed for a moment, then he cheerfully responded, “Of course. In an hour, the problems on your friend’s side should also be resolved. I will send someone to pick you up then.”
Ryan left with some soldiers, leaving others to guard Zhou Qian and the rest. Qi Liuxing looked around and noticed that some pregnant women and nurses were curiously looking their way, as if wondering about the identities of these players.
After looking around, Qi Liuxing withdrew his gaze and asked Zhou Qian, “So, why do you want to stay here?”
Zhou Qian walked towards the nurse station with a smile. “Of course, to get the girls’ numbers.”
Qi Liuxing frowned immediately. “They are all pregnant, married women!”
Zhou Qian: “You underage kid, what are you thinking about all day?”
Qi Liuxing: “…”
“I, of course, have other uses. Also—”
Zhou Qian turned back and said to him and Ke Yuxiao, “You should also try to talk to them as much as possible. Let’s find a way to probe Mayor Ryan’s background.”
Following Zhou Qian’s words, Li Buhui also volunteered to join the “probing” action. Thus, the four players quickly split up to initiate their actions—talking to doctors, nurses, and pregnant women. After 30 minutes, everyone gathered in the family waiting area and discussed their findings, gaining a more comprehensive understanding of Beautiful Flower Town and even Mayor Ryan.
The town was located remotely, far from big cities, and development here was once very closed off. In the generations of people here, very few chose to pursue education, and there wasn’t much cultural knowledge.
All in all, it was a relatively backward town. Mayor Ryan chose to be the one to “step out.”
It was said that Ryan studied abroad and earned a Ph.D., learning a lot of knowledge.
He didn’t choose to stay outside but chose to return home to develop the town and give back to the land that nurtured him. He started as an ordinary government employee but was quickly promoted to mayor through his abilities.
The town’s electricity and water projects were planned and built by him, and the computers, TVs, telephones, and the like used by the residents were also technologies he brought from big cities.
In short, the townspeople went from being backward to prosperous, from laborious work to relying on technology for a convenient life, all thanks to Ryan’s efforts.
Thus, Ryan became a “godlike” existence in the hearts of the townspeople. The only group in town that refused to accept Ryan was probably the Witch Association.
Regarding this, doctors, nurses, and even the pregnant women, most of them gave similar comments. “Twenty years ago, the townspeople were all ignorant. Twenty years later, we have today, thanks to Mayor Ryan! It was he who led everyone out of ‘ignorance’.”
“But those witches are still as ‘ignorant’ as ever. No, they are not only ignorant, but they are also evil! The evil spirits they conjure… are terrifying!”
From the information received so far, Mayor Ryan wasn’t only a high-tech talent but truly loved this town and was indeed contributing to it.
Therefore, Zhou Qian could only temporarily attribute the tragedy on Weir Mountain to an accident, rather than something Ryan did intentionally.
However, after that accident, everything Ryan did to cover up the truth and protect his good image in the town was intentional.
Just then, Zhou Qian received a message from Situ Qing.
[We entered a place resembling a cell, and indeed, we saw two witches. They were motionless, most likely already dead.]
Sure enough.
Unsurprisingly, these two witches must have been silenced.
This undoubtedly confirmed Zhou Qian’s suspicion.
On the day of the Strawberry Music Festival, a very coincidental thing happened. Most adults had left the town for a vacation, and only a few stayed at home.
This coincidence gave Mayor Ryan the opportunity to whitewash everything.
That day, most of the town’s children went to Weir Mountain to attend the festival. A few, like Lina, who were unwell, didn’t go and stayed in town.
Afterward, an unknown accident occurred on Weir Mountain—an extremely radioactive power station or laboratory exploded.
Zhou Qian believed that with the high level of technological development in the town, the mayor should have remedied it in time, so the radiation only affected Weir Mountain and the northern town, and the adults who were on vacation that day were temporarily safe.
But not the people in the town.
The children who went to the festival on Weir Mountain were the first victims.
And the few adults and children who stayed in the town that night were likely also hit by radiation, but the adverse reactions in their bodies might be slower as they were exposed to less radiation, and it wasn’t so direct.
To prevent exposure, Mayor Ryan’s decision was to—kill all the people affected by radiation.
So, the few adults and children who stayed in the town that night were all killed, and it was disguised as abnormal phenomena such as hearts being removed, and heads being chopped off.
Ryan did this to blame everything on the “evil spirits”.
As for the children who attended the music festival on Weir Mountain, they weren’t directly killed by Ryan’s people.
Firstly, there were too many of them, and even Ryan couldn’t openly create so much slaughter.
Secondly, Ryan could use others to do the killing.
He deliberately created many murders in the town and blamed all the murders on the “evil spirits”, so naturally, he could let the witches handle the children who were “possessed by evil spirits”.
As for why the witches unanimously believed that many evil spirits appeared that night and then really thought everything was the work of evil spirits after “seeing is believing”?
This must be because they received a message from the Witch Association.
Ryan set up a radiation barrier in the northern town, even preventing mutated animals and plants affected by radiation from passing through. Witch Sarah claimed it was set by her magic.
Ryan let everyone wear protective clothing, saying it was a scientific way to prevent evil spirits, but what the clothes really prevented was radiation; similarly, Witch Sarah distributed special witch robes to everyone, claiming they were enchanted with protective spells, but in fact, they were just radiation-proof clothing.
The only person in the town who really “went out” to learn about technology was the mayor.
The technologically ignorant witches thought the clothes were really enchanted with spells that could protect against evil spirits after finding out they were really safe in them.
Moreover, the guns that Ryan’s military force used are similar to electric stun guns.
The weapons in the witches’ hands were surprisingly similar.
Zhou Qian didn’t ask the witches about this, but he could guess that Sarah must have told the witches that these were weapons enchanted by her, able to drain the strength of those who are cursed.
Finally, the crystal ball in the witches’ hands must also be a lie.
It should just be a device that can detect radiation levels, only made in the shape of a crystal ball.
Looking at it this way, Witch Association President Sarah seemed to be colluding with Mayor Ryan—their cooperation was too tacit.
On the surface, they seemed to be absolutely opposed.
But they were actually jointly maintaining a lie—that this world had evil spirits and magic.
To clear Ryan of his charges, Sarah deceived all the witches. She brainwashed them, telling them that evil spirits had appeared in the town, forcing witches like Eva to act against their own children with a heavy heart.
In order to perpetuate the lie, Sarah constantly performed, attributing “magical” meaning to all “technological” products.
Sarha led patrols every day, all for show. To maintain a good image of working “for the town and its people”, and to comply with the witches’ wishes and avoid suspicion, she had to pretend to be earnestly looking for survivors and exorcizing evil spirits.
Meanwhile, she also responded to everyone’s requests by sending people to investigate the origins of the evil spirits on Weir Mountain. But if any witch found the “power station” on Weir Mountain or any other evidence that might expose Mayor Ryan’s secrets, that witch would immediately be arrested by government forces and subsequently executed.
However, the cooperation between Sarah and Ryan seemed flawless, which raised the question, what was Sarah’s purpose and benefit in this?
She was so skilled with technological products; it seemed she knew everything Ryan did.
Was it possible that she and Ryan were the same person?
After all… it was Sarah’s suggestion to have some players cross-dress from the beginning.
It turned out she was the true master of disguise.
Ryan’s turquoise eyes and Sara’s blue eyes started to interchange in Zhou Qian’s vision. Ryan had blonde hair, and Sarah had blonde eyelashes. This seemed to serve as evidence.
Although they didn’t look very alike… Zhou Qian remembered, when he met Sarah, she was wearing heavy makeup. Makeup, of course, could make a person look very different. The color of the eyes could be solved with colored contact lenses.
Sarah was Ryan. Ryan himself was a man, and he cross-dressed to pose as a witch.
Zhou Qian was becoming more and more certain about this.
However, there was still a doubt. Such impersonation was possible in a short time, but it was highly improbable for Ryan to do this for more than ten years without slipping up. So, the earliest Witch Sarah should indeed have existed.
Where did she go, and how was she replaced by Ryan?
Furthermore, there was another small question in the whole affair.
Ryan couldn’t accomplish such a thing alone. He must have a team that was absolutely loyal to him, helping him manage everything. These people believe in him, probably even more than the witches believe in Sarah.
After all, everything Sarah did in front of the witches was an act. They believed in her disguise. But Ryan’s followers believed in the real Ryan.
They manufactured massacres, disguised crime scenes, and eventually made sure all informants—everyone who might expose the matter—were dead…
They should also be townspeople. Why would they do such things?
……
At this point, the four players present had almost sorted out everything. Qi Liuxing wondered, “So, what should we do next? This time, the system’s hints about the plot are very scarce.”
Ke Yuxiao said, “I think we should find a way to rescue Wu Ren, Situ Qing, and Yin Jiujiu first. Besides, Wu Ren has less than two hours left. I have a bad premonition.”
The two discussed for a moment and then looked at Zhou Qian, seemingly wanting his opinion. Zhou Qian didn’t speak for a while. He was unusually serious, and then also glanced at his watch. The system popped up a message from Li Xuexai—
[The place where life points decrease quickly is where the radiation is severe. I’m very worried you all might be sent back to Weir Mountain.]
Seeing this line, Zhou Qian’s mouth curled, and he whispered, “Unfortunately, I think your worries are correct.”
Zhou Qian guessed right. So did Li Xuehai.
Soon, with a “ding” sound, the elevator door opened. Mayor Ryan walked in, surrounded by soldiers. He seemed like a completely different person.
He used to be gentlemanly and polite; his smile was gentle, and his eyes were always filled with concern. But this time, when he stepped out of the elevator, his eyes seemed to be shining.
When he saw Zhou Qian and the others, his eyes brightened even more. He walked up to Zhou Qian and firmly shook his hand as if holding some precious gift, unwilling to let go. “You are gifts from heaven, gifts for Beautiful Flower Town! Come! Follow me!”
Mayor Ryan seemed to be inviting the players into the elevator on the surface, but in reality, the players were forced to move forward with guns pointed at their heads.
This time, they directly took the elevator to the underground parking garage and then astonishingly entered a commercial vehicle.
When Zhou Qian entered the commercial vehicle, he was quite surprised to find that Situ Qing, Yin Jiujiu, and Wu Ren were already inside.
As for any discoveries each of the three made, Zhou Qian temporarily didn’t have time to ask. Only when everyone was in the vehicle and the car gradually drove away from the government building did he find that this car was indeed heading to Weir Mountain.
At this time, Mayor Ryan was still warmly shaking his hand; his eyes were shining as if a cheetah had seen its prey.
Zhou Qian looked back at him, the corner of his mouth hooking into a smile. “Dear Mayor Ryan, what did you mean by what you said just now?”
Ryan spoke with a laugh, his words somewhat incoherent. “It’s… you are all gifts… Your data has come out. I mean, when you first came to the government building, you went to the testing room. Besides removing the possible radiation, ah no, evil spirits from your body, I had people test you.”
“You are my gifts… There is something in your bodies… that can coexist with them… just like those animals and plants… you are not afraid of it…”
“Of course, there are differences in your constitutions. This person is a bit weaker…” Ryan pointed at Wu Ren and clutched Zhou Qian’s hand even more fervently. “But you are the best among you. You are my gift!”
Zhou Qian: “……”
Zhou Qian didn’t speak; he only frowned, sensing a rather ominous premonition. Although Ryan was somewhat incoherent and still hiding everything, Zhou Qian felt that he probably understood Ryan’s meaning.
In this town, humans undoubtedly fear radiation. After mutating, they would suffer, become ill, and eventually die. But animals and plants were different—especially plants.
They would grow taller and become bizarre in appearance, but they wouldn’t die. Now that Ryan had gotten the test data on the players, he believed that players, like plants, weren’t afraid of radiation.
Perhaps players would mutate and become bizarre in appearance, but they would not die but would survive under radiation.
Zhou Qian allowed Ryan to hold his hand, staring into his eyes and asking, “Do you mean that we can coexist with ‘evil spirits’? But why would you hope for such a thing to happen?”
Perhaps because Ryan was too excited at the moment or because the people in the car were his close associates who knew all his deeds, he didn’t hide much and spoke directly, “Because the development of technology cannot be separated from ‘evil spirits’. Evil spirits can provide the most efficient production… It’s greatly convenient for humans! If humans cannot coexist with it, its utility would be greatly limited!”
“You… You’ve appeared! This is great! If one day we humans are no longer afraid of ‘evil spirits’, how wonderful? Our lives will be full of convenience! We don’t have to worry about excessive deforestation or resource consumption. As long as we vigorously develop ‘evil spirits’, we will have inexhaustible resources!”
“We didn’t dare to easily use these resources before because we feared humans themselves would be backfired, afraid that we couldn’t adapt to such an environment. But your appearance means my thoughts were indeed correct!”
“Indeed… this accident reminded me that humans also need to make all changes to adapt to environmental changes, right?” Ryan’s eyes had become extremely fanatic at this point. He couldn’t help but look out the window at the town.
“This new town has been protected by me. But the humans here are too fragile. They are like flowers in a greenhouse. The pursuit of technological progress brought by a little bit of ‘evil spirit’ would make them fall… They are simply vulnerable.”
“You’ve appeared… I may be able to transform them.”
Returning his gaze, Ryan looked at Zhou Qian with fervent and gentle eyes, holding his hand tightly, and said, “I can feel that you seem to be not from this world. I don’t know if some accidents have affected time and space, causing you to appear… Anyway, you are gifts bestowed by heaven to me. So—”
“Please be my test subjects. You will make a huge contribution to humanity!”
Compared to the fanaticism in Ryan’s eyes, the players’ moods had undoubtedly hit rock bottom.
A moment later, they, as test subjects, without wearing protective suits, had already arrived at the most severely radiated core area—the top of Weir Mountain. Ryan and his soldiers were wearing protective suits, and they brought the players wearing regular clothes off the vehicle.
The air here seemed to be somewhat thin, and the moment Zhou Qian stepped off the car, he already felt a bit breathless.
Looking up, Zhou Qian then saw a high wall appear before him.
The wall was very high and very long, making it impossible to see its end at a glance.
The material seems similar to what he had seen in government buildings, with very smooth lines made of very high-quality materials.
Above the high wall, faintly visible were some strangely shaped plants protruding above. Zhou Qian even thought he saw a huge tail sweeping over the edge of the wall just now.
Hence, whatever was concealed within this wall, whatever kind of bizarre world it was… it really made one afraid to think deeper.
Zhou Qian could only guess that a circular wall had been built here, enclosing all the secrets about Mayor Ryan within.
Next, the players would step into it, learning the deepest secrets behind, but also facing an extremely dangerous world.
After a while, Ryan got out of the car and personally took out a button and pressed it. A door was drawn open on the wall.
Ryan, holding Zhou Qian’s hand, led him and the other players to the door. “Please enter to undergo the experiment. I will come to pick you up afterward! Maybe by then… you will not look the same as you do now. But the you by then will be in the form of an advanced human. You will be a role model for all of us. We will all want to grow up to be like you.”
Zhou Qian didn’t speak; he just inadvertently glanced to the side.
Then he saw a leaf growing out of the back of Wu Ren’s neck.
He actually had a leaf growing out of his neck.
Pulling back his gaze, Zhou Qian acted as if he saw nothing.
When Ryan released his hand, about to let him in, Zhou Qian instead held his hand and gently raised it. “Dear Mayor, for the evolution of humans, I am willing to undergo this experiment. But before that, I want to ask you a question.”
“What do you want to ask?” Ryan said.
“You look very familiar.” Zhou Qian smiled. “Do you have any… sisters?”
The color of Ryan’s face seemed to change slightly, then he countered, “Why do you ask this?”
“No reason. She was my lover.” Zhou Qian’s eyes narrowed. “I am just very concerned about her whereabouts.”
[Player Zhou Qian initiated side plot: The Secrets Behind Ryan.]
Indeed.
He guessed it right.
The secrets behind Ryan must be closely related to the reason why he could disguise himself as Witch Sarah.
Upon the command of the small town’s mayor, the squad behind him immediately approached the players. Almost simultaneously, the seven players acted to hide all the crystal balls on them into their bags.
The bags and system watches were assigned to the players by the system; they all belong to something outside the instance logic, and NPCs would directly ignore them. Thus, even though the clothes the players were wearing were very suspicious, no crystal balls or similar witchcraft items were found on them.
Five minutes later, the players were invited into a very spacious commercial vehicle.
The players sat in three rows, with five men at the back and two women arranged in the front row, each held at gunpoint by two individuals.
In front of these three rows of seats, the mayor sat on a solitary, revolving, high-grade leather chair. Facing all the players, he scrutinized them with a discerning gaze.
“Hello, I’m Ryan.” After a long while, the mayor spoke in a deep and pleasant voice. “Hmm… Although all of you are dressed in witches’ clothing, there are five men, so we can temporarily exclude suspicion. As for the two ladies, sorry, we need to interrogate you separately.”
At this moment, Yin Jiujiu felt utterly drained. She never thought that, having just exploited her female identity to outmaneuver her teammates, she would now find herself in a predicament due to this very identity, along with her enemy, Situ Qing.
If she defended herself now, she would inevitably have to defend Situ Qing as well, but she had no choice.
A feeling of the turning of fortune arose in her heart. Yin Jiujiu frowned and said, “The seven of us are tourists who accidentally entered Beautiful Flower Town. We don’t even know what witches are. We were discovered by them in the town and then taken away. These clothes were also forced on us. We are definitely not witches.”
“Don’t worry. Beautiful Flower Town is a quiet, tranquil, and peace-loving town. As long as it’s confirmed that you are not witches, I will, of course, let you go,” Mayor Ryan said to her and glanced out of the window. “You accidentally entered Beautiful Flower Town? I am sorry you had to see such a dreadful town. Fortunately, we have completed the reconstruction work in the south. What you are about to see… will be a completely new town. I hope this will change your impression of this place.”
Hearing this, Zhou Qian also looked out the window. When they were taken away from the magical town by Sarah and the other witches, he had only glimpsed the new southern town from the edge of the forest and hadn’t seen its full view.
The commercial vehicle was now taking another road—a mountain road not obstructed by any tall trees. Hence, from the high terrain of Weir Mountain, Zhou Qian could clearly see the appearance of the new southern town below the mountain.
This town was very different from his initial imagination. Each house was designed in a fluid shape, saving space and looking very technological; every piece of material used in the buildings there seemed to be extraordinary.
In short, the whole town looked quite upscale. Even from a distance, one could see that it was a town with a very advanced level of technology.
Withdrawing his gaze, Zhou Qian looked at both sides of the mountain road.
There were railings on both sides, plastered with signs reading “Warning”, “Research Base”, “Production Base”, “Unauthorized Personnel Keep Out”, and the like.
Seeing this, Zhou Qian couldn’t help recalling his conversation with Eva on the bus. On the way to Weir Mountain, besides showing Eva the diary and receiving a “phone” from her, Zhou Qian had also specifically inquired about Weir Mountain.
He asked Eva, “Is Weir Mountain a famous mountain locally?”
“A long time ago, the town’s electricity all came from Weir Mountain,” Eva said. “There’s a power station there. So… yes, Weir Mountain is famous; the residents of the town have an attachment to it. They worship this mountain.”
“Then… why is there a strawberry field near the power station?” Zhou Qian asked.
Eva said, “The power station—that was a matter of many years ago. Later, with the advent of newer power generation technologies, the power station at Weir Mountain was decommissioned. It once became an open tourist attraction, allowing people to visit and witness this great technology. It was only re-closed last year.”
“In short… many townspeople indeed worship the mayor and also admire the Weir Mountain power station. The mayor is the leader in technology. The townspeople regard him as a godlike figure, believing that he has indeed brought a lot of conveniences to everyone… People like the mayor, like Weir Mountain, so the town has been developing tourism around Weir Mountain, thus the existence of things like strawberry fields.”
Concerning more details, like what technology the power station used, Eva didn’t know.
According to her, many people in the town only knew that the mayor was very smart and powerful and had a background as a scientist. But what field he specialized in and his accomplishments in that field, no one could say.
However, at this point, even though Eva couldn’t provide more information, a very terrifying speculation was slowly forming in Zhou Qian’s mind.
He checked his life points, and the number recorded was “18”.
They hadn’t delayed here for too long, but the value had already sharply decreased by 4 points. It showed that Weir Mountain was indeed a place with substantial problems.
Fortunately, since getting into this luxury commercial vehicle, the countdown on the card had slowed down, almost the same as when they were at the witches’ base. Seeing this, Zhou Qian temporarily put away the card. He didn’t speak all the way, just leaning back in his chair, closing his eyes to rest, and quietly waiting for the commercial vehicle to take them to a new town.
40 minutes later. The players arrived at a place similar to a town hall. The building was built in a circular shape, with semi-transparent material connecting the building to the ground, and from a distance, it seemed like the entire circular building was floating in mid-air, which was quite an awe-inducing sight.
The players, with guns pointed at their heads, had just walked into the hall when the mishap occurred—
Wu Ren, whose one life point card had been cleared and the other card only had “2” left, collapsed unexpectedly. His head hitting the smooth floor made a “bang”, attracting the attention of everyone in the hall.
There were many working staff coming and going here; they all seriously looked at Wu Ren, who was lying on the ground, exchanging extremely frightened glances with each other.
Mayor Ryan was also quite serious; he raised his hand to call over two subordinates and said in a low tone, “Take him to the isolation treatment room. Have the rest undergo a unified examination. Also… take those two women to the interrogation room to see if they are witches.”
By this time, Yin Jiujiu, Situ Qing, and Zhou Qian had all recovered their strength. Hearing this, Yin Jiujiu immediately clenched her wine gourd, seemingly wanting to resist. She knew her actions had offended all her teammates except Li Buhui.
If she were imprisoned, no one would come to her rescue! On the other side, Situ Qing looked at Zhou Qian, seemingly to see his opinion. Soon she received a message from Zhou Qian through the system. “Eva mentioned before that two witch companions disappeared on Weir Mountain; maybe they are also in the interrogation room. Try to find them and talk to them.”
Seeing this, Situ Qing relaxed the hand holding the bell in her bag. Under the indication of the NPC in soldier uniform, she extended her wrists without any intention to resist, and then she was handcuffed and taken away.
Yin Jiujiu raised her gourd, seemingly wanting to fight. But the soldier shot faster, and something like an electric current quickly hit her wrists.
With both hands powerless, Yin Jiujiu almost clenched her teeth with willpower to hold on, so she didn’t let the weapon gourd fall from her hand, but she indeed couldn’t release her skills and could only breathe angrily.
Before being taken away, Yin Jiujiu, as if thinking of something, turned her head and looked at Zhou Qian with very complicated eyes. Zhou Qian looked at her calmly and mouthed to her, “Now you can only cooperate with Situ Qing.”
The implication was that if she refused to cooperate, Zhou Qian would also refuse to help her. Receiving Zhou Qian’s gaze, Yin Jiujiu glared at him fiercely and was taken away with gritted teeth.
The situation was becoming increasingly unfavorable for the players.
Situ Qing and Yin Jiujui, one DPS and one tank, were directly taken away for interrogation. Another powerful DPS, Wu Ren, was unconscious and was also taken away.
Those still present were only Zhou Qian, Qi Liuxing, Ke Yuxiao, and Li Buhui, four people.
These four were quickly taken to a place called the “Isolation Testing Room”.
They each stood on a platform, and soon, two people in white protective suits came in, each holding a large sprayer, gesturing to the players to hold their breath and close their eyes before spraying them intensively.
Finally, those two left, and the room’s door was closed, and white gas sprayed from the ceiling, enveloping and washing over the four people. This was repeated three times.
After about ten minutes, the four were asked to change into regular clothes and then were taken to a reception room. A female staff member came over and poured them water, saying that Mayor Ryan would come to talk to them in a while.
This female staff member was wearing a loose dress, and her abdomen was visibly protruding, seemingly pregnant. She politely greeted everyone and was about to leave after placing the kettle down when Zhou Qian stopped her, his gaze unintentionally lingering on her abdomen before meeting her brown eyes. “Excuse me for asking, your child—”
“Oh… just four months,” the staff member smiled, touching her belly, then her eyes became slightly melancholic.
Zhou Qian caught her melancholy immediately. “My sister lost her child in the disaster. I wish she could, like you, move past the grief and have another child with her husband… Maybe it would comfort her. We have to keep moving forward.”
“Your sister’s child also…” The staff member sighed, wiping a tear from her eye. “What a tragedy… which child could survive such an incident…”
“What exactly happened? Who did this…” Zhou Qian pretended to be angry, slamming his fist on the table. “My niece was the most innocent and adorable. I can’t believe…”
“It seems… you are really not their accomplices.” The staff member frowned, anger in her eyes. “It’s certainly the witches’ doing! They keep harming people! We executed several witches last year. The townspeople hate the witches, and the witches hate the townspeople. This is their revenge on the whole town! Luckily…”
She shook her head, saying with relief, “Luckily, Mayor Ryan had planned the town relocation in advance. Although our old home was destroyed, we were able to move into a new one immediately… Haa…”
The suspicions about the mayor were growing.
Zhou Qian’s hand, placed under the table, slightly tightened as he asked the staff member again, “But where do these witches get such great ability? How did they do it? I heard that fireworks were set off on the night of the music festival. Could the emergence of the evil spirits be related to the fireworks? Do you know what’s the deal with those fireworks?”
“Fireworks? I don’t recall fireworks being set off that night…” The staff member recalled. “After the tragedy occurred, we didn’t immediately go up the mountain. The mayor was afraid that something would happen to us, so he let us stay away from the town first. Until… until the mayor let the research institute develop protective gear capable of resisting evil spirits. With the protective gear, he allowed us to act. Later, we, wearing protective gear, went to Mount Weir for an investigation… Indeed, we found fireworks. Those are the fireworks that are set off every year at the Strawberry Festival. But this year’s fireworks weren’t set off, they were still behind the square halfway up the mountain, all sealed in boxes.”
At this point in the conversation, beeping sounds came from the staff member, as if someone was contacting her. Then she nodded to Zhou Qian and the others and quickly left.
The large meeting room was temporarily left with only four players.
“So… what do you all think about the current situation?” The one who asked this was Li Bu Hui.
Zhou Qian raised his eyelids and glanced at him with profound meaning but did not respond immediately.
Realizing something, Li Buhui hastily said, “Is it because of Yin Jiujiu that you have a bad impression of me? Don’t be like that. Well… I had to cling to her to get the chance to enter this instance. Whatever she asks of me, I listen to her. I am just her follower, so I don’t have a choice. I am merely seeking to survive. I haven’t done anything wrong. Now, good… Both of them are locked up. This…”
Zhou Qian withdrew his gaze and didn’t look at Li Bu Hui anymore. He started to examine the conference room.
There was no visible air conditioning unit in the conference room, yet the walls seemed to breathe, providing ample oxygen and maintaining a very constant temperature, making it very comfortable.
Including the door…from inside this room, one couldn’t distinguish where the door was. It was seamless with the walls. It seemed that the technology of this town had indeed reached an advanced stage.
Then Zhou Qian asked, “What do you think about the ‘fireworks’ at the music festival?”
“The tickets for the Strawberry Music Festival had a background of fireworks… but according to the female staff member we spoke to earlier, there were no fireworks that night.” Qi Liuxing said, “But Lily’s diary explicitly mentioned fireworks blooming like shooting stars… Perhaps the root of the tragedy is related to the fireworks.”
Zhou Qian nodded and continued. “On the way to Weir Mountain, I asked Eva; she said there’s an abandoned power station on Weir Mountain. The power station used some advanced technology that brought much convenience to people’s lives. So, it was turned into a tourist attraction but was closed again last year. We can speculate… maybe it reopened this year, perhaps conducting some secret experiments.”
“I think we can make bold assumptions at this time,” Zhou Qian continued. “If the ‘monsterization’ of children’s bodies and the strange transformations of flora and fauna have nothing to do with magical fantasy, then it can only be explained scientifically. For example—‘genetic’ mutation.
“Based on this, we can also speculate what happened in this town. Look… the mayor and the soldiers he brought were all wearing special protective suits. What are those suits protecting against?”
At this moment, Qi Liuxing and Ke Yuxiao almost simultaneously murmured the word, “Radiation.”
“Right. It’s radiation.” Zhou Qian said, “I suspect that the power station is something like a nuclear power plant. Assuming all our deductions are correct, last year this power station was secretly restarted, but for some reason… the mayor didn’t inform the other townspeople.”
“So, the festival proceeded as usual on the day of the music festival. Everyone sang, ate strawberries… and then a nuclear explosion-like accident occurred. The real fireworks that night hadn’t been set off yet. But the reason the children saw ‘beautiful fireworks like shooting stars’ was merely because some reactor at the power station had a problem, leading to an explosion.”
The power station was built at the highest point of the Weir Mountains.
The festival was held on the hillside of one of the mountains.
An explosion occurred at the mountain-top power station, and “flames” rushed from the experimental laboratory at the top of the mountain towards the night sky, creating fireworks, then turning into rain-like ash falling from the sky.
Unsuspecting children on the hillside plaza saw this scene and thought it was this year’s special edition of fireworks, just like shooting stars.
So, the children ran, laughed, played, and made wishes in the radioactive dust…
But they didn’t know, every particle of this dust had strong radioactivity.
The children went home covered in radioactive dust, and the radiation caused genetic mutations in their bodies, altering their appearances over time.
Then, they were seen as “possessed by evil spirits” by the ignorant witches.
Lily must have suffered immensely during her “mutation” due to radiation.
But she was locked up by her ignorant mother, even had her fingers and palm cut off, and eventually died in endless pain.
However, Lily was just one of countless tragedies.
Many children in the town went through similar experiences.
The explosion that night was already a massive accident.
But Zhou Qian knew that the accident was just the beginning of the tragedy.
Faced with such truth, Qi Liuxing felt suffocated.
He clenched his fists tightly for a long time before loosening them and asking Zhou Qian, “Then…what about Lina’s death? Didn’t we leave the study after answering correctly?”
Zhou Qian said, “That’s only the truth in Lina’s cognition. After all, that night in her memory, all the adults went on vacation to the neighboring town, leaving only Lily by her side.”
“Also, do you remember I asked Eva something about what she saw when she returned home in the early morning the next day?”
Qi Liuxing’s eyes widened involuntarily, muttering, “She said Lily was unconscious. She thought, Lily fainted temporarily because her body couldn’t bear the power of the evil spirit…”
“Eva also said, she took the opportunity to anesthetize Lily, cut off her fingers, and decided to summon her daughter’s soul…”
“Correct,” Zhou Qian said. “So, I suppose there’s no need for me to explain what the real truth is.”
Qi Liuxing’s face turned pale. “No need to explain. I understand. I originally wanted to ask… It’s one thing if it’s just one or two people, but why do all witches similar to Eva uniformly believe that their children are murderers possessed by evil spirits…
“Everyone has been manipulated. This is a shocking conspiracy. This is too, too horrifying…”
“Who the hell did these things—!”
Qi Liuxing couldn’t speak the rest of his words.
Because the doors of the conference room opened on their own, and someone came in.
After the person entered, the door, which separated and merged into the wall like water, slid out again in the same manner. The door then blended with the wall, indistinguishable.
It was Mayor Ryan.
This time, he wasn’t wearing goggles or protective gear and was dressed in just a suit.
He had golden hair, and his blue eyes were as mysterious as a lake.
When he sat down facing the four players, he asked with a smile in his eyes, “I am here to ask you some questions. Why were you all at Weir Mountain?”
Everyone was immersed in the shock of facing the brutal truth.
A moment later, Zhou Qian was the first to speak. “We were forcibly taken by the witches. They had us follow them up the mountain to search. We still don’t know what they wanted us to find.”
After answering, Zhou Qian took the initiative and asked, “What exactly is going on with this town?”
“Why don’t you first tell me what you all have seen?” Ryan asked.
Zhou Qian replied, “Monsters, giant flowers, even faces on the flowers… We also saw bodies, but those bodies weren’t like humans but like monsters. That’s about it. Is all of this caused by some evil magic?”
Ryan had the typical Western appearance, with very fair skin, and pronounced features.
As the mayor, he seemed to have great sympathy for the town’s residents, and he had high empathy. Hearing Zhou Qian’s words, his face showed great pain and anger.
After taking several deep breaths, Ryan calmed himself and said, “Of course, all of this is done by the witches. ‘The horror of the flower of evil… it blooms at the edge of hell…’ all witches are horrifying and malicious flowers of evil!”
The real flower of evil is probably not the witches, but you, the mayor, and the malicious intentions behind all of this.
This was what Zhou Qian thought in his heart, but on the surface, he just maintained an apparently very innocent and sincere smile.
All the doubts and incongruities had explanations.
The only thing Zhou Qian didn’t understand was—what experiments were being conducted in the power station after the restart, or rather, what research was the mayor conducting.
According to Zhou Qian’s understanding, radiation could cause cancer and mutations in unborn children.
Now in this instance, animals and plants had experienced such a degree of genetic mutation, obviously, the actual situation was much more complicated. Like butterflies having grown something similar to human legs—it was as if it copied a part of human genes.
Ryan took a deep breath, looked at Zhou Qian and the others. “Actually, I am willing to believe that you are not in league with the witches. After testing, indeed, there are no evil spirits or anything on you. How about this, I will take you to see a place. Let’s experience the new vitality of the town together.”
After finishing speaking, Ryan really led the four players out of the reception room.
Accompanied by a dozen soldiers, they reached the 11th floor by elevator.
The moment they stepped out of the elevator, the scene the players saw was truly beyond expectation.
It was like a maternity hospital here. The people walking in the corridor, those sitting together talking in the rest area… all were pregnant women.
And the banners hanging around the floor were all encouraging childbirth, saying “For every additional child born, receive a government subsidy of three thousand yuan per month”, “Pregnant women can be properly cared for at the government’s childbirth center”, and so on.
“The witches are hateful flowers of evil. They killed all the children in the town.”
Mayor Ryan’s pleasing voice came again, but it carried a chilling tone.
“Fortunately, people have recovered from the pain. Through some incentive measures, people are still willing to have children again. Beautiful Flower Town will not be destroyed by the witches. The next generation… is coming soon. We humans, still have a future.”
The author has something to say:
The remaining part of the truth will be revealed tomorrow if there is still anything unclear.
One thing that must be clarified is that Epoh, Jiang Yuqing, including the mayor here—their character settings are all part of the instance plot and have nothing to do with Bai Zhou himself. Please do not let the character setting of the mayor affect your perception of Zhouzhou.
As mentioned earlier, Rank God players loading into NPCs can appropriately use the game rules to increase game difficulty and test the “Shepherd” they have chosen, but they cannot change the plot and character settings. In terms of plot and character setup, Bai Zhou is essentially just an observer living inside the NPC.
Kinky Thoughts:
Speaking of Chernobyl reminded me of the miniseries I watch of the same name. It’s quite a good historical drama which I recommend to everyone.
Situ Qing’s eyes widened. Her pupils contracted like needles, reflecting a semi-transparent object like ice spikes enveloped by intense killing intent and alcohol. This object was close at hand, ready to take her life at any moment.
However, in this critical moment, there was a “bang”, followed by a “zzt”. A current of electricity swept towards her. It opened into a net, quickly enveloping the gourd and the alcohol pouring out from it that could condense into weapons, finally hitting Yin Jiujiu and causing her to collapse to the ground, her limbs paralyzed.
How… How is this possible?
Each of the five witches had such weapons—extremely powerful weapons. Logically, there should be no way for the players to escape from them!
In fact, the reason why the witches were rated Rank S, aside from the game setting and their substantial amount of health, was mainly due to the empowerment of their weapons. Their attack power shouldn’t be at Rank S; it was all due to these unerring weapons.
Under such circumstances… how did Zhou Qian and the others escape?
Wait, even if Zhou Qian and the others could escape, how could they even seize such a weapon and even… even return?
Did Zhou Qian guess her plan all along?
Yin Jiujiu crawled on the ground, frowning, forcing herself to raise her head with her hands, and indeed saw Zhou Qian and the others walking over.
Before, it was Zhou Qian and Qi Liuxing carrying Wu Ren.
Now the situation had changed. Wu Ren was being supported by Ke Yuxiao, and the person holding the witch’s weapon, who just attacked her, is also Ke Yuxiao.
As for Zhou Qian, he seemed to be leaning on Qi Liuxing as if he had no bones, and he too seemed to be affected, paralyzed due to the attack. At the same time, Zhou Qian was holding a small round object in his hand that couldn’t be identified.
As Yin Jiujiu was astonished, she met Zhou Qian’s smiling eyes.
She felt an extreme sense of foreboding from his smile.
What… What exactly is going on?
……
Moments earlier.
Zhou Qian and the three men escaped into the bushes, followed by the five witches.
If they had attacked the bushes impulsively due to not finding anyone, all four of them might have been affected and paralyzed.
Therefore, Zhou Qian jumped out first at a critical moment, attracting all firepower, becoming the target—at least three electric shots were aimed at him. Fortunately, his estimates were quite accurate; he fell to the ground and couldn’t use much strength but was still alive.
Before this, Zhou Qian had asked Situ Qing, who was affected, to pick up the stone from the ground to see if a person who was affected could still exert a little strength. Since Situ Qing could pick up the stone after being affected—
Of course, Zhou Qian could still use his strength to make a call.
While Zhou Qian attracted the witches’ attention and fell to the ground, the five witches checked his condition, and after confirming that he couldn’t move, they continued to search for his three teammates.
The time Zhou Qian bought was enough for them to run a certain distance, so they wouldn’t be affected by the witches’ random shots at the bushes and lose their strength.
When the witches turned around, Zhou Qian pulled out a small round object and dialed “26-111”—the mayor’s hotline he saw on his way to the witches’ base.
“Hello, mayor, I’ve been attacked by the witches. I’m in the southern part of Weir Mountain… maybe you can track my location? Oh, you can see it. That’s great.”
“If I die, I will have evidence that they indeed harm people…”
The witches heard his words, stopped immediately, turned around, and looked at him. After a period of hesitation, struggle, and contemplation, they surprisingly made a unified choice—to run.
During this, Qi Liuxing supported Wu Ren from the depths of the bushes, and Ke Yuxiao quickly followed the direction the witches were running, taking out his weapon, a long flute. The moment the flute sound rang, a sound wave targeted a witch’s wrist from a distance.
The witch, in her hurry to escape, dropped her weapon due to the pain and didn’t pick it up, immediately running with her teammates.
The four didn’t chase the witches but quickly went back to rescue Situ Qing, leading to the present scene.
Time returned to this moment.
Zhou Qian looked down at Yin Jiujiu, then glanced at the acquiescent Li Buhui behind her, and finally looked at the others.
“On the way to the witches’ headquarters, we can see the mayor’s hotline, a clear hint that when we encounter difficulties with the witches, we can seek help from the mayor. That’s one thing.”
“Secondly, the mayor, along with the rest of the townspeople, all despise the witches. The witches and the mayor are on opposite sides. If the witches want to harm us, the mayor will indeed help us.”
“Thirdly, on the way from Beautiful Flower Town to the base, the witch bus only dares to take small roads, hiding from sight. Moreover, just after getting off the bus and on the way climbing Weir Mountain, as you have seen, the witches have been acting very cautiously, saying that the mayor will send people to investigate. They are afraid of being caught, so everyone needs to be very careful…”
“In conclusion, the witches are very afraid of the mayor and his people. The mayor, being the head of a town, may have military power. Sure enough, with just one call, the witches were scared away by me.”
After Zhou Qian finished explaining, the players received a message from the system.
[Beautiful Flower Town North — Witch Base line, a regular clearance route.]
[Player Zhou Qian calls the mayor’s hotline unlocking the hidden plot: Beautiful Flower Town South.]
[Hidden plot has been triggered. Please look forward to the follow-up…]
Hidden plots often come with an exponential increase in game difficulty.
So… even though the mayor had resolved the immediate crisis for the players, whether he was a protagonist or antagonist in this instance was still questionable.
For a moment, the players even temporarily forgot the attempted murder that had just occurred minutes ago.
Soon, it was the would-be murderer, Yin Jiujiu, who brought up this topic.
She looked at Zhou Qian and asked, “When did you guess… about my actions?”
“I originally thought you wanted to kill me. But between ‘going to the square to watch the warlock being punished’ and ‘coming to Weir Mountain to investigate’, you chose the latter. I then realized that your target might not be me, or even any male player.
“In fact, at that time, these two choices weren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. After all, after watching the warlock being punished at the square, there might still be many opportunities to come to Weir Mountain, as the witches often need to investigate here. But to kill a male player surrounded by numerous witches is a golden opportunity.”
“So, if you wanted to kill me or any male player, you would not have missed that opportunity. Is there any better opportunity than when everyone is gathered at the square and execution tools are readily available to kill with the help of dozens of witches?”
“But you didn’t hesitate to say you wanted to come to Weir Mountain, so the only one you wanted to kill was a female player. Among those present, the only females are you and Situ Qing.”
“Therefore—” Zhou Qian smiled. “Just from that one thing, I knew you didn’t want to kill me. And when you asked the witches to attack Wu Ren, or even all the male players, I became even more certain that the one you really wanted to kill was Situ Qing.”
“You exposed our identities, not to take our lives, but to have the witches constrain us, depriving us of the ability to protect Situ Qing.”
Hearing this, Situ Qing, who had regained some strength, propped up her upper body from the ground and sat down.
She looked at Zhou Qian. “So… at that time you were…”
Zhou Qian looked at her, frankly saying, “Of course, there was an element of testing you. But you undoubtedly passed the test. See, you chose to trust me, and that’s how I could trust you. I told you, I won’t let you die.”
Situ Qing was stunned. Zhou Qian didn’t look at her but looked at Yin Jiujiu again.
“Of course, what I said just now was just the first objective. My second objective was naturally to probe your, Yin Jiujiu’s, background. I heard all the conversation you had just now. And I think… most of what you said is true.”
“Now you both have different stories, Yin Jiujiu says Situ Qing harmed her friend, while Situ Qing denies it. But from what I know of Situ Qing, she is straightforward and physically strong—not necessarily a good person. But she is indeed not good at lying. Under the circumstances just now, she actually had no need to lie, so—”
“Shut up, Zhou Qian.” Yin Jiujiu abruptly interrupted him. “I know your kind. You are not really a good person either. You’re not truly vindicating Situ Qing. You just want to temporarily convince me to cooperate with you.”
“Oh, but don’t you want to cooperate with me?”
Zhou Qian asked her with a smile. “You’ve seen it. I’ve unlocked the hidden plot. The achievement rate of this hidden plot is so low… Do you want me to remind you?”
At this moment, even Yin Jiujiu fell silent.
She didn’t care at all about unlocking hidden achievements; she was here truly just for revenge.
The normal clearance rate of this level was as high as 50%, so she was originally confident of clearing it alone.
Besides, judging from the previous situation, this level seems to be very friendly to women…
But now, Zhou Qian had forcibly triggered the hidden plot for everyone.
Facing only a 5% clearance rate, she couldn’t afford to gamble either.
“Wait—” The one who spoke at this moment was Wu Ren.
He turned his head and looked at Zhou Qian with a complicated gaze. “That thing in your hand… a device that can make calls—is it a cellphone? Where did you get a cellphone? The trading hall has similar communication tools, but not in this design. You—”
Hearing this, Zhou Qian raised his head and glanced in the direction of the foot of the mountain, seemingly wanting to see if a certain witch had already left.
After a moment, he said, “I got it from Eva secretly on the bus.”
“Why does she have it? And why would she give it to you? What, what did you tell her?” Wu Ren asked unavoidably.
Not only was he curious, but at this moment, everyone’s curious gaze was also fixed on Zhou Qian.
Zhou Qian explained, “It’s actually nothing. First, I handed Eva her daughter Lily’s diary. Of course, I only showed her the page that Lily wrote about the music festival. I reminded her—her daughter might not be possessed by evil spirits at all. She did show a glimpse of doubt but was soon defeated by long-established beliefs, thinking I was talking nonsense. Under such circumstances…”
Pausing slightly, Zhou Qian continued, “I didn’t forcefully ask her to believe me or to believe that magic doesn’t exist.”
“I just tentatively asked her if the TVs at her home and even the AI Barbie doll in her daughter’s room are still there. So, whether it’s for disguising as a normal person or not, there should still be some electronic devices in her life. After all, electronic devices can alleviate many unnecessary burdens and indeed bring convenience to our lives.”
“I guessed she might still have some similar devices. I did ask her explicitly if she kept any communication tools.”
“To avoid arousing her suspicion, I said at the time… the rest of her daughter’s diary is placed somewhere. After I find the diary later, I will contact her using communication tools.”
“As expected, she gave me this cellphone that can dial the mayor’s hotline. Though she told me… it’s against the rules, and we both need to act covertly. Haa…”
Zhou Qian shook his head. “She also emphasized to me in a low voice that she only kept the cellphone for convenience. She swore she absolutely didn’t betray the Witch Association.”
After hearing Zhou Qian’s words, Wu Ren remained silent for a long time.
He and his gambler seemed to be completely stunned.
After a while, he gave Zhou Qian a sincere thumbs-up.
Zhou Qian’s thoughts were so meticulous, and his actions were flawless.
Wu Ren had taken several blows in a row, discovering his physical condition, the accelerated decrease in life points, and the unlocking of the hidden plot… He felt he might really die in this instance.
But now, seeing Zhou Qian like this, he felt a surge of confidence that they could pass the level.
After a while, everyone heard footsteps.
Zhou Qian turned his head and saw another group of people coming from the main road.
They were almost fully armed.
They wore something like goggles. Special masks covered their faces, their hair was completely wrapped by some high-grade hats, and the parts like the neck and limbs were well protected. Nothing was exposed.
This was a small team of more than ten people; their steps were very neat, as if they had received professional training.
Each was carrying a huge weapon, somewhat similar to a gun.
The leader was tall and straight.
When he approached, Zhou Qian could see his eyes were a beautiful green, like the most beautiful jade or like a lake reflecting the trees.
“Hello, I am the mayor of Beautiful Flower Town.”
The man spoke.
His voice was deep, pleasant, very magnetic, and extraordinarily courteous.
Then he said two sentences.
The first, he gently raised his hand, made a gesture to the soldiers behind him, and said, “Check if there are any witches hiding here. If so, capture them.”
The second, he said while looking at Zhou Qian.
Glancing at the communication tool in Zhou Qian’s hand, he said, “You were the one who called for help, right? I’m glad you’re safe; it seems I came just in time. Come on, I will take you to see the real, new Beautiful Flower Town.”
[Player Wu Ren experiences abnormalities in his body.]
[Player Triggers Plot: People with low life points seem to be more susceptible to evil spirit contamination.]
This was the plot prompt that all players received at this moment. Before the players discovered the truth, the system still used the word “evil spirit”.
Through the mask, Zhou Qian couldn’t see if there was anything wrong with Wu Ren’s face. However, based on Lily’s symptoms, the first part of her to “monstrify” was her face. But the first reaction on Wu Ren seemed to be on his limbs.
Was everyone’s situation different?
Quickly confirming Wu Ren’s condition, Zhou Qian turned his head to look at the five witches. They walked very carefully and attentively, as if trying to conceal their actions. There was, of course, a reason for this.
When they just stepped off the bus and were about to walk up the mountain path, Eva had reminded everyone to be careful. This place was still within the town’s boundaries.
The mayor was still sending people to investigate, trying to find out what happened during the festival. And the townspeople, represented by the mayor, still despise witches. If the witches were discovered or even captured by them, the consequences are unimaginable.
As Zhou Qian looked at the witches, a sudden change occurred. Unexpectedly, Yin Jiujui shouted—
“This Wu Ren is a man, and he has been possessed by an evil spirit!”
If Yin Jiujui was really from the Peach Blossom Legion, she should be dealing with Zhou Qian. Why would she suddenly attack Wu Ren?
This place was already within the boundaries of Weir Mountain. It was unknown what horrific events occurred here, turning so many children into murderous monsters. Even if she wanted to kill Wu Ren, she shouldn’t act rashly at this time and place.
What was she trying to do?
At this moment, Qi Liuxing, who had been observing everything, was truly perplexed. His gambler was also perplexed. After much deliberation, he could only send him a message with the words: [Be careful.]
Zhou Qian, who also received the gambler’s message, got a message from his main doctor Li Xuehai: [Yin Jiujui’s actions are unusual; it’s uncertain if it’s a diversion.]
In the blink of an eye, Eva had already sprung into action. She pulled out something that looked like a gun from her black robe and glared at Wu Ren with hostile eyes.
At the same moment, Situ Qing saw three lines of text sent by Zhou Qian on her wrist system panel.
[We have been wondering whether to trust you or not. Now it’s your time to prove yourself.]
[If you want me to believe you, you have to believe me first, do exactly as I say.]
[I am not like Mu Sheng. I will not send you to your death.]
These three lines flickered and disappeared in a flash. Soon Situ Qing lifted her head and looked in the direction of Zhou Qian, and further ahead, Eva had raised her gun.
Zhou Qian suddenly shouted, “Situ Qing, stand in front of Wu Ren. Use the power of ice and snow to block the gun for him! The abnormal condition appearing in Wu Ren’s body is an important clue to solving the level; we can’t let him be killed by the witch!”
All my skills need to be charged.Zhou Qian knows this very well!My skills can’t be as fast as Eva’s gun!
How can I use skills to block the gun?
Zhou Qian means… he obviously wants me to block Wu Ren with my body!
Is he sending me to death?
Can I trust him……
Time was only a second, but countless thoughts crossed Situ Qing’s mind. But when the dark muzzle slowly rose, she had no time to think about anything.
When there was no time to use reason and logic to help judge, people could only make choices based on instinct. And all instincts were traceable.
In this instant, all of Situ Qing’s senses and thoughts seemed to condense into a scene in her heart. It seemed like she had entered the illusion related to fire again. But this time, the fire in the rental home wasn’t an accident; it was deliberately set by her.
She always returned to that rental home with a weary body, but after returning, she often couldn’t rest; she had to clean and cook. By this point, the rental home just made her physically tired.
Every time she returned to the rental home, what she feared most in her heart was facing Mu Sheng. Facing his unpredictable temper, facing his jealousy and rage that could erupt at any time, or facing his tearful eyes and heartfelt “Sister, I love you”…
Now she saw herself setting fire to that rental home, burning Mu Sheng to death, as if she had finally burnt the karmic ties of her past life.
Finally, the illusion disappeared. Situ Qing’s back was filled with the burning and pain brought by the explosive shock wave. But she wasn’t afraid at all. Zhou Qian stood in the light of the fire extending his hand to her. Behind him were Yun Xiangrong, He Xiaowei, and even Gao Shan.
She knew she was walking towards rebirth.
“Come with me. Let me show you the real light.”
“You can join us. You will have a new life like all of us.”
“As long as you are willing to believe in me.”
Her original family was broken, so did joining the team mean another kind of family?
Would that family be different? Would it bring some warmth to her?
But they all didn’t trust her… and indeed, she wronged them…
“We do doubt you now.”
“If you want to prove you are trustworthy, then you have to trust me.”
“I’m not like Mu Sheng. I won’t send you to your death.”
Bang—!
The moment the gunshot sounded, Situ Qing had already come to Wu Ren’s side, opening her arms to block the shot for him. But she didn’t die after all. What Eva’s gun fired wasn’t a bullet, but some substance similar to electricity.
Situ Qing’s body bounced and then crashed to the ground, but she couldn’t feel the pain as her limbs seemed to be numbed by the electrical current.
At the same time, she also breathed a long sigh of relief. She didn’t find the situation dangerous, but instead felt relaxed.
She made the right bet. Zhou Qian really didn’t let her die!
“Situ Qing, are you alright? Can you move?” Zhou Qian’s voice came. “Grasp the stone next to you and show me.”
Situ Qing, leaning on the ground, gasped for a few breaths. She didn’t know why Zhou Qian was asking her to grasp the stone, but she picked up a stone anyway.
She tried and found she could lift the stone but couldn’t hold it for a few seconds. She didn’t even have the strength to throw it away and could only let it slip from her palm.
At this moment, Yin Jiujiu loudly pointed out to the five witches. “There are four men here!” The witches, shocked, watched as Yin Jiujiu quickly identified four males in the group, excluding Li Buhui. The other four witches then raised their guns and aimed at the four men dressed as women, including Zhou Qian.
“Run!” Zhou Qian immediately said.
“I-I can’t…run!” Wu Ren said in a hoarse voice. “My legs feel like millions of ants are biting—itchy and painful! Damn, now I know how inconvenient it is to wear a skirt!”
“Xiao Qi and I will help you run!”
After saying this, Zhou Qian gave Qi Liuxing a look, and the two each supported one arm of Wu Ren and instantly hid in the nearby bushes.
Thanks to the mutated trees, the normal bushes became tall and dense, and the three disappeared in an instant. Ke Yuxiao followed suit, disappearing with them into the wilderness.
“We know this place better than they do. They can’t escape. Chase!” Eva sternly ordered, leading the other four witches towards the direction Zhou Qian and the others had fled.
At this time, Situ Qing was still lying on the ground. Her numbness was somewhat relieved, but she still couldn’t muster any strength. She was also a bit confused about the situation and didn’t know what was going on.
Taking a breath, Situ Qing barely turned her head, frowning at Yin Jiujiu’s position.
“Are you crazy? What are you trying to do?” she asked weakly.
“I’ve long seen through the so-called… relationships between each member of Zhou Qian’s small team,” Yin Jiujiu said, walking towards Situ Qing. “Zhou Qian and Qi Liuxing must trust each other the most, Ke Yuxiao is also okay. But you are somewhat lacking. Besides, under this setting of witches against warlocks, he can exploit you even more. As expected—”
“He also didn’t know what the witches’ guns were. He wanted to test it, so he let you block the gun for Wu Ren. Through your experiment, he probed out the result.”
“Of course, I think he actually didn’t intend to let you die.”
“Firstly, if the witches have guns that can kill… why didn’t the instance give some clues in advance? All the ‘monsters’ were cut with a knife, and warlocks need to be tied up and burned.”
“It seems now that their guns are just something similar to stun guns, only capable of rendering people immobile. The reason why warlocks could be easily caught and tied up by them is also due to this.”
“So Zhou Qian guessed it—the guns wouldn’t be fatal. He just wanted you to test the real utility of these guns.”
“Secondly, in this instance, the only ones the witches want to kill are the warlocks. But you are not a man. Even if you lose your ability to move, the witches won’t kill you. So, regardless of the internal relationships within your small team, the reason Zhou Qian let you test the gun is very simple. Just because you are the only girl in your team.”
“If a man gets hit and caught by a gun, he will die. But you will be fine. This is the reason he chose to let you experiment. So…”
At this moment, Yin Jiujiu had already walked up to Situ Qing.
She took out a gourd-shaped wine bottle, opened the lid, and took a big gulp, then looked down at Situ Qing with cold eyes. “By saying this, maybe you will feel a bit better, right?”
“Zhou Qian didn’t do it on purpose. He didn’t abandon you either. Under the special setting of this instance, he just did something he thought had relatively high benefits. He thought letting you test the gun could temporarily save other teammates and also keep you alive. But he didn’t expect one thing…”
Crouching down and grabbing Situ Qing’s chin, Yin Jiujiu said fiercely, “He didn’t know that the person I really want to kill is you!”
At this moment, Situ Qing really felt incredulous and asked, “Why?”
She quickly realized something and said, “I get it, Mu Sheng sent you, didn’t he? He hates me for betraying him? Or… are you from the Peach Blossom Legion? My mission failed, and you want to get rid of me? But I haven’t officially joined them. I don’t know any secrets of the legion—”
“What Peach Blossom, what Mu Sheng? I don’t know them at all!” Yin Jiujiu coldly snorted. “It seems you forgot about Meng Hui!”
Who is Meng Hui…
It took Situ Qing quite a while to remember this person.
She once wanted to level up quickly, so she rapidly ran instances, and of course, she met a lot of teammates and witnessed many deaths.
Meng Hui seemed to be one of her former teammates who died quietly, and she even can’t remember how that person died now.
Situ Qing looked into Yin Jiujiu’s murderous eyes and said, “I remember her. But her death has nothing to do with me. I don’t know what kind of misunderstanding is in this—”
Yin Jiujiu’s voice was full of anger. “Stop pretending! I was her gambler at that time. I saw clearly from the screen that you let her die!”
“Meng Hui was my best friend. Situ Qing, I entered this game and waited until today just to kill you. This instance finally gave me a chance, and I won’t miss it. I must avenge Meng Hui!”
Yin Jiujiu continued, “You might think I am crazy, might think I am insane—how dare I kill other teammates at this time, just to avenge my friend?
“To make you die more peacefully and feel less guilty, I can tell you another fact—”
“The witches now will only tie up men and then go to the square to burn them. Apart from the fact that they don’t have a weapon that can kill in one hit, they need a sense of ritual. For the things the warlocks did to them, they want to retaliate.”
“But I am a woman. I am absolutely safe here. So, when Zhou Qian and the others get caught and tied up, I will save them. I only have a grudge against you, not others.”
“The reason why I have to let them be temporarily controlled by the witches and choose to do it at this time is only one—under normal circumstances, I can’t beat you. But now you are injured by the witches’ weapon, and now at my mercy.”
“I’ve told you everything—the cause and effect of killing you and the subsequent situation of your teammates.”
“Situ Qing, you can now rest in peace.”
Yin Jiujiu said all she had to say.
She lifted the wine bottle high, and the liquor inside it condensed into an ice spike. The ice spike formed, accompanied by the pungent smell of wine, and stabbed straight towards Situ Qing’s forehead, who was lying on the ground, unable to move!
Mist enveloped the tops of the trees; the valley was spacious and silent, devoid of any chirps of birds or hums of insects. The witches’ base was situated in a particularly quiet utopia.
As far as the eye could see, bungalows were densely packed, and vegetables and fruits were flourishing.
The witches going about their tasks had abandoned all modern equipment. They carried water on their shoulders and personally worked in the fields, looking extremely busy. But they all seemed to feel that they were doing the right thing, so their faces were filled with joyful smiles.
Their actions were in perfect alignment with the slogans posted everywhere here—”The development of technology is the original sin”, “Abandon technology, return to nature”, “Stay away from electronic devices, communicate with the universe”…
Looking around, Zhou Qian then turned his gaze to the cemetery in front of him. Quickly, he found the tombstone belonging to Lily. According to her mother Eva, buried beneath the tombstone was her favorite hairpin.
Looking at the tombstone, Zhou Qian quickly reviewed all the expressions of Eva in his mind. He realized he couldn’t find any flaws in Eva’s demeanor.
When accused of murdering her daughter, if Eva were to constantly refute, weep, and express sorrow for her daughter’s death, it might seem unnatural, perhaps with a hint of acting.
But Eva wasn’t like that. While sad, Eva had pride in her eyes, believing she was exorcising evil spirits, doing the right thing, and fulfilling her beliefs.
So, regardless of the true story of this instance, what Eva told them, at least in her eyes, was the truth and fact. Meaning, within her understanding, she hadn’t lied.
At this time, Zhou Qian was reminded again of the diary written by Lily that he had read.
An important part of the diary was the description of the fireworks at the music festival.
Lily mentioned that after the fireworks burst, they were like thousands of falling stars. Stars had always been associated with wishes. So, she made a wish, hoping it would come true.
Logically and chronologically speaking, this diary must have been written after she returned from the music festival.
Based on this, the tone and mood of all the contents in the diary indeed seemed to be written by Lily herself. Before the music festival, she recorded trivial daily life, occasionally complaining about academics; after the festival, she became increasingly angry. From the entire diary, the choice of words, grammar, and such, were all Lily’s habits.
Even when Lily later hated her own mother and wrote words of wanting to report her on the back of a photo, it was entirely logical.
She grew up in a town where everyone hated witches. After being locked up by her witch mother for a long time, she couldn’t escape. In her breakdown, the sentences that kept coming up in her mind were all the ingrained sayings she had heard since childhood, like “witches are evil; they should be burned to death.”
So, perhaps she was obedient and loved her mother before, but after being imprisoned and even being treated as an “evil spirit”, and suffering many tortures, her fear and hatred of her mother, and even thoughts of reporting her, were reasonable.
This diary had led Zhou Qian never to believe that Lily was really possessed. If she was really possessed by an evil spirit, or if her body was taken over, would the spirit need to write these entries? What would be its purpose?
Even if he ignored the behavioral logic, another strong evidence was that the thick diary recorded various trivial matters. The handwriting went from crooked to neat, but it wasn’t difficult to find that the handwriting in the diary was indeed from one person from beginning to end.
If Lily was really “possessed” at the music festival, why were the few sentences written after the festival not different from the handwriting before the festival?
Would the evil spirit need to imitate her handwriting? Or in other words, Lily really wasn’t possessed by any so-called evil spirit?
Now the most crucial question came. If Lily wasn’t taken over or possessed, if her mother Eva indeed didn’t lie…
Under such circumstances, how should Lily’s “monsterization” be explained and her act of extracting her friend Lina’s heart with her bare hands?
The sound of Eva urging everyone to go to their residences reached Zhou Qian’s ears. He shifted his gaze from the tombstone to her. “Can I ask you something?”
“Feel free to ask,” Eva said.
Zhou Qian asked her, “Have you read the diary written by your daughter?”
“No. I respect my child’s privacy,” Eva answered. “I have never read her diary.”
Eva had never read Lily’s diary before, and even after confining her, she never looked at the diary on the desk.
“What’s wrong?” Eva asked him.
The diary was now in Zhou Qian’s bag.
But he didn’t say anything and just shook his head at Eva. “Let’s go.”
……
When the players first entered this instance, they were in a closed study and had no sense of time.
Now they had learned that when they arrived, it was around 9 a.m., and now it’s almost noon. Eva had arranged two rooms for them to rest a bit, and she would take them to the dining hall for lunch later.
The witches had a very uniform schedule, and by rule, no one could cook their meals, and everyone must eat in the dining hall three times a day. The dining hall prepared meals for everyone, and there were strict rules on how much everyone could eat per meal—no more, no less.
“You are new here, so the dining hall hasn’t prepared your meals in advance. I’ll go and tell them to prepare seven more portions.”
After saying this, Eva prepared to leave.
Zhou Qian walked her to the door, seemingly whispering a few words to her, then returned to the room and closed the door himself.
In Zhou Qian’s room were Zhou Qian himself, Qi Liuxing, and Wu Ren.
Under Zhou Qian’s strong request, Ke Yuxiao went to the next room with Situ Qing, Yin Jiujiu, and Li Buhui.
Seeing Eva had left, Qi Liuxing looked at Zhou Qian. “When we go eat, we’ll have to eat together with others. We won’t be able to keep wearing our masks. What do we do? We can only eat after taking off our masks.”
Qi Liuxing blurted this out and was stunned by his words.
He couldn’t help but frown at Zhou Qian. “Why did you give me this voice changer with such a voice? Zhou Qian, you really…”
“The first method is to say President Sarah said, just in case, we better wear these so-called… clothes with protective spells for a while longer. As for the masks, of course, cannot be taken off. As for the second method…”
Zhou Qian smiled at Qi Liuxing and said in an encouraging tone, “Shall we go order some wigs and makeup?”
Qi Liuxing decisively said, “No thanks. I think the first method is good!”
Zhou Qian didn’t tease Qi Liuxing anymore.
He turned his head, opened the window, and looked at a large single-story building not far away through the thick black veil.
That should be where the kitchen and dining hall were located.
Smoke was currently rising from the large chimney; someone was cooking lunch.
“Actually, compared to this…”
Zhou Qian whispered, “Don’t you feel that the story, from the beginning to now, seems very strange and awkward?”
Wu Ren responded, “Indeed strange. Aren’t witches supposed to fly on brooms? Why haven’t I seen any?”
“Right. Just looking at the places in Beautiful Flower Town that are supposedly ‘corrupted by evil spirits’, there are strange butterflies and bizarre flowers and plants. It indeed feels like a fantasy drama.”
“But if this is really a fantasy drama, witches who can summon the dead and set protective barriers for the entire town… should logically be able to fly and escape easily, right?”
Zhou Qian shook his head. “But they are not. The so-called husband of Luna was gutted and dismembered. Sarah said herself that it was man-made. The reason for the brutal treatment of the body was just to fabricate lies, making people believe that witches did it.”
“Sarah said many seemingly strange events are created by people using the words ‘magic’ and ‘spell’ to escape guilt and ultimately blaming the witches. Moreover—”
“The witches plant crops and cook with their bare hands; the way we came here was by bus…”
“Do you think there’s a possibility that there’s no magic in this instance world?”
The road from the mountainside to this secluded valley was perilous and required a driver with very high driving skills.
If the players were brought into the valley by some eagle or even a dragon summoned by the witches, or if the witches directly flew them down on brooms, Zhou Qian would not doubt the worldview.
But the current experience was giving him an increasingly severe sense of dissonance.
A reasonable worldview should have balanced forces of good and evil.
Meaning, if the “villains” of this world were humanoid butterflies, flowers with human faces, and evil spirits capable of corrupting an entire town causing countless deaths…
Then correspondingly, the “heroes” like the witches, should at least be able to ride brooms, use magic wands for planting crops, and such. How else would they fight the villains?
But as present, the witches’ magic wands appeared to be purely decorative.
Zhou Qian hadn’t seen them having any actual use.
Qi Liuxing thought for a while and said, “If witches can’t perform magic… Could this be a normal world?”
“Yes, I think this world is probably similar to the real world we live in. Apart from this strange game, in ordinary people’s regular lives, there are no magical or metaphysical elements.”
Zhou Qian said, “In the world of ordinary people, technology brings absolute convenience to everyone. Mobile phones, computers, airplanes, high-speed trains—these are what people really need. In a normal world, bizarre monsters or plants will not appear, nor will there be witches who truly can perform magic. Under such circumstances, this President Sarah…”
Looking out of the window, his pupils shrank slightly. Zhou Qian’s mouth hooked, continuing, “She seems like some sort of ‘charlatan’ propagating a cult.”
“Look at the slogans in this village and the letter Sarah wrote to Eva. The words are all about ‘abandoning technology and communicating with nature,’ which is very obscure and impractical. She didn’t say to abandon technology and return to magic, claiming magic can make our lives more convenient. So—”
Zhou Qian concluded, “We can assume that there is no magic in this world. The so-called ‘magic’ is a big hoax created by Sarah.”
“Where there’s a will to condemn, there’s a way. Some seemingly inexplicable events, or sensational murders, can all be blamed on witches. As a result, many people indeed harbor resentment against witches.”
“But by the same token, events like ‘this person’s illness suddenly got better’, ‘the lost child was found’, and such, can also be attributed to witches, claiming it’s due to the power of witchcraft, guidance of the crystal ball, and such…”
“Simply put, public opinion can be manipulated. And due to herd mentality and other group effects, people are easily brainwashed.”
“The townspeople can easily believe that evil witches can curse and kill at will. Witches who joined this association, under each other’s influence, can also be easily brainwashed by Sarah, thinking they can communicate with the universe and obtain the power of magic.”
At this point, someone rang the bell outside.
Immediately, an authoritative female voice followed. “Everyone, please come to the dining hall to eat within one minute. During this critical time, be frugal. Everyone must finish their food and cannot waste. The food allocated to each person is limited; no extra is allowed.”
Hearing this, Zhou Qian added in a deep voice, “The Witch Association has a kind of militarized management style. Sarah seems like the one who leads everyone. Under such circumstances, the people living here are even more likely to be brainwashed.”
Wu Ren couldn’t help but ask, “If this world doesn’t have that kind of real magic, then we weren’t brought here by magic. How did we come here? Besides, why did those children turn into monsters, which we saw with our own eyes? Why did the city’s flowers and plants become like that? Finally… are these witches, in this instance, good or bad?”
Zhou Qian replied, “Regarding your questions, I have some guesses, but nothing is confirmed. If we find an opportunity to visit the Strawberry Music Festival, maybe we will know everything.”
Wu Ren fell silent for a while and then said, “Alright. The most crucial thing now is the food issue. They asked us to arrive within one minute and mentioned no waste. We-we can’t avoid it—”
“We can.” Zhou Qian smiled. “When I took Eva out just now, I told her not to let the kitchen prepare extra food for us. So, there won’t be our share.”
Three seconds later, Qi Liuxing realized something and looked at Zhou Qian immediately. “Then you were still thinking about buying wigs and cosmetics just now!”
Zhou Qian grinned and turned to Qi Liuxing. “Xiao Qi, your voice is really cute now.”
Qi Liuxing: “…………”
……
Zhou Qian sent messages to Ke Yuxiao and Situ Qing through the system, asking them not to go out for meals and continue to pay attention to Li Buhui and Yin Jiujiu.
After that, Zhou Qian kept observing the situation from the window.
In about 15 minutes, all the witches finished their lunch efficiently.
During this period, Zhou Qian counted and found that the number of witches here wasn’t too many—less than 20.
After that, Zhou Qian continued to monitor the situation outside. He noticed that Sarah left with a few people, not sure if she went to Beautiful Flower Town again.
Compared to Zhou Qian’s calmness, Wu Ren seemed somewhat anxious. “What’s the current situation? There are no obvious minor checkpoints or plots for us. I-I only have 5 hours left to live! Hey, wait—”
His tone changed. Wu Ren said, “It’s strange… Have you guys noticed? The countdown has slowed down!”
Indeed, the countdown had slowed down.
Zhou Qian took out his life point card. By rights, he should have 22 points left, and with the one-hour countdown almost ending, he would be left with 21 points immediately.
But now, surprisingly, he still had a full 23 points.
The countdown below the points, denoted in hours, continued, but the speed at which the seconds decreased had slowed significantly.
What was originally one second might have slowed to three seconds.
After a while, Zhou Qian put away his card, thoughtfully placing his hand on the black robe he wore and studying it a bit more.
Wu Ren took a deep breath, his voice steadier but still somewhat worried. “Although the time for point deduction has slowed down. I am still worried… I won’t be so unlucky, right? Even with an additional 6 points, am I still in last place? It seems like everyone else isn’t worried… We can’t wait here, let’s go find the plot.”
Unexpectedly, not long after he said this, a plot really emerged.
Suddenly, there was a commotion outside.
“Many of the reports of witches in the past were done by warlocks!”
“It’s their turn now!”
“To avoid evil spirits, they dare to disguise themselves as women and blend in! Luckily we found out!”
“He must be put to death!”
“Take him to the ‘Square of Deliberation’ and burn him!!!”
“Agree! He must be burnt!!”
“All those who haven’t received a mission, gather at the square!”
“Quickly! Gather!”
Hearing this, the three men in the room exchanged glances.
It wasn’t hard to infer from these words that a man has disguised himself as a witch and had been discovered. Even if Sarah was here, let alone her absence, she probably couldn’t stop it—all the witches want to execute the warlock.
So, what Sarah said before was indeed mild. If a man disguised as a woman was accidentally discovered, he would really be killed by the witches. The longstanding historical conflicts between the two sides had reached a point that was very difficult to reconcile.
This incident also validated Zhou Qian’s speculation from another angle.
If they really knew countless magics, they should have ten thousand ways to punish the warlocks. Why must they use burning?
Moreover, when Eva recounted the incident, she also said that she injected anesthetic into the unconscious Lily.
If she could really control others with magic, why would she need anesthetics?
Regarding the subsequent events of cutting hair, fingers, and summoning spirits… She couldn’t really summon her daughter’s spirit. Whether this magic was really useful was also unverifiable.
Going to the window and glancing outside, Wu Ren asked, “Is this the plot? Should we go to the Square of Deliberation to see?”
“We can’t go,” Zhou Qian decisively said. “Now we clearly know that once our identities are exposed, the consequences are unthinkable.”
At this time, through the window, Zhou Qian saw four players from the next room had already gone out, seemingly wanting to check out the commotion.
His gaze became sharp, revealing a clear chill.
He said in a deep voice, “The place where we live is relatively remote. If anything happens, we can still escape in time. If we really go to the ‘Square of Deliberation,’ we would be unable to escape by then.”
After saying this, Zhou Qian narrowed his eyes, opened the door, and went out, seeming to want to stop those four players.
Qi Liuxing and Wu Ren exchanged glances and hurried to follow.
Then, unexpectedly, they found Eva walking over with five witches.
Eva, coming face to face with the seven players, couldn’t help but ask, “Are you going to the Square of Deliberation? What happened, you heard it, right?”
“We heard.” Zhou Qian stepped forward and asked her, “Where are you going?”
“We plan to explore Weir Mountain,” Eva said. “It’s the origin of evil spirits. Maybe we can figure everything out there. Do you want to come? We are short of hands. I can teach you how to find evil spirits.”
This time, the players seemed to be in a dilemma.
Now it seemed there were two plots to choose from: one was to go to the Square of Deliberation to watch the warlock being burnt; the other was to go to Weir Mountain, a place that once hosted the Strawberry Music Festival. Undoubtedly, the latter was a very important plot.
Zhou Qian didn’t answer for a moment, instead looking at the others, seemingly waiting for some of them to react.
However, the answers everyone subsequently gave were to go to Weir Mountain, including Yin Jiujiu, whom he most suspected.
Seeing this, Zhou Qian, under the black veil, couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows, but for now, he didn’t show any emotions or reactions. In his view, the Peach Blossom Legion might have sent someone else to kill him. If that person wasn’t Wu Ren, then the most likely person would be Yin Jiujiu.
The plot of “warlocks being burned” was likely not for players to pass levels and gain life points but rather for mutual sabotage. Traps for teammates to sabotage each other were hidden everywhere in this game. Now, the setting that “witches are hostile to warlocks” could undoubtedly be used well.
Moments ago, news had just come from outside that a warlock was to be burned at the Square of Deliberation. The four people next door went out immediately without discussing with Zhou Qian. In his view, they were likely deliberately led by someone. And that person was likely Yin Jiujiu.
Once all the teammates were brought to the assembly square, surrounded by many witches, if Yin Jiujiu revealed Zhou Qian’s male identity, then, without her doing anything, Zhou Qian would be attacked by many high-level witches. It would be hard for him to escape, and he would be burned to death.
From Yin Jiujiu’s perspective, there wasn’t even resentful energy here for Zhou Qian to use because all that was buried beneath the graves were clothes. As for Beautiful Flower Town, though many people died there, it was too far away—far beyond Zhou Qian’s skill range.
With this consideration, when Eva asked if everyone wanted to go to Weir Mountain with her, Zhou Qian didn’t intentionally answer; he was waiting for Yin Jiujiu’s reaction. But Yin Jiujiu quickly answered that she wanted to go to Weir Mountain. Li Buhui, who was clinging to her, quickly echoed.
With this, Zhou Qian wondered if he was overthinking or if they discovered that they could go to Weir Mountain and suddenly decided to do the main mission first.
Many thoughts crossed his mind in an instant. However, Zhou Qian’s tone didn’t reveal any change; in fact, everyone was wearing veils, so he didn’t even need to disguise his expressions. He just responded to Eva in the sexy female anchor voice: “Can you teach us how to find evil spirits? That’s great. We can’t just freeload here. We have joined the Witch Association; we should also contribute to the public!”
……
Another hour later. Zhou Qian and his seven companions, along with five witches, arrived behind Weir Mountain by bus.
The witches said that the road ahead was impassable by bus, and everyone needed to walk. Then they all got off the bus and began to climb the mountain.
After learning that the climb would take another twenty minutes, Zhou Qian asked Eva, “Have you sent people here before?”
At this moment, Eva was fully armed, wrapping her body tightly. She answered, “Yes. Six people came here this morning; only four returned. We don’t know where the other two went… We have to check. Hopefully, they are alright.”
“Oh right, I will give you the crystal ball later. You can’t learn advanced magic now. I’ll teach you how to detect evil spirits first… It’s really simple. Just look if the color of the crystal ball changes. If you find any evil spirits, call me. We will deal with it.”
Zhou Qian nodded seriously.
At this moment, he suddenly heard a clear “uh”.
He turned around to see that the sound came from Wu Ren. Zhou Qian walked over to him without changing his expression and asked, “What’s wrong?”
But he saw Wu Ren, pale, pull out his card. “It-its countdown has accelerated!!! I, uh…”
“Are you feeling okay?” Zhou Qian noticed he stumbled a bit.
The five witches were leading the way up front; Wu Ren glanced at them and quickly turned around, opening his black robe, revealing his sleeve. At this point, Zhou Qian and he both noticed something wrong—his skin had dense smallpox, and the color of his skin was faintly turning purple and blue.
“What the hell is this…” Wu Ren’s demeanor changed to one of horror.
His usually gloomy temperament was gone, and he was somewhat trembling.
Meanwhile, behind them, Yin Jiujiu sent a message to Li Buhui. “Be ready to cooperate with my actions.”
After sending this message, Yin Jiujiu looked in Zhou Qian’s direction. Zhou Qian, Wu Ren, Qi Liuxing, Ke Yuxiao, and Situ Qing were standing together. Situ Qing lagged behind, looking around.
If one looked carefully, they would notice that Yin Jiujiu’s gaze wasn’t on Zhou Qian but on Situ Qing. Facing another girl in the team, for the first time, a distinct killing intent appeared in Yin Jiujiu’s eyes.
“Many years ago, there was a girl named Luna. Her husband was murdered, his heart dug out and missing, and his limbs chopped off. Later, there were rumors claiming Luna was a witch, asserting that she took her husband’s heart and limbs to cast some sort of spell.”
“But in reality, Luna’s husband was unfaithful. He not only had an affair but also often abused Luna. During one of the assaults, Luna killed him. Luna indeed was a witch, but all she did was for self-defense.”
“As for the man’s heart, it was stolen by the mistress, who also mutilated the corpse. She merely wanted to hide her affair, attributing all misdeeds to Luna’s witchcraft.”
Sarah truthfully answered Zhou Qian’s questions, continuing with a sigh, “There has never been such a horrifying murder in the nearby towns. That mistress was a journalist. With her embellished writing, everyone started fearing witches.”
“Then, inexplicably… wherever there was a death, a theft, or even a wife having an affair… all the ungrounded accusations were blamed on witchcraft. So—”
“People, to cover up their crimes, blamed everything on witches. That’s why they are so detested now.”
Changing her tone, Sarah continued, “In conclusion, the aversion to witches is due to a series of long-standing misunderstandings. We are indeed hiding at the base now, unable to let others notice. But once we rescue Beautiful Flower Town, people will recognize our merits.”
By the end, Sarah’s tone was filled with inspiring power and a kind of magical allure.
“We will clear our names of all false accusations! We are not harmful demons. We are saviors! We will rid the town of all evil spirits and let everyone see us in a new light!”
“We won’t hide in the shadows forever. One day, we will stand under the sun with dignity!”
At her words, the two witches behind her immediately agreed—
“The president is right!”
“Your voice is choking, Madam President. You’ve been working too hard.”
“We have suffered so much over the years.”
“We will always follow in your footsteps!”
……
Moments later, the three witches were at the door, waiting for the players to change before leaving with them. Looking at their silhouettes, Qi Liuxing whispered to Zhou Qian, “The way she spoke… seemed very much like a pyramid scheme leader.”
The usually quiet Situ Qing unexpectedly said, “Haven’t you noticed that Zhou Qian is often like that too?”
Qi Liuxing: ?
Situ Qing raised her eyebrows. “So you haven’t realized that you have been recruited by Zhou Qian?”
Qi Liuxing blinked and saw that Situ Qing had already changed into her black skirt. He frowned at Zhou Qian and Ke Yuxiao. “No way, no way. We are not really going to wear skirts, are we? Rebel!”
Seeing no response from Ke Yuxiao and Zhou Qian, Qi Liuxing’s pupils dilated. “No, as a dignified man—”
“How old are you? Dignified man,” Zhou Qian retorted, naturally examining a dress. “It’s actually not bad. It’s similar to a warlock’s robe; it won’t look too feminine.”
“No—” Qi Liuxing frowned deeply. “A man can be killed but not humiliated! How can this be?! The system is crazy!”
Zhou Qian asked in surprise, “Don’t you find sneaking into the witches’ base in disguise exciting?”
Qi Liuxing gave him a “you must be sick too” look.
Then Ke Yuxiao said, “Xiao Qi, when we entered the instance, the system said we would undergo changes to adapt. This change may refer to ‘monsterization’.
“But now, the witches blame all this on evil spirits; this might be the real problem. If we enter the base as men, we might be attacked by real witches, so let’s disguise ourselves and investigate.”
Although Qi Liuxing still looked uncomfortable, he didn’t refute and obediently picked up the dress.
Seeing this, Zhou Qian, dressed in the black dress and robe, headed to the study while lamenting, “Situ Qing accuses me of running a pyramid scheme. Look, even if I did recruit a follower, how is it now? He follows others at a wave. Who is the real pyramid schemer? Definitely not me.”
Qi Liuxing, confused, asked, “Zhou Qian, what are you talking about?”
“I said you definitely wouldn’t save me if I’m drowning.” Zhou Qian closed the door forcefully.
Qi Liuxing: ?
Ke Yuxiao: ??
Situ Qing: ……
Alone, Zhou Qian entered the study room and changed into a witch’s clothes, his eyes focusing on the various clues they had found earlier. Catching on to something, he stepped forward, placed a few items in his bag, then opened the door and returned to the living room.
……
Ten minutes later.
All seven players, dressed in witches’ black skirts with black robes and capes and faces veiled with black gauze, left Eva’s residence and entered the town overtaken by bizarre flora.
Three witches skillfully led everyone forward. It was apparent that they often came here to look for survivors or to exterminate evil spirits, as they were taking paths with fewer plants. Thus, everyone could quickly pass through the town and leave. Otherwise, finding a path in a town full of strange flowers and plants without a guide wouldn’t be easy.
Soon, Zhou Qian and the others seemed to have reached the outskirts of the town, following the witches. Then they crossed a small bridge and entered a forest. All the trees in the forest were very strange. They were several times larger than ordinary trees, with twisted trunks and nauseating lumps, as if many flesh balls had grown out of thin air.
At the end of the forest, there was a bus parked.
When the witches called everyone to board the bus, Zhou Qian didn’t immediately go. Instead, he looked at the other end of the forest—there was another town not far away.
There seemed to be an invisible barrier between the other town and this forest. It was like a new world—without any strange flowers and plants—just a very normal town.
Unexpectedly, Zhou Qian saw another bizarre butterfly fly over. One side of its body had normal butterfly wings, but the other half had a large flesh ball on it, horrifying and nauseating. When this butterfly was about to fly out of the forest towards the opposite town, as if it hit something or was intercepted by some invisible force, it didn’t continue forward and had to turn around and fly back immediately.
A large shadow appeared above the players’ heads, disappearing after a while.
It was caused by the giant butterfly flying back over their heads.
A moment later, everyone got on the bus, and the driver started the vehicle. The driver, dressed in a black robe, must be the fourth witch waiting here. As for the previous three witches, after boarding, two witches sat at the back of the bus, and President Sarah sat in the front row.
The players chose seats in the middle of the bus.
Zhou Qian sat directly next to Sarah.
Probably, the sealed bus could also guard against evil spirits, so Sarah took off her veil and cloak at this moment. From the side, Zhou Qian could see her high nose bridge and golden eyelashes. He had to sigh again. Sarah was really beautiful—a kind of rare androgynous beauty.
Although she had heavy makeup on, her demeanor wasn’t feminine. It felt quite wonderful.
Looking past her perfect face, Zhou Qian noticed that every time they turned, the driver deliberately avoided the main road and chose to leave through a small road.
Zhou Qian particularly noticed a sign on the secluded mountain road they just passed.
It read: [If you get lost on the mountain or encounter any difficulties, you can call the Mayor’s Hotline: 26-111.]
The Mayor? The one mentioned by the system… The one who likes to play “24” points Mayor?
Zhou Qian narrowed his eyes, pretending to see nothing.
Then he turned his head and asked Sarah again, “What’s the deal with the town across from that forest just now?”
Sarah turned her head and met his gaze without hesitation.
Their eyes, one black and one blue, met in this strange and eerie instance. Sarah answered with her unique pleasant voice, “It’s also a new Beautiful Flower Town, just finished not long ago. It’s where the townspeople live after relocating. The river before entering the forest is called Little White River. The north side of the river is infected by evil spirits. The south side is temporarily safe.”
“Yes.” A witch added from behind, “It’s all thanks to our president, who set up a magic barrier at the end of the forest. You all saw just now; that strange butterfly couldn’t get across.”
“I see… President, you’re really great.” Zhou Qian sincerely complimented Sarah and then asked, “Do you know what’s the deal with the ‘Strawberry Music Festival’? Is it held every year?”
“Yes.” Sarah said, “It is the favorite festival of the children. There are many strawberry gardens on Weir Mountain. Every March 31st, the mayor organizes children to go there to pick strawberries. On this day, the mayor also invites many bands and singers to perform for the children, allowing everyone to celebrate the festival. Well… picking strawberries during the day and listening to music and watching fireworks at night… that day is a great experience for every child.”
“Where is Weir Mountain?” Zhou Qian asked.
Sara replied, “It is at the northernmost part of Beautiful Flower Town.”
“So…” Zhou Qian asked her, “Has that place also been corrupted by evil spirits?”
“Yes. It is the most severe place,” Sarah said.
“Are these strange plants here… also because they are possessed by evil spirits?” Zhou Qian asked.
“It should be,” Sarah said. “There is only such an explanation. People are infected by evil spirits and turn into monsters that kill. Plants do not kill, but they also become strange in shape.”
Zhou Qian wanted to ask something more, but Sarah turned her head to look at him and made a serious gesture of silence. “We will be arriving at the base soon. You guys don’t talk, to avoid exposure. The few of us on this bus have no animosity towards warlocks. But others are not the same. If they bully you, just let it be. If it’s serious… they might kill you.”
Hearing this, Zhou Qian was silent, but he secretly entered the system trade hall to buy props. He remembered seeing someone selling voice changers. Now he found it still listed there, with many voices to choose from.
Zhou Qian cheerfully ordered a [Cute Lolita Voice] changer and then gifted it to Qi Liuxing. Of course, he didn’t forget to mischievously order a [Sexy Midnight Female Anchor Voice] for himself.
……
Weir Mountain was located at the northernmost part of Beautiful Flower Town, where the Strawberry Music Festival was held every March 31st.
No one knew what went wrong with this year’s music festival. The northern towns, including Weir Mountain, had completely changed. The plants had become strange and many children with them, and even started killing people.
People had left their original homes and rebuilt a town in the southern vicinity. So far, the southern town, separated by a forest and a river from the northern one, seemed to be still normal.
This was the information Zhou Qian obtained along the way.
It took about an hour to get from Eva’s house to the witches’ headquarters. Everyone’s points dropped by one.
Zhou Qian’s current life points were “22”.
The witches’ base was located deep in the valley. The bus raced along a very rugged mountain road, bringing everyone here. The valley was covered by numerous clouds and mist. Looking down from above, one would only think this place was a cliff. No one would think that there was a witches’ base at the bottom of the cliff.
The base was built like a normal village, consisting of many bungalows, where they also grew a lot of vegetables and fruits, allowing the witches to be self-sufficient.
Shortly after getting off the bus, Zhou Qian and his group encountered a woman. She had brown wavy long hair and was crouching by the roadside at the moment. With a pale face and a sad expression, she was arranging stones on the road into some shape, as if casting a spell.
When she saw Sarah, she stood up and nodded to her. “The president is back. These are…”
She glanced in the direction behind her and squeezed out a pale but very heartfelt smile. “Indeed, survivors have been found. Thank you all. You are going to search the town again in the afternoon, right? This time, you can call me. It’s my turn to help.”
“These survivors were found at your house.” Sarah explained to Eva and then turned her head to introduce to everyone. “This is Eva. I don’t know how you guys got trapped in her house. You can talk to her. I have something else to do. Eva, you arrange their accommodation.”
After speaking, Sarah left with the other three witches.
Eva looked at Zhou Qian and others somewhat excitedly. Of course, she couldn’t see their faces clearly.
Sarah specifically warned, in order not to expose their male identities, even if there was no evil spirit infection here, they still had to wear their masks first. So, the seven players were all wrapped up tightly.
“How, how did you appear in my house? Did you go to the study?” Eva asked.
“Yes,” Zhou Qian replied. “Why… would we come to the study in your house?”
Eva sighed. “I once cast a summoning spell in the study, saying it could communicate with people from other worlds. I was originally looking for my daughter’s soul. I didn’t expect that, after many days… It brought you here. Sorry, I brought you to Beautiful Flower Town. It has been occupied by evil spirits. Fortunately… President Sarah found you.”
Thus, Eva’s words explained why the players appeared in this world.
After hearing her words, Zhou Qian couldn’t help asking, “Your daughter…”
At this time, Eva burst into tears; she seemed to be unable to control her sorrow.
Squatting down, she continued to arrange the stones on the roadside and replied softly, “She’s dead. I set up this formation here, thinking… Maybe her soul is still in this world. I want to communicate with her. This formation can guide her soul to find me.”
“What happened to her? Can you tell us? Otherwise…”
Zhou Qian exchanged glances with the other players behind him; his tone became more threatening. “We will think you are the murderer. After all, we found two bodies in your house. Although we come from ‘another world’, we can still call the police and bring you to justice.”
Coming to the witch’s camp and meeting Eva was an unexpected gain. Zhou Qian had to seize the opportunity to ask about the details.
When Zhou Qian himself asked the question, his expression seemed very natural, without any discomfort.
However, Qi Liuxing, who was behind him, frowned more and more.
He thought that Zhou Qian’s sultry female anchor voice was simply… indescribable.
“I didn’t kill her… She was killed by an evil spirit!” Eva responded, her eyes red, “You saw two bodies… One is in the freezer, right? That’s the body of my daughter’s good friend Lina.”
“My daughter Lily was possessed by an evil spirit, and the spirit killed Lina through her hands. When I came back home in the early morning and saw everything… When I saw Lina’s heart taken out, I realized something was wrong!
“At that time, my daughter was already dead. Her flesh was occupied by the evil spirit, and her soul was already gone…”
Eva’s subsequent narrative was similar to Zhou Qian’s previous speculation but filled in more details.
According to Eva, when she returned home the morning after the Strawberry Music Festival, Lily had not yet turned into a monster.
She immediately realized that her daughter must have been possessed by an evil spirit. Lily and Lina, although not sisters by blood, were very close, and Lily absolutely had no possibility of killing Lina. Besides, where would a child have the strength to take a heart out with her bare hands?
After killing Lina, Lily’s body might not have been able to withstand the power of the evil spirit for a while. So, when Eva came back, Lily’s body was in a fainting state.
On the carpet where she fainted, there was a bottle of overturned nail polish. Perhaps before the crime occurred, she and Lina were playing by applying nail polish to each other, but the tragedy happened so unexpectedly.
Eva knew something had happened to her daughter, so she immediately took advantage of her convenience as a nurse and gave her a shot of anesthetic, then cut off one of her fingers and some hair, trying to summon her soul back through a spell.
But it was of no avail.
She couldn’t feel her daughter’s soul.
Hearing this, Zhou Qian finally got an answer about the finger and hair in the wardrobe.
Besides, the finger was cut off before Lily’s body turned into a monster, which was why it didn’t change like the rest of her body.
Eva continued, “At first, I didn’t directly deal with the monster. Because I was still fantasizing… maybe I could keep trying, and one day I could summon my daughter’s soul back. I have to ensure my daughter’s body is intact so her soul can return to the body and come back to life. So at first, I just locked that evil spirit in the room.”
Taking a deep breath, Eva wiped her tears and said, “But things gradually got out of my control. Her face was the first to change, growing lumps, and her tongue split in two. As for her forehead, it even grew… something like dark green scales…
“After that, her limbs, her torso—all were ruined. The word ‘monster’ isn’t enough to describe her appearance.”
“In the end, I received instructions from President Sarah… The child in her neighbor’s house turned into a monster, consuming the whole family. This is, it’s just too horrifying. I can’t let the evil spirit in my family continue like this anymore. Once it becomes stronger, if I can’t control it… it will kill more people. My only option is to get rid of it and dissect my daughter’s body, where it resided, placing the parts in different locations, to seal the evil spirit. Now you all…”
“If you remove the limbs, it will destroy my formation. I’m really afraid you would release that evil spirit… The consequences are unimaginable. However, Sarah will definitely check with her crystal ball. If she brought you here, you should be fine. This is truly a blessing in disguise.”
Her daughter was possessed by an evil spirit, and to prevent it from harming others, she had to dissect her daughter’s corpse herself. This act, for anyone, was extremely cruel. But at the same time, it was a great and selfless act.
Thus, Eva’s expression was very contradictory. When talking about dissecting, she first broke down crying but immediately thought that her daughter had already been killed by the evil spirit; she was just dividing a useless body into different parts, setting up a formation, and sealing the evil spirit. She felt that she had made a contribution to the other people in the town, so her eyes were gleaming faintly.
As a mother, she was saddened by this. But as a witch, and a witch wanting to contribute to the townspeople, she was proud of herself.
It could be seen that she was deeply influenced by Sarah.
Every witch here seemed to be very influenced by Sarah.
After wiping away her tears, she added a few more stones and finished the formation. Eva stood up and said to the players, “You have seen what the town has become. We are really working for the town. I am definitely not a murderer. Let’s go. I’ll arrange a place for you to stay.”
At this point, the players had no choice but to follow Eva further into the witches’ base. On the way, Zhou Qian noticed that one side of the entire road was occupied by stones arranged in some form.
They were soul summoning formations, arranged neatly, emitting a somewhat eerie feel, as if they could really guide the lost souls back.
Why are there so many soul summoning formations? Just how many people have died?
Zhou Qian and his group soon left the road, heading towards the reasonably maintained houses. Suddenly, Zhou Qian caught a glimpse of something and turned his head to the left, seeing a large graveyard next to a green vegetable field. The graveyard wasn’t small, with at least dozens of tombstones.
Some very bad premonitions and guesses had completely formed in Zhou Qian’s mind at this time. He stopped and looked at Eva, asking seriously, “These tombstones… do they all belong to children?”
Eva answered, “Yes. But there are no skeletons under the tombstones. After all, they are all in various places in the town. These can only be considered cenotaphs, just to commemorate. The tombstone I made for my daughter Lily… buried underneath it is her favorite hairpin.”
Behind Zhou Qian, Ke Yuxiao apparently thought of the same horrifying thing. He asked, “Did all the children in Beautiful Flower Town… die?”
“Yes. They’re all dead.” Eva’s pale face, illuminated by the sunlight, had no trace of blood.
She said, “Almost all the children in the town went to the music festival. After coming back, they were all possessed by evil spirits. Those like Lina who were sick, feverish, and didn’t go because of other reasons, were either killed by their possessed friends who gouged out their hearts or their intestines.”
On the other side. Li Buhui’s left wrist vibrated. He looked down and saw a message from the Female Warrior Yin Jiujiu.
“I have some ideas for the operation. Be ready. Follow my instructions. I might act at any time.”
Kinky Translations 