Chapter 51: Flesh Eating (Conclusion) |
"Honestly, this is fascinating. I find myself suddenly curious... in your eyes, what is the true definition of good and evil?"
Qi Si lowered his gaze, sighing wistfully. "Different positions, different perspectives, they all lead to different views. I imagine a god who 'Loves Not The World' wouldn't deign to humor such a tiresome thing as universal morality, would he?"
The god spoke. "A god is simply a god, indifferent to good and evil, right and wrong. 'Sin' exists outside such concepts, eternal and self-sustaining."
"And what about me?" Qi Si asked.
The god replied, "Under the rules, all mortals are sinners. And you... your sins run deep."
The golden river gurgled on, the fishbone-like corpse lying silent as an island. Yet a tide of consciousness flooded Qi Si's mind, filling every corner from another dimension entirely.
Qi Si's consciousness merged with a vast, surging sea of knowledge, but of the immense torrent of information, he could grasp only a fraction.
He listened in silence, committing it to memory, a glimmer of understanding dawning within him.
Rules... The bizarre rules of the Weird Game, or perhaps something deeper, a more fundamental law of survival...
Three lines of divine names... The Lord of Gods, exiled beyond the rules of the world...
Countless fragmented images churned in his mind, yet they refused to coalesce into a coherent whole, as if some invisible force was preventing him from grasping the truth.
Qi Si sensed this and smiled. "I have many questions. For instance, why was I able to sense the faint traces of this world before even becoming a player? And why have I been granted contact with an existence of your caliber so soon? I trust you'll give me the answers, won't you?"
The tide of consciousness surged, communicating in a language that belonged to no nation he knew. "In the next game, you will find symbols and revelations within the puzzle."
Qi Si mulled over the meaning behind those words for a moment, then let out a laugh. "I see. You're also bound by these so-called 'rules,' aren't you? You can't just give me a straight answer."
The rules were absolute, the very foundation of the Weird Game. Players could not defy them, and neither, it seemed, could the NPCs.
The mediocre follow rules, the wise exploit them, the brave break them, and the ambitious create them. Every conflict, every alliance, every negotiation and gambit, all revolved around this core principle. 'Cheating,' therefore, was destined to be an unspoken yet mutually understood option.
At the gambling table, any sleight of hand that went unnoticed was, for all intents and purposes, part of the game. A conspiracy could be sealed with just a few subtle gestures or a knowing look.
Memories of Rose Manor flashed through his mind, and the understanding in Qi Si's smile deepened. "My Lord," he ventured, "does this mean that what cannot be directly granted can be made legitimate... through a transaction?"
The instant the words left his lips, the half-closed eyes of the divine corpse snapped open. Scarlet pupils stared, unblinking, into the void.
It was a sudden, startling development, yet Qi Si felt not a flicker of fear. "Then, for my sake—and for yours—let's make a deal. I will offer you all the sins I have ever committed, from my past to this very moment, in exchange for the most valuable thing you can give."
A cacophony of whispers and nonsensical murmurs swirled with the sudden gust of wind, dragging his consciousness once more into the torrent of thought.
During that brief communion, Qi Si received the confirmation: "The deal is struck." He learned the method for transferring his sins and discovered what the entity was willing to place on the other side of the scales.
—It was exactly what he wanted.
His identity card began to tremble violently. A cold voice informed him that once the transaction was complete, he would be set upon a predestined path, with no possibility of return.
"The strange will one day run rampant, and the arcane will descend upon this world," the voice threatened. "And you... you will be the harbinger of that disaster."
Qi Si doubled over, clutching his stomach as he erupted into a fit of crazed laughter. "Hahahaha! An offer like that? I... couldn't be more thrilled!"
Still grasping the skeletal hand, he took out a blade and sliced open his own arm. Crimson blood, steaming with black smoke, gushed from the wound and coiled around their joined hands.
A rational madman making an all-or-nothing bet, using a minuscule fulcrum to shift the entire game board.
A fiend damned by heaven and earth, he had never believed in gods, yet he reveled in creating chaos and disaster in the pursuit of his own gains.
Black smoke billowed and blood poured like a river, staining the giant golden tree with shades of crimson.
"You are sinful." A long, drawn-out sigh scattered on the wind.
Beneath the tree, Qi Si broke into a wide grin. "Indeed. My sins run deep."
...
At Su Po's house.
After a quick search failed to turn up any sign of Qi Si or Zhu Ling, Zhou Yilin's expression soured.
She realized, almost instantly, the mental trap she had fallen into—and how perfectly Qi Si had used his words and actions to mislead her, luring her deeper into his deception.
"Chang Xu tricked us!" Zhou Yilin seethed, her teeth clenched. "He never had any intention of working with us! He just wanted to hoard the rewards for unraveling the world's lore and leave us to finish the instance on our own!"
Zhang Licai froze for a second, then slapped his own chubby cheek dismissively and chuckled. "So what if he figures it out? We can just focus on clearing the instance safely. The basic rewards are good enough for me."
"Basic rewards? After we've fought tooth and nail to survive this long, you're fine with just *basic rewards*?" Zhou Yilin sneered. She marched straight to the woodshed and pulled a hatchet from its hiding place in the woodpile. "I still have a chance. If I can just kill him before the final tally..."
For a moment, Zhang Licai wasn't sure what to ask first: why she had suddenly dropped her act, or how she knew exactly where to find a weapon.
The hapless man scratched his oily, balding head in confusion. "Do we really have to go that far? All our suspicions are just speculation. He hasn't actually done anything to hurt us..."
"Are you willing to bet your life on that? This is the Weird Game! When you die here, you're dead for good!" Zhou Yilin shot him a withering glare. "Save your bleeding-heart act. This isn't the real world; there are no morals or laws to protect you here!"
Zhang Licai opened his mouth to object, but ultimately said nothing.
In a bizarre world like this, his own survival was what mattered most. And if there was a chance to gain a greater reward, that was even better.
Besides, he'd always been one to go with the flow, never the decision-maker. If things went south, no one could pin the blame on him...
As Zhang Licai was quietly weighing his options, he heard Zhou Yilin gasp, her voice trembling as she stammered, "You... what's happening to you?"
He looked at her, utterly bewildered. She was pointing at him, her face a mask of terror.
"What's wrong with me?" Zhang Licai instinctively touched his face, his hand coming away coated in slime. At the same time, he watched in horror as Zhou Yilin's features blurred before his very eyes. Her sockets, nose, and mouth warped into a shapeless mass, melting and dripping like overheated wax...
...
Even with a false name, in Qi Si's view, the surest way to maintain secrecy was to eliminate everyone who knew the truth.
Weeds must be pulled up by the roots. It was a lesson he'd learned in childhood and had abided by without exception for more than a decade.
He hated complications, and the principle of six degrees of separation was proof enough: the more people who knew something, the more complicated it became.
That was why he had triggered the end of the instance prematurely. He brought the conclusion forward, hastened the divine punishment, and forced an early settlement for the players' sins regarding the sacred flesh.
Unlike Qi Si, the other three had visited the ancestral hall and then consumed the divine flesh. With their sins unatoned for, they were now the targets of celestial retribution.
It was too late to return to the hall for another prayer. There was nothing left for them to do but wait for death.
Beneath the giant tree, by the golden river, his blood—thick with black sin—flowed over the ghastly skeleton. On those white bones, new flesh began to squirm and grow.
Qi Si's face was pale from blood loss, but this could not conceal the sheer delight in his expression.
His gaze lingered on the regenerating corpse, and for a fleeting moment, his perspective shifted, granting him a bird's-eye view of Su Clan Village.
Through the god's eyes, the village was nothing more than an insignificant speck. Only by pulling his focus closer could he distinguish the motes of dust that were Zhou Yilin, Zhang Licai, and Zhu Ling.
He watched them melt, dripping like burning candles, their forms dissolving like snowmen in the spring sun.
They collapsed, sinking into the ground until they became nothing more than puddles of unrecognizable slime, slowly spreading across the earth.
It wasn't just them; the entire village was melting. The aggressive villagers, Su Po, and A'Xi—all at once, they lost their strength, the tools in their hands clattering to the ground.
They writhed in protest, their forms blurring like brushstrokes smeared by a painter's trembling hand. They shivered, their mouths opened in silent screams as they dissolved into ghostly silhouettes.
Finally, everyone collapsed into a mass of ooze. Where they were close, the puddles merged, flowing together into a single, collective mire...
[All Rules and World Lore Decoded]
The cold system notification washed over him, immediately followed by the festive crackle of fireworks.
[Congratulations, Player, on clearing the Team Survival Instance: Flesh Eating]
[This was the famine of an era, an act of collective violence. The greed and evil, tacitly approved by all, were maliciously labeled "human nature."]
A faded, yellowed image appeared before him.
It was Su Clan Village again. A traveler dressed as a merchant was speaking animatedly with the villagers.
But the villagers, with identical stony expressions, repeatedly waved him away in refusal.
The divine corpse was enshrined respectfully in the ancestral hall, and the villagers were attempting to escape poverty through diligent labor.
They had no knowledge, no opportunities. They were ostracized and ridiculed, vanishing one by one into the vast, dusty earth.
This was clearly the other path Su Clan Village could have taken, another ending.
[Commit a minor evil for substantial gain, or uphold morality and suffer the trials of hardship?]
[There was never a perfect choice. They simply followed the principle of pragmatism.]
[Flesh Eating True End - "The Pragmatic Principle" - Recorded]
[Auto-teleport from instance in three minutes.]
After watching the text and images fade, Qi Si squinted, a smile playing on his lips—part sarcasm, part mockery.
"Morality doesn't equate to suffering, nor does sin guarantee reward. Immorality doesn't demand atonement, and justice is never a certainty..."
"—In the end, the only true causes of misfortune are weakness and stupidity."
His perspective snapped back from the god's-eye view, returning to the golden tree, the golden river, and the crimson corpse.
Qi Si watched as the flesh on the divine corpse regenerated, now mostly whole. A sudden wave of boredom washed over him. He pushed himself up, intending to roll over and lie on his back.
The blood loss had sapped most of his strength, and merely shifting his position left him panting for breath.
He leaned back against the divine corpse, using its skull as a pillow for his neck, and gazed upward.
The flow of time within the instance had become chaotic. The sky, a dark purple just moments ago, was now a pale, pre-dawn gray.
With his head tilted back, Qi Si waited, calm and unhurried.
In the east, a red sun rose, trembling, into the sky. In an instant, crimson veins spread across the gray expanse.
In the silence, Qi Si suddenly heard the chirping of a bird.
He realized, then, what he was seeing.
Bathed in the morning light, the young man's lips curled into a brilliant smile.
"So, even a scumbag like me gets to feel the sun on his skin..."