Chapter 66: Soul Contract |
Three days ago, in the "Flesh Eating" instance, Qi Si stood on the banks of a golden river of blood and asked the god what collateral it could place on the scales of their transaction.
The god answered him in silence: "Within the scope of the rules, I will tacitly permit you to act on my behalf, wielding the authority of contracts. You shall travel through infinite worlds, using deception to lead the lambs astray, and with sin and malice, you will stand shoulder to shoulder with the gods."
A blood-red contract and a gilded quill pen materialized in the shifting light, the phantom of the rules swirling above them in the hazy, indistinct mist.
A contract is made by the written word. All conditions can be laid out on paper.
Reasonable, unreasonable, fair, unfair... so long as both parties consented, anything could be traded, and the terms would be strictly enforced under the guarantee of the rules.
Qi Si considered the details, a wry smile playing on his lips. "It sounds like just another layer of security for cooperation and deals. Even without a contract, if the situation is right, I can still persuade others to follow my orders and willingly let me exploit them."
The god looked down impassively and spoke. "You once signed a contract with the Weird Game, betting your soul to throw yourself onto the stage of death. You too will establish contracts with all living beings, using their souls as bargaining chips to be wagered at the final table."
"This authority seems to be deeply entangled with the Weird Game," Qi Si remarked. "Will the game really allow a player like me to undermine its foundations?"
The god asked, "Are you afraid?"
The god declared, "You will transform from a pawn to a player, and in the end, you will master the weird."
...
["Dialectical Game" evaluation: S-rank. Reward: 3000 points.]
["Dialectical Game" True End route cleared. Reward: 3000 points.]
[Worldview Deciphered: 100%. Reward: 3000 points.]
[Achievement Unlocked: "Intern Designer" (Design a functional instance). Reward: 500 points.]
[Achievement Unlocked: "I Killed Myself" (Kill an existence with a similar appearance to your own). Reward: 500 points.]
[Total Reward: 10000 points. Deposited to your account.]
The total in Qi Si's account now read [23000].
According to statistics, the average novice player accumulated around ten thousand points after clearing their third instance. Twenty-three thousand was a very high starting point.
Of course, compared to his small goal of one million points, it was still a long way off.
New settlement text refreshed on the screen:
[Congratulations on perfectly clearing the "Dialectical Game" instance. You have received the reward skill: Soul Contract.]
Faced with a skill whose name alone sounded formidable, Qi Si showed little surprise.
This was one of the most important bargaining chips in his deal with the god: the "Authority of Contracts."
Since they were operating right under the nose of the Weird Game, the transfer of authority had to go through the motions of an instance reward to be considered legitimate and compliant.
A small, shimmering golden orb flew toward Qi Si and merged into his body.
A torrent of information organized itself into text, becoming instantly known to him.
[Name: Soul Contract]
[Effect: You can propose a contract with any existence. Once a contract is successfully established, no party may refuse to fulfill their contractual obligations.]
[Remark: The concept of contracts predates recorded history, when people would call upon the gods as witnesses. Rights and obligations seemed fair and just, until someone mortgaged their soul for a slice of bread.]
[Success Rate: 20%]
[Note: The outcome is determined by rolling two ten-sided dice. The first result becomes the tens digit and the second becomes the units digit, generating a number from 1 to 100. (A roll of '00' is treated as '100'). A result greater than 80 constitutes a success.]
Qi Si asked, "Why so complicated? Couldn't I just roll one ten-sided die and succeed on a result greater than eight?"
Weird Game: [The skill's success rate is not fixed and will increase under specific circumstances.]
"And what might those specific circumstances be?"
[You will know when the time is right.]
Qi Si feigned dissatisfaction. "This skill seems to have a catch. Only a one-in-five success rate. Even if I just tried to trick someone into an agreement without this skill, my failure rate wouldn't be this high."
Weird Game: [If you and the other party reach a consensus on the terms of the contract, the dice roll will not be triggered, and the skill will be considered successful by default. The rolling phase only occurs when the other party's intentions are unclear or when they are unable to express them.]
Qi Si raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying if the other party doesn't explicitly refuse, and I succeed on the roll, even the most outrageous contract will take effect? Even if the other party is a fool, a madman, or some Cthulhu-esque god that can't communicate with people, I can still bind them to a contract with a successful roll?"
[Correct.]
In just a few seconds, Qi Si had already thought of no fewer than ten ways to trick someone into a contract, and no fewer than a hundred ways to make them not directly refuse his outrageous demands.
Human beings, unless they have personally suffered through a heart-wrenching scam, are actually quite poor at detecting deception.
Petty greed, laziness, vanity... these psychological weaknesses allowed scammers to succeed time and time again, leaving their victims utterly ruined.
After a moment of contemplation, Qi Si asked, "How exactly is this success rate defined?"
He considered his luck to be rather poor. He always hit the pity timer in gacha games and never got a lucky guess on a multiple-choice question. A 20% success rate was practically zero for him.
On the system interface, an annotation appeared next to the success rate:
[Out of one hundred rolls, twenty are guaranteed to be judged as successful.]
"So that's how it's calculated?"
A rather exploitative idea popped into Qi Si's mind.
But to figure out the exact mechanics, he would probably have to find an opportunity to test all sorts of scenarios.
Closing the skill description, Qi Si rubbed his chin. "My reward for a perfect clear can't be just this skill, can it? This was something the god promised me separately. How can it count as a reward? If you include the 'Flesh Eating' instance, that god has already cheated me out of two reward items..."
Perhaps even the Weird Game couldn't stand his theatrics anymore, as a line of silver-white text promptly slammed onto his screen:
[The Point Shop is now open. View?]
A shop-like icon appeared in the corner of the system interface. Qi Si dropped his act of complaining after getting what he wanted and said, "View."
A very modern shop interface unfolded before him, its layout and design a blatant copy of some popular shopping app.
He could see that the shop was divided into three sections.
The first section was a collection of player clear videos, ranging from S-rank to A-rank; anything lower wasn't worthy of being featured.
The Weird Game had adopted the model of a video-sharing platform. Players could upload their clear recordings for other players to watch for a fee, with the points split 50/50 with the game.
As far as Qi Si knew, many players were willing to spend points on these videos. They always thought that by watching enough, they could learn new strategies and pull off brilliant plays at critical moments.
Clear recordings from the novice instances could not be uploaded, and as for the future... Qi Si still held the act of uploading recordings in contempt.
Exposing your thought processes and behavioral patterns meant you would be studied, and others would find ways to counter you. Putting yourself in continuous danger for a few points was definitely a losing proposition.
"But I could watch other players' videos to gather some information."
The information on the game forums was abundant but chaotic. The more Qi Si read, the more questions he had.
Rather than wait for others to summarize things, it was better to study the actions of other players in the instances himself.
If he was lucky, he might even figure out what was going on with his bracelet—who knew?
Qi Si had a faint premonition that the matter of his bracelet was deeply complicated, because when he had just met the god, the thought of asking about this long-standing puzzle hadn't even crossed his mind.
—It wasn't simple forgetfulness, but rather as if his awareness had been suppressed by some force.
The more he thought about it, the more suspicious it became.
The second section of the shop offered items and supplies provided by the game. Towels, handkerchiefs, hamburgers, sodas, swords, daggers... it spanned every category imaginable.
The useful items were unaffordable, the useless ones were a waste of money, and their cost-effectiveness was far worse than the reward items obtained in the game. Plus, the selection was vast, cluttered, and of mixed quality.
Qi Si even saw a few sets of college entrance exam practice tests and some newly published novels—the kind you could buy anywhere.
Would anyone actually buy this stuff?
He looked at the displayed prices and remaining stock with a hint of skepticism.
The third section was for items sold by players, with the game taking a 5% service fee.
Qi Si glanced over it. The cheapest items started at twenty thousand points, a complete rip-off.
Among them were items like the [Fate Pocket Watch], also priced in the twenty-thousand range. No one was buying them. The most pathetic listing had been unsold for a week and was about to be taken down.
After all, almost no one knew that this item could evolve.
Qi Si tried to purchase one out of curiosity, but the game informed him that it was a special item and each player could only possess one.
...How boring.
Qi Si exited the shop interface, his interest gone.
The electronic voice chimed in at the right moment:
[Returning to Game Space]
After becoming an official player, every player was granted a personal game space to use for rest and as a hub.
Having a moment of solitude after clearing an instance before returning to reality could effectively prevent one's physical body from suffering a heart attack or stroke from the intense emotional highs and lows.
The darkness dissipated. Qi Si found himself sitting in a dilapidated high-backed chair. The Rose Heart and Fate Pocket Watch had both returned to his person.
Before him stood a magnificent palace, its light dim, with motes of dust dancing and drifting in the air.
Through a thick layer of ash, he could make out mythological frescoes covering the ceiling and walls, but the gilded, crimson-lined brushstrokes had long been mottled by the passage of time, the stories they told now indecipherable.
The heavy bronze palace doors were shut tight. As his gaze swept over them, the words [You may enter the Sunset Ruins from here] appeared in the distance.
A line of text popped up along with it:
[Set your display nickname now?]
[Once set, your nickname will be displayed on leaderboards, first-clear records, and public announcements (You currently have two first-clear records).]
Qi Si said, "Chang Xu."
[Sorry, this nickname is already taken.]
"Never mind then."
Qi Si decided against setting a display nickname for the time being.
As things stood, no matter how much the players on the forums speculated, there was no concrete proof that the person who achieved the True End in "Rose Manor" was the same one who did so in "Flesh Eating."
But once he set a nickname, both records would display the same name. It would be easy for any perceptive person to piece together what Qi Si had been doing from just a few clues.
At the very least, Chang Xu himself would know for certain that Qi Si was the one who had stirred up trouble in the "Flesh Eating" instance.
Qi Si surveyed his surroundings.
The palace he was in, from every angle, bore a strong resemblance to the main hall of the temple in the "Dialectical Game" instance.
Just as dilapidated, and just as... filthy.
And since it was a virtual space, he couldn't even clean it.
When Qi Si showed his disdain, the Weird Game informed him that the scenery for the game space was randomly generated, and modifying it would cost a substantial amount of points.
...Fine, never mind then.
Qi Si's eye twitched. He grimly corrected his assessment, "It doesn't just look dilapidated. It *is* dilapidated."