Chapter 76: Hopeless Sea |
A shuffle of footsteps echoed from outside the door, growing louder as they approached. Qi Si figured the other players had finished their dinner and were heading up to the second floor.
Qi Si listened as the footsteps scattered, followed by a chorus of clicks and scrapes as locks turned. One by one, the sounds vanished as the players disappeared into their rooms, and silence once again settled over the hallway.
After some time, a knock echoed at the door—knock, knock, knock. Three unhurried, measured raps. The politeness of it was disarming, making it difficult to feel any hostility.
Qi Si walked over and pulled the door open, surveying the person standing outside with a half-smile. "Lu Li, did you come to the wrong door?"
The visitor was none other than Lu Li.
He adjusted the collar of his coat, a gentle smile spreading across his lips. "After you two went upstairs, the rest of us discussed our plans for tomorrow. There are a few things I thought I should let you know."
"My initial assessment is that there are three places worth exploring: the altar, the clock tower, and the coconut grove. The altar, in particular, is likely to be quite dangerous. I'd suggest sending as few people there as possible."
"Understood," Qi Si said with a smile, enunciating each word clearly. "We won't be going to the altar tomorrow."
"I think you might have misunderstood me. It was only a suggestion," Lu Li sighed, as if pained by the misinterpretation. "The others aren't exactly keen on listening to my judgment anyway..."
Chang Xu had moved to the doorway at some point, and his voice was cold as he spoke. "Lu Li, your eyesight and memory seem to be excellent. I'm surprised you found our room."
The numbers on the keys were barely visible. Unless someone was paying very close attention, it would be nearly impossible to match the rooms to their occupants.
Lu Li chuckled and shook his head with a look of resignation. "I'm just a bit more observant than most. I came upstairs with the others and remembered which rooms they entered. It was easy to figure out the rest by process of elimination."
The explanation was flawless. Chang Xu frowned and closed the door without another word.
After Lu Li left, Qi Si glanced at his watch. It was already seven o'clock.
The rule specified "when the bell strikes ten times," which translated to eight o'clock in the evening. In other words, they had one hour until the required time to be asleep.
Qi Si lay down on the bed, still fully clothed. He was just starting to feel drowsy when another knock sounded at the door.
Chang Xu got up and opened it.
A woman in a long blue dress stood outside, a smile on her face, holding two bowls of soup.
Qi Si got off the bed, fixing a pleasant but false smile on his face. "Yuna, what brings you here so late?"
Yuna walked into the room without invitation, placed the bowls on the bedside table, and then gestured to them, indicating that the soup was a sleep aid meant to calm their nerves.
Chang Xu stared into her eyes and asked coldly, "What happens if we don't drink it? What happens if we can't fall asleep tonight?"
Yuna smiled and glanced toward the window. "Perhaps nothing will happen. Or perhaps you'll die."
Her answer was ambiguous, delivered without a hint of alarm, as if it made no difference to her whether they drank the soup or not.
Qi Si casually moved to block the doorway, obstructing Yuna's path. "So if we fall asleep on time, we won't die, is that it?"
Yuna first nodded, then shook her head. "Everyone dies eventually."
"What about Viscount Crouch, the one who stayed in this room before us? Do you know what happened to him?"
"I don't know."
Her answers were robotic, her smile like a mask, and she stingily offered no further information.
Slightly disappointed, Qi Si stepped aside and let the woman leave.
In the ensuing silence, Chang Xu glanced at the bowl on the bedside table, then looked to Qi Si for his opinion.
Drinking the soup could be the path to survival, or it could lead to disaster. It was a fifty-fifty chance, and there was no way to know the right choice.
But his intuition told him that trusting the judgment of an intelligent player was far more reliable than acting rashly on his own.
Qi Si glanced toward the door, his smile fading slightly. "If you're confident that nothing outside will be able to wake you, then you don't have to drink it."
He casually picked up one of the bowls, raised it to his lips, and took a sip, holding the liquid in his mouth.
The liquid was colorless and odorless. From its appearance to the way it felt on his tongue, it was utterly indistinguishable from plain water—completely ordinary.
Chang Xu understood.
The lesson from Shen Ming's death on the first night in Rose Manor was still fresh in his mind. In a rules-based horror instance like this, one that explicitly demanded they sleep, waking up in the middle of the night would undoubtedly have dire consequences.
Without hesitation, he picked up his bowl and drained it in one gulp.
Only after watching him finish did Qi Si swallow the mouthful he'd been holding. He sipped the rest of the liquid, set the bowl down a few seconds later, and lay down flat on the bed closer to the door.
In the silence, Chang Xu's voice cut through unexpectedly. "Si Qi, do you still have the Fate Pocket Watch?"
So it finally comes to this, Qi Si thought. He raised his left hand, revealing the watch on his wrist. "It's here, but it fused with a reward I got in the third instance. I'm not sure how to separate them yet. If you really need it, I can just give you the whole thing."
Chang Xu gave a noncommittal grunt. "Just keep an eye on the time in this instance. I have a hunch it's going to be important."
Qi Si murmured his agreement, sensing the unspoken message that Chang Xu wasn't asking for the watch back. He raised an eyebrow slightly.
Then he heard Chang Xu say seriously, "According to the rules of the Weird Game, whichever player leaves an instance with an item, owns that item."
"Thank you, Chang Xu," Qi Si said with a grateful smile, tucking his left hand under the covers.
He knew Chang Xu was being so generous only because he didn't understand the watch's true power and thought it was just an ordinary timepiece.
And that suited him just fine.
Ever since meeting Lu Li, Qi Si had felt a subtle sense of danger.
In a competition for survival, players competed on three fronts: strength, intelligence, and information.
He had no advantage in terms of strength. While his intellect gave him a slight edge, there was always a bigger fish, and he certainly wasn't the only clever person in the game.
As for information, the gap was even more vast. There were veterans who had cleared dozens, even hundreds, of instances. In extreme cases, there might even be old monsters who had been clawing their way through the game for thirty-six years.
No amount of effort on his part could close a gap accumulated over decades, let alone allow him to single-handedly compete against the vast resources and collective knowledge of a major guild.
To gain an edge, he had to hold tight to the few cards he'd been dealt and play them perfectly. The Fate Pocket Watch, with its ability to turn back time, was his greatest asset for now...
The sleep aid was beginning to work. His thoughts scattered, and a wave of drowsiness washed over him. Qi Si yawned several times in a row as his consciousness began to fade.
On the other bed, Chang Xu blew out the oil lamp on his nightstand and settled down with a rustle of sheets.
In the pitch-black room, the deep, resonant toll of a bell drifted from the distance. It struck ten times, unhurried and slow, each chime echoing long and far.
...
In the room near the stairwell, the backpacker lay stiffly in bed, his eyes squeezed shut as he counted sheep.
2. The clock tower bell chimes every two hours. Please be asleep when it strikes ten and awake when it strikes four. Please believe that it is safe to sleep in your hotel room.
The rule was displayed plainly on his system interface. He didn't dare ignore it, trying every trick he knew to fall asleep quickly, but he only grew more awake.
His name was Xu Maochen, a game streamer whose life was a constant cycle of reversed days and nights. At only thirty, he already suffered from chronic anxiety. Falling asleep was a struggle in the real world; how could he possibly manage it in the completely alien environment of the Weird Game?
After the tenth strike of the bell, any trace of sleepiness had vanished. The fear of the unknown spun a web in his heart, tightening with anxiety and making sleep impossible.
He took a deep breath and tried to recall funny stories, anything to help him relax. *Well, at least I'm close to the stairs,* he thought, trying to find some humor in his grim situation. *If something happens, I can make a quick getaway.*
The minutes ticked by. At last, the backpacker's breathing grew slow and even, and he allowed his mind to drift into a hazy state.
In that hazy state, a song drifted to him from the distance—melodious and winding, so faint it was barely there, ethereal and elusive. The lyrics were unintelligible, but they blended with the tune, the strange, mysterious-sounding syllables becoming another instrument in the beautiful, harmonious whole.
At some point, the wind had blown his wooden window open, and the sea breeze carried in the sound of the waves. The song seemed to dissolve into the surf, becoming just another call of the ocean.
The backpacker found his mind growing unexpectedly calm. He rose slowly, walked to the window, and gazed out at the azure sea under an orange-yellow sky.
The shimmering surface of the water looked as if it were coated in silver, a magnificent sight that held an unprecedented allure.
I want to see the ocean... I really want to go to the ocean...
The backpacker turned, walked toward the door, and pushed it open. The cold wind in the hallway made him shudder.
No! What am I doing? I can't go out!
The last shred of his reason screamed a warning. He forced himself to a halt in the doorway, his limbs moving stiffly as he tried to back into the room.
His joints creaked with the effort, draining all his strength. But the distant song was insidious, seeping into his mind, smoothing away his alertness, his thoughts, his awareness, his memories... inch by inch.
His mind went blank. He felt wonderful, his body as light as cottonwood fluff, ready to be carried away on the breeze.
A joyful smile spread across his face. His steps became light, almost a skip, as he descended the stairs, crossed the empty lobby, and headed toward the sea.
A school of white fish floating on the surface grinned at him, their smiles identical. Encouraged, he waded into the ocean, letting the water rise past his knees, his waist, and finally, over his head...
...
Later that night, a faint rustling sound woke Gao Musheng.
That evening, like the other players, he had pinched his nose and forced down the fish on the table to fill his stomach.
The others might not have been able to tell, but he was absolutely certain—that "fish" had tasted of human flesh!
He was long accustomed to such an ingredient, but in the Weird Game, food was often linked to danger. He wasn't about to risk his life for the sake of a meal.
Knowing the food was tainted, only a fool would drink the soup Yuna had brought. Gao Musheng didn't believe for a second that the NPC had good intentions.
He left the bowl untouched on his nightstand, pulled the covers over his head, and went to sleep.
Gao Musheng prided himself on being the type who could sleep anywhere, anytime. This was the first time he'd ever been woken by such a faint noise.
He quickly realized it had to be a mechanic of the Weird Game. Cursing under his breath, he reached for the bowl of soup on the nightstand.
The soft rustling outside the door grew denser, like hundreds of pythons slithering through a thick jungle, their scales whispering against the floor as they closed in.
A knock came at the door. A chill shot up Gao Musheng's spine. Without another moment's hesitation, he snatched the bowl and poured the entire contents down his throat.
Drowsiness washed over him instantly. He tossed the empty bowl to the floor and leaned back, ready to fall asleep again.
Knock, knock, knock... The knocking continued, growing louder.
A horrifying realization dawned on Gao Musheng, and a wave of terror and regret crashed over him. He tried to push himself up, but he couldn't summon the strength.
In his last moments of awareness, he saw the door burst open from the outside as countless grotesque, shadowy figures flooded into the room...
...
Angela had a long, chaotic dream. She couldn't recall the details, only that other players had been in it, including Lu Li...
She tried to remember more, but nothing came to her. Giving up, she drifted back into a hazy sleep.
Dong, dong, dong, dong...
The bell struck four times, and Angela opened her eyes right on cue.
A pure white identity card hovered in the upper right corner of her vision.
On the card's face, a refined man in white robes held a scroll in one hand and a pen in the other, writing indecipherable golden characters in the air.
Angela glanced at the system interface in the upper left of her vision, her brow furrowing unconsciously.
Her identity was "Scholar," and its effect was to sense the location of money.
After Yuna had handed out the banknotes, she could clearly see fifteen small dots on her system interface, one for each player, including herself.
This was her first instance as an official player. She had low combat ability and no unlocked skills, so she figured the game had given her an information-gathering role to balance things out among the players.
But why, after just one night, were two of the dots on her interface gone?
Had two stashes of money simply vanished? Had two people been robbed?
Or did it mean—that two people were dead?
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