Chapter 99: The Black Dog |
"Feed you once, and you keep coming back for more..."
It was nearly noon, yet the sky remained as dim and hazy as early morning, blurring any sense of the precise time. It left anyone caught in its gloom feeling listless and drowsy.
Qi Si had only just woken up and, for once, had ventured downstairs to buy breakfast from a stall at the morning market.
The truth was, the seaweed from the *Hopeless Sea* instance had been so revolting that he desperately needed some normal food to reset his palate.
It was a weekday, so the park was nearly empty, occupied only by four or five white-haired seniors and the preschool children in their care.
As a young man, Qi Si stuck out, his leisurely presence seeming almost excessive.
He sat on a park bench, wrapped his fingers in a handkerchief, and pinched off a piece of sausage from his egg-filled pancake.
A scrawny black dog, which had been waiting nearby for some time, tilted its head up, eyes fixed on the morsel of meat between the young man's fingers, its tail wagging furiously.
Its eyes glinted with greed, its intention to beg for food clear and unmistakable.
A playful impulse struck Qi Si. He materialized the black and red Identity Card at his fingertips and tossed it on the ground.
The black dog gave it a couple of licks, realized it wasn't edible, and looked up again.
It lifted a front paw and made a clumsy, effortful bow—who knows where it had learned such a trick.
"You clever mutt." Qi Si was amused and tossed the rest of the sausage onto the ground a short distance away.
The dog couldn't understand his words, but it knew its lunch was secured.
It quickly scampered over, snatched up the sausage, and trotted off happily into the bushes.
The smog in Jiang City had always been severe. Beneath the gray, hazy sky, dilapidated buildings leaned together at odd angles, and the gaunt landscaping trees seemed to hunch and stoop.
Qi Si nibbled on his now sausage-less egg pancake. After just a few more moments, he felt a tickle in his nose, and a scratchiness in his throat urged him to cough.
He stood up from the bench, wrapped the remaining half of his pancake in its paper bag, and, carrying it all in the outer plastic bag, headed back toward his apartment complex.
After he had walked some distance, the Identity Card he had tossed away reappeared as a faint image in the upper right of his vision, as persistent as a lingering ghost.
Suddenly, the phone in his pocket started vibrating. He pulled it out to see a call from Jin Yusheng.
Qi Si answered the call. "What's up?"
Over the phone, Jin Yusheng's voice droned in a mystical tone, "My divination tells me a great calamity is about to befall you. If you require assistance, please press one..."
Qi Si, knowing his friend was full of it, cut him off. "Is there a reason you're calling?"
"Qi Si, that's cold. Can't a guy call just to chat?"
"Just spit it out," Qi Si said, tucking the phone between his ear and shoulder as he punched in the code to open his building's main door.
The voice on the other end grew a little sheepish. "Well, you know that girl I told you I liked? I think I've finally won her over... or, well, I think I have. I'm not totally sure where she stands. So I was thinking of asking her out, and I want you to come along and give me some pointers."
Standing in the elevator, Qi Si chuckled. "You want me to tag along on your date?"
"Well, it's not really a date," Jin Yusheng clarified. "More like a friendly hangout. We're planning to play a murder mystery game, but we're short on players, so we agreed to each bring someone along to make up the numbers."
Qi Si listened quietly. When the elevator reached the eleventh floor, he keyed in the code to his apartment and stepped inside, casually setting the plastic bag with his breakfast on the dining table.
"You know what those murder mystery games are, right? It's all role-playing and deduction. She says she's an expert, and I'm a total newbie. What if I make a fool of myself in front of her? I figured you'd be good at this kind of thing, so I was hoping you could come and back me up."
Qi Si hummed his assent. "Send me the time and place. What exactly do you need me to do?"
Jin Yusheng launched into a long explanation, followed by a rambling stream of profuse thanks.
Qi Si tuned out the noise, put the phone on speaker, and opened his browser to search for information on "murder mystery games."
He soon discovered... it was a bit like a puzzle-solving instance from the Weird Game, only far less interesting.
—No danger, no death, just a group of people sitting in a circle with their scripts, talking. Utterly boring.
So, he wondered, should he figure out a way to kill a few more people and hand out some game invitations?
Qi Si stroked his chin, lost in thought.
...
On March 24th, it rained all day in Jiang City, and Qi Si didn't wake up until noon.
The rain seemed to trigger a chemical reaction with one of his items. A damp, salty, fishy smell seeped up from the base of the walls and slowly permeated the entire apartment. The white walls became mottled with large water stains and patches of algae, as if the room had once been submerged by a rising tide.
Qi Si picked up the culprit, Poseidon's Scepter, and resolved never to bring it into the real world again if he could help it. Otherwise, the house his parents had left him wouldn't withstand many more such episodes; within a month, it would be a soggy, rotting mess.
On the game forums, the murky waters he had managed to stir up were already settling, thanks to the Kyushu Guild's crisis management. A flood of new posts had appeared, capturing everyone's attention.
#New Instance "Animal World," God Fu Clears on First Try with TE, Fu Jue is the GOAT!#
#Whole Team Survived the New Instance, The Chief is as Reassuring as Ever!#
#I used to think Fu Jue was overrated, until he cut off his own arm to save me and nearly died in the instance.#
#I feel like Fu Jue is the player most suited for the Weird Game. I'd believe it if you told me he was the protagonist of our world.#
#An MBTI Analysis of God Fu and the Savior Archetype in Traditional Adventure Stories#
Qi Si scrolled through the fawning comments, which were on par with any real-world fandom's mindless drivel. He even saw a post from some deranged fan declaring they "wanted to have God Fu's babies," which was almost enough to make him sick.
He thought with malicious glee, "He loves sitting on his pedestal, playing the savior. The day he falls, I bet the gallows won't be far behind..."
Of course, amidst this string of irritating news, there was a silver lining—inspired by the salty sea air in his apartment, Qi Si was feeling particularly creative.
He bought a basket of fish, spent the afternoon skinning them, and then worked through the night grafting the skins onto a human corpse to recreate the fish monster from the Hopeless Sea.
The only downside was that, to avoid trouble, such a masterpiece couldn't be displayed in broad daylight. It had to remain hidden in his workshop for his private viewing, which diminished the pleasure considerably.
On the morning of March 25th, Qi Si came across a news report:
#Yanjing University History Professor Lu Li Dead from Sudden Heart Attack at 22#
The article reported that Lu Li had been grading student papers right up until the very end, which drew a wave of public sympathy. The comment section was filled with posts either mourning the Federation's loss of a great mind or sharing fond memories from former colleagues and students.
Anecdote after anecdote painted a portrait of an approachable, gentle scholar—a completely different person from the mastermind in the instance who had nearly engineered the deaths of all the players.
Almost every player wore two faces—one for the game and one for reality. It was hard to tell if the Weird Game unleashed their true nature or simply warped their personalities.
The thought amused Qi Si so much he laughed until tears welled in his eyes. "You enjoyed seven happy years in the sun and even got to kill me again. I suppose you can die without any regrets." He then considered, with some interest, what he would do with his last half-hour in the real world if he were to die in the game.
He realized, with a touch of disappointment, that there wasn't really anything he wanted to do.
There wouldn't be enough time to make a new specimen, and writing a will felt unnecessary. He would probably just lie in bed, play some match-three game, and wait for the end.
Still, the news about Lu Li did remind him of one thing.
He took out the ring he had looted from Liu Ajiu and examined it closely. After confirming the thread wound around it was ordinary and had nothing to do with Puppet Thread, he was finally able to relax.
Afterward, Qi Si went back to the Weird Game forums to gather some information on guilds.
The more established guilds had strict rules and regulations, not to mention hefty membership fees. The smaller guilds were more flexible, but there was little benefit to joining them.
The only major guild that allowed members to come and go freely was the Listening Wind Guild. Their main business was gathering intelligence and fanning flames wherever they could. They seemed utterly classless, and in reality... they were.
With nothing better to do, Qi Si entered the game space around noon and opened his eyes in his high-backed chair.
His hazy figure was reflected in the full-length mirror. A thin, cloak-like mist of blood swirled around his white shirt, and a clear scarlet light flowed within his eyes.
It was him, and yet, not quite.
His once merely handsome features had taken on a demonic, otherworldly quality. If he had walked the mountains at night in ancient times, he would have undoubtedly been chronicled as an evil spirit.
With each activation of his Identity Card, his appearance grew closer to the "Humanoid Evil" depicted on it.
This, he supposed, was the "role-playing" aspect of the game. Unfortunately, while he didn't mind the idea of becoming a ghost, he thoroughly disliked being passively transformed into one for no apparent reason.
Qi Si stored Poseidon's Scepter in his inventory and opened the game's shop.
The second page of the shop was filled with mundane, everyday items. After a quick browse, he found nothing he needed and reluctantly flipped to the third page.
After a quick search, he found what he was looking for.
[Name: Water Mirror Mask]
[Type: Item]
[Effect: Anyone who sees you for the first time will be unable to see your true face.]
[Note: Whose face do you see in the mirror?]
If the primary threat in the real world came from official organizations, then in the Weird Game, his greatest danger was the Sila Guild.
Initially, he had planned to pry secrets about teaming items from the guild to indirectly figure out the nature of his own bracelet.
Now, however, he decided it was best to avoid any involvement with that faction.
The existence of the Puppet Master loomed over him like a dark cloud, ready to burst into a torrential storm at any moment.
His opponent had countless puppets, while he had only one life. The disparity in their power was clear.
In a single encounter, he had exposed a core vulnerability—his thought patterns—while also revealing his trump card: his immunity to the Puppet Thread.
If he encountered any Sila members again in the near future, the scales of victory would undoubtedly tip in their favor.
Qi Si never underestimated an opponent's strength or overestimated their mercy, and he certainly wasn't about to entrust his fate to something as fickle as luck.
—He had to prepare, even if his efforts were like an ant trying to topple a tree.
The [Water Mirror Mask] would be an excellent defense, preventing Sila or any other troublesome factions from tracking him.
Besides, most of the players who had seen his face in the game were already dead. Anyone else he encountered would be a stranger, unable to see his true appearance.
Qi Si's gaze dropped to the item's price.
[Price: 200,000 Points]
Two hundred thousand points—one-fifth of the total required to fulfill a wish.
...Great. He couldn't afford it. Not even close.
Qi Si closed the shop interface and reached out to touch the golden leaf that represented Liu Yuhan.
In the past few days, she had cleared three more instances—all ones for which she had already published guides, meaning the point reward was zero.
It looked like she was spending her own points to enter specific instances, all in an effort to reach the one-hundred-clear total.
This was exactly what Qi Si had expected, and he had no intention of interfering.
Her points would run out eventually. When they did, Liu Yuhan would be forced to enter new instances, and Qi Si would make damn sure she wouldn't get a single point from him ever again.
It was getting late; there was no point in dawdling.
Qi Si returned to the second page of the shop, bought a pile of cosmetics like eyebrow pencils and foundation, and hastily smeared them all over his face.
As was his habit, he tossed the leftover points into the livestream of some lucky player.
Once that was done, he shouldered his hiking pack and stepped into the full-length mirror.
[Randomly generating instance...]
[Instance loading... Load complete...]
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