Chapter 383: Ending Two |
[Identity Card: Taboo Scholar]
[Effect: Grants heightened insight into the forbidden knowledge of the world. When upright, you can rewrite the world's history. When reversed, you will gradually lose your sanity and fall into madness.]
[Note: Knowledge is contamination, erudition is madness. The buried past, the erased histories—to speak of them is forbidden. For this, the scholar is accused of blasphemy.]
Asakura Yuko was awakened by a grisly crunching sound. The moment she opened her eyes, she saw a bizarre statue emerge from among the murals on the ceiling. Its marble-like fangs were tearing at what was clearly human flesh, and its crimson eyes stared at her malevolently.
Her expression unchanged, she quietly watched the statue gnaw on an arm, her mind replaying the sights and sounds of the East District.
Because of her identity card, she could see far more than the other players. After recording enough observations, the effect of the [Taboo Scholar] card activated on its own. A vast amount of the Holy City's "forbidden history" surged before her eyes, transmuting into a series of abstract images.
In the two months since she had acquired the identity card, she had grown accustomed to hearing a cacophony of whispers and receiving a deluge of complex information with every step she took. This had allowed her to learn many secrets about the gods and the underlying rules of the world.
With practice, she eventually became adept at multitasking, devoting half her consciousness to processing information while the other half handled the instance and interacted with people.
But her experience in the Holy City was completely different from any instance she had faced before.
A woman was bound and dragged toward the temple, a little girl following behind, wailing hysterically, "Don't take my mommy, she's not a heretic..." But soon, priests in black robes came forward, covered her mouth, and dragged her to the judgment stand as well.
Believers lay scattered on the ground, their wounds oozing a translucent mucus that fermented into a thick, yellowish-green fluid. Everyone stared blankly at the sky, their fingers and toes twitching bizarrely and unconsciously as low hisses of pain escaped their lips.
Priests held torches high, burning confiscated books. Heretics were pushed onto execution platforms studded with iron spikes. Skeletons piled up like mountains in the graveyard... Crowds gathered like ants below the altar, kowtowing and cheering numbly, because even a moment's hesitation would be seen as insincere, and extortion and oppression would inevitably follow...
Every inch of this land was soaked in blood and death. Asakura Yuko saw countless mutated statues—sculptures that should have been holy now wept tears of blood, their eyes greedily fixed on the flesh of the living. They were bizarre, abnormal, and terrifying.
From Vader's perspective, the two of them had simply taken a walk around the East District and had somehow figured out the solution to the main quest.
In reality, it was far from that simple. The story trigger was entirely dependent on the vast amount of information provided by her identity card. After all, this was an instance filled with many top-ranked players; how could it be such a giveaway?
Of course, Asakura Yuko felt no obligation to share this information with her temporary teammate, so Vader would likely never know what had really happened.
Recalling the scene now, Asakura Yuko took a deep breath and exhaled. She knew that what she had seen and heard involved instance NPCs—tools designed to provide clues and create death traps.
Once their group cleared the instance and the next wave of players entered, everything would reset, and the dead would be resurrected.
But the twisted faces and hoarse cries still flooded her consciousness uncontrollably, making her throat tighten and her temples throb.
The statue on the ceiling finished its meal and, staring at her, recited in a cold voice:
[You are a disciple of the night. Please go out and choose a target.]
[If you have decided who to kill, knock on their door three times.]
As it spoke, corresponding text appeared on her system interface. From this, Asakura Yuko learned the killing rule for the heretic faction.
Go out at night, knock three times on another player's door, and you could kill the person inside. This indirectly confirmed the other players' earlier conclusion: players in the heretic faction could move about and investigate clues at night.
After stating the rules, the statue's features slowly twisted into a tangled mass, squirming inch by inch until they became a flat surface. It then retracted slowly into the ceiling, quickly becoming a stone tile indistinguishable from the ones around it.
Asakura Yuko waited a moment to ensure there was no further danger, then sat up in bed and pushed the door open.
...
Meanwhile, Giles was hurrying down the main thoroughfare of the Holy City, carrying the oil lamp named [Light]. Countless corpses shambled slowly along the sides of the street. In the distance, a massive tumor of flesh could be seen rampaging at the end of the road, devouring the flesh of the dead.
He moved in the opposite direction of the flesh-tumor, carefully maneuvering his body, weaving left and right, narrowly avoiding contact with any of the monsters. As he went, he began to form a clearer picture of the instance's worldview.
The Holy Lord who first created this sacred city had benevolently loved its believers. Later, something went wrong—perhaps the number of heretics grew, or perhaps it was related to the Twilight of the Gods in the Weird Game's overarching lore. The Holy Lord fell into a deep sleep and was replaced by the player, Qi Si.
Beyond that, a being that was clearly an evil god had quietly taken root in the Holy City, manipulating sacred things into terrifying mutations, collecting offerings in bizarre ways, and gnawing on corpses. The priests, whether out of fear or for their own gain, colluded with this evil god, helping to oppress the believers.
Although his reasoning had some flaws due to Qi Si's misdirection, the general direction was sound, and it had won the unanimous approval of the delegates from the Weird Investigation Bureau as soon as he voiced it.
After escaping the pursuit of the flesh-tumor during the day, the group had not rushed back to the temple. Instead, they lingered in the city for a while longer. Turning a corner, they saw two priests holding transparent jars, which triggered a side quest.
Given their level of caution, there was no way they were going to sacrifice their own flesh on the first day. Who knew if it would trigger a death trap or cause them to be targeted by the evil god? The more one understood the Weird Game, the more one realized that danger could lurk in any detail. Over time, it became impossible to act as recklessly as one did in their first instances.
During his novice phase, Giles recalled an instance where, banking on the fact that injuries didn't carry over, he had stabbed himself several times. He used his own blood and severed limbs to set traps that deceived the ghosts, killed half the NPCs, and caused the instance to be permanently shut down.
But now, talking about that bloody past felt like recalling a different lifetime. He had ultimately become a cautious and steady middle-aged man, no longer willing to recklessly implement a brilliant idea that struck him in a flash of inspiration. Instead, he would communicate earnestly with his teammates and follow the organization's advice.
After some discussion, the delegates settled on a plan to capture a believer and take a piece of their flesh. They each took out items that might be useful, including some for creating illusions and lowering NPC alertness.
With everything prepared, Giles randomly grabbed an unlucky believer. He used a knife to cut off a piece of flesh and attach it to his own arm. Bolstered by the items contributed by the other players, he approached the two priests with their vacant stares and, hiding the motion with his sleeve, tossed the flesh into the glass jar.
The offering was complete. Giles successfully obtained a fire seed. Two other players also chose to complete the side quest this way, while the remaining three said they needed to observe for another day.
After completing three side quests in a row, a special event was triggered. A new entry was unlocked on their history pages: [Heretics gathering in secret plot blasphemy.]
Effect: [Allows you to report any room with two or more occupants, accusing the residents of being heretics.]
And so, the scene with the room assignments had come to be.
According to the instance's rules, Fu Jue's death was certain. But it was impossible for a being so close to a god to have no contingency plan. Countless suspicious details cast a veil of uncertainty over the feasibility of "killing Fu Jue."
But what did it matter? All the delegates in this instance were merely desperate gamblers who had reached the end of their rope and were betting everything on one last throw.
To this day, Giles still couldn't remember why he was so wary of Fu Jue, so eager to see him eliminated.
In any case, the use of the fire seed was now known: not only could it advance the main quest's progress, but it also allowed players of the believer faction to go out at night. After a moment of hesitation, Giles chose... to use the fire seed to light his oil lamp and go out to explore.
The overt reason was that by going out, he might run into the heretics and quickly sort out the faction alignments. The covert reason was a burgeoning desire for exploration stirring deep within him.
Using a fire seed obtained by sacrificing flesh to unlock text-based story progression while sitting at a negotiation table—that was something theory-crafting players enjoyed. It wasn't his style.
In the distance, the golden veins pulsing on the surface of the flesh-tumor emitted a light as brilliant as the sun, dispelling the darkness over half the district and bathing it in a twilight orange. The faint light of the oil lamp flickered in the other half of the district, seeming hesitant and frail by comparison.
Giles clambered over a low fence and, with a single leap, landed on the roof of a one-story building. From this position, he could both avoid the demonic chaos in the streets and get a full view of the district below.
He crouched and surveyed the scene for a while. Suddenly, a few lines of silvery-white text appeared on his system interface:
[Speculation on "The Truth of the Holy City's Destruction": A city that should have believed in its god became infested with an evil spirit. The sacred soil was polluted, breeding sin and depravity. Fanatical priests ordered believers to offer their flesh and blood to feed a new god, but this new god was insatiable and sought to devour the entire Holy City... (Consume 1 Fire Seed to unlock the rest.)]
[Note: Advance any speculated plotline to its conclusion, and that plotline will become the actual truth. The main quest will then be considered complete.]
There's a second ending? he thought. A new god... could it be the player sitting on the main throne, Qi Si?
Giles pondered for a moment, his eyes narrowing.
...
Asakura Yuko walked down the street, adjusting her glasses as she looked at the second ending that had appeared on her system interface.
As a heretic, she had no intention of randomly picking a lucky victim to kill just yet. She had only come out at night to gather more clues.
But as soon as she stepped out of the temple, she encountered the golden-glowing flesh-tumor and the streets full of walking corpses.
The effect of her [Taboo Scholar] identity card made her understand what it was the instant she saw the flesh-tumor—
The primordial form of a god, the personification of authority, an instinct-driven creature that knew only how to devour...
She finally understood the true difficulty of the "Holy City" instance. With combat-oriented items sealed, players had no way to deal with a god like this that could not be reasoned with.
Asakura Yuko's mind raced as she backed away step by step, her expression tense.
Hundreds of fissures split open on the surface of the giant flesh-tumor, and blood-red eyeballs crawled out from within. Yet, as if they couldn't see her, each one perfectly skirted around her, their gazes landing on the objects beside her.
She held her breath, watching as the flesh-tumor brushed past her and rolled into the distance. Only then did she realize that the reason heretics could walk at night was likely because their status, for some reason, allowed them to evade the tumor's notice.
As the flesh-tumor moved away, the light before her dimmed. Asakura Yuko's gaze stretched into the distance, where a faint glimmer of light shone in the vast darkness, as hazy yet distinct as a guide lamp.
It was a player, and one who possessed a fire seed.
Asakura Yuko made her assessment, knowing someone had withheld information.
Earlier, the players had unanimously claimed to have given up on the side quest and not obtained any fire seeds. It was hardly possible that a new fire seed quest had suddenly been triggered in just a few short hours, was it?
She had no intention of going to investigate. If that person saw her moving about at night without a fire seed, it would be tantamount to writing "I am a heretic" on her forehead.
She silently returned to the temple, walking past the murals whose eyes seeped blood. She walked to the door of her Room 11, having not used the heretic faction's killing ability at all.
Then she discovered... the door wouldn't open.
[Heretic, you must kill. You cannot return to your room until the task is complete.]
Asakura Yuko was silent for two seconds, then retreated to the main hall of the temple, sat down in her seat, and rested her head on the table for a short nap.
A chance to kill someone was more intimidating when held in reserve. She had no desire to use it on the first day.
In the darkness, the statues smacked their lips as they swallowed fresh flesh. The believers cowered in their respective rooms, trembling. Flor's corpse rose from behind a statue and staggered out of the temple, heading toward the graveyard.
Qi Si sat on the main throne, his eyes lowered to watch Asakura Yuko, who had nonchalantly gone to sleep as if no one else existed. A crimson beam of light from his fingertip condensed into a thread, forming a path of light in the darkness that extended toward the East District.
Golden-red vines, like the city's blood vessels, stretched out into the void. The light, diluted by the distance, became so faint it was nearly transparent, making it impossible to see where it led even up close.
The entire Holy City was under the god's control.
...
At dawn, Asakura Yuko opened her eyes in the main hall. In her groggy state, she felt as if she had seen the deceased Flor. She wasn't sure if it was because she had witnessed the sight of walking corpses everywhere—a case of what one thinks about by day, one dreams of by night.
A creak came from the temple's main entrance as the doors were pushed open. The players who had gone out to explore last night entered from outside. Without exception, their clothes were disheveled and they were covered in dust, clearly having endured a long and arduous night.
Seeing Asakura Yuko staring at them quietly, they began to explain themselves all at once. They were neither heretics nor did they have fire seeds; they had been chased all over by monsters last night and had barely escaped with their lives.
Asakura Yuko, of course, didn't believe them, but she had no intention of questioning their story. She had no desire to become a public enemy and be targeted by this group during the voting process.
A few minutes later, the sound of voices grew from the corridor behind the statues. The players who hadn't gone out during the night had also woken up and began to take their seats at the long table.
Once everyone was seated, the absence of some members became obvious.
Only eleven of the thirteen seats were occupied. The empty ones were number 10 and number 12, corresponding to Brelen and Fu Jue.
The previous night, after Fujiwara Shinno's proposal, the black player, Brelen, had volunteered to stay in Fu Jue's room, number 12. Fu Jue had agreed.
And then... something had happened to both of them.