Chapter 386: The Grand Finale (April 1st Special Edition) |
The end of the Weird Game felt like a surreal, bewildering dream. Even the most analytical players, those who prided themselves on theory, couldn't fully explain the chain of events that led to its conclusion.
The Final Instance had manifested in reality in a strange and terrifying manner, only to vanish without a trace overnight. Years later, looking back, players couldn't help but wonder if it had all been a case of mass hysteria.
The only certainty was that Fu Jue had struck a deal with a god—a bargain that had rewritten the very rules of their world.
As for the specifics of the deal, Fu Jue, one of the parties involved, remained tight-lipped. That very day, he submitted his resignation to the leadership of the Weird Investigation Bureau, relinquishing all his official duties within the Federation and the Kyushu Guild.
As for the other party—the god himself... well, no one dared to ask.
In any case, the outcome was a good one. And sometimes, it's better not to know all the answers.
...
Jiang City. An apartment in the Near River District.
Si Qi was lounging on his bed, playing a match-three game on his phone. At the desk, Li was engrossed in a round of Snake. The scene was one of domestic bliss—peaceful, harmonious, and utterly unremarkable.
Si Qi was hardly a model of social integration—half of his twenty-two years had been spent harming himself and others, the other half squandered as a shut-in. Still, he was leagues ahead of Li, who couldn't even figure out how to pay for things with a QR code.
Given their shared history of growing up together under the World Tree—and the unspoken understanding that they were each other's emergency food supply—Si Qi had kindly taken in his fellow god. He'd dug an old, internet-capable phone out of a drawer, tossed it to Li, and considered the matter settled.
Of course, Xu Yao was less than thrilled that Li's gaming tastes were limited to Snake.
She had spent the last few days trying to team up with Lu Li, only to be driven to tears by his abysmal reflexes; he was brilliant at strategy but utterly hopeless at execution. Just when she thought she'd found a promising replacement in Li, she discovered the god was impossible to convert. A truly tragic state of affairs.
"So, Old Qi, what actually happened that day?" Jin Yusheng pleaded, perched on the floor with his laptop, fingers flying across the keys. "Come on, for the sake of our six years of friendship—we were practically inseparable. Just tell me something."
Following the massive Weird Invasion that preceded the Final Instance, the existence of the game was no longer a secret—at least, not to the unlucky citizens of Jiang City who had come face-to-face with its horrors.
Jin Yusheng had been one of those poor souls. He'd been chased from one end of the city to the other by a monster covered in roses. After a harrowing, cross-city chase that was part horror movie, part marathon, he'd dragged what was left of himself to Si Qi's doorstep, finally putting an end to his repeated near-death experiences.
Upon discovering that Si Qi was the mastermind behind the Weird Invasion, the unflappable Jin Yusheng, after a brief "holy shit" moment, promptly found a high-traffic forum and started a thread: #MyBestFriendisAnEvilGodAndHere'sWhatHappened#.
His post was taken down multiple times, but he stubbornly persisted until the day the Federation finally declassified information on the subject. He quickly connected with an editor from a web novel platform and began writing a story that was ninety percent pure fabrication and ten percent secondhand rumor.
"Come on, Old Qi, just a little hint," Jin Yusheng wheedled, his hands and mouth moving in tandem. "The Federation lifted the gag order, why won't you? Are we even friends anymore?" With a final flurry of keystrokes, he padded out another chapter and hit "publish."
A notification popped up on Si Qi's phone: *A new chapter of 'Infinite Weird Game,' the series you're following, has been released.* He sighed. "You really want to know that badly?"
Jin Yusheng's expression turned serious. "Desperately. Come on, spill the details!" "Hmm, as for what happened that day... why don't you guess?"
"Damn it!"
"Ding-dong." The doorbell rang. A paper figurine, shaped like a kindly housekeeper, waddled over to answer it.
Lin Chen stood at the threshold, laden with bags. He flinched for a second at the sight of the paper figurine, with its face painted stark white and rouged with two perfect red circles, but quickly composed himself. Stepping inside, he set the bags on the dining table and began unpacking containers of food, arranging them neatly.
"Qi-ge," Lin Chen began, a little nervously, "Jiang City's been under lockdown, and my pass to leave campus just got approved today. I was worried about you, so I wanted to check in." He truly hadn't expected to walk in and find the apartment full of people.
With the Weird Game gone, there was no longer a Lin Wuya, president of the Unnamed Guild. Stripped of that title, he was just an ordinary college student—or so he told himself.
Even setting aside their in-game identities, the people in this apartment were what you might call a motley crew of the highest order. Any normal college student would be nervous walking into a scene like this, right?
Fortunately, no one was paying any mind to Lin Chen's internal monologue. The moment Xu Yao saw the array of dishes on the table, she looked like she might burst into tears of joy. "Oh, thank goodness! I don't have to eat another cup of instant noodles!"
Indeed, since returning to the Near River District, the group had subsisted on instant noodles for a solid week. It wasn't like being in Qi Family Village, where they could freely scrounge rice, flour, and vegetables from the fields and abandoned homes. Here in Jiang City, fresh ingredients had to be bought.
In a house full of humanoid gods and ghosts, no one was willing to venture downstairs for groceries. The paper figurine was obviously too terrifying to send out. As a result, Si Qi's stockpile of instant noodles had been dwindling at an alarming rate, and another online order was becoming desperately necessary.
Lin Chen's arrival was a godsend. Si Qi, who had been lazing in bed all day, finally crawled out with a yawn. Even Li put down his phone and emerged from his room, his expression as blank as ever.
Even though he'd been warned, Lin Chen still went rigid for a second upon seeing Li's familiar face. *Why does he have to use that face?* he thought. *Seeing it late at night is like looking at a reanimated corpse! Seriously!*
Li noticed Lin Chen's unease. "Is something wrong?" he asked earnestly. "Do you know me?" He was generally amicable toward Qi's human friends.
Lin Chen forced a laugh. "No, haha, I just mistook you for someone else."
Lu Li emerged from another room, adjusting his gold-rimmed glasses. "Classic symptoms of PTSD," he observed. "Physical manifestations include palpitations, diaphoresis, headaches, and general malaise..."
Jin Yusheng sighed and put a hand to his forehead. "My dear fellow, I'd advise you to keep quiet unless you want Old Qi to have some fun at your expense. Also... I think it would be best if we all ate first."
He didn't need to say a word. Xu Yao had already grabbed a thin pancake and was assembling a Peking duck wrap, generously slathering chili sauce on the crispy skin.
Watching the girl stuff the wrap into her mouth with zero regard for decorum, Lin Chen felt some of his tension ease. He picked up a pancake himself and began... making a wrap for Qi Si.
The existence of the Weird Game truly had been like a phantom dream. And now that the dream was over, it had vanished without a trace, leaving nothing behind to follow.
But at the very least, the people he had met and the things he had experienced were real. Those memories remained, as vivid as fire, as bright as a painting...
Alright, let's skip the next five hundred words of sentimental fluff and get back to the original question: What exactly were the terms of the deal between Fu Jue and Si Qi?
The author would like to state that she doesn't know either. She hasn't made it up yet~
(Happy April Fool's Day! Hehehe~ And now for a prize-less quiz: In the *real* finale, how many of the characters who appeared in this chapter will survive? A. 0; B. 1; C. 2; D. 3)