Chapter 411: Om Mani Padme Hum Om Mani Padme Hum |
People resist aging not just from fear of the finality of death, but also from the reluctance to accept the body's decay, the unwillingness to have a soul, grown stronger and richer with time and experience, trapped within a frail, powerless vessel.
Some fabricated tales of achieving immortality after death, spreading them as sacred truths. These beautiful lies were widely accepted as spiritual comfort, a belief that in death, one could shed all ailments and find true freedom for the soul.
Others clung to legends of rejuvenation, desperately seeking elixirs of longevity. They saw a youthful face framed by white hair as a sign of enlightenment, becoming ecstatic over the unexpected appearance of a few black strands among the silver.
Adults yearn for the life of a child—a time of carefree innocence, free from the pressures of making a living, untainted by the ugliness of the world. They see it as a sanctuary for the soul, a safe haven from reality.
But what if one truly did revert to being a child? In truth, this would bring no joy. Any phenomenon of reverse aging that defies natural law and common sense is enough to provoke panic.
It is not just because of the regression of one's mind, intellect, and memory, with a naive soul housed in an ill-fitting, adult shell. Nor is it simply because this unforeseen development is uncontrollable, making the timid shrink from the risk. It is because the end of this path is nothingness.
A person comes from nothingness, and now they must return to it—from an adult back to an infant, then an embryo, a fertilized egg, until finally, nothing remains. Not even a grave to mark their existence can be left behind.
They are erased, their very possibility of existence nullified at its source, as if they had never come into this world at all. How could such a fate not inspire a profound sorrow?
In the inn, Zhou Ke, Dong Xiwen, Zhang Yiyu, and the other players, led by Lin Jue, sat facing one another, reviewing the events and clues they had gathered since entering the instance.
At Lin Jue's request, every player took a sheet of white paper and, based on their first instinct, wrote down their age.
Zhang Hongbin wrote thirty-one, ten years younger than his actual age. Chu Yining wrote twenty-two, six years younger. And indeed, their behavior had become noticeably more childish.
Aleksey's case was more severe. Though he appeared to be in his forties or fifties, his perceived age was twenty-six. Worse still, he had lost a staggering twenty-two years of memory, believing it was his first year in the instance, having just become an official player.
The only fortunate aspect was his long tenure as a player. This regression hadn't reverted him to a time before he entered the Weird Game, which would have forced the others to waste time explaining the situation to a "newcomer."
Lin Jue pondered for a moment before asking, "Aleksey, do you still have your Identity Card on you?"
Aleksey was now effectively a brash young man in his early twenties, exuding a pure naivety. He also possessed the unconditional trust in Lin Jue characteristic of players from that earlier era.
Hearing Lin Jue's question, he scratched his head. "God Lin, what's an Identity Card? The guides on the forums never mentioned it, and I've never heard of it..."
Lin Jue explained, "Look at the top right of your vision. A faint image of a card should be displayed there. Focus your gaze on it for a moment, and a prompt will appear."
Aleksey fell silent for two seconds, a flicker of astonishment in his eyes. "It's really there... [Calamity High Priest]. Its effect is..."
"Don't tell us," Lin Jue said, shaking his head and cutting him off. "Identity Card holders may become competitors later on. While I hope we can all work together to clear the Final Instance, I have no intention of taking advantage of your situation."
"God Lin, I've always believed in your principles..."
"Too much can happen in twenty-two years. The you from back then might not agree with the me of today." After reassuring Aleksey, Lin Jue began to assign tasks.
With Lin Jue taking responsibility for negotiating with Sang Ji, the other twenty players split into ten pairs. Each pair took a section of Shangri-La Town and scoured it completely before regrouping at the inn to consolidate their clues and findings.
Lin Jue adjusted his glasses. "We can basically confirm it," he declared. "This instance has a two-fold death mechanism. The first is the danger at night; if Sang Ji learns your room number, there's a chance the person in that room will die. The second is the age regression, which manifests as juvenile thinking and a younger self-perception, triggered by repeatedly discussing time while bearing sin."
"The instance's judgment of sin follows the Weird Game's fundamental rule that 'everyone is guilty.' Unless we complete an act of atonement recognized by the instance, we are all considered 'sinners.' From now on, we must avoid mentioning specific times. If you absolutely have to discuss the topic, please use indirect references."
"Lin Jue, can we find a way to achieve atonement sooner?" Chu Yining asked.
Knowing her life was likely on a countdown, she remained calm, scribbling in a notebook as she analyzed the situation. "I have a feeling the 'atonement' mechanism is linked to more than just age regression. As we go deeper into this instance, we'll probably face a whole new set of crises."
"To truly clear this instance, we have to climb the Snow Mountain. I asked Bai Ma—the mountain is the body of the Mother God. Climbing it carelessly could be seen as an offense to her. I'm wondering if we, as 'sinners,' would also be considered offensive for defiling the mountain's purity with our sins."
"Your reasoning is sound. I've also been thinking about how to atone." Lin Jue nodded slightly, but his expression twisted into a wry smile. "Sang Ji said we could atone through chanting and prostration, but I tried both methods yesterday, and nothing happened."
He paused, then pulled a booklet from his coat and placed it on the small table in the center of the group. "And... I found this in one of the shops."
It was a brownish booklet, its edges wrinkled and frayed as if it had been soaked in water and nibbled by fish, like seaweed. In the center of the cover was a blank rectangular impression, with three Sanskrit words written above it.
The corresponding translation instantly appeared on the players' system interfaces: [The Sutra of Salvation].
Lin Jue lifted a hand and turned to the first page of the sutra. Tiny, tadpole-like black characters sprawled crookedly across the page, looking as if they might leap off the paper and burrow into the onlookers' eyes at any moment.
Two lines of text materialized on their system interfaces:
[The pure are blessed; the guilty suffer the storm. The Mother God's grace is boundless; all may climb the mountain to bathe in her light.]
[Save yourself to save others; save others to save yourself. For each soul you deliver, one sin is absolved, as witnessed by the Mother God.]
Dong Xiwen, the fastest reader, couldn't help but complain, "This is obviously a trap. Anyone with basic reading comprehension can see the conditions for 'saving yourself' and 'saving others' are contradictory, right? You have to save yourself before you can save others, but we have to save others to save ourselves. How is that any different from 'you need to show an ID to get an ID'?"
"It's not a contradiction," Lin Jue said calmly. "Judging by the original phrasing, 'saving yourself' is a necessary but not sufficient condition for 'saving others.' There might be other ways to achieve self-salvation besides delivering others. I hope we can find one, because based on the available information, the method for 'delivering others' is... horrifying."
He turned to the next page, which revealed a series of simple line drawings. Flowing, reddish-brown lines depicted horrifying scenes, from flaying and sacrificing livers to crafting ritual tools from human bones.
Although there were no explanatory words, the players could all grasp the meaning behind the vivid illustrations: to "deliver others" meant to prepare a sinner according to Shangri-La's traditional methods, pleasing the gods and thereby cleansing one's own sins.
But what kind of atonement was this? Choosing a scapegoat from the crowd, cruelly killing one of your own kind just to survive—that was clearly a greater and more tragic sin...
"I just remembered something," a young man in a black suit suddenly spoke up, his voice cold. "I chatted a bit with Sang Ji last night. He mentioned that many people in Shangri-La Town are guilty, including himself and the pilgrims chanting on the streets. It's very likely they'll target us—to 'deliver' us."
"In their eyes, Vasilievna's death might have been a form of 'deliverance.' To put it more bluntly, the NPCs will kill travelers according to the Sutra of Salvation to cleanse their own sins. Shangri-La Town is no longer safe for us. As newcomers, we are now prey for every 'sinner' here."
As he spoke, the wind chimes at the inn's entrance were stirred by a breeze, beginning to sway frantically. They produced a continuous, broken tinkling sound, reminiscent of the prelude to a ghost's appearance in a horror film.
Whether it was an illusion or not, the once-bright light seemed to dim several shades in an instant, as if a dark haze had drifted in from afar to blanket the town.
They were all experienced players, not ones to be lulled by a facade of peace, nor were they ones to panic upon learning of a hidden danger. Still, the sudden realization that they were surrounded by wolves and watched by hungry ghosts inevitably created a disquieting sense of being targeted.
"Heh heh... hahaha..." A soft, out-of-place laugh broke the tense atmosphere. It started low and light, but as the players' gazes converged on the source, it grew louder and more unrestrained.
"Is this the best the so-called top players can do?" Zhou Ke bent over, clutching his stomach, laughing until he was breathless. He finally managed to speak, catching the tail end of a gasp. "We slept through the night completely defenseless, yet most of us didn't die immediately. That's enough to prove this instance's death conditions are extremely strict."
"Moreover, this instance is clearly designed to preserve the player base. Even if two or more people meet the death conditions simultaneously, the NPCs will only kill one person per day. The Sutra of Salvation and the 'deliverance' mechanism exist mainly to create a sense of urgency, to keep us from lingering in Shangri-La Town and delaying our ascent up the mountain."
"As for climbing the Snow Mountain, 'atonement' and 'deliverance' aren't prerequisites. The line 'all may climb the mountain to bathe in her light' makes it perfectly clear. Both the pure and the guilty can climb; it's just that the difficulty and potential events will differ. The former 'are blessed,' while the latter 'suffer the storm.' It's that simple."
"Of course, if you're all insistent on 'atoning' before you climb the mountain, and you're worried about becoming prey for those NPCs, I do have a solution—"
Zhou Ke paused. Xiao Fengchao pressed him, "What solution? Spit it out. I've got a bad feeling about this."
Dong Xiwen and Zhang Yiyu also stared at Zhou Ke without blinking.
They were posing as Zhou Ke's teammates, but they knew no more about him than the other players. They were just fellow sufferers who had met by chance in an instance and been royally screwed over by a Soul Contract. They'd be lucky not to be sold out by him, let alone get any clues.
"You want to know? It's really nothing..." Zhou Ke's eyes narrowed, his smile brewing with unconcealed malice. "Since someone has to die anyway, why don't we keep it in the family? Excluding Lin Jue, there are exactly twenty of us. We can pick ten to kill the other ten and complete our 'atonement.' What do you all think?"
The words were so absurd they sounded like a joke, but from the young man's expression, it seemed he genuinely approved of this radical and ruthless solution.
"What are you trying to say?" the young man in the black suit asked, his voice growing even colder. He stared intently at Zhou Ke, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword, ready to draw it at any moment.
Zhou Ke remained perfectly composed on the sofa, his smile unwavering. "Judging by your expressions, it seems none of you approve of that plan. Well, that makes things even simpler. I have a second proposal—one that might let you all clear the instance directly."
A rust-spotted tape recorder materialized in his hand, apparently summoned from his inventory. Zhou Ke pressed a button, and an eerie chant echoed through the silent room:
"Om Mani Padme Hum... Om Mani Padme Hum... Om Mani Padme Hum... Om Mani Padme Hum..."
The players exchanged bewildered glances, not understanding the meaning of this. Some, however, recognized the strange melody—it was the sacred hymn chanted by the pilgrims of Shangri-La Town as they prostrated themselves.
Zhou Ke hummed along with the hymn for a moment, his tone as gentle as if he were talking in his sleep. "Because they have never completed their atonement, they can never achieve true eternal life. The 'sinners'' thoughts and memories fade with the decay of their bodies. Over time, this creates a vicious cycle where they can no longer 'deliver' travelers from afar."
"So, the hymn appeared. The moment we entered this holy town, the hymn rang out across it. That's how the pilgrims knew we had arrived, and it's how they can pinpoint our location. At night, when the hymn sounds again, they will follow the music and gather."
"Of course, it's not just the pilgrims who need to atone; Sang Ji does, too. To prevent the pilgrims from stealing his prey, he shakes his prayer wheel to drive away any who wander too close..."
Zhou Ke paused, a smile that could almost be described as gentle gracing his lips. "By the way, I have some bad news for you. I bought every single prayer wheel in Shangri-La Town and tossed them off a cliff. They should be frozen in a glacier by now, I imagine."
Only then did the players notice that Zhou Ke's face was even paler than it had been that morning. It was the sickly white of someone who had lost too much blood, making him look like a walking corpse drained of all vitality. His voice was also perceptibly weak; he had to pause for breath after every sentence, as if he might suffocate at any moment.
During their earlier exploration of Shangri-La Town, the players had learned that everything in the town had to be paid for with one's soul, flesh and blood, or items. Any normal person's first choice would be items. But looking at Zhou Ke's condition, it was clear he had run out of items and resorted to paying with his own flesh...
At this moment, none of the players had the slightest doubt about Zhou Ke's claim to have "bought every prayer wheel."
"Buddy, what in the world are you trying to do? Don't tell me it's what I think it is," Xiao Fengchao said, his face grim.
Lin Jue said nothing, merely staring at Zhou Ke with a heavy expression, having clearly understood his intentions as well.
Outside the inn, the sky had completely darkened. Evening had fallen. The rustle of coarse fabric and the thud of foreheads hitting the ground created a discordant clamor, swelling like a tide in the distance, then drawing closer and closer in a great throng.
The players looked out to see a mountain of bodies standing outside the inn. Countless pilgrims, clad in sackcloth with vacant eyes, prostrated themselves with every step, closing in on the inn like a pack of hyenas and radiating an overwhelming aura of death...