Chapter 422: The Second Batch of Sacrifices |
[Name: Colosseum]
[Type: ##]
[Effect: ① Can be deployed in the "real world" to capture any living being and force them into a deathmatch inside the arena.
② After deployment, it moves randomly around the world. No one except the deployer knows its exact location.
③ The number of beings inside the Colosseum is always maintained at ten thousand. When casualties occur, new beings are captured to replenish the numbers.]
[Note: The world is one giant colosseum.]
The spectral image of a European-style building, all marble and grandeur, materialized silently in the sky. It hung there like a vast storm cloud, gathering all the world's moisture, and cast a shadow that stretched for hundreds of miles across the land.
The teeming masses—protesters, refugees, people trapped in the crossfire of war—remained largely oblivious. Only a few felt a subtle shift, a prickle of unease that made them frown and glance skyward, though they could find no source for their apprehension.
The oppressive atmosphere, thick with the promise of a coming storm, felt no different from the turbulent undercurrents of recent days. It was easy for people to dismiss the sudden flutter in their chests as mere anxiety over the state of the world, unaware that a tide of endless death was about to wash over them—that the true monsters had already arrived.
Beside her, an old couple was chattering away.
The man grumbled, "What a mess. How did a war just break out like that? I remember when I was young, they predicted war every year, but it never happened. Now that nobody wants one, it just starts without any warning."
"This isn't about war! The end is coming!" the woman insisted, trying to whisper, but her voice was still loud. "I heard that the front lines are full of ghosts. There are ghosts in this world. Didn't I go to that evening class last week? They told me the Lord is angry..."
"Woman, you spend all day with those charlatans. Watch out you don't gamble away our life savings!"
"They're not charlatans. They're very nice people. They even hand out eggs every weekend!"
"..."
Lu Renjia listened with mild boredom, knowing the couple wasn't truly seeking answers. They were simply adrift in a crisis they had never imagined, and their idle chatter was a way to dispel their anxiety. It was a pretense of action, a way to feel as if they weren't powerless, but were instead making tangible progress.
Lu Renjia had studied psychology in college and had naturally become a therapist after graduation. Blessed with a bit of innate acuity, she had a habit of analyzing everyone's psyche, and her conclusions were usually not far from the truth.
And this analysis of hers, she had to admit, was just another way of warding off her own unease.
The mouth of the tunnel drew closer. Lu Renjia watched with wide eyes as the light outside dimmed bit by bit, the bright exit receding until, in an instant, it vanished into absolute blackness.
A profound fear suddenly bloomed in her heart, a premonition of some bizarre and perilous event. But she immediately tried to soothe herself: *Psychologically, a fear of the dark is normal. The limitation of sight triggers the brain to suggest the presence of beasts, of predators lurking nearby. It's a primal instinct hardwired into our genes...*
[Welcome to the Weird Game... Loading player information... Load complete...]
[In the Weird Game... you can obtain anything you desire. Wealth, power, health... all are within your reach...]
[All you must face and overcome... is your fear of the weird...]
A clamor of whispers suddenly echoed in her ears, an intermittent electronic voice laced with static, speaking incomprehensible jargon.
"CRASH!"
A tremendous boom erupted from the front of the train. The carriage lurched violently, and before Lu Renjia could react, her face slammed hard against the glass window.
The entire train tipped over, thrown high into the air before crashing down again. The passengers closest to the engine were flung from their seats, their bodies shattering against the ceiling in a gruesome rain of flesh and blood.
Thick, metallic-smelling blood streamed down the windows like a waterfall. The survivors screamed, their cries of pain and terror merging into a single, horrifying chorus, punctuated by the sounds of small explosions and falling rock.
Lu Renjia was pinned against the window by two twisted seats. Her ribs felt broken, her chest throbbing with sharp, stabbing pain. Shards of glass had embedded themselves in her cheek, and a gushing film of blood veiled her vision.
The whispers in her ears grew clearer, and this time, they resounded directly inside the carriage for everyone to hear. [Instance Name: "Colosseum"]
[Instance Type: Multiplayer Survival]
[Foreword: Man is also an animal. Yet man was not born to live as one.]
The lights on the ceiling flickered erratically, plunging the carriage into pitch-blackness for a moment. The pain and the stench of blood gradually faded, as if her soul had detached from her body, submerged in the amniotic fluid of a time before birth.
What was happening? What was going on? Lu Renjia blinked, her mind momentarily unable to form a coherent thought.
The old couple beside her were also severely injured. The man had lost consciousness, and the woman was sobbing, slapping his face gently. "Wake up... May the Lord protect you, please, wake up..."
After what felt like an eternity, the darkness receded. Lu Renjia found herself standing on a massive, elevated platform, surrounded by people. At her feet, a long blade was stuck diagonally into the ground. In fact, nearly everyone had some kind of weapon by their feet, though their purpose was unclear.
Tiers of spectator seats rose around them, climbing so high they seemed to touch the sky. The stands were packed with all manner of animals, howling and screeching, filling the air with a cacophony of unsettling sounds.
This was unmistakably a colosseum, but the roles of humans and animals had been reversed.
Lu Renjia took one deep breath after another. In the sea of faces, she recognized a few from the train.
Putting together the information now in her mind, the rumors she'd heard over the past few days, and the bizarre scene before her, she came to a conclusion. She raised her hand and shouted, "Everyone, quiet down! I think I know what's going on!"
All heads turned toward her, but the noise didn't completely subside. The old woman was still crying incessantly; her husband was no longer by her side, which meant the worst had likely happened.
Lu Renjia raised her voice. "I don't know if any of you have read stories about survival games, or heard of them.
"I think we've been pulled into a game. We're players now. If we can complete the mission and clear this instance, we can survive!
"The relevant information should already be in your minds. Everyone calm down, and let's figure this out together!"
A young man with red-dyed hair asked, "I know about those kinds of games, but... what's the mission?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a dispassionate electronic voice echoed above them:
[Main Quest: Kill everyone except yourself.]
The crowd exchanged glances, their bewilderment slowly fading, replaced by vigilance and terror. They were like small animals trapped in a cage, their eyes darting nervously toward their companions.
The stalemate lasted only half an hour. A scream tore through a corner of the platform as a gaunt woman collapsed, a pool of blood spreading beneath her.
"A murder..."
"Someone killed her!"
In that instant, chaos erupted. Some people scrambled toward the edge of the high platform, while others snatched up the weapons at their feet...
Lu Renjia pulled the long blade from the ground and began backing toward the edge. She had no intention of killing anyone; she only wanted to protect herself. She knew that with her physical strength, she stood no chance of winning a fighting game...
*If only I could find an ally...* she thought.
But in the next second, an icy chill pierced her heart. She looked down to see the blood-stained tip of a blade emerging from her chest...
Scenes like this were unfolding all over the world.
High on the Snow Mountain, Qi Si sat by the edge of the sacrificial pit, his face devoid of expression as he watched the mound of corpses within grow ever higher.
He had deployed the [Colosseum] into the real world, and he had rewritten its main quest and its rules.
In this catastrophe of his own making, he had left no possibility of survival.