Chapter 424: Humanity |
“What do I possess? And what do I desire?” Qi Si crouched by the golden sphere of light, pondering the question with an air of gravity.
Materially, he wanted for nothing—food, clothing, shelter—and had ample savings, half inherited from his parents and relatives, half earned himself.
On a more abstract level, he possessed Qi's eons of memories, his own patterns of thought and action, and... a number of souls bound by his Soul Contract.
As for his desires... To survive? To win this game? Or perhaps to become the new Ancestral God?
Qi Si mulled over each option but found none of them particularly interesting. He had always been a person of few concrete desires, often acting on whims. He was like a bug in a program, or some volatile agent of chaos created solely to sow disaster.
Using something he didn't even possess as a bargaining chip seemed like the perfect hustle, a trade with no initial investment. But would the rules really allow such a loophole?
Qi Si was no selfless, altruistic god. He had no intention of sacrificing himself for the greater good, no desire to feed himself to the tigers for the sake of all living beings.
He glanced down at the sphere of light for a moment, then looked away, his interest already waning. He rose and began to walk, heading in no particular direction.
The connection to the Soul Leaves in the depths of his mental palace was severed by some unseen force. His perception of the world faded to a blur, as if every living creature had vanished in an instant, leaving him utterly alone between heaven and earth.
A few specks of golden light trickled from the sphere, hovering and dancing before Qi Si. They kept a slight distance, serving as his guide.
Qi Si followed the lights, and as he walked, the scenery around him began to change imperceptibly. A forest of ice walls erupted from the monochrome background—the very place where he had encountered the Zhou Ke from another timeline.
But this time, the reflections in the ice were not of him, but of the people he had met over the past twenty-two years.
“Qi Si, is that you? You’ve grown so big in the blink of an eye...” a woman’s gentle voice called out. “Come, let your mother have a look at you. It’s been so long. I’ve missed you so much...”
In the nearest wall of ice stood a woman in a long white dress. She watched Qi Si with a tender, sorrowful gaze, beckoning to him as a mother would to her child.
As Qi Si approached, a middle-aged man stepped out from behind the woman, his brow furrowed. “Go on, get out of here! This is no place for you! Leave, now!”
The images of his parents before him were flawlessly realistic, from their expressions to their tones of voice. If Qi Si didn’t clearly remember the location of two skeletal specimens, he might have actually been swayed.
He studied the pair and asked with genuine curiosity, “So you were chosen for the Weird Game, too? Can you tell me what happened?”
“It was so long ago, I can’t remember all the details...” The woman’s outstretched hand was blocked by the wall of ice. She let her arm fall, crestfallen, her voice soft. “Your father and I entered the game at the same time. We were terrified at first, but we made it through without any real harm...
“After becoming official players, we studied the guides carefully. We thought we could last a few more years, at least long enough to see you grow up. But your father made some bad investments and wasted all our points. I had no choice but to join him for a new instance, but we never expected it to be so difficult...”
The man beside her cleared his throat and awkwardly changed the subject. “Qi Si, how have you been since your mother and I... passed? Right before we died, we mortgaged our souls to the Main God. He promised to keep you safe from the nuisance of ghosts. I wonder if he kept his word...”
Qi Si raised an eyebrow.
It was true that after he turned sixteen, he had stopped seeing ghosts in the real world. Only after entering the Weird Game did he regain some of his spiritual vision.
He had always assumed he’d simply grown out of it, or that his psychological issues had been resolved. He never imagined there might be another reason.
It was logical, but he couldn’t be one hundred percent certain it was true. The rules could just be reading his memories to create a convincing illusion meant to deceive him...
Qi Si walked past the man and woman wearing his parents’ faces and continued on.
A young woman with long hair flowing over her shoulders appeared, her expression dazed. “Qi Si, what are you doing here? You’re so grown up now. You must be in college, right?”
Qi Si, who had dropped out of high school, remained silent.
This was his middle school homeroom teacher. In a way, he was the reason she had died. He thought he wouldn’t remember such a minor figure from his past, but here she was.
“Are those brats still bullying you? How did you do on your college entrance exams? Where are you studying now?” the teacher asked eagerly. Qi Si pressed his lips together and quickened his pace, ignoring her concerned questions.
He walked on, step by step, as more and more figures from his past—some familiar, some barely remembered—materialized around him. There was the classmate who had offered a small kindness, the restaurant owner who always gave him extra food, the stranger who had given him directions...
Rejected by the world, he had spent most of his life steeped in a thick brew of malice, a cycle of mutual harm that brought only death and disaster... But upon reflection, he had to admit he had encountered some kindness after all.
It was insignificant compared to the malice, but given the sheer number of interactions, it was still a considerable amount. And all those people were here now, gathered in a great, formidable crowd.
“Qi Si, live a good life. Mom and Dad love you...”
“Qi Si, don’t be afraid. I’ll help you. We all believe in you...”
“Young man, you’re still growing. You need to eat more meat...”
A sliver of golden light flew from the heart of each figure, converging high in the void into a brilliant cluster. It condensed into a fist-sized fruit of light that hovered before Qi Si.
Qi Si reached out and touched it with his index finger. Information flooded into his mind.
[Your 'Humanity'... can be placed upon the World Scales as a weight... Place enough weight upon the scales, and you shall obtain the authority of the Ancestral God...]
“‘Humanity’? I still have some of that stuff?” Qi Si rubbed his chin, finding the notion strangely novel.
He paused for a moment, then asked in earnest, “This ‘enough weight’—how much is required, exactly?”
[Among all contenders, the one with the greatest total weight will obtain the authority of the Ancestral God... If you fail, the weights will not be returned...]
Qi Si understood. It was a bidding war, a trap with no refunds for sunk costs.
Although he’d never seen much use for humanity, the fact that the rules had singled it out as a category meant losing it without understanding why would be a poor move.
He ignored the golden fruit and walked straight through the layers of ice walls.
A fierce wind swept down from the heavens, whipping his face with snowflakes and shards of ice. He found himself standing at the center of an altar. Before him loomed a massive skull, and at his feet lay a pile of fresh bones—the dead from the sacrificial pit.
It was the very scene he had witnessed in his dream last night, with one difference: this time, he was the one presiding over the sacrifice.
The sky was pitch-black, as if dawn would never break. He was trapped in the Ancestral God’s dreamscape, sharing in an eternal, unending slumber.
Qi Si tilted his head slightly, looking toward the spot where he and Jin Yusheng had been in last night’s dream.
This time, there was no half-dead Jin Yusheng lying there. Instead, a figure in a black suit and a black cape trudged toward him through the blizzard. The wind lifted his bangs, revealing a young face.
It was Lin Chen.
At the same time, a torrent of text surged through the depths of Qi Si's mind.
[Your 'Followers'... can be placed upon the World Scales as a weight... Place enough weight upon the scales, and you shall obtain the authority of the Ancestral God...]
[Qi, your eons of recklessness have brought you to this bitter end. After that sacrifice, you have but one true follower left...]
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