Chapter 433: The Gods |
The moment the system interface vanished, daylight broke over the pitch-black, lightless Snow Mountain. A pale golden glow climbed from the distant ice, spreading into a vast, brilliant dawn. The reflection off the ice was blindingly bright to the players, who hadn't seen natural light in days.
Jiang Junjue felt the cold instantly. He pulled his overcoat tighter, rubbing his hands together in a desperate attempt to generate heat. Just then, Say Dream lunged at him, tugging on his coat and whining in a pinched, childish voice, "Uncle~ I'm so cold~ Can I have your coat~?"
"Get lost!" Jiang Junjue exclaimed, raising his foot as if to kick him. "The Final Instance is over. You think the debuff is still active? What are you playing at?"
Indeed, the "revert to a child" effect had worn off. Say Dream was simply recalling the past three days when, as a simple-minded child, he had constantly clung to Jiang Junjue, smearing him with snot and tears. Now that his memories and faculties were fully restored, he felt it would be a shame not to indulge in a little mischief.
Seeing that Jiang Junjue had seen through his act, he leaped aside and raised his hands in surrender. "Alright, Old Jiang, my mistake..."
The next second, the cold hit him for real. "Damn!" he yelped, grabbing the hem of his long windbreaker and wrapping it tightly around himself. "Don't tell me the Weird Game actually ditched us here? If you ask me, this is completely outrageous. Despicable, truly despicable."
"You think?" Jiang Junjue's teeth were chattering, his words slurring slightly. "Based on my experience clearing hundreds of instances, we've just entered the wilderness survival phase. If we don't find a heat source, and fast, we're going to freeze to death out here..."
"So this is how it ends? We die together on this frozen mountain?" Say Dream looked like he was on the verge of tears. "Do you think if I yell for God Fu right now, the Kyushu Guild will come save us?"
The two of them shivered uncontrollably, rambling to distract themselves. It seemed the Weird Game had kept its word, shutting down automatically after the Final Instance. For now, at least, neither of them could access their item inventories.
Say Dream wiped the ice crystals forming on his face, his thoughts turning to death. They had no items, no survival gear. The Weird Game had simply dropped them into this desolate wasteland, a stark testament to nature's cruel power. Sky and earth blended into a single, blinding expanse of white, with no caves for shelter or wood for a fire. The longer they stayed, the more certain their fate became: they would die here.
So, was he afraid? It was impossible not to be. No human could face the finality and decay of death without fear. As creatures driven to survive, the instinct to cling to life and fear death was etched into their very being.
But after so long teetering on the edge of life and death, after watching so many of his peers perish, his emotional threshold had been stretched to its limit. His feelings were like a blank sheet of paper submerged in water, filling his chest with a vast emptiness that dulled all the sharp emotions he should have felt—including fear.
Even before entering the Final Instance, Say Dream had considered that he might die. It was just fate, a perfectly natural outcome. No amount of resistance could change it, so why not accept it with grace? So many people in the world died every day. Why not him?
Just as Say Dream was about to resign himself to his fate and lie down in the snow, Jiang Junjue hauled him to his feet. Squinting into the distance, he declared, "We'll split up. We might run into other players. Whoever cleared the Final Instance must have become something close to a god by now. Saving us would be nothing to them. I don't care who it is, as long as they can get us out of this place."
Say Dream straightened up, blinking. "What if it wasn't one of our own who cleared it? What if it was White Crow? Or Si Qi? Are you sure they'd save us? We'd be lucky if they didn't just kill us..." "We're dead either way. It's worth a shot." With a trembling hand, Jiang Junjue took out a cigarette. He didn't light it, just placed it between his lips. "Who knows? Maybe they need hostages?"
Just then, two small dots appeared on the ice ahead. They looked like two people walking towards them. As they drew closer, it became clear that both were dressed in red. They were surrounded by many even smaller dots, which turned out to be a herd of yaks and sheep.
After the game ended, the instance NPCs Bai Ma and Zha Xi had vanished. However, the yaks and sheep they were herding had been left behind, along with some mountaineering supplies and warm clothes. It seemed the two approaching players had gathered everything.
Dressed in a red Tang suit, Jin Yusheng followed step-for-step behind Si Qi, who was clad in an identical outfit. Si Qi casually pulled two thick fur coats from a yak's back and tossed them to Say Dream, who handed one to Jiang Junjue beside him. They scrambled to put them on. The cold was still bone-chilling, but it was no longer a death sentence.
When Say Dream first saw Si Qi, he was filled with apprehension. He knew from the *Red Maple Boarding School* instance that the man was wildly unpredictable. And after sharing intelligence with the Kyushu Guild, he also knew that Si Qi was a "slaughter-stream" player with countless lives on his hands. While Si Qi was certainly capable of saving them, the likelihood of him choosing to do so seemed impossibly slim.
But judging by this gesture, perhaps Si Qi still felt some lingering camaraderie from their time clearing the *Red Maple Boarding School* instance together?
With this in mind, he glanced at Jin Yusheng standing beside Si Qi before quickly averting his gaze, feigning indifference. He then launched into a stream of thanks, showering Si Qi with every compliment he had ever learned.
Si Qi's gaze swept over them, a faint, unreadable smile playing on his lips. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking. He simply gestured in one direction and said, "Let's go. Time to head down."
The four of them mounted the yaks. With beasts accustomed to the treacherous terrain, the descent became much easier. Along the way, Jin Yusheng recounted what had happened to him since entering the instance. By combining their stories, they began to piece together a complete picture of the Final Instance.
It turned out that all holders of Identity Cards and their sub-cards had entered the Snow Mountain, but the Weird Game had forcibly split them into three groups. The first group, which included members of the Ark Guild and Zhou Ke—now Si Qi—was placed in the past timeline. The second group consisted of Qi Si, Lin Wuya, and Fu Jue. As for Jin Yusheng, he'd had the bad luck of being teamed up with White Crow and Charlie Woodward in a dream version of the mountain. That was why he hadn't crossed paths with Qi Si's group until after nightfall.
White Crow had promised Charlie something, striking a deal with him. All the sins accumulated in the Scarlet Theater became her bargaining chips, ripe for the taking, which allowed her to meet the conditions necessary to activate the altar of godhood. Seeing how badly things were turning, Jin Yusheng had immediately fled, narrowly escaping being sacrificed himself.
Upon hearing this, a smile touched Si Qi's lips. "So," he asked, "who do you think will become the final Ancestral God? Fu Jue, or White Crow?"
This told Say Dream that Si Qi hadn't been the one to clear the instance. He breathed a sigh of relief and offered a thoughtful-sounding speculation. "Well, since we're still alive, I presume whoever is in control must be a relatively calm and rational person. And considering God Fu's reputation and overall power since the start of the Weird Game, it would make no sense for him to lose."
"Is that so?" Si Qi replied with a cryptic smile, but didn't elaborate. He simply spurred his yak onward, continuing their descent down the mountain.