Chapter 436: The Gods |
The group stepped tentatively into the inn. A young, heavily bearded man emerged from behind the counter to greet them, gesturing as he spoke in a thick accent. "Folks, I've got one room left. It's got a large bed—should be enough space for all of you."
Four people sharing a single bed was a preposterous idea; the man would clearly say anything to make a sale. But for players who had just endured a harrowing ordeal on the snow mountain, any semblance of a normal lodging was a massive relief.
Moreover, the man bore no resemblance to Sang Ji, the innkeeper from the Final Instance, which put their minds at ease. The nascent suspicion that had begun to form in their minds receded, and for a moment, the feeling of having truly escaped the Weird Game was palpable.
Say Dream beamed and offered a respectful nod. "Excuse me," he began, "do you accept facial recognition payment? My friends and I... well, we ran into some trouble up on the mountain. We lost most of our gear, including our phones and IDs. That won't be a problem, will it?"
The young man waved his hands in reassurance. "No problem, no problem at all! It's fine, it's fine!"
No one had expected an inn tucked away in such a remote corner of the world to be equipped with something as advanced as facial recognition payment. It was a completely unexpected and welcome turn of events.
Jiang Junjue cheerfully scanned his face to pay. Before Si Qi and Jin Yusheng could step forward, he made a grand gesture with his hand. "It's just one room, don't worry about splitting the cost. Consider it a treat from the Listening Wind Guild to the vice president of the Unnamed Guild. Just remember this favor if we ever need one in the future, alright?"
Since someone was offering to foot the bill, Si Qi was more than happy to accept. And so, the four of them secured the last room in the inn. Say Dream then bought some snacks and clean clothes from the man, paying just as readily as Jiang Junjue had.
The innkeeper had an honest, simple face. Seeing how freely his guests were spending, his smile grew wider and more enthusiastic. He deftly packed Say Dream's items into a bag, then pulled a blank sheet of paper from a drawer and handed it to them. "For all four of you, please sign here. It's a Federation regulation."
The four of them signed the blank sheet in turn. Si Qi went last, writing down the name "Qi Si." He figured no one but himself would find anything unusual about it.
Say Dream bought a pack of cigarettes and followed Jiang Junjue upstairs. Seeing that Si Qi showed no intention of leaving, Jin Yusheng lingered by his side, unabashedly keeping him company.
Si Qi didn't seem to mind. He smiled and struck up a conversation with the innkeeper. "Friend, have you always run this place yourself? It seems like you're all on your own here, without any help."
The man wasn't particularly talkative, but he felt it would be rude to ignore a guest. He scratched his head, a wry smile touching his lips. "For years, it was me and my father. But then... he passed away."
Si Qi raised an eyebrow. "Your father?"
The man nodded. "Mm. His name was Sang Ji. He was a very kind man..."
Sang Ji. The old man who ran the inn back in the instance was also named Sang Ji. This couldn't possibly be a coincidence.
Was the Final Instance modeled on reality, borrowing real people, buildings, and objects? Or was it that with the world on the verge of a reboot, the Weird Game and reality had begun to merge? Or perhaps... they had never left the Final Instance at all?
Ever since they'd descended from the mountain, a sense of strangeness had lurked beneath the tranquil surface of things. Every detail seemed slightly off.
The most glaring inconsistency was the state of the world. He and Fu Jue had sacrificed countless people on the snow mountain and unleashed numerous horrors upon reality. The outside world should have been plunged into absolute chaos. Why, then, did the tourists in Shangri-La Town look so utterly peaceful and content?
Even if this place was cut off from the rest of the world, its people should have seen the news. Besides, long before the Final Instance had even started, the Balance Church had been instigating conflicts all over the globe, sowing widespread panic...
Everything they were seeing and hearing in Shangri-La Town now felt too perfect, too dreamlike. It was like a child's storybook illustration, a sweet, self-soothing delusion on the brink of death—illusory and utterly unreal.
Si Qi acted as if he hadn't noticed a thing. He turned to Jin Yusheng with a smile. "The Weird Game is getting lazy, isn't it? It uses local livestock for its props and doesn't even spare the dead."
Jin Yusheng chuckled. "Now that you mention it, you're right. But the theme of the Final Instance is death and reincarnation, and since Shangri-La Town actually exists, I suppose repurposing a dead man isn't that far-fetched."
With the Weird Game supposedly over, the information blocks and cognitive distortions that normally concealed such talk from outsiders had vanished. The young innkeeper heard every word of their exchange, including their mentions of "guilds" and the "Weird Game."
He looked back and forth between them, completely bewildered. "What are you talking about? Did you see my father?" Si Qi shot him a sideways glance, a cryptic smile playing on his lips. "And why would you think we'd be able to see your father?"
He was right. They had never explicitly mentioned meeting Sang Ji in the Final Instance. For the man to ask such a question, he must have already had some preconceived idea.
The innkeeper stared blankly at Si Qi, his gaze filled with conflict. After a moment, as if steeling himself, he stammered, "My father... he's buried on the snow mountain. Three nights ago, I saw him... I saw him climb out of his grave..."
Three days ago. That was roughly when the Final Instance began. The connection between the game and reality had clearly deepened. It was as if an invisible door existed here, a threshold that, once crossed, led into another world teeming with monsters and ghouls.
Players had encountered "Weird Invasions" before—instances where game events bled into reality. But those were rare, unpredictable phenomena, typically flagged as localized incidents and handled by the Weird Investigation Bureau. For a supernatural event to blend this seamlessly into everyday life, becoming little more than a local ghost story, was unprecedented.
It made a certain kind of sense. This snow-capped region was the highest point on Earth, a place considered the cradle of humanity in countless myths and legends; it was bound to have its peculiarities. Here, the boundary between the supernatural and the real was indistinct, blurred by some unseen force into a delicate equilibrium where humans and ghosts could coexist.
"Is that so? I understand..." Si Qi tapped a finger against his chin, as if a thought had just struck him. His brow furrowed as he pointed to the sheet of paper on the counter bearing their four names. "You know, I just remembered something I once heard. You should never sign a blank sheet of paper, because someone could always add new terms and conditions to the empty space."
He fixed his gaze on the young innkeeper, his eyes filled with suspicion. "It's not that I don't trust you, but you run a business. You must know better than this. So why did you give us a blank sheet of paper to sign?"
The young innkeeper was stunned, clearly not expecting this sudden accusation. His inn was remote and had seen few visitors for a long time. When four generous guests finally appeared, his only thought had been to get them settled quickly, so he had simply grabbed a random piece of paper as a formality.
His accented speech was already halting, and in his flustered state, he became completely tongue-tied. Just as it seemed he'd be unable to offer any explanation, the young man in the white shirt shook his head, a look of self-reproach on his face. "My apologies. I'm being paranoid. After what we went through on the mountain... well, I can't help being on edge about everything."
He paused for a second, his expression conflicted. Then, he seemed to compose himself. When he looked at the innkeeper again, his smile was sincere. "How about this? Why don't you sign the paper as well? That would put all of our minds at ease."
It was, indeed, the simplest way for him to prove his intentions were honest. The young innkeeper nodded, picked up a ballpoint pen, and quickly scribbled a line of Tibetan script, thoughtfully adding a scrawled translation in Chinese characters beside it.
He introduced himself, "My name is Tsering Dhondup. Most people just call me Dhondup."
Si Qi watched the man sign his name, a wide smile spreading across his face. He suddenly stepped forward, drew a small blade from the custom bracelet on his wrist, and sliced open his own finger.
A single, glistening drop of blood fell onto the white page. It spread outward as if alive, flowing in every direction, engulfing the entire sheet in a crimson flame within seconds and imbuing the mundane object with a supernatural aura.
From the unseen void came the sound of cracking glass, as if some invisible barrier had just shattered. On the now-scarlet page, the black ink of the signatures began to glow with a blinding, gilded light. The immense power of a god, seizing its opportunity, surged forth.
In that instant, ethereal golden vines filled the world, thrashing wildly like the tentacles of some colossal deep-sea beast.
[Soul Contract signed. This contract is guaranteed by the rules of the world. No being may defy it.]
Si Qi beamed, his eyes crinkling at the corners. With a flick of his wrist, the contract scroll vanished into his sleeve.
Deep within the dark cathedral of his mind, the blood-red vines that had long since withered now pulsed with renewed life. Four new leaves materialized, shimmering brightly, each one representing Jin Yusheng, Say Dream, Jiang Junjue, and Tsering Dhondup.
"Since this place is so deeply connected to the Weird Game, things just got much more convenient," Si Qi mused. "It seems my divine blood still has its uses. At the very least, turning an object into a conduit for my skills is no problem at all."
He let out a soft chuckle and issued his first command to the souls now bound to him. "From this moment on, you will worship me as you would a god."