“Xuezhang! Xuezhang, you’re alright! That’s great, just then when I got here and didn’t see you… I… This is great, you’re safe!” Excited, Lin Jue hung onto Song Hanzhang’s neck, almost draping his entire body over him. The excitement of seeing Song Hanzhang again drowned him in utter ecstasy after the successive shocks before; he didn’t even care if he would have to face those monsters again.
Lin Jue finally let go after two minutes in the midst of the serious conversation between Gu Fengyi and Song Hanzhang. It truly wasn’t a good look for him to be hugging a tree that was bent on exchanging information like a koala.
“What was the survivor count when you arrived?” Song Hanzhang asked Gu Fengyi.
“Five,” Gu Fengyi said with a frown.
“Then it looks like there are no new players this round.” Song Hanzhang looked at the display boards showing the remaining survivors and remaining safety time.
“This round’s start was so sudden, and eerie. It was like the world was suddenly ending- all of a sudden, everything went dark and the buildings began morphing, like we were being pulled into another world.” Gu Fengyi frowned, her tone not so friendly. “Did you do something?”
“Lu Ren started a massacre all of a sudden. It exceeded the system’s self-regulation ability. It realized that we were going out of control and had discovered the world’s secret, so it began taking actions accordingly. I’m not sure what it is planning to do, but this round will definitely be different to the previous ones,” Song Hanzhang said.
“It?” Gu Fengyi caught keenly.
“I’m not sure either. It’s most likely something similar to a will; a ‘system’ or ‘overlord’. And, now that we’re on this topic, where we are right now is most likely a tutorial quest- one that has lost connection with its overworld, coded 0708…” Song Hanzhang had no reason to hide the truth from the other players and quickly told Gu Fengyi about what he and Lin Jue had discovered in the metro.
“Then it seems there are two ways out of this: to use the bug of being unable to connect to the overworld to return to the real world, or to fix the bug and enter the overworld,” Gu Fengyi pondered.
Song Hanzhang said coldly, “The most likely option is the third: we all die here.”
It was such a cold sentence that even Gu Fengyi couldn’t answer it. Thankfully, her snake-sense once again saved the awkward atmosphere. She looked behind her in surprise. “Qingqing is here!”
Following her line of sight, Liu Qingqing threw down the crowbar in her hands and embraced Gu Fengyi. The scene was a little familiar- Liu Qingqing was even crying with excitement, tears streaming down her face in a heart-wrenching manner.
“Fengyi, I almost couldn’t make it… I finally managed to kill the monsters, but then I met Dan Liang, I… I killed him.” Liu Qingqing’s body shivered as she curled up in Gu Fengyi’s embrace, raising her face, pale from crying.
“It’s fine, he deserves it; I would have definitely killed him as well should I have met him. Maybe I would have cut off his head for you to kick,” Gu Fengyi comforted.
Liu Qingqing broke out a smile behind her tears and said timidly, “I was lucky. I happened to meet Dan Liang right after leaving an illusion. He was wounded. I just did what I had to… and killed him.”
Saying that, Liu Qingqing looked at Gu Fengyi uneasily. “I didn’t do something wrong, right? He’s not a good person… he’s always creeping around. I don’t know where I got the courage from…”
Gu Fengyi rubbed her head comfortingly. “You did the right thing.”
Song Hanzhang’s expression changed and he asked, “Where is Dan Liang’s body?”
Lin Jue didn’t say anything. He could feel that Song Hanzhang still held suspicions towards Liu Qingqing.
Liu Qingqing answered easily, “It’s not too far from here, I’ll take you there later.”
They exchanged a few simple words, and after confirming that they would be working together for this round as well, Gu Fengyi urged them to hurry up and collect their rewards. Ladies first; Liu Qingqing regained the fire spell from the last round which was to be able to release fire magic with a cool-down period. She luckily received another earth magic skill as well, to be able to put down traps and barriers, a very useful ability.
“Apart from the snake-sense from the last round, I also gained a stealth skill. It’s useful for sneak attacks, but in these games, we’re the prey. It’ll only be the monsters attacking us, so what chance will there be for me to set up an ambush?” Gu Fengyi complained.
“That may not be the case… It may come in handy,” Song Hanzhang said lightly, watching as Lin Jue went to collect his items.
Lin Jue stood on the reward platform and placed his hand on the crystal ball floating midair. After a blinding light, he took back the corrosive spear from the last round, along with his new reward:
[Witch Box: A player bound to the Witch Box will not be erased after dying as long as the Witch Box has not been destroyed, and will instead lose all of their skills and items gained in the game. Players in possession of the bound Witch Box can revive the player within the box by sacrificing three players. Remaining Uses: 1/1, Sacrifice Count: 0/3. Unactivated.]
A revival item!
Ecstasy surged through Lin Jue, but after a careful look, the revival item required three lives to be sacrificed and they only had five people here in total! Thinking even further, should Xuezhang die, he would have to kill Gu Fengyi, Liu Qingqing, and Lu Ren to revive him… Leaving aside the question of whether or not he would be able to harm the innocents, just killing Lu Ren alone would be quite impossible.
Lin Jue’s heart went cold and he walked back with a bitter laugh. Song Hanzhang was walking up to draw his reward when he saw his downcast face. “What happened?”
Lin Jue passed the Witch Box to Song Hanzhang. Song Hanzhang was more optimistic than him. “This isn’t bad.”
Lin Jue held the box without much confidence and watched as Song Hanzhang walked onto the platform, quickly regaining his dagger and healing skill from the previous two rounds, along with collecting his new reward. As he came back, he was extremely hurried, and almost as soon as he came to Lin Jue he said, “Give me the box.”
Lin Jue looked at him in confusion and obediently handed it over. Song Hanzhang held the box with one hand, his other pressing down on the two rings of tattoos on his wrist- there had only been one ring last round, so the second had probably come from this one.
An incredible thing happened. On top of his box, a second box appeared. As the second box solidified from thin air, the new ring of tattoos on Song Hanzhang’s wrist slowly faded until it disappeared.
What was this? A copying skill?
“Bind it. Now.” Song Hanzhang passed one of them to Lin Jue who was staring at them with wide eyes. Even in a state of shock, Lin Jue instinctively obeyed Song Hanzhang’s command. The moment his will was transmitted to the Witch Box, a prompt came to his mind: [Witch Box: Binding successful. Binder: Lin Jue.]
Song Hanzhang took the other one. “I also activated mine. We will exchange each other’s boxes so that if the other dies, there will still be a second chance.”
Lin Jue held Song Hanzhang’s box and felt like it weighed more than a thousand pounds.
When Gu Fengyi and Liu Qingqing heard what Lin Jue and Song Hanzhang’s rewards were, a look of envy passed over them all at once. Unfortunately, the Boxes were both bound, so after the envy left, there was only unease and agitation.
“Hopefully, there won’t be any reason to use it,” Gu Fengyi said. Otherwise their already frail cooperation would immediately shatter.
“I hope so too,” Song Hanzhang said.
It was currently 20:31. The survivor count still remained at five people. There were thirty-four minutes remaining of the safety time. The Judas rules from the previous two rounds were both being shown:
[When a player has died after entering the game, randomly select one dead player and resurrect, borrowing their body, inheriting parts of their memory and power. You are not counted towards the survivor count.]
[Judas cannot directly kill players.]
Lin Jue stared at the Judas’ Rules for a long time and muttered, “There aren’t any new players this round, so is there still going to be a Judas?”
“Prepare for the worst at all times,” Song Hanzhang replied.
Gu Fengyi looked at the singular burn mark on the back of her hand. “Oh, right. All of you have this mark on your hands. Is there any meaning to it?”
“It appeared after killing the monster, so it is most likely related to them,” Song Hanzhang said.
“That’s true. I killed a monster, so there is a burn mark on my hand. I remember that there is one on Dan Liang’s body as well,” Liu Qingqing recounted.
Song Hanzhang looked at her but didn’t say anything.
Lin Jue felt the burn mark on the back of his hand and couldn’t help but wonder just what those bloody feathers meant. Was his ‘monster of the heart’ truly related to Song Hanzhang?
“Lu Ren is here.” Gu Fengyi was the first to sense the newcomer with her snake sense. That smell of blood was stronger than anyone here’s.
“Yo, everyone is here so early!” Lu Ren walked towards them with a grin, a knife in his hands. It was the same knife he had used to create the bloodbath just before the start of the game. Lin Jue’s gaze fell onto the back of his hand.
Three marks; it was half a tally!
“Three?” Song Hanzhang asked.
“Mhm.” Lu Ren hummed and strode past them towards the rewards platform. He took his signature Tang Dao, followed by a strange canned item- his reward from the second round- and finally, this round’s reward. The light particles lingered on his wrist for a moment longer; Lin Jue guessed that it was a skill.
“What plan do you have now?” Song Hanzhang asked Lu Ren.
Lu Ren returned a standard toothy grin. “Write a few more ‘zheng’1.”
No matter how many times they met, Lin Jue still couldn’t understand the genuine pleasure Lu Ren found in the game. He didn’t care about the fact that he was in danger, and sometimes he even felt that Lu Ren was willing to pursue death for this ‘satisfaction’ of his. It wasn’t normal at all.
“You can go now. Come back at midnight.” Song Hanzhang coldly began to chase him away.
“Don’t you have anything to say to me?” Lu Ren was in no hurry to leave. “Let’s have a chat: what thoughts do you have on this round, where are you up to in your research on this game, even just a guess on who Judas is. There must be something you haven’t told me. What ‘mischief’ are you up to now?”
Lin Jue gave Lu Ren a sidelong glance. “Nothing to do with you.”
“Look at your rabbit, basically breathing out of the same nostril as you.” Lu Ren’s tone was relaxed, as if he was having a talk with an old friend he hadn’t seen for a long time, but the moment the words fell from his lips, the dao in his hands suddenly swung upwards, sliding towards Lin Jue’s chin!
There was that blindingly bright arc of killing light again. In that millisecond of a moment, Lin Jue’s body acted before his brain, the spear in his right hand snapping against the blade of the Tang dao- with a clang, metal clashed against metal. Lin Jue’s strength couldn’t compare to Lu Ren’s, and in his haste, his spear flew out of his hand!
The flying spear was caught by Song Hanzhang who stood aside, holding it against Lu Ren’s waist. That chilling dao stopped at Lin Jue’s lower lip, not taking another step.
A slight stinging pain came through as a few drops of blood seeped out, slowly flowing towards the handle of the dao along its blade, a drop of red in that bitterly cold light, ravishingly beautiful.
With those few drops of his blood, cold sweat ran down Lin Jue’s forehead. In those barely three seconds of confrontation, overwhelming killing intent had engulfed Lin Jue like a mountain, its pressure far superior to that of the monster among the bloody feathers.
“Not a bad reaction speed.” Lu Ren smiled and withdrew his blade, not caring whether the spear in Song Hanzhang’s hands would be thrust forwards or not.
He seemed to be complimenting Lin Jue, but also as if he was complimenting Song Hanzhang. He might have even been complimenting himself like a narcissist. In the end, he was satisfied. Without giving himself an excuse for the sudden move, nor caring about how he should wrap up the show, he left, content.
No one tried to stop him.
Lin Jue let out a breath and next to him, Gu Fengyi and Liu Qingqing both let out sighs as well. They tacitly did not mention that person again and instead briefly discussed their guesses about the current round.
Due to the lack of new easter egg hints or an appearance from Lilith who had often been the host of the game, they weren’t in a position to speculate. Gu Fengyi suggested for the four of them to act together but Song Hanzhang refused.
“The mark from slaying the monsters might be a hint. The number of monsters killed may be related to this round somehow, so my suggestion is to kill as many as possible. Hence, splitting up would be appropriate to improve our chances of meeting them,” he said.
The suggestion was accepted by all. The four would act in pairs and return to the plaza at around midnight to exchange information and make further decisions for the second half of the night.
“And Dan Liang’s body, please take us to verify it,” Song Hanzhang said.
Liu Qingqing nodded and took the three outside the plaza.
On the way to verify the body, Lin Jue had thought of many possibilities. He had thought that he might see Da Liang’s corpse, and also thought that he would see nothing but a puddle of blood of unknown origins- yes, he actually suspected Liu Qingqing. He had considered the possibility that Liu Qingqing had died and then Judas came back to life by the means of her corpse, but nothing prepared him for what he saw.
Apart from a puddle of blood, there was nothing where Dan Liang’s corpse was supposed to be.
Next to the puddle, three words were drawn in the crimson liquid: She is Judas.
***
Vera’s Notes:
My iPad Pro’s keyboard stopped working… Usually that’s what I use to edit and publish these chapters with, and now I feel clunky and unpolished. If anyone has advice on how to fix it, please offer it- I’ve tried restarting, reconnecting, cleaning the boot… Argh, Apple why!?
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1The character ‘zheng’ 正 is the Chinese way of tallying. The character has five strokes in it, so it replaces our four vertical and a slash tally. Personally, I think it’s much more effective. Four strokes is hard to count if you draw them badly…
Vera & Luci Translations 