A light flashed before Lin Jue’s eyes, and when he came to again, his surroundings had completely changed.
He stood in a dimly lit room closed off by a giant, golden, arched door. Lin Jue immediately searched for Song Hanzhang’s figure and let out a sigh of relief when he saw him.
Apart from Song Hanzhang, the remaining four people were also there… Four people?
Lin Jue glared menacingly at Dan Liang in the corner. Dan Liang’s lips twitched and he suddenly jumped onto Liu Qingqing next to him, the dagger in his hands pressed up against his neck. He smiled mischievously, whispered something to her, then dragged her down onto the ground. The two rolled several times, but when they separated, Dan Liang was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, there stood two identical Liu Qingqings.
From their outer appearance to their clothing, even the markings on their hands, the skill tattoos on their wrists, they both looked the same!
The two overwhelmed Liu Qingqings pushed each other away and looked fearfully at Gu Fengyi who was deep in shock.
Lu Ren, who was leaning against the wall spectating, let out a noise of surprise and complimented curiously, “What an interesting skill.”
Lin Jue was completely lost. He looked at one, then looked at the other, but couldn’t see any differences. He turned helplessly to Song Hanzhang.
Song Hanzhang frowned and asked Gu Fengyi, “Can you tell the difference?”
Gu Fengyi’s snake sense was unable to discern the difference in the two’s scents. Gu Fengyi’s expression was serious. “It won’t be hard, I just have to ask something that only Qingqing and I know.”
“Fengyi, don’t ask,” one of the Liu Qingqings started with difficulty.
“I… I can’t say it right now,” the other Liu Qingqing stuttered.
Gu Fengyi was stunned and asked in disbelief, “Why not?”
“Just then, Dan Liang said something to Liu Qingqing which was most likely some sort of skill or a highly intimidating threat. Considering how Dan Liang only possesses one new skill, which is his transformation, the only thing that’s preventing Liu Qingqing from speaking would be some manner of threat,” Song Hanzhang said calmly, as if already seeing through everything.
Both Liu Qingqings faces darkened, but they still refused to speak.
“Why don’t you just kill both?” Lu Ren cut in slyly, shocking the both of them, though his expression remained innocent as if it was simply a matter of course. “You want to kill Dan Liang, he’s in one of them. If you kill both, you’ll definitely get one right. The chance is much higher than guessing an Advanced Math multiple choice question.”
Gu Fengyi said coldly, “Murder is not as simple as doing questions.”
Lu Ren said with an unfriendly look, “Oi, do you know how hard I tried to pass Advanced Math?”
Even in such a serious and bizarre situation, Lin Jue could barely hold in his laughter. The random remark from Lu Ren was enough to make him die; in good humor, Lin Jue even distracted himself by giving the remark a like; he had almost failed his course last term too1.
A knock came from the door- not from behind that magnificent gold arch, but from a small wooden door directly opposite it. They looked towards the sound; the small door was pushed open and a girl wearing a pretty tutu squeezed herself in, dragging a suitcase behind her. She waved at them with a grin. “We meet again, everybody.”
Lilith, the person who gave them the easter eggs!
Lin Jue didn’t know whether she was a human or an NPC. She kept many secrets but she seldom spoke of them.
To be honest, he didn’t want to see her again; nothing good ever came out of it. Like the game of Old Maid from round one, her appearance meant that at least one of them would die. He sincerely hoped it wouldn’t be the same this time.
Song Hanzhang evidently thought similarly, but with much greater complexity. That series of year numbers his brain had received just before entering the room had already led him to a certain speculation which allowed him to ask the moment he saw the person who was the most likely to answer his questions, “Are there any teams apart from us?”
Lilith lightly huffed and stopped her bag by her feet. “Yep, there are two other teams.”
[Data loading… 2002… 2012… 2022… loading successful.] Lin Jue remembered the hint that had appeared in his brain as well. The year they were in was 2012, so that meant there would also be a team from 2002 and 2022? But they existed in a different time and space, so how could they appear here now?
He asked as much, only for Lilith to reply with a giggle. “Let’s put it this way: think of time as a long, long river; the source, the upper stream, and the lower stream all represent different time periods. If the river keeps flowing, you’ll never meet, being in different sections, but if there’s an existence outside of this river that scoops out a cup of water from each place and puts them in the same bowl, then you’ll meet, and the story will start.”
“So you admitted it. We’ve already been taken away from this river of time and are now in another closed-off space, known as Tutorial Quest 0708, right?” Song Hanzhang asked sharply.
Lilith smiled and didn’t answer.
“Do you not want to answer, or can you not answer?” Song Hanzhang persisted.
“I don’t have the right, nor the obligation to tell you,” Lilith replied flatly. “Alright, that’s the end of question time. The ball will be starting soon, it’s rude to not prepare properly.”
Saying that, Lilith opened the luggage which was filled with a variety of masks like those seen at masquerade balls.
“Come, everyone pick a mask, it’s the standard equipment for a masquerade,” she giggled.
“Why do we need to put on a mask? What’s the reason? To prevent other players from seeing our faces?” Song Hanzhang asked again. He was born with many questions, always trying to find out the truth. This instinctive desire for knowledge meant that he would not accept a muddled answer easily.
Lilith sighed and said in exasperation, “You have too many questions; I really don’t like curious children. You can choose to wear it, or you can choose not to. I don’t care either way.”
Song Hanzhang looked deeply at that pile of masks. From their style to their color, they were all extremely normal masks; some could cover the entire face, while some could only cover the upper half.
Lu Ren picked up a mask, fiddled with it, and put it on, excitedly turning around and asking Gu Fengyi and Liu Qingqing, “How good do I look?”
Gu Fengyi and the two Liu Qingqings. “…”
“Then I’ll open the door now. Hopefully we’re not the slowest team, it doesn’t like sluggish people,” Lilith said and walked to that heavy golden arch, pushing it open.
The door slowly opened and lush music reached their ears through the gap. Lin Jue hurriedly put on a mask, the same as everyone else. Since they would be meeting several strange players soon, no one wanted to stand out from the crowd- it wasn’t good to leave a deep impression here.
In front of them was like a prom, Lin Jue thought, and followed Lilith’s footsteps outside the room.
It was a huge ballroom venue with an open roof, light mist and fireflies lingering by each pair of dancing guests as the orchestra in the corner performed a lively waltz. It should have been a pleasant party scene, but…
The scent of rotting flesh flooded Lin Jue’s nostrils. He felt goosebumps rise as he watched the corpses make way for them- indeed, the dancing guests were all broken corpses, coming from their graveyards to this promenade as if summoned by a mysterious power.
Countless thin threads hung down from the dark sky, wrapped around the corpses’ hands, feet, and heads, making them move along with the music, offering a moving performance, each step perfect as if they had been practiced countless times.
This scene was too bizarre and shocking. It wasn’t that the picture was so gory or bloody, it was precisely because that surreptitious power hid terror beneath the opulence and glamor that it made fear strike true to their hearts.
Just what was the ‘person’ who had summoned hundreds of corpses here to make them dance like puppets?
When Lin Jue looked up at the dark canopy: all he could see were thousands of thin threads hanging down, controlling the lusciously dressed corpses to dance. Some of them were disfigured, without their hands, without their heads, without their feet, yet they kept dancing; some of them were decayed beyond human form, even showing the white bones underneath their flesh, but covered in their fancy dresses, they kept dancing as if they were still alive.
Whether it was Lin Jue or the others, they couldn’t help but imagine a scene at that moment:
A puppeteer was looking down at this lively ball, watching them as they watched ‘him’ like mere ants.
‘He’ was the all-powerful god, so powerful, so vast, as if beyond human understanding; they were crickets trapped in a plastic cage, so weak, so lowly, as if not even worth understanding.
It was like a man diving deep into the ocean and suddenly seeing the giant whale slowly exiting from the deep recesses of the sea. In that split-second, the human looked at the creature, dumbfounded in the face of their absolute contrast in size as it passed him slowly yet overwhelmingly. It was impossible to imagine that this giant creature was a living creature like him- a living creature which could fit ten of him in just its heart.
In the dancing rot, Lin Jue tightened his grip on the spear and forced himself to follow Lilith with steady footsteps.
He saw a few familiar faces amongst the corpses: Zhao Liangsheng, Gao Yifei, Chen Lu, Xia Huan… all players who had died in the past two rounds.
Lin Jue couldn’t help but speculate, could it be that the corpses gathered here were players who had died in all of the games? From 2002 to 2022, an entire twenty years of time, gathered here to watch the survivors walk towards their deaths?
The corpses in front of them swung out of the way. Lin Jue looked into the distance; to his left and right, two giant doors had opened and several people were walking towards the fountain in the middle of the ballroom, much like them.
The one leading the left team on the left was a young man, unmasked and unfamiliar, but the leader on the team on the right had a face that Lin Jue could never forget. He had seen her countless times in his nightmares, sometimes on the stairs to the library, sometimes in the dark corridor, sometimes under the blood-red crescent on the rooftop. She had an elegant face, appearing gentle and quiet in the faint light that surrounded her, like when she was still a human.
Lin Jue stared at her for a long time and she noticed it through the crowd of corpses. She returned his gaze with a smile and soundlessly mouthed out his name: Lin Jue.
Lin Jue’s heart skipped a beat as he stared at her in disbelief.
She was called Zhou Yuxiu. She had hid the fact that she was bitten by a zombie in the first round and came to ask him for the antibody under the manipulation of Judas, only to become a zombie, too late to reverse her curse. Lin Jue sent her on her journey with near-cruelty, forcing her to sleep as a zombie.
Why was she here? In spite of his shock, Lin Jue’s brain turned slowly. She wasn’t wearing a mask, and behind her was six players with masks…
Lin Jue looked at Lilith leading the way and suddenly realized Zhou Yuxiu’s identity.
She was no longer a player, but rather an existence similar to Lilith- a monster that worked for the devil.
“Lili?” From the team on the left, someone suddenly sprinted out, knocking away the corpses around him and grabbing onto Lilith’s hand. “Lili, is that you? Are you still alive?”
Even though the mask hid his face, his anxiously elated voice still easily revealed his excitement at the moment.
Lilith continued to smile sweetly, her gaze on him cold as if watching a stranger. “No, I’m not.”
“How? Lili, I’m Zhang Jia! Your boyfriend! You disappeared after the end of the last round, I looked everywhere for you, Su Tian said she saw you leave the school, I didn’t… I didn’t know where you went, why are you here?” Zhang Jia even snatched the mask off from his face, revealing a pale and haggard face staring blankly at Lilith.
After seeing Zhou Yuxiu, Lin Jue had vaguely guessed something. Evidently, Lilith had lived on like Zhou Yuxiu after her Game Over, but this ‘living’ was not the same as actually living. Their personal will had most likely long since been obliterated, leaving behind a familiar body with an inhuman soul, carrying out orders that came from nowhere.
The dancing corpses politely moved away from them; the three teams walked towards the empty space in the middle of the ballroom. Zhang Jia still refused to let go of Lilith’s hand and she looked exasperatedly at his team’s leader. “Take your teammate away.”
The unmasked leader grinned. “It’s just been a few days and yet Lili’s already gotten cold feet from her boyfriend who stuck to her like glue. What a fickle woman.”
“A few days? For me, it’s been a long time.” Lilith broke away Zhang Jia’s hand. “Listen up, your Zou Lili is already dead. I may have her memories, but at the same time, I also have the memories of hundreds of other dead players; I’ve simply picked her appearance, that’s all. I’m not her.”
Zhang Jia looked as if he was struck by lightning. He tried to grab onto Lilith’s hands several times, only for each attempt to be heartlessly slapped away.
“Stop being such an embarrassment and get back here!” a man in Zhang Jia’s team snickered.
The snicker made Zhang Jia tremble. He took in a deep breath as if trying to hold something back. He gave Lilith one last look and silently returned to his team.
At the same time, the group on the right was curiously observing Lin Jue’s team. Lin Jue instinctively despised those sorts of inquisitive eyes and glared back menacingly, only to see that they weren’t looking at him, but at Song Hanzhang.
Song Hanzhang returned the gaze calmly, meeting a man with an extra tall and upright physique carrying a compound bow. The mask only covered half of his face. He didn’t speak, but the slightly shorter man next to him smiled politely at Song Hanzhang, his charismatic voice ringing out over the beautiful music. “You must be Song Hanzhang. Although I’ve never met you before, I’ve heard many tales of you. I’ve had the honor of reading one of your published essays, it was extremely insightful. No wonder why the professor still brings you up from time to time even after your disappearance ten years ago.”
His smile deepened, sincere to the point of hypocrisy. “My surname is also Zhang, your junior from ten years later, from 2022.”
***
1Advanced Math in China is a mandatory mathematics course that deals primarily with calculus.
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Vera’s Notes:
Apologies for the day’s delay, I’ve been a bit under the weather and rather reluctantly, at Luci’s heed, decided to take a day off. 🙂
Vera & Luci Translations 