The curtains to the opera of death were drawn open.
The lush music suddenly changed tones. In the notes now filled with murderous intent, the hundreds of lusciously dressed, bloody corpses approached the players under the control of thousands of puppet strings.
The terrifying sea of corpses gave rise to a sense of despair; corpses occupied everywhere the eyes could see, filled with malice, refusing to let them escape. They had nowhere to run.
Lin Jue felt cold sweat drip down his brows as he subconsciously looked at Song Hanzhang. Song Hanzhang frowned as he surveyed the crowd and whispered, “It’s less than thirty meters from the door where we came from, we’ll have to break through with force.”
That appeared to be the only way.
Lin Jue swept out with his spear, pushing back the approaching horde before piercing through each one, but this crowd of corpses were even harder to deal with than the zombies. Even when pierced through their eye sockets into their brains, they still stood up shakily under the lead of the strings.
“Cut the strings!” Song Hanzhang reminded him.
Lin Jue gripped his polearm miserably; this spear-type weapon really wasn’t very useful for that.
“Senior Song, what if we work together for now?” Zhang Sijia called out from not too far away. The tall man with a compound bow next to him held a scimitar, protecting him from his side. That pair of pretty sisters cooperated with each other seamlessly, lightly and swiftly harvesting the strings from the corpses, rendering them unable to move.
The team from 2022 quickly approached them.
“I’d rather work with Zhang Jia,” Song Hanzhang said without holding back. Then, as if remembering something, added, “Unless you have some sort of special skill?”
Behind the mask, Zhang Sijia’s face twisted for a moment, hearing that name. He patted the arm of his companion next to him. “Linyuan, prove our sincerity.”
The man passed the scimitar to Zhang Sijia and notched an arrow as he moved, firing it towards Du Cheng of Team 2002!
Next to Du Cheng, Bai Lulu saw him and shouted, “Be careful!”
Even though he didn’t see the arrow, instinct honed from countless battles made Du Chen pull on the wrist of the person nearest to him. The two swapped places as they ran before falling to the ground together.
“AH-!” A wretched scream sounded. The female player who was shot in the back of her chest fell heavily onto the ground. Behind her, Bai Lulu didn’t have the time to dodge and stepped on the back of her hand before stumbling and falling on top of her…
In the chaos, Bai Lulu was pulled up by her boyfriend Du Cheng, and another male player helped them fend off the corpse crowd, but the female player who fell over after being shot was not so lucky. Between her continuous shrieks, she was dragged into the darkness by a swarm of bodies.
A cold voice sounded in everyone’s minds simultaneously: [2002, player count decreases by one. Four survivors, three markings moved.]
Song Hanzhang coldly looked at the mad flood of corpses around the team. Zhang Sijia let out a habitual polite smile- before remembering he was still wearing his mask. “How about it? Instead of fighting indiscriminately, why don’t we disqualify 2002 first?”
Song Hanzhang was also thinking. The rules of this team fight were that they had to kill each other until there was only one team remaining. Even though one could choose to give away their marks, who would let the tiger return to its den and allow their vengeful opponents a counter strike? If one couldn’t take back their marks after all, it would mean death. Anyone would choose to fight until their last breath; even if it was a pointless battle, they would keep fighting. Both from the point of view of weakening the enemy’s forces, and from the point of view of security, letting someone go was an extremely unwise decision.
To work with 2002, or to work with 2022, or to allow them to work together? No, that last option was impossible. Zhang Sijia held absolute authority in the 2022 team, but the relationship between him and Zhang Jia meant that he would never seek cooperation from Zhang Jia. He didn’t even try to hide his distaste toward him.
If there was only that at play, Song Hanzhang would choose not to work with any team; he would rather stir the pond and win in the chaos, but the mysteries on the 2022 team bothered him so much that he would rather take the risk of collaboration than leave them unexplained.
“Alright.” And so Song Hanzhang replied, “Let’s work together.”
Once it was finalized, the two teams quickly started to cooperate. The large crowd of zombies flooded towards them without hesitation, their numbers scarily large, forcing the two teams to help each other in the chaotic scene.
Lu Ren led the way. He had already found his happiness, dead bodies everywhere, declaring the path that terrifying dao had taken, cutting open a path for them. The team quickly advanced towards the metal gate.
Lin Jue’s spear was suitable for blocking the corpses away, but unfortunately, sometimes, he didn’t have the power to do so. In contrast, the pair of sisters in the 2022 team easily used each other’s strength and soared through the air, cutting through the puppet strings with a few slashes, agile like wild cats.
The entire team ran through the metal door but the person cloaked from head to toe from the 2022 team suddenly waved at them before returning back into the crowd, nimbly sailing away through the sea of bodies.
What was that person thinking? Lin Jue was stunned and was almost tripped by an approaching corpse. It was Song Hanzhang who tugged him at that crucial moment to drag him behind the metal door.
Standing next to the door, Lu Ren made a noise of surprise and suddenly left the safety area, chasing that mysterious cloaked figure into the corpse crowd. Surprisingly, Song Hanzhang didn’t call him back and watched as he left.
The crazed corpses seemed to be held back by an invisible barrier, unable to cross through the door, only able to lie squished up against the barrier like passengers in a metro, their rotten faces close together in a disgusting mess.
Zhang Sijia tsked in displeasure. The player called Linyuan next to him silently closed the metal door, blocking out the corpse crowd and Lilith and the other two who were still watching them.
“Ah, they escaped,” Lilith cocked her head and watched as the three teams fled the ballroom of corpses. Even the 2002 team with the fewest members managed to escape through the metal door after paying a single life as the price. There were some minor wounds but nothing life-threatening. The cloaked man from 2022 seemed even more like he was walking through an empty hall, his way of using the dao almost godly, easily cutting a bloody trench through the danger and leaving through the door he came from. Immediately behind him was Lu Ren who also ran through the same door, disappearing without a trace.
We never planned to trap them here, what’s so strange about them escaping?” the male leader of 2002 rebuked.
“It would be more troublesome if they couldn’t escape,” Zhou Yuxiu smiled and said. “We’ll be the ones to suffer if we spoil Its plan.”
Even though she spoke words of fear, she didn’t feel a sliver of emotion related to it. She could still recall the bits and pieces from when she was alive, but they were like a series of blank data, mixed together with countless other data, unable to pull on her heart. She didn’t even know who she was.
From the moment she found out the secret behind why this abandoned tutorial quest was rebooted, she knew her worth.
In the eyes of the ‘person’ standing at the edge of the sky, she was just a good tool that could be replaced at any time.
But before she was replaced, she had to finish what she was worth.
To let It return to reality.
&&&
“Now that it’s finally safe to sit down and talk, since we’ve decided to work together, we need to be honest with each other and reintroduce ourselves,” Zhang Sijia said, taking off his mask. As expected, his face was very similar to Zhang Jia’s, but while Zhang Jia was more melancholic and haggard, Zhang Sijia’s eyes hid something darker and more brooding. It was exactly that something that gave him a special kind of charisma, and made one unable to help but want to look inside of him.
Song Hanzhang took off his mask and cut straight to the point. “Who was the person that just left? Why did they leave?”
Zhang Sijia choked for a moment. He started to sincerely dislike Song Hanzhang as a person. He always cut him off just when he was starting to take control of the flow; even though they had only exchanged a dozen or so words, he could already imagine the future unpleasant conversations they would have- as long as they were on opposing sides.
“I don’t know much about him. He goes about by himself without even telling us his name. He’s strong, but very out of place,” Zhang Sijia said after a moment of deliberation.
Gu Fengyi lightly laughed. “I can’t hear your sincerity at all.”
Zhang Sijia let out a fake smile. “I promise, there wasn’t a single fake word in what I said.”
Gu Fengyi smiled mockingly. She stopped arguing with him, seeing it was completely useless.
“I’m extremely sorry for interrupting your conversation, but I’ll be taking my leave first since none of you want to see me anyway.” Taking advantage of everyone’s distraction, Dan Liang quietly went to the door that Lilith came through, pulled it open, and grinned at them, waving. “But if you want to go against the 2002 team, I might be able to help…”
Before he finished speaking, the crossbow in Gu Fengyi’s hands fired without warning, the arrow accurately flying towards Dan Liang’s chest. It should have been a deadly shot, but Dan Liang had long been prepared with half his body already outside the door. The moment he saw Gu Fengyi raise her arms, he slammed the door behind him.
The arrow struck the door. Lin Jue chased after him with his spear, but as he pulled open the door, he was welcomed with a blanket of white mist. He hesitated a little, then closed the door in frustration.
This door was most likely the same as the doors in each illusion; once they had left, they would never be able to return.
Gu Fengyi sighed in regret and loaded her crossbow with her feet.
“Your aim is good,” the man using a compound bow in team 2022 said.
Gu Fengyi thought seriously about whether this person was praising her or mocking her. After all, someone had just escaped from her.
“This is one of the main forces of our team, Zuo Linyuan. You saw how accurate his shooting was, it’s very stunning.” Zhang Sijia seemed very satisfied with Zuo Linyuan and his tone introducing him was much more sincere.
Zuo Linyuan took off his mask, revealing a cold and well-defined face which, along with his height and tall stature, would make even a hurrying passerby turn around for another look. But it looked like he didn’t enjoy being watched by so many people and coldly looked back.
“These two are the sisters Mu Chunning and Mu Qiuning. They are the juniors to Ms Gu and Ms Liu; the girls from the dance department all are quite talented in fighting,” Zhang Sijia said.
Mu Chunning was the girl in the black mask with the brighter personality. She chatted cheerfully with them for a while. Mu Qiuning, on the other hand, was much colder, remaining silent after taking off her mask.
The last girl with a mask also took off her mask, along with the cloak she wore before. Without waiting for Zhang Sijia to introduce her, Gu Fengyi suddenly asked, “Where did you buy your coat from?”
The girl froze and stared blankly at Gu Fengyi.
Liu Qingqing, who had been a bit distracted, frowned indiscernibly as she looked deeply at that girl. She could be described as almost lackluster, wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses like the typical good, quiet student.
If she had a face like that, then she would have never had the chance to change her fate. Liu Qingqing thought in both mockery and pity.
Lin Jue was as confused as the girl. He didn’t understand why Gu Fengyi suddenly brought up her coat, it really wasn’t the most suitable topic for a time like this, but he also didn’t believe that Gu Fengyi was so aimless.
Song Hanzhang was also observing this girl, her coat… He suddenly understood what Gu Fengyi meant.
Gu Fengyi crossed her arms. “I haven’t seen a coat in this style for many years, and I doubt it will become fashionable in ten more. Your shoes are also a decade old. Would you like me to comment on your hairstyle and watch as well?”
Ten years ago? Lin Jue looked at the girl in a daze. She was a player from 2002? Then why…
The girl looked apprehensively at Zhang Sijia who praised, “Ms Gu is very sharp. This is Su Tian, originally a member of the 2002 team.”
Su Tian… Su Tian?
Lin Jue suddenly recalled Zhan Sijia bringing up that name to Du Chen next to the fountain, along with Zhang Jia.
She had crossed an entire twenty years of time, even through life and death, and arrived at the 2022 team?
But how did it happen?
“The space is collapsing.” Song Hanzhang noticed a change in the corner. In the corners of this dim room, cracks started to appear on the walls as the paint peeled off. This phenomenon of space dispersion would soon spread through the whole room, forcing them to leave this place.
Zhang Sijia, who had planned to use Su Tian as a lead into the conflicts of the 2002 team, was once again faced with an unexpected problem…
“If we get separated after leaving here, how about we meet up in Time Plaza?” Zhang Sijia asked hurriedly.
“Alright,” Song Hanzhang said.
Zuo Linyuan had already pulled open the wooden door and reached out to Zhang Sijia. Zhang Sijia held his hand and the two disappeared in the mist outside the door, followed by the Mu sisters and Su Tian.
“Then, let’s go as well?” Lin Jue said.
Song Hanzhang was in no hurry to leave. Instead, he walked back to the metal door and once again pulled it open.
There was no more music, nor guests, nor fountains, only endless white mist.
That ballroom scene from not long ago had vanished in the blink of an eye like bursting bubbles in a dream.
Gu Fengyi and Liu Qingqing had already left through the wooden door; the dimly lit little room was on the verge of collapse. Lin Jue looked at Song Hanzhang anxiously but it was as if he had been mesmerized by the white mist, staring intently into that void.
“Who are you?” Song Hanzhang looked at the white mist, and asked in a low voice.
No-one replied.
Vera & Luci Translations 