Chapter 74: How Will Qi Si Die?

The full-length mirror, acting as the instance entrance, was placed to the left of the high-backed chair. After Qi Si stared at it for a few seconds, the reflection was replaced by writing:

【Please start your next instance within 7 days. Once the countdown ends, you will be forcibly teleported into an instance.】

Official players could choose when to enter an instance. If Qi Si wanted to, he could even clear one instance every day to reach one million points as soon as possible.

Of course, he didn’t intend to be so short-sighted and burn out his passion right now.

Directly in front of the high-backed chair sat a black stone altar. Its corners were carved with eerie, indecipherable patterns. The top surface was polished smooth, and as his gaze landed on it, a bizarre system interface emerged from the dark gray background.

The interface layout was similar to the homepage of a live-streaming app, with small windows tightly arranged. Each window showed a player currently exploring an instance.

【Welcome to the Eerie Game Live Stream Hall! Hurry and give a follow to the streamers you like~】

This was the slogan at the very top of the interface, filled with an indescribable, twisted sense of humor.

The Eerie Game had already established a sophisticated live-streaming mechanism.

Official players could choose to start a live stream inside an instance and could turn it off at any time, granting them great freedom.

Other players could spend points to make investment-style tips after watching a stream for ten minutes. The tipped funds would enter a prize pool.

If the streaming player cleared the instance, the prize pool would be returned to the streamer and the tippers, multiplied by a factor between 1.01 and 10 based on the number of investors. If the player failed to clear, the tipped points were essentially down the drain.

Many players had completed their primitive accumulation of points through this live-streaming mechanism, escaping the tragic fate of being chased by an instance every seven days. However, some players had also lost everything in this near-gambling mechanism, leaving behind a trail of misery.

In the current live-stream frames, many players were weeping bitterly, some even collapsing on the ground to beg for mercy from the approaching Ghosts.

He wondered how these “fish that escaped the net” had survived the third instance, which had an elimination rate as high as 80%.

From time to time, a window would go dark. It was unknown whether the owner of the stream had simply fallen asleep or died, but the slot would soon be filled by a new window.

Qi Si watched with great interest for a while. The spectacular death scenes, the gushing emotions of despair and pain, and the screams and wails of terror—these elements pleased him immensely.

He casually followed the streams of several players who clearly wouldn’t live long, deciding that whenever he was in a bad mood in the future, he would enter the Game Space to watch these unlucky bastards’ streams for a bit.

Qi Si stepped down from the high-backed chair and wandered around the wall at the bottom of the temple.

That wall was exceptionally smooth, without a single crack, let alone any vines from the giant golden tree.

He guessed he would have to wait until he collected the souls of other players and hung them on the branches before he could see any clues.

As the mental agitation from facing a deity gradually subsided, Qi Si raised his hand and gently stroked his cold face.

Regarding the Gods Gamble, the deal with the Evil God, and the Soul Contract, a cold malice always lurked in the depths of his heart.

He liked to take the initiative, hated being controlled by others, and didn’t hesitate to do things that harmed others even if they didn’t benefit himself.

The Evil God clearly knew this, which was why he had painted the grand vision of “You shall rule over the Eerie.”

This, instead, made him wary.

He was in a weak position, lacking the strength to collect Chips or protect himself. Those in high positions had no need to cater to his feelings.

Once he no longer had any utility value, heaven knew if the Evil God would use pre-planted traps to harvest him in one fell swoop.

At that time, if he didn’t have a status and strength equivalent to a god, he would have no room for counter-measures.

“But that’s what makes it interesting, isn’t it?”

In the silence, the black-haired youth laughed softly.

The Evil God was calculating and inducing him, but was he not also deceiving the Evil God?

During the conversation just now, he had acted gullible and greedy, appearing as if his head had been clouded by profit.

He claimed he had been deceived by the Evil God into entering the game, but little did anyone know that in the Carnivore instance, he had already received a warning from an unknown existence.

Looking at the information on the Forum and knowing of the existence of sin, Qi Si realized that from the moment he entered the game, he was the sacrificial animal at a feast, and the seats were full of diners.

To be harvested by the Eerie Game, by the Evil God, by veteran players and old guilds who had completed their primitive accumulation… Countless pairs of eyes were watching him hungrily. He had to survive in the cracks of the power struggles between multiple factions, yet it wasn’t impossible for him to navigate between them and seek profit.

There was a type of scam that used small favors to attract targets to invest, only to make them lose everything at the final moment.

But as long as one could find the right moment to withdraw, it would be a business with no capital required.

【The duration you can stay in the Game Space per visit is 1 hour. More time can be exchanged for points.】

【Would you like to spend 10 points to exchange for 1 hour of stay time?】

Two lines of prompt text refreshed on the system interface.

Qi Si tossed the Pocket Watch of Fate from his shirt pocket onto the altar and silently thought, “Exit Game.”

【Game Space is on cooldown. You may enter again after 24 hours.】

…The moment Qi Si opened his eyes, countless memories flooded into his mind.

Everything the nine clones had experienced from their first-person perspectives, their final tragic deaths—these experiences that didn’t belong to him felt as if they had actually happened to him. They overlapped and crashed into the ocean of his thoughts, stirring up monstrous waves before scattering and gnawing at his consciousness.

Cold sweat seeped from beneath his skin, soaking his clothes.

Qi Si breathed rapidly, yet an untimely pleasure and satisfaction abnormally occupied his brain, making him tremble with excitement.

This was an emotion-generating mechanism that could be considered a “malfunction,” commonly known as a “mental illness.” He had long been used to it over the years.

In a world where good and evil, black and white are intertwined, since some people find joy in kindness and love, it wasn’t impossible for a mutated creature to exist that found pleasure in pain.

When the perception of love is numbed to the extreme, shallow negative perceptions are like a slimy gray film. Only sharp pain can pierce through it, bringing a sense of “reality” that is better than nothing.

Existence is its own justification; some people relish it.

Qi Si propped himself up and sat up. It was as if he had been fished out from underwater; the weight applied to his body vanished, and his whole being felt as light and airy as a bird’s feather in the wind.

He looked down, and sure enough, his body in the white shirt was lying quietly on the bed, while the one sitting by the bedside now was his soul, dressed in red.

Without a doubt, he was having an episode—a condition scientifically called “Spiritual Weightlessness” and colloquially known as an “Out-of-body Experience.”

No matter how his physical body was dressed, his soul always wore a neat red suit and trousers, with blood-red eyes.

A few times he had drifted to the mirror and seen his own face. Clearly, the features were his own when taken apart, but together they were as strange as an evil spirit haunting an old mansion, exquisitely soul-stirring.

The night was deep. In his soul state, Qi Si once again saw a world full of Ghosts—some holding their heads, some sticking out their tongues, and some with heavy dark circles under their eyes, crowded together in a lively scene.

These Ghosts were all unfamiliar faces, drifting about in twos and threes. Even though they had been dead for a long time, they were still in a hurry, having no intention of paying attention to the only human in the room.

Qi Si felt bored and casually grabbed a ghost, saying, “I heard a joke not long ago. A ghost died in a fire. To avoid truly disappearing, it kept setting fires to create more Ghosts who died in fires.”

“…”

The ghost didn’t find the joke funny; instead, it thought Qi Si was crazy.

Consequently, Qi Si didn’t find the joke funny anymore either.

He sat there bored for a long while until the episode finally ended. His soul poured back into his body, and he regained his sense of touch.

His vision became clear in an instant, and the traces of Ghosts were gone. The momentary liveliness turned into cold silence, leaving only his solitary shadow.

The horizon was already turning white. The brightness of the high sky and the darkness of the ground formed a sharp contrast like an overexposed old photograph. Box-sized houses stood in rows, and the dim yellow streetlights, which were about to go out, added a touch of eeriness to this scene of ten thousand households.

Qi Si climbed out of bed, sat down at his desk, and pulled a yellowed notebook from the drawer.

The notebook was unadorned, with a piece of kraft paper as its cover. On the title page, written in slightly immature handwriting, was:

【How will Qi Si die?】

The first entry was written on March 12, 2029.

【1. Car accident? Too messy, pieces everywhere would be a hassle to clean up. X】

Flipping forward a few pages, there was an entry from January 3, 2035:

【127. Dying of illness, no suspense, boring, uninteresting. X】

Qi Si flipped to the latest page, picked up a ballpoint pen, and recorded the eight new ways of dying provided by the Dialectical Game instance, then noted beside them: 【Very painful, not considering for now. X】

He was a boring person, but he always had the good habit of recording bits of inspiration, using them to support his talentless sense of humor.

In addition to this collection of ways to die that a normal person could not understand, he also had record books such as “Died So Tragic” and “Life Is Truly Humorous,” which recorded the deeds of Chang Xu and others, as well as NPCs like Miss Anna. These were enough for him to reminisce about when he was bored and make himself happy.

After reviewing his previous records and re-storing the faded fun into his memory, Qi Si put away the notebook and yawned.

After the grand dance drama ended, there was a sense of loneliness after the fun, as well as a fatigue that seeped into his bones. Unfortunately, after all this tossing and turning, his body was no longer sleepy.

Qi Si sat in the chair by the desk, picked up his phone, entered the game Forum, searched for the keyword “Dialectical Game,” and clicked on the top post.

#Has anyone cleared the “Dialectical Game” instance? This instance feels so strange to me.#

【Floor 1 (OP): I’m a freshman in the Chinese Department. “Dialectical Game” was my third instance. After entering, I found it very strange. Not only were all my items banned, but there was no system interface!】

【Floor 2: And then?】

【Floor 3: We know you’re a college student now. Hurry up and tell us what happened next.】

【Floor 4 (OP): Sorry, my mind is still a mess. Everyone, please wait a moment.】

【Floor 5 (OP): It’s a Q&A challenge instance. For every question you answer correctly, you can enter the next room. Didn’t I say I’m in the Chinese Department? Those questions were really strange; they were all related to my professional knowledge. Things like periods of literary history, initials and rhymes… If it weren’t for the Eerie Game, I would’ve thought I was taking a final exam!】

【Floor 6: Thanks for sharing, OP. As a fellow college student, I’ll never dare to skip class again!】

【Floor 7 (OP): The weirdest part was yet to come. In the second-to-last room, I saw eight corpses that looked exactly like me. A line of text on the wall told me to find the key from the corpses and take it to the final room.】

【Floor 8: And then?】

【Floor 9 (OP): I was scared, but I did it anyway. In the last room, I met a person who looked exactly like me, and she wanted to kill me! We fought. Neither of us had weapons, so we used the most primitive methods—pulling hair, tearing clothes, biting…】

【Floor 10 (OP): Maybe the danger triggered my potential, because I found that my stamina seemed inexhaustible. Finally, she couldn’t hold on anymore. I couldn’t stop at that point, so I followed my instinct and smashed her head with my hands… I killed her…】

【Floor 11: What ending and achievements did you get? Tell us, OP~】

【Floor 12 (OP): Everyone, wait a second. My delivery arrived. Let me go downstairs to get it. I get hungry whenever I’m scared, haha.】

After that, the OP never replied again.

The activity stopped on May 27, 2031.