Chapter 84 Hopeless Sea (VIII) Hesitation

Qi Si opened his eyes to see a leaden, gray sky.

Beneath the sky stood a row of dark yellow European-style buildings, constructed with alternating wood and stone bricks. The houses were clustered tightly together, so cramped that not a glimmer of light could escape. Murals and shrines rich with religious atmosphere were bathed in shadow, the expressionless eyes of mythical figures staring directly at Qi Si.

Men and women in rags moved between the archways. They were all Caucasians with high bridges and deep-set eyes, their expressions so solemn they were almost devoid of emotion. From a distance, their gray, defeated faces looked remarkably like ghosts.

Qi Si sat on the steps in front of a small wooden cabin. He looked down and saw dead fish discarded haphazardly on both sides of the door.

Fish scales and blood had been trampled into sludge by the passersby, smeared stickily across the ground, exceptionally filthy.

Qi Si frowned, realizing he didn’t smell the bloody stench he had expected.

Thus, he realized he was dreaming.

“Is this a side plot or a death point? What is the trigger mechanism? Does every player encounter this, or did I just happen to stumble into it?”

Knowing that everything before him was a dream, Qi Si was in no hurry to stand up. He lazily rested his chin on his hand, analyzing the current situation.

“According to the Gunfighter’s Game principle, the first one to be targeted should be Lu Li. As the saying goes about picking on the weak, I don’t believe I’m the only newcomer who just became an official player. Other than that, I shouldn’t have done anything special. If drinking that bowl of Calming Soup causes trouble, Chang Xu drank it too. If we die, we die together…”

The sound of a door creaking open came from behind his ear, interrupting his thoughts.

Qi Si turned his head at the sound and saw Chang Xu, dressed in black, standing expressionlessly in the doorframe. His eyes were vacant, looking as if he couldn’t figure out the situation.

“…”

After a long silence, Qi Si was the first to smile. “Brother Chang, what a coincidence. You’re here too. You’re more experienced than me; what do you make of this situation?”

Chang Xu merely tilted his head to look at him, gave a grunt, and then turned his head back, sitting down on the steps on his own accord.

What does that mean? Qi Si was slightly taken aback.

A guess flashed through his mind. He tentatively waved his hand in front of Chang Xu’s eyes but received no reaction.

From beginning to end, Chang Xu stared straight ahead, his consciousness visibly clouded.

“Could it be… that I’m the only one who can stay lucid in the dream?” Qi Si had a suspicion, and in an instant, he thought of countless interesting ways to play this.

Anyone is vulnerable in a dream, unconsciously revealing the deepest things buried in their subconscious. With just a little guidance, one could extract many secrets… He leaned in with ill intent, keeping his voice extremely soft and slow. “What is your name?”

Chang Xu was somewhat puzzled. This person clearly seemed to know him, so why ask that?

But he still answered truthfully, “Chang Xu.”

“Gender?”

With the first question as a foundation, Chang Xu naturally followed along. “Male.”

“Age?”

“Twenty-five.”

“Where are you from?”

“Jiangcheng.”

Using a series of inconsequential questions to lower the subject’s guard before quietly circling to the key point—this was a common hypnotic technique.

Qi Si’s tone remained unchanged as he said with a smile, “What a coincidence, I’m from Jiangcheng too. Where do you live?”

Chang Xu’s eyelashes flickered slightly. “I can’t say.”

“Why can’t you say? Let me guess. You work in some special, classified department, don’t you?” Qi Si stared at Chang Xu’s face without blinking, observing his state. “I know the Federation has noticed the existence of the Eerie Game and established corresponding agencies. You work for one of those agencies, don’t you?”

“I can’t say, I just can’t say.” Chang Xu’s speech quickened, and his eyelids twitched violently, looking as if he might wake up at any moment.

Qi Si realized he couldn’t push any further and decisively changed the subject. “How many people are in your family? What do they do?”

Chang Xu calmed down and said, “I am an orphan.”

“…”

Just as Qi Si was tapping his chin, calculating what else to ask, the door behind him opened again, and Liu Yuhan walked out with her head down.

She had a stony face and sat down between Qi Si and Chang Xu without a word, looking as if someone owed her five million.

Noticing Qi Si’s scrutinizing gaze, she lifted her deathly pale face and stared back at him.

Two seconds later, she grabbed Qi Si’s sleeve and said emphatically, “Go find my dad, quickly. It’ll be too late soon.”

…Very well, it seemed this girl wasn’t lucid either.

Qi Si once again wore a suggestive smile. “Liu Yuhan, what is your faction?”

Liu Yuhan: “Dad said not to talk to strangers.”

“…You were the one who talked to me first.”

“Go find my dad.”

“…”

Qi Si silently pulled his sleeve out of Liu Yuhan’s hand.

However, in the next second, he felt his other sleeve being grabbed as well.

He turned his head and saw Lu Li appearing out of nowhere, holding his right hand with both of his own. “Student, send me another draft of your thesis by nine tomorrow night, and I’ll revise it for you. Get ready; you must perform well at next week’s seminar.”

Qi Si, who had never attended university: “…”

The players appeared on the street one after another. From their clothing to their looks, they were completely out of place with the surrounding natives, yet not a single person felt anything was wrong.

Qi Si counted; including himself, there were thirteen people in total.

The Backpacker who had been haggling with Yuna in the evening was nowhere to be seen, and another man who looked somewhat sinister had also vanished.

“Is it because only thirteen people drank the Calming Soup?” Qi Si had a vague suspicion, but he wasn’t entirely sure.

In his view, the Backpacker was quite bold and didn’t seem like the type to be timid and afraid to drink the Calming Soup.

While he was thinking, the players—who had been talking nonsense and muttering to themselves—suddenly fell silent. They formed an orderly long line and began walking unsteadily in one direction.

Qi Si followed silently, always maintaining a distance of two steps from the last person.

The line passed through archways and turned through several narrow alleys, merging into the bustling crowd like a stream.

Before them was an oval plaza. The slightly sloping terrain allowed everyone to look up at the church on the high ground.

The tall, imposing spire of the religious building sat atop a marble platform, soaring steeply against the gray sky like a rift tearing through the horizon.

People dressed in cloth tunics and skirts gathered before the church, whispering to one another.

“I had that dream again yesterday—a yellow sky and a yellow sea, with nothing but a lone island. It’s terrifying… I hope the Bishop can save us!”

“When I went out to sea last month, I heard someone calling my name from the water. I barely made it back with my life, and I still often hear the voice of the Evil God… This must be a curse brought by that damned witch!”

“The whispers in my dreams are becoming more frequent. That island is getting closer and closer to me. The Evil God is watching us! Is it because our prayers aren’t devout enough?”

Qi Si roughly understood: these people were followers of some religion. For some reason, they were afflicted by a curse, haunted by the whispers of an Evil God, and constantly dreamed of scenes from the Hopeless Sea.

They gathered here to seek help from the so-called “Bishop” to solve their problems.

“They dream of the Hopeless Sea, and we in the Hopeless Sea dream of them. What a coincidence.”

Qi Si muttered to himself with a touch of humor, inexplicably thinking of the allusion to ‘Zhuangzi’s Butterfly Dream’—

Was it the players dreaming of being believers, or the believers dreaming of becoming players?

What was this called? Do bionic believers dream of electronic players?

“The Bishop is here!”

“God, save us!”

The crowd grew noisy as they prostrated themselves in one direction.

Qi Si looked toward where they were facing and saw the church doors slowly open. A man in red appeared on the high platform.

The man had long black hair and an Asian face. The red robes he wore trailed on the ground in the style of Chinese ritual robes, and a pair of poorly made angel wings were crudely attached to his back.

As soon as he spoke, he exuded the aura of a total charlatan. “Every one of you is burdened with sin, and God is willing to give you a chance for redemption…”

Qi Si’s expression turned strange. He really hadn’t expected a certain Evil God to be so persistent, even having the leisure to play role-play here… and not even being particularly dedicated to the role, not even bothering to change his appearance.

The man in red seemed completely unaware of Qi Si’s presence and continued on his own. “Pay whatever price you can to purchase your chance for redemption. Money, flesh, or pain—all can be used for exchange.

“And I shall listen to your prayers and grant you the feathers that can fulfill your wishes.”

The believers cheered, rising one after another and scrambling toward the high platform.

The players followed suit, a uniform fanaticism appearing in their eyes.

Qi Si mingled with the crowd and walked up the platform step by step. He stopped before the man in red, his expression half-smiling. “Your Excellency Evil God, you’ve just broken free from your restraints and you’re already running around. Aren’t you afraid of being exiled by the rules again?”

There was no response.

The man in red continued to gaze compassionately at the crowd below, a playful smile lingering on his lips.

Qi Si reached out to touch him, but his fingers passed through the body as if moving through an invisible phantom, unable to find solid ground.

His vision shook violently, and the phantom of a blood-colored card emerged before his eyes.

On the card’s surface, a High Priest in red robes lowered his crimson eyes, his hands holding up a massive black cross toward the dense crowd below the platform.

【Identity Card: Crimson High Priest】

【Effect: You will find it easier to obtain the faith of other existences and convert that faith into your own power.】

This was undoubtedly a Master Card.

The moment he saw it, the 【humanoid evil spirit】 card in the top right corner of the system interface trembled violently, like a lower organism feeling instinctive fear after staring directly at a deity.

The red-eyed evil spirit uneasily churned its gray-black tentacles. The clustered gray mist collapsed in two seconds, and when it reformed, it prostrated itself devoutly.

Qi Si felt a strong sense of being summoned, as if caught in a transparent net on an altar that reached the clouds. Looking around, he could see no one else, only the card before him and the deity above. Scenes like dreamlike illusions flashed and faded before his eyes.

The blood of sacrifices stained the priest’s elaborate robes; a dagger inlaid with jewels sliced through the flesh of the offerings; the bloody sacrifice was like a magnificent, seductive dance. A sublime deity, symbolizing death and disaster, descended upon the world. Blood-light and fire draped down from the high heavens. The skulls of the dead were piled into a high tower, shrouds were layered into fine silks, and white bones built the divine throne.

The sense of fear was fleeting, leaving behind a resonance belonging to a diner at a gluttonous feast. It reminded Qi Si of the sensation when his fingertips first touched the blood of a living creature many years ago—damp, vivid, as warm and soft as sunlight.

“Do not go on a pilgrimage, do not chase after gods; let others come to pay homage to you. You are the god…”

“Pray to yourself, respond to yourself, control your own fate until you obtain a true status…”

The whispers of an unknown existence crashed into his mind, disturbing and touching thousands of thoughts, which flew past uncontrollably.

Qi Si reached out to grab the newly appeared Identity Card.

After his fingertips touched the blood-colored card, it flickered twice and disappeared, replaced by a line of blood-red text:

【This instance does not support roleplay; this Identity Card cannot be unlocked.】

“…”

Showing it but not letting me touch it—are you kidding me?

…Below the platform, the believers formed a long line in front of a bronze donation box, murmuring, “May I not be watched by the Evil God.”

They prayed devoutly and then dropped gold coins into the donation box, or cut their arms to slice off flesh and drip blood into it.

The Crimson High Priest nodded in acknowledgment, tearing off pure white feathers and handing them over. The ends of the feathers were dotted with golden blood, looking like gold or jade.

A moment later, the players also lined up and walked to the donation box.

Unlike the believers, as the players approached the donation box, thick plumes of black smoke rose from their bodies, flowing toward the High Priest in strands and wisps.

Qi Si stood right next to the High Priest, watching the donation process from a close distance.

He naturally recognized what that black smoke was and muttered with narrowed eyes, “The Eerie Game really doesn’t miss any chance to collect sin…”

“Eerie Game?” Chang Xu’s puzzled voice sounded in his ear.

For some reason, this fellow hadn’t followed the main group but had drifted behind Qi Si like a ghost, much like a follower in some mobile game.

Qi Si asked, “Aren’t you going to donate?”

Chang Xu said, “I have no wishes.”

“How can you have no wishes? Everyone has wishes. For example, my wish is—” Qi Si trailed off.

He suddenly realized that he couldn’t quite say what his wish was either.

Curing his illness? That was just incidental. If it couldn’t be cured, choosing a nice way to die and getting it over with wouldn’t be so bad.

Destroying the world? That sounded as hollow as ‘my dream is world peace’… Qi Si noticed that the High Priest, who had been focused on presiding over the sacrifice, had discovered something. His crimson gaze was fixed on a certain spot, watching with a smile.

Qi Si followed his gaze and saw a little blonde girl holding a pure white ivory statue, sitting quietly in a corner where foul water overflowed.

She had a sweet face, but a hideous fish scale grew on her throat. It was as eerie as a curse, its edges layered over with white feathers in a futile attempt to hide it.

It was Yuna.

More accurately, it was Yuna as a child.

“What is your wish?” Chang Xu waited for a while, and when no answer came from Qi Si, he couldn’t help but ask.

Qi Si stared intently at the statue in Yuna’s hands, sensing that it would be a key item.

How could he get his hands on it while avoiding risks? That was a question worth considering.

Chang Xu asked, “What is your wish?”

“My wish—” Qi Si drawled, raising his hand to point at Yuna curled up in the corner, “I want that statue in her hands.”