Chapter 118 Shuangxi Town (XII) Man and Beast

Words can kill.

The first person Qi Si killed with words was a girl named “Qi Xinyue,” who was his cousin.

Sixteen-year-old Qi Si curled up in a box in the attic, listening to the hysterical argument outside, piecing together the full picture of the event: the girl had been bullied, hoped her parents would stand up for her, but was scolded instead.

So, when the girl burned him with a cigarette butt, he stared earnestly and intently at her arm and said, “You’re hurt.”

Perhaps because she had finally found someone to confide in, the girl cried, crying with great grievance, recounting her miserable experiences over and over.

Qi Si put on an expression of understanding, listened patiently until she finished, and finally said to her, “I can help you devise a plan to kill someone without it being discovered.”

The girl was startled and shook her head repeatedly: “I can’t do it… I can’t kill anyone…”

People accustomed to bullying the weak often fear the strong; perhaps it is precisely because they have been infused with too much malice by the strong that they redouble their efforts to pour it onto the weak.

Qi Si laughed: “I’ve heard that people turn into Ghosts after they die, and most people are afraid of Ghosts.”

The girl committed suicide half a year later; perhaps it wasn’t directly because of that one hint. After all, the human container is fragile enough, and after holding enough pain, it will crack like glass subject to thermal expansion and contraction.

But the girl did indeed change into red clothes symbolizing ominousness before she died, and brought about no small disaster after her death.

…

During the wedding banquet, upon hearing the news of Xier’s suicide, Shang Qingbei immediately understood what his inexplicably completed side quest was about.

To ruin Xier’s wedding, so one of the bride or groom had to die—logically, there’s nothing wrong with that, but no normal person would think in that direction, right?

Moreover, the voice in the dream said the reason for ruining the wedding was because Xier would die after getting married. Listening to that tone, it was clearly meant to save Xier’s life…

Thinking of the bizarre multiple dreams, Shang Qingbei shivered and subconsciously looked at Qi Si, who was walking toward a less crowded area.

The young man stood with his back to the pale sunlight, his white shirt shining, his edges blurred by the faint light like the silhouette of a Ghost.

Shang Qingbei inexplicably felt an uncomfortable sensation, like vigilance, like wariness.

Not far away, Sister Xu stood like a ghost, no smile on her wrinkled face.

The groom’s relatives swarmed over, hypocritically wiping the corners of their eyes, speaking one after another:

“How could such a fine girl just die? Sister Xu, didn’t you promise us that nothing would go wrong?”

“Our Alin has no luck. He was just getting married, and now it’s gone…”

They complained, showing no sadness, but rather seemed to be making an issue out of it.

Sister Xu sneered: “I’ve been doing this for so many years; when have I not arranged things perfectly? I’m in the wrong this time, and I will definitely give you an explanation, but don’t push your luck and think I’m easy to bully!”

After all, having accumulated prestige for many years, she silenced the noisy townspeople with one sentence, then turned her head, hunched her back, and whispered instructions to a few people beside her.

The conversation was kept extremely low, and could not be heard from two steps away.

Du Xiaoyu, who was standing nearby watching the excitement, saw that no one was paying attention to him, so he stooped and squeezed into the crowd, wanting to catch a word.

As soon as he looked up, he met Sister Xu’s warning gaze.

That gaze was as cold and sinister as a poisonous snake, making him have no doubt that if he took one more step forward, his throat would be pierced by fangs.

Du Xiaoyu was not stupid; in a few seconds, he realized that in the past few decades, nothing had happened, but as soon as the players arrived, the bride died. Sister Xu likely concluded that the players did it.

Following this line of thought, he suddenly remembered that in the early morning, Qi Si seemed to have gone out alone and spoken a few words to Xier…

The townspeople gathered together, whispering and discussing countermeasures, while the players quietly gathered at an alleyway with no people.

They were all official players; by combining the results and deducing the process, it was easy to guess the full story.

The four of them looked at Qi Si in unison, waiting for him to give an explanation.

“A happy event turned into a funeral; I guess we can say we had a head start on the funeral feast?” Qi Si made a joke that only he could understand.

Bearing the wary gazes of the players, he gave up the idea of continuing to explain the interestingness behind the topic and said calmly, “The time I went out this morning, I gave Xier a blade. I assume she used that blade to commit suicide.”

Of course, he could continue to lie; Qi Si could think of countless reasonable explanations to clear his name, and he had the confidence to use his acting skills to make his expressions and behavior seamless—but there was no need.

The role of the team was not as great as imagined; in many cases, it actually became a hindrance, so preparing to leave the team in advance was imperative.

There were contradictions between the clues and the facts; the puzzle-solving difficulty of this instance was likely not low, and there was no knowing what hidden mechanisms were behind it.

The main quest was to rescue Xu Wen, but the information provided by Xu Wen was unreliable, and her location might very well not even be in Shuangxi Town.

Once the players found it difficult to crack the worldview and complete the main quest, they would most likely choose to trigger the minimum death count mechanism.

The fate of Yang Yundong in the second instance was still vivid in his mind; Qi Si did not want to become the target of public criticism at all.

He stated what happened in the morning truthfully and summarized it in a humorous tone: “As for why she died so decisively, it was probably because I said a few things to her and helped her figure it out.”

Li Yao frowned: “Why did you do that? Xier clearly didn’t threaten us.”

“To create chaos and disturb the original plot line.” Qi Si curled his lips and answered patiently:

“Haven’t you noticed? From the time we entered the instance until now, we have been passive. The places we went were all arranged by Sister Xu, and the clues we knew were told to us by the mobile phone.

“Our actions, what we see, and what we hear are all within the arrangement and plan of the instance. If we continue like this, the best result will be no more than ne clearance.

“I have a bit of a perfectionist complex and hate being arranged to get an imperfect ending. So, I can only do my best to disrupt the layout of this instance and see if I can fish in troubled waters.”

How to gain an advantage in someone else’s layout?

It’s simple—shuffle the cards, make trouble, flip the chessboard.

As long as the situation is chaotic enough, the information gap will cease to exist, and the amount of information obtained by players and NPCs will be pulled to an even level. In this way, there will be room for maneuvering in an unfair game.

“Why did you lie to us this morning? You clearly said you were just going to ask for clues…” Liu Bingding’s voice trembled a little, “You could have just told the truth.”

“Why should I tell the truth?” Qi Si sighed, “If someone among you had an outburst of’saint’ mentality and caused some trouble, it wouldn’t look good.”

Among the five present, there was naturally no’saint’ who couldn’t bear to hurt even an NPC, but Qi Si’s act of deceiving his teammates was still too rebellious.

Shang Qingbei sneered: “You also said before that we are a team and must be united. If you don’t tell us anything, how can we believe you won’t hide key clues in the future?

“You kill others so matter-of-factly. Now it’s Xier; who knows if you will harm us in the future?”

A typical slippery slope fallacy, but it seemed quite reasonable in this situation.

Shang Qingbei pressed on with a logical argument: “Qi Wen, at the start of the instance, you induced us to believe that you were a player from the Jiuzhou Guild, thereby gaining our trust and the position of leader. Now, while I cannot completely falsify your identity, I want to ask you—

“In your heart, what position does cooperation really hold? How much do you agree with the Jiuzhou tenet of peace and unity? Can you really sacrifice for the benefit of the majority?”

Qi Si did not answer immediately, but looked around at everyone and asked, “Is anyone here a vegetarian?”

The answer was naturally no; there was meat in yesterday’s dinner, and no one ate less of it.

Qi Si continued on his own: “For the sake of appetite or nutritional balance, we kill animals; for limited opportunities, we engage in competition and squeeze out opponents; in order to survive, we do our best to do anything that can increase our survival probability.

“When there is enough benefit, selfishness is human nature; I am no different from you. But it cannot be denied that in the short term, we are a community of interests. Hiding clues and harming you is harmful and has no benefit for me.

“Before things happen, no matter how righteous one speaks, it is a kind of hypocrisy. After all, survival and profit-seeking are things engraved in biological genes, aren’t they?”

He paused, smiled brightly: “By the way, I am indeed not from Jiuzhou, and I dare not agree with some of their concepts. And I believe that a rational, smart person is far more valuable than a kind fool.”

The players looked at each other.

Qi Si’s judgment and cognition undoubtedly fit the group portrait of Slaughter-path players very well, and his actions were indeed too unscrupulous.

Impersonating a player from the Jiuzhou Guild, seeking the position of leader, hiding key information—each of these things, if investigated deeply, violated the conventions that players strictly followed.

But if he really was a Slaughter-path player, why would he tell the truth?

Li Yao murmured to herself: “But we are humans after all, not beasts.”

Qi Si was amused, tilted his head and looked at her: “Why can’t humans be beasts?”

In the young man’s eyes, a wisp of scarlet spread into a patch, deep and lightless; the smile did not reach his eyes, making them appear void and without fluctuation.

Li Yao felt inexplicably frightened, opened her mouth, wanting to say something more.

Qi Si, however, had already shifted his gaze and said calmly: “Currently, discussing this has no meaning. We can only do two things: first, explore the entire Shuangxi Town; second, wait for Xu Wen’s call and information.

“I suggest we split up. Two people go back to Xier’s house to see if they can find anything in Xier’s room; the others go to the God of Joy Temple together.”

No one had any objections to Qi Si’s arrangement. The God of Joy Temple was obviously more dangerous, so gathering more manpower was understandable.

No one expressed dissatisfaction with Qi Si’s behavior of giving orders.

After all, he hadn’t actually harmed other players, and his strength was indeed not to be underestimated, so no one wanted to conflict with him.

Moreover, the nail that sticks out gets hammered down; like him, someone who is outstanding and whose identity is questionable, most likely won’t have a good ending.

“I’ll go to Xier’s house. I happen to have a stealth skill, so I can avoid the townspeople and go in to explore.” Li Yao proposed according to the plan previously agreed upon with Qi Si.

Liu Bingding immediately said: “I’ll go to Xier’s house too; I also have a similar skill.”

Qi Si looked at Li Yao and made arrangements: “We’ll go first; you follow Sister Xu in a while and act according to the situation.”

“Okay.” Li Yao nodded in agreement.

Although she was still concerned about Qi Si’s words, she kindly reminded: “The feng shui layout of the God of Joy Temple is very strange. When I passed by the temple gate earlier, I glanced inside. The yin energy inside is extremely heavy, raising Ghosts to devour each other, as if it’s trying to fight poison with poison to suppress something.”

Qi Si nodded slightly: “Understood, thank you.”

The players parted ways here.

On the bluestone-paved alley, Qi Si led the way in silence, with Du Xiaoyu and Shang Qingbei following closely.

After walking for a while, Du Xiaoyu spoke with a hoarse voice: “Brother Qi, is what you said true? Do you really think that way?”

Since entering the instance, his top priority had been to latch onto Qi Si, and he even fantasized about taking the opportunity to connect with Jiuzhou.

But now he was told that Qi Si was not from the Jiuzhou Guild and could possibly be a Slaughter-path player who believed in egoism. What kind of joke was this?

“That’s right,” Qi Si said with a smile, “I’m not familiar with any of you. Promising to sacrifice myself to save you in advance, don’t you think that’s too fake? It’s already good enough to lend a hand when it’s easy.”

He didn’t say the second half of the sentence.

He was most likely not the person to lend a hand, but the person to trip someone or strike from the shadows.

Du Xiaoyu didn’t answer.

Qi Si continued: “In my opinion, unity and egoism do not conflict. This is a team instance; unity can yield the greatest benefit. What reason do I have to harm you?

“In the prisoner’s dilemma, as long as both prisoners do not confess, they can obtain the best benefit. But unfortunately, in the presence of a chain of suspicion, individuals making rational choices often lead to collective irrationality. Based on this, I hoped to speak openly to dispel the suspicion between us and let our entire group make the most rational choice.”

Looking at the same thing from different angles, it is easy to draw diametrically opposite conclusions. Even accepted facts combined with reasonable deduction processes can, under the deliberate guidance of someone with ulterior motives, point to a completely false result—this is the essence of rhetoric.

Qi Si lowered his eyes at the right time and sighed helplessly: “I thought I had made myself clear enough, but I didn’t expect it to backfire.”

Du Xiaoyu listened, stunned. Since he was already on the pirate ship, he quickly expressed his stance: “Brother Qi, I believe you!”

He glared at Shang Qingbei, who was to the side, and said with contempt: “In the end, it was just an NPC who died. If it weren’t for some people talking nonsense and creating drama, what’s the big deal?”

Shang Qingbei was inexplicably called out and quickly retorted: “Qi Wen didn’t say anything; how would I know what he’s thinking? It’s hard not to be suspicious of the things he did, okay?”

Saying this, he couldn’t help but go over everything after entering the instance in his mind, and found that Qi Si didn’t seem to have done anything too excessive. Thinking about it carefully, he could be considered consistent in his words and actions.

But why did he just feel that this young man was both suspicious and annoying?