Chapter 147: Grand Performance (X) Romans

Back when he still wanted to live, Qi Si had imagined his own death countless times.

Perhaps falling from the top of a cliff thousands of meters high, losing consciousness in a continuous sensation of weightlessness before being shattered into pieces.

Perhaps sinking to the bottom of the boundless deep sea, sealed within a certain water layer by the pressure, rotting away while adrift.

Later, he realized that what he had longed for was nothing more than a kind of uncertainty.

Until a person appears in the form of a corpse, no one can prove their death, nor can anyone prove they are still alive.

Thus, he is labeled as “missing”; bystanders know this is a euphemism for death, while those involved use it as a pronoun for being alive.

At such a time, someone needs to find his corpse—whether it be fragments or severed limbs—and use some taxidermy techniques to piece together a complete person, place them on a stage, and announce his death to the passersby.

Yes, death needs to be displayed. Or rather—it needs to be observed.

After the Dialectical Game dungeon ended, Qi Si had seriously considered the matter of how to die; and after Shuangxi Town, he truly realized that he might die within a dungeon of the Eerie Game.

Survival is not an easy task; tens of thousands of people are struggling to stay alive, so why should he be exempt?

His journey so far had been too easy, too playful, and too lucky.

He was like a war machine that, once deployed, could never take a final bow; he had to keep winning, for losing even a single city would mean being ground to dust.

Qi Si calmly analyzed the perilous situation he faced while simultaneously falling into an irrepressible revelry built on victory, frequently foreseeing his own death, both in the game and in reality.

He felt that his death needed to be witnessed.

Just like now.

“Congratulations to Player 1 for being sentenced to death! Now it’s time for the execution segment the audience has been waiting for!” Charlie announced loudly with great enthusiasm, then bowed flamboyantly and snapped his fingers.

At the same time, Qi Si felt a blade shallowly insert into the back of his head, slowly slicing forward along the midline of his body, peeling his skin away like the skin of a fruit.

Intense pain exploded from where he was cut, rapidly extending in all directions; warm blood trickled down from the top of his head, flowing into his eyes and quickly covering his entire face.

Qi Si let out a soft hiss and laboriously looked up.

Through a faint, thin red veil, he couldn’t see anything like a blade above his head; he only saw a layer of bloody, mangled human skin hanging down like a tattered rag.

He leaned back against the high-backed chair, quietly gazing into the void before him. The drooping skin cast a thin veil over his vision, and blood gradually soaked his clothes, quickly losing its warmth as if he had just been fished out of cold water.

When the pain reached its peak, it actually became less distinct. Qi Si looked down at the Chips on the table, pointlessly imagining that at this moment, he was probably very much like an onion, being peeled away layer by layer from the outside in.

As the entire skin shed down to his ankles like a coat, he noticed that one of the three stacks of Chips laid out before him suddenly turned into a pool of bloody water, scattering into fine droplets of blood that seeped into the table.

In an instant, the blood and human skin around him vanished like a hallucination, and his shirt returned to its pristine white color. Qi Si raised his hand to touch his face; the skin and mask were perfectly fine in their proper places.

The sensation of pain still lingered. He leaned back against the chair, drained of strength, his breathing slightly hurried, looking as though he were terrified by the agony.

The players witnessed the bloody scene from the side, and stimulated by the thick scent of blood and terrifying associations, their complexions were not much better than Qi Si’s.

Dong Xiwen was completely dumbfounded as he watched Qi Si “return from the dead.”

He was still immersed in the guilt of having identified Qi Si and indirectly causing a death, only to find that the object of his remorse had come back to life, leaving his emotions stuck in limbo.

But once he calmed down, he wasn’t surprised anymore.

How could an old schemer like “Zhou Ke” ever leave the choice of life and death to others?

Since he was willing to reveal his identity, he must have discovered something and was absolutely certain of the outcome.

Cynthia also realized this after the fact.

The dialogue between Qi Si and Charlie resurfaced in her mind one by one, and she understood the key almost immediately.

The game is fair; the Chips are the tickets to the game and also the players’ lives… being killed in the game doesn’t mean truly dying; in this act, every player has three lives!

Even so, Cynthia still questioned unwillingly, “Mr. Charlie, you said before that the Tiger can choose to kill the Fox. I wanted to kill Player 1, so why is he still alive? I believe there is an issue with these game rules.”

“First of all, congratulations to Player 1 for consuming one stack of Chips and returning to the center of our stage!” Charlie offered his congratulations cheerfully before turning his masked face toward Cynthia. “There is no issue with the rules! It’s just a little game; if dying in the game meant true death, that would be the greatest unfairness!”

There was no more room for maneuver. Cynthia let out a long breath, realizing she was about to face an even more severe problem.

Her betrayal just now had undoubtedly exhausted the other players’ trust. In the next vote, she would definitely replace Qi Si as the first target to be eliminated… Qi Si slumped in his chair and said with a smile, “You should have all noticed that this ‘Catch the Fox’ game, when viewed as a single round, can never achieve ‘fairness.'”

“And to make an unfair game fair, the simplest and most direct method is to increase the number of game rounds and swap identities in each round. As long as every player plays through all the identities, the game becomes fair.”

“Three Chips mean there are at least three rounds of the game, so it’s impossible for every player to play all four identities. To achieve relative fairness, one identity must be fixed, and only three identities are put into rotation.”

The young man’s voice was weak, but his articulation was clear. “The Tiger identity clearly has advantages without risks, while the wolfdog and Fox identities clearly have risks without advantages; both are unbalanced.”

“The Rabbit, however, has both risks and advantages, making it a relatively balanced card. So I guess the ‘Rabbit’ identity is fixed, and for the next two rounds, He Hui will always be the ‘Rabbit.'”

Cynthia thought of something, and the wrinkles on her face twitched slightly.

Qi Si stopped looking at her and turned his head slightly, his gaze sweeping across He Hui and Dong Xiwen. “You should have seen it too; Ms. Cynthia firmly believes in the principle of a zero-sum game. Even in a game with a winning strategy, her first instinct is to harm others. Such an unstable element should be eliminated early, shouldn’t she?”

“In the next two rounds, her identity will be either a ‘wolfdog’ or a ‘Fox.’ If she’s a wolfdog, we’ll just report our identities randomly, and she’ll have a two-thirds chance of losing the game; if she’s a Fox, then it’s easy—just execute her directly. What do you think?”

Dong Xiwen expressed his confusion, “But she still has three Chips. Even if she loses two games in a row, her Chips won’t hit zero.”

Cynthia sensed a glimmer of hope, calmed down, and said, “You see, even if I lose two games in a row, I’ll still have one stack of Chips left. It won’t affect the final outcome.”

“You’re not like ‘Zhou Ke’; I know your physical appearance. Even if you die in the dungeon, you can use your final moments outside to influence reality.”

“‘Zhou Ke’ is guiding you to target me just to force you to pick a side. There’s no need for you to risk offending me by actively letting him use you.”

“You’ve miscalculated,” Qi Si said calmly. “If you are the wolfdog, after you catch the wrong person and the Rabbit then provides the correct identification, the Rabbit wins, and each of us must give the Rabbit one stack of Chips.”

“And after you are executed, you will consume another stack of Chips. In other words, in that round, you will lose a total of two stacks of Chips.”

Cynthia quickly did the math, and her expression turned grim.

If things truly developed according to “Zhou Ke’s” plan, she would run out of all her Chips exactly at the end of the third round.

No one knew what would happen when the Chips were exhausted, but according to common sense, the result would likely be true death… Cynthia looked directly at Qi Si and slowed her voice, “Zhou Ke, choosing to execute you was a mistake in my decision-making. I understand your anger, but I hope you can prioritize the bigger picture and not act on impulse.”

“You said that to crack the world view, we need clues from every room. If I die, you likely won’t be able to enter Room 1. You won’t survive the third act.”

Qi Si smiled. “You also said that cracking the world view is too unreliable. To put everyone’s energy into a guess that may or may not be correct, just for the sake of a sinner’s life, would be very unwise.”

He imitated Cynthia’s tone, his expression full of pity. “We never had a choice. Didn’t Charlie say so? The game ends once there is a death. We need a death.”

Cynthia shook her head slightly. “Charlie also said the game can end if the Rabbit achieves three draws or victories. You’re inciting them to target me just because you want to disregard the bigger picture to settle a personal grudge.”

“You could say that, but I want to ask one thing: why should we keep you?” Qi Si tilted his head, looking at her with confusion. “To let you find another chance to stab us in the back, or to deal with us in reality after we leave?”

“I can swear to you.” Cynthia raised her right hand, palm facing out. “After I leave the dungeon, I will not do anything detrimental to you in any form, and I guarantee I will do my best to seek the well-being of humanity.”

“Empty promises aren’t convincing unless there’s an enforcement mechanism to guarantee them.” Qi Si snapped his fingers.

Specks of red light condensed into a blood-colored scroll, floating intermittently before him. Gilded patterns outlined the word “Contract,” reflecting golden light the moment one looked at it.

He gazed at Cynthia, the corners of his mouth curling into the same arc as the clown mask. “Sign a Contract with me and put all your promises on paper, how about that?”

All the schemes and performances up to this point were nothing more than an attempt to force Cynthia into signing a Contract, eliminating the possibility of her using her official power to cause trouble in reality.

And with things having developed to this stage, Cynthia, who had been cornered on the high stage, had no room to refuse.

Cynthia looked at the long Contract scroll slowly flying toward her, the crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes twisting into a vortex. “You said all that just to force me to sign this agreement, didn’t you? This is your skill; I can’t be sure if signing it will lead to other consequences. This is unfair to me.”

Qi Si narrowed his eyes and smiled. “You have no other choice.”

At this point, Cynthia knew she was truly beaten.

The aging politician had tried every means to make the voters believe she was hale and hearty, and over time, she had even fooled herself into forgetting how age ravages one’s thinking ability.

Under a visible advantage, she had failed to see the hidden risks and had walked straight into the trap Qi Si had woven for her… If she were ten years younger—no, even just five years—she was confident she could have calmly analyzed the pros and cons and would never have made such a huge mistake.

Her skills were inferior; there was no point in saying more.

Cynthia didn’t hesitate, picking up the golden quill that had condensed in the void and signing her name on the blood-colored page.

【Contract signed. This Contract is guaranteed by the World Rules; no entity may disobey it.】

Because this Contract concerned everyone, every player could hear the system notification.

Dong Xiwen’s gaze toward Qi Si deepened a bit; he remembered the organization he had joined, which seemed to have countless ties to “Contracts” as well… “The second round of the game begins!”

Charlie snapped his fingers happily, and a new card appeared in front of each player.

Everyone quickly reported their identities: Cynthia was the wolfdog, Qi Si was the Tiger, and Dong Xiwen was the Fox.

Cynthia and He Hui simultaneously identified Dong Xiwen, and Qi Si chose to let it pass.

In the third round of the game, Cynthia was the Fox, Qi Si was the wolfdog, and Dong Xiwen was the Tiger.

Qi Si and He Hui simultaneously identified Cynthia, and Dong Xiwen chose to let it pass.

The game ended with no deaths.

“Splendid, a splendid match!” Charlie slowly clapped three times, looking quite sarcastic as he spoke. “The ‘Catch the Fox’ game is over. The next game is Crazy Blackjack!”

The players looked at each other upon hearing this.

Dong Xiwen was the first to ask, “Isn’t the game over? Why is there another one? This isn’t going to go on forever, is it?”

Charlie replied with a chuckle, “It won’t. The game only truly ends once there is a death! Of course, a death must occur for the game to end!”

A death must occur… Could it be that this act is just like the first one, where a player must be chosen as a sacrifice to pass?

After the incident just now, the choice for a sacrifice wasn’t hard to determine.

Cynthia was the first to harm others, so it seemed only right for her to pay with her life here… “Mr. Charlie, are you guilty?”

Qi Si suddenly asked in a cold voice.

Everyone was stunned, but they heard him continue, “‘Everyone is guilty.’ So may I ask, do you, who have been standing in the center of the stage all this time, fall within the category of ‘human’?”

【Note】 “Romans” is a book of the “New Testament” and is one of the sources of the “Doctrine of Original Sin.”