Chapter 311: Colosseum (Part 19) “The Dead are The Undying”

Inside the tower, Liu Yuhan clutched her bleeding wound and supported herself against the slippery wall, descending the steps one by one.

She pressed the 【Netherworld Guide】 Qi Si had left her against her abdomen, briefly transforming herself into a Ghost state to stop the loss of her vitality.

The Clock Tower seemed buried deep beneath ten thousand meters of ocean; she had walked for a full two hours and still couldn’t see the end.

However, the halo above her head grew more distant, gradually shrinking until it was only a pinprick of light, like a hope that was becoming increasingly faint, inevitably giving rise to feelings of unease.

Liu Yuhan remembered the time trick from the 【Hopeless Sea】 instance, but she couldn’t find enough evidence to prove that it was the solution to this level.

She disliked guessing or taking stabs in the dark, believing only in deductions with clear steps and rigorous logic, yet the puzzle she encountered this time undoubtedly lacked key information.

She also couldn’t ask the 【Strange Tale Notebook】 for clues in time.

Just yesterday, she had activated the notebook’s effect once to deduce “the method to kill Qi Si.”

Even now, the result hadn’t come out; there were only various chaotic lines darting around on the pages.

The 【Strange Tale Notebook】’s computing power was occupied, so at most, she could only use it as a regular notebook to make drafts… “If time really is the problem, and strictly follows the mechanics of the 【Hopeless Sea】 instance, then three hours of real time correspond to four hours on the clock face. The next time one must stay is not on the hour…”

Liu Yuhan calculated rapidly and suddenly looked up as she turned a corner, seeing the hour hand on the clock face slowly moving toward the Roman numeral XII.

If no other circumstances were considered, to be safe, she should stay for five minutes at exactly twelve o’clock before continuing forward.

But judging by the past few hours, such a cautious approach would undoubtedly prevent her from truly achieving clearance.

She was continuously losing blood; if she didn’t clear the stage in time, only a slow death awaited her.

Between a certain dead end and a dangerous path to survival, there was no suspense about which to choose.

“Then let’s take a gamble.”

The faces of Zhang Hongfeng and Tang Yu flashed before Liu Yuhan’s eyes, along with the faces of countless other players she knew who had died in Eerie Game instances.

So many people had died on the path of opposing the Eerie Game because of a single misstep, with corpses piled high on both sides; why couldn’t one of them be hers?

She should have died long ago, and it was already a great stroke of luck that she had managed to survive until now, so what was there to hesitate about?

At exactly twelve o’clock, Liu Yuhan took a step forward.

Immediately after, the dim tones in her vision were blown away like dust by the sea breeze, and the yellow sky and deep blue sea formed a new picture.

Wounds in the dream wouldn’t be carried into reality; the pain was stripped away in an instant, and even the residual phantom pain gradually dissipated.

Liu Yuhan found her blue dress spotless, with no holes or wounds, let alone the blood that had previously soaked her entire body.

She stood on the deck before a pitch-black stone slab inscribed with reward options, where silver-white writing faithfully presented three categories of rewards:

【One Action Point】

【Five hundred points】

【Two portions of food】

Liu Yuhan wasn’t in a hurry to choose; instead, she carefully studied her system interface.

In the top-left corner of her vision, the countdown for the Colosseum Game’s end had only one hour left.

They say dreams don’t take up time in the real world, but for her, it didn’t seem to be the case.

Multiple timelines were involved with her; the 【Strange Tale Notebook】 was constantly consuming time for calculations, and Qi Si, who controlled the 【Sea-God Scepter】, had left the instance early and returned to the normal flow of time.

Under multiple paradoxes, a specific point in time could not be anchored, so the Eerie Game instance simply and crudely judged that she had exhausted the three-hour time limit for this stage and sent her to the starting point of the final hour.

Liu Yuhan didn’t feel much dissatisfaction; being able to survive the level was already something to be grateful for, and she couldn’t hope for more.

Moreover, after clearing one level, she had already accumulated the minimum points required.

Liu Yuhan pressed her hand on the 【Five hundred points】 option, and the team’s total points successfully reached three thousand.

At the same time, the Strange Tale Notebook in her bosom grew slightly warm; she flipped to the latest page and saw the answer to the question she had previously deduced:

【To kill Qi Si, one must make a wish to the Sphinx】

…On the other side, Chang Xu followed the bloodstains on the ground all the way, and with half an hour left before the Colosseum Game ended, he finally reached the underground courtyard at the end of the corridor.

rat-men with snake bodies and snake hair were densely packed in the courtyard, making the originally spacious area seem cramped and small.

Circles of rat-men crowded around a spot in the center of the courtyard like believers listening to a sermon, forming a surging sea of bodies that made it impossible to judge the situation inside from the outside.

Chang Xu knew Nian Fu and Qi Si were inside.

Judging by the posture of these rat-men, those two were likely not the targets of an attack or pursuit; instead, they had somehow gained the protection and support of the rat-men.

Chang Xu had experienced the 【Rose Manor】, 【Hopeless Sea】, and 【Red Maple Boarding School】 instances, and he knew that although Qi Si’s strength on paper wasn’t outstanding, he had a knack for extracting key details from seemingly ordinary instance mechanics and playing them in creative ways.

Right now, he feared that Qi Si had noticed information others hadn’t, taken another step toward the te clearance route, and borrowed the ‘momentum’ of the instance itself.

Previously, one slash had almost cut Qi Si in half, yet when he turned around, he saw the latter was still alive and well; the scene of a person who should be dead coming back to life was eerie enough to make Chang Xu feel suspicious.

Seeing the rat-men’s pilgrimage-like posture now, his doubts grew even stronger, and he suddenly had a strong, bad premonition—

He probably wouldn’t be able to kill Qi Si in the short term.

But what if he couldn’t? Some things must be done by someone.

Chang Xu lowered the brim of his hat, trying not to attract the attention of any NPC, and silently approached the edge of the rat swarm.

The rat-men seemed to be bowing toward the center of the courtyard with single-minded devotion, but the countless venomous snakes hanging from their lower bodies were restlessly twisting their necks, watching in all directions.

Chang Xu had only taken a few steps before his movements were locked onto by several snake heads.

Those snake heads flicked their deep red tongues and hissed angrily, like a signal to assemble. Soon, all the snake heads turned around, staring coldly at Chang Xu.

Chang Xu clearly remembered the solution he had verified last night; he immediately turned the edge of his scythe and made a light cut on his arm, letting his blood spill onto the ground.

The expected scene of rat-men petrifying in groups did not occur; on the contrary, the already reddish eyes of those venomous snakes became even more bloodthirsty.

Large rat heads followed the snake heads, turning toward Chang Xu in unison, their crimson eyes revealing a craving for blood and a desire for slaughter.

Logically, with their desires stimulated to such a high degree, they should have turned into stone statues under the effect of the curse long ago… where exactly did it go wrong?

Chang Xu couldn’t understand it, but he knew this all had to do with Qi Si.

Qi Si must have done something to lift the curse on these monsters, so they were no longer suppressed by blood and revered Qi Si, who saved them, like a god… That guy, who acted with utter disregard for consequences, hadn’t considered the aftermath of eliminating the rat-men’s weakness at all. In his worldview, if he can’t survive, having all the other players be buried with him would be considered a happy ending… Chang Xu pursed his lips and held Life Severer across his chest while backing away step by step, looking for terrain he could utilize.

Unfortunately, the rat-men didn’t intend to give him a chance to break the situation.

Countless rat-men turned at the same time, pressing closer to Chang Xu step by step.

Lower limbs composed of red venomous snakes overflowed in the corridor like a tide, dragging their massive bodies to form a circle of encirclement within just a few seconds, trapping Chang Xu inside.

If there were only one monster, Chang Xu, with his weapon, could easily kill it; even if there were ten, he had ways to defeat them one by one.

But the rat-men gathered in the courtyard numbered over a hundred.

“It’s him! It’s him!”

“He’s the demon who killed God, an evil believer…”

“Kill him! Kill him!”

The rat-men shouted loudly, pouncing toward Chang Xu with the madness of believers and a bloodthirsty fervor.

Chang Xu hurriedly swung Life Severer, slashing at the rat-man about to touch him.

The rat-man was split in two, and warm blood sprayed onto his face while intestines and organs spilled out in a pile, briefly obscuring his vision.

More rat-men took the opportunity to swarm forward, stepping over their companion’s corpse to close in on the evil person from the oracle… one after another… In the Colosseum surrounded by spectator seats, the players stood absentmindedly on the chessboard, waiting for the result with boredom.

Previously, when Chang Xu’s scythe struck Qi Si, they all thought the main quest was about to be completed and they were about to clear the instance, only to find that Qi Si hadn’t died at all.

Later, when Chang Xu chased Qi Si and Nian Fu underground, none of them followed to join the commotion after some deliberation.

Firstly, The Goat was watching nearby; Qi Si and Nian Fu had no choice but to leave, and Chang Xu was just missing a few screws in his head, but they hadn’t reached a desperate situation and didn’t need to risk offending The Goat.

Secondly, many among them didn’t want Qi Si to die too quickly, still hoping to accumulate points first to fulfill their wishes; not stabbing Chang Xu in the back was already the height of benevolence.

It would be best if Chang Xu could kill Qi Si, as they could easily clear the stage and collect rewards; if he couldn’t, it would also be fine, as they could negotiate a deal with the Sphinx.

This instance was like this: Chang Xu only needed to hunt Qi Si, but the players had much more to consider.

Not only did they have to calculate their respective points and estimate the strength of each opponent, but they also had to think about how to seek the greatest benefit for themselves.

The Goat stood to the side, watching the slacking players, and surprisingly didn’t say much.

Ever since Qi Si came out of the tower, clashed with Chang Xu, and left on the tiger, the audience’s attention was no longer on the game in the arena.

How could turn-based animal chess be as interesting as a life-and-death duel with real weapons?

This sudden chase was simply too exciting!

The Goat considerately didn’t drag Chang Xu and Qi Si back to the field, but instead snapped his fingers.

Two stone slabs, like television screens, immediately appeared in the void.

One showed the scene from Chang Xu’s perspective, as if a camera were following behind him, filming continuously; the other was a mass of darkness.

The Goat let out a surprised “Eh” and muttered to himself, “Is there a malfunction? Why can’t I see the scene of our new friend? He couldn’t have died, could he?”

The audience hissed, and The Goat hurriedly snapped his fingers again.

A new screen appeared, showing Nian Fu’s perspective.

Together with the audience, the players used Nian Fu’s eyes and ears to see and hear Qi Si’s actions and words.

In the corridor, Qi Si smiled and said to Nian Fu, “I died long ago.”

In the courtyard, Qi Si smeared his own blood on the rat-men’s foreheads, allowing them to be reborn from their state as stone statues.

Later, Qi Si lost his breath in a pool of blood, and the rat-men piously told Nian Fu, “The Great Deity said to keep his body; he will be resurrected in the future.”

At this moment, few of those remaining in the Colosseum were intelligence-type players; the intelligence-type players had all gone into the Glazed High Tower to clear the level.

The combat-type players looked at the images on the stone slabs and exchanged glances.

What did “died long ago” mean? If he was dead and gone, how could he be resurrected?

Also, what kind of move was it to smear his blood on the rat-men and die from blood loss in the end?

“I might understand a bit.” Lena Ann cleared his throat to attract everyone’s attention and smiled shyly, “I’ve heard that when some players face a certain-death situation, they might use item reserves or instance mechanics to transform themselves into Ghosts to continue participating in the game. Qi might be in this situation.

“Ghosts are very hard to kill. For example, there is a type of Ghost called 【The Undying】 that will only enter a dormant state after losing all its blood from an injury, rather than truly dying. I suspect Qi is this kind of Ghost.

“He can’t heal himself, which is why he was so generous in sharing his blood with those rat-men, essentially leaving behind the capital for his teammates to turn the tables. As for ‘resurrection,’ I don’t know what item could do that.”

“How do you know so much? Who knows if what you’re saying is true or false?” Lin Ye stared suspiciously at Lena Ann, “You’re clearly on the same team as Qi Si’s accomplice…”

Lena Ann shrugged, “Lin, you don’t know this, but Dong was actually forced by Qi to obey him. Now that Qi is dead, we are far from having to be tied to him anymore.”

Green thought of something and frowned deeply, “Lena Ann, if it’s really as you say, then wouldn’t we be unable to kill Qi Si no matter what, and thus unable to complete the main quest?”

“That’s not necessarily true; perhaps the Sphinx’s wish-granting mechanism has a higher priority,” Lena Ann said with a smile.

Qin Mu had been silent all along, but now she suddenly asked, “Does any of you know what Qi Si’s ‘plan’ is? And where was his body hidden?”

The players were all stunned.

Indeed, from beginning to end, Qi Si hadn’t revealed his plan to Nian Fu.

Even the location of the corpse was decided entirely by the rat-men, out of Nian Fu’s sight.

Despite not knowing beforehand that his movements would be broadcast publicly by The Goat, he still hadn’t revealed a single useful clue… Was such careful and thorough concealment of information because he really had a trump card, or was he just creating a diversion?

“Maybe he doesn’t have a plan at all and just said it to scare us,” Lin Ye shrugged. “If there really were a way to be resurrected, Lin Jue, Xiao Fengchao, and that group wouldn’t have died.”

Green disagreed, “Did he know he could scare us? I think this resurrection is real. There was no way in the past, but it’s been thirty-six years; maybe there is one now?”

Time passed second by second, and the countdown for the Colosseum Game’s duration finally hit zero. A cold announcement sounded:

【The Colosseum Game (Day 2) has concluded successfully. All players will be teleported back to the Colosseum.】

Beams of light flew from all directions toward the high platform, coalescing into the forms of the players.

On the stone stele, the rankings between the teams were finalized.

1st place: Chu Xun and Green, total points 3,700.

2nd place: Dong Xiwen and Lena Ann, total points 3,600.

3rd place: Lin Ye and Fan Zhanwei, total points 3,200.

4th place: Qin Mu, total points 3,100.

5th place: Chang Xu and Liu Yuhan, total points 3,000.

6th place: Qi Si and Nian Fu, total points 2,600, at the bottom.