Chapter 143: Grand Performance (Part 6) – The Blind

Evil has always existed, and with indulgence and connivance, it grows into a man-eating beast.

The beast’s claws and teeth injured the passing crowd, only truly silencing at the moment of death.

In the six rooms, the ghosts formed from the sins of five players lurked. Hansen was already dead, his body gone and his sins cleared, meaning only four ghosts could harm people.

If the players wanted to get through these three days safely, they either had to choose the room where their corresponding ghost resided, or choose an empty room or the room corresponding to Hansen.

A one-in-two success rate isn’t low.

Even if they chose incorrectly, it didn’t matter. No one would die tonight. They just needed to determine which player their room’s ghost corresponded to, and then kill that player the next day.

Just like… voting Hansen to death today.

Qi Si pondered for a moment, then looked at Charlie: “Excuse me, do the ghosts generated by sins have varying strengths?”

After a player dies, their corresponding sin also loses its ability to harm. In a sense, the interests of sin and players are aligned.

I wonder if I can reach a consensus with my sin and have it help deal with other players?

“Varying strengths? Of course. The greater the sin you carry, the stronger the ghost you nurture will be.” Charlie paused, then changed his tone, “Of course, ghosts cannot attack each other, so their strength might only make a difference when choosing where to reside.”

Dong Xiwen’s ears twitched slightly.

The strength of sins affects the rooms they choose. Does this mean stronger sins will reside in earlier rooms?

However, is there really a pattern to choosing rooms?

Staring at the six identical doors before him, save for their numbers, Dong Xiwen inexplicably thought of the wooden door he pushed open when he first entered the instance.

He tentatively asked, “Do you have more information? These doors look the same.”

“Leave everything to fate!” Charlie spread his arms, saying with great Inflammatory, “Dramatic, I want to see dramatic!”

The players listened to his almost frantic shouts, knowing that no answers would be forthcoming.

The direction of this instance was clear: “randomness” and “drama.” All choices were left to the players to make as they pleased; if they chose wrong, it was their own bad luck.

At least the main NPC Charlie didn’t mind players dying casually.

Cynthia walked gracefully to Qi Si’s side: “Mr. Zhou Ke, I’d like to hear your opinion. You said before that you’re good at these types of games and can rationally analyze the situation to contribute to the team.”

“There are too few clues; any judgment I make could interfere with solving the puzzle.” Qi Si looked up at the ceiling, staring at the golden tassels, “Tomorrow, we’ll have a whole act to discuss strategies, won’t we?”

Coexisting with sin in the same room doesn’t necessarily mean death, as long as the player corresponding to that sin is killed; even randomly killing a player to feed the sin can buy a day of peace.

The two of them formed an alliance first, giving them two votes. In a similar voting round, it would be easier to gather votes and cast out an unlucky soul as a sacrifice.

Cynthia understood Qi Si’s unspoken meaning and nodded gracefully: “Then I’ll see you tomorrow. I wish you a pleasant evening.”

Qi Si lightly hummed, watching Cynthia slowly walk into the leftmost first door, gradually losing the smile on his face.

Cynthia probably believed she possessed the greatest sin, and her corresponding ghost would be the strongest, thus occupying the first room.

But Qi Si remembered that in the ‘Carnivore’ instance, Qi personally evaluated him as ‘deeply sinful.’

Whose sin resides in the first room remains to be seen, and it might lead to variables… Of course, Qi Si never put all his eggs in one basket. Even if something went wrong with Cynthia, he might still find allies.

On the other side, He Hui clutched the corner of her clothes, her gaze nervously flitting across the remaining five doors.

Dong Xiwen leaned over and whispered, “Miss, I have a guess: the stronger the sin, the earlier the room it occupies. We can try to choose rooms further back.”

He Hui hurriedly thanked him, then quickly walked to the room directly in front of her and pushed the door open.

That room was number 3. There was no discernible reason for her choice; it seemed she was just catering to Charlie’s idea of choosing randomly.

Seeing that He Hui didn’t heed his advice, Dong Xiwen rubbed his nose in slight disappointment, but no longer stood on ceremony, walking directly into room number 6 at the very end.

As he turned to close the door, his peripheral vision caught Qi Si still standing motionless, which made him a little puzzled.

This ‘perverted murderer Zhou Ke’ seems like a very arrogant person, so why is he being so wishy-washy?

Qi Si silently noted the room numbers of the three players and smiled at Charlie: “Mr. Charlie, you didn’t seem to mention that each room can only accommodate one person.”

Charlie was silent for two seconds, his voice a little dry: “I did forget to mention that. Of course, two people can stay in one room, but the room will only protect the first person to enter.”

“Protect?” Qi Si’s voice rose at the end, “Is there danger within the room itself, or will something from outside enter?”

Charlie chuckled twice: “That’s what you’ll need to consider tomorrow.”

Qi Si stroked his chin and asked again, “Then can I choose a room for myself first, and then visit others?”

“The rules don’t forbid it; you can do anything—of course, you’ll be responsible for the consequences if something happens.” Charlie’s tone carried a hint of impatience, “Sir, I suggest you choose a room quickly; night is almost here.”

“Thanks for the reminder.” Qi Si readily walked towards room 4. Just as he was about to push the door, he turned his head back, “Mr. Charlie, one last question, where do you live?”

“I live on the stage,” Charlie said fiercely.

Qi Si instinctively felt he had hit on something crucial but didn’t intend to push his luck by saying more and offending the NPC.

He reached out and pushed the door of room 4, finding that it opened with a single push, as if it had no latch.

So he moved a few steps to the right and tentatively pushed the wooden door of room 5, finding that it, too, opened easily.

He then tried to push the door of room 6, but this time it didn’t budge. He wasn’t sure if it was locked from the inside by someone or due to the instance’s own mechanism.

“Doors already chosen by other players cannot be pushed open, but empty room doors can be opened at will?” Qi Si narrowed his eyes.

The stage lights behind him were still colorful, and Charlie’s figure was submerged in the light and shadow, flickering as if with a bad connection.

Twisted black shadows flickered in and out of existence in the void, reaching out like waves towards the center of the stage, but their bodies were stuck together like melted slime, slowing their progress.

A few clusters of black shadows seemed to notice Qi Si still lingering on the stage and turned to wriggle towards him.

Qi Si had no desire to find out what would happen if he was touched, so he immediately slipped into room 4 and closed the door behind him.

The room had no windows, which effectively allowed him to relax. He leaned against the door and curiously surveyed the scene before him.

In the center of his vision was a neatly made large bed, with abstract paintings in bright colors on the bedspread. With Qi Si’s level of appreciation, he couldn’t discern any special meaning they were trying to convey.

The surrounding decor wasn’t complicated either; red, yellow, and blue wallpaper covered every surface, and in a corner far from the door, a pile of stage props like costumes and puppets was stacked high.

Qi Si strolled over, lifted the blue skirt covering the top, and faintly caught a faint smell of blood.

With the anticipation of a child opening a blind box, he patiently moved aside the jumbled puppet limbs and rag dolls in the pile of props, revealing the huge corpse buried beneath.

This corpse was visibly not human; its hairy body was topped with a massive wolf’s head, covered densely with festering sores, and plump white maggots wriggled in and out of the flesh.

There were no wounds on the vital parts of the corpse’s torso, but human hands and feet had been artificially sewn onto the places where limbs should have grown, and blood was still continuously dripping from them.

【Ghost Name: Human-Beast (Deceased)】

【Corresponding Player: Hansen】

【Description: A giant evil wolf grew human limbs, or a sinful human grew the body of an evil wolf. Is he human or beast? That is the question.】

【Trigger Method: Indiscriminately attacks all those weaker than itself】

【Attack Method: Biting, gnawing】

【Remarks: Everyone is free to choose whether to be human or beast. But there are always some who like to drive their companions into the ranks of beasts, or persuade others to be human while they themselves become beasts.】

Qi Si raised an eyebrow slightly: “So this is the ghost formed from sin? It’s really ugly…”

He hadn’t expected his luck to be so good, actually choosing the room where the sin of the deceased Hansen resided.

This meant that for the next two acts, his primary goal would no longer be to find a way to kill someone, but rather to find a way not to be killed.

Qi Si disliked protection missions, including protecting himself.

It was truly difficult not to be targeted. In comparison, quickly killing one person was more realistic. Anyway, only one person needed to die per act, and others wouldn’t bother to kill an extra one.

As if realizing its mission was complete, the giant beast’s corpse rapidly melted like a snowdrift doused with hot water, transforming into a pool of bloody liquid that seeped into the floor and vanished without a trace in a few seconds.

Black smoke slowly rose from where the corpse disappeared, gradually condensing into a black playing card.

【Character Card – Cannon Fodder (Invalidated)】

【Description: He is out of place, he is repulsive, he is mediocre, he goes unnoticed. Therefore, he was cruelly murdered by the Playwright. As a warning of a crisis, a prelude to a carnival, a plot twist, and a need for excitement, his death was hasty and absurd, unremembered, unmourned. The audience’s attention was captured by the protagonist; no one cared that a minor character died in a corner.】

Qi Si pinched the card with two fingers, and after seeing the text on it, he slightly narrowed his eyes… In room 6, Dong Xiwen stood by the desk, flipping through pages of script fragments.

The room contained nothing but a bed and a desk, and on the desk were stacks of papyrus, clearly holding important clues.

As soon as Dong Xiwen entered the room, he went straight to the desk.

Considering that someone had already died today and the ghosts wouldn’t be active, he directly picked up the pages and began to read.

【Charlie: My newly written play has been banned by the King again. I must quickly write a new script and stage it. I guarantee it will be a wonderful story, and the people will love it! Then all theaters will perform it, everyone will hear my voice, how wonderful that would be!】

【Puppet: Sir, you said the same thing before writing the last script. But even if it wasn’t banned, it still didn’t have many audience members. Every performance resulted in a loss, and you had to eat black steamed buns for a month just to put on a few more shows!】

【Charlie (pulling his hair): Why? Is it that the stories I write aren’t good? To write the most realistic scenes, I visited thirty-nine villages; to give the audience a beautiful experience, I adorned the stories with the most exquisite words; I poured all my heart and soul into it, but why don’t they like to watch?】

【Puppet: Sir, with all due respect, your stories are truly boring. Audiences don’t want to see how farmers labor in the countryside or how workers live in factories. They want to see princesses and princes fall in love, they want to see how kings defeat enemy monarchs—but you can never write these things. Any interesting story turns lifeless in your hands!】

Dong Xiwen yawned while looking at the boring dialogue: “He thinks he’s a neglected genius, but in reality, he has no talent to be neglected. If anyone actually watched his boring stuff, I’d be a ghost… I have to say, Charlie really has a talent for putting people to sleep. I suffer from insomnia in real life, but in this instance, I got sleepy after reading just four paragraphs…”

He muttered under his breath, head down, naturally not noticing the dozen or so crimson eyes tearing open slits in the ceiling, staring at him with malicious intent.

With the almost imperceptible rustling of a pen tip on paper, the words on the papyrus twisted as if alive, seeping onto the system interface.

【Charlie: Then what do you say I should do? I don’t want to write about princes and princesses, nor do I want to focus on how many achievements a king has. Do I have no way out?】

【Puppet: My dear sir, why don’t you give your pen to me? I’ll try to help you write a story that will make the audience cheer and celebrate for you!】

【Charlie hands his quill and papyrus to his puppet, and the puppet changes into Charlie’s clothes and steps onto the stage.】

…【Note】 ‘The Blind’ is a representative work of Maurice Maeterlinck’s symbolist drama. It tells the story of 12 blind people trapped in a vast primeval forest who, after the death of the priest who once guided them, still foolishly await his rescue, illustrating the impermanence of death and fate.