Chapter 144: Grand Performance (VII) “The Divine Comedy”

Qi Si sat by the edge of the bed, playing with the black character card.

Scenes of Hansen flashed before his eyes, corresponding one by one to the descriptions on the character card.

【He was out of place…】

Hansen was the only one who excelled in martial force and, at the same time, did not use a pen to record information.

【He was loathsome…】

From the very beginning, Hansen had lashed out indiscriminately and was impolite in his speech, making it truly impossible to like him.

【He died hastily and absurdly…】

Yes, Hansen had little room to struggle before he was indisputably voted to death by the players. No one listened to his defense, no one felt sympathy, and there was an almost unanimous desire to put him to death.

Qi Si believed that inciting the players to target Hansen was entirely of his own volition, a spontaneous choice. Now, however, a “Cannon Fodder card” had suddenly popped up, claiming this was a pre-set ending, which truly displeased him.

“I can’t rule out the possibility that this character card was generated according to the plot after Hansen died, but if the words on it were truly pre-written, things would get interesting.

“Every player’s identity in this dungeon is a character. Hansen’s role was ‘Cannon Fodder.’ Does that mean there are also Protagonists, Supporting Roles, Villains, and the like?”

Qi Si rubbed his chin, a faint sense of foreboding welling up.

It was known that this dungeon was a play, and every play must have a script.

Although he didn’t know where the script for this play was or what it contained, according to traditional dramatic theory, the final ending was nothing more than ‘the Protagonist defeats the Villain and achieves final victory.’

Qi Si didn’t like following a pre-written plot, and more importantly, he had self-awareness. He felt that someone like him was unlikely to be the Protagonist.

After all… it had to pass censorship.

“Who would the Protagonist be? Dong Xiwen arrived last and seems to have many secrets, so he’s quite likely. He Hui isn’t impossible either… I wonder if they can be killed, or if some ‘Protagonist’s Immortality Law’ exists…”

Qi Si stuffed the character card into his pocket and leaned back, letting his back hit the bed.

The bed was soft. The moment he touched it, he sank into it comfortably, and within seconds, sleepiness washed over him.

He squinted his eyes, his thoughts gradually drifting.

“I wonder what’s with the ‘Expired’ label on the character card. Does it mean that if the person were still alive, the card itself would have some kind of effect?

“Character cards exist on ghosts transformed from sins. I wonder what happens after a player gets the character card corresponding to their identity… But what is my identity? It couldn’t really be the Villain, right?”

…In Room 1, Cynthia was not sleeping soundly.

Perhaps because of ‘thinking by day, dreaming by night,’ her dreams were filled with flesh and severed limbs.

Angry curses and accusations still rang in her ears. She looked down, seeing her smooth, wrinkle-free arms, and tentatively reached up to touch her face, feeling clear skin.

“Forty years ago… I’ve almost forgotten what I looked like back then…”

Cynthia woke from the confusion of her dream, a gentle smile appearing on her face.

Countless pieces of information that should have been overwritten surged up like a tide. She remembered almost instantly: she was currently in the ‘Grand Performance’ dungeon of the Eerie Game, dreaming about the beginning and end of her first ‘murder.’

Since being selected for the Eerie Game, Cynthia had used her authority to obtain a lot of relevant information from the Eerie Investigation Bureau. If the development of team-up items hadn’t hit a bottleneck, she could have even requested veteran players from the Bureau to carry her through the dungeon.

At this moment, she had a general judgment of the situation: players in a dungeon don’t have meaningless dreams. All dreams are mechanisms of the dungeon itself, and what is seen and heard likely points to important clues.

The dream continued. Cynthia stood on a high platform, looking down indifferently at the crowd being dispersed by armed forces, just as she had forty years ago.

“Heh, interesting.” A faint chuckle sounded behind her ear.

Cynthia turned at the sound and saw a young man in red suit trousers standing crookedly against the wall.

The young man had a soul-stirring face. Every detail of his features was perfectly formed, his eyes and brows so exquisite they didn’t look real, but rather like a master’s painting.

“What do you think of the current situation?” the young man asked.

“Zhou Ke?” Cynthia felt the voice was somewhat familiar, to the point of being suspicious.

The young man nodded casually. “Mm-hmm.”

Cynthia recalled the scene in the first act’s voting where the young man had maliciously incited everyone to vote for Hansen, and her suspicions grew.

This person was a hyena accustomed to hiding in the shadows. How did he suddenly dare to show his true face?

As if seeing through her suspicion, the young man grinned, revealing a row of fine, sharp teeth. His facial skin withered and peeled away at a visible rate, like a rotting onion, revealing a strange face.

But soon, that strange face also began to rot, falling off in fragments of skin… This person was a ghost! A ghost transformed from sin!

Cynthia reached into the lining of her gown but found no items. She immediately turned and ran down from the high platform.

All familiar elements turned to powder, collapsing into a void. The light dimmed abruptly, leaving only piles of overlapping corpses behind, becoming clearer and clearer.

Those bloody, mangled corpses, crushed into pulp, stood up in strange postures one after another. They twisted their bodies and crawled toward Cynthia like life-claiming demons crawling out of hell, reaching out their claws toward her.

In the darkness, lines of silver-white text refreshed:

【Ghost Name: Human Skin Collector】

【Corresponding Player: Zhou Ke】

【Description: The elegant and gentle-looking Mr. Collector is actually a ghost wearing human skin. Fickle by nature, he is keen on peeling off the faces of various interesting people to wear on his own face. One layer, two layers, three layers… Do you think he’s become a bit more human?】

【Trigger Condition: Being in the same space as him, where you are the only human in that space】

【Attack Method: Manipulating corpses, skinning】

【Remarks: Only dead creatures are worthy of emotional investment. They are quiet, well-behaved, and eternal, never… leaving without a word】

…In Room 3, He Hui woke up groggily from her sleep. As if possessed, she got out of bed and pushed open the door.

Outside the door was no longer the familiar stage, but a labyrinth made of mirrors.

The light was dim. Nothing was reflected on the mirrors except for the girl’s image. A figure in a white dress was embedded against the pitch-black background, her gaze eerie, looking exactly like a classic female ghost from a horror movie.

Mirrors at different angles reflected various images. Dense crowds of figures surrounded He Hui, their gazes all converging on her from precise angles.

He Hui suddenly had the illusion of being watched by countless people in broad daylight. Even though she knew they were all herself, she couldn’t help but feel flustered, her hands and feet turning cold.

She took a step back, her spine hitting something cold and hard. A huge mirror had appeared behind her at some point, blocking her path back.

The face belonging to her reflected in the mirror curled its lips, the curve growing wider and wider until it almost reached her ears.

Not just this mirror, but the ‘her’ in all the mirrors… was laughing.

He Hui instinctively reached up to touch her lips, but felt only a flat surface.

A sense of horror suddenly seized her entire body. She retreated in panic, bumping between mirrors until she was dizzy.

Something cold hugged her from behind. It was a pair of nearly transparent long strips, roughly the shape of arms, but the separation of the five fingers was blurry, like the webbed paws of an amphibian.

“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid…”

“I am you, you are me…”

“We are all you…”

Whispers echoed in her ears. He Hui found herself becoming strangely calm, even forgetting to struggle.

The arms didn’t hold her tightly. Seeing that she had quieted down, they gently took her hand and led her through the glass labyrinth.

Pairs of translucent white hands reached out from the mirrors, vying to guide He Hui, pulling her through twists and turns as they quickly traversed the labyrinth.

She suddenly realized that she had chosen the right room, the very one where her own sin resided. What she was encountering now was the ghost transformed from her sin.

One would never hurt oneself. After all… she only had herself.

Outside the labyrinth, a familiar wooden door stood silently, with the Arabic numeral ‘3’ written on it.

A black card fell at He Hui’s feet. She bent down to pick it up, and the system interface was immediately covered with notification text.

【Congratulations, you have obtained your character card, becoming the first character in the entire play to learn their fate】

【You will gain all the privileges possessed by this character, including becoming the character itself】

“Privileges? Character?”

He Hui frowned at the card in her hand. The silver-white text on it was clear and distinct:

【Character Card – Protagonist】

【Description: She possesses a past she’d rather not look back on and significant secrets, but she also has a present that steps out of the shadows and a future standing in the sunlight. She is kind and simple, always adhering to the bottom line of being human, and willing to redeem the suffering around her. She may be weak or flawed, but she never gives up on growing and will eventually become bright and dazzling through her adventures.】

【Effect: 1. ‘Protagonist’s Immortality Law’ – After suffering fatal damage, you will be resurrected in a reasonable manner (only once per script);】

2. ‘Affinity’ – You will more easily gain the favor of male characters in this script】

…Qi Si had a very strange dream.

In the dream, the theater was being scorched by a great fire. Soaring tongues of flame consumed every corner. Puppets, costumes, stage props—everything was submerged in flames, turning into gray-black embers that spewed out.

Qi Si stood in the center of the stage. The flames had already burned from his ankles to his waist, yet they didn’t bring the slightest bit of pain.

He looked down at himself surrounded by fire and actually found it quite artistic, wondering if he should try burning a corpse once he returned to reality.

A shrill scream sounded in the distance; it was quite familiar.

Qi Si passed through the burning corridors, heading toward the source of the sound. After a few turns, the scene before him opened up.

In the sea of fire, a giant birdcage was fixed to the ground with thick iron chains. A burly man stood inside the cage, his entire body ablaze with raging fire.

Unlike Qi Si, the man seemed to feel the pain of the fire, struggling in agony every second, trying to pry open the iron bars of the cage.

Qi Si walked over, glanced at the man’s face which hadn’t yet been swallowed by the flames, and let out a ‘Whoa.’ ‘Hansen, I thought you’d already died miserably enough. Is this your soul going to hell to continue being tortured?’

The man suffering in the cage was indeed Hansen, who had been collectively voted out by the players.

Seeing Qi Si approach, he wailed while letting out a teeth-gritting roar, “Zhou Ke! You’ll go to hell sooner or later! You’ll die a miserable death, even more miserable than mine!”

Qi Si laughed pleasantly. “Mm-hmm, I know. Everyone has to die eventually.”

Hansen shouted again, “I saw it! You are deeply sinful! You deserve to die far more than I do!”

“True,” Qi Si nodded in deep agreement, then asked seriously, “But I’m not dead right now, so what can be done?”

Hansen: “…”

Hansen: “Aaaaaah!”

Qi Si spent a tasteless moment admiring the victim’s tragic end. Before he could mock him further, he opened his eyes and saw the ceiling of the theater room.

The scenes from the dream flashed past his eyes. The burning theater and charred walls were likely not baseless associations or illusions.

Qi Si sat up from the bed, walked straight to the corner, and began picking at the brightly colored wallpaper with his fingernails.

His fingertips touched a rough texture. He tore off a small piece of the wallpaper, revealing a gray, ash-covered wall surface with obvious burn marks, instantly linking it to the scene in his dream.

“So this place really was burned by fire?”

Qi Si half-closed his eyes and, using the small hole he had just torn, peeled away the entire wallpaper piece by piece. The wall beneath was mottled with gray marks.

A piece of yellowed papyrus fell from a crack in the wall, drifting down like a fallen leaf.

On it was written a fragment of a script:

【Charlie: The plot you’ve written has absolutely no aesthetic sense! No logic whatsoever—just violence, gore, and lowbrow humor. How can such a thing provoke thought?】

【Puppet (putting a finger to its lips): Shh, my dear sir, do you hear that? The audience is cheering, applauding. They love this work from the bottom of their hearts!】

【Charlie: But I don’t understand! It’s clearly terrible from every angle!】

【Puppet: Exactly! Creating an excellent work is such a difficult task! It’s enough to just take away the audience’s brains; they’ll immerse themselves in it, reveling and screaming together!】

【The Puppet laughs loudly while Charlie clutches his head in pain. The cheers of the audience grow louder and louder, drowning out their conversation.】

At the same time, four large words popped up on all the players’ system interfaces—

【Act I End】

…【Note】 “The Divine Comedy” is a long poem written by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri, describing a journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.