Chapter 163: anchor point

To be tormented by ghosts for all eternity, or to enter the Eerie Game?

On one side, a certain death full of terror and pain; on the other, a glimmer of hope in an unknown future. The answer was no longer in suspense.

Most of the villagers, though they didn’t know what the “Eerie Game” or “Main God” were, still clung to it like a life raft, kneeling and kowtowing, weeping and begging for the deity’s mercy.

Qi Si was not a true deity, nor did he possess any mercy.

He asked again, “Are you willing to sign a contract, become players, and enter the Eerie Game?”

The villagers kowtowed again, speaking all at once.

“We are willing!”

“We are willing!”

“Whatever you tell us to do, we will do!”

The phantom of a vine descended from mid-air to the ground, flexibly drilling into every household that still had inhabitants, gently wrapping around everyone’s wrists.

The eyes of the villagers entangled by the vines instantly became hollow, like lifeless objects whose souls had been devoured.

Qi Si lowered his gaze and suddenly saw countless golden leaves appearing and disappearing in the void, vaguely outlining the phantom of a giant golden tree.

Within each leaf were smaller trees and vines, and on each vine were new, tiny leaves. Countless worlds, countless souls, were merely the branches and leaves of a single tree.

The Eerie Game was a tree.

The world, too, was nothing more than a tree.

Qi Si’s vision was uncontrollably pulled away, the clouds on both sides edged with golden light, stretching away like silk curtains.

He was carried far away by the wind in the vast mist, the duration of time becoming immeasurable, briefly losing its meaning.

His back suddenly hit something solid, and Qi Si came to his senses, finding himself seated back in the high-backed chair.

【Your single stay duration in the game space is 1 hour. More duration can be exchanged with points.】

【Do you want to spend 100 points to exchange for 1 hour of stay duration?】

Looking at the refreshed text, Qi Si fell silent.

Two seconds later, he ultimately fell into the Eerie Game’s consumption trap, throwing 100 points into the stay duration.

The text dissipated, and he turned his head again to look at the vine beside him.

The golden fruit among the leaves seemed to have grown a little, its previously opaque outer shell now much clearer and brighter, like thinly gilded glass.

Through the crystal-clear shell, one could see flowing mist and separating dust within. It was like the beginning of creation after a cosmic explosion, with both rising and settling occurring simultaneously, slowly constructing the layout of a village.

Light and shadow flickered, and several tendrils of vines drifted soundlessly within the fruit, growing dense golden leaves on their branches, identical in form to the soul leaves.

These leaves were undoubtedly the souls of the villagers, all of which had passed through the World-Fruit and were now under Qi Si’s control.

The villagers entered the Eerie Game through Qi Si, naturally belonging to him. He possessed authority over them similar to that of the Eerie Game’s Main God, even able to manage point distribution and item rewards and punishments… After his gaze lingered on the leaves for two seconds, the corresponding scene automatically appeared before him.

The villagers had already entered the Eerie Game, dispersed across different instances.

The backgrounds included mountains, seas, forests, ancient houses, and manors.

There were a total of one hundred and nine players who were thrown in mid-air. Some looked around curiously; some had blank eyes, seemingly confused about the situation; others were panicking and crying loudly, looking like they wouldn’t last long… Only a small portion had the aptitude to survive the first instance, but with a sufficiently large base, a single game was bound to generate a substantial amount of points.

Even if they all died, it didn’t matter. These people being pulled into the game was an unexpected bonus. Having mastered the method of converting ghost domains, there was no shortage of consumables in the world.

“Am I essentially turning the Eerie Game into a farming simulation game?” Qi Si, out of his usual sense of humor, made a joke.

For him, interesting and exciting instances were the most valuable things in the Eerie Game.

Almost a month had passed since he first entered the Eerie Game.

In a carnival without morality, a grand absurd farce of bloodshed, slaughter, and death, Qi Si wandered through the instances almost intoxicated, treating them as a huge show and stage.

Countless things that were not allowed in reality, things that had to be hidden, became exposed and direct in another extreme world, without regard for public order, good customs, or moral justice, only self-interest, the law of the jungle, and individualism.

A strong sense of belonging attracted Qi Si; the Real World gradually faded in his eyes, while the scenes in the instances became increasingly clear, vividly colored like Impressionist oil paintings, as if… that was the so-called reality.

【You have established an anchor point (Qijia Village) in “World No. 47” and gained partial authority.】

A line of text popped up before him, read out in a cold electronic voice.

Qi Si asked, “What is World No. 47?”

【This is the name of the world your body is in, named by the previous Main God; if you wish, you can replace it with another designation.】

The previous Main God… Qi Mo?

What a simple and crude name… “Change the name to ‘Real World’.”

Qi Si changed to an easier-to-remember name, then asked, “What is an anchor point?”

【An anchor point is your stable connection to a certain world. After acquiring enough anchor points, you will be able to control all existences in that world and write its past and future.】

“Turning a place into a ghost domain, and completely controlling the people and things within it, counts as establishing an anchor point?”

Although he had long known that the Real World was just one corner of countless worlds, and the Eerie Game’s status was above the world, Qi Si still couldn’t maintain his inner calm upon suddenly learning that he could possess the authority to “write” worlds.

The commonly perceived safe houses no longer existed, and the last barrier between reality and the eerie was broken.

The sense of reality was further stripped away; the Real World seemed to be just a virtual reality game composed of programs. It was no different from other instance worlds, just one of the myriad worlds providing material for the Eerie Game.

Prying into and interfering with reality would definitely be an interesting thing.

What difference did it make whether reality was real or a game?

“This is… getting closer and closer to the authority of a god…”

Qi Si knew that the phrase “enough” was likely an unattainable pie in the sky. Turning the entire Qijia Village into a ghost domain only established the first anchor point; to establish a few more anchor points would probably require vengeful spirits to engulf an entire city, or even the entire world.

Such a large-scale eerie invasion would inevitably attract the attention and resistance of the Investigation Bureau, making the subsequent plan’s progression only more difficult.

But in the face of the immense benefit of controlling a world, no amount of difficulty seemed worth mentioning.

“Thinking about these things is still too far off. First, let’s test the operation of Qijia Village after it’s turned into a ghost domain. Once complete experience is formed, then we can think about how to promote it to the next place.”

“The Statue of the Joyous God is a rare find. To guide other eerie entities into reality, perhaps I need to clear more instances. Or accumulate enough points to purchase some items that can have a wide-ranging impact on reality…”

Qi Si reached out to touch Dong Xiwen’s soul leaf.

This guy should be in a instance, surrounded by dense trees, with huge leaves overlapping, blocking out the sunlight.

This seemed to be a tropical rainforest, with mosquitoes flying around, and strange plants occasionally visible.

A team of people was clearing a path by hacking through bushes ahead. Dong Xiwen was mixed in with the team, looking left and right, muttering, “Are they making us play a wilderness survival game? There won’t be a part where we have to find our own food and eat bugs, right?”

This fellow probably skipped the novice pool and was counted as a formal player.

He frequently cleared instances at a rate of one per day. He wondered how he maintained such high enthusiasm for the game without the incentive of the “contract termination after clearing one hundred dungeons” carrot.

Qi Si guessed that Dong Xiwen was eager to fulfill his wish, which was why he was so keen on grinding instances and accumulating points.

To help him maintain this enthusiasm for longer, Qi Si directly siphoned half of the thirty thousand points from his account into his own.

Subsequently, Qi Si reached out for Liu Yuhan’s soul leaf.

The moment his finger touched it, a scene slowly unfolded before his eyes.

Clouds drifted, the sky was azure, and rows of densely packed buildings lined up before him, common styles in reality, appearing to be studio apartments judging by their layout.

The scene zoomed in little by little, and Qi Si’s perspective passed through the buildings into a room.

The room was simply decorated with sparse furniture. A girl in light blue pajamas sat at a desk, her nimble fingers tapping on a computer keyboard.

The girl’s hair was messy, and her face seemed unwashed, rather grimy. She probably dared to be so disheveled because she wasn’t planning to go out.

Qi Si pulled his view closer and saw the instance walkthrough being edited on the computer, suddenly realizing that this was not a instance, but reality.

“I can actually see her movements in reality?”

Qi Si narrowed his eyes.

The soul contract existed based on the Eerie Game. After signing a soul contract in a instance and controlling a player’s soul, he theoretically could only see the players’ every move in the instance, and his interference with reality was limited to remotely issuing commands.

Initially, this was indeed the case. Only when Liu Yuhan was in a instance could he see her and control her actions through her soul leaf; after Liu Yuhan left the instance, he could only see a dim starry sky with floating points of light.

What was the situation now?

“Is it because I established an anchor point in Qijia Village, increasing my control over the Real World; or is it because the Sea-God Scepter absorbed enough evil, granting me more divine authority?”

Qi Si had various conjectures. With a thought, he softly called out, “Liu Yuhan.”

The girl by the desk seemed not to hear, continuing to clatter on the keyboard.

He raised his voice and called again, “Liu Yuhan!”

The girl remained unmoving.

Qi Si thus knew that he still couldn’t directly converse with players in reality.

However, this was already enough. Being able to secretly observe meant he could obtain a large amount of intelligence, thereby creating the illusion of his “omniscience and omnipotence” and forming a deterrent.

And he believed that as long as he brought more eerie entities into reality, he would eventually gain all permissions.

Qi Si withdrew his gaze to the shrine, entered the shop, and browsed among the item showcases, finally stopping at a rusty paper cutter.

【Name: Self-Mutilator’s Paper Cutter】

【Effect: Regardless of the wound inflicted, the injured person will not lose consciousness and will not truly die.】

【Note: Its original owner was submerged in immense despair, yet ultimately lacked the courage to achieve final liberation, only able to release pain through self-harm.】

This was a knife that couldn’t kill, seemingly useless at first glance, but it was not.

The fact that it would never let the injured person die was almost a causality-level weapon, definitely with potential for discovery.

Qi Si shifted his gaze downwards to the price.

【Price: 150,000 points】

Great, still can’t afford it.

The renewal prompt popped up again:

【Stay duration has been exhausted. More duration can be exchanged with points.】

【Do you want to spend 100 points to exchange for 1 hour of stay duration?】

“No,” Qi Si said. “I’m entering a instance.”

The silver-white text dissipated into a pile of strokes, reassembling into new words within two seconds:

【Please enter a instance within 3 minutes, otherwise points will be automatically deducted.】

Qi Si: “…”

He put on the human skin mask, slung his hiking backpack over his shoulder, and stepped into the full-length mirror beside him.

【Random instance generating… instance loading… Loading complete…】