Chapter 198: Red Maple Boarding School (35) “God Does Not Love the World”

There are many theories regarding time travel: Fixed Point Theory of Spacetime, the Einstein-Rosen Bridge, Antiparticle Retrocausality… Humans always try to formulate scientific explanations for all phenomena that are difficult to understand, even if the theoretical system becomes extremely bloated after continuous logical self-consistency.

It seems that only “science” can eliminate uncertainty and help humanity reasonably reclaim its destiny from under divine authority.

Qi Si once saw his own face in the past phantom belonging to ※_※_※_※_47_⛬_⛬_⛬_⛬—or, more accurately, the face he had after putting on the Human Skin Mask.

This was reasonable, as he had originally used the Human Skin Mask to “play the role” of the NPC named “47.”

But at the moment of a certain glance, he suddenly realized that 47 had the same eyes as him—it was… himself.

The Recurrence of the Infinitely Cycling Universe, based on Liouville Phase Space Theory, posits that in a finite space, material structures will traverse themselves an infinite number of times.

Infinite time and space, countless timelines—there could be countless versions of him, creating new parallel worlds through different choices and transforming into thousands of intersecting and diverging threads of fate… So Qi Si smiled. He thought the Eerie Game truly had a dark sense of humor, making him, an atheist, pray devoutly to a God in some other spacetime.

But… why worship other deities?

Why couldn’t he become an Evil God who accepts prayers?

Why couldn’t he… pray to himself?

The 47 in the instance background prayed to an unknown deity. Qi Si, knowing everything, decided to usurp the role and respond to his counterpart in that unfamiliar spacetime… At Red Maple Boarding School, Zhang Yiyu stepped on the soft, wet soil, passed through the lush Maple Forest, and was already panting heavily by the time she reached the hard, flat ground in front of the Concrete Building.

Summer nights darken late. The purplish-black night sky was pale in color, and the contours of the building could still be seen by the faint light coming from an unknown source. The world was eerily quiet; the “shuffling” sound of leaves trembling in the wind obscured all human sounds.

Zhang Yiyu walked a few steps forward and saw two male corpses standing opposite each other, their surfaces completely covered by Yellow Flowers and Yellow Butterflies, making their original appearance indiscernible.

She was startled and covered her mouth to suppress a scream. Qi Si’s whisper echoed in the back of her mind once more: “Perhaps you can find some decent tools here.”

Zhang Yiyu woke up as if from a dream. Only after giving herself a pep talk—“I am a ghost, I’m not afraid of dead people”—did she step forward, closing her eyes and reaching out to grope around.

The two corpses had clearly been searched already. She felt around but didn’t touch any item that would trigger a prompt message on the system interface.

One corpse had a huge backpack on its back, the zipper half-open, and the handle of an Iron Shovel protruding from the gap. It looked somewhat familiar.

—Zhang Yiyu had seen Chen Lidong use this shovel previously in the Graveyard when he forced her to bury Qi Si alive.

The identities of the two corpses were thus confirmed, and Zhang Yiyu felt an inexplicable sense of anxiety, grieving for her kind.

Although she really wanted to kill all the witnesses, she knew her limits. If some dangers were too much even for Veteran Players to handle, she would certainly die a much worse death if she encountered them… More than three days had passed since she was locked in the Isolation Room. It was highly likely that the players had been dealt with by various emerging death points, dying left and right. It was clear that if she hadn’t hidden in the Isolation Room in time, she would already be one of the corpses.

Being locked in the Isolation Room seemed to avoid many death points, but it was actually a slow death. One would either have their insomnia syndrome exacerbated by the Infectious Sources covering the floor, or they would starve to death due to the lack of food supply.

But there was a glimmer of hope in the dead end. As long as someone could uncover the secret of Spacetime Overlap, and the punished person in the past spacetime prayed to a God when near death, the recipient of the prayer, located in the spacetime of the Memorial Hall, could open the Isolation Room door, saving the player inside.

And Qi Si was betting on this glimmer of hope.

For spacetimes separated by a hundred years to achieve resonance, and for players in both locations to communicate in real-time, neither condition is easy to achieve, and accomplishing both simultaneously is an almost impossible task in most cases.

Therefore, Qi Si never expected fanatic devotion from others, nor did he intend to give anyone room for negotiation or refusal.

He would not tell Zhang Yiyu his plan, nor would he make any unnecessary moves beyond giving orders, because any deliberation leads to hesitation, and a moment’s hesitation would introduce variables into the scheme.

When man thinks, God laughs.

Qi Si did not need Tool-People who could think, nor did he have the leisure or compassion to care about their lives.

He only acted as the Strategist focused on victory, galloping freely across the giant chessboard that the Eerie Game built with the world, treating all living beings as cold chess pieces.

Only at this moment, by deducing the process from the outcome, did Zhang Yiyu finally understand some of the previously confusing details.

Waves of fear surged in her heart. She dared not delay, pulled the shovel out of the backpack, and headed toward the Graveyard on the east side of the Concrete Building.

Under the dark sky, the ghostly whimpering became even harder to ignore. Gusts of foul wind struck her back, sending chills through her body.

Pale blue mushrooms and dark Yellow Flowers swayed in the wind, slowly turning with Zhang Yiyu’s steps, like pairs of eyes following the unwelcome guest and casting a scrutinizing gaze.

The environment was more terrifying than when Zhang Yiyu had been here before. Ghostly Figures solidified into translucent corpses around her, and emaciated Children, thin as Skeletons, turned their heads to examine the newcomer.

Every cell in Zhang Yiyu screamed for escape, but the Golden Vines hanging above her head clearly told her that under the constraint of the Soul Contract, if she retreated, Qi Si would kill her without hesitation.

Thinking back now, all her hesitation and betrayal on the morning of June 2nd were due to Qi Si’s indulgence, and were likely entirely within his calculations.

This young man, who was more terrifying than any ghost, appeared oblivious throughout, staying outside the game, watching her every move without interference or noise, like an indifferent Evil God casually toying with ants.

Recalling everything that had happened, Zhang Yiyu felt a chill run down her spine. She immediately sped up, closing her eyes and relying on intuition to proceed.

The Graveyard was surrounded by a Sea of Flowers. Yellow and blood-colored small flowers were intermixed. The path she had just walked was quickly filled in by newly grown flowers, returning the ground to a flat, unrippled surface.

Zhang Yiyu passed through the flower bushes and stopped in front of the Tombstone engraved with the number “47.” She raised the Iron Shovel high and plunged it into the soil… In the Graveyard, Qi Si leaned against a Tombstone while Shuomeng was grunting and digging the soil beside him.

The soil, having been recently buried, was still relatively loose. After a few scoops, the Coffin in the pit was exposed.

Shuomeng threw away the shovel, bent down, and reached out to brush the loose soil off the Coffin surface.

He stood at the head of the Coffin, gripped the edge of the Coffin Lid, and forcefully flipped it open, turning the wooden cover to the side.

Chang Xu, holding a Recorder, sat straight up from the Coffin and looked at Qi Si with an inquisitive gaze: “Si Qi, what method did you use to pass information when cooperating with Zhang Yiyu?”

Certain information was destined not to be hidden from everyone. Once the scheme was initiated, some of its key points were bound to be exposed.

Qi Si had expected this. Leaning back against the hard Tombstone, he drew out his words: “The method for passing information, huh—you guess.”

Before Chang Xu could ask the next question, he simply closed his eyes, concentrating on acting like a severely ill patient who had lost consciousness.

After being dug out by Zhang Yiyu at Red Maple Boarding School, Chang Xu realized something was off between his teammate and Qi Si. Unfortunately, no matter how much he asked, Zhang Yiyu remained silent from beginning to end, or rather—she couldn’t utter a single word.

Chang Xu intuitively felt that Qi Si was hiding something from him, but he also understood that everyone has secrets, and as a friend, he shouldn’t think ill of the other person.

He simply stopped asking questions, held a stack of Documents, and hurried to the fourth floor of the Concrete Building according to the plan.

The four-story building was eerily quiet. Apart from the two corpses standing at the entrance, he didn’t encounter another soul along the way.

The stairwells and corridors inside the building were overrun by Ferns and Fungi, lifeless and deserted like a primeval rainforest.

Chang Xu knew that the players in this space had likely faced an extremely difficult survival crisis, and most of them were already dead.

He searched the surroundings along the way but didn’t see any survivors, so he stopped worrying and headed straight for the fourth floor.

In the innermost room on the fourth floor, following Qi Si and Zhang Yiyu’s instructions, he placed the Documents in front of the Skeleton and used the Recorder to record the ballad sung by the Skeleton. As expected, he received the prompt: 【main quest complete】.

The system paused after broadcasting that line. The subsequent clearance prompt and the prompt to teleport out of the instance did not refresh as usual. He didn’t know if it was a malfunction or some other issue.

Chang Xu felt a faint sense of unease, though he couldn’t pinpoint the reason. Confused, he returned to the Graveyard, lay back down in the Coffin, and let Zhang Yiyu bury him.

Not long after he lay down, Shuomeng dug him out again.

Chang Xu looked at the half-dead Qi Si, knowing that the priority was to clear the instance as quickly as possible. He pressed the play button on the Recorder, signaling Shuomeng to listen intently.

After the recording finished playing, Shuomeng saw the prompt 【main quest complete】 and his expression relaxed.

He waited calmly for two seconds. When no new prompt appeared, he couldn’t help but ask silently, “What’s going on? Didn’t we already complete the main quest? Why hasn’t the instance been cleared?”

A line of silver-white text popped up: 【You have signed a Soul Contract with ‘Qi’. As the demand for immediate clearance contradicts the Contract terms, the Game has made appropriate adjustments based on the Contract.】

Shuomeng’s eyes widened.

Now that things had come to this, he understood everything. His face, which had just relaxed, stiffened up again.

He pinched the frame of his glasses, walked a few steps to Qi Si, and wildly patted the young man’s shoulder: “Si Qi, your Contract authority isn’t low; it can even stall the system prompts. Does this mean we can’t leave the instance until we help you complete your task?”

Qi Si was woken up by the patting, gave an “Mmhmm,” and countered, “What, did you plan to breach the Contract beforehand?”

Shuomeng was speechless.

The reason he dared to sign Qi Si’s seemingly problematic Contract was that he had calculated that he and Chang Xu would complete the main quest before Qi Si, giving him complete control over whether and how much to help after clearance.

How could he have known that Qi Si’s Skill Authority would override the game system, interrupting even the conventional instance process?

This wasn’t a bug anymore; it was cheating, wasn’t it?

As he hesitated about how to respond, he heard Qi Si say with a smile, “Actually, this Contract was mostly for your consideration. If Brother Chang was immediately judged to have cleared the instance after recording the sound, three minutes wouldn’t be enough time for him to bring the Recorder over, right?”

Shuomeng:…Like hell I believe you!

Qi Si didn’t intend to gain their trust anyway. After offering a false word of comfort, he lowered his gaze and continued, “Next, I need one person to take me to the Isolation Room, and the other to go to the Cafeteria to fetch at least ten kilograms of water and bring it here. Divide the labor.”

…After burying Chang Xu, Zhang Yiyu rushed toward the Isolation Room according to Qi Si’s instructions.

In the later stages of the instance, all hidden horrors burst forth from beneath the veil. Twisted and hideous Ghostly Figures swarmed the earth, brazenly encroaching upon the living space belonging to humans.

In the Maple Forest, the fertile soil beneath her feet rolled unevenly, and rotten scabs oozed sticky pus and Maggots. Dense layers of branches and leaves clustered together, and the dripping, foul-smelling liquid fell onto the ground, turning into mushrooms.

Zhang Yiyu was afraid of ghosts and dirt, but in the face of death, these psychological resistances were insignificant.

She only knew that gritting her teeth and obeying Qi Si’s orders might not lead to death, and if she did die, Qi Si would suffer the Contract Backlash. However, if she retreated, Qi Si would definitely kill her, and her death would be meaningless.

Weighing the pros and cons, it was better to trust Qi Si’s decision and believe that as long as she strictly executed the steps whose reasons she didn’t know, she could survive… Zhang Yiyu walked into the Isolation Room dejectedly and gently closed the Iron Door. The last sliver of light was blocked outside, and the world before her plunged into complete darkness.

Qi Si’s voice sounded calmly: “Injure yourself, draw blood, and put yourself into a near-death state.”

Zhang Yiyu knew the principle: only by entering a state of hunger or near-death could one more easily establish a connection with another timeline. As per this instance’s setting, this meant—

“Using pain to attract the Evil God’s glance.”

God does not love the world.

Ancient tribes, in accidental glimpses, learned of the vastness of heaven and earth, developing instinctive reverence and longing for beings symbolizing greatness and eternity. They prostrated themselves, interpreted various natural phenomena, and did their utmost to speculate and please, entertaining the God who perhaps did not exist.

But how could they know that the so-called miracles were merely dust stirred up by the movement of Higher-Dimensional Beings, just like a mischievous Child dropping a kernel of corn into an ant colony and then pouring boiling water into the anthill… Zhang Yiyu bit her wrist. Purplish-red blood flowed out like rainwater on a car window, dripping onto the ground and blossoming into blood flowers.

Qi Si poured cold water down his left arm. The colorless stream soaked his skin, and the water marks were stained the grayish-yellow color of mud half a minute later.

His flesh and skin visibly transformed into mud, falling piece by piece onto the mushroom-covered ground, mixing with the pale blue Fungi to form a blanket, within which an outlined red glow flickered like fire.

The scene switched on and off like rapidly flipping slides: the Isolation Room with the Girl in Green Clothes sitting inside, the abandoned room with three figures standing, the floor covered with wrinkled, ugly mushrooms, the rustling soil scattering… In the dizzying flashbacks, elements gradually overlapped, like a stuttering, malfunctioning display screen. All people and objects nested within a single moment, and the young man’s figure overlapped inch by inch with the girl’s.

【Esteemed Witch Miss, congratulations on finding one of the Ritual Raw Materials: “Flesh Mud Soil.”】

Half of Qi Si’s body had already transformed into soil. Cracks spread across the grayish-yellow surface like vines. His scarred eyes were half-open in the dim light, and chunks of gray mud fell in clumps, dissipating into finer dust in the air.

He squinted at the red light growing among the Fungi and silently told Zhang Yiyu: “Pray to me.”

【All materials have been gathered. Would you like to complete the Ritual and summon the Evil God immediately?】

The system prompt sounded sternly. Zhang Yiyu sat by the wall, chanting softly: “Lord of All Gods banished outside the rules of the world, Soul Sovereign who controls the authority of Contract transactions, Great Existence older than history itself…”

Gray mud fell from the sky, covering the mushroom-clustered ground like snowflakes. Rootless, source-less Yellow Flowers sprouted from the soil layer, blooming across the entire room in seconds, layer upon layer suppressing the mushrooms within a net of petals.

Golden Butterflies awoke among the stamens, fluttering toward mid-air and blossoming into scattered, tiny specks of light. A blood-colored path of light sprinkled down from above, enveloping Zhang Yiyu like silk gauze, extending thread-like tendrils that wrapped around her limbs.

【side quest (Mandatory) “Gather all raw materials and complete the Ritual” complete】

【side quest (Optional) “Sacrifice the Bad Kid to the Evil God” complete】