Chapter 199: Red Maple Boarding School (36) “He Prays to the Deity”

Red Maple Boarding School, third floor.

Jiang Junjue pulled the Bixie Sword out of the last teammate’s chest, flicking off a string of deep crimson blood beads.

As soon as Chen Lidong was killed by Ms. Medina, all clues pointing toward a normal clearance were broken. The logic could not be connected, the main quest was impossible to complete, and triggering the minimum death count mechanism was the last chance for survival.

Without conflict of interest, acquaintances might support each other. But when the crisis of death loomed overhead and the probability of survival was fixed, infighting was inevitable.

Everyone had the right to survive. Jiang Junjue had no right to demand anyone sacrifice themselves for him; all he could do was compete fairly.

The young player wearing glasses stared blankly at the bloody eye on his chest, his entire face trembling violently with pain and resentment, yet he failed to utter a single word.

Everyone was afraid in the face of death, but under the bizarre game rules, what good was it to blame the survivors?

The Eerie Game was inherently cruel, and life was fleeting, but as long as one survived, they might encounter a turning point someday.

Clear the Final Dungeon, gain the right to negotiate with the rules—how could one know that the sacrificed people couldn’t return to the world?

Jiang Junjue had seen many deaths and participated in many life-and-death survival struggles, having long since developed a self-consistent logic.

He picked up the corpse of the teammate he had just killed, quickly walked to the corner of the stairwell, laid it side by side with another body, and gently smoothed the wrinkles on the clothes and face.

Finally, he took a clean white blanket from a snakeskin bag and covered the bodies before dragging his feet back to his own dorm room.

Theoretically, he was the only one who could move freely now.

Although Zhang Yiyu voluntarily violating the rules and being locked in the Isolation Room made him wary, it was not cause for fear.

There were currently three possibilities: One, Zhang Yiyu knew a crucial clue, and entering the Isolation Room was just a step toward clearance; Two, after realizing she couldn’t clear the instance, Zhang Yiyu wanted to kill him and become the sole survivor; Three, Zhang Yiyu hid in the Isolation Room simply because she was afraid of being interrogated by him, and was now despairingly waiting for death.

The first possibility was the best; their main quests were the same, and it didn’t matter who completed it, only the difference in performance scores. If it was the second possibility, Jiang Junjue wasn’t scared. With the items and experience he had accumulated over the years, it wouldn’t be easy for an unranked player to kill him.

Jiang Junjue calculated as calmly as possible, then reached out and pushed open the dorm room door.

In the narrow room, the corpse of Sun Lin, who died on the first day, lay across the doorway. The Yellow Flowers that had bloomed using his flesh as soil were mostly withered. Blown by the wind stirred up when the door opened, the fragile flower stems bent and scattered soft, wrinkled petals.

The flowers on the corpse’s face dried the fastest, already pressed down by the heavy stamens, drooping around the human silhouette. A face filled with fear and despair was exposed, the wide eyes brimming with the desire to survive, but now only a pool of cloudy gray water remained.

Jiang Junjue froze by the door, staring intently until the young face blurred in his vision, its features indistinguishable.

He suddenly squatted down, covered his face with his hands, and wept uncontrollably… In the Isolation Room, the barren concrete floor, the cracked ground covered in Yellow Flowers, the abandoned room littered with crushed mushrooms—the scenes rapidly flashed and replaced each other, gradually merging, just like three different layers placed on the same canvas, stacking together at a certain moment.

Auxiliary colors of red, yellow, blue, and green were brushed onto the surface of the scene layer by layer, as if searching for the most suitable shade through repeated trial and error.

The colors gradually converged toward red: pink, flushed red, deep crimson, purple-red, scarlet. Various shades of red were masked in sequence, and after freezing, they resembled a drop of pigment falling into clear water, where blood threads and light gauze danced gracefully, settling into a pale red over time.

Zhang Yiyu stared at the words 【side quest (Optional) “Sacrifice the ‘Bad Kid’ to the Evil God” Completed】 on the system interface, her mind blank.

She knew Qi Si was the “Bad Kid” in this instance and was prepared to give up the optional quest, but she never expected the quest to be completed so inexplicably.

What happened? Did Qi Si sacrifice himself? When did this person become so selfless? And… if he died, would that Contract still count?

Zhang Yiyu looked at the status indicator 【Evil God Believer】 on the system interface, unsure whether to laugh or cry.

“The Game never said you had to sacrifice an entire person…” Qi Si slumped against the cement wall, momentarily ignoring the dirt on the ground—or rather, he himself was part of that dirtiness.

The plan had long been written on white paper. His self from June 2nd had outlined the general direction, and ever since, he had constantly collected new clues and perfected various details.

The more powerful Contract authority granted him two pairs of eyes: one pair was his own, and the other belonged to Zhang Yiyu.

He often gained two parallel perspectives, overseeing the entirety of the two timelines from an observer’s viewpoint. A large volume of useful and useless information flowed through his mind, was summarized on white paper through the recording process, and gradually accumulated into a massive advantage.

The Qi Si of the past raised the chess piece. The Qi Si, Zhang Yiyu, Chang Xu, and Shuomeng of the present were all participants in the game, moving across the board under the direction of an unknown overall scheme, sketching out the entire layout.

Shuomeng took Qi Si to the Isolation Room, Chang Xu retrieved enough cold water, Zhang Yiyu in the other timeline prayed for the final materials for the ritual, and Qi Si poured the cold water onto himself.

Half of his body, from shoulder to thigh, completely vanished. The edges were covered in powdery sludge, which gradually turned into grayish-yellow mud as the cold water seeped in, dripping onto the ground.

He didn’t feel pain, but rather a sense of “emptiness.” A part he was accustomed to suddenly lost connection, and he couldn’t feel its presence, as if it had never belonged to his body.

The loss of the limb seemed to have taken away some excess heat. Qi Si noticed that his high fever had subsided a little; his consciousness was still scattered, but he was no longer unable to grasp the tendrils of memory as he had been shortly before.

“The antidote for insomnia syndrome and the ritual to summon the Evil God—in this instance’s setting, these all fall under the scope of ‘Indigenous Witchcraft,’ so they must have commonalities. The meaning of the transcribed documents changed, but the translated fake formula might not be entirely baseless, especially regarding the materials and dosage, where there might be useful references.”

“Considering that the Eerie Game won’t set up an unsolvable death trap, the materials must be obtainable within this instance. Using the process of elimination, it’s easy to pinpoint the required ritual materials. And since the unit of measurement in the fake formula is ‘half a person,’ I have reason to speculate that the amount of dirt required for the ritual is also ‘half a person’…”

Shuomeng listened to Qi Si’s nonchalant analysis, frowned, and asked, “Are you so sure your deduction is correct? What if you guessed wrong?”

“We were gambling anyway. If we win, we profit greatly; if we lose, we just find another way.” Qi Si smiled, glancing up at the ceiling where scarlet light bands drifted. “It’s just losing half a body, after all. Given your reputation, I don’t think you’d take advantage of my weakness and harm me.”

Indeed, with the rule that one can survive for half an hour in reality after dying in the game, any respectable player who valued their reputation wouldn’t dare openly harm someone—if they were going to harm them, they would have to kill them invisibly.

Shuomeng clicked his tongue. “Brother Chang and I certainly won’t harm you, but how do you know the ritual can be stopped once it begins? What if the situation gets out of control and your entire body is sacrificed?”

“It’s just death, what’s the big deal?” Qi Si lowered his eyes and chuckled softly. “I take a small risk to gamble for a te clearance for everyone. That’s a very profitable deal, isn’t it?”

Chang Xu listened from the side, feeling that something was off.

Based on his intuition and understanding, Qi Si was very calculating about his own gains and losses. How could he possibly sacrifice himself for the collective good?

According to his usual behavior pattern, he should have grabbed a tool person, thrown them into the cold water, and sacrificed them as ritual material.

But upon closer thought, there were only three people here, and given his strength, he really couldn’t beat either of the others present… Yet he could have stayed at Red Maple Boarding School and reaped the benefits, so why put himself in such a predicament?

Chang Xu didn’t know the full scope of the events, so naturally, he didn’t know that Qi Si had been pretending to be an NPC and setting fires at Red Maple Boarding School, causing widespread outrage among both humans and ghosts.

As he pondered, he heard the young man sigh, as if reading his mind, and whisper helplessly, “I’m not a bad person; I just want a Perfect Clearance more than others…”

“This time, we should not only survive but also achieve a Perfect Clearance, right?” Zhang Yiyu stood up from the floor and walked step by step toward the door.

In the past, all she sought was to struggle for survival while being hunted by ghosts and death traps, but now she seemed to see a sliver of hope in pursuing higher achievements.

Perfect Clearance, achieving the TE Ending, meant obtaining double the points and receiving reward items with special effects, truly enhancing her strength… This way, she would survive better in future instances and realize her initial wish to leave the Eerie Game sooner… Zhang Yiyu stopped at the doorway, and the tightly shut iron door slowly swung open.

The formless Evil God pulled open the door of the Isolation Room, guiding 47 out of the dark, cramped concrete room and pointing toward the north side of the Maple Forest.

Zhang Yiyu felt as if her soul had disconnected from her body. Her body was dragged by an unseen force, moving forward by inertia like a sleepwalker.

47 began to run, starting with a tentative jog. The crushed maple leaves made a strange “crack” sound, like an eggshell breaking.

The crimson eyes, drawn countless times, were startled by the sound and slowly opened in the pitch-black night sky. Ribbon-like, thin streaks of bloody light swayed on both sides, scattering into eye-shaped spots of light that flew in all directions.

47’s steps grew faster and faster, raising a wind that stirred golden butterflies and swept up the scattered leaves on the ground.

Fragments of light chased him, or perhaps accompanied him. He stumbled but never fell, floating with the butterflies in a sea of bloody light, carrying the brightness of a summer day as he ran through the entire Maple Forest, driving away the lightless night.

Zhang Yiyu stepped onto the slick ground. The emerald Maple Forest, belonging to summer, had no fallen leaves, yet the bare earth made a “rustling” sound of crushed maple leaves being stepped on.

The dense maple trees changed seasons before her eyes. The bare trunks were sometimes covered in green leaves, and sometimes only dead branches remained. Scenes of spring, summer, autumn, and winter overlapped in an instant. Landscapes from various seasons appeared in the same setting, with red, yellow, and green hues layered upon each other, filling the field of vision with mixed-color snowflakes.

The last dried red leaf fluttered to the ground. The echo of dying butterflies intertwined with the bloody light overhead, and fallen leaves materialized across the dark earth. Zhang Yiyu started sprinting.

The deity high above lowered its gaze. The Contract acting upon the soul controlled the will within the human body. Bands of gold and red light led the way. In the unwitnessed night, 47 passed through the Maple Forest, heading toward the kitchen where the remaining fuel was stored.

Rotten vegetables emitted a stench. Firewood beneath the stove crackled with residual sparks. Zhang Yiyu picked up a piece of dry wood that still held embers and touched it to the iron barrel filled with lamp oil.

Orange-red flames shot into the sky, resembling the silhouette of the Evil God the moment they scorched the roof. 47 kicked over the oil barrel, which was floating with fire, and the blaze spread everywhere, following the rolling lamp oil.

“Just lock the door, and everyone will be burned to death inside,” Qi Si silently told Zhang Yiyu.

The girl’s soul poured back into her body, as if she were startled awake from a delusion by a blast next to her ear.

She was still not fully conscious, her awareness floating in the intoxicating light and shadows, where gold, orange-red, scarlet, and blood colors exploded into a single mass.

47 glanced at the blaze that had already engulfed the entire kitchen and turned to run toward the concrete building.

The night without lights was silent. All signs of life were asleep inside the cramped, oppressive four-story building. Zhang Yiyu seemed to instinctively know what to do, pulling the iron door shut and taking various tools from the bag carried by the corpse near the door to jam the lock.

The office door was locked from the outside. 47’s expression was calm, almost indifferent; there wasn’t a hint of malicious intent for revenge.

The deity in red manifested its silhouette in the flames, growing across the boundaries of the entire school as the conflagration spread.

Rotten, messy, foul-smelling, and filthy things—the great fire swept through the corridors, cleansing everything, mixing sharp wails with the crackling sounds.

Zhang Yiyu turned back and saw Ms. Medina dressed in black. Her brown face shifted in appearance and expression, sometimes old, sometimes young. Her robe and hood eventually turned into a fur coat.

The image of the middle-aged Ms. Medina, whom the players first saw in the concrete room, froze before her eyes, letting out a terrifying roar: “You Bad Kids! You truly are evil to the core! You killed my mother, and now you want to kill me too!”

“Then now, you can die.” Qi Si looked at the Guide standing at the door and showed a smile that could be called gentle.

Bloody smoke steamed off his body, and crimson eyes opened behind him, outlining an ineffably long and slender silhouette. In this scene, he looked exactly like a deity.

47 bowed in prayer to the deity, but only Qi Si responded. Bloody threads restrained Zhang Yiyu’s limbs. She reached for the woman’s chest, and her bloody arm passed straight through it.

The Guide’s body disintegrated into color blocks inch by inch by the door, its existence erased thread by thread from the fundamental level.

A person without ancestors is no different from history without heritage; there is no way to prove its falsehood or truth.

A massive, blood-red card phantom smashed down onto him. The High Priest, cloaked in red with crimson eyes, stood amidst the blood and fire, nailing a pitch-black cross into the ground.

【Famine, Plague, War, Death—the prophecy of the apocalypse is fulfilled in disaster】

【Filth, Sores, Flesh, Ulcers—the terrifying Evil God breeds in suffering】

【O lost traveler, please look directly into my eyes and pray to The Great Scarlet One】

【He is the most terrifying Evil God in the world; He will not grant you salvation, but only end your suffering with a greater disaster】

【Congratulations on unlocking the Identity Card “Crimson High Priest”】

Qi Si leaned back against the wall, a smile that hadn’t reached his eyes, his tone sarcastic and playful: “Those who aid the wicked shall be consumed by fire; those who are tyrannical and cruel shall have claws pierce their hearts; those who distort and whitewash shall lose their very form.

“Evildoers should be prepared to endure curses and failure. Killing and self-interest are not shameful, but finding high-sounding reasons for them is utterly ridiculous…”

Only the Guide’s brown cheek remained, floating above the scattered color blocks on the ground, like a randomly scribbled oil painting, giving off a greasy, sticky texture.

She asked coldly, “What about you then? You possess deeper sins than I do. What right do you have to dispense justice?”

Hearing this, Qi Si burst into laughter, tears streaming down his face: “Justice? Do you think I’m dispensing justice for those idiots?

“I’m kicking someone when they’re down, bullying the weak, and kidnapping you from the moral high ground! Hahahaha!”