Chapter 248: Ascending the Ruins

In the Eerie Investigation Bureau, on the fifth underground floor, Ning Xu pulled open the door to the Isolation Room and saw Chang Xu squatting in a corner, holding a Rubik’s Cube in both hands, but not twisting it. He seemed to be lost in thought.

She walked over, patted Chang Xu’s shoulder, and smiled, “Little Chang, it’s alright now. With Fu Jue vouching for you, those old geezers in the Federation wouldn’t dare do anything to you. Congratulations on being acquitted!”

Chang Xu snapped back to reality and looked up at her, “Sister Ning Xu, do you think I’m a monster or a human?”

Ning Xu was startled, then laughed heartily, “Little Chang, being cooped up here, you’ve become a philosopher. What does it matter if you’re a monster or a human?”

She pulled out her phone, opened the post about the Frog Hospital instance, and handed it to Chang Xu, “Humans kill humans, humans harm humans. In the Eerie Game, there’s plenty of infighting among our own kind. Sometimes humans are even less kind than monsters.”

Chang Xu took the phone and read through the post, his gaze lingering on the keywords “Contract” and “Lin Chen.” The data Fu Jue had shown him involuntarily surfaced in his mind.

The Eerie Investigation Bureau headquarters had paid attention to Qi Si much earlier than he did. A series of real-world family annihilations, indiscriminate serial killings, the eerie incidents in Qijia Village… The evidence was conclusive and irrefutable.

But at the time, Chang Xu didn’t believe Fu Jue, or rather, he was unwilling to believe. After finally deciding to go against his intuition and accept some things, he was told that choice was wrong. What an absurd joke was that?

But now, he had no choice but to believe. Because, the skill was unique.

Scenes flashed through his memory: the young man in Rose Manor sighing, “I’ll go verify my idea first”; feeling sad in the Hopeless Sea instance because of a misunderstanding; meeting again in Red Maple Boarding School, where that person smiled and made the same choice as him.

He had thought they were the same kind of people, had thought they would be companions or even friends, had thought all the suspicious points were misunderstandings, and that the other person had placed immense trust in him… The truth was—he had been deceived again, deceived from beginning to end, and the person who deceived him was still at large, harming more and more people.

Chang Xu said coldly, “Contract is Qi Si’s exclusive skill. Cheng An is Qi Si. Lin Chen and I met Qi Si in the Rose Manor instance, and Qi Si and Lin Chen established a cooperative relationship back then…”

“Don’t overthink it, I’ll report the situation,” Ning Xu interrupted him with a smile. “What you need to do next is rest well, and then clear a few more instances. As for those messy interpersonal relationships, Old Liao, Director Mu, and I will handle them.”

Chang Xu hummed in response, looking down at the darkness beneath his feet, feeling a chill run down his spine, yet Fu Jue’s voice inexplicably echoed in his ears.

That day, Fu Jue squatted down, placed the 【Dark Judge】 Identity Card into his hand, and calmly told him, “Chang Xu, if you want to be human, then do your best to judge those monsters and kill them…”

…Eerie Game, Ruins of the Sunset.

The golden World Tree towered into the clouds, standing as the most prominent landmark in front of the black high tower, with an boundless plaza extending in all directions beneath the tree.

All players, upon pushing open the door to the Game Space, would by default appear beneath the World Tree.

The term “beneath the tree” actually meant an area of infinite meters squared, with the World Tree’s main trunk as the center and infinity as the radius.

If there were few people beneath the tree, players would spawn closer to the main trunk; if there were many people… like now, Qi Si sat on a protruding gnarled root in the plaza, the ranking stele appearing the size of an eraser from his perspective, at least fifty meters away by estimation.

Calculating at a unit of one person per two square meters, the number of people gathered in the Ruins of the Sunset today exceeded a thousand.

Qi Si had just observed Liu Yuhan through the Sea-God Scepter, and after discovering that she seemed to be connected to the Scales, he sent a few messages, scaring her thoroughly. At this moment, his spirit still carried the hazy and weary feeling of being startled awake from a deep dream.

He gazed blankly at the void ahead, exuding an air of drowsiness.

The sea of people separated him from the ranking stele, and the flow of people bypassed him, heading towards the black tower. Thus, although there were many people around him, he didn’t feel crowded or noisy.

He just happened to use the dense crowd and scent of sweat to force himself to become clear-headed from his daze.

The Ruins of the Sunset had been destroyed once twenty-two years ago. Except for the black high tower and the World Tree, the entire scene had been swept by blood and fire. What was seen today was the rebuilt version.

Amidst vast stretches of broken walls and ruins, a small European-style town rose, serving as a place for players to briefly stop and meet; beyond that was an endless expanse of desolation and ruins.

Qi Si lowered his eyes, staring at the cracked giant floor tiles, and reached out to pick up a rhomboid shard of stone. Even through his gloves, he could feel its rough surface.

He dropped the shard and poked the edge of a crack with his index finger. A golden root emerged from the crevice, gently pushing his finger away.

This world clearly didn’t belong only to players. The eerie giant tree seemed to have stood here since the dawn of time, and its various detailed arrangements never considered universal human aesthetics.

There were too many useless plots of land, and individual floor tiles were larger than walls, making it easy to imagine how magnificent the creatures that once lived here must have been.

The creations as far as the eye could see were ancient and old, their history far predating the thirty-six years since the Eerie Game appeared, yet no remnants from the past were left behind.

Facing ancient beings with limited lifespans, thoughts inevitably scattered wildly with the trembling of the soul.

What was the Ruins of the Sunset like before its destruction? And even further back, to whom did the territory of the Ruins of the Sunset belong?

What exactly happened twenty-two years ago to cause such a massive architectural complex to be destroyed in an instant?

“Twilight of the Gods.”

A whisper drifted by his ear.

In the upper right corner of his vision, the red-robed High Priest curved his lips and bowed slightly, the cross in his hand seeming to pierce his heart for an instant, then withdrawing, like an illusion.

Qi Si saw a streak of blood red seep from his cuff, growing like a plant for a while before stagnating, like a deliberately dyed pattern on a water sleeve.

Many more people gathered in the plaza, and the clamor of discussions rose like a tide in his ears.

“That tower hasn’t had any activity for many years. Yesterday, for some reason, a door suddenly opened for a while, then closed again after half a minute.”

“Do you think something came out of the tower? It looked panicked. Will the Ruins of the Sunset also start having ghosts everywhere now?”

“What could be in the tower? Don’t scare yourselves. Anyway, Fu Jue will be here soon, let’s see what he says.”

“I bet he doesn’t know either. He comes to see this tower every year, and I’ve never seen him figure anything out.”

“Don’t mention it, I’m actually quite excited. I’ve only seen Fu Jue in livestreams before, but I’ll get to see him in person soon…”

Qi Si listened silently for a while and roughly understood a few points:

First, the popular Fu Jue appears in the Ruins of the Sunset every year on April 12th in the afternoon, standing in front of the black high tower for a while, for unknown reasons.

Second, no one knows what the black tower in the Ruins of the Sunset is for, whether there’s anything inside, or if there is, what exactly it is.

Third, the black tower’s door opened for a while yesterday, and most of the players currently in the Ruins of the Sunset are fearlessly here to investigate the situation.

Qi Si stood up, casually grabbed a player’s sleeve, and smiled politely, “I heard you talking about abnormal activity at the black tower. Can you tell me what happened?”

The player looked at him in confusion, “Didn’t you check the game forum? It’s the top trending post.”

Qi Si raised an eyebrow, “Forum? Is that the one called ‘Eerie Game Research Society’?”

“Yeah… Oh, are you not Level 2 yet? Some posts can only be viewed at Level 2.”

…Never mind then.

Qi Si, who still hadn’t registered an account on the forum, maintained a friendly smile, “I see. It seems I’ll have to spam some posts when I get back.”

“Actually, you don’t need to post anything specific. Just join in on cursing Sera, copy and paste the Jiuzhou tenets, post a hundred times, and you’ll reach Level 2…”

His words abruptly stopped. The player who was enthusiastically offering advice a second ago suddenly fell silent, his eyes shining as he looked behind Qi Si.

“God Fu! It’s God Fu! The living God Fu!”

“Fu Jue is here, everyone make way, don’t block the path.”

“God Fu came with the Tingfeng people this time, does that mean he’s joining Tingfeng?”

The crowd was boisterous, various screams and roars mixed together, like geese about to be slaughtered in a wet market.

Qi Si’s head buzzed and throbbed, and the veins on his forehead involuntarily pulsed.

He turned to look in the direction the players were gazing.

He saw a group of people appearing in the outermost circle of the crowd amidst a flurry of golden leaf phantoms, forming a team.

The person leading them looked to be in his early thirties, dressed in a neat suit, with a chiseled face and rimless glasses. His black hair was meticulously combed, giving him the appearance of an elite and an air of aloofness.

Qi Si had been bombarded with forum text junk for the past month, so even though it was his first time seeing the person in real life, he easily matched him to the name—

Fu Jue.

The name that topped the comprehensive strength rankings, the so-called “savior” pushed into the spotlight by his followers, said to be the player most suited for the Eerie Game.

Fu Jue stood rigidly in the open space, his emotionless eyes gazing calmly forward, like a precise machine set to a specific operating procedure, unswayed by any external interference.

Golden leaves were pressed down to the ground by branches, and figures emerged from them, successively following behind Fu Jue.

The dozen or so people wore different clothes, but their expressions were all serious and grave. Judging by the surrounding discussions, they were all players from the Tingfeng Guild.

Qi Si saw a familiar face among them.

Wearing flat-rimmed glasses and a white coat, it was Shuomeng, whom he had met in the Red Maple Boarding School instance.

Shuomeng subtly shifted his gaze and also saw Qi Si in the crowd, giving a stiff nod in acknowledgment.

Qi Si smiled at him, his left hand subtly reaching into his right sleeve, touching the Cursed Pendulum hidden deep within.

Except for some items with usage limits in a single instance, most items could be used in the Ruins of the Sunset.

However, unlike instances, damage sustained in the Ruins of the Sunset would carry over into reality and was difficult to heal through real-world medical means.

Therefore, the major guilds made a pact years ago, prohibiting players from using items to fight in the Ruins of the Sunset. Violators would be hunted by all guilds.

It’s worth mentioning that Sera and the Balance Guild also agreed to this pact. It was a joyous occasion that the hostile parties, normally at odds, reached a consensus on a certain clause for the first time.

Qi Si caressed the Cursed Pendulum for a while, using the cool touch of the pendulum to soothe the vague unease and irritation in his heart.

Of course, he wouldn’t make a move against someone in broad daylight, even a sneak attack. With so many eyes watching, the success rate wouldn’t be high.

He just suddenly had a strange feeling, as if someone he knew was nearby, not Shuomeng… Who could it be?

“Boss Fu Jue! Thank you for saving me in the ‘Ancient Cult’ instance!”

“Fu Jue, do you think we still have hope of clearing the Final Dungeon?”

“God Fu, look here! We always believe in you, and we’ll always support you!”

From the moment Fu Jue appeared, the crowd shifted its flow, gathering within a meter of him in just a few seconds.

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to get closer, but the Tingfeng members had taken out an umbrella-like item, creating an isolating barrier around their group.

People cheered and screamed. Regardless of their past stance—support, opposition, or indifference—they all displayed the same fervent enthusiasm.

Humans are social creatures, and their thoughts can be swayed by group consensus. When a voice grows so powerful that it forms a torrent, all dissenting noises will uncontrollably resonate with it, be infected, be incited, and eventually be polished into the same tone.

Amidst the enthusiastic cheers, Fu Jue and the others walked towards the black high tower, their steps calm and steady, as if completely oblivious to the players gathered nearby.

The sea of people was split by the barrier, then closed up behind the group. The bobbing heads rose and fell, bringing to mind ships sailing on the sea.

Qi Si glanced twice more, then stopped lingering and walked in the opposite direction, away from the crowd.

Suddenly, he felt a substantial gaze fall upon his back, a gaze so familiar it felt as if it had been cast upon him many times before.

He turned his head sharply, but the gaze vanished, and there was nothing in the sea of people.

Everyone was eagerly rushing towards the black tower, and the area around him gradually became sparse.

In a grand carnival, no one would notice who quietly left, especially since a certain person’s presence had always been very low.

Qi Si unconsciously walked to the edge of the plaza, standing on the jagged, steep cliff. Looking down, he could see an even larger cluster of ruins.

A blood-red sun hung lonely and distant over the tombstone-shaped collapsed rooftops, its afterglow painting the entire sky orange-yellow.

On the Identity Card, the red-robed High Priest had, at some unknown point, plunged his cross into the ground and was leaning back against it, relaxed and at ease, his crimson eyes slightly lowered, observing Qi Si below.

Qi Si tilted his head: “I remember, the Ruins of the Sunset seems to refresh hidden quests…”

The red ring on his right middle finger suddenly vibrated, interrupting him.

Lin Chen’s voice echoed in the back of his mind: “Brother Qi, I’ve arrived at the Ruins of the Sunset. Why are there so many people today?”

Qi Si gathered his scattered thoughts and said with a gentle smile, “Lin Chen, in the small town next to the plaza, there’s a restaurant called ‘Old Zheng’s Stir-Fries’…”

…From the moment Lin Chen received Qi Si’s call until now, he couldn’t tell if he was excited or nervous, but he hadn’t closed his eyes for twenty-four hours, and two heavy dark circles had appeared under them.

He had naturally seen the ‘calling out’ post on the forum. It sounded so convincing, definitively labeling him and Qi Si as Slaughter-path players.

Huang Xiaofei was clearly the one who had used her influence first, yet the post only mentioned Qi Si’s scheme to kill her.

Lu Zimo and Sun Dekuan had clearly colluded while Qi Si was in trouble, yet the post claimed Qi Si had backstabbed his allies.

If he hadn’t known the truth, he might have believed those accusations… Lin Chen had wanted to post a clarification, but at the last minute, he remembered that he had live-streamed before and revealed his real name, so he could only give up.

He knew that public opinion was hard to control, and rashly getting involved would only make things escalate further and become unmanageable.

It was better to wait ten days to half a month, let the topic naturally cool down, and let the netizens, whose memory was already poor, be attracted by other things.

Lost in thought, Lin Chen arrived at the agreed location and entered the reserved private room.

The dining table was laden with an abundance of delicious dishes: Longjing Shrimp, Squirrel-shaped Mandarin Fish, and Cold-Dressed Malantou, a dazzling array.

Qi Si, dressed in a white shirt stained with blood, sat in a chair.

As soon as Lin Chen entered, he gave an apologetic wry smile: “You must have seen that post on the forum, right? I’ve dragged you into this. You’ll probably have to live incognito like me from now on.”

Lin Chen sat down in a chair, shaking his head repeatedly: “It’s fine, Brother Qi, no one could have predicted this. If it weren’t for you, I would have died in the instance long ago.”

Qi Si picked up a piece of shrimp with his chopsticks and put it into his bowl, then said, “You need to be extra careful recently. There’s been unusual activity at the black tower in the Ruins of the Sunset. It had been closed for decades, but it suddenly opened for half a minute yesterday.

“If you have nothing to do, you can spend more time on the forum. You need to reply a hundred times to reach level two and see more core information.”

“Thank you for the reminder, Brother Qi!” Lin Chen held his chopsticks and somewhat awkwardly scooped a mouthful of rice. “What exactly is in that tower? Why did it open yesterday?”

“I don’t know, no one knows.” Qi Si swallowed the shrimp. “Fu Jue comes to the Ruins of the Sunset every April 12th to monitor the black tower’s movements, but he still hasn’t given a definitive answer.

“Oh, right, you asked why there are so many people today… Well, they’re here to see Fu Jue.”

Qi Si’s tone when he said “see Fu Jue” was as casual as saying “see monkeys,” and Lin Chen couldn’t help but chuckle.

Honestly, after eight instances, Qi Si’s sense of humor had improved somewhat.

The atmosphere eased a bit, and Lin Chen felt less nervous, so he began to ramble about what had happened since their parting at Rose Manor.

Qi Si listened with downcast eyes, continuously putting food into his own bowl, mechanically stuffing food into his mouth at a steady, unchanging pace.

After the meal had progressed, Lin Chen seemed to suddenly remember something. He hastily rummaged through his pocket, pulled out a blade, and handed it to Qi Si.

“Brother Qi, this knife has been with me all this time, I haven’t had a chance to return it to you…”

“It’s for you.” Qi Si put down his chopsticks, lifted his eyelids to look at him. “Consider it a welcome gift.”

“Ah?… Oh, thank you, Brother Qi!” Lin Chen put the blade back into his pocket.

With just the two of them in the room, having a knife on the dining table would look strange.

Qi Si watched Lin Chen’s actions and suddenly asked, “Lin Chen, you haven’t joined a guild yet, have you?”

“Not yet,” Lin Chen replied, then said with some hesitation, “I originally thought about joining Kyushu, but…”

He didn’t continue.

What could he say? That after a instance, he had doubts about Kyushu’s philosophy?

That was too vague and sounded self-important… Qi Si saw Lin Chen’s hesitation and said lightly, “If you don’t mind the guild ranking, you can join my guild.”

Lin Chen’s eyes widened: “Eh? Brother Qi, you already have a guild?”

In his impression, the young man was a loner at heart and didn’t seem like someone who would form groups… “Not yet,” Qi Si replied truthfully, “I’ve looked into it, you only need ten thousand points to register a guild. We can go register together later.”

“T-together?” Lin Chen’s eyes widened even further.

Although registering a guild only required ten thousand points, most players wouldn’t choose to establish a new guild because of the many hidden management costs that would arise later, which could truly be called a bottomless pit.

Not only that, guilds, regardless of size, unless they were like Sera or Balance, had to act according to the conventions established by veteran guilds, including but not limited to contributing personnel and funds to participate in handling group incidents and sudden crises.

The convention had no “newbie protection.” Regardless of whether a guild was new or old, if something happened, they bore equal responsibility and faced tasks of the same difficulty.

Newly established small guilds had limited capabilities. If they couldn’t handle things properly, being sanctioned and fined by the convention was minor. If they caused a huge mess and severe consequences, everyone would have the right to punish them.

Since Qi Si claimed to have looked into it, he must have thoroughly researched all these intricacies and thought of countermeasures.

Establishing a guild certainly had many difficulties, but as long as they survived the most challenging initial period, they could sit at the negotiating table to divide profits, and even… exploit other players using established organizational rules.

Lin Chen believed that with Qi Si’s ability, establishing a guild would definitely be aimed at growth and strength, and there was a high probability of achieving good results.

Saying he wanted to register the guild “together” was equivalent to giving him half control of the guild, which, under such a premise, was completely letting him gain an advantage for free… “Yes, together.” Qi Si made the arrangement in an unquestionable tone, “Each of us will contribute five thousand, you’ll be the guild leader, and I’ll be the vice-guild leader.”

He picked up his chopsticks again, his voice still calm as water: “Hurry up and eat, don’t waste our remaining time here.”