Chapter 277: Wraith (24) Ascending the Sharp Edge Alone

Lin Chen had never seen a tiger like this.

A two-story-tall behemoth walked slowly through the Bamboo Forest with its head held high; its rocky, well-defined musculature formed the shape of a tiger, but the fur on its surface grew wildly like needlepoints, shimmering with a divine golden light.

The patterns on its fur had faded under the polish of time, and multiple parts of its body were damaged, revealing the grim white bones beneath its flesh; yet, this didn’t diminish its majesty in the slightest, instead adding a touch of horror.

It walked toward the players step by step, and the originally dense Bamboo Forest receded to both sides, clearing a path wide enough for it to pass.

Even the mist shrank back into the corners, for fear of touching even a fraction of its body.

The hideous-looking Tiger Demon stopped in front of the players, slowly lowering its head—which was as wide as three men—to look down proudly at the four people below.

Atop its high cheekbones were two pools of green fire forming massive tiger eyes; the breath from its nostrils stirred the mountain wind, scraping against the players’ skin and bringing a faint, stinging pain.

It was no longer just a ferocious animal; it was more like a tool for executing divine punishment, or a natural disaster born from the wrath of nature.

The great power of the mountains and forests condensed into the most terrifying creature within them; an individual before it was like an ant trying to shake a tree—unable to resist, unable to move it.

At this moment, everyone truly understood the meaning of the words “Mountain God.”

Calling the Tiger Demon a Mountain God was not an honorific, but an objective description.

Dominating the entire forest beneath its feet, feasting on bones and flesh in its belly, and with thousands of dead souls steaming behind its back—such an existence dwelling in this small mountain was naturally a deity.

As soon as the players saw the Tiger Demon, they abandoned any thought of fighting it; the instinct to seek benefit and avoid harm told them that fleeing was the only option for survival.

“Run!” someone shouted. Someone quickly grabbed Lin Chen’s sleeve, turned, and sprinted back the way they came.

Lin Chen was pulled into a stumble; waking as if from a dream, he tried to run but found himself unable to move.

The person pulling him was Tang Yu. Seeing him not moving, Tang Yu shouted in frustration, “Run! What are you just standing there for? To feed the tiger?”

Lin Chen tried to lift his feet again, but still could not take action.

He looked up toward the sky and saw the blood-red phantom of a vine hanging down from high above, bypassing physical barriers to bury itself deep within his soul.

The intent to escape was devoured by an invisible object during the process of transmission, failing to translate into action after all.

What is this? Has some mechanism been triggered? No clues ever mentioned this… Lin Chen felt a chill in his heart, finding it difficult to organize his thoughts effectively.

He could only say to Tang Yu as calmly as possible, “Brother Tang, I probably can’t leave. Look above my head…”

“Crap! There’s nothing there!” Tang Yu cursed, no longer paying attention to Lin Chen, and took off running.

Ultimately, one’s life belongs to oneself; in a moment of crisis, no one is obligated to risk helping others.

Aside from being dragged a few meters by Tang Yu at the start, Lin Chen had not moved again.

As the tiger approached step by step, he instead calmed down and carefully examined the blood-red vines entangling him.

Their appearance was similar to the World Tree in the Ruins of the Sunset, they couldn’t be seen by Tang Yu, and their effect was similar to “Puppet Threads,” acting directly on the soul… Could it be… Lin Chen was startled by his own thought and widened his eyes to look in Qi Si’s direction.

The latter stood quietly in the depths of the white mist, dressed in red like a ghost; his blurred face and the silhouette of his figure were faint and flickering, like a dream that would dissipate with a single breath.

Such composure, such strategic planning—his nonchalant attitude was the best evidence.

Lin Chen reached a conclusion.

It was a Soul Contract… Qi Si had activated the Soul Contract’s effect to prevent him from leaving… Qi Si wanted him to die… But… why?

Countless bubbles of thought darted and burst in his mind; after the chaos, Lin Chen’s brain was left completely blank.

He suddenly remembered a saying he had heard before—

“If you encounter a bear in the forest, you only need to make sure you run faster than your teammate.”

So, did Qi Si want him to be a scapegoat?

“Brother Qi…”

Lin Chen called out in his heart, but ultimately did not continue.

The words Qi Si had spoken echoed in his ears: ‘You cannot trust anyone, including me.’

So that’s what those words meant? But what was true and what was false?

Lin Chen was unwilling to believe that the young man who had patiently analyzed clues for him in the Rose Manor and lent him weapon-type items would intentionally take his life.

But the facts were right before him. Had Qi Si changed over the course of the dungeons, or had he never known the real Qi Si?

Lin Chen suddenly laughed, a very self-deprecating smile.

After all, his life was given to him by Qi Si; there was nothing to be dissatisfied about in returning it now.

It was just a pity that he ultimately wouldn’t be able to care for his parents in their old age.

There were still some points left in his account; he wondered if he could exchange them for something to leave for his parents in his final moments.

But forget it; getting involved with the Eerie Game would never end well.

In the last half-hour of his life, it was too late to rush home. He would call his parents first, then find a place where he wouldn’t affect anyone and die quietly… Lin Chen considered his final affairs in a second and closed his eyes with a bitter smile.

The stench from the tiger’s mouth washed over him; a sharp pain, as if his spiritual body were being torn apart, crossed his neck—his head had likely been bitten off by the tiger in one go.

Lin Chen kept his eyes closed, waiting for final death to arrive.

A light-gray system interface quietly materialized in the darkness; drops of blood, large and small, seeped from the edges, wriggling to converge in one place.

【Your faction has changed】

Silver-white prompt text slowly appeared, and the blood droplets condensed into an exquisitely carved card, hanging in the upper right corner of his vision.

On the card, a skeleton in floor-length blood-red robes grinned hideously at Lin Chen, the two pools of green fire in its eyes dancing with a mocking light.

【Your identity: Wraith】

【Identity Effect: When you are in a room alone with a single person and the distance is no more than three meters, you may choose to kill them;】

【In any location, you may kill someone by directly touching their shoulder;】

【You must kill one person every day, otherwise your soul will dissipate and turn into Nothingness;】

【If you kill another ‘Wraith’ by mistake, you will be obliterated by the Mountain God.】

Silver fragments spilled from beneath the line where the main quest was originally written, reorganizing into new words within two seconds:

【main quest has been updated】

【main quest: Eliminate all humans among the players】

Lin Chen opened his eyes and saw that the tiger and the blood-red vines had both disappeared; only a ground full of fragmented white bones and bloody remains was left in the Bamboo Forest.

What happened? He didn’t die?

No, he was already dead; he had just become a Wraith and could continue participating in the game.

Moreover, in addition to the original main quest to kill the tiger, he now had an additional quest to eliminate humans… Bamboo leaves rustled and fell, a few landing lightly on Lin Chen’s shoulder.

Lin Chen squatted on the ground, drained of strength, staring blankly at a spot ahead.

Qi Si walked silently to his side, bent down slightly, and brushed the bamboo leaf from his shoulder. “What are you afraid of? I said I would definitely let you live.”

Seeing that Lin Chen didn’t respond, he sighed and said in a joking tone, “Look, you didn’t trust me again this time.”

Lin Chen looked up at the young man in red; the latter seemed completely unaware of how atrocious his behavior was and said matter-of-factly, “Now that we are both Wraiths, I can tell you the rest of the plan.

“But looking at your state, you probably aren’t in the mood to think. We’ll talk after you’ve calmed down.”

No emotion, no pity—it was as if he were just precisely executing a set plan, and everyone was merely a piece to be calculated.

Lin Chen felt an inexplicable sense of alarm, as if he were caught between the teeth of a non-human creature; he felt chilled to the bone.

He still held onto a bit of fantasy and said haltingly, “Brother Qi, were you turned into a Wraith later? I remember we deduced yesterday that Qiu Xin was a Wraith, and the side quest to find the Wraith was completed…”

“That…” Qi Si smiled with curved eyes. “Do you remember when I patted your shoulder back then?”

“I remember. You said there was a leaf on my shoulder.”

“Yes. At that moment, your soul was startled, and a flash of suspicion toward me crossed your mind, which happened to be captured by the Eerie Game. Thus, the side quest was judged as complete,” Qi Si said with a smile. “As for that bamboo leaf, I had picked it up earlier in the forest; thanks to its barrier, that pat of mine didn’t kill you.”

Lin Chen squatted with his arms around his knees, speechless for a long time.

He suddenly realized that Qi Si had been laying out the board from the very beginning, including going out last night and Qiu Xin’s return this morning—all were parts of the plan.

He was the one in the game, reasoning blindly while lacking information, his train of thought led by a few words.

Qi Si had probably planned long ago to gather the players in front of the tiger’s den to turn him into a Wraith… “Why?” Lin Chen clenched his fists and asked in a murmur.

Why didn’t he discuss it at all from beginning to end, but instead used such radical means to turn him into a Wraith? Why plot against him like this?

“The reason… you should have seen the main quest by now, right?” Qi Si stroked his chin and explained patiently. “The Wraith faction’s quest is to eliminate all humans among the players. I think transforming humans into Wraiths should also count as ‘elimination.’

“Next is a classic game theory problem: everyone must choose between red and blue. If more than half the people choose blue, then everyone lives; if fewer than half choose blue, then those who chose red live, and those who chose blue die.

“Many people think this is testing one’s values, but it’s not. As long as everyone is a rational person, the outcome will inevitably lead to everyone surviving—do you understand?”

Lin Chen wasn’t stupid and understood the logic in a second. “As long as everyone chooses red, everyone lives. Correspondingly, as long as everyone becomes a Wraith, everyone can survive…”

He was silent for two seconds and asked hoarsely, “But Brother Qi, why didn’t you tell us sooner? This plan is clearly beneficial to all of us. If you had said it directly, we definitely would have cooperated…”

Hearing this, Qi Si’s smile grew a bit colder. “I remember telling you on the first day that I don’t trust you, and I don’t trust anyone.

“The ‘Wraith’ faction is on the opposite side of the entire Yanghua Town, and the margin for error is extremely low. Once the townspeople learn our identities, even I can’t guarantee a safe escape.

“I also said on the second day that I suspect those invisible and intangible Nothingness aren’t as they claim to be—unable to see or hear our actions and words. I didn’t dare risk revealing my identity and then having them report us.

“To take it a step further, even if the information wouldn’t leak, I couldn’t be sure everyone would agree with my plan. For players in the ‘human’ faction, no one can guarantee that dying once will turn them into a Wraith instead of just dissipating. Since they can wait and see, who would be willing to gamble?

“Considering these points, if I had announced the plan publicly, I would likely have been caught by the townspeople the next second. So, I had to do it myself.”

These words were not without merit; rationally, they did align with the group’s interests, but emotionally, Lin Chen still found it hard to accept.

Was it because he felt he wasn’t trusted, so he felt sad?

Or was it because he found Qi Si wasn’t as wonderful as he had imagined, and thus felt disillusioned?

Lin Chen couldn’t figure it out.

He was silent for a while, then asked in a low voice, “So, Brother Qi wanted me to risk becoming a Wraith, right?”

Reason told him the result was good, and one couldn’t afford to be too sentimental in a dungeon; but he was uncontrollably overwhelmed by a strong sense of weariness and exhaustion… “What are you thinking?”

In the long silence, Qi Si grabbed Lin Chen’s hand and pulled him up from the ground without allowing for any argument.

“I wasn’t letting you take a risk. If something went wrong with you, I would have activated the time-reversal effect of the Pocket Watch of Fate. You wouldn’t have truly died.”

The young man in red paused for a second here and smiled. “I was afraid that if Tang Yu were in your position, I wouldn’t be willing to spend an item to save him and would let him die. That would undoubtedly be very uneconomical, wouldn’t it?”

A very poorly timed joke, fitting the characteristics of dark humor.

Lin Chen didn’t laugh and asked, “If it turned out that humans couldn’t be transformed into Wraiths and we were in different factions, would you have killed me?”

Qi Si shook his head and then nodded. “If I still had hope of winning, I would do my best to survive. If I were destined to lose, then I would hope you could survive.

“In any case, after clearing the Final Dungeon, maybe one can wish for everyone who died to be resurrected—that’s how the Jiuzhou Guild promotes it, isn’t it?”

He threw out a sarcastic remark, no longer paying attention to Lin Chen, and walked toward the edge of the Bamboo Forest, stepping over the messy footprints.

Lin Chen was dazed for two seconds, then also realized that in the dungeons of the Eerie Game, too much agonizing only causes internal friction.

Staying alive is the priority; does the process really matter?

After all, his life was saved by Qi Si; even if Qi Si really wanted him to die, he had nothing to complain about.

Moreover, even though they were in different factions, Qi Si didn’t plan to take his life but instead tried his best to find a way to change his faction; he had already done everything he could… Lin Chen forced himself to be convinced, quickly catching up to Qi Si and staying half a step behind.

He followed for a while, opened his mouth to say something, but ultimately didn’t make a sound.

Hearing the approaching footsteps, Qi Si knew that Lin Chen hadn’t truly resolved his inner conflict; he had just temporarily put aside his grudge for the sake of the dungeon’s overall situation, deceiving himself.

He remained unfazed, raising his hand to push aside the bamboo leaves on both sides as he continued forward step by step.

After a few more steps, the path ahead opened up.

A Scholar in green stood outside the Bamboo Forest, acting as an anchor and a landmark.

Tang Yu was being held by the neck by Qiu Xin, standing next to the Scholar with a face full of despair.

—This was also part of the plan, and Qiu Xin had executed it perfectly.

Qi Si walked over with a smile and casually patted the Scholar’s shoulder.

With a “thud,” the Scholar fell, leaving behind a sallow Scarecrow.

Qi Si lowered his hand and turned to Tang Yu, grinning with a row of white teeth. “Now, you are the only ‘human’ here.”