Chapter 301 Colosseum (IX) “Humans, sometimes they are exactly like Gods”

“Do you think we are Gods? I want to ask, why do you think so?” Chu Xun adjusted his glasses and asked the Ratmen.

The snakes and rats filling the room said in unison: “The Gods we have seen and dreamed of look exactly like you. In our dreams, the Gods told us that the newly chosen God will fulfill our desires.”

Fan Zhanwei spoke in an even tone: “Question one, what is your definition of a God? Please describe it on both an abstract and concrete level. Question two, what is the process and method for selecting a God? Please tell me the source of this information.”

“A God is naturally a God, a great existence capable of satisfying all our desires. Only they can save us.” The Ratmen’s voices overlapped, creating a surging echo. “The God told us in our dreams that the winner of the Colosseum Game will achieve apotheosis at the Feast of Death.”

Dong Xiwen narrowed his eyes and mumbled a complaint: “Since you all say you dreamed it, I guess I have no choice but to believe it then…”

The girl named Qin Mu held the Cat-Face Mask, waving at the Ratmen: “You can come closer, we won’t eat you… By the way, since you all dreamed of a God, why don’t you just ask the God you dreamed of to save you?”

The Ratmen simultaneously raised their claws to cover their faces, saying painfully: “The Old God has no desires and no longer needs ours. It abandoned us, only telling us, ‘Use your desires to forge a divine statue for the new God, and all that you wish for and seek can be realized.'”

The red poisonous snakes filling the room writhed frantically, like water weeds being washed back and forth by the current at the bottom of a lake, waving without rhythm, as if recalling a sad past and searching for an outlet for their emotions.

Liu Yuhan asked: “What is your desire? How can we save you?”

“Blood! We need the blood of a God! As long as we bathe in a God’s blood, the curse can be lifted…”

The rat heads opened their snouts, revealing sharp, white teeth stained with blood and flesh. From certain angles, one could even see large patches of lesions in their throats, red and white, like a brick wall where the plaster had peeled off.

The pungent smell of lime permeated the room. The snake multitude writhed, forming dense waves, flying toward Qi Si and Nian Fu. Every snake opened its mouth wide, sharp venomous fangs reflecting cold light, seemingly desperate to cut the players and seize their blood.

“Give us some blood, just a little… we’re in so much pain, please save us…”

“Just die, it’s better if you die, then no one will suffer…”

The chaotic shouts emanated undisguised malice; the overwhelming tide of snakes seemed poised to devour the players.

Nian Fu continuously cracked her whip, sending out streak after streak of sparks, barely managing to keep the snake horde at bay.

She turned her head and saw Qi Si standing half-dead, a blood-colored pendulum circling listlessly around him, looking completely unmotivated.

“Qi Si, although I’m a combat-oriented player, I might not be able to cover you right now…” Nian Fu gritted her teeth.

“I don’t have any other weapon-type items,” Qi Si said honestly. “And I think the Sphinx was right. I have no desires, so life and death make no difference to me.”

Nian Fu’s whipping motion paused, almost letting the snakes break through the defense line and surge forward: “I spent 1,400 points to team up with you, offending almost everyone in the process. How dare you have this attitude now?”

Qi Si looked down at a spot close to the floor, stroking his chin with composure: “When you invest, you must be prepared to lose everything. I’m about to die, so what does your profit or loss have to do with me?”

He spoke with a completely matter-of-fact tone, as if he genuinely believed this, having already formed a self-consistent logic.

Nian Fu was stunned.

She suddenly realized that she didn’t actually know Qi Si. She had merely extrapolated based on common sense that he, like most people, would resist death and want to survive.

Not only her, but “that person” felt the same way, which was why he instructed her to offer aid in exchange for Qi Si’s complete assistance.

But what if Qi Si wasn’t normal, but a lunatic who might suddenly snap and kill her?

She had only inferred Qi Si’s strength from Chang Xu’s relentless attempts to deal with him, but no one ever stipulated that the strong couldn’t be mentally ill… Nian Fu felt the hope in her heart cool, replaced mostly by worry and regret.

—If Qi Si really died, what would she do, isolated and helpless? Would she really have to let “that person” pull her out again, like six years ago?

“Just as I thought.” Qi Si suddenly sneered, pulling the Sea-God Scepter from his inventory and grasping it in his right hand.

【Name: Sea-God Scepter】

【Type: Item】

【Effect: Grants you the ability to impersonate a God. (The more sin absorbed, the stronger the effect)】

【Note: As the first piece to fall off the board in the Gods Gamble, the existence of the Sea God was annihilated in the past, and its scattered authority was divided among the victors.】

After the baptism of the Frog Hospital instance, the Sea-God Scepter had evolved from its initial charlatan style of “looking more like a God” to an effect that allowed the player to actively impersonate a deity, substantially possessing much of a God’s authority—though most of it could only be used in the Game Space.

The pure white Scepter, having absorbed sufficient sin, was covered in black patterns. Golden vine phantoms surrounded Qi Si, flowing and flickering with faint, shimmering light.

A black cross hung high above his head, vibrating slightly in the alternating light and shadow. The figure of the red-clad youth was enveloped by colors, his outline blurred, appearing both sacred and sublime.

The Ratmen were already convinced, almost unilaterally, that the players were Gods, and Qi Si, as a player, now presented a Scepter belonging to a God.

A milky white radiance enveloped him like a sculptor’s shell. He had no wings, his features weren’t gentle enough, and his gaze wasn’t compassionate enough, yet in the eyes of the Ratmen, he was a true God.

After all, if not him, then who could be a God?

The Ratmen felt awe and wanted to retreat, but that timidity was quickly replaced by a stronger, irrational craving.

They wanted to pierce the God’s flesh and suck the blood inside to fill the chasm of their desire.

They… wanted to eat the God.

“You want our blood, is that right?” Qi Si lowered his wrist slightly, tilting the Scepter forward. His half-lidded eyes looked down indifferently at the shrinking, approaching snake horde, as if he were truly a deity who had suddenly descended to satisfy the desires of the world.

The Ratmen chorused “Yes.” Realizing that Qi Si might actually be willing to satisfy them, their aggressive posture retracted repeatedly, and they reverted to their initial humble appearance, begging for grace.

The High Priest and the Arbiter in red confronted each other in another dimension; the Crimson High Priest card was left with only an empty altar. Now, a Ratman’s face suddenly appeared among the crowded people beneath the altar, looking up with intense longing.

The faith generated by the monsters spurred crimson leaves deep within the Hall of Thought. Qi Si curved his eyes, smiling as he said, “Alright.”

Alarm bells rang in Nian Fu’s heart.

Although the snakes had stopped attacking, she didn’t relax. Instead, she thought of a worse possibility—

Could Qi Si truly not want to live, intending to sacrifice himself to feed the rats and die here?

As she hesitated, she felt a sharp pain in her arm.

Qi Si had pulled out a razor blade from somewhere, unexpectedly slashing her right forearm, leaving a shallow streak of blood.

“Shit!” Nian Fu cursed instinctively. Her first reaction was that Qi Si, this sociopath, was trying to drag someone down with him before he died.

She whipped the iron chain around Qi Si’s neck and yanked backward.

Qi Si didn’t struggle at all. He just focused on the wound on her arm, staring intently and earnestly, as if it were some strange and beautiful work of art.

Blood slowly seeped out of the cut. A single drop slid down the smooth arm and fell to the ground, seeping into the stone, like the final touch of color added to a painting.

All the Ratmen’s eyes were fixed on the blood drop, greedy and drooling.

Their long-suppressed desire had been stirred up the moment they saw the players, built up step by step with the development of the situation and the appearance of the Scepter, reaching its peak now.

They thought, just to touch it, and if possible, quietly drink a sip… Nian Fu was astonished to find that the Ratmen’s movements slowed down. A strange white substance began to spread outwards from various parts of their bodies, quickly enveloping all areas, including their rat heads and snake bodies.

It wasn’t the texture of rotting flesh, ulcers, or festering sores, but something rougher, similar to marble ash.

In just a few seconds, the Ratmen were completely covered in grey-white lime. The lime solidified on their surfaces into a hard shell.

They stopped moving, frozen in twisted postures and grotesque appearances, like stone sculptures created by an artist, occupying most corners of the room.

“What’s going on? Is this related to my blood?” Nian Fu could sense a connection between the two, but that was all.

She had no idea about the underlying principle or logic, so she could only ask Qi Si, who was clearly the instigator.

Nian Fu had been choking Qi Si with the iron whip for a while, leaving a necklace-like blue indentation where the force was applied.

He wasn’t breathing, and he said weakly, “Can you let go of me first?”

Nian Fu awkwardly withdrew the whip.

Qi Si was disappointed to find that after the Ratmen turned to stone, the crimson leaves corresponding to their faith in the Hall of Thought also quickly withered. The previously flourishing vines reverted to the state of a single leaf hanging high.

However, he wasn’t too disappointed; after all, faith disappears when people die—it was perfectly reasonable.

The youth in the red suit casually rubbed away the burn marks left where their skin had touched, sat down on the straw bed, and patiently explained: “I saw white lime in the Ratmen’s mouths, as if some of their flesh had been replaced by stone.

“Then I noticed that the same change was happening to your ankle, but nothing was happening to me. I thought the biggest difference between me and you all might be that I have no desires.”

Nian Fu instinctively lowered her head to look at her ankle. Sure enough, large patches of lime had covered it at some point, looking as if they had been scraped off a faded wall.

She reached out and pressed it. The texture was hard, like real marble, replacing her ankle.

Even more terrifyingly, the grey-white patches were slowly spreading nearby, like they were consuming her flesh inch by inch.

Nian Fu maintained her composure to avoid showing weakness in front of her teammate.

Qi Si didn’t even look at her and continued: “Regarding people turning into stone, I thought of the story of Medusa. Everyone who looked into Medusa’s eyes would turn to stone, and Medusa is precisely the embodiment of desire.

“So I speculate that one of the mechanisms of this instance is that beings with desires will continuously petrify.”

Nian Fu tried not to look at her ankle, pondering: “Did you say all that to me just to extinguish my desires?”

She recalled that when Qi Si spoke those half-dead words about not wanting to live, the hope she held for victory plummeted into bone-chilling coldness, naturally suppressing any further desires.

Qi Si had been looking down, eyes lowered, seemingly at something on the ground. Thinking back now, he was probably observing her ankle.

“It was just an experiment,” Qi Si said coolly. “Human desires are endless. Even if one desire is shattered, another will quickly arise.

“The only purpose of my words was to cause your desires to briefly subside, making it convenient for me to verify a few things.

“At that time, I saw the area covered by lime on your ankle rapidly shrink, which confirmed that the degree of petrification is directly related to the magnitude of desire.

“Therefore, I used some means to stimulate those Ratmen, amplifying their desires.”

Qi Si stood up, his gaze sweeping over the ferocious snake and rat stone sculptures, a mocking smile playing on his lips.

He returned the Sea-God Scepter to his inventory, extending his index finger to lightly touch the surface of a sculpture.

The sculpture instantly crumbled upon contact, scattering into white sand with a shualala sound. It was quickly absorbed by the ground, becoming part of the marble floor, leaving no visible trace of its existence.

“So you cut my arm and showed them my blood?” Nian Fu pulled out a bandage, wrapped it around the wound, and sneered, “How were you sure your hypothesis was correct?

“What if you were wrong, and they all swarmed me and sucked me dry?”

“I have a blood clotting disorder; if I get hurt, the bleeding won’t stop, so I could only inconvenience you,” Qi Si said vaguely. “If things had gone that badly, I would have remembered your sacrifice and burned incense for you every holiday.”

Nian Fu: “Heh, hehe.”

Qi Si looked up at the ceiling: “Enough small talk. The urgent task is to figure out what those Ratmen meant when they said Gods look like us.”

Relevant information arrived from Lin Chen’s side just in time, so Qi Si picked up the thread and answered himself: “In The Bible, God created man in His own image, intending for them to assist Him in managing the world.

“Unfortunately, newly born humans only possessed the instinct for survival and were no different from other animals. It wasn’t until they stole and ate the fruit of good and evil, gaining desire, that they truly separated themselves from animals.”

Qi Si paused, slowing his speech: “The difference between humans and animals is that humans have desire. So what is the difference between Gods and humans?

“If Gods have no desires, then what differentiates them from animals? And why should the winner of the Colosseum Game be able to become a God?”

Nian Fu was not petty, and she knew that dwelling on what had already happened yielded no benefit.

She decisively skipped the previous topic, rested her chin on her hand, pondered for a moment, understood some things, but saw even more confusion.

She simply looked at the cross above Qi Si’s head and teased him mischievously: “I’m increasingly convinced that investing in you was the right choice. You have a natural advantage in this instance since you have no desires.

“Not only do you not have to worry about turning into stone, but you might even become a God later on. I think you’ll win this Colosseum Game.”

Qi Si remained silent.

He didn’t think he would win. Instead, he had a strong premonition—he would die.

Too many entities wanted to kill him, not just Chang Xu and the other players.

A person without desire cannot remain in the world for long. He didn’t find death terrifying, so he wouldn’t struggle fiercely to survive.

A person without desire is unsuitable for the center stage; he was currently more like a Chip for other players to gamble with.

Only Gods have no desires, and he was merely a non-human monster disguised as a God, not a true God in the genuine sense.

Something seemed to be missing in between—not on a material level, but something abstract and spiritual, something difficult for the desireless him to comprehend… “Perhaps,” Qi Si smiled coldly. “I really want to win. After all, the environment and food here are terrible, and I don’t want to stay here forever.

“If I were unlucky enough to die and be devoured by those ugly Ratmen, I would probably be so disgusted I’d want to poke my own eyes out.”

Nian Fu also smiled: “Then, let’s do our best to win until the end, just so we don’t die here.”