Chapter 320: Colosseum (End) “I won the bet, I’m taking him with me.”

【Weights are placed on both ends of the Balance, the Sword of Judgment forever hangs overhead.】

【When sin becomes currency, judgment is merely a Ritual of power circulation.】

【You bestow the illusion of justice, yet blind everyone’s eyes during the verdict.】

【Congratulations on recovering the Identity Card “Dark Judge”】

Silver-white text appeared before his eyes. Qi Si smiled sarcastically, casually crushing the black card afterimage in his palm.

His resurrection plan had always been based on Chang Xu’s choice.

At the end of the Frog Hospital instance, Lin Chen had used the effect of 【Plague Doctor】 on him, but it had no effect, proving that the 【Plague Doctor】’s resurrection mechanism was useless for players in a Ghosts state.

Even if he bled out his last drop of blood, according to the description of The Undying, he would only fall into eternal sleep, not death, which did not meet the prerequisite for “resurrection.”

That is to say, if Chang Xu did nothing and let him lie half-dead in the underground cave, then no matter how many times Lin Chen activated the 【Plague Doctor】’s effect, he would not be able to resurrect.

The effects and mechanisms of various items in the Eerie Game were interlinked, like a foolish robot from the last century; even a single character difference in the command would prevent it from operating successfully.

Therefore, Qi Si had to truly die once, letting his soul fall into hell first, before he could return to the human world through the Identity Card’s mechanism.

And in this instance, the only way to kill him was to make a wish to Sphinx.

Qi Si was gambling that Chang Xu would, in order to save others, ask Sphinx to fulfill the wish to kill him.

He won the bet… In another timeline’s Colosseum, Lin Chen was enveloped by a cage woven from golden vines, and his teammates were trapped in the cage with him.

“Kill him, and become a god.” The black-haired, golden-eyed god announced indifferently, with no pity or mercy in his eyes.

His teammate retreated to the edge of the cage, vigilantly watching Lin Chen, muttering softly, “Lin… Guild Leader Lin, we should be able to leave the instance in three minutes, right? Just three more minutes, and we can all live…”

Lin Chen ignored this teammate who was already flustered and at a loss.

He looked up, directly into the god’s eyes, and asked, “You need a god to be born from the Colosseum, don’t you?”

“Yes.” The god was surprisingly patient. “You once witnessed the demise of the Lord of Life, so you naturally know that many divine positions are now vacant. I hope to fill these vacancies before the rule awakens next.”

rule? Lin Chen had heard Qi Si talk about related secrets. Obviously, this god also knew that Qi Si had told him these things, which was why he mentioned them as common knowledge without further explanation.

He remembered that at the end of the Frog Hospital instance not long ago, the earth trembled violently like a drumhead being beaten, splashing pool water, black smoke-like vengeful spirits, and fragments of frog corpses danced wildly in the air. A vast and surging sorrow enveloped him, as if attending a world’s funeral.

That was the death of a god. The players’ actions were merely pulling out a screw from a huge machine, hastily passing by and then being forced to stop and watch.

At that time, Lin Chen was still a newcomer who had just become a formal player, following Qi Si and acting according to Qi Si’s plan.

He would never forget that scene: beneath the fluttering golden vines and leaves, Qi Si, in a white lab coat, lay in a pool of blood, his heart a dead, cold void… The past scenes clearly reappeared before his eyes, as if everything happening at this moment was a continuation of unfinished business from the past, and was about to conclude here.

To be precise, it felt like yesterday, even though only one Wraith instance was sandwiched in between, less than two weeks, yet why did it feel as long as a lifetime?

The god asked, “You will save him, won’t you?”

Lin Chen said, “Yes.”

A crimson leaf floated at the bottom of his dark consciousness, deeply embedded like a bleeding wound, fluttering like a warm, bright flame.

In a certain instant, it flickered twice and extinguished, drifting down like a butterfly frozen to death in late autumn, falling into the vast, deep darkness.

Lin Chen suddenly understood what Li meant by “time is running out” earlier.

Qi Si couldn’t wait much longer; he had to make a choice quickly, before the Colosseum instance where Qi Si was located closed.

The teammate listened to Lin Chen and the god’s almost cryptic conversation, bewildered, only feeling that Lin Crow, the Guild Leader of the Unnamed Guild, was becoming increasingly unfathomable, able to communicate equally with a god-level existence and having even witnessed the death of a god.

He was planning in his mind to open a gossip thread on the Forum after clearing the instance, but then he saw Lin Chen walking towards him step by step, complex emotions flickering in his dark eyes.

“I’m sorry, I’ll revive you later.” A soft voice spread in his ear, and the next second he felt a chill at his neck, and pain exploded with each word.

Lin Chen put the blood-stained blade back into his inventory, no longer looking at his teammate’s softly fallen corpse, and refocused his gaze on the god’s golden eyes: “As you requested, I killed him.”

This was the first time he had personally killed an innocent person.

In the Wraith instance, he could still stand on high ground, feeling indignant about Tang Yu’s death; but now, truly caught in a dilemma, he finally recognized himself.

He was no different from Qi Si, nor was he as good as he imagined himself to be; he was just an ordinary person with selfish motives.

There was a difference in closeness and distance; if he truly had to make a choice, he would be willing to exchange the lives of others for Qi Si to live.

“Good,” the god said, whether in approval or merely to acknowledge that it had happened.

The vines forming the cage suddenly broke, and scattered specks of light floated faintly, adhering to Lin Chen’s body.

The system interface disappeared; items, Identity Cards, and skills existed in a state between physical and conscious, capable of being perceived and summoned by him at any time.

A large amount of information poured into Lin Chen’s mind, and the history of the Colosseum instance materialized before his eyes.

The king of humanity in the golden age sat on his throne, with strange black smoke churning on the altar before him. The white-robed Old God was pierced through the chest by a black scythe, and a New God descended from the heavens, issuing a decree to create sin.

The marble Colosseum rose from the ground. Humans used divine edicts as excuses to satisfy their desires, indulging in entertainment. The newly descended god decisively abandoned the unruly humans, granting animals the wisdom that was originally exclusive to humans.

A massive war erupted between animals and humans. Rolling black smoke almost permeated the entire world, and a large amount of sin was generated in the bloody deaths, collected in the Old God’s dilapidated temple.

Unfortunately, the war soon ended, and the animals also began to indulge in pleasure like humans. So the god ordered them to divide into classes, using pain to brew new conflicts, but ultimately failed to extract more sin.

They also no longer wished to take risks, becoming hypocritical, greedy, and malicious. They performed the Colosseum Game, retaliating against the abuse humans had inflicted upon them, and gradually returned to the old path of entertainment unto death.

So, the god once again turned his gaze to humanity… The world view background differed slightly from what was presented in the epic, but the general direction was not too far off.

Lin Chen’s consciousness was clearer than ever before, as if no longer bound by physiological limits and physical constraints. His soul and mind merged into an ocean of information, from which he could draw more at any time.

Floating in the ocean with knowledge were numerous bloody scenes: beasts devouring human bodies raised their heads, blood dripping from their meat-laced teeth; well-dressed nobles wielded whips, wantonly lashing cowering slaves; hunched rat-men were driven into lightless underground, their bodies covered in scars… Unsettling images, wrapped in black smoke, like sacrificial offerings on an ancient altar, were presented before him, seemingly about to merge into his flesh and blood, his soul, becoming a part of his very being.

He asked the god, “What are these?”

“sin,” the god replied. “The rule feeds on gods, and what it feeds on is the most concentrated sin gathered within them.”

The description was very simple, but it was like flipping a switch, illuminating a string of knowledge in the ocean of information.

Lin Chen saw golden light particles ebb and flow like tides, saw countless specks symbolizing living beings writhing densely in every corner of the world, saw faint threads connecting the specks and light particles, entangled with lingering black smoke… He suddenly understood that the gods had made numerous attempts to create and collect sin, trying to find or forge new sources of sin. The Eerie Game was one, the Colosseum was another… For a few moments, he even saw a long bronze table, with gods of various appearances sitting on both sides—there was the Sea God with tentacles and a fish head, the Lord of Life holding a baby, Li in black with golden eyes… This was a banquet of the gods, and they seemed to be discussing something fiercely. The figure in red at the head of the table made a downward gesture, then looked up, revealing a familiar face… “I understand.” Lin Chen closed his eyes and said hoarsely, “The source of sin is slaughter, harm, and suffering. You hope to collect a large amount of sin through war, so you created the opposition between animals and humans.

“When one side indulges in peace and pleasure, the other will rise up in resistance, and so on. This way, you can continuously provide sin to the rule, avoiding the fate of being devoured…”

The god said, “Your understanding is not wrong.”

Lin Chen saw himself at the banquet of the gods, dressed in black robes, suspended high by chains and vines. A vast amount of black smoke gathered through him, then was transported along threads to the heavens above. In one instant, he shattered, falling apart like glass.

He asked, “Why must players become gods? The animals have been in this world longer; can’t they become gods?”

“I tried, but I failed,” the god said. “They naturally despise wisdom and worship instinct, not knowing how to restrain their desires, and thus cannot become vessels for the desires of others.”

Images of rat-men turned to stone statues, and various animals bathing in a blood pool, flashed before Lin Chen’s eyes. A massive elephant-shaped stone statue was carried by lions and leopards and placed into the pool, regaining its vitality in just a few seconds.

All animals were cursed; after their desires grew to a certain extent, they would turn into stone statues, serving as a form of control and selection.

But the difference was that other animals could safely enjoy the accumulated blood after killing humans, while rat-men had to personally engage in battle to get a few drops of blood.

The mechanism of lifting curses with blood was not out of divine compassion either; the god merely used it to push animals and humans into a life-or-death situation, forcing the two major races to develop as He wished.

Precisely because they could be slaughtered and bled by animals at any time, human heroes actively participated in the Colosseum Game. After all, things couldn’t get any worse… Gods did not love the world, nor did they love any existence. Gods were gods, and although they possessed a higher status and powerful might, they also struggled to survive like beasts.

Lin Chen was silent for a long time, then looked at the god named Li and said, “You are eager to elevate a new god, not just to fill a vacancy, right? You said, ‘the rule feeds on gods.’ When the rule awakens again, I will be its food, correct?”

Li said, “Yes. You have no choice.”

“I understand.” Lin Chen uttered these four words again.

He turned and crouched before his teammate’s corpse, and the phantom image of the 【Plague Doctor】 card appeared in his hand. Two black cards were face down before him, and he casually drew one of them—

【Upright】.

When upright, it can resurrect a dead person in the instance.

Black feathers covered the wound on the corpse’s neck. His teammate’s pale face regained its rosy color, and his eyes slowly opened. Upon seeing Lin Chen, he showed terror: “Lin… Guild Leader Lin, don’t… don’t kill me!”

Lin Chen said faintly, “It’s okay, you’re alive.”

He stood up again, looking at Li: “Let everyone leave, then take me to see Qi Si—as you promised.”

…All the spacetime fragments of the Colosseum instance converged. In Lin Chen’s space, surviving players successively turned into white light and disappeared, hearing the NE clear instance prompt at the last moment.

Lin Chen knew that he was destined to be a sacrifice for the rule, and death was not allowed before that. His expression was indifferent. The moment he entered the Colosseum where Qi Si was, he once again activated the effect of 【Plague Doctor】.

—Resurrect Qi Si.

He had repaid Qi Si one life, with two remaining, but he would never have the chance to repay them. He would stay here forever, just as Tang Yu would forever remain in the Wraith instance.

He broke his promise, failing to live to the end and clear the Final Dungeon as Tang Yu had hoped. But he couldn’t think of a better solution… In the vast and distant world, Chang Xu’s figure floated before the god’s golden eyes. Qi Si’s red-clothed figure flickered like a ghost, plunging the Sea-God Scepter into the former’s chest.

The rat-men followed their god to the surface, tearing everything apart with long-accumulated anger. They ripped up the Colosseum’s floor tiles, exposing the surging blood pool beneath. Resources that were usually unattainable were luxuriously monopolized by those in high positions, intensifying their rage.

The elephants, being larger, were not swept away by the strong winds and immediately became their targets. They swarmed forward, angrily tearing at the rough flesh.

The elephants trumpeted in pain, fearfully swinging their trunks, but due to their cumbersome bodies, they couldn’t harm the agile rat-men in the slightest. Their cries gradually faded, and they soon turned into bloody skeletons.

Qi Si stood before the god’s eyes, hearing the instance clear prompt: 【main quest “Audience with the Evil God” completed】.

He quietly looked at the mess in the arena, slowly placed his hand over his heart, and felt a pounding heartbeat.

The crimson leaf deep within the Hall of Thought was flourishing, resonating with the 【Crimson High Priest】 card and the 【Sea-God Scepter】, elevating his soul and vision to an unprecedented level.

He was resurrected, not as a Ghosts, but as an existence between human and god.

Rich and vibrant colors flowed into a painting in his vision. The previously faded world was re-painted with vivid colors. Spirit and flesh were salvaged from death, and his five senses gradually recovered, bringing genuine joy.

Qi Si slightly turned his head to look at Lin Chen, who was watching him from afar.

The connection of Contract and faith was re-established, and blood-colored threads reconnected between them. The moment he looked, he learned of Lin Chen’s experiences and knew that the latter had made the decision to sacrifice.

He withdrew his gaze, looked into Li’s golden eyes, and smiled genuinely: “See, I won the bet and lived to the end. I think we can have a calm discussion now.”

He raised his hand and pointed at Lin Chen: “First, I want to take him with me, as your payment for the bet.”