Chapter 361: Returning to Shuangxi Town

“I’m telling you, our Shuangxi Town is the best big town around…”

A long, narrow raft floated on a narrow river, with tall, steep mountain walls rising on both sides, blocking out the light from the sky.

The thin boatman, wearing a straw cape and a bamboo hat, stood precariously at the bow, paddling with a wooden oar, stroke after stroke.

As he paddled, he chatted idly: “Let me tell you again, our feng shui here is excellent. Water gathers wealth, and wealth should not be exposed…”

Chen Hao squatted near the boatman, listening intently to the NPC’s chatter, knowing that clues were probably hidden in these unremarkable words.

He was twenty-five years old this year, a horror game planner in reality. Perhaps because he often did unscrupulous things and was cursed by players too much, he suddenly died of overwork one night while working overtime, unable to catch his breath.

Before he could react, an invitation letter to the Eerie Game appeared, telling him to either become a player and enter a terrifying instance, or truly die.

—He naturally chose the former.

Due to his work, Chen Hao was well-accustomed to various horror tropes and well-versed in many puzzle-solving routines. He navigated instances with ease, smoothly passing through the Novice Pool, and even had leisure to gather material to add to his own games to scare players.

He considered himself one of the people who adapted better to the Eerie Game, and facts proved this was no exaggeration. After clearing only four instances, he ranked ninety-first on the rookie rank. It was estimated that as long as he didn’t die, he would definitely achieve something in the future.

Unexpectedly, before he could stay on the list for long, the list shattered into pieces. The reorganized stone tablet showed no record of him, only displaying the holders of twenty-two Identity Cards.

Chen Hao had no vanity and no interest in being in the limelight. Although he was curious about the Identity Cards and the Final Dungeon, he had only just entered the game and hadn’t joined a guild, so he had a bit of a ‘newborn calf fears no tiger’ attitude, far less nervous than other players.

Moreover, objective facts do not shift with personal will. Since it was an unavoidable disaster, why not clear a few more instances and accumulate some trump cards before the situation became even more severe?

With this thought, Chen Hao didn’t wait for the seven-day countdown to end, but quickly matched with a new instance, even planning to clear a few more if things went smoothly and his energy allowed.

【instance Name: Shuangxi Town】

【instance Type: Team Survival】

【main quest: Find Xu Wen and take her away】

【Prerequisite Hint: The living may not be alive, the dead may not be dead】

Silver-white text information refreshed, and Chen Hao thus knew that this was a rescue-type instance, a type he was good at.

He picked up the name tag hanging on his chest and glanced at it. The front read “Folk Investigator,” and the back contained a stack of photos, with a group photo on top.

A young woman in her early twenties, with a bright, beautiful smile, was holding his arm. She must be the rescue target, Xu Wen.

“Let’s get to know each other. Rescue-type instance tasks are generally more complicated, so let’s try to divide roles in advance.” Chen Hao put away the photo and looked back at the four players behind him. “My name is Chen Hao. Including the Novice Pool, this is my fifth instance. I was ninety-first on the rookie rank before it disappeared.”

The yellow-haired young man closest to him rubbed his hands: “You’re amazing, buddy. I was wondering who was so awesome to make the list right after becoming a formal player. My name is Liu Jun, and this is also my fifth time…”

The self-introductions continued. The tall woman at the stern of the boat, dressed in a black bodysuit, seemed to have a solitary personality. Only at the very end did she say indifferently: “Li Yao, fifth time. I mainly write supernatural novels and know a lot about folklore.”

The few of them, strangers meeting for the first time, had nothing more to say after introducing themselves. The raft fell silent for a while, and the boatman, after talking to himself for a bit, also quieted down.

“Splash… splash…”

The soft sound of the wooden oar stirring the water flowed gently, and the mountain walls on both sides receded, revealing an open lake surface as clear as a mirror.

A small town with white walls and black tiles emerged from the mist. Scarlet ribbons hung down, and large red “囍” characters covered every corner. The ground was densely covered with red flakes like petals, reflecting the entire sky red in the distance.

No, the sky was already red.

Crimson light filled the dome and fell from the sky, enveloping every brick and tile of the town. Flying blood light danced around the beam of light falling on the west side of the town, forming red snakes, reminiscent of the bloody sacrifices of ancient tribes welcoming the descent of gods.

Vines identical to the branches of the World Tree grew wildly between heaven and earth, their twisted network weaving into a dense spiderweb, like cracks on weathered rocks.

Uninterpretable symbols flew before his eyes, incomprehensible whispers rose and fell in his ears, exploding into a roaring tide… 【Warning! Divine NPC (data deleted) is present, instance progression has changed unexpectedly… data error…】

【Divine NPC authority is second only to world rule. They can appear in multiple instances simultaneously and share memories. Players, please proceed with caution and make careful choices!】

Blood-colored error messages filled his vision, and players’ shouts mingled together.

“What the hell is this? This is only my sixth instance, how can a Divine NPC appear?”

“I selected this instance specifically. I checked the process before coming in; it shouldn’t be developing like this…”

“What should we do? Are we going to die here? I don’t want to die…”

The golden-red vines grew denser and denser, like ancient tribal songs from primordial times wailing, gradually overpowering all the terrified, bewildered, and fearful sounds, becoming everything that could be heard and felt.

Chen Hao stared fixedly at the anomalies before him and in the distance, seeing the golden rivers, head to tail, twisting into long snakes. He realized that this was probably not a mechanism of the Shuangxi Town instance itself, but perhaps related to the Final Dungeon.

He began to regret why he had been so foolish as to match with an instance before the countdown ended.

If only he had been a little later, even just a little, he could have avoided such an unlucky situation… But soon, he lost even the ability to think, like a beast captured and tamed by a higher being, instinctively fearing, submitting, and prostrating.

He heard the condescending pronouncement—

【The most cruel and terrifying Evil God in heaven and earth has come to this place, and will ultimately bring destruction, death, and disaster.】

【If you pray and cry out, He will not show mercy; if you do nothing, you will only die tragically.】

【main quest has changed】

【main quest: Slay the Evil God】

…Qi Si returned from the Ruins of the Sunset and saw his incomplete form in the bronze mirror of the temple. His entire left hand and the little finger of his right hand were missing, only occasionally flashing the illusion of a skeleton, which was probably what was meant by “not complete enough.”

Where his left hand was remained unknown, but he clearly remembered that Qi had once given him his little finger as an item. He had used a ‘golden cicada shedding its shell’ technique in the Shuangxi Town instance, leaving his little finger there.

Now that he possessed the divine status and authority, he could freely travel between most instances. Returning to Shuangxi Town to retrieve his finger bone would not be difficult.

Qi Si, holding the Sea-God Scepter, walked through the area of Shuangxi Town where the Sangshen Temple was located beneath the well. Layers of water vapor surrounded him but dared not touch his body, spontaneously clustering a step away from him, forming a vacuum zone.

Gray figures moved through the fog, white paper coins fluttered, and someone wailed loudly, singing a sharp tune.

An old man in a cyan long gown stumbled out of the fog, muttering, “Young man, have you seen a girl?”

Everything was no different from the previous Shuangxi Town. Although Xu Yao had transformed into the Statue of the Joyous God and left the instance, all other NPCs remained untouched, merely a new batch of players re-enacting the same script.

The Eerie Game was constructed by the gods, and instances were fragments intercepted by deities in the long flow of time. Even if his memory was vague, Qi Si still knew that the Shuangxi Town instance had his own touch, or rather—half of the existing instances were inextricably linked to him.

The process of concocting instances was interesting, but repeated re-enactments were boring. As a god, he wrote instances; as a player, he experienced instances. Now that both sets of memories had merged, and the old man recited the unchanged lines for the third time, Qi Si no longer had any interest in responding.

Scarlet leaves spread from beneath his feet in all directions, penetrating every corner of the instance within a few seconds. The old man’s figure shattered into dust, scattering on the ground like pale ashes.

All noise ceased abruptly as if choked, and the pervasive fog seemed to sense the danger, sweeping away ghost shadows and cleansing the area, leaving only an empty town of stark black and white.

His five senses instantly became much clearer. Qi Si half-closed his eyes and continued forward, passing through the densely packed houses, stopping before the Sangshen Temple, which was adorned with white paper lanterns.

The god Li, once enshrined here, had been eliminated by him, leaving only an empty shell of a stone and clay idol, unable to influence the Eerie Game for the time being.

The rule had long since lost its sanity, becoming a foolish robot running on a fixed program. As long as he didn’t do anything too outrageous, it wouldn’t provoke its response and retribution.

Qi Si vaguely remembered that when he was still an ignorant human player, he had made a Contract in the Shuangxi Town instance to be “unaffected by gods,” which attracted the rule’s attention and achieved the effect of “gods forbidden to enter.”

But now he had easily arrived here in a divine body, feeling no restrictions or constraints. It was clear that the rule’s power had declined, and its control over the world had loosened.

Qi Si stepped over the threshold and walked directly into the depths of the temple.

Before the shrine with the incense altar, Xu Wen, pale as a ghost, was kneeling in obeisance. Seeing him, she was dumbfounded, like seeing a long-dead vengeful spirit crawl out of a well while drawing water, her body stiff as a statue.

Qi Si ignored her, strolling leisurely towards a row of Coffins resting in the corner.

There were six Coffins in total. Five of them were carved with traditional lotus and coin patterns, but only one had golden vine patterns painted on its surface, a common hidden pattern on the narrative murals in the temple, also the language of communication between gods, and moreover… a curse.

All meanings and curses, translated into commonly used human language, were actually just one word—【Forbidden】.

This was the Coffin Li had once used to bind him as a player, attempting to usurp the authority of the Contract. Looking back now, Li’s actions at the time were indeed unwise, more out of an instinct to consolidate authority before the apocalypse.

His past and future self never trusted any existence other than himself. The plan to resist the rule had naturally not been fully disclosed to other gods. Li did not know the origins between him, “Qi,” and “Qi Si,” which was why he dared to reach for the gambling table.

The scene from that time, after being washed away by millions of years of memory, was as faint as smoke, failing to stir even a ripple in his heart now.

Qi Si’s lips trembled as he softly chanted the curse carved on the Coffin. The phantom of vines stretched in the void, slowly lifting the dark Coffin lid.

It was empty, with no corpse, no finger bone, nothing left, not even a trace of its existence.

Qi Si narrowed his eyes.

He suddenly realized that even if the rule fell into madness, the iron laws once established could not simply vanish without a trace.

In the Shuangxi Town instance he had once entered, the rule of “gods forbidden to enter” was an established fact. How could he, stepping into it again, not be subject to any restrictions?

Unless… the Shuangxi Town he was currently in and the Shuangxi Town from that time were located in different spaces and times.

Qi Si turned his head to look at Xu Wen beside him, a friendly smile, common when gods deceived believers, appearing on his face: “I know you suffer from being trapped in Shuangxi Town and want to end this endless cycle. I just happened to lose something I care about. If you can provide useful clues, I might be able to grant your wish.”

The result was without suspense. The moment Xu Wen gave an affirmative answer, Qi Si acquired all her memories, seeing everything that had happened in the Sangshen Temple’s domain over the past month—

After he was locked in the Coffin, the Coffin lid never reopened. Batch after batch of players entered the instance, mostly staying in the world above the well, living idly and waiting to die, naturally unable to find the whereabouts of the finger bone.

Things had become troublesome. Perhaps only by rewinding time once could he return to that Shuangxi Town at that time and place to retrieve the finger bone.

And going through so much trouble just to open a temple that had been abandoned for years seemed a bit boring.

Qi Si, lacking interest, exited the Sangshen Temple, casually throwing Xu Wen, who had subconsciously followed him out and wanted to ask more questions, into a Coffin and closing the lid.

The blood-colored tendrils rooted in the instance world brought him news snatched from players: the rule, after all, had made a mechanical reaction to his illegal intrusion, issuing a task to the players in the instance to slay him.

—This was undoubtedly an impossible, unfair task, yet it was erroneously proposed by the rule, much like a shocking bug before a machine crashes.

Qi Si slightly raised his eyes, looking at the five men and women in the world above the well, who were like walking corpses converging towards the wellhead, and suddenly smiled.

Attempting to kill an Evil God with a human body? Commendable courage, interesting.

The rule-setter no longer abiding by the rules, even more interesting.

Unfortunately, although the Eerie Game regards the rule as the supreme existence, it was indeed created by the gods.

At least in the Shuangxi Town instance, Qi Si was confident he could win a round against the rule.