Chapter 412: Snow Mountain (12) “Look at the bloody Rodapin.”

“How much is this prayer wheel?” Qi Si asked the shopkeeper.

This was a shop specializing in esoteric Buddhist artifacts. On the wooden table directly opposite the door was an idol of Mahakala, with six arms spread wide and waving; on the side shelf were various ritual implements: Kapala bowls and bone horns, Rodapin and human skin drums. Most numerous were the prayer wheels.

The shopkeeper, clad in a kasaya, sat cross-legged on a futon, eyes tightly shut, turning prayer beads with his left hand, muttering incantations: “Om Ah Hum, may the Savior bestow blessings upon all beings; Om Ah Hum, may the God of Fortune grant grace; Om Ah Hum, may the Graveyard God protect the departed souls…”

The sutra chanting Mahakala and praying for blessings circled softly in the cramped room. Qi Si could inexplicably understand it and grasp its purpose. He waited quietly for a while, received no reply, and asked again, “How much is this prayer wheel?”

This time, he simply picked up a prayer wheel, feigning departure. The shopkeeper finally opened his eyes and said in a hoarse, indistinct voice, “Trade it for something you obtained from the Mother Goddess.”

The exact same answer as the bus driver. Qi Si was prepared, taking the 【Ink Soul Scroll】 from his inventory slot and handing it over.

【Name: Ink Soul Scroll】

【Type: Item】

【Effect: Opens a door that only spirits can enter for 60 seconds, suspected to lead to an unknown alternate dimension (Cooldown: 24 hours)】

【Note: An unknown poet wrote his poems using his own soul. He did not know that his painstaking creation was a ritual, and the resulting work was pollution.】

This item was not the most useless one Qi Si possessed; it could even be called “invaluable.” If used correctly, it could potentially turn the tide of battle at a crucial moment.

Qi Si traded it away with the intention of testing the instance mechanism and simultaneously placing a strategic piece.

Yesterday, he traded the 【Ghost Driver’s Recorder】 for a bus ticket, and that night, he heard a holy song broadcast via the recorder at the inn.

It is known that when players entered Shangri-La Town, the holy song resonated throughout the entire city, indicating that NPCs could generate the holy song without using any items. Only players needed a recorder to record and play it.

Qi Si was fairly certain that the 【Ghost Driver’s Recorder】 had fallen into the hands of another player after leaving him. As for that person’s identity, he had some guesses—

The existence of “another him” in this instance was too obvious… The person who knows you best is always yourself. Based on these deductions, Qi Si could infer what “the other him”—whom he would temporarily call “Zhou Ke”—had done yesterday.

After Zhou Ke obtained the 【Ghost Driver’s Recorder】, he immediately recorded the complete holy song in the city. Following his usual habits, he played it once right after recording, discovering the clue that “the holy song attracts pilgrims.”

A single piece of evidence is insufficient. Zhou Ke conducted another experiment when the pilgrims emerged en masse at night, successfully drawing all the city’s pilgrims to gather outside the inn, corroborating the conclusion reached during the day.

The players entering the final instance couldn’t just be Qi Si, Fu Jue, Lin Chen, and the other twenty-two. Other Identity Card holders and the followers bound to their small cards must also be in this instance, just scattered in various places—different timelines or locations—and haven’t met them yet.

Baima had said that twenty-two years ago, twenty-two travelers also arrived in Shangri-La. Qi Si was inclined to believe that there were twenty-two players in every timeline.

Even if Zhou Ke, Dong Xiwen, and Zhang Yiyu were in the same timeline, there would still be nineteen people hostile to them, or at least not in the same faction and unable to earn Zhou Ke’s trust.

Knowing himself, Qi Si deduced that when facing such a disparate power dynamic, he would inevitably take a risky move for greater gain. The next step would likely involve using means to gain dominance and force concessions from other players.

And that method, naturally, was using the holy song to attract the pilgrims—pilgrims who harbored deep malice toward players and were eager to convert them and redeem their sins.

Once the pilgrims surrounded the inn, the players would only have two choices: compromise with Zhou Ke or die with him. Most normal people would choose the former.

Of course, Zhou Ke’s plan had a fatal flaw: given his combat strength, if the other players swarmed him, they could easily shut off the recorder… This is where the 【Ink Soul Scroll】 needed to intervene.

Qi Si was never the type of narrow-minded person who was obsessively concerned with his own uniqueness and would desperately try to eliminate another version of himself upon meeting them.

On the contrary, in competition with “the other,” he was happy to temporarily align with himself. Once those boring, superfluous people were eliminated, he could slowly play a game with himself.

He was even willing to let countless versions of himself exist in the world. For one thing, playing games with himself was much more interesting than playing games with others. For another, survival competition could determine the most outstanding version of himself, increasing the probability of the existence named “Qi Si” winning in the end.

He suddenly became curious about what the “Foolish Trickster” Zhou Ke had managed to achieve… Tension was high in the inn. Everyone picked up their weapons and struck at Zhou Ke, the cold light interweaving in the air like a sharp net.

In a flash, a landscape scroll suddenly appeared in Zhou Ke’s hand. He raised his arm and flung the scroll upwards. Within a few seconds, it overwhelmingly enveloped the space above the hall like a gray haze.

Flowing ink-colored landscapes floated overhead. The edges of the scroll blurred like mist, rendering the surrounding walls and furnishings with an ink-wash texture. Zhou Ke’s figure became almost transparent; all attacks passed through his silhouette as if entering a realm of nothingness, completely dissipating.

“Look at the bloody Rodapin, the mandala is colorful, the dancing beads are bone beads, the messenger’s body is bright and shiny…”

The eerie holy song sounded low, like the accompaniment to an ancient shaman’s sacrificial dance, circling layer upon layer in the inn’s hall, drifting outward like a tide.

More and more pilgrims gathered at the inn’s entrance, making rhythmic “thump-thump” sounds as they prostrated themselves with every step. The earth seemed to resonate with them.

The front row of pilgrims had already stepped into the inn, pressing tightly together and advancing toward the hall. Players could see bones beneath the fabric and smell the stench of decay emanating from them.

Zhou Ke’s figure, along with the recorder playing the holy song, completely vanished. Only a figure outlined by ink strokes appeared within the scroll overhead, faintly revealing the silhouette of the young man in the white shirt.

To subdue him, they would likely have to pursue him into the scroll, but that was Zhou Ke’s home ground; entering it would be akin to walking into a tiger’s den.

The young man in the black suit placed his longsword against Dong Xiwen’s neck with a backhand, looked up slightly, and said coldly, “Zhou Ke, turn off the recorder immediately, or I will kill your companion.”

Dong Xiwen had anticipated this move as soon as Zhou Ke started attacking Lin Jue and the others, so he immediately moved toward the edge of the battlefield, but unexpectedly, he was still too slow.

He was on the verge of tears, wanting only to yell at the young man: “Kidnapping me is useless! I’m just disposable cannon fodder for Qi Si, and we’re all in the same boat! Does he look like he cares whether I live or die?”

Zhang Yiyu reacted even slower than Dong Xiwen. Only when Aleksei’s dagger lunged at her did she curl her fingers into a claw to block the attack.

The Ghost Qi in her body was activated, surging through her veins. Purplish-blue vascular patterns appeared on her face, and the dark color of her eyes spread, staining the whites of her eyes a strange, bluish-black.

Aleksei stepped back half a pace but quickly reacted, nimbly dodging Zhang Yiyu’s claw while gripping his dagger and stabbing toward the girl’s heart.

Dong Xiwen watched the two fight fiercely, feeling deep sorrow. He couldn’t help but complain to Dong Ziwen in his mind: “Little brother, was our boss really this righteous when he was young? Also, is him helping the Ark Guild fight considered betraying the Balance?”

Dong Ziwen: “…”

Yes, Aleksei, the 【Disaster High Priest】, was none other than “Yuan,” one of the leaders of the Balance Church, just the youthful version who had lost twenty-two years of memory. Who would have thought such a passionate young man would later grow into a manipulative politician and a subversive element secretly opposing the Federation?

The fierce wind outside the inn repeatedly whipped the wind chimes and bone fragments under the eaves, creating an uneasy, rattling sound. Ice shards scraped through the gaps in the doors and walls, and the coldness surged up in waves, penetrating everyone’s bones.

“Everyone, I think now, perhaps we can have a calm discussion,” Zhou Ke’s voice came from above, sounding faint and distorted, as if filtered through a thick medium. “I am not a nihilist yearning for the world’s destruction, nor a lunatic who enjoys seeing everyone die together. At least, my original intention was not mutual destruction—and I hope you won’t push things in that terrible direction.”

Xiao Fengchao scoffed, his mouth twitching slightly: “The plot has developed this far. Do you think we can still trust you? Utterly shameless, insane, a beast in human skin! With all these ghosts and monsters gathering, our next step is basically to die together on the same day…”

“No need for more words.” Lin Jue made a gesture, signaling others to be quiet, his smile turning bitter. “Now, besides peaceful negotiation, we seem to have no other path. Zhou Ke, I want to know what your intention is in doing this.”

“My intention? As I said before, it is a method that allows everyone to clear the instance directly.” Zhou Ke’s voice was unhurried, as if discussing a trivial matter. “Lin Jue, if I remember correctly, your Identity Card is the 【Dark Judge】, right?”

Lin Jue nodded: “That’s right.”

He seemed to have figured something out, and a hint of relief appeared in his eyes: “The effect of this card is to declare a player guilty and cause the instance to continuously generate bounty missions targeting that player.”

Zhou Ke smiled: “It seems you know what I’m going to say. The main quest for this instance hasn’t refreshed yet, and it might even have no main quest. The former is troublesome enough; if it’s the latter, it’s terrible, essentially meaning this is a death instance that cannot be cleared.

“Crises are emerging endlessly. Many of us have been affected by the instance mechanism, showing signs of age regression. Perhaps there’s still a glimmer of hope now, but as we linger longer in the instance, our thoughts and memories will deteriorate beyond recovery. Even if we clear the instance, we will become invalids. Pitiful, isn’t it?

“We don’t have Survival Experts, and our physical fitness certainly can’t compare to professional athletes. It’s unrealistic to cross the snow mountain relying on our own strength. The ideal scenario is to quickly create a main quest and then complete it.”

Zhou Ke paused, then changed his tone: “Of course, it doesn’t matter if we don’t do this. The result will simply be a failure to clear the instance and remaining here forever. Rather than struggling fruitlessly for another seven days in this wretched place and dying miserably, it’s better to die today and get it over with quickly.”

Dong Xiwen had personally experienced the *Colosseum* instance and witnessed the series of mechanisms triggered after the 【Dark Judge】’s effect was activated. He understood Zhou Ke’s intentions instantly.

After the 【Dark Judge】 declares someone guilty, the instance will generate a main quest to kill that person. Completing it allows for clearance.

The originally complex instance would be directly transformed into the trolley problem: kill one person to save everyone. The blame would be limited only to Qi Si, who proposed the idea, and Lin Jue, who designated the guilty party.

Aside from the scapegoat who is killed, this plan is entirely beneficial to the other players. The only issue is that Lin Jue and the members of the Ark Guild usually pride themselves on being righteous and would never sacrifice an innocent person.

But in the face of actual survival, reputation and morality are illusory.

Zhou Ke smiled, trying to persuade him: “President Lin, what are your thoughts? Sacrifice one person and save the rest, or everyone dies together? The choice is not difficult, whether viewed from a utilitarian or pragmatic perspective.”

“I believe you are not an egoist who cherishes his reputation like a feather, willing to let everyone die with you just to maintain a persona of selflessness.”

It was blatant moral blackmail, yet it was extremely effective. The players’ eyes focused on Lin Jue. Some hoped he would activate the effect to end the game quickly; others worried that, having only just met Lin Jue, they might be chosen as the sacrifice; still others felt uneasy, hesitating whether or not to volunteer themselves.

“Alright.” Lin Jue spoke calmly, and a black, gold-embroidered Identity Card condensed in his hand. The next second, he closed his fingers, and the card crumbled into dust.

The black fragments ascended, merging with the ink-wash scroll, forming a gray haze on the ceiling. A black-clad, gold-eyed Judge stood between heaven and earth. The black-covered book in his hand flipped rapidly, releasing countless golden characters that floated out.

The characters encircled Lin Jue like a cage. The world seemed to fall into silence and stagnation for a moment. The gaze of all beings gathered here, waiting for the young man to make his decision, like awaiting a king’s decree.

“I choose… to judge myself.” Lin Jue looked up, meeting the Judge’s gaze, articulating every word clearly, “I am guilty. ‘Lin Jue’ is guilty.”

The players saw astonishment in each other’s eyes. The golden patterns filling the sky rippled like water disturbed by a thrown stone, seemingly moved by his words and shocked by the declaration.

A sigh drifted down from the high heavens. A black cross slowly descended, hovering above Lin Jue’s head in the form of a phantom, serving as the mark of “Sin.”

Simultaneously, two lines of silvery-white text refreshed on everyone’s system interface, accompanied by a cold system broadcast.

【Main Quest Refreshed】

【Main Quest (Optional): Kill the Sinner Lin Jue】