Chapter 425: Snow Mountain (Part 25) Lin Crow

Lin Chen could not remember when he had appeared in this world of ice and snow, nor how he had arrived.

His last memory was of matching into an instance called “No. 33 Middle School,” being called into the office by the Female Teacher, and seeing another version of himself in the vanity mirror on the desk.

That person, dressed in black and calling himself “Lin Crow,” told him many things about the future before pressing a pure white card into his hand.

【Identity Card: Undead Shepherd】

【Effect: You will be able to control any undead or Ghost within the instance.】

【Note: They are the flock, and you are the one who shepherds them. Where will you lead them? To protect them, to redeem them, or… to slaughter?】

On the card’s surface, a figure in a pure white cloak held a scepter, standing in the center of a flock of sheep. Massive white wings unfurled behind them, feathers drifting through the sky—holy and sorrowful.

Lin Chen stared blankly at one of the feathers, watching as golden droplets of blood slowly dripped from the quill, inexplicably thinking of the word “ending.”

It was a strange feeling. A person spends their life busily rushing through the world, mostly following the rules and discarding thought. Yet, there are always those few moments, like a fallen leaf swept into a puddle by a current, where one stops to stare blankly at a certain sight or scene, feeling as if they had seen it in a dream, or saying to themselves, “I will die like this.” Thus, the world gains another person who has grasped their fate.

Lin Chen thought of death, thought of the past, and when he came to his senses, he was no longer in the “No. 33 Middle School” instance; his mind was filled with a large segment of memories belonging to the future.

This was the immortal Shangri-La. He was atop the snow mountain of the Final Dungeon. Under the guidance of the lama, Qi Si and Fu Jue had decided to join forces and fill the sacrificial pit with human lives in exchange for the chance to walk out of the snow mountain and compete for the divine throne.

It seemed some things had happened afterward, but the memories of that period were a complete blank, scattering into dark fragments the moment he tried to pursue them.

He only knew that he was currently in the night. The Ancestral God’s dream enveloped everyone, and the world shared the same multicolored dream of a deity.

Where should he go next? How should he conduct himself? Lin Chen could not come up with a definitive answer.

He couldn’t even think effectively. How could the “big shot” who had saved him in the “Rose Manor” suddenly become a villain who had slaughtered countless people overnight?

Lin Crow couldn’t find an answer either, which was why he had handed the method to break the situation and the objective facts over to him, letting him make the choice… Ever since Lin Crow stepped into the mirror and completed the exchange with Lin Chen, he had been in a darkness so thick he couldn’t see his hand in front of his face. After standing still for an unknown amount of time, a faint light finally glowed before his eyes, illuminating the dim space.

He saw clearly now; this was a playroom filled with plush rabbits, balloons, and various small toys—it was his Game Space.

The rabbit hole in the center of the room was the instance entrance. It was currently closing rapidly, vanishing in a single second.

The surrounding furnishings aged at a visible rate. Toys rusted and grew moldy, cotton fell out of the plush rabbits, balloons deflated, and the walls crumbled into ruins.

“It’s over.” Lin Crow smiled.

The age regression effect caused by the instance had already dissipated. He only then realized how much he had changed in just a few short months, and how vastly different he was from the person he used to be as “Lin Chen.”

He was a child who had grown up in love and kindness. Even if he always carried a bit of cowardice due to his poor family background, he had remained naive and childish for a long time, harboring an impractical and untimely idealism.

Reaching a certain age threshold does not mean one has become an adult. Growth in the spiritual sense is often accompanied by a painful metamorphosis, until one day you suddenly realize that there is no such thing as having it both ways or wishful thinking, nor is there perfect compatibility or unconditional kindness. Humans have always been lonely.

And now, his childhood was over. He had completely bid farewell to the Lin Chen of the past.

Upon realizing that Qi Si intended to kill tens of thousands of people as a stepping stone to godhood, he surprisingly had no thought of stopping him after the initial shock. Instead, he calmly realized that this was the best way to break the deadlock.

He remembered that according to the instance mechanics, those who were killed would turn into Ghosts at night to seek revenge. Qi Si could not withstand tens of thousands of evil Ghosts on his own.

Then he began to think about how to save Qi Si from the impending siege of Ghosts. There was no extra reason; it was simply because Qi Si had saved him three times. He owed Qi Si three lives, and he wanted Qi Si to live.

The 【Plague Doctor】 card could only resurrect Qi Si once and came with uncertainties. He had to solve the problem at its root, and the 【Undead Shepherd】 card was the only choice.

A person could only bind one Identity Card. He was already bound to 【Plague Doctor】 and could not unbind it in a short time. Fortunately, he had seen the unbound Lin Chen behind the ice wall.

Lin Chen was kind, naturally drawn to good and repelled by evil.

Only Lin Crow would condone Qi Si’s evil and save a villain like him.

What choice would Lin Chen make after knowing everything? Lin Crow didn’t know.

But it was the only way.

Handing the right to decide the ending to his purer past self would serve as an accounting for these twenty years of life.

The outline of a full-length mirror appeared before him, showing the frozen image of the “No. 33 Middle School” instance.

The time had come. There was no more time.

Lin Crow stepped into the mirror. His black cloak dissolved into drifting crow feathers, and the Identity Card in the top right corner of his vision crumbled into dust.

He would lose his memories as “Lin Crow,” lose the 【Plague Doctor】 card, return to that past timeline, and walk the original path toward the ending from the beginning.

Beneath the World Tree in the Ruins of the Sunset, the line for 【Lin Crow】 on the Revelation Fragment went dark forever, leaving an abrupt blank space… Lin Chen stood in the snow mountain. Looking back, there was no temple; looking aside, there were no people. Amidst the bewildered white, no signposts or monuments could be found, let alone buildings to serve as a reference.

The cold wind whipped his cloak. He felt as if he were in a boundless space-time without past or future, with no one else in the world but himself.

His existence seemed to have become unnecessary as well. When a name and past are known and remembered by only one person, they become an unprovable void, a flickering bubble of illusion. In the narratives of other species, humans have never held the central position.

Lin Chen gritted his teeth and walked in one direction against the wind and snow. The mountain ridge seemed perpetually distant, the night perpetually deep.

Could he reach the foot of the mountain? Could he wait until dawn? Groundless, uneasy thoughts churned at the bottom of his mind. He took deep breath after deep breath, suppressing the tremors caused by both physiological and psychological factors.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, a golden light appeared in the distance. A pure white sacrificial altar stood in the snow, the same color as the ground, nearly vanishing into the white background. Only a crimson figure flowed through the grayish-white like blood, striking and vivid.

It was Qi Si. Lin Chen recognized him. It was the Qi Si who had killed tens of thousands of people.

Lin Chen had never thought he would meet Qi Si so soon, nor had he thought of what to say as an opening. But the moment he saw that figure, he walked over step by step, almost out of instinct.

Then he saw the young man in red leap down from the altar, walking toward him against the light, and extending a hand: “Lin Chen, you’ve come.

“The night in Shangri-La is the Ancestral God’s dream. Next, we need to consider how to walk out of this dream.”

…Qi Si no longer planned to become the Ancestral God. He suddenly felt that it was quite meaningless.

Sacrificing all humanity and followers to be a tool like ‘Huo,’ lacking one’s own will and emotions while meticulously executing the will of the rules, all to trade for the qualification to survive into the next era—it was truly boring, ridiculous, and pathetic.

Survival itself had no value and was not something that had to be pursued. Death did not seem like a monumental terror either.

Qi Si remembered that he didn’t seem to resist death from the very beginning. Entering the Eerie Game wasn’t to cure a terminal illness; he simply wanted to pick an interesting way to die.

As for seriously participating in every game and accumulating considerable competitive capital, it was simply because he didn’t want to lose and couldn’t stand seeing others win.

When did he develop a strong desire to survive and start wanting to live?

Oh, he remembered now. It was when he encountered the Ancestral God on the bus.

The moment he made eye contact with the woman, a long-lost fear arose. He was then submerged in an environment filled with the dead and mistakenly thought that fear was directed at death.

After entering Shangri-La, everyone was pursuing immortality and resisting death, so he felt he was the same and began to consider living.

But he was originally supposed to be as Zhou Ke said—not afraid of death, not begging for life… That’s right, the Ancestral God had induced him. The Ancestral God wanted him to live, wanted him to become the Ancestral God.

Thinking about it this way, at the end of the “Holy City” instance, the Ancestral God’s desire to occupy his body might not have been for resurrection at all, since resurrection was a certainty.

What the Ancestral God wanted was escape, to exchange fates with him… Things having come to this, Qi Si would not sacrifice another thing. What he had to do was find a way to leave the snow mountain and not let the Ancestral God have her way.

The wind and snow grew heavier, making the path almost invisible. Qi Si and Lin Chen walked one after the other, trudging forward.

A large area of ice walls appeared ahead, reflecting the phantoms of the dead. Qi Si once again saw his long-deceased parents.

The young couple’s expressions distorted and trembled under the blur of the snow, yet it could be seen that they were smiling: “Qi Si, why have you come with someone? Is he your friend?”

Qi Si smiled and said casually, “Yeah, we’ve known each other for quite a while. We met on the way and came together.”

The couple looked at each other, the smiles on their faces deepening: “That’s wonderful. Qi Si finally has a friend.”

Qi Si continued forward, passing through the area of ice walls with Lin Chen and stepping onto a vast, boundless ice field.

Rows of dark shadows emerged on the distant horizon. The Ghosts who died at his hands were returning, even more formidable than the previous night.

A familiar voice whispered in his ear: 【Qi, will you sacrifice your followers and humanity to become the Ancestral God…】

Qi Si understood. This was the choice the rules had given him.

He would either lose his self as “Qi Si” and become the Ancestral God, or lose his life as “Qi Si” and be torn apart by Ghosts.

In comparison, he felt it was better to just die.

“Lin Chen, it looks like those Ghosts are coming for me. If you don’t want to be buried with me, you’d better go back where you came from,” Qi Si said with a touch of humor, strolling toward the approaching crowd of Ghosts.

Lin Chen did not leave. Instead, he followed even closer, silently and resolutely chasing Qi Si’s increasingly fast footsteps like a ghost dwelling in a shadow.

Qi Si had to stop and look back, sighing helplessly. “I think you can go. If you die, the Unnamed Guild will cease to exist. I did invest points into it, after all.”

Lin Chen’s face was an unnatural pale, whether from fear or cold, but his eyes were unwavering.

“Brother… Brother Qi, I don’t care if the Unnamed Guild exists or not.” His lips trembled as he suddenly raised his hand and peeled off the human skin mask, revealing a youthful and delicate face. “I am not Lin Crow. I am… Lin Chen, the Lin Chen who owes you three lives. I want to… stay.”

He only assumed the instance’s “turn back into a child” mechanic had blurred the age distinction and that Qi Si hadn’t noticed the person inside had changed, so he spoke out this way.

But Qi Si possessed the memories of Qi from billions of years and the essence of a god. How could he not see it?

Qi Si said calmly, “In the ‘Colosseum’ instance, you saved me once. It’s already been paid back.”

Lin Chen shook his head. “Not paid back. There are two times left.”

Since Lin Chen was unwilling to leave, Qi Si let him follow. He even thought with a bit of malice that as the world’s greatest evil, a ghost dedicated to turning the human world into hell, taking someone with him to the grave seemed quite nice. That way, even if he died, it would at least be a bit warmer.

The Ghosts surrounded them, bypassing Lin Chen to tear at Qi Si’s body, biting from his limbs to his torso. Blood flowed from the wounds, soaking into the red suit inconspicuously but staining the white snow beneath him.

Tooth marks overlapped across his skin. Pain enveloped his entire body like a net. Strength and warmth drained away with the blood, as if his soul were being consumed by the Ghosts as well.

Lin Chen watched from the side, his face deathly pale. After a long, long time, he finally made a decision. He condensed the pure white 【Undead Shepherd】 card in his palm and silently thought the words: “Activate effect.”

It was as if a switch had been flipped. The snowflakes in the air turned around one after another, the white throughout the sky flying backward toward the high heavens, only to condense at a certain moment into a pale shroud draped over Lin Chen’s shoulders, as if crowning a new king who had waited for a long time.

The few Ghosts hanging onto Qi Si stopped their movements and fell under his control in a second. Memories from their lives poured into his mind—sad, painful, unwilling, desperate… He could completely obliterate them, but he couldn’t make such a decision. They were all innocent, and they were all in so much pain.

More and more Ghosts appeared. Just as the previous batch was controlled to back away, the next batch swarmed forward. He could only bring them all under his control.

The memories of countless people filled his Hall of Thought. He didn’t know when his face became covered in tears. The falling droplets froze into icicles on his cheeks—heavy and painful.

He tried his best to remain conscious and control more Ghosts. His mind was torn into countless pieces, and his consciousness gradually grew heavy. In the haze, he saw silver-white text:

【Identity Card hidden effect ‘Bellwether’ has been unlocked】

【Note: You will become one of the undead, severing all connections with reality; you will become the Pied Piper of Hamelin, leading them to the Promised Land; you are the only lighthouse in the world of the undead, and all undead will join your ranks and follow forever upon seeing you.】

【Do you wish to activate the hidden effect?】

Lin Chen knew that this was the opportunity to break the deadlock, and his purpose lay here.

He said without hesitation, “Yes.”

In an instant, a massive white-clad figure appeared against the clear dome of the sky. Overwhelming white wings enveloped the snow mountain. Feathers fell like heavy snow, turning a dirty grayish-black upon landing.

Lin Chen was kind. Only Lin Crow would condone Qi Si’s evil and save a villain like him.

But no Lin Chen would ever let Qi Si die, so Lin Chen was destined to become Lin Crow.

Lin Chen’s form became transparent inch by inch. All the Ghosts who saw him walked toward him as if they had lost their souls, forming a long line behind him, their forms fading as well.

The space around Qi Si soon became empty. Lin Chen stood in place, his thoughts and memories draining away with the process of turning into an undead, part of the price for severing connections with reality.

He looked down at the young man in red lying in a pool of blood, feeling an inexplicable sadness. His chest felt tight, as if someone were squeezing it, but no matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t remember the reason behind it.

Nor could he remember who the person before him was; he only remembered that he had to leave, taking all the Ghosts in the world away from the young man, the further the better.

And so, he turned around and walked step by step into the darkness deep within the snow mountain, a vast and mighty procession behind him.