Chapter 443: Gods (Fifteen) Disaster

On May 11th, the post Si Qi made on the Weird Game Forum continued to ferment.

The number of players only accounted for a very small fraction of the entire human population, but they were distributed across all strata and industries, including high-ranking officials in the Federal Government and directors of monopoly groups, enough to exert extraordinary influence on this world.

The global turmoil that swept through the past week left them with lingering fears. Although they managed to survive by relying on past accumulation, if another similar large-scale Weird invasion occurred, even if they had a way to survive themselves, they would no longer have the capacity to protect their close friends, relatives, and assets.

Furthermore, Si Qi had made it clear that the Weird entities under his control would kill unconditionally if they lost control. This meant that the ensuing crisis would be unpredictable, unavoidable, and unending. It might even escalate into a man-made disaster similar to nuclear contamination, causing massive economic and population losses.

No one wanted to see such a future unfold.

Players with influence were already mobilizing their remaining forces in reality, pressuring Fu Jue through multiple channels.

A director of the Federal Council called the Weird Investigation Bureau Jiangcheng Branch, demanding to speak with Fu Jue. After learning that Fu Jue was still en route, he declared that Fu Jue must cease all actions immediately, or he would be prosecuted for crimes against humanity.

Financial groups closely linked to the gray area spent huge sums hiring all sorts of people to track down Fu Jue. If they could control him and reach a consensus, that would be ideal. If he refused to cooperate, killing him on the spot was also acceptable.

The majority, however, were ordinary people struggling to survive the current situation, able only to shout demands at Fu Jue via the game forum.

#Fu Jue, your Jiuzhou has been targeting the Unnamed Guild, causing internal strife that is leading all humanity to ruin. Your intentions are malicious!#

#God Fu, I used to worship you. Can you please consider us and put aside your personal grudges for now? We can deal with everything else later.#

#So what if Si Qi is a massacre-style player? Hasn’t Fu Jue harmed anyone? Ultimately, this is just Jiuzhou’s excuse to eliminate dissent!#

#A Letter to Fu Jue: Fu Jue, stop! Don’t go after Si Qi anymore! We shouldn’t be the sacrifices in your struggle!#

Of course, some people questioned Si Qi, believing he was acting like a terrorist holding hostages to threaten the authorities, and that his statements were merely to achieve his own ulterior motives.

In response, the account named “Si Qi” posted another message, roughly stating that he had been looking for a way to die long before entering the Weird Game, and he deeply agreed with the many people who wished him dead. As for what happens when the Weird entities under his control lose control after his death… well, everyone should pray for themselves.

If the previous post, concerning the number of Weird entities he controlled and the potential impact, was vague and difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood, this post was genuinely true. Anyone who had watched Si Qi’s game streams knew he was an unpredictable lunatic with a significant self-destructive tendency.

Suddenly, some players who had been focused on denouncing Fu Jue split off to bombard those who questioned Si Qi: Why are you being so verbally provocative? What if you push this psychopath too far and he just detonates everything?

No one knew exactly how many Weird entities Si Qi truly controlled, or whether his claim of causing casualties in the hundreds of millions was an exaggeration or the truth. But life is singular, and no one dared to gamble.

Moreover, judging by the content of the post, Si Qi possessed a divine name in a mortal body and was highly likely the winner of the Final Dungeon. Even if just to secure a place in the new world, it couldn’t hurt to worship him and actively choose a side early on.

Lin Jue and some of his direct subordinates knew the exact situation. Si Qi had neither obtained the Ancestral God Authority nor controlled many Weird entities—only four: Rose, Colosseum, Insomnia Virus, and Qijia Village. Even if they fully erupted, based on the Weird Investigation Bureau’s past experience, their influence could be ended within half a year.

But the problem was that, being at the center of the storm, no one would believe their words.

Ever since before the Final Dungeon started, when Lin Jue used all the previously contained Weird entities as leverage to force the entire W.I.B. to obey him, the Federal high-ups had defined him the same way they defined Si Qi: “a lunatic who stops at nothing to achieve his goals.” Who would trust the unilateral statement of a lunatic?

A blatant scheme could not be more obvious or flawless. Even if there were clever outsiders who could discern the truth, they wouldn’t dare gamble on the reality of Si Qi’s hand or the veracity of Lin Jue’s words.

“This is humanity. Their minds are wrapped up in suspicion, and they think they are smart, so they are never willing to trust. They are more willing to bow to violence than follow justice, wagging their tails and begging for temporary peace. It only takes a few simple words to make them abandon their long-held beliefs and turn their spears against their former hero…”

Si Qi sat in the back seat of the off-road vehicle, fiddling with his newly acquired smartphone, constantly refreshing the game forum posts, while speaking on speakerphone: “Lin Jue, if nothing unexpected happens, a considerable number of people now wish you dead. I’m very curious: as a savior who has always championed the slogan’saving all humanity,’ would you choose to commit suicide when all humanity demands your death?”

The voice on the other end of the line was silent for a moment, then resumed, calm and undisturbed: “In every round of the game, the ending I write for myself is death. After I kill you, I will quickly quell the impact you caused, and commit suicide once the dust settles, ending the disturbance the Weird Game has caused the world over the past thirty-six years.”

“A beautiful thought, worthy of Lin Jue.” Si Qi laughed. “But unfortunately, instead of worrying about killing me, you might need to worry about your own personal safety. I hope you are still safely in Shangri-La, as you previously claimed, and not on a plane rushing back to Jiangcheng, otherwise one bomb could leave you without a corpse.

“Oh, I might need to remind you, you won’t be so lucky in this round of the game. Few middle-schoolers like Fu Jue are willing to hand their bodies over to their predecessors. The effect of the 【Fallen Savior】 card has already been triggered once. The next time it triggers, it will likely require your death to resurrect someone else in your body.”

“I know.” Inside an unremarkable long-distance bus, Lin Jue hung up the phone.

The screen displayed an internal communication software. A person noted as 【Ting Feng】 had sent a message: “Fu Jue, the helicopter that carried you exploded over Shancheng. It was a bomb launched from the Shancheng Military Base. Many people in the Federation want you dead. You must be careful, don’t let our investment go to waste.”

Lin Jue rapidly typed a line and pressed send: “Some of them have bad memories and forgot what I told them before entering the Final Dungeon. I will remind them again.”

The moment he saw Si Qi’s first post, Lin Jue anticipated the subsequent developments. It wasn’t that he was deeply versed in human nature, but rather that after dealing with high-ranking Federal officials for so long, he knew the nature of those corrupt, parasitic worms.

Thus, the helicopter secretly landed at an air-raid shelter in Shancheng. Lin Jue and the Ting Feng group chartered a bus as ordinary refugees, claiming they saw the situation improving and wanted to return to their hometowns to handle their assets.

The driver was not a Weird Game player and naturally did not know Lin Jue’s identity. Furthermore, it would take some time for the news from the game forum to spread, so he also didn’t know that a lunatic named “Si Qi” was holding lives hostage.

Exorbitant fees were inevitable, but Lin Jue was not short on money; if the driver attempted robbery or murder, the Ting Feng group had firearms and ammunition.

The group once again set off for their destination. Midway, to cover their tracks, the helicopter that brought them to Shancheng ascended again using unmanned technology and was indeed shot down by the Shancheng army after they received the news.

It would take some time for them to search for bodies and realize what happened. This time difference was enough for Lin Jue to reach Modu, which neighbors Jiangcheng, and then switch to another helicopter to land in Jiangcheng.

This is why, although a direct flight from Shangri-La to Jiangcheng, accounting for rest and contingencies, only takes ten hours, Lin Jue informed Mu Dongxu that his landing time would be May 12th… May 12th, early morning, outside the Jinjiang Residential Area in Jiangcheng.

The once busy streets were now overgrown with wildly proliferating Roses. Thick vines wrapped around tilted houses and shattered walls. The dark green flower stems were covered in sharp barbs, the length of small knives, with scattered corpses of small animals hanging from them.

Investigators wearing the W.I.B. uniform were suspended high up, clustered by petals, their lower bodies completely corroded by pus-yellow mucus, half-sunken into the flower stamen. Some had been dead for a long time, their remains emitting the stench of decay; others still held their last breaths, letting out intermittent, painful groans.

Five days ago, the Weird Investigation Bureau realized that the Rose Weird entity’s proliferation was closely linked to the Jinjiang Residential Area. Si Qi, or rather Qi Si, who was manipulating the Weird entity behind the scenes, was a resident of the Jinjiang Residential Area, and Qiu Lihua, the infected person who first planted the Rose Weird entity, often set up a stall at the morning market outside the Jinjiang Residential Area.

Relying on their past experience dealing with Weird entities, they rashly believed that simply finding the source of the entity and suppressing it with all their might would stop its spread. Consequently, the action teams from the First Department and Second Department were deployed, surrounding the Jinjiang Residential Area.

Everything felt like a nightmare. They parachuted in via helicopter and saw the back of a young man in a white shirt and black trousers standing in the center of the residential area. In a trance, they forgot that Qi Si was far away in Shangri-La participating in the Final Dungeon, assuming the person was the culprit who caused this disaster, and instinctively gave chase.

The young man started running. They followed closely, and when they regained their senses, they were already deep inside a casino overwhelmed by Roses, where they saw Shao Qingmin, the Director of the Second Department of the Beidu General Bureau, hanging upside down from the ceiling.

The man had been dead for a long time, a large patch of blood spreading across his chest. His ribcage was hollowed out, exposing his heart, which had clearly been pierced by a sharp weapon. Despite this, he was still “alive”—no, he was actually dead, but maintained basic reflexes in a Weird state.

Hearing someone approach, his rose-covered heart, encircled by ribs, began to beat frantically, emitting a buzzing sound like a gramophone recording: “Run… it’s dangerous here…”

Like a warning before a catastrophe, the moment the words fell, the previously seamless ceiling shattered, and overwhelming vines surged into the casino from outside, wrapping around the investigators’ necks and ankles.

The lead investigator reacted quickly, pulling the trigger on the young man in the white shirt ahead of him. “Bang, bang!” Gunshots rang out incessantly. The young man’s body shattered under the hail of bullets, his limbs flailing wildly from the impact.

The young man turned his face—it was an unfamiliar face, not Qi Si’s. Half his face was covered in vines, and a Rose grew in his eye socket. He was undoubtedly an innocent person contaminated by the Weird entity.

“It’s a trap! We fell for it!” an investigator shouted.

But it was too late.

The rustling sound of snakes slithering echoed throughout the area. The vines captured their prey and returned the way they came. In an instant, all the investigators were suspended outside the Jinjiang Residential Area, like shrikes showing off their trophies.

Yang Yao’s back looked a lot like Qi Si’s. Even his biological mother, Qiu Lihua, sometimes thought so. Whenever she saw Qi Si, she couldn’t help but think of her good-for-nothing son, so she always added the most generous filling to the egg pancakes she sold Qi Si.

She was very grateful to Qi Si. Since the young man gave her that pot of Roses, good things had happened in their family every day.

Her son came back safely and turned over a new leaf, never gambling again. He started taking odd jobs, was diligent, and earned a good amount. Not long ago, he gained the trust of a noble person, and the two partnered up to do business, earning a large sum of money.

Her son was incredibly filial. The first thing he did with the money was buy his mother a pile of health supplements and build a four-story western-style house in their hometown, with high steps, which truly allowed her to show off in front of her girlfriends.

Her son had a family—a gentle daughter-in-law and an obedient grandson. They lived with her, constantly showing concern, and everyone envied her for enjoying such domestic bliss… That day, Qiu Lihua was taking a morning walk when she saw a helicopter land outside the Jinjiang Residential Area. A man in a black suit and rimless glasses, accompanied by several others, descended from the aircraft, seemingly armed with guns.

Qiu Lihua somehow knew this man had come to deal with her son.

Kill him… Must kill him… If he dies, my son will be safe… Qiu Lihua roared and charged at the man, swinging Rose vines, only to see the man raise his pistol and aim it at her.

A sharp pain shot through her chest, and in an instant, coldness spread throughout her body. Life, along with the influence of the Weird entity, drained away. Past, suppressed memories flooded back like a tide. She was like someone abruptly waking from a nightmare, her vision finally clearing in the last moment.

She remembered in horror that she had no daughter-in-law or grandson. Her son had only returned to her a week and a half ago, and immediately went back to gambling… After that, she knew nothing.

She looked at the fresh blood covering the ground and the massive Roses whose vines writhed as if alive, suspecting she was witnessing the end of the world. Amidst the overwhelming terror, she could barely form one thought: Where is my son? Where is my son?

She struggled to turn her head and saw a corpse in a white shirt and black trousers lying on the ground, its back riddled with bullets, the pool of blood beneath it congealing into a brownish stain… Lin Jue put away his gun, his gaze cold as he watched the civilian contaminated by the Weird entity lower her head. His usually indifferent expression showed a rare hint of change.

The Ting Feng group remained silent, holding their breath as they took in the horrific, hellish scene. Never before had they so directly experienced what the Weird entity invasion meant for the world.

The surviving investigator was startled awake by the gunshot. He lifted his eyelids and saw the expressionless Lin Jue, his eyes lighting up with surprise: “God Fu… Director, did you come to save us?”

But quickly, he denied himself: “No, it’s all fake… you’re all hallucinations. Don’t trick me anymore…”

This investigator was young, in his early twenties, looking like he had just graduated from college and started working recently. Rose vines crept up his neck. He never gave up struggling, keeping his eyes wide open, staring at the terrifying scene around him, his face covered in snot and tears, yet refusing to sink into the beautiful dream woven by the Roses.

Lin Jue took a few steps forward, looking up to meet his eyes, and said seriously: “I am Fu Jue. I just returned after clearing the Final Dungeon, and I apologize for being late. I cannot save you. Currently, the W.I.B. has no way to cleanse Weird contamination. Even if you survive, your ultimate destination is a containment room on the fifth underground floor.”

This was undoubtedly a cruel but honest answer. Upon hearing it, the investigator’s face lit up with ecstasy: “You really are God Fu! You… you will end all of this and save all humanity, won’t you? Just like you said before…”

“I will,” Lin Jue said. “Is there anything else you need?”

For twenty-two years, he had always been as strictly professional as a cold, precise machine. This was the first time he had promised to fulfill someone else’s request outside of regulations.

“Director, I can’t hold on…” The investigator’s eyelids slowly drooped. “Kill me… please kill me…”

The second he closed his eyes, a vibrant Rose burst from his mouth and lunged toward Lin Jue’s face.

Lin Jue dodged sideways, raised his pistol, and pulled the trigger.