Su Er felt as if he weren’t sitting on cold cement, but on a dense bed of nails. Upon hearing this, he jumped up like lightning, his expression difficult to describe: “There’s actually a Ghost King?”
Zhu Yu, who now had a very favorable impression of him, spoke up to help explain: “Every instance has a Ghost King, supported by the game.”
Otherwise, if all the ghosts fought freely, chaos would be inevitable!
Su Er understood: “So the Ghost King is essentially the puppet emperor supported by the game?”
Exaggerated as legends made it seem, in reality, it was just a tool to control the minor ghosts.
Zhu Yu gave him a curious look. Meanwhile, Su Er felt a chill beside him and turned his head to see a lean figure had appeared—someone in monk’s robes… more accurately, a demon monk.
Petal-shaped markings reflected in his pupils. His appearance was stunning, but there was no mercy in his eyes.
Upon appearing, he immediately fixed his gaze on Su Er and asked harshly, “Are you done yet?”
“We…” Su Er hesitated, ignoring the ominous feeling in his throat, and asked, “Have we met before?”
Judging by the absorbed hatred, he frantically signaled the others to review materials quickly. The demon monk changed tactics, eyes widening with extreme shock: “Your appearance, like…”
“Like fresh bamboo shoots after the rain, like snow-capped mountains eternal, standing apart from the world, astonishing my whole family.” Demon Monk said, “You already said this line to buy time a while ago.”
Su Er’s eyelashes twitched, doing his best to hide his stunned expression.
The demon monk sensed something amiss and mused, “I repeated it, effectively giving you more time.”
Su Er took advantage of this to shift slightly back. The Ghost King’s presence surely had a time limit, though he didn’t know how long had passed.
Noticing Su Er’s small movement, the demon monk smiled: “Afraid?”
Seeing the hidden cruelty behind the petal-shaped pupils, Su Er guessed it wouldn’t be easy to endure. He reflexively checked his items, realizing he was missing a healing potion. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed blood on the doorstep; judging from earlier movements, it was likely his own.
It seemed he’d fared poorly in the confrontations during memory loss.
He was still thinking about how to stall for time when the demon monk sighed helplessly: “All this scheming is pointless. If I wanted to kill you, it would take seconds.”
Su Er’s expression shifted, realizing he had misunderstood.
The game provides rewards, and taking risks to obtain them is the proper transaction.
The demon monk casually glanced at the other players flipping through books: “You want to find history from 300 years ago, to identify the original invader?”
Su Er nodded calmly; completing the task was the priority.
The demon monk pointed to a spot: “Sit.”
Not far from his feet was a meditation cushion, uniquely made of two pads joined by a single thin thread.
Memory gone but instincts intact, Su Er felt his body resist sitting. He took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and sat down. Instantly, a heavyweight pressed down on his shoulders, pinning him.
The weight increased every second, and just as he was about to collapse, the demon monk spoke: “This is no ordinary cushion.”
Su Er gritted his teeth: “Just tell me what to do?”
The monk’s flesh and skin became transparent, robes obscured much of his body. The exposed head was terrifying; every meridian was visible. The cerebellum was densely filled with eggs, while a peach blossom branch wrapped around the lethal parts, forming a barrier to contain the eggs.
For a moment, Su Er even forgot the pressure on him.
“The vaccine can eliminate the eggs inside, at any cost.”
The demon monk said with deep significance.
In plain terms: if the eggs couldn’t be destroyed, self-destruction would activate. Su Er had understood this when other players had died. The demon monk’s gaze now was complex. Su Er asked, “Are you now insect… or human?”
“Insect,” the demon monk replied, sitting on the other half of the cushion: “This shell is mine now. My true identity was once the Insect King of this planet.”
Su Er pressed his lips, momentarily stunned, then quickly extracted key information. As the ancient Insect King, he must know who the original invader was. Thinking about how to get information, he noticed embroidery on the side of the cushion: a peach blossom, with a small inscription.
He tilted his head to read: “Peach Blossom Spring Chronicle.”
Demon Monk: “The owner of this house planted a peach tree outside and carved these words into the trunk.”
Unfortunately, at that time, forced by rules, he could not kill the young man who would limit the insects’ growth.
The room wasn’t large, and the conversation was clearly audible to the others, who glanced at Ji Heng.
“Who would have thought he’d end up like that?”
Forced by his kin to undergo a brain transplant, with no control over life or death.
The demon monk looked at Ji Heng with ironic sympathy.
In just a minute of dialogue, Su Er felt his spine bend slightly under an invisible weight, making it hard to breathe.
The monk finally got to the point: “I named this cushion ‘Peach Blossom Spring Chronicle.’ Sit long enough, and it can eliminate all illusions.”
Blood trickled from Su Er’s mouth; his bones felt on the verge of being crushed: “Why do I—”
Before he finished, a blood streak appeared on his leg. If not for the blood soaking his pants, he might not have noticed.
Feigning ignorance of his wound, the demon monk continued: “The rule is simple. Sit on the cushion for seven minutes, and I will personally reveal the identity of the original invader.”
Previously, an external force applied pressure. Now, the cushion actively attacked, and he could not avoid it while sitting.
“Eliminate illusions…” repeating the monk’s earlier words, Su Er seemed to understand, and let out a bitter laugh: “So that’s it.”
The game brought them to the so-called real world to start a new life, seemingly beautiful but ultimately false.
Identity, family, name… in a sense, he himself was a false existence, explaining the attacks.
Su Er immediately thought of a stun gun, but shook his head—this wasn’t a ghost. If electrified now, he might be the one harmed. In a moment of thought, another gash appeared on his leg. A few centimeters more, and his tendon could have been severed.
“Two minutes left,” the demon monk encouragingly said.
A surge of danger hit Su Er. As he hesitated, Ji Heng suddenly shouted: “Get off!”
Reacting faster than thought, he rolled off the cushion and away.
The demon monk sighed: “You were so close. Why not hold on a little longer?”
Su Er was about to use a healing item, but only had one left.
The demon monk looked at the other players: “Three attempts remain. You can continue.”
Zhu Yu cautiously asked: “Continue meaning…”
“Sit for the remaining two minutes. It can be in relay form.”
It sounded easy enough, but no one stepped forward. Xu Yangyang and Jia Kanhua immediately realized the source of their wounds—someone must have already tried recently, and failed.
Zhu Yu asked, “So we just need to endure for two minutes?”
Could she just place some flowers and plants then?
The demon monk noticed her thought: “Only a visitor from afar should sit on the cushion. Think carefully before acting.”
Zhu Yu considered testing it with a bird but worried the cushion wouldn’t recognize it, wasting an attempt.
Xu Yangyang hesitated: “I have a pretty powerful healing item. Maybe I should try?”
Ji Heng snapped the book shut with a “clap” and narrowed his eyes: “It’s a futile effort. None of us meets the conditions.”
All the players’ current identities were fictitious within the game. To the cushion, they were all illusions to be destroyed.
The demon monk spoke calmly throughout, yet it was deeply unsettling to hear.
“Hurry up, or a new cycle will start, and I’ll have to explain everything from the beginning again.”
Everyone remained silent.
Princess Tea Flower stood in the shadows, laughing softly: “Regret it? If one of you had chosen to return as the key back then, this stage would have resolved itself.”
If Ji Heng became the key for the Core Project, he would regain his original native identity, and the cushion would recognize him as a real being.
“No,” Su Er suddenly interrupted. “If Ji Heng recovers his original memory, he’ll immediately know the identity of the original invader. Then what’s the point of this Ghost King stage?”
Suddenly, it all made sense: “It’s not the identity that matters—it’s the location!”
Princess Tea Flower’s expression changed instantly.
Su Er shuddered inside. The host was indeed an expert at secretly setting traps. In the dead-end instance, the hint Ji Heng received was to avoid habitual thinking. It wasn’t just suggesting the invader was human—it applied to the entire game.
The stage required eliminating the original invader. A normal person’s first reaction would be to discover the invader’s identity and attempt to kill them. In fact, knowing the invader’s location might be more important.
Zhu Yu frowned: “Even knowing the location might be useless.”
At the same time, many things could be in that location… humans, insects, ghosts, etc.
Princess Tea Flower returned to his usual expression and mockingly clapped: “At this point, you dare waste time playing pointless word games? Interesting.”
Item energy was limited, Su Er’s ankle hadn’t fully healed, and his strongest skill, reading comprehension, had been insulted as trash. He couldn’t help feeling annoyed and said to Ji Heng, “He insulted me.”
Originally a casual venting remark, unexpectedly, Ji Heng’s eyes shifted as if realizing something, and he suddenly stared at the host: “You once considered destroying this instance world to commit insurance fraud.”
“Insurance fraud?” Xu Yangyang exclaimed. “What do you mean?”
Ji Heng ignored him, staring firmly at Princess Tea Flower.
He openly shrugged: “If you think there’s a problem, feel free to report it anytime.”
Ji Heng slowly said, “No matter how powerful you are, you can’t blow up an entire planet. So the world-ending plan here is narrow in scope, targeting only certain species—humans and insects.”
Princess Tea Flower grew impatient: “So what?”
Ji Heng: “The original invader is neither human nor insect.”
Otherwise, if the plan succeeded, humans and insects would be gone, and the task would be automatically completed.
Princess Tea Flower tried to control her expression, forcing a smile: “My plan is built on the deaths of players.”
Ji Heng shook his head: “You’re meticulous. To implement it, you must ensure you’re not breaking rules. Even if one player survives, the host’s position is secure.”
He sighed and said firmly: “It’s an alien probe, isn’t it?”
Monitoring a planet billions of kilometers away for signs of life, studying its geology and climate. Once that’s clear, humans begin conquest. They had foolishly obsessed over who the planet once belonged to, neglecting the essence of the matter.
“......”a
Princess Tea Flower’s expression completely soured.
Players and hosts reacted oppositely. Xu Yangyang muttered “holy shit” several times. Upon reflection, the planet belonged to insects; humans arrived as an army. Neither condition fits. Comparing the possibilities, the alien probe seemed most likely.
“Impressive, my brother!” he couldn’t help stepping forward, full of admiration for Ji Heng.
Ji Heng’s focus was elsewhere.
“You should apologize to Su Er,” he said, directly addressing the host. “Reading comprehension is a sophisticated skill, not trash.”
Whether it was sophisticated, Princess Tea Flower didn’t know, but he felt about to explode with anger… Why had he mocked Su Er for no reason?
Now it was done—the attempt to attack indirectly had backfired, instead opening Ji Heng’s insight. Princess Tea Flower angrily looked at the demon monk: “Is it time? Reset the memory!”
The demon monk replied calmly: “Three minutes and forty seconds remain.” He focused on the players: “If you endure the last two minutes, I’ll reveal the invader’s location.”
Su Er felt the weight of the situation, cursing inwardly. Without realizing this, even enduring to learn the invader is a probe would only be the beginning. Afterwards, they’d still need to play another round with the Ghost King to locate the object.
“Divide the work?” Not wanting to look at the Ghost King again, he turned to the other players.
Zhu Yu gritted her teeth: “Fine.”
The demon monk smiled: “A friendly reminder—the closer to the end, the higher the risk of death.”
Once clarified, no one wanted to be last. From Su Er’s earlier experience, the cushion’s attack grows exponentially over time.
No one stepped up, and they were stuck, frowning and thinking.
“Yin energy,” a small voice interrupted Su Er’s thoughts. Looking down, the little clay figure had quietly crawled out of a pocket, emphasizing, “I want all the yin energy from the stun gun.”
The demon monk glanced with surprise… what the heck was that?
Su Er’s eyes lit up. The cushion recognized players as illusions, but the clay figure was different—barely a real ghost, perhaps not subject to attacks.
Seeing it about to climb the cushion, the demon monk extended a slender finger to block it: “What are you doing?”
The little clay figure, fearless and determined, focused on the yin energy around Su Er: “In… in service of my father’s army.”
----------
No comments:
Post a Comment