Infinite spooky game

"I thought I would never eat this kind of thing again in my life..." Nian Fu gave a quick bitter smile, and memories gradually filled her eyes.

The human brain has an emotional protection mechanism. Painful things can easily be diluted into a vague blank. Only when the pain becomes the norm will it be like a large mass of gray paint that leaves an unignorable mark on white paper.

Most of Nianfu's memories of the past took place in an orphanage.

Everything was in short supply there, including food, clothing and beds.

The director used the aid money allocated by the federal government to fatten himself up, and then used the meager swill that he could find to feed the children in the orphanage.

As long as no one starves to death, it doesn’t matter how harsh the conditions are. Even if a few people starve to death, chopping them up to feed pigs or selling them to the black industry chain are both good ways to deal with them.

It seems that the only purpose of those children is to serve as a publicity front for the charity foundation and to grab donations from people from all walks of life.

The rest of the time, they were thrown into various corners of the orphanage like unattended animals, and due to hunger and pain, they prematurely understood the law of the jungle where the strong prey on the weak, and fought like wild beasts for scarce resources.

Nianfu was a child who was sent to an orphanage midway. She was a pampered jewel in a family before she lost her parents. She was not as adaptable to the rules of competition as those children who grew up in such an environment.

During the first month, her food was often snatched away by the older children, and even her bed was occupied by them.

She could only sleep on the damp ground, and like other children who were driven into a corner, she picked up straw and spread it on the ground to make a hastily made bed.

The building was in disrepair, covered in cobwebs and all kinds of filth, and at night you could hear the squeaking sound of rodents crawling on the beams.

One night, Nianfu heard the squeaking sound at her feet, and the straw under her body seemed to be pulled by something.

She opened her eyes and saw a large rat with messy hair standing at her heels, standing upright like a human, its green bean-sized eyes shining in the darkness, staring at her intently.

After staring at her for a while, the mouse bent down again and stretched out its mouth with white whiskers to pick up the straw on the ground...

"I was very angry at the time. I thought I had nothing left, but that damn mouse was trying to snatch my last straw. I wanted it to die."

Nian Fu smiled, but her voice was calm: "So I caught it, and originally wanted to strangle it to death, but I thought that would be too easy.

“I hadn’t eaten for two days and was very hungry, so I put it to my mouth and bit off a piece of meat with my front teeth.

"I suddenly realized that humans are also animals. We can hunt like animals and use our claws and teeth to get food. In order to survive, humans can do anything.

"It was really bad luck. I didn't have to go to that orphanage because the procedures were quite troublesome. But there happened to be a family that went through the procedures and then changed their mind, so they replaced my information with theirs."

Qi Si took out a handkerchief from his backpack and carefully wiped the blood stains left by the rat meat between his fingers.

The sour taste of rat meat and blood lingered in his mouth. He regretted losing the [Evil God Finger Bone] that could transform the taste of meat into vegetarian food in the "Shuangxi Town" copy.

He listened quietly to Nian Fu's story. The three words "orphanage" seemed far away from him, but they were like sticky silk threads pulling at some of the information in his memory, lingering like gauze soaked in water.

He remembered that after his parents died when he was sixteen, his uncle and aunt had planned to throw him, a burden, directly into an orphanage in the suburbs of Jiangcheng.

At that time, his uncle took him to an old building covered with moss and fungi, and discussed the procedures for donating funds and various documents with the pot-bellied dean.

He was walking alone in the dilapidated corridors. Countless ghostly faces of children appeared between the window panes, staring at him like evil spirits from the abyss.

He seemed to see a few special faces, and maybe there was indeed a girl gnawing on a rat, but all he could think was that he hated this place and he was leaving.

Later, his uncle did not throw him into an orphanage after all, but took him back to his hometown in the countryside.

One night, he heard his uncle and aunt talking through the wall.

"That little bastard is really evil. I'm afraid he has been possessed by something unclean."

"You were the one who insisted on taking him in. He's a monster, and you brought him home, causing chaos all day long."

"You know that you also had that dream that night. The evil god said that if we abandon him, our whole family will die!"

"Evil God, another evil god. He looks like an evil god to me!"

Many fragments of memory are buried deep in the mind, and once touched, they fly up.

Qi Si suddenly remembered the foundation his father had donated to during his lifetime, which seemed to be mainly engaged in orphanage-related businesses.

His fate should have been inextricably linked to that orphanage. If nothing unexpected happened, he would be thrown into another fate closely intertwined with the orphanage, and the details of his character would be different because of his different experiences.

But there was a being outside the chessboard who stretched out his finger and gently moved the chess piece. The movement was as small as the flapping of a butterfly's wings, but it allowed him to escape the web of his original fate.

The experience that should have been his was given to another person, and he was able to sit back and listen to someone else's story.

Nian Fu sighed, still smiling: "I'm not telling you this to gain your sympathy, it's just because this copy gives me a very familiar feeling. Although I can't find any similarities in appearance, I still think of that orphanage.

"Resources are so scarce that everyone is engaged in a survival competition with no winners. They fight to the death, but they can't see the future at all. To put it in an analogy, it's like a group of maggots fighting each other, and in the end all they get is rotten meat.

"At that time, I thought it was like a Colosseum."

Qi Si did not have the leisure to soothe the childhood trauma of his teammates. In his opinion, the stories that others voluntarily confessed were not much more true than novels. Even if they were true, they were just handles that could be used.

It's just that everything is just too coincidental.

The food given to players in the copy happens to be rat meat, which can be recognized by Nian Fu.

Nian Fu happened to have lived in an orphanage, and seemed to have a close connection with him.

They just happened to form a team in this instance and could share this information.

Since entering the game, Qis has had a feeling of being manipulated by a higher-level being, and Qi also truthfully told him about the existence of the gambling game of the gods.

But the manipulation does not seem to stop there, the whole world seems to be proceeding step by step as if it were a written program.

This feeling of being manipulated reached its peak in this instance. From the moment Chang Xu activated the Dark Judge effect, the situation was actually out of his control, and all subsequent choices were made passively. He was no longer at the center of the stage, but became an NPC-like existence, being watched and calculated by the players, ready to deliver a fatal blow at any time.

—It’s terrible and very uncomfortable.

"Do you have any contact information with your teammate?" Qi Si looked at Nian Fu, "Is the food he eats also rat meat?"

Nian Fu closed her eyes for two seconds, and when she opened them again, she nodded: "Yes, I suspect that all the food here is rat meat."

"Is that so?" Qi Si lowered his eyes and looked at his fingers, and pictures flashed before his eyes.

"I thought of a game called 'Beast Chess'," he said. "There are eight kinds of chess pieces in total, namely elephant, lion, tiger, leopard, wolf, dog, cat and mouse. Among them, lion, tiger, leopard, wolf, dog and cat can eat mice, and mice can eat the largest elephant.

"According to the rules of the game of Beast Battle, the food chain relationship between rats and elephants will be the key to breaking the game."

"Why do you think this is a game of beast fighting?" Nian Fu frowned. "There are eight types of chess pieces in total, but only six teams. Moreover, we are 'foxes', which do not belong to any type of chess."

"The fox is a canine, which corresponds to the 'dog' in the game of chess. Moreover, the chess pieces are not necessarily in the middle of the field." Qi paused and asked, "Do you remember which animal is sitting in the highest seat in the audience?"

Nian Fu recalled carefully according to Qi Si's words.

All kinds of animals were crowded together in the auditorium. It became more crowded towards the bottom and more spacious towards the top.

The seats below are mostly occupied by cows, sheep, cats and dogs, while the seats above are occupied by carnivores such as tigers, leopards and lions. However, there is an animal that sits above these predators...

"Elephant." Nian Fu blurted out.

Qi Si nodded and stated calmly: "Among all the animal-themed games, including the worldviews of various animations and novels, only the game of Beast Battle sets the elephant as the strongest beast."

"Is it only Beast Chess?"

"That's what I know, and I believe the dungeon won't set puzzles that exceed the knowledge limit of the players." A light golden item flashed in Qi Si's hand, and Nian Fu couldn't see clearly what it was. "The key to winning in Beast Chess is to avoid being in danger and to seize the opponent's flaws as much as possible.

"Considering that in this game, the amount of information among players is not equal, that is, they know their own corresponding animals but not others' animals, I thought of an interesting way to play..."

……

"The current situation is actually very interesting. It's still early, so I can analyze it for you in detail."

On the other side, Chu Xun sat on the straw bed and spoke slowly and calmly: "First of all, it can be made clear that Chang Xu's targeting of Qi Si was not the intention of the Jiuzhou Guild. On the contrary, it is very likely an illegal act that violated the guild's orders.

"Recently, the forum has been in an uproar over the identity card issue. Jiuzhou is in an important stage of internal cleansing and is caught in the whirlpool of public opinion. We will never take the initiative to expose our non-compliant behavior to the public and add fuel to the fire.

"As the number one on the newcomer list, Chang Xu is the one who is being trained and promoted. He cannot afford any stains. Using the extreme mechanism of the identity card to attack new guild members is likely to cause negative impacts, even if there is a reason.

"So, no matter whether Qi Si is dead or alive, Chang Xu will be sanctioned by the Jiuzhou Guild as long as he leaves this instance, and it is likely that it will not be as simple as expulsion from the guild. Chang Xu himself cannot be unaware of this, but he still did it. It can be said that dealing with Qi Si is a desperate and crazy move for him. He wants to win more than any of us.

"A desperate gambler will be willing to sacrifice his own interests in order to achieve the ultimate victory. This is something we can take advantage of."

Green listened in confusion and asked, "So, we are going to cooperate with Chang Xu and discuss the conditions for helping them?"

"No." Chu Xun shook his head, "We don't cooperate with anyone.

"Qisi has been judged by his identity card and has become the target of the entire dungeon. Any inclination of one team is a timely help to him. In order to win our support, he may also bring us considerable benefits.

"Only when the chess pieces are not placed can the players think and be cautious. We have a huge advantage and can just sit back and watch."

Green scratched his head and said, "Brother, what you said makes sense, but it doesn't seem quite right. Didn't that guy named Fan Zhanwei clearly indicate that he would stand on Qi Si's side?"

"He just thinks he's smart and wants to be a speculator who can please everyone. Unfortunately, they don't have the capital to raise the price." Chu Xun looked at the tiger mask hanging on the wall, and a faint smile appeared on the corner of his lips, "Unless they are lions."

……

"We are 'Lions'."

Fan Zhanwei suddenly put down the bowl of rat meat in his hand, stood up, walked to the wall, took down the lion mask hanging on it, and felt around gently.

"I've thought of it. Only in the game of chess will the elephant be placed on the top. So that's it. I should have thought of it earlier." He seemed excited and read very quickly, "We are lions. We can eat tigers, leopards, wolves, dogs, cats, and mice. We are second only to elephants, and the elephant is in the audience..."

Lin Ye held the bowl and sat beside him, looking at his teammates walking around in confusion.

The latter's originally lifeless eyes now shine brightly, reminding people of the legendary neurotic Frankenstein.

He swallowed and said, "What do you mean by all that nonsense you're talking about?"

"I'm guessing the rules and mechanism of this beast fighting game." Fan Zhanwei held the lion mask and talked freely, "If this game is really based on the real beast fighting chess, then I think we are not at a disadvantage as I guessed, on the contrary, we have the greatest advantage within the scope of the mechanism.

"We will continue to win, no matter how many teams we offend or how many people we hate. Because we are the 'lion', the biggest chess piece after the 'elephant'."

Lin Ye was completely confused.

He has played chess. When he was not yet a street thug but the youngest son with high hopes in the family, his parents often played various educational games with him.

Although he always made a mess of playing, and lost his temper in front of his parents' helpless eyes, smashing the chess pieces and chessboard to the ground...

Lin Ye opened his mouth and asked, "What if one team is an elephant?"

"No." Fan Zhanwei put down the lion mask, stretched out a finger, and pointed to the top of his head, "The elephant is there."

Under the wall with the tiger mask hanging on it, Chu Xun lowered his index finger and pointed at the bowl filled with flesh and blood: "The rat is here."

(End of this chapter)