Infinite spooky game

Chapter 291: Colosseum (VII) "You have no desire"

The ten-minute countdown ended, and all the players finished eating. The bowls they were holding in their hands or placing on the ground disappeared along with the spilled blood, as if they had never existed.

The light in the room dimmed gradually, and without any lighting, the room soon fell into a cage-like darkness.

Qis took out a flashlight from his backpack and shone it along the stone wall inch by inch, starting from the corner of the room.

The previously unclear image became as bright as fire under the direct light, smudged and pieced together into a complete picture.

The simple and crude lines outline the imprint of the myth. Combined with the world view background supplemented by Nian Fu, it can be judged that the record is of the previous beast fighting games.

From the battles between humans and beasts in the Golden Age, to the battles between beasts and humans in the Silver Age, to the battles between humans and humans in the Bronze Age...

So how will the heroic age we are living in now end?

Qi Si held the fox mask and stood in front of the last blank stone wall.

There is a bronze hook embedded in the center of the stone wall, which seems to be a place to hang masks.

Considering that there might be mechanisms in the closed room, and with the pocket watch of destiny, it would be okay even if the death point was triggered, Qis directly hung the fox mask in his hand on it.

In an instant, the walls that should have been gray and dilapidated reflected scenes of light and shadow, which were too abstract and stream-of-consciousness to be easily read.

The fox mask was hanging firmly on the stone wall, as if it had grown out of the stone. Its black eyes were wide open among the orange-red hair, staring at Qi Si like a living thing.

Qi Si reached out to touch the wall, and a surging river of blood flashed before his eyes. The sticky old blood was mixed with the blood of the newly dead, and skulls and bones floated above it.

It is very similar to the blood pool under the stone platform of the Colosseum, but it is even more vast and vast, making people think of the deaths of hundreds of people.

The strong smell of blood hit me in the face, rushing into my nostrils like worms and tentacles; human voices like a tsunami rolled in my ears, as if they were calling out and praying.

Qisi looked at the fox mask and asked, "What is that?"

The smell and noise gradually faded away, and a deep voice sounded: "That was the world in the past, and it is also the world in the present. The blood of the dead flows into rivers and is poured into the wine cups of the feast of the gods.

"I've told you the answer, and you have to answer my question too."

[Side mission has been triggered]

[Side quest (must do): Answer the Sphinx's riddle]

A cold electronic sound rang out, and both people in the room could hear it.

Qi Si lifted his eyelids and glanced at the words that appeared on the system interface, then turned his head to look at Nian Fu: "Do you think this task is worth doing?"

From Nian Fu's perspective, Qi Si just fiddled with the wall for a while and triggered the side quest.

Although side quests often contain hidden dangers, most of the time they mean opportunities and clues, so there is no reason to give up when you encounter them.

——And there is no option to refuse the mission in the weird game.

From Qi Si's calm attitude, it can be seen that he did not trigger the side quest by accident, but was well prepared and even had room for choice...

Should we say that he is indeed an intellectual player?
Nian Fu exhaled lightly, walked to the wall, and cast a dark look at the fox mask: "It only said to answer, but did not say to 'answer correctly'. I guess there will be no negative impact even if the answer is wrong."

Qi Si nodded slightly and turned his gaze back to the wall.

The fox mask now plays the role of the Sphinx. Its furry appearance presents the texture of marble at certain angles, reflecting cold light, as if it were a stone statue in an ancient Greek temple.

It stared at Qisi, its mouth opening and closing as it asked, "What is your desire?"

This question has no beginning or end, and it seems that there will be no specific answer.

Qi Si lowered his head and looked at his hands. His pale fingertips were not covered in mud or dirt, but seemed to be entangled with blood and black smoke.

"My desire..."

He suddenly remembered the dream he had after coming out of the Red Maple Leaf Boarding School copy. The monster with his face on his body sprinkled dirt on him and said to him: "Humans must have desires. What are your desires?"

He didn't answer at that time. What he was thinking of was a humorous answer like "destroy the world", but he couldn't figure out anything more specific.

"What is your desire?" asked the Sphinx.

Qi Si recalled the introduction of the character he played by the narrator in the dungeon background, and replied with a smile that was almost joking: "Maybe it's becoming a god."

The Sphinx closed his eyes for a while and then opened them again, his head trembling slightly: “No, that is not your desire, you have no desire.

"I can't see what you are longing for, I can't see what makes you happy, your heart is a desolate emptiness, I can't find the answer I need in the white nothingness..."

"Isn't becoming a god considered a desire?" Qi Si tilted his head and asked seriously, "If I could really become a god, it would be quite interesting. I would probably feel happy."

"But even if you know that you can never become a god, you will not feel uncontrollable pain because of it." The Sphinx said, "There was once a person whose desire was to live, and at the moment of death he was overwhelmed by fear. I tasted the salty pain.

“There was once a man whose desires were money and power. After he fell into the dust, he committed suicide because he could not endure poverty and lowliness and was crushed by the cold and bitter pain.

“People who come here will despair because they have no control over their own life and death, will feel humiliated because they are treated like animals, and will be angry because of the poor food and shelter…

"What about you? Have you ever felt angry?"

The Sphinx's crescent-shaped eyes were mysterious and deep, as if it really wanted to know Qis's answer.

Qis looked into its eyes quietly, and fragments of past experiences emerged in his mind, which according to normal emotional logic should have made him angry.

When he was bullied by his classmates, when he was abused by his uncle and aunt, when he was sent to a cult base... he should have been angry, but in fact he didn't feel too strange when he recalled it.

He didn't even have any emotions at the time. He just felt that solving the root cause of the problem through murder and arson was the most normal thing, as if he was programmed into an automatic question-and-answer program, where the input process could output the results.

"Not before." Qi Si thought for a moment and said, "But I think if I am kept busy by the promise of becoming a god and then told that there is no hope, I will still be unhappy."

The Sphinx seemed to approve of this answer, and sighed, "That is not anger, because you have no desire.

“It is terrible to exist without desires. He does not know what he really wants, nor does he know what is beautiful or happy.

"He will make choices based on instinct and inertia. Even if it leads to a dead end, he will not turn around. He will only stop there when he can no longer go on or when his life is burned out.

"He has no past and no future. He is like a dead object without a soul, and can only bring destruction without reason. Are you such an existence?"

The Sphinx asked a question, but without waiting for Qi Si to answer, he turned his eyes to Nian Fu and asked in a flat tone: "What is your desire?"

Nian Fu, who had been listening to a lot of abstract philosophical questions, was already at a loss. At this moment, she blurted out subconsciously: "I want a bindable ID card."

The Sphinx closed his eyes and said, "It will take three thousand points to realize this wish. Wake me up when you have enough points." "Ah? Do you mean I can get an identity card if I accumulate enough points?"

Nian Fu opened her eyes wide and was about to ask a few more questions, but the prompt [Side Quest Completed] was refreshed.

The skulls on the wall shed their cold and hard outer shells and regained the fluffy texture of the fox masks.

Qi Si took off his mask, turned his back to the wall, and smiled easily: “At least we solved a problem.

"The gods of the past and present have slaughtered humans wantonly, using human blood to build rivers of blood for them to drink or bathe in. In short, they need human blood, and their methods are cruel.

"So the characters we play know that they will die, but they still have to participate in this beast fighting game. Because no matter what, the situation can't get worse."

He gave a brief description of what he saw after hanging the mask on the wall.

Nian Fu listened carefully and smiled: "Indeed, this makes sense."

She paused, her eyes falling on the hook in the middle of the wall: "I'm thinking about what 'desire' means in this copy. Why can my desire be counted, but yours can't?"

"Maybe it's because I'm not human." Qi Si half closed his eyes and said in a joking tone, "But I'm curious why you are so obsessed with getting an identity card."

Only the light of the flashlight was shining in the darkness, as if a living space for humans had been forcibly carved out of the chaos, small but better than nothing.

The pale circle of light had its edges blurred by the darkness, making it look much softer, illuminating Nian Fu's face in patches of light and dark.

"Because I'm tired of being kept in the dark and letting others decide my fate." Nian Fu smiled bitterly, "Without an identity card, I am not eligible to enter the final copy.

"Whether we live or die, and where the weird game will go, will all depend on the success or failure of the players who enter the final dungeon. There's nothing we can do except wait outside.

"I hate the feeling that my fate is beyond my control. I must bind an identity card, even if it is the weakest one, at least I am qualified to participate.

"I know it's dangerous, but even if I die in the final instance, it's better than dying or living unclearly outside."

Qi Si asked: "If you don't get the ID card, will you be miserable?"

"Yes," Nian Fu said, "After the players with identity cards enter the final dungeon, if I stay outside and don't know what is happening inside and what the situation is, I will go crazy."

"Is that so?" Qi Si sat down on the straw bed, stroking the hair of the mask in his arms, without comment.

Nian Fu smiled nonchalantly and lay down on the straw bed: "I'm going to sleep first. The beast fighting game should officially start tomorrow. I hope we won't have any problems due to lack of sleep."

Zeiss turned off the flashlight and threw it back into his backpack.

It was as if real darkness had filled the room again, and even with my eyes open I could not see anything, as if I were in the nothingness at the beginning of the universe.

Qi Si closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into the palace of thought.

Dressed in red, he wandered in the mist, and when he pushed aside the familiar cover, all he saw were dead vines.

After [Soul Contract] was banned, all the golden leaves withered and fell off, leaving only the blood-red leaves closely connected to the [Scarlet Priest] card.

That is not control at the contractual level, but a belief embedded in the soul. Even if the god is defeated and dying, he is still a god.

Others no longer believe in God, and the only believer is alone, but he still follows the God he believes in.

——It’s like being poisoned.

Qis walked to the end of the Hall of Thought and raised his hand to touch the last bloody leaf.

Lin Chen's worried voice rang out: "Brother Qi, what's wrong? Did something happen? I've been watching Chang Xu's live broadcast, but I didn't expect that he didn't open it this time..."

"Well, something happened. Chang Xu wanted to kill me, and I also planned to kill him." Qi Si recounted what happened after entering the copy in a light-hearted tone.

After Lin Chen finished listening, his voice became even more nervous: "What's going on? Why? Brother Qi, what should I do? I'm going to find Jiuzhou Guild now!"

"It's useless." Qi Si sighed, "The dungeon has already started, they can't get in, and the players inside can't get out either. All we can do is end this game as soon as possible.

"Compared to wasting time in Kyushu and being bullied by them, you have more important value. I need you to keep in touch with me and tell me the answers to some questions."

"Those people in Jiuzhou are too much. I will go to them to seek justice after this instance is over." Lin Chen calmed down a little and said in a cold voice, "Brother Qi, I am at the guild residence now and have just renewed my stay for three days. If you need anything, please feel free to tell me."

Qi Si hummed and said, "Go and help me find out what the 'Sphinx' is."

Lin Chen quickly passed on the information he had found: "The Sphinx is an evil creature with a human body and a snake tail, representing God's punishment.

"Legend has it that Hera, the Queen of Heaven, sent the Sphinx to sit on a cliff road near the city of Thebes and ask passers-by a riddle. The riddle was: What animal walks on four legs when young, two legs when grown up, and three legs when old?
"The answer to the riddle is man, and anyone who can't answer the riddle will be eaten by the Sphinx. It wasn't until the young Greek Oedipus answered the riddle that the Sphinx jumped off a cliff and committed suicide.

"It is said that the Sphinx symbolizes wisdom and knowledge. The mystery of the Sphinx, at a deeper level, represents 'fear and temptation', that is, 'real life'."

Fear and temptation?

Without desires, there is no temptation, and no fear of disappointment.

Only when you have desires can you feel fear and have various emotions, and only then can you be a human being in the general sense.

Qi Si asked suddenly: "Lin Chen, what is your desire?"

"Desire? Do you mean wish?" Lin Chen was stunned. He really couldn't understand what this had to do with the current crisis.

But he still answered truthfully: "I hope I can survive and let my parents live a good life."

That had always been his wish, so there was no doubt about it.

Qi Si lowered his eyes and said, "I understand."

He pulled himself out of the palace of thought and returned to the dark room once again.

The straw beneath me was uneven, and the damp vapor from beneath the floor penetrated my skin through the straw, bringing a slight coolness.

Qi Si didn't sleep well, but he didn't have any negative emotions.

He sorted out what had just happened in his mind and vaguely caught a hint of a hidden sense of disharmony.

Asking for desires, and then telling the player how many points are needed to satisfy the desire, how come this sounds so much like the wish-fulfillment mechanism of a spooky game?
Many players enter weird games because they are driven by strong desires.

As a person without desires, he could only become a player by accident in other ways...

Many problems that had been previously ignored subconsciously surfaced one after another, and Qi Si narrowed his eyes.

(End of this chapter)