Infinite spooky game

April 4th, 29 noon, Sunset Ruins.

A blond-haired, blue-eyed white youth appeared under the World Tree. He pushed through the crowd gathered in front of the Tower of Babel and walked towards the European-style buildings at the edge of the square.

Along the way, the sound of tiny discussions poured into his eardrums, which he unconsciously collected and transmitted truthfully.

"On the revelation fragment, Jiuzhou and Tingfeng only claimed five names in total, and that's including the names from the former Ark Guild. They said they prepared so many names for a rainy day, but in the end, they only took up so many places. I don't know where all their plans went."

"I roughly calculated that, excluding the existence of the suspected god and Charlie who is actually an NPC, there are only thirteen spots in total. Five is already a lot, right?"

"Haha, 5/13, they don't even have a majority of votes. Instead, the Xila and Tianping, who are hated by everyone, have a significant advantage. I have said it before, 'massacre' is the mode that the weird game encourages."

"Don't say that. Doesn't the Unnamed Guild still occupy three spots? And I heard that each ID card holder can bring several teammates into the dungeon. Fu Jue has an ID card, which means that Yu Jinsheng, Shuo Meng and the others are eligible to participate in the final dungeon."

"Yes, in the end, it still depends on overall strength. Just take a look at the Revelation Monument. No matter how many identity cards Xila and Tianping have, they can't gather so many top players to form a team."

"The Revelation Monument" is the name given by players to the newly appeared stone tablet engraved with twenty-two identity cards. When faced with difficult problems, humans always unconsciously do a lot of useless things to pretend that they have made progress, and naming happens to be a simple task that everyone can do.

Combining the creation legends of various religious myths and considering the nature of the final copy as a weird game, the word "Revelation" which has both doomsday and hope was chosen as the name of the stone tablet.

In addition, there are many gaps in the correspondence between the identity cards and the players on the stone tablet, so "broken tablet" has naturally become a consensus among people as a fairly appropriate name.

The white young man had no intention of joining the discussion. He walked through the crowded square without looking around, stepped over the boundary of scattered gravel, turned into an incongruous teahouse built of marble, went up to the second floor, and entered a European-style private room deep in the corridor.

A white-haired old man was already sitting by the coffee table in the private room. His facial features were kind and amiable, but his light grey eyes were emotionless.

After the white young man entered the room, the old man picked up the teapot and poured half a cup of tea into the bell cup, then handed it in the direction of the young man and said calmly, "Siqi, I thought you would come in person."

"The last time your puppet met me, it called me 'Zis'. Now it has changed its name. Interesting." The young man sat down opposite the old man, took the cup of tea poured by the old man, and looked down at the faintly visible thread on the little finger of the latter's right hand. "You used a puppet to invite me but demanded that your real body attend the meeting - puppeteer, you are still so arrogant."

"This is not a demand, but a real confusion." The old man's gray eyes glowed with the cold light of precision machinery, reflecting the young man's face. "The puppet and I are one. It has my thoughts, implements my will, and is an extension of my body. I can be anyone, and anyone can be me. It makes no difference who comes to this meeting."

"The same goes for me. As long as I can convey my will and receive your expression, it doesn't matter who is sitting opposite you." The young man paused and narrowed his eyes. "I'm curious. If it's just for communication and discussion, why should I come here in person?
"Or are you bold enough to repeat your failure and try again to wrap the puppet thread around the god's little finger?"

This statement directly pointed to the ill intentions behind the Hongmen Feast. The old man was silent for two seconds and said calmly: "It seems that your plan went smoothly, the authority was restored to its fullness, and there were unexpected gains."

"I never knew you were such a talkative person before." The young man teased and continued to talk. "However, the test ends here. My patience is not as good as before, and I am afraid of trouble. You can tell me the reason and purpose of your visit to me."

The old man nodded, picked up the teapot again, and poured tea into the cup in front of him: "The Scarlet Priest card has three small cards, namely Merchant, Scholar, and Noble. According to the rules, it can bring three players into the dungeon. I hope you can lend me a card and bring a member of Xila into the dungeon."

"They say they are members of Xila, but they are actually your puppets." The young man pointed out the key point and asked with a smile, "You also hold an identity card, why don't you lead the people yourself?"

The old man shook his head slightly: "This main card [Blind Dictator] is a true dictator, and there are no small cards under his command."

The young man laughed out loud: "I didn't expect that there is only one identity card in such a big Xila. Don't you leave yourself a way out when you act normally? After all the hard work over the years, you are really miserable now."

“Only by burning your boats and crossing the river can you survive.” The old man remained calm, pouring the tea in his hand into the teacup with perfect accuracy. “Puppets cannot hold identity cards. Since I have chosen to transform everyone into puppets in exchange for the guild’s rapid completion of primitive accumulation, I am naturally prepared to bear the cost of being at a disadvantage in the final instance.”

The young man sneered twice: "I guess it's just because you have long regarded me as your back-up plan. No matter how the final copy changes, in your opinion, you can always unite with other forces and use their strength to defeat them.

"But why do you think I would agree to this? Placing puppeteers' eyes around you and wasting your own guild's quota to help others, I don't see the benefit of doing this."

"This is not a deal, but a collaboration." The old man put down the teapot and raised the teacup. "As far as I know, the Unnamed Guild has no top players except you, 'Zis'. Even you only climbed to the top of the rookie list.

“As a newcomer and a rising force, it is unwise to enter the final dungeon without any accumulation and try to win over others who have cultivated for 36 years.

“You need more players who are strong and can help you—or, as you said, ‘tools’. Only by maintaining the surface glory of the Unnamed Guild can we avoid being devoured by the old guilds. I also need to collect as much information about the final instance as possible, and participate more in the game to ensure that I have a high share in the competition.

"You and I are just taking what we need, and it's mutually beneficial. The forces of Jiuzhou and Tingfeng have been integrated, and the Libra Church has always been disloyal and ambivalent. We are going to fight against all of them. As a massacre-oriented guild, the Xila Guild is the most suitable partner for the Unnamed Guild."

The young man listened carefully and chuckled: "It sounds like you are indeed thinking about me. Cooperation is indeed more beneficial than hostility, but you should know my rules. I am only willing to trust those who have signed my contract."

The old man looked up into the young man's eyes and said, "If you are willing to let my puppets bind your cards and take them into the final instance, I can let them sign a soul contract with you. As a former main god, you should know that the authority of the contract takes precedence over the puppet's silk skills."

"Oh? Just to take up a few spots, you're willing to give up the puppets you've worked so hard to raise to the top of the list. You're really sincere." The young man's eyes narrowed into a narrow line. "How do I know that you're not just wasting my cards by sending two people in, weakening my power in advance, so that you can reap the benefits later?"

"I can't give you a more direct proof to make you put aside your doubts about me." The old man brought the teacup to his lips and drank it all. "You can refuse my request. Those sitting here are not you and me. Any decision will not lead to unacceptable risks."

"I understand." The smile on the young man's face became sincere.

He raised his right hand, and a black card with gold patterns condensed on his fingertips, shining brightly in the dusk light that leaked in through the window.

On the card, a figure in black robe and golden eyes is leading a horse, holding a pile of gold coins in his arms, like liquid gold dripping from between his fingers, flowing freely.

The Merchant card symbolizes wealth, hypocrisy, and greed. It is subordinate to the Scarlet Priest and is responsible for transforming "desire" into harvestable nutrients. Time, emotion, and strength can all be commodities on the shelf... The young man pushed the card to the old man and said with a smile: "This card is an old friend of ours. I am curious about who you will give it to."

The old man raised his hand to take it and said, "Thank you very much. I will try my best to make the final result satisfy both you and me."

"You and I both know the meaning of 'try our best', but I still hope that we can have a pleasant cooperation." The young man drank the tea in the cup, stood up and walked towards the door.

He seemed to have suddenly thought of something. He stopped walking, tilted his head slightly, and a hint of scarlet flashed in his blue eyes: "I remember you told me that you would kill whoever becomes a god - Fu Jue."

The old man remained calm and gently placed the card on the table: "I never said that."

The young man smiled and shook his head, without stopping, he walked out the door.

He walked down the stairs and out of the teahouse. Without warning, he stumbled and fell to the ground, never getting up again.

……

An hour ago, Qis went to his studio in the suburbs of Jiangcheng. Before he had studied the specimens for long, there was a knock on the door.

A middle-aged man who called himself Liu Shiyi came to visit with a letter, and then died of a sudden heart attack at the door.

The letter read, "The Puppet Master sincerely invites the Vice President of the Unnamed Guild, Si Qi, to meet at Sunset Ruins at noon to discuss matters concerning the final copy."

The similar scenes finally aroused Qi Si's long-lost sense of humor and interest. He simply dealt with the body of the messenger, and seeing that the time was almost up, he entered the weird game.

Considering that he was too lazy to make the trip himself, he randomly picked a lucky person from those infected with the [Insomnia Bacteria] and controlled his soul.

So there was the scene in the Sunset Ruins Teahouse.

Cooperating with Xila was originally part of Qis' plan. The Unnamed Guild was too powerful but had too few people. It was not realistic to recruit enough capable tools in a short period of time.

[Scarlet High Priest] has three small cards: [Merchant], [Scholar], and [Noble]; [Bird-beak Doctor] has three small cards: [Crow], [White Dove], and [Mouse]. No matter how Qis calculates, he can't get six available people.

[Fool Deceiver] is a unique card like [Blind Dictator], but the [Human-Shaped Evil Spirit] that was left in Shuangxi Town has four small cards [Chi], [Mei], [Wang] and [Ling] in Qis' memory of Qi. It is still unknown whether they can be obtained again in the future; [Shepherd of the Dead] also has a group of small cards.

Although Qi Si doesn't trust others, he is never the kind of person who does everything by himself. Instead, he likes to throw the boring, dirty and tiring work to other people.

He needs some tools who can obey his orders, and the puppets of the Xila Guild will be a good backup source of tools.

Even if we don't consider Lin Chen's small cards for the time being, there is still one spot left among the small cards in hand, excluding the people from the Xila Guild and Dong Xiwen.

Qis believed that as long as the news was announced, many players would volunteer to join him, but he couldn't expose the fact that no one was available.

The person can only be found among the players he has controlled through the contract. Zhang Yiyu is not an option. The people in Qijia Village are all dead. The people in North America are the last choice...

Qi Si thought seriously: "Since NPCs can appear on the Revelation Monument, can they also be bound to a small card?"

……

At 4 p.m. on April 29, Qi Si took a taxi to Qijia Village in Jincheng.

The driver was an old acquaintance. He called himself "Liu Pu". He was not as reserved as he was the previous two times. He kept chattering: "Brother, as soon as I saw the big order from Jiangcheng to Jincheng, I knew it was you. I have opened so many orders, but you left the deepest impression on me."

Qi Si remained calm and noncommittal: "Oh? Really? I remember I rode in your car twice. It's quite a coincidence."

"That's right. There are usually no big orders in Jinjiang Community. There have been several murders before, so not many people dare to come. I remember you like to joke." Liu Pu exchanged a few words of greeting and continued, "The Libra Church has been making a lot of trouble recently. I heard that many people died in Xiangcheng. The world is not peaceful. Don't let it be like forty-six years ago..."

Qi Si lowered his eyes and asked, "What do you think of the scale?"

"What can we think? Let's not talk about whether they can succeed or not. Even if they do, whoever comes to power, we will still live like this... Maybe the world will be in chaos, and we won't have to pay back the funds and loans."

At six o'clock in the evening, the taxi drove to the outskirts of Qijia Village. Thick fog filled the roads in the village. Looking into the fog, one could see shadowy humanoid creatures swaying in the wind.

Liu Pu pretended to step on the brakes, but Qi Si said calmly, "Drive in. My home is very deep in the village, and there's a long way to go."

Liu Pu responded "Okay", and the taxi turned a corner and drove towards the village.

At the moment when the car body was completely submerged in the thick fog, Qis felt that the blocked divine power returned to his body. The five fingers of his right hand slowly tightened, making a gesture of crushing an object.

Liu Pu's whole body was stiff in the driver's seat, as if an invisible presence was strangling his throat. Two seconds later, his limbs went limp again, and his hands on the steering wheel dropped limply and hit the side of the seat.

Qi Si saw that the little finger of his right hand had the texture of wood, and a translucent silk thread was dragged on the top... (End of this chapter)