Infinite spooky game

[Identity Card: Forbidden Scholar]

[Effect: It is easier to understand the taboo knowledge of the world you live in. When it is upright, you can write the history of the world; when it is reversed, you will gradually lose your mind and fall into madness.]

[Note: Knowledge is pollution, and erudition is madness. The buried past, the erased history, any retelling is taboo, and scholars are therefore accused of blasphemy]

Asakura Yuko was awakened by the sound of chewing. As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw a strange statue quietly emerging from the murals on the ceiling. Its marble fangs were biting flesh that was obviously human, and its scarlet eyes were staring at her with ill intent.

Her expression remained unchanged as she quietly watched the statue chewing its arm, but what came to her mind was what she had seen and heard in the East District.

Because of her identity card, she could see much more than other players. After recording enough observations, the effect of [Forbidden Scholar] automatically took effect. A large amount of "forbidden history" belonging to the Holy City surged before her eyes, transcribed into abstract pictures.

In the two months since she obtained the ID card, she has become accustomed to hearing chaotic mumblings and receiving a large amount of complicated information every step she takes. As a result, she has learned a lot of secrets about gods and underlying rules.

Practice makes perfect. Later on, she could even do two things at once, using half of her consciousness to process information and the other half to deal with copies and interact with people.

But the encounter in the Holy City is completely different from previous copies.

Asakura Yuko walked on the street with Wade during the day. Countless time and space overlapped on the same land. The images of the dead and the living were intertwined and looming. What she saw was not the feast of gods, but the figures of countless civilians; what she heard was not the secrets of the rules, but the painful wails and cries.

The woman was tied up and dragged towards the temple. The little girl following behind her cried heartbreakingly: "Don't take my mother away, she is not a pagan..." But soon a priest in black came forward, covered her mouth, and sent her to the judgment seat.

The believers were lying on the ground in all directions, with translucent mucus oozing from their wounds, fermenting into thick yellow-green water. Everyone stared at the sky with lifeless eyes, their fingers and toes twitched strangely and unconsciously, and they let out low, painful moans.

Priests held high torches and burned confiscated books. Heretics were pushed onto the scaffold covered with iron nails. Bones were piled up in the cemetery. People gathered under the altar like ants, bowing and cheering numbly, because if they were a little slower, they would be considered insincere, and extortion and exploitation would follow.

Every inch of land was soaked in blood and death. Asakura Yuko saw countless mutated statues. The sculptures that should have been holy were bleeding and crying, and they were staring at the flesh and blood of living beings. They were weird, abnormal and terrifying.

From Wade's perspective, the two of them took a tour around the East District and somehow found the solution to the main quest.

In fact, things are far from that simple. The triggering of the plot is entirely based on the large amount of information provided by the identity card. After all, it is a copy that gathers many top players. How could it be possible to give away points like this?

Of course, Asakura Yuko felt she had no obligation to share information with her temporary teammates, so Vader probably would never have the chance to find out what was going on in his lifetime.

Recalling the scene again at this moment, Asakura Yuko took a deep breath and exhaled, knowing that everything she saw and heard were copy NPCs, tools that existed to provide clues and create death points.

Once this group of people completes the dungeon and the next wave of players enters, everything will be reset and the dead will be resurrected.

But those distorted faces and hoarse howls still uncontrollably occupied her consciousness, making her throat tight and her temples throbbing.

The statue on the ceiling finished eating, stared at her and said in a cold voice:
[You are a believer in the night, please go out and choose your target]

[If you are sure you want to kill someone, knock on the door three times]

Along with the voice, corresponding text appeared on the system interface, and Asakura Yuko learned the killing rules of the pagan camp.

Go out at night and knock on other players' doors three times to kill the people living in the room. This just proves the previous players' conclusion: players in the pagan camp can act and explore clues at night.

After the statue finished explaining the rules, its facial features slowly twisted into a ball, squirming inch by inch to become a flat piece, slowly retracting into the ceiling, and soon turned into a stone brick that was no different from the surrounding bricks.

Asakura Yuko waited for a while, and when she was sure there was no danger, she sat up from the bed and pushed the door open.

……

On the other side, Giles was holding an oil lamp named "Light" and rushing along the avenue of the Holy City. Countless corpses were staggering slowly on the side of the street. From afar, a huge tumor could be seen rampaging at the end of the road, devouring the flesh and blood of the corpses.

He walked in the opposite direction of the tumor's movement, carefully controlling his body to rush left and right, luckily he didn't hit any monster. As he watched all the way, he gradually formed an idea of ​​the world view of this copy.

The Holy Lord who first created this holy city loved the believers in the city kindly. Later, something went wrong. Maybe it was because there were too many pagans, or maybe it was related to the Ragnarok in the background of the weird game. The Holy Lord fell into sleep for a while and was replaced by the player Qis.

In addition, there is an evil god quietly entrenched in the Holy City, manipulating things that should be sacred to undergo horrible changes, collecting offerings in strange ways, and eating corpses. The priests, whether out of fear or for their own interests, do not know, but they are in cahoots with the evil god and help oppress the believers.

Although his reasoning had some errors due to Qis's misleading, it was still desirable in the general direction and was unanimously agreed upon by the representatives of the Investigation Bureau as soon as he put it forward.

After escaping from the tumor's pursuit during the day, the group did not rush back to the temple, but wandered around the city for a while. When they turned the corner, they saw two priests holding transparent jars, triggering the side quest.

Given the level of caution these people have, it is naturally impossible for them to sacrifice their own flesh and blood on the first day. God knows whether they will trigger the death point or be anchored by the evil god. The more they learn about the weird game, the more they understand that danger may be hidden in every detail. Over time, they will no longer be able to act as arbitrarily as they did when they first entered the dungeon.

When Giles was in the novice pool, there was a copy in which he took advantage of his injuries and stabbed himself several times. He used his own blood and limbs to set traps to deceive ghosts and monsters, killed half of the NPCs, and closed the copy forever.

But now when he talks about the bloody storm at that time, it feels like a lifetime ago. After all, he has become a cautious and steady middle-aged man. He will never recklessly implement a genius idea that comes to him on a flash of inspiration again. Instead, he will communicate seriously with his teammates and listen to the organization's advice.

After some discussion, the representatives decided to capture a believer and take his flesh. They each took out props that might be useful for the plan, including those that could create illusions, lower the vigilance of NPCs...

After getting everything ready, Giles randomly grabbed an unlucky believer, cut off a piece of meat with a knife and attached it to his arm. Carrying a bunch of props contributed by players, he walked towards the two dull-eyed priests and threw the meat into the glass jar through the cover of his sleeve.

The sacrifice was completed, and Giles successfully obtained a piece of fire; two other players chose to complete the side quest in this way, and the remaining three said they needed to wait and see for another day.

After completing three side quests in a row, a special plot was triggered, and a record was unlocked on their history page: [Pagans who gathered secretly plotted blasphemous acts].

The effect is [you can report rooms with two or more people living in them and judge the occupants as heretics].

So there was the scene when the rooms were divided.

According to the rules of the copy, Fu Jue must die; but such a close-to-god being cannot be without a backup plan. Countless suspicious details cast a veil of uncertainty over the feasibility of "killing Fu Jue".

But so what? All the representatives who appeared in this instance were just desperate gamblers who had made a desperate bet...

To this day, Giles still can't remember why he was afraid of Fu Jue and wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible.

But anyway, the purpose of the fire is known. It can not only advance the progress of the main quest, but also allow players in the believer camp to go out at night. After struggling for a while, Giles chose to... use the fire to light the oil lamp and go out to explore.

The apparent reason is that by going out, one can encounter pagans and quickly clarify the relationship between the camps; secretly, it is also because of the desire for adventure in one's heart.

Sitting at the negotiation table and using the fire obtained by sacrificing flesh and blood to unlock the text plot is something that only theoretical players like to do, but it is not his style.

In the distance, the golden blood vessels surging on the surface of the tumor released a blazing light like the sun, dispelling the darkness of half the block, showing the orange-red of dusk. The faint light of the oil lamp flickered in the other half of the block, and seemed hesitant in contrast.

Giles climbed up the low fence and jumped onto the roof of a bungalow. This position can be avoided from the chaos in the street, but also have a full view of the block below.

He squatted and looked down for a while, and suddenly a few lines of silver-white text appeared on the system interface in front of him:

[“The truth behind the destruction of the Holy City” speculation: The city that was supposed to believe in God is entrenched in evil spirits, and the sacred soil is polluted, breeding sin and corruption. The fanatical priest ordered the believers to sacrifice their flesh and blood to feed the new god, but the new god was greedy and wanted to devour the entire holy city... (Use 1 fire seed to unlock the follow-up)]

[Note: If you push any speculated plot to the end, the plot will become the truth and the main quest will be considered completed.]

Is there a second ending? Will the new god be the player Qis who sits on the main seat?

Giles hesitated for a moment and narrowed his eyes.

……

Asakura Yuko walked on the street, looked at the second ending that appeared on the system interface, and adjusted her glasses.

As a pagan, she had no plans to randomly pick a lucky person to kill. She went out at night just to collect more clues.

As a result, as soon as he stepped out of the temple, he encountered a tumor emitting golden light and zombies all over the ground.

The effect of the [Forbidden Scholar] identity card made her understand what the tumor was the moment she saw it.

The original form of God, the life of authority, an animal that only knows how to devour...

She finally understood the difficulty of the "Sacred City" dungeon. With force-type props sealed, players had no solution when facing this incommunicable god!

Asakura Yuko thought quickly, stepped back, and looked tense.

Hundreds of cracks appeared on the surface of the huge tumor, and blood-red eyeballs crawled out one after another, but they seemed to be unable to see her existence. Each one of them just bypassed her and landed on the things next to her.

She held her breath and watched the tumor pass by her and roll away. Only then did she realize that the reason why pagans were allowed to walk at night was probably because this identity could avoid the attention of the tumor for some reason.

As the tumor moved away, the light in front of her eyes dimmed. Asakura Yuko's sight extended all the way to the distance, and she saw a cluster of faint light in the vast darkness, as hazy and bright as an oil lamp illuminating the way.

A player who possesses fire.

Asakura Yuko made a judgment and realized that someone was hiding information.

Previously, all players said that they had given up on the side quest and did not get the fire. It is impossible that a new fire quest would be suddenly triggered in just a few hours, right?

She didn't plan to go over to check. If she was caught by that man, the fact that she had no fire but could move around at night would basically be like having the words "I'm a pagan" written on her face.

She silently returned to the temple, passed through the murals with bloody eyes on both sides, and walked to the door of her room No. 11. From beginning to end, she did not use the killing ability of the pagan camp.

Then she found out...the door couldn't be opened.

[Pagans, please kill. You cannot return to the room before completing the killing task.]

Asakura Yuko was silent for two seconds, then returned to the temple hall, sat down in her seat, and took a nap on the table.

It would be more deterrent if she had the opportunity to kill someone in her hands, and she didn't want to use it on the first day.

In the darkness, the statues smacked their lips and swallowed fresh flesh and blood, the believers shivered in their own houses, and Flor's body stood up from behind the statue, staggered out of the temple and walked towards the cemetery.

Qis sat on the main seat, looking down at Asakura Yuko who was sleeping as if no one was around. The scarlet beam of light at his fingertips condensed into a thread, which turned into a path of light in the darkness, extending to the east district.

The golden-red vines extend in the void like the blood vessels of a city. After being diluted by their length, their light becomes so weak that it is transparent. Even if you look closely, you cannot tell where they lead to.

The entire sacred city is under the control of God.

……

At dawn, Asakura Yuko opened her eyes in the hall. She felt vaguely as if she saw Flor, whom she had killed. She didn't know if it was because she had witnessed the sight of zombies walking all over the ground, and she dreamt about what she thought about during the day.

There was a creaking sound from the temple's main door. The players who had gone out to explore last night pushed the door open from outside. Without exception, they were all disheveled and dusty, obviously having been running around all night.

Seeing Asakura Yuko staring at them quietly, they explained in unison: they were neither pagans nor had any fire, and they were chased all over the place by ghosts last night and luckily managed to survive.

Asakura Yuko naturally didn't believe it, but she had no intention of questioning it. She didn't want to become the target of public criticism during the voting process.

A few minutes later, voices gradually became louder in the corridor behind the statue. Players who had not gone out at night woke up one after another and found their seats next to the long table and sat down.

Once everyone was seated, the lack of numbers became apparent.

There were only eleven people sitting in the thirteen seats, and the empty seats were No. 10 and No. 12, corresponding to Blaylen and Fu Jue.

Last night, after Fujiwara Shinno proposed, the black man Braylen took the initiative to ask to live in Fu Jue's room No. 12. Fu Jue agreed.

Then...something happened to both of them. (End of this chapter)