Infinite spooky game

Dong Xiwen arrived at the inn at the foot of the snow-capped mountains in the evening.

Under the dim sky, the snow-capped mountains appear grayish and look eerie like a grave.

In fact, he could have arrived earlier, but Qis looked interested in everything and went from shop to shop under the increasingly dangerous gaze of the messenger.

As a contract laborer with no personal freedom, Dong Xiwen could only follow another contract laborer named "Zhang Yiyu" with empty eyes, wondering if they would be unlucky enough to trigger the death point.

The young man wearing a clown mask and a blood-stained white shirt was not worried about the coming of death. Holding a tape recorder that he had taken out from somewhere in his hands, he walked out of the last shop leisurely, stood in the middle of the street and pressed the play button.

"What is Kabala?" "Om Mani Padme Hum Om Mani Padme Hum" the strange ballad rang out solemnly. The young man smiled at the two people's strange looks and said, "I heard that almost all stores are playing this song. It sounds pretty good, so I recorded it."

Good to listen to? What kind of aesthetic is this? Dong Xiwen was shocked and was about to complain, but he heard footsteps from the song.

The footsteps were sounding lightly and getting closer under the cover of the noise, following not far behind him. It sounded like... something was attracted by the singing.

Dong Xiwen's heart trembled, and he looked back, only to see a believer wrapped in sackcloth kneeling in a strange posture, approaching him step by step.

The believers' limbs were stiff, and every time they kowtowed, their necks twisted to a degree that ordinary people could not do, making a strange "creaking" sound, which made people feel uneasy as if they were haunted by an evil spirit.

No matter how you look at it, it seems like the death point has been triggered and the ghosts are targeting me...

Dong Xiwen picked up the prop and was about to throw it over, but the young man beside him calmly turned off the recording and said calmly, "It seems that this ballad can also attract ghosts. It's interesting. I just don't know if the effect is affected by distance. Can it be played on the snowy mountains?"

Dong Xiwen: “…”

He just felt that Qis was indeed a little mentally ill. Not only did he not care about the lives of others, he didn't even seem to care about his own life or death.

At this time, dusk had fallen. The believers who were attracted by the singing lost their target after the singing stopped. They turned around and continued along the previous path.

The mountain breeze, carrying the chill of the snow-capped mountains, blew against the doors and windows of the inn, making the windows rattle and the wind chimes hanging on the door clang.

Following the young man's eye signal, Dong Xiwen led the way into the inn and heard a lively discussion coming from the hall from afar.

"Old Lin, I knew it wouldn't be that easy for you to die. You don't know how I've been through all these years..." A boastful male voice said very quickly, "I, a humble person, have endured humiliation and hardship, and finally made it into the Tower of Babylon... Damn, if I had known it would be like this in the tower, I would have brought a cotton jacket with me."

Another clear voice said calmly, "Xiao Xiao, I can infer two things from your words: First, in the general perception of the outside world, I am already dead; second, we have been missing for a long time. Is that right? 'Tower of Babylon' is the name you gave to the tower in Sunset Ruins?"

"Yes, yes. Back then, you swore an oath of allegiance at the Ruins of the Setting Sun, and suddenly fire fell from the sky, and the earth turned upside down. This was known in history as the Ragnarok of the Gods. Later, the bodies of the others were found one after another, but only your body and Sister Chu's bodies disappeared out of thin air in reality. I knew at first glance that there was probably a story behind this."

"How many people died?"

"Too many, too many to count. Anyway, the Ark is completely gone. I was ordered to help in times of crisis, and I worked tirelessly to temporarily organize a guild..."

"I roughly understand. Because of differences in ideas, you took half of the survivors to set up your own company." The clear male voice changed the subject, "Let's talk about this copy. If my inference is correct, this is the final copy that the Lord God mentioned. As long as we pass this copy, we can rewrite the rules.

"I arrived only ten minutes earlier than you. It seems that the span of real time has been compressed to the maximum in the copy. Also, I need to know the year of your timeline."

"My date is July 2025, 7... The final instance opened so suddenly that when I entered the tower, I saw that the system interface and live broadcast icon were not refreshed. I thought it was a bug."

"It's been eleven years already? That's quite a long time..."

Dong Xiwen listened for a while behind the screen and his expression became serious.

Judging from the conversation, these players come from different time and space, and some of them are antiques from decades ago. It is still unknown whether there are people from the future, but there are always many legendary big figures.

Moreover, according to common sense, the man who swore an oath at the Ruins of Sunset eleven years ago should have died in Ragnarok - there was no possibility of surviving a disaster of that level.

So, are the "players" gathered in the lobby really alive? Could they be ghosts or shadows left behind by players who once died? So - what about him who encounters these dead people?

This copy might be even stranger than he imagined. No wonder he didn't meet the legendary "Forest Crow" all the way here. God knows what he has done this time...

Dong Xiwen was thinking in a mess and soon realized a worse possibility.

To him, the players whose timelines were in the past were all dead people who were unaware that they were drowning in the world. Because the strange game was still going on, it meant that they had not successfully passed the final copy.

But will there be a player in the timeline after him, who will meet him and tell him that he has also failed and could not clear the final copy, and that the strange game will continue for decades to come, or even never end?

No, there won't be that much time. "Yuan" told him in the dream space that the rules of the world will be restarted soon. If the rules are not rewritten, everyone will die in the doomsday...

Dong Xiwen is not afraid of death. When Qi Si handed him the small card and said that he would pull him into the final copy, he actually felt very honored to be able to contribute to the future of the world instead of sitting there doing nothing and waiting to die.

But what if you knew from the beginning that you were doomed to die? If you put yourself in their shoes, anyone would find it hard to accept it at first...

Dong Xiwen frowned slightly and walked slowly into the hall, thinking about what to say as an opening remark. Unexpectedly, he saw several familiar figures in the crowd at first glance.

The young man sitting in the middle was wearing a white suit and rimless glasses. He had a slightly solemn expression and his fingers were trembling slightly.

The man with a long ponytail, wearing a gray coat and dressed in an artistic style paced back and forth, and it was unclear whether he was too excited or too nervous.

A long-haired girl in a beige sweatshirt was sitting in a wheelchair, holding a notebook and writing furiously.

Dong Xiwen had only heard of these people vaguely and was not sure they were the real ones, but there was one person he would never mistake.

The middle-aged man standing in the corner had gray-blue eyes, light blond hair, a strong outline, and a fine stubble on his chin. He was the leader of the Libra Church who had just talked to him not long ago - "Yuan"!
"Brother, is it him? You are familiar with him, please help me identify him." Dong Xiwen muttered to himself in his mind.

Dong Ziwen's voice rang out: "Yes."

"Our boss is really good at hiding his cards. Which card does he have?"

"I don't know." Dong Ziwen said coldly, "He didn't tell me."

"Good fellow, what should we do next? Should we pretend we don't know each other?"

Before the two of them could come to a conclusion, the young man next to them came forward and smiled at the early arrivals: "Good morning, everyone. My name is Zhou Ke, and I'm from May 2035, 5." "And I'd like to point out in advance that 'Zhou Ke' is a pseudonym, so I hope you don't mind."

Dong Xiwen understood the young man's plan.

Judging from the timeline, they were the last group of passengers to enter the final dungeon. No matter what name they gave, these people would never have heard of it, so it was easy to judge their background.

Either they are unknown or they entered the game late and lack experience.

It would be better to just emphasize that you gave a fake name and let them guess the truth of your background.

"Really, brother? You're still using a fake name at this time, this is very old-fashioned." The young man with a long ponytail complained, and then introduced himself, "My name is Xiao Fengchao, my real name. I am currently the president of the Tingfeng Guild, yes, the guild that ranks second on the power list."

After Dong Xiwen heard it, he couldn't help but exclaimed "Oh shit" in his heart. It turned out that his first impression was correct. It was really this guy.

This person is quite a celebrity. He has been missing for ten years. There are many different opinions about his whereabouts in the forum. It is unexpected that he has entered the final copy.

On the other hand, if so many famous seniors died here, a small fry like him would probably die...

Other passengers also introduced themselves one after another. Some of their names were ones I had heard of, while others were not so famous and I had no impression of them when I heard them.

Dong Xiwen and Zhang Yiyu reported their real names, but like Zhou Ke, they claimed that they were pseudonyms. Anyway, these people were all "ancient people" in the strict sense, and it would be impossible to detect if they were fooled.

The young man in the white suit seemed to be the leader of the passengers. After everyone had been introduced, he extended his hand to Zhou Ke and smiled: "Hello, I am Lin Jue, the president of the Ark Guild, and I entered the final instance on January 2014, 1.

"I am very happy and sorry to meet you all here, but I believe that as long as we work together, we will be able to clear this dungeon."

Lin Jue, although this name has been buried by time for too long, no one present would find it unfamiliar.

A legendary figure, a tragic loser, a sacrificed savior of the past... Countless old and young people in the forum recite his name, remembering that era filled with hope.

Zhou Ke laughed and held Lin Jue's hand: "So it's President Lin, I've heard of your name for a long time."

……

On the other side, Sang Ji stood at the stairs and asked without turning his head: "Which room do you live in? I'll take you there."

There was a subtle urgency in his tone, as if he attached great importance to the answer and was a little too enthusiastic.

Lin Chen thought of his previous enthusiasm for human skin thangkas and had some doubts. Was this NPC going to skin the player in the middle of the night?
Qi Si seemed unaware and gave Sang Ji a gentle smile: "Old man, you have worked hard to send us here. Let us walk the rest of the way by ourselves."

Sangji shook his head: "No, the hymns are playing, and we have to shake the prayer wheel and recite scriptures on the road to pass their way."

Qi Si nodded seriously and said, "Then old man, you should go back and rest first. Let us lend you the prayer wheel for one night. We will return it to you after the hymns stop."

Sang Ji: “…”

After a while of stalemate, Sangji finally gave up and walked down the stairs with a hunched back. The rotten wooden steps made a teeth-grinding groan.

With the help of the candlelight in the stairwell, Qi Si saw that on the exposed skin on the back of Sangji's neck, dark brown corpse spots were spreading between the folds like mold.

The edges of the patches were ulcerated and black, and dark yellow mucus oozed from under the rotten skin, flowing slowly along the grooves of the spine. The patches on the patches also rose and fell strangely with Sangji's staggering steps, as if some kind of living thing was walking under the skin.

——It’s corpse spots, which appear on people’s bodies after they die.

It was not until Sangji's back disappeared from the end of his sight that Qis used the key to open the door of Room 6. He and Lin Chen walked into the room one after another, not forgetting to turn around and lock the wooden door.

This inn is quite old and the soundproofing is not very good. Even with the door closed, you can still hear singing and chanting coming from far away. The strong wind mixed with snow flakes and ice chips blows into the cracks, sounding as mournful as the howling of ghosts and wolves.

The furnishings in the room were also rather old. There were no electronic equipment such as electric kettles, landline phones, and televisions commonly seen in hotels. Even the lighting was provided by a few white candles on the candlesticks. The orange flames burned low, hesitantly, and listlessly.

There is a large wooden bed in the center of the room, with bedside tables on both sides. The one on the left is empty, and on the right side there is a wooden sculpture painted with oil.

It should be a Buddha statue, with eyes wide open on its iron-black face, and six arms stretched out like spider limbs, showing a predatory posture, as if it would pounce on people in the next second.

The left arm in the middle is wrapped with a rusty chain, at the end of which hangs a small dead human skull, which is carved vividly and looks hideous, making people feel uneasy for no reason.

Lin Chen studied the statue for a while and said softly, "This should be the six-armed Mahakala. The left and right hands hold swords horizontally, the left hand in the middle holds a human head, the right hand holds a ewe, and the left and right hands in the back hold elephant skins, with skulls as necklaces. It is usually called 'Mahakala', symbolizing perfection and savior. It is one of the guardian gods of Tantric Buddhism and a tomb god, often guarding the graves of the dead."

He paused and looked out the window worriedly: "Brother Qi, are we near a tomb now? Is Shangri-La a tomb?"

Qi Si didn't know much about Tantra. Qi's memory was too complex, and the specific knowledge had long been compressed to the point where it was difficult to retrieve and identify.

He looked towards the window and said calmly, "It's possible. At least the snow mountain here is a huge tomb."

The glass windows in the room were very large, taking up almost half of the wall. Outside the window was a snow-capped mountain, with the frozen ice walls standing steeply like a wall rising from the ground.

When I looked from outside the inn, the snow-capped mountains were still very far away from the house, but now, the crystal clear and reflective ice and snow are just one meter away and within reach.

There is a relief carving of the creation myth on the ice wall, which is what Qis had seen in the murals of the temple. The carving is smooth and gorgeous, without any trace of artificiality, as if it was a masterpiece of nature.

Through the translucent surface of ice, one can vaguely see rows of black shadows deep in the mountains. Combining the known information, those are probably the dead buried in the snow-capped mountains.

Without the cover of a coffin, the corpse was just lying naked in the ice. At first glance, it looked like a row of people were standing outside the window, staring coldly at the players in the room.

Perhaps in order to allow travelers to feel as if they are in the real scene, the windows of the inn are not equipped with curtains. Standing in front of the window feels like being in the snow-capped mountains, with nothing but white in front.

Snowflakes blow in your face with the wind, carrying with them the eternal vastness and sorrow, making you feel even more insignificant, like a speck of dust immersed in an endless ice lake. Memories, emotions, and thoughts become irrelevant, and all that is left is the invisible and intangible emptiness.

Everyone is going to die, and the end of everyone is just a small grave. What is the difference between the person in the window and the corpse outside the window? One day, they will lie side by side under the ice, and the scale of thousands of years will eliminate their joy, anger, sorrow, greed, anger, and ignorance.

Qi Si suddenly realized that in this copy, he once again thought about death. (End of this chapter)