Infinite spooky game

Chapter 411 Snow Mountain (XI) “Om Mani Padme Hum Om Mani Padme Hum”

People resist aging, not only because they fear the end of death at the end of time, but also because they are unwilling to see their bodies weaken and their souls, which become increasingly powerful with the accumulation of time and experience, trapped in a weak and powerless body.

Some people made up the legend of becoming immortal after death and spread it as a guiding principle. This beautiful lie was widely accepted by people as spiritual comfort. They believed that after death they could get rid of all illnesses and pains and gain freedom of the soul.

Some people also believe in the legend of rejuvenation and desperately search for a panacea that can prolong life. They regard white hair and a youthful face as a symbol of enlightenment and are ecstatic when a few strands of black hair unexpectedly grow among their white hair.

Adults yearn for children's lives, which is a carefree time without the pressure of struggling to make a living and without having to see the ugliness of the world. They regard it as a spiritual haven and a safe zone to escape reality.

But what if you really turn back into a child? In fact, this is not a happy thing. Any reverse growth phenomenon that goes against the laws of nature and common sense is enough to cause panic among people.

It's not just because the mind, intelligence and memory have degenerated, and the childish soul is placed in an unsuitable huge body; it's not just because the unexpected development is out of control, and the timid are unwilling to take risks and shrink back; it's because - the end of this road is nothingness.

Man came from nothingness, and now he has to change from an adult back to a baby, then an embryo, and then a fertilized egg. In the end, there will be nothing left, not even a grave to mark the existence of this person.

He was wiped out, and the possibility of his existence was eliminated from the root, as if he had never come into this world. How could one not feel sad?
In the inn, Zhou Ke, Dong Xiwen, Zhang Yiyu and players led by Lin Jue sat opposite each other, reviewing the events that had occurred and the clues obtained since entering the dungeon.

After a night, except for Vasilyevna who was skinned to death, Zhang Hongbin, Chu Yining and Alexey Olegevich were still alive, but they all behaved in some strange way to varying degrees.

At Lin Jue's request, all the players took a piece of white paper and wrote down their age based on their first impression.

Zhang Hongbin was written as 31 years old, 10 years younger than his actual age; Chu Yining was written as 22 years old, 6 years younger; their behavior was indeed a little more childish than before.

Alexei's situation is more serious. Although he looks to be in his forties or fifties, he perceives himself to be only twenty-six years old. Not only that, he has also lost twenty-two years of memory and thought that he was entering the dungeon for the first time and had just become an official player.

The only thing to be thankful for is that he has been a player for quite a long time, so this regression will not directly push him back to the time before he entered the weird game, forcing others to spend time to do ideological work on the "newcomer".

Lin Jue hesitated for a moment and asked, "Alexei, do you still have your ID card with you?"

Alexei was now just a young man in his early twenties, with a clear sense of immaturity from head to toe, and a hint of the unconditional trust that the players of that era had in Lin Jue.

Hearing Lin Jue's question, he scratched his head: "Lin Shen, what is an identity card? The guide on the forum doesn't mention it, and I've never heard of it..."

Lin Jue said: "Look at the upper right corner of your sight. There should be a shadow of a card displayed there. Move your sight over there and stay there for a while, and you will see the corresponding prompt."

Alexei was silent for two seconds, with a flash of surprise in his eyes: "It really exists, [High Priest of Disaster], the effect is..."

“No need to tell us.” Lin Jue shook his head and interrupted him, “The identity card holders may have a competitive relationship in the future. Although I hope that everyone can unite and cooperate to clear the final dungeon, there is absolutely no reason to take advantage of others’ misfortune.”

"God Lin, I have always agreed with your philosophy..."

"A lot of things can happen in twenty-two years. You then might not agree with me now." Lin Jue comforted Alexei and began to arrange the division of labor.

Except for Lin Jue who was responsible for negotiating with Sangji, the twenty people were divided into ten groups, with each team responsible for one area. They turned the entire town of Shangri-La upside down, and then gathered in the inn to summarize the clues and findings.

Lin Jue adjusted his glasses and said, "It is basically confirmed that this copy has two death mechanisms. The first one comes from the danger at night. After Sang Ji knows the room number, the people in the room have a chance to die. The second one is age regression, which is specifically manifested in childish thinking and low self-awareness. The triggering method is to talk about time many times when you are guilty.

"This instance's judgment of sin follows the basic rule of the weird game that 'everyone is guilty'. As long as we have not redeemed our sins through the mechanism recognized by the instance, we are all 'guilty'. Next, we must try to avoid talking about specific times. If we must talk about related topics, please refer to them in other ways."

"Lin Jue, can we find a way to complete the atonement as soon as possible?" Chu Yining asked.

She knew her life was probably counting down, but she remained calm, writing and drawing on her notebook while analyzing, "I always feel that the death point associated with the 'Atonement' mechanism is not just about age regression. Perhaps as we continue to go deeper into this instance, there will be endless crises.

"To truly clear this dungeon, we need to climb the snow mountain. I asked Bai Ma, the snow mountain is the body of the Mother Goddess. If we climb the snow mountain casually, it may offend the Mother Goddess. I wonder, as 'sinful people', if we taint the purity of the snow mountain with our sins, will it also be considered an offense?"

"Your idea is correct. I am also thinking about ways to atone for my sins." Lin Jue nodded slightly, but revealed a bitter smile. "Sang Ji said that I can atone for my sins by chanting scriptures and kneeling down, but I tried these two methods yesterday and nothing happened."

He paused, took out a booklet from his arms, and placed it on the table in the middle of the crowd: "Also, I found this in a store."

It was a brown booklet that seemed to have been soaked in water, with wrinkled edges like seaweed that had been eaten by fish. There was a blank rectangular mark in the middle of the cover, with three words written in Sanskrit.

The corresponding translation - [Duren Jing] - was immediately refreshed on the players’ system interface.

Lin Jue raised his hand and flipped through the first page of "The Sutra of Saving People". The tadpole-like dense black characters spread out crookedly in front of the players' eyes, as if they would break through the paper and drill into the eyes of the onlookers in the next second.

Two lines of text appear on the system interface at the appropriate time:

[Pure people receive blessings, while sinful people suffer from wind and snow. The Mother Goddess’s grace is ten thousand feet high, and all living beings climb the mountain to bathe in the divine light.]

【Only by saving yourself can you save others, and saving others can also save yourself. Every time you save a person, you can eliminate a sin. The Mother Goddess is a witness.】

Dong Xiwen read the fastest and couldn't help but complain: "This statement is a trap. Anyone who has studied Chinese can see that the conditions of 'saving oneself' and 'saving others' are contradictory, right? You can only save others if you save yourself, but we have to save others to save ourselves. What's the difference between this and 'you need to show your ID card before applying for an ID card'?" "It's not contradictory." Lin Jue said indifferently, "From the statement of the original sentence, 'saving oneself' is a necessary but not sufficient condition for 'saving others'. 'Saving oneself' may not only have the way of 'saving others'. I also hope to find another way, because from the existing information, the way of 'saving others' is too sensational."

He turned to the next page, and a series of simple sketches appeared on the paper. The reddish-brown lines smoothly drew out the horrific scenes, from skinning, sacrificing livers to making human bone instruments.

Although there are clearly no words of annotation, players can all get the meaning behind the scenes from the vivid pictures: the so-called "saving people" is to use the traditional Shangri-La method to deal with guilty people, please the gods, and thereby redeem their sins.

But what kind of atonement is this? Choosing a scapegoat from among the crowd and cruelly killing one's own kind for one's own survival is clearly a greater and more tragic sin...

"I remembered something." A young man in a black suit suddenly spoke up, his voice cold, "I talked to Sangjiduo last night, and he mentioned that many people in Shangri-La are guilty, including him and the pilgrims chanting on the street. They are likely to attack us and 'convert' us.

"In their eyes, Vasilyevna's death may be a kind of 'redemption'. To put it more directly, the NPC will kill travelers according to the instructions of the 'Redemption Sutra' in order to atone for their sins. Shangri-La Town is no longer safe for us. We are new here and will be the prey of all 'sinners'."

As he spoke, the wind chimes at the entrance of the inn were blown by the wind and began to shake wildly, making a series of broken and ringing sounds, reminiscent of the precursors to the appearance of ghosts in horror movies.

I don’t know if it was an illusion, but the originally bright light suddenly dimmed several degrees, as if a haze was floating in from afar, covering the town.

Everyone is an experienced veteran player. They will not relax because of the appearance of peace and tranquility, nor will they panic because they know that there is a crisis lurking in the dark. However, when they suddenly realize that they are surrounded by wolves and ghosts, they can't help but feel uncomfortable as if they are being targeted.

"Hehe, hahahahaha..." A burst of chuckles sounded inappropriately in the stagnant atmosphere. It was low and light at first, but as the players' eyes focused on it, the laugh became more and more unbridled.

"Is this the level of the so-called chief player?" Zhou Ke bent over and laughed breathlessly for a while, and finally continued to speak, "We slept without any preparation last night, but most people did not die immediately, which is enough to show that the death conditions of this copy are strict enough.

"Not only that, this instance is clearly intended to ensure the vitality of the player group. Even if two or more people meet the death conditions at the same time, the NPC will only kill one person a day. The existence of the "Saving People Sutra" and even the "Saving" mechanism can only serve to increase the sense of urgency, so that we don't stay in Shangri-La Town for too long and are reluctant to go up the mountain.

"As for climbing the snowy mountain, 'atonement' and 'enlightenment' are not necessary conditions. The phrase 'all living beings climb the mountain to bathe in the divine light' makes it very clear. Both pure people and sinful people can climb the mountain. It's just that the difficulty and the events that may be triggered are different. The former 'receives blessings', and the latter 'faces the wind and snow'. It's that simple.

"Of course, if you insist that you must 'atone' before climbing the mountain, and are worried about becoming the prey of those NPCs, I have a solution -"

Zhou Ke paused, and Xiao Fengchao pressed on: "What method? Tell me first, why do I feel it is so unreliable?"

Dong Xiwen and Zhang Yiyu also stared at Zhou Ke without blinking.

They pretended to be Zhou Ke's teammates, but they didn't necessarily know Zhou Ke more than other players. They were all brothers in distress who met by chance in the dungeon and were badly betrayed by the Soul Contract. It was good enough that they were not sold out, let alone getting any clues from Zhou Ke.

"Want to know? Actually, it's nothing..." Zhou Ke narrowed his eyes, his smile brewing undisguised malice, "Since we are going to die anyway, why not keep the wealth within the family? We have exactly twenty people, minus Lin Jue. We can select ten to kill the other ten and complete the 'atonement'. What do you think?"

This sounded too ridiculous, almost like a joke, but looking at the young man's expression, he seemed to really agree with this radical and cruel way of handling things.

"What do you mean?" The young man in the black suit's voice became increasingly cold. He stared at Zhou Ke, his hand on the hilt of the sword at his waist, ready to attack at any time.

Zhou Ke sat on the sofa calmly, smiling: "Looking at your expressions, it seems that none of you agree with this plan, which makes it even simpler. I have a second plan that may allow you to pass the level directly."

A rusty tape recorder appeared out of nowhere in his hand, apparently taken from the props column. Zhou Ke pressed the switch, and the strange chanting sound resounded in the silent space:
"Om Mani Padme Hum... Om Mani Padme Hum... Om Mani Padme Hum... "

The players looked at each other, puzzled. Some people recognized the source of the strange tune, which was the hymn sung by the pilgrims in Shangri-La when they bowed down.

Zhou Ke hummed the hymn for a while, his tone gentle as a dream: "Because they have never completed the atonement, they cannot obtain true eternal life. The thoughts and memories of the 'sinners' are gradually fading away with the decay of their bodies. In the long run, they will inevitably fall into a vicious cycle and will no longer be able to save travelers from afar.

“So, the hymns were born. As we entered the city, the hymns were sung throughout the city, and the pilgrims knew we were coming and could use the songs to locate us. At night, when the hymns were sung again, they would gather around the sound.

"Of course, it's not just the pilgrims who need to atone their sins. Sangji also needs to atone his sins. In order to prevent the pilgrims from stealing his prey, he will shake the prayer wheel to drive away the ignorant pilgrims..."

Zhou Ke paused for a moment, a gentle smile appeared on his face: "By the way, I have some bad news for you. I bought all the prayer wheels in Shangri-La Town and threw them under the cliff. They should have been frozen in the glacier by now, right?"

The players then noticed that Zhou Ke's face was paler than when they saw him in the morning. It was a morbid pallor from excessive blood loss, making him look like a zombie that had been drained of all its energy. His voice was also visibly weak, and he had to gasp for breath every time he spoke, as if he would suffocate to death at any time.

In the previous exploration of Shangri-La Town, players learned that everything in the city needs to be exchanged with one's own soul, flesh and blood, or props. Normal people would definitely choose props first, but looking at Zhou Ke's behavior, it is clear that the props are not enough, and flesh and blood are used...

At this moment, the players did not have the slightest doubt about Zhou Ke’s claim of “buying all the prayer wheels”.

"Brother, what do you want to do? It's not what I think it is?" Xiao Fengchao looked grim.

Lin Jue said nothing, just stared at Zhou Ke with a serious face, and it was obvious that he had figured out the latter's plan.

It was getting completely dark outside the inn. It was evening. The rustling of clothes and the bang of heads hitting the ground were heard loudly, surging like a tide in the distance and approaching in groups.

The players saw that outside the inn, there were corpses everywhere. Countless pilgrims wearing sackcloth and with empty eyes were walking and knocking, surrounding the inn like a pack of hyenas, exuding a strong smell of death...

(End of this chapter)