Infinite spooky game

Chapter 435 Gods (Part 7) - Baima

Siqi sat astride a yak, leading a large herd of cattle, and went down the mountain with Jin Yusheng, Shuomeng, and Jiang Junjue.

Jiang Junjue subtly inquired about the whereabouts of "Lin Wuya." This mysterious, unnamed guild leader had been making a big splash a few days ago, but had quietly faded from view after the final dungeon ended, which was truly strange.

Siqi smiled but remained silent. When pressed further, he countered with, "Your Listening Wind Guild is so curious about the internal arrangements of our Unnamed Guild. Do you perhaps also intend to share the whereabouts of your former guild leader, Xiao Fengchao?"

Jiang Junjue didn't ask any more questions after that.

Jin Yusheng knew Lin Chen's fate; he had personally witnessed the young man being completely assimilated by the monsters, leading the horde of ghosts and monsters deep into the mountains.

Judging from Siqi's attitude and words, could it be that Lin Chen and Lin Wuya are not the same person?

The details are unknown.

As we descended to the halfway point of the mountain, the presence of human habitation became particularly noticeable. Several tents were clustered together, with colorful prayer flags hanging from their tops and the other end fixed to the ground with nails, the flags fluttering in the wind.

The messy footprints solidified the ice and snow, the ground beneath their feet as hard as iron. Two herders rushed out of their tent, exchanged a glance upon seeing the herd of yaks, and then their eyes were filled with hostility when they turned to the group.

One person stepped forward and mumbled something in English.

Without a translator for the eerie game, the four naturally couldn't understand Tibetan. Shuomeng jumped off the yak, his face beaming, and gestured wildly at the herdsman, making it impossible for them to understand each other.

The herdsman chattered on for a while, then angrily returned to his tent. When he came out again, he was carrying a hunting rifle, pointing the muzzle at Shuomeng, his voice fierce and stern.

After some difficult communication, everyone finally learned that the yak herd belonged to the herders.

The night before, the herdsmen were resting in their tents when they suddenly heard the mournful cries of yaks outside, one after another, exceptionally piercing. The hearts of those living in the snow-capped mountains are not much purer than those outside; petty theft still occurs. The herdsmen immediately suspected someone was stealing their cattle, so they grabbed their hunting rifles and rushed out of their tents.

Then he witnessed a scene he would never forget: yaks of all sizes stood upright like humans, kneeling and prostrating themselves facing the mountaintop, their two front legs raised in front of them, as if praying to the gods in the sky. He thought he was dreaming, and rubbed his eyes, but in that instant, the entire herd of kneeling yaks vanished, as if they had never existed.

Yes, the game is shamelessly using whatever it has on hand, leaving players with a mess after the final dungeon ends.

Although the herdsman sensed something was amiss, the yak herd was his life, and even if the player was a monster with three heads and six arms, he would still try to get the yak herd back.

Moreover, everyone had been reduced to the level of ordinary humans, and some were even suffering from severe altitude sickness due to the change in environment, visibly weak and on the verge of collapse.

The group returned the yaks to the herdsmen, gesturing and fabricating a story about a chance encounter with the herdsmen and their kind act of herding them back to camp. They successfully borrowed oxygen cylinders from the herdsmen, alleviating their immediate crisis.

The four rode their goats downhill for a while longer when another group of herders appeared, demanding the return of the goods. Fortunately, they had now reached the foot of the mountain and could see the vibrant and bustling town of Shangri-La in the distance.

Unlike the bizarre and terrifying scenes presented in the eerie game instance, the real Shangri-La Town is just an ordinary tourist town. Tourists dressed in brightly colored clothes fill the streets, laughter and chatter drift from the shops, young men and women take photos with their phones, and tour guides hold up red flags and say things like "check-in point" and "popular tourist attraction".

People occasionally stole glances at the four people who had just come down from the snow-capped mountain. Their blood-stained shirts, ill-fitting warm Tibetan robes, and dirty and disheveled appearances made them seem out of place in this peaceful and tranquil scenic area, as they had just gone through a life-or-death ordeal.

Shuo Meng calmly sprayed a few sprays of perfume on himself, and didn't forget to smile at the girl who had been staring at him the longest, which startled her so much that she immediately ran a few steps and disappeared into the crowd.

After a moment's hesitation, he suddenly frowned and pondered, "By the way, does anyone here have a cell phone? Without a phone and no cash, how are we going to get back?" Jiang Junjue shrugged, "Hopefully there's facial recognition payment here. If all else fails, I'll just have to sell my face, sit down on the street with my broken bowl..."

Shuo Meng looked deeply moved: "Old Jiang, whether I can successfully return home depends on you!"

The biting wind on the snow-capped mountains and the heavy snow blurring the path we came from and the path we are going to make it easy for people to realize their own insignificance and feel a sense of loneliness, as if they cannot find their own kind in the world.

Now, back among the crowd, a sense of déjà vu arises, as if a person filled with remorse has been given a second life by divine grace. Everything that happened on the snow mountain quickly fades away, as if it were just a bizarre and absurd dream.

Even though they arrived as a large group of people who had been separated, and only four people from different camps ended up together by chance, Shuo Meng and Jiang Junjue still felt the relief of surviving a disaster.

It's over. Although they don't know how chaotic the outside world has become, at least in this secluded Shangri-La town, they are carefree, free from all worries, and have gained a stolen moment of peace.

If only I could live here forever, if only time could stand still in this moment...

Jin Yusheng counted on his fingers for a while, his eyelids twitching wildly: "Gentlemen, Siqi, should we find a bus and sneak onto it as soon as possible, and run away before that woman called 'White Crow' can react? I have a feeling this isn't over yet..."

“Where can we run to?” Siqi shook his head. “If Bai Ya wins in the end, she will undoubtedly have obtained the power of the Ancestral God. Even if we run back to Jiangcheng, she can still kill us. If Fu Jue wins in the end, we won’t need to run anymore, right?”

Jin Yusheng clicked his tongue: "That's true, but just lying here and waiting to die doesn't feel quite right..."

“I’m tired, so tired that all I want to do is find a hotel and rest. I don’t want to travel anymore.” Si Qi turned his head to look into Jin Yusheng’s eyes, grinning with a set of white teeth. “If you insist on leaving here, you might die of exhaustion on the road before Bai Ya even makes a move.”

The young man's words carried undisguised malice, which Jin Yusheng keenly sensed. He shuddered inwardly and immediately raised his hands in a gesture of surrender: "Siqi, I'll listen to you! I'm exhausted too, let's find a hotel together and rest up!"

The two reached an agreement, and Shuo Meng and Jiang Junjue naturally had no objections. The four of them hit it off immediately and searched for a hotel with vacant rooms along the street, unknowingly reaching the end of the long street.

The shop with the sign "Mountain Climbing Preparation Station" sat alone, next to a two-story wooden building with red pillars, yellow walls, a white roof, and blue and green paint under the eaves, where rows of white wind chimes hung.

It was none other than the inn where the players stayed in the dungeon.

After going around in circles, they've returned to where they started. As veteran players on the leaderboard, no matter how carefree they appear, they are cautious at heart. The current situation seems like a premonition, leaving them no choice but to be vigilant.

Jiang Junjue narrowed his eyes, a look of suspicion in them: "Do you guys think we guys really left the final instance? Something just doesn't feel right. What kind of trick is this weird game up to?"

"Why don't we go in and see for ourselves?" Si Qi smiled and stepped straight into the inn, his steps creating a gentle breeze that made the wind chimes above his head tinkle.

He turned his head and looked at the mountaineering preparation area not far away. A young woman was sitting in the dimly lit doorway, wearing a red and blue Tibetan robe and several colorful beads around her neck. She was none other than Baima from the final instance.

She clearly remembered Siqi, nodding in greeting from afar and raising the mirror in her hand to reflect the image onto Siqi.

In a moment of distraction, I saw colorful clouds blooming in the mirror: turquoise, orange-yellow, crimson, indigo... all kinds of silks and gauze spread out in magnificent and strange colors, as if all the light and color in the world had been gathered from this place.

Si Qi snapped out of his daze, pretending not to have seen anything, and smiled as he said to Jin Yusheng, who was hiding two steps away to his side, "Come in, there's no danger in the inn."

(End of this chapter)