Infinite spooky game

Xiangcheng, the city center.

The statue of the first governor stands majestically in the center of the square. Looking up from below, his right hand, holding the flag aloft, seems to touch the sky. The interior was hollowed out when it was first built and a spiral staircase was installed. At the top is a small room of less than five square meters, with two windows that correspond to the eyes of the statue. Standing in front of the window, one can overlook the entire city of Hong Kong and even see the winding coastline on the edge of the city.

Bai Ya pushed open the window, letting the biting wind from 500 meters above the ground rush into the room. Her long, white hair and trench coat were whipped around in the air, making a strange "whoosh" sound.

Beneath the mask covered in golden vine patterns, the eyes, originally brown, gradually turned a distant silver-white, calmly and serenely lowering their gaze. The city's map unfolded in the field of vision, with the figures of humans, birds, beasts, insects, and fish clearly visible. In that instant, the images were recorded in the memory records of millions of years, forming part of the vast ocean of information.

Federal officials had long since retreated under the relentless onslaught of the Balance Church. The devastated city quickly regained order under religious propaganda and militarized management. After the initial panic, the people regained a precious numbness, continuing their lives of waiting to die as before. In any case, no matter who was in power, things wouldn't get any worse.

However, if they were aware of the devastation in cities outside the Church of the Balance's jurisdiction, they would surely thank God for their current peaceful lives. Although supplies were scarce due to the Federation's blockade, at least they were alive and spared from bizarre cruelty and harassment. In any case, for most people, being alive is a good thing, isn't it?
“I need more pain, sorrow, fear and despair. This place could have been a stage for a grand drama, but you made it utterly boring with order and rules. I’m starting to regret working with you.” Beside Bai Ya, a man wearing a pale mask and a black tailcoat spread his hands in dissatisfaction, his limbs swaying stiffly and uncontrollably, like a clumsy, comical puppet on a stage.

He is Charlie Woodward, the holder of the "Desperate Writer" identity card and an important NPC in the "Grand Performance" instance. He has accumulated a lot of sins over the past few decades by creating an instance mechanism that exploits the loopholes in the rules to squeeze players, thus qualifying him to compete for the final instance as an NPC.

Charlie stared at the back of White Crow's head and chuckled strangely: "I'm not interested in who can become a god, I only care about how many audiences my newly adapted play can attract, but I didn't expect that you not only lack audiences, flowers and applause, but even the performance venue is mediocre."

Bai Ya turned to look at him, her expression unchanged: "I see an unprecedentedly huge stage being erected in Jiangcheng, and the characters of the madmen are entering one by one, including the 'Zhou Ke' you know. As a playwright, do you want to join that performance?"

Upon hearing this, Charlie slightly turned his face, which was obscured by his mask, and said with a hint of suspicion, "You can tell me directly what you need me to do for you this time, and what you intend to promise me. You should know that this isn't the first time I've made a deal with a god."

Bai Ya calmly stared into his dark eye sockets, her voice indifferent: "Bring 'Zhou Ke' back. The [Crimson High Priest] should not fall into the hands of the [Closed-Eyes Dictator]."

……

9:00 AM, May 17th, suburbs of Jiangcheng.

Firearms, ammunition, and a range of supplies were transported to the area by private cars from all sorts of places, like ants carrying grains of sand. At the same time, Siqi's phone received a series of coordinates. The Soul Contract began to issue commands, so the three members of the Listening Wind Guild split up and quickly moved all the goods from the coordinates into the workshop.

Siqi has never used a gun. In the past twenty-two years, he has not been good at solving problems with force. Even when he occasionally needs to use violence to stop certain lives from making a sound, he prefers to choose cold weapons that allow his fingertips to directly touch warm blood.

Fortunately, the memories of gods and believers contain a wealth of theoretical information about firearms. His post on the game forum a week ago caused a huge stir, and his unique three-line divine name spread widely among players and even ordinary people. Many people, with a betting mentality of "worshiping any god that exists," maintained a neutral stance on the surface while silently reciting his name in their hearts.

More and more souls are coming under control, and the scarlet vines deep within the temple of thought are thriving. The densely packed soul leaves provide knowledge and power, gradually enhancing Siqi's physique so that he can cope with the impending battle.

“Jin Yusheng, I remember you built an underground passage between the lower city and the suburbs of Jiangcheng, right?” Siqi picked up a Glock 17 pistol, weighed it in his hand, and put it on his waist. He turned to look at Yu Jinsheng. “I don’t want to be targeted by those hyenas from the Bureau of Investigation as soon as I enter Jiangcheng.”

Yu Jinsheng thought to himself, "Just as I expected."

Ever since he learned that the Bureau of Investigation was going to target Qi Si, he had been thinking about ways to negotiate and achieve the best of both worlds. In the end, he used some of his connections in the gray area and spent a lot of money to dig an underground passage leading out of the city in a remote part of the lower city. He planned to wait until Qi Si was cornered by the Bureau of Investigation and then quietly send him out of the encirclement.

He never told anyone about the existence of this passage. Siqi knew about it, presumably because he obtained some of his memories while manipulating his soul.

He had initially thought that Siqi's cold attitude towards him meant that the other party was unaware of his hidden plans. Now it seemed that there had never been any "misunderstanding." Siqi was just that kind of person. If he wasn't absolutely loyal to him, he might as well have died in the first place.

“That secret passage was originally used to leave the city, but I never thought it would be used to enter the city one day.” Yu Jinsheng looked up at Si Qi’s ambiguous smile and his smile was bitter. “Old Qi, I can take you there, but that secret passage was built in a hurry and I’m afraid it can’t be used by cars. We’ll have to abandon the car and walk.”

Jiang Junjue, who was listening nearby, raised his hand at the right moment and said, "Since it's a secret passage, wouldn't it be a bit much for us to go in so openly? Brother Siqi, our guild leader is responsible for his own actions, and he's already been taken hostage enough. Shuomeng and I won't cause you any more trouble..."

Siqi smiled and said, "No trouble at all, let's go together."

Shuo Meng's face turned bitter: "The problem is that besides wasting air and dragging you down, Lao Jiang and I are utterly useless. In the eyes of Jiuzhou and Fu Jue, our guild leader is a main dish, while I'm just a seasoning. They can take us all down with a single cannonball..."

Siqi's smile remained unchanged: "If I'm destined to die, I'd like to take a few more people with me."

"Gan!"

Under the resentful gazes of the three members of the Listening Wind Guild, Siqi tapped his chin with his index finger: "You've reminded me. Since Lin Jue dared to lure me into the city, he must have some strange methods to deal with me and my subordinates. I suddenly feel that the soul contract may not be so safe after all."

The three men stared at the black-haired, red-eyed youth with suspicion. They watched as his slender, pale fingers rummaged through the supplies Bob had brought, finally settling on a few bottles of semi-transparent liquid.

After a pause, seeing the growing fear in the three men's eyes, he suddenly laughed: "I was just kidding, let's get going as soon as possible."

Yu Jinsheng held his breath and remained silent for a long while before secretly letting out a sigh of relief; his back was already covered in cold sweat.

He understood Siqi's concerns, which were nothing more than his suspicion that Fu Jue had obtained a means to suppress the strange phenomena, and that the three people bound by the soul contract would no longer be under his control after entering the city; the gray area was full of methods to force people to obey, and although Siqi had never used them before, given his moral bottom line, injecting something into the three hostages was just a matter of course.

Why stop at the last step when Bob had already prepared the necessary materials and the idea had been on his mind? Yu Jinsheng knew Qi Si and didn't believe he had a change of heart.

Siqi wasn't having a change of heart; he just suddenly felt it wasn't necessary.

Judging from Lin Jue's attitude, the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics will definitely not care about the life or death of the hostage; Yu Jinsheng and others will at most play the role of scapegoats.

Once the four entered Jiangcheng, they were in the same boat. Creating discord beforehand would be unwise, since obtaining the antidote involved either obeying orders or severe torture.

Weighing the risks and benefits, it's better to remain still and see how the Listening Wind Guild responds.

Moreover, Si Qi was also very curious about what Lin Jue relied on and what his bargaining chips were to use to invite him into the city. At 10:30, the equipment was almost ready, and everyone had carried what they needed to. Led by Yu Jinsheng, the group headed towards the entrance of the secret passage.

The secret passage prepared by Yu Jinsheng appeared to be a newly built air-raid shelter. Low iron houses covered the dark entrance, and steel ladders clung to the rock walls and went deep into the ground. Only after turning on the lights did one discover that the interior was a completely different world, complete with bedrooms, studies, storage areas, and a toilet in the washroom. It was a well-equipped post-apocalyptic shelter.

Yu Jinsheng walked straight into the washroom, pressed the flush button three times, and after three bursts of water, the toilet automatically rose, revealing the staircase leading to the darkness below.

"Pretty well hidden, right? Nobody would guess there's a passage under the toilet," Yu Jinsheng said smugly, stepping onto the damp stairs. "I just didn't expect the pipe to burst and leak so much water."

Siqi, who has a severe case of mysophobia: "..."

After entering the secret passage, you only need to walk straight to reach the other end. According to Yu Jinsheng, the secret passage is only one kilometer long, so after entering the city, you still need to walk on the ground for a while to reach Jinjiang Community.

As Yu Jinsheng walked, he kept turning on the lights. The electrical appliances, which were soaked in the cold and damp environment, were mostly malfunctioning. The pale light they cast did not dispel the darkness, but instead made people feel cold.

Jiang Junjue lit a cigarette at some point and put it in his mouth. The silvery smoke, accompanied by a sigh, diffused in the air, making the light even more blurry and hazy.

He clicked his tongue and said, "President, are you sure you're the only one who knows about this place? You didn't mention it to Fu Jue when you were drunk one time, did you?"

“I rarely drink, let alone when I’m having dinner with Fu Jue.” Yu Jinsheng continued walking. “Old Jiang, what do you want to say? Spit it out.”

"My eyelids keep twitching, I have a feeling something bad is going to happen. If Fu Jue knew about this secret passage, he would definitely put a bomb at the exit and nuke us..." Jiang Junjue smiled bitterly, "I have a wife and children, it would be too unjust for me to die in this godforsaken secret passage."

“Now that you mention it, I also think it’s inappropriate. The air here is suffocating; throwing a bomb in would be like catching a turtle in a jar.” Shuomeng sighed, then looked at Siqi, “Brother Siqi, my girlfriend is waiting for me at home. All I did was steal your lighter once; how can you bear to see me die…”

Siqi walked slowly and silently, his thoughts sinking to the bottom of his mind to sense the presence of the rose monsters, briefly gaining a partial view of the lower city of Jiangcheng.

As he had anticipated, the Bureau of Paranormal Investigations surrounded the Omi neighborhood, clearly having some idea of ​​his destination. The remaining rose monsters mechanically attacked any living thing that approached, and investigators were killed from time to time, but soon someone would fill the gap left by their predecessors, and the advance would continue.

In the memories that the rules gave to Sisi, since Sisi agreed to plant roses in reality, he had never paid attention to these rose monsters. Therefore, their actions were aimless and relied entirely on their bizarre instincts.

Now, Siqi can take over them at any time and launch an organized operation against the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, and the balance of power will tilt once again.

But... the placement of all the cards was too blatant, as if every condition in the question was marked in red, guiding him to submit an answer that conformed to the reference answer.

Lin Jue was frank and open, inviting him into a trap. Whether it was an empty city ploy or a trap, no one knew until the enemy was at the city gates.

This is a gamble, and once again, Siche is betting his life on the table.

Seeing that Si Qi had no intention of acknowledging anyone, Yu Jinsheng turned to Jiang Junjue and Shuomeng: "Old Jiang, how dare you say that? In your wife's eyes, you've already died in the line of duty, and you even have a pension and a cenotaph. Shuomeng, you too, Xiaoxin died in the dungeon a year ago, and now you're dead and it's called 'following her to the afterlife'... You two are at least qualified to enter the final dungeon, don't embarrass us, Tingfeng."

Jiang Junjue stared intently at Yu Jinsheng's face, took another puff of his cigarette, and remained silent.

Shuo Meng muttered to herself, "Xiao Xin hasn't even finished using the perfume she made yet. It would be such a waste if she died so young..."

"That's better than letting you cause trouble all the time..."

Siqi listened to the three's endless chatter, silently searching for their soul leaves among the red leaves of the tree in the Hall of Thought, and issued a silencing order.

The world fell silent, save for the sounds of breathing and the clatter of shoes against the concrete.

Gradually, more subtle sounds became clearer. Siqi heard the sound of wheels rubbing against the asphalt, low and indistinct human voices, and the echo of tiny roots moving through the cracks in the soil...

The dark underground world is only a few meters away from the human world, a realm where plants and insects thrive. At the edge of the field of vision lies a tightly sealed iron gate, and the slope beneath one's feet begins to rise slowly, indicating the process of the two worlds coming together.

He walked over and over, and in a moment, alarm bells rang in his mind.

"boom!"

The sudden, deafening roar shook the heavens and the earth; after a ringing in the ears, temporary hearing loss ensued, and the entire world was plunged into silence for a moment.

The gray iron gate was split open by crimson flames, and golden beams of light from the explosion devoured the iron sheet and cement edges. The scorching heat was overwhelming, and the flames trailed silvery tails, spreading out into the boundless daylight.

Silence, silence, a long silence...

"Tick..."

Something cold landed on my arm.

Siqi raised his finger to touch that spot, gently wiped it off, and held it up to his eyes.

A drop of scarlet liquid was embedded in the tip of a fair finger, with barely visible gilding flowing within its amber-like interior, exuding both holiness and eeriness.

That was his blood, the blood of a demigod. (End of Chapter)