Infinite spooky game

After descending from the snow-capped mountain, Qi Si traveled eastward, stopping and starting along the way, and returned to Jiangcheng in late autumn six months later.

The city, yet to be invaded by the eerie forces, was bustling with life. As he entered the city, it was dusk, with all sorts of private cars coming and going on the streets, the sounds of car horns and traffic police whistles rising and falling, and the faint sounds of pedestrians talking could be heard.

A teenage girl holds her mother's hand and tells her about funny things that happened in class in an exaggerated tone; an office worker with a briefcase walks by, tilting his head and talking to his family with a smile while holding his phone; a group of elderly men and women push a stereo towards the nearby city square, chatting about their children with great enthusiasm.

Qi Si wandered aimlessly for a while, then saw a subway entrance, went down the steps, and randomly boarded a subway train.

For the six years after his parents died, he spent most of his time at home. Even when he went to his studio, he mostly took a taxi, and it had been a long time since he had used this most common mode of transportation.

He found a quiet corner to squat down and watched all sorts of people get on and off the bus. A middle-aged man dressed as a migrant worker stood awkwardly holding a bag of peanuts; several young people wore headphones, looked down at their phones, and quickly scrolled through short videos.

Qi Si suddenly realized that he was not familiar with Jiangcheng. He could count the number of Jiangcheng people he knew on one hand, and he wouldn't even lift his eyelids if most of them died in front of him.

He was unaware of the important events that had occurred in Jiangcheng, nor did he know about the city's topography and regional divisions. If he were to take an aerial view of one hundred cities from around the world, he probably wouldn't be able to accurately pick out the one that belonged to Jiangcheng.

To put it bluntly, he didn't actually feel any sense of belonging to Jiangcheng. Lacking identification with human identity and unable to develop a collective consciousness, he was born without the psychological foundation to feel a sense of "belonging."

But he lived in Jiangcheng for six years, and apart from dealing with the Qi Family Village and the statue of the God of Happiness, he never had the idea of ​​leaving Jiangcheng. The moment he came out of the final instance, he was teleported back to Jiangcheng. He went to the snow mountain for a visit, but his first thought was still to return to Jiangcheng.

All the signs pointing to him are contradictory and suspicious enough that Qi Si tends to believe there's some reason he's forgotten behind it all. Assuming there's a third person orchestrating this grand scheme, the opportunity for him to break free is most likely related to Jiang Cheng.

As the subway grew more crowded, the stench of sweat and the spicy aroma of fried skewers mingled and fermented into a pungent, fishy smell. The bodies stood stiffly upright, and even the slightest tremor of the ground beneath their feet caused their limbs to collide.

Qi Si was somewhat relieved that he was in another dimension and wouldn't actually come into contact with these people. But just standing in such a crowded and cramped space, smelling the stench that reminded him of filth, made his nose and eyes feel uncomfortable.

When the subway arrived at the station, Qi Si stepped out and took a deep breath of the night air. He lowered his eyes and recalled the location of Jinjiang Community before walking straight in that direction.

He was too lazy to take detours; he would cross rivers where there were rivers and pass through walls where there were walls, disappearing silently like a true ghost, undetectable to anyone.

The city's nights are not as peaceful as they appear. In the rarely visited corners, evil grows like mold. A homeless man sleeping under a bridge is dragged into a car by a hooded thug. A woman smothers her baby to death in a first-floor apartment.

Qis also saw a man with similar interests playing with live dissection in the basement. He watched with interest for a while and realized that this man was a disaster in terms of both aesthetics and technique.

How could you choose such ugly materials? How could you let the materials make such a racket? Qi Si really wanted to dissect this man and teach him the correct operating methods, but in his current state, he could only watch helplessly.

In short, Qi Si wandered around Jiangcheng all night but still didn't feel much familiar with the city. Fortunately, he finally found the location of Jinjiang Residential Area and arrived at the entrance in the early hours of the morning.

The breakfast shop owner was already up and busy, carefully washing the scallions and greens in a basin full of water. Behind the shop, in a pile of garbage, a mother dog was nursing a litter of puppies, one of which had dark fur and wide, bright black eyes peeking out.

Qi Si wandered around for a while, skillfully navigating the buildings and entering his familiar apartment building. Once inside the elevator, he realized he couldn't even press the buttons. He sighed, backed out step by step, and headed towards the emergency exit, obediently starting to climb the stairs.

Perhaps because he was about to go home, Qi Si found himself becoming much more patient. As he went upstairs, he took the time to glance at the small advertisements posted in the stairwell, which were completely unfamiliar to him, from the words to the pictures.

His connection with the real world was so thin that he was not even familiar with the apartment building where he had lived for many years. Even in the timeline of 2035, he had never paid attention to what the hallway looked like, so he was naturally unaware of how many times the advertisements had been changed in the past twenty-two years.

Qi Si thought with a bittersweet smile that while he waited for his scheme to take shape, he had plenty of time to stroll around and observe. Now he was all alone, and the worst-case scenario was that he would have to wait here alone for twenty-two years until the timelines intersected at some point.

Even during the time of the gods, he had Li and a group of ignorant humans to amuse him; during the time he was sealed in the "Carnivorous" instance, although Qi did not leave him with his memories, he must have had villagers and players to play with; being in such a boring situation now is truly the first time since his birth.

Qi Si floated above the master bedroom, looking at himself lying in the cradle, speechless.

Thick and thin black smoke swirled around the baby, and distorted ghostly figures entered the room one after another, standing bowed and hunched around the cradle as if participating in a welcoming ceremony, yet remaining silent as if mourning the arrival of terror.

The baby's eyes were half-open, its face serene, it was hard to tell whether it was asleep or awake. Even the most terrifying evil spirits rejected by the world are no different from ordinary human children in their infancy. The Creator places souls of different colors into human form molds, and before the shell is peeled off, who can know whether there is a god or a demon inside?
Qi Si saw a woman rush into the room, and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the baby lying safely in the cradle. She looked at the baby lovingly, gently rocking the cradle, and turned to the man who had followed her, saying, "Comrade Qi, I told you you were mistaken on the balcony. Our little Qi Si is not even a year old yet, how could he possibly crawl out and walk by himself?"

Qi Si glanced down at the still-wet footprints on the floor, then at the baby in the cradle who seemed to be pretending to be asleep: "..." Well, it seems he's never been a pushover since he was little.

"Ding-dong—ding-dong—ding-dong—" The doorbell rang three times, indicating that it was not a hallucination or a mistake.

The woman, without looking up, urged the man, "Go open the door and see who's here."

The man strode to the door, turned the handle, and opened it, his voice trembling with confusion: "You are—"

A young man in a suit and frameless glasses stood outside the door, glanced at the man indifferently, and took out an ID card from his pocket: "Detective Fu Jue of the Public Security Bureau. On January 1, 2014, a case of newborn swapping occurred at Jiangcheng Central Hospital. It has recently been solved. I need to go to all the families where newborns were born on that day to understand the situation."

After speaking calmly, the young man asked casually, "I remember your child's name is 'Qis,' right?"

Qi Si Piao watched as Fu Jue, who was carrying Lin Jue's soul, walked into the master bedroom, looked around at the ghosts surrounding the baby, picked up a small booklet and pretended to write something, and then politely took his leave.

Although Qi Si already knew that he and Lin Jue had made a deal, and that Lin Jue had known about his existence for twenty-two years, it was only natural for him to come and take a look. However, seeing this scene with his own eyes still made Qi Si feel very uncomfortable and he wanted to kill someone.

In the following days, Qi Si watched as he, still an infant, took advantage of his parents' absence and instinctively crawled out of the cradle, stepping barefoot onto the floor, cautiously and curiously exploring the world like an animal entering the human realm for the first time.

He could clearly feel that his childhood self was gaining a deeper understanding of the world and becoming more and more like a normal human being. The ghostly figures gathered around him never dispersed, their postures changing from submissive and fearful to baring their teeth and claws, but they could never touch the infant in the slightest.

Until one day, as the infant walked, he suddenly began to slowly bend over, crawling on all fours like a real baby, as if in a state of regression. For a moment, he stopped, tilted his head back, and let out a wail like a human infant. Qi Si's temple throbbed with pain. He hated noisy children, even if that person was his former self. He deeply regretted traveling so far to witness this period that even dogs disliked; perhaps he should have gone back to the snow-capped mountains again.

The sound of a doorknob turning came from behind him, but it was still bright outside, and his parents had plenty of time before they got off work. Qi Si turned around and saw Lin Jue, still dressed in a neat black suit, as if he were about to attend a funeral.

He silently walked to the baby, bent down, picked it up, placed it back in the cradle, and turned to leave without a word. Qi Si watched the young man's retreating figure, a strange curiosity creeping into his mind: if Lin Jue intended to kill him now, would Qi Si have left some backup plan?

But he quickly realized with disappointment that, as a rationalist, Lin Jue was waiting for him to enter the bizarre game as a trigger to unlock the final instance, and naturally wouldn't do anything that would affect the overall situation based on personal likes or dislikes. It was quite boring.

Perhaps it was because the almanac said it was auspicious to meet with relatives and friends, because only an hour later, someone else came, and it was an acquaintance who could talk to Qi Si.

Dong Xiwen and "Yuan" sat on the sofa without any politeness, staring at Qi Si.

Dong Xiwen cleared his throat twice to break the awkward atmosphere: "Um, Brother Siqi, let me introduce you. This is Yuan, one of the leaders of our Tianping Church. You should have met him before. I think you two will have a lot in common."

"Yuan" didn't waste any words, succinctly explaining his purpose: "I made a deal with Qi before 'Ragnarok,' and now I'm here to fulfill that promise. He asked me to tell you this: 'For the gods, time is a giant Möbius strip; you can choose to move forward or backward to achieve a predetermined closed loop. The key point is August 7, 2029.'"

On August 7, 2029, six years ago that summer, Qi Si remembered that his uncle sent him to a summer camp disguised as a youth behavior correction camp by the Balance Church. The first time the contract came to his destiny, it gave him the first strange thing in his life.

Time…time…Qis’s intuition grasped something crucial. The memories Qi gave him were missing for thirty-six years, but what if he could turn back time to a certain point in it and witness everything He had experienced?

But now that he no longer has the power over time and space, how will he manipulate time?

In the final instance, Baima told him and Lin Chen: 'Neither of you has fully atoneed your sins. Please remember, never talk about time, and never let anyone else talk about time.'

Baima said that when talking about time, one will "get old," but because time is not linear, it can form a closed loop, so in the player's case, it means "becoming a child again."

This rule can only be explained by new information provided by "meta". As a clue deliberately put forward by NPCs, it was never actually used by players until the end of the final dungeon.

So, is the final instance truly over? Have they really left the final instance? Could being trapped in an alternate dimension isolated from reality be interpreted as another manifestation of the final instance?
Qi Si seemed to understand something, and smiled as he read out the time point provided by "Yuan": "August 7, 2029".

Gods possess memories and experiences spanning billions of years, enough to make humans appear as ignorant children. For gods, the fading of memories is merely flipping through the pages of history, those events blurred by time.

Qi Si initially read the time tentatively, then read it again. His speech grew faster and faster, gradually becoming indistinct. The surrounding scene seemed to distort and deform in his eyes like a spinning kaleidoscope, with figures and objects rising from the ground and collapsing one after another, and bizarre and magnificent scenes flashing by rapidly.

He saw a boy in red wander among the beasts, casually scooping up a small, spotted animal, turning it over and over in his hands before tossing it back to the ground; he saw a young man in red robes walk through magnificent palaces and ornately decorated corridors, smiling as he spoke to elaborately dressed humans with his head slightly bowed; he saw the golden World Tree flourishing by the golden river, with the young man in red and many other young men and women sitting beneath it, casually scooping up a scarlet heart from the river…

The inverted images, sorted out by the brain and arranged in chronological order, allowed Qis to see the thirty-six years that had disappeared from his memory.

After creating the bizarre game, Qi alleviated the gods' immediate crisis of being devoured by the rules. He also deeply understood the principle of sustainable development and the principle of exhausting resources, observing human behavior and choices within the instance while constantly adjusting its difficulty. He saw many players finding ways to complete the instance outside of its original rules, and while intrigued, this gave rise to a different thought—

Why must gods submit to the rule of the rules? Why do the gods constantly face the threat of the rules? Is there a way to solve this problem once and for all?

So, in one of the dungeons, He found Lin Jue, who was then at the top of the overall strength rankings. He slightly raised his hand, and a blood-red scroll of contracts surged before him. He smiled and asked the guild leader of the Ark Guild, "Do you want to end this bizarre game and resurrect those dead humans?"

Then came the well-known conspiracy and that spectacular failure. After Ragnarok, the Ark Guild fell apart, and Qi was sealed away with most of his divine power, suppressed in the Carnivorous Dungeon. Fortunately, He had prepared for the worst, making a deal with "Yuan" and White Raven beforehand, and casting his avatar into reality, becoming Qi Si.

On August 7, 2029, Qi stored all the information about the plan into his memory of that day. This allowed Qi to learn the previously unknown part of the scheme.

After the "Beware of the Rabbit" instance ended, he and Qi merged into one, and Qi took this opportunity to come to reality. As a god, Qi was familiar with the characteristics of the identity cards and foresaw Zhou Ke's appearance. So, when he went to Qi Family Village, he left a trace of it in Jiangcheng to meet Li, who had also come to reality.

Even without knowing the plan, Qi Si could roughly guess what happened next. Zhou Ke and he switched timelines in the final instance, with Zhou Ke taking on the role of "Si Qi" to engage in a game with Lin Jue, exhausting Lin Jue's resources, and then being killed by Li.

Because the "Contractor" is incomplete, in other words, the deity in charge of contracts has not completely died at the level of rules. The authority over contracts still remains in the hands of this deity, and after the usurper dies, the unique entity can return to the original timeline at any time.

"They really arranged everything perfectly for me from beginning to end..." Qi Si laughed.

The method to return to reality is also stored in memory, and the [Fool's Deception] identity card is the final gear that drives the entire scheme.

Red and black cards appeared between Qis's fingers. He bent down like the magician depicted on the card, and polite phantoms floated in his hand. White doves and tarot cards flew out from them, swirling around Qis.

"I am Qi." Qis uttered a lie that was not false, deceiving the rules and destiny above.

The cards spun rapidly between fingers, then fixed on a spot and magnified to cover the sky, while the dark mass of people below the stage erupted in thunderous cheers.

[Upright]

Your words will be trusted.

The shadowy figures of the dense jungle solidified beside him, while a white-robed figure armed with guns patrolled outside a series of tightly closed iron houses. One of the houses was haunted by ghostly figures, with the grotesque silhouettes of monsters casting terrifying reflections on its walls.

A sixteen-year-old boy, thinner and paler than his peers, sat quietly by the iron bed, surrounded by ghostly figures, his head bowed, staring blankly at the ground.

Qi descended into the house, leaned down and chuckled, "Qis, I've come to see you, and I also bring you birthday wishes that are seven months late." (End of Chapter)