The next day, Yi Fengchu woke up feeling refreshed and clear headed. Just as he was about to lift the blanket and get out of bed to wash up, his phone suddenly spoke.
【How did last night feel?】
It was clearly the same flat, emotionless mechanical voice as always yet Yi Fengchu somehow heard something strange hidden within it. He casually ran a hand through his messy hair, one eyebrow lifting slightly.
“Why are you asking that? Since when do you care about the quality of my sleep?”
【Heh.】
The phone let out a cold laugh. The screen lit up, displaying a conspicuous red arrow.
【Look at the bedside table. That’s what you brought back in the middle of the night.】
Yi Fengchu instinctively followed the direction of the arrow. The drowsiness in his eyes vanished instantly, replaced by wide eyed surprise.
“Huh?”
He carefully pinched the inexplicable object that had appeared out of nowhere on the bedside table between two fingers and brought it closer, examining it in detail.
“Uh… this is a curled up… octopus tentacle?”
At first glance, it did resemble an octopus tentacle but the more he looked, the more it differed. Every suction cup covering its surface had a thin slit at its center. Yi Fengchu nudged one gently with his finger and discovered that beneath the slit was something that looked disturbingly like an eyeball.
As for the severed end of the tentacle, it was connected to a fish scale smeared with a faint, eerie blue liquid.
Yi Fengchu tried to imagine what this bizarre creature might have looked like in its entirety. First, he sketched out a fish covered in scales in his mind. Then, at the ends of those scales, he added several curled octopus tentacles. Finally, he embedded numerous eyes inside the suction cups along each tentacle…
How grotesque. What kind of monster was this supposed to be?
Driven by curiosity, Yi Fengchu opened his phone camera and aimed it at the strange tentacle. Information instantly appeared beside it:
【A Tentacle of the Tide Saint】
【Description: It died countless ages ago yet its corpse still breathes.】
Although he had no idea what a “Tide Saint” specifically referred to… judging by the description, it seemed to come from a corpse that had been dead for a very long time.
With a look of distaste, Yi Fengchu tossed the unknown object aside. He picked up the bottle of alcohol spray nearby and sprayed his hands vigorously twice, then wiped them carefully with a tissue. Only then did he ask in surprise,
“I really brought this back? Was I sleepwalking?”
“Aren’t you always concerned about my personal safety?” Yi Fengchu poked the phone. “Why didn’t you wake me up last night? What if I sleepwalked onto the road and got hit by a car?”
The phone was silent for a long time before replying slowly:
【…No need to worry. The place you sleepwalked to is much farther away than a road, I was more worried you’d end up killing someone else.】
Yi Fengchu frowned in confusion. He finished washing up in a daze, then stared at his reflection in the mirror for a moment. Suddenly, a spark of realization flashed across his face.
“Oh, I think I remember a little.”
“I vaguely recall that I had a dream last night,” Yi Fengchu said, trying hard to piece it together. “I think I caught a fish that smelled really good…”
“In the dream, I was so hungry I couldn’t hold back. I grabbed the fish and took several bites. The fish kept screaming and thrashing its tail in my palm… and in the end, one powerful flick of its tail shattered the dream and I woke up.”
The phone’s tone remained oddly restrained as it asked:
【Oh? And then?】
Yi Fengchu shrugged. “I don’t remember many other details. I think Senior Sister Luo was in the dream too but I can’t recall what she said to me.”
He only vaguely remembered that Luo Shengle seemed rather frightened in the dream, speaking very cautiously, while he himself was drifting along in a dazed state, saying whatever came to mind without restraint.
【…】
The phone fell silent again, making no further sound.
But this kind of quiet was what Yi Fengchu was most accustomed to, the usual rhythm of coexisting with his phone.
As usual, Yi Fengchu walked into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator and planned to grab something simple for breakfast, some frozen dumplings, custard buns or the like.
A stream of cold air rushed out from the fridge. The warm toned interior light flicked on, bathing the bottles of drinks and the fresh, vibrant vegetables and fruits in a soft orange glow that made everything look irresistibly appetizing.
Yet for some reason, as Yi Fengchu stared at the food before him, he felt as though he were facing a pile of tasteless wax models… He found it difficult to even imagine himself chewing and swallowing them.
Clearly, his stomach had already sunk in, sending out constant signals of hunger and yet, as he gazed at the food inside the fridge, he felt no desire whatsoever to take a bite.
“Forget it. Eating a little less in the morning shouldn’t matter too much anyway.”
After hesitating for a long while, Yi Fengchu only took out a bottle of milk, heated it and poured it into a glass.
Even with just a few mouthfuls of liquid, he found it hard to swallow. Slowly and mechanically, he forced himself to gulp it down until the glass was empty.
A little hungry… but he really didn’t want to eat these, these…
These human foods.
Then what was he supposed to eat?
Eager to distract himself and ignore this strange hunger, Yi Fengchu opened his phone again and resumed observing the instance, “Whale Bone Aquarium.”
It was still early and Yi Fengchu wasn’t sure whether Luo Shengle had already gotten up and finished getting ready. Out of courtesy, he didn’t look directly into her situation. Instead, he used the reflections on the aquarium’s glass walls to look around.
The fish swimming in the various tanks, the staff members walking past mirrored surfaces, the low murmurs of people gathered by glass cups…
Everything flowed into his vision, flashed by swiftly and finally froze on the scene outside the window.
An endless expanse of ocean shimmered under the sunlight, white waves rising and falling gently with the sea breeze, their reflections cast upon the clean, bright glass windows.
“Hm?”
Yi Fengchu couldn’t help but freeze. He asked the phone incredulously,
“Wait a second, wasn’t there a normal street outside the aquarium before? Why has it turned into the sea now…?”
The phone replied:
【Wasn’t it frightened by you? The ‘aquarium’ packed up its collection and staff overnight and fled eight hundred li away.】
The phone’s way of speaking was often ambiguous. Yi Fengchu couldn’t tell whether it was being truthful or simply maintaining its usual sharp, mocking tone, so he cautiously chose not to take it at face value.
Not long after he finished wandering about, the phone spoke again:
【She has finished washing up.】
Seeing Yi Fengchu’s expression suddenly turn complicated as he looked at it with suspicion, the phone added:
【I have no gender, nor do I perceive the world through human vision.】
【Do not judge me by human standards. That would bore me greatly.】
“Bored?” Yi Fengchu clasped his hands lightly and blinked. “It’s precisely because we follow the perspectives of so many ordinary players that we’ve been able to explore and trigger all the rules and mechanisms of every instance so far. I think human perspectives, whether good or bad, are all quite interesting.”
With a gentle clap of his hands, Yi Fengchu smiled.
“Alright then. Let’s see what kind of wonderful adventure awaits us today.”
While rinsing her mouth, Luo Shengle’s gaze naturally lowered toward the bottom of the sink. Out of the corner of her eye, she unexpectedly spotted a wrinkled, yellowish lump stuck near the drain opening, only a small, inconspicuous corner exposed.
What was that?
Curious, Luo Shengle bent down slightly. With a subtle movement of her fingers, a surge of airflow burst out from the drain, flushing the yellowed object free. It rolled out and came to rest at the bottom of the sink.
A current of fresh air surged forward, unfolding the paper wad that had been crumpled into a tight ball.
Only then did she see clearly that it was actually half of an old photograph with a blue background. It seemed to have been torn in two and flushed away at some point in the past, one half had likely followed the flow of water to some unknown place, while this remaining portion had happened to get stuck at the entrance of the pipe.
There it stayed, wrinkled and compressed, hidden away in a long abandoned room, until Luo Shengle moved in.
Although half of the photograph was missing, it was still easy to recognize it as an ID photo. The man in the picture was wearing a white shirt, his beard shaved clean.
On his left cheek was a scar about half the length of a finger, cutting through what would otherwise have been handsome, well defined features, even splitting the line of his eyebrow.
Luo Shengle’s gaze lingered on that scar. Its curved shape, with faint traces that looked like burns, made it resemble a small crescent moon branded into the side of his cheek.
This was probably something left behind by a player who had entered this instance before, she thought.
With that assumption in mind, Luo Shengle hadn’t intended to dwell on the photograph any further, until she manipulated the wind to flip it over.
On the back of the photo were several hastily scrawled characters. They appeared to have been written with some kind of highly waterproof special coating; even after being stuffed into an extremely damp environment, the ink had only bled slightly, leaving the shapes of the characters still recognizable.
“Chinese characters?”
That immediately captured Luo Shengle’s full attention.
The Playground of the Gods spanned countless planes and civilizations. Across innumerable instances large and small, being able to encounter traces left by players from the same civilization, using the same language, in the same instance, could itself be considered a kind of fate.
With a sense of familiarity and closeness, Luo Shengle carefully deciphered the blurred writing. As she continued reading, the faint smile on her face gradually faded without her noticing.
“This instance… impossible…?”
A growing sense of unease swelled in Luo Shengle’s heart, instinctively making her feel restless and unsettled. The final two characters were squeezed tightly together, nearly torn away entirely.
After studying them for a long time, Luo Shengle read the last two words uncertainly:
“Sacrifice?”
What did that mean? Somehow, it didn’t sound like good news at all…
Frowning, she cast a few final glances at the photograph. A gust of wind gathered in her palm, grinding the half photo into shreds like a paper shredder.
Along with it, the unfamiliar face bearing a faint smile on the photograph fractured inch by inch, dissolving into dust and scattering away in the wind.
✦ ✧ ✦
Nycreth
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
A coffee would be extremely convenient right about now. Just saying.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Mysterious letterChapter 2 · Divine MessagesChapter 3 · Gamer ForumChapter 4 · Invitation from GodChapter 5 · JudgeChapter 6 · TerminalChapter 7 · Destruction of recordsChapter 8 · Whale Bone Aquarium (1)Chapter 9 · Whale Bone Aquarium (2)Chapter 10 · Whale Bone Aquarium (3)Chapter 11 · Whale Bone Aquarium (4)Chapter 12 · Whale Bone Aquarium (5)Chapter 13 · Whale Bone Aquarium (6)Chapter 14 · Whale Bone Aquarium (7)Chapter 15 · Whale Bone Aquarium (8)Chapter 16 · Whale Bone Aquarium (9)Chapter 17 · Whale Bone Aquarium (10)Chapter 18 · Whale Bone Aquarium (11)Chapter 19 Part 1 · Whale Bone Aquarium (12)Chapter 19 Part 2 · Whale Bone Aquarium (12)Chapter 20 · Interlude: His ApostlesChapter 21 · Echoes in the pupa (1)Chapter 22 · Echoes in the pupa (2)Chapter 23 · Echoes in the Pupa (3)Chapter 24 · Echoes in the Pupa (4)Chapter 25 · Echoes in the Pupa (5)Chapter 26 · Echoes in the Pupa (6)Chapter 27 · Echoes in the Pupa (7)Chapter 28 · Echoes in the Pupa (8)Chapter 29 · Echoes in the Pupa (9)Chapter 30 · Echoes in the Pupa (10)Chapter 31 · Echoes in the Pupa (11)Chapter 32 · Echoes in the Pupa (12)Chapter 33 · Echoes in the Pupa (13)Chapter 34 · Interlude: Investigation by the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs (1)Chapter 35 · Interlude: Investigation by the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs (2)Chapter 36 · Interlude: Investigation by the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs (3)Chapter 37 · Small World: God’s Chessboard (1)Chapter 38 · Small World: God’s Chessboard (2)Chapter 39 · Small World: God’s Chessboard (3)Chapter 40 · Small World: God’s Chessboard (4)Chapter 41 · Advertisement Coming Soon (1)Chapter 42 · Advertisement Coming Soon (2)Chapter 43 · Advertisement Coming Soon (3)Chapter 44 · Advertisement Coming Soon (4)Chapter 45 · Advertisement Coming Soon (5)Chapter 46 · Advertisement Coming Soon (6)Chapter 47 · Advertisement Coming Soon (7)Chapter 48 · Advertisement Coming Soon (8)Chapter 49 · Advertisement Coming Soon (9)Chapter 50 · Advertisement Coming Soon (10)Chapter 51 · Advertisement Coming Soon (11)Chapter 52 · Advertisement Coming Soon (12)Chapter 53 · Advertisement Coming Soon to EndChapter 54 · Interlude – Tonight No One Sleeps (1)Chapter 55 · Interlude – Tonight No One Sleeps (2)Chapter 56 · Interlude – Tonight No One Sleeps (3)Chapter 57 · Interlude – Tonight No One Sleeps (4)Chapter 58 · Childhood Ghost Stories (1)Chapter 59 · Childhood Ghost Stories (2)Chapter 60 · Childhood Ghost Stories (3)Chapter 61 · Childhood Ghost Stories (4)Chapter 62 · Childhood Ghost Stories (5)Chapter 63 · Childhood Ghost Stories (6)Chapter 64 · Childhood Ghost Stories (7)Chapter 65 · Childhood Ghost Stories (8)Chapter 66 · Childhood Ghost Stories (9)Chapter 67 · Childhood Ghost Stories (10)Chapter 68 · Childhood Ghost Stories (11)Chapter 69 · Childhood Ghost Stories (12)Chapter 70 · Childhood Ghost Stories (13)Chapter 71 · Childhood Ghost Stories (14)Chapter 72 · Childhood Ghost Stories (15)Chapter 73 · Childhood Ghost Stories (16)Chapter 74 · Childhood Ghost Stories (17)Chapter 75 · Childhood Ghost Stories (18)Chapter 76 · Childhood Ghost Stories (19)Chapter 77 · Childhood Ghost Stories (20)Chapter 78 · Childhood Ghost Stories (Complete)Chapter 79 · Interlude: His Kingdom (1)Chapter 80 · Interlude: His Kingdom (2)Chapter 81 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (1)Chapter 82 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (2)Chapter 83 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (3)Chapter 84 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (4)Chapter 85 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (5)Chapter 86 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (Complete)Chapter 87 · Fate casually rolls the dice (1)Chapter 88 · Fate Casually rolls the dice (2)Chapter 89 · Fate Casually rolls the dice (3)Chapter 90 · Fate Casually rolls the dice (4)Chapter 91 · Fate casually tosses the dice (5)Chapter 92 · Fate casually tosses the dice (6)Chapter 93 · Fate casually tosses the dice (7)Chapter 94 · Fate casually tosses the dice (8)Chapter 95 · Fate casually tosses the dice (9)Chapter 96 · Fate casually tosses the dice (10)Chapter 97 · Fate Casually tosses the dice (11)Chapter 98 · Fate casually tosses the dice (12)Chapter 99 · Fate casually tosses the dice (13)Chapter 100 · Fate casually tosses the dice (14)Chapter 101 · Fate casually tosses the dice (15)Chapter 102 · Fate casually tosses the dice (16)Chapter 103 · Fate casually tosses the dice (17)Chapter 104 · Fate casually tosses the dice (18)Chapter 105 · Fate casually tosses the dice (19)Chapter 106 · Fate casually tosses the dice (20)Chapter 107 · Fate casually tosses the dice (21)Chapter 108 · Fate casually tosses the dice (The End)Chapter 109 · Interlude