Du Xiaoyu's real name was, in fact, Du Xiaoyu. It was such a common name you could find a dozen just by walking down the street, so there was no point in changing or concealing it.
He was as ordinary as his name suggested: a man with a basic compulsory education, no steady job, and no particular talents to speak of.
From the age of fourteen, after his father was arrested for “endangering federal security” and his mother remarried, he started running with the wrong crowd. He’d latch onto local gangsters, serve as hired muscle to bolster their numbers, and quickly earned a bad reputation in his neighborhood.
Later, as local resistance groups and cults became more active, the Federation tightened its control and launched a crackdown on small gangs. Du Xiaoyu got swept up in the mess and ended up doing three years in prison.
When he got out, he'd lost his edge. He lived quietly, picking up odd jobs. It was only when the neighbors pointed and gossiped that he’d roll up his sleeves and viciously throw a few punches at whoever had a smart mouth.
He was a decent fighter, so anyone who crossed him usually came out worse for it. Gradually, people learned not to mock him and started avoiding him altogether.
He was all alone and felt a growing sense of desolation, so he'd often try to pick fights. But nobody paid him any mind over petty things, and anything serious would land him back in jail.
He wasn't brave enough to risk it all, so he ended up numbing himself with alcohol and the internet, living each day in a mindless haze.
Until the Weird Game appeared.
That day, Du Xiaoyu was drunk when, through a hazy stupor, he heard a voice say to him:
"Enter the Weird Game, and you will obtain everything you desire—wealth, power, health... It will all be yours."
At that moment, he felt as if the heavens had finally smiled upon him. His chance to change his destiny had finally arrived, and he accepted without a second thought.
But after entering the game, he discovered that there were tens of thousands of players. With no knowledge of the supernatural and a crippling fear of ghosts and death, he was still at the bottom of the food chain—a mere stepping stone for the dazzlingly powerful players.
His initial burst of passion quickly cooled. Every day, the moment he opened his eyes, his only thoughts were about how to survive and how to escape the game.
Fortunately, though he had no skills of his own, he was an excellent judge of character. He could always spot the player most likely to survive in a crowd, latch onto them, and suck up until they were satisfied. More often than not, he'd get a piece of the pie for his efforts.
Encountering Qi Si in the Double Happiness Town instance was completely unexpected for Du Xiaoyu.
It was true he'd seen Qi Si in the newspapers, but he was no fan. On the contrary, he harbored a fair bit of resentment for this person his own age.
Why was it that both of their parents were dead, yet Qi Si's were intellectuals who left him a considerable inheritance, while his own parents had left him nothing but a pile of bad debt?
Why was it that both of them were high school dropouts, yet the other guy could become a famous taxidermist while he was a nobody?
Du Xiaoyu knew you couldn't compare people, that the world was inherently unfair. In the real world, he might have spat a few curses, but in the Weird Game, he wouldn't dare act so recklessly.
All he could do was feign admiration and, just as he always had, latch onto the strongest person as quickly as possible.
Sucking up to one person was the same as sucking up to another, right? He was used to it, anyway. And the fact that he'd read the articles about Qi Si would help him get closer to him faster.
But now, recalling everything that had happened since entering this instance, that faint sliver of resentment he'd felt at the start could no longer be ignored.
Du Xiaoyu could no longer suppress the bitter thought—no one here respected him. They were all just messing with him.
"Du Xiaoyu, hurry up! Why are you walking so slowly?" Xu Yao's gentle voice called out from a distance up ahead.
Du Xiaoyu snapped back to reality. While he'd been lost in thought, Xu Yao had gotten quite a ways ahead. She was now standing at an intersection about ten meters away, looking back over her shoulder.
The night wasn't as dark as he'd thought. A cold, white moonlight spilled from above, coating the street, the houses, and their figures in a silvery sheen. Xu Yao's shadow was faint, cast diagonally onto the ground like a hazy mist.
"Walking so fast without even waiting for me..." Du Xiaoyu muttered. He lifted his foot to move forward, but felt something grab his ankle.
He looked down and saw that, at some point, he now had two shadows!
Besides his own shadow, there was the shadow of a woman. Her hair was in a bun, her figure petite, and she was gripping his shadow's ankle with both hands. Her form trembled slightly, as if from the sheer effort.
A cold sweat broke out on Du Xiaoyu's skin. It felt as if a sledgehammer had struck him in the chest, leaving his entire body numb and paralyzed.
He opened his mouth, but it took him a long moment before he could force out the name "Li Yao." His voice was hoarse and unnatural, as if someone else were speaking through him.
"Wrong name, hehe," Xu Yao said, turning her head to smile at him.
As if waking from a dream, Du Xiaoyu quickly corrected himself. "Xu Yao, help me..."
*Aren't you an expert on the supernatural? You've cleared five instances, haven't you? Help me...*
"Come here." Xu Yao's voice was as sharp as nails on a chalkboard.
Du Xiaoyu didn't dare hesitate. He struggled forward, step by step, but for some reason, Xu Yao's figure seemed to grow more distant with every move. In the moonlight, she became a blurry, silver silhouette, like an unreachable mirage.
"Xu Yao, wait for me..."
Du Xiaoyu called out, his voice trembling. Suddenly, he felt a whoosh of air against his shoulder, and an icy chill spread through him in an instant.
A woman's voice rose from his feet. "Were you calling for me?"
A dead-white face, like one made from paper-mâché, pressed against the tip of Du Xiaoyu's nose. Its cheeks and lips were smeared with a vermilion red that looked like fresh blood. Its eyes had no whites, only bloodshot orbs set in their sockets, glaring with venomous ferocity.
Du Xiaoyu let out a bloodcurdling scream, on the verge of fainting. A coldness enveloped him, as if he'd been plunged into an ice cellar.
Something tapped his shoulder. He felt his soul float out of his body as he pitched forward, stiff as a board.
A well had appeared before him at some point. He tumbled into it headfirst, sinking weightlessly through a long silence.
With his last glimpse, he saw his own corpse sitting upright at the bottom of the well.
...
Elsewhere.
Shang Qingbei, half a step behind the young man, silently pulled a sheet of rice paper from his English dictionary. He placed it against the hardcover and wrote down the name "Qi Si."
Name: Life and Death Book Page (Consumable)
Type: Item
Effect: While looking at the target's face, write down their name and cross it out to cause their death within one minute. (If a false name is used, the success rate drops to 30%.)
Note: Who has the right to decide another's life and death? You?
This was Shang Qingbei's trump card, the key to his smooth journey so far.
Even with only one use, and even with a success rate of just 30% most of the time, it served as an effective deterrent. It made simple-minded brutes think twice, forcing them to listen to reason.
He had bought the English dictionary from the game's store and kept it with him not just to look like a scholar, but more importantly, as a discreet way to carry the Life and Death Book Page and the Reading Pen.
Without a doubt, his disguise had worked well.
And now, with a single stroke of his pen, he could send the young man who had been acting as their leader to his death.
"Qi Si, I want to talk," Shang Qingbei said calmly.
As the young man turned to look at him, he held up the sheet of paper. "If I cross out your name, you will die. I believe that's an outcome neither of us wants to see. So..."
"Shhh—" The young man abruptly pressed a finger to his lips.
His deathly pale face showed no surprise, not even at hearing his real name or having his life threatened.
"The ghosts are here," the young man said with a slight smile, his voice low, as if sharing a long-held secret.
The next second, the sound of a suona horn blared, rising to a pitch that could almost shatter one's eardrums.
"Humans walk the human path, ghosts walk the ghost road. Humans and ghosts travel separate ways, yin and yang follow different laws—"
"You bring nothing at birth, you take nothing at death. Blessings and curses are preordained, seek neither fortune nor misfortune—"
The eerie chanting rose, the words ringing out like a funeral dirge.
Specks of white paper money fluttered down from the sky. Some landed on them, others on the ground, and like snowflakes, they soon blanketed the entire street.
A massive black coffin emerged from the distant fog, flanked by a procession of paper figurines in burial shrouds. They advanced slowly, treading over the paper-covered ground.
Some of the paper figurines were smiling, some crying, some joyful, some sorrowful. Their features were bizarrely twisted, their mouths stretched to their ears. The fog grew thicker, and the temperature dropped, feeling like the dead of winter after a heavy snow.
Shivering from the cold, Shang Qingbei saw a funeral portrait mounted on the front of the coffin. The face in the portrait was his own!
The hair on his arms stood on end. He quickly turned to the young man, but the latter was watching the funeral procession with keen interest, as calm and composed as if nothing were wrong.
"Qi Si, is this your doing?" Shang Qingbei asked, his teeth chattering.
The young man's dull, black eyes stared at him coldly, reflecting nothing. "We really shouldn't have come out tonight."
Shouldn't have? If we didn't come out, how were we supposed to figure out how to clear the instance?
For a moment, Shang Qingbei was completely bewildered.
The scripture paper had clearly stated the rules—seemingly contradictory, but secretly holding the path to survival. He couldn't believe his reasoning had been wrong.
But the young man just watched him with a half-smile, sighing with a mix of pity and mockery. "I told you it was fake. Why did you still believe it?"
Shang Qingbei's pupils contracted. He understood the crucial point almost instantly—
The text on the scripture paper had never appeared on the system interface!
Those rules... they were probably fake clues, just like the entries on the phone!
The scene at the Temple of the Joy God flashed through Shang Qingbei's mind. Qi Si had taken a few sheets of scripture paper and burned them in the brazier, vaguely claiming he was sending them to an acquaintance.
It was a known fact that if you silently recited a message while burning scripture paper, those words would manifest as a letter for the deceased.
Qi Si had been down the well, where there were plenty of dead people. That meant the scripture paper he'd brought back was very likely the same paper he himself had burned!
The content on it, he made it all up!
"Why would you do that?" Shang Qingbei asked through clenched teeth.
The young man laughed nonchalantly. "Don't you think it's fun?"
Fun my ass!
Shang Qingbei wanted to curse him out, but he couldn't find the right words.
At the same time, another sharp, thin chant began to drone behind them:
"Whose daughter's dim and slow of wit? So simple, she's a perfect fit."
"Whose son's a broke and worthless knave? Yet buys a bride he'll take to grave."
"A coffin serves as wedding chair, as paper snow fills ghostly air."
"May husband, wife, in death unite; their souls find rest on the same night."
Shang Qingbei turned stiffly and saw a bright red bridal sedan being carried over by eight statues.
The statues carrying the sedan were the same ones he'd seen in the Temple of the Joy God. Their faces were ashen, their bodies painted red, their movements stiff and sluggish.
With ghosts on both sides, Shang Qingbei realized he was trapped in the alley.
Based on the first night's experience, he should have known that nights in Double Happiness Town were fraught with danger. And after everything that had happened that morning—Xi'er's death, the encounter at the temple—the most prudent course of action would have been to lie low and observe for another day.
It was safe to say that if it hadn't been for the "rules" Qi Si had brought back from the well, he would never have chosen to go out tonight.
But now the situation was clear. For some twisted reason, or perhaps something else entirely, Qi Si had fabricated the clues and led him step by step into a death trap...
Looking at the young man leaning casually against the wall, a spectator's expression on his face, a chilling coldness spread through Shang Qingbei's heart.
He raised the Life and Death Book Page, his voice a fierce but brittle threat. "If I die tonight, you're not getting out of this alive either!"
The young man just smiled at him, unfazed. "I don't believe you. Why don't you give it a try?"
His tone was completely nonchalant, as if he truly had no regard for his own life or death.
Shang Qingbei was speechless with rage. He saw it now: Qi Si was a psychopath who harmed others for no personal gain. He had no intention of negotiating.
From everything he'd seen, Qi Si was most likely psychologically twisted—cut from the same cloth as the slaughter-stream players!
He probably wasn't going to make it through the night. He might as well take the culprit down with him...
A vicious thought took root in his heart. Shang Qingbei wasted no more words; he simply lifted his pen and crossed out the name "Qi Si" on the paper.
He watched the notification text—[Item Effect Activated]—and a relieved smile touched his lips. He should have done this from the start, instead of getting bogged down by pointless deliberations.
In the Weird Game, you couldn't be punished by real-world law enforcement for killing someone. What was there to hesitate or shrink back from?
In that moment, a sliver of hope even bloomed within him: he had fulfilled his bargain with the being from his dream. Maybe that being would save him now...
Into the silence, the young man suddenly asked, "What's the success rate on that item of yours?"
"One hundred percent," Shang Qingbei answered casually. "As long as I have the real name, it's a guaranteed success."
"Then I can rest easy," the young man said, nodding gravely.
What does he mean? Shang Qingbei couldn't figure it out, but he had no intention of arguing. In his eyes, talking to a dead man walking was just foolish and demeaning.
He silently began to count the seconds, one by one, all the way to sixty.
A minute had passed, but the young man before him was still standing there, completely unharmed.
What's going on? Does Qi Si have some higher-level life-saving item?
Shang Qingbei's mind reeled. Just then, the young man leaned in close, his smile widening grotesquely. "That's because... I'm already dead."
"Right now... I'm a ghost."
The young man's face had an unnatural, deathly pallor. His features flickered in the light of an LED lamp, and his pupils, lacking any whites, filled his entire eye sockets. Even though he was so close, Shang Qingbei couldn't feel the slightest breath, only an icy chill radiating from him.
All the inconsistencies about him after he'd climbed out of the well came rushing back. Shang Qingbei felt a chill crawl up his spine, as if a cold wind were blowing against his back.
"Your yang fire has gone out," the young man said cryptically, placing a hand on his shoulder.
At the same time, Shang Qingbei felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck, as if something sharp had sliced it open. Warm liquid began to trickle out.
He suddenly realized he was dying. He had been killed by Qi Si...
In the last second before his life faded, Shang Qingbei used all his strength to snap the Reading Pen in his hands.
He thought, with a sense of pyrrhic victory: *This item is useful for puzzle-solvers like us. I'm not leaving it for Qi Si. If I can inconvenience him for even a second, it's worth it.*
...
The world below the well.
Qi Si lay in the coffin, submerged in a sea of overwhelming pain, left with only the instinct to struggle.
If he hadn't added a clause to the contract—[Do not reveal the full details of the plan to any entity]—and used the power of that rule to restrain himself, he probably would have revealed the location of the contract's authority long ago.
But now, all he could do was hope that his corpse was successful and quick, so he could die and be reborn sooner...
An unknown amount of time passed. Then, in a single instant, all the pain vanished from Qi Si's body. He felt light and ethereal, as if he were drifting outside the mortal world.
He knew he was finally about to die.
"Shang Qingbei, thank you. When the holidays come around, if I remember, I'll burn an extra stick of incense for you," Qi Si thought with genuine gratitude.
And when he saw the golden eyes in the darkness cycle through surprise and rage before helplessly disintegrating into dust, his delight reached its peak.
"What have you done?" the god's voice asked.
Qi Si choked on his own laughter, and as his last breath escaped, his soul took over, continuing the manic cackling:
"Guess—ahahahaha!"