The layout of every corridor in the labyrinth was more or less the same. Dong Xiwen stood in the doorway, staring intently at He Hui, who was kneeling on the ground. His gaze finally settled on the enormous image of a set of scales projected behind her.
That was his sin, destined to be the girl's undoing. Likewise, the sin chasing him from behind was hers, and it would soon be his undoing as well.
The relentlessly pursuing mirror drew closer, replacing the bricks in the wall behind him. Transparent arms danced leisurely, like the tentacles of a jellyfish.
[Escape time 00:29:32]
The countdown was still far from zero, but his stamina was already failing. Every path before him was a dead end. Without a change of fortune, they were doomed to die by each other's sins.
"Kill me." As she spoke, He Hui moved closer to Dong Xiwen, pressing her back against his to block the doorway and shield him from the mirror's reflection.
The corners of the girl's eyes drooped as if she were crying. "It caught me. It's making me answer a question, and I only have five minutes... I saw the monster's description. Whether I answer or not, I'm going to die..."
"Don't give up so easily! If I kill you, it's all over. Let's quickly switch places and block each other's sins. Maybe we can hold out a little longer." Dong Xiwen spread his arms to block the approaching scales, his posture as comically protective as a mother hen.
"If that doesn't work, we'll do a death-roll plus a Thomas flare combo! I refuse to believe those sins would risk hurting their own players to get to us..."
[Escape time 00:27:59]
"Kill me," He Hui's voice was laced with sobs. "I'm the protagonist. I have the 'protagonist invincibility' rule, so I can resurrect once. You just need to kill me this one time. After your stats are higher than the monster's, you can eliminate them, and we can both survive."
Dong Xiwen was stunned. "You're the protagonist, too?"
He replayed Qi Si's words over and over in his mind, along with every move He Hui had made since the instance began. His thoughts spun into chaos.
Who was he supposed to believe?
They were all spouting these claims so easily. Who was telling the truth, and who was lying?
But in this situation, He Hui seemed far more credible...
Within seconds, the mirror and the scale-shaped monster swapped places, once again facing Dong Xiwen and He Hui respectively, closing in step by step.
Dong Xiwen's expression hardened, and he immediately stepped in front of He Hui to shield her.
The next second, however, he felt a sharp pain in his lower back, as if something sharp had pierced through him. Hot blood gushed out, soaking a patch of his clothes, followed by a chilling cold as his strength drained away.
He slowly turned his head and saw He Hui pulling a bloody dagger from his waist.
Tears streamed down the girl's cheeks, her voice trembling. "I'm sorry, but it was too late... I'm so sorry, there was no time... I'm not a good person. I've been lying to you from the start..."
The scene before him seemed to match Qi Si's warning perfectly, yet Dong Xiwen's intuition told him something was wrong.
As he stood there in a daze, the character card in his breast pocket began to grow faintly warm.
[Character Card - Spectator - 'Otherworld' effect has been activated.]
...
"I've tried everything; none of my items can damage the cage. This is a puzzle instance. I've heard they usually don't require much brute force, so trying to power through it is a bad idea."
"Not necessarily. If the game didn't want players to use brute force, why would it bring Hansen in?"
"You have a point, but I still believe Hansen's purpose was simply to die in the first round and demonstrate the instance's mechanics for us."
Meanwhile, Qi Si and Cynthia sat cross-legged, facing each other. In a cage beside them, Hansen was jumping up and down in a frustrated rage.
Realizing the idiot couldn't offer any constructive suggestions, the two of them simply tuned out his noise and continued discussing their strategy.
Qi Si pulled a poker chip from his pocket, idly twirling it between his fingers. "One of the notes on the wall said, 'A gun that appears in the first act must go off in the third.' What other clues from the first act haven't we used yet?"
"The gun has already gone off," Cynthia said. "We are actors, but we are also the audience. Now that we've finished the play, we've been able to step away from the theater."
"Is the play really over? What kind of theater locks its audience in cages?" Qi Si scoffed, his gaze falling on the system interface. "The main quest hasn't updated yet, which means we're probably not in a real place, but something like a mindscape. The priority now is to find a way to advance the plot and trigger the main quest."
Cynthia smiled knowingly. "It seems we'll have to find a way to persuade Mr. Charlie to grace us with his presence."
In the second act, they had been at each other's throats, locked in a life-or-death struggle. Now, with a change of scenery, they were allies engaged in pleasant conversation.
Qi Si's lips curled into a malicious smile. "What do you think? If we kill someone right now, will Mr. Charlie come out to stop us? The gaps between the cages should be wide enough to get something done."
Hansen had been howling incoherently nearby, but he wasn't so stupid that he couldn't understand them. He knew exactly what the two cunning schemers were plotting. He looked over and met two pairs of predatory eyes staring straight at him.
He hastily turned to Cynthia. "Old woman, Zhou Ke was right! Let's kill him together! This treacherous man from Dragon County got me killed, and then he got you killed too. What's there to hesitate about?"
Cynthia's expression was noncommittal, a faint, unreadable smile playing on her lips. Having "died" once and spent half a day caged next to the boisterous Hansen, she had calmed down completely. She knew exactly who would make the better ally—and who was more advantageous to kill.
Qi Si watched Hansen still trying to persuade Cynthia and sighed with feigned gravity.
Trapped in a cage with nothing better to do, he explained with exceptional patience, "Whether Dong Xiwen and the others can even get out of the play, or if they'll be willing to cooperate, is a complete unknown. This is a puzzle game. Information is the key to clearing the instance. You two died so early—what right do you have to kill someone who lasted longer and knows more?"
Hansen roared viciously, "Information, schmormation! I saw through you from the start, you little bastard! If we keep you around, we'll all end up dead here!"
"You still don't get it." Qi Si looked at Hansen with pity and shook his head regretfully. "You're going to die no matter what. If Ms. Cynthia kills me, she'll lack the clues needed to clear this instance the normal way. Her only option then would be to kill you too, just to trigger the minimum death count mechanic. That being the case, isn't it better to just kill you now, test for some clues, and gamble on getting the True End?"
Hansen finally understood the stakes. His gaze toward Cynthia filled with desperation. "Don't believe a word he says! You suffered at his hands in the play, too! Hasn't he screwed us over enough? Keeping him alive is asking for trouble!"
His pale plea held no sway. Qi Si suddenly turned his pockets inside out, then raised his hands high, showing his empty palms.
He slowly straightened his clothes and gave Cynthia a bitter smile. "To be honest, after arriving in this scene, I knew I had no advantages, which is why I wanted to cooperate with you."
"Aside from being slightly smarter, I'm at a complete disadvantage when it comes to strength and item reserves. I'm useless at everything except solving puzzles, and puzzle instances are incredibly rare. The last five instances I went through were all survival-types. My scores were abysmal, and I've only managed to scrape together three items so far."
As he finished, Qi Si pinched the Rose Heart pendant on his neck, gesturing for Cynthia to see, then held up the watch and bracelet on his wrists.
"I don't have a guild backing me, so I have no life-saving items. The moment a fight breaks out, I'm bound to be the first to die. That's why I died before He Hui and Dong Xiwen in the third act's battle royale..."
The young man's tone was sincere, his logic was perfectly consistent, and it aligned with Cynthia's own experience. She herself had disdained physical labor in her youth, believing she could outwit any problem. By the time she grew old and wanted to train, it was already too late.
She knew her own combat capabilities all too well. Based on the principle of game theory equilibrium, she could easily estimate just how physically useless a player like Qi Si was.
Unlike Qi Si, however, she was a high-ranking official in the Federation and held considerable influence in the Kyushu Guild, which was led by the Weird Investigation Bureau. Her reserve of items was beyond what any ordinary person could imagine, enough to make even veteran players who had cleared over fifteen instances envious.
Cynthia made her decision. She gave Qi Si a gracious smile. "While puzzle instances may not demand much physical strength, a fight will likely be unavoidable once Mr. Charlie appears. I will do my best to use my items to help you through the crisis, and in return, I hope you will provide useful information."
All the bitterness vanished from Qi Si's expression, replaced by a smile that made his eyes curve. "In that case... here's to a successful partnership."
Hansen, seared by the flames, hopped frantically around his cage. He listened, unable to defend himself, as the two cunning schemers forged their hypocritical alliance, effectively signing his death warrant.
His face twisted in fury as he gripped the iron bars of his cage and shook them wildly. "Bitch! Bastard! You can't do this! When I get out of this game, I'll put out the biggest bounty on your heads! I'll bankrupt myself to have you killed!"
Qi Si turned to him, his expression serious. "Oh? And do you know what I look like?"
Cynthia added with a smile, "I have the utmost confidence in the Federation's security."
Hansen: "¥#%&!"
After some time of pointless talk, the scene remained unchanged. Trying to kill someone to break the stalemate had become imperative.
Whether things turned for the better or for the worse, any development was preferable to being stuck in this moment, stagnant as a pool of dead water.
Besides, they had both already decided to eliminate the unstable element—Hansen—before Dong Xiwen and He Hui arrived.
He had the advantage in physical strength, and he had been eliminated in the first act by Qi Si and Cynthia working together. Neither of them believed for a second that he was the type of rationalist to simply let go of a grudge.
Why not kill him now while he was trapped in a cage? Were they supposed to wait until he was released for a fair duel?
Cynthia unbuttoned her blue gown, revealing a hidden compartment underneath.
A cloth bundle containing various small objects was strapped tightly against her withered flesh, looking from a distance like a flap of sagging old skin.
She deftly opened the bundle and pulled out a handgun.
[Name: One-Hit Sure-Kill Gun]
[Type: Item]
[Effect: Maintain a firing stance and pray devoutly to the Fate Master for five minutes. The fired bullet will inevitably kill the target.]
[Note: One shot. Yes, it can only be fired once. What to do after it's been fired? It might make for a nice souvenir.]
Like many items from these instances, this one reeked of being deceptively useless.
If Dong Xiwen were here, he would have definitely complained, "A five-minute wind-up time? You've got to be kidding me! What kind of idiot is going to just stand there and let you power up your prayer?"
But here in this instance, the cages provided the perfect conditions for the item to work.
The players were separated by the cages, making it impossible to interrupt the casting—er, the praying. Not unless Hansen also had a long-range attack item that could kill Cynthia from a distance.
Unfortunately for him, he didn't.
Hansen's eyes bulged for a moment before an idea struck him. He quickly shouted a threat, "Old woman, I have an item that's a life for a life! If you dare to shoot, I'll take you down with me!"
It was a desperate, last-ditch bluff, and it was quickly met with looks from Qi Si and Cynthia as if they were observing an imbecile.
Obviously. With his personality, if he really had an item like that, he wouldn't have waited until now to use it.
The five-minute wait stretched on endlessly. Realizing he couldn't reason with them, Hansen began spewing vulgarities again.
The two of them automatically tuned him out, paying no heed.
In the final minute, the vicious man finally showed a flicker of exhaustion. The muscles in his face twitched violently as if he were trying to suppress his terror of death, but he could no longer maintain his composure.
He was afraid of dying. He'd been dreaming recently that after he died, he would fall into an endless hell, his life claimed by the spirits of his victims. He was afraid, afraid of seeing the face of his father in his memories...
He didn't want to die, but what could he do?
As the final second ticked away, Cynthia pulled the trigger without a change in her expression.
A "bang" shattered the silence. In the flash of silver from the bullet, Hansen fell backward.
The splattering blood quickly mixed with tongues of fire. Leaping flames licked at the dead man, burning away his skin and leaving behind a charred corpse, which in a few more seconds was devoured into scattered ashes.
[Cannon fodder "Hansen" is dead.]
A line of white, handwritten text materialized in the void. It belonged to no known language, yet the players could understand it.
Hansen was, at last, truly dead.
In the stagnant air, Qi Si and Cynthia stared intently at the ashes Hansen had left behind.
Time passed, second by second, minute by minute. From beginning to end, nothing happened.
Had their guess been wrong?
Qi Si narrowed his eyes. Just then, a dull thud sounded beside him. A black shadow fell from the sky, landing squarely in the empty cage to his right.
It was Dong Xiwen.
..............
[Note] *A Lost Paradise* is a work by Junichi Watanabe, which presents the Japanese concept of "death" and the aesthetic of "mono no aware."
(End of this chapter)