Angela blinked. "Si Qi, didn't you say..."
"I was lying to an idiot," Qi Si stated plainly. "He's no good in puzzle-box instances like this. He'd just slow us down."
So you just sent him away?
Angela didn't know what to say.
Still, the situation suited her perfectly. Two opponents would have been tricky, with too many variables in play. One was just right.
She smiled. "Well then, shall we get going? The altar is quite a ways off, from what I hear."
Qi Si nodded agreeably. "Yes. You lead the way."
"You're a grown man," Angela countered. "Is it right to make a girl walk point? I can guide you from behind."
"I'm not very strong."
Angela: "...Unbelievable."
The coconut grove was dense and lush, but with the clock tower and the inn forming a straight line, the altar's position wasn't difficult to pinpoint.
Neither Angela nor Qi Si was willing to expose their back to the other, so they quickly fell into a silent agreement, walking side-by-side.
They walked a long way in silence, the only sound the soft shush of their feet treading on the sand.
Perhaps feeling the awkward silence, Angela decided to break it. "So, Si Qi, how did you end up in the Weird Game?"
Qi Si played dumb. "Didn't we all just find an invitation card and get pulled in here for no reason?"
"I'm asking what wish you made," Angela pressed, her smile laced with venom. "The clueless newbies, the cannon fodder pulled in to fill the roster—they don't last this long. Me? My first wish was for my whole family to die."
Qi Si had no interest in the life stories people so readily shared. In his experience, they were usually no more truthful than a novel.
Still, he asked politely, "Did your family not treat you well?"
"Angela sneered. 'They neglected me as a child, then started demanding this and that, even tried to have me committed. Disgusting parasites, impossible to shake off. The only value they had was their considerable fortune.'"
Qi Si's eyelids flickered in a gesture of understanding. "My cousin used to think the same way."
"And what happened to her?"
Qi Si didn't answer, raising his eyes to look ahead.
At some point, the coconut grove had begun to thin, and in the distance, they could see a wide, white arc, as if constructed from marble.
Giant fish bones, half-hidden among the trees, crisscrossed in a jagged, interlocking pattern, encircling the central stone platform like the petals of a monstrous flower. They cast a complex web of light and shadow on the ground.
They had arrived at the altar.
The massive structure rose from the ground, desolate and solemn. It seemed to have merged long ago with the most ancient forces of the world, existing beyond time and space, sinking into a solitary, deathlike slumber.
A long time had passed since anyone had visited, yet it didn't feel neglected. It was like some vast, ancient creature, waiting with patient benevolence for its children to awaken it.
Qi Si felt a profound calm settle over him, his thoughts smoothing out until not a single ripple remained.
A call seemed to echo through the world, a sound that spanned the entire river of life. Indecipherable whispers murmured behind his ears as he walked, step by step, toward the altar's center.
A sudden chill touched his neck. Qi Si glanced down to see a dagger pressed against his throat.
Angela had, at some point, fallen half a step behind. Her hand was steady, holding the dagger while her arm rested on his shoulder.
The girl's playful charm was gone, replaced by a voice as cold as ice. "If you want to live, tell me every clue you have. What's really in the clock tower? And what's the story with Yuna's missing statue?"
Qi Si tilted his head and asked, "If I refuse, you'll kill me with this dagger, right?"
"I'd rather not get my blade dirty," Angela sneered. "You've entered the altar's range. Without my help, you'll soon die here as a sacrifice."
Qi Si asked, "You have more than a thousand on you, don't you?"
"Bingo!" Angela snapped her fingers. "Congratulations, you guessed right. Too bad there's no prize."
"You were brave enough to enter the altar because you're sure that as long as you have enough money, the instance can't kill you. Am I wrong?"
"That's right," Angela confirmed. "And I highly doubt you have enough. After all, your life is worth more than mine... Mr. Noble."
Qi Si let out a casual sigh. "You're right. I'm a poor man. The only reason I followed you here was to take your money."
He said it with such casual certainty, his tone suggesting he was stating a basic fact of life, like "people need to eat and sleep."
Angela laughed, amused. She pressed the dagger a little harder, drawing a thin line of blood on his neck. "And in our current situation, who do you think is robbing whom?"
Qi Si said nothing. Angela's laughter grew unrestrained.
Beads of blood dripped down his pale neck, splattering silently onto the white altar.
Countless streams of black smoke erupted from beneath the stone platform, coalescing into monstrous figures with the heads of fish and the bodies of men. They swarmed forward, surrounding both Angela and Qi Si.
The girl's smile froze on her face.
"You... what did you do?"
She quickly twisted her wrist, ready to drive the dagger home, but two lines of text suddenly materialized in her vision:
[In this instance, you are unable to kill players with the "Merchant" identity.]
[Violation of instance rules. First warning! Three warnings will result in instance failure!]
What's going on? "Si Qi" is a Merchant? How is that possible?
The color drained from Angela's face. Tendrils of black smoke coiled around the dagger in her hand, immobilizing her.
The young man she held hostage gave a chilling laugh. "What makes you so sure," he murmured, his voice laced with ice, "that I didn't solve the puzzle of this world before you did?"
...
Roughly four hours earlier. After settling Liu Yuhan and Zhang Hongfeng in their room, Qi Si had descended the stairs, carrying the recorder and the Sea God statue. A great, shambling procession of bewildered spirits followed in his wake.
Yuna was nowhere to be seen in the ground-floor lobby, so Qi Si headed for the coast alone.
The skeleton at the top of the clock tower was clear proof that a method existed to evade the spirits' attacks.
The song was filled with a profound belief in survival itself, a faith far more compelling than that of a malevolent god who preyed on life. "Fight faith with faith"—the conclusion wasn't a certainty. The lyrics carved atop the clock tower could be a benevolent hint, or they could be a malicious trap.
But if he was unwilling to gamble on the mere possibility of failure, there was no point in trying to solve the world's puzzle at all.
As it turned out, Qi Si's gamble paid off.
With the song, he could move freely during the hours when everyone was supposed to be asleep, and the spirits of the drowned slaves left him unharmed.
But that alone wasn't enough. Qi Si had never been content with the status quo; he was a man of boundless ambition.
Given the same level of risk, he was always willing to chase a greater reward.
He wanted to control the spirits, to bend them to his will. And the clue from the clock tower suggested that Yuna knew how.
And so, he crossed the mist-shrouded island and came to a stop on the sandy shore.
The sky, never truly night, was a canvas of orange and yellow. A woman in a blue dress leaned against a white statue, her gaze fixed on the shimmering waves. The scene was as still and beautiful as an oil painting.
Qi Si approached, holding out the Sea God statue to Yuna. He smiled. "I know you made a wish to the Sea God, and the price was the lives of others. Since you're still trapped on this island, I assume you haven't finished paying your due."
"I don't care what you wished for, and I have no intention of judging you," he continued. "But I can tell you this: my companions and I have already figured out how to leave this island. The others, however, still have no idea."
Yuna turned to look at Qi Si, silent, as if she had merged with the statue.
Qi Si met her gaze, his smile dripping with malice. "If I announce the way out, you won't be able to harvest a single soul more. But that doesn't really do me any good. On the other hand, if I so choose, I can arrange things, guide them, and make sure most of the others find their graves in the ocean."
He paused, his tone shifting to that of a wicked god tempting a follower. "So, let's make a temporary arrangement. I'll give you back the Sea God statue in exchange for partial control over your spirits. What do you say?"
...
As the monstrous spirits pinned her to the altar, Angela's mind reeled in confusion.
She had searched the bodies of Hansen's victims, collected a fortune, and then risked a nighttime experiment to confirm the spirits couldn't kill her. Only after all that had she dared to lure Qi Si to the altar...
Where did it all go wrong?
"Oh, right. You wanted to know about my cousin, didn't you?" Qi Si's gaze lowered, a faint smile playing on his lips. "She's dead. And it was a rather nasty end."
The smile was faint, almost imperceptible, yet it radiated a bloodthirsty glee. For an instant, Angela thought of a demon from folklore.
In that moment, she felt the chilling, undeniable certainty that death was very, very close.
Angela's mind raced. Putting on a show of terror, she stammered, "You can have all my money! I have points, too! I can transfer my items to you... just please, don't kill me!"
Qi Si lowered his head, his expression thoughtful, as if weighing the merits of her offer.
Seconds ticked by. Just as Angela was sinking into despair, Qi Si breathed two quiet words: "Alright."
"Promise me that after this is over, you won't reveal anything about me. Do that, and I'll let the spirits spare you."
Angela let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. She adopted a pitiful expression and nodded meekly. "I know I was wrong... Once we're out of this instance, you can... do whatever you want with me..."
A bloody mist swirled in the air, congealing into a crimson page. Golden vines, a physical manifestation of cosmic rules, shimmered into view. A quill appeared, inscribing gilded words onto the page—the articles of a contract.
Angela saw crimson text materialize on her system interface as a cold, electronic voice intoned:
[Contract signed. This agreement is guaranteed by the rules of the world. No entity may defy it.]
She was stunned. What kind of skill is this? It can affect the system interface directly, even touch upon the fundamental rules of the game?
Still, with the rules binding him, she had to be safe now.
After all, the rules are absolute, aren't they?
The very next second, however, she saw Qi Si silently slide a blade from his bracelet. He brought it to her neck, his movement far too decisive to be a simple threat.
Her composure shattered. She stared at him in terror. "What are you doing? You gain nothing by killing me! You'll die if you break the rules!"
"Have you forgotten?" Qi Si gave a mock sigh. "You have plenty of money, so the spirits can't kill you. The only thing that can kill you is another player. I said the spirits wouldn't kill you. I never said I wouldn't."
A crimson flower bloomed across her pale throat. The searing pain and the rapid loss of warmth announced the arrival of death.
Angela collapsed onto the altar, her eyes vacant as she watched her own blood saturate the white stone. It flowed like a winding stream along the carved patterns, seeping into the crevices like crimson roots.
Just then, the clock tower began to toll, a non-melodic resonance that rippled out, near and far, layer upon layer. It sounded like the solemn music that precedes a grand, somber ceremony.
Qi Si bent down and pulled a wad of cash from Angela's pocket. It amounted to eighteen hundred. Combined with the nine hundred he already had, he now possessed twenty-seven hundred—enough for two lives.
He casually tossed ten bills onto the altar and watched as they vanished into thin air. Only then did he quietly pocket the rest.
The purpose of the money had been clearly hinted at all along.
Rule one—[Please ensure that you always carry a certain amount of usable currency]—had already implied a direct link between the cash and a player's life.
And Yuna's later statement confirmed it: "Health, character, conscience, life... anything you perceive as exchangeable for money can be used as payment."
In other words, life and money were interchangeable.
As for the line, "The money you received is commensurate with your own value"—that explained the price tag on each identity's life.
Players were dying at the hands of the spirits simply because, after paying for their rooms, their starting funds were no longer sufficient to cover the price of their lives.
"Another word game," Qi Si murmured, a sudden understanding dawning on him, his smile growing brighter. "As long as you don't spend your money, you're safe, even if you don't stay at the inn. But the rules deliberately establish the premise that 'it is safe to sleep in your room,' tricking players into believing it's their only option for survival."
The truth can be a lie, too. A partial truth is sometimes more dangerous than an outright fabrication. The Weird Game, it seemed, had an excellent grasp of player psychology.
Qi Si was no god. Even the most rigorous logic could have flaws, and the most meticulous mind could wander into a blind spot.
All he could do was remain humble and continually adjust his judgment as the situation evolved.
Now, Qi Si filed away this lesson and slowly bent down. With his blade, he severed the little finger from Angela's right hand.
He studied the girl's corpse in silence, then squatted beside it, waiting with unhurried patience for something to happen.
Seconds ticked by. The finger appeared to be just a finger. It didn't take on a wooden texture, nor did a black ring materialize from it.
The dark-haired young man tapped a finger against his chin in a slow, irregular rhythm, his eyes narrowing into sharp slits.