This diary was simply too sturdy, or rather, that one page was particularly resilient.
Xing Yun watched it quietly for a moment, then decisively grabbed some burning firewood from the stove and set it ablaze. The fire burned across the diary; the other pages caught fire as expected, but the page with the bloody handprint remained intact.
Xing Yun’s eyebrows twitched. “I cannot stay in this ghost place for even one more second.”
The little girl ran over at this moment, smiling. “Big sister, come play a game with me.”
She waited for Xing Yun’s response, smiling with a hint of treachery. Regardless of whether Xing Yun agreed or disagreed, it would certainly not end well for her.
However, she did not expect Xing Yun to choose neither option, instead opening up a third one.
Seeing Xing Yun staring at her with thoughtful eyes, the little girl fell silent. Because this counted as neither agreeing nor disagreeing, it left her completely unable to act.
But there is a saying: silence implies consent, does it not?
After realizing this, the little girl raised a bright smile. “Then let us play together—”
“Wait,” Xing Yun interrupted. “Since this is a game for both of us, can I make some suggestions?”
“Huh?” The little girl was stunned. After all, no one had ever interrupted her speech before; Xing Yun’s boldness was truly rare.
She gritted her teeth. “Fine, go ahead.”
The little girl calmed her mood after a deep breath. While sizing up Xing Yun, she calculated in her mind that making Xing Yun regret her own words would be a perfect choice. After all, no matter what the game was, she could always amend it to be in her favor; she did not care what Xing Yun proposed at all.
Drawing could be done using intestines as materials, star-gazing could mean running until one could touch the stars at the edge of the sky, and the final power of interpretation would always rest with her.
The little girl stood on the spot, looking smug.
Xing Yun nodded. “Then, let us play dress-up. But just dress-up is a bit boring. How about we only wear clothes we made ourselves? Now, let us return to our own homes and find our own materials to complete the game.”
The little girl was bewildered by this long string of words. She wanted to amend it—perhaps by peeling off her own human skin to use as clothing—but Xing Yun had said it was a two-person game, and she could not exactly peel off her own skin. For a moment, she did not know what to say, as she was used to choosing the games and watching the players play them.
Xing Yun signaled to Rong Ping’an with her eyes, and the two ran off like greased lightning. The little girl was furious because she realized she could not agree to Xing Yun’s game requirements. After all, “returning home” implied accepting that Xing Yun could leave this place.
Frustrated. This feeling was truly uncomfortable.
The little girl’s face turned from green to red, and she stamped her feet hard. Yu Xi, who had just retrieved the diary Xing Yun had thrown away from outside, looked at the little girl with hollow eyes. “The cover is dirty. What should I do?”
After hearing him, the little girl lost her temper and silently threw a new diary at him. “Put the handprint page in here. Understood?” If it were the old Yu Xi, she might have had the mood to tease him, but the current Yu Xi was on the verge of death, like a puppet; she had no desire to converse with him.
Now, she was more concerned about Xing Yun.
In this instance, there was another fatal hidden game. If Xing Yun did not discover it, would she not be the ultimate winner? Thinking of this, the corner of her mouth finally curled into a sincere smile.
The little girl looked at Yu Xi. “Although you are a bit boring, your merit lies in being obedient. Unlike the others who are so disobedient. Forget it. Let the others become scarecrows. After exposure to the scorching sun and wind and rain, they will certainly submit to me.”
Xing Yun had not expected to run out of the little girl’s sight, but she did not expect the girl to let her go without pursuing her; it was a pleasant surprise. She arrived at the field near the crops and saw a human disguised as a scarecrow, arms spread wide with eyes squinted.
After making eye contact, Rong Ping’an exclaimed, “Tong Huiran?”
Xing Yun suddenly felt the name sounded familiar. Although she had never met her, she must have heard it somewhere.
As Rong Ping’an went over to ask what she was doing there, Xing Yun finally remembered. In the summary meeting after the first instance, someone had mentioned Tong Huiran.
The instance she entered turned people into long worms and slime-oozing plants. Could it be that she had been infected with some plant characteristic, making her want to play the role of a scarecrow tied in the field?
Tong Huiran maintained the pose with her arms spread, looking into the distance. “Someone is coming from over there. If you want to live, pretend to be scarecrows with me so you will not be discovered.”
“What is your plan?” Rong Ping’an asked, staying vigilant yet calm. “Do you think I cannot tell whether you do not want to move or cannot move?”
“I am not as boring as you think.” Tong Huiran sneered, bouncing on the spot, even jogging a few steps. “That is hilarious. My kindness is treated like donkey liver and lungs. Do you have persecutory delusions, or do you think playing a scarecrow is too difficult?”
Xing Yun raised her hand to stop Rong Ping’an, tucking her stray hair behind her ears. She took the lead in acting like a scarecrow. “Shh, really, a lot of people are coming, carrying sickles and hoes, and their speed is clearly not human. Since she said this method is feasible, let us give it a try.”
Rong Ping’an hesitated, but still followed suit. The group of menacing people immediately lost their targets when they both stood still. They looked at the weapons in their hands with blank expressions, looking left and right, but they truly could not discover them.
For some reason, Xing Yun noticed that the arm she had been holding up did not feel tired at all. Looking up at the sky, it was already dusk. Had she not just disguised herself as a scarecrow? Why had the flow of time accelerated? Alarmed, she quickly lowered her arm. “Those people have already left; there is no need to maintain this pose.”
Rong Ping’an nodded, but then her expression stiffened. Under Xing Yun’s urging gaze, she gave a bitter smile, realizing that she could not lower her arm. On the other side, Tong Huiran moved her arms, laughing heartily. “Then I will go first. Good luck to you.”
Xing Yun remained silent. She understood that Tong Huiran had done it on purpose just now; if one wanted to escape being a scarecrow, it was a one-for-one trade.
She suddenly said to Rong Ping’an, “Do you have any items to protect your head?” She looked at Rong Ping’an with worry.
Rong Ping’an shook her head. “Why do you suddenly say that?”
Xing Yun scratched her face awkwardly. She could not say it was because she had seen Yu Xi’s diary, could she? After all, Yu Xi said he saw headless people, and Xing Yun was afraid Rong Ping’an’s head would also be severed. But fearing she would put invisible pressure on her, she did not dare say it.
If things continued to develop this way, accidents would happen frequently, and the future would be bleak.
Rong Ping’an moved her legs without questioning Xing Yun further. “Fortunately, I can still run.” She turned, and her arm swung onto Xing Yun, leaving Xing Yun speechless. She felt a pain in her back and immediately moved away from Rong Ping’an to give her space to adapt to her new physical structure. “Be careful, do not knock me down.”
“Sorry. My arm has no sensation.” Freed from Xing Yun’s interference, Rong Ping’an began to spin around.
Xing Yun waited for her to stop, went over, and poked her hand, feeling it could now be used as a weapon.
More people ran over from afar. Xing Yun naturally would not act like a scarecrow again. She pondered and said, “Theoretically, your legs are a gift from God and have infinite potential. From a physics perspective, if you step on your left foot with your right foot fast enough, you can fly. Do you want to try?”
Xing Yun was prepared for Rong Ping’an to look at her like she was mentally challenged, but Rong Ping’an said very seriously, “Useless, I tried.”
Xing Yun tried hard to control her expression so as not to look too shocked. In fact, she had just been babbling to make Rong Ping’an feel more relaxed, never imagining she had actually tried it.
The people in the distance were getting closer, their expressions more ferocious than during the day. Xing Yun would not be surprised if they were torn to shreds on the spot if caught. But what could she do? She had no idea how to get out.
She thought of Yu Xi saying this was the “warm end” of life. Perhaps Yu Xi was right; this was the warm end where life concludes. If one always followed the NPCs’ instructions, one would become a puppet-like person. Would losing the ability to think not mean being completely free of worries? In a sense, it was a happy second half of life.
According to the little girl, one could chase past regrets here, fill in past unwillingness, and finally achieve a fulfilling life. It was more like the “warm end” indeed.
Xing Yun sneezed; she had finally caught a cold from the night wind. She was truly defeated now, because the first instance at least gave her a task—complete the task to leave—but here, there were no task prompts at all! How could she talk about leaving?
As the people running toward them got closer, the sound of footsteps became dense and numerous, like ten thousand horses galloping. Xing Yun was astonished to find many familiar faces among them. Many were not NPCs, but players of the infinite game.
At this moment, Xing Yun’s mind was completely chaotic. The players of the infinite game were either clever or equipped with various items. Although there was some competitive relationship, in such a crisis, many would choose to cooperate. Even if some became like this, it could not be such a large-scale infection, right?
Rong Ping’an and Xing Yun ran in the opposite direction. Her breathing was still steady. “Since this is the case, there must be some unbreakable rule that made them become such walking corpses.”
Xing Yun’s eyes darted around. She, of course, remembered that every instance had random tasks. As such, she had a bold hypothesis.
“The random tasks in this instance might be very simple.”
So simple that many people did not believe it was a task, and even if some players were punished for violating it, others did not notice.
Xing Yun’s experience with instances was truly limited. She could only judge from previous experience that random tasks were reliant on NPCs. On the surface, they seemed nonsensical, but in reality, they were traceable.
For such large-scale damage to be caused, it could only be because the players felt it was expected when they saw others being punished.
It was hard for Xing Yun not to associate this with writing a diary, but writing a diary alone seemed too simple. There might be some time limit—maybe one day, maybe two—but failure to write the diary would certainly cause trouble.
However, the diary obviously could not be written casually. Some players had realized with her that the diary could not be written casually, but they did not expect the random tasks to be related to the diary. With the prior guess that the diary could not be written, seeing others get into trouble for not writing the diary, they would not associate it further.
The little girl had not failed to engage in psychological suggestion. She felt she was completely capable of such schemes.
Binding random tasks with the diary was indeed difficult to discover.
Xing Yun’s temples throbbed. Then she and Rong Ping’an were in big trouble. Writing the diary would make them puppets like Yu Xi, and not writing the diary would make them madmen who hacked people after dusk; neither was a good path.
Xing Yun pressed her lips together. “I just do not know how Tong Huiran balances it.”
Rong Ping’an also fell into thought, feeling anxious. “Her strength should not be underestimated; she must have some other good method.”
Xing Yun agreed. She had already seen the prowess of many infinite players. Could Tong Huiran know something?
Rong Ping’an’s rhythm game mode was simply too powerful; Xing Yun and she were still managing with human rhythm games.
She pressed her lips together. The night wind blew up her hem, and she felt a slight chill. She rubbed her cold fingers, looked up at the sky, and found that the night sky had become lower.
The white floating clouds seemed to be right above their heads, as if they could touch them if they reached out. Looking closely, all the clouds had white fuzz, just like the white mist she saw through the window in the first instance. Like a huge white fluffy monster.
It was just that looking at the first instance once would make one’s eyes sting, but looking here once would make one’s mind chaotic.
Because she saw Rong Ping’an growing tentacles, and looking down, her arm grew dense eyes; how could such a thing possibly exist?
Xing Yun looked at the people chasing to harm her, seeing familiar faces, and could not help but feel a pang of pain, shouting, “You do not belong here; do not be assimilated. Do you not remember how you got here?”
She saw Xu Lang throw a punch at her, not listening to a word she said.
Without using items, and without any method, they were purely using brute force to attack. It seemed the intelligence of these people had decreased after becoming like this.
“Tch.”
Xing Yun moved her wrists, having a new idea in her mind.
The sky was a low glass dome; they were the objects of observation covered within it. Everyone had fallen into a state of chaos, like ghosts and monsters baring their fangs and brandishing claws without method. She was the normal person here, standing out like a sore thumb.