Chapter 9 ~ First Game Pt.9 ~
Gu Yian carefully read the contents of the black letters.
[GAME CLEAR STATISTICS: PERFECT CLEAR. GOD FELT EXTREMELY PLEASED.]
[REWARDS: GOD WILL ALLOW YOU TO ENJOY TEN DAYS OF TRANQUILITY. GOD BESTOWED TO YOU AN ITEM. DO NOT HESITATE, PRAISE GOD FROM THE DEPTHS OF YOUR HEART.]
[GOD SAYS TO YOU: AN UNEXPECTEDLY GOOD SMELL.]
Gu Yian’s eyebrow twitched and she ignored the last line of letters.
What a perverse God!
Gu Yian looked around her surroundings but in this pure white space, apart from the black letters in midair and herself, there was nothing else.
Her eyes returned back to the black letters in the air again.
This time she noticed the phrase immediately following the reward, “DO NOT HESITATE, PRAISE GOD FROM THE DEPTHS OF YOUR HEART.”
Fine.
Gu Yian understood.
She considered for a while before opening her mouth and saying, “Praise be the merciful and kind God.”
As soon as Gu Yian’s words fell, the original lines of black letters disappeared immediately and then a somewhat familiar pitch-black coffin appeared in front of her.
Following the coffin’s appearance, new letters materialized in midair.
[ITEM: COFFIN. IT LOOKS USEFUL AND TRULY IS USEFUL. AFTER ALL, IT CAN STORE YOUR CORPSE.]
The tone of this item introduction was asking for a bit of a beating.
Gu Yian finished looking over the item and wondered how to return to her own world.
Just as she thought this, the coffin in front of her and the black letters disappeared and the whiteness of the pure white space receded like a tide.
Gu Yian saw the familiar bookshelves of the library and the occasional student passing through.
She returned.
She returned to her own world.
Since she already cleared the game, then Brother Zhang and Little Jiang should soon clear it too, right?
~~~
Going back to the time when the little boy plucked out Mrs. Zhao’s heart and left a pool of blood on the ground.
The boy carried Gu Yian into the middle building and their figures disappeared in the courtyard.
Ten minutes later.
A door suddenly opened, revealing Brother Zhang and Little Jiang.
Little Jiang saw the blood on the ground at a glance. “Brother Zhang, they’re dead. Mrs. Zhao isn’t around either.”
Brother Zhang looked around the yard once before saying, “Yeah, dead. See, I didn’t trick you, right? Mrs. Zhao’s only target for revenge was the little boy. We have the memorial tablets for protection and we just need to survive for seven days and then we’ll be able to return back to our own world. Now you’ll believe me and that our mission is to survive for seven days, right?”
Little Jiang nodded his head repeatedly, “I believe you. I’ve always believed you, Brother Zhang.”
Brother Zhang said, “We’ll hold onto the memorial tablets and I saw that there’s enough food in the kitchen for us to survive seven days. The remaining days won’t be difficult to pass.”
Little Jiang nodded his head many times again.
No ghosts harassed them and the remaining five days passed quickly.
The two of them arrived at the morning of the eighth day and Little Jiang asked Brother Zhang with a little worry, “Brother Zhang, can we go back?”
Brother Zhang nodded and said with satisfaction, “Yes. I can go back.”
“Brother Zhang, what do you mean?”
“You still haven’t noticed?”
Brother Zhang didn’t hide his own smile and said, “I tricked you. The mission isn’t to survive seven days. The mission is to please God. God will be pleased with my deception.”
Little Jiang asked in disbelief, “But then why did Mrs. Zhao come to kill us and what was with the boy?”
“Oh, that.”
Brother Zhang was in a good mood. “Didn’t Little Gu explain everything? God is watching us play this game. You can treat Mrs. Zhao and the little boy as the bosses in this game. The only condition to clear the game is to please God. Little Gu is a clever girl and too kind. She took care of the biggest boss for us and let the rest of our lives here go smoothly. Unfortunately, it was because she was too kind that she died.”
Little Jiang had no way of believing all of this. He still wanted to question Brother Zhang but then found that Brother Zhang’s body was abruptly fading in front of him until he disappeared.
Brother Zhang returned to the pure white space that he expected.
Several lines of black letters appeared in front of him.
[GAME CLEAR STATISTICS: ADEQUATE. YOUR DECEPTION WAS NOT PERFECT ENOUGH. GOD LOOKS FORWARD TO YOUR SHOW IN THE NEXT GAME.]
[REWARDS: GOD MERCIFULLY BESTOWS TO YOU TEN DAYS OF LIFE AND AN ITEM. DO NOT HESITATE, PRAISE GOD FROM THE DEPTHS OF YOUR HEART.]
[GOD SAYS TO YOU: (GOD HAS NOTHING TO SAY TO YOU.)]
Brother Zhang sighed and then said sincerely, “Praise be the merciful, kind, and generous God.”
The black letters drifted away and then an object floated in front of Brother Zhang’s eyes with several lines of small letters appearing beside it.
[ITEM: A MUSHROOM THAT GREW FROM A COFFIN. IT IS EDIBLE BUT, AS FOR WHAT HAPPENS AFTER YOU EAT IT, YOU DO NOT NEED TO KNOW.]
The corner of Brother Zhang’s mouth twitched.
He looked at the mushroom, pensive. “I take it that Little Gu already cleared the game then.”
“I wonder if she’s from my world or not.”
~~~
Little Jiang helplessly watched Brother Zhang disappear before his eyes and he nearly went crazy.
Brother Zhang tricked him!
What Little Gu said was right!
Little Jiang dropped the memorial tablet in his hand and ran wildly into the courtyard.
He kicked open the door of the middle building.
He saw the portraits of Gu Yian and the little boy.
He tried to open a coffin, but was bounced off the next second.
Little Jiang fell to the ground in a daze.
Beside his ear a woman’s voice sounded.
“Young man, my son doesn’t like your disturbance.”
Little Jiang looked at the empty room in terror.
He was unable to speak.
There was a fierce pain from his neck and then the world in front of him span.
He died.
Little Jiang woke up again and saw blankly that he had returned to the pure white space.
Could it be that God mercifully let him clear the game?
Hope burst out in his eyes.
Lines of black letters hung in the air in front of him.
[GAME CLEAR STATISTICS: FAIL. HOWEVER, YOUR DESPAIR PLEASED GOD AND THEY HAVE DECIDED TO GIVE YOU A REWARD.]
[REWARD: GOD MERCIFULLY BESTOWS TO YOU DEATH. REMEMBER, DEATH IS A GIFT OF GOD. PRAISE GOD.]
[GOD SAYS TO YOU: (IN YOUR DREAMS, GOD WOULD NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY TO YOU.)]
“NO!”
Little Jiang despaired and was also horrified.
He watched in absolute panic as the pure white that covered the world suddenly split open.
A familiar air swept over him.
His neck was cold.
In this moment, he was suddenly aware that his head was already decapitated.
The second he realized this his world went spinning once again.
~~~
“That Gu Yian is so creepy. Her phone charm is actually a small coffin!”
“Stay away from her. Don’t you know that all her roommates are dead?”
“She’s pretty unlucky then. I didn’t say this but she’s so beautiful and has an air around her like a celebrity.”
Gu Yian listened to the voices that came from a short distance in the classroom.
She glanced at the two female students who sat in seats diagonally to her.
The two girls happened to be sneaking looks at Gu Yian and, in this second, they were caught by Gu Yian.
They were talking about someone behind their back and then were heard by said person. The two girls immediately closed their mouths.
Seeing that they were silent, Gu Yian also returned to reading her textbook.
Today was a day she normally attended classes.
Like usual, when it was almost time for class, she exited the library and reached the classroom.
By all rights, everything was the same as usual but Gu Yian kept feeling that she seemed to have forgotten some unhappy memories when she was in the library.
Because if she hadn’t lost her memory then why would she have an extra charm on her phone that she didn’t know about?
This charm was also in the shape of a small coffin; its shape was this peculiar.
Gu Yian felt that, with her personality, she would definitely remember the origin of this charm.
But if she forgot a memory then what memory could it be?
Gu Yian couldn’t find the answer.
Maybe it was because she personally experienced two odd events that Gu Yian herself felt like her courage was large and she actually left the coffin charm there.
The following days were calm and tranquil.
The only thing worth mentioning was the bizarre death of a senior with the last name Jiang from the same school as Gu Yian.
According to his roommate, Jiang was playing a game and then his head snapped off the next second. The wound was abnormally flat.
Who was the murderer was still unknown.
Gu Yian had no interactions with that senior. The school was so large and Gu Yian’s buildings and that senior’s buildings weren’t on the same side, so the probability of them meeting was close to zero.
Ten days later.
Gu Yian was attending class.
The teacher on the podium was enthusiastic and spoke with such fervor and passion that even if people wanted to sleep they wouldn’t be able to.
Gu Yian raised her head and looked at the writing on the blackboard in front of her.
Suddenly, she noticed that the world in front of her seemed to have changed into a drawing.
Streaks of pure white paint brushed across this drawing.
The people around her, the things around her, and even the space around her was gone.
Gu Yian stood in a pure white room.
A line of black letters floated in the air.
[WERE THE TEN DAYS OF TRANQUILITY PLEASANT?]
When Gu Yian saw these letters, memories flooded her mind.
She remembered.
She came to this pure white space once, participated in a game, and even cleared that game.
The reward for clearing it was a coffin and ten days of tranquility.
It was only now that Gu Yian understood that, all along, ten days of tranquility was to let her lose her memories!
No wonder there was an extra coffin-like charm on her phone.
This truly was what a “God” believed was tranquility.
The black letters swiftly disappeared and formed new lines of words.
[WELCOME TO GOD’S GAME.]
[THIS IS YOUR SECOND GAME. GOD IS FAIR AND TREATS EVERYONE THE SAME, THUS YOU DO NOT HAVE ANY HINTS.]
Gu Yian already guessed this from Brother Zhang’s behavior in the previous game.
She didn’t panic and continued to read down.
[HOWEVER, YOU CAN BRING ALONG THE REWARDS GOD GAVE TO YOU.]
[PRAISE GOD FOR THEY HAVE BESTOWED TO YOU A COFFIN. YOU CAN BURY YOUR OWN CORPSE.]
Bury…
Gu Yian wanted to hit someone.
Seeming as if it read from Gu Yian’s expression that she finished reading the contents, the black letters drifted away.
At the same time, the pure white space was torn apart again.
The world changed.
Gu Yian discovered that she dropped into a seat around a round table.
Looking at her environment, she was in an empty room. The walls, windows, and even the table were clean.
Gu Yian’s swept over and she counted the number of people sitting around the round table.
There were eight people, including her, and they were all strangers.
The round table was similar in size to the ones that seated twelve people in a hotel and, except for one person, the distance between the remaining seven people were the same. A proper distance was kept between everyone, but they could also easily see each other’s actions.
After getting a rough idea of the number of people, Gu Yian soon placed her eyes on the one and only person whose seat had a large space around it.
Because he was too strange and incompatible with the others.
He wore an odd black robe which concealed everything about him tightly and he wore a savage monster mask on his face. Everyone could only see his eyes.
The seat beneath him was luxurious and noble and it was many grades higher than the simple wooden chairs with backrests of Gu Yian and the others.
These anomalies made Gu Yian wonder if this person was a player like her or not.
The six people in the other seats had more or less the same thoughts as Gu Yian and they also looked at this person.
Everyone’s eyes gathered on that person.
Then he spoke.
His voice was a soft, smooth, and magnetic male voice.
“As you can see, in this game, God is not watching everyone and, instead, I am watching everyone.”
“I do not mind if everyone calls me God.”
“But I prefer to call myself a demon.”
Chapter 9 ~ First Game Pt.9 ~
Gu Yian carefully read the contents of the black letters.
[GAME CLEAR STATISTICS: PERFECT CLEAR. GOD FELT EXTREMELY PLEASED.]
[REWARDS: GOD WILL ALLOW YOU TO ENJOY TEN DAYS OF TRANQUILITY. GOD BESTOWED TO YOU AN ITEM. DO NOT HESITATE, PRAISE GOD FROM THE DEPTHS OF YOUR HEART.]
[GOD SAYS TO YOU: AN UNEXPECTEDLY GOOD SMELL.]
Gu Yian’s eyebrow twitched and she ignored the last line of letters.
What a perverse God!
Gu Yian looked around her surroundings but in this pure white space, apart from the black letters in midair and herself, there was nothing else.
Her eyes returned back to the black letters in the air again.
This time she noticed the phrase immediately following the reward, “DO NOT HESITATE, PRAISE GOD FROM THE DEPTHS OF YOUR HEART.”
Fine.
Gu Yian understood.
She considered for a while before opening her mouth and saying, “Praise be the merciful and kind God.”
As soon as Gu Yian’s words fell, the original lines of black letters disappeared immediately and then a somewhat familiar pitch-black coffin appeared in front of her.
Following the coffin’s appearance, new letters materialized in midair.
[ITEM: COFFIN. IT LOOKS USEFUL AND TRULY IS USEFUL. AFTER ALL, IT CAN STORE YOUR CORPSE.]
The tone of this item introduction was asking for a bit of a beating.
Gu Yian finished looking over the item and wondered how to return to her own world.
Just as she thought this, the coffin in front of her and the black letters disappeared and the whiteness of the pure white space receded like a tide.
Gu Yian saw the familiar bookshelves of the library and the occasional student passing through.
She returned.
She returned to her own world.
Since she already cleared the game, then Brother Zhang and Little Jiang should soon clear it too, right?
~~~
Going back to the time when the little boy plucked out Mrs. Zhao’s heart and left a pool of blood on the ground.
The boy carried Gu Yian into the middle building and their figures disappeared in the courtyard.
Ten minutes later.
A door suddenly opened, revealing Brother Zhang and Little Jiang.
Little Jiang saw the blood on the ground at a glance. “Brother Zhang, they’re dead. Mrs. Zhao isn’t around either.”
Brother Zhang looked around the yard once before saying, “Yeah, dead. See, I didn’t trick you, right? Mrs. Zhao’s only target for revenge was the little boy. We have the memorial tablets for protection and we just need to survive for seven days and then we’ll be able to return back to our own world. Now you’ll believe me and that our mission is to survive for seven days, right?”
Little Jiang nodded his head repeatedly, “I believe you. I’ve always believed you, Brother Zhang.”
Brother Zhang said, “We’ll hold onto the memorial tablets and I saw that there’s enough food in the kitchen for us to survive seven days. The remaining days won’t be difficult to pass.”
Little Jiang nodded his head many times again.
No ghosts harassed them and the remaining five days passed quickly.
The two of them arrived at the morning of the eighth day and Little Jiang asked Brother Zhang with a little worry, “Brother Zhang, can we go back?”
Brother Zhang nodded and said with satisfaction, “Yes. I can go back.”
“Brother Zhang, what do you mean?”
“You still haven’t noticed?”
Brother Zhang didn’t hide his own smile and said, “I tricked you. The mission isn’t to survive seven days. The mission is to please God. God will be pleased with my deception.”
Little Jiang asked in disbelief, “But then why did Mrs. Zhao come to kill us and what was with the boy?”
“Oh, that.”
Brother Zhang was in a good mood. “Didn’t Little Gu explain everything? God is watching us play this game. You can treat Mrs. Zhao and the little boy as the bosses in this game. The only condition to clear the game is to please God. Little Gu is a clever girl and too kind. She took care of the biggest boss for us and let the rest of our lives here go smoothly. Unfortunately, it was because she was too kind that she died.”
Little Jiang had no way of believing all of this. He still wanted to question Brother Zhang but then found that Brother Zhang’s body was abruptly fading in front of him until he disappeared.
Brother Zhang returned to the pure white space that he expected.
Several lines of black letters appeared in front of him.
[GAME CLEAR STATISTICS: ADEQUATE. YOUR DECEPTION WAS NOT PERFECT ENOUGH. GOD LOOKS FORWARD TO YOUR SHOW IN THE NEXT GAME.]
[REWARDS: GOD MERCIFULLY BESTOWS TO YOU TEN DAYS OF LIFE AND AN ITEM. DO NOT HESITATE, PRAISE GOD FROM THE DEPTHS OF YOUR HEART.]
[GOD SAYS TO YOU: (GOD HAS NOTHING TO SAY TO YOU.)]
Brother Zhang sighed and then said sincerely, “Praise be the merciful, kind, and generous God.”
The black letters drifted away and then an object floated in front of Brother Zhang’s eyes with several lines of small letters appearing beside it.
[ITEM: A MUSHROOM THAT GREW FROM A COFFIN. IT IS EDIBLE BUT, AS FOR WHAT HAPPENS AFTER YOU EAT IT, YOU DO NOT NEED TO KNOW.]
The corner of Brother Zhang’s mouth twitched.
He looked at the mushroom, pensive. “I take it that Little Gu already cleared the game then.”
“I wonder if she’s from my world or not.”
~~~
Little Jiang helplessly watched Brother Zhang disappear before his eyes and he nearly went crazy.
Brother Zhang tricked him!
What Little Gu said was right!
Little Jiang dropped the memorial tablet in his hand and ran wildly into the courtyard.
He kicked open the door of the middle building.
He saw the portraits of Gu Yian and the little boy.
He tried to open a coffin, but was bounced off the next second.
Little Jiang fell to the ground in a daze.
Beside his ear a woman’s voice sounded.
“Young man, my son doesn’t like your disturbance.”
Little Jiang looked at the empty room in terror.
He was unable to speak.
There was a fierce pain from his neck and then the world in front of him span.
He died.
Little Jiang woke up again and saw blankly that he had returned to the pure white space.
Could it be that God mercifully let him clear the game?
Hope burst out in his eyes.
Lines of black letters hung in the air in front of him.
[GAME CLEAR STATISTICS: FAIL. HOWEVER, YOUR DESPAIR PLEASED GOD AND THEY HAVE DECIDED TO GIVE YOU A REWARD.]
[REWARD: GOD MERCIFULLY BESTOWS TO YOU DEATH. REMEMBER, DEATH IS A GIFT OF GOD. PRAISE GOD.]
[GOD SAYS TO YOU: (IN YOUR DREAMS, GOD WOULD NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY TO YOU.)]
“NO!”
Little Jiang despaired and was also horrified.
He watched in absolute panic as the pure white that covered the world suddenly split open.
A familiar air swept over him.
His neck was cold.
In this moment, he was suddenly aware that his head was already decapitated.
The second he realized this his world went spinning once again.
~~~
“That Gu Yian is so creepy. Her phone charm is actually a small coffin!”
“Stay away from her. Don’t you know that all her roommates are dead?”
“She’s pretty unlucky then. I didn’t say this but she’s so beautiful and has an air around her like a celebrity.”
Gu Yian listened to the voices that came from a short distance in the classroom.
She glanced at the two female students who sat in seats diagonally to her.
The two girls happened to be sneaking looks at Gu Yian and, in this second, they were caught by Gu Yian.
They were talking about someone behind their back and then were heard by said person. The two girls immediately closed their mouths.
Seeing that they were silent, Gu Yian also returned to reading her textbook.
Today was a day she normally attended classes.
Like usual, when it was almost time for class, she exited the library and reached the classroom.
By all rights, everything was the same as usual but Gu Yian kept feeling that she seemed to have forgotten some unhappy memories when she was in the library.
Because if she hadn’t lost her memory then why would she have an extra charm on her phone that she didn’t know about?
This charm was also in the shape of a small coffin; its shape was this peculiar.
Gu Yian felt that, with her personality, she would definitely remember the origin of this charm.
But if she forgot a memory then what memory could it be?
Gu Yian couldn’t find the answer.
Maybe it was because she personally experienced two odd events that Gu Yian herself felt like her courage was large and she actually left the coffin charm there.
The following days were calm and tranquil.
The only thing worth mentioning was the bizarre death of a senior with the last name Jiang from the same school as Gu Yian.
According to his roommate, Jiang was playing a game and then his head snapped off the next second. The wound was abnormally flat.
Who was the murderer was still unknown.
Gu Yian had no interactions with that senior. The school was so large and Gu Yian’s buildings and that senior’s buildings weren’t on the same side, so the probability of them meeting was close to zero.
Ten days later.
Gu Yian was attending class.
The teacher on the podium was enthusiastic and spoke with such fervor and passion that even if people wanted to sleep they wouldn’t be able to.
Gu Yian raised her head and looked at the writing on the blackboard in front of her.
Suddenly, she noticed that the world in front of her seemed to have changed into a drawing.
Streaks of pure white paint brushed across this drawing.
The people around her, the things around her, and even the space around her was gone.
Gu Yian stood in a pure white room.
A line of black letters floated in the air.
[WERE THE TEN DAYS OF TRANQUILITY PLEASANT?]
When Gu Yian saw these letters, memories flooded her mind.
She remembered.
She came to this pure white space once, participated in a game, and even cleared that game.
The reward for clearing it was a coffin and ten days of tranquility.
It was only now that Gu Yian understood that, all along, ten days of tranquility was to let her lose her memories!
No wonder there was an extra coffin-like charm on her phone.
This truly was what a “God” believed was tranquility.
The black letters swiftly disappeared and formed new lines of words.
[WELCOME TO GOD’S GAME.]
[THIS IS YOUR SECOND GAME. GOD IS FAIR AND TREATS EVERYONE THE SAME, THUS YOU DO NOT HAVE ANY HINTS.]
Gu Yian already guessed this from Brother Zhang’s behavior in the previous game.
She didn’t panic and continued to read down.
[HOWEVER, YOU CAN BRING ALONG THE REWARDS GOD GAVE TO YOU.]
[PRAISE GOD FOR THEY HAVE BESTOWED TO YOU A COFFIN. YOU CAN BURY YOUR OWN CORPSE.]
Bury…
Gu Yian wanted to hit someone.
Seeming as if it read from Gu Yian’s expression that she finished reading the contents, the black letters drifted away.
At the same time, the pure white space was torn apart again.
The world changed.
Gu Yian discovered that she dropped into a seat around a round table.
Looking at her environment, she was in an empty room. The walls, windows, and even the table were clean.
Gu Yian’s swept over and she counted the number of people sitting around the round table.
There were eight people, including her, and they were all strangers.
The round table was similar in size to the ones that seated twelve people in a hotel and, except for one person, the distance between the remaining seven people were the same. A proper distance was kept between everyone, but they could also easily see each other’s actions.
After getting a rough idea of the number of people, Gu Yian soon placed her eyes on the one and only person whose seat had a large space around it.
Because he was too strange and incompatible with the others.
He wore an odd black robe which concealed everything about him tightly and he wore a savage monster mask on his face. Everyone could only see his eyes.
The seat beneath him was luxurious and noble and it was many grades higher than the simple wooden chairs with backrests of Gu Yian and the others.
These anomalies made Gu Yian wonder if this person was a player like her or not.
The six people in the other seats had more or less the same thoughts as Gu Yian and they also looked at this person.
Everyone’s eyes gathered on that person.
Then he spoke.
His voice was a soft, smooth, and magnetic male voice.
“As you can see, in this game, God is not watching everyone and, instead, I am watching everyone.”
“I do not mind if everyone calls me God.”
“But I prefer to call myself a demon.”
