A Life for a Life

After Act Four ended, the game's plot entered a period where they could shape it themselves.

From that moment on, how events unfolded would depend on the choices of the two branch managers present.

The lights were off in Room 1001.

Darkness had long since become the color they knew best.

Hou Guisheng leaned against a corner of the wall, his dark eyes fixed on the bright moon outside the window.

A silver flask glinted in his hand, its crescent-colored light sweeping across his sharply chiseled cheek.

Ji Li sat upright on the sofa, a spark glowing between his fingers as wisps of smoke rose from it.

His gaze was calm as still water, with the night itself seemingly lost in its depths.

Now only the two of them remained in the Game World.

More precisely, they were the only ones with both the will and the ability to see this game through.

Of the ten Gamers, Ji Li and Hou Guisheng stood at the pinnacle of intellect, courage, resolve, and sheer nerve.

"Then what we're looking for in the Game World is most likely connected to the Supernatural World."

Hou Guisheng took a long swig, letting the liquor spill freely down his collar as he spoke softly.

Three identities, four worlds.

Ji Li had once believed that the game's protagonist was gathering evidence across the worlds in pursuit of something.

But from what they knew now, the protagonist wasn't searching. They were investigating.

Verifying, then verifying again.

Testing whether this world was real.

Act One: a father returned from the dead;

Act Two: notes lost in memory;

Act Three: a plot that vanished without explanation;

Act Four: the hunt for the Human Heart and the Ghost Heart;

Act One—a wish born of illusion;

Act Two—fear left behind;

Act Three—chapters