Dead End

—I knew my luck was damn awful.

—Whenever I played Fight the Landlord with my classmates, I was always the only one covered in paper slips.

—So it was only natural that I'd picked the wrong path right from the start...

Zhou You took a deep breath, forcing himself to feel better. But he still wanted to put up one last fight.

He edged along the side, planning to try and get around the woman like he had the witch. But what happened next was completely beyond his expectations—the woman didn't even pay him any attention. She simply let him walk right past.

"...Has the system grown a conscience? Is it actually going to let me off that easily?"

Zhou You looked up, but before he could smile, his expression froze.

Right in front of him, a woman in white was crouching.

He turned his head and looked behind him.

There stood another woman in white, exactly like the first.

Unwilling to give up, Zhou You tried going around again, but the result was the same.

The entire street seemed to have folded into a strange space. No matter where he went, he was bound to run into that white anomaly.

"...Fine. I knew it."

Zhou You sighed helplessly. Then, with the reckless abandon of someone who had given up, he simply walked over and patted the woman on the shoulder.

"Um, excuse me, miss. Is there anything I can help you with?"

She didn't move. Instead, she spoke in a slick, strange voice, like a snake's.

"I've lost something. Can you help me find it?"

Zhou You had already braced himself to die at any moment, so he simply played along.

"Then may I ask what you lost, miss?"

The woman in white slowly raised her head. Then...

She revealed a blood-soaked, skinless face.

She opened her mouth and spoke softly.

"My father made me lose my face. Could you help me find it?"

The next moment, Zhou You felt a sharp pain across his face.

He instinctively raised a hand and slowly felt around, but what he touched wasn't the texture of skin. It was something far stickier and rougher, something that felt like... blood and muscle.

He looked up and realized that at some point, his face had been pulled over the female ghost's head.

His limbs gradually stiffened, and darkness swallowed his vision.

"You died."

"Your death had some value."

"Your remaining revivals: 13."

"You're halfway through your journey. The dawn of victory is close at hand. Keep up the good work and clear the game soon."

Hearing that familiar female voice, Zhou You wasn't especially saddened by his bad luck. He simply entered again.

This time, he chose the right path.

Unlike the left path, this one was much darker. Nearly half the already dim streetlights were broken, and the road was full of potholes, as though it hadn't been maintained in years.

Given the poor conditions, Zhou You naturally walked much more slowly. Fortunately, he didn't encounter any gruesome ghosts. But he didn't feel relieved in the slightest. The farther he walked, the worse his expression became.

There was no other reason.

This path... was too long!

Judging by the map he'd seen earlier, even at his slower pace, he should have made it out of here in ten or fifteen minutes. But he'd been walking for at least half an hour and still hadn't seen the exit.

And from beginning to end, he'd felt as if he were being watched.

It was as though something had been following right behind him. If he turned around even slightly... it would attack without hesitation.

The conclusion was obvious: he'd managed to pick wrong twice in a row.

"I knew my luck was bad, but to get it wrong twice in a row with a one-in-three chance..."

Zhou You sighed, then turned around in resignation.

And then he saw an eye suddenly emerge from the shadows.

A blood-soaked eye.

Then more and more eyes appeared, covering the entire space within seconds—

The next moment, a sharp pain shot through his own eyes.

Everything plunged into darkness.

"You died."

"Your death had no value."

"Your remaining revivals: 12."

"You're halfway through your journey. The dawn of victory is close at hand. Keep up the good work and clear the game soon."

Since he'd been sent back almost immediately after setting out, the system had rated his death as "worthless." Even its mechanical voice seemed to carry a hint of mockery. Zhou You didn't bother to talk back. He'd figured out by now that getting worked up at the system only made him miserable, so he just rolled his eyes and entered again.

This time, he chose the middle path.

Unlike the paths to the left and right, the middle one seemed much more normal. There was no female ghost with a head full of scenery, nor any eyes in the shadows. Everything went smoothly. But just as he was about to reach the end, he suddenly saw—

A ridiculously small old man was crouching there. As soon as Zhou You saw him, the old man saw Zhou You too.

Then he grinned.

A slick, glib voice rang out.

"I've seen you, so now I can touch you."

"I've touched you, so now I can kill you."

"Your eyes can be thrown into the fog, your face can be given to a woman, your head can be built into a wall, and your flesh and blood can be simmered into a fine soup."

"Three roads, three seals, but no matter what... you'll never make it through!"

The instant the voice faded, Zhou You's vision abruptly turned upside down.

The last thing he saw was his own headless body collapsing to the ground.

Huh? Why did this scene feel so familiar?

"You died."

"Your death had no value."

"Your remaining revivals: 11."

"You're halfway through your journey. The dawn of victory is close at hand. Keep up the good work and clear the game soon."

Ignoring the system's mocking voice, Zhou You sat cross-legged in front of the page.

Things weren't as he'd guessed. This wasn't a game of picking one out of three. These were simply three dead ends, each with a Sinister Object capable of instantly killing him waiting along the way.

More importantly, unlike the stall owner and the child in the alley, none of these three Sinister Objects had given him a task.

"That means I can't target any one of them—or, to put it another way, I might be able to get past all three...

"But there aren't any more clues at night, so the solution to this puzzle should be like the stall owner's: it's in the daytime."

Zhou You's eyes gradually brightened.

"—Four days and five nights. It looks like the nights are for throwing all kinds of traps in my way, while the days give me a solution when I can't make any progress.

"And with the story advancing each day, if I go into the daytime again, maybe I'll find the key that ties all the clues together?"

With that thought, he chose the other option without hesitation.

"Player has entered the daytime of the third day."

"Game progress will be saved automatically."