Rose Manor (18): Subjective Time

"Assuming my deduction is correct and a time loop has occurred, there were nine players who initially entered this instance..." Qi Si crumpled the photograph in his hand, tossed it to the floor, and gazed at the streaks of rain outside the window.

"Based on my understanding of myself, faced with a one-third mortality rate, I would likely ensure I didn't violate any rules while waiting for three unlucky souls to break them and die, allowing me to clear the stage with ease."

He had only told half the truth; the reality was likely even more ruthless.

Entering the game for the first time yet forcibly masquerading as a veteran, he had to be more cautious and calculating than anyone else to carve out a sliver of survival in the cracks.

Upon learning of the Eerie Game's "Minimum Death Quota" mechanism—which functioned like raising venomous insects in a jar—he would inevitably strike first to avoid becoming a sacrifice, seizing every opportunity to reduce the player count; those three corpses in the garden were likely his handiwork.

Of course, this scenario existed only in his deductions; ultimately, he had no memory of the so-called "first round."

Qi Si suddenly recalled that he had appeared in the garden outside the manor the moment he opened his eyes, while the other players were already sitting comfortably inside.

Because of his late arrival, he had been forced to sit in the seat closest to the head of the table—the most dangerous position.

Consequently, harboring a "debt doesn't weigh on a man" mentality, he had engaged in deception and probing without restraint.

Furthermore, after Miss Anna took the initiative to strike up a conversation, he had seized the chance to shake her hand, drawing her attention.

It was under these premises that he proceeded to explore the third floor and decipher the world-building, seeking a path to survival under the focused gaze of the NPCs.

Everything felt as if it had been orchestrated. And that person had an incredibly precise grasp of his psychology...

The only one who truly understands him has always been himself.

In an instant, the clues connected. Qi Si felt he understood; the fog dissipated, and the path ahead suddenly became clear.

He reined in his thoughts and smiled brilliantly: "It seems the 'let your companions die instead of yourself' method has likely failed; otherwise, a new cycle wouldn't have started. To clear the game, the only path left is to decipher the world-building."

Chang Xu was silent for a moment before saying, "According to my intuition, my first choice would be to decipher the world-building to minimize the mortality rate."

Qi Si sneered inwardly but had no intention of refuting him.

He often spoke such righteous, high-sounding words himself; when facing police interrogations in reality, he could effortlessly spout a long string of them, perfectly embodying his persona as a "law-abiding, model citizen."

"It seems deciphering the world-building is quite difficult, given that you failed two rounds in a row, Brother Chang." Qi Si jabbed at him, then ignored the bewildered Chang Xu and headed straight for the room at the far end of the third floor.

It was the last room they hadn't investigated, and compared to the others, its exterior was much tidier. The door was spotless, and the keyhole had been polished until it shone; clearly, someone lived inside.

Qi Si brushed aside the vines that swayed without a breeze in the hallway, stepped over the scattered branches and leaves, and stood before the door, staring at the withered flower petals strewn in the door gap.

"There's someone inside." Chang Xu raised a hand to point at the slender finger marks on the doorknob. "We might run into Miss Anna."

In this context, the "Miss Anna" he referred to was naturally the one the players had seen at the dining table—the younger sister from the melodramatic story.

Even though both the elder and younger sisters were "Miss Anna" in the background of the instance, and running into either on the third floor meant violating the ninth rule, the younger sister in the black dress was relatively more dangerous.

"We generally won't run into her; she should be in the garden right now—if we do, it's just our bad luck." Qi Si smiled, stroking the special bracelet on his right wrist. "Besides, the penalty for violating the rules isn't tallied until nightfall, so we have plenty of time to decipher the world-building, don't we?"

He curled his fingers and knocked on the door three times, unhurriedly.

The ghosts had knocked on his door last night, and this morning he was knocking on the ghost's door; thinking about it, there was a certain dramatic irony that made him unable to help but curve his eyes.

Seeing that the young man hadn't chosen to pick the lock with a wire but had knocked politely instead, Chang Xu lowered his gaze, noncommittal.

While this was more likely to alert the enemy, the display of courtesy might effectively lower the NPC's hostility.

If nothing went wrong, the person inside was the real "Anna"—the "Miss Anna" in the red dress mentioned in the rules—who could be trusted and was arguably a relatively safe NPC.

As Qi Si knocked on the door again, a long, creaking sound echoed as the tightly shut door slowly swung open from the inside.

A stench of rot mixed with the heavy scent of flowers rushed out. Tangled, vine-like branches knotted within the room, filling almost every space with black-green, leaving only a faint glimpse of red visible through the gaps in the foliage.

It was an old woman with wrinkled skin, half of her face already rotted; she could in no way be associated with beauty. She groaned, delirious, as if she might die at any moment, yet her cloudy eyes stared straight at Qi Si.

She asked, "What time is it now?"

Qi Si glanced at Chang Xu, who picked up his pocket watch and replied, "Two-zero-two in the afternoon."

The old woman tilted her head, struggling to process the information.

After a long while, she let out a wheezing laugh: "Today's one o'clock in the afternoon is longer than yesterday's."

Having said this, she lowered her head and drifted into a stupor, showing no desire to pay any more attention to the two uninvited guests.

Qi Si watched quietly from the side for a long time, a gentle smile suddenly appearing on his face.

He pushed aside the vines in the room, walked step by step toward the old woman, crouched down in front of her, and asked, enunciating each word clearly: "Do you want to see him?"

The old woman was startled awake, lifted her head, and stared blankly ahead, her eyes reflecting no one.

Qi Si smiled, his eyes brewing with the colors of memory, his voice soft and slow: "After that day, he left the manor and returned to his fief, but he never forgot you. It took him many years to convince his father before he dared to come back to find you, but unfortunately, you were no longer in this world."

As Qi Si spoke, ripples gradually appeared in the old woman's eyes, which had been like stagnant water.

She reached out to grab Qi Si's sleeve, murmuring, "I want to see him... I want to see him... Where is he?"

"I don't know." Qi Si lowered his eyes, his smile warm. "But I have two companions who should know his whereabouts. Do you want to see those two companions of mine?"

The old woman stared at him fixedly.

Qi Si smiled, coaxing her: "You only need to say that you want Zou Yan and Liu Qingye to come up to the third floor to see you."

"I want to let Zou Yan and Liu Qingye come up to the third floor to see me..."

The moment the old woman's words fell, Qi Si pulled his sleeve back without mercy and gestured to Chang Xu: "Done, let's go."

Chang Xu thought for a moment, understood Qi Si's maneuver, and frowned: "You want to make Zou Yan and Ye Zi violate the rules too?"

The Old Woman, who is also Miss Anna, issued an order to see Zou Yan and Ye Zi on the third floor, placing them directly in a dilemma.

If they came, they would violate the ninth rule:

[Please try your best not to go to the third floor; if you do go, you must not be discovered by Miss Anna.]

If they did not come, they would violate the fourth rule:

[Do not refuse Miss Anna's requests; try to satisfy everything she proposes. Miss Anna dislikes disobedient guests.]

Either way, they would violate at least one rule, putting them on equal footing with the two who had already gone upstairs.

Qi Si walked out of the room, turned back, and flashed a malicious smile: "The law doesn't punish the masses, right? Since we've all chosen the thankless path of breaking the worldview, I don't want to die all alone."

Chang Xu followed him, pressing, "Why let Lin Chen off the hook?"

"Ah, sorry, I forgot to tell you earlier. Lin Chen came up here long before us. So, theoretically, the number of rules everyone has violated is now the same..." Qi Si closed the door behind him, his gaze drifting toward the ceiling with an innocent expression. "Sigh, it really wasn't easy for me to balance the scales."

Chang Xu: ...6.

He finally realized that this guy, who looked harmless to humans and animals, didn't have a single word of truth in his mouth!

If he hadn't agreed to cooperate in exploring the third floor, this guy probably would have added his name to the order Miss Anna was made to issue...

Qi Si looked at Chang Xu's guarded expression and merely smiled indifferently.

He had never possessed the righteous spirit to shoulder everything alone. From the moment he decided to explore the third floor, he had formulated a risk-sharing plan, determined to drag every player into the water.

It could be said that from the moment he sent Lin Chen to scout the third floor and set traps in his words to induce him to break the rules, all subsequent choices and events had gone exactly according to his plan.

Now, he had undoubtedly succeeded.

A risky exploration had brought back a wealth of useful information, and the mechanics of the instance became clear in his mind.

The Old Woman could perceive the anomaly in time and state the conclusion that "today at one in the afternoon is longer than yesterday," yet she could maintain a semi-rotted state throughout the endless time loop.

This precisely indicated that in this instance, an individual's agency and their physical state were separate.

The state of the body would revert to its initial form as time flowed backward, but as long as one became a ghost, they could retain their memories and even move freely during the time reversal.

The one hour of time reversal was, for a ghost, time gained out of thin air, with no cost at all.

At this point, the method to clear the level was obvious.

Qi Si looked at the seventh rule on the system interface.

[7. Only ghosts can kill humans; please firmly believe that you are human.]

He had originally thought this was a restrictive rule meant to prevent players from killing each other. He had even wondered why the Eerie Game, so full of "gu-poison" style competition, would be so kind.

Now it seemed the standard answer for clearing the level was actually written right there in this rule.

By setting the main NPC, Miss Anna—who harbored malice toward the players—as a human, and specifically stating that "ghosts can kill humans," the hint could not have been clearer.