Be harassed by ghosts and monsters for all eternity, or enter the Eerie Game?
On one side was a doomed fate filled with terror and pain; on the other, a sliver of hope on an unknown road ahead. The answer had long since ceased to be in doubt.
Though most of the villagers did not know what the "Eerie Game" or the "Main God" even were, they still clutched at the lifeline before them, dropping to their knees and kowtowing as they wailed and begged for the deity's mercy.
Qi Si was not a true deity, nor did he possess any mercy.
He asked again, "Are you willing to sign a contract, become Players, and enter the Eerie Game?"
The villagers kowtowed again, voices overlapping.
"Willing!"
"We're willing!"
"Whatever you ask us to do, we'll do it!"
A phantom of vines descended from midair to the ground, nimbly slipping into every household that still held signs of life and gently winding around every person's wrist.
The eyes of the villagers bound by the vines instantly turned vacant, like lifeless objects whose souls had been wholly devoured.
Qi Si lowered his gaze and vaguely saw countless golden leaves appear and vanish in the void, hazily outlining the phantom of a Golden Giant Tree.
Within every leaf were smaller trees and vines, and on every vine grew tiny new leaves. Countless worlds and countless souls were merely the branches and leaves of a single tree.
The Eerie Game was a tree.
The world, too, was merely a tree.
Qi Si's gaze was uncontrollably pulled away. The clouds and mist on either side were edged with golden radiance, drawn back like silken curtains.
The wind carried him far into the boundless haze. The length of time became impossible to measure, briefly losing all