In just three days, the situation that had once been a complete mess rapidly stabilized. Reality once again confirmed a conclusion history had long reached: though dictatorship was widely condemned, it was the most effective way to bring loosely organized humanity to a unified consensus in a short time.
Jiang City lifted its lockdown on the third day. Although the rose monsters within the city had yet to be completely eradicated, Lin Jue and a group of investigators successfully confined them to several designated areas. Major roads reopened to traffic, and some highly capable, bold individuals gradually returned to the city.
On May 16, an SUV drove to a studio converted from an abandoned warehouse in the outskirts of Jiang City.
Si Qi was the first to get out. He pushed open the battered door, inhaled the heavy smell of formaldehyde, and let the corner of his lips curve slightly.
This was where it had all begun. He still remembered that evening two months ago, when Liu Ajiu, controlled by Puppet Thread, came to this studio and used his own death to grant him the qualification to enter the Eerie Game, as part of the deal between Lin Jue and Si Qi.
In just two months, he had gone from being ignorant yet intensely fascinated, freely unleashing the malice he had suppressed and hidden for the past twenty-two years within Instances, to stirring the winds and clouds now—no longer limiting himself to the Eerie Game, but preparing to orchestrate a mad final act in reality... It was like a great dream, leaving him with the hazy feeling that a lifetime had passed.
Ever since making a specimen covered in frogs after Frog Hospital ended, Si Qi had not come here for a long time. He could not say whether it