Backstory 2

"Who killed the chef?" was really "Who wanted to kill Wu Yong?" After all, the chef had taken the hit meant for Wu Yong.

The answer was plainly laid out before them.

In the previous instance quiz, Ma Hui had been in love with Chunju.

And in the reenactment, Wu Yong and Chunju had been a couple, while Wu Yong and Li Qiang had been locked in an irreconcilable conflict.

Who had actually done it?

Ma Hui or Li Qiang? Or had both of them acted?

The ticking of the Instance System's clock seemed to hurry them along for no reason, grating on their nerves and keeping them tense.

Seeing the cold sweat beading on Beiwei's forehead, Xie De couldn't help growing anxious too. "455, who exactly is the killer?"

"Don't panic."

455 hissed, the densely packed zeros and ones constantly churning across the phone as it searched the world's plot it had stolen for an answer.

Wei Yanchi and Old Eugene remained silent. Perhaps they already knew the answer, but both were watching 39's expression. After all, Beiwei was one of his people. Whether to save her or abandon her rested on a single decision from him.

They couldn't tell whether the expressionless man was testing Beiwei's abilities or assessing her usefulness.

The countdown had now reached twenty seconds.

39 still made no move, as though Beiwei's life or death had nothing to do with him.

Indeed, everyone in the instances pursued their own interests, and the strong preyed on the weak. If Beiwei couldn't even answer such a simple question, there was naturally no reason to use her or work with her.

But-but she really didn't dare gamble. She had been presumptuous, thinking Mr. 39 would save her. Mr. 39 had never been a kind man. Hadn't she known that from the very beginning?

Mr. 39 had already done more than enough, helping her escape so many deadly situations, yet she was still so useless...

The corners of Beiwei's eyes reddened. Her nails dug deep into her palms, drawing tiny beads of blood.

These thirty seconds felt so long, yet so short. It was as though her life were draining away with the countdown.

Then she would take the gamble.

Ten seconds remained.

Beiwei parted her lips, her voice so faint it was almost inaudible. "Ma Hui..."

455 shouted, "Found it! Found it! It's Ma Hui, Wang Qiang, Zhang Zhi, and Chunju! They're all killers!"

Mr. 39 seemed to give a very soft, derisive chuckle. "Ma Hui, Wang Qiang, Zhang Zhi, and Chunju. They're all killers."

Beiwei jerked her head up, tears glimmering in her eyes. She sniffled and hurried to answer the Instance System's question without the slightest doubt.

"It was Ma Hui, Wang Qiang, Zhang Zhi, and Chunju!"

This time, the Instance System's voice sounded like music from heaven.

"Correct answer."

Beiwei discreetly wiped away her tears, moved that Mr. 39 had saved her once again at the very last moment.

The head outside let out a scream of despair and rage. "I won't let them get away with this!!"

Then it rolled away like a ball.

Had the danger passed? Not necessarily.

The head had only just disappeared.

From the collapsed rubble, a limp, mangled, headless corpse struggled out, clawing its way forward with its fingers. It walked like a zombie from Train to Busan, terrifying "huh, huh" sounds rising from deep within its chest, as though a terminal cancer patient were laughing hysterically.

He charged madly at the Storage Room's entrance and pounded desperately on the door. "My head! My head! Give me back my head!"

Well, damn. Here came round two.

Xie De felt he couldn't keep calling 455 a little screwup. After all, the Instance System was far more of a bastard than 455.

The Storage Room had only this one old wooden door, and it wouldn't hold out for long. It was already shaking under the blows and would soon be smashed open.

Xie De's first instinct was to hurry over and push a cabinet against it!

But the other three clearly had different ideas.

Under Xie De's horrified gaze, Wei Yanchi picked up a stool from nearby, walked over, and flung the door open. The Headless Ghost had met his match. Before he could even laugh maniacally, a blow from the stool left him reeling.

Beiwei stood in front of Xie De, determined to spare Mr. 39 the need to act himself. As soon as Wei Yanchi struck with the stool, she leaped nimbly into the air, executed a beautiful backflip, and kicked the headless corpse to the ground with both feet.

Smack! Crash!

The headless corpse, so outrageously arrogant a moment earlier, landed in an utterly humiliating faceplant. Furious and completely rattled, he scrambled up on all fours and roared in rage.

The glass around them shattered, and the overhead lights flickered nonstop. The Headless Ghost looked ready to unleash his ultimate move!

But in that instant, Wei Yanchi's eyes held the chill of a thousand-year-old pool of ice. His hand formed a complicated gesture, moving too fast to follow. Then he stepped forward, a yellow talisman somehow already held between his index and middle fingers, and thrust it out.

A powerful blast of air rippled out between him and the Headless Ghost.

By the time Xie De came to his senses, the yellow talisman was burning. The Headless Ghost let out a series of agonized screams, and his skin abruptly shriveled like a flower withering in an instant.

The three veteran players walked out with their expressions unchanged.

Stunned by the expert's display, Xie De silently followed them, once again understanding the difference between himself and the protagonist.

He felt as though even his words had lost all sophistication. "455, I think pretending to be an expert might be a bad idea. Did you see that just now? The protagonist-the protagonist just picked it up like this, then stepped up, and then, then-one yellow talisman, and he just killed that Headless Ghost! Seriously, holy shit, that was so cool. Holy shit. Now that's an expert. I don't think I can pull this off!"

455 had more or less gotten used to its host's provincial amazement. As though remembering something, it said, "That's perfectly normal. A protagonist who doesn't show off isn't a protagonist. What are you panicking for, host? With me here, just keep your cool! Besides, the protagonist's only this badass because he grew up immersed in all this. Huh, now I remember. I think the protagonist was a Taoist priest."

"A Taoist priest?"

"Yeah, that's right. Before entering the infinite-instance world, the protagonist was a bona fide Taoist priest of the Orthodox Unity School."

Xie De quietly asked, "Sounds impressive, but what's the Orthodox Unity School? Taoist priests have different schools too?"

"Of course they do." Speechless, 455 gave him a quick explanation. "The two main branches are the Orthodox Unity School and the Complete Perfection School."

The Orthodox Unity School originated primarily in the late Eastern Han dynasty and was founded by Zhang Daoling. It was also known as the Way of the Celestial Masters or the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice.

Taoist priests of the Orthodox Unity School could practice at home and led relatively secular lives. They could marry and have children, and were not forbidden from eating meat, though they observed the "four foods not eaten": beef, dog meat, snakehead fish, and wild geese. Their main practices included talismans and ritual offerings, praying for blessings and averting calamities, and banishing evil and exorcising ghosts.

Xie De laughed helplessly as he listened. "So the instance brought in someone who could boss it around?"

455 sighed. "Pretty much. But the dangers in these instances aren't that easy to resolve. A lot of the time, even the protagonist can't do everything."

They returned to the area of the factory where the machines stood.

Those numb ghosts had become more tangible. Their bodies were covered in burns, making them look like chunks of charcoal.

The ground beneath their feet was also covered in black ash.

Everything was shrouded in boundless resentment, unable to find release.

Yue Xiamo stood silently in a corner, her dark eyes turning toward them.