V3C15

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That one word ‘also’ exposed how much he cared for Zhang Jia.

Zhang as a surname was too common; Zhang Jia did indeed say his name when he called out to Lilith, and the average person would at most remember his name, but an ordinary person wouldn’t introduce themselves with “My surname is also Zhang” like this player from 2022.

If he had no connection to Zhang Jia, he could have very well just given out his full name, or not even revealed his surname at all; he gave his surname and used the word ‘also’ though.

Even though he might not have realized it himself, that perhaps he had been deliberately hiding how much he cared about Zhang Jia, this thing called habit often revealed a person’s inner self without them knowing.

If it was that alone though, Song Hanzhang would not have been so presumptuous as to pass that judgment, but this curious word caught his attention and he began to look more closely at the two than he had before.

Zhang Jia from 2002, and Zhang from 2022.

They were about twenty years apart age-wise, shared a similar physique, a similar dressing style, an even more similar temperament, and even took the same courses. If the same physique could be passed off as a coincidence, then the same temperament, dressing style, and professional disciplines could only be considered a result of deliberate nurture. The most suspicious part, and what had allowed Song Hanzhang to make his judgment, was Zhang Jia’s piercing.

There was a black earring on Zhang Jia’s left ear. Lilith had one as well. That was easy to understand as Lilith was originally Zhang Jia’s girlfriend and it was normal for the two to wear the same earrings as a token of affection, but the 2022 Zhang also had a piercing on his left ear, though without an earring- perhaps he had worn it before, but he had deliberately took it off.

Was it a coincidence? If it wasn’t for all those details before, it really could have been a coincidence.

But for so many coincidences to overlap, it hinted at the existence of a secret.

There must be a certain connection between Zhang Jia and this Zhang, and most likely a connection in bloodline- they were brothers, a pair of brothers almost twenty years apart who had never met each other.

If that was the case, then Zhang’s concealment of his name and deliberate avoidance of his relationship with Zhang Jia revealed his deepest secret.

The three teams standing next to the fountain in the middle of the ballroom were all silent due to Zhang’s confident speech. A mocking smile appeared on the face of the perpetrator hidden behind the mask as he observed Zhang Jia. Was that him? Zhang Jia, his trauma for an entire twenty years, his nightmare that had lasted twenty years; he had heard that name from others countless times, perfect beyond measure in the eyes of his parents, such that in the twenty years they had lost him, the two had become paranoid to the point of madness…

“Out of politeness, you should also tell us your name, this… junior Zhang.” A cold voice cut through his thoughts. He looked towards the speaker, his senior Song Hanzhang.

He frowned. “What if I don’t?”

That senior of his looked coolly at him. Those were a pair of eyes that saw through secrets, like piercing through his mask and seeing his face which was all too similar to Zhang Jia’s. He said, “It’s fine if you don’t, I can guess.”

His heart jumped violently and a sense of foreboding came over him frantically. Impossible, that was impossible! Song Hanzhang was a player from 2012, there was no way he could know his name, the name that made him sick to the point of retching.

But no matter how much he prayed, Song Hanzhang approached the truth. “Zhang Yijia? Zhang Nianjia? Zhang Sijia?1”

The devil read out his real name, and so, with a bang, the world flipped upside down in front of him and silently collapsed.

His heart was ripped out and forced into a grinder, a million maggots tumbled in his stomach, his eyes were blank. He couldn’t stop his trembling. Disgust, hatred, abhorrence… countless negative emotions flooded his heart as he was overwhelmed with desperation to the point of near collapse.

The devil continued chattering next to his ears. It examined him, examined the stunned sisters behind him- their emotions flowed from behind the two wire masks that couldn’t cover them. It was certain.

“Oh, so you’re called Zhang Sijia. Your parents must miss him.” The devil stuck a sword in his heart with vicious words, causing carnage.

Shut up, don’t say my name! Don’t say that name! I hate him, I’ve had enough, he’s been missing for twenty years but the shadow he left behind is torturing me. Why won’t you look at me? I’m also a living person, I’m not Zhang Jia’s replacement!

Lin Jue was confused.

He watched in confusion as Song Hanzhang turned the tides in just a few words. That originally high and mighty person was rendered a trembling mess after his real name was guessed by Song Hanzhang. The tall teammate next to him took him by his shoulders and pulled him to the back of the team. The pair of sisters in the 2022 team looked at Song Hanzhang with hatred, but couldn’t help but worry for Zhang Sijia. The other masked girl in a cloak also couldn’t help but look back. The only one who appeared to be outside the situation from start to finish was the cloaked man who had been standing at the end of the group, fully covered from head to toe.

Even more confused than Lin Jue was Zhang Jia. He stared at Zhang Sijia, stunned.

He wasn’t a dull person, rather, he was quite smart most of the time, or else he wouldn’t have survived until now.

The name Zhang Sijia really exposed too many things.

To Zhang Jia, he had only spent an extremely short amount of time in this game, but he was suddenly told that he had a brother who was younger than him by almost twenty years. They crossed the long river of time and met in this game of death, and he knew nothing of him- apart from his hostility.

The water in the wishing fountain continued spouting and changing shapes; the dancing corpses led by puppet strings were indifferent to the encounter between them.

As if finally satisfied with the drama, Lilith nodded to the other two team leaders. “Alright, the meeting time is almost over, time to get down to business. I have great news to tell everyone today, you must be so excited.”

As the leader of the 2022 team, Zhou Yuxiu’s expression was apathetic, without any interest in disturbing Lilith’s ‘good news’. The same was with the other leader.

Lilith happily lifted her palms, placed them on her cheeks, and said in a sickly sweet voice, “Now that everyone knows the ‘truth’ and is suffering because of it, It has mercifully decided to give everyone a chance to completely return from this game to the real world. How about it, is it not such a wonderful surprise?”

That moment, everyone was stunned and stared at Lilith in shock. Zhang Sijia suddenly came to his senses. He stared at Zhou Yuxiu closely, and a strange emotion pervaded him. So these people didn’t know…

“But we can’t let everyone go back together, only the best team can return! As for the other two, we’ll have to ask you to stay here forever with us,” Lilith smiled maliciously. “The way to determine the winner is also easy. You must have realized already, everytime you kill a monster, you’ll receive a marking. The team with the most markings before daybreak will get to leave the game world forever and return to the real world. Of course, if you’re not willing to leave, then I have nothing to say.

“But, just this isn’t exciting enough, It added a new rule. Marks can be traded between players now, which means that if you’re willing, you can give all your markings to another player, and if you’re not willing… they can still get all your marks by killing you.”

Lin Jue’s eyes widened. This was encouraging them to kill each other!

The atmosphere immediately thickened; buried beneath the silence were swords poised to be drawn.

Lilith grinned. “You can’t attack each other right now, you’ll have to wait until you leave here. After all, this is the peaceful promenade.”

“I have a question. Is there a difference between how many games each of the teams have played?” Song Hanzhang asked.

“Ah, it’s you again, why do you have so many questions?” Lilith smacked her lips. “Alright, I’ll answer you. The team from 2002 has played five rounds, 2012 three rounds, 2022 four rounds. This is counted by the player who has survived the most rounds until you broke the rules and were pulled into this round.”

Zhou Yuxiu, who had been silent, added, “Another problem: counting this round, all players here have experienced at least two rounds of the game. For fairness, players are allowed to keep only two rounds of rewards. You can choose which skills or items to discard.”

“Why?” Du Cheng from 2002 asked angrily. “Is it our fault we entered earlier?”

“It’s fine if you don’t want to, I can randomly discard your rewards until there are only two left,” the leader of 2002 chuckled in a low voice.

Du Cheng’s expression changed until he finally stopped speaking.

“Are used rewards counted in the two we keep?” Song Hanzhang asked again.

Lin Jue was also thinking about this problem. He had used the antibody in round one, so if that was to be counted in the two rewards, he would have to choose between the spear and the Witch Box.

“If your rewards have already been used, then lucky you,” Lilith grinned. “But if your used reward turned into a new skill or item, it still counts as a slot.”

Lin Jue let out a sigh of relief; thank goodness, he could keep both the spear and the Witch Box. But soon, he started worrying again. What about Song Hanzhang? Song Hanzhang touched the tattoo on his wrist. His copy skill was single-use and could copy another person’s item or skill, and he chose to copy the Witch Box which took a spot, so he would have to choose between the dagger from round one or the healing skill from round two.

Lu Ren let out a tsk. If he had known this earlier, he would’ve used up round two’s reward sooner. Nevermind, he’ll discard the skill from round three.

Gu Fengyi and Liu Qingqing had no choice, they had in total been part of only two games.

Dan Liang’s situation was a little unique. Even though he had only participated in two rounds, he had also received Xia Huan’s medical bag from the last round, which had been judged to be his by the system. Therefore, he held the invisible spray, the beads of deceit, and the medical bag. However, a bug appeared here. Because he had used the beads of deceit and turned himself into Liu Qingqing, fully copying both her skills, the three items he had held were no longer, allowing the ‘reduction’ rule to not require him to throw away any skill or item, as currently he only held two.

His lips curled as he gladly accepted this extra surprise.

“It looks like everyone’s made their choice! Then we’ll grant you one more favor before the end of the ball; you can go to the fountain and make one simple wish; weapon, food, or water, you can receive any of them since you’ll be fighting until daylight.” Lilith pointed to the fountain in the center, relaxed and cheerful.

Lin Jue had no need for another weapon, but since Song Hanzhang might need one, he asked him quietly, “You kept the witch box and the healing skill, then what about your weapon?”

“I’ll still use a dagger, it worked well enough,” Song Hanzhang said. “Get some water as well; there is no drinkable water here, your body won’t be able to take it.”

The setting of this round was too special. There was no food nor water in this mutated campus, and even the water in the man-made waterways had turned into an eerie, reddish-black liquid. Only brown, dirty blood flowed out from the taps, the smell enough to make someone faint.

Lin Jue finally became aware of his empty stomach and dry mouth. The pressure had forced him to ignore the danger signals his body was sending out, but coming to think of it, the last thing he had eaten was a mouthful of cake when he was in the cafe with Gu Fengyi and the others. He could bear the hunger, but it was still important to hydrate.

The five people from 2002 had already picked what they wanted beside the fountain. Those without a weapon went straight for one, and those with a good weapon mostly chose food or water.

The six people from 2012 also went up to the fountain and looked down into the water. It was crystal clear, but once they scooped up a handful of water, what they wanted would arrive in their hands.

Dagger, dagger, dagger.

Lin Jue said silently and reached into the fountain. His hands submerged in the cold water and when he took them out again, the water had transformed into a weapon that was exactly the same as the dagger Song Hanzhang had received in round one. He held it up to Song Hanzhang like a treasure; Song Hanzhang glanced at him and accepted his attentive goodwill. Possessing a weapon now, Song Hanzhang took out a water bottle from the fountain and passed it to Lin Jue, who took a few sips before giving it back.

Gu Fengyi stood in front of the fountain. She had a clear goal in mind, either a bow or a crossbow, along with matching arrows…

Liu Qingqing suddenly stepped up and scooped up a handful of water first. The clear spring water turned into a finely crafted crossbow and a cluster of arrows. Without a word, she pushed the items to Gu Fengyi, before returning to the other Liu Qingqing’s side.

Gu Fengyi looked at her in shock.

The other Liu Qingqing pouted. “Even if you’re eager to prove your loyalty, you don’t have to do it this way; she might not even accept it, and now you’ve exposed me.”

Liu Qingqing’s expression darkened. “We can’t fight here anyways. You can’t die, so what’s there to worry about?”

The other Liu Qingqing- who was Dan Liang- chuckled and walked nonchalantly to the fountain, the liquid forming a short bayonet in his hands. He played with it for a while before smiling at them. “There’s actually a lot of room for us to work together.”

Lin Jue looked at him coldly and Dan Liang blew back a flirty kiss. Even though he used the gentle and pretty face of Liu Qingqing, it was surprisingly charming and seductive when it made that expression.

Liu Qingqing felt her anger rise up and glared at Dan Liang, her hands balled into fists.

Lu Ren returned from the fountain with a water bottle in his mouth. Song Hanzhang suddenly said something to him and Lu Ren grunted from the back of his throat, observing the 2022 team with interest.

The team from 2022 had also chosen their rewards and returned to Zhou Yuxiu’s side.

The beautiful and lush music ended and the dancing corpses finally stopped their footsteps, standing silently in position.

Something was about to happen, Lin Jue’s intuition told him.

As expected, Lilith announced in high spirits, “Ladies and gentlemen, today we are gathered here for that paramount award- a return to reality. Of those that are here today, there are madmen, liars, criminals, maniacs, genius prophets, and foolish mortals. There are warriors who would sacrifice themselves for morality, but there are also villains selling their soul for survival. On this stage though, you are all equal. It does not select you according to man’s good or evil, It treats you all as equal. It appreciates your games, from which It gets what It needs, but after being satisfied, It has mercifully decided to pardon you- if only a small number of you.”

Lilith smiled mysteriously. “Before the coming of the apocalypse, enjoy the afterglow of the fun, since this will be your last opportunity. But first, you’ll have to face a serious trial.”

The puppet corpses turned around simultaneously to look at them.

“Escape from here.”

***

1All different ways of saying ‘missing [Zhang] Jia’.

***

Vera’s Notes: Apologies… another day, another day late…..

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