Chapter 106
Chapter 106
He knew it would not be long before everything in the inn descended into chaos.
There might be only one JOKER organization in the game, but every player had the potential to become someone just like its members.
The dead man’s gouged-out eyes had been the witch’s punishment. The punishment would not kill its victim, but it could frighten someone to the marrow of their bones.
Xiaoxue had lost her left arm. If her sin involved theft, the punishment made sense.
The man had lost his eyes. Perhaps his sin involved using them to spy on something he should never have seen.
Xiao Huai had seen Chen Kai before.
A quick survey of the crowd revealed one person missing: the man who had wanted to kill Xiaoxue when her injuries left her unable to speak.
Only after Xiao Huai glared at him had he put away his dagger.
When punishment descended upon that room tonight, it had simply given him an opportunity to kill.
After the murder, he had escaped the curse and successfully cleared the instance. Perhaps he had wanted to strike ever since his first day at the inn and merely lacked an opportunity.
When Chen Kai cleared the instance, the system congratulated him twice. But the final message was what truly mattered.
The system had said–[All players, please follow Chen Kai’s example and strive to clear the instance as soon as possible!]
Follow a murderer’s example and strive to clear the instance as soon as possible.
The system notification had already assumed the collective mission could not be completed. It wanted them to pursue the side mission and slaughter one another.
Only one person had died, yet Xiao Huai was already in a sorry state.
The pain had not lasted long, but even the dead man’s emotions had synchronized with his own while their senses overlapped…
Those tears had held the dead man’s despair and terror in the face of death.
And every last trace of that despair and terror had been transmitted to Xiao Huai.
He did not like the feeling.
So he would act at once and bring this game to an end.
He already had an idea of how to leave.
How could he behold hell without entering the abyss?
Xiao Huai opened the bedroom door. Lu Yuanshi leaned back in a chair with his legs crossed, a book in his hands.
In the dim candlelight, he carried an innate coldness and elegance, along with the faint detachment that always lingered between his brows.
He had not gone to see what had happened to the players. As he had said, established facts did not interest him.
Xiao Huai sprawled lazily across the bed without a care, then asked, “What are you reading?”
Lu Yuanshi seemed to laugh softly. “The Bible.”
Xiao Huai lay on the bed, his fringe half veiling his eyes. Yet the pure light within them made it impossible to look away. He turned his head toward Lu Yuanshi.
His gaze seemed to trace every detail of Lu Yuanshi’s features.
“Boring.”
He closed his eyes, and Lu Yuanshi’s laugh vanished into his breath.
“I want to know what kind of being people believe a god to be.”
His voice was quiet, but it still reached Xiao Huai clearly in the silent bedroom.
The room remained still for a very long time.
“What do you think?” Xiao Huai asked suddenly.
Lu Yuanshi gave a faint hum as though considering it. “Boring?”
The corner of Xiao Huai’s mouth lifted. He rolled onto his side, his voice like a murmur upon waking.
Low and languid, he answered, “The gods are unfortunate.”
Lu Yuanshi froze. Such an answer had never occurred to him.
He wanted to ask why, but hesitated.
Perhaps because Lu Yuanshi did not respond, Xiao Huai began speaking softly, almost to himself.
“No one is omnipotent. Everyone is confined within a cage, whether they’re a god or a human. Tell me, when has freedom ever truly arrived?”
The real world was filled with cages: schools, society, corporations.
Inside the game, the players occupied an even more dangerous cage.
And the gods? Were they not trapped in cages as well?
They were bound by countless hidden rules and restrictions.
Xiao Huai curled into himself. “If they had a choice, perhaps the gods would only want to be ordinary people. After all, the greater the power, the higher the walls of the cage, isn’t that right?”
He opened his eyes and looked at Lu Yuanshi, sounding almost self-mocking.
For one brief instant, Xiao Huai saw Lu Yuanshi’s gaze go distant.
He did not know what Lu Yuanshi was thinking at that moment.
Yet for an instant, he seemed to see countless invisible shackles driven deep into the earth.
In the blink of an eye, it all passed like an illusion.
Lu Yuanshi closed the book. His lips curved upward, but not the slightest ripple of emotion touched his smile.
It was as though he had returned to the unreachable horizon, remote and detached.
“What a tragedy,” he said softly.
The birth of a god was both a blessing and a sorrow.
Xiao Huai’s pupils trembled faintly.
Lu Yuanshi spoke those calm words with a false expression.
Why, then, could Xiao Huai not shake the feeling that something was wrong?
Was he sad?
Xiao Huai reached out, gripped the bed rail, and lay against it with his chin resting on his arm.
His fingers curled faintly with each breath. He thought for a long time, then finally stilled them, opened his arms, and parted his lips. “Come here.”
Lu Yuanshi raised his eyes and met Xiao Huai’s gaze.
“I’ll give you a hug. If you don’t want one, forget it.”
The moment he finished speaking, he was already preparing to lie back down.
Then, without warning, the air stirred.
Then, in the next instant–
Before Xiao Huai could lift his head, he was locked inside Lu Yuanshi’s arms. Lu Yuanshi held him tightly, as though afraid he would disappear in the next second, squeezing harder and harder.
“…Wait, don’t…” Xiao Huai wanted to hit him. The embrace was far too solid. It felt as though Lu Yuanshi were trying to crush him into his very bones, and he could barely breathe.
But when Xiao Huai heard Lu Yuanshi’s heartbeat and the slightly heavy breaths accompanying the way his chin kept nuzzling the hollow of Xiao Huai’s neck, his movement halted. Something seemed to brush his heart with a teasing itch.
He lowered his eyes, lashes trembling gently. Then his hands closed around Lu Yuanshi, and he returned the embrace with the same strength Lu Yuanshi had used to hold him.
They were like wounded beasts in a forest, their sharp edges withdrawn as they licked each other’s wounds.
In the quiet room, the only sounds were each other’s heartbeats and breathing.
Xiao Huai did not know how long Lu Yuanshi held him. Breathing in his scent made Xiao Huai drowsy, his eyelids beginning to droop.
Then he heard Lu Yuanshi’s low laugh beside his ear.
He slowly opened his eyes. In the next second, Lu Yuanshi exerted a sudden burst of strength.
“Hey! What are you doing?”
Following Xiao Huai’s movement, Lu Yuanshi slid one hand around his waist, and the two of them fell onto the bed together.
He still did not release him, though he remembered to place a pillow beneath Xiao Huai’s head.
Wasn’t this position a little too intimate?
The movement startled every trace of drowsiness out of Xiao Huai.
Lu Yuanshi leaned in until their faces were extremely close. Xiao Huai tilted his head back, only to find Lu Yuanshi staring fixedly at his neck.
In the end, Xiao Huai simply glared at him. “Let go. You have your own bed.”
Both Lu Yuanshi’s hands rested at his waist. His breath brushed Xiao Huai’s ear as he said,
“Weren’t you the one who asked for a hug first?”