Chapter 248
Chapter 248
“Ding! Character Quest triggered. Find a way to survive before all the matches burn out. Success awards one World-Clear Hint. Failure results in erasure.”
Zhou Jingying listened to the System announcement in her mind.
Her gaze instinctively dropped to the basket.
It held a fair number of matches, but certainly not many. Each was only a short stick and would burn quickly. Other quests lasted until the ball ended at midnight, while she might have only a dozen minutes–or even mere minutes.
As she considered this, the matches in the basket suddenly began igniting on their own.
Strangely, although many lay together, only one burned at a time. Its flame did not spread to the basket either. The single match alone was consumed.
Zhou Jingying lowered her head. Jian Fan and the others instinctively looked down too.
At the sight–
“Am I seeing things?” Lu Jing asked blankly. “One of the matches lit itself, but nothing else is burning?”
As he spoke, the first match burned out and a second immediately ignited.
Zhou Jingying snapped back to herself and spoke rapidly. “I received a quest. I have to find a way to survive before all the matches burn out, or I’ll be erased.”
Everyone’s expression changed drastically.
At this rate, did that not mean Zhou Jingying had only minutes to complete her quest?
“Jian Fan, what do we do?” Qin Nan immediately turned to him.
At a moment like this, Qin Nan could think of nothing and could only place his hopes in Jian Fan.
Zhou Jingying’s life had little direct connection to him, but her fate could become theirs. Besides, if she succeeded, they would gain information.
Qin Weiyi frowned, his thoughts racing.
“Zhou Jingying’s plot hasn’t changed,” Jian Fan said, though uncertainty entered his voice. “But I can’t determine whether this follows the original fairy tale or a derivative work.”
From what Zhou Jingying had experienced, she had encountered none of the rewritten events affecting Qin Nan and the others. She was simply The Little Match Girl, unable to sell her matches and ultimately forced to burn them for warmth. When the last one went out, the girl died in the freezing winter.
“How would the solution differ between the fairy tale and a derivative work?” Qin Nan asked.
Jian Fan frowned, his mood dark.
His gaze flicked toward Zhou Jingying’s basket again.
“Um… I think it can only be a derivative work,” Lin Junruo said softly.
Everyone looked at her.
“Your reason,” Jian Fan asked directly.
Lin Junruo bit her lip cautiously. “Like I said before, the fairy tales come from two different authors. Only a derivative work by a third author could mix them together.”
Jian Fan did not disagree, but shook his head. “I mean whether the plot attached to Zhou Jingying follows the original fairy tale or has already been rewritten.”
The derivative work had placed characters from unrelated fairy-tale worlds into one setting. But had it preserved each character’s original experiences and rules, or altered them? That was what Jian Fan needed to determine.
If Zhou Jingying’s role retained The Little Match Girl’s original rules, then she had merely appeared at the ball while her death remained caused by cold. That would be easy to solve: keep her warm and she would survive. But would a Realm of Death quest really be that simple?
Jian Fan never underestimated the Realm of Death.
This derivative version of The Little Match Girl might face an entirely different cause of death.
“But nothing unusual has happened to Zhou Jingying. If there’s an added plot, we know nothing about it,” Qin Nan said with a headache.
Jian Fan looked at Zhou Jingying. “Did anything happen to you?”
Zhou Jingying shook her head. “No. Everything was normal.”
Could she truly be destined to die from cold? Jian Fan began to wonder.
“Jian Fan, do you have a solution?” Qin Nan asked.
Jian Fan did not conceal it. “In the original fairy tale, the girl freezes to death.”
“So if we keep Zhou Jingying warm, she can avoid dying?” Qin Nan immediately followed, then clicked his tongue. “It can’t be that simple.”
“That’s precisely what worries me,” Jian Fan said with a heavy frown.
Everyone fell silent.
“Whatever happens, let’s do that first. We should try every plausible solution instead of standing here thinking,” Yellow Hair said.
Everyone agreed.
The ballroom contained no spare clothes, but small blankets lay on the sofas for resting guests.
Yellow Hair brought several and wrapped them all around Zhou Jingying. “Will this do?” he asked Jian Fan.
Jian Fan’s mouth twitched as he looked at Zhou Jingying bundled into a ball beneath several blankets.
While they had spoken and gathered blankets, several more matches had burned out. Roughly one-third were already gone.
“They’re burning too quickly,” Qin Nan said with a frown.
He looked at Zhou Jingying, feeling guilty.
The match had indeed triggered a Character Quest, but it had also pushed her toward death. If she failed, the others would merely lose a clue. Zhou Jingying would lose her life.
Zhou Jingying was calmer now.
She had prepared herself the moment she struck the match. Learning the quest’s details had briefly panicked her, but now she had accepted the possibility.
“There’s still time,” Zhou Jingying said, smiling to comfort them.
Her words made Qin Nan and the others feel even more ashamed.
“Right. There’s still time. We’ll find a way,” Lin Junruo assured her.
None of them had any ideas yet. But before they could solve one problem, another arrived.
“Jian Fan.”
A weak voice came from behind them.
Jian Fan frowned slightly. Realizing something, he suddenly stepped aside.
Shi Chen was barely conscious, his palm mangled and bloody from the shard of glass. He had finally found Jian Fan and staggered toward him, trying to ask for help.
And then–
Jian Fan dodged.
Thud.
Shi Chen crashed face-first onto the floor.
Everyone: “…”