Welcome to the Nightmare Game

Chapter 99: Slaughter Secret Society (I)

[Player Qi Leren has completed the Castle Cry task. Mission completion is 95%.]

[A reward of the base 20 survival days and a bonus of 30 survival days have been given. If the task is over 90% completed, you will be rewarded with a random lottery.]

[Data synchronization countdown, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, synchronization complete.]

Qi Leren returned to his home in the Village of Dusk, and the revelation made at the last moment of the mission still remained in his mind, making him shudder. He couldn’t help thinking a lot. Isabel, an NPC serving the Devil of Fraud, had appeared in the task. She or other demons must have interfered with the plot during the time when the task was generated. Although the time span of the plot was very large, it should only take a moment to generate the plot, so there was no conflict in time. But why on earth did they do it?

The more he thought, the more powerless he felt. He was just an ordinary player who was as fragile as a worm in the face of this huge conspiracy.

Qi Leren sighed and clicked on this random reward.

[Countercurrent Sand: You can reset the cooling time of a skill card at will, so that it can be cooled and reused instantly. Remaining uses: 1/1]

Qi Leren shone at that moment, his originally depressed mood suddenly happy. This disposable prop could come in handy at a critical moment. Even if his S/L skills was still cooling down, as long as he used this hourglass-shaped item, he could instantly reset and reuse it!

It almost gave him an extra life.

Combined with the Demon Etiquette and resurrecting egg… His task this time was really rewarding. Could it be that this wasn’t a given, but that his luck had changed?

It was a pity that the laptop still hadn’t followed him to the Village of Dusk. Qi Leren has made up his mind. In a couple of days, he would go to Chen Baiqi to inquire about the transformer. He intended to take it into his future tasks. He had a feeling that the same thing would happen again sooner or later, and this time, he would come prepared.

The Castle Cry task has brought great rewards to Qi Leren. With the 50 survival days plus his remaining 50 days and 3 hours, there now was an amazing total of 100 days and 3 hours. Aside from the necessary food expenses, he had nearly three months, and Qi Leren was ready to improve himself rather than hurrying to pick up the next task - his first compulsory task would start in half a month.

Every player had a mandatory task every month, and the difficulty of the task would become more and more difficult as time went by. But for a newcomer, the difficulty of the mandatory task was simpler than that of the Novice Village. Of course, this was not the kind of deadly Novice Village Qi Leren experienced.

Two or three months could not be said to be either long nor short. If he trained properly, the primary fighting skills card could be eliminated completely, and a card slot could be saved. Long ago, Su He gave him a dagger - an item card that needed to be inserted into the card slot - but it had been useless because there weren’t enough available card slots, which was really a great waste.

Before the task ended, the three had agreed to have dinner together tomorrow. Qi Leren looked at the time. Although his mental state wasn’t bad, he’d been running around all night in the castle, so it was better to have a rest first.

After washing up, Qi Leren got into bed. The Village of Dusk’s unique sun couldn’t be called harsh. After the last time he’d slept, Qi Leren had washed the blankets in his room and watched as the wet sheets dred slowly in the sunset. Now, there was a particularly uncomfortable cold feeling on his body. Even Qi Leren, who didn’t pay much attention to food, clothing, housing, and transportation, felt uncomfortable. With dissatisfaction about the blankets, Qi Leren turned over and fell asleep.

In his dream, Qi Leren stood in a sea of stars, and he was as humble and small as dirt in the vast universe.

Not far away, a chair floated in the vacuum, and Miao Li sat in this chair and turned over the books on her knees. As if feeling his arrival, Miao Li looked up and pushed her glasses: “Good evening. Although I didn’t want to let you start the task so soon, it was a rare opportunity. We decided to act in advance.”

Qi Leren gave her a calm look, pulled up his own chair, and sat down. “Something happened with the Slaughter Secret Society?”

“Bingo.” Miao Li snapped. “Let’s briefly talk about the cause of the incident. We caught the Slaughter Society’s branch leader who ran the Twilight Township. This is really a big fish.”

“You’ve caught the key figure, what else do you need me to do?” A foreboding came to Qi Leren’s mind. He felt that he was going to have to put up with a great ordeal!

Miao Li sighed: “Then he died. Died of a seed’s outbreak.”

“So?” Qi Leren asked.

“Let’s start from the beginning, starting with the secret organization of the Slaughter Secret Society. The Village of Dusk is under the control of the Court, so in the Village of Dusk, the Slaughter Secret Society’s division is very low-key and hidden. They have no fixed stronghold, all members contact and communicate under false names and identities, secretly develop players, and regularly perform some special tasks. Their interior is even chaotic and ununited, just like raising a donkey. Only the best ones will be favored by the Devil of Slaughter and become its followers, while the rest are just sad victims,” Miao Li said.

"No one’s betrayed them? Haven’t you bought some informants?” Qi Leren asked.

Miao Li gave him an appreciative look. “We want to do this, but there’s one big problem. The inheritance of the seeds of slaughter is similar to that of a blood clan. The person who holds the seed will spread it to new people through ceremonies and become their ‘guide’. At the inheritance ceremony, the party implanted with the seed of slaughter will swear allegiance to the Devil of Slaughter, and this loyalty is a kind of contract that cannot be betrayed. Once the betrayal begins, the seed will quickly erupt, causing the parasitized person to die.”

Qi Leren resisted the impulse to touch the seed and said coldly, “This is why you chose me? Because I was accidentally infected, instead of getting the seed through this ritual?”

“This is a very important reason,” Miao Li laughed. “Though it’s not the only one. The believers in each branch will choose a holder who wears a token ring, and this ring is attached to a field given by the Devil of Slaughter… ”

“A field?!” Qi Leren couldn’t help crying out.

Miao Li raised her eyebrows. "It seems that you know something about fields.”

Qi Leren didn’t speak.

“But it’s just a semi-finished product, you can understand it as a portable space, because this field is attached to the pledge with the Devil of Slaughter rather than the holder themselves. So it’s just a semi-finished product, which is worse than the general half-field, because it has no hope of completion. But the holder can use it to summon believers belonging to their branch to execute the Devil of Slaughter’s orders and become their leader.” Miao Li changed her sitting position and looked at Qi Leren with her cheeks in her hands. “You seem to have something to say?”

Qi Leren shook his head and calmly said: “I’ve heard people talk about things to do with fields before… Since you’ve caught the Slaughter Societ’s branch leader, shouldn’t he have a token ring for that field?”

“Unfortunately, with his death, this ring returned to the hands of the ring-bearer. Now, they’re ready to elect a new ring-bearer. Every believer of the Devil of Slaughter is qualified to participate in the selection. Everyone has a choice.” Miao Li’s smile was subtle. She looked at Qi Leren deeply, and seemed to examine which step he would take.

“So you want me to blend in with them and find a way to become the holder for this branch?” Qi Leren suddenly felt a sense of absurdity. “Do you think I can?”

“You can. Because we have an excellent identity for you to take,” Miao Li grinned.

Qi Leren’s eyes went wide. He had a very bad feeling.

“We will train you in ten days… All kinds of training. Do well, I wish you good luck.”

　　&&&

A heavy rain began to fall in the Village of Dusk, which was shrouded in sunset all year round.

The bean-sized raindrops hit the hidden alleys paved in cobblestones, splashing the rushing rain, and the noisy falling rain enveloped people’s five senses in the water vapor, making other sounds dull and distant. Even the roar of machines that continue day and night were covered by the thick curtain in the heavy rain.

It was as dark as midnight, and the street lamps at the corner couldn’t illuminate past seven or eight meters. In this dark corner, a burst crash of struggle came, surprising the birds who were sheltering under the eaves. The smell belonging to demons invaded this hidden corner, and the raging seed of slaughter died down with the host’s exhaustion after an outbreak.

The battle soon ended, and nothing happened in the rain.

“Report: caught a believer of the Devil of Slaughter,” the executive of the Trails Office reported into a walkie-talkie as he stepped on the back of the teenager he’d knocked to the ground.

From the other end of the intercom came Al’s lazy voice: “Bring them back alive.”

“Yes!” The executive turned off the walkie-talkie and kicked the teenager who had fainted. The person on the ground didn’t move. After the seed’s outbreak, he had fallen into a weak state and almost fainted.

The executive slammed his mouth and rudely picked him up by his neck… Blood flowed down from the teenager’s abdomen, and was quickly washed away by the rain. The teenager showed an expression of pain on his childish face and looked at the executive imploringly.

“Name?” the executive asked him.

“…” The boy didn’t speak. He’d concluded that he couldn’t escape, and despair had defeated his nerves.

“Speak!” The executive lifted his foot and hit his wound with his knee. The teenager let out a scream and began to cry, letting out sobs.

“Useless thing.” The executive spat, tied his hand, and dragged him toward the Trail Office’s ship.

In the dark, the rainstorm became more and more rampant, and the sound of rain made the executive’s hearing drop badly. His ears were filled with the cries of the teenager, upsetting him. He stared at the teenager and shouted, “Cry, cry, cry, you fart! Are you a pussy?!”

The teenager was frightened and muttered, "But I’m hurt…”

The executive was about to say something when his lips suddenly stopped.

His expression was so startled, even at a loss. He turned his head in disbelief in the heavy rain, but this action accelerated his death. After a dull crash, he was kicked out like a broken kite, collapsing in the rain, and blood poured out from his back, splashing into the puddles with his heartbeat, like a bloody spring.

The boy collapsed to the ground in shock, even forgetting to cry. He looked at the man wearing a cloak and hood, a dagger dripping with blood in his hand. He didn’t know when this man had appeared. He was just as powerful as the executive who he hadn’t been able to defeat, who was killed silently by the dagger…

“Useless thing.” The man hiding under the cloak mockingly repeated what the executive had said before he died. Who could say whether he was laughing at the teenager on the ground or the dead executive.

It’s amazing. Although the voice is a bit feminine, it’s still cool!

The teenagers stared in worship at this mysterious master who was like a visitor in the night. At this time, he even forgot his pain.

“Go, more dogs from the Trials Court will come,” the mysterious master said coldly.

“Oh… Oh oh! Thank you, senior! Thank you!” The teenager gained a second wind in front of this person, excited.

Qi Leren pulled down the hood of his cloak and quietly looked at the teenager in front of him.

Everything was going well, and then…

[Rain-Day Laundry: At present, the remaining sensing times are 2/3.]

Shit!

Qi Leren’s head was about to explose, and he instinctively completed a save at the critical juncture. Almost at the same time, a silver arrow shot through Qi Leren’s back.

The save point was just under his feet. The Qi Leren who loaded the file and resurrected heard a crisp sound in his ears, and the arrow that had lost its targets fell to the ground. Fortunately, he escaped.

Qi Leren turned his body in a hurry, and the rushing rain whirled and flew out. Under the distant and dim street lamp, a figure waved at him with a short knife. The figure was as fast as lightning, and the blade was about to pierce him. At the moment, the man suddenly realized something, suddenly pulled back, and forcefully reversed the direction the short knife swung in. The sharp blade flashed a silver-gray arc in the rainy night, dazzling like a meteor.

The knife’s afterimage passed over the tip of Qi Leren’s nose, and cut down his cloak vertically. Qi Leren fell back onto the ground, splashing water. He was like a survivor who jumped off the tracks at the last second before a train came, looking up at the threat in shock - and he saw those unforgettable blue eyes.

In the forest, in the underground palace, in the cemetery, in the castle, in the dream… Qi Leren had recalled these eyes countless times, but never thought that they would meet by chance in this way.

The same emotion called consternation appeared in the eyes of the two people caught off guard.

The buckle of the cloak was split by the knife, and the hood fell off. The rain-soaked cloak slid down heavily along the curves of his shoulders, revealing the man Adam’s apple and clavicle. The neckline of the shirt under the cloak was opened almost to the belly, and vast areas of skin were exposed, and the hem was so short, revealing the navel… Ning Zhou’s gaze was quickly pulled away as if he had been burned, falling back to his face.

It was a young face, obviously so familiar, but the eyeliner, red eye shadow, and heart-shaped tattoo made the face from his memory so strange.

Ning Zhou looked at him, stupefied, as the knife in his hands stayed at his throat. One standing and one sitting, looking at each other silently. There, they stagnated under the dim street lamp, becoming an oil painting with light opposing shadow.

The heavy rain didn’t stop.

Chapter 99: Slaughter Secret Society (I)

[Player Qi Leren has completed the Castle Cry task. Mission completion is 95%.]

[A reward of the base 20 survival days and a bonus of 30 survival days have been given. If the task is over 90% completed, you will be rewarded with a random lottery.]

[Data synchronization countdown, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, synchronization complete.]

Qi Leren returned to his home in the Village of Dusk, and the revelation made at the last moment of the mission still remained in his mind, making him shudder. He couldn’t help thinking a lot. Isabel, an NPC serving the Devil of Fraud, had appeared in the task. She or other demons must have interfered with the plot during the time when the task was generated. Although the time span of the plot was very large, it should only take a moment to generate the plot, so there was no conflict in time. But why on earth did they do it?

The more he thought, the more powerless he felt. He was just an ordinary player who was as fragile as a worm in the face of this huge conspiracy.

Qi Leren sighed and clicked on this random reward.

[Countercurrent Sand: You can reset the cooling time of a skill card at will, so that it can be cooled and reused instantly. Remaining uses: 1/1]

Qi Leren shone at that moment, his originally depressed mood suddenly happy. This disposable prop could come in handy at a critical moment. Even if his S/L skills was still cooling down, as long as he used this hourglass-shaped item, he could instantly reset and reuse it!

It almost gave him an extra life.

Combined with the Demon Etiquette and resurrecting egg… His task this time was really rewarding. Could it be that this wasn’t a given, but that his luck had changed?

It was a pity that the laptop still hadn’t followed him to the Village of Dusk. Qi Leren has made up his mind. In a couple of days, he would go to Chen Baiqi to inquire about the transformer. He intended to take it into his future tasks. He had a feeling that the same thing would happen again sooner or later, and this time, he would come prepared.

The Castle Cry task has brought great rewards to Qi Leren. With the 50 survival days plus his remaining 50 days and 3 hours, there now was an amazing total of 100 days and 3 hours. Aside from the necessary food expenses, he had nearly three months, and Qi Leren was ready to improve himself rather than hurrying to pick up the next task - his first compulsory task would start in half a month.

Every player had a mandatory task every month, and the difficulty of the task would become more and more difficult as time went by. But for a newcomer, the difficulty of the mandatory task was simpler than that of the Novice Village. Of course, this was not the kind of deadly Novice Village Qi Leren experienced.

Two or three months could not be said to be either long nor short. If he trained properly, the primary fighting skills card could be eliminated completely, and a card slot could be saved. Long ago, Su He gave him a dagger - an item card that needed to be inserted into the card slot - but it had been useless because there weren’t enough available card slots, which was really a great waste.

Before the task ended, the three had agreed to have dinner together tomorrow. Qi Leren looked at the time. Although his mental state wasn’t bad, he’d been running around all night in the castle, so it was better to have a rest first.

After washing up, Qi Leren got into bed. The Village of Dusk’s unique sun couldn’t be called harsh. After the last time he’d slept, Qi Leren had washed the blankets in his room and watched as the wet sheets dred slowly in the sunset. Now, there was a particularly uncomfortable cold feeling on his body. Even Qi Leren, who didn’t pay much attention to food, clothing, housing, and transportation, felt uncomfortable. With dissatisfaction about the blankets, Qi Leren turned over and fell asleep.

In his dream, Qi Leren stood in a sea of stars, and he was as humble and small as dirt in the vast universe.

Not far away, a chair floated in the vacuum, and Miao Li sat in this chair and turned over the books on her knees. As if feeling his arrival, Miao Li looked up and pushed her glasses: “Good evening. Although I didn’t want to let you start the task so soon, it was a rare opportunity. We decided to act in advance.”

Qi Leren gave her a calm look, pulled up his own chair, and sat down. “Something happened with the Slaughter Secret Society?”

“Bingo.” Miao Li snapped. “Let’s briefly talk about the cause of the incident. We caught the Slaughter Society’s branch leader who ran the Twilight Township. This is really a big fish.”

“You’ve caught the key figure, what else do you need me to do?” A foreboding came to Qi Leren’s mind. He felt that he was going to have to put up with a great ordeal!

Miao Li sighed: “Then he died. Died of a seed’s outbreak.”

“So?” Qi Leren asked.

“Let’s start from the beginning, starting with the secret organization of the Slaughter Secret Society. The Village of Dusk is under the control of the Court, so in the Village of Dusk, the Slaughter Secret Society’s division is very low-key and hidden. They have no fixed stronghold, all members contact and communicate under false names and identities, secretly develop players, and regularly perform some special tasks. Their interior is even chaotic and ununited, just like raising a donkey. Only the best ones will be favored by the Devil of Slaughter and become its followers, while the rest are just sad victims,” Miao Li said.

"No one’s betrayed them? Haven’t you bought some informants?” Qi Leren asked.

Miao Li gave him an appreciative look. “We want to do this, but there’s one big problem. The inheritance of the seeds of slaughter is similar to that of a blood clan. The person who holds the seed will spread it to new people through ceremonies and become their ‘guide’. At the inheritance ceremony, the party implanted with the seed of slaughter will swear allegiance to the Devil of Slaughter, and this loyalty is a kind of contract that cannot be betrayed. Once the betrayal begins, the seed will quickly erupt, causing the parasitized person to die.”

Qi Leren resisted the impulse to touch the seed and said coldly, “This is why you chose me? Because I was accidentally infected, instead of getting the seed through this ritual?”

“This is a very important reason,” Miao Li laughed. “Though it’s not the only one. The believers in each branch will choose a holder who wears a token ring, and this ring is attached to a field given by the Devil of Slaughter… ”

“A field?!” Qi Leren couldn’t help crying out.

Miao Li raised her eyebrows. "It seems that you know something about fields.”

Qi Leren didn’t speak.

“But it’s just a semi-finished product, you can understand it as a portable space, because this field is attached to the pledge with the Devil of Slaughter rather than the holder themselves. So it’s just a semi-finished product, which is worse than the general half-field, because it has no hope of completion. But the holder can use it to summon believers belonging to their branch to execute the Devil of Slaughter’s orders and become their leader.” Miao Li changed her sitting position and looked at Qi Leren with her cheeks in her hands. “You seem to have something to say?”

Qi Leren shook his head and calmly said: “I’ve heard people talk about things to do with fields before… Since you’ve caught the Slaughter Societ’s branch leader, shouldn’t he have a token ring for that field?”

“Unfortunately, with his death, this ring returned to the hands of the ring-bearer. Now, they’re ready to elect a new ring-bearer. Every believer of the Devil of Slaughter is qualified to participate in the selection. Everyone has a choice.” Miao Li’s smile was subtle. She looked at Qi Leren deeply, and seemed to examine which step he would take.

“So you want me to blend in with them and find a way to become the holder for this branch?” Qi Leren suddenly felt a sense of absurdity. “Do you think I can?”

“You can. Because we have an excellent identity for you to take,” Miao Li grinned.

Qi Leren’s eyes went wide. He had a very bad feeling.

“We will train you in ten days… All kinds of training. Do well, I wish you good luck.”

　　&&&

A heavy rain began to fall in the Village of Dusk, which was shrouded in sunset all year round.

The bean-sized raindrops hit the hidden alleys paved in cobblestones, splashing the rushing rain, and the noisy falling rain enveloped people’s five senses in the water vapor, making other sounds dull and distant. Even the roar of machines that continue day and night were covered by the thick curtain in the heavy rain.

It was as dark as midnight, and the street lamps at the corner couldn’t illuminate past seven or eight meters. In this dark corner, a burst crash of struggle came, surprising the birds who were sheltering under the eaves. The smell belonging to demons invaded this hidden corner, and the raging seed of slaughter died down with the host’s exhaustion after an outbreak.

The battle soon ended, and nothing happened in the rain.

“Report: caught a believer of the Devil of Slaughter,” the executive of the Trails Office reported into a walkie-talkie as he stepped on the back of the teenager he’d knocked to the ground.

From the other end of the intercom came Al’s lazy voice: “Bring them back alive.”

“Yes!” The executive turned off the walkie-talkie and kicked the teenager who had fainted. The person on the ground didn’t move. After the seed’s outbreak, he had fallen into a weak state and almost fainted.

The executive slammed his mouth and rudely picked him up by his neck… Blood flowed down from the teenager’s abdomen, and was quickly washed away by the rain. The teenager showed an expression of pain on his childish face and looked at the executive imploringly.

“Name?” the executive asked him.

“…” The boy didn’t speak. He’d concluded that he couldn’t escape, and despair had defeated his nerves.

“Speak!” The executive lifted his foot and hit his wound with his knee. The teenager let out a scream and began to cry, letting out sobs.

“Useless thing.” The executive spat, tied his hand, and dragged him toward the Trail Office’s ship.

In the dark, the rainstorm became more and more rampant, and the sound of rain made the executive’s hearing drop badly. His ears were filled with the cries of the teenager, upsetting him. He stared at the teenager and shouted, “Cry, cry, cry, you fart! Are you a pussy?!”

The teenager was frightened and muttered, "But I’m hurt…”

The executive was about to say something when his lips suddenly stopped.

His expression was so startled, even at a loss. He turned his head in disbelief in the heavy rain, but this action accelerated his death. After a dull crash, he was kicked out like a broken kite, collapsing in the rain, and blood poured out from his back, splashing into the puddles with his heartbeat, like a bloody spring.

The boy collapsed to the ground in shock, even forgetting to cry. He looked at the man wearing a cloak and hood, a dagger dripping with blood in his hand. He didn’t know when this man had appeared. He was just as powerful as the executive who he hadn’t been able to defeat, who was killed silently by the dagger…

“Useless thing.” The man hiding under the cloak mockingly repeated what the executive had said before he died. Who could say whether he was laughing at the teenager on the ground or the dead executive.

It’s amazing. Although the voice is a bit feminine, it’s still cool!

The teenagers stared in worship at this mysterious master who was like a visitor in the night. At this time, he even forgot his pain.

“Go, more dogs from the Trials Court will come,” the mysterious master said coldly.

“Oh… Oh oh! Thank you, senior! Thank you!” The teenager gained a second wind in front of this person, excited.

Qi Leren pulled down the hood of his cloak and quietly looked at the teenager in front of him.

Everything was going well, and then…

[Rain-Day Laundry: At present, the remaining sensing times are 2/3.]

Shit!

Qi Leren’s head was about to explose, and he instinctively completed a save at the critical juncture. Almost at the same time, a silver arrow shot through Qi Leren’s back.

The save point was just under his feet. The Qi Leren who loaded the file and resurrected heard a crisp sound in his ears, and the arrow that had lost its targets fell to the ground. Fortunately, he escaped.

Qi Leren turned his body in a hurry, and the rushing rain whirled and flew out. Under the distant and dim street lamp, a figure waved at him with a short knife. The figure was as fast as lightning, and the blade was about to pierce him. At the moment, the man suddenly realized something, suddenly pulled back, and forcefully reversed the direction the short knife swung in. The sharp blade flashed a silver-gray arc in the rainy night, dazzling like a meteor.

The knife’s afterimage passed over the tip of Qi Leren’s nose, and cut down his cloak vertically. Qi Leren fell back onto the ground, splashing water. He was like a survivor who jumped off the tracks at the last second before a train came, looking up at the threat in shock - and he saw those unforgettable blue eyes.

In the forest, in the underground palace, in the cemetery, in the castle, in the dream… Qi Leren had recalled these eyes countless times, but never thought that they would meet by chance in this way.

The same emotion called consternation appeared in the eyes of the two people caught off guard.

The buckle of the cloak was split by the knife, and the hood fell off. The rain-soaked cloak slid down heavily along the curves of his shoulders, revealing the man Adam’s apple and clavicle. The neckline of the shirt under the cloak was opened almost to the belly, and vast areas of skin were exposed, and the hem was so short, revealing the navel… Ning Zhou’s gaze was quickly pulled away as if he had been burned, falling back to his face.

It was a young face, obviously so familiar, but the eyeliner, red eye shadow, and heart-shaped tattoo made the face from his memory so strange.

Ning Zhou looked at him, stupefied, as the knife in his hands stayed at his throat. One standing and one sitting, looking at each other silently. There, they stagnated under the dim street lamp, becoming an oil painting with light opposing shadow.

The heavy rain didn’t stop.