Chapter 87: Castle Cry (XIV)

“I should say ‘I’m sorry’ to you, but I don’t think you want to hear such boring words of comfort,” Su He took a sip of black tea, put down the beautiful white porcelain teacup and said.

Qi Leren propped up his side face and looked at the boundless blue sky outside the tower, making a muffled sound.

“Actually.. I don’t quite understand.” Su He’s voice called back Qi Leren’s attention. He frowned slightly and showed a puzzled expression. “In my opinion, there is no essential difference between men and women. They are both human beings, and their spirits are intertwined. All attractive characteristics and all beautiful characters will not be different because the other party is male or female.”

Su He smiled, looked Qi Leren in the eyes, and said seriously: “If I would fall in love with you as a woman, I would definitely fall in love with you as a man, because you have the same soul, which is unchanged by gender differences.”

The speed of Su He’s was slow and his voice was gentle, and his gaze even gave Qi Leren the illusion that he was special to Su He. This kind of thought made him a little uneasy. He immediately expressed an objection: “It’s still different.. There’s a natural attraction between men and women. Even if they don’t like it, they can’t help but pay special attention..”

“Are you trying to talk about sexual attraction?” Su He asked with a smile.

“Ah?” Qi Leren is a bit stunned.

Su He put his chin in his hand, looking at him leisurely with an unfathomable smile: “It depends on skill. All kinds of.. skills. ”

Qi Leren felt that he seemed to understand something that he would rather not. He coughed twice: “We’re going too far.”

“Ah, because the speed that time flows in the field is very different from the outside world, before I knew it I forgot that we’re still in the task. It really is a pleasure to chat with you.. Let’s get down to business.” Su He sat up straight, put his hands on the table, and asked solemnly, “Do you want to get rid of that thing behind your neck?”

Get rid of the seed of slaughter? Qi Leren raised his head in astonishment and stared at Su He. At that time, he seemed not to understand.

“You heard me right. As I said before, I’ve done some research on the power of demons. I guess the demon mark on you should be a seed of slaughter. This thing can really enhance people’s combat effectiveness in a short time, but it will gradually erode the person’s reason. You’ll find it more and more difficult to control it until one day.. you completely become its slave.”

Warm sun fell on the tower. They were on the terrace under a circular dome supported by four pillars at the top of the tower. Airy flowed in from all sides, with a fence that was only half the height of a person surrounding the terrace. The Village of Dawn in Su He’s field was sunny and breezy, but Qi Leren’s mood was indescribably heavy.

He wanted to say yes without hesitation, so that he could immediately get rid of this dangerous ticking time bomb, but he still remembered his contract with the Court. Did he want to break the contract? Should he do this?

“How do I get rid of it?” Qi Leren asked with a hard expression.

“It’s a bit complicated, and you need to go to a place far away. If you like, I’ll take you there after this task is over. I’m afraid you won’t be able to go back to the Village of Dusk for a while.” Su He’s proposal was incredibly tempting. “There are still many unknown places in the Nightmare World. There are all kinds of wonderful things. Naturally, there are ways to remove the Devil’s mark.. I can’t be 100% sure, but still 70% to 80%. Even if you don’t succeed, I will help you think of other ways. In short, I won’t watch you go to a dead end.”

-I won’t watch you go to a dead end. Qi Leren’s heart cramped painfully, and his eyes were a little wet. He didn’t tell anyone about it, and he didn’t dare to tell others how isolated he had been, constantly injured, constantly dying, resigned to his fate, with the road ahead uncertain. No one could share his pressure, not only about his own life and death, but even about the fate of this Nightmare Game.

He was afraid that he would suddenly die one day and never be able to revive again, and then this heavy secret would be buried with him in this world, together with the hope of redemption that no one knew.

For a moment, he wanted to tell Su He everything and tell him the secret of the Nightmare Game. He was much better than him. Maybe he had a way to solve it easily and could save the world.

But when his lips moved, the bloody words in the drawer reappeared in his mind - keep the secret. He choked on the words that had come to his lips, swallowing them back.

Qi Leren closed his eyes for a long time. He said in a hoarse voice, “Thank you. But.. I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I have to disappoint your kindness.”

He had to refuse. If he didn’t refuse, sooner or later he wouldn’t be able to help himself from telling everything.

There was an inaudible sigh from the wind: “Is that so? I see.”

“I’m really sorry,” Qi Leren apologized again.

Su He shook his head. “I know you must have your reasons. If you need my help one day, you can contact me and I’ll help you find a way.”

Qi Leren nodded silently, and his inner doubts came up again: “But why..”

Why help him?

Su He’s calm expression finally revealed a faint confusion and melancholy: “I don’t know. People are always faced with many choices in their life. Sometimes, you don’t even know why you do something. Just like this time, I understand why I came here, and the system won’t make the same mistake twice. Suppose the last time it was because the killer disturbed the order of the Novice Village, what about this time? Why is that this time, the system issued a false alarm?”

Qi Leren’s nerves suddenly tightened, and cold sweat flowed down his back. How could he forget? Su He didn’t appear here to catch up with him! Under the gentle appearance, his keen observation has already seen through him. How many things had he found?

“I..” Qi Leren tried to say something, but Su He gently put his index finger on his lips and stopped what he had not yet said.

“Don’t say it.” Su He and said.

“But why..” Qi Leren really doesn’t understand Su He.

“Don’t ask either.” Su He added.

“....”

“When I make a choice at this moment, it is not your own business. For now it’s our secret, but if you say it now, I can’t help you keep it a secret. Don’t ask me why, I’ve said many times that people will always make choices they don’t understand.” Su He smiled wryly. “But now that you have made a choice, never regret it.”

Qi Leren’s heart was stuck in panic, and the impulse to talk about everything reappeared, but he still couldn’t say it.

Keep your promises and keep your secrets, even if you have to lie.

“I.. I still have some questions.. About this task, there seems to be something involving devil worship.” Qi Leren forced himself to divert his attention and took the time to ask Su He, who had done a lot of research on it.

Su He listened carefully to what he said. Even if the two had just had a regrettable conversation, even if his kindness had been rejected, his tolerance and self-cultivation made him show no negative emotions, and he was as calm as ever.

It was not until Qi Leren finished telling the story of his battle with the crazy lady and how he’d lost control of the seed of slaughter to kill her that Su He said: “Before, Dr. Lu also told me about the task this time. You’ve found something very interesting.”

“What do you mean?”

“In the past few years, many players have found that demon power has appeared in copy worlds outside the main world, but it’s not clear why the demons in the main world interfere with the copy worlds. Even though its existence has become very common, the system will not report errors on these contaminated copies, nor will it purify the copies. There will be some unusual changes in these polluted copy worlds, at least in terms of difficulty, so many players have encountered copies that exceed their own strength, causing accidental death,” Su He explained.

“..” Well, it seemed that it wasn’t all his lucky value that made this D difficulty so difficult. Qi Leren felt a little relieved.

“But you still made a lot of mistakes during the boss fight, otherwise you could have solved this crazy lady more simply. Of course, it’s also possible that I’m looking at the problem from your narrative point of view, but I’m caught in a misunderstanding.” Su He smiled apologetically and seemed a little embarrassed to point out his mistakes. “Do you want to hear it?”

“Of course!” Qi Leren said without thinking.

“The first one is about the haunting shadows. They appeared for the first time when you were climbing down with your mobile phone for lighting, and for the second time after the candles in the basement came on, but after your explosion caused most of the candles to go out and you were in the dark, they disappeared. The third time was after the crazy lady howled when the extinguished candles came on again, but at this time the shadows couldn’t hurt you, who was controlled by the seed of slaughter. Obviously, these shadows appear because of the appearance of a light source, so the light source you carry should not face yourself and it is better to extinguish them, including those candles. Considering that this is a two-person copy, the two players should cooperate with each other, but you were alone, which made the situation you faced in isolation even more dangerous. This was the first mistake. ” Su He calmly said his analysis.

Qi Leren suffered a wake up call. Yes, the shadows that scared him were not difficult to deal with, but he couldn’t think this kind of problem through calmly in such a time of crisis.

“Second, when you were against Mrs Crazy, you completely adopted the method of confrontation, but do you remember? You said that at first she held a doll and put it carefully on the rocking chair. After defeating the crazy lady, you grabbed the doll. It seemed to be a reactive living thing. I’m afraid this doll is not simple, because it’s linked to the clue of the crazy lady’s miscarriage. This doll should be her weakness. If you went straight to the doll at the beginning and killed it, maybe the battle would have ended sooner. The other is the devil sacrifice. I think these things are not just to reveal the truth of that year to the players, but to have an impact on the boss, but you didn’t bring one. All of them were left with Dr. Lu.”

Qi Leren nodded solemnly.

“The last point is not a mistake with the boss fight,” Su He suddenly laughed, and his beautiful eyebrows were gentle in the glow. “You unexpectedly hit the wall and forced yourself to wake up from the seed’s control.”

Qi Leren touched his forehead and smiled bitterly: “I couldn’t help it..”

“But I think you still had a choice,” Su He laughed.

“What?” Qi Leren’s voice just fell, and an idea flashed in his brain.

“I remember you saved the file before being controlled by the seed of slaughter. If the save time allowed..” Su He’s voice dropped and finally turned into a faint sigh. “I’m not sure about the principle of your skills, but it’s possible that the seed of slaughter would be 'degraded’ back to the save state at that moment because of your loading of the file. For you now, one less outbreak means that you can live longer. Whether loading the file or the seed’s effects are more harmful, you can judge it yourself.”

Qi Leren opened his mouth, but couldn’t say if it was in surprise or helplessness. He still had to rely on the S/L skill to survive. Su He’s guess should be correct. If he deliberately activated the seed of slaughter after saving, and then committed suicide to load the file, then with his death the seed of slaughter should also return to its state at the point of the save, but the premise was that he had to grasp the short moment of clarity, otherwise he would fall under the control of the seed.

Su He stood up, walked slowly behind him, and said gently, “Look down and let me have a look at it.”

Qi Leren lowered his head. The back collar of his clothes was gently pulled open, and cool air poured down his neck, which made him shiver. Su He’s finger touched it in the place where it stung from time to time. It was a little cold and itchy.

“The spread of the seed is usually through specific ceremonies, but I believe that you wouldn’t turn into a worshipper of Slaughter, so was it an accidental infection?” Su He asked, standing behind him.

“Hmm.” Qi Leren talked simply about the accident on the spaceship.

“In such a short period of time, its growth rate has exceeded the normal level,” Su He sighed, adjusted his open collar for him, and then returned to his seat. “It’s almost time to leave, let’s go.”

Qi Leren clutched his neck and nodded silently.

In the field, the world of the Village of Dawn began to darken, and in the blink of an eye, they had returned to the castle.