Infinite Weird Game

Not long ago, Chang Xu thought about a question: Is it worth exchanging his own life for the death of others?

His answer at the time was that it was not worth it, because he wanted to live, and killing Qis was also to live more freely and without threats.

But what if the chips on the other side of the scale are replaced by other people's lives?
Chang Xu has been surrounded by ghosts ever since he could remember. The hideous figures with bared fangs and claws and blood all over them danced around him like ancient shamans. When they found out he could see them, they became more aggressive, wanting to get close to him, bite him, and replace him.

The straightforward and undisguised malice constituted his hatred for death and correspondingly stimulated his desire for survival. He survived tenaciously, and as he grew older, he gradually acquired the ability to fight against the weirdness and became a being feared by ghosts.

He finally heard the ghosts' words. Unlike the threatening screams in his memory, they became particularly polite after realizing that they could not do anything to him.

They began to teach him various survival principles one by one, trying to explain that he was one of them, and that those principles could indeed help him survive in the orphanage.

But ghosts are cold after all, not as warm as humans.

As soon as Chang Xu walked into the sunlight, they scattered, and only surged up again like a tide when he returned to the shadows.

They wanted to hold him back, like a slimy swamp dragging a creature that strayed into it until it submerged its cheeks and got into its mouth and nose.

However, Chang Xu knew that he didn't want to live in a place without sunshine all his life.

The young boy ran in the corridor, protecting the food in his arms and avoiding the pursuit of the older children. At the end of the corridor where there was originally no road, a stone door appeared. He stepped into it and saw the golden color blocked by the tangled vines, bursting with dusty light.

When he grew up, he was called a "monster" by the children for his hundreds of victories. The fearful and repulsive eyes were colder than the temperature of ghosts. He didn't like it, so he stayed away from the crowd and often sat by the closed door of the orphanage in a daze.

Whenever someone entered the orphanage on a sunny day, the door was opened and a beam of golden sunlight slanted in from the crack in the door, cutting him in half, then slowly spreading out and illuminating his face.

A couple who had donated to many charitable foundations came to the orphanage for an inspection. The dignified and kind woman stuffed a Rubik's Cube into his hands, and the remaining warmth caused his cold hands to tremble nervously.

He looked at the door that creaked open and closed, and knew that the world outside belonged to humans. It was warm and bright, different from the race of weirdos and monsters.

He suddenly wanted very much to be a human being.

If someone grew up in the orphanage, he or she would have a vague impression of this scene: there was a big fool who never lost a fight, who was alone at first and was always surrounded by a group of children.

Chang Xu is willing to lend a helping hand and protect those children who actively seek help from him, as if it is a proof of his humanity and a ritual of transformation into a human being.

But his keen intuition about emotions enabled him to detect the children's fear and disgust. He knew that in their eyes, he was still a monster, not one of their kind.

Until... Ning Xu appeared.

Ning Xu was the first person to look at him as a human being, and the only one for a long time.

"Man is not born to be a beast." The woman reached out her hand to him compassionately and brought him into the human world.

After that day, Chang Xu thought for a while that he had finally become a normal human being.

He can go anywhere freely and touch light and warmth anytime and anywhere; he can eat fresh food that is generally accepted by humans, rather than rotten rats; he can mingle among the crowd without being looked at strangely...

He could sense that there was a sense of deliberateness and exploitation in the kindness of others, but it was much better than the hostility he had encountered in the past.

So, he seriously participated in various trainings against weirdness, meticulously abided by human ethics, and finally entered the weird game.

Each copy magnified the darkest part of human nature. Chang Xu was bathed in the petty calculations and felt confused more than once.

"What's the difference between humans and ghosts?" he asked Ning Xu, "They both bully the weak and fear the strong, they both covet life and fear death, and they both pursue profit."

Ning Xu told him: "Humans can save people, but ghosts can only kill people."

He thought that he had to be a human being after all.

……

At this moment, in the "Colosseum" copy, Chang Xu stood up, took down the black wolf mask from the wall opposite the door, and hung it on the blank wall.

The beast-faced Sphinx opened his eyes and stared at him with pity: "You want me to fulfill your wish, right? Even if the price is real death?"

Chang Xu said, "Yes."

He spoke word by word: "I hope you can fulfill my wish and kill Qisi."

The Sphinx's eyes sparkled with golden light, just like the light seen at the end of the corridor many years ago.

The value in the points column in front of Chang Xu dropped rapidly, and along with it, traces of lime began to climb up his face.

"Suppose there is a madman who wants to compete with you in killing people. Whoever kills more people within a limited time will win.

"If you win, nothing will happen. If you lose, he will destroy the world. What will you choose?"

In last night's dream, the god in black clothes and golden eyes asked him this question again.

At this point, Chang Xu finally knew the answer and also knew what choice he would make.

"I will stop that madman from killing anyone, and then kill myself at the last second, so that I can kill one more person than that madman." He raised his eyes, his voice calm, "I win, and they will live."

He once thought that what he was pursuing was an unthreatening existence, but now he realized that there was something more important than that.

He had endured eighteen years of living aimlessly, dominated by the instinct for survival like a wild animal, and he didn't like this kind of life.

The identity card in the upper right corner of the sight was rolling with black mist, and the book filled with legal provisions turned pages quickly, finally stopping at a certain chapter.

The higher golden temple suddenly collapsed, and the high priest in red shattered into specks of light. The judge in black walked down the stairs, and his shadow spread between heaven and earth.

[The trial is complete... the criminal Qis is sentenced to death]

The scarlet king chess piece above Chang Xu's head shattered into pieces, and the blood-stained cross was taken back from the card and hung on the judge's right hand again.

At the same time, all players heard the system announcement:

[The main quest "Kill Qis" has been completed]

[Congratulations to the players for clearing the multiplayer dungeon "Colosseum"]

[At the feast of the gods, the gods' people danced to entertain the gods, and the arrogant gods laughed loudly]

[The blood of the dead is used as seasoning, the heads of corpses are used as wine glasses, and humans and beasts get drunk together]

Liu Yuhan lay on her back on the straw bed. The knife wound on her chest no longer hurt, the blood stopped flowing out, and her life was frozen.

Nian Fu and Qin Mu raised their heads at the same time. The petrification process had stopped on them, and there was no trace of hunger.

"How could he die? Didn't he say he would be resurrected?" Nian Fu murmured. Qin Mu smiled bitterly: "It seems that I guessed wrong, he is still not the person I am looking for."

Lenarian sat up from his straw bed and said "Cool".

Remembering that Dong Xiwen was right next to him, he quickly put on a worried expression: "Dong, is our boss really finished?"

Dong Xiwen ignored him and just stared blankly at the void in front of him, feeling half melancholy and half relieved.

Two seconds later, he exhaled lightly: "It's over just like that... It's too easy, right? I feel like I'm dreaming..."

It does seem like a dream, but it makes sense.

Green sat under the tiger mask, quietly flipping through the notebook left by Chu Xun that was filled with plans. One page clearly read:
"Situation 6: On the fifth day of the dungeon, due to food shortage, someone (presumably Liu Yuhan) took the initiative to sacrifice himself to provide food. In order to save people, Chang Xu chose to find the Sphinx to fulfill his wish of 'killing Qis'."

The progress of Chang Xu's petrification also stagnated due to the completion of the copy, and all kinds of strange and bizarre scenes flashed before his eyes.

Bizarre beasts surrounded the white temple, their huge golden eyes opening and closing in the void, and they all crawled tremblingly.

The black lines danced like a group of snakes. The animals rushed into the pool of blood and smeared the plasma all over their bodies to suppress the spread of the abnormality.

One by one, humans were brought to the platform to bleed. A war of swords and weapons was brewing on the border. The gods who had not appeared in the world for a long time came quietly and told all people and animals:
"A new God will be born among the heroes of mankind, and He will then remove all curses."

The colors and sounds gradually faded away, and silvery-white words appeared on the system interface, accompanied by an emotionless narration.

[Skin and flesh peeled off, bones and marrow sucked out, soul and flesh turned into dregs, cut off the past, crush the future]

[In the Colosseum of civilizations and ethnic groups, who asks the merciless gods to make the final judgment?]

["Colosseum" Normal End-"Evil God Feast" has been included]

Is it almost over? It’s almost over…

The reminder [Automatically transfer out of the copy in three minutes] has not come yet. Chang Xu gently struggled with his arms, shaking off the fine lime fragments on the ground.

He dragged his legs, which had become stiff due to being half-petrified, towards the door and raised his hand to push open the stone door.

The blinding light poured into the house, exposing him entirely to the daylight that had replaced the night at some point in time.

He once again saw the blazing golden light like the scorching sun, but he knew that it was not light, but the eyes of the evil god.

Countless thoughts flooded into his mind, and he instantly knew what the golden color he saw in his childhood was.

He was exposed to the weird game much earlier than he thought, everything was anchored, and he was the chess piece on the table.

"You failed," Li said. "Because of your actions, the dead have returned to the world of the living."

[The new god has been decided, and the various aspects of the "Colosseum" dungeon are being merged]

Bloody words were running wildly before my eyes, and my vision was like being immersed in water and then fished out, switching rapidly between blur and clarity. The earth was shaking, the air became sticky, a large amount of matter was squeezed into a small space, and more things were invading.

For no reason, Chang Xu recalled a statement he had heard before: if all the people on Earth were rolled into a ball, it would just be a meatball with a diameter of one kilometer.

He didn't know what was going to happen, but he guessed it wasn't a good thing. He didn't know the cause, process, or result of this incident, but he had a hunch that it was inextricably linked to the evil god in front of him.

The chained temple trembled high above the sky, and a sharp wind blew through the Colosseum, sweeping all the animals around in circles.

The stone doors crumbled into powder, and the players staggered and grabbed the door frames to avoid being swept away.

The stone statues of Fan Zhanwei and Chu Xun turned into rubble and were carried by the wind between heaven and earth; the human skin mask on Qin Mu's face was blown away, revealing a face belonging to Bai Ya.

Chang Xu took a step forward with difficulty and found that he could still move. [Destiny Poker] was still in a forbidden state, so he condensed a black life in his hand and turned it into a phantom and teleported in front of the golden eyes.

He had no extra thoughts in his mind and didn't know the reason for doing this, but his intuition told him that this was his last chance.

The cold knife light froze in mid-air, like a drop of amber burying the body of the insect.

Chang Xu was suspended in front of the huge golden eyes that were like the sun, his whole body was bound by sticky things and he couldn't move.

There were bursts of screams and various strange noises in his ears, and he saw a scarlet figure appear before his eyes.

The young man was wearing a red suit and trousers. The wound that should have penetrated his body was covered with soft black and white feathers. From a distance, it looked like a decoration on his intact body.

People who were supposed to be dead appear nonchalantly, bringing the horror of evil spirits returning to the world.

How did he survive? Or did he never die?

Chang Xu saw Qi Si said something to the eyes, and the owner of the eyes, the evil god Li, responded to him.

Chang Xu couldn't hear what they were saying, but he could guess that they were probably negotiating, and he was the bargaining chip on the table.

After an unknown amount of time, he saw the young man in red turn around, walk towards him step by step with a teasing smile.

His ears could hear sounds again, and he heard Qi Si sighing and saying, "I thought you were finally smart for once, but I never expected that in the end it would still be this boring drama of foolishly adhering to universal values.

"Some people once slaughtered wolves to save deer, but this destroyed the grasslands instead. Wolves eat deer, and deer eat grass. This is a perfectly normal law, just like the survival instinct written in everyone's genes.

"As a bystander who has not been involved in the situation, who has the right to interfere? You are not a god, so what qualifications do you have to judge me?"

Qi Si seemed to want to know the answer very much. He tilted his head to look at him, confusion revealed in his eyes, but his shadow was not reflected.

The confusion flashed away, and was replaced by strong malice. The young man in red holding the scepter of Poseidon walked in front of him, and suddenly laughed like a devil: "Even if it is God, if he wants to judge me, I should try to see if I can kill him."

Qis's laughter was carried by the wind and echoed between heaven and earth, revealing the intoxicating madness of a Dionysus banquet.

Chang Xu wanted to refute, but he couldn't make a sound. He could only hear the dead man crawling back from hell saying jokingly: "This topic is actually quite interesting, but it's a pity that you probably won't have the opportunity to study it. Next time during the festival, I'll burn some incense for you and we can discuss it later."

It's that inappropriate sense of humor again...

Chang Xu felt a sharp pain in his chest, and the scepter of Poseidon, carrying the salty smell of sea water, pierced through his chest.

Qi Si turned his wrist and slashed downwards, crushing his heart and internal organs and picking out his intestines. He was determined to make a gaping wound worse than the one he had suffered before.

The pain exceeded the threshold and began to fade. The world in front of Chang Xu fell into darkness inch by inch. His consciousness gradually became dull and could no longer be salvaged or pieced together.

Finally, the last string connecting him to the world broke, and he could only hear a whisper floating in his ears.

"Goodbye, Chang Xu." (End of this chapter)