Timeline Player

"What exactly are you?" Chi Que didn't respond to her question.

The girl is undoubtedly part of the dungeon mechanics, but what role does she actually play in it?

"I'm a prisoner," the girl said, tilting her head, then added, "That's how it is for you, isn't it?"

That's a very subtle way of putting it.

In other words, she might present a completely different identity to others than she does now.

"I didn't eat your food, so you can't attack me, right?" Chi Que asked after thinking for a moment.

This is a classic, old-fashioned concept.

Especially in the Yamato region, there is a common setting where those who eat food meant for the dead cannot return to the human world.

In this light, the girl was indeed a threat to him, but also a prisoner he could not reach.

The girl chose to remain silent.

It seems that what was predicted was correct.

"If you don't have anything else to say, don't block the way." Chi Que waved his hand, swatting him aside like a fly.

"I don't understand," the girl said quietly, gazing at him. "Why would you willingly walk into such a dangerous place?"

Chi Que stopped in his tracks, a premonition rising in his heart that if he stepped into that hidden door, he would surely die.

And they will die a miserable and torturous death.

"Ha." Then he laughed. "Are you scared?"

The girl finally spoke: "On what grounds do you say that?"

"You're stopping me," Chi Que said as he walked forward. "And before this, you've been trying to trick me into eating your food so that I would become the target of the shadows."

"You never intended for me to live," he said. "So you're going to kindly let me go now?"

"There's only one possibility." Chi Que pushed open the door to the underground warehouse. "I'm already on the verge of killing you."

He turned to the girl and said, "Stop using those tricks. I never trust my intuition."

He had a premonition that he was about to die.

But Chi Que didn't believe it.

On the one hand, the girl had previously demonstrated her ability to inflict hunger, so it is not surprising that she is now inflicting fear.

On the other hand, this premonition was too far-fetched; there was no evidence to prove that he would die.

He had been to the underground garden twenty years ago.

and many more.

Chi Que paused as he was about to open the door.

twenty years ago.

It is a paradox that a person who died twenty years ago cannot live to see twenty years from now.

What would happen if he opened the door and saw the body of the medic from twenty years ago?

Like Schrödinger's cat, no one could be sure whether it was dead or not until an observer was present.

He broke out in a cold sweat instantly.

It seems... there is some evidence.

He took a few steps back and stared at the door.

"Leave," the girl said again. "This is the best outcome for both of us."

Oh.

"Can I take that to mean you're admitting there's a way to kill you behind this door?" Chi Que asked, looking at her.

"Yes," she admitted, "but you will definitely die too."

"I see." He nodded slowly, and lay down under the girl's astonished gaze. "Then I'll take a nap."

Soft snoring soon filled the warehouse.

The girl stared at him, a look of surprise on her face, as if she hadn't expected that Chi Que would actually fall asleep like that.

wrong.

Her body gradually became ethereal.

She stared blankly at the changes in herself, and suddenly seemed to understand something.

It turned out to be the case.

She raised her head and looked up at the sky.

The wind and snow are howling, and a cold front is about to arrive.

"Ah," the girl closed her eyes, "It's so cold."

Her voice was carried away by the wind, leaving only a faint murmur: "Am I... going to die again...?"

......

Many years ago.

The manor belongs to a lord obsessed with taboos.

He searched through every ancient book he could find, meticulously examining any clues about sacrifice, curses, and summoning.

He believes that in the dark side of this world, there exists something that can be "traded" for, as long as one is willing to pay the price.

Coincidentally, he discovered a strange garden underground in the manor. The plants there did not need sunlight, and the air was filled with a kind of creepy, indescribable atmosphere.

The lord was overjoyed.

He believed this was God's guidance.

So he bought slaves from all over the world and locked them in underground dungeons.

Day after day, the same rhetoric is instilled:

It is glorious to give to God.

Each of you will go to heaven after you die.

This is a gift offered to God.

There was no hunger, no cold, no whips, no chains, only eternal happiness.

The girl believed it.

She had dreamed of it.

What's in heaven?

The first person was taken away.

She heard screams.

She covered her ears and told herself that this was the only way to heaven, and that the pain was only temporary.

The second person.

The third person.

The screams grew increasingly piercing.

The girl was finally taken away.

She saw a person lying on the altar, his chest opened, and the contents of his chest taken out and neatly arranged beside him.

She didn't scream.

She has stopped screaming.

She was pinned to the altar.

A knife was pressed against her throat.

It's so hot.

She tried to open her eyes wide, wanting to see God.

Those eyes went from fear to pain to emptiness.

In the end, nothing was left.

The girl suddenly understood.

They were lied to.

From the very beginning, there was nothing waiting for them.

There is no redemption, no liberation.

They were simply killed.

Then it was discarded.

It was sacrificed to a god that did not exist.

Many years have passed since then.

The lord died, and ultimately did not obtain the power he desired.

His relatives and friends swarmed around him like wild dogs fighting over food, dividing up the wealth cleanly.

The manor was abandoned because it was too remote.

Many more years have passed.

An expedition team arrived here.

They repaired the houses, cleaned the rooms, and dusted, using the manor as a temporary base for their stay.

Their actions awakened the dead beneath the earth.

That wasn't a conscious entity; it was merely a mass nurtured by the resentment of countless dead people within its environment.

They heard:

"After this operation is over, I'll go back to my hometown to get married."

"Look, this is a picture of my daughter, isn't she cute?"

"I haven't been home to see my parents for three years. I plan to bring them gifts when I go back this time."

......

On what grounds?

Why should they be able to have happiness?

Why should we all have to die?

Die.

Isn't it too unfair if we are the only ones suffering, if we are the only ones being sacrificed?

Die!

So you should all die too! Otherwise, wouldn't our lives just seem like... utter despair...?

Die...

then.

Twenty years ago, a cold wave claimed six lives.

Their bodies still remain on that icy plain.