Chapter 46

At this moment, Gu Yi'an felt like killing the god.
Wasn't He supposed to be unable to leave the village entrance?
It seemed she had guessed wrong.
Gu Yi'an tried her best to stay calm.
The other players were looking at the sky, looking at their shoes, playing with vines, playing with ropes, even the hanged ghost had found something to do, fixing a paper phone.
In short, they stubbornly refused to look in Gu Yi'an's direction.
This actually gave Gu Yi'an a good buffer space.
Gu Yi'an regained her composure, raised her hand, and slowly wiped away the chill on her arm.
Black mist coiled around Gu Yi'an's hand, spun around, then drifted to the side, quickly condensing into the Ghost King's armored human form.
Gu Yi'an said, "You must be joking."
Without giving the Ghost King a chance to speak, she added, "Did you come to watch us die?"
The Ghost King wasn't diverted by her change of topic. He said, "Why not try the idea they suggested?"
Their idea was equivalent to the newbie male player's proposal, hand Gu Yi'an over directly to the Ghost King, let her become the Ghost King's consort, and allow the four of them to clear the level and slip away.
Sacrifice one person for the benefit of the other players.
Gu Yi'an chose to refuse.
The newbie male player probably knew he had caused trouble and didn't dare to speak up, silently playing with the vines, which pricked his hand until it was covered in blood.
Gu Yi'an found a legitimate reason and said, "That idea would prevent me from clearing the level."
If she became the Ghost King's consort, wouldn’t she be stuck in this world forever?
Upon hearing Gu Yi'an's words, the Ghost King was not angered.
He asked, "Is this world not good enough?"
Gu Yi'an shook her head.
"It’s too desolate."
She added, "Staying in this world with full awareness must be exhausting for all of you."
According to the Hanged Ghost, beyond the high walls, humans had already vanished from this world.
For these ghosts and monsters to still linger here, it must be unbearably lonely.
Trapped in such a confined space, how utterly draining it must be.
The Ghost King chuckled, though no one could see the expression beneath his helmet.
He said, "It would be a shame if someone as interesting as you didn’t stay."
The Ghost King’s form dissolved into black mist, merging seamlessly with the night.
He was gone.
Gu Yi'an guessed he had returned to the jade coffin to rest.
Another half-minute passed, and the novice male player cautiously glanced in Gu Yi'an’s direction.
Noticing his look, Gu Yi'an said, "No need to look. He’s gone."
The novice male player roughly stuffed the vine in his hand into his pocket, showing none of the care he had earlier.
He hurriedly asked Gu Yi'an, "Is there really something going on between you two?"
Gu Yi'an was already losing patience with the novice male player, after all, he was the one who had stirred up this mess.
Sensing her slight coldness, the novice male player promptly apologized, "Seventh Sister, I was wrong. I shouldn’t have spoken carelessly. There’s nothing between you, absolutely nothing. Even if there were, there isn’t."
He then changed the subject and asked, "Did you figure something else out? I heard you tell him that staying in this world with full awareness must be exhausting."
Gu Yi'an replied, "It’s just a guess. There are no humans outside, so the Ghost King must be pulling people from other worlds. The villagers of this place, the non-humans in the coffins, are actually the last remnants of humanity-related beings in this world. Only they still possess human ways of thinking and share emotions with humans. They’re living alone in this world, trapped in this place."
The novice male player listened and sighed with emotion, "If your guess is right, that really is exhausting."
The Hanged Ghost cautiously approached Gu Yi'an and asked obsequiously, "Your Highness, do you need transportation? This humble one can serve as your seat. Do you have any requests? Whatever this humble one can do, I will surely accomplish it for you."
Another misunderstanding.
Gu Yi'an sighed inwardly but kept her expression neutral. She said, "Please maintain some distance from me."
The Hanged Ghost, much like the novice male player, was a troublemaker.
The whole Ghost King’s consort incident was their doing.
"Oh. This humble one will definitely keep my distance." The Hanged Ghost quickly floated aside.
The group made their way back to the village entrance.
Once again, they saw the stone tablet at the entrance: Daguang Village.
The eldest brother remarked, "This village is just one big graveyard. Quite fitting."
Sixth Sister looked at it and sighed.
The novice male player said, "So our only way out is to fake our deaths?"
He too, found it frustrating.
From the current situation, it seemed the players had no other choice but to die.
Gu Yi'an remained composed. She stepped onto the village path first and said, "Let’s die in a spectacular way. Perhaps the gods will find it entertaining."
The novice male player hesitated, "But the Ghost King won’t let you die."
Gu Yi'an replied, "I’ll take my own life."
She spoke as if it were nothing, but from her tone, the other players knew she was serious.
The novice male player immediately objected, "Seventh Sister, don't. If you kill yourself, we won't be able to clear the game."
He exchanged glances with Big Brother, Third Brother, and Sixth Sister.
Everyone knew that in the eyes of the Ghost King, the master of this game, Seventh Sister was clearly His favorite toy. The rest of them were just extras.
None of them believed the Ghost King genuinely liked humans.
They were different species, after all.
He probably just found this toy amusing. Expecting the Ghost King to have human emotions was nothing short of delusional.
The novice male player said, "We don't know if death is the only way out. Let's go ask Second Brother."
The players made their way back to the single-story house where the male player Second Brother had been dragged into the coffin by a non-human to become its companion.
The Hanged Ghost was busy trading insults with the ghostly audience in the live stream.
The ghostly viewers suggested the Hanged Ghost change its stream's name to "Live: My Days as a Human's Pet."
The Hanged Ghost was furious at the suggestion.
It cursed the ghosts who made the proposal, calling them worthless and not proper ghosts.
Its lone voice made the entire quiet village feel somewhat noisy.
Gu Yi'an said, "Is the ghost viewer who suggested that here? Could you come out and chat with us for a moment?"
The players stood before the two coffins in the room.
There was movement inside the coffins. The lids lowered slightly and closed.
The uncooperative stance was obvious.
The Hanged Ghost thought about mocking the players, but since Gu Yi'an was present and it believed the Ghost King had a special interest in her, it hurried forward to explain to Gu Yi'an, "Your Highness, the game rules state they can't communicate with humans at this stage."
Hearing this, Gu Yi'an turned her gaze to Third Brother.
Third Brother, who had also heard the Hanged Ghost, immediately took out the tool he had used to capture the Hanged Ghost earlier and stored the still-ingratiating ghost inside it.
The paper phone floating in the air was grabbed by Big Brother.
Gu Yi'an gently tapped the lid of the older-looking coffin. "Could you come out and talk? I won't discuss the game. I only want to make a deal with you."
As Gu Yi'an spoke, the novice male player glanced back at the door.
He saw a dense crowd of non-humans standing outside, curiously craning their necks to peer inside.
When they noticed the novice male player looking at them, they all revealed eerie smiles, baring their sharp fangs.
"Third Brother!" the novice male player hurriedly called out.
Third Brother released the dazed hanged ghost once again.
Eldest Brother aimed the paper phone at the hanged ghost.
The novice male player glanced at Gu Yi'an and asked, "Seventh Sister, is it done?"
Gu Yi'an shook her head.
She addressed the coffin, "Didn't you make a coffin for him? I just want to trade for a coffin."
The novice male player pondered Gu Yi'an's words and asked, "Are we supposed to make coffins for ourselves, lie in them, and pretend to be dead? Then drag them out of their coffins and take their places?"
His mind jumped from Gu Yi'an's need to trade for a coffin to the idea that they might fake their deaths by lying in coffins to clear the level.
The hanged ghost flicked its long tongue across the tip of its nose, appearing as if it were minding its own business.
Gu Yi'an raised her index finger to her lips, signaling for silence.
Eldest Brother clamped a hand over the novice male player's mouth and scolded in a low voice, "Keep quiet."
If the novice male player blurted out Gu Yi'an's plan, how could they trick the non-human in the coffin?
The novice male player nodded. He understood, he had just spoken without thinking.
Only then did Eldest Brother release him.
Perhaps because of the novice male player's earlier remark about dragging the non-human out of the coffin, the entity inside remained silent.
Seeing no movement from the coffin, Gu Yi'an knew the creature inside was unwilling to cooperate.
She wasn't disheartened. Since it refused to cooperate, she would make it cooperate.
Gu Yi'an said to Eldest Brother and Third Brother, "Smash it."
Eldest Brother and Third Brother had been waiting for this command.
They immediately stepped forward, with Eldest Brother considering using a tool.
Third Brother said, "Wait."
He glanced at the other new coffin. Originally, they had planned to negotiate with Second Brother, but after Gu Yi'an entered, she hadn't sought out Second Brother and instead directly approached the original inhabitant of the room.
Third Brother walked over, picked up the new coffin with both hands.
Gu Yi'an and Sixth Sister retreated to the doorway.
Seeing an opportunity to prove himself, the hanged ghost immediately floated in front of Gu Yi'an.
"Your Highness, this humble servant will protect you."
Thud!
A heavy, muffled sound echoed.
Gu Yi'an and Sixth Sister supported each other as they retreated outside the main door.
From the new coffin that Third Brother had just lifted, the body of the male player Second Brother tumbled out.
He was no longer human but had transformed into something like the non-human in the coffin, bizarre in appearance, his looks elevated several levels.
However, the clothes he wore were still the same as before.
After Second Brother fell out, he opened his eyes.
The novice male player took out a vine and cautiously approached him, "Second Brother, are you still a player?"
Second Brother paid no attention to the novice male player. He lunged at Third Brother, leaving a faint afterimage in his wake, a testament to his incredible speed.
Third Brother sensed the movement, dropped the coffin, and fled.
Second Brother caught the coffin, immediately climbed back inside, and closed the lid.
The two coffins now stood in the center of the room, just as they had when the players first entered.
The novice male player remarked, "It seems Second Brother is completely gone. This can't be how players clear the level, right?"
Sixth Sister answered him, "No, if he clears the level, he can leave this world. But now, it seems he can only stay here."
The novice male player scratched his head and said, "Could it be that this game is trying to wear us down until we die? There’s nothing we can do but wait quietly for death."
The Hanged Ghost chimed in, "If you hadn’t captured me, we could be playing hide-and-seek right now. How fun would that be? You’re the ones who ruined your own fun."
No player paid any attention to its words.
Third Brother looked at the coffin, which showed no trace of damage, and said, "It can’t be broken."
The novice male player remarked, "Even after smashing the coffin, they still won’t come out. They must know we’ll face worse things later. Clearly, they just want to stay inside and watch us suffer, not bothering to come out and deal with us."
As he spoke, the novice male player glanced at the live stream on his paper phone and indeed saw mocking comments from ghost viewers.
They would never offer any help to the players.
The novice male player turned his gaze to Gu Yi'an.
This young female player had always remained calm and composed. Standing in the room, she seemed to anchor all the players, giving them a sense of stability.
As long as she hadn’t said there was no way out, they still had a chance.
Facing the players’ expectant looks, Gu Yi'an thought for a moment and asked the Hanged Ghost, "Do you know how to make a coffin?"
The Hanged Ghost shook its head.
Gu Yi'an took out a prop she had brought with her, Lu Zize’s bank card, and handed it over, asking, "Can this be used?"
"Your Highness, human cards won’t work."
Out of respect for the Ghost King, the Hanged Ghost still took the card.
After accepting it, it examined the card curiously, its dark eyes rolling as it inspected it closely.
"Huh? How... how do you use this?"
The Hanged Ghost spun around in place a few times, then noticed the comments on the paper phone’s live stream. Following the hints from the screen, it blew a puff of ghostly energy onto the card.
The Hanged Ghost exclaimed excitedly, "Your Highness, this is the Ghost King’s card, isn’t it? Of course, it can be used."
Gu Yi'an had no intention of correcting the Hanged Ghost’s misunderstanding. She asked again, "Do you know how to make a coffin now?"
"Yes!"
The Hanged Ghost answered firmly, completely forgetting that it had claimed otherwise just moments before.
The novice male player watched this surreal development unfold beside him.
"That’s it? Are props really that important? Are we even playing the same game as Seventh Sister?"
Gu Yi'an glanced at the novice male player.
At first glance, I thought he was a cool, young guy, but now it's clear he's a total chatterbox.
Gu Yi'an said, "It's not certain yet. Let's wait until the coffins are made and see how they turn out."
The Hanged Ghost glanced at the number of players present. "Do you need five coffins?"
"Don't worry, I won't overcharge you. Just one million ghost coins per coffin."
Gu Yi'an said, "Six."
The Hanged Ghost didn't care how many coffins Gu Yi'an wanted; as long as it got paid, it was fine. It wasn't worried about insufficient funds in the card either, if there wasn't enough, it would just go ask the Ghost King for more.
"Six coffins, hehe. Your Highness, please wait here. I'll go ask for you and make sure to bring back six coffins as soon as possible."
The Hanged Ghost's body drifted as if floating in water, its head shrinking into a long strip as it smoothly slipped out of the rope loop Third Brother had used to restrain it, then immediately floated off into the distance.
Sixth Sister exclaimed in surprise, "It can escape? It's still deceiving us?"
Seeing the Hanged Ghost break free, Gu Yi'an showed little emotional reaction, it was exactly as she had expected.
She said, "Did you forget how it slipped through the door crack earlier? Its head can change shape."
Back then, the Hanged Ghost had flattened its head into a pancake shape to squeeze through the door gap.
Gu Yi'an continued, "Take a look at the number of viewers in its livestream. Hasn't it increased a lot since the beginning? A ghost trying to capture humans ends up being captured itself, and then the humans torment it, it's full of twists and turns, full of drama. Don't you think that's appealing to viewers?"
The novice male player let out a long sigh. "Not just appealing, it's highly engaging. The viewers are even offering advice to help the streamer escape the humans' clutches."
For a moment, the team of players fell into silence.
The feeling of being manipulated every second was deeply unsettling.
Breaking the silence, the novice male player asked, "Seventh Sister, what's the use of the coffins? If we get inside and the ghosts seal them shut from the outside, wouldn't we suffocate to death inside?"
Gu Yi'an replied, "I'm preparing for the coming daytime. The vines will take over this area during the day. We need a place to rest."
"Can't we just close the doors and windows? Actually, that probably won't work, they're alive," the novice male player muttered to himself, clutching the section of vine in his hand.
Eldest Brother had already found a spot to sit down.
Sixth Sister said, "No matter how you look at it, this round of the game seems designed to make us wait for death. Is this what 'no one survives' means?"
Her voice carried frustration and a hint of despair.
Third Brother stood silently to the side without a word.
The novice male player remarked, "In this round, we're the ones being played. So, even if we find clues, they're probably useless, most likely fake ones planted by them. We just don't know if the absence of humans in the outside world has anything to do with the evil god."
Eldest Brother said, "Are we just going to assume there are no humans outside? Maybe there just aren't any near the high wall. If we go further out, we might find people."
The novice male player responded, "Eldest Brother, by the time you've walked to the ends of the earth and still haven't found a single human, you'll feel like killing yourself."
"No one survives," the novice male player mused over these words.
Vaguely, they sensed light coming from outside, not harsh, but carrying the essence of dawn.
In an instant, day broke.
"Your Highness! The coffins are here!"
The Hanged Ghost's urgent voice echoed from above.
The players stepped out of the bungalow.
They saw six coffins following behind the hanged ghost.
And behind the coffins.
The players saw an overwhelming expanse of vines.
The novice male player muttered, "Just when I thought the game was getting dull, it throws me a dead end."
The section of vine in his hand twisted nimbly but didn't break free.
"Ghost Queen. Hurry inside," the hanged ghost urged anxiously.
The six coffins landed on the ground.
The vines fell to the ground, intertwining and surrounding the players.
They didn't dare approach Gu Yi'an, so the empty space with Gu Yi'an at its center remained safe.
The hanged ghost urged again, "Ghost Queen, get into the coffin quickly."
As it spoke, it pushed open the lid of one coffin and slipped inside.
Gu Yi'an said to the players behind her, "Don't rush in just yet."
The novice male player asked, "Is there something inside the coffin, or are there conditions for entering?"
Third Brother tried pushing open one coffin.
The moment he opened it, he retreated to Gu Yi'an's side.
From that coffin, a non-human with an eerie appearance emerged.
The hanged ghost had already closed its coffin lid when Third Brother pushed it open, avoiding any trouble.
Without Gu Yi'an needing to say anything, Big Brother, Third Brother, and Sixth Sister used all their trump cards. In a three-against-one situation, they directly blasted that non-human into the vines.
Then, the novice male player voluntarily lay down in the coffin that the non-human had occupied, this was his own request.
"Let me go first, let me go first. As you said, if you see my corpse and Little Green hasn't disappeared, then it means I failed."
Little Green was his affectionate nickname for the vine.
The novice male player said carefreely, "Close the lid."
Big Brother said, "You should be from the same world as me. Remember to come find our organization when the time comes."
They closed the coffin lid.
The circle of vines gradually tightened, assessing the level of threat Gu Yi'an posed to it.
Big Brother and Third Brother tried to open that coffin again.
They couldn't open it at all.
Sixth Sister said, "Forget it. Life and death are up to fate. He might have cleared the level. I'll go next."
The players opened another new coffin, this one had no non-human inside.
Sixth Sister didn't enter but instead opened the next coffin.
When they opened the fifth coffin, another non-human emerged.
The players repeated their old tactics and drove this non-human into the vines as well.
Then, they opened the sixth coffin.
The sixth coffin was empty.
They called out to Gu Yi'an, "Seventh Sister, let's go in."
Gu Yi'an shook her head. "You go in. I'll guard you."
The eldest brother frowned.
Seeing his expression, Sixth Sister said, "I trust Seventh Sister. I'll go in first."
Third Brother and Sixth Sister entered the coffin almost simultaneously.
By now, the vines had gradually closed in to within a meter of Gu Yi'an.
The eldest brother looked at Gu Yi'an beside him and asked, "Seventh Sister, what did you notice?"
Gu Yi'an glanced at the writhing vines in front of her and recalled, "When the non-humans were thrown in earlier, their expressions seemed to be smiling."
The eldest brother was startled. "We shouldn't enter the coffin?"
Gu Yi'an shook her head. "No, they were freed. They had a reason to die."
Utterly confused, the eldest brother climbed into the coffin and said, "Seventh Sister, I won't be part of this puzzle. I'm going ahead."
He closed the coffin lid.
The moment it shut, vines crawled over the lid.
Now, Gu Yi'an was the only one left in this world, and the vines gradually crept closer, reaching her shoes.
Gu Yi'an moved. As she walked, the vines gave up their invasion and retreated instead, revealing the coffin where the Hanged Ghost was.
She knocked on the coffin lid.
After a moment, the lid lifted slightly, revealing a crack.
"Your Highness, why haven't you gone in yet?" the Hanged Ghost asked respectfully.
Gu Yi'an said, "Come out."
The Hanged Ghost: "Huh? Your Highness, isn't this the coffin you chose for me?"
Gu Yi'an said, "Bring the phone and come out."
The Hanged Ghost hesitated, its eyeballs popping out to peek outside. Seeing no vines around Gu Yi'an, it retracted its eyes back into their sockets and floated out.
The paper phone followed along.
Gu Yi'an took the paper phone and glanced at the live stream comments. The ghost viewers were mostly lamenting how quickly the game had ended.
Of course, once Gu Yi'an took over, the comments shifted again, expressing surprise that there was more to come.
Gu Yi'an exited the live stream, tapped the dial icon, and called the number she had dialed before.
Watching Gu Yi'an's calm actions, the Hanged Ghost was completely bewildered.
"Your Highness, aren't you going in?"
It looked at the vines already wrapping around Gu Yi'an's feet and felt genuine admiration for the Ghost Queen's courage.
For the moment, Gu Yi'an ignored the Hanged Ghost, focusing entirely on the call.
"Yes, I'm the one who inquired about the props earlier. I found a prop, a coffin, extremely sturdy, capable of resisting certain ghost attacks. There's a side effect too: anyone who enters will die. How do I send it to you? Write a name and burn it with ghost fire? I have a ghost with me. Alright, I'll hand the phone over and let it handle the delivery."
Gu Yi'an looked at the Hanged Ghost. "You heard everything. Do as he says."
The Hanged Ghost looked puzzled. "Are you here to play the game? Or are you just on vacation?"
At a time like this, this ancestor was still making calls to trade props!
This had to be the Ghost Queen.
Gu Yi'an moved her leg, and the vines wrapped around her calf immediately recoiled as if startled.
The hanged ghost could only take the paper phone and, following the instructions from the other end of the line, marked the coffin it had just been in and spewed ghostly flames.
The coffin burned quietly amidst the ghostly fire.
The hanged ghost said in disbelief, "Your Highness, aren't you worried about the game?"
"Not worried."
Gu Yi'an replied, "Isn't it enough for me to die to clear the level?"
Hearing that Gu Yi'an wanted to leave, the hanged ghost quickly said, "What about the Ghost King if you leave?"
"Hasn't He been fine all along?"
The hanged ghost hesitated.
Gu Yi'an studied the hanged ghost and asked, "Are you worried about Him?"
The hanged ghost denied it, "How could we be the ones to worry? Surely it's Your Highness who worries about Him."
Gu Yi'an noticed an object resembling a jade pendant appearing in the ghostly flames.
The hanged ghost retrieved the item and eagerly presented it to Gu Yi'an.
Gu Yi'an took the jade pendant and put it in her pocket.
She said to the hanged ghost, "Get into that coffin."
The sixth coffin had opened and was still unused.
The hanged ghost was stunned, "Your Highness, what are you saying? What about you?"
Gu Yi'an replied, "I'm going to find the Ghost King."
"Huh?"
Gu Yi'an explained, "I'm very curious about this world and want to ask Him about the truth of it."
She glanced at the pure white sky and said to the hanged ghost, "He protects you all at night, so He should have time during the day, right?"
The hanged ghost chuckled awkwardly, "Your Highness, you've already guessed the truth, why ask someone like me?"
Gu Yi'an didn't press further. She looked into the distance and noticed that the ancestral hall was the only place not surrounded by vines.
She headed in that direction.
The vines silently made way for her.
The world felt empty and desolate.
Only Gu Yi'an was there.
Behind her trailed a hanged ghost, not daring to get too close.
Gu Yi'an reached the entrance of the ancestral hall.
The door opened automatically, just as it had when she first arrived at the ancestral hall's gate.
The hanged ghost, steeling itself, followed Gu Yi'an inside.
Inside the ancestral hall, a black mist from nowhere suddenly wrapped around Gu Yi'an.
The hanged ghost saw that the Ghost King was about to take the Ghost Queen away, but it was still stuck there.
Once the Ghost Queen left, the vines would surely attack it, and staying there meant certain death.
The hanged ghost immediately cried out, "Your Highness, save me!"
Hearing the hanged ghost's plea, Gu Yi'an looked at the small coffin prop in her hand and opened it to see what was inside.
Inside was empty, the little girl hadn't followed into this round of the game.
Gu Yi'an tossed out the small coffin, which rapidly expanded, swallowed the hanged ghost, then swiftly shrank back down and landed in her hand.
Black mist enveloped Gu Yi'an.
In the blink of an eye, she was transported elsewhere.
Lights flickered in layers, illuminating the hall brightly.
Gu Yi'an had returned to the palace where the jade coffin was located.
The jade coffin stood right beside her.
The paper maid servants showed no surprise at Gu Yi'an's sudden appearance, their faces couldn't form any expressions anyway.
The maids retreated.
The black mist coalesced into a human form, the young, handsome man in ancient attire whom Gu Yi'an had encountered here earlier.
He looked at her and smiled, "Have you decided to come keep me company?"
His words carried a hint of intimacy, but Gu Yi'an remained entirely unaffected.
"I have a question," she inquired. "Are you the evil deity mentioned in the Confession Scroll?"
Hearing this, the Ghost King's lips curled into a faint smile.
Observing his expression, Gu Yi'an continued, "You are the evil deity, but also the protector of this village. If my deductions are correct, the villagers back then evacuated this place, built the high walls, and released the vines. In the end, they all died."
Whether the Ghost King had killed them remained an open question.
The Ghost King gazed at Gu Yi'an and suddenly drew closer.
The expected chill arrived, yet Gu Yi'an remained composed. "This world now only has this village, inhabited by ghosts with human consciousness. You don’t want to see them destroyed, which is why you brought us players here, "
"Are you pitying me?" he asked.
The Ghost King was now so close that Gu Yi'an could feel the piercing cold.
Indeed, she had come to see him because of his loneliness.
The Ghost King chuckled softly, leaning in closer, and whispered delightedly in her ear, "Then stay and keep me company."
The world seemed to flip upside down in an instant, as darkness silently consumed Gu Yi'an's reality.
She lay in an icy, pitch-black void.
In the darkness, every sound was amplified, Gu Yi'an could hear her own breathing.
She shouldn't have been curious about his loneliness.
"It's a bit cold," she remarked.
The chill wrapped around her receded slightly, leaving only the cold emanating from beside her.
Was she inside the jade coffin now?
Gu Yi'an quickly strategized.
In this game, death was the only way out, but under the Ghost King's watchful gaze, it seemed impossible to die.
She remembered that he needed to slumber in the jade coffin from time to time.
She had to coax him to sleep.
After a moment of contemplation, Gu Yi'an spoke as if making a sincere promise, "However, I will stay with you."
She heard a soft chuckle.
Then, the world fell silent again.
"Deity?"
He seemed to have settled into a peaceful slumber, offering no response.
Gu Yi'an quietly retrieved her prop, the card.
The hanged ghost had taken the bank card; the card she held now was undoubtedly the Gambler Card she desired.
She recalled that the Gambler Card's effect was something like: the one who dies is the enemy.
Gu Yi'an used the card on the Ghost King.
Instantly, a surge of energy stirred within the confined space.
Though she couldn't see what was happening, Gu Yi'an knew the card had been activated. That was all she needed.
A playful voice rang out.
"Oh dear, oh dear, I can't kill this one. So..."
Excruciating pain shot through Gu Yi'an's body.
The card had killed her.
The card's failure resulted in a backlash.
She had bet correctly.
This was the death Gu Yi'an had hoped for.
In this round of the game, no one survived.
An unknown amount of time passed, and Daguang Village was immersed in complete darkness.
Outside the village, seven people appeared by a burning bonfire.
They watched as the black characters in the fire faded away. After some discussion, they all left the place.
Not long after they departed, a pale, bloated, and enormous figure appeared by the bonfire.
It glanced at the fire, took out a paper phone, blew on it, and waited for the screen to light up. Then, it immediately began poking at the phone with its thick fingers.
"Hello, everyone, I'm the water ghost bringing you today's livestream. This is my first time streaming, so please be kind."
The water ghost looked at the comments in the livestream, feeling a bit confused.
"Huh? Why are you all gossiping about the Ghost King?"
"The Ghost King's Consort said she would stay with His Majesty, and then she committed suicide while the Ghost King was asleep?"
"She deceived the Ghost King?"
The water ghost read the comments but couldn't understand why the other ghosts were saying the Consort had deceived the Ghost King. After all, if the Consort committed suicide, she could become a ghost and be with the Ghost King forever.
The water ghost simply didn't get it and decided to focus on its streaming career.
"Let's not talk about the Ghost King anymore. I smell the scent of humans. They haven't gone far. What do you want me to do?"
Gu Yi'an successfully returned to the pure white space through death.
She looked up at the black characters in the air.
[You deceived the god!]
[You will lose your rewards.]
[The god finds it very amusing.]
[?]
Gu Yi'an saw the question mark formed by the black characters at the end. She knew that even the black characters themselves were probably baffled, they hadn't expected the god to find it amusing.
To find being deceived amusing... the god was truly a lunatic.