Chapter 64

He would choose to cooperate because he had no other choice.
Every player present could recognize this truth.
After sharing her judgment, Gu Yi'an fell silent, not wanting to influence others' thoughts.
What she said might not be entirely correct.
The two novice female players quietly pondered, while Dai Qi and Uncle Wu also appeared deep in thought.
Silence descended over the dining table.
The novice male player scanned everyone's expressions.
Breaking the silence, he suggested, "Should we contact that veteran player from the previous game and cooperate with him to take down that hotel?"
Upon hearing this, Dai Qi didn't immediately agree.
"Let me communicate with him further. We need to gather more information first."
Currently, there was an information imbalance between their group and the veteran player.
The other party knew they were players in a new round of The Game of the Gods and likely knew their locations and appearances too.
But they knew very little about this veteran player, most of their understanding was speculation, and they didn't even know his exact whereabouts.
Gu Yi’an nodded, agreeing with Dai Qi's decision.
She added, "We must keep the crucial evidence in our hands. The rest depends on his sincerity."
The other party might have some evidence, but it's not sufficient.
He believed they would have enough evidence, which is why he approached Dai Qi first.
The fear was that once the other party obtained the key evidence from them, they would be cast aside. He could then use the evidence gathered by the players, leveraging the power he had accumulated during his time in this world, to start exposing that hotel.
In the end, since they hadn't contributed much, they might very well be left behind in this world by the deity.
Upon hearing this, the female player Xiao Ling asked, "Is it about who first reveals the evidence to the public, and the deity will credit them with the merit?"
Dai Qi said, "It's probably not just about revealing it; it also needs to be known by the majority of people in this world. There's an imbalance between us and him. This could very well lead to us doing all the work only for him to reap the rewards. If we release the evidence, he might directly take it and use it. That way, our contribution would be minimal, and even if we manage to bring down that hotel, whether we can clear the level is questionable. From the outcome, it would seem we didn't do much."
Gu Yi’an shared this concern and said, "We must hold back some of the evidence we release."
They couldn't just post all the videos at once.
Gu Yi’an thought back and said, "When we were recording the videos, two of them could prove that we were filming that specific hotel. One accidentally captured the corridor's exterior, and the other accidentally captured the view outside the window."
She still remembered this.
One of those videos was meant to capture the pinhole camera near the light switch on the wall beside the door, and the other was to capture the pinhole camera hidden in the flowerpot near the windowsill.
Gu Yi’an said, "The other videos that don't prove the location are the ones we can post directly later. We simply won't specify which hotel it is and just use the pinhole camera as a sensational topic to attract attention."
As she spoke, she glanced at Dai Qi.
Dai Qi said, "What you said is feasible. The titles of the videos I posted earlier all specified that hotel, and they were deleted immediately. That veteran player must be a content moderator on the video platform. The videos I posted didn't include scenes of the corridor or outside the window."
Gu Yi’an nodded.
While they were discussing, Uncle Wu, having heard Dai Qi's remark about "doing the work for others," was reminded of something and said with emotion, "I've encountered such players before. We put in a lot of effort and gathered a bunch of stuff, only for him to take it all effortlessly."
The novice male player, who was next to Uncle Wu, asked curiously, "So, Uncle Wu, how did you all manage to clear the level in the end?"
The past was too painful to recall. As Uncle Wu thought back, his expression turned grim. "We failed. The deity found our stupidity quite amusing, so He allowed me to enter the next round of the game. The other players probably faced the same fate. I'm not sure about the specifics."
The novice male player was taken aback. "You can still survive even if you fail the game?"
He became exhilarated and said, "Then we don't have to worry about anything. If we encounter any ghosts or the like, we don't need to be afraid, just treat it like a game. Yeah, we're playing a game anyway, so we can just charge ahead recklessly. If we die, we have another life."
The two novice female players seemed to ponder this.
Uncle Wu glanced at the overly imaginative male player and poured cold water on his enthusiasm. "Foolhardy, do you think death is something easy to endure? Every sensation during your death process is real. The excruciating pain when your throat is slit, the despair as you lie on the ground waiting for someone to save you... Some experiences, once you've gone through them, you won't want a second time."
Uncle Wu's words didn't instill much fear in the novice male player because he had never truly experienced death.
The two novice female players, however, were frightened by Uncle Wu's description and no longer dared to entertain such thoughts.
The novice male player was full of fighting spirit. The enthusiasm that had been dampened by his ghost encounter the previous night had returned, and he was now eager to take action.
This was just a small interlude.
Once the exchanges between Gu Yi'an and Dai Qi, as well as the conversation between the novice male player and Uncle Wu, had concluded, the female player Xiao Ling cautiously raised a question.
"I'm a novice player and don't fully understand some of the rules. Seniors, is it possible that the person who contacted Senior Dai is actually someone from that hotel pretending to be a player?"
She suspected that the veteran player who had contacted Dai Qi might not be a genuine player of The Game of the Gods.
Dai Qi shook his head.
He said, "He told us to remain silent, but his actions suggest he no longer wants to stay silent. Do you think he's from the hotel or a real player?"
If he were from the hotel, he would only warn them and not go to the trouble of mentioning the "silent ones."
The true silent ones would never seek them out. They would choose to avoid anything related to that hotel and remain truly silent.
Only those silent ones who no longer wish to stay silent would come looking.
Since that person sought them out, it means his mindset is wavering.
He is trying to make contact with them.
Xiao Ling realized she had been mistaken in her thinking and apologized.
She lowered her head and focused on finishing her breakfast.
Dai Qi glanced at the others and said, "I'll continue to handle communication with this veteran player. It's nine o'clock now. We'll stick to the original plan."
"One team will upload the video to video websites. On the platforms I've used before, you can try posting it with a different title. Another team will contact news media, there should be reporters willing to cover this."
"The last team, you'll register an account on social media, upload the videos and other evidence, then advertise on forums and other places with high user traffic to draw people to the account with the evidence and spark public discussion. Register multiple accounts or buy a few online. If the authorities ban the accounts, having more won't be a problem."
Dai Qi finished explaining the specific steps.
He then said, "For the grouping, let's stick to yesterday’s arrangement, one experienced player paired with one new player. Since I have experience posting videos, I’ll handle anything related to video content."
The other players had no objections.
Dai Qi had just told them about his experience of having his videos rejected by major video platforms.
Handling this task would be familiar and straightforward for him.
Seeing that no one had any objections, Dai Qi added, "For this round, I’d like to take a female player. Female players tend to be more meticulous. Xiao Ling, you’ll be with me this time."
Xiao Ling, the female player, was taken aback by Dai Qi’s words. She glanced awkwardly at Gu Yi'an.
Yesterday, it had been Gu Yi'an who had guided her.
If Dai Qi hadn’t specifically requested her, it would have been assumed that new players would continue with the experienced players who had mentored them the day before.
By taking Xiao Ling right in front of Gu Yi'an, Dai Qi was subtly challenging her.
Gu Yi'an showed no reaction.
She had noticed Dai Qi testing her.
He probably felt that she might threaten his leadership, which was why he was trying to probe her limits.
Gu Yi'an had no intention of disrupting the current cooperative dynamic among the players, so she kept her emotions hidden.
Seeing that Gu Yi'an didn’t say anything, Xiao Ling cautiously smiled at Dai Qi.
Uncle Wu observed the scene at the dining table and shook his head to himself.
Uncle Wu said, "In that case, Xiao Yu will stick with me today. She and I will contact the journalists."
Gu Yi'an said, "Alright. I’ll handle the social media side of things."
She turned to the new male player and asked, "Have you ever had arguments with people online?"
The new male player had been glancing back and forth between Dai Qi and Xiao Ling with a gossipy look in his eyes. It took him a moment to realize Gu Yi'an was speaking to him.
The new male player asked, "You mean arguing and cursing at people online? I’m good at that."
Who wasn’t a keyboard warrior these days?
The new male player was brimming with confidence.
Gu Yi'an gave a slight nod.
She planned to have him register multiple accounts later to act as internet trolls and stir up discussions.
With the groups and tasks decided, they moved forward with Dai Qi’s plan to begin their respective actions.
However, Gu Yi'an thought of something else. Before everyone set off, she spoke up, "If the hotel staff can control ghosts, then there must be other extraordinary individuals in this world. Let’s keep an eye out and see if we can find such people. Maybe we can buy some protective items from them."
Upon hearing this, Uncle Wu glanced at the three new players.
"Right. I almost forgot about the ghosts. We need to prepare something for the three of them."
The experienced players each had their own life-saving methods, but the new players did not.
No one knew when the ghosts might appear.
The experienced players weren’t obligated to protect the new players at all times, and it wasn’t possible for them to stick together every moment.
They couldn’t even follow each other to the bathroom, could they?
It was clear that Gu Yi'an’s suggestion was meant to help the three new players survive.
The three new players weren’t foolish either, they all cast grateful looks in Gu Yi'an’s direction.
Dai Qi glanced at his phone and said, "That person contacted me again. I just proposed a collaboration, and he agreed."
"So quickly?"
Uncle Wu sounded skeptical. "Was he just waiting for us to bring it up?"
Dai Qi chuckled. "No. They’re the ones who are anxious. They’ve been waiting here for too long."
"Them?" Gu Yi'an caught the specific wording and voiced her question.
Dai Qi said, "Yes, it's them."
Gu Yi'an raised an eyebrow. "It seems they were the ones who chose to remain silent back then, forced to live on in this world with no way to return to their own."
Originally, they had planned to leave the restaurant, but now they settled back into their seats.
Dai Qi glanced at his phone. "I'll relay what he said. He told us not to worry. They won’t interfere with our actions or demand evidence from us. They’ll only assist from behind the scenes."
Uncle Wu picked his teeth with a toothpick.
"They’re being so cooperative, seems like they’re eager to go home."
After listening, Gu Yi’an thought for a moment. "They probably aren’t new to dealing with players in a fresh round of the game. What they want is for us to step forward and expose the hotel, while they use their influence to push things along behind the scenes. Even if we fail, the people behind that hotel won’t be able to trace it back to them."
As she spoke, she felt something wasn’t quite right.
"That’s so sneaky?" The novice male player found it hard to believe.
Dai Qi focused on a different point. "Players from previous rounds all failed. That hotel must be well aware of what we’re planning. No wonder the video platforms reacted so quickly, they all rejected our submissions."
His words cast a gloom over the group.
The strategies they were preparing to use had undoubtedly been tried by other players before.
What they could think of, others had already thought of.
And those people had failed.
What did that mean for them?
It was highly likely they would fail too.
Seeing their dispirited expressions, Gu Yi’an tapped the table with her index finger, drawing everyone’s attention.
"Don’t lose heart," she said.
Gu Yi’an continued, "The fact that the god has started a new round doesn’t necessarily mean all the previous players are dead. You could say they chose to become silent ones. That means the person contacting us now might represent hundreds of players from The Game of the Gods."
"Surely not that many?" Uncle Wu was skeptical.
Gu Yi’an explained, "Leaving that hotel isn’t particularly difficult for us. We veteran players have tools at our disposal. With some effort, we should be able to get everyone out. The spirits in that room aren’t especially hard to deal with either."
"No, it is difficult."
Uncle Wu pointed to the dark circles under his eyes. "Little Gu, take a look. If we let our guard down even slightly, those ghosts will devour us."
Someone like Little Gu, who has nothing going on, is definitely not normal.
Gu Yi'an glanced at the players present. Currently, all six players were still alive, and among them, three were new players. This survival rate was actually quite high.
She said, "In this round, if we’re careful, our survival rate will be high."
She thought for a moment and added, "I suspect that the god starts a new game based on time. My guess is that a week or ten days after we leave that hotel, at most, no longer than a month, new players will arrive in this world to start a new game. If we can’t bring down the forces behind that hotel in a short time, the god will send new people."
The new male player said, "I get it. If we can’t do it, someone else will step up."
Dai Qi said, "The more players who remain in this world, the stronger the players’ influence will become."
Gu Yi'an nodded. "It’s like accumulating strength round by round. At some point, the power of the players’ faction will reach a level where it can topple the forces behind that hotel."
The new male player pondered this. "So, does that mean we’ll be able to take down that hotel pretty soon? We’ve already connected with the veteran players who stayed behind, and they said they’d help us..."
It was at this moment that Gu Yi’an realized what had been bothering her.
She said, "We’ve fallen into their trap. Cooperation is their goal."
"What?" The new male player was confused.
He glanced at the silent Gu Yi’an, then at Dai Qi, who was deep in thought, before making eye contact with the female player Xiao Ling, trying to ask what was going on.
Xiao Ling, not wanting to watch him squirm any longer, quietly explained, "Senior Gu has realized that the other side has ulterior motives for contacting us."
She thought for a moment and added, "Those people might have intentionally reached out to us. If we succeed in clearing the game, some of the credit will go to them since they helped. But the truth might be that their so-called help is just part of their job."
"What does that even mean?" The new male player still didn’t understand.
Gu Yi’an glanced at him, she had overheard their conversation.
Gu Yi’an said, "Their current jobs might be as journalists, website moderators, or forum administrators. They deliberately held back our videos just to force us into cooperating with them. Once we agree to cooperate, they’ll release those videos."
Their goal was to make Gu Yi’an and the others acknowledge their contributions during the game, so that even the god would recognize their behind-the-scenes efforts. That was why they were so eager to establish a cooperative relationship.
As collaborators, they might be judged as having cleared the game. But if the god considered them merely minor contributors, they might be deemed failures.
The new male player was stunned.
"Wait, so... the forces behind that hotel aren’t as powerful as we thought? The real obstacles we’re facing are these players from previous games?"
Gu Yi’an nodded.
She said, "The video website not accepting the video is most likely the work of those veteran players. However, the forces behind that hotel must be considerable, or the initial players wouldn’t have failed. Also, the ghost from that room coming after us at night was probably orchestrated by the hotel’s people."
The novice male player was dazed, stunned by this world full of deception.
After a while, Dai Qi put down his phone and spoke up, "I just found out from them that there’s a highly revered monk at a nearby temple."
Uncle Wu asked, "What about the collaboration?"
Dai Qi replied without hesitation, "After getting the monk’s location, I told them the collaboration is off."
"Bravo!" the novice male player applauded.
Gu Yi’an smiled faintly upon hearing this.
She analyzed, "In that case, some of them might try to suppress us. If they can’t clear the level, they won’t let us pass easily. We need to prepare for a long-term struggle in this world."
The novice male player said, "Why don’t those people unite with us? Anyone can see that only by sticking together can we take down that hotel. They’re even worse than the hotel’s people."
The novice male player simply couldn’t understand their actions.
Uncle Wu glanced at him and said, "Because they’re afraid of dying. Have you forgotten about the ghosts? They choose to stay silent to avoid attracting the ghosts’ attention. They want to survive."
Most people want to live.
The novice male player couldn’t wrap his head around it, but he knew it wasn’t his place to speak, so he wisely kept quiet.
Gu Yi’an looked at everyone and said, "Where there are people, there will be disagreements. Initially, we’ll face suppression from some veteran players and the forces behind the hotel, but there will be those who help us in secret. They want us to succeed, even if they end up with a failing evaluation, they still want to return to their own world. Those are our true collaborators."
Dai Qi nodded, stood up, and said, "Let’s not waste any more time. First, go find the monk and buy some protective items. If he can remove the ghost’s mark on us, try to get his help with that. The rest, we’ll stick to the original plan. We should also change our clothes. As for the hotel, let’s switch to a new one today so the hotel’s people can’t easily track us down."
Everyone tacitly agreed to Dai Qi’s arrangements.
They first found the highly revered monk and asked for his help in exorcising the ghosts.
The monk seemed accustomed to people like them. He had everyone except Gu Yi’an stay behind, leading them to sit before the Buddha statue for two hours, bathing them in the scent of sandalwood incense, then sold each of them a Buddhist scripture to carry with them at all times.
The monk wasn’t excluding Gu Yi’an; he had simply discerned that she was a ghost keeper and didn’t need exorcism, so he politely asked her to wait outside the hall.
Gu Yi’an knew that places like temples were probably disliked by the notebook, the hanged ghost, and the little girl alike.
After informing the other players, she left the temple and found a quaint, stylish-looking milk tea shop by the street to sit in.
Gu Yi’an ordered a milk tea and sat alone in a corner of the shop.
She wasn’t idle, though. She took out her phone, registered an account on a social media platform, and even bought twenty additional accounts for the same platform on an online trading site.
Once she had the accounts, she began posting about the hidden cameras installed in that hotel.
Next came the task of driving traffic, getting netizens to watch her videos.
Gu Yi’an browsed the web to find popular forums and message boards in this country, where she posted attention-grabbing threads with titles like, "Went to a hotel with my girlfriend, and she ended up…"
The titles were suggestive but intentionally left incomplete, only providing a link to her webpage.
As expected, many curious netizens, their minds wandering to the wrong places, eagerly clicked the link.
The result was obvious, Gu Yi’an successfully used clickbait titles to draw a crowd of curious onlookers to her newly created account.
Watching the comments and shares pile up under her video posts, Gu Yi’an knew her content was gaining some traction online.
Now, she could take a short break.
Setting her phone aside, she picked up her milk tea and took a small sip.
Her gaze fell on the open notebook lying on the table.
A new line of text had appeared on its page:
"I want to drink milk tea too."
A notebook wanting milk tea, did it plan to soak itself in it?
Did it genuinely want to drink milk tea?
Gu Yi’an couldn’t quite grasp the notebook’s intention.
Was there some hidden meaning behind milk tea?
After a moment’s thought, she decided there probably wasn’t.
It was just past 11 a.m., and the sun outside was blazing fiercely.
Sitting in the air-conditioned milk tea shop with her jacket on, Gu Yi’an felt perfectly comfortable.
She was the only customer left in the shop.
The staff had just received their takeout order and paid no attention to the lone patron.
Gu Yi’an looked at the notebook and said softly, "You’re not human. You can’t drink it."
Immediately, a new line appeared on the notebook: "I can turn into a human."
Gu Yi’an: "?"
The notebook could turn into a person?