There Must Be Something Wrong With This Game!

Chapter 19: Chapter 19: Let the Game Come to a True End

Duan Fei sat on the sofa, arms crossed, deducing the nature of this instance based on the available intel.

’The Monster Boys Gang, the Little Gangsters’ Gang, the City Lord Gang... These three should be different factions. Why do they all want us dead?’

On the little gangster’s phone, the names and faces of all five of them were listed, along with an assessment of each person’s danger level.

For example, Cuihua’s danger level was "Extremely High," while Alice’s was "Extremely Low."

Duan Fei himself was listed as a priority target because he possessed "Mysterious Eastern Qi Gong," giving him special skills in repair and first aid.

’The mysterious East... what a convenient catch-all.’

Before long, Little Fatty had cracked the problem with the phone. Handing it back, he said, "It was a simple backdoor program. It was set to increase the electrical current to ignite the battery and self-destruct. I’ve modified it, so there shouldn’t be any more problems."

Turning the phone back on, Duan Fei saw that the emergency mission hadn’t changed, but Little Fatty’s profile had been updated.

A new line appeared under his name: "Proficient in programming."

Duan Fei scanned the surroundings but found no hidden cameras. Besides, they had chosen this house at random, so it was unlikely someone could have planted cameras in advance.

’Which means the enemy can track them using some other, more covert method. They might even be watching and listening to us right now.’

’Mission... targets... Gods...’

’Brand new tires... a cell phone clearly anachronistic for this era...’

These small details began to add up, giving Duan Fei a faint inkling of the truth. He immediately said to Little Fatty, "Little Fatty, get on Fly Letter."

"Duan Someone, have you figured something out again?"

"It’s not a guess. It’s a deduction."

"If you ask me, your so-called deductions are basically shamanistic rituals. I can never figure out how the detective solves it at the end of mystery novels anyway."

"...Cut the crap. Remember to invite Cuihua."

"Forget it. He’s so aloof. Why would he ever join our Fly Letter group?"

"Let’s just try. I have a feeling Cuihua isn’t as cold as he seems."

After being asked to join the Fly Letter chat, Cuihua, who was standing guard at the door, shot to his feet and stammered incoherently, "Join... join... join..."

"He says, ’Join my ass! Am I the kind of person you can just add like that?!’" Little Fatty immediately translated. "See? I told you it wouldn’t work. We’ll just discuss it between the two of us."

But to Little Fatty’s surprise, Cuihua shoved him aside, grabbed Duan Fei’s hand, and said, "Join... I’ll definitely join..."

Seeing how eager Cuihua was, Duan Fei felt that he really wasn’t as aloof as he had imagined.

Duan Fei created a temporary group chat. As soon as Cuihua was added, Cuihua—whose profile picture was a chrysanthemum—was the first to speak.

"Oh my god, I finally made some friends. I won’t lie to you guys, this game is too realistic. So realistic I’ve been scared to even open my mouth."

Little Fatty: "..."

’What’s up with the aloof master?’

"Actually, I have really bad social anxiety in real life. I can’t even say a single word when I meet strangers, so people I meet for the first time think I don’t like talking. By the second time we meet, they’re too intimidated to approach me. And since I’m not used to initiating conversations, I somehow ended up with the ’cold and aloof male god’ title. There’s really nothing to that title; I don’t like it one bit."

"...But you’re talking a lot now!" Little Fatty couldn’t help but shout.

"It’s fine when I’m using a chat app, but unfortunately, I’ve never added anyone before. To be honest, besides my parents and my little sister, you two are the first people I’ve ever added on Fly Letter."

Reading this, Little Fatty felt an inexplicable surge of happiness.

’Becoming friends with the great Cuihua... now that’s something to brag about.’

Although his impression of Cuihua as a cold, aloof idol had been shattered, the current Cuihua was much more approachable, and it felt less awkward to interact with him.

But then he remembered his earlier "translation," and Little Fatty typed sheepishly, "Sorry, I totally mistranslated what you said earlier."

"It’s fine, I’m used to it. We can just communicate on Fly Letter from now on. Anyway, I see you’ve been analyzing something, Duan Someone. Did you figure anything out? Is it related to our instance mission, ’Complete the Game’?"

"Yes," Duan Fei replied. "The phrase ’Complete the Game’ is a hint in itself. We’ve been thrown into a survival game."

Cuihua: "A survival game? Ah, I saw a movie like that once. Went to the theater by myself. It was pretty good. A group of young people get chosen by some evil capitalist, thrown into an arena, and forced to kill each other until only one person is left alive."

"Exactly. That’s probably our situation now. What we know so far is that we’re being hunted by three factions: the Monster Boys Gang in the desert, the Little Gangsters’ Gang in the city, and the City Lord Gang. What I’m more concerned about are their so-called ’Gods.’ Both the Monster Boys Gang and the Little Gangsters’ Gang mentioned the Gods, so I suspect the Gods are real here."

Little Fatty: "Wait, this is an apocalyptic instance, not a fantasy one. There shouldn’t be any fantasy elements."

"Right. That’s why I don’t think the Gods are gods in the literal sense, but rather an audience. Someone is using some kind of high-tech to monitor us and entertain themselves by watching our actions. In a way, technology that advanced is basically indistinguishable from Magic and mythology."

Little Fatty thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

’If Duan Fei’s theory is right, then all the illogical parts of this instance suddenly make sense.’

’This whole apocalyptic world is just a giant stage. The capitalists use it to constantly select new contestants, then place bets on the three different factions to see who can ’reap’ them first.’

’No wonder Duan Fei insisted on using Fly Letter. It’s because they’re being monitored in the game; every spoken word risks leaking information.’

After thinking it through, Little Fatty asked, "So what should we do?"

"Complete the game. There are a few ways to do that. First, we could just survive for 12 hours. That’s one possibility. Second, we could contact the leadership of one of the three factions and sacrifice one of our own in exchange for their support, and we could probably get a lot of supplies out of it too. After all, the three factions are competing over us for the Gods. As long as one of them takes the lead, the rest of us will be fine."

"The second option sounds doable," Little Fatty typed.

"So who are you prepared to sacrifice? The one who gets sacrificed gets no reward, so none of us players will agree to it. If we sacrifice Mary, I won’t do it. After all, my character setting is a doting father who loves his daughter more than his own life, and I don’t want to break character. If we were to sacrifice Alice..."

"Absolutely not!" Cuihua immediately replied. "Even if it’s a game, I won’t sacrifice a child."

"See? No one is expendable. That’s why I suggest we take the hardest path, which is also the most exciting one."

"What path is that?" Little Fatty asked nervously.

"End this game for real," Duan Fei typed. "Let’s bring this game to its true conclusion."