Chapter 10: The Ultimate Patsy
“You must hand over the money today!” “If you don’t, not a single person in Gangan Village is getting away with this!”
There were far more debt collectors storming the village today than the day before. A gang of tall, muscular men marched through the dirt roads carrying wooden clubs and steel pipes. They were completely ruthless. If a villager couldn’t pay, the thugs immediately resorted to violence.
Several of the indebted villagers truly had no money left to give. After being brutally beaten over the head, they clutched their bleeding skulls and suffered total emotional breakdowns.
“Money, money, money! Money is all you people care about!” “If all the money we worked so hard for didn’t just disappear, we would’ve paid off that lousy debt ages ago!” “There’s nothing left for me to live for anyway! Go ahead and hit me! You might as well just beat me to death!”
There’s an old saying: those willing to beat others fear those willing to kill, and killers fear those with absolutely nothing to lose.
The burly debt collectors had heard the horrifying rumors about Gangan Village. Afraid that pushing these cannibalistic monsters too far might result in them never leaving the village alive, the thugs gritted their teeth, spat out a few more threats, and stormed off cursing.
The shameless villagers, who had just been wailing on the ground as if the sky were falling, instantly rolled to their feet and dusted themselves off. As if nothing had happened, they strolled over to Granny Li’s cave.
“Hey, Village Chief,” one of them said shamelessly. “We finished the pig that was slaughtered before the New Year. Go bring back some more food.”
The moment he heard the word “pig,” Lu Shufan instinctively grabbed his stomach, crouched in the corner, and began retching painfully. Help. A dead memory has suddenly returned to attack me.
Granny Li looked completely accustomed to the request. “Alright. I’ll go back to my parents’ home at noon and bring back some meat and vegetables.”
Yu Qimiao patted Lu Shufan’s back in sympathy and quietly turned to Su Qiong. “What are we doing today?”
They had already uncovered the horrific secrets of Gangan Village. They could only investigate the Yin-Yang River at night, and the bus into the city wouldn’t return until tomorrow. The three men had absolutely nothing to do during the day.
Su Qiong tapped his black bracelet. “Perhaps I’m being overly suspicious, but we only have two days left in the instance, and there is still one major threat we have no clues about.”
“What is it?”
“The instance NPC,” Su Qiong answered softly.
Yu Qimiao frowned. “Is the boss really that important right now?”
“Extremely important,” Su Qiong nodded. “Do you remember the system notification when we entered? It said there was more than one way to clear the game.”
Shi Yuntian cracked his knuckles. “Right. That’s why I wanted to test if killing every other player and NPC would count as clearing the level.”
“It wouldn’t,” Su Qiong explained patiently. “According to the system’s rules, there are basically three ways to clear a puzzle instance. First: raise the instance NPC’s affection toward you. Second: complete a hidden quest and earn the instance NPC’s acknowledgment. Third: defeat the instance NPC in combat.”
Lu Shufan wiped his mouth, looking pale. “That’s a pretty standard definition for a video game.”
“I summarized that from the main server’s records,” Su Qiong continued. “But the biggest difference between IF and other games is that its NPCs have true self-awareness, and we are divided into red-name and white-name factions.”
“So what?” Shi Yuntian asked.
Su Qiong tilted his puffy head. “But I have absolutely no clues about who the instance NPC is.”
Because Su Qiong was only Level 0, the system gave him extremely limited information. However, Su Qiong was incredibly logical and analytical. He was great at piecing together tiny clues to point the players in the right direction.
But the instance NPC was a total blank spot. He didn’t even know where to start looking.
“That’s normal,” Lu Shufan waved a hand. “Villainous bosses always hide themselves well. Based on my extensive experience with puzzle games, the boss will definitely pop out at the very end of the level for a dramatic final showdown.”
Su Qiong shook his head firmly. “He won’t appear voluntarily.”
Three giant question marks practically materialized over the players’ heads.
“Why not?”
Su Qiong answered seriously, “Because I’m still alive.”
He explained, “White-name NPCs and red-name NPCs are natural enemies. In any ordinary game instance, the red-name boss will actively seek out the white-name guide NPC and try to kill them right at the start.”
Su Qiong paused, raising a white, puffy hand to his featureless face.
“Have I ever mentioned that I don’t have eyes?”
“What?!” Three bewildered faces stared at him.
They had spent four days with the little marshmallow, yet none of them had noticed he was completely blind.
“I don’t have a physical body, so obviously I don’t have eyes,” Su Qiong said with complete confidence, as if this were perfectly logical.
“…” They couldn’t really argue with that.
“I directly sense players and NPCs through the fluctuations of their biological and digital signatures. Your goodwill and malice are extremely obvious to me.” Su Qiong continued, “Since entering this instance, I’ve sensed a great deal of hostility from the other players… but absolutely none from any NPC.”
Shi Yuntian guiltily rubbed his nose and pretended to admire the ceiling, remembering how he had tried to slice the marshmallow in half on day one.
“The instance NPC hasn’t even come out to try and kill me.” Su Qiong concluded, “Therefore, they will not reveal themselves voluntarily.”
Yu Qimiao suddenly understood. “So we have no choice but to hunt them down ourselves?”
“Mm. I suspect the boss is hiding somewhere inside the village. Since we have nothing planned today, the three of you can split up and observe the villagers. Maybe you’ll discover which one is the instance NPC.”
Just as Su Qiong finished his sentence, Granny Li’s gentle voice called out from the entrance.
“I’m taking my granddaughter back to my parents’ home to collect some things today. Who is willing to lend an old woman a hand?”
The Orphan Alliance exchanged a quick look. Shi Yuntian slowly raised his hand.
“I’ll go. I’m strong.”
In reality, during their silent eye-contact conversation just a second ago, his two teammates had firmly told him: You go. You don’t have a brain for puzzles, so you won’t be useful investigating the village anyway.
Unable to express his impotent rage, Shi Yuntian grumpily followed Granny Li out of Gangan Village. He dragged Su Qiong along with him, hoping that entering a new map area might trigger a system hint.
“I married a man from a nearby village. My parents’ home is only a few miles away,” Granny Li chatted warmly. “Ah, we’re here. It’s that tiled house up ahead.”
Following her pointing finger, Su Qiong saw a massive, conspicuous three-story brick villa towering over the surrounding single-story shacks.
“Wow, your family’s pretty rich!” Shi Yuntian blurted out bluntly.
“That isn’t my home,” Granny Li corrected him softly. “It’s my parents’ home.”
“Is there a difference?”
Li Ting, the introverted teenage granddaughter, finally spoke up, her voice gloomy. “Grandmother says that once a woman marries out, she no longer has a home.”
“Huh?” Shi Yuntian looked completely baffled.
Granny Li unhooked a key from her waist and inserted it into the lock. She twisted it forcefully three or four times before the heavy door finally opened.
The villa was even more spacious inside than it appeared from the street. There was a lush vegetable garden in the courtyard, clearly where the vegetables they had eaten over the past few days were grown.
Granny Li left her granddaughter outside to pick vegetables, then led her two helpers straight toward the backyard.
There were two routes to the backyard: walk straight through the luxurious house, or walk around the muddy side path.
Granny Li chose to walk around the side.
Su Qiong floated after her, sensing something was strange, but he couldn’t put his finger on exactly what it was.
“Something’s wrong,” Shi Yuntian muttered quietly. Amazingly, the brainless Berserker was actually analyzing the situation. “It’s far too quiet here.”
Indeed, Su Qiong couldn’t hear a single human voice inside the massive house. But that wasn’t what was bothering the little NPC.
“Also,” Shi Yuntian continued, “she hasn’t been home in a long time, but she didn’t even go inside to greet her family.”
That was it! The piece of code, who understood very little about human relationships, finally recognized what felt so off. Granny Li showed absolutely no intention of saying hello to her family. Instead, she had deliberately avoided walking through the house.
“We should…” Su Qiong started to suggest testing the waters.
But before he could even finish the sentence, Shi Yuntian yelled out, “Hey, Village Chief! Where’s the rest of your family?!”
Su Qiong: …You truly are reckless.
Granny Li didn’t look back. She walked straight into the backyard and replied casually, “They’ve gone on a long journey.”
“You don’t have a phone,” Shi Yuntian pressed. “How do you know they went away?”
“Every time I come here, they’ve gone on a long journey.”
“You—” Shi Yuntian was about to interrogate her further, but Su Qiong quickly whipped his bandages over Shi Yuntian’s mouth, signaling him to speak less. Some game NPCs were highly volatile and would instantly enter a berserk state if questioned too aggressively.
Granny Li unlocked the heavy wooden door to the pigsty. She drove out two plump, incredibly well-fed pigs.
“Several new mouths have appeared in the village recently. Let’s bring back two pigs today.”
Seeing the squealing, very obviously animal pigs, Shi Yuntian became more excited than if he had just encountered his own ancestors.
“Village Chief! So the meat we ate the other day really was pork, and not—”
Terrified the idiot was about to say “human flesh,” Su Qiong violently clamped his bandages over Shi Yuntian’s mouth again.
In that moment, Su Qiong missed Lu Shufan immensely. Sometimes, the gap in linguistic talent between two human beings was even wider than the gap between a human and a piece of code.
“Of course it was pork. What else could it possibly have been?” Granny Li gave Shi Yuntian two deeply puzzled looks. “All the grain, pork, and vegetables eaten in the village are brought over from my parents’ home.”
Desperate to smooth things over, Su Qiong quickly chimed in with his sweet voice. “I see. You truly are a good village chief.”
Because his player was far too blunt, Su Qiong had no choice but to work overtime doing damage control.
“Ah, I’m only a woman. How could I be worthy of serving as village chief?” Granny Li sighed heavily. “The original village chief was my husband.”
“Your husband is now…?” Su Qiong asked gently, imitating human communication techniques to see how far he could push.
“He died early. He passed away on the third day after I married into the village.”
The third day?!
No wonder Granny Li had managed to survive marrying into Gangan Village!
After crossing the Yin-Yang River, Su Qiong had heard the ghostly women crying about how they thought marrying a husband meant they would finally have someone to rely on. And what happened? The men they trusted turned the butcher’s knife on them.
Meanwhile, the one woman who had absolutely no one to depend on had survived safely until now.
How incredibly ironic. Utterly, tragically ironic.
“If that’s the case, why did you stay in Gangan Village?” Shi Yuntian asked, ripping the bandages off his mouth. Judging by Granny Li’s age, she must have stayed in that hellhole for at least thirty years. Compared to Gangan Village’s barren mountains and crumbling caves, her childhood home was a literal mansion.
Was a husband who had existed in her life for only three days really worth sacrificing thirty years?
“If I didn’t stay in Gangan Village, where else could I go?” Granny Li’s voice was completely numb, long resigned to her fate. “Tingting and I belong to Gangan Village now. Where we come from, a daughter no longer has a home from the day she marries out.”
“Bullshit! What kind of feudal garbage custom is that?!” Shi Yuntian snapped gruffly. “In the world where I live, women can study and work! They can become corporate bosses, celebrities, or presidents! They can support an entire family all by themselves!”
“He’s right,” Su Qiong added softly. “Marriage is merely an optional attachment to a woman’s social identity. It does not define her.”
Hearing their words, Granny Li froze. Her aged, cloudy eyes flickered, and a faint, desperate light appeared within them.
“Really?” she whispered. “Is there truly such a wonderful place in this world?”
Shi Yuntian opened his mouth to say something else, but he forcibly swallowed the words. Granny Li was merely an ordinary NPC who could never leave this instance. No matter how beautifully he described the outside world, he could not invite her to see it for herself.
While Shi Yuntian stood there lost in miserable thought, Su Qiong poked him in the arm.
“We just discovered a new clue and triggered two new notifications.”
Shi Yuntian blinked. “What notifications?”
Su Qiong held his black bracelet in front of him.
[System Notification: This instance is an existence-type instance. Its primary storyline has been adapted from a true story.]
[System Notification: Instance NPC affection +0.5 / 100]
Su Qiong carefully read the first system notification and considered its terrifying implications.
Shi Yuntian, meanwhile, zeroed in on the second notification and complained in disgust. “Only 0.5?! This boss is so stingy!”
“Shh—!” Su Qiong quickly motioned for him to lower his voice, turning his puffy white head toward Granny Li.
Shi Yuntian immediately slapped a hand over his mouth. He squeezed a panicked whisper through the gaps of his fingers. “Could she be the instance NPC?”
“Very likely,” Su Qiong whispered back. “Let’s discuss it after we return. For now, don’t alert her.”
Naturally, he wanted to march up to Granny Li and ask directly if she was the boss. However, player bracelets were completely disabled in this village, which proved the instance NPC did not want their identity exposed.
If Granny Li really was the boss, and Su Qiong—a white-name NPC—exposed her on the spot in this quiet, deserted courtyard, she would most likely instantly slaughter both him and Shi Yuntian to silence them. The boss possessed enough energy to maintain the entire game instance; killing the two of them would be easier than killing the two pigs currently frolicking in the yard.
Shi Yuntian rarely used his brain, but this time, he carefully weighed the pros and cons. Swallowing his anger, he helped drive the two pigs back toward Gangan Village.
By the time they returned, the sun was beginning to set. The filthy old bachelors had once again gathered at the dirt road, their faces numb and mindless as they chanted their creepy nursery rhyme.
This exact scene had repeated itself four times since they entered the game. Shi Yuntian’s ears had practically developed calluses from hearing the song. Without changing his expression, he simply walked around the old men.
After helping Granny Li herd the pigs into a pen near the abandoned caves, Shi Yuntian led Su Qiong back to find Yu Qimiao.
Before they even got close, they heard a bloodcurdling scream that sounded exactly like a pig being slaughtered.
“What’s going on?” Shi Yuntian spun around. “I put the pigs at the back of the village! Why is the squealing coming from the entrance?”
“That doesn’t sound like a pig,” Su Qiong noted, listening carefully. “It’s the player, Those Who Obey Me Win.”
“What happened to that guy?” Confused, Shi Yuntian sprinted toward the source of the squeals.
When they arrived, they found Those Who Obey Me Win standing stiffly on his tiptoes atop a wobbly stack of stones.
Yu Qimiao had fashioned a proper hangman’s noose out of thick hemp rope and slipped it securely around the player’s neck. The other end was tied tightly to a protruding rock on the mountainside.
The murderer struggled to balance on the loose stones, barely creating enough slack to breathe. Stretching his neck painfully, he humbly tried to negotiate with the billionaire.
“Brother Yu, Boss Yu, please, can we use a different method? Being hanged really hurts!”
Yu Qimiao’s voice was gentle, refined, and entirely ruthless. “I know being hanged is painful, but my Su Qiong has absolutely no offensive abilities. I’m afraid you’ll just have to endure it.”
Those Who Obey Me Win looked deathly pale, his face drained of all hope.
Lu Shufan spotted the two returning companions and excitedly waved his arms. “Su-su! You’re finally back! Hurry, hurry! Little Yu just made a fantastic deal for you!”
While Shi Yuntian and Su Qiong had been outside the village, Yu Qimiao had quickly investigated the other villagers. He hadn’t found the boss, but he had stumbled upon Those Who Obey Me Win skulking around in a panic.
Over the last two days, the murderer had barely managed to scrape together enough money to stay in the game, either by killing mimicry NPCs or shaking down other players for information. However, as the number of players and NPCs dwindled, he had finally reached a dead end. If he didn’t have enough money by tomorrow morning, the instance NPC would forcibly eliminate him.
According to what they knew, dying or failing the instance didn’t seem to cause permanent harm to the players in the real world. However, Those Who Obey Me Win claimed to be IF’s one and only strategy guide. He had boasted to everyone that he was invincible. If he slunk away in defeat during the very first beginner level, his pride would be shattered forever.
Desperate, he had begged Yu Qimiao for a deal.
Yu Qimiao’s condition was incredibly simple: he wanted to purchase a complete set of physical senses for Su Qiong. Sight, hearing, taste, touch—everything. Altogether, it cost exactly 50 KPI in the system shop.
Over the past few days, Those Who Obey Me Win had slaughtered his way to Level 5. To give Su Qiong 50 KPI, the Level 5 player would have to be killed at least ten times.
Those Who Obey Me Win had already let them cut his head off once. For the sake of preserving his elite reputation, he gritted his teeth and agreed to the ten deaths.
…But never in his wildest nightmares did he imagine that Yu Qimiao would force him to die in such a slow, humiliating way!
Hanging by his neck, the murderer saw the adorable little marshmallow approaching and attempted one last, desperate struggle. “Can we use another method? Like last time?!”
“No,” Yu Qimiao rejected him instantly. “Shi Yuntian’s weapon is far too rough. I don’t want it to accidentally damage Su Qiong’s soft body. Please bear with it. I’m sorry.”
Shi Yuntian: …Sorry my weapon is so rough?!
Yu Qimiao said he was sorry, but his actions contained absolutely zero apology. He personally guided Su Qiong over to the stack of stones beneath the player’s feet.
Shi Yuntian and Lu Shufan shuddered simultaneously.
From having zero gaming experience on the first day, and grieving over the death of a fake NPC, to calmly engineering the repeated execution of another player—Yu Qimiao had completed a terrifying transformation in just four short days. If he kept adapting like this, he might become deadlier in this game than the veteran esports champion.
Su Qiong didn’t push the stones immediately. The simple-minded piece of code looked up and asked, “Is there something you need me to do?”
Yu Qimiao smiled warmly. “Just push over these stones. I calculated the physics. They’ll collapse with only a tiny bit of external force, and then Mr. Those Who Obey Me Win will be strangled to death.”
The man in the noose squeezed his eyes shut in despair.
“But why are you doing this?” Su Qiong asked in genuine confusion. He had already given Yu Qimiao all the clues he possessed. He had nothing left to trade.
Yu Qimiao found the question slightly strange, but answered honestly. “Once you possess a complete sensory system, it should be much easier for you to move around, shouldn’t it?”
Ever since the instance began, they had constantly made Su Qiong drag around a puffy body that could neither see nor hear properly while searching for clues. Su Qiong was extremely dedicated and had never once complained, but Yu Qimiao was practically drowning in guilt over it.
His current power was limited, so he couldn’t afford to buy Su Qiong the physical human body he wanted. However, purchasing senses didn’t require millions of KPI. Yu Qimiao felt it was achievable with just a little bit of extortion. With genuine senses, Su Qiong could move freely and protect himself better.
Su Qiong suddenly understood!
Yu Qimiao wanted him to have complete senses so he could gather more clues and guide them through the end of the instance!
When traced back to its roots, this is still merely an exchange of benefits between a player and an NPC. Su Qiong nodded to himself.
“Um…” Those Who Obey Me Win wheezed weakly from the rope. “Please. Anyone. Just finish me off.”
When he first entered the game, he had been surrounded, worshipped, and glowing with the radiance of an elite gamer. At this moment, he sincerely realized he had completely misunderstood his role in this game.
There were three invisible words stamped brightly across his forehead: ULTIMATE. DAMNED. PATSY.
“All right,” Su Qiong moved beside the stones and said in his sweetest voice, “Please bear with it.”
Those Who Obey Me Win: “…” Damn it. I’ve been completely bewitched by this marshmallow. Why else would the air seem so sweet right before I’m hanged to death?
“Ahhh—!”
After being brutally hanged to death five times in succession, Those Who Obey Me Win respawned, rubbing his bruised neck. He volunteered to help Yu Qimiao restack the stones himself, just to buy a few seconds to catch his breath.
Shi Yuntian stared at the lively patsy and rubbed his chin. “I have a question. I know players can revive infinitely in the beginner zone outside, but can they also revive endlessly after dying inside an actual instance?”
Those Who Obey Me Win frowned, finding it strange as well. “No. I killed several players for experience earlier this week, and the creepy Funeral Procession NPCs carried their bodies away immediately. They didn’t respawn.”
“Then…” Four pairs of eyes turned slowly toward Su Qiong.
Su Qiong had just purchased his hearing upgrade. He was happily poking the smooth sides of his marshmallow head where ears should have been, even though no physical ears had appeared. Previously, he could only “hear” by interpreting the players’ biological auras and digital signals. Now, he could clearly hear the actual tone, pitch, and emotion in their voices. It was eight hundred times better than brain waves!
“Say that again!” Su Qiong demanded excitedly, loving the sound of the voices.
“…” Fine.
The group cooperatively repeated the question. Only then did Su Qiong answer. “Because I’m a white-name guide NPC. Any attack inflicted by me deals strictly ‘purification damage’ to players.”
“Purification damage?”
“That’s right,” Su Qiong nodded. “According to the game’s rules, I am only allowed to attack players who have violated the rules. Those Who Obey Me Win murdered a mimicry NPC on the first night, which counted as a major violation. It would result in a massive point deduction when the instance is tallied. Purification attacks from a guide NPC don’t cause permanent death—they just offset those negative deductions.”
“!!!”
Those Who Obey Me Win had originally felt humiliated by the hanging and was deliberately dragging his feet. But the moment he heard Su Qiong’s explanation, he practically dived into the noose and eagerly urged the marshmallow to kick the stones away.
“Tsk, tsk. Have some dignity, man,” Shi Yuntian mocked.
Those Who Obey Me Win glared at him from the rope. “No matter how undignified I am right now, I’m still an esteemed Level 5 player! I might not compare to the top experts in Instance Two or Three, but I’m still miles stronger than a bottom-feeder like you from a weakling’s instance!”
Shi Yuntian hadn’t leveled up a single time since entering the game. Relying on his higher stats, the murderer loved dancing on the edge of the Berserker’s temper.
“Weakling? Who the hell are you calling weak?!” Shi Yuntian looked utterly incredulous.
“He isn’t entirely wrong,” Su Qiong said softly, pushing the stones over and sending the man choking into the air again. Su Qiong turned to Shi Yuntian. “Instance One is mathematically the easiest beginner instance. You are incredibly skilled at playing games, but only at playing games. You have no other exceptional survival abilities, and your intelligence rating is solidly average.”
Yu Qimiao couldn’t hold it back; he turned away and laughed out loud.
Lu Shufan gasped dramatically. “Average?! That giant meathead actually counts as average?! Are the rest of the players in IF okay?!”
“What do you two mean by that?!” Humiliated and furious, Shi Yuntian drew his massive sword and chased Lu Shufan in circles around the hanging man.
“I’m praising your intelligence! Boss Shi, spare me!” Lu Shufan screamed, fleeing for his life.
While the two idiots ran laps, Yu Qimiao stayed beside the hanging patsy and systematically purchased the rest of the complete sensory system for Su Qiong.
Seeing that the sun had finally set, the group sneaked over to the village entrance to steal the stone monument.
Those Who Obey Me Win had only just revived from his tenth death. He had no idea what was happening when Su Qiong pointed at the heavy stone and ordered him to help carry it.
“You dare order me around?!” The murderer widened his eyes indignantly.
“If you want to clear the level, shut up and lift. We aren’t carrying you through this game for free!” Shi Yuntian cracked him over the head with the hilt of his sword.
Together, they laboriously hauled the monument to the riverbank and placed it upside down atop the Sun-Moon River stone.
Thick, blood-red liquid began oozing from the stone, staining the carved characters and causing them to warp and change.
It was the patsy’s first time witnessing the supernatural horror of the Yin-Yang River. He was so terrified that a violent chill racked his body, and it looked like his soul might leave his body. The Orphan Alliance, already accustomed to the blood, watched the inscription closely.
Just as Su Qiong had predicted, the innocent, ghostly singing voice of a little girl echoed in their ears. New words bled into the stone, revealing the second half of the nursery rhyme.
Following the same logic as the first night, when the new lines were combined with the old bachelors’ song to form a twisted question-and-answer, it read:
Man: Gangan Village, nothing but bare branches. Where is my mountain of gold? Girl: Gangan Village, nothing but bare branches. Your mountain of gold is here. Man: Ask my mother, ask my sister. Where is my mountain of gold? Girl: It is your mother, it is your sister—drink their blood, gnaw their flesh, split their bones for the pot.
After hearing the horrifying second half of the rhyme, every single player froze. The same sickening realization crashed over them, sending waves of ice creeping up their spines.
“N-no way,” Lu Shufan stammered, backing away from the stone. “It can’t be what I’m thinking, can it?”
“Fuck!” Shi Yuntian roared in disgust. “Even a starving tiger won’t eat its own cubs! Are those monsters in the village even human?!”
They didn’t just butcher and eat the brides they bought. When times got desperate, they ate their own mothers and sisters.
Su Qiong said nothing.
He had only just purchased his physical sight, and the blood-red writing before him appeared exceptionally, terrifyingly clear.
As he stared at the bloody stone, a severely rule-breaking, incredibly sinister idea gradually took shape in his mind. He knew exactly what he wanted to do to Gangan Village.
[System Notification: Warning! Warning!]
[Abnormal fluctuations detected within white-name NPC Su Qiong’s core code. Brain-interference punishment will be administered.]
[Punishment will be carried out immediately—]
