Chapter 6: The Women
“Hey, were the lyrics of the nursery rhyme you heard today the same as these?”
Even though Lu Shufan had volunteered to join this death game, he was actually terrified of ghosts. Trembling, he tucked his hands into his sleeves, barely helping to hold the heavy stone monument in place.
Shi Yuntian scratched his head. “I didn’t listen that closely. I think the second half was a little different.”
“Beneath the river, in the barren hills, wronged souls lie buried in snow for eighteen years,” Yu Qimiao read aloud, his eyebrows pulled into a tight frown.
They had thought the song the creepy old bachelors sang was weird enough. But reading this hidden version carved into the stone sent ice-cold chills down their spines.
Because Su Qiong was a newly created NPC, he didn’t know much about human society. He silently finished reading the carving, observed the pale faces of the three players, and calmly stated, “We’re getting close to the truth.”
The moment the words left his mouth, a mechanical system notification chimed in the air.
[System: NPC Su Qiong has triggered the hidden quest, “The Women.” Please complete the quest according to the available clues.]
After a moment of dead silence, a rare trace of confusion leaked into the system’s robotic voice.
[…Why did an NPC trigger an instance quest?]
In the world of IF, quests were divided into two main categories: main quests and side quests. Completing the main quest let players escape the level, while side quests gave bonus points. Hidden quests were incredibly rare, much harder, and offered massive rewards. But according to the rules, quests were strictly for players. What right did an NPC have to trigger one?
Su Qiong rolled his nonexistent eyes. Why are you asking me? I’m the one who wants to ask you!
He had just been trying to help the players survive. Who knew the game would dump a massive, difficult quest directly onto his shoulders? Worst of all, the trashy system wasn’t even going to pay him for the extra work!
Half a minute passed before the system finally accepted reality and officially issued the quest details to Su Qiong’s screen.
[Hidden Quest for the “Poverty” Instance: The Women.] [Quest Description: Find the missing “women” of Gangan Village, fulfill their wishes, and uncover the truth behind the instance.] [Quest Difficulty: E—Peaceful.]
Once the announcement finished, the system’s voice vanished completely.
The group exchanged worried looks.
“I’m too lazy to use my brain when I play games. I hate puzzle quests,” Shi Yuntian grumbled, scratching his head. “What happens if the quest fails?”
“Game failure,” Su Qiong answered cruelly. As for what actually happened to players who failed, no one knew for sure yet.
“What do we do now?”
“First, put the monument back. Don’t alert the other players.”
“Mm-hmm. Okay!”
Following Su Qiong’s orders, the three men lifted the heavy stone monument and carried it all the way back to the village entrance. Exhausted, they sneaked back into their cave and collapsed.
Deep in the night, the strange, freezing wind continued to seep into the cave. Unable to figure out where it was coming from, Su Qiong simply gave up and rested. After running around the city and the village all day, the three players were dead on their feet. The moment they closed their eyes, they fell into a deep, heavy sleep.
The next morning, they were jolted awake by panicked screams echoing outside.
“Ah! Where’s my money?!” “It’s gone! All my money is gone!” “Why are you crying about money right now?! Haven’t you noticed people are missing?!” “I just checked the caves. Over twenty players are gone!”
The three men stumbled out of bed, drowsily asking what was going on.
Su Qiong raised his black bracelet and started typing an explanation. Halfway through, he suddenly remembered he had bought the voice upgrade. Why am I going through all this trouble typing?
He solemnly cleared his throat. In his sweet, soft voice, he explained, “The instance NPC took action. Their quests failed.”
The instance NPC?
Hearing Su Qiong’s reminder, the players finally remembered that IF was completely controlled by its boss monsters. The entire village operated according to the whims of the instance NPC. Because the boss hadn’t done anything for the first two days, they had almost forgotten it was out there.
“Do you know why they vanished?” Lu Shufan asked.
“My authority is too low to know for sure. I’ll go outside and investigate,” Su Qiong said, tucking away his control panel and floating out of the cave.
By the time he got outside, Those Who Obey Me Win had already ordered his followers to gather info on the missing players. Because he held the only strategy guide, most of the players practically worshipped him, which meant the data he collected was incredibly detailed.
Su Qiong floated right up to him.
Seeing the system NPC approach, raw greed flashed in the murderer’s eyes. He desperately wanted the loot and experience points the marshmallow would drop. But then he remembered having his head sliced off yesterday, and he fearfully rubbed his neck.
“Stay away from me!” Those Who Obey Me Win shouted, backing up and drawing an invisible line in the air.
Su Qiong stopped. He tilted his harmless, puffy white head and pointed at the notebook in the man’s hands.
“You want to read my notes? Why should I let you?” the man mocked. “You’re a system NPC. Don’t tell me there are things even you don’t know!”
Because Su Qiong had very little social experience, he completely missed the sarcasm. In his sincere, adorable voice, he asked politely, “Can I trade you some other information for it?”
Those Who Obey Me Win froze. Damn it. Why does my conscience suddenly hurt?
Su Qiong could easily have run to Boss Shi and had the giant gamer take the notebook by force. He could have used “I won’t let my teammates cut your head off today” as a threat. Instead, he chose to negotiate politely and fairly.
The murderer suddenly reflected on his own behavior. Aside from letting his teammates chop off his head—which honestly hadn’t hurt for that long—the NPC had never actually been mean to him. Meanwhile, the player had constantly yelled at the little marshmallow and plotted to kill him.
His attitude softened just a bit. Raising his chin, he muttered, “Tell me what you’re offering first.”
Su Qiong had plenty of clues, but most of them were connected. If he shared too much, he might accidentally expose the hidden quest. He didn’t mind helping another player, but he had promised Yu Qimiao to keep the quest a secret for now.
After thinking for a moment, Su Qiong said, “I can tell you the elimination condition.”
“Really?!” Before the murderer could answer, the players surrounding him panicked with excitement.
They didn’t care about hidden quests or bonus points; they just wanted to survive. Waking up to find half the players gone had terrified them. The unknown was always the scariest thing. If they knew the rules for elimination, they could at least try to stay alive.
Hearing the desperate pleas of his followers, Those Who Obey Me Win stopped trying to bargain and handed the notebook over.
Su Qiong skimmed the pages, focusing on the stats of the missing players. He quickly pieced together the truth.
He handed the notebook back. “The instance NPC’s ability seems to be a form of collecting collateral,” Su Qiong explained softly. “The players who successfully earned money in the city yesterday had their money taken away. But the players who didn’t earn anything had themselves taken as collateral.”
“How could that be…” a player whispered in horror.
“So… the money we risked our lives to earn just disappears? But if we don’t earn any money, we disappear instead?”
“Based on how the system operates, yes. That seems to be the case,” Su Qiong confirmed.
A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the crowd.
Their despair didn’t come from being poor. It came from remembering how hopeful they had felt last night, thinking that if they just worked hard enough in the city, they could escape poverty.
Now they finally understood why the game called “Poverty” an incurable terminal illness. You were born at the bottom, and you were meant to stay there for all eternity. No matter how hard you worked, the system would always take it away.
Normally, Su Qiong didn’t feel emotions. But in that moment, the crushing despair of the human players seemed to infect him. Fulfilling his duty as a guide, he offered a gentle reminder: “Please obey the rules, and do your best to survive.”
Pulling his gray cloak tighter around himself, he floated back to the cave and shared his deductions with the Orphan Alliance.
“So you’re saying the boss either takes our money, or it takes our lives?” Lu Shufan asked.
“Mm,” Su Qiong nodded. “Yesterday in the city, I paid attention to the other players. All twenty-something people who vanished last night were players who failed to earn a single cent.”
“You’re amazing! You found a crucial clue while keeping track of all those details,” Lu Shufan beamed. “I’m never calling you Useless Little Pastry again!”
“…” Su Qiong ignored him and turned to Yu Qimiao, who was staring blankly into space. “Is something wrong?”
“I believe your deduction, but…” Yu Qimiao slowly opened his digital inventory. “The money I earned is still here.”
“What?!” Lu Shufan and Shi Yuntian, who had both woken up completely broke, stared in shock. They immediately began cursing the system for playing favorites.
“The system wouldn’t favor one player over another,” Su Qiong said, shaking his head. “And the instance NPC definitely used its skill last night. It must have an activation condition, and you somehow avoided it. Have you done anything unusual since we got here?”
“No,” Yu Qimiao answered honestly. “I’ve been with you guys the whole time.”
“I know!” Lu Shufan snapped his fingers. “It’s because you left some of your money invested in the city!”
“Impossible. The city is still part of the game instance,” Su Qiong corrected him. Even if the invested money was safe, the cash Yu Qimiao had brought back to the village should have vanished.
“Ugh, my head hurts. Forget it! Who cares?” Shi Yuntian threw a heavy arm around Yu Qimiao’s shoulders like they were best brothers. “As long as Boss Yu still has his money, all three of us can clear the game!”
Yu Qimiao shoved the heavy arm off in disgust. “Just because I didn’t trigger the rule today doesn’t mean I won’t trigger it tomorrow. It’s not safe. We need to find a way to complete Su Qiong’s hidden quest.”
“Alright. We’ll listen to the boss!”
Because the bus wouldn’t return for two days, they had plenty of time to search the village. By now, the other players had already turned over every visible rock in Gangan Village, and Su Qiong had thoroughly scouted the area on his first night. Searching normally wouldn’t work.
Thankfully, Su Qiong had found the nursery rhyme last night. Lu Shufan had been too terrified to listen closely, but Su Qiong—having no concept of fear—had memorized the lyrics and analyzed them perfectly.
When the old bachelors sang the song yesterday, the lyrics had changed slightly from the first day. Su Qiong realized that if you combined the bachelors’ version with the carved monument version, it formed a twisted question-and-answer dialogue between a man and a woman:
Man: Gangan Village, nothing but bare branches. Where is my mountain of gold? Woman: Gangan Village, nothing but bare branches. Your mountain of gold is over there. Man: Ask my mother, ask my sister. Where is my mountain of gold? Woman: Beneath the river, in the barren hills, wronged souls lie buried in snow for eighteen years.
The final answer to the riddle was clear: “Beneath the river, in the barren hills.”
If Su Qiong was right, those were the two places they would find “the women.” And considering the phrase “wronged souls,” the women they were looking for were likely already dead.
Su Qiong shared his analysis, and Yu Qimiao entirely agreed. They decided to split into two teams. Lu Shufan, being a coward, chose the “barren hills” over the creepy, blood-red river. Shi Yuntian went with him.
Su Qiong and Yu Qimiao agreed to explore the river that evening at dusk—the hour when demons emerged, and the only time the true Yang-Yin River revealed itself.
“The stone monument specifically said, ‘Men Must Not Enter This River,'” Yu Qimiao pointed out, looking down at himself nervously. “How am I supposed to cross?”
Su Qiong looked the billionaire up and down. In his sweet, solemn voice, he asked, “I have a way. Are you willing to entrust yourself to me?”
“…I am,” Yu Qimiao answered after a stunned pause.
What kind of method did he have? Su Qiong sounded so incredibly serious that Yu Qimiao almost felt like the marshmallow was proposing to him.
“Little Pastry, what’s your method?” Lu Shufan asked, leaning in.
Su Qiong didn’t answer. He just swatted Lu Shufan with a bandage arm, shooing him out of the cave.
Mercilessly kicked out, Lu Shufan dragged his feet as he and Shi Yuntian hiked up into the barren hills.
According to Su Qiong, there were several abandoned caves carved into the upper slopes. The NPC had tried to peek inside before, but the heavy wooden doors were nailed and locked tight.
When Shi Yuntian and Lu Shufan arrived at the first abandoned cave, they saw the heavy iron lock was still perfectly intact. Clearly, the other players who had explored up here had failed to break in.
“Stand back,” Shi Yuntian ordered. He drew his massive sword, raised it high, and brought it down on the door with terrifying force.
“Boss Shi, can you really do it?” Lu Shufan asked nervously. He knew Shi Yuntian’s sword was just the basic beginner weapon the system gave to everyone. It looked scary, but its stats were low. Even the players who had leveled up to Level 2 or 3 hadn’t been able to scratch these doors. How could a Level 1 player possibly—
Before Lu Shufan could finish his thought, a loud CRACK echoed through the hills.
Fissures spider-webbed across the heavy wooden door. Under the sheer, monstrous physical strength of the Berserker, the reinforced door exploded into splinters.
Resting the blade easily on his shoulder, Shi Yuntian strolled into the dark cave.
He didn’t find the women, nor did he find their bodies.
The abandoned cave was much larger than the ones the villagers lived in. It stretched incredibly deep into the mountain, disappearing into the pitch-black darkness. Lined up against the stone walls on both sides were massive, heavy iron cages.
They looked exactly like the holding cages used for dogs in a slaughterhouse. Thick, rusted iron chains lay coiled inside them.
The two men walked deeper, passing at least a dozen of the horrific cages. At the very end of the tunnel, their path was blocked by another heavy reinforced door.
“Strange. There’s nothing in here,” Shi Yuntian grunted, scratching his head. He was starting to think Su Qiong’s theory was wrong.
But Lu Shufan wasn’t smiling anymore. His face was dead serious. He crouched down next to one of the cages, reached through the bars, and picked up the end of a rusted chain.
He stared silently at the heavy iron cuffs and shackles attached to it. Slowly, he held his own wrists and ankles up to the metal rings.
They were slightly smaller than his own bones, but there was no mistaking their shape. They were explicitly designed for human beings.
“Stop looking at them, they’re just iron cages,” Shi Yuntian said casually. “This is a realistic instance. I don’t care how haunted this village is, a ghost can’t turn a living person into an iron cage.”
“You’re right. People can’t be turned into cages,” Lu Shufan whispered, his eyes turning incredibly dark. “But what if…”
He looked at the slaughterhouse setup around them.
“What if they treated people like dogs… or pigs?”
