Chapter 917: The End of an Era

In other words, I'm not like all the "Jidao"... They don't die, while I experienced "death and resurrection," which seems to be the handiwork of Bai Yang.

Lao Sun told me that whenever there's a situation where everyone dies, it's the best opportunity for "Jidao" to quickly find their teammates. Anyone still able to move around at that time is one hundred percent "Jidao."

Some people take advantage of this to meet and form friendships. I heard that the largest gathering once organized more than twenty people.

But the city is so vast, and the "Jidao" have no fixed meeting places, so everyone relies on luck to encounter others.

Lao Sun also said that these major shuffles almost always happen in the last few days of the ten-day cycle. This leaves survivors with little time to search for teammates, so they just go with the flow and recognize each other when they can.

I find this idea kind of interesting... It's like in the game of Werewolf, where all the werewolves reveal themselves in the dark.

That's great...

This means Jiang Ruoxue and Zhoumo are both fine... All the people I know are okay, I just don't know if I'll see them in the remaining days.

"Lao Sun, what day is it now?"

My question clearly caught him off guard.

"What the heck... Zhichun, my girl, have you lost track of the days?" Lao Sun said with a mix of laughter and exasperation. "How can someone from our 'Jidao' ask something like that?"

Yes, others might not, but for me, this question is very important.

"It's already the tenth day," Lao Sun said. "We're about to vanish, it's a shame we couldn't find more people."

After hearing that, I realized there was no way I'd find Jiang Ruoxue in this short time, so I sat down on a nearby stone stool to rest my numb arm.

Now I understand what Jiang Ruoxue meant by "why not shave your legs first before coming." If I had a choice, I'd want to change into a black skirt before this.

"Zhongyan Zhidi" is just too dirty. The air is filled with powder made from the flesh and blood of "participants," and it settles randomly on the ground and furniture. Whenever I sit down somewhere, it dirty my skirt.

"Lao Sun..." I said while flexing my arm, "have you met any interesting people lately?"

"Of course I have!" Lao Sun perked up suddenly. "My girl, let me tell you... I found a great buddy. Hmm... should I call him a buddy, though..."

"Who is it?"

"He's a fellow from 1983..." Lao Sun scratched his head. "It's weird, though—that guy was born in 1983, but he looks a good ten or twenty years older than me. How mysterious is that?"

"Uh... what's so great about him?" I asked.

"That kid's a 'Kuilei,' surname Deng. You can just call him Deng Ge when the time comes," Lao Sun said enthusiastically. "Wait for your big brother to set up a meeting, and I'll introduce you to Deng Ge. We're all straightforward folks."

"'Kuilei'...?" I paused. "What's that ability?"

"Well, how to put it..." Lao Sun thought for a moment, then looked at me with his innocent wide eyes. "My girl, you know... when we get abilities in this place, we usually only learn the name."

"Mm-hmm." I nodded. "Knowing the ability's name is already the best-case scenario. Some people get a vague 'Huixiang' and don't even realize it's their ability name showing up on the display screen outside."

"Exactly right." Lao Sun agreed. "So, once people see their 'Huixiang' name, they have to test it out. Deng, my buddy, did a bunch of experiments when he found out he was a 'Kuilei.'"

"Experiments?"

"Yeah, mainly to figure out what the ability does." Lao Sun continued. "According to Deng, it seems like he can transfer death from certain moments onto a corpse... But I just don't think that's quite right. He hasn't figured it out fully. If it's called 'Kuilei,' it should at least make the corpse move, don't you think?"

I knew Lao Sun was onto something—in this place, if you're crazy enough or forget you're even human, you could turn corpses, or even living people, into puppets.

I had a vague feeling this person could be useful later on, but now there was no way to find him. I asked Lao Sun about his appearance and learned he was a short, stout middle-aged man.

After that, Zhoumo came, and I watched Lao Sun turn to powder right in front of me.

It seems even the "rules" here have a clear order. The "Jidao" can avoid death from the major shuffle, but they can't escape Yimie.

Two cycles later, everything returned to normal.

People here were acting as if nothing had happened in Zhongyan Zhidi, and in the following two years, there were many major events.

First, Tianguo Kou made big moves. After moving into the school, they started aggressively recruiting "participants."

I'm a bit curious... Every "Da Xipai" lasts two cycles to ensure no one's memories are retained.

Yet their leader is still Chu Tianqiu.

I know for sure that person isn't "Jidao," but it's like he dodged the shuffle and kept his memories, even pulling in a powerful ally like Yunyao again.

I also heard Chu Tianqiu "picked up" an exceptionally strong "participant" on the streets, who, along with Yunyao, is considered a deputy leader.

It looks like Tianguo Kou's power is growing steadily.

Later, I saw Jiang Ruoxue again. She didn't seem very happy. No matter how I asked, she wouldn't tell me what had been going on lately. She just asked me a strange question:

"Once a broken mirror is fixed and you forget it was ever broken, does that make it new?"

I couldn't get anything out of her, so I just offered some symbolic comfort.

Not long after, she left Tianguo Kou, which made me quite curious about Chu Tianqiu's character. Maybe, as Aunt Tong said, everything Chu Tianqiu does comes from a place of "goodness," so he didn't hold back someone as powerful as Jiang Ruoxue with her "Huixiang," letting anyone come and go freely.

Jiang Ruoxue's personality became a bit more reserved, but she remained as close to me as before.

What made me uneasy next was Bai Yang. His gaze was getting stranger and stranger.

Every time, he took a few seconds to confirm my identity, then to confirm where he was.

But at least his game venue was completely deserted.

Bai Yang locked himself in the bank's office and never went out, so all the "participants" couldn't tell from the entrance that it was a "game."

Even if someone did "participate," Bai Yang would give a very half-hearted explanation of the rules.

The once-popular "Caiquan" had its prize pool stuck at zero, leading to a vicious cycle where no one participated anymore.

The legendary "Jile Qianzhuang" came to a complete end in Zhongyan Zhidi after the Da Xipai two years ago.