CH 49

(I want to go home)

Edited by Silver Wind 

The Curly-haired Girl was overcome with regret in her heart.

After she heard the housekeeper explain the rules, she had assumed that she could borrow the housekeeper’s hands to kill Zhou Wenyan, but she did not expect that she would be rejected by the housekeeper in such an unexpected manner. And now that she had made her choices on her volition, she found it hard to dismount from the tiger she had climbed on.

Shen Dongqing had already casted his executioner’s vote on her.

She was completely bereft of choice and she could only cast the vote she had back at Shen Dongqing, or else she would be waiting for death from where she sat. 

Now, it was up to Black Hat’s choice.

Curly-haired Girl stared at Black Hat tightly.

Half of Black Hat’s face was hidden in the shadow of his accessory. “Honestly speaking, there are no benefits in having contradictions among us.”

This sentence gave rise to hope in Curly-haired Girl instantaneously.

She swallowed her saliva and said: “The three of us are a group now and mutually slaughtering each other will only allow others to have it easier, if you are willing to retract your vote, I can also…”

Black Hat issued the latter part of his sentence: “But getting rid of unstable factors is indeed important.” He lifted his eyelids and he gave Shen Dongqing a courteous smile, “I agree with your choice.”

In the moment where Curly-haired Girl had yet to react, the housekeeper, who was itching to get on with it, announced: “The executioner’s blade has finally fallen, blood is bound to flow like a river tonight.”

Curly-haired Girl shrieked: “No!” 

The darkness receded and death approached step by step.

Seized with panic, the Curly-haired Girl picked up a fork on the table and held it tightly in her hands, guarded as she watched Shen Dongqing who was seated opposite of her.

The housekeeper sighed softly, “Death, executed.”

Initially, Curly-haired Girl thought that someone would act against her, but when the curtain of night lifted, she was still sitting at the table whole and complete, as if the announcement of her death had been a hallucination. 

“Hu—” The Curly-haired heaved out a breath, propping herself up on the table as she muttered to herself, “Could it really be just a game…”

Of course not.

The housekeeper revealed an unfathomable smile: “Last night, someone died, may the survivors present carry out your defences.”

Black Hat pretended to look at everyone at the round table strangely as he asked: “Who’s the deceased?” 

The housekeeper did not answer.

At that moment, the ringing of the clock shattered the silence in the large hall.

The players reflexively looked over only to see the Curly-haired Girl’s complexion go pale. Her entire body started sweating as she pointed the sharp end of her silver fork at herself and slowly brought it closer.

“No, no….” 

Desperate, the Curly-Hair Girl shook her head, wanting to move the fork further away from herself but her limbs seemed to refuse to listen to her commands as she was continuously nailed and stuck to her chair. And slowly, like a stringed wooden puppet, she decisively stabbed the fork into her trachea.

Because of the excruciating pain, the Curly-haired Girl shook and she squeezed an agonising groan from her chest.

Thus, under the gazes of the players, the Curly-haired Girl suffocated herself to death.

And as if she was singing poetry, the housekeeper said: “The executioner’s knife has already been stained with blood, the next one… who will it be?” 

Each and every one of them avoided the housekeeper’s gaze.

However, the housekeeper did not mind it in the slightest as she curtsied to them. “Please begin defending yourselves.”

The first one to speak was the lady with a broken arm.

After witnessing the previous scene, the encumbered lady was still a little unsettled and her opening sentence was: “It’s not me.” 

Then, after organising her thoughts, she added, “Right now, we have twelve people remaining and three of us are executioners, which signifies a one in four chance probability. Therefore, I think we can make a few blind conjectures first by pointing out the possible suspects and discussing them.”

“I vote for Black Hat.”

The second person who spoke was also a lady and she was the broken armed lady’s companion. Needless to say, they would definitely be voting for Black Hat together.

The suspected Black Hat was not panicked at all. “When the deceased was being killed just now, I was constantly observing everyone and I noticed that one man appeared to be particularly flustered.” 

He raised his eyelids to look at the man wearing a white shirt.

Sure enough, that man’s complexion was slightly off.

He succeeded.

Black Hat’s face was concealed by the shadow of his hat, which made it difficult to scrutinise his emotions, thus he quirked his lips up and said the word “idiot” coldly in his heart. 

In this game, the probability of the executioners winning was too huge.

The executioners knew who the victims were, and under the circumstance where the information on both sides was not equal, the victims were like people who had their eyes covered, knocking into random objects, and their lives could be taken at any time.

Which left the executioners in the position where they could mislead anyone. Furthermore, with the condition that divulging their identities could lead to death, the two camps were completely opposed to each other and the possibility of cooperating did not exist.

Discreetly, Black Hat’s eyes swept across Shen Dongqing and Zhou Wenyan. 

Shen Dongqing seemed to have felt something as he furrowed his eyebrows slightly.

Dijmx Lja klatvgfk tlr ujhf jcv qgfrrfv j tjcv bc tlr tja yglw: “P obguba ab rjs atlr yea, atja ijvs jcv P tjv j rwjii mbcoilma lc atf qgfnlber kbgiv, atfgfobgf atja ijvs nbalcu obg wf lr ecvfgrajcvjyif.”

“Lbkfnfg, P kbeiv ilxf ab jvv, vbc’a yglcu sbeg qfgrbcji offilcur lcab j vjcufgber ujwf jcv jiibk la ab joofma sbeg jylilas ab wjxf atf qgbqfg pevufwfca.”

Currently, there were two participants who were being suspected as the executioner.

One was Black Hat, and the other was White Shirt.

With targets in minds, all the players had to do next was determine which one was the correct choice.

The discussion reached White Shirt again, and he could not wait to explain himself: “I’m only reacting like this because I was afraid! Please, isn’t that person even more suspicious?” 

He pointed at Black Hat as he said that.

But evidently, it was not very convincing.

The votes were as such: three people had voted for Black Hat, seven were in favour of White Shirt and one of them chose to abstain, which left the twelfth vote remaining before the life and death of one person was announced.

White Shirt did not harbour any hopes; he sat on his chair, paralysed as he mumbled: “It’s not me, I don’t want to die…” 

Housekeeper: “May the last survivor defend himself.”

All of the players’ gazes gathered on the last person.

Zhou Wenyan did not defend himself nor analyse anything. Instead, he spoke to the housekeeper directly: “As a housekeeper, you will satisfy requests of your guests, is that correct?”

The housekeeper’s expression changed slightly but she masked it quickly by replying in a respectful tone: “That is correct, guest.” 

Zhou Wenyan nodded.

The housekeeper urged: “Please carry out your words of defence.”

Zhou Wenyan said: “This game lacks a very crucial role which makes it very difficult for us to find the executioner.”

The seer. 

Anyone who played Werewolf would know that the ability the seer had in the game was especially important.

The role of the seer in the game was to check one person’s true identity during every round’s curtain of night, and later, guide the survivors through the voting process when the discussion of defences started.

However, they had no seer right now.

Hence, every person’s identity was hidden and they could only make blind guesses based on the one-fourth probability of being right. And in spite of the odds stacked against them, they had to deal with the executioner’s deception which could easily bring about mistaken killings. 

Three against ten.

While the victims’ numbers might seem bigger, the truth of the matter was that the executioners had always occupied the dominant position.

The housekeeper smiled and said: “It’s only the second round right now, there’s no need to be discouraged.”

Zhou Wenyan raised an eyebrow: “Therefore… I want to stop playing.” 

The housekeeper’s expression deepened.

Meanwhile, the other players were afraid of the housekeeper turning hostile if they said the wrong thing, so they stayed quiet like chickens, not making a single utterance.

Only Shen Dongqing followed him in flipping the plate. “I want to stop playing too.”

The housekeeper stared at them in a gloomy albeit serious manner, and she sounded like she was squeezing her voice from between clenched teeth. “Are you certain?” 

Shen Dongqing: “We’re certain.”

Zhou Wenyan fell backwards and leaned against the backrest. He stated, “This is a guest’s request, end this game.”

The large hall was extremely quiet, and the only sounds that could be heard was faint breathing overlapping one another.

The housekeeper had said: As a housekeeper, she will always satisfy the requests of her guests. 

Thus, Zhou Wenyan brought up the request of ending the game.

There was no flaw in his logic.

But it hinged on…… whether the housekeeper would fulfil the request.

Ding—

In the silence, the abrupt noise of something clattering to the ground rang out, and it almost frightened one of the ladies into jumping out of her chair.

She twisted her head to look and noticed that the fork inserted into the Curly-haired Girl’s throat had fallen out.

They did not know when but two maids had glided over, and each of them took one of Curly-haired Girl’s arms and dragged her out, leaving a long trail of blood on the ground. 

Finally, the housekeeper opened her mouth to speak. “Naturally, that is possible since it is just a small request. As long as it is the guest’s request, I can satisfy all of them.”

“Therefore…. The game has ended.”

Her voice fell.

The other players were still a little dumbfounded. 

A game that demanded for their lives, which caused them to incessantly analyse for a long time, where they clung onto the notion that they could be killed any time, how did it manage to end just by requesting for its end?

Black Hat was the quickest to come back to himself: “Can we meet Her Majesty the Queen then?”

The housekeeper was somewhat unwilling but she still replied, “Of course, you can.”

After experiencing three rounds of terrifying games, they finally had the honour of seeing Her Majesty the Queen.

However, the housekeeper said that Her Majesty the Queen was in the midst of her preparation, and she would only appear when the clock rang seven times.

Hence, the group of players were merely sitting around in the large hall.

The broken-armed Lady asked: “Can Her Majesty the Queen really help us break away from this game?” 

Black Hat hummed twice: “Maybe.”

The other people continued to ask: “What do you mean by maybe?”

Black Hat: “I’ve only heard of it, but I’ve never personally seen it.”

White Shirt, who had just avoided a disaster, looked more relaxed, and he said: “Of course you wouldn’t be able to see people that have left! The dog shit game, it tortures people, I really don’t want to stay here any longer!” 

His words attracted a sympathetic response from the other players and everyone started throwing insults at the game happily.

Feeling sleepy, Shen Dongqing yawned and leaned on Zhou Wenyan as he murmured softly, “They said we can leave, hey.”

Zhou Wenyan held his partner’s shoulder and said indifferently, “I don’t believe it.”

Dang dang—

When the pendulum clock on the wall struck seven times, the heavy and tall doors were slowly pushed open.

Taking the lead to enter were two servants: one of them walked in front to open up the way and the other was cautiously supporting a lady.

That should be Her Majesty the Queen herself. 

While the title of ‘Her Majesty the Queen’ made her sound old, she was only a young girl in her teens in actuality, and her slender figure was clad in a gorgeous formal dress that was adorned with lavish laces and precious gems.

Black Hat stood up, placing his right hand over his heart and bowed in greeting, “Your Majesty the Queen.”

Her Majesty the Queen nodded slightly in acknowledgement before she walked past him to stand at the centre of the hall.

She did not sit amongst the players, rather, she meandered up two flights of steps and sat down on a pure white throne. 

“Dreamland has always been hospitable to its good guests, are you satisfied with the games you played before?”

The players exchanged looks.

Satisfied?

When they started, there were a total of thirty-six of them, but only twelve of them remained now so the death toll was more than half. Had it not been for the two big bosses, they were afraid that not even one of them would be left. 

Her Majesty the Queen waited for them to answer.

Thus, the players could only laugh dryly, “Satisfied, we are very satisfied.”

Her Majesty the Queen said smilingly, “That’s fantastic. In order to thank each and every one of you for keeping to your appointment, I can fulfil one of your heart’s wishes.”

She gave a pause before she added another line: “Anything is acceptable.” 

The excitement lighting up in the players was apparent to the eye.

What ‘anything is acceptable’ meant was that they could wish to leave the game.

White Shirt could not wait any longer and he stood up to say, “I don’t want to play this game anymore, I want to go home.”

Everyone else stared at the Queen keenly as if they were afraid that she would reject this request. 

Rather than rejecting it, Her Majesty the Queen responded to him in an effortless manner: “Of course.”

Then, they only saw Her Majesty the Queen wave her hand, and a maid walked over to White Shirt’s side and said courteously, “May the guest follow me.”

White Shirt was essentially giddy with joy and did not pose a single question before he followed the maid away.

His footsteps were light and quick like he was looking forward to going home. 

When White Shirt’s figure eventually disappeared, a prompt – one that had not been given in a long time – sounded in their ears.

【 Player White Shirt has broken away from his identity as a player and regained freedom 】

Originally, there were players who were fearful that this was another one of the game’s pits, but now with the system certifying it, all of their apprehensions fled in an instant, and each of them stared at Her Majesty the Queen with heated eyes.

Some stood up and requested to break away from the game. 

Her Majesty the Queen— agreed to all of them.

The system notification sounded one after another and the players left like flowing waters.

In a moment’s work, only four people were left, namely Shen Dongqing, Zhou Wenyan, Black Hat and the lady who had acted as Little Mermaid before.

In all honesty, the lady wanted to go home too but her subconsciousness told her that she should follow the big bosses’ footsteps and only leave after they had done so. After all, they were not in a rush. 

Her Majesty the Queen’s eyelashes fluttered as her gaze landed on the people below. “Is there a wish that your heart makes?”

Black Hat had initially come here with the intention of meeting the Queen, but he had lingered around until now.

He looked at the remaining people before he finally took a step forward: “Your Majesty the Queen, can I ask if your wishes can really allow the players to break away from the Infinite Nightmare Game’s control?”

After hearing his entire question, Her Majesty the Queen’s lips quirked up slightly: “Of course, I have always been generous.” 

Black Hat’s heart settled slightly and he brought up a request that was more refined than those who came before him. “I want to leave the Infinite Nightmare Game’s control, break away from the identity of a player and return back to the real world.”

Her Majesty the Queen set herself high above the masses; no matter what request someone below her brought up, she would magnanimously agree to them.

“I allow it,” she said as she stared fixedly at Black Hat.

Black Hat heaved out a sigh of relief and followed the maid out. 

There were only three people left in the large hall.

The lady asked softly, “Big bosses, aren’t you going to make a wish?”

Zhou Wenyan raised his head to look at the Queen and asked: “What will happen if we don’t make a wish?” 

The Queen seemed a little uncertain. “My invitation letter is incredibly precious. I reckon no one would want to miss out on the opportunity.”

Zhou Wenyan did not hesitate in the slightest: “I would.”

Her Majesty the Queen choked for a moment but she still managed to maintain her elegant demeanour. “If you do not make a wish… after you are done touring Dreamland, I will send you back.”

Zhou Wenyan rose to his feet: “We’ll go for the tour then.” 

Shen Dongqing followed him closely.

The lady said in surprise: “Are you really not going to make a wish?”

Zhou Wenyan: “I don’t need it.” Then, he added another line for her benefit, “I suggest that you don’t make a wish either.”

After all, he had played so many games and he could not be clearer about the quintessence of this SB of a game. 

The game was particularly fond of word games, and each Chinese character in a sentence can possess numerous meanings. For example, who said breaking away from the identity as a player was equivalent to leaving the game?

Zhou Wenyan did not remind those players because before they even broke away from the game, they had already given into the temptations set by a demon, and they would not believe him even if he said it.

Since they were in a game of death, some people were willing to try even if the chance of leaving was a single percent.

The lady felt conflicted about her two choices. 

Truthfully speaking, she did not want to forsake this rare chance.

In her final analysis, this game was not a playhouse; it really wanted human lives and she had relied on good luck to drag her ignoble existence to this point, but it did not change the fact that she had a brush with death numerous times.

Who didn’t want to leave?

Lady: “But, not making a wish would be too regrettable…” 

Shen Dongqing gave her a sidelong glance. “No one is stopping you from making a wish, ah.”

The lady wavered.

Her Majesty the Queen gazed at the lady kindly and her voice was brimming with sweet temptation: “Come, no matter what you request for, I can fulfil it. What do you want?”

The lady seemed to have fallen for her entrancement. “I…. I want…” 

Her Majesty the Queen: “Good child, speak.”

Even though she struggled for a moment, the lady still decided to allow herself to indulge in her dreamland: “I want to go home…”

Her Majesty the Queen walked down from her throne slowly and held the lady’s hand, bringing her to the corridor outside of the large hall. Her voice was gentle and warm: “Good child, in the future, Dreamland will be your home.”

In her trance, the lady seemed to see the parents that she hadn’t seen for a long time standing in the distance. 

Her father was wearing a strict expression but it could be observed that his eyes were slightly red, and her mother grasped her hand and talked ceaselessly, “Nan Nan, you came back for a meal at last? Mom made your favourite cola chicken wings….”

The lady hugged her mother tightly and cried tears of joy.

Dreamland. 

Where people’s dreams came true.

Her Majesty the Queen released her hand and the movement of the girl beside her gradually became rigid. Her skin and muscles became wooden and her arms lengthened then sprouted before it became a beauty of a tree.

She passed away in her beautiful dreams.

“There’s still two more,” said Her Majesty the Queen. 

The housekeeper lowered her head deferentially and said: “Those two, are comparably… hard to deal with.”

Her Majesty the Queen unfolded her feather fan to cover her lips.

“No one would willingly leave Dreamland.”

T/N: Honestly speaking, a death in Dreamland sounds a lot better than the rest of the deaths we’ve seen thus far…