CH 29.2

Lin Yi does not know whether Jian Si is innocent, he thinks, but it is abundantly clear that he is a dumbass.

“I’m afraid not.” Jiang Yiyi is looking at Jian Si’s hand.

Jian Si does not let go this time.

Lunatic’s eyes swivel a little to look at Jian Si again.

Lin Yi straightens up a little, and then walks forward to pull Jian Si’s hand away, “what are you trying to do? Settle down.”

Jian Si glances at him. He remembers this person, and not fondly——Yet another evil person on the fourth floor of the infested Stargaol.

He looks back at Jiang Yiyi once more, and there is disappointment in his tone, “you’ve changed a lot.”

“And you didn’t.”

“Looks like…” Jian Si glances at Lunatic and Lin Yi, “you have adapted quite well.”

“Perhaps because I was not framed.”

Jiang Yiyi is a little curious right now. If the protagonist is dead, would this game end? In other words, will he come back to life or not?

The video game Jiang Yiyi knew allows players to load a previous save if the protagonist dies——In other words, the NPCs here would never actually see the protagonist dead in-game.

Well, that is assuming the player character didn’t get stuck. They are not dead, but players will be forced to restart regardless to make progress again.

Jiang Yiyi’s fingers twitch as a silver light dances.

No one is aware what he is going to do next——As killing isn’t his primary objective here.

Jian Si is inches from death, and does not even know it. He is still speaking, “I thought…”

His naïveté is coming across quite plainly, “we would be able to help each other.”

“Just because we met that one time?” Jiang Yiyi stops manipulating his knife to remind him, “if there is something you want to achieve, you should be ready to pay the price.”

“But, we are the same.” Jian Si’s confusion and frustration is so transparent that one cannot help but wonder if he isn’t pretending, but is simply that stupid.

Stupid enough not to realise death could loom at any time.

“Shouldn’t you help me?”

Lunatic is looking at Jian Si again; Lin Yi backs off a few steps to keep a safe distance from Jian Si.

Jiang Yiyi, after some seconds of speechlessness, asks him frankly, “do you think that I ought to be sacrificed instead of you?”

Jian Si cannot answer; he only finds his voice once more a moment later, “but… but…”

“My life is so terrible now…” Jian Si’s voice is unsteady. He sounds like he does not know what he is saying anymore, “what else can I do?”

“Survive and live on, or die.” Jiang Yiyi offers him his friendly advice, “those are the two choices you have, are they not?”

“I don’t want to die.”

Jian Si finally succumbs——After all the unbelievable drama fate dumped onto him, Jiang Yiyi’s appearance, and refusal, became the last straw.

He grabs Jiang Yiyi’s arm tightly, burying his face in it, and cries hard.

“But living is so painful!” Having lost it, he yells, “every one of them here is nuts…”

And you are currently crying into the arm of the most insane one present.

Lin Yi looks away, lamenting how it is impossible to stop someone with a death wish.

“They just suddenly get violent whenever.” Jian Si says, “they all look at me like some worthless insect, that they can just kill whenever.”

“I’m always worried all the time…” He blurts out, “maybe I would never see the sun rise again the next day!”

The atmosphere is strange, to say the least. If Jiang Yiyi was not present, the crowd might just erupt into laughter. Now, though, they are having a hard time keeping it to themselves.

With everyone Ye Wang needed to warn, warned, and what happened yesterday on the courtyard proving Lunatic’s fighting power, the rest of the fourth floor are acting quite restrained.

“Ultimately, this is all happening, because you are not strong enough.” Jiang Yiyi is not interested in whining from the weak. His hand moves slightly, settling the blade on his fingertips next to Jian Si’s neck.

Jian Si suddenly chokes on his tears, frozen. He looks down at the genuine silver threat.

“Tell me, would you die?”

“O… of course I would.” Jian Si’s tone is shaky.

The next second, a flash, a fountain of blood.

Everyone holding in their laughter widens their eyes; Lin Yi turns to him in shock; Lunatic’s eyes swivel once more.

The breeze carries the scent of blood through the world.

Suddenly, the scene freezes; Jiang Yiyi hears an answer.

“O… of course I would.” Jian Si’s tone is shaky.

Jiang Yiyi looks at the guy, the fearful Jian Si——He is more realistic than all the others in Stargaol. In other words, he is far more like an average person that we might know of. They are scared of and might break down in the face of insurmountable fate, or be happy to meet an acquaintance in stranger lands.

The average person is incapable of much, and hence are fools. Foolishness invites death.

However, he would not die. That makes things more interesting.

When Jiang Yiyi is almost certain this is not just a game world, the ‘protagonist’ comes along to smash his childish assumption into pieces. This is a game.

He really should have played this game, beat it if he can——Honestly, a weak, laughable, pathetic twerp of a protagonist in a game of constant, unavoidable death. What kind of ending would this game ever have?

The protagonist clears his name? Escapes Stargaol?

Well, Jiang Yiyi knows that’s what most players of the game thought and progressed towards, only to find themselves dead in all shapes and forms——In fact, the more players tried to dig into the truth of Jian Si’s trial, the quicker they die.

Or, perhaps…

Jiang Yiyi looks at his feet. Of course, he is not just looking at the ground.

But at Stargaol, at floors below the fourth that exist elsewhere.

His childhood friend once wondered, “Jian Si, oh Jian Si. When will you be able to return to the fourth floor?”

This means the protagonist would definitely have parts to play on the floors beyond, and not simply on the fourth floor.

He starts on the fourth floor, and the real road of death he traverses is on floors below.

Still, that question remains——

The questions enter Jiang Yiyi’s mind, and quickly disappear once more.

These are not enough to trouble him. Or rather, the feeling of being troubled is quite foreign to Jiang Yiyi as well.

Of those present, Jiang Yiyi knows best that, the actual, most abnormal person present——Is not the undying protagonist, but he himself.

The blade quickly zips back, disappearing from Jiang Yiyi’s hand.

“So now, you have chosen to live.” Jiang Yiyi has his calm, unchanging eyes on him, “tell me. What price are you willing to pay, to survive?”

His question was the hammer that broke some kind of chain, freeing up the frozen atmosphere once more.

Jian Si’s shaky hands let go of Jiang Yiyi’s arm, and he backs off a lot; his legs shake.

Jian Si has no doubt that the man wanted to kill him——That sudden, imminent threat of death shook him wide awake. This man in front of him is no different from the others on the fourth floor; if there is one, then it is simply, that he is far more sinister than they are.

“Your answer.”

“I… I have nothing.” Trails of streaks of tears still run down his face. It’s a mess, but he doesn’t have the mind to make himself presentable again, for he is deeply afraid of the man before him, more than all the others.

Lin Yi looks back at Jiang Yiyi, surprised at the development. He thought Jiang Yiyi would kill Jian Si without question, but he did not——Yet another contradiction in motive and behaviour.

“Then offer yourself to me.” Jiang Yiyi makes his call calmly, “your life is now mine.”