VAP - Chapter 177

Chapter 177: The Ruler in the Endless Deep Darkness (10)

Yue Du tried to open the door the other players had entered. Her first attempt failed, but she managed to push it open on the second try.

This was the room Xiao Wang had chosen.

As soon as she pushed the door open, she saw an Evil God cultist lying face down in the doorway. It was the short, blue-eyed man. He wasn't wearing a mascot costume, and on his back were several wounds that clearly came from a fire axe. The fatal one was to the back of his heart.

Yue Du bent down and searched him for a moment but found nothing. She then opened Gao Yin's door. A quick scan of the room revealed her teammate lying unconscious in a corner.

Fortunately, she was only unconscious. Yue Du went over and patted her awake, not even waiting for her to come to her senses before asking urgently, "What happened?"

Gao Yin struggled to sit up, gritting her teeth. "The one in this room was the captain. He can use the spells of the Deep Darkness Ruler. Right, and that girl—he took the girl who was a fan."

Aiona looked up. "Use the spells of the Deep Darkness Ruler? What's a Deep Darkness Ruler?"

Yue Du answered dismissively, "The name of the jellyfish monster."

"Oh," Aiona said.

Yue Du helped Gao Yin to her feet and led her out. Gao Yin continued weakly, "But the captain probably isn't one of the favored cultists. His first spell failed, and only the second one hit me. I managed to injure him before that..."

"Okay, stop talking," Yue Du said. "Just rest for a moment. Let's go check on the others."

In the room Bi Yan had chosen, another Evil God cultist lay on the floor, dressed in a mascot costume. He had a single fatal wound. It seemed this woman was a formidable character as well.

As for the chubby guy, he was in the room he'd selected, but something was clearly wrong with him. He was scribbling something on the wall while muttering chaotic gibberish.

"His Rationality has hit its limit," Gao Yin concluded after a single glance. She caught her breath, her eyes filled with a sense of shared sorrow. "You just said the Moroses have appeared outside the cruise ship, right? I hope my Rationality doesn't collapse today."

Gao Yin had mentioned before, when explaining what Rationality was, that in a game instance, having one's Rationality depleted to its limit would cause a collapse. For a player, a Rationality collapse was equivalent to death, and it was irreversible even after leaving the instance.

"It won't," Yue Du said.

Her confident tone made Gao Yin pause and look at her in surprise. Yue Du stated simply, "Someone will actively lead us to them. Once we find him, this should be over."

Almost as soon as the words left her mouth, her phone vibrated once.

Bi Yan: We're all in the stairwell above the theater. Come quickly, we need help.

Yue Du showed the phone screen to her teammate. "You see? It's here."

Gao Yin frowned. "Are you saying there's a problem with Bi Yan?"

"Not necessarily. After all, you don't have to be the owner of a phone to send a message from it."

---

The stairwell on the theater's upper level.

Bi Yan was leaning against the corner of the wall. She had been briefly unconscious, and when she came to, she found herself tied up in the corner with another teammate. Her teammate was still out cold. A few small figures lay on an open patch of floor nearby, their conditions unknown.

The person standing before them was casually swinging her phone in his hand.

"Why... no, that's not right. When did you..." Bi Yan struggled to force out the disjointed sentence.

"When? A long time ago. Long before I even entered this game," the person standing before her said with a sigh. "There are some things I've been wanting to say for a while now."

Bi Yan had no desire to hear his life story, but his words still poured into her ears, every last one of them.

"You're all afraid of the game, aren't you? So am I."

"You don't want to die in an instance, do you? Neither do I."

"But I'm even happier that the game gave me the chance to make my dream come true, to wait for this very day. People like you, without faith, you would never understand!"

"I think you're truly insane!" Bi Yan said.

"You're the ones who are insane!" the person opposite her suddenly roared, his voice booming.

But then he calmed down, his voice becoming almost gentle. "I gave you all a chance. I told you how to survive in this game: believe in the great Deep Darkness Ruler. But you didn't take it seriously at all. It's not strange to not believe in gods in your original world; after all, ordinary mortals assume deities don't exist. But you've already witnessed a deity's power, haven't you? So why don't you believe in Him? The entire universe belongs to the Lord of Deep Darkness, to say nothing of a mere game!"

"I thought you were just joking..."

"Who would dare joke about the great Ruler? Those who disrespect a deity will fall into eternal death. There are no exceptions."

Bi Yan stopped arguing. She closed her eyes, a chill spreading through her heart.

The person opposite her paced back and forth a few times. When he spoke again, his tone was almost back to normal. "Don't worry, I won't kill you. We fought side-by-side. If it weren't for you all, I never would have survived long enough to reach this instance and see the Ruler."

"As a token of my gratitude, let us witness this divine miracle together."

Just then, the faint sound of voices came from beyond the locked door. The man laughed. "The newbie's here. I hear that little girl's voice. With her, we'll have everyone."

He took a few steps forward, then suddenly turned back. "I have to hide you all first. And you, Bi Yan, don't make a sound." He grabbed something at random and stuffed it into Bi Yan's mouth without a second glance, then shoved them all into the shadows, making sure they were hidden from the doorway.

A knock echoed from the door.

He adjusted his expression and unlocked the door, his heart pounding with the thrill of his wish about to be fulfilled.

---

On the other side of the door, Yue Du calmly reached out and knocked three times, waiting for the person inside to open up.

Aiona had been told to stand on the stairs a few meters away from the door, with instructions to run upstairs the moment she sensed anything was wrong. She couldn't run downstairs because she might run into the Moroses. Those venomous, jellyfish-like creatures were already causing a commotion on the lower deck, with more swarming onto the ship from the sea in a continuous stream.

Given enough time, they could poison everyone on the cruise ship or simply sink it under their collective weight.

Of course, Yue Du had no intention of giving them that much time.

The sound of a clanking chain came from behind the door as someone unlocked it. Before it was even pushed open, Xiao Wang's muttering drifted through. "What took you so long? Brother Kong and the others went to the theater to find those two female cultists. We can just wait here..."

Through the narrow opening of the newly pushed door, a black gleam shot out like a serpent's shadow and pierced Xiao Wang's throat. It plunged straight through, the tip of the blade emerging fast, precise, and viciously from the back of his neck.

It happened so suddenly that even Gao Yin couldn't react. Two seconds passed before she asked in shock, "Why did you attack him just like that?"

"Should I have waited for him to make the first move?" Yue Du said. "He already had a knife in his hand."

Xiao Wang fell backward onto the floor, convulsing as he fumbled for the knife's hilt. He didn't dare pull it out; a blade stuck in the throat like that would only hasten his death if removed.

He made a rattling, gurgling sound as his left hand went slack, dropping a dagger beside him. It was not, however, made of black jade.

Gao Yin stammered, "Ah, yes. He does look rather dangerous."

Xiao Wang glared at Yue Du, but he couldn't hold the stare for long. The dagger rapidly absorbed his life, and like the others who had died by its blade, he soon stopped breathing, his face turning a deathly gray.

Yue Du beckoned for Aiona to come over from the stairs, then stepped over Xiao Wang's corpse. "Mr. Kong? Bi Yan? Are you in here?"

A muffled sound came from the corner, one that could easily be missed over the music drifting from the adjacent theater.

With Yue Du's help, Bi Yan was freed. Her first words were, "How did you know it was him?"

"We can talk about that later," Yue Du said. "First, wake up your team leader. If all goes well, this instance is about to end."

Without hesitation, Bi Yan turned and slapped Kong Wenbin. The force of the blow made him shudder violently, knocking his glasses askew, but it woke him up.

A message arrived just in time.

【Player has contaminated the Blade of Imureta. The extraction of a flawless soul has failed. The sacrificial ritual cannot be initiated. Regrettably, all players have lost the opportunity to face the deity directly.】

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Whoever wanted an opportunity to face an Evil God was welcome to it.

Yue Du briefly recounted her thought process for suspecting Xiao Wang.

It wasn't actually that complicated. Earlier, when she had told the group of four about the image of the summoning circle on the cultist's computer, Xiao Wang's reaction had struck her as strange.

The other players had been exasperated, but Xiao Wang was the only one who couldn't control his expression, giving himself away.

Who would be indignant and sneer relentlessly at an improper ritual performed by Evil God cultists? Another Evil God cultist, of course.

From that point on, Yue Du never stopped suspecting Xiao Wang.

He put on a good act, of course, but in moments when he thought he didn't have to, he inevitably revealed his irritable and short-tempered nature, constantly calling the other cultists idiots. Meanwhile, the captain and his crew never took any action against the players, which fit the profile Yue Du was building in her mind.

Why hadn't this fanatic communicated with the captain and his crew?

Because of arrogance and resentment. Xiao Wang was likely desperate to summon the Deep Darkness Ruler, but due to the other cultists' half-hearted efforts, he would have been forced to use the summoning circle projected on the large screen for the ritual, as he lacked the proper spell components himself.

That alone was enough for a fanatic like him to blacklist the captain and his men. He would probably rather kill himself than cooperate with people like that.

That was why Yue Du had checked the room Xiao Wang chose first. After seeing that the wounds on the short, blue-eyed man were on his back and that the Blade of Imureta was gone, she was completely certain of Xiao Wang's identity.

After listening, Bi Yan gave a bitter smile. "He and I killed the captain together. I thought it was strange how ruthless he was, but I never considered... We were teammates for so long, and I never noticed a thing."

"It's easy to miss what's right in front of you," Yue Du said. "That's only natural."

Gao Yin still couldn't figure it out. "How did you notice his expression was off? I was watching everyone's faces when we exchanged information, but I didn't see a thing."

"I suppose it's professional instinct," Yue Du said with a shrug. She took off the headphones Aiona was wearing and was about to add, "After we leave, try not to get too close to your sister," but she suddenly froze.

"Speaking of which, why hasn't the game announced the end of the instance? Have any of you experienced a delay this long before?"

The players exchanged uneasy glances.

For a moment, no one spoke, until the vibration of a phone shattered the silence.

That damned App.

【Oh dear, such a rare opportunity has vanished. The Moroses, who were all ready for a celebration, are quite displeased. The contaminated Blade of Imureta has attracted the attention of these kin of the deep darkness. They have decided to enact their revenge by sending the humans who stopped the ritual to meet the God of All Undead.】

【Attention, players. As long as you can reach the theater stage before being killed, you may leave the instance via the large screen. Now, run for your lives.】

Aiona blinked. "..."

Yue Du: "..."

What happened to the part where the Moroses would leave on their own if the ritual wasn't initiated?

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