The Hand of Confession – Chapter 410
by Little PandaEpilogue: The Final Instance
A… kzzzt… night… kzzt… hanging…
Five minutes before entering the instance, she finished all her preparations.
She held several of her cards in her hand, but one, Judas, lay quietly on the sofa, waiting to be collected.
The game’s Item backpack2 had been fixed at ten slots for several years now. A single Card took up one slot, meaning twelve cards required twelve slots. The Item bar3 simply didn’t have enough space.
Shen Maomao speculated that once she held all the cards, they would merge into a single entity, counting as one item. With this in mind, she had spent a long time considering her options, packing a few other useful items and leaving two empty slots for the cards and Puck.
She had already stuffed Puck into the Item bar.
With the last talkative person gone, the apartment was now frighteningly quiet. Shen Maomao sat on the sofa, watching the seconds tick by.
The final battle was about to begin, yet she felt no nervousness at all. In fact, she was filled with a faint sense of anticipation.
Because this time, whether she won or lost, she could finally go find Lou Jingmo.
The thought alone made Shen Maomao’s entire body relax.
Finally, with one minute left, she scooped up all the cards.
Ding-dong. A notification popped up on her phone. She didn’t need to look to know it was the forum, broadcasting her location.
She sat in the unlit living room, letting the night envelop her. Gripping the mysterious coin whose purpose she still didn’t know, she slowly closed her eyes.
The sound of rain, the wind, and someone’s indistinct voice drifted into her ears.
When she opened her eyes again, she was in a different world.
A light rain pattered against the window. At the front of the classroom, a boy of about thirteen or fourteen was giving a self-introduction. He spoke haltingly with a slight southern accent, his chubby face flushed with a shy blush. After just a few sentences, he scurried from the podium in embarrassment.
And she was sitting among the students, her hands folded neatly on the desk in a typical elementary school posture.
She picked up a notebook that had been placed in front of her. The cover read: “Shen Maomao.” They had used her real name.
A school instance.
Her role was a student.
Dungeons with a school setting were by far the most common type she had ever encountered. She had been both a student and a teacher before, so this came as no surprise.
As for being thrown into a crowd without a Guide NPC—this wasn’t her first time experiencing that, either.
Based on the boy’s age and the size of her own hands, she deduced that she was currently in her first year of middle school, likely during the self-introductions on the first day of school.
After the chubby boy sat down, the teacher in front called on a few more people. Soon, it was Shen Maomao’s turn.
Shen Maomao walked up to the podium, gave a simple introduction, and returned to her seat.
As the next person walked down the aisle to the front, she listened with one ear while opening her Item bar to take a look inside. Puck was sleeping soundly. The twelve cards had indeed merged into a single item, just as she’d guessed. However, the game was even harsher than she’d anticipated—the item slot representing the Card collection was grayed out and unusable.
She also felt her pockets and, sure enough, found a familiar coin inside.
She sat distractedly through the rest of the introductions and a full day of classes, unable to figure out what the game was trying to do.
Nothing unusual had happened at the school all day. The rain had stopped after a short while, and the sun had emerged from the clouds, evaporating every last trace of moisture from the ground.
She hadn’t managed to gather any useful information, other than that this school was called the Eighteenth Middle School, it followed a six-three year system, and they were all first-year students who had just completed the elementary to middle school transition4. Their homeroom teacher was Teacher Li, who taught English. She also met a bunch of other subject teachers and a few noisy students sitting nearby.
This instance was just too normal, and it felt very much like reality. Judging from the classroom layout and facilities, the timeline was probably set over a decade ago.
If it weren’t for the fact that all the teachers and students were strangers, Shen Maomao might have thought she’d been reborn into her own past.
After school, she stood at the entrance with her backpack on, gazing at the unfamiliar streets and buildings. For a moment, she had no idea where to go.
Ordinary middle schools from over a decade ago rarely had student dormitories. Most students lived nearby and could just walk home. The students in her class, being new first-years, had no idea who she was, let alone where she lived.
Shen Maomao stood at the gate for a while. Seeing the crowd of students thinning out and no parents coming to pick her up, she had no choice but to head back to the office building, hoping to get some information from Teacher Li.
But when she got there, the office door was already locked.
The teachers probably took a commuter bus from the athletic field behind the school. Thinking this, she turned around and headed for the field, only to be greeted by the rear end of a bus driving away. She hadn’t even caught a whiff of the warm exhaust fumes.
Dejected, she sat down on the iron chain of the flagpole fence. She rubbed the coin with her right hand and looked up at the clouds, dyed red by the setting sun.
So, what’s the situation now?
Lou Jingmo…
What should I do?
If this were you… what would you do?
The school’s security guard came out on his patrol. Seeing Shen Maomao sitting there alone, lost in thought, he walked over and asked sternly, “What time is it? Why aren’t you home yet? Which class are you in? I’m going to tell your teacher.”
Shen Maomao grabbed her backpack and bolted. In the blink of an eye, she had crossed half the field and slipped out through the back gate.
The guard watched her retreating figure and shook his head with a chuckle. “Kids these days…”
Once she was out, Shen Maomao let Puck out of her bag.
Puck had zero resistance to the sweet scent of the coin. He flopped into her hair and whined, “When are you going to figure out what that coin is for? I really want to eat it—slurp—”
Shen Maomao walked along the dirt path behind the school. “Don’t just think about eating,” she said. “Help me keep an eye on our surroundings.”
Puck wiped his drool and floated above her head, his tiny wings scattering sparkling points of light all over her hair. He twitched his nose, sniffing the air, and shouted, “Reporting, Sheriff! No enemies nearby!!”
“Could you please be normal, thank you,” Shen Maomao said.
Puck sniffed a couple more times, then said suddenly, “Huh? I smell a human scent, and it’s a lot like my mom’s!”
Shen Maomao froze. “It’s been so long since you’ve seen her. Can you still remember her scent?”
“Why not?” Puck said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “We spirits remember people by their scent. Every spirit’s scent is unique. For example, you have a scent kind of like gardenia, but a little sweeter, with a hint of chili pepper. My mom smells a bit like plum blossoms, but mixed with narcissus and a few other flowers… Anyway, there’s absolutely no way I could get it wrong!”
“Where?” Shen Maomao shot her hand out and grabbed him, her voice a little rushed. “Can you sense the exact direction?”
Puck pointed. “Right out in front of the gate!”
Shen Maomao tightened her grip on her backpack straps and sprinted in the direction he indicated.
The motion made Puck feel like throwing up. He struggled in her grasp. “Let me go! I can fly myself!”
Shen Maomao’s head was buzzing, and she could barely hear him. She pushed her legs as hard as she could, running like a small whirlwind.
Soon, she had circled the school fence and arrived at the main gate.
The gate wasn’t locked yet, but there was hardly anyone around.
She gasped for a couple of breaths, but without pausing to rest, she held up the dizzy Puck. “Is it still here?!”
Finally free, Puck trembled as he floated into midair. He sniffed hard, then finally shook his head and landed back on her head. “It’s gone…”
Shen Maomao stood motionless for a long time.
All Puck could hear was the sound of her breathing.
For some reason, he felt a little bad. “I’m sorry…” he said weakly.
Shen Maomao finally snapped out of it. “It’s fine. Let’s go.”
But she still had no idea where to go.
With Puck in tow, she walked aimlessly through the bustling streets, trying to find the end of this instance and determine the boundaries of her playable area.
A game world, after all, was just a fabrication. Its scope was limited, whereas the real world was infinite.
In a virtual world, if you walk in one direction long enough, you will always find its end.
Shen Maomao walked and walked and walked, until her legs ached and she had lost all track of how far she’d gone. She never once ran into an invisible wall5.
Is this really a game world?
For a moment, she couldn’t help but doubt it.
Night had fallen. The streetlights on both sides of the road flickered on. Cars roared past, making her shadow spin rapidly across the ground.
Shen Maomao turned around and started walking back.
She couldn’t go any further forward. Lou Jingmo could very well be behind her, so she had to stay there.
The night wind was a bit chilly. She wrapped her jacket tighter and stood at an intersection, waiting for the light to change.
The light turned green. As she started to cross the street, she suddenly heard Puck shriek from atop her head, “Car! There’s a car!”
Shen Maomao whipped her head around and saw a van run the red light, heading straight for her.
To a first-year middle schooler, the vehicle was an insurmountable behemoth.
But thankfully, Shen Maomao had years of game-honed reflexes. With no time for conscious thought, she acted on pure instinct, throwing herself forward and using the momentum to roll another two times.
The van roared past. As it neared Shen Maomao, it even swerved slightly in her direction, as if trying to adjust its aim.
But its speed was too great. Not only did it miss her, but it veered into a flowerbed and slammed violently into a lamppost on the side of the road with a tremendous crash, its front end crumpling.
Shen Maomao scrambled to her feet and scanned her surroundings warily. On the traffic light across the street, she saw a dark, black shadow. At first glance… it looked like a skeleton. But before she could get a better look, it vanished.
She pretty much understood now. This instance might just be called The Grim Reaper is coming6.
The car crash caused a huge commotion. People from nearby cars got out to check the situation, while others used their keypad phones to call the police.
A woman walked up to her and said gently, “Little friend, you must be scared stiff, right? Your reaction was so fast. Are you hurt?”
Shen Maomao shook her head and turned to leave.
The woman grabbed her. “The police will be here soon. That van was clearly aiming for you. Don’t go just yet. Do you remember your family’s phone number? Auntie can call them to come be with you.”
Shen Maomao just shook her head again.
“Do you live nearby?” the kind woman asked.
Again, Shen Maomao shook her head.
The woman sighed helplessly. “It’s so late. How could your parents let you be out here by yourself?”
“I forgot where I live,” Shen Maomao said honestly.
Hearing this, the woman paused for a second. She had Shen Maomao wait by the side of the road, telling her not to wander off. Then she parked her car in a temporary spot, crossed the street to join her, and said, “Alright, don’t go anywhere. Auntie will wait with you here. We’ll go see the police officers together in a bit.”
Shen Maomao nodded.
The woman said her last name was Bai and asked for Shen Maomao’s name, age, and school, probably to calm her nerves. Shen Maomao answered each question truthfully.
While they talked, Puck flew around them, first going to check on the van, then flying back to make faces at the woman. She stared straight ahead, completely oblivious to him.
Before long, sirens wailed as the traffic police detachment arrived on the scene. They began to control the area and rescue the driver of the van.
The woman led Shen Maomao toward the police tape and showed her ID to the officer standing guard. “I’m from the Taodong Police Station. That vehicle drove straight at this child and even tried to swerve to hit her. I suspect this was a planned murder.”
The traffic cop glanced at Shen Maomao, then at the van driver being loaded onto an ambulance. His expression was skeptical; clearly, an ordinary-looking little girl like her wasn’t worth murdering. But since a police officer had said so, he dutifully recorded her statement to report back to his superiors.
Shen Maomao and the woman were taken back to the Taoxi Traffic Police Detachment. A female officer poured her a cup of hot water and pressed two pieces of candy into her hand.
The woman was on her phone. Shen Maomao overheard a snippet—it seemed she was asking if anyone had reported a missing child. Something the person on the other end said clearly soured her expression. Then she said, “Check the population registry. Find a girl named Shen Maomao—Mao as in the rabbit zodiac sign. She’s a first-year, class one, at the Eighteenth Middle School. See if you can find her parents’ contact information and tell them to come pick her up at the Taoxi Traffic Police Detachment.”
Looks like this Police Officer Bai has some standing at her station…
Police Officer Bai looked at her. “What is wrong with your parents? Their child has been gone this long and they haven’t even filed a report?”
Shen Maomao blinked but said nothing, just sat obediently on the chair and waited.
A short while later, Police Officer Bai’s phone rang.
She answered it, and Shen Maomao strained to listen. The voice on the other end said, “Team Leader Bai, this girl Shen Maomao’s hukou7 only lists her grandmother. There’s no contact number; the old lady probably doesn’t have a phone.”
“In that case,” Police Officer Bai said, “send me her home address. I’ll take her back myself later.”
After hanging up, Police Officer Bai opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end, she just reached out and patted Shen Maomao’s head.
Shen Maomao didn’t resist.
This game was disgusting, but it was always full of friendly NPCs who showed her kindness. From the bosses in the very first instance who spared her because her inability to hear reminded them of their daughter, to Faye, who had protected her in the school instance, and now to Police Officer Bai standing before her.
Countless times, she had wondered if this game even needed to exist. True, it punished evil, but it also implicated and killed so many innocent people.
Should this game be stopped? Should it continue?
She stopped thinking about it after a moment. She might not even clear the game, and even if she did, she still had to save Lou Jingmo. It was far too early to be pondering such things.
The traffic police detachment was highly efficient. It wasn’t long before they had a clear picture of what caused the accident. The officer in charge brought the investigation report to Police Officer Bai. “The accident was caused by a sudden brake failure in the van. There were no suspicious marks at the scene. The van owner has a simple social circle, doesn’t know this child, and has received no suspicious money transfers. We can basically rule out the possibility of intentional homicide.”
Police Officer Bai frowned. “How can that be?”
She had been waiting at the intersection when the accident happened, so she had seen everything clearly. The road was perfectly flat. If it were just brake failure, the driver could have shifted to neutral without hitting the gas, and the vehicle would have coasted to a stop. But the speed of that van could only have been achieved if he had slammed the accelerator to the floor.
Her decade of experience screamed that something was wrong.
She voiced her suspicions, but the traffic cop replied, “The owner is conscious now. He says he doesn’t really remember what happened, that he might have hit the gas by mistake. Based on the accident scene investigation, we can confirm he’s not lying. This was just an accident. The child wasn’t hurt, just frightened. You can request compensation for mental distress8 from the driver, but that’s probably all. Are you the child’s guardian?”
“I’m not,” Police Officer Bai shook her head. “I’m a police officer from the Taodong Police Station. The child lives with her grandmother, who probably doesn’t understand any of this. I can take full responsibility for her case.”
She left a phone number. “Call me if there are any new developments, including matters of compensation.”
The traffic cop checked her police ID, and once he confirmed it was legitimate, he let them go.
Police Officer Bai led Shen Maomao by the hand out of the traffic police detachment. It was pitch black outside, and a cold wind howled past. She took off her own jacket and draped it over Shen Maomao, then opened the back door of her car for her.
Shen Maomao did as she was told. Puck was getting sleepy, so he crawled into her backpack to sleep. Hugging her bag, she said with genuine sincerity, “Thank you, big sister.”
Police Officer Bai’s hand paused on the car key. She smiled. “Why are you calling me big sister? You should call me Auntie.”
Shen Maomao fell silent.
Police Officer Bai started the car and pulled onto the road. She turned on the stereo, which began to play a song called 《Planting the Sun》9. “Is this okay?” she asked. “My son really likes it. He’s about your age, in the second year of middle school this year.”
Shen Maomao just hummed in response.
A child’s body tires easily. As the car drove on, Police Officer Bai stopped talking. Shen Maomao pressed her head against the glass, watching the streetlights blur into a single streak. She tapped her feet to the rhythm of the music, hoping to stay awake.
The road was an old asphalt one, dotted with small potholes that made the ride bumpy and a little nauseating.
As she watched, Shen Maomao’s vision suddenly swam. She shot upright in her seat—
She had clearly seen a ghostly face flash past the window, like the Death God raising its scythe to reap a life.
At the same time, Police Officer Bai, who was driving, said, “Why does it seem like fog is suddenly rolling in…”
A pang of regret struck Shen Maomao—she shouldn’t have gotten into Police Officer Bai’s car.
The “Planting the Sun” song on the car radio continued to play, but whether it was due to the fog causing bad reception or some other reason, the smooth melody suddenly became choppy and interspersed with the sound of a jammed tape. The once sweet children’s voices now sounded eerie—
“A… kzzzt… night… kzzt… hanging… kzzzzzzzt…”
Police Officer Bai frowned and shut off the radio. Staring straight ahead, she said to Shen Maomao in the back, “The signal seems to be bad around here. We must be getting close to your house. Do you remember which building your grandma lives in?”
Shen Maomao was plastered to the window, peering through the glass to observe the situation outside. “I don’t know,” she replied. “I don’t remember.”
“How can you not remember anything?” Police Officer Bai said with a sigh. “Were you too scared by the crash to think straight? It’s okay. You and the driver are both fine, so you don’t need to be afraid, okay?”
“I’m not scared, but I still can’t remember,” Shen Maomao said.
“It’s alright, it’s alright. Why don’t you get some sleep? I’ll wake you up when we get there.”
“Thank you, big sister, but I’m not sleepy,” Shen Maomao refused.
A smile spread across Police Officer Bai’s face. “You still have the energy to call me big sister, so it looks like you’re really—what was that?!”
The piercing shriek of brakes filled the air. Shen Maomao’s face slammed into the back of the driver’s seat, nearly breaking her nose.
She clutched her throbbing nose. “What’s wrong?”
“Something suddenly ran out in front of the car… Stay here, I’ll go check,” Police Officer Bai said.
She opened the car door and got out to investigate.
While she was gone, Shen Maomao shook Puck awake inside her backpack. “Wake up, time to work. Smell anything?”
Puck opened his eyes blearily and sniffed the air. “Smells like blood… Seems like there’s a ghost…”
“With an opening this cliché,” Shen Maomao said flatly, “can you say something that isn’t completely obvious?”
Puck flew a circle around the car. “It’s by the window!” he said suddenly.
He meant the driver’s side window. Shen Maomao looked over but couldn’t see anything.
Police Officer Bai hadn’t taken the keys out of the ignition when she got out. She was now crouched in front of the car, checking underneath. If the car started, she would undoubtedly be pulled under the wheels.
Shen Maomao shot to her feet, climbed over the back seat, and scrambled into the driver’s seat, yanking the keys out of the ignition.
Footnotes
- Hanzi: 死神 | Pinyin: Sǐshén | Context: Literally meaning “Death God.” It is the Chinese term for the Grim Reaper or similar personifications of death.
- Hanzi: 道具背包 | Pinyin: dàojù bēibāo | Context: The player’s inventory, which has a fixed limit of ten slots.
- Hanzi: 道具栏 | Pinyin: dàojù lán | Context: The player’s inventory screen. In the final instance, Shen Maomao’s twelve cards take up a single, greyed-out (unusable) slot.
- Hanzi: 小升初 | Pinyin: xiǎo shēng chū | Context: A specific term in the Chinese education system for students moving from elementary school (小学) to junior high/middle school (初中).
- Hanzi: 空气墙 | Pinyin: kōngqì qiáng | Context: A common gaming term for the invisible boundaries that limit the playable area. Shen Maomao walks a long way without hitting one.
- Hanzi: 死神来了 | Pinyin: Sǐshén láile | Context: Literally: “The Death God is coming.” Shen Maomao’s guess for the name of the final instance, which is also the Chinese title for the American horror film series “Final Destination,” where death engineers “accidents” to kill people.
- Hanzi: 户口 | Pinyin: hùkǒu | Context: The official household registration system in China, which records a person’s personal information, including family members and place of residence. It is a critical legal document.
- Hanzi: 精神损失费 | Pinyin: jīngshén sǔnshī fèi | Context: A legal term for financial compensation for psychological harm or emotional damages.
- Hanzi: 《种太阳》 | Pinyin: Zhǒng tàiyáng | Context: A well-known Chinese children’s song from the 1980s about a child who wishes to plant suns to bring light and warmth to the world.
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