The Hand of Confession – Chapter 425
by Little PandaEpilogue: The Final Instance
Grand Finale
Changing the Rules
Where did the Confession Game come from?
Shen Maomao couldn’t find its starting point within its vast data stream. Its origin was a mystery, as if it had appeared out of nowhere, yet also as if it had always been there.
The smiling face on the large screen continued to ask her: “Do you wish to customize the game rules?”
Shen Maomao didn’t care about that. “Can I resurrect Lou Jingmo?”
The voice from the screen sounded a little anxious. “Do you wish to customize the game rules?”
Shen Maomao fell silent for two seconds, then made her choice. “Yes.”
The voice relaxed. “Selection confirmed. Game initializing… Please wait… Initialization complete. Please enter the Administrator’s name: __.”
Shen Maomao: “Xiao Lou.”
“Name locked. Please set a login password.”
“1122.”
“Password confirmed. Please set an unlock key.”
“I have to set everything? What do you even do?”
“…”
Shen Maomao said, “Hurry up. Skip everything unimportant. I have urgent business.”
The system replied, “…Skipped. The game has been reset. Welcome, Xiao Lou.”
Shen Maomao said, “Alright, tell me. How do I resurrect Lou Jingmo?”
The system answered, “She can be resurrected, but it’s not necessary.”
As its voice fell, Puck flew out of the screen and floated before Shen Maomao, his wings leaving a trail of fluorescent light, like stars in this dark universe.
He looked at Shen Maomao and said, “Becoming the Administrator means your connection to the real world is completely severed. You can only exist within the game as data.”
“Social death?”1 Shen Maomao asked, her expression flat.
Puck looked a little guilty. “If you want to put it that way, you’re not wrong.”
Shen Maomao looked up and snatched him out of the air. “I suggest you think before you speak.”
Puck hurriedly said, “It’s just… I propose you don’t resurrect Lou Jingmo at all! She can keep you company in data form—don’t hit me yet!! If you resurrect her, she won’t remember you! Anyway, there’s not much difference between the game and reality. Isn’t it great to be the boss in the game?!”
Shen Maomao sank into thought.
Puck added, “As long as the game exists, the two of you can exist forever. Who knows how many centuries it’ll be before the next Administrator appears. If that’s not enough, you can just change a rule to prevent the next one from ever taking office. Isn’t being together forever great?!”
Forever…
That was a state Shen Maomao didn’t even dare to imagine.
She didn’t dare to hope to be with Lou Jingmo for all eternity; she only hoped that Lou Jingmo could live a good life.
Puck continued to guide her patiently and systematically,2 “Besides, you’ll be invincible in the game. You’ll be free. There are so many worlds for you to play in.”
Shen Maomao asked, “What about my parents?”
Puck replied, “They’ll forget you, so they won’t be too sad. When they get old, you can open a backdoor, pull them in, and then restore their memories…”
Shen Maomao sank into thought.
Puck steeled himself and continued to toss out bait. “And you two won’t be completely locked in the game. You can still take her out, but it would have to be in the form of avatars and items, like me. Only game players will be able to see you.”
“What’s the point of that?”
Puck said, “If you miss your mom and dad, you can send an avatar out to see them!”
Shen Maomao said coolly, “Your bargaining chips aren’t enough to move me yet.”
Puck understood. “What else do you want to know?”
“There’s a lot I want to know.” With a thought from Shen Maomao, the entire space changed its appearance—the original large screen shrank into a television. Not far in front of it were a carpet, a coffee table, a sofa…
It was the spitting image of Lou Jingmo’s small apartment.
Shen Maomao walked over to the sofa and sat down, seemingly in no hurry to resurrect Lou Jingmo anymore. She said unhurriedly, “Why don’t you start by telling me when you began planning all of this?”
All those items and hints that had been delivered to her door… in the past, Shen Maomao had just thought she was lucky, but she was no longer so naive.
Every coincidence was just an inevitability manipulated by someone else.
Perhaps her fate had been sealed the moment Ren Yue tricked her into the game.
Puck reflexively found the tissue box and sat on it. “It’s not like I planned it… I’m just an insignificant part of the Will of the Game.”
What kind of existence was the game, really?
Perhaps it came from outer space, or the future, or was some kind of energy form that had suddenly come into being. Even Puck, who was a part of the game, couldn’t figure it out. He only knew that it was a behemoth that could not be easily shaken, and that it had a reason for its existence.
The game had no Administrator at first.
Until it welcomed a greedy player who cleared it.
That player wasn’t powerful, nor was he particularly outstanding. He was just more resilient than the average person, and also more greedy. He didn’t want to leave the game and became fascinated by the power to control life and death. So he came up with a good idea and made himself the game’s first Administrator.
The original game was managed by an AI. The AI had no emotions and no selfish motives, operating entirely according to its programmed procedures for selecting players and setting rules. Back then, the game wasn’t so difficult, and the 12 cards weren’t so hard to obtain. That is, until the new Administrator took office.
He fell in love with the feeling of controlling everything and didn’t want to be replaced by anyone. So he adjusted the game’s difficulty, lowered the card acquisition rate, and even changed the cards’ settings—previously, cards couldn’t be brought into the real world, so there was no situation of fighting over them.
When an amoral person possessed great power, the once orderly game was turned into a complete mess.
The Will of the Game thus awakened.
It searched through the vast pool of players for an existence that could help it. Initially, it focused on Lou Jingmo, but through her, it also noticed the unconventional existence of Shen Maomao.
She was not an original player of the game.
She was ordinary, unremarkable, and seemed no different from the teeming masses.
She rarely blamed heaven and others,3 and most of the time she had the appearance of a “silly, white, and sweet”4 girl, following around the next Administrator it had its eye on, spreading happiness and optimism to everyone.
Of course, she wasn’t entirely silly, white, and sweet.
She would save people out of soft-heartedness, but mostly with Lou Jingmo’s permission. She knew how to be grateful, understanding that she had survived entirely thanks to Lou Jingmo’s support, so she always put Lou Jingmo first.
She also swore, told lies with ease, and never stuttered when deceiving people. She was not a truly “great, glorious, and correct”5 existence.
She was, quite simply, more suitable to be the Administrator than Lou Jingmo.
After meticulous calculations, it came to the above conclusion. Thus, it split off Puck, sent him to monitor Shen Maomao, and delivered The Key, which had been hidden by the previous Administrator, into Shen Maomao’s hands.
This outcome was inevitable.
Puck continued, “Every Administrator gets one chance to set the next immutable rule. An immutable rule cannot be changed at will; it can’t be changed even if the Administrator changes, and not even restoring factory settings will work. The last Administrator’s rule was card materialization. What rule do you want to set?”
Shen Maomao lowered her eyes, lost in deep thought for a long time.
Puck didn’t rush her, simply adding, “There’s a lot more stuff you can probably figure out on your own, like how to change the rules, how to resurrect Lou Jingmo.” At this, he glanced left and right and said conspiratorially, “Of course, you can also resurrect other people you want to resurrect… The game has saved the data of everyone who died. But you can only resurrect two or three at most. Any more than that and I can’t cover for you.”
Shen Maomao didn’t really hear him.
She was thinking about the rule she could change.
The Confession Game could not be stopped, so she could only find a way for the innocent players who died in the game to survive based on the existing rules. As for those who weren’t innocent… like hell she cared if they lived or died.
She thought for a long time. Puck didn’t disturb her, just circled around her out of boredom.
On his three hundred and forty-seventh lap, Shen Maomao suddenly said, “I’ve got it.”
Puck was surprised. “So soon?! What do you want to do?”
Shen Maomao asked, “After that stupid cunt died, has your game’s standard for judging sin changed?”
Puck replied, “It’s been reset. We have very accurate data and will calculate a person’s sin value based on your real world’s standards of good and evil, accurate to seventeen decimal places. Mitigating circumstances will be considered for a reduction, while deliberately committing an offense knowing it’s wrong will increase the penalty. Only those who exceed a certain value will be pulled into the game. If it weren’t for the last Administrator, we’re actually very fair.”
Shen Maomao relaxed slightly and then said, “Alright then. The rule I’m setting is this—based on your standard of sin for capturing people, all those who fell below the standard and died in the game can live anew in the game world, free from harassment by any player or ghost.”
As her voice fell, the entire space trembled slightly. It was like some strange yánlíng;6 what she said and thought became the rule. She and the game were one…
Puck sighed. “I thought you would… Ai, you’re really something else, Shen Maomao.”
Shen Maomao pushed him aside. “How do I resurrect Lou Jingmo?”
Puck said, “You can do it just by thinking it.”
“You’re bullshitting. I’ve been thinking about it this whole time. Why hasn’t she appeared yet?”
Puck gave a mysterious smile. “Perhaps she’ll appear in the next second. Well then, I’ll be taking my leave, Administrator-daren.”
“You—?!” Shen Maomao wasn’t used to using this power yet, and he actually managed to dive into the television and escape.
She took two steps forward and tried to stick her hand into the television. It actually went in without any resistance. She leaned against the TV and fished around frantically, but she couldn’t pull Puck out. Furious, she kicked the television over. “Get your ass back here! Explain yourself properly!”
With a click, the door was pulled open from the outside. Shen Maomao’s body stiffened, and she turned her head, inch by inch.
A face she had thought of day and night7 appeared before her. Her face was the same as it was six years ago; time had left no trace on her, as if she had always been by her side, never having left.
Lou Jingmo was panting slightly as she held onto the door. Seeing Shen Maomao practically plastered to the television, she couldn’t help but find it a little funny. “What are you doing? Is the TV more important than me?”
Shen Maomao’s eyes instantly turned red. She pulled her hand back, stood up at a loss, and stared blankly at the doorway.
Lou Jingmo closed the distance in three strides, pulled her into an embrace, and held her tightly. “Maomao, long time no see.”
Shen Maomao: “Wuwuwu… actually, we just saw each other less than two hours ago.”
Lou Jingmo: “…” Fine. Never mind. Let’s just leave it at that. Shen Maomao wasn’t getting any dinner tonight!!
The author has something to say:
It’s finished!!!!!!! It’s been a year! I finally finished it!!!
There’s still a bunch of extras, involving friends who died in the instances, parents in the real world, and I’ll add more as I think of them!
Ahhh so happy!!
The next book is 《Take the Sword》, but I won’t be starting it anytime soon. It’ll probably be a clash between an ancient swordsman and Western magic, maybe with reversible pairings, a story about two people finding their way home together【?】?
For the first two hundred commenters on this chapter!!!! Let’s go!! I’m being incoherent, I’ll add other things I think of to the extras!
Footnotes
- A modern slang term for being completely ostracized or having one’s reputation ruined to the point of being unable to function in society.
- From the chengyu 循循善诱 (xúnxúnshànyòu), meaning to be good at guiding people systematically.
- From the chengyu 怨天尤人 (yuàntiānyóurén), which means to complain and blame everyone but oneself.
- 傻白甜 (shǎbáitián) is a popular term for a character archetype: a naive, kind, and innocent person, sometimes to a fault.
- 伟光正 (wěiguāngzhèng) is a sarcastic abbreviation for a stereotypically perfect and righteous protagonist, often associated with older propaganda.
- 言灵 (yánlíng), from the Japanese “kotodama,” is the belief that words can carry spiritual power and influence reality.
- From the chengyu 日思夜想 (rìsīyèxiǎng), meaning to miss someone or something intensely.
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