The Hand of Confession – Chapter 429
by Little PandaExtra
The Game World (Part 3)
There is none!!
“Have you ever thought about what kind of existence the game truly is?”
In that world filled with magic and alchemy, Shang Zhou posed this question to them in a low voice, as if he were reciting an ancient and mysterious spell.
For a moment, Shen Maomao thought he had learned some forbidden art from the game’s natives. But she quickly came to her senses and replied, half-joking and half-serious, “Is it really appropriate for you to be researching how to mess with the game right in front of me, the Administrator?”
Shang Zhou continued to drip solution into a beaker. “It’s fine,” he said. “I can feel that It isn’t paying attention to us.”
Compared to players like them who were indulging in pleasure, It was more focused on the newcomers entering the game.
Shen Maomao didn’t answer. She cleared a space amidst Shang Zhou’s junk for her wife to sit.
Lou Jingmo didn’t stand on ceremony. After sitting down, she pulled Shen Maomao into her embrace, letting her sit on her lap.
When Shang Zhou received no response for a long while, he couldn’t help but look up at them, an exasperated expression on his face. “…We’re talking about serious business here.”
Shen Maomao felt a little embarrassed and tried to get up, but Lou Jingmo held her waist firmly. “It’s fine. Let’s just talk like this.”
Shang Zhou could only swallow the handful of dog food whole.1 “Fine. Have you two seriously considered my question?”
Shen Maomao said, “The inherited memories left to me contain no introduction to the game’s background. It should come from a higher plane than ours… or perhaps a higher dimension?”
“Yes. It can manipulate our world with ease, doing whatever It pleases. The previous updates also happened whenever It felt like it… Who prompted Its updates? Was it Itself? Or is there a more brilliant existence behind It?” Shang Zhou continued, “Besides that, I don’t know if you’ve ever considered this—is the world we think of as reality truly real?”
Lou Jingmo interjected, “I thought you’d already considered that point long ago.”
Shang Zhou said, “It’s not a matter of whether I’ve thought of it, but that I didn’t dare to think in that direction. Some things are tacitly understood by everyone, maintaining the current balance. I don’t want to be the one to break that balance, and besides, everyone is living quite well here…”
“Then why bring it up now?” Lou Jingmo asked.
Shang Zhou sighed. “Because I have a hypothesis I want to try and verify—which is also why I sought you out. Could you do me a favor? I want to go to the real world to investigate.”
As everyone knew, there was only one way to determine if a world had an end—to search for the end of the world.
The Earth was an immeasurably vast sphere. Shen Maomao and Lou Jingmo had traveled to many places, flying over more than half the globe.
They had never found a boundary, so she had never considered it—or rather, she hadn’t dared to think in that direction…
“I can, but…” Shen Maomao hesitated. “You’ll only be in a soul state, and you’ll have to rely on walking.”
Shang Zhou was silent for two seconds. “Can’t you arrange a car for me?”
Shen Maomao said, “I’ll go back and look into it. I’ll give you a definite answer tomorrow. But there’s one thing you need to know: going to the real world will affect your soul…”
“I know,” Shang Zhou said. “But if I can’t figure these things out, I might not even be able to eat…”
Shen Maomao pulled out some delicious food she had brought from other worlds. “You really can’t eat?”
Shang Zhou: “…It’s not entirely impossible.”
The food in the magic world was so damn disgusting.
…
After returning, Shen Maomao found Puck and told him that Shang Zhou wanted to measure every inch of the real world. She asked if it was possible to give him a buff that would let him hitch a ride, or better yet, just give him a little car.
Puck, suspecting nothing, thought for a moment before giving a clear answer. “It’s not impossible. I’ll handle it for you.”
The next day, Shang Zhou set off with the car courteously sponsored by Puck. Before he left, he told the two of them to prepare for the worst.
The worst-case scenario…
Shen Maomao figured it would be nothing more than going to war with the game. But she and Lou-jiejie had already earned decades of youth. The worst that could happen was losing and being finished, with no other real losses.
Once Shang Zhou left, there was no news from him. Shen Maomao shuttled back and forth between the real world and the game. She called him twice to confirm he was still alive, and then left him to it.
Truthfully, this was a job she should have been doing herself. She had special privileges and could even touch things in the real world. But she was under the game’s surveillance most of the time and wasn’t suited for messing with the game so openly, so she could only let Shang Zhou go.
Several more years passed. Her parents grew old, and it looked like their time was coming.
Before they passed away, Shen Maomao pulled them into the game, restored their youth, and restored their memories.
This was all part of what Puck had promised back then. So even though it was against the rules, the game chose to turn a blind eye and let the two of them in.
After so many years, Shen Maomao was a mature adult and wouldn’t cry her eyes out anymore. Her eyes just reddened as she gave her parents a big hug, only to have her head slapped aside by her mom.
Lou Jingmo, standing nearby, took half a step forward. Her fingers twitched, but she restrained herself from moving any closer.
After slapping her, Shen Maomao’s mother pulled her into an embrace and had a good, long cry. Only then did the mother and daughter sit down to hear Shen Maomao explain what had happened.
Shen Maomao had thought her mother would have a hard time understanding these things, but she actually grasped it very quickly and even cursed Ren Yue and the former Administrator fiercely. In contrast, her father was completely in the clouds and mist,2 needing some time to process it all.
Shen Maomao said, “It’s fine. I’ve already dispatched both of them into the game.”
They had no memories and couldn’t return to reality. They could only repeat their fears over and over, with no hope of escape.
Wiping her tears, Shen Maomao’s mother said, “My girl, you don’t need to feel guilty. We had the money you left us and lived very well in our later years. I spent my free time plaza dancing and playing mahjong, and your dad played Chinese chess with the old men in the park every day…”
The only thing was that they didn’t have a child by their side, and some gossipy old hags in the park would mutter about it. But it wasn’t a big deal. Her combat strength was extraordinary; she could win a shouting match against a whole squad and was unbeatable in the park.
But there was no need to tell her child all that. She held Shen Maomao tightly, and they shared their experiences with each other, talking until it was dark.
Shen Maomao arranged for them to live in a self-contained, independently developing modern instance. Fortunately, neither of them was afraid of ghosts, and no ghost was foolish enough to provoke the Administrator’s parents.
Afterward, she introduced Faye to her parents. The moment the two women met, Faye opened with, “You must be Maomao’s mother, too?”
Shen Maomao’s mother: “Too???”
Faye then took her mother’s hand and began recounting the years when Shen Maomao was a simp… no, a daughter. 3
Shen Maomao’s mother smiled, holding hands with Faye as they chatted about daily life. The atmosphere between them was very harmonious.
However, it’s best not to mention that later that night, she and Shen Maomao’s father joined hands for a round of male-female mixed doubles.4.
…
Several more years passed like this. One day, Shen Maomao suddenly received another call from Shang Zhou.
Over the phone, Shang Zhou shouted breathlessly, “Administrator! Have there been any game updates in the last few years?!”
Shen Maomao answered, completely bewildered, “No… What did you find?”
In fact, ever since she took over, the game itself had hardly updated. The “updates” players received were just new rules she had implemented.
Shang Zhou said excitedly, “I know! I know! We’re all characters in a book!”
Shen Maomao: “What??”
Shang Zhou: “I saw the book! It’s a baihe novel,5 and you and Xiao Lou are the main characters! We’re all characters in the novel!”
Shen Maomao was dumbfounded. “Are you still half-asleep?”
How is that possible? she thought.
How could she be a character in a book?
Were Lou Jingmo, her parents, Shang Zhou, and Chen Meihan all just fictional creations?
Their actions, their personalities, their experiences—were they all arranged by someone else?
Shang Zhou said, “Never mind. Is Lou Jingmo with you? Put me on speaker, I’ll talk to her.”
Shen Maomao felt deeply insulted, but she obediently handed the phone to Lou Jingmo.
Lou Jingmo took the phone, and the moment she spoke, she was steady as a rock.6 “Where did you find it?”
“You believe me that quickly?” Shang Zhou said. “I’ve reached the end of the world! Our world has an end! The end is the final page of the book, and it says ‘End of Main Text.’ I knew it! That’s why the game never updated again, why no one could ever say where the game came from! It’s all because it depends on the author’s words—they made it all up!”
Lou Jingmo pondered for two seconds, then immediately grasped the main point. “The novel is finished? Does that mean we’re no longer restricted by the plot?”
“It should be finished. After that is just information about the printing press and publisher… You two would never have guessed, your story is over a million words long…” Shang Zhou gave a bitter laugh. “And I’m just an insignificant minor supporting character…”
Shang Zhou added, “I feel like everything I’ve done for all these years has been a joke… Maybe I shouldn’t have tried to explore the origin of the game in the first place, getting to the bottom of things only to find this mess.”
Shen Maomao said, “That trope is too old. I’m docking your pay.”7
Shang Zhou sighed. “I feel like my life has lost all meaning now… I thought the game came from a higher dimension, from aliens. Who would have thought it wasn’t that the game’s dimension was high, but that our dimension was lowered…”
“Then come back,” Shen Maomao said gently. “Thank you for the news. If you’re tired, come back and rest. Like Lou-jiejie said, we’re already free from the plot’s control. Maybe if you do some research, you can find a way to get to a higher dimension. Did you get a clear look at the author’s name? If we get the chance in the future, we’ll go find them for revenge!”
Shang Zhou: “That won’t be necessary. Without them, we wouldn’t exist… I think what I saw was their pen name. What was it again… I think it was something like Jinli.8 They must have pretty good luck.”
Footnotes
- ‘Dog food’ is popular slang for public displays of affection that make single people feel envious or annoyed.
- An idiom for being completely baffled or confused.
- The original text uses ‘tiangou’, literally ‘licking dog’, a very common and derogatory slang for a simp or bootlicker.
- In Chinese slang, “mixed doubles” (a sports term) is often used humorously to describe both parents ganging up to discipline or beat their child.
- Also known as Girls’ Love or GL. The original term is ‘baihe xiaoshuo’, literally ‘lily novel’, which is the standard term for the genre in Chinese.
- The original text uses ‘lao wen gou’, literally ‘old steady dog’, a slang term for someone who is exceptionally calm, composed, and reliable.
- A modern slang phrase used to jokingly complain about something, like a bad joke or an old cliché, as if it’s a fineable offense.
- Jinli (锦鲤) means koi fish, which are a symbol of good luck and fortune in China.
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