Volume 11: The Days of Traveling on a Train
The Final Instance
When real is fake, fake is also real1
Shen Maomao had to admit, she’d been a little provocative on purpose. After all, who doesn’t enjoy seeing a powerful beauty get flustered?
But Lou Jingmo, when genuinely angry, was a real handful. In the end, Shen Maomao had to endure a thorough “punishment” before she was back in Lou Jingmo’s good graces.
Afterward, Shen Maomao kept an eye on the situation for a few days. At first, they could still get in touch with Shang Zhou. But by the third day, his phone was off. They had completely lost contact, and the only way to confirm he was still alive was through the coordinate updates posted on the forums every half hour.
Even without being able to reach him, Shen Maomao could imagine the bloody storm he was facing.
The thought made her feel quite lucky. Good thing we didn’t get greedy for that Judas card. Otherwise, Lou Jingmo would be the one out there suffering right now. Shang Zhou had an entire guild he could mobilize to help him evade other players, but she and Lou Jingmo were just two people. Two fists are no match for four hands; they probably wouldn’t have survived long enough to even reach the final instance.
Besides, once all the cards were collected, they would bind directly to their owner. That left only one way to seize them: kill the master of the cards.
So, given the circumstances, Shen Maomao was quite optimistic. Her mindset was peaceful. She spent her days playing games, walking Puck, and sleeping with Lou Jingmo. She had her wife, her child, and a warm kang bed2—living her own version of a celestial life.
Shen Maomao and Lou Jingmo listed out every possibility regarding the Judas card and came to a single conclusion: Ren Yue’s downfall was very likely caused by Jacob.
To recap, the Jacob card, as Lou Jingmo had said before, was widely considered a useless card.
Although its function was powerful, it could only bind to an innocent person and had to be used inside an instance. But the Confession Game only ever pulled in the guilty, which made the card an unsolvable puzzle.
Lou Jingmo used to think so, too. That is, until she met Shen Maomao in that one instance. The card suddenly notified her that a contractable target was nearby. Curious, she decided to give it a shot and found Shen Maomao, wondering at the time why an innocent like her would be in the game.
Now, all the mysteries were solved. Jacob might just be a card specifically designed to counter Judas.
Judas trapped an innocent person in the game, and only after the scapegoat died could the card’s owner be truly free. But Jacob just had to give that scapegoat an extra life. Whether the scapegoat was the user or the one being used, wasn’t that just infuriating?
From the very beginning, Jacob hadn’t bound to either Ren Yue or Shen Maomao individually. It had bound to Ren Yue’s body, which Shen Maomao was using, and Shen Maomao’s soul. That was why no matter whose face Shen Maomao wore, she could act as Lou Jingmo’s save point and be resurrected through Jacob.
The combination of this card and Judas created a complex triangle between Lou Jingmo, Shen Maomao, and Ren Yue. If something happened to Lou Jingmo, Shen Maomao would die. If Shen Maomao died, Ren Yue could escape the instance. So, under normal circumstances, Lou Jingmo’s death equaled Ren Yue’s freedom. But this entire arrangement hinged on the premise that Shen Maomao was the one clearing the instance.
Back then, Shen Maomao had been pulled into the game by Ren Yue, using Ren Yue’s face and identity. So, in that instance, she wasn’t Shen Maomao. She was Ren Yue.
Therefore, when determining the outcome of the life-for-a-life trade, Jacob chose Ren Yue.
It might sound a little confusing. To put it in gaming terms, Jacob was the Game Master, the GM3. Shen Maomao was Ren Yue’s Dailian4, her power-leveler. While she was logged into Ren Yue’s account to do quests, the GM detected that she was using an external cheat—Lou Jingmo. So, the GM banned Ren Yue’s account directly, not Shen Maomao’s.
In other words, if Shen Maomao died of her own accord after using Jacob’s resurrection chance, then Shen Maomao would die, regardless of whose face she was wearing. But if Lou Jingmo’s death caused Shen Maomao’s death, it depended on the face she was wearing at the time. Her own face meant Shen Maomao died. Ren Yue’s face meant Ren Yue died.
When they calculated it that way, everything seemed to make sense.
But in the end, this was all just their speculation. They had no solid hammer5 of proof. Figuring out the truth would likely require more data from actual use.
Unfortunately, there weren’t that many Jacob cards, and so far, only one Judas had been discovered.
Shen Maomao’s little brain couldn’t keep up with the speed of Lou Jingmo’s. She went back and thought about it for a whole night and succeeded only in tying herself in knots.
“Do you remember the instance where I first met you?” Lou Jingmo asked.
“Of course I do,” Shen Maomao said. “I could forget any other one, but never that one.”
“That instance was far too easy for me. It was practically a steamroll. But it was my own instance.”
Shen Maomao’s eyes widened. “I thought you were there as a Dailian.”
“Besides you and that blondie, did you see me bring anyone else into that instance?”
“Oh, right…”
Lou Jingmo smiled. “I think… maybe from the moment Ren Yue got Judas and I got Jacob, everything was already set in stone.”
“But Shang Zhou also has…”
Lou Jingmo clapped a hand over her mouth. “Alright, you don’t need to say another word.” She was afraid she might actually die of exasperation.
…
Amidst this peaceful life, Shang Zhou managed to survive for twenty-eight days.
Shen Maomao didn’t know how he did it, but she felt that even if he managed to enter the instance alive, he wouldn’t be in any condition to handle it. The game was probably using a wheel battle6 of players to weaken him, just to screw him over one last time at the end.
Shen Maomao hadn’t been nervous at first, but as the countdown grew shorter, she couldn’t help but squeeze a handful of sweat7 for him. She hoped he could hold on, yet she was also jealous that he had earned the right to challenge the final boss.
But her envy was just a sour feeling in her heart. After all, even if she was jealous of a bank’s wealth, she would never actually rob one. At most, she might occasionally think, Ah, if only I were an ATM machine, as she walked by.
With two days left on the countdown, a person with a large red marker over their head appeared at her door and knocked.
Shen Maomao peeked through the peephole. The person outside wore a mask, sunglasses, and a baseball cap. At first glance, you might think it was some celebrity, but seeing the big red arrow above his head, she immediately knew who it was.
She didn’t dare make a decision on her own. She turned and called out for Lou Jingmo, while also telling Puck to stay put.
Lou Jingmo came out of the study, descending the stairs as she spoke. “Let him in.”
Only then did Shen Maomao open the door.
Shang Zhou darted inside in a single bound. Before either of them could speak, he said urgently, “I’m Shang Zhou. I have twenty minutes to talk to you.”
“Then make it quick,” Shen Maomao said.
“I want to hire Xiao Lou as my Dailian. The payment will be helping both of you escape the game.”
Shen Maomao shot him a surprised look.
“I refuse,” Lou Jingmo said.
“Why?” Shang Zhou was baffled. “Aren’t you anxious to get out?”
“I never take high-level players through instances,” Lou Jingmo said. “And you know as well as I do, if the current me and the current you were in the same instance, the difficulty would increase by at least tenfold.”
Shang Zhou sighed, removing his mask and sunglasses. “If he weren’t so desperate, who would be willing to turn to any doctor they could find8?”
Shen Maomao had only seen Shang Zhou once, during Ren Yue’s instance. The rest of the time, they had communicated by phone or computer. But she still remembered what he looked like: a young man in his twenties, with above-average looks and a gentle demeanor. He was worldly-wise and a shrewd strategist.
But the Shang Zhou standing before them now was several shades darker, and so thin he had lost his original appearance9. His once-bright eyes seemed to be covered by a thin veil of gauze, beneath which tiny, insect-like red veins crawled. Deep, bluish-black circles bruised the skin beneath his eyes.
In just one short month, Shang Zhou had aged at least ten years. When he took off his baseball cap, Shen Maomao clearly saw white strands mixed in with his black hair.
“You see the state I’m in,” Shang Zhou10 said. “I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep or a proper meal in a month. People are after me every day. Every day I’m on the run, every day I’m terrified. The rustle of a leaf makes me think someone’s there…” He rolled up his sleeve, showing them a long gash on his arm. “I have many more wounds like this all over my body. In this condition, I’ll probably die on the very first day of the instance.”
His story was tragic, but Lou Jingmo remained firm, shaking her head. “Impossible is impossible. With the time you have, you’d be better off finding a few people willing to strike it rich with you.”
“They’re just a bunch of straw bags11…” Shang Zhou sighed. “Fine. Since you won’t agree, I’ll go with my vice president.”
With that, he put his mask and sunglasses back on and left with his head lowered.
Shen Maomao watched from an upstairs window as Shang Zhou got into a stranger’s car. The car headed south and quickly disappeared down the road.
She felt as if she and Shang Zhou were living in two different worlds. Here, it was peaceful and serene. There, it was a lawless land where a horde of desperados were slaughtering each other.
She only learned later that during the card battle, players were forbidden from calling the police or seeking help from any non-player entities. Doing so would result in disqualification. And any player who died in this battle would have their existence erased, just like those who died in the game.
So they could injure people without consequence, even kill without consequence…
This game, which claimed to punish evil, was personally cultivating a legion of demons. It made people treat life as if it were nothing, made them so greedy that it refused to let anyone escape its grasp.
Lou Jingmo came to stand beside her, gazing out at the empty street. “For Shang Zhou to have survived this long,” she said, “he must have blood on his hands.”
Shen Maomao sighed. “He was forced into it…”
Lou Jingmo wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Without me, he still has a chance of getting through. If I go too, he will die for sure.”
Shen Maomao turned to look at her.
Lou Jingmo smiled. “Don’t forget, I’m one of the people the game is watching, too.”
An indescribable emotion washed over Shen Maomao. She couldn’t help but wrap her arms around Lou Jingmo’s waist, nuzzling into her embrace just as she had countless times when she wanted to be coddled. “Lou-jie… we both have to be okay, alright…?”
Lou Jingmo stroked her head but gave no answer.
The atmosphere in the room grew heavy for a moment. Thankfully, Puck chose that moment to fly over, wobbling through the air with a large apple, clamoring for Shen Maomao to peel it for him.
The distraction pulled Shen Maomao from her melancholy, and she turned her attention to the bear child12.
…
Two days later, the countdown on the broadcast was about to hit zero. Shen Maomao was more nervous than if she were going into an instance herself. She huddled on the sofa with Lou Jingmo, waiting.
She stared intently at the screen. The second the countdown ended, she shot to her feet. “He made it!”
The next second, Lou Jingmo’s phone rang.
“Is it Shang Zhou? Is it?” Shen Maomao asked excitedly.
Lou Jingmo glanced at the phone. It was an unknown number.
She never answered unknown numbers—everyone she knew was saved as a contact—but the timing of this call was too coincidental. It gave them both a sense of foreboding.
She answered. A stranger’s voice came through the speaker. “The president has failed.”
Shen Maomao froze, sinking back onto the sofa.
Lou Jingmo’s brow furrowed. “Can you give me the details?”
“He entered the game just now,” the man said. “A second later, he was out. Then he started coughing up mouthfuls of blood. After a few coughs, he gave some instructions and told me to contact you immediately to ask which card you’d like to take. Then… he was gone.”
“How do you have my number?” Lou Jingmo asked.
“I’ll explain that later. Please tell me which cards you need right now. If you’re willing to wish for the game to end after you clear it, our guild is willing to gift these cards to you.”
Lou Jingmo considered for only two seconds. “I only need one Judas.”
“Alright,” the man said. “Please wait. I’ll call you again from this number when I’m downstairs.”
After the call ended, Shen Maomao finally spoke, her voice filled with disbelief. “Shang Zhou… he died too?”
“The success rate is too low when you enter an instance in that state of mind,” Lou Jingmo said.
In the final instance, a single moment of drowsiness could leave your head and body in different places13. Shang Zhou had been on the run for a whole month; his body and mind were both exhausted.
Shen Maomao grabbed Lou Jingmo’s hand, her voice tight with anxiety. “Lou-jie… are you really going to take that Judas card?”
“It’s not a matter of whether I want to,” Lou Jingmo replied. “Right now, I’m the most suitable person.”
Hearing this, Shen Maomao felt tears welling up.
After all these years on this gaming journey, almost everyone she knew was dead. One after another, like a curse that could never be broken.
She was terrified—afraid Lou Jingmo would end up like the others, dead in an instance. If that happened, she didn’t know what she would do, didn’t know if she would just break down completely.
Lou Jingmo pulled her into a hug. “You hold onto Judas for now. Don’t give it to me. I’ll ask you for it before my next instance begins.”
Shen Maomao tilted her head to look at her. “You’re not planning to take me with you?”
Lou Jingmo met her gaze, her own pupils reflecting Shen Maomao’s image. “If… Shen Maomao, don’t get upset, I’m just saying if. If something happens to me, you’ll be our last hope.”
Tears streamed down Shen Maomao’s face in an instant. Shua.
Puck perceptively offered a tissue. Lou Jingmo took it and wiped Shen Maomao’s tears. “What are you crying for? You have so little faith in me? You’ve already sentenced me to death?”
“I… I believe in you,” Shen Maomao sobbed. “I know you can get us out of here.”
As Puck listened, it seemed to realize something. “Wait, if you leave, will I still be alive?”
Shen Maomao’s crying stuttered to a halt. “Uh… well…”
Tears instantly filled Puck’s eyes. “Am I… am I going to die? Waaaaahhh!!”
Faced with someone who could wail even louder than she could, Shen Maomao suddenly found it hard to keep crying. “Ah, this… good son, don’t cry… Daddy will buy you that ice cream you wanted yesterday, okay?”
Puck cried harder. “I’m about to die! And you’re only buying me one ice cream! What kind of good daddy are you, wuu wuu wuu…”
Shen Maomao felt like her head was about to split into four. “Alright, alright, I’ll buy you a hundred! Enough to drown you in! How’s that?”
Puck was still not satisfied. “And twenty bags of salt and pepper potato chips.”
“If we can get out, forget twenty bags of chips, I’ll buy you the whole supermarket.”
Puck was stunned. “Then I declare you can definitely get out! Can we buy the supermarket in advance?”
Shen Maomao tossed it away. “You wish.”
…
The next morning, Lou Jingmo received another call from that number. The man said he was downstairs and asked if he could come up to talk.
Fearing he might be hostile, Shen Maomao went to the kitchen and got a fruit knife for Lou Jingmo for self-defense. Lou Jingmo nonchalantly placed the knife on the coffee table and told the man to come up.
The man looked to be in his thirties, with a buzz cut and a suit. His expression was weary.
He entered, closed the door behind him, and extended his right hand toward Lou Jingmo from the doorway. “My surname is Sun. I’m the new president of Tong Zhou14.”
Lou Jingmo shook his hand.
Shen Maomao brought him a pair of slippers, but he said, “No need, I’ll just speak from here.”
He pulled a card from his coat. “This is Judas.”
“Thank you.” Lou Jingmo took it and passed it to Shen Maomao, then asked him, “You dare to trust me?”
President Sun answered honestly, “I don’t trust you. The one who trusted you was the president. He had me save your number, just in case. Originally, we planned to go in with him, but he had to face the final instance alone. Before he disappeared, he instructed me to tell you that no one can pass the final instance. The Confession Game is simply unbeatable. He hoped you would be prepared.”
Maybe Shang Zhou glimpsed some secret in the game? And the game silenced him for it?
Lou Jingmo frowned. “Did he say anything else?”
“He had me take over the guild and bring you the card you needed, on the condition of that one wish… Oh, and he had one more message: ‘When real is fake, fake is also real.'”
Shen Maomao: ??
Lou Jingmo pondered for a moment, then nodded. “Alright, I understand.”
“If you need any help, you can call me at this number anytime,” President Sun said. “I’ll take my leave now.”
After he left, Shen Maomao took out the Judas card that had once screwed her over, a thousand emotions swirling within her.
She looked at Lou Jingmo. “Lou-jie… are you really going in?”
“I am,” Lou Jingmo said. “All the cards are here. There’s no reason not to.”
“But Shang Zhou said no one can make it out of there…”
“How will we know if we don’t try?” Lou Jingmo asked. “We’ve come this far. If I told you to give up now, would you be content with that?”
Shen Maomao thought about it. She really wouldn’t be.
They were just a kick at the goal15 away from escaping this game. Who could resist taking that shot?
But she was terrified.
Shang Zhou himself had said no one could leave this game. Could Lou Jingmo be the exception?
She was afraid, afraid Lou Jingmo would follow Shang Zhou’s path. But she was also afraid her own panic would distract Lou Jingmo and keep her from preparing properly, so she could only suppress her fear and watch as Lou Jingmo began to arrange her affairs…
They really were her final affairs. She was preparing for her own departure.
Shen Maomao understood. Lou Jingmo acted confident, but deep down, she wasn’t sure either. That’s why she had to set everything up in advance, so that if that day ever came, Shen Maomao wouldn’t be left in a state of panic.
Lou Jingmo arranged everything, except she didn’t know how to arrange for Shen Maomao.
She wanted to get Shen Maomao out of the game. She wanted to propose to her, to let her live a normal life.
She also wanted to beat the creator of the game to a pulp and make them pay for Shen Maomao’s emotional distress…
There was so much she wanted to do. But most of all, she wanted to keep walking this path with Shen Maomao, forever, and never be separated.
She pulled Shen Maomao into her arms and said seriously, “If I can, when I get out of the game, I’ll propose to you.”
Shen Maomao let out a wail. “I’m begging you, stop setting up flags16!!”
Lou Jingmo burst out laughing. “Alright, alright, no flags. I won’t propose, how about that?”
“No! To make sure the flag doesn’t come true, you have to propose to me right now! Hurry!”
Lou Jingmo was exasperated. “I don’t have anything on me…”
Shen Maomao dashed to the kitchen and quickly returned with a bag of onion rings from the fridge. “Here! Quick! Propose to me!”
Lou Jingmo didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “What the hell is this? Even if you don’t feel wronged by this, I do.”
Shen Maomao resorted to the classic tactic of first crying, second fussing, and third threatening to hang herself17. “I don’t care! You have to propose now! We’ll go get our marriage license tomorrow! We have to cancel out this flag!”
Lou Jingmo saw the fear in Shen Maomao’s eyes and felt a pang of sympathy, understanding that all this fuss was just because she was scared.
“Fine.” She took the bag of onion rings, tore it open, and took one out. She stood before Shen Maomao. “If you don’t feel wronged, then I don’t feel embarrassed.”
Then she dropped to one knee and asked, “Shen Maomao…”
“I do, I do!”
“…I haven’t even asked yet.”
Shen Maomao held out her hand matter-of-factly. “Can’t help it, I’m impatient.”
Lou Jingmo smiled and slipped the onion ring onto her finger. “There. You’re trapped by me now.” She stood up, wrapped her arms around Shen Maomao, and they shared a long kiss.
Even after the kiss ended, they didn’t separate, holding each other so tightly it was as if they wished they could merge into one being.
Shen Maomao reached a hand behind Lou Jingmo’s back to admire her freshly-minted onion ring, only to find her ring finger was bare. She’d been so lost in the kiss she hadn’t even noticed. “Hey?? Where’s my ring??!”
Crunch. Puck looked up in confusion. “What ring, munch munch?”
The author has something to say:
Puck: In danger.
Shang Zhou’s boxed lunch18 is heated up. Time to prepare the next person’s.
A unified reply: It’s really ending!!
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