Chapter 203: Incurring Public Wrath

Chapter 203: Chapter 203: Incurring Public Wrath

In just a short time, Wen Changming’s hair had grayed considerably.

He was worried about his son’s whereabouts, and only by keeping himself constantly busy could he stop his mind from running wild.

"Let’s put aside the matter of unfreezing the world for now. We can wait for the system’s server merge. More players will survive if they don’t descend into chaos."

Mr. Wen said, "I don’t think it will be that simple. The Energy Ball can manipulate the game, but it’s surely not the only thing that can. The island merge will definitely destroy the glaciers. To reduce energy consumption, the ice within the game will probably melt.

The islands turning into a continent means land animals will appear. Although we haven’t seen any animals on our island, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any on other islands.

Monsters are watching menacingly from the sea, and other animals will be waiting for their chance on land. Players will be caught in the middle, attacked from both front and back. The system will just have to promise enough rewards to make the players kill each other."

The senior, who was sitting in a chair, glanced at Mr. Wen upon hearing this, then turned to Shi Zhile. "If I were the game designer, I would definitely pick a few players on a continent and ’feed’ them.

I’d fill their inventories with resources, and then use the game’s rules to make the other players gang up on them."

Shi Zhile put down her empty bowl and took a couple of sips from the water beside her.

’Isn’t that the situation right now? If Jiang Yuxing is gone, my resources will be the most conspicuous on the leaderboard.’

’That’s exactly what the system did in the battle royale mode. It even targeted me openly, as if it was afraid people wouldn’t come to rob me, displaying all of my resources for everyone to see.’

Base Chief Ye said, "We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. The number of players is dwindling, and everyone is going crazy. We might as well release the truth about the game. A desperate struggle might be our only chance of survival."

Telling the other players the truth was something they had decided on early on. They just hadn’t had a chance to act on it because Shi Zhile was unconscious.

Wen Changming sighed. "We can reveal the truth at any time, and the sooner the better. What I’m more concerned about is what to do with the three people on Stone Island who have lost control."

The others all turned to look at Shi Zhile.

For the past five days, the three of them had been completely without consciousness. Shi Zhiyi would occasionally call out the name "Lele," but as soon as they saw anyone, they would attack relentlessly.

They had broken free from the ropes binding them, and on two occasions, they had nearly injured the players guarding them.

The base’s doctor had examined them, but there was no heartbeat or pulse. It was all futile.

Their blood was black, and none could be drawn from their bodies. All signs pointed to one conclusion: the three of them were already dead, just moving corpses.

Shi Zhiyi was Shi Zhile’s older sister. If anyone wanted to save her the most, it was Shi Zhile. If anyone would refuse to give up, it would also be her.

Shi Zhile took a deep breath. "You all can just handle the game-related matters. I’m going to go see them first."

She had more than enough resources. She could keep upgrading her shelter and trap the three of them inside indefinitely.

After resting for half a day, Shi Zhile left the secret base.

Stone Island was unchanged. Shi Zhile watched Shi Zhiyi, Jiang Jing, and Tang Yan through the glass.

They were covered in bloodstains, their faces and clothes smeared with dried black blood. Hearing a sound, the three of them began to pound madly on the door.

"Le... Le... Le... Le..."

Shi Zhile tapped on the glass. "Sis, I’m here."

The three inside instantly lunged forward, their distorted faces pressing against the glass.

Upon seeing Shi Zhile, a flicker of clarity appeared in Shi Zhiyi’s eyes, but it was only for an instant before they became dull and chaotic again.

"Le... Le..."

Her mouth opened and closed, forcing the sound "Le" from her throat.

Shi Zhile’s eyes stung, and she had to blink several times to hold back her tears.

The base chief beside her patted her shoulder, his face filled with pity. "The doctor already checked. They have no breath, no heartbeat. They’re just... moving corpses."

Shi Zhile said, "But what if they..."

’What if they’re still conscious? What if they’re not dead? What if they can feel pain?’

’If they weren’t moving, she would have burned them without a second thought, but...’

’She was afraid!’

’She was afraid of burning them alive while they weren’t truly dead.’

"Let’s wait a little longer. I’ll upgrade the shelter to Level Six."

A Level 6 shelter was still a three-story Stone Castle, but compared to the Level Five shelter, the Level 6 version had a larger footprint and more spacious rooms.

[Consume Stone x100,000, Wood x50,000, Iron Ingot x10,000 to upgrade the shelter with one click?]

"Yes!"

A white fog rose, and the few people inside the shelter were ejected.

Standing outside the main gate, Shi Zhile looked into the courtyard, and a chill couldn’t help but creep into her heart.

When the shelter upgraded, it would expel all living creatures. But this time, Shi Zhiyi and the other two had not been ejected.

Remembering the flicker of clarity in Shi Zhiyi’s eyes, Shi Zhile clenched her fists.

’Three days!’

’Three days at most!’

’If they haven’t regained consciousness by then, she would burn them.’

’She would cleanly sever their heads to make sure they wouldn’t feel any pain before she incinerated them.’

Leaving two people behind to stand guard, Shi Zhile opened the Teleportation Gate to Jiang Yuxing’s island and stepped through alone.

The island was as dilapidated as ever. Any usable resources had already been scavenged. She picked up her axe, chopped down the trees in the forest, broke them into segments, and stored them in her backpack.

When she got tired of chopping, she would open the resource leaderboard. Her name was in the brightly shining first-place spot, while the avatar of the second-ranked Jiang Yuxing had turned black.

For anyone else, this would mean they were dead. But since it was him, Shi Zhile was more inclined to believe he was simply not inside the game at the moment.

After a short rest, she resumed chopping, only returning to Stone Island when she received a message from the base chief.

The shelter upgrade was complete, but the three trapped inside the Stone Castle were still the same.

Three days passed in a flash. Shi Zhile kept watch in the shelter’s courtyard every day. She placed a lounge chair under the window and spoke to them all day long, ignoring their crazed expressions.

She would slide food under the crack of the door, only to watch them ignore it completely.

On the fourth day, as the sun rose, Shi Zhile closed the main gate to the shelter, opened the door to the Stone Castle, and let the three crazed individuals out.

Then, she severed their heads and burned their bodies to ashes.

After a discussion between the base chief and the senior, it was ultimately Wei Zhan who revealed the story behind the game in the chat channel, attaching two audio recordings.

After the news had three days to circulate, the players who had been planning how to seize resources after the island merge all abandoned their schemes.

Everyone’s hatred became focused on Jiang Yuxing. For a while, the chat channel was filled with "cordial greetings" for him and the ancestors of everyone from the interstellar civilization.

In the afternoon, all the cursing seemed to summon the system, and the server merge officially began.

The ground trembled slightly, the ice layer cracked, and the islands flew up. Like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, they connected with one another, eventually forming a single landmass in mid-air before smashing down violently onto the ice.

Shi Zhile was thrown hard to the ground. She got up, her face devoid of expression, pulled out a loudspeaker, and proceeded to curse the eighteen generations of ancestors of everyone behind the game.

At the same time, a chorus of furious curses rose and fell all around her.