The Righteous Player(s)

Chapter 99: Route To The True Ending

“Gegege…”

Under Lin Yiyi’s gaze, the “Angelo” rising into the air made a crisp, baby-like laugh.

She had now regained control over her body.

Lin Yiyi knew she needed to do something now.

That Ball of Flesh floated in the air, looking at her expectantly as if waiting for something.

“Angelo?”

Lin Yiyi called out tentatively.

After no response, she changed her key word and continued calling, “Elle?

“The Venerated Skeleton?”

“Angelo” waited for a long time but didn’t respond.

The baby’s chuckles that kept ringing around became sparse, and the seven-colored flames became more intense. Lin Yiyi started to feel breathless, a little dizzy.

Lin Yiyi was a little panicked. She kept trying new keywords, “Dear?

“Baby?

“Kiss me, baby?”

“Are you filling in the blanks here?”

“It’s over. I think it’s game over for Sister Hyphen.”

“You are dead.”

“You have already done well. Many players can’t reach your level.”

“Sister Hyphen, you earned this life’s worth. RIP.”

Looking at the bullet text, Lin Yiyi started to panic. The rest of the chats gloated.

“I must be missing something.”

Seeing the Ball of Flesh gave no response but just getting bigger, Lin Yiyi sighed, “I’m afraid I’m done for, brothers.

“Remember to write down all the previous texts! Someone tell the old goose. This route is a dead end. Don’t come for now.”

Before she could say anything, she suddenly saw Angelo dive down.

The Ball of Flesh ate her head in one bite.

But the field of vision did not fade at the moment of being swallowed.

Lin Yiyi could see a pair of emerald-green pupils looking at her mockingly in the Ball of Flesh’s belly.

Then, she lost consciousness.

“This should be an impassable ending.”

Including Annan, all the players who witnessed the scene had this thought.

This storyline should be the “preset ending” before moving on to the true ending. It had the same pattern as those classic mystery decryption games.

In a sense, the player had to go through the dead ending once to obtain the critical information. After getting this information, only then could the player trigger the route to the true ending.

It was normal to have this phenomenon take place in the dungeon instance.

After all, this dungeon instance had many levels. It was impossible to put the ending right on the first level. That would be too ridiculous.

But it was entirely possible to get something later or learn some new information. By that moment, the players could tackle this segment in the first level and enter the true ending.

“What a ridiculous difficulty.”

Annan sighed softly, “Yiyi has explored this level in-depth, but she hasn’t triggered the main mission.”

He realized that the scale of this nightmare might be more extensive than he initially expected.

This nightmare was directly related to the incident where the Venerated Skeleton cursed the Freezing Water Port forty-five years ago. The reasons why the Freezing Water Port had been abandoned should be hidden here too. It might explain why Don Juan came to this land.

In other words, one might be able to meet with the Venerated Skeleton at the end of this nightmare.

Annan made up his mind. I have to look for Don Juan again.

Of course, that would be after he got more newspapers from Salvatore.

After having free time later, Annan would re-enter the nightmare on the boat. This time, he would ask Don Juan and the Old Wizard Benjamin why they came to Freezing Water Port.

Don Juan and Old Wizard Benjamin’s actions arouse suspicion.

It was much more than seeking asylum.

It was more accurate to say that Don Juan, being a direct descendant, came to find something or someone here.

“In short, there is a mechanism on the first level of the nightmare, which can lead to Level -1: the basement. After entering the basement, it will trigger a related story about ‘Angelo.’ Then, I have to replicate what happened in history or alter that unfortunate ending.”

Annan was in deep thoughts.

It was now less than an hour before sunrise. There was not much time left for players.

Those players who had not yet tackled the dungeon instance had given up. Instead, they stayed outside and watched the stream with peace of mind.

They probably realized that this dungeon instance was not so difficult that they could finish it in an hour or two.

Of course, after the players explored further, Annan would give them the “simple dungeon instance” so as not to dampen their enthusiasm.

Annan would resort to the nightmare Justin’s death had manifested.

Justin was Bronze Rank Transcended. His nightmare could only be at easy difficulty.

The logic went the same with Don Juan’s nightmare.

Not only was the nightmare wasn’t on ‘distorted’ nightmare, but the duration was much shorter. There was not much of a challenge in tackling the puzzle. Moreover, the combat was simple with only one Transcended enemy.

Annan could probably appear as a friendly NPC to assist as well.

This dungeon instance was the dungeon instance that Annan prepared for players to level up.

As for “gallery,” Annan wanted the player to go in and help him scout the path.

When the player was grinding for levels, Annan would first take a look at the nightmare manifested through Gerald’s death.

The main purpose was to see if Gerald would say something that shouldn’t be told in the nightmare (as for the players). Annan wanted to see how well Gerald knew Annan Austere-Winter. Then, he would decide whether to disclose this nightmare to the players.

“Eh?“

Annan exclaimed. He found that the traffic on the live broadcast interface suddenly changed.

After a while, Wandering Child had entered a deeper level of the nightmare.

If it weren’t for the sharp increase in the number of viewers on Wandering Child’s stream, Annan wouldn’t even know that there was a new change.

Hmph, Wandering Child is tackling the nightmare at high speed.

“Let me see. What level is this? Oh, it’s the third level.”

Annan was dumbfounded.

The deeper dream at the third level should be “Gallery: Elle Morrison,” right?

So next, is Wandering Child going to play as Elle?

Annan couldn’t wait to open the live broadcast.

He saw the bewildered Wandering Child and the bullet texts in joy:

“Oh! Princess Child is so beautiful!”

“Smile for me!”

“I’m not scolding you, but your enemy is really your dad [1].”

“Child is not bad with crossdressing.”

“Wait, if the child is so beautiful in women’s clothing, I don’t think he can get out of bed tomorrow.”

“Wait a minute.”

“That sexual innuendo!”

“You animals…”

Wandering Child muttered in a low voice, pressing his skirt a little awkwardly.

The viewing angle of the audience could be slightly rotated during live broadcast.

The painter Amos in front of the Wandering Child, became more and more dissatisfied.

Finally, Amos put down the pen again.

Wandering Child jumped at the sound of the paintbrush hitting the wooden board. He immediately concentrated and looked at Amos.

Amos’s eyes were filled with anger, “Elle, what happened to you today?

“Stop moving around. How can I draw a portrait for you? You are wasting precious paint!”

“Yes, father…”

Wandering Child hesitated for a moment and replied hesitantly, “I don’t feel well today.”

With that, the Wandering Child made an uncomfortable look.

Wandering Child was not entirely without acting skills.

This was his exquisite acting skills when he was in school when he took sick leave from the headteacher.

Wandering Child seemed to have successfully duped Amos.

“Is that so?”

Amos hesitated and suddenly said something strange, “Then do you want to give it a try?

“Besides looking for a fair deal with Silver Sire’s priest, is there other ways to treat the disease?”

[1] It’s a typical Chinese insult to say you are the father of the other person.