They climbed the stairs floor by floor, and soon encountered the same uncanny loop, as if they should have arrived long ago but were still on a certain flight of stairs.
Looking at the winding stairs above and below, the few people stopped tacitly.
Chen Sui wailed, "We really can't get up."
Nan Bei silently looked at Zhuo Zhen.
Zhuo Zhen held the little bat in her hand, "You wait here, I'll go by myself."
With that, she suddenly jumped off to the side.
"Are you crazy!"
The little bat screamed in fear, only to find that they had not fallen to the ground but had entered a void-like world.
In the center of the world stood the person Zhuo Zhen was looking for.
He was wearing the same suit he had worn when they last met, standing there silently watching her, his expression neither happy nor sad, very calm.
"Why won't you let me find you?"
The little bat turned into a wisp of smoke and returned to his body.
His body moved slightly, his eyes blinked, and he suppressed his emotions, saying calmly, "You should go. I can't go back."
"I said with me here, you can go anywhere."
The broken, unyielding soul she brought from the last world was inside him.
It had grown a little, but it was still in fragments. It seemed it would take a long time to piece it back together.
"I've killed many people." He was still calm, gazing at his own slender, fair fingers, his tone devoid of remorse, "So many, one after another, they all died."
He used to think killing was his job, and he felt no guilt. He even found it fun.
Even now, he didn't think he had done anything wrong.
He just felt covered in blood, too dirty to be worthy of her.
"You should go."
"You come here."
As she approached, he began to retreat.
"Don't be afraid, I just want to look at you properly, to touch you. It's not your fault. Without you, more people would have died. You've done nothing wrong."
He froze in place.
Then he was grabbed.
Zhuo Zhen held him tightly in her arms with one hand, and with the other, she slapped his buttocks through his suit pants.
"Slap!"
Zhuo Zhen cursed, "I told you to wait for me to find you, and you still dared to run away? You've gotten bold, haven't you? Do you dare? Do you dare?"
With that, she slapped him a few more times.
Zhong Yan was dazed by the spanking.
When he came to his senses, his shame exploded, and he couldn't maintain his cold demeanor anymore.
"You hit me!" He struggled incessantly, "You bad woman, you hit me! This is domestic violence! I don't want to be with you anymore. You dare to hit me! Ah, let go, let go..."
Nan Bei, who was sitting on the floor on the first level, heard the commotion and looked up. Zhuo Zhen was pulling Zhong Yan down the stairs.
"You're domestically abusing me! Bad woman, let me go! I don't want to be with you!" He flailed his limbs, but could not break free from her grasp.
Listening to his petulant voice, and then thinking of Jian Yan whom they had met earlier, Nan Bei suddenly understood.
As they passed by, Zhuo Zhen said calmly, "Let's go."
Zhong Yan's fair, soft face showed feigned resistance. "I'm not going with you. Help! Domestic violence! Help! Mmm..."
The scene was unsightly, and they all consciously lowered their heads.
"Mmm... mmm... mmm, let go, let..."
Chen Sui secretly peeked up, only to see two people standing at the doorway, silhouetted against the light, kissing each other.
Daybreak.
[Blood Moon Night Game Instance Ends, Exiting Game, Please Prepare.]
Two vampires walked into the sunlight and slowly dissipated.
——
[Host.]
[Villain's blackening value +10, current blackening value 50.]
Finally back in the real world, their checks and task assignments could proceed simultaneously. The blackening value was still at 50. After Zhuo Zhen opened Zhong Yan's nutrient pod, she saw his experiences in this world.
Zhong Yan.
The light of the world more than ten years ago. When everyone was struggling to live mundane lives, he established the dominance of holographic technology.
Holographic technology could not only be used for games but also as a tool to replace all dangerous jobs. Its applications were too broad. If not for that disaster, it should have been used to liberate all of humanity.
After that disaster, it could only be used as a tool to cover up murder.
His technology was stolen, Zhong Yan was pursued and ambushed, betrayed by friends and family, and finally handed over to the operating table by his own relatives, sliced up for research, dismembered, and then reassembled. His body was confined to that small room, and his soul trapped in a killing game, neither alive nor dead.
That is why he hated, and he had never been kind.
Zhuo Zhen pinched his soft cheek, her gentle smile revealing a hint of cruelty.
Did God truly exist?
It didn't matter to them at all, because gods lived by human will. If people didn't believe, there would be no gods.
They feared, they dreaded, and then they created more killing and fear, turning a weak evil god into the god in everyone's hearts. Only with some people's faith did he become so powerful, even daring to exercise the rights of heaven's will.
They were not afraid of death, but they were afraid of a phantom god.