Famine 47: Endgame

At first glance, Gu Haoping couldn’t even make out what it was.

A long, soft mass, drenched in vivid red liquid—its shape already unclear…

What… was that?

In that moment, his mind seemed to cease all thought, instinct screaming at him to not think further. So Gu Haoping obeyed.

On the second glance, the bone-worms under his skin went wild.

Countless spines and branches flared forth, dense and bristling, leaping for joy. The blood-soaked spines thrashed as if a sea urchin tossed by the waves, tearing through cloth as they broke free.

His entrails seemed to wrench inside him. Gu Haoping doubled over, blood gushing from his lips. “Cough!”

By the third glance, he saw nothing at all. A cacophony of whispers filled his ears. The pain and sensation of control brought by the Bone Ferry vanished simultaneously. Covered in blood, hunched and hollow, he stared vacantly at the floor. His mind was utterly blank.

A gaunt, emaciated torso lay bared to the chill wind.

What was that?
What—what was that?

He didn’t know. He couldn’t understand.

“…Look…”

A voice exploded beside his ear.

“…Look at me…”

It kept repeating.

“Look at me!” Zhong Manwen commanded, her tone fierce.

Gu Haoping jerked and, by reflex, raised his head.

Before him, an old woman stood tall in plain clothes, a pale golden glow, like the morning sun, seeping into the corner of the tent, half veiled by drifting mist.

No matter how you try to escape, the mind does not lie.

There on the ground before him, Gu Haoping’s own familiar bone-spines cheered and leapt, clambering over an arm, devouring it at speed. Skin, muscle, nails, bone… They had rooted themselves deep in the Bone Ferry, gnawing contentedly, devouring every bit of flesh. That arm hung eerily suspended in the air, steadily shrinking, as if erased by a rubber.

That was Brother Nie’s arm.

On its back were still the scars left by Gu Haoping’s childish mistake years ago.
He had only just reached for the arm when the flesh vanished.

“————”

And with that, Gu Haoping completely lost control.

“What the hell did you do?!!”

For one brief instant, Gu Haoping seemed to forget he was a Qualified Player, forgetting even the deadly charm at his waist, and charged forward, grabbing Zhong Manwen by the collar. He was a few inches shorter than her, making the sight almost comical as he nearly pulled her down.

Zhong Manwen, held by the collar and head bowed, regarded him coldly.

He shouted, face twisted in fury, features distorted and beastlike—a wild animal undone.

“What—the—hell—did—you—do?!”
“Isn’t Nie Du your commander?! Don’t you swear day after day that you follow him?!”

“You and Sha Tong, this is how you follow him?! This is how you treat him…?!”

Smack!

A resounding slap.

Gu Haoping’s head snapped aside and, startled, he let go.
He hadn’t imagined Zhong Manwen would hit him—he was left stunned.

She shook out her hand with a cold chuckle. “Hard to believe those words came from your mouth.”

“I don’t know what grievances or hatred you carry, and it’s none of my concern. Ever since the Bone Ferry was founded, I’ve lived under Commander Nie’s lead. I haven’t seen him many times, but there’s one thing I have never once doubted.”

“We and Commander Nie have always stood together.”

She sat cross-legged atop the Unfailing Raft, gazing down at Gu Haoping in the blood sea.

“Commander Nie, Captain Sha, myself, and the hundreds upon hundreds of Service Players behind us… we’re all fellow travelers.”

“To hell with the Hunger Game—we are human, and we stand united. Our places may differ, our abilities may vary, but every path we walk leads to the same point, with no real difference between us.”

Zhong Manwen’s aged voice was slow and firm.

“We each survived in our own way.”

There are no burdens waiting to be saved,
No one dragging a useless stone, struggling on in vain.

In the Saint’s Mausoleum with the North Squad, Nie Du once showed off the supplies produced by the Bone Ferry with pride. What drove him onward was not blind kindness, but a human resolve.

Let the strong serve their purpose, let the weak have their shelter.
Mutual benefit, hand-in-hand, advancing together.

“If you truly respect him, then see him as a comrade-in-arms, not an attachment waiting for your rescue, or your awakening.”

Splash.

Soaked in blood, Gu Haoping staggered back to the tent’s wall.

The one you despised
was yourself, Gu Haoping.
Commander Nie never did. Not for a single minute. You handed everything over to the Main God, treating us as vermin, treating yourself as vermin, even treating Commander Nie as vermin.

Unknowingly, Gu Haoping’s breath grew ragged. “Enough. That’s enough…”

“To use the words you care about… In your eyes, Commander Nie is just another thread-worm.”

Gu Haoping roared in anger: “I SAID ENOUGH!”
He snatched out his revolver, [Wailing Remains], spun the cylinder, and pointed the muzzle straight at Zhong Manwen’s brow!

…………
……

[Day 15 / 05:13 AM / Saint’s Mausoleum—Level 18 / Current Farm Fullness: 5%]

The North Squad gathered in a ring.

“Pandora’s box… will unleash all the world’s terrors… What does that really mean?”

Zhen He sat before the ice sculpture, murmuring that question for perhaps the thousandth time.

Zhong Yanqing sat down beside him.

“King Zeus hated Prometheus for giving fire to mankind, so he created a woman named Pandora. She opened a box among men, and from it spilled endless desires. Pride, greed, envy, deceit, slander, pain, hatred… All these traits poured forth, sweeping over humanity.”

“Thereafter, people fell to hatred and estrangement, forever unable to understand one another. War broke out, tribes splintered.”

Zhong Yanqing stretched and lay back on the ground.

“Well, there are actually many versions of the Pandora myth. This is just one of them.”
“And, after thinking about it, it’s the version that matches our current reality best.”

Zhen He rested his hand against the Ice Priest’s statue.

Within the millennial layers of ice, the Priest’s gaze was hollow, blood-tears streaming ever more thickly down the face.

[Wailing Curse].

This curse, which covered the entire world, source of all hunger in this land…
It turned out to be the Priest’s own curse, cast in blood-tears upon his people.

The meaning of “wailing” lay here at the base of the sacred land, beneath centuries of ice.

Zhen He whispered, “They’re raising their hands against each other.”

“That’s right,” Zhong Yanqing nodded.

Zhen He gave a wry smile. “Seems like that’s just what humans do.”

“We humans… were never anything special.”
Zhong Yanqing averted his gaze, bowing his head, voice low:
“Every myth is false, a clumsy excuse for existing society. Pride, envy, deceit, hatred, division… all of these are just part of humanity. No matter how high you climb, you can never erase them.”

“…Even so, do you still want to open it?”

“……”

Zhen He lowered his head, staring at the box in his hands.

……
…………

The revolver’s sights bore straight against Zhong Manwen’s brow.

She showed not the slightest fear, but smiled coldly, meeting Gu Haoping’s eyes with a look that held life and death in equal disregard.

His chest heaved, finger tightening on the trigger…
But slowly, his shoulders slumped in exhaustion.

The muzzle dropped three inches.

Suddenly, a bubble rose from the bloodpool at his feet.

Blub.

Gu Haoping instinctively glanced down, his hand stalling for half a second.

In the very next instant, a wall of flame exploded upward. Dazzling light and thunderous noise crashed over him, an avalanche of heat engulfed him completely.

—Beneath the floating raft, Li Shize had tied up every bit of explosive left from his escape, everything from that day.

[Unfailing Raft]
No matter the deadly waters, no matter the monsters that assail it, this raft can never capsize.
It can carry three to five people, let you paddle freely on your pond, wherever you wish.
As for what might swim beneath it…
Hey, don’t worry about that. Know only—it will not sink.

From the moment he read the raft’s description, Si Zhiyan had realized.

It was an item of causal law.

No matter what happens, the raft never sinks. The wording was subtle, covering not just storms and waves, but even strange underwater attacks.

And so, naturally—it included explosive shockwaves.

As for the heat and the blood-tinged blast, long before Zhong Manwen ever came, Si Zhiyan had made her eat enough [Lucky Jerky]. The witch’s blessing would keep the old woman safe in that crucial instant.

After his battle with Nie Du, Gu Haoping’s charms for protection had all been spent. Depleted, exhausted, Miracle of Suffering finally faded, and all he had left was a mortal body.

As the searing light surged toward him, Gu Haoping felt himself once again a small, trembling middle-schooler, knocked to the floor as shoes and fists rained down—pain so sharp it left him shaking, heart pounding that death must come any second.

Except this time, what engulfed him
was explosive made by Service Players.

Gu Haoping shut his eyes and let the shockwave hurl him away.

Fire, agony—he could almost feel his limbs torn apart.
Blinding white light filled every corner of the world.

And so, he melted away within the blazing brilliance.

——

Gu Haoping tightly closed his eyes, lashes trembling for a long time.

Darkness did not come as he’d imagined.

“…?”
He opened his eyes, dazed, and found himself amidst swirling fog.

Before him, a figure in a black coat sat atop a bank of mist, gazing down at him without expression.

The mysterious farm owner.

Gu Haoping instinctively reached for his waist, but found nothing. Looking down, he saw his own arms had become translucent!

Immediately, an icy chill shot from his tailbone to his crown.

As if amused by his terror, the farm owner said calmly:
“Long time no see.”

Gu Haoping knelt, trembling all over. “I… you… are you… Are you the Death God…?”
Though his voice quavered to pieces, it was still edged with instinctive respect.

So frightened he couldn’t even speak.
Si Zhiyan pinched his brow and lowered his eyes, sighing inwardly.

All the better for what needs to be done.

But instead of answering, Si Zhiyan posed another question—

“Before the explosion, your gun moved an inch. You didn’t mean to kill that woman. Give me your reason.”

Was this… a final judgment before death?
Gu Haoping shook for a long while, his face ashen, brows drooping like a soaked beast.

At last, in a hollow voice, he said:

“It was pointless.”

“I did all of this to destroy the Bone Ferry and save those I wanted to save. As long as the Bone Ferry stands, whether she dies or not… doesn’t matter to me.”

In that moment, all hope deserted him.

Nie Du had tried to kill him, Nie Du severed his own arm, Nie Du reclaimed his powers… All of that weighed heavy. But what crushed Gu Haoping completely, in that final second, was seeing the identical, unwavering resolve in Nie Du and in that old woman.

“They’ll never fail… and never give up.”
He shut his eyes slowly, tears rolling down his cheeks—
and those tears gradually turned blood red.
“No matter how many die, Brother Nie will never be freed.”

“Everything I did was wrong—only brought Brother Nie more pain.”

“So then, if I kill her, give Brother Nie one more wound… It’s pointless.”

At least, in the very end, under Zhong Manwen’s furious rebuke, Gu Haoping finally saw and understood the path Nie Du walked.

The muzzle lowered by three inches, and the bloody tears now, were the answer he gave for a life led astray.
But everything came too late.

Si Zhiyan said quietly, “From start to finish, all you ever wanted was to save Nie Du.”

Gu Haoping bowed his head in exhaustion. “Yes. Just as he wished to save the world.”

High above on the mist, Si Zhiyan watched Gu Haoping’s translucent form.
The turmoil in his chest hadn’t abated, but at last he understood what it was.

A burning soul.

Si Zhiyan loved to watch the color of burning souls, loved those splendid flames.

Lately, he often felt like a true farm owner—what grew in his field were not just crops, but souls.
They came, bearing fresh hope, rooting in his farm, sprouting and growing, then casting hope ever farther.

Zhong Manwen, choosing to stay and stand on the Bone Ferry; Nie Du, who gripped his scythe and rose again; the ideals passed hand to hand as they chased the sun… so many souls, so bright they could not be ignored.

At the very end, Gu Haoping chose to lower his gun.
And in that instant, something of that same shade finally burned in him.

For that glimmer of similarity, Si Zhiyan gently flicked his finger.

Within his hand, he held the tribute-offerings presented to him by Zhen He in the snow-mountains—a heap of sacrificial remains.
Venomous serpents, eagles, swarms of insects…
Individually, each was only a D-tier charm. But together, in the farm, amassed in numbers…
And after their passage before the Ice Priest, something wondrous had occurred.

[Group Charm – Poem of the Sacrificed]
The heroic souls who offered up their lives for the Ice Priest become, after death, the children of the snow-mountain, guardians at the sacred land’s edge, forever fighting for the Priest.
In life or in death, my soul belongs forever to you.
A hymn of sacrifice across life and death.
Single use. It can extract the will of one about to die, forge a contract,
Using said soul as fuel, the remaining flesh as offering, and transform them into a being of matching power, to remain in the mortal world.

……

Si Zhiyan said gently, “I can make it so.”

Gu Haoping jerked his head up, pupils shrinking to pinpoints.

In his eyes, the god sat atop the clouds, legs crossed—the black coat wrapped around a lean, cold body, and above the high collar, those crimson eyes gleamed with chilling light.

“You died at the hands of Service Player Zhong Manwen—this outcome was her doing, and you have only yourself to blame. I cannot change that fate.”
“But I can give you a chance, to run your own ‘path’ straight to the end.”

“—Become the extension of Nie Du’s body. Remain by his side. Fill the part of him lost because of you. Bear for him the agony of a thousand insects gnawing his heart…”

“Until the Hunger Game ends.”

Gu Haoping could hardly believe it. He shot upright, voice nearly bursting through the mist: “I’m willing, I—I am willing, sir!”

The god spoke slowly: “Do you remember what I once said?”

[When next we meet, should you seek anything from me, I will take all you have to give as a small price in return.]

If it is your way to survive, to kneel and bend before power and cruel law…
Then offer me your fealty.

Gu Haoping gazed up, eyes full only of dazzling light.
At last, his shoulders trembled once more, and he slowly bent low.

“Yes… yes, I… I beg for your mercy.”

Gently, he bowed.
He didn’t dare touch—only knelt on the flooring before Si Zhiyan and bowed his head hard to the ground.

Thud.

“I repent before all, and submit to you. I surrender everything: my charms, my property, my life, my soul and shell—let all be yours. Let it serve as penance for what I have done, until my soul is no more.”

That was Gu Haoping’s final path.
Si Zhiyan lifted his hand and pointed the charm, claiming his soul.

—“The covenant is sealed.”