Liu Jiayi stared at the lake, her gaze fixed and unblinking. After a long moment, she turned to the Reverse God.
"Am I absolutely forbidden from going over there?"
"It's better if you don't." The Reverse God glanced at Tang Erda, who stood beside her with a gun in her hand. "The same goes for you. If Bai Liu sees either of you, he might send you to another map again. You don't have Spades' ability to break through space. If you're transferred once more, you'll probably be forced to quit the game."
Liu Jiayi closed her eyes and drew in a slow breath.
What he said made sense, but—
"We're Bai Liu's teammates." She lifted her head and looked straight at him. "Is there really nothing we can do?"
The Reverse God gave a helpless shrug, spreading his hands. "I'm Spades' teammate, too. And look at me—what can I do?"
He turned his head toward the unnaturally calm lake. "The connection between those two… isn't something teammates like us can interfere with."
-----------------
Beneath the lake.
Corpses drifted back and forth in the dark water, their rotting, twisted faces blotting out what little light remained.
Bai Liu hid among them, expressionless, letting his body sink deeper.
A jet-black whip lashed through the water, sweeping the corpses aside. Pale dawn light filtered down as the bodies were flung away, illuminating Bai Liu's face.
Spades appeared before him.
With one hand, Spades caught the bone-spurred whip Bai Liu had swung. The barbed spur pierced straight through his palm. When Bai Liu jerked the whip back, a cloud of blood bloomed in the water.
Spades didn't even flinch.
He seized Bai Liu's wrist and yanked upward with brutal force.
The sudden pull wrenched Bai Liu's mouth open. Water flooded into his throat. In the next instant, he was dragged from the lake and hurled onto the shore. He rolled twice across the mud before forcing himself up, coughing violently, wiping water from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.
Spades was already behind him.
Midair, he bent his knees and drove one down against the back of Bai Liu's neck. The pressure forced Bai Liu to drop to one knee.
Instinctively, Bai Liu tried to swing the whip back.
Too slow.
Spades' movements were mercilessly precise. He pinned Bai Liu's shoulders, slid his hands down to seize both wrists, and twisted them upward, his knee still pressing down at the nape of Bai Liu's neck.
It was the posture of an arrest.
Bai Liu knelt in the mud, breathing quietly. His fingers curled as though resisting the restraint. His long, wet hair spilled forward, veiling half his face, trailing to the ground. Droplets trembled on his lashes before falling one by one.
The black whip slipped from his grasp and landed nearby. The darkness staining it had spread to three-quarters of its length—then stopped, no longer advancing.
Spades pressed down harder.
Bai Liu's head was forced back. He met Spades' gaze.
His eyes looked distant, hollow. His chest rose and fell unevenly, the rims faintly red from suffocation.
Spades looked down at him, eyes sharp and unwavering. His expression was unfamiliar, his voice colder than ever.
"Bai Liu—didn't you say you were going to defeat me?"
"In this self-loathing state, you're no match for me."
"You could have beaten me. You could have beaten anyone. So why did you exile yourself? Why erase yourself?" His tone remained calm. "Looking at yourself now—reduced to a vessel for other people's desires and weapons—don't you feel disgusted?"
"I will never allow you to defeat me like this."
Slowly, Spades reached for the inverted cross pendant at Bai Liu's throat.
Bai Liu's pupils contracted.
Beside them, the stagnant black coating on the whip began to churn, writhing as though boiling. A faint smile curved Bai Liu's lips.
"What right do you have to say that to me?"
He lifted his gaze to Spades. The smile turned sharp, dangerous. Pale lips parted slightly as water traced a line down his jaw and over his Adam's apple.
"Weren't you the one who erased yourself first?"
Spades froze, just for a second.
[System Alert: Player Bai Liu is mobilizing all corpses within the lake.]
The lake exploded.
A massive, grotesque hand formed from countless corpses burst from the water and smashed toward Spades. He tried to drag Bai Liu away, but Bai Liu twisted free, rolling to snatch up the black bone whip.
In one fluid motion, he rose to one knee and lashed diagonally upward.
Spades pivoted aside.
Bai Liu pressed the attack. The whip's barbs fully extended, aiming straight for Spades' throat, snapping back in an attempt to tear open his arteries.
As he moved, the inverted cross swung free from his collar, glowing with a dark, blood-tinged light.
The crimson halo illuminated the corpse's hand behind him. As if maddened, it twisted and struck again and again.
The enormous hand crashed into the ground, splitting it apart. Cracks spidered across the lakeshore. In front of that monstrous limb, Spades seemed no larger than a speck—yet he leapt lightly between its blows.
His own whip lashed down repeatedly, shattering the corpse's hand into fragments. But the fragments writhed and reassembled almost instantly, reforming to shield Bai Liu.
With the corpse hand guarding him, Bai Liu met Spades head-on.
His soaked hair whipped wildly around him. The black of his weapon deepened with every strike. A faint, almost careless cruelty curved his lips.
"What are you angry about?"
"You kept appearing in front of me. Playing games with me. And then you chose to erase yourself. Dug out your own heart. Wiped my memory and left."
His eyes burned, something like fire flickering in their depths.
"Aren't you the one who walked away?"
His whip shot out from beneath the corpse's hand cover. Spades dodged—only for Bai Liu to appear on the opposite side.
The whip blurred like an afterimage, vanishing from Spades's sight before snapping back into Bai Liu's hand like a returning blade.
Bai Liu's voice was glacial.
"Why do you get to be angry in front of me?"
The whip struck Spades squarely across the back with a thunderous crack, sending him crashing into the earth. In the same instant, the corpse hand roared down, slamming into the impact site and throwing up a towering cloud of dust.
The lakeshore fractured completely. The pit where Spades had fallen split apart and collapsed into the water.
Standing atop the corpse hand, Bai Liu looked down at the sinking crater.
On the whip in his grasp, only the faintest sliver of white remained.
He was silent for a long moment. His eyes were empty.
Then, slowly, he raised his hand—and pressed it downward.
Sometimes, the outcome of a game agreed upon by two people is decided the moment one of them chooses to walk away.
It didn't make sense.
The gigantic corpse hand rose high into the air and smashed down again, sending up towering waves that crashed violently against the shore.
Bai Yi stared, eyes wide. "…Damn. Those have to be S-level monsters…"
"Reverse God." Bai Jiamu turned sharply. "Is Spades safe?"
The Reverse God glanced at the violently churning lake, hesitation flickering across his face. "He should be, right? Spades' defense is ridiculously high…"
"If he's struck by those corpses, he'll be assimilated." Tang Erda spoke carefully. "If he resists, he loses health. And he's been resisting this entire time. His HP should've dropped a lot already. Are you sure you don't want to go down and check?"
Liu Jiayi added coolly, "When we met him, Spades said he only had 37 health points left."
Bai Jiamu: "…"
Bai Yi: "…"
Reverse God: "…"
It was over.
Spades was really about to become their newest "corpse" teammate.
With a miserable expression, the Reverse God plopped down cross-legged by the lake and began wiping at imaginary tears. "Spades! Spades! Come out! I promise I won't lecture you so harshly next time!"
"It's all my fault! I trusted the wrong person! I thought Bai Liu would show mercy because of your old relationship and at least leave you an intact corpse!"
"Wuwuwu!" Bai Yi burst into loud sobs. "Spades, I swear I'll never curse you again for not acknowledging me as your teammate during the match! Please don't die! If you die, I'm the one who's more likely to die next time! Come back!"
Bai Jiamu froze for a moment, then solemnly raised a fist toward the lake. "Spades. I will always remember you as my teammate."
Liu Jiayi and Tang Erda: "…"
What was wrong with this team?
Spades wasn't even confirmed dead yet—why did it already feel like they were preparing a memorial banquet?
"Hey!" Liu Jiayi snapped, interrupting the Reverse God's exaggerated wailing. "What exactly are you doing? Won't Spades really be in danger?"
The sorrow on the Reverse God's face vanished instantly, replaced with a bright grin. "How should I put it? Spades' HP might be 37. Even if it were 7, he wouldn't die that easily."
"But…" The smile faded slightly. His gaze shifted to Bai Liu, who had just leapt into the lake as if searching for Spades. "I really didn't expect Bai Liu to go that far. To actually try to kill him."
"Spades won't die so easily at this health, but it'll be hard for him to beat Bai Liu now. And Spades should know that. With the evil god's blessing and the world line favoring Bai Liu, there's no way he can win in this state."
"Bai Liu kept his word. He defeated Spades." The Reverse God rubbed the wound on his shoulder and stood up with a grin. "After this, Spades will probably find himself a new goal."
"My objective's basically achieved. Time to pack up and prepare to quit."
Liu Jiayi took a cautious step back. "How are you so sure Spades isn't dead?"
"Because this is a game pool." The Reverse God shrugged. "You can withdraw at any time. Spades might look reckless, but he's not stupid. When he knows he can't win, he'll retreat."
"You all can get ready to exit, too." His eyes remained fixed on the spot where Bai Liu had dived. "I'll clean up and finish one last thing."
Liu Jiayi's expression sharpened. "What are you planning to do to Bai Liu?"
"Stop him from becoming the complete successor of the evil god." The Reverse God waved a hand casually, smiling. "No need to thank me. Protecting rare tactician resources is everyone's responsibility."
Liu Jiayi glanced skeptically at the bowl-sized wound on his shoulder. "You were just beaten half to death by Bai Liu. Are you sure you can stop him?"
"…What kind of wording is that?" The Reverse God feigned outrage. "You little girl, your mouth is vicious. Careful, or I'll report you to your tactician."
Liu Jiayi rolled her eyes.
"But I do have something that can restrain him." The Reverse God took a step forward, turning his back to them. His voice was still smiling. "My skill weapon specifically counters the evil god. Pretty impressive, right?"
Liu Jiayi froze. Surprise flashed across her face.
A skill weapon that could suppress the evil god?
What kind of origin did something like that have?
"Then why help us?" she pressed. "Do you need something in return?"
The Reverse God turned around. He smiled broadly at her—eyebrows curved, eight teeth showing—and gave her a thumbs-up. "After all, I'm called the Reverse God. My favorite thing in the world is going against the evil god."
"As long as the evil god is unhappy, I'm happy."
Liu Jiayi stared at his smiling face.
For a fleeting instant, she sensed something completely different beneath that gentle exterior—something sharp and oppressive, like a blade hidden in silk.
The Reverse God turned back toward the lake. His hands moved behind him as if about to draw a weapon. When he spoke again, the smile in his voice carried a rare seriousness.
"And Bai Liu, as a tactician, was able to endure the evil god's temptation during the inheritance ceremony for so long without losing himself or being devoured—"
"I admire him."
[System Alert: Does Player Reverse God wish to equip the identity "Monster Book: The Reverse God"?]
(Yes.)
-----------------
In the lake.
The corpse hand had just crashed down, churning the entire body of water into chaos. Mud and silt billowed upward, bubbles rising in endless streams. The world beneath the surface turned murky and distorted.
Bai Liu lifted his hand and waved lightly to the side.
The scattered corpse fragments blocking his vision obediently drifted away, revealing the lakebed below.
What had once been thick with mud and sand was now a vast, sunken crater—hollow, empty, as though something had been forcibly erased from existence.
Bai Liu gazed quietly into the deepest part of the pit.
As the holder of editing rights over the entire world line of Dense Forest Frontier, he could sense every fluctuation within it.
And here—
There was nothing.
No trace of Spades' presence.
Spades had exited the game.
Bai Liu's line of sight remained fixed on the dark hollow. His eyelids lowered slightly. The blackness spreading across the whip in his hand stopped abruptly, leaving behind a thin, pale scar that no longer advanced.
Was it because just now—
He felt that the way his emotions and desires were out of control was disgusting, and that he had lost the right to be taken seriously as an opponent, so Spades left.
Bai Liu's long hair spread out and fluttered in the water, hiding all the expressions on his face. The whip hung casually, all the way to the bottom of the lake.
And yet—
It was always like this.
It was this person who clearly said that he would always play horror games with him, and it was this person who clearly said that he would reunite with him in the horror game.
But this person is also the first to leave, to be destroyed, and to withdraw.