Chapter 27: Twilight of the Gods: The Maw

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After unanimously deciding to award the Bloodstained White Cloth to Zhou Ke, who had contributed the most, the group bid one another farewell.

Linghu Shiyu was the first to leave.

“We’ll go our separate ways from here. Ideally, we’ll never see each other again for the rest of our lives.” She said this while staring directly at Zhou Ke.

With that, she leapt through the doorway into the azure sky beyond without looking back, vanishing without a trace.

Louis was next. The flamboyant homosexual was considerably friendlier; as he left, he waved and cast them a flirtatious glance.

“My little beauties, I’m sure we’ll have a chance to renew our wonderful romance someday. Wait for me~”

Personally, Zhou Ke would have preferred Linghu Shiyu and Louis to exchange lines.

Li Hua was the third to leave. Injured as he was, he could not stay any longer. Once the adrenaline wore off, the pain had him howling, and he kept shouting that he would call an ambulance the moment he got back.

Soon, Zhou Ke was the only one left in the battered hotel.

He did not leave. Instead, he found a random spot and sat there languidly for more than half an hour.

During that time, he lifted his school uniform shirt. The word “Life,” which seemed branded onto the side of his abdomen, gradually faded away.

Strictly speaking, Zhou Ke had killed Chen Minqun and had long since been judged to have joined the Traitor faction, thereby earning the right to survive.

Even if they failed to clear the game in the end, Zhou Ke would still live. Preparing for both possibilities had always been his habit.

“The quality of the rooms, the existence of the Traitor, the clues left in other rooms exposing the Traitor, even the limit on the number of phone calls—all of it is designed to make us suspicious of one another and create divisions, so that cooperation becomes impossible.”

Bored, Zhou Ke tossed his little folding knife into the air. Facing the wide, empty space, he muttered to himself, “What a perverse game.”

He looked in turn toward the bespectacled man and Chen Minqun’s corpse, then gave a mocking laugh. “If everyone had worked together a little more from the beginning, a few more people might still be alive.”

Mr. Zhou had seen through it all.

The Gate of the Golden Ram tested more than intelligence. It tested human nature as well.

Just as he had described it, this was a game steeped in malicious amusement—and a farcical performance staged for someone’s entertainment.

“If it’s such a fine show, then I ought to watch it from the finest seat, the one closest to the stage and with the best view. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Zhou Ke lowered his eyes slightly and looked toward the headless corpse in Room One.

Then, in the very next instant, the headless corpse twisted its arms and slowly rose into a bridge-like posture.

The school uniform covering its body began to blur and change. In the end, it transformed into an impeccably fitted black tailcoat.

Above its neck, however, there was still nothing but empty space—a sight that made one’s skin crawl.

It tilted the remaining half of its neck, as though asking, “How did you discover me?”

Strangely enough, Zhou Ke understood it perfectly. He extended an index finger and tapped the corridor wall.

“It’s written right there.”

“Door Open, Exterminate the Evil Spirit.”

The first half of the words on the wall had faded, while the latter half remained bright crimson, as though dripping with fresh blood.

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The fading of “Door Open” meant that they had completed that task.

“Exterminate the Evil Spirit” remained, which meant that the evil spirit still existed.

“This is a word game too. On the surface, it tells us that the way to exterminate the evil spirit is to open the door.

“But judging by the way the rules have behaved so far, I thought of another possibility—the two halves are actually separate.”

“Opening the door and exterminating the evil spirit are two different ways to clear the game.” Zhou Ke smiled complacently. “That was when I thought of you.”

Clap, clap, clap.

The Headless Man applauded as he walked out of the room. The muscles in his neck twisted. He seemed to glance at the writing on the wall before turning his attention back to Zhou Ke.

Then, without the slightest warning—

The little folding knife Zhou Ke had been tossing suddenly broke into several pieces. Its steel-forged blade was hard and razor-sharp, and merely sliding down under the force of gravity, it scraped several bloody marks into the edge of his palm.

“Is that a warning?”

Zhou Ke’s gaze never left the Headless Man. Even the tinkling sound of the blades striking the floor failed to distract him.

The Headless Man clasped his hands behind his waist and gave an exceedingly gentlemanly nod. Then he spread one arm and pointed toward the doorway at the turn of the stairs.

The play had already delivered its closing address. It was time for the diligent actor Zhou Ke to retreat behind the curtain.

“You want me to leave? Fine.”

Zhou Ke agreed readily, then abruptly changed tack.

“But before I go, you wouldn’t mind hearing the rest of the fairy tale, would you?”

“This is, after all, the final chapter of The Wolf Is Coming. I’d be terribly disappointed if no one stayed to hear the ending.”

Seeing no objection from the Headless Man—or, more precisely, knowing that the Headless Man was incapable of making any expression of refusal—Zhou Ke took his silence as consent.

“When the shepherd learned that the lone wolf had defected, he was absolutely furious!

“So he devoted himself to even harder training and sacrificed everything he possessed to create a third alchemical wolf.

“This time, he modeled it after the ruler of the Cretaceous, and named it—

“Dinosaur Berserk Wolf!”

Though the Headless Man had no face, anyone could tell that he was visibly embarrassed.

“Dinosaur Berserk Wolf possessed the absolute power of the top predator in the food chain, and the Sheep Village was terrified.

“So, while Dinosaur Berserk Wolf was still incomplete, the army of sheep marched out, determined to eliminate the threat before it could grow!”

As he spoke with vivid passion, Zhou Ke walked closer to the Headless Man.

One step.

Then another.

And another.

“But who could have known that the so-called Dinosaur Berserk Wolf was fake—a complete and utter lie? There was no third alchemical wolf capable of destroying heaven and earth.

“The lie was created to lure the flock out of the village. Then, together with the supposedly dead Gray Wolf and the falsely defected Lone Wolf, they would annihilate the entire flock!”

He concluded the story in a passionate tone, then slowly exhaled a long stream of white vapor.

“This fairy tale teaches us that if you want to be the one laughing at the very end, you must have countless plans and schemes in your heart. Even failure, even pretending to know nothing at all—all of it can be deliberately designed.”

By then, Zhou Ke’s smile had spread wider and wider, nearly reaching the roots of his ears.

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Madness overflowed into shadow, and malevolence took refuge within it.

“You dragged us into your domain without permission, forced us to obey rules of your own making, and compelled us to perform in a play directed by you. Don’t you think that’s rather unfair?”

“If you want me to leave, that’s perfectly fine. But first, you’ll have to pay me my fee for performing in your play.”

At some point, that shallow Book of Truth had been opened. Lines of text continuously emerged at the end of the fairy tale he had written.

“Abandonment”

“Hatred”

“Defeating the Many with the Few”

“Lies”

“Trickery”

“Destruction”

The keywords of the fairy tale have been recorded. Your truth is approaching sublimation.

The ordinary old book radiated a desolate, dusky glow. It grew weightier, as if it contained the magnificent history of an entire century.

Ruined, shattered, horrifying—

Countless dusk-colored souls drifted within it.

They were the remains of the gods.

The name on the book’s cover was erased and rewritten:

Ragnarok: Jaws

As the Headless Man was overwhelmed by the god-slaying pressure until he could barely maintain control of himself, Zhou Ke extended his hand.

His palm lay open, facing upward. The headless evil spirit seemed to shrink without end until it rested squarely between Zhou Ke’s fingers.

Then he closed his hand.

“Devour him, Fenrir.”

Boom!

Wolf jaws materialized from thin air, smashing through solid concrete as though it were the surface of water, crushing it to pieces.

Aside from the initial eruption through the ground, the world around them fell utterly silent.

For the instant the wolf jaws opened, sound itself was swallowed whole.

Then came the light. Even light itself could not escape. Space twisted into a black hole whose depths stretched beyond sight.

“The upper jaw presses against the heavens, the lower jaw blankets the earth. Within that abyssal throat, I have glimpsed the greed you concealed beneath it all.”