Chapter 5: The Dead Pig
"Peerless Philanthropist Liang Dan, you ignored the corpse, you are dead!"
Liang Dan’s foot slipped, and she fell to her death.
*
Opening her eyes again, Zhang Wei’s corpse was lying right beside her.
Liang Dan grabbed Zhang Wei by the feet and dragged him forward with all her might. She had just escaped from the storage room of a house, the door still standing ajar. Liang Dan pulled Zhang Wei inside, laid him on the floor by the entrance, and snatched up a string of firecrackers draped outside, placing them over his body.
Liang Dan turned and crept away, darting quickly between the rows of corn before taking a bold leap into the back of the crowd.
On the stage, a man spoke with impassioned fervor. The villagers below stared with glowing eyes, chanting along with him: "Pray to the River God!"
The dense crowd ahead perfectly concealed her presence. Liang Dan craned her neck, trying to observe the entrance to the village.
Nothing.
When they had first arrived, the cage had clearly been placed nearby, but now it was gone.
"Bring the priest to the stage!"
A young boy dressed in leaves stood at the front of the crowd. At these words, he hopped onto the platform.
"Bring out the offerings!"
A dozen young men carried a cage, rounding the corner from the direction of the villagers' houses. During her previous life, Liang Dan hadn't observed where they had emerged from. The men bypassed the crowd and hauled the cage onto the stage.
Liang Dan stared, carefully observing the animals inside. They shrieked and flailed frantically within the cage. Zhang Wei had said these animals were actually humans—three women and three men—but there were only two women and one man who had entered the game with Liang Dan.
What, then, were the other three?
The young boy drew a kitchen knife and shouted, "First day of the sacrifice: three female ducks, three male geese!"
As he spoke, he took a large bowl, and the cage door was opened.
Panicked, Liang Dan raised her hands and shouted, "Please, wait!"
The crowd erupted in an uproar. Everyone retreated simultaneously, leaving Liang Dan standing alone in the clearing.
The man on stage was furious. "Who are you, daring to interrupt our sacrifice?"
The young boy smiled faintly. "She is tomorrow’s offering. I don't know how she escaped."
The man laughed as well. "So, she is tomorrow's offering. Men, seize her!"
*
Liang Dan barked, "You have no right to seize me! Not only do you have no right, but you must release them!"
A dozen young men rushed down from the stage. Liang Dan turned to run, but they caught up to her instantly.
Liang Dan struggled violently. "If you don't release them at once, I will hold you accountable under the law!"
"The law?" The man on stage tilted his head. "What is a 'law'?"
The boy replied, "I don't know. Perhaps it’s some kind of delicious offering."
Damn it all, there was no law in this world!
The young men pulled a hemp rope from somewhere, bound Liang Dan’s hands and feet, and dragged her body back toward the residential area.
"You... you..."
Liang Dan was at a loss for words. They wouldn't listen to reason, she couldn't win in a fight, and cursing would be "out of character."
As she was dragged further away, the sound of the ducks struggling grew fainter until it vanished entirely.
Liang Dan was dragged to the residential zone. The young boy’s father hurried back, unlocked his front door, tossed Liang Dan into the living room, and locked the door from the outside. Everyone left.
The living room was tiny. The windows were smaller than a human head, and aside from two chairs, there was nothing inside—clearly no way to escape.
With her hands and feet bound, Liang Dan tried to wiggle along the floor. After two minutes of effort, she was drenched in sweat but hadn't moved an inch.
Liang Dan opened her mouth and shouted with all her might, "Screw you!"
"Peerless Philanthropist Liang Dan, you disturbed the peace with profanity at night, you are dead!"
The ceiling of the living room collapsed, crushing her.
*
Opening her eyes again, Liang Dan returned to the doorway of the storage room where Zhang Wei’s corpse had been.
Liang Dan turned around and saw that Zhang Wei’s body was gone, replaced by a dead pig. She had pulled a few firecrackers over and placed them on Zhang Wei, while the rest of the string trailed outside, but now, all of those firecrackers were gone.
Liang Dan went outside and circled the storage room, but found nothing.
It seemed that simply touching those firecrackers was enough to turn someone into an offering. Yet, she had touched them with her hands earlier—why was she fine?
Liang Dan couldn't fathom the meaning, but she had gained a clue. There were countless houses in the village, each separated by two or three meters, and each had a main house and a separate storage room, with a string of firecrackers wrapped around the outside of the storage room.
Afraid of being discovered, Liang Dan crept behind the houses and storage rooms, inching her way forward.
*
From one end to the other, she discovered three houses that did not have firecrackers on their storage rooms.
These three houses were connected, and they were the first ones she had seen upon entering the village. It seemed the three players had found a place to stay as soon as they arrived.
Liang Dan went around to the front and gently pushed the door of one of the storage rooms. It opened with ease.
"Peerless Philanthropist Liang Dan, you have trespassed into someone else's storage room, you are dead!"
*
"What is going on?" Liang Dan respawned next to Zhang Wei’s corpse. "I am trespassing in someone else's storage room right now, so why am I fine this time?"
Could it be because the circumstances were justified?
Liang Dan grabbed the leg of the dead pig and headed outside. The weight of the pig was the same as Zhang Wei's had been; it hadn't become heavier.
Dragging the pig, she opened the storage room door and pulled the pig inside.
"Peerless Philanthropist Liang Dan, you have trespassed into someone else's storage room, you are dead!"
*
Liang Dan took a deep breath, staring at the dead pig.
She had noticed earlier that when the system notified her of her death, she returned directly to the previous scene without experiencing the actual process of dying. It seemed this process didn't happen every time.
Liang Dan let out a long sigh of relief; being killed repeatedly was truly not a pleasant experience.
She ran out, dashed behind the storage room where she had been held, moved the large stone, and crawled back through the hole.
The giant snake was not there. Liang Dan picked up a rusty kitchen knife and returned to the door of the storage room where the pig was kept.
This time, she didn't dare go in. Instead, she stood at the threshold, reaching in with the knife to cut the pig's body.
The priest opened the necks to drain the ducks' blood; she didn't know if this would be useful, but she made a bold guess that perhaps this could turn them back to their original forms.
"Peerless Philanthropist Liang Dan, you have desecrated a pig carcass, you are dead!"
*
Liang Dan returned to the pig carcass once more. She carefully rummaged through the available storage rooms and successfully found a pair of shears.
She crouched beside the pig, driving the shears deep into its neck. Fresh blood instantly flooded the floor.
Liang Dan waited quietly. Before long, the blood drained away, and the pig transformed into a shriveled human corpse.