Sharing Life and Death

Because the first four portraits were all different versions of Diya, they temporarily distinguished them by their appearance: Basement Girl, Eyepatch Girl, Princess, and Black-and-White Girl. The correct choice Denzel made was precisely the Eyepatch Girl who had inspired her to use the Maiden of Secret-Peeking ability. Everyone turned to the phantom of the Empress, waiting for her to announce the result so they could confirm whether the Maiden of Secret-Peeking's power had worked. Yet the Empress merely lounged in her red leather armchair, stretching lazily. Her robes pulled taut, the buttons at her chest enduring strain they were never meant to bear. "Hmm?" Resting her chin in her hand, she smiled. "Why are you looking at me? The other two haven't chosen yet. We will only announce the answer once everyone has made their choice. Otherwise, wouldn't I be helping you rule out options?" "Do you really need to be this rigorous..." Yaxiu muttered, turning to Denzel. "Mistress, can you make Little Sister (Diya) and Lover (Sonia) into Maidens of Secret-Peeking too? Or can you see their answers?" "Why should I help them?" Denzel retorted. "I only promised not to harm them, but I have no reason to help them—and that includes you. I won't help you either." "But if we answer incorrectly, we'll lose our treasures—" Denzel: "And then?" Yaxiu said, "If we lose our treasures, we'll be heartbroken, and we'll grow weaker!" Denzel smiled as if she had just heard wonderful news. "If you are heartbroken, I will comfort my beloved. If you grow weaker, that couldn't be better—the weaker my lover is, the easier he will be to control." Yaxiu was left utterly dumbfounded. Denzel's logic was selfish to an airtight degree; he could not find a single argument to persuade her. Moreover, the fact that Denzel openly declared her dark thoughts proved that a woman of such resolute will could never be bound by morality. Without a doubt, they could forget about borrowing Denzel's power; they had to deduce the correct answer themselves. Still, they could at least eliminate one option now. No matter how one looked at it, the probability of all three having the exact same answer was far too low. That left three Diyas and one Yaxiu. They examined the portraits carefully once more and concluded that the Black-and-White Girl was very likely Diya herself. From her clothing, hair color, and expression, the Black-and-White Girl was virtually identical to Diya. Following Occam's razor, as Yaxiu put it, they disregarded possibilities like Diya having an identical twin sister. That narrowed Diya's options from four to three—she couldn't possibly choose herself to be buried alongside when she died; a person couldn't die twice. Unable to glean any more information about the figures, they had no choice but to tackle the prompt itself. "Mistress," Yaxiu looked at Denzel, "what kind of relationship do you think you have with someone you'd want to drag into death with you?" Though she had refused to help, Denzel did not decline casual banter: "There are three possibilities." "First, my beloved. Second, my beloved's enemy. Third, if I have no beloved, then I would choose the enemy I despise most." Indeed, because the question did not ask about love or hate, but rather "the person you would drag to death with you," Denzel had no way of knowing who the spiderweb girl she had picked actually was to her. The possibility that Yaxiu was her true love remained. "Actually, there are only two: the one you love most, and the one you despise," Yaxiu said. "Although the gap between people can be wider than the gap between a human and a dog, we can still follow this line of reasoning—either it's the person you love most, or the person you despise." "Wait," Sonia said. "For my first question, 'the person you love most,' I already know the correct answer: myself. And though I got my second question, 'the person you hate most,' wrong, it proved that the person I hate isn't Little Sister (Diya). Besides, you weren't among the three options for the person I hated most, which means you can't be someone I despise either." "And yet all five options here are either you or Little Sister. How am I supposed to choose?" "Very simple," Yaxiu said. "Even though the person you love most is yourself, you can still pick your second or third most loved." "Then... my only choice is still you," Sonia said. "After all, right now I'm your lover, and as I said, given my personality, dragging my lover into the grave with me... at least I wouldn't resist the idea very much." "Could you show at least a little bit of resistance?" Yaxiu sighed. "This is too bizarre. Why is my mistress trying to slaughter everyone around me to keep me all to herself, while my lover wants to drag me into death with her?" "I can only sincerely hope you guessed wrong, and even more so that the reward won't make your choice come true." Sonia gave a cold snort. "You'd better pray your deduction is wrong. If I truly am your lover and she truly is your mistress, then what is meant to happen will still happen." Yaxiu could only change the subject. "Little Sister, have you chosen?" Diya shook her head. "We don't have much of a clue. How about I pick you too?" "I think that's unlikely. Most likely, you and I are family without blood relation. You wouldn't want to drag a relative like me into death, would you?" Yaxiu said. "Besides, my poor little heart can't take the psychological pressure of being treated as a funeral sacrifice by two people." "Excluding me, yourself, and the Eyepatch Girl chosen by Mistress (Denzel), that leaves only two people you don't know: the Basement Girl and the Princess. They look almost identical to you, but there are differences in age. They might be your family—maybe an older sister, younger sister, or mother." "We don't have any more information now. Since this tiny cabin has already produced two exceptional talents who want to drag their loved ones into death, probability suggests you're likely a normal person who would drag someone they hate to die with them instead." *Birds of a feather flock together,* Sonia thought to herself. *If two out of four people here are abnormal, the other two probably aren't all that normal either, right?* Sonia grumbled internally, though voicing it would mean admitting she wasn't normal, so she kept quiet. "Who do you think you'd hate? The somewhat reclusive Basement Girl, or the stern, haughty Princess?" Diya pondered, anxiously gnawing on Yaxiu's finger, before shaking her head. "I can't tell." "Then just pick one randomly," Yaxiu said. "Follow your gut and pick the one you dislike more. Narrowing five choices down to two is already great; if you're wrong, there's nothing more we could have done." Diya nodded and looked closely at the two paintings. Actually, she couldn't tell which one she liked more, but the girl living in the basement seemed more pitiful, stirring an empathetic pity in Diya. So she pointed to the Princess in the painting and said, "I choose her." "How delightful! You have accomplished an unprecedented feat—three people answering the same question simultaneously!" the Witch said, spinning in a circle. "Since the cabin's creation, you are the first to achieve this! Congratulations!" With the Witch's congratulations, party poppers suddenly erupted from the corners of the cabin, colored paper fluttering through the air. "Before judging your answers, I must inform you of the stakes you wagered on this question," the Witch said cheerfully. "My other self, the treasure you wagered on this question is—the Mask sorcery spirit! Though you no longer remember it, trust me, it is very important to you!" The Sword Princess said to Sonia, "Your wager was the water sorcery faction." The Empress looked at Denzel, uttering a term softly: "Secret." Everyone looked curiously at the Empress. The Empress shrugged. "The name of her treasure is 'Secret,' or by another name—'Secret Incarnation.'" "A sorcery spirit?" Yaxiu asked curiously. "Not quite," the Empress said. "But it is her most precious treasure." The bets were confirmed, all bets placed and settled. The cabin fell silent for a moment, and then the Witch sighed: "Unfortunately..." "You all answered correctly!" Three streams of light fell upon them, returning their lost treasures. Diya curiously activated the Mask sorcery spirit, only to discover with delight that the other colors rapidly faded from her hair, leaving behind pure, glossy black. "Awesome! Their voices aren't so piercing anymore!" Yaxiu was happy for her as well. "So, can you let go of my hand now?" "No, keep it there for now." Diya clutched her emergency food ration tightly. "What if my head starts hurting again?" Sonia showed no obvious change, but upon receiving "Secret Incarnation," Denzel's Maiden of Secret-Peeking form began to evolve—specifically, the spiderweb blindfold covering her eyes transformed into an alloy circlet, and the white silk stockings woven from spider silk turned completely into black silk stockings. "As I said before, because the three of you answered the question simultaneously, your rewards have changed accordingly," the Witch said. "First, my other self, congratulations on getting what you wished for—you have received the 'Shared Death' blessing." "When you die, the person you just selected will die in your place..." Diya was stunned. That strong? She basically gained an extra life? "...is not what's happening, of course!" The Witch giggled. "After all, that person isn't here. The power of the cabin cannot reach anyone outside." "Therefore, the target of your 'Shared Death' is a random person inside this cabin." Everyone froze. A random person? If Diya suffered a fatal blow, one of them chosen at random would die in Diya's place?! Before they could process this bolt from the blue, Yaxiu suddenly realized something and looked tensely at Sonia. Sonia was looking at him too, the corner of her lips curving in a sly arc, as if anticipating something. The Sword Princess looked at Sonia. "The reward you received is similar. When your soul is depleted and on the verge of death, the person you selected will share his soul with you, replenishing your losses with his own soul." Yaxiu was dumbfounded. It was over. He had become someone's first-aid kit? Yet the Sword Princess continued, "Likewise, if the person you selected is on the verge of death, your soul will be shared with him. This can only trigger once." "This is the 'Shared Life' blessing." Yaxiu breathed a long sigh of relief. "Whew, thank goodness. We're each other's guardian angels! Lover, for my sake if nothing else, you must live well!" "For your sake, I'll definitely make sure to trigger this blessing as soon as possible so you don't beat me to it," Sonia said in all seriousness, though the crinkles at the corners of her eyes thoroughly betrayed her amusement. Next was Denzel's reward. Facing the trembling gazes of the others, the Empress smiled. "Although I would love to grant a blessing of shared life and death as well, compared to your treasure, those blessings are simply worth too little." She flicked a golden orb of light forward. "This is your reward: 10,000 soul power—" "Hold on a moment." The Watcher, who had been quietly watching the show the entire time without speaking, suddenly raised his hand. The golden orb of light representing the Empress's reward instantly froze in midair. Facing everyone's gazes, the Watcher leisurely remarked, "Doesn't this seem a bit unfair?" Everyone looked rather bewildered—though their memories were gone, talking about 'fairness' in a place like this felt as absurd as asking a virgin for dating advice. "While 'Secret Incarnation' is indeed worth 10,000 soul power, the Maiden of Secret-Peeking armament only costs 15 soul power. With this ability, she can plunder rewards from us indefinitely," the Watcher said with a smile. "That doesn't seem right, does it? That's an exploit in the rules!" The Empress looked at the frozen orb of light in surprise, as though witnessing something incomprehensible. "Then you mean... this question doesn't count?" "No, this question is already finished. The cabin isn't that petty." The Watcher tapped a finger, and the orb of light sank into Denzel's body. "However, the rules need a little amendment." "First, the treasure from that question must remain as the wager for the second question." A streak of golden light drifted out of Denzel's body, and her Maiden of Secret-Peeking form instantly reverted from black silk stockings to white silk stockings. "Second, the power she used just now is forbidden in this cabin." In a wisp of light mist, Denzel was forcibly expelled from the Maiden of Secret-Peeking form, her clothing instantly reverting to the sinister spiderweb robe she wore when she first walked through the door. The candidates themselves showed little reaction, merely musing internally that the cabin was truly not easy to trick—the moment an exploit appeared, it was patched immediately. The only person truly shocked in the entire room was the phantom of the Empress. As a phantom examiner generated by the cabin, she possessed a portion of the cabin's authority. She naturally knew that while the cabin did possess an exploit-patching function, it was an arduous process measured in years, and could never—would never—be patched personally by a phantom! What's more, what the Watcher phantom had done wasn't a fix at all! His words became law; he had directly rewritten the cabin's rules!