What malicious intent could NPCs possibly have? C24.2

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Chp24. part2

The girls automatically took their positions on the left, white line, while the men lined up on the right, black line, forming two rows like chess pieces preparing for battle.

This must be the ball. We have to participate, Ning Ge thought. She and Pei Han also took their places on the lines.

The Queen left her throne and walked to the first square of the front row. She leaned down and gently touched the ground with her palm.

“O God, grant our empire peace and prosperity for the coming year,” she declared.

The tens of thousands of people in the square echoed her words in unison: “O God, grant our empire peace and prosperity for the coming year!”

The sound was deafening, but the expressions and tone were sincere.

The Queen retreated to her seat and settled back.

Two rows of people, led by a pair of lead dancers, bowed to each other like duelists preparing to fight. They advanced together to the center, then, as if old friends, clasped hands in a surprisingly intimate gesture.

This scene of love and conflict, of combat and camaraderie, was deeply unsettling.

Ning Ge spotted Owen, who was standing a few rows ahead, with Teacher Su. Besides them, two other pairs of players wearing bracelets were present.

It seemed four pairs had successfully passed the challenge and were attending the ball.

To the left of the chessboard, a full band stood ready. The Wooden Clown waved his hand, and the music began.

To the right, a row of Wooden Puppets began singing in unison:

“Miss Schrader is a peerless beauty,

Her hair is like sunshine, her eyes like gems…”

Thump-da-da, thump-da-da the rhythm of a waltz.

The melody was cheerful and the beat clear, making it impossible not to tap your feet.

The dancers in front began to move.

The steps were remarkably simple, not quite a waltz. For every three thump-da-da beats, they took three steps forward. After the third thump-da-da, they spun in place on the final beat, just as the Wooden Puppets finished a line of song.

When turning, the inner dancers stood in place while the outer dancers completed the turn.

Ning Ge observed the dance steps and felt they were exactly like those in the game Snake.

The entire group moved like a two-square-wide, twenty-square-long ‘Snake’, following the lead dancer and winding through the grid of the dance floor.

Step by step, everyone moved in unison across the squares, but their solemn expressions made it seem like they were performing a ritual.

Ning Ge noticed that the man in front of Pei Han’s group was visibly trembling. As he spun with his partner, his face turned sideways, and cold sweat streamed down his cheek, dripping into his collar. He didn’t even bother to wipe it away.

The Wooden Puppets sang for a long time, their mouths opening and closing:

“The calves exposed are whiter than milk,

And should be burned to death by the flames on the hem of the skirt.”

The music abruptly stopped.

A white square on the floor ahead suddenly turned red.

A flash of fire erupted, and a large flame burst from the square.

A man was standing in the square, and he was instantly engulfed in flames, as if doused in gasoline.

Strangely, no matter how he struggled, he seemed trapped by an invisible wall, unable to escape the square. Within seconds, he was reduced to ashes.

The air in the square reeked of burning flesh.

The crowd behind erupted in screams, some covering their eyes, others cheering, a cacophony of noise.

The man’s female companion watched silently, withdrew from the dancing line, and returned to the Queen’s side.

Those behind her automatically moved forward to fill the gap.

In the line, a burly man with dark, curly hair witnessed all this and suddenly shouted, “I’m not dancing anymore! I regret it! I want to go out!!”

He turned and fled.

He reached the edge of the checkered square, his body freezing abruptly. Then, as if he had struck a high-voltage fence, he convulsed and collapsed to the ground, his entire body instantly charred black.

His corpse quickly vanished.

His dance partner also turned and left the checkered square. The square was kind to her, showing no intention of keeping her there.

“Can’t I change my mind and quit?” someone roared in fury.

The Wooden Clown puppet, perched on a unicycle, rolled forward and clapped its wooden hands twice. “Silence.”

It declared, “Everyone knows this is the annual sacrificial ball. Some will be chosen from the dance floor to become sacrifices. Once you join, there’s no turning back.”

Several men in the square began to shout, “Why sacrifice men? Why are women exempt?”

The Queen, who had been sitting regally on her throne at the front, suddenly spoke, her gaze sweeping across the entire square.

“For a thousand years, we have performed this sacrificial ritual for the kingdom’s peace. For a thousand years, women were sacrificed. Only after I ascended the throne five years ago did we switch to men. Is that truly unfair?”

She continued, “Integrity and keeping one’s word are virtues. Everyone in the dance hall knew this was a sacrificial ball. You all agreed to participate, and now you’re trying to flee at the last moment. Is this how you conduct yourselves?”

The men fell silent.

The Queen summoned the Wooden Clown and whispered instructions to him.

The clown glided to the edge of the dance floor and announced loudly, “Remember, follow the lead dancer closely. Don’t miss a step. Only one square per round is dangerous. If you’re lucky, you won’t land on it. Survive until the end of the ball, and you may leave. Her Majesty the Queen has increased this year’s reward: ten thousand Gold Solons for each survivor, dead or alive.”

No one knew how much ten thousand Gold Solons was in this world, but it was clearly an astronomical sum.

The square fell into dead silence.

After a long moment, Ning Ge finally heard someone say:

“Ten thousand Gold Solon! Ten thousand!”

“I wish I could go dancing too!”

“Dream on. You’d have to be exceptionally beautiful and chosen by the adults to attend the ball.”

Order was restored on the dance floor. There was no escaping—not even leaving the dance floor was allowed. Those who danced would receive a handsome reward.

The Wooden Clown raised his arm, and the cheerful music resumed.

“The carpenter’s wife was a clever girl,

At ten years old, she could calculate the entire orchard’s harvest…”

The procession moved forward again, keeping time with the distinct rhythm.

But they hadn’t gone far before the middle of the line came to a halt.

A man’s legs had gone weak, and he couldn’t move. A line of people formed behind him.

“I don’t want to die…” he sobbed. “My legs won’t move—I can’t dance anymore…”

“Come on, just hold on—it’ll be over soon,” his female companion urged, dragging him forward before suddenly letting go.

Because the man’s face had turned green, as if he’d been poisoned.

He convulsed a few times, then collapsed stiffly to the ground. His body vanished moments later.

Those who refused to follow the rhythm would be killed by the squares.

The music continued, the procession resumed its normal pace, and the Wooden Puppets sang in unison.

The man ahead of Ning Ge and Pei Han spoke nervously, “It’s the white squares, right? Black squares are safe, but white squares will get you killed?”

Ning Ge and Pei Han exchanged a glance.

As soon as the music stopped, someone would die.

So far, only one person had died for breaking the rules, and there was no discernible pattern to work with.

The mission instructions stated that they had to survive until the end of the ball, or both dance partners would be eliminated. This meant that even if only Pei Han were to die, Ning Ge would also perish due to mission failure.

Ning Ge absently held Pei Han’s hand, thinking, Impossible.

There must be a way out.

The System treasured its Alphas, viewing them as its most useful laborers. It needed them and wouldn’t want them to die easily—their perversely random selection coefficients were proof of this.

It would never allow Alphas to participate in a death trap that relied entirely on luck.

Either the probability of an Alpha landing on a death square was astronomically low, or there was a solution to this.

As the team advanced, the Wooden Puppet continued singing:

“…The boss is weeping, the third one is screaming,

She was strangled by a rope.”

Just like in the previous round, after eight lines, the music abruptly stopped.

This time, a black square turned red.

Fortunately, the dance partner standing on the square was a woman, so the chessboard didn’t harm her. No one was strangled to death this round, and there were no casualties.

“How is this possible? Why is it a black square this time?” The man in front of Pei Han’s voice trembled with fear.

The reddened white square was not far from the black square that had caused the accident, and it was slightly closer to the center.

If we consider the corner square blessed by Her Majesty the Queen as the first row and first column, the first accident occurred in the fifth row and the fifth-to-last column. The second reddened square was in the tenth row and the twelfth column.

The two reddened squares were neither the same color, nor in the same row or column, nor even on the same diagonal line parallel to the main diagonals.

The squares lit up in seemingly random patterns, east and west, with no discernible logic.

With no deaths this round, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. But the music soon began again.

Ning Ge glanced back over her shoulder as she danced.

This was the second round, and she wanted to see one more, though she doubted anyone would die this time.

As expected, when the Wooden Puppet’s eerie singing stopped, a white square far away turned red.

Fortunately, the long line of dancers had just moved to the other side of the dance floor, so no one was standing on that square when the music stopped.

Most importantly, the reddened square was in the direction Ning Ge had just looked.