Chapter 90: Reincarnation

In the land of extreme cold, a 5v4 battle was about to begin—no supernatural powers, no props, no restrictions. A pure free-for-all fight.

Imperial Inspector Liu immediately locked onto Guo Cai’er, figuring that fighting a woman was the safest option. Facing the others might be risky.

On the other side, the Horsekeeper, forced to rally his teammates, gritted his teeth and said, “That dog couple exhausted themselves fooling around all night. They’re in the worst shape. None of us should fight separately—focus fire and take them down first.”

Xing Tao, the Scholar, and Guo Cai’er all nodded slowly.

The frost-laden wind stirred the falling snow as both sides prepared to engage.

[Unfortunately, due to the death of a player during the mission, the entire faction has failed to clear the stage. You will now experience the cold wave once more.]

[The Cycle will begin in half an hour.]

[After the hour of the Rooster (5-7 PM), you must re-enter the valley and retrieve wood for the Snow-Avoiding Coffins. However, human greed and selfishness will be punished. In this cycle, only four complete sets of coffin wood will be available. The Heavenly Path has six panels of coffin wood, while Paths One, Two, and Three each have only five. Good luck…]

Silence. Confusion. A room full of question marks.

Imperial Inspector Liu was the first to react. “What the fuck?! We have to do it all over again?!”

“We failed?” The Horsekeeper looked equally stunned. “There are still nine of us left, but now only four coffins? How the hell do we clear this stage?”

As the two reeled in disbelief, everyone suddenly noticed that the rising sun in the sky was sinking rapidly to the west, freezing at the brink of dusk. At the same time, a full moon began to rise, reflecting the fading sunlight—time itself was shifting…

The cycle had begun.

Time rewound to hour of the Rooster, nearing dusk once again.

On the ground, the row of Snow-Avoiding Coffins, along with the coffin lids held by Ren Ye and Xu Qingzhao, disintegrated into shimmering stardust and vanished—disappearing as though they had never existed.

Around them, the ten valley paths reappeared. The Heavenly Path marker resurfaced at one entrance, while three other paths were newly labeled as Paths One, Two, and Three.

The players were back at the starting point. Everything had to begin again.

After a brief silence, the Scholar cursed in near despair. “Motherfucker! So we weren’t supposed to let anyone die?! Why the hell wasn’t this rule made clear from the start?! Are you just screwing with us? Messing with human nature?!”

Indeed, the despair and frustration he felt were overwhelming.

With this new revelation, his intelligence quickly pieced together the true objective of this stage—cooperation. No one was supposed to die.

If he had known this from the beginning, he wouldn’t have helped orchestrate an attack on Ren Ye. That way, No. 11 wouldn’t have died, wouldn’t have been smashed into pulp.

All they had to do was follow the rules, retrieve their own coffin wood, and lie in their coffins peacefully for the night. Then, they would all have cleared the stage…

On paper, this stage was incredibly simple. But human nature was not.

In truth, when they first entered the land of extreme cold, everyone had understood the rules. They had all silently acknowledged that this stage required cooperation for a shared victory.

Yet the moment some people became obsessed with killing, they completely forgot that initial understanding.

“Heh.”

Ren Ye, Li Yan, and Xu Qingzhao all let out cold chuckles at the same time.

“Cylce? Cooperation?” Ren Ye murmured softly. “Heh, that No. 11 sure died a miserable death.”

He didn’t feel like he was being toyed with by the Star Gate, nor any regret for killing No. 11 and causing the mission failure.

Because from the very start—he and Xu Qingzhao weren’t the ones who broke this so-called cooperation.

“If no one can die, what the hell is the point of fighting?” Imperial Inspector Liu muttered in disinterest. “Forget it, I’m done.”

“Let’s go.”

Ren Ye’s gaze swept calmly over the four opponents before turning to his teammates.

Since no one could die in this stage, and survival required everyone to endure the cold wave and clear the mission together, there was no point in fighting anymore.

Leading Li Yan, Tang Feng, and the others, Ren Ye walked directly toward the south.

On the other side, Xing Tao slumped to the ground, his face blank.

“It’s over… In the first cycle, everyone had their own coffin. If we had just stayed put and not started shit, we’d all have cleared the stage.

But now?

There are nine of us left—but only four coffins.

…So who lives?

And who dies?”

“Why the fuck are you panicking?” The normally well-mannered Horsekeeper finally lost his composure and spat, “We fight for it. We take the Heavenly Path.”

“How do we fight for it?” Xing Tao looked at him blankly. “There are only four of us in our faction. Can you guarantee that we can take all four coffins from those five? And even if we manage to seize them, that will inevitably lead to more deaths. Tomorrow, the cycle will reset again—can you guarantee there will still be four coffins then? What if the Star Gate reduces it to two? Then what? Who dies?”

Guo Cai’er remained silent.

The Scholar stared blankly at the spot where No. 11’s corpse had vanished, his pupils dilated, body frozen in place.

…

In the frigid land, on a mountain path to the south.

Five people sat in the snow, equally silent.

Tang Feng, Li Yan, and Imperial Inspector Liu all had solemn expressions, their eyes staring into the snowy mountains, their thoughts in turmoil.

They shared the same concern as Xing Tao and the Horsekeeper. There were still nine players left, but only four coffins remained—how were they supposed to clear this stage? If they fought for the coffins, they would have to kill, and killing would only lead to another reset…

What now?

Not far away, however, Ren Ye and Xu Qingzhao seemed particularly relaxed. The two of them sat together, splitting and eating rock-hard dried rations.

Tang Feng was the first to notice this detail. He walked over, unable to hold back his curiosity, and asked quietly, “How did you two survive the cold wave last night?”

His question also caught Li Yan’s attention. He immediately realized—last night, these two should have only had an incomplete coffin. How had they made it through?

With that thought, Li Yan leaned in and suddenly asked Ren Ye, “That fur robe of yours… does it have resistance against the cold wave?”

Ren Ye smiled and didn’t deny it. “Yes.”

“That explains it. You must have taken that incomplete coffin, placed it beside No. 11’s, and then one of you stayed inside while the other used the robe. That way, you could last through the night,” Li Yan deduced. “But… this method won’t work tonight. There’s only one robe, and we’re short five coffins. If we want no one to die, it’s practically impossible…”

At this moment, Li Yan’s thinking had hit a dead end. But this wasn’t about intelligence—it was simply because he hadn’t personally experienced the cold wave last night. His understanding of extreme environments was limited to his own assumptions.

Ren Ye didn’t respond to this directly, instead saying indifferently, “Eat something and regain your strength.”

Just then, Tang Feng glanced over again at Imperial Inspector Liu, who looked utterly lost and desperate.

She leaned close to Ren Ye’s ear and whispered, “That… No. 1, Imperial Inspector Liu—is he really just dumb, or is he faking it?”

“What makes you say that?” Ren Ye asked with amusement.

Tang Feng’s expression was odd. “That No. 11 should have been an Opportunist Faction player, right? He died, but we didn’t get any system notification about a loss in our faction. If we had, Imperial Inspector Liu should have realized his own teammate was killed by you. So why would he still join us? If he were pretending to be an undercover agent, wouldn’t he be waiting for the right moment to act?”

Hearing this, Ren Ye turned to look at Xu Qingzhao.

“What defines an Opportunist? It means waiting for the best offer before choosing a side. That’s why our faction has a unique trait—player shifts aren’t announced,” Xu Qingzhao explained. “I didn’t receive any notification about a player leaving our faction or any losses.”

Tang Feng was briefly stunned before quickly putting the pieces together. “If that’s the case… then that means No. 11 and the Scholar had already joined the Court Faction?! They were always together, after all.”

After saying that, he turned to Li Yan. “What about you?”

Li Yan shook his head slowly and replied helplessly, “I’m an infiltrator. Aside from holding a Disc Command to prove my identity and getting global alerts, I don’t receive faction updates. Otherwise… the game wouldn’t be playable. I can only make judgments based on the available information.”

At this, Tang Feng gave Imperial Inspector Liu a sympathetic look. “So… that means this guy has no idea what’s going on and just got tricked into joining us?”

“That’s correct,” Li Yan nodded slowly. “And… I have no idea how to face him from now on.”

Hearing that, even Ren Ye felt troubled. “Yeah, we tricked him over, but we don’t even have a slot to officially recruit him.”

Xu Qingzhao furrowed her brows slightly upon hearing this. “You can only recruit one more person?”

“Yes.” Ren Ye nodded. “I have the Royal Command, which allows me to convert any two players from different factions. Li Yan is a covert agent, so he doesn’t take up a slot, but I already used one to turn the Songstress. That leaves me with just one more.”

“This spot… was meant for me?” Xu Qingzhao asked calmly, her usual cold demeanor restored.

“Of course. From the very beginning, it was reserved for you,” Ren Ye replied without hesitation.

Xu Qingzhao pondered for a long time before saying, “I don’t need it.”

“Huh?!”

All three of them were momentarily stunned.

“I’m not planning to switch factions,” Xu Qingzhao said seriously, looking directly at Ren Ye. “I didn’t come here for some powerful inheritance. I’m searching for something. So whether I make it to the end, whether I win or not, it doesn’t really matter to me. You should use that slot… on him instead.”

“No way!”

Ren Ye immediately refused. “From the way things stand, the Opportunist Faction likely has only two players left— you and Imperial Inspector Liu. If I convert him, you’ll be the only one left. If there’s a faction-based cooperation task later, what will you do?!”

Xu Qingzhao looked at Ren Ye’s anxious expression and still replied calmly, “Yesterday, I triggered a phenomenon. I have a feeling… what I’m looking for is very close. Trust me, don’t waste the slot on me.”

Their gazes locked—Ren Ye was filled with concern, while Xu Qingzhao’s eyes were unwavering.

Tang Feng and Li Yan knew better than to interrupt such a discussion, so they remained silent.

Not far away, Imperial Inspector Liu was rubbing his chin, finally sorting out his thoughts. But when he looked up, he realized his supposed teammates were huddled together discussing something—without him.

“The hell?!” Imperial Inspector Liu cursed under his breath. “Excluding the newbie, huh?!”

He stood up.

Xu Qingzhao glanced at Imperial Inspector Liu and turned back to Ren Ye. “A great endeavor requires decisiveness. Now is the best time to force him to switch factions… If he figures things out later, it’ll be much more troublesome.”

“You really…!”

“I have my own path to follow. Switching factions might not be the best thing for me,” Xu Qingzhao insisted. “Do you understand?”

If Xu Qingzhao had been willing to switch factions, Ren Ye wouldn’t have hesitated to give her the slot. But since she was determined to walk her own path, he couldn’t force her.

With that realization, the four of them stood up in unison, surrounding Imperial Inspector Liu and blocking the way down the mountain.

Their expressions were unfriendly.

“W-what are you guys doing?” Imperial Inspector Liu asked nervously, feeling a chill down his spine.

Ren Ye exhaled deeply, trying to maintain a friendly expression. “What I’m about to tell you might be a bit of a shock. But that’s okay… You have to trust that we mean no harm.”

“…?!”

Imperial Inspector Liu looked at the four of them, an ominous feeling rising in his gut.

“Alright, cards on the table. I won’t pretend anymore… I am Prince Huai,” Ren Ye declared.

“Prince… Prince Huai?” Imperial Inspector Liu’s brain short-circuited. He stared blankly at the four of them, completely at a loss for words.

Ren Ye clasped his hands behind his back and spoke slowly, emphasizing each word:

“You now have two choices.
First, join my faction, and we’ll stick together as brothers.
Second, you refuse… in which case, we’ll start kicking you. After a brief discussion, we decided to start with your head.”

Silence. Trembling. Full-body convulsions!

The depths of human malice— unfathomable!!

Imperial Inspector Liu held it in for a long time before finally exploding:

“Fuck your mother! Fucking hell! I just figured out how to deal with Prince Huai, you motherfucker!”