"Sheta."

An extremely ethereal voice floated through the air. Hei Tao, who was standing on the boat, turned around instantly. He pursed his lips and looked around at the people around him, trying to search for Bai Liu's figure among them.

The crowd walking towards the festival were dressed in their best clothes and talking to each other animatedly, but Bai Liu was nowhere to be seen.

But that was indeed Bai Liu's voice just now.

Spade walked against the crowd, his eyes quickly exploring the crowd, and he simply opened his system panel and threw out a prop to check whether there were other players around besides him.

[System prompt: No other players' movements were detected nearby.]

[System warning: Now in the league period, player Spade, you have not moved in a map for three consecutive hours. You will be given a yellow card warning for passive gaming. Please play the game actively, explore the map, contact NPCs, and complete the main quest as soon as possible! ]

Then, the main quest panel automatically zoomed in and popped up in front of Spade. The main quest on it was bolded and highlighted in red. The panel almost jumped onto Spade's eyelashes, as if it was afraid that Spade couldn't see it.

Hei Tao turned his head expressionlessly and uttered a click of the tongue. He gathered his five fingers and shrunk the system panel, then glanced at it perfunctorily with the corner of his eye:

[System prompt: Player Spade's identity is set to the (servant) of this year's greatest sacrifice in the Evil God Festival]

[Main Quest: Find the biggest sacrifice and offer it to the evil god to make a wish.]

【Warm reminder: This year is the once-in-a-decade Evil God Festival. The sacrifice you are looking for is the one who has been tortured in the torture chamber for the longest time since the inception of the Evil God Festival, and has accumulated the most pain. This sacrifice has been hidden in a very secret place by the people of Luming County. What you have to do is to find this sacrifice and bring it to the shrine for sacrifice.】

Under the compulsion of the system, Hei Tao reluctantly read the main mission again. The next second after retracting the panel, he continued to search for Bai Liu's shadow in the crowd.

A few young girls wearing summer festival kimonos were whispering as they passed by Kuroo:

"I heard that the Yuchuan family is going to offer sacrifices to that person this year?"

"Impossible? The Yuchuan family has kept this precious treasure hidden for so many years and sacrificed him. How can our evil god sacrifice proceed normally?"

"I heard that the Yufu family received instructions in a dream. In the future, this person will not be needed in the evil god festival. The evil god will choose a new successor."

As a violent player who never collected information, Spade pretended not to hear anything and walked quickly past the group of NPCs who were talking without even glancing at them.

After a while, several adult men in yukatas walked past Kuroo with laughter:

"Last year, my family caught a sacrifice at the Funamiya Night Festival and made a successful wish at the Kaihinja Shrine, so we had a good year. We caught another one this year, so it looks like we should have a good year next year as well."

"No matter how well you live, you can never compare to the Yuchuan family." A man sighed and touched his chin. "Ever since the fire five years ago, when the Kitahara family was burned to ashes and the biggest sacrifice fell into the hands of the Yuchuan family, I knew that Luming County would be under the rule of the Yuchuan family for the next twenty years."

"Hey, didn't they say that the Yuchuan family will offer the biggest sacrifice this year?" A man next to them poked his head over with interest and asked, "Is it true? Isn't it said that this sacrifice is very evil? Wasn't it because of the backlash of this sacrifice that the Kitahara family suffered like that?"

"After a fire, people died or went crazy, leaving only a few foolish and stupid descendants to live with two or three inferior sacrifices that were obviously not worth offering."

“Tsk.” The man who first said that he had caught the sacrifice frowned, rolled his eyes left and right, and lowered his voice, “If you don’t want to suffer retribution, you idiots should stop mentioning what happened five or six years ago.”

"Five years ago, almost half of the village was emptied out by the sacrifice. A large number of people jumped into the sea and committed suicide. Everyone was extremely afraid of the shrine."

The man warned with a serious look: "Why do you think the shrine was moved to the sea? Isn't it because people don't dare to be on the same land with the shrine?"

Several men fell silent instantly, huddled together with their heads lowered, and walked towards Hei Tao in silence.

But Spade still didn't listen to what they were saying, and continued walking towards the end of his gaze:

The system almost couldn't stand it anymore and popped up a panel:

[Player Spade, please pay attention to the main mission information given by the surrounding NPCs when talking! You have missed the key mission information twice! 】

Spade paused: "Why should I pay attention to what they say?"

The system panel displays: [Some key game information will be given to players in the form of NPC conversations, so players are requested to pay attention to surrounding information. ]

"Is that so?" Spade's face showed no emotion. "I thought the game designer wanted me to follow the path he designed, so he deliberately gave me this information?"

"I don't like this way of playing games."

Spade pulled out the whip, and the magnificent ship docked at the port was reflected in his black eyes. He said coldly: "If you play the game like this, what's the difference between me and these arranged NPCs?"

"This isn't my game at all. This is his game."

The system panel popped up with a sizzling sound and disappeared from in front of Spade. Spade held the whip with an emotionless expression on his face and walked straight towards the big ship docked at the seaside port.

He walked to the harbor - this was also the place where Hei Tao heard Bai Liu's voice coming from before. He glanced around and looked around.

There is a huge wooden platform on the side of the port. The platform is a structure with raised eaves on the four corners. Inside is a wooden stage for performing sacrificial dances. A thick knotted rope is hung around the wooden frame, and white protective paper used to ward off evil spirits is hung at a certain distance on the rope.

There is a wooden board under the platform with the words "Dance Performance Place for God Worshipers" written in red paint on it.

Opposite the platform, at the bottom of the harbor, there is a magnificent ship docked. Or rather, it is not quite appropriate to describe it as a ship, as it is a drama performance stage in the shape of a ship.

The stage was made in the shape of a ship, with three floors in total. Many light bulbs were installed on both sides and the top of each floor. When they were lit up at night, it was as bright as day, making the stage in the middle sparkle.

All the curtains of the stage are hung on both sides with rings, so there are layers of thick dark red velvet curtains on both sides, and the middle is the main body of the stage which is made up of shiny wooden floors that have been wiped and oiled.

At this moment, there are two wooden stools facing each other in the center of the stage, with a piece of rippled glass in the middle. Two actors in hunting clothes are sitting on the two stools, facing each other through the rippled glass. Next to them stands a male actor wearing a quicksand glittering coat. These three actors are performing passionately on the stage.

There was a small sign placed right in front of the stage, with the words "Evil God Festival Play·Act 1" written on it.

Audience chairs were neatly arranged right below the stage, on which sat a group of audience members who were watching the play with great interest. The chairs were not full, as new audience members kept coming from afar to sit on the chairs and join the group of audience members watching the play.

A new audience member asked the audience who had been watching for a while:

"What is the play about?"

The old audience member turned his head and whispered to the new audience member who had just sat down: "This play is a traditional play of the Evil God Festival in Luming County every year. It tells the story of the emergence, development and changes of the Evil God Festival. This is only the first act."

Someone asked curiously: "What is this first scene about?"

"This first scene is a background introduction. It talks about the process of the evil god selecting a successor to come to the human world and preside over the evil god sacrifice." The old audience pointed at the three actors on the stage. "Those sitting on both sides of the water pattern wall are the evil god's selected successors. The one next to him wearing a bright-colored gauze is our Lord Evil God."

The two actors who were sitting on stools on the stage suddenly stood up and started to fight fiercely across the water-marked wall, insulting each other:

"I am the one whom the Evil God appreciates the most! I am the most outstanding successor!"

"I am the natural successor to the evil god!"

The old audience was very interested and began to explain with a shake of his head: "The evil god created all living things and selected his successors from them. In the end, there were two successors who met the requirements. So in order to choose the best successor from among them, the evil god called the two successors together, created a water-patterned wall to separate them from each other, and told them--"

The "evil god" on the stage nodded with his hands behind his back, looking at the two "successors" vying for the throne with satisfaction: "You two are both excellent, but I can only have one successor."

"I will erase all your memories and place you in all the world lines I created to train. You two will have two different identities, namely, [Sacrifice] and [Servant]."

"The Sacrifice will receive my help during their training, but I will put countless obstacles in the way of the Servant." The Evil God walked around the two heirs condescendingly. "But these identities are not fixed. They can be swapped anytime and anywhere. At any moment, the one who is suffering more will become the Sacrifice, and the one who is not suffering as much will become the Servant."

"After the experience in all world lines is over, the [Sacrifice] will sacrifice its pain and soul to me and become the next evil god."

"And the Servant will lose everything he has, his friends, his family, his lover, and his soul."

At this moment, the old audience nodded in agreement: "Yes, that's right, this is the origin of the [sacrifice] [attendant] system in Luming County."

The heir, who was sitting opposite the watermarked wall with his back to the audience, suddenly spoke softly: "Xie Ta."

——This is Bai Liu’s voice!

Spade, who was searching in the audience, raised his head suddenly. Without any hesitation, he supported himself with one hand and jumped onto the edge of the stage.

The moment he jumped up, the curtain behind him dropped instantly, shrouding the stage in darkness. Spade heard the noisy discussions of the audience outside disappear in an instant, and the footsteps of three actors on the stage could be heard moving in a rhythmic manner, gradually overlapping into a person walking towards Spade.

The area around him suddenly lit up. The stage lights that were originally so blinding that they were almost blinding turned into moving stars in the universe. The light swirled in Hei Tao's emotionless eyes, reflecting the person who was walking towards him.

Bai Liu raised his lips and said, "Long time no see, Spade."

Spade stared at him and didn't answer.

Bai Liu lowered his eyes and saw the black bone whip held in Hei Tao's palm. The smile on his face deepened: "Is the whip I gave you still useful?"

[System prompt: The player's spade triggers the plot point and enters "Evil God Festival·Second Act"]