Chapter 144 The Ouija Board (21) [woc A-Tan is helping him...]
But there was another important message in the cult leader's warning to Su Shao.
[Holy crap, the cult leader once wanted to turn Rarity into an observational subject?]
[Use Yun Song's eye? That would only result in a defective product.]
[That sounds nice, giving Atan a playmate of his own kind, but he himself doesn't even value observation, so how could the Eye of Observation possibly value a half-crippled observer?]
[I bet Director Jiang protected her. After all, she's one of Director Jiang's confidants. The leader, who's usually a hands-off manager, has treated the vice leader quite well; he wouldn't refuse to give him this much face... Rui Rui didn't fawn over the leader for nothing!!]
But even so, he was still framed and killed by the higher-ups.
[This guy agreed so quickly back then, could it be because he knew Rui Rui wouldn't live much longer?]
[I'm about to cause a scene! I just finished offering incense to Rui Rui in the new cyber memorial thread next door.]
[Handshake with the person upstairs, I just finished mourning at Xiao Ai's grave.]
According to observation five, observation twelve must have been a later, flawed observation? That's terrifying...
In the comic, for Xia Wujin's safety, she was taken away a bit, and when she woke up, she was sitting on a withered garden bench.
This road leads to the student association building if you walk back, and the library if you walk forward.
She stared blankly at the gray sky. Could it rain in a closed "haunted house"?
She was held captive by her own analogy for a moment, then thought, no, if it rains in a haunted house, it must be man-made.
Some people need this rain to bring fear.
She recalled the details of summoning the Ouija board, and the final image was Sun Enyou's shocked expression; he must have seen something far beyond what she expected.
She felt strangely at ease.
What is most expected of someone who harbors the desire to exchange death for the liberation of another soul is that what he saw was not the soul he imagined.
She had a gut feeling.
But before that, she needs more "intuition," and intuition doesn't appear out of thin air.
She guessed the water in the swimming pool was about to dry up, so what other strange things in the group chat hadn't come true yet?
Bloodstains on the old teaching building, fire in the library.
The former may have happened, but the people mentioned earlier must have visited the old teaching building.
The library is more likely to have new clues, and the message Xi Rui left for her on the talisman hinted that she should go to that place.
She couldn't go back to the club building for the time being. She obviously didn't run away on her own. Someone took her away from the club building. She was inclined to believe that this was to help her avoid danger. Of course, perhaps from their perspective, it was to keep her "out of the way".
So she found a book in office 203 of the library.
Only that book was open, on Director Jiang's desk.
The open page had been repeatedly handled, the paper was somewhat wrinkled, and there were fingernail scratches under a line of a poem.
...refining?
Refined with a pure heart, devoid of any attachment to black phosphorus.
The body stores purity, and returns to its true nature under the moon.
Xia Wujin read it several times and was once again struck by his intuition.
She couldn't find the "source of the fire" in the library, but she seemed to have found something more important.
When she returned to the floor where the club was located, she saw Xie Tan standing at the entrance of the travel agency.
The room was lit, but the corridor and the outside were pitch black. He was like a shadow, caught between light and darkness, another dimension, elusive and precarious.
He seemed not to notice her until she walked to his side, helped him up, and helped him sit down.
This is rare. Xia Wujin thought that she had learned something from her...great-aunt: his eyes were the most special thing; he either ignored everything or could see through everything.
Just like their name—Observation.
But what price must be paid for such power? There's no such thing as a free lunch.
Xie Tan's reaction was slower than usual; he rubbed his temples, as if his head was hurting.
He simply said "It's nothing," like a meaningless interjection, which seemed to be his usual excuse, showing a complete lack of sincerity.
He took the water but didn't drink it; he just held it in his hands, using the coolness of the ice to relieve his discomfort.
His face, which was originally deathly pale, slowly regained an unhealthy flush.
His true condition must be far more painful than he appears.
Xia Wujin suddenly asked, "Should I use a Ouija board?"
Judging from Xie Tan's answer, it wasn't her turn yet, and because of this issue, Xie Tan was too lazy to bother with her.
She didn't care, so she asked.
"So, are we the impurities, or the gold you want to extract?"
The moment that question was uttered, time seemed to stand still.
The camera in the comic rotates halfway to behind Xie Tan, and from his perspective, the person sitting in front of him is not Xia Wujin.
Four blurry shadows, some standing, some sitting, like black patches cut out from a layer, were all facing him, seemingly "watching" him.
The clock strikes eight, a new day begins.
Returning to the same perspective, there were no shadows. Xia Wujin was looking up at the clock in the club.
Xie Tan's eyes darted around imperceptibly.
[Young Miss—Run!]
[There's no need to run anymore, nobody can escape anyway, haha.]
[Never mind, the young lady has her own rhythm.]
Indeed, the young lady gives me the impression that she has more information than the people before her.
[A strange intuition]
To be honest, the fugitive group all had a slightly scary intuition; indeed, the protagonists who managed to escape the Book of Life and Death were different.
[What a pity, Ah Tan dragged him away and wrote his own entry in the Book of Life and Death.]
[Another refinement!]
[The last time this was mentioned was when Mommy washed away the impurities from the black goat (although from Mommy's perspective, the impurities were actually good). What is being pointed out this time?]
Let's call back, Ah-Tan used the same ritual as Mommy.
[Shouldn't the black goat represent "washing" and the main characters represent "refining"? Isn't Ah Tan using the main characters to refine something?]
[Hmm, something doesn't feel right. If it's for washing impurities from black goats, shouldn't it involve refining the remaining black goats?]
[Agreed. The main characters are more like sacrifices in the ritual than the primary objective.]
This was in line with Xie Tan's thoughts, but the comic did not depict this inner thought of his.
Given his character, if this line wasn't drawn, it's very likely because... he was wrong.
[Haha, Miss, you're so self-aware!]
[Isn't the young lady scared at all? Does she even know what happened to the people ahead of her?]
[Holy crap! What does the young lady mean by that? What impurities? Are they impurities too? I thought they were just sacrifices?]
What is Ah Tan seeing?! These four shadows?!
Is it a relapse? Hallucination?
[These four people... I think it's Rui Rui, the burnt cult leader, the trashy senior, and En Ze?]
[That makes sense. According to the previous chapter, even without the step of sending the spirit through the Ouija board, they couldn't escape after becoming ghosts; they were already being refined into the ritual at the club building. So, that's why they appeared?]
But the young lady didn't see them!
[Only Atan saw it... Wait, doesn't Atan's illness mean the Eye of Observation has been activated?]
So this is what Atan observed?
That's just another timeline!
[Holy crap! In the Yin Peach Blossom arc, the past that A-Tan returned to ultimately became the world line he abandoned!]
[So, can we interpret this as Ah Tan seeing each person's "what if" scenario?]
[Or could it be understood as a substitute in the trajectory of fate?]
Oh my god, let me sort this out. From left to right, the first one is Rui Rui, who was refined into a defective product for observation.
The second one should represent Xiao Ai. In this storyline, Xiao Ai failed to obtain the pointer in Wonderland and was killed by the cult leader early on. In the end, the pointer still fell into the hands of the cult leader. Therefore, in terms of the functional positioning of this game, the cult leader is Xiao Ai's "if" storyline!
The third one is the senior, which is easier to understand. In the Bubble chapter, the last piece of the Black Goat puzzle was originally Enze, but because of Atan, the senior shot himself in the foot and became Enze's scapegoat.
Therefore, their fates are intertwined; they are each other's substitutes.
The fourth one should be Eun-taek, right? Eun-taek and Eun-woo are essentially one entity, so Eun-woo's "if" storyline would naturally be Eun-taek, right?
[According to the young lady, they are also "washing"?]
[Wow, Atan is helping them "wash away the impurities"!]
[So it's: wash away the IF line that turns Rui Rui into an observer, wash away the pointer and the cult leader that are parasitic on Xiao Ai, and use the blessing to bring out the senior to complete the ritual!!]
[I don't know about the last one; there hasn't been a new round of Ouija board rituals yet.]
But the cult leader said they were "refining" themselves, right?
[Similar to the Black Goat, if you wash away a portion, what's left is the refining process? These "if" lines are the "scapegoats" refined into the ritual! That's why they can appear here.]
The young lady didn't see it simply because she lacked the corresponding ability. If Sister Peony were here, she might have seen it.
[There's no need to guess the young lady's "what if" scenario; it's definitely her grandmother!]
[That makes sense!! Who remembers that Ah Tan saw the ghosts of thirteen suicides in the old teaching building?]
But if the original rules of the game were to catch the alternation, then it doesn't make sense. There should only be one ghost in the building, which is the student who eventually becomes the spirit of the Ouija board. Moreover, that student also caught the person who jumped off the building at the beginning and was freed.
So, what exactly did Atan see?
These are the thirteen "if" scenarios related to the mass suicide case from back then!
Thirteen students—each one could be the final Ouija board spirit!
[Holy crap!!! Atan is actually helping everyone??]
[My wild guess is that the spirit's blessing that Enze washed out by Enyou, like Ruirui's, is some kind of "what if" scenario. It's probably because Enze died without Atan's guidance and Enyou's protection.]
【!! I can't believe it】
[Oh my god, I thought we were killing everyone, but it actually saved everyone? I misunderstood you, baby, waaaaah!]
If in mass suicides it truly is a case of one person being freed from the previous one, and if there is such a thing as "liberation," then wouldn't the real Rui Rui, Xiao Ai, En Ze, and En You have already returned to normal time? Freed from the games and conspiracies of the future!
[It makes sense; there's a cause-and-effect loop, and everyone before the time jump didn't die at all!]
[And don't you think the time is too close? It's only a little over an hour away from the first day of Carnival, why jump the time?]
I strongly suspect that Ah Tan wants to lock the others who return into the past!!!
【Do I have to carry this cat myself?! You're going to kill me again, Ah Tan! I won't allow it, boohoo】
Good grief, at first I thought A-Tan was going to kill everyone, then I thought he was going to destroy Diqiu, but now it seems he might just be trying to destroy himself.
[You could say they've stayed true to their original aspirations.]
I'm truly impressed. Your acting is so convincing, especially your aura as Tan Shen—you have such a villainous vibe!
[When I saw Ah Tan ask En Ze with a half-smile, "Are you also going to use a Ouija board?", I still got goosebumps. That shows how authoritative Ah Tan is.]
It's not your fault. So far, everyone except for the intuition-obsessed young lady has been fooled.
[So what the leader said is completely wrong. This cat is cold-hearted and indifferent, and it is also paranoid and crazy. It is indeed indifferent to everyone, as if it is always detached. "Friends" are just wishful thinking on the part of others.]
But actually, Ah Tan had developed a little sincerity, and he was moved after all!
[A really nice cat, waaaaaah!]
Ah Tan glanced around. "The side effects must have kicked in again, that's why I'm seeing the abandoned timeline."
[He had already had one seizure when the young lady woke up; it breaks my heart...]
[Not just looking at this, a new day has begun, and Ah Tan is probably looking for Lu Lu too!]
Xie Tan slid to the next page, and this time, the comic expressed his true feelings.
He's not here...
Why does it seem like Ah Tan is relieved?
[Because the cat's dog handler has arrived, I'm courting disaster, how can I not be nervous?]
[Lu Lu! Lu Lu has appeared!]
In the comic, the wind blows the curtains of the chess club, and contrary to Xie Tan's expectations, the cult leader is not there.
The black-haired youth leaned against the chessboard, his head resting on the windowsill, and slowly opened his amber-like eyes.
It was the only light in the pitch-black room.
Lu Jinzhao straightened up and lowered his eyes.
The chessboard was completely visible to him.
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