Die Now Episode 17 Recap
> Die Now Recap
Xia Chi deliberately claimed to be a virtual person but suddenly paused mid-sentence. This abrupt stop led players No. 3 and No. 8 to conclude that he was a robot. No. 3 and No. 8 publicly voted for No. 11, and No. 7 also raised his hand. Xia Chi, after smiling at No. 6, then cast his own vote.
The GM announced that No. 11 was identified as a player, and with a 4-1 vote, the public vote passed, resulting in the team players' failure and the game's conclusion. Xia Chi emerged victorious in this round, earning 30 points and an A-grade evaluation, bringing his account balance to 50. 5 points. He subsequently achieved Senior Player status and was transferred to the game administrator.
Upon arriving at the game lobby, Xia Chi learned the new rules and received a new game card for Senior Players. Senior Players automatically receive a seven-day rest period after a game, during which no points are consumed, and they can freely choose to enter the "Win World" or "Lose World," with "Win World" as the default. During this rest period, Senior Players can request to meet with an administrator at any time.
The administrator is obligated to answer all player questions and fulfill reasonable requests, provided no special secrecy is required. Since Senior Players and ordinary players participate in separate games, a choice must be made before each game begins: first, select a "normal game" to be matched with other Senior Players; second, select a "low-level game" to be matched with ordinary players, but this game will not count for points or evaluation; or third, skip the current game and continue resting.
The Senior End Brain card introduced new commands: "Kata," which makes the card swiftly return to the player's hand, and "Iruwa," which allows the player to open or close the End Brain Mall. Xia Chi inquired with the female attendant in the game lobby about the language of these commands, the creator of the End Brain game, and its purpose.
He was informed that these were all secrets, and probing secrets cost 50 points to participate in a "challenge End Brain" game, after which all questions would be answered. Xia Chi did not immediately accept the challenge. He asked if Qing Zhi was still alive. The female robot displayed an image of Qing Zhi behind a wall, confirming her survival. Qing Zhi was located in the "Ring of Partnership" game, an optional task within the "Labyrinth of Lies."
Xia Chi resolved to return to the castle to complete the "Ring of Partnership." He was informed that loading the archive would cost 50 points, a sum he agreed to spend to return to the original task scene and restart the game. The prerequisite for this was to locate Chun Xuxiang and Bo Bian. After Xia Chi left, the female robot reported to headquarters that player Xia Chi had not accepted the final task.
Returning to the Win World, Xia Chi sought help from Chun Xuxiang, who had recently obtained a 2D card and 20 points, to load the archive and return to the castle. Chun Xuxiang was reluctant, questioning Qing Zhi's worth and warning Xia Chi that he risked losing himself if he failed. Despite her reservations, Chun Xuxiang agreed to accompany him to save Qing Zhi. Xia Chi then approached Bo Bian for assistance, offering a one-on-one duel as an exchange.
The duel's terms stipulated that if Xia Chi won, Bo Bian would help him; if Xia Chi lost, Bo Bian would personally kill him. This mission was urgent not only for Qing Zhi but also because Bo Bian himself was in danger. The cost for this was 50 points to read the archive, return to the Labyrinth of Lies lobby, and restart the "Ring of Partnership" task. Meanwhile, Meng Qin was engaged in a game to access the "End Hall."
The path to the End Hall featured a large gate with a coin slot. The game's rule stated that the more coins inserted, the higher the chance of opening the gate, with each coin increasing the probability by two percent. Fifty-three coins were on the table, and the goal was to win as many as possible. Players would propose allocation schemes in sequence, followed by a general vote.
A majority agreement would end the game with the player winning, while a minority or half agreement would mean failure and player elimination. Meng Qin proposed giving one coin to No. 3, two to No. 5, and keeping the remaining fifty for himself. No. 3 and No. 5 agreed. Meng Qin explained this as a typical game theory problem, where his proposal was calculated to be the "most appropriate and generous." He considered the game "childish."
After successfully clearing the game and bidding farewell to the others, Meng Qin's wristband suddenly fell to the ground. Meng Qin discovered a listening device in his wristband. Returning to the Win World, he called Jia Li, apologizing for damaging her gift. Meng Qin then confronted Jia Li, accusing her of being an undercover agent.
He explained his long-standing suspicion: when players had not yet entered the game, the people in that world were mere NPCs, acting solely based on their real-world counterparts. It was inexplicable how a "fake Meng Qin" could have found a girlfriend before the actual player had even entered the game. The only possibility was that Jia Li had approached his NPC before he actively entered the game.
When Jia Li asked what he wanted, Meng Qin replied that it depended on her true identity. Jia Li confessed that she was Ji Lu's niece. She was greatly shocked by her uncle's murder, as they had a very close relationship; he had given her her first computer. She knew Ji Lu and Xue Xin were close friends who often discussed their novel writing, making her disbelieve that Xue Xin could have killed her uncle.
Xue Xin himself did not understand why he had committed the murder, making the entire incident bewildering. While sorting through her uncle's belongings, Jia Li intercepted a list, which she later realized was the End Brain player list. Overwhelmed, she was then approached by an organization called SHRIKE. SHRIKE informed Jia Li that the list contained approximately fifty thousand people from around the world, of whom about fourteen thousand had been murdered in the last five years without apparent cause.
A commonality was that the killers lacked a motive and claimed to have been controlled, much like the killer of Jia Li's uncle. SHRIKE concluded that this was an organized and large-scale murder operation, with "End Brain" as the mastermind, possessing unimaginable means. SHRIKE's experts believed that each player's head contained a tiny transmitter. Upon game initiation, the player's body was instantly transported, though its exact destination remained unknown.
This transmitter not only had teleportation capabilities but also served for monitoring and control. However, the device was too precise for their experts to comprehend its internal structure, with its precision exceeding that of an Angstrom. They also theorized that small celestial bodies were scattered around Earth's periphery, constantly sending out various electromagnetic waves to control the system's operation.
After a player's body was transported, the transmitter would interfere with the brainwaves of people in the player's vicinity, inducing hallucinations that prevented them from perceiving the player's disappearance. Similarly, if a player was eliminated from the game, the same interference would occur, leading to the player's death. This mechanism was suspected to be the root cause of the unprovoked murder cases.
