The Inaccessible 'Unfairness

The Twisted Game

Ye Qun's thoughts were completely laid bare under Yi Bai's watchful gaze.

There was nothing to comment on.

To Yi Bai, they were already dead.

Watching them scheming against each other was no more than a display of pitiful, dying struggles.

It was almost amusing—if only it weren't so predictable.

Little did Ye Qun know, Mirror Phantom seemed to have seen right through his restless intentions.

She spoke up, surprising everyone by signaling one of the ghost children to leave, leaving behind the remaining eight. Then, the positions shifted.

The eight ghost children were now evenly spaced among the eight human players.

Ye Qun froze, his expression blank.

Yu Quan, who seemed to share similar thoughts, also wore a stunned look on his face, as though he'd just been handed an unpleasant surprise.

"Game on," came the crisp voice.

This time, the ghost children didn't speak.

The human players quickly realized they were waiting for them to make the first move.

Ye Qun's mind raced.

His eyes flitted over to Yi Bai, and a flash of murderous intent gleamed in his pupils.

An idea sprouted in his mind, and he wasted no time in putting it into action.

"22!"

He called out the first number, his tone smooth, masking the sinister plan brewing beneath.

If things went as calculated, Yi Bai would be forced to call out "28," and the ghost child in front would clap at "27."

The two numbers, connected, would both need to be avoided.

Ye Qun believed he could outsmart Yi Bai with this trick, making use of his inertia to trip him up.

Bitter resentment simmered within him—Yi Bai had left him to fend for himself earlier, after all. He was determined to get his revenge.

"23."

"24."

The game continued, unfolding exactly as Ye Qun had hoped.

What he failed to notice, however, was that Yi Bai had been fully aware of his scheme from the start.

And even more surprisingly, when it came to the ghost child before Yi Bai...

That ghost child loudly shouted "27," followed by a mock surprise.

"Ah, I think I lost!"

The performance was so exaggerated it bordered on ridiculous.

Ye Qun's brow furrowed in confusion.

He had no idea what was happening, but Yi Bai was clearly amused by the turn of events.

Through his keen perception, Yi Bai could see the game had just gotten even more interesting.

The ghost child had indeed lost.

Without waiting for anyone else to speak, the ghost child accepted the punishment immediately.

With unsettling calm, he ripped out one of his eyes and swallowed it.

Then, as though nothing had happened, the eye simply regenerated, as if by magic.

The sight was gruesome, yet it was typical of the ghostly creatures.

Ye Qun and the other human players watched in stunned silence, their hearts filled with a gnawing dread.

One piece of advice echoed in the minds of those who had survived these terrifying games before:

Never try to reason with the supernatural.

"Game continues," the sweet loli voice rang out again, this time sending a chill down their spines.

The ghost child beside Yi Bai grinned cruelly at Ye Qun, then called out "36."

"Damn it! Damn damn damn!"

Ye Qun shuddered under the gaze of the ghost child, his scalp prickling.

He noticed that the other ghost children were watching him too, their eyes dark and filled with malice.

His mind raced, now realizing something wasn't right.

From the moment the ghost child had deliberately messed up with "27," Ye Qun had sensed something was off.

Now, he knew for sure: the ghosts were protecting Yi Bai!

The revelation hit him like a cold wave, draining all warmth from his heart.

What the hell kind of game is this?

Panic and fear set in, stripping him of his composure.

Yi Bai clapped at "37."

The following ghost children were precise and careful, making no mistakes.

And then…

It was Ye Qun's turn again.

The ghost child in front of him, who was supposed to call out "46," suddenly slapped his hands sharply near Ye Qun's ear.

The sudden noise disoriented him, disrupting his rhythm, and his head buzzed from the sharp sound.

"4… 4… 4..."

He stammered in confusion, struggling to regain control of the game.

Only after a few beats did it hit him—he should have been the one to clap. The number "47" was his!

Ye Qun's pupils shrank to pinpricks, his hand trembling as he pointed at the ghost child.

"You… you lost!"

The ghost child grinned, unfazed.

"Right! Hehe, I lost..." The child chuckled, but the amusement didn't stop there.

"You lost too. You see, in the rules of Knock 7, if someone makes a mistake, everyone after them who continues without correcting it loses too."

Boom!

It felt as though a thunderclap struck in Ye Qun's mind, shattering his understanding of the game.

Why would these ghostly creatures know so much about a human drinking game?

But there was no time to dwell on it.

The hostile, hungry gazes of the ghost children were fixed on him.

They were deciding what part of him they would devour first.

"No! I can't die!"

Ye Qun had been through enough horrific games to remain calm when facing death.

In an instant, he drew a dagger from his waist.

Swish!

With a swift, brutal motion, he severed his other hand at the wrist.

Grimacing against the pain, he threw the severed hand at the ghost children, then reached into his pocket to grab a vial of hemostatic powder.

He poured it frantically onto the wound, trying to staunch the bleeding.

It hurt like hell, but nothing mattered more than survival.

The ghost children, however, just looked toward Mirror Phantom.

Once they saw her nod, they understood—this was not the time to let Ye Qun die too quickly.

One of them picked up his severed hand and began to chew on it, making sickening crunching sounds as the bones cracked.

The noise sent waves of nausea through Ye Qun, and the pain in his severed arm intensified, but there was no stopping it now.

Yi Bai watched the scene unfold with a detached amusement.

He couldn't help but think:

If only those who forced others to drink would experience a little bit of this...

Perhaps they'd understand the agonizing pain of being forced to drink when you couldn't handle it.

The game continued, but with every round, the rules had become more and more distorted.

Whenever Yi Bai had to clap to avoid a 7 or a multiple of 7, the ghost child in front of him would deliberately make a mistake and immediately "punish" themselves, not giving Yi Bai a chance to slip up.

Meanwhile, Ye Qun's performance grew more pitiful with every round.

His arm, severed and re-severed, his legs mutilated, his blood staining the floor, his consciousness fading in and out...

But he kept counting mechanically, a broken man in the worst possible way.

The other human players could only watch in horror, fully grasping the brutal truth:

Humans were so different from each other.

While they suffered the torment of life and death, Yi Bai seemed to have the protection of the ghosts themselves.

The disparity was so stark that it became almost absurd.

Their hearts screamed "unfair," yet at the same time, envy and jealousy boiled inside them.

But it was too late.

Envy and jealousy couldn't save them from the merciless grip of death.