Li Ming’s eyes widened as she stared at the bizarre scene before her in disbelief.
“None of you can see…”
“Shh. Quiet.” The nun kneeling to her right suddenly spoke, her voice low, cold, and stern. “If you deliberately interrupt the prayers again, please leave immediately.”
Li Ming turned toward the voice. The corner of her mouth trembled, her face white as paper, and she stiffly turned her head back again.
Because the nun’s facial skin was slowly melting.
Her rotting, perforated lips were tugged open and shut by red-and-white bands of muscle, sticking together and writhing as they exposed gruesome gums and uneven teeth.
Every line of prayer made her skin melt away faster.
The nuns seemed completely unaware of their own abnormalities. They also could not see Rachel’s increasingly horrifying, enormous pregnant belly.
How could this be happening?
Li Ming glanced at Mr. Butler clinging to the ceiling, took a deep breath, and tentatively followed along with a few lines of scripture.
Immediately afterward, Li Ming shuddered. She lowered her head and tightly closed her blood-soaked mouth, forcing the threads of blood and mucosal tissue welling up inside back down into her stomach.
She could not pray. No matter what happened, she absolutely could not keep praying.
At last, she understood what was wrong.
This two-and-a-half-hour prayer was actually the nuns using their own flesh and blood to provide nourishment to the pregnant host.
That illusion of being surrounded by holy light, of relaxing completely and feeling serene at heart while reciting the prayers, was nothing more than an incredibly potent hallucinogenic anesthetic!
That was why no one noticed their own flesh rotting and dissolving, nor did they feel the slightest pain. They simply devoted themselves wholeheartedly to praying for the “God” they adored.
Li Ming could not seal all of their mouths. She could only control her own.
Slick sounds of flesh turning sticky and rotten rose one after another, while Sister Rachel was about to give birth.
The complicated, indescribable smile on her face vanished completely. She looked devout as she continued praying in a practiced, orderly rhythm, her voice neither hurried nor slow.
Her body, however, no longer seemed to be under her brain’s control. The movements of her head and body had separated completely, and her body had even begun doing its best to prepare for a natural delivery.
She kneaded the rosary around her wrist with force, blue veins standing out sharply on the back of her hand. The metal cross swung and knocked against the wooden beads. Her trembling thighs spread apart, her chest rising and falling rapidly…
The grotesque, uncanny sight suddenly gave rise to an absurd guess in Li Ming’s mind.
The birth of Jesus.
He had been born from the womb of a virgin. His mother was the Virgin Mary. All day, their prayers had repeatedly recited the contents of the Rosary.
Many tiny clues connected together, especially when combined with that scrutinizing gaze from afar in the afternoon…
The one truly chosen, the host designated to receive the coming life, should have been Li Ming herself. Sister Li Ming.
She had nearly been forced to become pregnant. The horrifying possibility sent a chill down her back.
Yet at the very last moment, Sister Rachel had replaced her.
Had Rachel known all along what was going to happen?
Had Rachel acted so aggressively to steal Li Ming’s position as leader because she wanted to replace her, or because she wanted to save her?
“Mr. Wales, what do we do?” Li Ming raised her eyes toward the faintly distorted ceiling and silently mouthed the question.
“Interesting.”
The butler answered with a smile.
Then let her give birth. Li Ming touched the dagger hidden in her sleeve and made up her mind.
It was dangerous, but only by allowing her to give birth to this infant of unknown origin could they obtain more clues about the main mission.
Li Ming stealthily opened the group chat and urged Xu Wei Ran, who was standing guard outside, to hurry up and prepare baby supplies.
Things like a cradle, a pram, blankets and swaddling cloth, feeding bottles and diapers…
“Where the hell am I supposed to find baby supplies this late at night?!”
Xu Wei Ran complained in stunned disbelief, but he did not dare delay something important. He took off running.
The church and the nuns’ quarters stood beside the prayer room. Heavy snow fell on the winter night, and the patrolling guards had hidden away to warm themselves by a fire.
Dressed as an orderly, Xu Wei Ran could go almost anywhere without obstruction, yet he darted around like a panicked headless fly.
The nuns lived far too simply. They had almost no unused clutter whatsoever. Even their bedding came with only two replacement sets, both of them very heavy.
Xu Wei Ran gritted his teeth and simply broke into Sister Pudu’s locked bedroom.
Then he froze in place, utterly stunned by the scene before him, almost wondering whether something had gone wrong with his eyesight.
Because this was nothing like the austere room of an ascetic Catholic nun. It looked much more like… the bedroom of an underage boy.
A long row of expensive model steam trains stood end to end across the desk. Roughly scattered building blocks and wooden toy swords lay on the floor.
By the window hung weapons and medals from various knightly orders, small flags of the Lance Empire, taxidermied sparrows and deer heads, and hunting rifles.
As for the cradle and pram Li Ming wanted, both were tucked along one side of the wardrobe, all fine pieces made by professional carpenters.
Xu Wei Ran moved aside the spare bedding on the other side, crouched down, and rummaged through it. He even found swaddling wraps in several sizes, soft close-fitting baby clothes, hand-sewn cotton socks, and warm earmuffs.
Beside the baby supplies were shirts and trousers for a little boy, all brand-new and beautiful, neatly folded on the top shelf within easy reach.
Sister Pudu truly was insane.
At that moment, the fact received its clearest possible confirmation.
Xu Wei Ran pressed his lips together, his expression serious. He wrapped everything Li Ming had requested inside a quilt, skillfully tied it into one huge, heavy bundle, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and strode away.
Bang!
Not far away, a gunshot rang out again.
A loud baby’s wail followed immediately, mixing with the kitten-like whimpers of another infant and piercing the dense night. A faint layer of milky-white radiance appeared along the horizon.
Xu Wei Ran stopped dead, frowned, and could hardly believe his ears. “What’s going on… There are two babies?”
His guess was correct.
At the same time, Song Zang had completely emptied the magazine.
The bluish-purple ghost baby stared with pitch-black eyes, its body riddled with mottled holes. From its forehead to its heart, every bullet hole leaked foul-smelling, icy black water, making its already gloomy young face look even more horrifying.
It was no longer the child Sister Pudu had longed for day and night. It had become a drowned ghost overflowing with resentment.
Silver bullets had pierced vital points in its tiny body and forcefully suppressed it. It gradually turned more insubstantial and ethereal, and its speed slowed as well.
But it still was not dead.
“Fuck, why won’t this thing die?” Lin Xing wiped tiny flecks of ice from his beard and could not help coughing a few times, shivering in the wind and snow.
The hazy holy light hanging in the sky seemed to grow brighter and brighter. Milky-white radiance descended gently onto frost-covered branches, as though a deity were arriving in the mortal world.
The ghost baby’s translucent body trembled, incomparably weak, yet it still refused to die.
Its twisted, hateful gaze seemed almost tangible as it stared fixedly at Yin Chen’s back, boiling with surging hatred.
Clearly, it regarded Yin Chen as the enemy who had killed its mother.
Foul, icy corpse water gurgled from its body. The ghost baby let out a piercing shriek, gathered all its remaining strength, and launched itself forward one final time.
In an act of vengeful self-destruction, it charged straight into Yin Chen’s abdomen and vanished without a trace.
Yin Chen: ???
Song Zang reacted quickly. Without thinking, he immediately reached out to stop it, but an obstacle made of ordinary flesh and blood was completely useless. The ghost baby had never possessed a tangible body that could be touched. Like a gust of sinister wind, it passed through Song Zang’s wrist, leaving behind a bone-deep, needle-sharp cold.
“Yin Chen, are you okay?!” Ignoring the sudden pain and weakness in his freezing wrist, he struggled down from Yin Chen’s shoulder.
Lin Xing, unfortunately, was just a little too unlucky. The force Song Zang released in his panic accidentally struck him and sent him flying. He slid several meters before finally coming to a stop.
He spat out a mouthful of blood and sat dazed in the snow. He looked at Song Zang’s frail figure and pale face, then felt the cracked ribs beneath his chest. Suddenly, he had the sense that… he was trapped in an absurd nightmare. Why hadn’t he woken up yet?
“I’m fine. You’re not.”
Yin Chen’s face darkened. Without allowing any argument, he took off his coat and wrapped it around Song Zang, then tightly grasped the badly frostbitten wrist.
“Hiss, it hurts…” Song Zang complained softly.
“Now you know it hurts? When did you get so brave that you’d actually reach out and touch a fully formed vengeful spirit?! Do that a few more times and I’ll be collecting your corpse! Stop moving. I’m taking you back to soak it in warm water.”
Yin Chen was furious enough to have smoke coming out of every orifice. He wrapped Song Zang inside the coat, scooped him up in both arms, and stalked away while ranting furiously, “Song Zang, it was chasing me. If it attacked, it would only target me! If I’d known, I never would’ve brought you along…”
He really was extremely angry.
Song Zang obediently curled up in Yin Chen’s arms. He did not dare struggle even a little now, afraid he might hurt him.
Seeing Yin Chen walk faster and faster, Song Zang still felt worried. He raised his uninjured hand and cautiously touched Yin Chen’s abdomen. “Yin Chen, are you really okay?”
“I’m fine, but I’m pregnant. I’ll be very irritable for the next few days,” Yin Chen said with a cold laugh. “No. I’m already very irritable right now.”
“…Huh?”
Song Zang froze, then could not resist touching Yin Chen’s firm, flat lower abdomen again, beginning to doubt his own hearing.
After having his belly rubbed a few times, Yin Chen’s anger inexplicably seemed to subside a little. He pressed his thin lips together, lowered his eyes to Song Zang, and explained flatly, “Now I understand. It wanted revenge. It wanted to make me suffer, so it chose the method most likely to cause a human pain. No, extreme pain: giving birth to a child.”
After all, this era did not have Caesarean sections yet. Once pregnant, a mother could only give birth naturally. The entire process was both agonizing and dangerous, an unimaginably prolonged ordeal.
“H-how are you going to give birth?”
“Don’t know. Cut it out with a knife, I suppose. When the time comes, you can cut open my stomach.” Yin Chen lowered his eyes slightly, looking thoughtful. “I’m afraid my maternal instincts might suddenly kick in and I won’t be able to do it myself.”
From his careless tone, anyone who did not know better might think they were discussing cutting open a watermelon. But that was a terrifying ghost baby that had become a powerful vengeful spirit!
Song Zang flatly refused, panicked. “No. How can you make me do it? I wouldn’t dare either…”
“You’ll do it whether you dare or not. You even touched a vengeful spirit. What else could you possibly be afraid to do?” Yin Chen began sneering again and deliberately said in a cutting tone, “Or are you saying you don’t want to take responsibility for the child in my belly?”
“That’s not it! I didn’t say that!” Song Zang hurriedly denied it.
“Then it’s settled. You’ll cut open my stomach. You’re the only person I’ll allow to do that to me.”
Yin Chen made the decision final, leaving no room for argument.
Song Zang nodded uneasily and decided that from today onward, he would behave himself. At the very least, until Yin Chen’s “pregnancy” was resolved, he could not secretly stir up major trouble the way he had before.
In fact, he had already secretly investigated which NPC in this instance loved lying the most.
Sister Rachel.
But Rachel was extremely young and had very little presence. She was still junior among the nuns, with no foundation or influence at all… She simply did not have the standing to cause any major upheaval.
Song Zang had originally been torn over whether to kill her in the middle of the night, but he was also afraid of alerting the enemy and making the truly evil people more vigilant, causing them to hide even deeper.
Now it seemed he would be better off obediently going to sleep.
Lost in thought, Song Zang looped one arm around Yin Chen’s neck and gently stroked the back of it in reassurance. Then he suddenly realized that at some point, the two of them had entered an unfamiliar room.
A fireplace blazed fiercely. The room’s furnishings were extremely plain and monotonous, with no decoration besides a cross.
He looked confused. “Where is this?”
Yin Chen sat him down beside the fireplace, turned around, found an iron kettle, and hung it over the fire to heat water.
“Give me the injured arm.” Yin Chen sat beside him, urging him while rolling up his sleeve. The sight of the cold, bluish-purple frostbite on Song Zang’s wrist made his expression turn several degrees colder again.
Still, he patiently answered Song Zang’s question. “This is the room where the nuns wash their hands and faces before praying. I took a shortcut here. The prayer room is next door. Li Ming and the butler are both inside. Until something goes wrong, we’d better not go over there.”
Song Zang had not expected that merely having a vengeful spirit pass through his wrist would leave such obvious frostbite.
And because his skin was so pale, the injury looked especially gruesome. In reality, it was not too serious… But after glancing at Yin Chen, who was clearly in a poor mood, Song Zang obediently rested his hand on Yin Chen’s thigh and let him tend to it as he pleased.
“What about Lin Xing?”
“He won’t die.”
“Oh.”
A damp towel soaked in warm water was wrapped layer by layer around his freezing wrist. Between the warm compress and the open fire, comfortable heat quickly spread through Song Zang’s whole body.
Yin Chen even heated a cup of milk as if by magic. He said he had stolen it from Xu Wei Ran, and with practiced ease, he took meticulous care of Song Zang.
Under normal circumstances, Song Zang would certainly have accepted the care without worry and might even have used the injury as an excuse to act a little spoiled. The problem was that right now, Yin Chen had a baby in his belly!
A ghost baby was still a baby. The thought made Song Zang restless. “How about you lie down and rest first? I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”
“Don’t even think about it.”
“But you… you’re pregnant.”
“So what? I’m only carrying a ghost. I’m not dead. I’ll do whatever I want.”
Song Zang looked at the way Yin Chen had inexplicably flared up again and did not dare say anything carelessly. He could only meekly agree. “Okay. Then what do you want to do right now?”
That question made Yin Chen abruptly fall silent.
He pressed his lips together and lowered his eyes in thought. Hearing the healthy cries of a baby from next door, he said nothing for a long while before unbuttoning his shirt.
Large stretches of cool, pale skin were exposed, along with clean, beautiful collarbones, a taut, well-defined waist and abdomen, and crimson points against snow, bright as flame…
Song Zang stared dumbly and fell silent, unable to tear his eyes away for a moment.
Yin Chen said in a low voice, “Touch me.”
“…Where?”
“Everywhere.” Yin Chen lowered his eyes.
Song Zang did not have the option of refusing.
He raised his uninjured hand and slowly placed it against Yin Chen’s skin in surrender.
“Song Zang, your hand is so cold.”
“Mm.”
An almost imperceptible tremor passed through the warm abdominal muscles. Song Zang did not dare use much force, yet he heard Yin Chen’s breathing grow heavier and heavier.
“That’s enough. Let go.” Yin Chen spoke without warning and rather roughly pulled Song Zang’s hand away.
Song Zang looked up at him in confusion and unexpectedly caught sight of the unprecedented faint flush coloring the tips of his ears.
“I’m extremely emotional right now.”
Noticing Song Zang’s increasingly shocked gaze, Yin Chen looked unusually uncomfortable as he explained in a low voice.
Song Zang coughed lightly and continued meekly agreeing. “Mm. That’s probably normal. I understand.”
“Touching doesn’t seem to help. Forget it. Keep warming yourself by the fire. I’ll go next door and take a look.”
“No. I’m coming with you.”
“Your wrist…”
“You’re pregnant. I’m even more worried about you. You’re absolutely not allowed to act alone!”
Yin Chen froze. Whenever Song Zang suddenly became firm with him, Yin Chen had never been able to keep going head-to-head. This time was no different.
“Hold my hand properly. You’re sleeping with me tonight too.” Song Zang buttoned Yin Chen’s shirt back up, then immediately made another fierce demand.
“Mm.”
Yin Chen answered and took the initiative to hook his fingers around Song Zang’s. He looked somewhat surprised, and even a little bewildered.
There was merely a vengeful spirit stuffed into his belly. It would not threaten his life. Why was Song Zang even more nervous about it than he was?
Yin Chen could not understand, but he discovered that he really liked how tense Song Zang became when he cared this much about him.
Pregnancy seemed like a good thing?
＊
The situation inside the prayer room was rather chaotic.
Rachel had just finished giving birth. Blood covered the floor as she curled up in agony and groaned.
One nun after another came back to their senses from the prayer, all revealing expressions of utter shock and fear.
The newborn baby boy radiated dazzling holy light. If one listened carefully, one could even hear gentle chanting that sounded remarkably like angels.
“Rachel, what’s going on? Who is he?”
The middle-aged nun still had not noticed that the skin of her face had already rotted away completely. She sprang to her feet and uncontrollably picked up the pure, beautiful infant, asking in a trembling voice.
Rachel did not answer. She was in too much pain. Her abdomen, which had nearly burst open, was covered in bleeding spots. Meanwhile, Mr. Butler slipped away without anyone noticing, then rapidly returned carrying a pile of baby supplies and set them all beside Li Ming.
From beginning to end, no one saw the butler move. The swaddling cloth, cradle, and other items scattered on the floor looked almost like mysterious gifts that had fallen from heaven.
Li Ming took a deep breath and began acting along with the situation. Looking devout, she made the sign of the cross and declared loudly, “He is the Holy Son! The world is in chaos and the faithful live in poverty. Jesus has descended once more to save mankind. We should offer Him our sincerest gratitude and care!”
An uproar broke out. The middle-aged nun instinctively tried to deny her. “Y-you must not speak recklessly about something this important! Where are Sister Pudu and Father Riley? Only those two can determine His identity!”
“Sister Pudu is highly respected and has communed with our Lord for many years. She must have foreseen this long ago. You’re the ones with twisted thoughts. You’re the ones who aren’t devout enough!”
Li Ming wore an upright expression and argued indignantly, “Sister Pudu knows that I am kind and pure of heart, that I devote myself entirely to serving God and have never committed evil in my life. That’s why she arranged for me to receive the Holy Son’s arrival…
“You bullied me for the sake of your ridiculous struggle for power and insisted on stealing my position. Fine. I can tolerate all of that. But the most important thing now is taking proper care of the Holy Son Jesus! Do you want to conspire with Satan to harm Him and become the greatest sinner in history?!”
The middle-aged nun was rendered speechless. Her face alternated between blue and white. In the end, the threat of “going to hell” intimidated her into silence. She stepped back and allowed Li Ming to personally carry away the baby radiating holy light.
Yin Chen and Song Zang stood outside the door and listened to Li Ming’s dramatic performance, only to discover that the two of them were not needed at all. The nuns looked more stunned than the last, stupidly crowding around Sister Rachel as she writhed in pain, with no idea what to do.
Li Ming pushed the pram out at a brisk pace and whispered, “Go, go, go. Before they figure out what’s happening, let’s hide first and hurry up to study what this baby is…”
“Aaaaaah!”
“My face! My face!!!”
Before Li Ming could finish speaking, several overlapping screams rang out from inside the room.
The instant the baby left the prayer room, the holy-light “anesthetic” affecting the nuns completely lost its effect. Everyone finally saw one another’s rotten, pulpy faces clearly.
“Run! Everyone, run now!”
Xu Wei Ran sprang out of the darkness, swept an arm around Li Ming’s waist, picked her up, and immediately turned to flee. Mr. Butler worked with him in perfect coordination, unhesitatingly hoisting the pram onto his shoulder and running right behind him.
Before Song Zang could react, Yin Chen enthusiastically copied them. He scooped Song Zang up in both arms, easily caught up, and rapidly overtook them.
“Slow down, slow down! The thing in your stomach…”
“Song Zang, I’m only pregnant. I haven’t gotten weaker.”
Yin Chen reminded him helplessly, even leisurely bouncing Song Zang once in his arms.
Not a single player in the Infinite Game was bad at running away.
The nuns were still breaking down when everyone had already gathered in Yin Chen’s room by unspoken agreement.
Except for Lan Yu Heng, the entire team was present.
Seeing that everyone had returned more or less intact, with no injuries aside from Lin Xing’s broken ribs and a few chunks of rotten flesh inside Li Ming’s mouth, Zhang Ming Shen simply could not suppress his surprise.
After inspecting the holy-light baby sleeping soundly in the cradle, he also wanted to examine Yin Chen, who claimed to be pregnant. He could not help letting out two shocked “mmph” sounds.
The coin divination had very clearly shown that the situation would be extremely dangerous.
“Is it that strange? After seeing your divination, I altered the course of the future slightly. Li Ming’s nun friend also voluntarily offered herself up at the last moment and saved her.”
Yin Chen lowered his head and stroked the skin on Song Zang’s wrist where the frostbite had not yet healed, explaining calmly, “I deliberately attacked Sister Pudu. So the powerful ghost baby that was supposed to be born from her body again was forced to leave its host early because of the threat of death.
“It failed to be born properly, and its mother was brutally injured. Of course it hates me to death. Naturally, it would retaliate against me.”
At this point, Yin Chen’s lips quietly curved upward. “Vengeful spirits capable of choosing their own hosts for reincarnation in order to harm people aren’t actually rare. Unfortunately for it, after choosing to charge into my belly, it no longer has any possibility of developing again.”
Hearing Yin Chen recount everything with complete confidence, Song Zang was both shocked and frightened after the fact. “Don’t tell me you got pregnant on purpose? How could you be certain things would turn out like this?”
Yin Chen smiled and lazily pinched his fingers. “Remember the moon you painted? I could actually understand every word of the noisy whispers coming from inside it.”
“The Holy-Demon Twin Stars shall descend into the world tonight.
“The spark that rekindles Judgment Day shall begin burning from the womb of the mad nun.
“Three Persons, three bodies. My Lord is no Lord.”
Elio’s Note: “Three Persons, three bodies” riffs on 三位一体, the Chinese term for the Christian Trinity, usually explained as three Persons sharing one divine essence or being. The source swaps “one” for “three,” turning unity into an ominous image of division.
He repeated the words in a low voice.