From Prisoner to Si Chen..

Chapter 555: Sleeping Master
"Huh?" Clark frowned, a little confused, wondering what this strange man in strange clothes meant.

Moreover, because this guy's behavior of slaughtering villagers and sucking the blood of young girls was too brutal and horrific, Clark did not trust him.

Fortunately, all this was just a game, so Clark asked curiously:

"Why do you say that?"

"Boy, you are so stupid, it's God's blessing that you can grow up this big."

The Taoist swung his iron sword.

With a clang, blood splattered everywhere.

He slowly sheathed his sword, a mocking look on his face, and said:
"There are no living people in this 'Wangjia Village'. The whole village is full of tiger minions, and that Muramasa is a tiger demon who has cultivated for a hundred years!"

"Why do you think the so-called village foot doctor took you in? It was just to treat you as a living blood food and offer you to the village as a proper feast."

"?!"

Hearing this, Clark was stunned.

At this time, the subtitles appeared again:
"The mysterious Taoist priest explained the truth about 'Wangjia Village' to you. Do you choose to believe him? There are three choices below, all of which will affect subsequent developments:
1. Believe.

Second, don’t believe it.

Three, be skeptical. "

Clark looked at the options in the subtitles and couldn't help but frown, as if the third option was too vague and a bit deceptive.

So, after a little thought, he chose the first option again.

"I see. Thank you for reminding me, sir. Otherwise, I would have known nothing about this and would have lost my life without knowing it."

Clark bowed to the Taoist priest.

The Taoist smiled, but the blood stains on his face made his smile look quite hideous:
"Oh, seeing that you are all alone, if I leave you alone, I'm afraid you won't be able to leave this 'Wangjia Village', and you will be killed by the villains here halfway..."

As he spoke, he nodded and raised his hand to stroke his long beard.

"How about this, you kowtow a few times, and I'll accept you as my registered disciple... After I clean up this 'Wangjia Village', you can follow me back to 'Bai'e Temple' to practice, how do you think?"

"The Taoist priest wants to take you in as his disciple. There are three choices below, all of which will affect subsequent developments:
1. He readily agreed and kowtowed to become his disciple.

2. Refuse politely and leave immediately.

Third, act crazy and stupid to see how things change. "

Seeing this, Clark fell into deep thought.

In fact, he was disgusted to have this bloody and violent weirdo as his teacher, so he chose the second one.

"I'm sorry, sir. I just want to go home now."

Clark said apologetically.

Hearing this, the Taoist chuckled and shook his head:

"If that's the case, I won't force it."

Clark bowed silently again, then slowly backed away with his stick in hand. The Taoist priest still stood there, looking at him with a half-smile.

After walking dozens of meters away, Clark turned around and planned to look somewhere else.

But the next second.

Clang——

A cold light flashed, and Clark's head flew up, followed by a handful of blood, and landed on the ground.

Gillan saw it clearly.

The Taoist priest suddenly drew his sword, dodged across a distance of dozens of meters, and killed Clark.

The other person stood in front of Clark's body, holding an iron sword in one hand, with a cold expression on his face, and a look of displeasure as he looked down at him.

"No one has ever dared to refuse me."

wow——

Above Clark's body, a subtitle appeared:
"You are dead."

Immediately, the vision in the game world was distorted, and Clark's body in reality shook and he came back to his senses.

Black and white light flickered on his body, apparently offsetting the punishment of death.

Clark dropped the controller and quickly touched his neck, his face full of lingering fear. The feeling of being beheaded just now was so real that he almost thought he was really dead.

He looked up again.

On the TV screen, a line of white subtitles reading "You are dead" was displayed on the black screen.

“Is this a real game?”

Clarke said with emotion.

"Amazing……"

He thought for a moment, then pressed the red button on the game console again, choosing to start over.

Gillan continued to watch the whole process.

This time, Clark did not change his choices in the early stages of the game and continued to progress as before, but when it came to whether to become a disciple, he decisively admitted his mistake and bowed down.

The Taoist priest did not kill him again.

Instead, he took Clark and sneaked deep into Wangjia Village, slaughtering every household...

Just as the Taoist said, these villagers were not living people. After their death, their bodies would quickly turn into translucent shadows and disappear in a hideous manner.

But Clark soon discovered that the golden finger "Bilan" in his possession could imprint the bodies of those tiger minions and turn them into mysterious points.

This discovery made him overjoyed.

"Playing games can accumulate points and improve your strength!"

Clark murmured, becoming more motivated.

Then, he followed the Taoist "Master" all the way to pick up bargains and accumulated a large number of points.

But when the night ended and the day dawned, the two of them encountered a hunched-backed old man with a white beard at the entrance of the village. Through the conversation between the Taoist priest and him, it was known that this man was the village chief of "Wangjia Village", named Wang Chuan.

The whole village was massacred, which made the old man Wang Chuan very angry.

He roared and turned into a two-meter-tall, four or five-meter-long black-spotted, yellow-skinned ferocious tiger with hanging eyes. He fought with the Taoist priest.

But after dozens of moves, the Taoist was suppressed by the demon tiger, and even the long sword in his hand that could cut through iron like mud was bitten off in one bite.

There was another loud bang.

The Taoist priest was hit by the tiger's tail, his chest collapsed, blood spurted out of his mouth, and he flew backwards.

As soon as he landed, he turned over like a kite, covered his chest and ran away without saying a word, not forgetting to shout a loud "warning":
"My dear disciple, this tiger monster is very powerful. Run for your life and don't worry about me!"

Originally, the demon tiger was about to chase the Taoist priest, but after hearing his shout, it immediately turned around and rushed towards Clark.

Clark, who was confused, had no chance to run away before the demon tiger bit off his upper body and he died on the spot.

"You are dead."

Familiar subtitles appear.

Clark's consciousness returned to his body again.

Black and white light flickered on his body, offsetting the penalty of death, but his face showed a gnashing of teeth.

"Damn 'Taoist priest'!"

Clark didn't believe it, so he pressed the red button again, and started a new round of the game...

time flies.

The film undergoes several transitions.

Every few days Clark would spend points to take a "secret history journey" to come to the room in this modern world and play the real game.

He called this place "Secret History A".

It took about a month for Clark to finally complete the game "Wangjiacun #1".

During the game, he accumulated a lot of mysterious points to improve his strength. Finally, when he met the Taoist priest, he killed him directly.

This unlocks the "Hidden Platinum Achievement: First Kill".

This achievement has a physical badge, which popped out from the side of the game console with some incomprehensible force after Clark completed the game. After that, Clark also completed another game, "Iros Cube".

This game requires you to dodge giant stone blocks falling from high altitudes, and at the same time, jump on the stacked stone blocks, climb to the highest point and get the trophy.

Clark relied on the strength of a Level 3 Spirit Mystic to clear the level in one go and once again obtained the "Hidden Achievement Badge. Is he really a genius?"

After getting the two badges, he decided to leave the empty room and go into the outside world.

Over the next six months, Clark continued to collect game cartridges and play games in this secret history.

For him, this is a great opportunity to accumulate points and improve his strength, so he works very hard... and this world is full of all kinds of new and novel things, which opened the eyes of Clark and Gillan who was watching from his perspective.

Gillan witnessed Clark hunting vampires in "The Castle", and also saw him and other players avoiding the pursuit of the dragon in "The Candle Dragon", and the sequel to "Wangjia Village #1" "Doll Mountain Villa #2" and so on...

Until one day.

Clark collected ten hidden achievement badges...

That day, he fell asleep standing there without any warning, holding ten badges of strange materials in his hands.

Gillan's perspective also follows Clark into the dream.

Clark entered the land of gods in this secret history. In the "Temple" area, in an endless desert, under the dark red and brilliant starry sky, he met the "Lord of Sleep" of February sitting on the high throne.

It was a young man in a red suit and a top hat, and he looked exactly like Gillan.

But the temperament is completely different.

"Meizhu" appears to be very gentle and elegant.

"Clark Ashton Smith..."

The "Lord of the Night" sat on the throne, looking down at the young man, and spoke softly.

He smiled slightly and said:

"We meet again."

"Again?" Clark was very surprised, and at the same time he was quite awed by the majestic being before him. He lowered his head and asked in confusion, "It seems like we have never met before."

"Well, you could say that."

"Master Mei" laughed.

"But I and you of this world have seen Him and have killed Him..."

"The me in this world?!"

Clark looked dazed.

"Since you have come here through Pilan's 'Secret History Tour', you must know that there are multiple secret histories in this world. They are colorful and have completely different development trajectories."

The gentle voice of "Master Mei" came.

"And in this secret history, you competed with me for the position of February Sichen, but failed..."

"?!"

Clark stood there in a daze, at a loss as to what to do.

The "Master of Sleep" shook his head and said comfortingly:

"Don't be afraid. I have no ill will towards you. On the contrary, I will help you."

"Help me?" Clark was skeptical. "According to what you said, aren't we enemies? Why would you help me?"

The "Muizhu" was silent.

There was silence for a long time.

"In fact, after I became a god, I discovered a fact. You and I are both chess pieces... There is no point in fighting for the position of Si Chen. This is a trap, because once you become a god, there will be no chance of turning the tables."

"Sir, I don't understand."

Clark frowned.

The "Master of Mei" smiled and said:

"It doesn't matter if you don't understand now, you will understand later."

He raised his hand to adjust the brim of his hat.

"Before I met you, I had helped fourteen different secret history Clarks, but they all failed, and you are the fifteenth."

"Um?!"

Clark was once again shocked by the other party's words.

The "Master of Sleep" said again:
"The game cartridges I left in the mortal world were actually prepared for you. This will allow you to improve your strength and grow faster... After you return to your own secret history, I hope you can follow my method and help me in that secret history."

As He said this, He sighed.

"Only by helping each other can we escape the fate of killing each other and find a way to survive."

"You and I are both lost in the myriad secret histories, but if we succeed once, we can break this deadlock."

"What dead end?"

Clark asked solemnly.

Gilan stood aside, listening to the conversation between the two, his face full of shock. He was extremely surprised by this secret history of himself, the "Master of Sleep".

At the same time, I also understood why the “director” valued himself so much and used real film as a medium to guide himself.

It turns out that all this comes from "myself"!
"Dead end?"

Gillan was also quite confused.

'What kind of dead end would make the "Sleeping Master" plan for so long, trying to help Clark, who came from other secret histories, to use him to influence the selves of other secret histories?'

"I have no hope left in this secret history."

"Master Mei" laughed.

"But you may be able to do it. You and I in the rest of the secret history are also able to do it. Remember, you must not ascend to the Sichen in a normal way, otherwise... I'm sorry I can't explain it too clearly, otherwise 'they' will find out."

Clark was confused by the other party's words.

He totally didn't understand.

Just as Gillan was listening attentively to the words of the "Master of Sleep", the entire film suddenly got stuck strangely and skipped this part.

It was as if some kind of force was forcibly erasing the words spoken by the "Master of Sleep" and not allowing them to be spread.

When Gillan came to his senses again.

He found himself in a dark starry universe.

The dead silent universe is filled with only the twinkling starlight coming from who knows how many light years away.

Gillan looked up.

Not far ahead, there was a chair floating.

Sitting on it was a man wearing a space suit and an astronaut helmet. He was the "director" Clark who had already ascended.

In front of Him is an enormous "camera", but from a certain angle, it looks more like an astronomical telescope.

Connected to a retro square-headed TV.

"My friend, you are here."

A muffled voice came from the astronaut sitting in the chair.

Although he was in the universe, his voice was transmitted directly into Gilan's mind through some power.

He waved to Gilan.

"Come, I'll show you something to answer your confusion."

Gilan took a deep breath and flew towards the other party.

When I got closer, I heard the "director" say:

"Everything you see is just the past that I recorded on film, but I know that the only one who can come here is you, Gillan Iros."

"This is the most powerful 'camera' I have ever used. I named it 'Ode to Yavre', which comes from a novel I wrote when I was young."

"And it can span time and space and capture images from 138 billion years ago..."

(End of this chapter)