Bai Yi met Spades' questioning gaze. He opened his mouth to answer—but at that moment, he couldn't force out a single word.
The definitions of friends, family, and lovers were actually simple. Yet for some reason, Bai Yi felt that giving those answers to Spades would be… cruel.
Even though Spades himself didn't seem to care.
When Bai Yi failed to respond, Spades withdrew his gaze.
"Friends, family, lovers… they're like reality," he said calmly. "You can't clearly explain what makes them important."
"Then there's no need to tell me." He nudged the whip resting against his leg with his knee and lowered his eyes. "It doesn't matter."
Bai Yi fell silent for a long time before forcing an awkward smile. "…That's true. To Spades, none of this should matter."
"Just like [reality], these things are probably just gentle shelters where weak people like us go to escape."
He muttered the words absentmindedly.
After that, Spades never again asked anyone about reality. He returned to playing games alone, just as he always had.
The members of Killer Sequence also reached a silent consensus—not to tell Spades anything about reality.
Spades disliked living in the central hall. He usually slept inside game instances. If he found a dungeon he particularly liked, he would return to it repeatedly to rest.
For a long time, he slept in "Ice Age."
Bai Yi had once exclaimed in disbelief, "You actually like sleeping there? Aren't you cold in such low temperatures?"
Spades had answered calmly that he didn't feel cold.
"Why?!" Bai Yi had cried. "Wouldn't it be better to choose somewhere warmer?"
Spades glanced at him. "My body temperature is very low. I can't warm up no matter where I sleep. It's all the same."
And so Bai Yi had fallen silent again, watching blankly as Spades walked away with his whip to sleep in "Ice Age."
Deep down, Bai Yi knew that the sympathy he occasionally felt toward Spades was unnecessary.
Spades didn't care about the judgments of ordinary human players like them. They weren't even the same kind of being. Their ways of viewing the world—and the future—were fundamentally different.
If anything, Spades was more like a monster that had accidentally escaped from a game and wandered into the ranks of players.
It was foolish to judge him from a human perspective.
And yet—
Sometimes, when Bai Yi caught a glimpse of something faintly human in Spades, something subtle and almost tender, he couldn't help but feel a trace of sadness.
—It's a shame. If Spades can sometimes act like a human, why can't he enter reality?
But he knew that sadness was unnecessary.
Because keeping Spades out of reality was the unanimous decision of all players who belonged to it.
At first, Bai Yi hadn't understood why the Reverse God strictly forbade anyone from giving Spades a code. Later, he did.
One day, Bai Yi approached the lounge. The door was half-closed. Just as he was about to push it open, he heard Spades' voice from inside.
"Reverse God, are you the one forbidding everyone from giving me the code to reality?"
Bai Yi's hand froze on the door.
After a pause, the Reverse God replied, "Yes. I forbade it. Why? Do you want to go to reality?"
"No." Spades paused. "But why can't I?"
The Reverse God smiled faintly. Through the crack in the door, Bai Yi could see him leaning back on the sofa, head tilted toward the ceiling as if thinking deeply.
"Spades, it's not that you can't go to reality. You can."
"But not now."
"Why?"
"Because when [reality] holds no meaning for you, it's just another game instance. You would look at [reality] with the eyes of someone looking at a dungeon."
"If one day [reality] stops being meaningful to you as a game—or if it makes you unhappy—you would destroy it without hesitation. And you have the ability to do so."
He lowered his head and looked at Spades evenly.
"The fundamental reason is this: [reality] isn't important to you."
"If that's the case, you would become a monster inside this [reality] instance. You would destroy the [reality] that others are desperately trying to protect."
Spades lifted his gaze. "Isn't [reality] just a game instance?"
The Reverse God stroked his chin thoughtfully. "You could say that."
"Then destroying a game instance is something players often do," Spades continued calmly. "The players I've met hate all instances. They're terrified of them. They collapse and scream about destroying them completely."
"Why would they protect the [reality] instance?"
He looked directly at the Reverse God.
"Is it because they like the [reality] dungeon?"
"No." The Reverse God chuckled softly. "On the contrary, many players who enter this system hate [reality]."
"There's usually something in reality that makes them deeply unhappy—something that stimulates their desires so strongly that they enter the game. For many of them, the horror of reality is no less than the horror of any dungeon here."
Spades stared at him. "Then why protect it? Shouldn't they try to destroy it instead?"
The Reverse God smiled. "It's hard to understand, isn't it?"
Spades gave a faint hum of agreement.
"What they want to protect isn't the [reality] instance itself," the Reverse God said. "It's certain people inside it."
"So no matter how ugly, terrifying, or oppressive that [reality] instance is—no matter how much it forces them to suffer—they'll still protect it for those people."
"Spades, humans—the players you see—are creatures like that."
"People instinctively seek their sense of existence, their emotions, their value, in other people. The desire born from that pursuit is often more tenacious than any desire born from themselves."
"If someone lives only for personal gain, they become a slave to their own desires. The game will quickly drive such a person insane. Humans are social creatures. They can't completely satisfy their emotional and spiritual needs alone. They must rely on others."
"You've seen many players who entered the game only for themselves—and died quickly."
"Most high-level players aren't playing for themselves," he concluded. "They're playing for someone—or for some very important people—in [reality]."
He rested his chin on his hand and smiled at Spades.
"But for you right now, that's probably still hard to understand. Just listen."
"If you want to enter reality, then reality must hold irreplaceable meaning for you."
He reached out and patted Spades on the shoulder.
"When there's someone in reality who becomes very important to you—someone for whom you would endure reality's cruelty without destroying it—then you can enter."
Spades remained silent for a long time.
When the Reverse God stood up to leave, Spades suddenly spoke again.
"Those very important people… are they friends, family, lovers?"
Outside the door, Bai Yi stiffened.
Inside, the Reverse God paused as well.
He sat back down with a faint smile. "Did Bai Yi tell you that?"
Spades nodded slightly. "He mentioned the words. But he didn't explain them."
"In a broad sense," the Reverse God said, "family are those related to you by blood. Friends are people who care about you, help you, and stay by your side. As for lovers—"
He coughed awkwardly, his face flushing faintly.
"Lovers… Even though I already have a wife, it's difficult to explain clearly."
Spades narrowed his eyes. "Is love complicated?"
"It's not complicated," the Reverse God admitted, scratching the back of his head. "I fell in love with my wife at first sight."
"But it's also complicated." He sighed. "I've been her boyfriend many times. She treated every boyfriend well. Each one was a good person. But somehow, we could never reach the end."
"Before our wedding, I was so anxious I couldn't sleep for days." He clasped his hands together in mock prayer. "Thank God we finally married smoothly."
Outside the door, Bai Yi sucked in a sharp breath.
—Even someone as intelligent as the Reverse God worries about marriage?
He had always thought only fools like himself worried about that sort of thing.
"You have an intelligence score of 96," Spades observed. "You can predict the future. If you truly wanted to know how your marriage would end, you could find a way."
The Reverse God slowly straightened. He rested his hands on his knees and lowered his head. After a long silence, he said quietly,
"…I can't predict her."
Spades looked at him. "Your ability has no limit. Why not?"
"Because I'm afraid."
The Reverse God raised his head and met his gaze.
"I can predict the futures of my friends and family. But I can't do it for her."
"What are you afraid of?"
He paused before answering.
"Among all human relationships, love is the most uncertain. You can anticipate your friendships to some degree. Family ties are often predetermined. But love… love is unpredictable."
"Before I met her, no matter how intelligent I was, I couldn't have predicted who I would fall in love with or how it would unfold."
"Romance is filled with unknowns."
"You don't know who you'll love. You don't know whether they'll love you back. You don't know how long it will last." His voice softened. "I don't know how far we'll go. So while I still love her, I'm afraid to look at a future without her."
"I won't make predictions about my lover."
He leaned back into the sofa.
"As for what a lover is…"
"A lover is probably the one who makes me afraid of a future without her."
Spades fell silent for a while, as if carefully processing the words.
Finally, he gave a calm, serious evaluation.
"…It's difficult to understand."
The Reverse God put his hands behind his head, turned to look at Spades, and laughed. "Indeed, for Spades, whether it is friends, relatives, or lovers, it is difficult to understand."
"Your birth is different from that of normal humans. You don't have any relatives with whom you share a natural blood relationship. As for friends…"
"All the players around you are afraid of you, Spades, let alone being your friend." The Reverse God sighed. "Although we teammates know your background, we can't empathize with you. The best we can do is not be afraid of you."
"It's hard for us ordinary humans living in [reality] to understand your thoughts, and it's hard for you to understand ours."
"If friends can't understand each other, there's no point in the relationship."
The Reverse God glanced at Bai Yi outside the door with an indifferent expression. "It is very disrespectful to make friends with someone based on superficial sympathy, especially when the other party doesn't need it."
Bai Yi's fingers curled slightly on the door before he slowly lowered his hand.
"Lovers…" The Reverse God sighed. "I really can't understand this type of relationship. I'm still troubled myself and can't give you more of an explanation."
Spades was silent for a while before asking, "If I have [relatives, friends, or a lover], will you give me the code to enter reality?"
"I won't give it to you." The Reverse God looked at Spades and smiled. "But at that time, Spades, your [friends, relatives, and lovers] will give you the code."
Spades said "oh" and nodded as if he had received his answer. Then he stood up and left.
When Spades pushed open the door, he saw Bai Yi standing outside. Bai Yi smiled and greeted him. Spades nodded to acknowledge him, then left without saying anything.
Bai Yi remained silent and walked into the lounge.
He sat down on the sofa. The smile on his face quickly faded. After sitting in silence for a while, he took out a box of cigarettes, placed one in his mouth, then handed the box to the Reverse God opposite him.
"I apologize," Bai Yi said after a pause. "Reverse God, I was wrong. I didn't think it through. I will never again consider secretly giving Spades the code to reality."
The Reverse God lifted his eyelids and extended his index and middle fingers to take a cigarette from the box. He took it out and lit it.
Then he spoke slowly. "Don't help someone you deeply fear just because of momentary sympathy, and naively think of becoming friends with him."
He exhaled a puff of smoke. The white mist drifted along the side of his face.
The Reverse God turned and smiled. "It's easy to get punished, Bai Yi."
From that time on, Bai Yi vaguely understood why the Reverse God did not allow anyone to encode Spades into reality.
But Bai Jiamu didn't understand. He asked the Reverse God several times why he couldn't give Spades the code.
"Spades is an idiot! He won't do anything to destroy reality! So what if we give it to him? At least let this guy sleep in a normal, warm bed for once!" Bai Jiamu yelled.
The Reverse God always laughed it off when dealing with the younger Bai Jiamu. "I can give it to him, but not now—and not by you."
"Wrong time!" The Reverse God would always say in a teasing tone.
It wasn't until this moment—when the Reverse God was covered in blood and Spades lay on the ground, bruised all over—that Bai Yi suddenly realized the truth.
When a monster has the power to destroy [reality], it will never be allowed to enter this copy of [reality] until it has a weakness.
Although this is unfair to the monsters.
Bai Yi glanced at Spades, who was lying face down in a pool of blood, then withdrew his gaze and was pulled out of the meeting room by Bai Jiamu.
The Reverse God lay motionless on the sofa. After a while, the conference room door opened again, and Liao Ke walked in carrying a cross-shaped medical kit.
Liao Ke was a team member with a very low sense of presence. His appearance did not match the name Killer Sequence at all. He looked gentle, with long, thin eyebrows and a pair of plain reading glasses. Fine lines lingered at the corners of his eyes, yet at a glance, he appeared to be only twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old—certainly under thirty.
But in fact, his second child was already in high school.
Liao Ke looked young and didn't appear old at all, but he was actually forty-eight this year, and his eldest son had graduated from university more than a year ago.
"Oh, Liao Ke, you're here." The Reverse God rubbed his shoulders and chatted casually. "Is your little daughter going to be a senior in high school next year?"
"I'm surprised you still remember." Liao Ke teased. Then he half-knelt beside Spades, turned him over, and secured him with restraint belts.
The Reverse God squatted down to help.
Liao Ke tied Spades' hands and feet to the wall with restraints, then bandaged his wounds. He looked up at the Reverse God and smiled. "My daughter finds studying hard, but she has something she wants to do. It's good to work hard for what she wants."
The Reverse God smiled as well. "It's great to find what you want to do at such a young age."
Liao Ke glanced at him. "You're the same, aren't you? You entered the game at a young age for what you wanted to do."
The Reverse God was silent for a few seconds before smiling as if nothing had happened. "Let's not talk about that. I asked you to come today to give Spades psychological counseling."
"It is indeed a harmless skill that can be used directly in the central hall." Liao Ke half-knelt in front of Spades, who was suspended by the restraints, wearing a strange expression. "But this is the first time I've used this skill on him. Are you sure he won't wake up halfway through and beat me up?"
The Reverse God sat cross-legged beside him. "He can't beat you anymore. I broke his whip."
Liao Ke smiled. "That's reassuring."
His eyes darkened. He looked directly at Spades, whose head hung limply before him, and pulled out a stethoscope, a pen, and a notebook.
[System Alert: Player Liao Ke uses personal skills (Medical Consultation) and (Medical Record Writing) on player Spades.]
The stethoscope extended into the air, its head resting against Spades' heart while the earpieces floated nearby, broadcasting the steady rhythm of his heartbeat like an amplified speaker.
Liao Ke wrote on the paper: "Patient Spades, what are your main psychological symptoms? How long has this situation lasted?"
"Answer me with your heart."
The heartbeat within the stethoscope grew irregular, shifting from a steady thump to crackling interference—then gradually transforming into Spades' own voice.
Spades' voice came calmly through the earpiece. "I felt happy and sad. It lasted for one game."
Liao Ke nodded. "Why are you happy, and why are you sad?"
"I'm happy because I met Bai Liu, and I'm sad because I met Bai Liu," the stethoscope replied.
"Do your happiness and sadness always coexist, or are you sometimes happy and sometimes sad?" Liao Ke asked.
The stethoscope was silent for a moment. "Sometimes I am happy. Sometimes I am sad. Sometimes they exist at the same time."
Liao Ke continued writing, the pen scratching softly against the paper. "Can you give me examples of situations where you feel happiness, sadness, or both at once?"
"I was happy when I slept beside Bai Liu. His body was warm. I was happy when I drank with Bai Liu—I had never drunk before. I was happy when I married Bai Liu. He hugged me…" The stethoscope suddenly fell silent. "It's hard for me to list the sad moments."
Liao Ke's pen paused. "Why?"
"Because I don't actually feel very sad, but I do feel very sad," the stethoscope said.
Liao Ke asked, "If you don't consciously feel sad in those moments, yet you are indeed sad, then that sadness may come from someone else. Who is that person?"
"Bai Liu," the stethoscope answered smoothly this time. "He is very sad, but I don't understand why."
Liao Ke asked softly, "Under what circumstances would Bai Liu be so sad that you would also feel sad?"
"When he hugged me," the stethoscope replied. "When he dug out my heart. When he married me. When he said goodbye to me. When he performed an evil ritual to fight me…"
The stethoscope was silent for a long time.
"He seems to be sad all the time."