The helicopter stumbled over the long white snowfields, forced to make two emergency landings mid-flight due to gusty winds.
By the time Tang Erda's group reached the Edmond Observatory, it was almost early morning on the third day.
The helicopter touched down a few kilometers from the observatory.
From a distance, the Edmond Observatory seemed buried under a thick blanket of snow, but oddly, the entrance had been cleared, revealing an open space and a half-open door.
Tang Erda's instincts kicked in immediately. "Someone's in there."
"Shit!" Mu Sicheng rubbed his arms, grimacing. "It's not one of our clone groups still inside, is it?"
Bai Liu crouched in front of the basement flap near the helicopter hangar. A pungent smell of cold ash and corrosive acid poured from the opening.
The snow around the flap had been cleared, the door wide open. The two barrels of petrol Bai Liu had left were gone. Inside, the basement was dark and thick with heat.
From Bai Liu's perspective, the walls were streaked with soot from incomplete burning, and liquid mixed with snow ran down the steps—this had happened recently, too fresh to freeze.
Liu Jiayi crouched beside him, frowning. "Looks like after we left, the clones burned the basement monsters and poured strong acid over them."
Her eyes swept the liquid on the floor. "But I cleared Edmond Observatory's acid supplies with Mu Ke before we left. Where did all this come from?"
Strong acid was scarce even at research stations, and she had meticulously rationed it. Yet here, someone had poured it freely, corroding the walls and steps without care.
Bai Liu's gaze landed on the slowly freezing acid. "Only one possibility."
Liu Jiayi's eyes widened. "Someone who's played this game brought it themselves… Spades was here?!"
From the first floor, Mu Sicheng shouted, "Shit! What the hell is going on?!"
Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi exchanged a look, drew their weapons, and headed for the door.
On the first floor, Liu Jiayi led, gun raised. "What's wrong?"
Mu Sicheng turned, his face pale, his hand trembling as he pointed toward the dining room. "…You guys… see for yourselves…"
Bai Liu stepped closer, glanced behind him, and raised an eyebrow.
The dining room had been violently cleared: tables and benches piled in corners, leaving a large open space. At its center was a square-shaped hole punched through the floor.
Around the hole's edge were bloody handprints, evidence of people clawing to escape.
Below, on the ground floor, a huge glass tank once filled with water now held thick, viscous acid, gurgling and bubbling with chemical reaction. Inside were charred, carbonized corpses, writhing as the acid ate them.
The worst part—the faces. The corpses bore the features of Bai Liu, Mu Sicheng, Tang Erda, Liu Jiayi, and Mu Ke.
Even knowing they were monsters, not people, the sight was horrifying.
Mu Sicheng stepped back, voice raspy. "Someone killed all the monsters that turned into us at Edmond Station… and fast."
Tang Erda crouched at the hole's edge, touching the bloodstains. "The blood isn't even clotted yet."
Bai Liu's gaze swept the pool, landing on Mu Ke. "I thought these monsters had abilities?"
"They did," Mu Ke stammered, pupils constricted. "We confronted them before leaving… almost got taken hostage. But they're immature—only about half as strong as us."
Liu Jiayi exhaled slowly, eyes cold. "But there's more than one 'us' here. He took a group with similar abilities, subdued them quickly, smashed the floor, and dumped them into this acid pool."
Her face darkened. "Spades' ability… he's stronger than last year. Even as a group, we can't beat him. What now?"
Bai Liu knelt briefly, staring at the bubbling remains below. When the corpses had dissolved into debris, he stood, turning to the others.
"Search the entire observatory. Find out why Spades is here."
Half an hour later, the group gathered again on the ground floor.
Mu Ke, who specialized in memorizing and analyzing maps, reported first.
"A lot of places were searched, supposedly for something, but the searches were brief. It doesn't seem like they were looking for text-based information or small objects."
"Spades hasn't been found to have taken anything so far, so whatever he's looking for probably hasn't been discovered yet."
"He didn't touch the rifles and bullets scattered on the fourth floor either," Tang Erda added. "The situation is the same as when we left."
Bai Liu sat at the table, pulling out a sheet of paper to summarize the information. Calmly, he concluded, "One thing is certain: Spades repeatedly enters the game in search of an object, most likely tied to the main game line."
"Spades and I logged in together at the Edmond Observatory initially. But instead of searching for it then, he left. That tells us he didn't think Edmond Observatory had what he wanted."
Bai Liu paused, pen hovering over the paper. "But now he's back."
Liu Jiayi realized why. "He didn't find it outside either, so he returned here, stumbled across the replicas we left, killed them, searched again, still didn't find it, and left."
Bai Liu's eyes narrowed slightly, pen moving thoughtfully. "The question now is: what exactly is Spades searching for?"
"The main quest is about global warming," Mu Ke mused. "He's probably looking for something tied to that. Could the level's final boss be Edmond? By game design, defeating him would unlock the [normal end]."
"I don't think so. With Spades' ability, he would have reached [normal end] long ago," Bai Liu countered.
The pen paused twice before he wrote the word [corpse].
"I think Spades is after a particle weather device made from a [corpse], aiming for the [true end] to stop global cooling at its root."
"In Edmond's style, he likely placed these particle weather devices at the six hundred sites where the Antarctic impacts global climate."
Mu Ke frowned. "But those locations are on the map. He could find them without coming here. There aren't any particle devices at Edmond Observatory."
Bai Liu jotted down [600], [Experimental Sample Preservation], and added a question mark.
Looking at Mu Ke, he explained, "Spades isn't after body parts within the six hundred devices. He's looking elsewhere."
Mu Ke repeated softly, "The corpse outside the six hundred devices…"
His eyes widened as realization struck. "The body part Edmond hasn't experimented on yet?"
"Exactly," Bai Liu confirmed. "Edmond keeps some samples aside. That's what Spades wants."
"Check the lab reports—what remains untouched from Edmond's preliminary collection?"
Mu Ke skimmed the records, fingertips brushing the obscure entries. Finally, he found it.
"Found it!" he said, excitement creeping into his voice. "Edmond collected three parts early on: the left hand, hind ankle, and a whole heart with preserved vessels. There are records for experiments on the hand and ankle, but nothing on the heart. He must have kept it as a reserve."
Bai Liu put on his gloves and hat, pushing the door open. "This heart is what Spades is after. It's the key to the [true end]. Let's move."
The wind and snow swept across Bai Liu's dark, deep eyes, carrying his calm voice away into the dusk.
"We must beat Spades by finding this heart before he destroys it."
On the coast, ice and snow blanketed the ground, brown soil peeking through. A cabin stood there, old and weathered.
Peeling paint on the door frame and floor rails left leprous stains. The roof rested on rickety, decayed walls, held by horizontal planks.
A sign above the entrance read [Scott's Cottage], with [Built in 1912] below it.
This century-old cabin glowed warmly, as if someone were resting inside.
A fire burned under the mantel, casting light on an old man squinting on a wooden bench. He wore faded gold-rimmed glasses and hummed off-key, feet tapping, body hunched as if burdened by decades of hardship. Shadows danced across his pale, wrinkled face.
From the darkness, Spades emerged, standing at the edge of the firelight. His long whip in hand, hair and eyelashes dusted with snow.
Spades' voice was clear and slow. "Edmond."
The old man opened one eye, a mix of helplessness and amusement in his gaze. "You again, young man. You enjoy coming to my place."
"You've killed me many times. For that heart you can never find?"
"Is it that important to you?"
Spades replied only to the first question. "You shouldn't remember that I killed you."
Edmond removed his glasses, smiling softly. "I'm just an NPC. Each time you leave, the dungeon resets, and I should forget everything. But maybe I've lived too long, done too many cruel things, and God won't forgive me—I remember everything, including you killing me. You're the most frequent player here. I almost want to be friends with you."
He glanced at Spades' dripping whip. "It would be nice if you didn't choke me immediately. I'd prefer burning if I could choose my death."
Spades nodded. "Yes."
Edmond laughed. "Son, you really can't understand jokes, can you? Your teammates must have headaches with you. That guy called [The Judge of Defying Gods] poured out his troubles to me—an NPC—saying he didn't know what to do with you. Funny and troubling to have a friend like you."
Spades ignored the labels, speaking straightforwardly. "Are you still not telling me where the heart is?"
Edmond's eyes reflected the firelight, pale blue and icy, as clear as snow under Antarctic ice.
"I can't, my boy," he said, gaze distant. "You can kill me again, but I will never tell you where the heart is. That is my original sin. Only God knows."
Spades pursed his lips, displeased. A faint tension rippled as his fingers clasped the whip, revealing the shallow trace of frustration.
Edmond looked at Spades with a familiar, knowing smile. "You found all six hundred of my particle devices this time, too. I rarely see a player locate all of them without freezing to death—you're impressive."
"But one device is ineffective," Spades said, meeting Edmond's gaze. "The device under Ice Dome A isn't filled with corpse particles. I can't gather all six hundred."
"You've already won this game, haven't you?" Edmond shook his head seriously, raising a finger for emphasis. "Your friend, The Judge of Defying Gods, tells me you only care about winning or losing. You have what you want—so why not leave my secret as a secret forever?"
Edmond's smile lingered, a flicker of dusky campfire light glinting in his icy blue eyes. "Why are you so attached to a heart that isn't yours? It's not romantic."
Spades paused. Even he didn't fully know the answer.
"Intuition," he said finally. "I have to destroy the heart… and all the body parts."
His eyes lifted. "Every man has his predetermined destiny. This heart's fate is linked to me—it should be destroyed by me. Neither it nor I should exist in this world."
Edmond's smile faded. "You're self-destructing, son…"
"Hmm," Spades replied calmly. "What was the original sin you tried to hide?"
Edmond's face darkened. The easy, friendly attitude was gone, replaced by the weight of age. He pressed a hand to his forehead with a long sigh, revealing the fatigue in every movement.
"My original sin," he said slowly, "was the one thing I never realized I should repent for."
"I resented those who persecuted me, hated students who betrayed me, and pitied friends I yearned for." He drew a deep breath, exhaling like smoke, eyes lost in the fire at his feet. "I have done nothing right to repent… yet one thing made me realize the full measure of my ugliness."
His hands trembled on the chair. Eyes closed, tears slid down his furrowed face. Voice hoarse: "—those are the body parts."
"That's not a corpse. That's the dismembered limb of a living being, conscious, feeling, aware of the ugly things I've done."
He opened his eyes; clear eyes now clouded. "—and I didn't understand what I had done until I saw the heart still beating."
"I'm killing a living person."
Edmond turned toward Spades, suddenly aged beyond measure.
"The plot you speak of may be my destiny. I am drawn by fate, by threads of unseen gods, toward self-destruction—a hellish cycle entertaining others who come and go. I thought I could escape it."
"But after escaping, I discovered only a larger cycle awaited. Humans, driven by uncontrolled desires, are always drawn to self-destruction. This is fate the gods imposed—they wanted to see it."
Tears shook Edmond's eyes. "All of us deserve punishment for life's cruelty. But the undue punishment I inflicted out of anger? It was merely a piece of their design. Everything I do… is just a game."
Spades looked at him blankly. "But this time, you can choose how you die."
"I will burn you as you wish. It will be no game, neither to you nor to me."
Edmond smiled through his tears. "I know. It's… the victory you seek and the fate I seek."
The other end.
Bai Liu crouched in a helicopter, scanning one of the six hundred locations on the map. Three points had already been passed—none satisfactory.
Buoys on the surface had been destroyed; the apparatus remained at the shore's edge, metal boxes dropped carelessly, their particles destroyed. Ground devices released via weather balloons were punctured and buried in snow.
The further they went, the worse it became. At the hollowed-out device near Ice Dome A, Bai Liu gave the abort order.
"All six hundred devices have likely been searched by Spades. Edmond didn't hide the heart here."
"And where then?" Mu Ke shouted over the gale. "Six hundred locations—Ice Dome A, the South Pole, Tarzan Station, Scott's hut. Where else could he hide it?"
"Yes," Bai Liu said, turning to him. "Remember the main quest of this dungeon?"
Mu Ke nodded: "Global warming."
"If global cooling is Edmond's punishment for mankind when desires spiral out of control, global warming is his opportunity for transformation," Bai Liu said, breath frosting in the air.
Tang Erda steered the helicopter to a new landing site.
Bai Liu stepped onto an untouched snowfield—no footprints, no devices, no signs of prior visitors. It was isolated, far from observatories, with no name or geographical marker.
Mu Ke jogged after him, breathing heavily. "Bai Liu… do you think this is where Edmond hid the heart?"
He almost asked why, but with his blind faith in Bai Liu, he held back.
Mu Sicheng, however, spoke up, puzzled. "Why here? I haven't seen this place in Edmond's faxes or lab reports."
Bai Liu put on anti-friction gloves, helping Tang Erda carry ice-excavation equipment.
Mu Sicheng stepped forward. Bai Liu handed him a stack of lab reports from the helicopter's back seat. "Read as I explain. Global cooling is Edmond's punishment, but global warming was also a form of punishment—a consequence humanity brought upon itself."
Mu Sicheng frowned. "What did I do wrong to deserve punishment for being cold or hot?"
Bai Liu smiled faintly. "It's a Christian idea—original sin. Life is a process of atonement. Edmond punishes humanity for its sins. Even Tarzan Station, though technically innocent, was culpable in a guilty environment. Edmond sharpened it to survive, like a Noah's Ark."
"He knew his acts were sinful, and his atonement…" Bai Liu's eyes deepened, "…was to hide the heart he hadn't touched, to preserve the first innocent life he was forced to mutilate."
"He preserved the heart both as an experimental sample and as a record of his [original sin]."
Bai Liu looked at Mu Sicheng. "Where would someone like Edmond keep his original sin?"
Mu Sicheng shook his head.
Bai Liu smiled. "The day he decided to commit his crime—that's when he preserved it."
Mu Sicheng's eyes widened. "Which day?"
"August 10th," Bai Liu said, gazing at the empty snowfield. "The day he began pickling sauerkraut for the men of Tarzan Station. This location is the coldest spot in Antarctica on August 10th across thirty-three years of Edmond's records."
"There's no better place to store a beating heart than here."