When the Wild Beast is Trapped in the Nightmare Cycle (BL)
Chapter 386: The Ninth Prince (1)

Chapter 386: The Ninth Prince (1)

Amidst the melodic cascade of the waterfall and the soothing fragrance of tea, Song Yunshi recounted his story,

"I met him in a high-level Cycle two years ago before I became a legendary player. Its setting was in ancient China. I was one of the Great Generals, and he was the youngest prince I had to support until he ascended the throne, or so was the task from the core NPC. Thanks to that, I had a lot of opportunities to interact with the boy. I thought he was just an ordinary NPC like the others, until..."

The complexity of a high-level Cycle did not have to be mentioned, making a low-level or even a mid-level Cycle seem like a child’s play. Almost fifty players had entered and were divided into different factions, each with their own Prince which they must push to the throne.

To the players, this Cycle was akin to an intricate game of chess. They needed to strategize, defend against the other factions, and most crucially...

They must avoid having their real identity being recognized by others.

Simply put, it was a roleplay, and whoever did not act according to their roles would trigger the death condition. If you received the role of a servant, you should diligently slave away inside the palace, and if you received the role of a concubine, then you had to navigate through the treacherous harem of the Emperor. Everyone played a unique part in the grand scheme of things, yet they had only one main goal— turn their Prince into the Emperor.

Song Yunshi was quite lucky to assume the role of a General, as he was often tasked to guard the young prince. He took advantage of that role to protect the prince to the best of his ability, though he had to be extremely careful so that the other players would not recognize him.

There was only one, tiny problem though.

His Prince... showed no interest in ascending the throne at all.

He played around all day long, fell asleep as soon as he was forced to study, and showed a lackadaisical behavior unbefitting of royalty. Song Yunshi had a huge headache when facing the boy, at a loss of how to fix the brat’s attitude. He had already resigned himself to being trapped in this Cycle for years.

The laid-back personality of the prince meant that he rarely drew the Emperor’s attention compared to his eight elder brothers, making him the most improbable candidate for the Crown Prince. And yet, perhaps it was because the other factions considered him the weakest and thus easiest to get rid of, almost every night Song Yunshi had to fend off assassination attempts while the Prince slumbered peacefully in his chamber. Rather than a General, Song Yunshi felt more like a bodyguard and babysitter.

No doubt, it was entirely thanks to him that the Prince was still alive and well until today.

This wearisome and demanding routine persisted until the Emperor finally announced the identity of the Crown Prince— the Second Prince. As soon as the announcement was made, Song Yunshi keenly sensed the shift of atmosphere in the court, sending foreboding chills down his spine.

From now on, it will be more chaotic and difficult, he thought.

Sure enough, his hunch was right.

The very next day, the lifeless body of the Second Prince was discovered in his private chamber. Song Yunshi had no idea which faction had killed him, but he heard the rumors that the Prince had died in an extremely horrendous and tragic way. Subsequently, the Emperor was enraged and demanded the culprit to turn themselves in. A special investigation was conducted, yet they couldn’t find anything that could trace them back to the perpetrator.

Song Yunshi was convinced that the murderer had to be a player, though he still had no clues how to identify them.

It was already strange that someone could assassinate a royalty right within his chamber when a group of players were supposed to protect him. And even stranger than that was, soon afterward, the personal attendants, concubines, cooks, and even the gardeners belonging to the Second Prince were found dead in a mysterious way.

After observing all these baffling twists and turns, Song Yunshi eventually learned the second death condition— so long as the Prince they ought to support was murdered, the players in that faction would also be guaranteed death.

From that moment onwards, he redoubled his efforts to safeguard the Prince, even wishing that he could follow the boy as he did his business in the latrine so that no one could murder him in cold blood.

Tension continued to escalate in the palace as factions accused each other of the Crown Prince’s murder. Those who were found involved – and certainly there must be some tampering – were exiled, further diminishing the prospects of ascending to the position of Emperor.

Amidst the chaos, Song Yunshi felt a tad grateful for his Prince’s devil-may-care attitude, for nobody seemed to be suspecting him enough to think that it was worth the effort to place the blame on his head.

Time continued to crawl inside this treacherous Cycle. Every time the Emperor announced the Crown Prince, the latter would be discovered dead the very next day. And it seemed like the modus operandi was identical to the Second Prince’s murder, proving that whoever had assassinated the Crown Princes ought to be the same person.

Over fourteen months, nine princes were reduced to five, and players continued to meet their demise.

All this while, only Song Yunshi’s prince remained carefree and went on with his life as usual, unperturbed by the ongoing pandemonium.

Song Yunshi had not suspected anything amiss about him at all. After all, after spending an extensive amount of time with the boy, he had come to learn about his personality. Knowing fully well his Prince’s desire to live a leisurely life, Song Yunshi crafted a meticulous plan— watching the tigers bite each other until none of them remained, before crowning the rabbit as the king.

That’s right, his prince was precisely the rabbit.

Alas, all his plans came tumbling down one day when the Emperor announced his prince as the Crown Prince.

Song Yunshi had no idea what had spurred the Emperor to make this kind of decision when he had never paid attention to this youngest son of his, but he reasoned that it must be because the monarch was tired of the repeated deaths. Not wanting any more of the precious candidates of the Crown Prince to be killed, he picked the one whose death would matter the least, just for the sake of quelling the unrest at court and filling the vacant position.

However, to Song Yunshi, it was like having the reaper’s scythe hovering over his neck.

If he was not careful, his Prince would die by tonight and it meant— his own death, too, would not be far behind.

.

.

A/N: I didn’t specify in the story, but the prince is around 11 or 12 ^^