They stood in the empty corridor.
There were no windows in the corridor, only dim light cast by old light tubes. The doors of the rooms on both sides were closed, and a lot of graffiti could be vaguely seen on the walls.
Yu Tang and Zhan Chen looked at each other and walked over to the graffiti that looked like scribbles.
There was no pattern to the graffiti, and they looked like lines scribbled by a child. The original colors had faded, leaving only gray marks as dull as those left by a pencil.
"Host, host." The system asked in a low voice, "How did we get in?"
Yu Tang said, "I was just thinking about the orphanage in my mind."
This is the only way to move in this space - just picture the complete outline of the destination in your mind, and you will be teleported there.
Yu Tang already knew what was going on. He opened the surveillance screenshots in his sea of consciousness and saved all the graffiti on the wall: "So, it's impossible to reach the last level of this game every time."
This is the space where Feng Qing’s memories were formed.
No matter how strong the player is, if he cannot imagine the outlines of other places, he will be trapped in a closed space without doors and windows, waiting to be swallowed by the game world.
Yu Tang and Zhan Chen have been responsible for the role of Feng Qing respectively. Yu Tang took over Feng Qing in the assessment world and knew Feng Qing's history before the age of seventeen. After Yu Tang failed the assessment, Zhan Chen took over from him and was responsible for the No. 13 that Feng Qing was transformed into.
Only when both of them enter this space at the same time can the final stage of the game be solved.
Yu Tang recorded the graffiti on the wall, pondered for a moment, and walked towards the stairs.
The system was startled and quickly followed: "Host, host, where are we going now?"
"Dean's Office, I need to confirm the time of the orphanage." Yu Tang said, "Senior Zhan, did the people in the wall mention the situation of the orphanage?"
Zhan Chen nodded: "They said that the players in the orphanage are not restricted by space and cannot be exchanged."
Zhan Chen: "They tried many times, but nothing worked."
Feng Qing's memory formed many independent spaces, such as hospitals, schools, and laboratories. Every ward and every classroom would trap a player inside.
These players cannot leave, nor can they stay alert at all times. If they are caught by the people in the wall, they will be forcibly dragged into the wall.
Once the exchange is successful, the captured player will replace the person in the wall to become a line, and the person in the wall can fill in the color and escape.
Before Yu Tang returned to this space, this kind of exchange had happened countless times.
Yu Tang rubbed his neck and nodded: "Let's gather these people first."
The reason why he chose to come to the orphanage first was because this was the starting point of Feng Qing’s life and, in Feng Qing’s concept, his real “home”.
This space has no time dimension. If there is a so-called starting point and a place with different rules, then it should be in the orphanage.
"Senior Zhan, go and find someone with the system." Yu Tang said, "We'll meet at the stairs on the first floor."
The system was still a little scared: "Host, is it better to act together?"
Yu Tang tapped the system: "Don't worry, Feng Qing is very afraid of ghosts. This should be an ordinary orphanage, not a haunted house..."
As soon as he finished speaking, the light bulb on the ceiling suddenly began to flicker as if there was a power shortage.
A half-real and half-illusory white shadow floated past their eyes, and the sound of children chasing and laughing seemed to float over in a particularly vague way across a certain space.
There was a knock on the door.
The end of the corridor was empty with only smooth walls, but I could hear the childish singing nearby.
The system was so frightened that the camera went dark, and it threw away the shell of the mecha figure, dived back into Yu Tang's sea of consciousness, and got into the sack in one go and tied the mouth of the sack tightly.
Yu Tang: “…”
He sighed and took a step forward: "Come out."
The ethereal singing continued unmoved.
"There are ten children in the orphanage. Including Feng Qing, there are eleven in total."
Yu Tang: "There are three girls in there, none of them can sing."
"My friend is very afraid of ghosts. This is his home. You are not allowed to play tricks here." Yu Tang said, "Come out."
He walked forward along the corridor, as if he didn't notice the blood flowing out of the wall, and walked straight through countless translucent hands: "You can block my detection, you are at least an A-level mutant. I give you three seconds to put away your domain."
Yu Tang: "Three, two, one."
Under Yu Tang's feet, with the ground where he stood as the center of the circle, it seemed as if some transparent space began to crumble.
The air twisted strangely, and a shadow quietly emerged and attacked Yu Tang from behind.
The shadow's speed was incredibly fast. The scalpel in his hand was about to cut Yu Tang's carotid artery, but his body suddenly froze uncontrollably.
Shadow looked up in astonishment, meeting Zhan Chen's cold gaze.
He didn't even have time to react before he felt a sudden tearing pain in his shoulder. His half-real and half-virtual body was twisted by the arm and he was thrown hard against the wall, almost breaking all the bones in his body.
At the same time, the transparent space around Yu Tang also completely collapsed.
The strange singing and the illusion disappeared together.
The system hid for a while, then cautiously poked its head out of the sack, looked outside, and was stunned: "Host, why is it him—"
"I've been thinking about this." Yu Tang said, "This world was opened to devour the player's particles. How could there be such a coincidence that a lightning bolt just happened to split a person into a card?"
In front of him, a young student wearing glasses sat on the ground with a terrified and pale face.
…
This person is still in the system's records.
Before Yu Tang entered the game as Feng Qing, they had seen a young student struggling hysterically and resisting entering the game in the game lobby.
The student was shouting that his abilities were of no use. He was so frightened that he couldn't stop shaking and his legs were so weak that he couldn't even stand up.
The ability he displayed was indeed useless - according to the system's detection, he only had a most common supernatural power, "instant memory".
Less than three seconds into the game, the unfortunate young student had lightning pierce his chest and turned into a card with instant memory.
…But now, this young student has reappeared alive and has come here to play tricks.
"I keep a record of all the players' causes of death."
Yu Tang said: "It starts with falling from a cumulonimbus cloud. If you do nothing, nothing will happen... This world doesn't want anyone to die."
Feng Qing's domain is devouring Feng Qing in reverse. The later the devouring process progresses, the stronger the domain's self-awareness becomes.
Feng Qing's domain doesn't want to hurt anyone at all.
Just like the doctor who was ambushed by his teammate with the ability of hardening when he fell and was pierced by a tree branch and died, the game world will not actively harm players, and players will only die from infighting.
"I thought at the time that a player with lightning powers had taken advantage of the chaos to kill you."
Yu Tang said: "Now it seems that this is a play directed and performed by you yourself."
This young student with the ability of instant memory who was said to have "been frightened to death by lightning when falling" was actually an A-level psychic who could manipulate illusions.
In order to lower other people's vigilance, he did the opposite and put on a show at the beginning.
He first bought a [Limited Time Memory] card and hid it on his body, then pretended to be frightened by the game and lost his mind in the game hall.
When he and all the players were thrown down from the cumulonimbus cloud and fell through the cloud layer, he used his own abilities to create the illusion of being "carbonized by lightning" and deliberately let everyone see it.
In this way, everyone will think that the poor player whose ability is limited-time memory has died a violent death.
He can then hide smoothly, ambush in the dark to create illusions, and cooperate with a partner who has the ability to teleport to kill other unsuspecting players.
"It's not... it's not our fault!"
The student looked at him in horror, his face pale: "We are using the rules reasonably. This game is meant for us to kill each other. Otherwise, we won't be able to survive!"
"Don't you know the rules?" The student looked at Yu Tang and Zhan Chen. "Only ten people can survive each round of the game. If we don't kill each other, what should we do?"
The student said in a hoarse voice: "What can we do? Is there anything we can do to change the rules of the game—"
"Yes." Yu Tang said.
The student's eyes widened, looking at him in disbelief: "What nonsense are you talking about... Is this your first time playing this game?"
Yu Tang: "Didn't you realize that after you performed that scene, lightning can now kill people?"
The student's voice instantly got stuck in his throat.
He seemed to realize something, his expression froze for a moment, and his body suddenly began to tremble uncontrollably.
"Let me guess." Yu Tang said, "The second illusion you created is that this world eats people, right?"
The student sat on the ground exhausted, with cold sweat pouring out of his eyes.
… After he successfully faked his death, he hid with his partner and unexpectedly discovered that this world could devour objects that it had been in contact with for a long time and assimilate the objects into particles that were no different from the environment.
They were inspired to create an illusion that if people were exposed to the environment for a long time, they would be swallowed up by the world.
Players will panic and lose their composure in this illusion, and can be easily killed by them.
…
The plan went smoothly.
The only strange thing was that shortly after this, his partner encountered a strange NPC in area C5.
This NPC pulled his partner, as if frightened, and repeatedly said that this world would eat people, and if they stopped for more than an hour, they would be swallowed by the world.
Not long after this, they discovered that the world would devour people.
"You feel weird and lucky at the same time, thinking that you just guessed the rules by chance."
Yu Tang said: "But in this case, you won't be able to stay here for long, and the plan of waiting for something to happen won't work."
Yu Tang: "You decided to start moving, and after leaving the forest, you discovered that this world would rust."
The student shivered and opened his mouth in surprise: "We..."
Yu Tang was not wrong, they indeed discovered that the world would rust.
To create an illusion, the most energy-saving method is to use the existing environmental factors. They created a second illusion, which also made the person's body covered with rust.
Not long after, the second rule was also sent down to everyone's communication terminal.
They happened to guess it right again.
The student shook his head fearfully. He retorted in astonishment, "But we have never created an illusion where people fade! We have never created any messy enclosed space either. We were also caught in this hellhole suddenly. If we don't reduce the number of players to less than ten as soon as possible, we will never be able to get out..."
"You certainly didn't do it." Yu Tang said, "This world only learned 'devouring humans' from you."
It turned out that the game world would devour Feng Qing's own particles. It had no clear self-awareness, like a newborn electron storm.
listened to Feng Qing very much. Feng Qing taught him that he had encountered a good storm and it never hurt anyone.
The rust will assimilate a small amount of objects it touches, convert these assimilated objects into particles and absorb them. Occasionally, it will accidentally attach rust to passers-by, but it will fall off with a dusting.
But Feng Qing is not awake all the time.
After Feng Qing lost consciousness, the world began to learn from the players.
It learned from the players how to assimilate and devour humans, so it automatically generated the first rule. It also learned how to make humans rust and gradually corrode, so it generated the second rule.
I also learned how to "create dreams".
I missed Feng Qing very much. I saw a VIP player built a villa and invited passing players to go in to take shelter from the rain. That villa was a half-real and half-fake dream.
The space in Feng Qing’s consciousness was preserved and completely reproduced in this game world.
This is a dream I gave to Feng Qing.
In each space, one person was left to play with Feng Qing.
In Feng Qing's favorite orphanage, ten people who could not leave were left for Feng Qing, and all the exits were closed.
“Impossible… Impossible!”
The student shook his head desperately: "Impossible! Didn't you come in from outside? If you can come in, you can go out. Where did you come from? Tell me quickly..."
The student staggered to his feet. He had almost lost his mind. He didn't care about his unconscious partner and rushed to the stairs in a daze.
He wanted to go back to the first floor, but as he stepped onto the stairs, his face suddenly changed.
The steps under his feet turned into the black and white keys of a piano.
… At the end of the windowless corridor, the clear and tender singing voice of a little girl could be heard, and the crisp laughter of children could be heard from far and near.
He was unable to stop his steps, and his footsteps on the stairs made a particularly discordant sound.
The girl clapped her hands and laughed: "Wrong step!"
More and more laughter and clapping were heard. The student was unable to move, staring at Yu Tang with a pale face: "What should I do!"
"I didn't volunteer to come to this crappy game... I kill people to survive! I just want to survive!" The student screamed, "Save me, I didn't mean for this!"
"I'll ask you that." Yu Tang said, "What are the rules of the illusion you created?"
The student's voice was already filled with tears: "I don't know! They were story books from an orphanage, I just picked a few at random..."
His voice was swallowed by the air.
The system's camera was blocked by Yu Tang in time, but he was still afraid and asked in his mind: "Host, host, how is he?"
"He was kicked out of the orphanage because he didn't sing well," Yu Tang said, "and thrown into another dimension."
The system breathed a sigh of relief: "It's okay..."
Yu Tang patted the system, stuffed the phone into the sack, and stuffed a few pieces of bubble gum into the system.
…
In front of him, the colors on the students' bodies faded like water and merged into the graffiti on the wall.
The color was gone, and the entire outline of the student fell softly to the ground, like a black snake, swimming mechanically and disappearing into the shadow of the background.
Yu Tang withdrew his gaze.
He stood up straight and slowly walked back to Zhan Chen: "Let's go, Senior Zhan, we have to find other people quickly..."
Zhan Chen reached out, held him in his arms, and raised his hand to cover Yu Tang's eyes.
Yu Tang paused slightly in the familiar warmth.
His chest rose and fell, and he asked in a low voice: "Is this very energy-consuming?"
"It doesn't matter." Zhan Chen said, "I will only simulate the temperature, not the heartbeat and breathing, just for once."
Yu Tang couldn't help but raise the corner of his mouth.
He blinked in Zhan Chen's palm, his vision was blocked, and in the darkness, the sea of light in his sea of consciousness began to flow slowly.
The gorgeous and mysterious waterfall of light flows down gently like running water.
The world is grey because the dream of the electronic storm has no colour.
Electron storms are the eternal wandering civilization of the universe. They are born in a certain collapse of the universe and die in a cosmic explosion that destroys everything.
In their too-long existence, they encounter humans who can only exist for a moment, and they try their best to make the humans they like happier.
Just like he liked Zhan Chen and tried hard to learn random things in order to make Zhan Chen happy.
Feng Qing's world is very beautiful and I like Feng Qing very much.
"I've been looking for you for a long time." Yu Tang said softly, "Hold me for a while longer."