After this was said, even Zhang E, the person who was speaking, felt that this was quite outrageous.
The other players had the same dreamy expressions, and Yu Cong was the first to come back to his senses.
He turned his head and looked behind him. The NPCs were already ready and were about to go to the stage in front to perform.
"Never mind, let's follow these NPCs to the front and see how this play is played and whether there are any other clues."
As for the boss... It's really hard to figure out what the boss is thinking, they should not overstep their boundaries...
The group followed the well-prepared NPCs and filed out of the theater. Shoufang Village looked even more eerie and terrifying at night. The paper money flying everywhere was like eyes, watching the players. From time to time, there would be some noise coming from afar, which sounded like something crying.
Candles were lit on both sides of the stage, and a thick layer of white wax tears had accumulated, which looked like greasy fat under the dim light, making people feel very uncomfortable.
The lights were as small as beans, dimly illuminating the stage.
The group pushed the door open and went into the backstage first.
If no one told them, people who entered the dark room would find it hard to believe that this was the backstage of a theater. There was not a single costume in the room, only shrouds hanging on the walls. There was no oil paint on the dressing table, but bowls of bright red liquid that looked like blood.
Based on previous experience of completing dungeons, there is a high probability that the content in this bowl is not "blood-like liquid" but blood.
Whose blood is it? The NPC's? If they are going to go on stage in three days, do they have to collect these things too
Players were watching and figuring out how to pass the level.
The NPCs performing the show sat down at the table, each picked up a bowl filled with red liquid, and carefully smeared it on their faces.
After putting makeup on their faces, several people put on headgear and put on white shrouds over their red inner garments.
After doing all this, a gong sounded outside.
Someone in the room seemed to take a deep breath with a crying tone, and before the players could figure out who made the sound, the NPCs came on stage.
You are not allowed to make loud noises while watching a show, so Yu Cong quietly shared his discovery with the players around him.
"The material of these NPC's shrouds is very special. It doesn't look like hemp. It looks more like it's made of paper money collected from the outside."
If this is the case, do they also need to collect paper money and make a set of clothes for themselves? Are there any other requirements for such clothes
Just when Yu Cong was still trying hard to think of the trick to pass the level, in the blink of an eye, the NPCs appeared. Under the dim light, Yu Cong didn't know if it was an illusion, but at a certain moment, he seemed to see that the faces of these NPCs, which were originally bright red after being painted with blood, actually took on the color of oil paint like ordinary opera actors.
But when he looked carefully again, the NPC on the stage was still dressed in white and had a blood-red face.
Yu Cong looked out from the gap in the opened curtain, trying to see if the audience was what they imagined, but perhaps because of the angle, he could not see any figures from where he was.
The performance on stage has already begun.
That was perhaps a relatively niche play. Everyone was listening, but they had no idea what was being sung on the stage. They could only vaguely feel that the actors on the stage seemed very nervous. Their every move seemed very restrained, as if they were afraid of making mistakes.
Yu Cong observed carefully.
This stage is also very unusual. Although there are no musicians, the sound of gongs and drums can still be heard on the stage. It seems that I should go up to the stage and take a look tomorrow during the day. Maybe there are some clues on the stage.
Just as he was thinking this, Yu Cong looked up inadvertently.
Above the stage, five or six pairs of eyes looked at him. They were heads hanging there, with their long hair hanging down, swaying in the wind.
Yu Cong shuddered suddenly and quickly looked away.
He whispered to the other players around him: "Don't look up! There is something on the ceiling of the stage."
After he finished speaking, he felt a sudden chill on his neck, as if some liquid had dripped on his neck.
Zhang E's trembling voice came from beside him.
"Brother Yu... It seems there's more than just something on the ceiling of the stage."
The six players gathered together and no one dared to speak for a while. The backstage was so quiet that only the sounds from the stage could be heard.
At this moment, the actress playing the female role seemed to be too nervous. She was not paying attention for a moment, tripped, and fell to the ground.
Only a scream was heard. The actor looked frightened and forced himself to go on stage. Then such a performance accident happened again and he finally couldn't hold back his tears.
"Don't kill me... I'll act well! Please don't kill me!"
He screamed miserably. Yu Cong bravely raised his eyes and quickly glanced at the head hanging on the ceiling of the stage.
Five or six heads have been completely attracted by the NPC on the stage, staring at the NPC who is lying on the ground with weak legs and unable to get up, with excitement and bloodthirstiness in their eyes, as if they are just waiting for an opportunity to fly down and eat this NPC whole.
The expressions of everyone on the stage also changed.
The person who fell made a mistake, but their play has to go on.
The rapid sound of gongs and drums urged him to perform. The NPC who fell on the stage cried miserably. He could no longer perform.
What's going to happen
Will this NPC die because of this error
Everyone watched nervously, watching what this NPC was about to go through.
Three seconds passed.
Ten seconds passed.
Three minutes passed.
The rapid sound of gongs and drums lasted for three minutes. The person who had collapsed on the stage fainted from crying once, but soon woke up in fright.
But nothing happened.
Why did nothing happen
Not only did the players have this doubt in their minds, but the expressions of the NPCs on the stage also changed from pale and uneasy to confused and helpless.
The players have never seen it, but they know very well what the consequences will be if they fail in their performance in Shoufang Village.
The spectators in the coffins were very demanding. If you made a mistake in front of them, you would be eaten in the blink of an eye, without exception.
But what happened this time
Everyone was very confused.
Backstage, Yu Cong once again secretly looked up at the ceiling of the stage.
The heads on the ceiling had long been prepared to pick up bones and meat to eat. They stacked up on top of each other and stared at the NPC lying on the stage, waiting for the audience below to enjoy it first. Then they would immediately fly down to grab the remaining minced meat. The long hair of these heads was almost hanging down on the NPC, but they dared not take action unless the audience took action.
Why? Why are the harsh audience in the dark so tolerant of this NPC on the stage? Why haven't they appeared yet
The heads were twisting restlessly, and Yu Cong quickly retracted his gaze to avoid meeting these things' eyes again.
Just as he looked away, the backstage door opened.
The players in the backstage all turned their heads and were startled reflexively when they saw the red figure standing at the door.
The man was standing at the door, with a face whiter than a ghost, bright red lips, long black hair, and wearing a blood-red inner garment. At first glance, he really looked like the evil boss in the ghost book who would suck human blood.
But when I looked again: Oh, boss!
As soon as Jie Fangcheng came back, the tense atmosphere in the room instantly became much more relaxed.
"Boss!" Zhang E was almost crying.
He has completed two copies, and this is his first time entering the ghost copy.
The red undergarment, the head on the ceiling, they are all so scary!
Now the big boss finally appeared again. No matter what his brain circuit was, his strength was there. He was a powerful figure anyway. Zhang E felt as if he had come back to life in an instant.
Jie Fangcheng looked a little depressed and just waved his hand.
"They are all here."
Everyone had the same expression on their faces when they saw Ultraman saving them, and they all responded to him.
"Brother Jie, you're finally here. Damn, this is so scary! Come and look over here!"
"Brother Jie, what were you doing just now? This copy seems a bit strange."
“Brother Jie, Brother Jie, come quickly... There seems to be something above our heads, I’m so scared!”
Jie Fangcheng looked up.
Two screams were heard from the ceiling, and Youyi's head rushed out of the backstage and directly onto the ceiling of the stage.
So the seven heads were connected together, with their long black hair entangled on the beams of the ceiling, just like seven babies on a vine.
Jie Fangcheng glanced at him and said nothing.
The players watched helplessly as he looked up and the thing on the ceiling ran away.
At this time, he glanced at the seven gourd heads again. His gaze seemed to radiate something. The gourd heads also had expressions of fear and instantly shrank to the corner farthest from the backstage.
On the stage, the NPC finally adjusted his mindset again, stood up tremblingly, and reluctantly continued to perform.
Although I don’t know why the audience didn’t punish us after such a big accident, of course we should live well while we are still alive.
The play began again with the sound of gongs and drums.
Jie Fangcheng leaned on the side with his sword, looking listless.
The players have no knowledge of opera, and Jie Fangcheng doesn't dare to say that he has any knowledge, but when the underworld had not yet entered the modern era, there were not many entertainment activities, and listening to opera was the most common entertainment activity.
After arriving and hearing this, Jie Fangcheng said, “Oh, they are performing “Catch Alive”.”
Damn it!
This boss, I don’t know what a single-person single-room copy is like, but he is very knowledgeable about opera!
Yu Cong reported the current situation to him: "Boss, you were not here just now. There was an NPC... that one, he fell down, and then cried very loudly, begging not to kill him or something. But it's strange that nothing else happened. I think... this instance seems to have changed."
"ah?"
Yu Cong analyzed: "Looking at the reaction of the NPC just now, he should have died if something happened during the performance. But he didn't die. I think a key event happened in the audience!"
A key event means that an event occurs in the copy that would not normally happen. Generally, this turning point is a very important clue that will affect the direction and outcome of the entire copy.
Yu Congdao concluded: "I think we should go investigate during the day tomorrow, maybe there will be a huge turning point!"
After all, the NPCs that were supposed to die didn’t die. This key event seems to be in favor of the players!
Yu Cong's heart was burning with excitement.
Just then, he saw Jie Fangcheng scratching his head.
“There may not be a turning point.”
"ah?"
"If the NPCs on stage were killed by the audience after the stage accident... I probably know why the audience didn't do anything, because there are no audience members in the audience now."
"Ah? Why is this?" Yu Cong asked hurriedly.
Jie Fangcheng explained calmly: "Someone knocked on my door just now. I chased him out but he ran very fast. I didn't know which coffin he got into after he left the door. I opened the coffins one by one and found that they dared not come out now."
He said it calmly, but in fact, when he was chasing the knocking ghost just now, he rushed into the group of coffins. Immediately, the coffins in half of the village could not cover their bodies. Corpses with hideous faces rose up from their coffins one after another. But after Jie Fangcheng beat a few of them, they lay down again one by one, pretending that all was well.
But the knocking ghost didn't sleep in the middle of the night and didn't let Jie Fangcheng sleep, so how could he let him go? Jie Fangcheng simply started from the beginning and opened the coffins one by one, carefully looking for which coffin the body that had just knocked on the door was hidden in.
He lifted the cover very quickly and did not allow anyone to cover it back after he had done so, for fear that the person he was looking for would hide somewhere again when he was not paying attention.
It’s a pity that no one knows where the ghost is hiding. He turned over every box but couldn’t find it.
The strange noise the players heard just now when they came out of the theater was the sound of the lid being lifted.
If someone looked towards the village at this time, they would find that most of the coffin lids had been placed on the ground and no one dared to close them until now.
Jie Fangcheng was very depressed: "These corpses are not very strong, but they run fast."
He was running so fast, how on earth could the ghost escape
When he said this, everyone looked at him sideways and complained wildly in their hearts.
Nonsense! That was a desperate effort!
No! What on earth are you doing here, sir?!
Everyone was stunned again.
Yu Cong was the first to come to his senses. He couldn't believe it: "You opened the lids of their coffins?"
Jie Fangcheng didn't react and thought Yu Cong meant that it was not good to lift the lid of a person's coffin, so he explained: "It's just looking for someone, it's not shabby."
“…” Yu Cong opened his mouth blankly, and thousands of words came out of his mouth and merged into a concise “Oh my god”.
The play on the stage was finally over. This time there was no need to cut flesh, and no one died. The NPCs retreated to the backstage and hugged each other and cried.
The players looked at their tears and didn't know what to say for a moment.
They also discovered that if Jie Fangcheng hadn't been there, they, the players, would have ended up like the NPCs, trembling with fear as they went on stage to perform, and if they didn't perform well they would die.
But now that I know Fang Cheng, the copy has changed immediately.
"Then, then our copy..." Yu Cong's mind was really confused, he tried very hard to keep up with the boss's pace, "Can we... just rehearse hard?"
The boss is so powerful in this book, is there really any danger in this book? As long as you can rehearse "The Black Pot" well, can you pass it
Yu Cong was thinking at first that the condition for passing this dungeon was to successfully perform "The Story of the Black Pot". With such a condition, what was the use of having strong strength? In the end, he still had to follow the rules of the dungeon.
But Yu Cong now understood that he was wrong... No, it wasn't that he was wrong, he just hadn't seen it.
He didn't know what rules there were in the dungeon when the force value was too terrifying? If you don't believe me, ask the big guy in front of you. The rules clearly said that you should not open the door when the ghost knocks on it, but he didn't listen.
People didn't follow the rules and still stood here quietly, and some even rushed into the ghost pile to smash things. What rules are there
Yu Cong felt that he was already very arrogant.
Just rehearse "The Black Pot" well and perform it. No audience should be dissatisfied.
But it turned out that he was not brave enough.
"We still need to rehearse?" Jie Fangcheng was shocked and immediately came up with a new idea, "Anyway, as long as we perform, why bother rehearsing?"
“… How can we act without rehearsal? The lines, the movements… I think I need to memorize them, right?” Yu Cong was also horrified.
Jie Fangcheng had almost become an instinct in slacking off, and he immediately came up with a new idea: "Lines? Can't we just read the lines directly from the script?"
"Ah?" Is this even possible? Yu Cong was shocked.
It was already late, and Jie Fangcheng hadn't had a good rest today, so he made a decision: "Let's try it tomorrow!"
"??? How do I try?"
"Take the script and read the lines tomorrow and try it out."
Yu Cong tried to understand: "But logically speaking, our play won't be on stage until three days later!"
"Let's talk to the owner and ask him to change our show to tomorrow."
"How do we communicate?"
Jie Fangcheng was implicit: "If we can communicate by language, we should communicate by language first."
Everyone understood what he had not finished saying.
Language cannot communicate... Did you see the golden giant sword in the boss's hand
Yu Cong opened his mouth, and opened it again, always feeling that this shouldn't be possible, as he had never completed a dungeon this way before.
But what Jie Fangcheng said makes a lot of sense.
"Then... just, just like that?" Yu Cong hesitated.
"That's it, just walk, walk, walk, and go back to sleep."
As he said that, Jie Fangcheng carried his sword and followed the NPC out in a swagger.
The remaining six people felt that their brains were not enough since just now, and their eyes were full of circles after listening to what they heard.
One player couldn't help but ask Yu Cong: "Brother Yu, is this how you play this game?"
Why didn't anyone tell them that there was another way to clear the dungeon
Yu Cong immediately denied it: "Never!"
"So... what is our situation now?"
Yu Cong looked outside the door.
When the players came out of the theater, they were all in a heavy mood. All they were thinking about was how to carefully record how the NPCs acted. No one was so idle as to glance around.
At this time, Yu Cong used the unlocked backstage door to look at the place where the coffin was placed which he had seen during the day.
Originally, the coffins were tightly closed, with paper money scattered around them, making them look eerie and scary.
At this moment, these coffins seemed to be the top floor of the Chaoyang Labor Union that had been cut off, with the lids gone. Yu Cong didn't know if it was an illusion, but he seemed to hear sobbing sounds.
"We are now...seemingly being led by the boss."
.
Although they were going to go on stage tomorrow, it was so late that everyone went back to their rooms.
Today is destined to be a sleepless night.
The NPC kept thinking and wondering why such a change suddenly happened today, and whether such changes would become common in the future.
Players have also been thinking back and wondering why this dungeon is so different from the one they remembered. No one on the forum has ever said that it is possible to complete the dungeon in this way!
The next day, just after dawn, the NPCs woke up one after another to practice.
The noise they make when practicing is so loud that it is impossible to sleep in.
I'll beat the game today! I can't stay there for another day!
While eating breakfast, Jie Fangcheng held the bowl of rice and pickles, and became more determined.
After dinner, everyone came to the class owner's room again.
The class owner is still not here, there is still only the deputy class owner.
The deputy class leader also looked depressed and obviously knew what happened yesterday.
They have come to Shoufang Village many times and performed for these special guests many times. What happened yesterday was unprecedented. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? The deputy headmaster kept thinking.
Seeing these seven new actors who were going to perform "The Black Pot", the deputy leader was too lazy to make sarcastic remarks.
"What's the matter?"
Jie Fangcheng asked directly: "Where is the class owner?"
"The boss has gone to the city and won't be back for three days. Tell me if you have anything to say."
"I want to perform The Black Pot today."
The deputy boss's face changed, and the old man slammed the table and stood up.
"Do you know how demanding the audience is? Even if you don't make any mistakes, they may ask you to cut off some flesh to express your gratitude before you leave the stage! If you make a mistake in a word or an action, it can be fatal! You want to perform 'The Black Pot'? You haven't even made your paper clothes yet! You're dead if you go on stage! I don't agree!"
Jie Fangcheng always used weapons to persuade people. Although the old man said so much at this time, it was obvious that he cared about them and did not want to see them die.
Jie Fangcheng would not take out his sword to communicate with him at this time, but verbal communication was certainly not his strong point.
There was no other choice, Manager Xie could only look at Yu Cong.
Yu Cong looked back blankly.
Can not be done!
At this moment, Xie Fangcheng couldn't help but miss Professor Zhang again.
It was obvious at first glance that the boy was destined to be a cadre. With just one look from Jie Fangcheng, people immediately knew what he was thinking.
However, if Zhang Daoan were in this story, he would probably lead the troupe in an uprising and throw all the coffins away.
Huh
This seems to be a solution!
While Jie Fangcheng was thinking about this and that, Yu Cong finally came to his senses.
He quickly took over the responsibility of communicating with the NPC, saying nice things and making promises, but the old man was very persistent.
"You are just looking for death!"
Since the deputy class leader was so determined not to agree, Jie Fangcheng didn't want to waste his breath on him.
"Then we can just act it out ourselves."
The stage is closed during the day, after all, daytime is the time for the "audience" to rest.
But this time, it is destined that not only the players will experience countless firsts, but the NPCs will too.
After leaving the class owner's room, Jie Fangcheng's thoughts became very clear.
"You guys go wait for me over there at the stage. I'll go find some audience members to watch."
I have successfully performed in "The Black Pot", but I don't know whether it will have any impact on the audience, so it's better to do it in one go.
Yu Cong and the others waited by the stage with dazed looks, watching Jie Fangcheng's receding back.
“Is this the boss?”
Everyone was amazed.
Soon, they saw Jie Fangcheng, who had arrived at the first coffin, kick the lid that had just been put on it away.
His voice came through the wind: "Wake up, get up and watch the show. What? You don't want to watch it? You said you don't want to watch it, so you don't want to watch it? Get up!... Go and help me call a few more people, I don't want to move."
Yu Cong: “…”
Players: “…”
The NPC, who had been wiping his tears and blood with his sleeve in grievance, went to call for help while sobbing. Jie Fangcheng was waiting with his sword in hand, his back looking both lonely and arrogant.
Soon, a string of audience members who were shaken up to watch the show staggered out of the coffin.
Each of these corpses looked like they had died a violent death, and some even had only one leg left. However, they were trying to line up in an orderly manner and follow behind Jie Fangcheng. Seeing them trembling in fear of being beaten again, it was unclear who was the evil ghost and who was the player.
Xie Fangcheng returned with a string of corpses whose deaths were in all sorts of strange circumstances.
He waved to the players who were stunned again.
"Wake up, let's go to the stage and sing."
Yu Cong looked at him for a while, then asked politely, "Brother Jie, maybe there is another question..."
"What?"
"We... don't even seem to have roles divided yet?"
(End of this chapter)