The new neighbor is a single man in his thirties named Liu Xi. He doesn’t look very noticeable and said he was on a business trip and was staying with relatives in City D for a while.
If it were someone else, they probably wouldn't feel anything wrong.
But it happened to be Zhang Daoan.
"I checked all the information about my neighbor and found nothing wrong. His information is very complete. He is obviously an ordinary white-collar worker, but his attitude is so strange. It's like someone who has been in a high position for a long time pretending to be friendly. He also pays a lot of attention to our family."
"He was looking at us with some purpose, and seemed to be waiting for something."
Zhang Daoan smiled, but there was no smile in his eyes.
"I soon found out what he was waiting for."
It is big news that Zhang Daoan’s mother, who had been missing for many years, has returned.
During that time, many relatives who had not been in contact for a long time would come to ask what had happened. This "mother" would patiently tell the story over and over again: she accidentally fell into the river, and was washed away by the current, and then drifted to a remote mountain village. She lost her memory and lived a secluded life. Only recently did she remember what happened in the past, so she came to find her.
This legendary experience spread quickly, and many people said that she would have good fortune in the future after surviving a great disaster, and the good fortune soon appeared.
She bought a lottery ticket on the twentieth day after her return and won the jackpot of five million.
The "mother" told him and Zhang Daowu that she had won so much money, but these relatives were still so concerned about their family affairs all day long. She felt very annoyed and thought it would be better to move away. Anyway, their current financial situation was enough for them to move again.
It happened that a neighbor named Liu Xi had just finished his business trip and was about to return to the south. He warmly invited them to settle down in the south and enthusiastically helped them find a suitable house.
Their "mother" quickly agreed.
"I felt something was wrong with her, so I installed surveillance cameras at home. Every day, when Zhang Daowu and I were at home, she acted like a normal person, but once we were not at home, she would sit quietly on the sofa and read for the whole day. And I looked through the surveillance videos. When she told the relatives who came to her house about her experience, although the words she used were different each time, she would always tell it in great detail. This is not in line with human nature. People will get bored of repeating the same thing, but I asked 45 relatives to test her, and each of her relatives could tell the story in great detail. Although the words she used were different, the overall narrative style and development of events were the same every time."
Jie Fangcheng understood: "Like an intelligent program?"
"Yes." Zhang Daoan nodded, "It's like an intelligent program that has set up all kinds of responses in advance and has been repeating them mechanically. But I don't know how it does this. From the outside, she is no different from an ordinary human, and our technology is not developing so rapidly."
Jie Fangcheng could explain: "Just like the previous copy of [Fulai Inn], if some soul power is extracted from the dead soul, it can indeed be transmitted. There is no way to do this. Living people also have soul power, and when they are too frightened, it will overflow. This cannot be controlled and will not trigger our alarm. But the soul power can only make people move. If you want to be like a normal person, it seems that you have programmed it."
Zhang Daoan nodded: "I also guessed that she was a pre-written program, so Liu Xi was even more suspicious. He seemed to know that it was just a program. He was very friendly and close to us, but I never saw him chatting with his 'mother'. He also chatted with me and Zhang Daowu frequently."
"At that time, I was sure that there was something wrong between them, but I had never been involved in this field before, and the 'relocation' came too suddenly. I felt that Liu Xi's mission was time-limited. If it was delayed any further, something I didn't want to see might happen before I figured out what was going on. So I decided to give it a try."
"After I moved to the south, I suddenly attacked Liu Xi when there were only four of us in the house."
Jie Fangcheng was stunned: "You... are so brave."
Zhang Daoan smiled: "I am somewhat confident."
He had tested it before, and the setting procedure of this "mother" was quite simple and in line with the character.
A mother who has been missing for many years and feels guilty about her child will try her best to protect her child.
Everything happened just as he had imagined. Liu Xi was stunned for a moment after being attacked, then he wanted to kill in anger, but was stopped by his "mother".
Zhang Daowu didn't know what was going on. He followed him to protect his brother with a confused look on his face, but was pushed away by Zhang Daoan.
"Call the police! Don't let him get away!"
Zhang Daowu staggered out of the room. Liu Xi, who had been pretending to be very friendly, said, "It's just a background board. What's going on—"
Then... he took out a strange seal-like object and first covered the "mother".
Zhang Daoan seemed to hear a "ding" sound, and the "mother" who was originally standing there in human form instantly melted like ice and snow.
"Liu Xi" frowned and seemed to mutter, "It shouldn't be a big deal to just kill a background board."
He raised the seal in his hand and stamped it on Zhang Daoan.
Zhang Daoan had imagined this scenario long ago. He faced the seal and stabbed straight forward with the short dagger hidden in his hand.
At the same time, the live broadcast program he set up opened.
Zhang Daoan didn't know what these things were, but he knew very well that if they were some weird things, he would have no chance of fighting against them.
But he had no evidence and no channels to prove his guess. At that time, Mr. Zhang, who had just graduated from university, was just an ordinary graduate student, just younger and better than most graduate students.
This is the only solution Zhang Daoan can think of. At least after starting the live broadcast, if there are people with relevant expertise, they should be able to solve this problem of Liu Xi, right
"What happened next?" Jie Fangcheng asked curiously, "So this Liu Xi should be a player in this game. These players all have some props and skills. Any of them is a Super Saiyan. Ordinary people can't survive in their hands. How did you defeat him? And how did Liu Xi go to the living world?"
Zhang Daoan adjusted his glasses and said calmly, "I forgot."
"Ah?" Jie Fangcheng was stunned.
"Actually, what I said is just my guess, because in my memory," Zhang Daoan pointed to his head, "in my memory, the memory of those two months is that Zhang Daowu won the jackpot of 5 million, and then we came to the south for vacation."
"..." Jie Fangcheng looked strange, "So what are these..."
"But I felt something was wrong, so I did some research." Zhang Daoan looked at Jie Fangcheng, "How should I put it... During those two months, my memory of what I did was like being invaded by an intelligent program. Every day I boringly repeated the previous day's work. Everything seemed reasonable, but also unreasonable."
"For example, I remember that one day, I bought some surveillance cameras on a whim. Another day, I called many relatives on a whim and invited them to my home. There was also 'going to vacation in the south'. If we were going to vacation, we would just go on vacation. Zhang Daowu and I brought a lot of things with us, just like moving house. And I did a live broadcast not long ago... The content of the live broadcast was," Zhang Daoan laughed, "the content of the live broadcast was 'a vlog of an ordinary day for an 18-year-old graduate student'."
Jie Fangcheng suddenly realized: "I see, Liu Xi attacked you, but you encountered a life-and-death crisis before your life was supposed to end, which triggered the alarm in the underworld. It is likely that our people helped you to drive Liu Xi away, and then erased your memory..."
After saying this, Jie Fangcheng was stunned for a moment: "Erasing memories does not erase them directly, but replaces them with reasonable ones. This is also one of the functions of the Book of Life and Death. Later, after the 'Candy Crush' applet was introduced, it was much more convenient to carry a program than the book. When people go out on field missions, they prefer to only carry the app. This program was also made by those engineers, and it has some similarities with this game... So you wanted to kill me at that time."
"Yeah." Zhang Daoan admitted.
Jie Fangchengle: "Then why do you suddenly trust me so much?"
Zhang Daoan did not answer, he just continued to narrate: "Of course, these were just my guesses until three days before I entered this game... Zhang Daowu came back, but he has been dead for twelve years."
Jie Fangcheng was stunned.
Just then, the door of the box was opened.
Nie Shuangshuang poked his head out and said, "Brother Jie, the president's brother, we bought eight fragments of the 'Digital Cruise' copy. Now, including the three of us who haven't entered the copy, there are only twenty left. Is that enough?"
Zhang Daoan nodded: "That's enough."
As he said this, he was walking towards the box.
Jie Fangcheng grabbed his wrist and said, "Hey, hey, hey, finish your story!"
What does it mean that Zhang Daowu is back? How did he get into this instance? And how did he get out of it step by step? What happened in the beginning
Jie Fangcheng doesn't like to think about things that require a lot of brainpower, but that doesn't mean he can resist listening to the story just when it's almost over.
This kid stopped talking halfway through answering so many questions. Isn't that too much
Zhang Daoan just smiled and said, "Let's talk about it after the dungeon is out."
Depend on!
Jie Fangcheng was depressed, but still let go of his hand.
Nie Shuangshuang looked at them: "You two really have a lot of little secrets!"
"Yes, let him tell you when he has time. He won't finish the story halfway, leaving you with a suspense to piss you off to death." Jie Fangcheng raised his stick and said, "Let's go!"
.
Ever since the news of Zhang Daoan joining the Ronghua Union was released, discussions in the chat channel have never stopped.
Now the president summoned everyone to the system hall. No matter what everyone was doing, they all arrived within ten minutes, and after arriving, they were discussing things in whispers.
"Have you heard? Zhang Daoan is our president's brother!"
"I heard about it. Hey, I wonder if they look alike. I really want to be president."
"But why did the president's brother come and ask us to do that? To pay our respects? Let me make this clear first. I definitely respect the president, but I'm not his brother and I just listen to him anyway. But... looking at the situation, is he asking us to help him through the dungeon? Does he need so many people?"
"Shh, stop talking, Brother Wei and the others are here!"
"Which one is which one? Sister Shuang is here too? I heard that Sister Shuang is now punching Vice President Chaoyang and kicking President Death. She is so powerful! Is she here to take care of the president's brother as well?"
"It should be the one wearing glasses, who looks older. I know that guy, Qi Chanyang, I've played with him before. And there's another one... What's he wearing? A magic robe and a stick? And a white rabbit and carrot hairband?"
As they were talking, five people walked in front of everyone.
When they arrived, the crowd that had been noisy just now stopped talking.
A girl who looked a little thin greeted Nie Shuangshuang first.
"Both."
Nie Shuangshuang showed her usual heroism. She raised her hand and threw a piece of debris over.
Qiao Mai quickly caught it, then was stunned: "[Digital Cruise]? Isn't this what you wanted to buy just now? What's wrong?"
"Come and play!"
Qiao Mai looked at Wei Yuan blankly.
Wei Yuan explained: "Everyone knows the current situation. Skills and items have been severely downgraded, so we plan to clear the fifth level dungeon before the national dungeon to enhance everyone's strength."
Everyone looked at each other.
Someone raised his hand: "Brother Wei, do you know what you are talking about?"
quiet.
Someone couldn't help but say, "Boss Wei, it's not that we don't believe you. It's difficult for us to clear the third level with our current strength. You're taking us to the fifth level? I've heard that Sister Shuangshuang is very powerful, but she's alone... Sister Shuangshuang, I'm not looking down on you, I'm looking down on myself. I've never cleared a fifth level before. In this situation, if you ask me to go to the fifth level, wouldn't I be sending myself to death? I know you want to help the president brother clear the level, but if it's a third level, I will definitely go without saying anything if you ask me to go. For a fifth level..."
Everyone immediately advised: "Yes, yes, don't go crazy because of the national copy! Look at the actual situation, brother!"
"Honestly, we're dead if we die. I've long wanted to quit this crappy game, and I definitely can't get through the universal copy. But we die on our own, so don't get them into trouble if you go crazy!"
"That's right. Sister Shuangshuang's strength has recovered now. Clearing the National Dungeon is no problem. The president's brother can't follow us to die, right?"
“Crazy literature shines into reality. Is this a distortion of human nature or a loss of morality?”
Wei Yuan stretched out his hands and pressed them: "Alright, alright, I'm sure I'm confident in what I said, stop talking nonsense, hurry up and line up to get the fragments, the sooner you finish the game the sooner you can get out."
Everyone called on him.
"I told you that you can't stay in this position as president forever. Old Wei, you're still a 'rock' and your mental quality is not good enough! A mere national copy drives you crazy? You're a noob!"
"Look, look, what did I say before? Either you explode in a difficult situation or you perish in a difficult situation. Old Wei is crazy, let's disperse, let's disperse."
"Ahem... Brother President, do you want to play the first level? I'm a first level expert, I can definitely help you!"
Someone else was thinking: "Wearing a little white rabbit carrot headband on her head... Why does this description sound familiar? I think I've heard of it before?"
"Did someone say that before, something about finding someone, something about a high clearance rate? Oh, I haven't paid attention to it for a long time..."
Wei Yuan was speechless. He was still thinking about how to explain it. Jie Fangcheng was very straightforward. He pulled out his stick and looked around: "Is your pillar strong?"
Wei Yuan was stunned, then immediately realized what he was going to do and tried to stop him.
These pillars are of course very strong, after all, they are all produced by the system.
But there is a problem. This hall is maintained by the three major guilds. The surrounding lights and sofas for waiting are all provided by the Professional Players Alliance.
Simply put, hitting pillars is considered damaging public facilities and you will have to pay compensation.
Before he could finish, a quick-talking player from Ronghua Guild spoke up: "It's solid."
Jie Fangcheng kicked his feet, and before anyone could react, he rushed to the pillar and smashed it with the stick in his hand.
Boom boom boom…
As everyone stared in amazement, the pillar broke where he had hit it.
The entire roof of the hall seemed to be tilted.
Nie Shuangshuang, a player in the current professional league, was stunned at first, and then he got angry reflexively: "What are you doing? Repairing the house is free!!"
"Ah?" Jie Fangcheng was puzzled. "Can't this place refresh automatically? I see the floor has been restored!"
Damn it!
Nie Shuangshuang explained to him: "That's because I paid for you! The Professional Alliance helped you fix it! The floor tiles are not expensive! This broken pillar is very expensive! "
Not long after they left, the president of the professional league contacted Nie Shuangshuang via text message.
Without saying a word, a ticket was issued.
Nie Shuangshuang was also straightforward. She paid the money quickly and gossiped with the president about what had happened.
The person on the other end was delighted: "Then when you're not busy, can you introduce me to a place where I can book a copy? I can just treat it as a vacation."
The Professional Players Alliance is indispensable to the entire gaming community, including real estate agents, room repairs, information peddling, stall sales... In short, it involves every aspect of players' lives.
Since the establishment of this union, the president has been sitting in the office all day long handling various chores. Some players jokingly call him the lord of the player base.
But it is not easy to be a city lord. For others, doing dungeons is a way of life, but for the city lord, doing dungeons is really a vacation. After all, anyone who sits in a room every day and looks at a bunch of complaints about which agency charges too high fees or reports about which stall owner sets up a stall in a non-stall area will be annoyed.
The professional alliance has special properties, and the president’s combat power has never been strong, but after all, he has a lot of points and can hire many experts to help.
At this moment, Jie Fangcheng smashed the pillar. Nie Shuangshuang's eyes widened and she soon flew into a rage: "Two million, three hundred and one thousand points! Why is this pillar so expensive?!"
Jie Fangcheng was also surprised: "Why is this pillar so expensive?"
Nie Shuangshuang directly opened the system mall: "Look for yourself! The first page of the system mall, the second line!"
After Jie Fangcheng clicked on it and took a closer look, he found that this pillar was exactly the same as the guild uniform of the Tsukuyomi Guild that had tried to blackmail him before, both were produced by the system.
"But this pillar in the mall only costs 2.2 million points. How come there are middlemen making a profit from the difference?" Jie Fangcheng muttered.
Nie Shuangshuang was speechless: "Brother! You don't charge money to hire someone to install the pillar? Do you think it can be automatically replaced after you buy it?"
“It actually has to be replaced manually? That’s not smart,” said Jie Fangcheng.
Nie Shuangshuang angrily urged the players of Ronghua Guild around him: "Hurry up! Get the fragments and enter the dungeon! Pay the money after you pass the level!!"
Even Jie Fangcheng couldn't stand her temper. The other players from Ronghua Guild who had been with her for a longer time understood her better. They quickly took the fragments and stood on the teleportation point.
There is a trick to entering a copy together. Everyone squeezes together, about 20 people hold together, and put the fragments on the panel together.
A white light flashed, and the teleportation point was empty, with an unknown sigh left behind.
"I never thought that I, Hu Hansan, would be able to return to level 5..."
Just after they completed the teleportation, a white light flashed at the copy exit point nearby.
A group of ten people appeared at the exit point.
Ten people, this should be a team that completed the dungeon together.
But compared to other partners who were crying with joy after completing the dungeon together, or some players who became hostile to each other after conflicts arose in the dungeon, this team seemed very strange.
Originally, a long-haired man wearing a strange red robe with red spider lily patterns embroidered on his clothes was standing in the middle of the ten people. After he came out, the nine people around him retreated as if they were avoiding the plague. Soon, a large circle of open space was left around the long-haired man.
He didn't care at all, just glanced around and frowned.
"Why are there so many wandering souls?"
Then the man stepped out of the teleportation point.
He took two steps, as if thinking of something, and turned his head: "Where should I go to find someone?"
Someone stretched out a trembling hand and pointed at a screen hanging in the middle of the base.
"There... just post a missing person notice."
"Thank you." He nodded politely and finally left.
Everyone huddled together.
Someone's gums trembled: "Who... who is this? I've never heard of such a person in the game?"
"Damn... I've never heard of this... A player suddenly appears in the middle of a game..."
“Never mind! Let’s report it to the president first! He showed up and killed the president’s own son without saying a word… This, this murderer is a maniac!”
Over there, even though they had walked more than ten meters away, the long-haired man seemed to have heard what they were saying.
He turned his head, and although his voice was not loud, the person who had just spoken could hear it clearly.
"It's not killing." He corrected strictly, "It's judging. His actions need to be judged."
After saying this, the man turned around and left.
"Shit... who the hell is that person?"
Someone looked through the recent clearance list: "This guy's name is... Lang, Lang Gu?"
.
[Ding—You have entered a new copy: Digital Cruise. ]
[Dungeon: Digital Cruise (Level 5)]
[Introduction: It is said that there is a treasure in the middle of the ocean. A huge ship is sailing towards the center of the ocean. Go! Go find the treasure of the ocean! ]
[Content: On the ship, everyone has a point. People with high points can exercise their privileges once a day and designate people with low points to do anything. If people with low points resist, they will die immediately.]
[Clearance condition: Get the ocean treasure. ]
[Special: Please refer to the detailed rules of points.]
[No one has ever cleared this instance, the system will give you a new hint.]
[Tip: Pay attention! High points do not mean you can rest easy!]
(End of this chapter)