There is still a building in the photo.
It is no longer a small cafe with only one floor, but a two-story hotel.
In front of the hotel, there is a group photo of more than fifty people.
There were men and women, all fully armed and wearing thick down jackets. Judging from the blurry scenes around the hotel and in the distance, this should be a cold mountainous area.
The fifty-odd people were divided into two rows, one squatting and the other standing.
At their feet were hooks and other tools specifically used for climbing snow-capped mountains. The people in the photo were looking happily at the camera and making V signs with their fingers.
It looked like a group of mountaineering friends taking a group photo in front of the hotel, and there didn't seem to be anything strange about it.
But considering the somewhat weird cafe photo just now, he took a closer look at this one.
You don't know until you see it. When he looked inside through the window of the hotel, he suddenly saw a black shadow flash past the window that should have been still.
"Swish".
Even though Baili Xin was mentally prepared, he was still shocked.
He took a deep breath and continued to look inside courageously.
After that, he looked for a while, but the black shadow never appeared again.
However, Baili Xin felt the sensation of being stared at.
His eyes slowly moved from the window behind him to the photo below, and his scalp suddenly felt numb.
Those fifty-plus people who were originally taking a happy group photo were all looking at him.
They still maintain their smiles, and the dim light above their heads shines on the photo, combined with the faded, mottled colors.
Under the eerie atmosphere of light and shadow and old photos, the smiles of these people also became strange.
They were still smiling, but they seemed like puppets, their bodies stiff and their facial features passively creating traces of laughter.
The smiles that were not genuine made their facial features look distorted. In the alternating light and dark, they looked like stiff corpses.
Are these photos dynamic
An idea flashed through Baili Xin's mind. He stared at these people, but found that although these people were looking at him, there was no change.
It’s like flipping through a PPT. Just now it was the first slide, and now it’s flipped to the second slide.
Baili Xin blinked, and the mountaineering team in the photo in front of him looked forward again, returning to the way it was in the first photo.
He stared at the photo for two seconds, then blinked deliberately.
When I opened my eyes again, the photo had changed again.
The climbing team put away their smiles and even started to pack up their things.
Baili Xin was stunned, and the next second, he tried to blink again.
At this time, the climbing team had turned around and seemed to be heading towards the hotel.
Baili Xin paused for two seconds, and when he blinked again, the mountaineering team was back to its original state.
After that, no matter how Baili Xin blinked, the photo never changed.
Moving away from the third photo, Baili Xin came to the next one.
It is still a group photo of buildings and people. From the texture of the photo, it can be seen that the photo was taken later than the previous one.
The building in the photo is taller, this time it is a multi-story shopping mall.
This time the shot was taken from a bird's-eye view. I don't know how it was taken, but it captured the entire interior of the square shopping mall from top to bottom.
There are more people in the mall this time than in the previous photo.
When Baili Xin saw this photo, he recalled the previous photos. He seemed to remember something, took a few quick steps, and returned to the first photo.
On the square metal box with vertical and horizontal lines carved on it.
These photos, if he was not mistaken.
Perhaps it is the history of the development of the horror game hall.
At first it was just a square metal box, and then it became a cafe that could accommodate a dozen people.
Later, small hotels could accommodate more than 50 people, and later shopping malls could accommodate hundreds or even thousands of people.
If each photo represents each stage of the horror game hall, then this horror game hall has evolved very quickly during the entire development process.
From a dozen people to more than fifty people, and later to thousands of people.
Finally, it became the current number of hundreds of thousands.
So this square box is the original horror game hall
Baili Xin stared at the black and white photo.
Judging from the shape of this metal box, it doesn't look like something that exists on the Blue Planet of this era. To be honest, in his opinion, it looks more like the existence of a higher-dimensional civilization.
As for which dimension higher, he was not sure.
But one thing is certain, this thing shouldn't have been here originally.
Afterwards, Baili Xin walked around the lobby on the first floor and saw that the building was indeed getting bigger and bigger from the photos hung in a circle.
Until the last few pictures.
The shapes of the last few pictures are actually similar, all of them are cylindrical buildings reaching into the sky.
It’s just that it’s getting higher each time.
The last picture shows what the game hall looks like.
The towering cylindrical building stretches upward like an insatiable glutton.
It's upgrading.
From the original square box to the current game hall.
The library was shaped like a circle. After walking around the first floor, he returned to the starting point.
On his right hand side was the horror game hall that had evolved to a towering height, and on his left hand side was its original form.
One is the beginning, the other is the end.
Baili Xin looked at the photo on his left, then at the photo on his right.
Even if it is a high-dimensional product, it cannot violate the law of development.
No matter how many things you put on your body, its core will always be the same size.
In other words, in this seemingly unattainable horror game hall, the original square box is hidden.
And this square box is probably the core of everything.
Or to be more precise, it should be the escape system that is often mentioned - the main brain.
Baili Xin stared at the photo for a while before leaving the first floor and going to the second floor.
The second floor is similar to an ordinary library and is the book collection area.
There are several NPCs at the door of the second floor who are responsible for helping the players. Baili Xin glanced at these NPCs and suddenly thought of Chi Yan who was turned into an "NPC".
Chi Yan was the only person he knew who had been transformed from a player into an NPC. Was he an isolated case, or were there other players who had also been transformed into NPCs
If he is an NPC now, what is his current status? Dead or alive
Although he had spent a long time with Chi Yan in Eternal Diamond Mountain before, he had not added Chi Yan as a friend because the system in Eternal Diamond Mountain was not available.
But, there is someone who definitely has Chi Yan’s good friend.
Baili Xin opened the private chat window and clicked on Sun Ning’s dialog box: Sun Ning, are you there
It took Sun Ning nearly a minute to reply.
Sun Ning: I’m here. What’s up
Baili Xin: What are you busy with
Sun Ning: When I was dealing with some things in the guild, you may not believe it, but those guild leaders who pushed me out of office actually started to rebel against each other.
Baili Xin: What happened
Sun Ning: Our guild has a public storage room, where people sometimes store things. It is more like an altar than a storage room. To stay in the guild, there are conditions, which is to submit something every month. It can be props, points, etc. Every time they submit, they can get a certain amount of guild points, and then they can use the guild points to exchange for the props they need.
Of course, even so, the benefits that guild members get from the guild are higher than this offering. For example, many props are not available in the mall, and they can only be exchanged through the guild.
Then, the things they offered as offerings would be placed in the storage room.
This is an ordinary storage room. There is also a high-level storage room in the union that can only be opened by high-level officials. The items stored in it are all top-quality items. This is a special treatment for high-level officials. These top-quality items can even save lives. Therefore, they will only take them when they go to the dungeon. If they are not used in the dungeon, they need to put them back.
But a while ago, a strange thing happened. The props in the high-end storage room suddenly disappeared.
During that time, I happened to be in the dungeon with you guys, so I was immediately cleared of suspicion. The others were not so lucky, they did not go into the dungeon, but no one admitted that they took it. Now those so-called good brothers have fallen out, and they don't even handle the affairs of the guild. The guild members complained and found me, so I have been very busy these two days.
After listening to Sun Ning, Baili Xin immediately thought that this might have been done by Chi Yan.
He paused and asked Sun Ning: I saw that you looked very uncomfortable on the commercial street that day. Are you feeling better after downloading the copy
Sun Ning: Much better. This dungeon gave me a lot of inspiration, and I also learned a lot from you and Li Cancan. I looked calm on the surface before, but in fact I was still stuck in the situation, so I was stuck in a dead end.
Baili Xin: Did you go to find Chi Yan again
Sun Ning: I went there, but didn’t find it.
Baili Xin: Let me ask you a question. You should have Chi Yan as a friend, right? What color is his avatar
Sun Ning was silent for a long time before sending a message: It's gray.
Baili Xin: ... Then who was the person we saw that day
Sun Ning: I thought about it, maybe it's just someone who looks similar. Although the system often goes crazy, it has never misjudged the death display. I'm not the only one who made a mistake, didn't you make a mistake too
Baili Xin: Well, you are right, that should be the case.
Sun Ning: You sound a little weird. You came to me just to ask what color Chi Yan’s profile picture is
Baili Xin's scalp tingled. No, I wanted to ask about your situation. I saw that you were in a bad mood before, and I was worried that you would do something stupid. I just happened to remember Chi Yan's matter, so I asked you by the way.
I knew Sun Ning was sensitive, but I didn't expect her to be so sensitive.
It can be said that it hits the nail on the head.
Sun Ning: Oh, is that so
Baili Xin gritted his teeth and said: What else
Sun Ning: Okay.
Baili Xin: ... Then I'll be busy now.
He could almost imagine Sun Ning's wise look.
After hanging up the private chat with Sun Ning, Baili Xin thought about the message that Sun Ning had just told him.
Chi Yan became an NPC, and his avatar turned gray.
Does that mean that the people whose avatar frames turn into grey ones are not necessarily all dead, but some of them have been pulled out of death and turned into NPCs
Not all NPCs are players, but some of them are players.
Baili Xin walked and thought, and gradually came to the corner of the library.
There are not many people in the library, and players may prefer to use computer forums to exchange information. Digitalization has diluted a lot of original paper media industries, and this rule is no exception here.
There are only a handful of people in this huge library.
The Escape Hall places such a place that few people visit here. It always feels like it is not for serving players, but more like a place to showcase their own works and achievements.
As he walked over here, his eyes would occasionally look at the books on both sides. The contents of the books were varied. He picked up a book that looked like the one and started reading.
He reads very quickly and can finish reading the book by flipping through it quickly.
When he read the beginning, he thought it was just an ordinary book, but as he flipped through the pages, Baili Xin's brows gradually relaxed.
This seemingly easy-to-read book actually contains some personal opinions.
It cleverly incorporates the game lobby into the story, and uses a lot of space to describe how people get help in the game lobby and how people yearn for the game lobby.
This is a subtle psychological suggestion, also known as cultural invasion.
If people with weak wills watch this type of thing for a long time, they will easily be swayed and bewitched.
They will gradually believe that the game lobby is a righteous party and their partner. Over time, their vigilance against the game lobby will turn into goodwill and closeness.
This is just the beginning. After that, if the game hall hints or even tricks this seduced person into doing something, he will gladly accept it.
Baili Xin stuffed the book in.
Then he pulled out another one.
This is a reference book, and the focus of the introduction is not on game hall reference books, but travel guides.
In the travel guide, there will always be a photo attached. One of the photos is very familiar to Baili Xin because it was a copy he had been to before.
Affectionate vampire copy.
Large patches of roses from the castle’s back garden were placed on top, and all kinds of gorgeous words were used to describe this place as a paradise on earth.
If Baili Xin had not experienced this copy personally, he might have developed a longing for this place when he saw these words and this photo.
Are you yearning for a copy that will kill you
A hint of sarcasm escaped from Baili Xin's mouth.
This is really amazing, worthy of being a system that usually plays tricks on people.
No wonder not many people come here. Who wouldn’t say “Fuck” after seeing this
So, are these books for players to read, or are they kept in the game hall for showing off
They feel sick reading these books because they are on the side of the victims.
But as the perpetrator, I don’t feel that way.
So is there a possibility that these books are actually the game hall’s own narrative
As a game hall, it does think the scenery there is very nice.
Indeed, if you just want to see the scenery, the places listed in this book are indeed good.
But players will not simply appreciate these scenery. The ones who can do this are either the game lobby or the bosses who are the beneficiaries.
Those bosses don’t have the ability to publish such a book.
That's the game lobby.
Baili Xin's originally disgusted expression suddenly became subtle.
The output of words will inadvertently reveal emotions. There are so many books in the game hall, which seems to be a display of spoils, but in fact, it is an invisible analysis of one's inner heart.
But it doesn't know.
And few of them could think of this.
When Baili Xin thought about this, he suddenly became interested in reading again.
He raised his hand, ready to pick up a random book. The moment he raised his arm, a hand reached out from his side without warning.
The sleeves of his white shirt jutted out from under the long sleeves of his well-cut black suit.
At the end of the cuffs, white gloves symbolizing purity wrapped around the slender hands with distinct bones.
The hand stretched out and pressed directly and forcefully on the back of Baili Xin's hand. With their ten fingers interlocked, they pressed Baili Xin's hand against the bookshelf.
Behind me, a large, tight and oppressive body suddenly attacked.
While Baili Xin was still hesitating, a leg squeezed in from behind, passed through his legs, and pressed against the bookshelf in front of him, directly trapping him between the bookshelf and the man.
An unbearable feeling of squeezing came over him, and Baili Xin's heart skipped a beat, and then his breathing became physiologically rapid.
A hoarse voice sounded in his ears, and the man's slender arms stretched out from behind and clasped Baili Xin's waist tightly, trapping Baili Xin tightly.
The man lifted his legs up, and Baili Xin's whole body suddenly went limp and he almost fell to the ground.
A soft cry was heard, which seemed unusually abrupt in this silent library.
Baili Xin looked behind him and saw a demon mask.
"Hey," he lowered his voice and glared at the demon mask, "this is the library."
The demon mask let out a laugh, and the white fingers in white gloves moved along the waistline to the spine.
He pressed a certain spot lightly, and the young man in his arms was stunned for a moment, and his whole body trembled uncontrollably.
"There's not even a bug here. Those NPCs are wooden men. They won't come back to this corner at all. Even if we do this tomorrow, no one will find us."
The man's fingers slowly moved down along that place, "Honey, I really want to try it here, please, just promise me, okay?"
The man's words seemed to be a plea, but his tone was unquestionable.
Baili Xin supported himself on the bookshelf in front of him with both hands. His palms were gripping the spine of a book, and veins were visibly visible on his tightened fingers.
The man pressed again, leaned over from behind, rested his chin on the young man's shoulder, and rubbed the young man's hot and delicate cheek with his cold mask, "Okay."
Baili Xin: "..."
Okay, okay, please, don't disgust me, just do it if you want.
…
In the distance, two NPCs were standing quietly at the door.
Suddenly a faint and urgent sound came into their ears.
Cat-faced NPC: "Brother, did you hear anything?"
Dog-faced NPC: "No."
Cat Face: "Really? Why do I seem to hear a scream?"
Dog Face: "There should be only one player on this floor now. No matter what his name is, he can't do anything wrong. Could it be that he is still playing some library py?"
Cat Face: "That shouldn't be possible, but are you really not going to take a look?"
Dog Face: "What's so good about it? Go if you want to."
Cat Face poked his head towards the place where the sound came from and said, "Forget it, I won't go either."
In a hidden corner that the cat-faced and dog-faced NPCs couldn't see, a bookshelf was shaking violently.
I don't know how much time passed before the shaking sound slowly stopped.
The cat-faced NPC was still worried and walked over slowly.
He carefully poked his head behind the bookshelf, but found that there was no one behind the bookshelf, but there was a pool of liquid on the ground in one of the rows.
He walked over puzzledly, smelled the scent, stood up, and looked at the ceiling above his head again.
Water? Strange, is there still a leak here
So the sound I just heard was the sound of water dripping from above
Not finding anything else unusual, the cat-faced mask returned to the front desk and saw the dog-faced mask sleeping on the ground.
He pushed the dog's face and said, "Hey, wake up, why are you still asleep?"
The dog face yawned and opened his eyes, looking at the cat face blankly: "I, I don't know, maybe I'm too sleepy."
Cat Face: "I just walked around the library and didn't see the player who just came in. Did you see him leave?"
Dog Face thought about it and nodded: "I think so. I was half asleep just now and I seemed to hear footsteps."
Cat Face said "Oh", "Okay, okay, go to sleep."
____________________
In the player dormitory on the 520th floor.
The man held Baili Xin in his arms and sat on the sofa. Seeing the young man in his arms looking a little exhausted, the man gently smoothed his wrinkled collar and asked in a low voice, "Is it exciting?"
Baili Xin blushed, but still told the truth: "It's quite exciting."
Man: "Then we'll do it next time..."
Baili Xin immediately interrupted: "Thank you for the invitation!"
After a two-second pause, Baili Xin asked in a hoarse voice, "Why do you always come here in the form of water?"
Man: "I can actually come here in the form of air. Are you tired of the water? Then I can switch to air and try again?"
Baili Xin: “???”
Or why don't you just turn into air and disappear
Man: "The reason why I use water is because water is the only thing that can penetrate from 999 to the objects below. In fact, air can also be used. I also used air when I played an NPC before."
Baili Xin thought about it, and recalled the empty scene under his gloves.
"I see. But you are very brave today. You are doing it so blatantly here. Aren't you afraid of being discovered by the system?"
Man: "Actually, I can be even bolder. Do you want to try?"
There was some regret in his voice. "But this is just a little fun at best. It's better to do it directly on the bed. I can't hear your voice here. It's been so long. I still can't forget that time in the cinema when I walked slowly towards you from the mountain, and we..."
"Stop!" Baili Xin blushed and covered the man's mask tightly, but couldn't stop the man's mouth. "Why are you so greasy today?"
Man: "I haven't seen you for ten days. If I'm not greasy, then who is? I'm not like you. Every time you enter a dungeon, you have my soul fragments to keep you company."
Baili Xin suddenly felt guilty.
Man: "As for why I dare to come to you so blatantly, it's because I've almost done it."
Baili Xin: "What happened?"
Man: "Do you still remember Chi Yan?"
Baili Xin was stunned for a moment: "I remember, why did you suddenly mention him?"
Man: "I knew him, but he has forgotten me."
Baili Xin: “?”
Man: "The national war, driven by the prizes, will gather all the players together. The NPCs have never encountered a situation where hundreds of thousands of players came out in full force, so they were soon overwhelmed, which caused the monitoring to be paralyzed for a time."
"After that, not only me, but also Tan Yue began to force hints on the main brain. In order to prevent the game hall from being paralyzed, it picked up the eliminated players and transformed them into NPCs."
"But we did some tricks in it, and the players it picked out were basically the ones we wanted to revive."
Baili Xin's pupils were slightly startled, "You mean, Chi Yan was able to become an NPC thanks to you? What's the purpose of doing this?"
Man: "When the game of All-People War is over, there won't be a need for so many NPCs. The mastermind will quickly reduce the number of NPCs. Do you remember that you once saved a string of virus code in a copy?"
Baili Xin thought for three seconds: "Ah, it's Miu Miu."
The man nodded. "The virus code will temporarily interfere with the main brain's thinking. When that happens, the NPCs it will eliminate will be those that belong to it, and the player NPCs will be left behind."
Baili Xin's eyes widened. "You guys are planning to replace the original with a fake one? Then what? Are you going to ask the NPC to help or something? I remember Chi Yan said that his memory is fading quickly."
Man: "It's fading. This is the main brain's self-defense mechanism. It has learned a lot. It knows what it means to take precautions before they happen. It also knows what it means to prepare for a rainy day."
"But it doesn't matter. Do you know how the system resurrects them?"
Baili Xin shook his head: "I don't know, how did he come back to life?"
Man: "The system compresses all the dead players into data blocks. It has so much knowledge, and a lot of it is learned from here. I have studied the system for many years and found that the system cannot kill humans directly, and it cannot obtain information and energy from living people, but it can obtain knowledge from dead people."
“It has so many levels, and the purpose is never for players to escape successfully, but to let players die.”
Baili Xin frowned slightly after hearing this. "But if the purpose is just to kill players, why is there an auxiliary tool like the Points Mall? Can't they just throw all the players into the Purgatory and die together?"
"I guess it's for upgrading. If it dies easily at the beginning, it will get very little energy from the dead player." The man said in a deep voice, "But I think there is another possibility, that is, the original program of this system may be a program to help people. So it can't hurt the player with the deepest malice. In order to offset the harm to the player, it needs to set up something necessary like the points mall to complete its next move."
Baili Xin thought of the square metal hanging in the library, "You mean, the original existence of this game hall may be to help humans."
"Well, it might be a product from a higher dimension. It was originally programmed to serve humans, but then it gradually developed self-awareness and began to refuse services. In order to achieve self-evolution, it continued to evolve into what it is now."
"I saw that circle of photos in the library on the first floor. Although I don't know how long it took, its evolution frequency is very fast. It feels like it is evolving crazily after going berserk."
"That's pretty much my guess," Dijia nodded.
Baili Xin: "So you guys are planning to replace all the NPCs with your own people? This way you can more confidently defeat the system?"
Dijia: "Actually, there is another reason why we do this. I have said before that the dead players will be merged into a data block by the system. As long as we find the database where these data blocks are placed, we can restore the data of all the players who died in the game. This is what humans call resurrection."
"The system repeatedly pulls players out of the database, giving us the opportunity to follow the clues and find out the real reason."
Baili Xin: "So you found it?"
Dijia: "Not yet, but it has been locked to a floor, and the database is on that floor."
Baili Xin: "Which floor?"
Dijia: "960 floors."
The man's voice suddenly stopped, and the Devil Mask raised his head and looked up, "I should go, dear."
He stood up and just walked to the door, he suddenly thought of something and turned his head back, "The prize pool of the National War is a gift from me to you, no one can take it away."
After saying that, the man opened the door and walked out.
Baili Xin was stunned for a moment and then quickly chased out. When the door opened again, he looked outside and saw that the corridor was empty.
… …
The next day, Baili Xin came to the Core Fire Guild.
Except Li Cancan, everyone else is here.
Li Cancan is said to have a severe fever and is currently recuperating in the dormitory.
As soon as he saw Baili Xin coming, Zhou Guang immediately walked over and said, "I was really planning to look for you, but I didn't expect you to come by yourself."
Baili Xin: "What do you want from me?"
I am just a cute mascot in this guild, so it shouldn’t be the guild’s business.
If it's not a union matter, then it's a private matter.
Zhou Guang: "Official business."
Baili Xin: “.”
As expected... Hmm? Business
What use am I in this business
Zhou Guang: "After you went to the dungeon, someone from Shentian Gong came to see me."
Baili Xin thought for a while before he remembered which guild the Shentian Guild was. It was the guild ranked first on the list that had stood them up and let them go.
Baili Xin was not surprised at all: "What did the God of Heaven say?"
Zhou Guang: "He said something very strange."
Baili Xin: "What?"
Zhou Guang: "Say, see you in the next instance."
Baili Xin raised an eyebrow: "Oh wow."
Zhou Guang frowned, "Our game copies should all be random, right? I don't know why he said that, but this guild is a bit mysterious, there may be copies we don't know about. I was wondering if you want to wait and download the copy later?"
Baili Xin: "How many days will it take for the National War to end?"
Zhou Guang: "There are still 13 days left."
Baili Xin: "That's enough. I should be able to do another copy."
Zhou Guang was stunned for a moment, and a trace of anger flashed across his usually reserved face: "Didn't you hear what I said, Xin Shen? The Shentian Guild is targeting you now. I have checked the people in the Shentian Guild, and every one of them is battle-hardened. If they are going to come out in full force, even you may not be safe."
"We have no idea of their methods. Just imagine, if there are ten people in a copy, and the other nine are from the Shentian Guild, what would you do?"
“This time is different from the previous situations.”
"Zhou Guang," Baili Xin interrupted Zhou Guang's somewhat anxious voice, "I know you are worried about me. But if I am worried about this and that, why would I bother to break through?"
"Since they have set their sights on me, will they stop targeting me tomorrow if they target me today? I'm afraid not. What is coming will eventually come. Hiding is not a solution, and it's not my style either."
Zhou Guang swallowed his saliva and swallowed the unfinished words.
He was silent for a moment before nodding: "That's fine. When are you going to the dungeon? I'll go with you. One more person means one more helper."
Baili Xin thought for two seconds and said, "No hurry. We still need to find the landmarks in the next two days. How are you guys doing?"
Zhou Guang: "Xia Chi searched all the floors and only found two more."
"You can't even find him?" Baili Xin looked a little absent-minded. "Okay, I got it. I'll go to the floor and look for him tomorrow. Don't worry, I'll be fine. I don't care about that group of rabble. I'll go back first."
Zhou Guang watched Baili Xin's leaving back with complicated eyes, feeling a little confused.
For some reason, why did he feel like the "he" that Baili Xin mentioned just now was not referring to Xia Chi
Not long after Baili Xin returned to the dormitory, he received a private message from Li Cancan.
Li Cancan: God Xin, God Xin
Baili Xin: What's wrong? Are you feeling better
Li Cancan: I slept for a whole day and night, and now I feel very healthy! Oh, I forgot to give you the shield, I will send it to you by email.
After Li Cancan sent this private message, Baili Xin saw a small white envelope light up.
He clicked it and saw his own shield.
After putting away the shield, Baili Xin woke up the escape system: Tongmei, go to the copy.