The quiet mountain village, isolated from the world, doesn't look like anything special.
But Wu Yang and others did not dare to take it lightly. In the game world, the more ordinary something looks, the more terrifying it will be when it shows its power.
There is a stone tablet at the entrance of the village, with three words engraved on it: Qingshan Village.
Just as everyone was standing at the entrance of the village looking around, a middle-aged man with a hunched back walked out of the village.
He had dark skin and a sad face. He smiled at them cheerfully and said, "You are the young people who came to Qingshan Village today to experience rural life, right? The village has prepared a place for you to stay. Come with me."
Wu Yang said with a simple and honest face: "Thank you for your help, uncle."
The middle-aged man was the chief of Qingshan Village. He introduced the situation of Qingshan Village to them with pride. He thought that they had good vision in choosing Qingshan Village as a place to experience life, and gave them a look of praise from time to time.
Everyone: “…”
Players who have gaming experience don't want this kind of praise from an obviously important NPC. The more praise they get now, the more they will kill when they become ghosts.
According to the village chief, they learned that Qingshan Village had sixty-six households and a population of about three hundred people. Most of the houses were built together, and only a few houses were built far away from the village, on the hillside at the end of the village.
When you enter the village, you can see villagers moving around, some carrying farm tools, some herding cattle and sheep...
Ordinary yet with a unique rural atmosphere.
When the villagers saw the village chief leading strangers into the village, they looked at them curiously. When the village chief introduced that they were coming to the village to experience life, they all smiled kindly and welcomed them.
It was just a friendly and simple rural scene, without any sign of abnormality.
The village chief took them to a house that looked old and dilapidated.
The house has two floors and is made of wood. There are three rooms and a hall on the first floor.
There are four rooms on the third floor.
"This is Lao Li's home. Lao Li and his family of three live on the first floor. You can allocate the four rooms on the second floor among yourselves. Come to my place for your three meals a day, and just tell my wife what you like to eat." The village chief said warmly.
Wu Yang asked curiously, "Why don't we have dinner at Lao Li's?"
The village chief sighed, his brows and eyes looked even more sad. "There is no one in Lao Li's family who can cook for you. Three years ago, Lao Li broke his leg while chopping wood in the mountains and became paralyzed in bed. His wife later ran away, leaving only his old mother with poor health and a young child at home."
Everyone understood that the situation of this family was not good.
"Fortunately, you are coming to the village to experience life. You have paid a lot for accommodation. With this money, Lao Li can finally get his legs treated." The village chief said, and became happy again.
After bringing them there, the village chief had to go away for something and asked them to come to his place for dinner later.
The house looks shabby, but it is still very solid. However, when going upstairs, the stairs make a harsh creaking sound when stepping on them, as if they cannot bear the weight, which makes people worry that they will collapse.
The layout and area of the four rooms on the second floor are similar, and there is a bathroom next to the stairs.
Wu Yang looked at the people present and said, "Let's choose a room first. There are four rooms..."
"Brother Wu, I want to live in the same room with you." Lin Dandan said impatiently.
Wang Peiping was a little unhappy and said sarcastically, "As a woman, how can you rush to live in the same room with a man?"
Lin Dandan ignored him. Among the seven players here, Wu Yang had experienced the most game worlds and had Yang energy to protect his body, so he was the strongest. In a game world like this, it was safer to live with the strongest person.
Wu Yang looked a little embarrassed, as he was not used to living with a girl. But seeing Lin Dandan looking at him eagerly, and based on the friendship they had built up in the previous game world, he finally agreed.
In the gaming world, the distinction between men and women is actually not important; your own life is more important.
There was no suspense in the room allocation. Wu Yang and Lin Dandan shared a room, the fat and thin brothers shared a room, the two girls, Gu Jiu and Lu Ji, shared a room, and Wang Peiping had a room by himself.
Wang Peiping had the same idea as Lin Dandan, but he didn't know that this woman was so shameless. In the end, he could only live in a room by himself, which made him indignant and a little scared at the same time.
He wanted to share a room with the fat brother, but when he saw the bed inside, he knew there was no room.
It is now afternoon, and there is still an hour before the dinner time mentioned by the village chief. Everyone carries the backpacks assigned to them by the game and goes into the room to check.
Gu Jiu and Lu Ji entered the first room on the left side of the stairs. The furnishings in the room were very simple, with a 1.5-meter bed, a wardrobe, a bedside table, two chairs, and nothing else.
Gu Jiu looked around the room and sat down on a chair to rest.
After walking for an hour, her legs felt as heavy as lead, and she wanted to just collapse in a chair and do nothing.
After resting for a while, Gu Jiu found that his roommate was not in the room and he didn't know when he went out.
She didn't care. She wiped the sweat off her face with a tissue, stood up by holding the back of the chair, and walked to the window.
The windows are old windows that are unique to rural areas. When pushed outward, the glass is covered with thick dust and dirt. As long as the window is closed, the light in the room is very dim even in the daytime. When the window is opened, you can see the situation in the village. A group of naked children are running in the village. Occasionally, you can hear the voice of a woman shouting at her children to go home for dinner. It is a normal rural scene no matter how you look at it. There is nothing unusual.
But the fact that they can come here is the biggest anomaly.
Gu Jiu adjusted his glasses, thought about what he saw and heard after waking up and the news he had received previously, and let out a sigh of relief.
Although she didn't know why she was chosen as a player in the Zhutian game world, the extremely clear world before her told her that this place seemed to have a great impact on her eyesight.
I don’t know if it’s because of the glasses or because of the game world
The creaking sound of the door opening brought her back to her senses. Gu Jiu turned around and saw her roommate coming in from outside.
Thinking that they didn't know how long they would stay here, Gu Jiu said to her in a friendly manner: "Ms. Lu, thank you for your help on the way."
She didn’t know if it was her illusion, but the word “Miss Lu” made the girl pause slightly. Then she walked over as if nothing had happened and began to pack her backpack.
Seeing that she ignored him, Gu Jiu didn't care and his eyes fell on the backpack he placed on the table.
The backpack is assigned to them by the game.
According to the information known so far, they are a group of young people who came from the city to Qingshan Village to experience rural life, so they naturally brought luggage. When she opened her backpack, she found a set of clothes in it, which were exactly the same as the ones she was wearing. Apparently, the game world was too lazy to provide different clothes for the players, so they just copied a set so that they could wear the same clothes every day.
In addition to clothes, there are some necessary daily necessities and a flashlight.
Gu Jiu didn’t know whether other people’s backpacks were like this, so he asked his roommate directly.
"The same." Lu Ji opened his backpack so that she could see clearly.
The same style of clothes as Lu Ji, matching daily necessities, and a flashlight.
Gu Jiu was not clear about the situation in the Zhutian game world, but the things equipped in the game should have their purpose.
"When I have time later, I should go ask Wu Yang and the others about the game," she said to herself.
Lu Ji looked at her and said nothing.
Soon it was dinner time and a group of people went to the village chief's house.
The village chief’s house is located at the entrance of the village. It is also a two-story wooden structure, similar in structure to other houses in the village.
Dinner was authentic farm food, including chicken, duck and fish. The village chief's wife entertained them warmly and said that they could eat as much as they wanted with the food money they handed in.
Gu Jiu ate the refreshing smashed cucumber and thought that this game was very considerate as it also helped them pay for accommodation and food expenses.
After dinner, it was already dark.
Gu Jiu looked at the sky and found that the sky was getting dark too quickly, which was very abnormal.
The village chief sat at the door, smoking a bamboo pipe, a unique feature of the countryside, and said to them, "Don't leave the house at night, or something bad will happen."
Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment, and Wu Yang asked tentatively: "What do you mean by bad things..."
Qingshan Village is very backward, with no electricity and people can only light oil lamps.
An oil lamp was lit in the room, the light was dim, the village chief's face was lost in the darkness and it was hard to see clearly. The voice that sounded warm and hospitable during the daytime became a little more erratic, "There will be mountain ghosts that will appear and seduce people's souls."
Mountain ghost
Anyone who has experienced the game world understands that this should be a hint, but is this mountain ghost related to the curse of the village
Everyone walked back to Lao Li's house.
It gets dark too quickly. There are no street lights in the countryside, and the roads are dirt and bumpy. You can easily fall if you're not careful.
Wang Peiping was tripped by a stone on the side of the road and hit his knee. He grimaced in pain and couldn't help cursing.
Wu Yang said: "It's getting dark so fast, it's definitely not normal, let's go back quickly."
In the game world, some NPCs' words must be obeyed. These are the rules that the game world reveals to players through NPCs. Once players violate the rules, it is easy to trigger death. Some players don't even know how they died.
A group of people hurried towards Lao Li's house.
Gu Jiu followed the crowd with light steps. Even though the road was difficult to walk on, he walked more steadily than them.
As a person with congenital impaired vision, she has developed the ability to locate objects by hearing sounds since she was a child and is used to groping in the dark. The fact that she cannot see has made her better adaptable to the environment.
When we returned to Lao Li's house, the sky seemed to have become even darker, and it was almost pitch dark.
The whole village was pitch black, with no lights on in any house. This unusual situation attracted everyone's attention, but because it was the first day and given the words of the village chief, no one dared to take the risk to explore.
Old Li's house was also pitch black and eerily quiet.
Gu Jiu looked at the three rooms on the first floor with their doors tightly closed. The Li family had three generations of grandparents and grandchildren, a frail old lady, the paralyzed old Li, and a four-year-old child. They came in and out today, and the doors were all tightly closed, as if no one was home.
Normally, when a tenant arrives, the landlord should at least come out to receive him, but the people from Old Li's family had no intention of showing up and left the entire process to the village chief.
After the group of people went up to the second floor, without any extra words, they went to the bathroom in groups to wash up and then returned to their rooms to rest.
Gu Jiu sat on the bed, feeling uncomfortable all over.
She was a clean person and used to taking a shower every day. She had walked for an hour during the day and was sweaty. She couldn't sleep without a shower. But she found that Wu Yang and the others didn't want to take a shower. She didn't know whether it was inconvenient or they didn't dare to. It was probably the latter.
Gu Jiu didn’t know what the situation was in this game world, and he didn’t want to joke with his life before he figured it out.
She endured the discomfort all over her body, took off her thin windbreaker, and lay down with her clothes on.
Lu Ji was lying on the other side, and there was a wide distance between the two of them. It was obvious that neither of them was used to having someone on the other side of the bed.
In the middle of the night, after finally falling asleep, Gu Jiu was awakened by a creaking sound.
The sound was like someone walking up and down the stairs. The old wooden stairs couldn't bear the weight and made a creaking sound that was very noisy in the quiet night.
Unable to sleep due to the noise, Gu Jiu opened his eyes depressedly and lay there without moving.
There was a clicking sound from the window, as if a hand was knocking on it. Gu Jiu didn't want to know what it was. He pulled the quilt to wrap himself and forced himself to sleep.