Violation
Chen Yang looked at the pool of transparent mucus at the door, his mind racing.
"What rules did Wang Hao break?" Li Zheng felt dizzy. "He ate someone who didn't break any taboos?"
Chen Yang looked at him suddenly.
Li Zheng's scalp tingled when Chen Yang looked at him: "Did I say something wrong?"
"No." Chen Yang said, "Maybe that's it." He cast a confirming look at Chao Jian.
Chao Jian didn't give any response.
Chen Yang knew that his partner wanted him to analyze and summarize on his own.
Zheng Zhiqin raised his eyebrows, the way these two people get along with each other is really amazing. He suddenly had a childish idea to play a prank on the teacher. The teacher doesn't give the students the answer, right? Then he has to hand over the answer.
"You can only interfere, not induce." Zheng Zhiqin became the focus as soon as he opened his mouth.
Yu Ge, who was lying on the ground, asked hoarsely, "Induce what?"
"Inducing the tasker to commit a crime is against the law." Zheng Zhiqin said to Chen Yang.
Chen Yang's breath got stuck in his throat. He felt as if he was solving a problem and when he got halfway through the solution and the idea became clear, someone suddenly told him the answer.
This immediately made him lose the enthusiasm to continue calculating.
My brain power has become dull.
Chen Yang didn't notice that Chao Jian and Zheng Zhitan were glaring at each other. He sat down and drank some water, letting his mind go blank.
"Monsters have their own rules. Why should they break the rules?" Qiao Qiao, who was in a bad mood, suddenly spoke up.
Seeing that she was finally willing to speak, Li Zheng quickly replied, "Maybe they are afraid that they can't complete the workload, so they take advantage of the loopholes and cheat."
Qiao Qiao looked at him with red and swollen eyes: "Workload?"
"Indicators," Li Zheng said after thinking, "We must eat a few people."
"If we find the taboo quickly and avoid it, no one will die. But the later we crack the clues and find out the taboo, the more people will break the taboo and die."
Li Zheng said: "So the degree of completion of the monster's work is closely related to itself. It will interfere with us when we are looking for clues, analyzing and discussing, disrupting the rhythm, delaying our progress, and even using others as a shield to hide itself."
"Monster work is mental work." He rakes his hair.
Everyone:"… "
During Xiao Huanyu's work, the rules set a taboo for the task performers, which was treading water. This taboo was easy to detect and easy to be accidentally violated even after being discovered. He did not need to cheat at all to complete the target and finally got off work smoothly.
Wang Hao's work is more difficult than Xiao Huanyu's. Although the headless hexagon "a" is not easy to solve, it is not easy to violate either.
As for the hidden taboo "I'm tired from work", it's a trap that traps both monsters and taskers.
"So this is the monster's identity clue." Pan Lin found the video of the service desk. The picture stopped on the back of Wang Hao's head. His hand trembled and he clicked delete.
"It's so obvious, but I didn't even see it." Pan Lin held his waist and moved towards the wall. He leaned his back against it and stared at the sea above his head with lifeless eyes. "The mission is too difficult..."
A dark despair emanated from Pan Lin and quickly enveloped the area.
"In fact, when I first saw Wang Hao moving his mouth in the video, the first word that came to my mind was 'Aries'," Qiao Qiao smiled bitterly, "but I thought it was impossible so I didn't say it."
“I thought of that, too, and automatically blocked it.” Brother Yu sighed in frustration, “I threw it away without even thinking about it, and never picked it up again.”
The video was discovered by Wang Hao. His face was in the video. Who would have thought that the shape of his lips was his own zodiac sign.
Is it simple? Yes.
Why hasn’t it been discovered so easily? Because the answer is so simple that it defies fixed thinking.
Rules are so scary, they can fully understand people's thinking patterns.
I like to go against the flow and do things the other way around.
Sometimes the most unlikely thing is the answer.
But now that everyone understands this principle, they will still be stuck the next time they look for clues.
"The video clue points to a piece of information." Chen Yang said, "Wang Hao was not a monster at the time, and he did not realize that this was a hint about his identity given by the rules to the taskers, otherwise he would have concealed the video."
The mineral water bottle that Chen Yang had rested on his chin was taken away by Chao Jian. He grabbed the other's leg in time to avoid falling to the ground: "A monster will only know that he is a monster when the time comes. He doesn't know it before."
Pan Lin took out a small notebook and took notes: "What time?"
"Nine in the morning, time to go to work." Chen Yang said.
There was dead silence in the corridor.
Ten or so seconds later, a "ding" sound was heard in the dim light, and Zheng Zhiqin lit a cigarette.
This was the only sound around.
Two hints of this mission emerged in Chen Yang's mind. One was that they had to survive in half of the A3 building for four days, and now they had just completed half of it.
This half-step progress directly brings out the meaning behind the other hint.
23 divided by 23, the number of people divided by the number of people, equals 1.
Ever since Chen Yang heard this hint from Pan Lin, he has been wondering what "1" represents.
Everyone also shared their own ideas. Some people thought that they should attack and kill each other, while some people thought it was a 1v1 mode.
Neither of those speculations has been verified.
Chen Yang's slightly bloodshot eyes flashed with light. Based on these two rounds, "1" means that no matter how the number of taskers changes, there is always a monster among them.
Chen Yang expressed his thoughts.
Chao Jian threw the half-drunk water into Chen Yang's arms.
Chen Yang stroked the bottle for a few times, turned his head and whispered to him: "Is the solution 1 correct?"
"Whatever you think is right is right." Chao Jian said.
Chen Yang observed Chao Jian's expression and said, "It's my fault that my brother is so slow in solving the problem."
Chao Jian smiled silently, then pushed away the face that was so close to him with his palm, without using much force, just like touching.
It was quiet all around.
The light from the flashlight hit the wall and scattered among the tired people, blurring their expressions.
So far, including the female white-collar worker who did not participate in group activities, there are twelve people alive. At nine o'clock tomorrow morning, one of them will become the third monster in the mission.
After a while, Pan Lin said in a mosquito-like voice: "Anyone is possible?"
Li Zheng said at the same time as him: "Are the monsters random, or are the candidates determined at the beginning of the mission?"
No one answered either of these questions.
Chen Yang glanced at his partner, then at Zheng Zhiqin who was thinking and blowing smoke rings, and said in a deep voice: "It's not clear yet."
Pan Lin asked as if he was asking a question at school: "So when we go to work tomorrow, will the people suddenly become mutants, or... will the monsters transform into humans and stay in the team at the beginning, thinking they are humans, and only then will they realize their true identity, and then switch from the tasker's camp to the monster camp?"
Those are two concepts with completely different natures.
The surrounding air was sucked away in an instant, and a feeling of suffocation from lack of oxygen swept over them. One by one, people began to have difficulty breathing and their limbs became weak.
If the latter situation is the case, then both Xiao Huanyu yesterday and Wang Hao today are not human beings.
The real them didn't show up for work, or... died at the beginning of the mission
"Baby, it's a good thing to love learning, but," Zheng Zhiqin pulled Pan Lin up and carried him towards the corridor like a chicken, "If you have any questions, find the answers yourself. Be a good child who likes to use his brain."
Pan Lin struggled for a few times: "Brother Qin, if I become a monster, what will you do to me?"
"You should think about what you would do to me if you were a monster." Zheng Zhiqin walked into the corridor and threw him aside.
Pan Lin screamed in pain twice. He stood against the wall and said, "Brother Qin, don't worry. If I turn into a monster, I will definitely tell you secretly what the taboo is."
After saying this, he lowered his head in embarrassment, as if this statement was so false that he felt embarrassed.
If you really become a monster, you won’t care about those things.
Maybe he would even tempt Zheng Zhitan to break taboos for the sake of work targets... No, that won't work, that would be against the rules, we can't break the rules.
Pan Lin couldn't help but think that if Zheng Zhiqin became a monster, he hoped that the other party would retain his fetish for ugly people.
By then, Zheng Zhitan might be willing to let him go because he was at his ugliest.
Pan Lin looked up and found Zheng Zhiqin standing two floors below the stairs, smoking a cigarette and looking at him with a half-smile, as if he had guessed his thoughts. He hurriedly shone the flashlight downwards, hiding his expression in the dark.
Zheng Zhitan turned around and went downstairs.
Pan Lin followed behind him without hesitation, "Brother Qin, why don't you knock me out..." He realized what he said and thought it was the best strategy. His voice trembled with excitement, "If I stay unconscious, don't talk or move, then I can avoid the taboo and survive the remaining two days!"
Zheng Zhitan stopped at the top of the stairs, turned his head and smiled: "You are quite clever."
Pan Lin couldn't guess what the man was thinking, so he asked cautiously, "Will that work?"
Zheng Zhitan said, "It won't work." He turned to the first floor and continued walking, saying nonchalantly, "The mission will change."
Pan Lin's heart was pounding: "What's the change?"
The man walking in front did not answer.
"Brother Qin, if I die, can you sell the house and luxury items you gave me and donate the money to charity?" Pan Lin sobbed.
Zheng Zhitan: "What?"
"I want to accumulate some virtue so that I can be reborn into a good family in my next life, and not have an asymmetrical and deformed face anymore," Pan Lin wiped his eyes, "then I will have friends."
Zheng Zhiqin said: "When you die, everything in the real world will be erased, and the house and other things will not be yours."
Pan Lin looked at the back of the man's head: "Oh..."
Chen Yang smelled the cigarette smell left by Zheng Zhiqin, and his mouth felt dry. He took out a cigarette box and a lighter from his backpack: "Is Zheng Zhiqin planning to train Pan Lin?"
"Why do you care about that ugly freak named Zheng?" Chao Jian said in a bad tone.
Chen Yang was speechless. The rule of "one positive and one negative" popped up in his mind. Then he thought of Chao Jian's aesthetic taste and Zheng Zhitan's aesthetic taste. A bold idea exploded in his heart.
Chao Jian allowed Chen Yang to come closer and look at him.
One minute passed, two minutes passed... At three minutes, Chao Jian could no longer bear it: "What are you thinking about?"
Chen Yang carefully probed: "Are you also in love with ugliness?"
Chao Jian took a deep breath and said, "Bullshit!"
"My saliva is spraying up." Chen Yang wiped his face, wiping his hand from his eyes and nose all the way down. When he passed his lips, he found Chao Jian staring at him, and he moved his eyebrows in confusion.
Chao Jian looked up at the sea.
Chen Yang flicked the lighter, and suddenly heard Chao Jian say, "I don't like ugliness, I have normal aesthetic taste."
"… "fart.
Chen Yang really wanted to say those two words back to Chao Jian, but he shook his head. This guy couldn't even come up with a better excuse. He coaxed him like he was coaxing a three-year-old child.
"Don't believe it?" Chao Jian glanced at him.
Chen Yang said: "I really want to believe it, but..."
"You're not ugly." Chao Jian interrupted him.
Chen Yang was stunned for a few seconds, then he touched the tip of his nose and said, "Then I believe your aesthetic taste is normal."
“That’s not right. Why do other handsome guys and beautiful girls seem…” Chen Yang opened his mouth but no sound came out. He felt that he touched something but didn’t know what it was.
Maybe he knows
Chen Yang pressed the lighter, the flame flickered in his eyes, and he looked at Chao Jian.
Chao Jian took Chen Yang's lighter and brought the flame to the cigarette next to his mouth: "Do the others have anything to do with you?"
Chen Yang smelled the burning smell of cigarettes: "No."
"Then what are you asking?"
Chen Yang stroked Chao Jian's hair: "Okay, okay, I won't ask." He took a puff of his cigarette and said with a sigh, "I thought I was ugly to you, too."
Chao Jian grabbed the hand that was still on the top of his head, pinched the ulna of that hand, rubbed it imperceptibly before putting it down.
Chen Yang was about to pull Chao Jian downstairs when Brother Yu stopped him.
"Mr. Chen," Brother Yu pointed at the three people by the wall and said, "Mr. Zhang, Sister Wang, and Liu Liu have all fainted. Should we leave them here to spend the night?"
"Carry it downstairs." Chen Yang said.
Brother Yu picked Liu Liu, who was the lightest. Despite this, his legs were still shaking when he carried him on his back.
Chen Yang looked at Brother Yu. He was quite tall and strong, but why was it so difficult for him to carry someone of Liu Liu's physique? Was he just weak
Brother Yu gritted his teeth and carried Liu Liu to the end of the corridor.
Chen Yang didn't look again. He lowered his head and carried Sister Wang on his back. The look he gave to Jian was as if he wanted to eat him.
The mute and Qiao Qiao were close to each other and were caught off guard by the cold. They quickly took Sister Wang from Chen Yang and each helped her down the stairs.
By the time Chen Yang reacted, Mr. Zhang had already been picked up by Li Zheng.
"It's none of my business." Chen Yang had just finished speaking when a warm body crawled on his back.
The young man wrapped his long arms and legs around him, skillfully and swiftly.
Chen Yang carried the person on his back and walked steadily at the end of the team.
"Judging from Wang Hao's performance, there are also stupid monsters." Li Zheng muttered to Zhang on his back, "Suddenly I feel that the hope of getting out alive is a little greater."
Qiao Qiao put Sister Wang's arm on her shoulders and pursed her lips: "The astrology book says that today is a lucky day for Aries. Good luck."
"Wang Hao was fired for violating regulations and was unable to leave work smoothly. This shows that horoscope books are sometimes not effective," said Li Zheng.
Qiao Qiao was listless.
The mute stopped and when Qiao Qiao looked over, she let out a few soft "ahs".
"I'm fine." Qiao Qiao pretended to be relaxed, "It's okay."
"Fairy, the constellation book is also spiritual," Li Zheng turned around and grinned, "It was not a good time to go to work yesterday, this is very spiritual."
He let out a breath: "We really shouldn't have come to work."
"Li Zheng!" Qiao Qiao's face turned pale, and his baby voice was thinner and sharper than usual, "Stop complaining!"
Li Zheng could hear the girl's concern and nervousness, and paused. He said knowingly, "I love going to work. I love going to work. I love it so much. No one can stop me from going to work."
"… "
We ate something and then rested in the hall.
The pool of liquid at the door had disappeared, along with several headless corpses and the bloody hexagon.
Chen Yang sat next to Chao Jian, watching him organize the information in his star-chasing diary. The cigarette around his mouth was covered with long ash, which could fall off at any time.
As soon as the mute came over, the handful of cigarette ash fell on Chen Yang's trousers. He waved his hand to pat off the ash, and before he could say anything, the cigarette was twisted by Chao Jian and taken away from between his lips and teeth.
Chen Yang turned to look at the little mute: "Why are you so listless?"
The mute didn't say a word. She tried to count how many times a day Chao Jian swallowed Chen Yang's saliva, but found that she couldn't count them. It was too many times.
And Chen Yang didn’t think it was wrong at all.
Chao Jian is really capable.
If Chen Yang is eaten one day, he probably won’t have much psychological struggle.
"Sister, what are you thinking about? Why is your face as red as a tomato?" Chen Yang couldn't help laughing.
The mute covered her face and shook her head, then she took out a sticky note pad and wrote.
Brother, do you remember I told you that I have had an extraordinary intuition since I was a child
"Remember." Chen Yang said, "In the mission at the train station, you said you approached me because your intuition told you that if you made friends with me, you would have a better chance of getting out alive."
I can't do it this time, my intuition is broken.
Chen Yang thought back to what the little mute had said before, “Monsters aren’t extra,” “It’s among us,” “It’s been there from the beginning,” and “There’s more than one,” all of which were correct.
"You are very good." Chen Yang said with a smile.
The mute waved her hands and said she was not that great. She wanted to tell Chen Yang that she felt she could not make it to the end. To be more precise, she would not survive this mission.
Chen Yang felt a strong sense of uneasiness from the little mute. He wanted to comfort him but couldn't find the words to speak.
No one knows what will happen tomorrow or what the situation will be on the last day.
Chen Yang kept talking to the little mute, and in his sight he saw the work ID card around her neck, shaking.
The mute thought Chen Yang wanted to see it, so he took it down and gave it to him.
Chen Yang casually took it and flipped it over. Something suddenly flashed through his mind and his hand trembled, causing the work permit to fall to the ground.
He overlooked a horrible detail!
Most people’s work IDs don’t have photos attached, and the person hanging the ID may not be the owner of the ID.
The mute was frightened by Chen Yang's expression. She didn't even bother to pick up her work ID and wrote anxiously.
elder brother
Chen Yang concealed the thoughts in his eyes: "Nothing, I just thought of something." He looked around at the doors and windows in his field of vision, all of which were dark sea water, and it seemed as if there were countless pairs of eyes in the sea looking at them.
"Ding-ling-ling—"
The sudden ringing of the phone froze the air in the hall.
Everyone sitting on the sofa stood up.
The phone at the service desk was ringing, but no one moved.
"Is the phone call a clue to the identity of the next monster?" Li Zheng rubbed the goose bumps on his arms.
"What if I die? Will there be no more?" Pan Lin's eyes widened. "I need to answer it quickly. I need to go quickly!"
However, neither Pan Lin, who said this, nor the audience took any action.
Who will pick it up
The phone was still ringing, and Chen Yang left. The moment he took a step, the sound of crutches came from behind him. His partner followed him all the time.
Chen Yang stopped in front of the phone, answered it and turned on the speakerphone.
There was a breathing sound on the other end of the phone. Someone was gasping for air, one after another, as if it was being squeezed out with difficulty from the throat, like a broken bellows.
“Hoo—Hoo—Hoo—”
The call duration is five seconds.
Chen Yang recorded it, five seconds of panting sound, it was very blurry, as if there was a layer of obstruction, he was not sure whether it was a man or a woman.
"If I heard this panting normally, I would think the other person was doing some kind of exercise." Li Zheng coughed.
"Sports?" Chen Yangfu was inspired and looked at the veteran athlete Zheng Zhiqin who was present.
Zheng Zhiqin raised his lips: "I won't be out of breath like that if I do it more than four times."
Witness Pan Lin nodded to Chen Yang.
Chen Yang: “…”
"Is it..." Qiao Qiao said uncertainly, "climbing the stairs?"
"Is the sound of the tasker climbing the stairs just now recorded?" Li Zheng followed her thoughts and his face changed. "But, everyone climbed the stairs just now."
"Listen to me and see if it looks like me." He said this while breathing heavily.
Doubt yourself.
"How about we all record our own breathing and compare it with what we heard on the phone?" Brother Yu suggested.
This proposal was adopted.
But after recording the panting sound, they did not lock on to the target.
The phone at the service desk stopped ringing. Everyone returned to their sofa chairs and sat down. Some were still fainting, some were still sleepy, and some were still communicating.
It was almost ten o'clock when Chen Yang and Chao Jian went to the bathroom.
"Don't try the password of your cell phone. Let's talk about it tomorrow." Chen Yang washed his face and looked at the blue color in Chao Jian's eyes through the mirror.
Chao Jian said "hmm".
Chen Yang glanced at Chao Jian's still dragging left leg and thought of Zheng Zhiqin. That guy's arms, legs and face were all injured, but he looked like nothing happened.
Zheng Zhiqin's pain system is very abnormal, and it is probably caused by psychological factors.
Chen Yang suspected that Zheng Zhitan had once hypnotized himself into "not feeling pain" when he was on the verge of life and death. Over time, he developed a kind of protective wall of self-paralysis.
Chen Yang came back to his senses after his neck was pinched. He was just about to talk about Zheng Zhitan when he suddenly met Chao Jian's gloomy gaze, and his spine suddenly felt cold.
"What's wrong?" Chen Yang asked.
Chao Jian's eyes were slightly red: "I want to bite you."
Chen Yang: “…Ah?”
"Brother, calm down. We can talk about it. Biting is wrong." Chen Yang pulled his neck away from Chao Jian's fingers. His sister liked to bite him very much. When they were little, it didn't hurt, so she just thought of it as teeth grinding.
When you grow up...
My sister still insists on biting the same place. Really, Chen Yang feels so sad when he thinks about it now.
Chao Jian stared at Chen Yang for a moment, then leaned on his back and said, "Let's go."
Chen Yang carried him on his back, thought about it, and advised him seriously: "Don't have that kind of thought in the future."
"Grown-up children shouldn't bite people, and adults shouldn't bite people either," Chen Yang said as he walked. "If you bite a watch for me, I won't be able to help but give you one back. That would be really bad, don't you think?"
I could hear a long, warm breath passing by my ears; the person on my back had fallen asleep.
Chen Yang: “…”
Chen Yang slept uneasily in the second half of the night. The water vapor seemed to form an invisible tissue that covered his nose. He opened his mouth to breathe unconsciously.
The body was fished out and Chen Yang woke up instantly.
"It's me." Chao Jian blocked his fist that was about to swing at him due to muscle reaction, "Go upstairs."
Without even thinking, Chen Yang shouted to the others, "Go upstairs, go upstairs quickly!"
His trust in Chao Jian had already penetrated deep into his bones, crawled into his heart, entangled his soul, and overrode his emotions and reason.
However, the temporary teammates did not have such trust. Some of them went upstairs based on their intuition, while others hesitated and slowly asked what was going on.
"Water!" Li Zheng, who had already run to the second floor, shouted, "The water is coming in, come up quickly!"
Mr. Zhang and Sister Wang downstairs hurriedly ran upstairs.
The first floor was flooded.
Everyone looked down from the second floor. There was no sign of just waking up on their faces. They were disturbed by the sudden change before them.
Brother Yu was still in shock: "Where did the water come from?"
Li Zheng shook his head and said blankly, "Isn't it impossible to enter the building?" He pointed to the top of his head and then to the window, "The seawater is still blocked outside."
The water on the first floor seemed to be seeping up from below. The mute held up the sticky note pad.
"So much leakage?" Qiao Qiao muttered, "I have a bad feeling."
Everybody was silent.
Chen Yang whispered to Chao Jian: "I want to go downstairs."
Chao Jian put away his crutches without saying anything and opened his arms to him.
Not long after, Chen Yang and Chao Jian stood on the stairs on the first floor. He took Chao Jian's crutch and poked it into the water, then took the crutch back and looked at the water marks on it.
"The water is as high as my knees," said Chen Yang.
"That's fine." Yu Ge came closer, "Should we go down?"
"Observe for a while first." Chen Yang handed the crutch to Chao Jian, staring at the water, and suddenly he held his breath.
There's something in the water!