The two arrogant men were defeated, and Xiaohua also died.
Wen Shi was scolded and retreated. Now the three of them were squatting in the corner. In the end, Wen Shi acted as the spokesperson: "This is the situation. You can do whatever you want."
This is the only condition they have. Anyway, the game has clearly indicated that the first clue mission has been successfully triggered, so the Straw Demon has to open this mission line no matter what.
The straw demon's hollow eyes were about to become bright as it glared at the three desperate troublemakers.
Wen Shi, who was preparing to make one last effort, tried to make a suggestion: "How about just letting him go?"
A large amount of straw ash was blown by the wind. Because it was too scattered to be avoided, it covered Wen Shi's face and made him look a little ugly.
Xiaohua, who had just been spat upon, said calmly, "I was just about to hit it, but you held me back."
This kind of thing should have been burned long ago.
That has to be able to be burned... Wen Shi pressed his eyebrows and stopped talking, waiting to see what the scarecrow was going to do.
The originally lifeless house became completely silent, and the night became even more sinister for a moment.
As everyone was silent, the messy straw suddenly rustled, and the straw devil had an idea. It lowered its head kindly, and the corners of its lips were raised more than before: "Do you want to know the city lord's secret?"
Wen Shi nodded politely, cursing it in his heart for talking nonsense.
Another straw popped out of the devil's cracked mouth, this time the tip was covered in black blood.
"Later, time will go back to the point where the city lord has the secret."
Wen Shi's guard suddenly increased. The last time he dealt with the Scarecrow, the other party did not mention time travel. The process was simply asking questions and then reversing time unexpectedly.
"You can take turns to experience this time, playing a specific role, and explore the city lord's secrets by controlling him." The straw man put the hay down again and said to the point, "But if you show behavior logic that is inconsistent with the role during the role-playing process, it will be considered a failure, and you will have to sacrifice your entire soul."
Li Nan got to the point: "Are the three people playing the same role? Will it be considered passed if all of them play the role successfully?"
The Scarecrow nodded first, answering the first question, then shook his head for the second question and relaxed the rules: "As long as one succeeds."
The more generous it is, the more disturbing it becomes. The lenient winning mechanism shows that the task is very difficult.
The time of Wen Shi's transformation was about to end. Looking at the cat's tail that was about to disappear, there was a hint of thought in his eyes.
The game proposed by the Straw Demon fits the theme of "The Horror Club": role-playing.
They need to guess the psychology of the characters they play and not let their characters collapse. At the same time, they also have to be careful about other things. For example, when going back in time, if there is any behavior that reverses history, it will be immediately erased by the rules.
The Straw Demon also specifically reminded this point, with a strange tone: "Anyone who attempts to reverse history will become a dead man."
After that, we return to the original question: "Who comes first?"
Wen Shi and Xiao Hua looked at the most stable person at the same time.
Role playing is something that more stable people are more suitable for. Li Nan did not refuse and walked back to the devil.
The scarecrow inserted the black end into his head, and the moon in the night sky appeared a faint blood color, and then more blood-colored mist poured down and surrounded Li Nan's whole body.
The fog was so thick that it was impossible to tell what was happening in the enshrouded center.
Wen Shi's eyes silently moved to the straw demon, and through its smug look, he knew that this time the traceback was successful. Not long after, the demon also disappeared.
During the long wait, Xiaohua glanced at her phone and said, "We don't have much time left."
Including the time it took to take the taxi, more than an hour had passed.
"Not much, but enough." Wen Shi thought that what he needed to worry about more right now was the mission itself.
The ability of the Straw Demon cannot be compared with that in the game. In the replay of the quality inspection area of the large factory, the time inside and outside is almost one to one, but it is just the opposite in the Sealed Coffin Village. He was delayed for most of the night, but after returning to the copy world, not much time had passed.
Having said that, waiting is the most patience-consuming thing. After only twenty minutes, the two gradually became anxious. Xiaohua found a tree to lean against, tapping the trunk with her fingernails. When she was about to make a dent in the bark, the red mist in front of her finally changed.
The fog dissipated, and a familiar figure walked out. Facing the inquiring eyes of the two, Li Nan shook his head slightly: "It didn't work."
The Scarecrow reappeared, as if he was not surprised by this ending, and smiled with particular pride.
While Xiaohua was on guard against the demon, she asked directly, "What happened?"
The Scarecrow ignored their information exchange and gave a cold reminder: "Thirty seconds."
This means that each person has thirty seconds to communicate.
Generally speaking, all the requirements stated by NPCs have been carefully calculated by the game.
Xiaohua’s brows may not be furrowed as much as they are tonight, even if all her brows are furrowed in a year. This is a special opportunity for players to communicate. How tricky is this clue mission
Li Nan took the time to explain the situation. Xiaohua did not dare to be distracted and listened attentively.
"All the information was unknown. I had no idea who I was playing from the beginning to the end. No natives came to communicate with me, and I couldn't even see the character's face clearly. It was a complete mosaic." Li Nan picked out the important information and emphasized: "I monitored the city lord's residence for half a night, and when it was almost dawn, I received a notification tone that the role-playing failed."
“… A thief sneaked in through the inner door halfway through, screamed briefly, and never came out again.”
With only a few seconds left, Xiaohua looked at Wen Shi and asked, "Any ideas?"
Li Nan's method was correct. He first had to learn the secret of the city lord's residence. Unfortunately, the character he played did not seem very calm. This choice of only monitoring without immediate action was judged as an ooc character.
With just a few words, Wen Shi had no other thoughts and took the initiative to say, "It's my turn this time."
He and Li Nan have personalities at two extremes. If we explore the situation a little, we can make a comparison between the information we get.
When Wen Shi walked towards the straw demon, Li Nan seemed to catch a cold and coughed twice.
The straw demon began to insert straw.
"hiss."
When the blood-stained straw was inserted into his head, it was much more uncomfortable than the previous time, almost excruciatingly painful. Wen Shi was breathing slightly.
The blood mist came, and the sky and the earth were dark. It was hard to tell whether it was the dizziness caused by the pain or the teleportation.
When I opened my eyelids again, the sky was just as dark. The rockery, the black stones... these elements were reflected in my pupils, as if there was no such thing as looking back.
Wen Shi looked around and found that Xiaohua and the others were gone. The wandering corpses also disappeared mysteriously and could no longer be summoned. All this showed that he had truly returned to the past.
[Your skills will be temporarily frozen]
[Your items will be temporarily frozen]
[Please make a judgment as soon as possible and match the most suitable identity for your role among all the professions in the Golden City]
"The teleportation point is still at the city lord's residence." Li Nan said it concisely. Wen Shi originally thought that he was teleported to somewhere outside first, and there might be clues that were overlooked. Now it seems that there is no transition at all.
The monsters’ barrage can still be seen on the electronic watch face.
Wen Shi took a quick look and found that some monsters who had originally watched Boss Mei retreat were @ed back, and their comments generally said that they had not seen this branch quest in that chapter before.
Wen Shi, who wanted to catch some clues from the audience's words, completely gave up.
Suddenly, there was a sound of footsteps coming from the front, which was being concealed, and Wen Shi quickly hid behind a tree.
A sneaky figure appeared, and when he got closer, he turned out to be a thin man wearing a black sportswear and carrying a backpack. The zipper was not completely tightened, and one end of the hemp rope was exposed inside the bag. The man also had an orange-gray box hanging around his waist, and there was a slight metal collision sound when he walked.
Wen Shi had seen thieves carrying this kind of box when houses were broken into before. It usually contained professional lock-picking tools.
The person who came should be the thief mentioned by Li Nan.
The thief did not trigger the mysterious wall that the player encountered, and easily came to the second door. Seeing that there was no one around, he bent down and walked in carefully.
The black air in the house became more intense, almost overflowing.
If Li Nan had not made a mistake in his trial and error, Wen Shi did not want to step into this yard at all. After all, the formation was set up in the first yard. Even if the thief died, the body would most likely be transported out and buried somewhere here. It would be the same to observe it later.
But he had to follow in now, and when passing by a puddle of water on the ground, Wen Shi's eyes fixed.
It's blurrier than a mosaic, and the reflection in the water can't even make out a basic human shape.
"What a pit." I couldn't see his face clearly, and he had nothing in his pocket. How could this be called role-playing? It was no exaggeration to call it a guessing game.
The scenery behind the second door is not much different from that of the front yard. The only difference is that there are not so many piled stones on the ground.
The thief walked forward, took out a stethoscope-like object, leaned on the third door and listened carefully to make sure that no footsteps were detected.
This made him feel relieved. Thief was also a profession in the Golden City, but the information would not be disclosed to the public. If he could really steal something from the city lord's residence, he would not be held accountable afterwards.
The brother who was with him in the underworld last time said that the third door of the city lord's house was the most difficult to open. As long as you pay attention to the patrol at 3 o'clock in the morning, it is still easy to steal something from the warehouse. All the things in the safe cannot be touched, otherwise it will trigger the alarm.
The four sides are made of black bricks, there are anti-climbing barbed wire on the top of the wall, and the third door is a smart electronic door.
It was already past three o'clock. The thief took out the prepared magnetic card and ball-end cutter and skillfully unlocked the door. In less than a minute, there was a click and the door opened.
Everything went smoothly, and the thief couldn't help but smile. He pushed the door open a crack, and to avoid making too much noise, he stepped in sideways. Wen Shi also walked out from behind the tree, ready to go in together.
The dark moon was hanging high in the sky. Wen Shi, who was following from a distance, was blinded by a bright light and closed his eyes.
Thieves are used to bending over and sticking their heads in to look. The thief got half of his body into the door and suddenly felt a chill. The moment he looked up, a pair of dark and stiff eyes were staring at him. Behind the door stood a man holding a big knife. The man was much taller than him and wielded the knife in a condescending manner.
The smile on the thief's face froze, and he subconsciously opened his mouth. Before he could let out a shrill scream, scarlet blood cut through the darkness.
A head fell from mid-air, and half of the thief's body was still at the door, standing still, and it took a few seconds before he fell down.
Wen Shi almost said "Fuck" and quickly stepped back.
Soon the door was completely opened from the inside. Wen Shi held his breath and looked sideways, not daring to make any sound.
Taking a peek in the moonlight, I saw a pale, sickly face. After the other person appeared, he actually took off his mask, and the entire lower half of his face was almost covered with purple-red patches.
From the exposed outline and figure, it can be judged that this person is the city lord. This is the first time he has seen the other person take off his mask.
Wen Shi had long suspected that the city lord was not a living person, but he did not expect that he was so cold that even corpse spots appeared on him.
Facing the blood all over the ground, the city lord's eyes were quite cold.
Standing calmly in front of the thief's body, the city lord cut open the thief's stomach with the tip of the knife and took out his internal organs more skillfully than the thief had picked the lock before.
Wen Shi stopped peeking and realized for the first time that having good hearing was also a problem. He could imagine the sticky sound when the organs were taken out even without seeing them.
His back was pressed against the rough bark of the tree. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but this city lord was slightly different from the one he remembered. Even though the bodyguard didn't care much about his life or death that day, the city lord he met was generally quite friendly. It was hard to associate him with the executioner who was disemboweling him.
The moment the footsteps sounded, Wen Shi became a little nervous. His skills and props were now blocked, and he would be in trouble if he was discovered.
Fortunately, the footsteps were moving away and not coming towards him.
When Wen Shi found the body still there, he pondered for a moment and did not rush out to check immediately, but continued to stand there.
This was a relatively wise judgment. The city lord returned soon and brought a thick red candle.
Wen Shi stuck his head out again and saw a few inconspicuous black straws stuck under the red candle.
After lighting the candle himself, the house became a little brighter, and the faint candlelight was like a floating ghost in the night. The body was glued to the red candle with wax, and the city lord walked to the other side.
Wen Shi pressed closer to the tree, and the distance between them was now less than two meters.
He could control his breathing but not the violent beating of his heart. He could only press his chest and try not to make any noise.
The city lord vaguely felt something, looked up and saw the branches swaying in the wind. Without thinking much, he picked up the head and put it together into a complete body.
Four people hold candles.
Wen Shi understood the city lord's trick.
In the Mirror House, Qian Lai had mentioned this story to him before, but now it was a person holding a candle. By hollowing out a person and sticking him to the candle, the dying person could use this method to extend his life.
The city lord had corpse spots all over his body, and it was obvious that he was forcibly prolonging his life, but the effect was not very good.
The candle burned quickly, and Wen Shi thought about what he needed to do next.
At present, it seems that he has completed the task. The city lord's secret is that he is a living dead and has been relying on fishing enforcement to borrow life. Wen Shi can imagine the other party's operation, occasionally letting some thieves taste the sweetness, letting them go, and then coaxing more thieves to come.
Perhaps he is also a thief who happened to witness this horrific incident. According to normal reasoning, he should now seize the opportunity to escape. After leaving the city lord's residence, he will have completed his role-playing for the night.
But there are two points that don't make sense.
Why did the city lord want to participate in Boss Mei's gambling and help himself put aside the chips
Looking beyond the mission itself and looking at it from the boss's perspective, if the mission was just that difficult, there would be no reason for the Straw Demon to keep laughing.
The day dawned very early in the Golden City, and an overly bright morning star appeared dimly in advance. Li Nan received the notification tone of mission failure when it was almost dawn. Wen Shi half-lowered his eyes, quite hesitant.
The discussion in the comment section was heated:
“The fear bar has gone up! I haven’t seen this line, but I have a sixth feeling that the protagonist is going to die, hahahaha.”
"He also used his life to let us see the story behind the scenes. No wonder there is a soul-locking formation in the front yard. The living dead need to be nourished by Yin Qi all the time."
"It's not a dead end yet, but I agree with what the above said. The Straw Demon will not give such a simple question. It feels like the protagonist has been idle and doing nothing, and he will die sooner or later."
The monsters were talking to each other, and the happiest people to see Wen Shi in trouble were the audience behind the ghost gate.
Wen Shi's lips suddenly moved, and he murmured almost silently: "Tools."
No matter what he came here for, he shouldn't come empty-handed. Wen Shi had already carefully checked his clothes and trouser pockets, but found nothing.
Looking back at all the words that the Straw Demon said, there was one sentence that didn't seem right.
When you come to the Golden City, you have to consider things from the perspective of the city dwellers. What Wen Shi lacks the least is capitalist thinking. He changed his mindset and stopped speculating on the psychology of unknown characters. He began to think about what he should do to maximize his benefits if he were in their shoes.
After a while, his eyelashes drooped even lower, and an idea that could not be described as crazy began to take shape.
An unprecedented solemnity flashed across Wen Shi's expression. He knew that if he tried to do this, he would either succeed or be reborn.
He leaned forward a little more and saw that the candles in the yard were almost burned out. When Wen Shi raised his eyes again, his gaze suddenly became firm.
He concentrated, locking down the identity in his mind.
"The matching character identity is... the killer."
[Are you sure that the character card is a killer? ]
[yes.]
After Wen Shi answered, he immediately checked the items he carried with him again.
His pockets were empty, but during the inspection, his fingers touched something sharp and cold. Wen Shi was stunned, and when he touched it, he found that a small pendant had appeared on his neck.
The pendant was as blurry as his face, but from the feel, it looked like scales.
When Wen Shi's fingertips touched the center of the scales, he suddenly had the illusion that he was about to evolve into a wild beast. His muscles tensed and the strength in his body continued to rise. This time, Wen Shi did not hesitate at all. He seized the moment when he was full of strength and leaped out like a cheetah!
The city lord felt an urgent airflow and was about to turn around with his knife. He put the knife aside temporarily when he was doing the candle-holding. The distance was not far, but Wen Shi's speed was a little faster.
Facing the approaching black shadow, the city lord sneered, formed his five fingers into claws, and reached back fiercely.
The black shadow disappeared, and the calmness in the city lord's eyes disappeared along with it.
"how come… "
The next second, the black shadow appeared behind him again and strangled the city lord's neck directly. The scales in his hand were no less terrifying than the blade.
[Xiao Bai Ling: Oh my god! Is he crazy? He actually wants to kill the city lord. ]
[Patient 109: You overestimate lunatics. Lunatics also have a desire to live. Openly changing the past in the old days, isn't this just courting death?]
[Patient No. 233: @Frank Hospital Schizophrenia Patient @Organic Mental Disorder, don't sleep, come over and watch someone commit suicide. ]
"You..." Every night when someone was going to be killed, the city lord would not leave many people in the mansion, and the sound squeezed out of his throat would not attract the guards who came to patrol the inner courtyard at regular intervals.
Wen Shi was very ruthless in his attack. His scales had the function of cutting through space individually. Not to mention the city lord, even he himself was shocked.
Seizing this advantage tightly, at the moment when Wen Shi successfully locked the throat, he pointed the sharp end of the scale downward and forcefully rubbed it against the cold neck.
There are many taboos in time travel, and killing the city lord is definitely a crazy and suicidal act.
The Straw Demon once specifically reminded them not to try to change history, but it was this reminder that made Wen Shi suspicious. The other words were just introducing the rules of the game. The Straw Demon would not be so kind as to worry that they would violate taboos.
The more it forbids you to do something, the more carefully you should consider it.
The city lord's blood was black, like a piece of meat that had been wrapped in cloth for a long time. When it was opened, it was all spoiled solution.
The taste was too disgusting. Wen Shi resisted the urge to feel sick. Fearing that he would not die, he cut another hole in his throat.
The stiff body trembled violently twice, and blood gushed out from the cut wound. Wen Shi used his arms to hold the opponent tightly. The scales on his hands seemed to be born to be used as weapons. At this moment, his strength was greater than ever before.
Wen Shijing waited for the city lord to breathe his last.
The whole process lasted for several minutes. The city lord's physical condition was different from that of an ordinary person. Only when his struggling hands fell down weakly did he drag the body aside and begin to clean up the scene.
After a brief silence, the comments section saw an explosion:
"He killed the city lord, why didn't he die!"
"He killed the city lord, why didn't he die!"
The same message seemed to be copied and pasted by other monsters, constantly resending the screen, resulting in almost no other comments. Some monsters even openly @ed the Mirror God out of extreme confusion, and as for the evil star, the Death Gate God, no monster dared to @ him even if they were beaten to death.
Using a machete as a shovel, Wen Shi, who was digging a hole, actually took the initiative to respond to the comments.
"The city lord is just a character in the story. Why can't he be killed?" The corners of his lips curled up in a strange arc: "Go back to the past, kill the city lord, then play him and do what the city lord would do, and keep playing the story."
There is a very important sentence in the background of the copy: the plot can deviate within a reasonable range.
The city lord's daily focus is on borrowing life and fishing for law enforcement. If you keep an eye on them for a while in advance, you can imitate them more carefully.
The corpse decomposed very quickly, and before the pit was dug very deep, it had almost dissolved into a pool of mud, which saved a lot of trouble.
"Inherit the city lord's wealth and take over his territory..."
Wen Shi sighed that his intuition was still very accurate. Even though his body had disappeared, when he was just teleported here, he had the urge to lift his tail and patrol the territory.
There is also some speculated information that he did not disclose to the live broadcast room.
The rules have not yet wiped out himself, which means that the speculation about the killer's identity card is absolutely correct. The city lord in the old times has been killed, and the current golden city lord is played by the killer.
The scales that serve as a weapon can divide space individually, a function that Wen Shi is very familiar with.
In the previous copy, Jian Qingrong's shadow took the mermaid king's scale from the bottom of the lake outside the school, and that scale happened to have the same use.
-
Will we meet again
-
soon.
The conversation they had when they parted that night came to mind... Wen Shi closed his eyes, completely blocking all the information.
After Shadow took the scales, he went back in time through the straw demon, went back to the past and killed the city lord, and then played the role of the city lord and waited for his arrival.
His temples couldn't help but throb slightly. The devil in the shrine probably knew the city lord's true identity long ago. Wen Shi even suspected that the devil was Jian Qingrong or the little octopus.
Because when he became a bodyguard, the devil had suggested that he become a killer for free. A devil with ten thousand eyes never said a word of nonsense.
Considering the identity of tonight's character card, this is simply a disguised way of revealing the question!
(End of this chapter)