Survivorship Bias

Chapter 46: Return to the altar

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After Yang Erci finished speaking, Shen Ti, who was leaning on An Wujiu's shoulder, sat up and looked at him.

He was very calm, without any panic.

"Then make finding this person the third goal." Shen Ti said to An Wujiu.

An Wujiu lowered his eyes, and the corners of his mouth curled into a smile.

"Okay." He responded softly.

Yang Erci looked cold, but he was very capable of living. Seeing that the three of them didn't really want to eat the food cooked by Zhong Yirou, he did it himself, and quickly made some vegetable baked eggs and toast.

"Eat whatever you want."

"It smells good."

"My scrambled eggs are also delicious."

"It turns out that the dark one is scrambled eggs."

Everyone sat at the dining table, making jokes, talking and laughing. This empty house hadn't been so lively for a long time, which made Yang Erci feel a little unreal. Ever since she broke into the altar alone, she hadn't felt the feeling of being accompanied by someone for a long time. .

An Wujiu swallowed his toast, and said to Wu You: "You were shocked by electric shock in the last game, and I don't really want you to continue entering the altar at that time."

Wu You had already seen it, "But it's not something we can decide."

Holding the coffee spoon, Yang Erci stirred it, "There are more people in the altar than I imagined. It was less than a day after I went online, and I already covered the whole world when I logged in to my IP."

"Why are so many people here? Such a dangerous place." Zhong Yirou couldn't understand.

"It's not just for money." Yang Erci said, "Many people who have everything and have gold spoons in their mouths just go in for excitement."

An Wujiu has always been curious, "What kind of place can operate a game like the altar? If it's an ordinary virtual reality game, it's fine, but this is a matter of life."

"This is jointly produced by the world's largest multinational technology companies. There is no other larger organization now, and even the government can't control them." Zhong Yirou put down the towel that hugged his wet hair, shook his hair, "Speaking of which, Chauvin is also involved. They provide the most important neural access technology, and they also build the game cabin. There are their game factories all over the world."

An Wujiu still felt strange, "But such a big project, even if it is an incomparably rich multinational company, there is no interest to extract, why do you want to run these and do charity?"

This is indeed suspicious.

"Who knows?" Zhong Yirou shrugged, "Maybe there is a link in which they can make a profit, evil capitalism."

"I also thought it was strange at first, not just the lack of profit." Yang Erci tapped the inner wall of the coffee cup lightly with his fingers, his eyes narrowed slightly, as if lost in memory, "The beta version of the altar just started When it was launched, I was still in Chauvin, and at that time, the publicity of the altar made me feel a little too much, a virtual reality game, even the publicity was overwhelming, and even the company was full of test connections. "

Shen Ti rested his chin in his hand, and with the other hand he was idly drawing circles on the table, "There is also a special media to announce the surviving condition of the altar, it is not easy."

An Wujiu thought about it and still felt that something was wrong, "I lost my memory, and I don't remember what happened at that time. However, didn't the altar mention a way to log out of the game when it was first tested? If everyone knows it, you can't Come out, there shouldn’t be so many people logging in, right?”

"This is a good question." Zhong Yirou leaned back on the chair, "At the beginning of the test, you can log out at will, and you don't need to enter the game cabin. Of course, the game experience is not so real. Later, the official version was released. Times have changed, anyway, as soon as I entered the first warm-up match, I found that the exit button could not be found on the game panel."

Yang Erci nodded, "A real monster appeared in the dungeon. Many players felt it was dangerous and wanted to forcibly exit, but it was regarded as a foul operation by the game. They either died or entered the punishment stack."

"Didn't the development team of the altar give an explanation?" An Wujiu asked.

"Yes." Yang Erci stood up and poured water for himself, "They said it was a bug that appeared when the game was updated, so players should be calm, but later they said that the altar has undergone self-learning and iteration, which is beyond their control In exchange for it, there is also a problem with the point pool of the altar, which has skyrocketed uncontrollably, causing players to receive far greater rewards than before."

An Wujiu understood, "So under this kind of temptation, there are still some people who are willing to continue playing."

"Yes." Yang Erci smiled, "Even if the time to squander is only 24 hours, it is more attractive than being poor all the time."

There are still seven hours before the return to the altar game cabin. Everyone has a full stomach and rests in Yang Erci's apartment. An Wujiu obviously slept well at night, but feels sleepy for no reason, so he leans on the sofa in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows to take a rest for half an hour.

It was a short time, but he seemed to have many, many dreams.

This dream was somewhat similar to the previous one. In the dream, he was still very small, standing outside the door, looking through the crack of the door, but this time, what he saw was not his mother, but his father.

Father sat at the desk in the room and opened a heavy and ancient book.

He didn't know what his father saw, but he was chanting words with strange tones coherently, and there was a strange gurgling sound in his throat, as if he was repeating unknown secret words. He was a Frankenstein locked himself in a room, and a fanatic of some unspeakable religion.

And when the young An Wujiu in the dream called his father outside the door, the man in the room turned his head, his eyes were filled with blackness, he stared at himself straightly, as if he could absorb everything into it.

And from the book spread out on the tabletop, countless swaying and trembling snake-tail-like things suddenly drilled out, and the sticky and wet tentacles ran down the tabletop, attacking An Wujiu suddenly.

An Wujiu outside the door seemed to have been drained of all his strength and lost the ability to resist, just like that, was tightly entangled by these thick and slippery tentacles, almost suffocating.

Shen Ti was lying on the table, staring at An Wujiu who was leaning on the sofa and looking at the scenery. Unexpectedly, he fell asleep while watching. He wanted to go and tease him, but he was afraid of waking him up, so Shen Ti observed quietly. for a long time.

I don't know if it's the cold or something else, but An Wujiu's hands were shaking all the time, making Shen Ti uneasy.

In the end, he walked over quietly, took off his trench coat, and covered An Wujiu lightly.

But maybe he was not careful enough, he was disturbed when he pulled the corner of his clothes, just as Shen Ti squatted down, An Wujiu turned over and grabbed his arm.

Shen Ti's heart skipped a beat.

But he didn't wake up, but frowned in his sleep, and seemed to be talking in his sleep in a daze.

Shen Ti couldn't hear clearly, so he moved closer.

"Save..."

Shake him awake

The dream was too painful.

An Wujiu felt that he was being strangled by these tentacles until he lost the last breath of air, unable to think, and even unable to call for help.

No one came to rescue him.

At the moment when he thought he was going to die, An Wujiu suddenly opened his eyes and woke up from the dream.

There were no tentacles or tails, and the first thing he saw was Shen Ti's face.

And he was still holding onto Shen Ti's arm in his sleep.

"What's wrong?" Shen Ti brushed his forehead hair naturally, "I sweated a lot."

"It's okay..." An Wujiu panted a little, and he spoke only after he recovered, "I always have some very strange dreams, dreaming about some unnatural phenomena, it's scary."

He found himself covered with heavy clothes, and the fear in his heart dissipated a lot.

"It should be because I was too tired, so I had a nightmare." Shen Ti pulled him up, "Did you do it last night?"

An Wujiu shook his head, "No, I slept very well last night."

Probably the best sleep he's had in a while.

"Isn't it?" Shen Ti thumped his shoulder and said intentionally, "My arm is numb until now, and no one has pressed it for me."

Wu You originally came towards them with a glass of water, and took a sip as he walked. When he heard Shen Ti's words, he spit the water back into the glass, turned his head and left.

The 24-hour leisure time flies by quickly. Compared with fighting and fighting in the game, even if the world is in chaos, it is still precious.

The setting sun was like soaked blood, dyeing the sky of the city, and they returned to the game factory again, ready to join the new battlefield.

"That's right." Wu You remembered something, "Brother Wujiu, you haven't drawn your reward card for the warm-up match last time."

As soon as he reminded An Wujiu, he realized that he still had rewards that he hadn't redeemed, "Yes, I almost forgot."

"Just smoke after you go in." Wu You bent down and got into the game cabin on his right and lay down, waiting for the glass door to close, "Maybe you can get rare props."

Shen Ti is on An Wujiu's left, "Draw a pop-up card and pop the little devil's head out of the altar."

"Eject you out!"

"It's noisy to both of you." Zhong Yirou curled her hair, staring at the glass cover that was gradually closing, "Please assign me a game that can make good money this time..."

Nutrient tubes automatically popped out of the cabin and pierced their arms and necks.

A familiar voice came from the game cabin.

"The database interface is connected."

"Loading surviving data."

"Loading-"

"Environment configuration successful, variable initialization—"

"Survivors, welcome back."

His eyes in the cabin were pure white, and he couldn't see anything.

"Loading warm-up game configuration."

In the weightless state, the pure white space around him suddenly flickered, and colorful data grids began to pour into it, piling up to form a gradually real picture.

Finally, a dazzling white light flashed, An Wujiu slowly opened his eyes, adapting to the new game environment.

At this moment, he is initialized on a wrap-around sofa booth, and the sofa surrounds a low table. The space here is small, but the decoration is very luxurious. There were five other people besides him. Seeing Wu You's face, An Wujiu felt relieved for a moment.

At least I can take care of him.

But in the next second, his heart sank.

Scanning around, An Wujiu didn't see Shen Ti's figure.

Didn't it match up this time

Although he was fully prepared for this, he always held a trace of luck in his heart, thinking that when he woke up again, he would be able to see Shen Ti's face.

Except for Wu You, all the rest are new faces.

"Welcome everyone, you are all survivors of the last round of the game, and you are also representatives of bravery and wisdom among human beings."

Such remarks made An Wugui feel uncomfortable.

Whether their bravery or wisdom, they were all forced out by this game.

"Then announce a new warm-up game for everyone—"

"Wait a minute." Wu You said, "Are there only so many people in this game?"

Shengyin answered for him.

"of course not."

"This warm-up match is different from the previous ones. You are not all the players in this round."

An Wugui realized something.

It's still possible.

"Due to the large number of players, all survivors who participated in this round of games were randomly divided into nine groups, with six people in each group, a total of 54 people. Everyone will compete in the warm-up match within the group, and the final winner will have the opportunity to vote .”

"Vote?" A red-haired Western man sitting obliquely in front of An Wujiu questioned, "Isn't it a reward?"

"The reward this time is not so easy." Sheng Yin said.

"The nine winners will have the chance to vote for the format, by majority, and each of you will have a small advantage, which you will know when you win."

"Then I will announce the games for this warm-up match."

Five dice appeared in front of their eyes.

An Wujiu frowned.

Do you want to gamble

"Big dice."