The rain in City S came quickly and quickly, but within a few minutes, the entire street was full of floods, like a river that broke its embankment. Where the storm passed the border, even the motorcycles parked on the side of the road sounded urgent sirens.
Lin Huai: ...
He looked down at his shirt and trousers, then at his leather shoes.
"According to the current precipitation per second and the maximum drainage speed of the manhole cover, within an hour, the amount of water accumulated in the street can be as high as ten centimeters..." He looked at the three-hour weather forecast on his mobile phone, showing despair, "In In this case, the probability of stepping outside wearing leather shoes and not being reimbursed for all clothes is...'
'No matter how you think about it, there is only zero! 'He threw the phone into Pikachu's arms, 'The only time I forgot to bring an umbrella when I went out and encountered such a heavy rain, this is simply the malice from the sky...'
"No, no matter what, I can't stay here in the same room with an orange cat..." He thought firmly, "Anyway, there is no need to open an umbrella in such a heavy rain, and you can borrow an umbrella... And never From the perspective of money and time, the cost of one illness is acceptable. '
While others were thinking about "how uncomfortable it is to walk in the rain with wet clothes", Lin Huai's thinking turned to another direction. First, he considered the likelihood of getting sick from a three-kilometer walk all the way in the rain and the likely length and severity of the illness. Second, he considered the possible cost in money and time of being ill. Finally, through calculations, he found that if he did not buy new computer accessories in the next month, the cost was completely acceptable.
It can be seen from this that his thinking mode is indeed a little bit different from ordinary people. After repeated calculations three times, Lin Huai showed a perfect business smile when Tianshu reappeared in front of her eyes: "Since there is no problem with the manuscript, it is time for me to resign... Can you lend me an umbrella, please? I forgot to bring an umbrella when I went out today."
The other party was very surprised: "You want to go back now? The weather?"
Lin Huai nodded firmly.
"..."
Before there was any other reaction in the future, a hand touched his forehead. Lin Huai felt the contact from others unexpectedly, and her eyes widened. The other party took down his hand, touched his forehead again, and muttered, "It's not hot. Hey, why do you still talk like this when you don't have a fever?"
"You and I… "
After being speechless for a while, Lin Huai insisted on arguing in the eyes of the other party looking at the fool: "Hehe, maybe you will think that what I said was a whim without sufficient consideration, but when you carried the cat upstairs, I already That's perfectly calculated... by the calculations, the cost of walking back to school is perfectly acceptable to me, so... "
The other party showed the eyes of "I'm afraid you are not a fool", sighed and said, "There is a loophole in your reasoning."
"what?"
"That is, can the USB flash drive be put into use after being flooded?" The other party said coldly, "If the USB flash drive gets flooded on the road, then you have to do it all over again tomorrow. Oh, no, it's the day after tomorrow. Same rain."
Lin Huai: ...
Although reluctant, Lin Huai could only stay overnight at Tianshu's invitation. When he went down to the first floor, he subconsciously looked in the direction of the third floor. I saw that there was also a door between the third floor and the second floor, presumably the orange cat should have been locked in the third floor.
He breathed a sigh of relief. Tianshu walked in front of him without turning his head and said, "Cats won't come downstairs, don't worry, temporary editor who is afraid of cats."
Lin Huai: ...
"Afraid of cats? How could I be afraid of cats?" Until sitting at the dining table, Lin Huai was still arguing with a blank expression, "I'm not afraid of cats at all. A cat is a small, fluffy tail with two ears and four paws. What is there to be afraid of animals, hahaha... "
Tianshu served him a bowl of noodles cooked by himself: "You have been talking for more than ten minutes since you came downstairs..."
"I just don't get along well with cats. I'm not afraid of cats at all." Lin Huai continued to emphasize, but the other party threw a ham sausage into the bowl.
"I got it, I got it." The other party said helplessly, "If you talk nonsense again, I'll eat the eggs in your bowl."
Lin Huai stroked his chin with a guilty conscience, lowered his head and ate the noodles honestly. Before Tianshu started cooking, he tried to enter the kitchen to help, beat eggs and cut cabbage, but was pushed out of the kitchen by the other party with the reason that "a knife worker like you can die even with cabbage". After he was driven out of the kitchen, he listened to the sound of rummaging through boxes and cabinets inside, and wondered what kind of wet garbage this man could make for people to eat.
Unexpectedly, the noodles are snow-white, the tomatoes are bright red, the fried eggs are golden, and the scallions are green. Just the smell and appearance make people move their index fingers.
"...I didn't expect the noodles made by Teacher Tianshu to be quite delicious."
"Cooking noodles is a must-have skill for every nerd scientist on the Spring Festival night when the takeout service is closed." The other party rolled up all the noodles on the chopsticks while eating the noodles in the posture of eating cotton candy.
"Spring Festival... Shouldn't you go home during the Spring Festival? Why do you have to cook outside?"
"I'm afraid that I will be dragged to inherit the family business as soon as I go home." The other party replied without hesitation, "By the way, don't call me Teacher Tianshu. Call me by my real name."
"What's your real name?"
"Three words." The other party narrowed his eyes and smiled, "Chu Tianshu."
"Crossing the Yangtze River for thousands of miles, you can see Chu Tianshu?" Lin Huai always felt as if he had heard this name before, "It's a very impressive name..."
"I also have a younger brother named Chu Tiankuo. He should be the one to inherit the family business now..." The other party pushed the bowl forward after eating the noodles.
“The demographics are complex…”
"Actually, I have an older brother named Chu Tiange who plays music... Well, this sentence is just a joke."
After telling a bad joke, the two of them cleaned up the dishes and officially entered the night. Lin Huaiwo watched horror movies on the second floor, while Chu Tianshu went upstairs to feed the cat.
As soon as Lin Huai sat on the sofa, he felt a burning sensation in his heart, and the mobile phone in his trouser pocket also heard a "ding dong" text message. He clicked on the text message, only to see a letter with a black background lying quietly in the inbox.
"The third game will start after 8 o'clock tomorrow morning, players please get ready."
"There is no other hint..." Lin Huai touched his chin, "Does this mean that after the player becomes a qualified player, the difficulty of the game will further increase?" As for tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock... Anyway, every time I come out of the game, it only takes ten minutes to go outside, so I can just find a room to hide for a while at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning...'
When Chu Tianshu came down from the third floor, what he saw was the little editor surnamed Lin nestled on the sofa, staring at the screen with piercing eyes. On the screen, a college student is screaming being chased by a red-clothed ghost. Lin Huai clenched his fists tightly and muttered words, as if cheering up the college students.
He walked to the other side, only to hear the other side's voice: "Come on! Ghost! You can do it!"
Chu Tianshu: ...
He stared at that person for a while, then groped into the study, and coded for a while. Not long after, the penguin symbol in the lower right corner of the computer began to jump up and down. A window popped up in front of him.
The person who sent the message was Du Zhongshan, the leader of Chen Xing and a subordinate of Chen Liexue.
He narrowed his eyes, picked up a lollipop between his fingers, and looked at the small window of the other monitor.
In the small window, the young man curled up on the sofa looked at the screen, holding a pillow in his arms, concentrating.
Du Zhongshan: Are you there? Are you there
Du Zhongshan: [window shakes]
Tianchu: Yes.
The game does not allow participants to refer to the game outside the game, and even has some power in reality—it can not only make participants forget the appearance of other participants, or other details that can be detected, but even When the participant speaks something related to the game in real life, the voice will also be distorted.
But just as Internet users have continuously updated and mastered the methods of fighting against blocked words over the years, game participants—especially advanced players, have also mastered the mention of games in reality and used them to conduct private communication. or the ability to trade.
Du Chongshan: I knocked you dozens of times
Du Chongshan: After you quit the team, you pretended to be dead all day
Du Chongshan: Do you still accept the job? If you don’t answer it, give me a letter.
Tianchu: Something is wrong
Tianchu: no time
Du Chongshan: Damn, you can die if you say two more words
Tianchu: No, hehe
Du Chongshan: ...God, go to hell.
Tianchu: ... You look very angry.
Du Chongshan: Shit, you don't even know, the brother who is the boss has gone crazy again recently, he has a dark face all day long, and everyone can't please him. In the past, you could at least liven up the atmosphere when you were there, but now... also, who told you to go to the low-level field to hide, and even handed in a plausible resignation letter. Forget it, I went to work.
Tianchu: Huh? What do you do
Du Chongshan: Looking for someone, looking for a crow. The boss gave the order to find him, and everyone else wanted to ask him what happened inside the door.
Tianchu: Has anyone found it
Du Chongshan: Who can find it? After he entered, he never appeared again. And this guy has always been mysterious, no one has seen his face. I don't know if I died inside or got out of the game.
Du Chongshan: By the way, I remember that the boss sent you to the "civilized world" to hunt him down in the end. You and he should have met there once. Do you have any clue
Chu Tianshu's fingers paused on the keyboard, the computer light reflected his face, and his expression was dim.
Not long after, there was a relaxed smile on his face again, and he typed two words.
Tianchu: No.
Du Chongshan: Oh, I almost forgot, after you were knocked out by him, you slept in the "civilized world" until he came in? Are you free? Go online and have a chicken together
Tianchu: ... going to sleep.
Du Chongshan: It's only ten o'clock, can't you? ah
Tian Chu: Beauty sleep.
After saying this, Chu Tianshu turned off the computer with a lollipop in his mouth. He held the lollipop in his hand and let out a long breath.
The screen on the other side also showed the scene in the living room. Amidst the sound of rumbling rain, the new editor hugged the pillow, his chin was biting, as if he was about to fall asleep.
He turned the cork board in front of him, and what appeared in front of him immediately changed from a few news reports to a few pictures with unclear meanings and a few paragraphs of text written in a mysterious code.
He picked up a red pen and drew a line between the two pictures.
When Chu Tianshu went out from the study, the people in the living room had already fallen asleep.
He curled up on the sofa, breathing evenly. The bangs on the forehead hang down in front of the eyes, looking gentle and harmless, with a satisfied smile on the corner of the mouth.
I don't know whether it's because he is extremely confident in his own abilities or because he has a big heart, but he just fell asleep like this.
The last scene of the horror movie was still on the screen. Li Gui finally wiped out the protagonist after 120 minutes.
Chu Tianshu stared at him for a while, then took a Pikachu blanket from the study, and covered him.
The next day, early morning.
At 7:45, Lin Huai opened his eyes on time.
It was still raining heavily outside the house. He rubbed his head and found that there was an extra yellow blanket on his body.
He threw the blanket away and inspected the second floor lightly. There was no sign of movement on the second floor, so Chu Tianshu must have gone to sleep on the third floor.
The conversion of game time and real time is extremely unscientific. If you leave the instance immediately after the game ends, no matter how long the participant spends in the game, only five minutes will pass in reality.
On the contrary, if the player chooses to stay after the game is over, the time will be converted at a rate of 10000:1. The maximum length of stay shall not exceed two months.
"So learning in the game is actually a very cost-effective thing..." After confirming that Chu Tianshu was not on the second floor, Lin Huai sneaked to the dead corner of the surveillance to prepare for teleportation, "Disappear for five minutes, then come back..."
At seven fifty-nine, his heart began to feel hot, and the countdown sound came from his mind.
"Twenty, nineteen, eighteen..."
Just as he was patiently waiting for the timer to end, a sudden change occurred!
The sound of the door opening came from the third floor. Chu Tianshu who came down from the stairs looked at him who was hiding in the corner.
"I, I have clearly calculated, it is impossible to see here at a glance..."
"you… "
"Ten, nine, eight..."
Before Lin Huai had time to say anything, he saw that person walking towards him.
"Three, two, one..."
The moment the white light flashed, he saw the man and touched the corner of his clothes.
He showed a desperate expression of "No, it can still be like this".
Volume Three