Muto said decisively: "Let me do the night patrol on the first night. If there is one more person, who will join me?"
His brows reflected the dancing candle color, looking extremely resolute. At this time, whether it was everyone's hallucination or something else, countless sounds could be heard in the dense forest far outside the house, as if some inhuman creature lurking in the darkness would rise up at any time and extinguish the symbol of life in this wooden house. of dim firelight.
A novel app that has been running stably for many years, comparable to the old book-chasing tool, a source-changing app used by old bookworms, huanyuanapp.org
His combat ability may not be as high as Wen Zheliu and He Qin, but in the few times they spent together, he has always played the role of an organizer, like a somewhat clumsy but reliable older brother. He took the initiative to patrol the night on the first night, which surprised Zhou Qing and said: "Brother Mu, what are you..."
Muto didn't hide it either. He took something out of the package and put it on the table. When he saw it, it was the candlestick-shaped prop that Muto got in the novice carousel.
This candlestick seems to be made of brass, with a simple shape and old color. There are seven separate lamps on it. The middle one is obviously higher than the six branches on both sides, like a copper tree covered with flowers, but the lamp is empty. There were no candles either. This was the first time Wen Zheliu carefully observed this prop, and he couldn't help blurting out: "Seven-branched candlestick."
He Qin sounded encouraging and nodded: "Yes, it is a seven-branch candlestick. The middle one represents the Sabbath, and the remaining six branches represent the six days when God created the world. This prop has a strong religious flavor."
Muto said to the players: "Look at its attributes again."
Now that the owner of the props had spoken, Wen Zheliu took a curious look.
Prop name: Empty candlestick (incomplete)
Grade: c-
Activation type: Instant activation
Cooling time: 12 hours
Attack power: low
Effect: When all seven candles are lit, the equipment will illuminate a space with a radius of 3-5 meters around it for 7 hours. There is a chance that players within the range will expel non-human creatures of a certain intensity.
Equipment level: 5
Prop introduction: After seven days, the light lasts forever, and there is nothing else in the world except the fragrance of the olive tree.
"You mean..." Wen Zheliu reacted instantly, "Is it possible that the rewards of a few candle ends that Marianne mentioned just now are the key items to complete your prop?"
"That's right," Muto said, "so I need the side reward for the first night."
"Then I'll go with you." After a moment of silence, Zhou Yao stood up and said, "The attack power of the item I drew is not bad. If we work together, we can take care of each other."
"Brother!" Zhou Qing said in shock.
"Anyway, I need to remind everyone." He Qin interjected, "You all heard the previous system prompts."
As soon as these words came out, Mu Tuo, Zhou Qing, Zhou Yao, Du Zijun and others couldn't help but look at him.
"It is worth noting that this mode seems cumbersome, but in fact it is a mode that can only be effective in the uncanny valley. As the difficulty of the later world increases, it will become more and more alienating between players. The effect." He Qin said in a deep voice, "After turning on the winning mode, if a player asks for your help, what will you do? Helping him will have no benefit except a loss of your own resources and energy, because you have no guarantee He will definitely repay you; if you don’t help him, you might be able to reduce the difficulty of the world and increase your chance of survival, and the equipment he explodes can also be yours, will you help?”
Xiong Lin scratched his head, frowned and said, "Then according to what you said, of course it's better not to help..."
"This is it, or what she is going to achieve." He Qin said, "Even if the difficulty is lowered, even if there is only one player left in the end, he cannot resist the will of an entire intelligent world with the power of one person. So. If we continue to fight each other, the result we will get will only be a complete defeat caused by the fighting between the same room. It will not work without unity."
Muto thought for a moment: "You mean... let us help each other as much as possible, and retain the number of players no matter what? Okay... I understand."
While everyone was meditating on the ending outlined in He Qin's words, Du Zijun raised his eyelids and stared at He Qin through the flickering candlelight.
"Who are you?" She blew out a smoke ring with a sinister expression, "Your true identity must be that you are not an ordinary player at all."
Wen Zheliu raised his head suddenly. He didn't know whether to be frightened by this woman's keen intuition, or to complain about her weird personality...
By the way, why did you smoke again? Where did you find this cigarette? !
He Qin was unmoved, with a sharp cold light in the corners of his raised eyes, "Oh? Why did Miss Du say this?"
"Ordinary players cannot detect such far-reaching intentions in a short period of time." She held an equally slender lady's cigarette between her slender white fingers. The smoke was lingering, blurring her cold eyebrows. " What's more, two people just died, and they died tragically, but you and the kid next to you didn't react at all and adapted very well."
"Plus | With your skills... the kid named Wen Di only resists beatings and has quick reactions, so you are different," she said bluntly, "Since you are a prop summoned by a kid, it stands to reason that , the level cannot exceed him, but depending on your performance, the shackles of level will not have any impact on you at all."
Her words were meaningful and her attitude was firm. Players who were originally suspicious of He Qin's origins all turned their attention to him.
He Qin bent his charming peach blossom eyes with a careless smile. He looked at Du Zijun, his expression suddenly became a little strange.
"It's okay to tell you," he turned away, "yes, I was indeed a staff member during the Uncanny Valley closed beta."
Wen Zheliu remained silent and just listened quietly.
"What!"
"Is what you said true?!"
As soon as this statement came out, the players were all in an uproar. Du Zijun also raised his eyebrows in surprise. Several men even pushed away their chairs and stood up, "Are you GM?"
He Qin smiled lazily and looked at them leisurely: "Don't think about it. There are holy nuns in the Uncanny Valley now. There is no GM here. At most, I can only be regarded as an employee who knows some inside information, but there is no way. Execute your duties as an administrator.”
"Everyone, calm down!" Muto also stood up and suppressed several extremely agitated players. He said sincerely to He Qin, "Brother He Qin, since you know something inside, can you reveal it to us? After all, Nowadays, everyone knows very little about this world. If you could tell us more..."
He Qin avoided talking and looked back at the old-fashioned clock hanging on the wall, "But I think we have wasted too much time. It's time to go on night patrol."
Mu Tuo's expression was a little surprised, and Wen Zheliu finally said: "Brother Mu, Brother Zhou, the side missions are indeed more important at the moment. My brother and I can't run away, and everyone has been tired for a long day. It's better to rest early and talk about it tomorrow. Well, what do you think?"
Zhou Yao said: "That's right. Everyone should be tired after running around for a day..."
He Qin stood up with Wen Zheliu and said, "There is no need to doubt my identity or my purpose. Now, good night, everyone."
Back in the room, He Qin put down the lighting candlestick and turned to look at Wen Zheliu.
His handsome and deep facial features sparkled under the dim light, and his eyes seemed to be filled with a thousand stars floating under the water. Wen Zheliu felt an indescribable attraction. He held his breath and gently turned his eyes away.
Fortunately, He Qin did not continue their unfinished conversation, but asked him straight to the point: "How are you? What did you find?"
Hearing that Zheliu felt relieved, he exhaled, looked up at the man in front of him again, and asked, "Brother, why don't you finish what you said?"
There was a small desk in the room with only one chair underneath. He Qin sat on the edge of the bed, patted the seat next to him and motioned for Wen Zheliu to sit down.
"Because there is something weird." He Qin said.
"What's weird?" Wen Zheliu suddenly became interested, "Don't tell me, let me think about it."
He Qin looked at him with a smile. Wen Zheliu thought about it carefully, carefully selected his words, and said slowly: "First, I think the deaths of Lu Hai and Lin Fangfei are weird."
"What are the conditions that trigger the monster? Why were the two of them killed? Is it just because they were standing at the front of the team?"
"Secondly, I think the game's setting is weird."
"Since monsters can appear during the day, it proves that they are not afraid of light. In this case, why are they afraid of flames? If they are afraid of the heat of flames, then why do players need to watch the night? Just a little kerosene and a few Just fix the lit iron barrels around the wooden house to ensure that the fireplace stays on all night long - I can think of at least ten ways to protect the safety of the wooden house. What's the point of this side mission that requires the player to go out?"
"Third, I think Marianne is weird. But there is too little information now, and I can't tell what is weird about her.
Wen Zheliu frowned: "That's about it for now. When Brother Mu and the others finish their night patrol, they might know more..."
As he was talking, he inadvertently saw He Qin staring at him, and he suddenly stopped talking.
This loving look with a smile and a little pride was like a ball of fire, burning his heart. This heat would almost immediately turn into steaming mist and flow along the blood vessels throughout his body.
"I… "
"You said it very well, I'm proud of you." He Qin reached out and rubbed the back of his neck until Wen Zheliu felt numb all over and almost trembled, "Then let's discuss it together. In fact, A normal person can guess the cause of death of Lu Hai and Lin Fangfei with a little research... "
"It's because Lin Fangfei refused to give her a weapon for self-defense. In order to save her, Lu Hai also threw away his own weapon." Wen Zheliu said, "This is the only difference between them and the others."
"It seems that although Du Zijun's identity is still unknown, she is very smart," He Qin moved his eyebrows slightly and said with a smile, "She thought of this immediately and asked Lu Hai to quickly pick up the weapon..."
Wen Zheliu made a helpless gesture: "But it was too late, he still died."
"Then let's assume that they triggered the death condition because they abandoned their weapons." He Qin said, "But can we make another assumption?"
He Qin drew a line on the sheets with his fingertips, "If the purpose of the system is to give players a start at the beginning and let us see how powerful the boss is, then we can just pick anyone to kill, but the monster's goal is very clear , that is, the two Lu Lins, and the reason for killing them was extremely frivolous. Do weapons at this stage have any use other than self-defense? It would be unavoidable for them to suffer such a brutal killing just because they threw away the weapons. It’s too illogical and unlike the plot that n-star can devise.”
"You mean..." Wen Zheliu slowly opened his eyes. With the bonus of his companion's attributes, he and He Qin seemed to have a clear understanding of each other and could immediately understand what the other meant. "Their deaths have another purpose?"
He Qin praised: "Smart."
The fog in his mind was cleared by He Qin, and the pleasure of solving the puzzle exploded like fireworks. Wen Zheliu couldn't wait to pick it up and said, "Yes, that makes sense! The cause of their deaths was indeed too hasty. It seems that the system must want them to die, but it just found a random reason. If it has any effect, it is to introduce the two game modes of victory and escape in the uncanny valley! Looking at it this way, the deaths of Lu and Lin are simply like … like…”
He opened his mouth, only to feel a lump in his throat and a chill all over his body, and he could no longer speak.
"—It's like a one-time consumable prop specially created for the plot, right?" He Qin said softly.
Wen Zheliu stopped talking, and all kinds of unbelievable and terrifying conjectures kept swirling in his mind. For a long time, he asked with difficulty: "So... are they real players, NPCs like Marianne, or something else?" ?”
"We'll discuss this issue later, dear." Seeing that he was a little scared, He Qin touched his hair soothingly, "As for the second and third weird things you mentioned, there's nothing we can do about it now. The only way to verify it is to wait until tomorrow. I didn’t finish what I said because I wanted to see the side rewards for the next day to prove these weird things you said.”
Wen Zheliu asked: "So... what are you unfinished words?"
"It is a specific method to crack the main mission." He Qin said, "In order to reflect the authenticity, the company has set up the concept of participation value for players to constrain their words and deeds to the greatest extent, allowing them to treat NPCs as real people and value the game. The world view in the game; in order to reflect the difficulty, they also made some moves: before the player finds and submits the key items that the NPC considers, the system will not let the NPC proactively reveal the basic information of the main plot."
"It's actually an idealistic way to find key items?" Wen Zheliu was surprised, "But this is very difficult!"
He Qin smiled slightly: "It has to be difficult to be interesting, isn't it?"
Wen Zheliu was extremely depressed: "You are a nasty adult..."
Before he finished speaking, a faint scream of fear suddenly came from outside the door!
"Who?!" Wen Zheliu was startled, and He Qin also frowned.
In the bedroom, Zhou Qing was leaning on the bedside, fiddling with the communication device in his hand idly.
Perhaps in order to fit in with the background of the times, this communication device for the whole group to communicate was also painted in a very simple white copper color. The nine-key pinyin that was popular hundreds of years ago is still unknown on it, and the display screen only occupies half of the device...
Equipment that was too advanced or too backward was a headache. Zhou Qing fumbled for a while before she was barely familiar with how to use it. At this time, there was a vague knocking sound on the wall behind her.
She was stunned and thought about it carefully. Wasn't the bedroom next to Du Zijun's
Zhou Qing laughed because she and Zhou Yao's room was next to the storage room on the left and Du Zijun lived on the right, so she remembered it very clearly. What's going on now? Could it be that Du Zijun also slept alone, so he was a little scared and bored
Thinking of this, she couldn't help but reach out her hand and click twice on the wall in response.
Although Du Zijun is a rather gloomy girl, in some aspects, she is still a normal girl...
The other person paused for a moment, as if he didn't expect her to respond, and the knocking sound returned became clearer.
Zhou Qing smiled, took out her communication device, and sent a message to her new friend.
Zhou Qing: What are you doing if you don’t sleep at night
After a while, Du Zijun's text message came back, but it was unexpectedly cold to her.
Du Zijun:? What's the meaning.
Zhou Qing puffed up his cheeks and replied a little angrily: Hello! You knocked on the wall in the middle of the night and you still didn't admit it when I found out? Who do you think responded to you just now
How long has it been since I read this, and how long has it been silent? There has been no reply.
Humph, you feel guilty! Zhou Qing was feeling proud, but the knocking sound on the wall behind her was louder and clearer at this moment. She could almost feel the vibration of the wall on her back. She frowned, and just about to pursue the victory, Du Zijun's text message Suddenly came the reply.
Du Zijun: I am looking for information in the study downstairs. There is no one in my room. Who is knocking on the wall with you
Zhou Qing's smile instantly froze on her face. She stared at these two lines of words stiffly, the hair on her back stood upside down, and cold sweat broke out all over her body.
Du Zijun: Stay in the room, don't open the door and don't come out! Did you hear that? !
The sound of smashing the wall behind him stopped.
She sat on the bed with cold hands and feet, not daring to breathe a word. She could only hear the increasingly strong heartbeat hitting her chest, almost jumping out of her throat. In this deadly silence, she looked forward motionless, her mind going blank.
Boom!
Boom, boom, boom!
There were five vibrations before and after, and Zhou Qing's body twitched five times unconsciously, but this time the knocking sound was not behind her, it was knocking on her door!
The communication device in my hand is a communication device. Chun rushes to record Ta Bao and worry from x Ji Hui Xiao
Zhou Qing's breathing was rapid. She wanted to shout, but she was afraid of what would happen if she shouted, so she had to keep this frightening silence. Another heavier tapping sound came from outside the door. Through the door, Zhou Qing also heard a very familiar female voice that was blurred by the wooden door: "Zhou Qing, Zhou Qing! Open the door quickly! Why did you lock me out!"
Zhou Qing was sweating profusely, her face was pale, and her teeth were chattering. She heard it, she heard it completely! This is Lin Fangfei's voice!
At this moment, her mental value was plummeting at a rate of 6% per second. Before long, she would be in danger of losing all her sanity and falling into madness. Zhou Qing bit the back of her hand hard, forcing herself to calm down and think of a solution as soon as possible. She kept hoping in her heart that Du Zijun would be a life-saving straw, hoping that people on the same floor would hear the sound and open the door to come out and take a look... After all, Du Zijun was the last person to talk to him, but would she come to save him
Her thoughts were spinning wildly, to the point where she couldn't control herself. The clock on the wall was ticking, and the despair and doubt in her heart also increased sharply. Du Zijun's delay in coming to the rescue made her inevitably think of the winning mode they were now in. Yes, she could not use it at all. Risk your life to save yourself. If she dies, not only will the rewards after clearing the level be more generous, but the difficulty of the world will also be reduced. What a good deal this is...
Just as she was thinking wildly, the knocking on the door stopped.
Zhou Qing waited for a long time, but there was no more dangerous news, which made her feel a little relieved.
Go, go?...
She was covered in sweat and collapsed on the bed, panting. At this moment, her nose suddenly smelled a gradually getting stronger smell of blood, and there was a slight noise from the window on the right.
She subconsciously turned her head to look, and was instantly frightened to death!
At that moment, a pale face was pressed against the window, with empty eyes, bleeding from the corners of the eyes, and stiff lips, showing a twisted and weird smile to her, looking straight at Zhou Qing who was sitting on the bedside.
Zhou Qing screamed suddenly, rolled out of bed and ran towards the door, "Get out! Get away!!"
Her hair was disheveled, she was wearing a thin nightgown, and her feet were bare. She ran to the door as fast as she could, turned the key, and opened the door fiercely—
- A stench that was a hundred times stronger than before came rushing towards her face. Lin Fangfei, who was covered in blood, was hanging on the door frame. Her long hair was soaked in blood and turned into sticky strands, draped messily on her face. Her dead and swollen eyes were transparent. While passing the hair, he was staring at Zhou Qing, who was face to face with it at the moment.
"You... why did you shut me out..."