It was already midnight when Qisi returned to the community where his family lived.
Old neighborhoods are the scars of the city, rotten from the inside out.
The first batch of residents moved out one after another, leaving behind rubbish including the poor and the elderly. As the poor became poorer, new poor people moved in, and after the old people died, new old people came in to wait for death.
Since countries around the world were reduced to counties and brought under federal rule, poverty has spread like a plague around the world; except for a few important areas, most places are truly averagely wealthy.
The water and electricity are cut off every ten days and a half, the sputum and bird droppings on the road have not been cleaned for a long time, and the gaps in the trash cans are overflowing with smelly water. There is no need to worry about the flow of people, because 99% of places are in the same bad condition.
Ziss had no idea about external labels such as rich and poor. Entrepreneurs with ugly appearance could not escape the fate of being sent to pig farms, while poor people with good looks might have a place in the collection room.
But he still hates poor cities, just because he hates the rainy days here.
The industrial areas that have drained the city of resources are backlogged like clouds, and even the falling rainwater is filled with heavy metal dust and particles of unknown composition.
After the rain stops, there will be stagnant water with pollutants floating all over the ground. It will reflect suspicious light spots under the street lights, and a few herpes-like bubbles will pop up from time to time, which is reminiscent of the poison prepared by the witch in the fairy tale.
No matter where you stand or what angle you look at, you can hardly see a place to stay under the light. Even the sparrows hopping on one foot will sigh in disappointment after seeing it.
When Qisi walked to the door of the unit, his trousers were completely soaked.
He pushed open the door, walked straight into the elevator, and pressed "11".
With a "creak" sound that seemed to be a metaphor for disaster, the elevator successfully reached the eleventh floor; and with a new unbearable "creak" sound, it tremblingly dropped to the first floor.
Qisi stood outside the door of Room 1101 and entered the password into the electronic lock.
This was a house bought by his parents. After his parents passed away in a car accident when he was sixteen, he used some complicated and less legal means to become the independent property owner of the property.
I have lived here for six years. I can’t tell whether it’s nostalgia or habit.
The couplets on the door were so faded that the writing could not be seen clearly, and they were as tattered as the scabs peeling off an injured person.
The two rooms and one living room behind the door are unusually neat and tidy. The snow-white walls and shiny floors make people wonder if not a speck of dust can be found here.
The master bedroom has been closed for many years, and the fully utilized space is actually only the second bedroom, kitchen and toilet. The cleaning task is not heavy.
Ziss threw the suitcase containing the body into the toilet and rinsed his hands in front of the sink with the faucet turned to the maximum.
Until now, there are still some things that he has not figured out, such as why "Liu Ajiu" chose to rob his studio, why the onset of the disease was so perfect at the right time, and...the sentence "Sorry, I have no other choice." "What exactly does that mean.
However, these are not important.
After wiping every fingertip with soap and rubbing his hands until they were red, Qisi could no longer give up.
He walked into the kitchen, grabbed a pack of instant noodles and cooked it. He finished the meal in a slow and slow sip, which was enough to settle his long-late dinner.
At 1:30 in the morning, I took a shower and took a white shirt from the closet and put it on. Qiss felt a little sleepy without realizing it.
Although the copy of the weird game does not take up real time, at the conscious level, it is really tense for these days.
In the final curtain call, one person was very busy, performed with all his heart, and even witnessed a high-rise building collapse at close range.
The lead actor Youyou yawned after returning from the game, took out her mobile phone, and searched for "weird game forum".
Chang Xu told him before that he could find information related to the "Xila Guild" on the "Forum".
He speculated from this that there was a forum in the world specifically for weird game players to communicate.
Moreover, the threshold of this forum is extremely low, and it is accessible to "players entering the game for the second time" by default.
Taking into account the current average information-gathering capabilities of humans, Ziss is inclined to believe that this forum exists on the public Internet and can be obtained through ordinary searches.
It turned out that his guess was correct.
The page loaded. After excluding the previous irrelevant novels and comics, Qiss quickly found a webpage with silver characters on a black background.
#Come out a prop that may be related to the main god, please ask for it privately#
#I am a female high school student, and I have brought my own team building props, please ask the boss to bring them#
#"Abandoned Ghost House" first TE clearance, 30,000 words analysis strategy#
…
Just like other forums, the homepage of this special forum is also full of good and bad information.
Of course, for Qisi at this stage, basically 90% of the information is useless to him.
Pinned to the top was a science popularization post for newbies. Chiss spent half an hour reading it from beginning to end and roughly figured out some facts:
First, it has been thirty-six years since the weird game first appeared on January 1, 1999; as of today, at least 400,000 people have been involved in the game.
Players have different opinions on the causes and solutions of the game, and theorists have yet to come to a unified conclusion. But one thing is certain: "Rules cannot be violated."
As for what the rules are, the replies on the floor were very noisy. Some said they were weird rules, some said they were natural laws, and some said they were the laws of how everything operates.
…
Second, players who are not selected by the game cannot know the existence of the game, and those who know the existence of the game will inevitably be selected by the game.
For those innocent passers-by, even if you keep talking about things related to weird games in their ears, they will automatically filter the information. Either they can't hear it, or they think they are hearing the plot of a novel; even if they see the weird game forum, they will still hear it. I will skip it as if I haven't seen it.
…
Third, players have formed major guilds based on different concepts. Although most guilds will bully newcomers and squeeze points and props, newcomers without guilds often die faster.
The more famous guilds are Jiuzhou, Tingfeng and Xiela, and there is also a guild called "Tianping", which has the same name as a real cult. I wonder if it is a coincidence.
[We are all human beings, with connected destinies, shared emotions, and common positions and pursuits. In the fight against the strange, we can only achieve the final victory by working together and helping each other! 】
This is the declaration of the Kyushu Guild.
When Qisi first entered the forum, he was confused by this disgusting rhetoric. As a result, in the replies introducing the guild, he encountered a bunch of people using this "Community of a Shared Future for Mankind" quotation.
Combined with his experience in "Rose Manor", he almost laughed out loud.
…
Fourth, players who have cleared three dungeons or below are considered newcomers. Only after clearing the third dungeon can they be promoted to official players and unlock full functions including game space and shopping mall.
Copies for newcomers come from the novice pool, and copies for regular players come from the official pool. In terms of average difficulty, the official pool is higher than the novice pool; but it is not absolute when it comes to a single copy.
The novice pool also has life-giving dungeons, and the official pool also has point-giving dungeons.
It is generally accepted that the third dungeon is a threshold, and many players will die inexplicably before becoming official players, and die without logic. The situation of "the strong dies and the weak survive" often happens.
…
Fifth, it is said that there is a final copy, with unknown trigger conditions and unknown content. However, as long as a player clears the final copy, any wish can be realized, including re-formulating the rules of the weird game, or even closing the game forever.
At present, the player with the highest reputation who is believed to be able to clear the final copy is a player named "Fu Jue". He is called "Chief" by the replies. He has countless fans and is likely to be promoted to the throne of the savior.
…
"Is it the final copy? It's just a big pie full of loopholes... Does the person who makes the rules of the game actually reserve rules that are unfavorable to him? It's interesting."
Qi Si shook his head. He felt that this weird game was a mess from the mechanics to the players. It was like there had been several production teams and planners, each with their own ideas, but it was completely different.
He put aside his miscellaneous thoughts and searched for the word "Xila" in the forum.
Many results were found, and the discussion was quite high. Most of them criticized the Silas Guild, as if it was an unmistakable target, a black sheep among the sheep.
Qisi learned that Xiela, known as "Sariel" in English, is one of the earliest guilds established in the weird game. There is a president code-named "Puppet Master", whose true identity is unknown, and the dragon has never been seen.
The entire guild claims to pursue social Darwinism and advocates killing weak players as much as possible to fight against the weird "survival of the weak" law of the weird game; at the same time, it allocates resources to elite players in order to trigger and clear the final dungeon.
What worries Chiss the most is that Xila's official account has said that once someone kills a member of their guild and they find out, they will definitely pursue it to the end.
"Didn't we agree to engage in social Darwinism? Why do you want to do this again?" Qisi clicked his tongue twice, complaining with empty eyes, "You didn't even act for a while? They all hugged each other to keep warm, and they talked about doctrine. Bian, are you doing it to satisfy the president’s fantasy of being a second grader?”
Being targeted by a group of unreasonable lunatics is definitely not a good thing, it will be very troublesome.
Although Qisi knew that he was not a reasonable and normal person, he still thought that his husband would target him, a newcomer, who was very unethical.
Well, we severely condemn this double standard behavior.
Being idle and bored, Zis searched for the keyword "Rose Manor" and found a lot of strategy posts. It seemed that this copy had been thoroughly studied.
But what is interesting is that dozens of strategy records are all [Normal End-"Bloody Bonds"]. The way to pass the level is to abide by the rules and ensure that you survive to the end.
One player fearfully wrote in the post:
[This is my second dungeon. There are only three players including me, but there are eight rules to abide by! To put it bluntly, the reality of the rules has to be tested with human lives. It was the third time for both of them. I really didn’t expect that I could come out alive! 】
[In the past two days, I followed the rules carefully, but they broke more rules than me, and they died one after another in the night. To be honest, I didn’t believe in the guaranteed death toll mechanism at all at that time. They are all dead, and I can't find any way to pass the level. Do we still have to go to the third floor? 】
[On the third night, Miss Anna broke open the door and came to chop me with a two-meter-long sickle! Just when I thought I was dead, a red skirt suddenly flew out from under the mattress and disappeared in front of my eyes. I realized that the time had gone back five minutes! 】
[I thought that instead of waiting for death in the house, it would be better to see if I could run out of the manor, so I immediately went downstairs. When I walked out of the castle, I didn't expect Miss Anna to be waiting in the garden, chasing me with a knife! I ran desperately, and an old woman in red clothes appeared out of nowhere, entangled Miss Anna, and told me to leave quickly...]
[The housekeeper also came. I thought he would help Miss Anna deal with me, but unexpectedly he led me to the door, opened the door and let me go. I just passed the level in a daze. After I came out, I had a high fever and almost lost half my life...]
Judging from the posts on the forum, the players who were previously matched to a copy of "Rose Manor" triggered the "guaranteed number of deaths" mechanism to clear the level, and they were also confused about the triggering conditions of the time reversal mechanism.
However, this post still answered some of Zis’ questions:
It turns out that the red dress he found under the mattress was not only a clue, but also a one-time life-saving prop.
After the player encounters the point of death, the red dress will be automatically consumed to perform a short time travel.
If you take the TE route to clear the level, you will use the red dress in the first room on the third floor like Qisi and Chang Xu did, and smoothly obtain clues about Miss Anna's parents.
If you take the NE route to clear the level, you will be able to save your life and escape in the battle royale session on the third night, as the original poster said in the post.
At this point in the review, Ziss couldn't help but sneer: "I shouldn't be the first TE to clear the level, right? No, no?"
At the relevant recommendation office, a solicitation post issued by the Jiuzhou Guild popped up in due course.
Qisi clicked in easily.
This is an old post that has already been posted on tens of thousands of pages. The general idea is to call on all players to record their dungeon experience and how to achieve each ending as much as possible.
[Now we are alone in a sea of people. People who are not selected by the game do not know what we are encountering, and we cannot expect them to understand. 】
[Leave your record here to point the way for those who come after you, or as proof that you have been here, so that all of us can remember your existence. 】
[One day, we will be able to clear the final copy and close the weird game. The dusty past will be revealed again, contributions and sacrifices will not be buried, memories will still be there, souls will be immortal, and we will look forward to a future without weirdness together! 】
Qisi read the main building's mobilization essay for two seconds and was disgusted by success, so he immediately looked for the option to block him.
After searching for a long time and not finding it, he could only fork out the post that was full of chicken soup flavor and exit the game forum with full of dissatisfaction.
In any case, he has no intention of being a good person and sharing his experience of completing the level in a post.
God knows which force is behind the forum. If he posted a post on the front, his address might be leaked.
What you don't remember is more fake than the "final copy" pie drawn by Weird Games; it has no practical benefits at all, and it sounds so nice to say that you are a white wolf with empty gloves...
In his mind, he cursed the Jiuzhou Guild from head to toe. Qisi reached under his sheets and groped around, pulled out a huge piece of rubbing paper and raised it to his eyes.
Printed on the rubbing paper were words such as "Go to hell" and "Beast". His teeth and claws were splayed as if he would break through the paper at any time and slap Qisi who was holding the paper.
Qisi admired it in fascination for a while, and finally got rid of the harmonious atmosphere created by the Kyushu Guild and returned to the malicious reality.
Then he yawned with satisfaction, turned off the light in the room, wrapped himself in a quilt, and fell asleep.
