The night was as dark as ink, and Yang Yundong and Allen walked on the dusty dirt road one after another, slowly exploring towards the west of the village.
In the silence, Allen finally couldn't bear it any longer and asked, "Yang, can you tell me what this weird game is about?"
"No one knows what it is. Maybe it's a rule, maybe it's a large-scale supernatural event, or it's an experiment launched by a high-dimensional civilization." Yang Yundong did not look back, and his narration voice was calm, "The result is that some people were I accidentally selected it and pulled it into the copy."
"Cool!" Allen shouted excitedly. The next second he realized something was wrong and quickly changed the topic, "So is this a good thing or a bad thing? I heard that voice say that any wish I have can come true... "
"It's not a good thing." Yang Yundong stopped and turned to look at him with a deep look in his eyes. "Most people will die in the game. Even if they survive, they may not be human anymore..."
"Oh my god, is it so scary?"
The moon was high in the sky, and there was no cicada chirping in the silence. Time seemed to have frozen at a certain moment, waiting for death together with the world.
Small houses stand in clusters like tombs, clustered around a large bungalow that occupies a large area. The slogan "Strive to work hard and strive for the top" on it has long faded, and it looks like dirt that has been splashed on randomly and is flowing downwards.
Allen didn't like the silence, so he started to find something to say: "I have never been to the countryside of Long County, so this is a free trip. But what the old woman said was really scary. People have starved to death in every room. , so that I don’t even dare to live in it... uh..."
As if in response to his words, hunger struck without warning, overwhelming him, and suddenly drowned him.
The cramping pain in his stomach spread from his chest to his whole body, bringing a strong sense of weakness. He trembled and squatted down, and his limbs dug into the soil uncontrollably.
Yang Yundong also squatted down, his face ugly, and he was obviously caught off guard by the sudden hunger.
He remained calm, took out two pieces of divine meat from his pocket with trembling hands, took one of them himself, and handed the other piece to Allen.
The two of them devoured the divine meat, and Allen awkwardly wiped his hands stained with mud and mucus on his clothes, his expression no longer as relaxed as before.
No one would believe that danger is so close to them until they experience the point of death.
For the first time, Allen realized that this unusual encounter was different from the outdoor adventures and extreme sports he had participated in before...
His blind optimism was exposed. He opened his mouth to say something, but Yang Yundong suddenly made a silencing gesture towards him.
He was startled, raised his eyes and looked forward, only to see faint green spots in the darkness, like ghosts, like will-o'-the-wisps...
…
Zhu Dafu was lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling with his eyes wide open.
He is seventy-eight years old. He has been farming all his life and has never left the town. During his free time, he only browses short videos.
He has never read a book, never read an infinite novel, and has never played a horror game.
Three days ago, he was driving his car to the town for the market, when he encountered people from the Public Security Bureau arresting criminals. The criminal was shot dead on the spot. He happened to be passing by and saw a black metal card flying out of the pool of blood and sinking into his body.
He just entered the "weird game" in a daze.
After stumbling through the first dungeon, he couldn't understand what the points were, TE or NE. He only knew that he would see ghosts every three days in the future, all kinds of weird ghosts.
As I get older, I can't sleep when I'm worried about something.
Zhu Dafu recalled the experiences of the past few days, and the more he thought about it, the more sober he became.
He thought, this time is good, this village, this house and this person are all familiar to him; unlike last time, it was "gene" and "clone", and he couldn't understand anything.
He could also understand a lot of what the old lady named Su said. He came from that era. It was his grandfather who starved to death first, and his sister who starved to death next. They also prayed to gods and worshiped Buddha, but why didn't any kind-hearted gods come to save them?
Zhu Dafu turned over and saw his roommate's young face.
He thought again, everything was good this time, except that the people with him were too young, and there was a little girl in college who was younger than his granddaughter.
As soon as he is old, he will die. What are those damn ghosts doing with these kids?
As he was thinking wildly, he saw the moon outside the window rising little by little into the sky, and the cold white light shone through the window lattice and shone on his face.
My stomach suddenly began to throb, and the long-lost hunger arose spontaneously. I couldn't endure it with my will, and every inch of my flesh was clamoring for the desire to eat.
He seemed to be taken back to the era shrouded in the shadow of death seventy years ago. After many years, he saw the dry land, the rotten smell, the swollen face and the yellow-white pus again...
The memories of the past overlapped with the feelings of this moment, and he trembled uncontrollably...
…
A cock crows loudly in the sky, and the east turns white.
Qisi climbed up from the bed, walked a few steps quickly and pushed open the door. His eyes fell on the man who fell to the ground in the middle of the courtyard.
This unlucky man was the skinny man who lived in the same room as the tattooed woman. Qisi remembered that his name was "Lu Keliang" and he was a volunteer mathematics teacher.
——The person looks like he has been dead for a long time, and he just has the words "I can't be saved" written on his face.
Zeiss used his feet to move the man's body into a lying position, and lowered his eyes to see the latter's muddy mouth and nose and exaggeratedly bulging belly.
You can almost tell with the naked eye that this person either choked to death or was strangled to death.
It seems that as long as the player does not eat the divine meat in time, he will be possessed by the nightmare and eat a large amount of things he should not eat under the control of the weird game until he dies.
This way of death was so ugly that Qiss instantly became determined to survive this instance.
He subconsciously touched the divine meat wrapped in cloth in his arms.
It takes a whole piece of divine meat to survive one hunger. Yesterday, Su Po gave the player a total of eleven pieces of divine meat.
Every time someone takes an extra piece of divine meat, it means that someone will not be able to survive hunger and die miserably.
Thinking of this, Qisi hid the cloth bag deep in his pocket. He didn't feel any guilt at all, but he didn't want anyone to take advantage of the situation and use it to carry out moral kidnapping.
There was a "squeak" from the direction of the door of the house, and the wooden door was pushed open from the outside.
Qisi quickly took out his hand from his pocket and responded with a look of compassion, his eyebrows stained with the sadness of a rabbit dying and a fox dying.
"What's going on?" Yang Yundong came in from the door, saw the body on the ground at a glance, and frowned, "What happened last night?"
Allen followed him in and almost jumped up after seeing the man's body: "Fake! Someone died on the first night, so exciting?"
Qisi lowered the corner of his mouth and briefly recounted what he saw and heard in a deep tone, not forgetting to highlight the role of the tattooed woman in it.
After Yang Yundong heard this, his face darkened a bit, and he subconsciously touched his pocket. Of course, he didn't touch anything.
He dropped his rough hands to his sides and asked, "Is everyone else okay?"
Chances are it's not good at all. Qisi replied in his heart, while his face lowered his eyes and remained silent.
At this moment, other players also woke up one after another, opening the doors and entering the courtyard.
The first ones to come out were Zhu Ling and Zhou Yilin.
The moment she saw the body, Zhou Yilin turned pale and almost screamed. Fortunately, Zhu Ling stayed calm and stood in front of her in time, speaking softly to comfort her.
Zhang Licai and Zhao Feng followed closely behind. After all, they were players who had cleared the dungeon once. Although their expressions were equally ugly, they were not too rude.
Zhao Feng obviously didn't sleep well, his eyes were sunken into dark circles, giving people the impression of a ghost.
Seeing Yang Yundong, he took a step forward and said, "Brother Yang, after you left yesterday, I went to find that little devil. It said it didn't eat sacred meat..."
At this point, he gritted his teeth and said, "Where do you think I can find other meat for it?"
Yang Yundong's face showed the exhaustion of a sleepless night. He waved his hand and said, "There is still a whole day, and things will come one by one."
Zhao Feng was a little angry when he heard this, but after seeing the looks of other players, he finally stopped talking.
At this moment, the tattooed woman also walked out of the room.
Realizing that everyone's eyes were on her, she spit out mucus on the ground, pointed at the man's body bitterly and said: "This bastard, he didn't take the divine meat, so he only thought about my share. It’s not something to be trifled with either…”
No one had any intention of speaking out, although many people remembered that it was her who was clearly shouting "bad luck" yesterday evening and refused to touch the sacred meat on the table.
The tattooed woman cursed for a long time. It wasn't until Yang Yundong scolded him, "Shut up," that she could stop scolding the deceased and stood on her back with her arms folded.
"Wu Heng and Zhu Dafu didn't come out." Yang Yundong said.
He walked straight to the last closed door and slapped it hard twice with his palm. When he didn't hear a response, he kicked the door open with his foot.
Inside the door, two figures twisted and fell to the ground, indicating the expected ending.
Wu Heng, the young man wearing glasses, had been dead for a long time. The cracked glasses hung crookedly on his face, and there were still bits of sawdust stuck to the corners of his mouth.
The gray-haired Zhu Dafu threw himself at the threshold, straightening his hands and opening his mouth, as if he wanted to grab something or leave a few last words.
For the sake of early death and early rebirth, Qisi was sincerely happy for the deceased, but in full view of the crowd, he could only lower his head and raise the corners of his mouth slightly.
In the dead silence, Yang Yundong slowly squatted down, reached out and closed Zhu Dafu's eyes, with an unpredictable expression.
After squatting for a moment, he straightened up, turned around and looked around at the people behind him: "You also saw that three people died on the first day. If we don't crack the world view in advance, we will stay here for four full days."
Having said this, players naturally know the pros and cons.
The guaranteed death toll is unknown, and no one can be sure that they are one of the lucky few who will survive. If you want to ensure your own survival as much as possible, the only way is to actively collect clues and decipher the worldview.
"Alan and I went to the village last night to explore. The places marked on the map were covered by fog. We tried to walk there, but ended up back where we were. It seems that these places need us to explore during the day."
As Yang Yundong spoke, he took out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket, which was a map torn from a travel brochure.
He pointed at the landmark with his rough fingers and said slowly: "We later walked around in areas without fog, mainly on the west side of the village. We saw many villagers working out there. Most of the time they behaved They are no different from ordinary people. When they saw us, they all gathered around us and asked for meat, and we pretended to agree before we escaped."
Speaking of this, Yang Yundong glanced at Zhao Feng: "You, Allen, and I are facing the same dilemma now. There is no way to solve it for the time being. We can only put it aside for a while and think of a solution based on subsequent exploration..."
This undoubtedly explains why he told Zhao Feng before, "Things come one at a time."
Zhao Feng was obviously still dissatisfied and muttered in a low voice: "I have to find meat for that brat today. What if I can't find it? If I really can't think of a way, I can only..."
His eyes swept over the corpses on the ground, but he did not continue. That idea seemed too crazy in the eyes of unrelated people, and he didn't know if there would be other risks.
Yang Yundong trembled his lower lip, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end no sound came out.
He turned and left, and Allen followed behind him. I don’t know what this white young man has been through, but after just one night, he obeyed his words and respected him extremely.
Qisi hid himself in a corner, squinted his eyes to see the expressions of all the players, and saw the cruelty and hesitation in Zhao Feng's eyes as he wished.
Having just been snatched from the orderly reality and thrown into a strange game, few people can complete the transformation of their three perspectives in a short period of time and change the habit of following the rules developed in human society.
Even if you are a natural anti-social element or a murderer, when you first arrive in a paradise where crime is rampant, you will unconsciously hide yourself in the shadows out of a fixed mindset.
"You clearly don't believe in morality, but you habitually uphold the established order and bind yourself to the code of conduct of human society. What's the difference between you and a fool like Zhu Dafu?"
Qi Siwu smiled to himself, took half a step forward, stood beside Zhao Feng, and murmured in a low voice: "You should know that there is no public power or law here. The only thing that needs to be respected and obeyed is the weird rules on the system interface."
"Humans are also animals, and human flesh is meat, right?"
