CH 15
At that moment, Zhou Qing felt as if her liver and gallbladder were torn from within, and a heart-piercing scream broke out from her throat.
Her mental value fluctuated violently, and it plummeted to only 23%. At the moment of life and death, she released the item she drew from the novice lucky wheel like an electric shock, [eyeless doll].
[Item Name: Eyeless Doll (Incomplete)]
[Grade: c-]
[Activation type: instant activation]
[Cooling time: 3 hours]
[Attack Power: None]
[Effect: The next second after the player uses the item, a fabric doll that is no more than 5% different from the player’s body weight will materialize and appear in place of the player. At the same time, the player will be bounced 2-3 meters backward. The attack power of the doll is 0, and the defense power is medium or low.
Note: When the player completes the item, it is immediately upgraded to [Buttonhole Doll]; the item’s effect remains unchanged, but the number of uses is increased to two.]
[Equipment level: 5]
[Item introduction: I am a buttonhole doll. My master put me in the attic, so one of my eyes rolled down the escalator into the burning flame of the fireplace, and the other eye fell into Puppy’s milk bowl through the crack in the floor. Who can find my eyes? I’m an eyeless doll~]
This subconscious action saved her life.
A bloody long tongue popped out of “Lin Fangfei”’s bloody mouth. At the critical moment, a doll of the exact same size as Zhou Qing appeared on the spot with a “bang”, replacing where she was standing. There was a dull sound of clothes being ripped, and then the back of the doll’s head exploded with countless pieces of fleece, which delivered the fatal blow.
Under the shroud of extreme fear and death, Zhou Qing had no power to fight back. She rushed out of the door, screaming “Help” intermittently while frantically running down the corridor, slapping the closed doors one by one desperately. In front of her, a male player named Gao Xinghan cautiously opened the door and took a look at the situation. After just one glance, his face changed drastically, and he hurriedly closed the door. Immediately after, the locking sound could be heard from inside the door.
Zhou Qing was completely desperate. She stumbled and ran; her lips were pale, her voice was hoarse, and tears of wariness hit her nightgown. Her rapidly declining mental value caused her physical strength to be depleted several times faster than usual. Just as she was running out of strength and about to fall to the ground, a door suddenly opened in front of her!
Wen Zheliu held the holy sword of physics1, kicked open the door, and immediately let out a “f*ck” when he saw what was outside.
An eyeless monster was breaking through the door from the storage room at the end of the corridor, protruding half of its body. With a bloody female corpse still on its tongue, it was chasing Zhou Qing desperately in the corridor. Wen Zheliu was relentless. He strided past Zhou Qing in two steps and directly slashed at the female corpse with a stick!
“Where is the evildoer, my holy sword punishes—!”
The crowbar swung down like a knife chopping melons and vegetables, and it beat the female corpse to pieces in one stroke. With a muffled sound, it even nailed the eyeless monster’s incredibly tough bloody tongue to the floor!
The monster screamed in pain, but Wen Zheliu stood there dumbfounded. At this moment, the crowbar in his hand seemed to shoot out ten thousand feet of golden light, forcing him to shout: “This is not an e-level item; this is an ex-level curry stick2 item!”
At this time, He Qin also entered the stage with a weapon in his hand, but instead of the wooden stick that Mu Tuo had given him earlier, he was holding…a hatchet.
“…Where did this hatchet come from?” Wen Zheliu asked calmly.
“Trust me.” He Qin responded calmly, “Since you want to kill, you must be determined to be killed—”
Wen Zheliu almost fell apart and said: “I asked you where the hatchet came from. What are you doing with my lines! Are you Rena Rugyu3! Why did you suddenly turn into an otaku!”
He Qin regained the cynical look and said with a smile: “Just spice up the atmosphere; now nail it down!”
He suddenly looked cold and solemn, with unparalleled killing intent and sharpness bursting out of his eyes, like a leopard that was ready to attack. He Qin dashed forward toward the monster at the end of the corridor. He stomped on the wall and spun his body like he was one with the wind, then he drew his sword and shouted: “Die!”
The monster’s tongue was firmly nailed by Wen Zheliu, and its strong lower body was stuck at the window of the storage room, unable to move. It couldn’t help but hiss with fear and had to open its monstrous claws to block the hatchet, causing the rancid black blood to splatter. The hatchet collided with the wrist bone buried deep under the muscle, making a clunking sound of metal colliding!
He Qin wanted to slash a second time, but the monster was already struggling desperately, even tearing off the tongue nailed under the crowbar. It pushed back with its claws, roared loudly, squeezed open the storage room window, and dashed into the dark mountains, where it vanished.
The night wind howled, blowing in through the broken window of the storage room. He Qin looked down at the hatchet in his hand and turned to look at the two rows of doors that were still closed. At this time, the unmistakable killing intent has not yet completely faded from him. He is cloaked in dim candlelight and hazy night, like a cold beast with gorgeous fur.
Zhou Qing was dumbfounded.
Wen Zheliu flicked the crowbar, and the blood stains on it flew to the wall, corroding the pasted wallpaper into a seething black-red foam. He walked up to He Qin and whispered, “Brother, are you alright?”
“Yes.” He Qin said, while picking up a black piece of fabric from the wreckage and putting it in his pocket, “Go check her room.”
Perhaps it was because the movement outside stopped that the doors on both sides of the corridor opened one by one. Everyone who had just pretended to be dead stretched out their bodies cautiously, observing the chaos outside.
Zhou Qing followed behind the two tremblingly, wiping away tears in anger. Wen Zheliu turned his head slightly and said, “How is it? Are you okay?”
Unexpectedly, Zhou Qing burst into tears and said, “Thank you, thank you… thank you!”
Walking into the room, Zhou Qing cried and gestured at them, saying that she first heard a knock on the wall from Du Zijun’s room, but Du Zijun said that it wasn’t her, and then that thing knocked on her door; she didn’t dare to open the door, only to see a dead face at the window…
Wen Zheliu leaned over, observed carefully with the candlestick, and found that there was a circle of blood in the shape of a face and several bloody fingerprints outside the window.
“It’s not an illusion; it’s real.” “There are at least two monsters—one scaring you out, the other waiting to catch you outside the door,” He Qin said.
Du Zijun came in while they were talking, with messy sideburns, pale, tightly pursed lips, and a heaving chest.
“Are you all right?” She held a candlestick in her hand, her gaze was sinister as she looked around; and her skirt was dirty, not knowing where she had smeared it.
He Qin raised his eyebrows and said, “You are…”
“Laozi is going to f*cking kill that bastard!” Du Zijun suddenly burst into a frenzy of curses: “I climbed the stairs for half an hour but didn’t get anywhere. I walked up at least a thousand steps! What the hell is this f*cking house?!”
Wen Zheliu had no doubt that if there was any inhuman creature that appeared in front of her at this time, it would definitely be smashed into a meat paste by this furious woman with a candlestick…
Immediately behind her, Mu Tuo and Zhou Yao, who had finished their night patrol ahead of schedule, also hurried over. When they passed by, Wen Zheliu’s nose twitched slightly, as if he had smelled some kind of sweet and greasy aroma.
Zhou Yao hugged his sister; Zhou Qing then jumped into his arms and burst into tears. Mu Tuo comforted them, and Du Zijun was like an angry lioness, walking around with a candlestick, wishing to tear down the corridor. The male players in the corridor kept whispering and glancing over here…
He Qin twitched his eyebrows, pressed his temples, and shouted in a deep voice, “Shut up!”
His handsome face was indifferent, and the cold murderous intent from when he swung the hatchet just now remained between his eyes. When he looked around, his aura was even more powerful, and he immediately calmed down all the noisy players.
“Now, go back to sleep, and we’ll talk about it tomorrow when we wake up.” He Qin commanded, “Don’t delay your sleep time; it’s for your own good.”
The players were silenced, and they all kept quiet.
“Let’s go, baby,” He Qin took Wen Zheliu’s hand and said, “You don’t need to hold the crowbar so tightly; let’s go back to the room first.”
Wen Zheliu turned his head and smiled at Zhou Qing and Zhou Yao, but was led back gently and forcefully by He Qin.
After closing the door, Wen Zheliu was still looking thoughtfully at the crowbar in his hand.
“What’s the matter?” He Qin teased, “You didn’t expect it to become the holy sword of physics, did you?”
“What’s going on here…” “It’s unreasonable; how can a mere E-grade item display such exaggerated combat power?” Shaking his head in perplexity, Wen Zheliu said.
He Qin took off his shoes again, bent down, and made the bed. “It’s just a small Easter egg set by N-Star. You will see many more in the future, so don’t be too surprised.”
“Easter eggs…?”
“The bad taste of the R&D personnel.” He Qin laughed lazily, “Whether the crowbar or the hatchet, they are all classic elements in the history of ACG4… No matter how expensive and advanced the Uncanny Valley is, it’s just a game. As a tribute to its predecessors, these special items have an exclusive name in our programmer circle called “Sentimental Items”.”
Wen Zheliu lowered his head silently: “Should I praise those otakus or should I say this is a foul…”
“Don’t worry.” He Qin laid down on one side of the bed and said, “This isn’t considered cheating; it can only be called clever use of the rules. The Saint Nun couldn’t understand this concept yet. Besides, although it’s very powerful, you can’t take it out; it can only be used in this world.”
Under the candlelight, Wen Zheliu carefully looked at the properties of the crowbar.
[Item name: crowbar]
[Grade: E]
[Activation type: instant activation]
[Cooling time: None]
[Attack Power: Mindfulness]
[Effect: With a gentle wave, you can experience something new like never before!]
[Equipment level: 5]
[Item introduction: With the holy sword in your hands, the world is at your fingertips. ]
…This is so wrong, and he didn’t even know where to start complaining.
Out of curiosity, he picked up the hatchet that He Qin had brought from the kitchen…
[Item name: Hatchet]
[Grade: E]
[Activation type: instant activation]
[Cooling time: None]
[Attack Power: Mindfulness]
[Effect: As long as you have the determination, you can cut down anything! ]
[Equipment level: 5]
[Item introduction: Dragon Slaying Saber; click to give it away; click to play for a year; the equipment will not cost a penny; level 999 for a knife. Rena Rugyu said it was good to use!]
…He’s going to be blind if he looks at it again….
He Qin patted the bed and said, “Don’t look anymore, baby. Come and sleep quickly; there’s still a lot of work to do tomorrow.”
“Understood!” Wen Zheliu was indeed tired after a day of exhaustion, so he didn’t have time to think about anything. He lay down next to He Qin with his clothes on and fell into a deep sleep with peace of mind.
The next day, at the dining table in the morning, a group of players with different expressions stared at the plate in front of them without speaking.
Marianne sat down in the first place. Wen Zheliu thought in his heart: If there’s one more person, they can form a table of thirteen people and compose the picture of The Last Supper5…
“Good morning, everyone.” Marianne said softly, “It seems that you all had a bad time last night.”
“As you can see.” He Qin continued, “The monster suddenly attacked this house. It was a terrible accident.”
Marianne’s face wasn’t too good either: “Yes, to make matters worse, it destroyed my storage room… This is one of the only two storage rooms. I’m afraid we’ll be very tight on food for the next few days…. ”
“I hope you won’t deduct my companions’ night patrol rewards for this.” Wen Zheliu continued, “It’s not their fault.”
Marianne put down the knife and fork, nodded, and said, “Of course, it’s just a few candle heads. I’m not so stingy.”
She finished her meal and went to the kitchen with her own plate, leaving a number of uncomfortable players in place.
“Last night…” Bai Hao coughed, “It was too unexpected.”
Zhou Qing’s fork scratched across the porcelain plate, producing an ear-piercing shrill.
“…It was quite unexpected.” His roommate, Gao Xinghan, lowered his head and swallowed a spoonful of thick soup. His voice was also low, “We… didn’t even react…”
Zhou Qing felt a raging fire suddenly rising up. She uncontrollably threw the fork into the dinner plate and said in a trembling voice: “Since you didn’t do anything last night, don’t make unnecessary excuses for yourselves, ok?”
“Please try to understand everyone…” Ke Wenyan turned the spoon in his hand and whispered with embarrassment, “You have also seen the death of Lu Hai and Lin Fangfei. According to our current level and equipment, how can we fight with that monster…”
As he said that, he glanced at Wen Zheliu and He Qin and muttered: “We all have only one life; isn’t it normal to be afraid of death? Except for some people with great abilities, the others are ordinary people, so don’t take it too seriously. Not everyone thinks they’re omnipotent, ok?”
Zhou Qing was furious: “You!”
Zhou Yao hurriedly pressed her hand: “Xiao Qing, don’t be impulsive!”
Surprisingly, Xiong Lin also chimed in with a sophisticated tone: “That’s right, not to mention the survival mode that is now on. Zhou Qing, let me put it bluntly: the gameplay of this mode means that if there’s one less person, we’ll have more chances of winning and more rewards. The weak will be preyed on by the strong. This is how the game is played. If you can’t survive by yourself, it’s your luck that someone saves you, and it’s also justifiable that no one saves you. Don’t just turn around and blame us.”
Wen Zheliu frowned and sighed inwardly.
This is the brilliance of Saint Nun… She just threw out two ordinary game modes and was able to get the same team of players to reveal their true intentions at the early morning table the next day, even though He Qin had just thoroughly pointed out the disadvantages of this mode last night.
Zhou Qing’s eyes were wide open, and she said angrily: “Am I blaming you guys? Am I the one who mentioned what happened last night and made excuses for myself first?!”
Bai Hao simply pushed the plate forward, spread his hands with a sneer, and said, “Well, this is the beginning of internal strife.”
Zhou Yao’s eyes were cold, and Mu Tuo frowned. However, before the rest of the people could speak, Du Zijun swung the fork into the plate, and there was a loud “clang.” Leaning on the back of the chair, her other hand skillfully broke off a candle from the candlestick and lit the cigarette near her mouth.
Wen Zheliu: “…”
She exhaled a puff of smoke and said coldly, “Shut up, all of you.”
He Qin was indifferent, handed the milk in his hand to Wen Zheliu, and said, “Pay no mind to it. Let’s eat first.”
Xiong Lin looked at her provocatively and said, “Why, what advice does Miss Du have?”
“Did I ask you to talk?” Du Zijun raised her brows sullenly and said, “Talking back to me like this, aren’t you a little too jumpy?”
Ke Wenyan widened his eyes and shouted, “Hey! Du Zijun, you…”
“Were you the one who fought back the monster yesterday? Was it you who communicated with the NPCs to get everyone to complete the first line of the main quest? Did you save someone last night? Did you go on night patrol, or did you play any role in the advancement of the main quest?” Without waiting for Ke Wenyan to finish his sentence, Du Zijun stared at Xiong Lin with a smirk, throwing out several questions one after another: “What did you do? Tell me?”
Xiong Lin was confused by this series of questions; he opened his mouth: “I, I…”
“Not at all?” Du Zijun raised the corners of her lips. Her eyes suddenly darkened, “None of you know how to f*cking do anything beside talking sh*t?! If this is a place where the weak are preyed upon by the strong, then the first ones to die are you guys! No one else will put in the effort to protect you, nor will they let you live in this house. Because you are weak, you don’t deserve it, understand?”
“How many years have you been studying? Where have you been in the real world? Are you the CEO of N-Star Company, some government official, or a consortium tycoon? Why are you opening your mouth and starting to spew weak this and strong that? Do you think you’re the strong one who eats the weak?” Du Zijun burst out laughing and burned the cigarette butt heavily on the lettuce in the dinner plate, saying, “Take a look at yourselves, boys. You’re just a deadbeat corporate slave, but because you’re a man, you’re born a little bit stronger than a girl by nature, so you dare to talk nonsense!”
In the silence, Zhou Qing opened her mouth wide and looked dumbfoundedly at Du Zijun.
Wen Zheliu swallowed a mouthful of milk, thinking silently that this should be the only time this girl talked so much…
Xiong Lin blushed, feeling ashamed and angry. He stood up abruptly, pointed at Du Zijun’s nose, and said tremblingly, “You, you uneducated b*tch with a mouth full of shit…”
Mu Tuo was afraid that the conflict between the teams would escalate, so he rushed to say loudly before Xiong Lin finished speaking: “Okay, let’s all stop talking!”
Du Zijun really looked like a ruthless character; Xiong Lin didn’t dare to target her anymore but turned his anger on Mu Tuo: “Stop talking? This b*tch just scolded me so much like a machine gun, why don’t you make her stop?!”
Wen Zheliu finally finished the milk in the glass.
He looked at the mess in front of him and was just about to say a few words of persuasion when he heard Marianne’s hesitant voice ring out from the stairway, “Are you guys….. having a fight?”
The players present were taken aback, but they were concerned about the participation value and didn’t dare let the NPCs hear information that didn’t belong to this world, so they were all silent for the moment.
He Qin curled his lips, his eyebrows were suave and lazy, and he laughed: “How can there be companions who don’t get into arguments during the journey? You don’t have to worry too much.”
Marianne shrugged and put a few candles on the table, “Anyway, thank you for your help last night.”
“You still need someone on patrol this evening, right?” Wen Zheliu asked.
Marianne said: “Yes, I still have a sewing kit here. I usually sew clothes and mend buttons; all can be done if you don’t mind ……”
“We don’t mind! We don’t mind!” Zhou Qing came back to her senses and hurriedly said loudly, “I just happened to need it!”
He Qin thought for a moment and exchanged glances with Wen Zheliu.
“Wait a minute.” Seeing that Marianne was about to turn around and leave, He Qin suddenly stopped her, asking, “Miss Marianne, I have something here; is it yours?”
With that, he took out an old cloth belt and handed it to Marianne. Wen Zheliu could clearly see that it was the dropped item he got from the monster last night.
The color of this cloth belt was old and yellow. It’s also stained with spots of brown and black blood. The edge is fraying from wear and tear. Only the scattered and regularly distributed holes can make people barely see that it was once a lace belt.
Marianne froze in place. She gently held the belt, her lips trembling slightly, and she said, “This… where did you find it?”
“Is this yours?” Wen Zheliu was surprised. Could this be the so-called “key item”?
“Yes, this is mine.” Marianne took a deep breath and said, “When I was small, my family and I lived in a town far from here, where many jobless young hooligans roamed from time to time, often taking pleasure in bullying young girls. One day, I went out to fetch water, wearing my favorite dress, but accidentally met those people and was surrounded by them. I was terrified and quickly ran home. In a hurry, the lace belt on the dress was hooked by something and fell near the ditch…”
Wen Zheliu knew that this was the key information that the system had set up the NPC to reveal to the player, so he hurriedly memorized it in his heart. Marianne looked at the lace with nostalgia, but her eyes shone with hatred: “That was my favorite dress, and it was bought by my mother, who spent ten days spinning the cloth all night without sleep…”
Mu Tuo asked, “Where are they now? Are they still living in that small town?”
“I’m afraid those scum died a long time ago.” Marianne said nonchalantly, “I don’t need to care about them.”
After she finished speaking, she returned the lace belt to He Qin. Immediately afterwards, all players heard the system’s prompt.
[1/2 The main plot has been triggered.]
[The boss has been activated in the plot. ]
[Players are requested to work together to solve the puzzles and meet the clearance conditions. ]
Everyone’s heart trembled, all eyes were on He Qin, and at this time, a melodious tune followed.
[Traveling on a trencher,
and dance on the dishes,
My mother sent me some yeast,
some yeast;
She gently told me to go,
And come back soon,
Those young men who scare me may hurt me.]
Marianne left, and Wen Zheliu hurriedly grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down the content of the ballad. He Qin turned to look at the crowd, and with a wicked smile on his lips, he spread his hands and said, “No more noise?”
Mu Tuo was surprised: “Brother He Qin, how do you know…”
He Qin said: “I was going to talk about it last night, but I saw that everyone was too tired at that time, so I asked you all to go to rest.”
He spent a few minutes explaining the rules of the Uncanny Valley game to everyone. Du Zijun calmed down and said, “It seems that the system’s so-called “solving the puzzle” is for us to figure out what happened here, right?”
“Yes.” Wen Zheliu continued, “Last night, He Qin obtained this key item from that monster.”
Mu Tuo pondered: “I think everyone must have heard the system prompt clearly just now. At present, only half of the plot has been revealed, but the system has refused to give us further hints or tell us the specific gameplay. So I guess, there are other key items waiting for us to collect?”
Wen Zheliu had just finished writing the ballad when he said, “According to my speculation, the next stage of the main plot should also be on the Eyeless Monster, just like this piece of lace belt.”
Hearing this, Ke Wenyan immediately let out a strange cry and looked at Wen Zheliu in disbelief: “Do you mean that we should also go head-to-head with that monster?!”
Zhou Qing sneered and said, “Since you’re so afraid, let’s go out on night patrol all together. There’s no need to dispatch two people every night! There’s no rule saying that competent people should do more work. It’s best for everyone to have a job.”
Zhou Yao pushed his glasses back and agreed: “If the key items are all on the monster, then we don’t need to waste time. The whole group should be divided into two night patrol groups, with six people in each group taking turns. Anyway, there are enough torches in the house. We can take care of each other.”
“I’ll go with my little brother.” He Qin added it in a timely manner.
Mu Tuo made a final decision: “Then it’s settled. There’s still some time before night. Let’s search for other information in the room to see if we can find any other breakthroughs. We will exchange opinions at dinner. Disband!”
With an imposing wave of his hand, he went upstairs first, followed by Zhou Qing and Zhou Yao.
The matter was settled like this; Bai Hao, Gao Xinghan, and the others couldn’t say anything, so they had to reluctantly start wandering around the room.
Third floor.
Zhou Qing tiptoed around and led Zhou Yao and Mu Tuo upstairs.
“Forward, forward, the responsibility of a soldier is heavy~ Ah women have deep hatred!” Perhaps it was because Du Zijun had just severely criticized the men headed by Xiong Lin that Zhou Qing was in a very good mood now, singing in a passionate tone while waving back, “Comrades follow!”
“…” Zhou Yao was speechless and complained behind her back, “I think she has come back to life.”
Mu Tuo was honest enough to say, “Is this going to work? Marianne won’t come out of her room during the daytime. It’s a lot harder to go to the third floor and rummage through things.”
“It’s okay!” Zhou Qing grinned, “The more closely guarded the place is, the more valuable it is to investigate. Repeat our plan again. You’re hiding first. I will trick her into the kitchen with the excuse of learning how to cook, and then you guys sneak in and get to work quickly! Got it?”
Zhou Yao shook his head helplessly: “I understand, I understand. Let’s go.”
On the third floor, the two hid in the shadow of the corner of the stairs, watching Zhou Qing call Marianne out with a few words, and then jump around happily in front of the NPC, perfectly showing the reality of a mentally handicapped girl clowning herself to please AI for a living.
Mu Tuo commented deeply: “The acting is very good, just like a professional.”
Zhou Yao scratched his chin and sighed, “If this doesn’t happen, my sister actually wants to be a good actor who doesn’t rely on mechanical doubles, motion capture, or virtual reality scenes.”
“Well… I believe she can do it.”
While talking, Zhou Qing achieved her goal and happily led Marianne downstairs, successfully passing by their hiding place.
The sound of footsteps going downstairs gradually faded away. Zhou Yao and Mu Tuo sprang up quickly and tiptoed into Marianne’s room.
This is a very simple room; the decoration is the same as the room where the player lives, only the area is a bit bigger, like a study and a bedroom in one.
Mu Tuo stood at the door: “Okay, go and search quickly; I’ll watch your back!”
Zhou Yao looked around and first ran to the back of the desk. He pulled open the drawers one by one but found nothing. He bowed down, fully shrank under the desk, and finally found a locked secret compartment.
Zhou Yao chuckled, keeping the posture of pushing the hidden compartment away. He opened his mouth and bit off a thin black hairpin from his cuff, fumbled with one hand to push it in the keyhole, and buckled lightly.
The lock opened with a “click.”
This lock-picking skill that Zhou Yao knows is the reason why they have the courage to come to the third floor to search.
Zhou Yao’s heart relaxed as he took a few documents from it and flipped through them quickly.
Without exception, all the papers depicted the familiar pattern of an eagle holding an ear of wheat. He muttered, “… Mr. Wesley Carter is hereby appointed as the local sheriff… The date is… July 15, 1740?”
He wanted to look further, but he heard Mu Tuo hiss urgently at the door. He was breathless, and hurriedly shoved the pages in his hand into the secret compartment in order. He hesitated for a moment, then rolled up the top page and stuffed it in his arm. Only then did he hurriedly close the hidden compartment, roughly erase the traces left by him, and hurry to the door.
Wen Zheliu didn’t know anything that happened upstairs at this time. He and He Qin were still looking through the materials in the study.
Although this study is small, the content and collections of books are quite abundant. Wen Zheliu picked up a book off the table, and He Qin stood behind him with his back turned, his slender index finger tapping the spine of the book in rows.
“Brother, why did you suddenly submit the item? Obviously you could have given them to me first?” Wen Zheliu asked in a low voice, “Has your problem been solved?”
He Qin folded up the dirty lace belt and said with a smile: “Baby and I have a heart-to-heart connection; yes, my problems are basically solved. As for your pendant, put it away first; it will be of great use in the future.”
Wen Zheliu put down the book, turned around, and pretended to observe in front of the bookcase, but in fact was listening intently to He Qin.
“First,” said He Qin, with his lips still closed, but his voice was clearly heard in Wen Zheliu’s ears, “There are moles among the players.”
Wen Zheliu was startled, and before he could ask questions, He Qin went on to say, “Secondly, the mole and Marianne have a very close connection.”
“Third, the lace belt doesn’t belong to Marianne; she’s lying.”
Each of these three conclusions was more incredible and frightening than the others. Wen Zheliu took a deep breath, and his brain, which was still in shock, began to run at a rapid pace.
He never doubted He Qin; besides, the attribute of [companion] and the indestructible bond between them were more reliable than any promises or laws. He was just thinking about the feasibility of He Qin’s words.
“Think about it carefully, baby,” He Qin said softly, “You are so smart, you will definitely be able to deduce the key point of this.”
The key point: where is the key point?
Wen Zheliu frowned. What made He Qin deduce these three arguments, and what supported his opinion?
As if lightning streaked across the night sky, his eyebrows gently jumped and stretched, and he said in a daze, “Is it…the reward given by Marianne?”
He Qin smiled dotingly, rubbed Wen Zheliu’s brows, and said softly: “Baby is really amazing; that’s right, the problem lies in the task rewards she gave.”
“Why?” Wen Zheliu was very puzzled. He Qin’s reaction and the node of his two attitude changes helped him figure out the key point. But he racked his brains and still couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the task reward.
“Full intelligence.” He Qin spat out these words: “Because of the proposal of full intelligence, everything in Uncanny Valley is irregular. It will not play out according to a rigid script, nor will it be like any other rpg with a predetermined path. Any action can cause a chain reaction in the plot, and a huge computing algorithm called “fate” is interwoven in every corner here, waiting to deal with the ever-changing world line.”
“In other words, chance is inevitable here, just as you can’t catch the traces of the seasons from the rain or the direction of the wind with your naked eyes. Now you tell me, among thousands of items in the Uncanny Valley, what is the probability that Marianne can take out just the right items to supplement the players’ incomplete items twice6 in a row?” He Qin’s voice was low and quick as he stared intently at a book in front of him, “Records of Small Town’s Past Events,” and smoothly put another book back in its original place.
Wen Zheliu suddenly realized: “…So, this means that someone must have peeked at the results of the novice lucky wheel and then secretly told her!”
He Qin flipped through the “Records of Small Town’s Past Events,” chuckled, and said, “Continue.”
He is like a professor in control of the overall situation, leading his beloved student closer to the truth step by step.
“But what is the purpose of her doing so?” Wen Zheliu thought hard, “If she’s a positive character, then she doesn’t need to understand the needs of the players through this channel; if she’s a negative character… yes, if she’s a negative character, then she is using the player’s psychology of wanting to upgrade the items to force us out on night patrol!”
Wen Zheliu came to a realization. He clenched one hand into a fist and smashed it on the palm of the other hand, “So that’s how it is, then there’s an answer to my previous question about the setup of the night patrol task: protecting the house is just an excuse, the monster’s fear may not be fire at all, she just needs the player to get out of the house!”
He gasped with excitement; the feeling of reeling in the cocoon and plucking the clouds to see the light7 was just too good!
“Don’t be anxious,” He Qin poured cold water on his excitement, “Solving a puzzle means discovering more puzzles—”
For a brief moment, Wen Zheliu stood motionless, the light in his eyes gradually dimming.
“Yes,” he said, lightly touching the book’s cover, “but who’s the mole? Who’s the true owner of the lace belt? And what’s Marianne’s purpose in doing this? We don’t know yet.”
He Qin smiled and reassured him, “It’s okay, one step at a time; maybe by tonight we’ll be able to see who the real mole is.”
“En.” Wen Zheliu nodded, looking at He Qin suspiciously, and said, “Brother, you really haven’t read the script at all?”
He Qin curled up the corners of his lips in a composed but leisurely manner. There was a debauched viciousness between his eyes, which was different from Wen Zheliu’s warm energy. He smiled like a prodigal son carrying a long zither, waiting to tantalize the young girl’s heart: “Your brother really hasn’t actually read the plot line, but this is the first world that was opened for testing. With my status and identity, at least I know a little, so I can make some random guesses?”
Seeing him like this, Wen Zheliu squinted his eyes; his heart was itchy, his teeth were itchy, and he really wanted to beat this wild leopard lightly with a small leather whip. With this thought, he raised his hand, but he was caught by the wrist and pulled into He Qin’s embrace.
“You’re very bold, aren’t you?” He Qin lowered his voice next to his ear and gently pinched the back of Wen Zheliu’s neck with his other hand, asking, “You still want to beat your brother?”
This pinching made Zheliu’s scalp go numb, and a redness like an electric shock leaked from the base of his ears down his neck, and even his tailbone was soft. His face was hot, and his ears were red, but he couldn’t break free. He had to stammer and whisper, “Don’t make trouble, brother, let go!”
He Qin raised his eyebrows unexpectedly and wanted to pinch the child again. At this time, Du Zijun, who heard the movement outside, was suspicious and couldn’t help but turn her head and glance at the half-closed door—
Du Zijun: “…”
He Qin: “…”
Wen Zheliu, who noticed something was wrong and looked back: “…”
The three came face-to-face in a particularly awkward manner. Du Zijun had been baptized by the repeated shocks and had already become as serene as a Buddha. She shook her head and smiled kindly. She flicked the cigarette in her hand, took a puff, and fluttered away as if she were riding a cloud.
Wen Zheliu: “…ha, haha, it’s Miss Du again.”
“Miss Du?” chuckled He Qin. “I think you should call him Mr. Du.”
Wen Zheliu thought he had heard wrong: “…what?”
“I said,” facing Wen Zheliu, He Qin always had endless patience, “You should call him Mr. Du; if I guessed correctly, he should be a man.”
“What?!”
He Qin said helplessly: “The sitting posture, the way he talks, the way he smokes, the way he walks… don’t you see anything inconsistent?”
Wen Zheliu was struck dumb with astonishment. He was unwilling to believe this fact: “But she…… No, how could such a bug occur in a place that is 100% connected with reality like the Uncanny Valley?”
He Qin didn’t force him to believe it, but just handed him the book in his hand and said, “Then there’s no need to concern yourself with the fact that he’s a Miss or Mr. Du. Read this first.”
Wen Zheliu lowered his head and saw the “Records of Small Town’s Past Events” that He Qin had just taken.
The thin book looks a bit dated, and on the cover is a hand-painted carbon ink bird’s-eye view of the town, which is marked with the author’s name: Father Abel.
“Written by a clergyman.” So Wen Zheliu hurriedly put aside the embarrassing question just now and took a closer look at the page that He Qin had opened for him.
This is not so much a book as a priest’s diary. Apart from his daily life, there are some completely insignificant and trivial things that happened in a small town called Arlington. Wen Zheliu’s mind turned quickly, his reading speed was also fast. He scanned through a dozen pages in detail and suddenly found a crucial point.
In the narrative of the priest, he described in detail several wandering youths who returned to the small town because they were unemployed in the city. They formed the main force of the town’s guard, loafing around all day long, taking pleasure in stealing chickens and dogs, and bullying women. One of them was the nephew of the sheriff.
“The priest lives in the town where Marianne used to live, Arlington.” He pondered and continued to read on.
It’s not very good to think so, but since the priest wrote about those rascals, the content of the writing has not only become much richer but also more readable.
“…… These blasphemous criminals have not been duly punished, and they even hold weapons with the power to punish the people at will. Their behavior has become more and more rampant; how dare they call themselves emperors in this isolated town. They hurt innocent people, and in the first month of the harvest, they took turns tarnishing a faithful believer named Theresa…”
He froze for a long time, his brows almost knit into a knot.
Theresa? Why is it a coincidence that the girl mentioned by the priest has the same name as the saint nun?
“Go on reading.” He Qin said.
So Wen Zheliu went on to read: “…In the second month, they intensified. In addition to harassing the faithful believer, they also brutally violated the daughter of an unfortunate family, leaving her relatives heartbroken. Their actions became more and more rampant, but my term here has come to an end. If I have the chance, I will come back and preach the gospel to the people here… Ha, what, this priest actually ran away first ?”
The following content is full of what the priest has seen and heard in other places. Wen Zheliu is not happy to read these insignificant things. He hastily flipped the pages and finally turned to the ending of the town.
“…I came back here a few months later.” He carefully read the last two paragraphs, “My God, this town is almost completely deserted. Those sinners have died; even their bodies are missing, and the town is still covered with the shadow of death and disease. The sheriff’s mansion was crumbling, and the remains of the mangled bodies were blocking the upper reaches of the stream that ran through the town, while blood stained the rest. Is this the coming of God’s punishment, or is it the consequence of the Devil’s nefarious deeds on earth?
In any case, I finally left this place far away and vowed never to return. The mystery of what happened in this town will be buried deep in my heart until I sleep forever under the dark earth.”
This book is finished.
Wen Zheliu closed it, thought for a while, and concluded: “That is to say, there used to be a few hooligans in the town who committed all sorts of crimes. Later, they became the town’s guards with the help of one of them, and they bullied men and women and did all kinds of evil. Later, they suffered retribution and were slaughtered in the town?”
He again took out the paper on which he had previously noted the ballad and examined it, “So it seems that the ‘I‘ in ‘My mother sent me some yeast‘ refers to the victim, and those ‘young men who scare me‘, refers to the dictators of the town.”
“An isolated environment—a group of soldiers with weapons and no supervision,” He Qin said. “You don’t have to guess what will happen.”
“However, Marianne never mentioned the massacre, nor did she say why she moved here, which is very suspicious.”
Wen Zheliu frowned slightly. At this moment, he saw a mass of ink stains where the ending signature was supposed to be. He scratched it with his fingernails and wondered: “There should be a date and time when it was finished; how did it get smudged?”
He Qin came over to take a look and said, “Go out and exchange information first. Let’s figure out what we should ask Marianne during dinner.”
The two walked out of the study and joined the crowd at the dining table.
The rod of physics (the holy sword of physics, the holy rod of physics), a term from the game “Half-Life.” This thing is basically a crowbar.
Another game/anime reference…This is a Fate series reference. It was supposed to be Excalibur, but due to a mispronunciation, it became Ex-curry stick. Basically, he meant that this is a good item.
Another game/anime reference: “Higurashi When They Cry”.
Anime, Comic, Game
A famous painting. The Last Supper is the final meal that, in the Gospel accounts, Jesus shared with his apostles in Jerusalem before his crucifixion.
FYI: The task rewards on the first night for Mu Tuo’s seven-branched candles and the second night for Zhuo Qing’s eyeless doll.
Metaphor for making painstaking investigation and dispelling doubts.
Her mental value fluctuated violently, and it plummeted to only 23%. At the moment of life and death, she released the item she drew from the novice lucky wheel like an electric shock, [eyeless doll].
[Item Name: Eyeless Doll (Incomplete)]
[Grade: c-]
[Activation type: instant activation]
[Cooling time: 3 hours]
[Attack Power: None]
[Effect: The next second after the player uses the item, a fabric doll that is no more than 5% different from the player’s body weight will materialize and appear in place of the player. At the same time, the player will be bounced 2-3 meters backward. The attack power of the doll is 0, and the defense power is medium or low.
Note: When the player completes the item, it is immediately upgraded to [Buttonhole Doll]; the item’s effect remains unchanged, but the number of uses is increased to two.]
[Equipment level: 5]
[Item introduction: I am a buttonhole doll. My master put me in the attic, so one of my eyes rolled down the escalator into the burning flame of the fireplace, and the other eye fell into Puppy’s milk bowl through the crack in the floor. Who can find my eyes? I’m an eyeless doll~]
This subconscious action saved her life.
A bloody long tongue popped out of “Lin Fangfei”’s bloody mouth. At the critical moment, a doll of the exact same size as Zhou Qing appeared on the spot with a “bang”, replacing where she was standing. There was a dull sound of clothes being ripped, and then the back of the doll’s head exploded with countless pieces of fleece, which delivered the fatal blow.
Under the shroud of extreme fear and death, Zhou Qing had no power to fight back. She rushed out of the door, screaming “Help” intermittently while frantically running down the corridor, slapping the closed doors one by one desperately. In front of her, a male player named Gao Xinghan cautiously opened the door and took a look at the situation. After just one glance, his face changed drastically, and he hurriedly closed the door. Immediately after, the locking sound could be heard from inside the door.
Zhou Qing was completely desperate. She stumbled and ran; her lips were pale, her voice was hoarse, and tears of wariness hit her nightgown. Her rapidly declining mental value caused her physical strength to be depleted several times faster than usual. Just as she was running out of strength and about to fall to the ground, a door suddenly opened in front of her!
Wen Zheliu held the holy sword of physics1, kicked open the door, and immediately let out a “f*ck” when he saw what was outside.
An eyeless monster was breaking through the door from the storage room at the end of the corridor, protruding half of its body. With a bloody female corpse still on its tongue, it was chasing Zhou Qing desperately in the corridor. Wen Zheliu was relentless. He strided past Zhou Qing in two steps and directly slashed at the female corpse with a stick!
“Where is the evildoer, my holy sword punishes—!”
The crowbar swung down like a knife chopping melons and vegetables, and it beat the female corpse to pieces in one stroke. With a muffled sound, it even nailed the eyeless monster’s incredibly tough bloody tongue to the floor!
The monster screamed in pain, but Wen Zheliu stood there dumbfounded. At this moment, the crowbar in his hand seemed to shoot out ten thousand feet of golden light, forcing him to shout: “This is not an e-level item; this is an ex-level curry stick2 item!”
At this time, He Qin also entered the stage with a weapon in his hand, but instead of the wooden stick that Mu Tuo had given him earlier, he was holding…a hatchet.
“…Where did this hatchet come from?” Wen Zheliu asked calmly.
“Trust me.” He Qin responded calmly, “Since you want to kill, you must be determined to be killed—”
Wen Zheliu almost fell apart and said: “I asked you where the hatchet came from. What are you doing with my lines! Are you Rena Rugyu3! Why did you suddenly turn into an otaku!”
He Qin regained the cynical look and said with a smile: “Just spice up the atmosphere; now nail it down!”
He suddenly looked cold and solemn, with unparalleled killing intent and sharpness bursting out of his eyes, like a leopard that was ready to attack. He Qin dashed forward toward the monster at the end of the corridor. He stomped on the wall and spun his body like he was one with the wind, then he drew his sword and shouted: “Die!”
The monster’s tongue was firmly nailed by Wen Zheliu, and its strong lower body was stuck at the window of the storage room, unable to move. It couldn’t help but hiss with fear and had to open its monstrous claws to block the hatchet, causing the rancid black blood to splatter. The hatchet collided with the wrist bone buried deep under the muscle, making a clunking sound of metal colliding!
He Qin wanted to slash a second time, but the monster was already struggling desperately, even tearing off the tongue nailed under the crowbar. It pushed back with its claws, roared loudly, squeezed open the storage room window, and dashed into the dark mountains, where it vanished.
The night wind howled, blowing in through the broken window of the storage room. He Qin looked down at the hatchet in his hand and turned to look at the two rows of doors that were still closed. At this time, the unmistakable killing intent has not yet completely faded from him. He is cloaked in dim candlelight and hazy night, like a cold beast with gorgeous fur.
Zhou Qing was dumbfounded.
Wen Zheliu flicked the crowbar, and the blood stains on it flew to the wall, corroding the pasted wallpaper into a seething black-red foam. He walked up to He Qin and whispered, “Brother, are you alright?”
“Yes.” He Qin said, while picking up a black piece of fabric from the wreckage and putting it in his pocket, “Go check her room.”
Perhaps it was because the movement outside stopped that the doors on both sides of the corridor opened one by one. Everyone who had just pretended to be dead stretched out their bodies cautiously, observing the chaos outside.
Zhou Qing followed behind the two tremblingly, wiping away tears in anger. Wen Zheliu turned his head slightly and said, “How is it? Are you okay?”
Unexpectedly, Zhou Qing burst into tears and said, “Thank you, thank you… thank you!”
Walking into the room, Zhou Qing cried and gestured at them, saying that she first heard a knock on the wall from Du Zijun’s room, but Du Zijun said that it wasn’t her, and then that thing knocked on her door; she didn’t dare to open the door, only to see a dead face at the window…
Wen Zheliu leaned over, observed carefully with the candlestick, and found that there was a circle of blood in the shape of a face and several bloody fingerprints outside the window.
“It’s not an illusion; it’s real.” “There are at least two monsters—one scaring you out, the other waiting to catch you outside the door,” He Qin said.
Du Zijun came in while they were talking, with messy sideburns, pale, tightly pursed lips, and a heaving chest.
“Are you all right?” She held a candlestick in her hand, her gaze was sinister as she looked around; and her skirt was dirty, not knowing where she had smeared it.
He Qin raised his eyebrows and said, “You are…”
“Laozi is going to f*cking kill that bastard!” Du Zijun suddenly burst into a frenzy of curses: “I climbed the stairs for half an hour but didn’t get anywhere. I walked up at least a thousand steps! What the hell is this f*cking house?!”
Wen Zheliu had no doubt that if there was any inhuman creature that appeared in front of her at this time, it would definitely be smashed into a meat paste by this furious woman with a candlestick…
Immediately behind her, Mu Tuo and Zhou Yao, who had finished their night patrol ahead of schedule, also hurried over. When they passed by, Wen Zheliu’s nose twitched slightly, as if he had smelled some kind of sweet and greasy aroma.
Zhou Yao hugged his sister; Zhou Qing then jumped into his arms and burst into tears. Mu Tuo comforted them, and Du Zijun was like an angry lioness, walking around with a candlestick, wishing to tear down the corridor. The male players in the corridor kept whispering and glancing over here…
He Qin twitched his eyebrows, pressed his temples, and shouted in a deep voice, “Shut up!”
His handsome face was indifferent, and the cold murderous intent from when he swung the hatchet just now remained between his eyes. When he looked around, his aura was even more powerful, and he immediately calmed down all the noisy players.
“Now, go back to sleep, and we’ll talk about it tomorrow when we wake up.” He Qin commanded, “Don’t delay your sleep time; it’s for your own good.”
The players were silenced, and they all kept quiet.
“Let’s go, baby,” He Qin took Wen Zheliu’s hand and said, “You don’t need to hold the crowbar so tightly; let’s go back to the room first.”
Wen Zheliu turned his head and smiled at Zhou Qing and Zhou Yao, but was led back gently and forcefully by He Qin.
After closing the door, Wen Zheliu was still looking thoughtfully at the crowbar in his hand.
“What’s the matter?” He Qin teased, “You didn’t expect it to become the holy sword of physics, did you?”
“What’s going on here…” “It’s unreasonable; how can a mere E-grade item display such exaggerated combat power?” Shaking his head in perplexity, Wen Zheliu said.
He Qin took off his shoes again, bent down, and made the bed. “It’s just a small Easter egg set by N-Star. You will see many more in the future, so don’t be too surprised.”
“Easter eggs…?”
“The bad taste of the R&D personnel.” He Qin laughed lazily, “Whether the crowbar or the hatchet, they are all classic elements in the history of ACG4… No matter how expensive and advanced the Uncanny Valley is, it’s just a game. As a tribute to its predecessors, these special items have an exclusive name in our programmer circle called “Sentimental Items”.”
Wen Zheliu lowered his head silently: “Should I praise those otakus or should I say this is a foul…”
“Don’t worry.” He Qin laid down on one side of the bed and said, “This isn’t considered cheating; it can only be called clever use of the rules. The Saint Nun couldn’t understand this concept yet. Besides, although it’s very powerful, you can’t take it out; it can only be used in this world.”
Under the candlelight, Wen Zheliu carefully looked at the properties of the crowbar.
[Item name: crowbar]
[Grade: E]
[Activation type: instant activation]
[Cooling time: None]
[Attack Power: Mindfulness]
[Effect: With a gentle wave, you can experience something new like never before!]
[Equipment level: 5]
[Item introduction: With the holy sword in your hands, the world is at your fingertips. ]
…This is so wrong, and he didn’t even know where to start complaining.
Out of curiosity, he picked up the hatchet that He Qin had brought from the kitchen…
[Item name: Hatchet]
[Grade: E]
[Activation type: instant activation]
[Cooling time: None]
[Attack Power: Mindfulness]
[Effect: As long as you have the determination, you can cut down anything! ]
[Equipment level: 5]
[Item introduction: Dragon Slaying Saber; click to give it away; click to play for a year; the equipment will not cost a penny; level 999 for a knife. Rena Rugyu said it was good to use!]
…He’s going to be blind if he looks at it again….
He Qin patted the bed and said, “Don’t look anymore, baby. Come and sleep quickly; there’s still a lot of work to do tomorrow.”
“Understood!” Wen Zheliu was indeed tired after a day of exhaustion, so he didn’t have time to think about anything. He lay down next to He Qin with his clothes on and fell into a deep sleep with peace of mind.
The next day, at the dining table in the morning, a group of players with different expressions stared at the plate in front of them without speaking.
Marianne sat down in the first place. Wen Zheliu thought in his heart: If there’s one more person, they can form a table of thirteen people and compose the picture of The Last Supper5…
“Good morning, everyone.” Marianne said softly, “It seems that you all had a bad time last night.”
“As you can see.” He Qin continued, “The monster suddenly attacked this house. It was a terrible accident.”
Marianne’s face wasn’t too good either: “Yes, to make matters worse, it destroyed my storage room… This is one of the only two storage rooms. I’m afraid we’ll be very tight on food for the next few days…. ”
“I hope you won’t deduct my companions’ night patrol rewards for this.” Wen Zheliu continued, “It’s not their fault.”
Marianne put down the knife and fork, nodded, and said, “Of course, it’s just a few candle heads. I’m not so stingy.”
She finished her meal and went to the kitchen with her own plate, leaving a number of uncomfortable players in place.
“Last night…” Bai Hao coughed, “It was too unexpected.”
Zhou Qing’s fork scratched across the porcelain plate, producing an ear-piercing shrill.
“…It was quite unexpected.” His roommate, Gao Xinghan, lowered his head and swallowed a spoonful of thick soup. His voice was also low, “We… didn’t even react…”
Zhou Qing felt a raging fire suddenly rising up. She uncontrollably threw the fork into the dinner plate and said in a trembling voice: “Since you didn’t do anything last night, don’t make unnecessary excuses for yourselves, ok?”
“Please try to understand everyone…” Ke Wenyan turned the spoon in his hand and whispered with embarrassment, “You have also seen the death of Lu Hai and Lin Fangfei. According to our current level and equipment, how can we fight with that monster…”
As he said that, he glanced at Wen Zheliu and He Qin and muttered: “We all have only one life; isn’t it normal to be afraid of death? Except for some people with great abilities, the others are ordinary people, so don’t take it too seriously. Not everyone thinks they’re omnipotent, ok?”
Zhou Qing was furious: “You!”
Zhou Yao hurriedly pressed her hand: “Xiao Qing, don’t be impulsive!”
Surprisingly, Xiong Lin also chimed in with a sophisticated tone: “That’s right, not to mention the survival mode that is now on. Zhou Qing, let me put it bluntly: the gameplay of this mode means that if there’s one less person, we’ll have more chances of winning and more rewards. The weak will be preyed on by the strong. This is how the game is played. If you can’t survive by yourself, it’s your luck that someone saves you, and it’s also justifiable that no one saves you. Don’t just turn around and blame us.”
Wen Zheliu frowned and sighed inwardly.
This is the brilliance of Saint Nun… She just threw out two ordinary game modes and was able to get the same team of players to reveal their true intentions at the early morning table the next day, even though He Qin had just thoroughly pointed out the disadvantages of this mode last night.
Zhou Qing’s eyes were wide open, and she said angrily: “Am I blaming you guys? Am I the one who mentioned what happened last night and made excuses for myself first?!”
Bai Hao simply pushed the plate forward, spread his hands with a sneer, and said, “Well, this is the beginning of internal strife.”
Zhou Yao’s eyes were cold, and Mu Tuo frowned. However, before the rest of the people could speak, Du Zijun swung the fork into the plate, and there was a loud “clang.” Leaning on the back of the chair, her other hand skillfully broke off a candle from the candlestick and lit the cigarette near her mouth.
Wen Zheliu: “…”
She exhaled a puff of smoke and said coldly, “Shut up, all of you.”
He Qin was indifferent, handed the milk in his hand to Wen Zheliu, and said, “Pay no mind to it. Let’s eat first.”
Xiong Lin looked at her provocatively and said, “Why, what advice does Miss Du have?”
“Did I ask you to talk?” Du Zijun raised her brows sullenly and said, “Talking back to me like this, aren’t you a little too jumpy?”
Ke Wenyan widened his eyes and shouted, “Hey! Du Zijun, you…”
“Were you the one who fought back the monster yesterday? Was it you who communicated with the NPCs to get everyone to complete the first line of the main quest? Did you save someone last night? Did you go on night patrol, or did you play any role in the advancement of the main quest?” Without waiting for Ke Wenyan to finish his sentence, Du Zijun stared at Xiong Lin with a smirk, throwing out several questions one after another: “What did you do? Tell me?”
Xiong Lin was confused by this series of questions; he opened his mouth: “I, I…”
“Not at all?” Du Zijun raised the corners of her lips. Her eyes suddenly darkened, “None of you know how to f*cking do anything beside talking sh*t?! If this is a place where the weak are preyed upon by the strong, then the first ones to die are you guys! No one else will put in the effort to protect you, nor will they let you live in this house. Because you are weak, you don’t deserve it, understand?”
“How many years have you been studying? Where have you been in the real world? Are you the CEO of N-Star Company, some government official, or a consortium tycoon? Why are you opening your mouth and starting to spew weak this and strong that? Do you think you’re the strong one who eats the weak?” Du Zijun burst out laughing and burned the cigarette butt heavily on the lettuce in the dinner plate, saying, “Take a look at yourselves, boys. You’re just a deadbeat corporate slave, but because you’re a man, you’re born a little bit stronger than a girl by nature, so you dare to talk nonsense!”
In the silence, Zhou Qing opened her mouth wide and looked dumbfoundedly at Du Zijun.
Wen Zheliu swallowed a mouthful of milk, thinking silently that this should be the only time this girl talked so much…
Xiong Lin blushed, feeling ashamed and angry. He stood up abruptly, pointed at Du Zijun’s nose, and said tremblingly, “You, you uneducated b*tch with a mouth full of shit…”
Mu Tuo was afraid that the conflict between the teams would escalate, so he rushed to say loudly before Xiong Lin finished speaking: “Okay, let’s all stop talking!”
Du Zijun really looked like a ruthless character; Xiong Lin didn’t dare to target her anymore but turned his anger on Mu Tuo: “Stop talking? This b*tch just scolded me so much like a machine gun, why don’t you make her stop?!”
Wen Zheliu finally finished the milk in the glass.
He looked at the mess in front of him and was just about to say a few words of persuasion when he heard Marianne’s hesitant voice ring out from the stairway, “Are you guys….. having a fight?”
The players present were taken aback, but they were concerned about the participation value and didn’t dare let the NPCs hear information that didn’t belong to this world, so they were all silent for the moment.
He Qin curled his lips, his eyebrows were suave and lazy, and he laughed: “How can there be companions who don’t get into arguments during the journey? You don’t have to worry too much.”
Marianne shrugged and put a few candles on the table, “Anyway, thank you for your help last night.”
“You still need someone on patrol this evening, right?” Wen Zheliu asked.
Marianne said: “Yes, I still have a sewing kit here. I usually sew clothes and mend buttons; all can be done if you don’t mind ……”
“We don’t mind! We don’t mind!” Zhou Qing came back to her senses and hurriedly said loudly, “I just happened to need it!”
He Qin thought for a moment and exchanged glances with Wen Zheliu.
“Wait a minute.” Seeing that Marianne was about to turn around and leave, He Qin suddenly stopped her, asking, “Miss Marianne, I have something here; is it yours?”
With that, he took out an old cloth belt and handed it to Marianne. Wen Zheliu could clearly see that it was the dropped item he got from the monster last night.
The color of this cloth belt was old and yellow. It’s also stained with spots of brown and black blood. The edge is fraying from wear and tear. Only the scattered and regularly distributed holes can make people barely see that it was once a lace belt.
Marianne froze in place. She gently held the belt, her lips trembling slightly, and she said, “This… where did you find it?”
“Is this yours?” Wen Zheliu was surprised. Could this be the so-called “key item”?
“Yes, this is mine.” Marianne took a deep breath and said, “When I was small, my family and I lived in a town far from here, where many jobless young hooligans roamed from time to time, often taking pleasure in bullying young girls. One day, I went out to fetch water, wearing my favorite dress, but accidentally met those people and was surrounded by them. I was terrified and quickly ran home. In a hurry, the lace belt on the dress was hooked by something and fell near the ditch…”
Wen Zheliu knew that this was the key information that the system had set up the NPC to reveal to the player, so he hurriedly memorized it in his heart. Marianne looked at the lace with nostalgia, but her eyes shone with hatred: “That was my favorite dress, and it was bought by my mother, who spent ten days spinning the cloth all night without sleep…”
Mu Tuo asked, “Where are they now? Are they still living in that small town?”
“I’m afraid those scum died a long time ago.” Marianne said nonchalantly, “I don’t need to care about them.”
After she finished speaking, she returned the lace belt to He Qin. Immediately afterwards, all players heard the system’s prompt.
[1/2 The main plot has been triggered.]
[The boss has been activated in the plot. ]
[Players are requested to work together to solve the puzzles and meet the clearance conditions. ]
Everyone’s heart trembled, all eyes were on He Qin, and at this time, a melodious tune followed.
[Traveling on a trencher,
and dance on the dishes,
My mother sent me some yeast,
some yeast;
She gently told me to go,
And come back soon,
Those young men who scare me may hurt me.]
Marianne left, and Wen Zheliu hurriedly grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down the content of the ballad. He Qin turned to look at the crowd, and with a wicked smile on his lips, he spread his hands and said, “No more noise?”
Mu Tuo was surprised: “Brother He Qin, how do you know…”
He Qin said: “I was going to talk about it last night, but I saw that everyone was too tired at that time, so I asked you all to go to rest.”
He spent a few minutes explaining the rules of the Uncanny Valley game to everyone. Du Zijun calmed down and said, “It seems that the system’s so-called “solving the puzzle” is for us to figure out what happened here, right?”
“Yes.” Wen Zheliu continued, “Last night, He Qin obtained this key item from that monster.”
Mu Tuo pondered: “I think everyone must have heard the system prompt clearly just now. At present, only half of the plot has been revealed, but the system has refused to give us further hints or tell us the specific gameplay. So I guess, there are other key items waiting for us to collect?”
Wen Zheliu had just finished writing the ballad when he said, “According to my speculation, the next stage of the main plot should also be on the Eyeless Monster, just like this piece of lace belt.”
Hearing this, Ke Wenyan immediately let out a strange cry and looked at Wen Zheliu in disbelief: “Do you mean that we should also go head-to-head with that monster?!”
Zhou Qing sneered and said, “Since you’re so afraid, let’s go out on night patrol all together. There’s no need to dispatch two people every night! There’s no rule saying that competent people should do more work. It’s best for everyone to have a job.”
Zhou Yao pushed his glasses back and agreed: “If the key items are all on the monster, then we don’t need to waste time. The whole group should be divided into two night patrol groups, with six people in each group taking turns. Anyway, there are enough torches in the house. We can take care of each other.”
“I’ll go with my little brother.” He Qin added it in a timely manner.
Mu Tuo made a final decision: “Then it’s settled. There’s still some time before night. Let’s search for other information in the room to see if we can find any other breakthroughs. We will exchange opinions at dinner. Disband!”
With an imposing wave of his hand, he went upstairs first, followed by Zhou Qing and Zhou Yao.
The matter was settled like this; Bai Hao, Gao Xinghan, and the others couldn’t say anything, so they had to reluctantly start wandering around the room.
Third floor.
Zhou Qing tiptoed around and led Zhou Yao and Mu Tuo upstairs.
“Forward, forward, the responsibility of a soldier is heavy~ Ah women have deep hatred!” Perhaps it was because Du Zijun had just severely criticized the men headed by Xiong Lin that Zhou Qing was in a very good mood now, singing in a passionate tone while waving back, “Comrades follow!”
“…” Zhou Yao was speechless and complained behind her back, “I think she has come back to life.”
Mu Tuo was honest enough to say, “Is this going to work? Marianne won’t come out of her room during the daytime. It’s a lot harder to go to the third floor and rummage through things.”
“It’s okay!” Zhou Qing grinned, “The more closely guarded the place is, the more valuable it is to investigate. Repeat our plan again. You’re hiding first. I will trick her into the kitchen with the excuse of learning how to cook, and then you guys sneak in and get to work quickly! Got it?”
Zhou Yao shook his head helplessly: “I understand, I understand. Let’s go.”
On the third floor, the two hid in the shadow of the corner of the stairs, watching Zhou Qing call Marianne out with a few words, and then jump around happily in front of the NPC, perfectly showing the reality of a mentally handicapped girl clowning herself to please AI for a living.
Mu Tuo commented deeply: “The acting is very good, just like a professional.”
Zhou Yao scratched his chin and sighed, “If this doesn’t happen, my sister actually wants to be a good actor who doesn’t rely on mechanical doubles, motion capture, or virtual reality scenes.”
“Well… I believe she can do it.”
While talking, Zhou Qing achieved her goal and happily led Marianne downstairs, successfully passing by their hiding place.
The sound of footsteps going downstairs gradually faded away. Zhou Yao and Mu Tuo sprang up quickly and tiptoed into Marianne’s room.
This is a very simple room; the decoration is the same as the room where the player lives, only the area is a bit bigger, like a study and a bedroom in one.
Mu Tuo stood at the door: “Okay, go and search quickly; I’ll watch your back!”
Zhou Yao looked around and first ran to the back of the desk. He pulled open the drawers one by one but found nothing. He bowed down, fully shrank under the desk, and finally found a locked secret compartment.
Zhou Yao chuckled, keeping the posture of pushing the hidden compartment away. He opened his mouth and bit off a thin black hairpin from his cuff, fumbled with one hand to push it in the keyhole, and buckled lightly.
The lock opened with a “click.”
This lock-picking skill that Zhou Yao knows is the reason why they have the courage to come to the third floor to search.
Zhou Yao’s heart relaxed as he took a few documents from it and flipped through them quickly.
Without exception, all the papers depicted the familiar pattern of an eagle holding an ear of wheat. He muttered, “… Mr. Wesley Carter is hereby appointed as the local sheriff… The date is… July 15, 1740?”
He wanted to look further, but he heard Mu Tuo hiss urgently at the door. He was breathless, and hurriedly shoved the pages in his hand into the secret compartment in order. He hesitated for a moment, then rolled up the top page and stuffed it in his arm. Only then did he hurriedly close the hidden compartment, roughly erase the traces left by him, and hurry to the door.
Wen Zheliu didn’t know anything that happened upstairs at this time. He and He Qin were still looking through the materials in the study.
Although this study is small, the content and collections of books are quite abundant. Wen Zheliu picked up a book off the table, and He Qin stood behind him with his back turned, his slender index finger tapping the spine of the book in rows.
“Brother, why did you suddenly submit the item? Obviously you could have given them to me first?” Wen Zheliu asked in a low voice, “Has your problem been solved?”
He Qin folded up the dirty lace belt and said with a smile: “Baby and I have a heart-to-heart connection; yes, my problems are basically solved. As for your pendant, put it away first; it will be of great use in the future.”
Wen Zheliu put down the book, turned around, and pretended to observe in front of the bookcase, but in fact was listening intently to He Qin.
“First,” said He Qin, with his lips still closed, but his voice was clearly heard in Wen Zheliu’s ears, “There are moles among the players.”
Wen Zheliu was startled, and before he could ask questions, He Qin went on to say, “Secondly, the mole and Marianne have a very close connection.”
“Third, the lace belt doesn’t belong to Marianne; she’s lying.”
Each of these three conclusions was more incredible and frightening than the others. Wen Zheliu took a deep breath, and his brain, which was still in shock, began to run at a rapid pace.
He never doubted He Qin; besides, the attribute of [companion] and the indestructible bond between them were more reliable than any promises or laws. He was just thinking about the feasibility of He Qin’s words.
“Think about it carefully, baby,” He Qin said softly, “You are so smart, you will definitely be able to deduce the key point of this.”
The key point: where is the key point?
Wen Zheliu frowned. What made He Qin deduce these three arguments, and what supported his opinion?
As if lightning streaked across the night sky, his eyebrows gently jumped and stretched, and he said in a daze, “Is it…the reward given by Marianne?”
He Qin smiled dotingly, rubbed Wen Zheliu’s brows, and said softly: “Baby is really amazing; that’s right, the problem lies in the task rewards she gave.”
“Why?” Wen Zheliu was very puzzled. He Qin’s reaction and the node of his two attitude changes helped him figure out the key point. But he racked his brains and still couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the task reward.
“Full intelligence.” He Qin spat out these words: “Because of the proposal of full intelligence, everything in Uncanny Valley is irregular. It will not play out according to a rigid script, nor will it be like any other rpg with a predetermined path. Any action can cause a chain reaction in the plot, and a huge computing algorithm called “fate” is interwoven in every corner here, waiting to deal with the ever-changing world line.”
“In other words, chance is inevitable here, just as you can’t catch the traces of the seasons from the rain or the direction of the wind with your naked eyes. Now you tell me, among thousands of items in the Uncanny Valley, what is the probability that Marianne can take out just the right items to supplement the players’ incomplete items twice6 in a row?” He Qin’s voice was low and quick as he stared intently at a book in front of him, “Records of Small Town’s Past Events,” and smoothly put another book back in its original place.
Wen Zheliu suddenly realized: “…So, this means that someone must have peeked at the results of the novice lucky wheel and then secretly told her!”
He Qin flipped through the “Records of Small Town’s Past Events,” chuckled, and said, “Continue.”
He is like a professor in control of the overall situation, leading his beloved student closer to the truth step by step.
“But what is the purpose of her doing so?” Wen Zheliu thought hard, “If she’s a positive character, then she doesn’t need to understand the needs of the players through this channel; if she’s a negative character… yes, if she’s a negative character, then she is using the player’s psychology of wanting to upgrade the items to force us out on night patrol!”
Wen Zheliu came to a realization. He clenched one hand into a fist and smashed it on the palm of the other hand, “So that’s how it is, then there’s an answer to my previous question about the setup of the night patrol task: protecting the house is just an excuse, the monster’s fear may not be fire at all, she just needs the player to get out of the house!”
He gasped with excitement; the feeling of reeling in the cocoon and plucking the clouds to see the light7 was just too good!
“Don’t be anxious,” He Qin poured cold water on his excitement, “Solving a puzzle means discovering more puzzles—”
For a brief moment, Wen Zheliu stood motionless, the light in his eyes gradually dimming.
“Yes,” he said, lightly touching the book’s cover, “but who’s the mole? Who’s the true owner of the lace belt? And what’s Marianne’s purpose in doing this? We don’t know yet.”
He Qin smiled and reassured him, “It’s okay, one step at a time; maybe by tonight we’ll be able to see who the real mole is.”
“En.” Wen Zheliu nodded, looking at He Qin suspiciously, and said, “Brother, you really haven’t read the script at all?”
He Qin curled up the corners of his lips in a composed but leisurely manner. There was a debauched viciousness between his eyes, which was different from Wen Zheliu’s warm energy. He smiled like a prodigal son carrying a long zither, waiting to tantalize the young girl’s heart: “Your brother really hasn’t actually read the plot line, but this is the first world that was opened for testing. With my status and identity, at least I know a little, so I can make some random guesses?”
Seeing him like this, Wen Zheliu squinted his eyes; his heart was itchy, his teeth were itchy, and he really wanted to beat this wild leopard lightly with a small leather whip. With this thought, he raised his hand, but he was caught by the wrist and pulled into He Qin’s embrace.
“You’re very bold, aren’t you?” He Qin lowered his voice next to his ear and gently pinched the back of Wen Zheliu’s neck with his other hand, asking, “You still want to beat your brother?”
This pinching made Zheliu’s scalp go numb, and a redness like an electric shock leaked from the base of his ears down his neck, and even his tailbone was soft. His face was hot, and his ears were red, but he couldn’t break free. He had to stammer and whisper, “Don’t make trouble, brother, let go!”
He Qin raised his eyebrows unexpectedly and wanted to pinch the child again. At this time, Du Zijun, who heard the movement outside, was suspicious and couldn’t help but turn her head and glance at the half-closed door—
Du Zijun: “…”
He Qin: “…”
Wen Zheliu, who noticed something was wrong and looked back: “…”
The three came face-to-face in a particularly awkward manner. Du Zijun had been baptized by the repeated shocks and had already become as serene as a Buddha. She shook her head and smiled kindly. She flicked the cigarette in her hand, took a puff, and fluttered away as if she were riding a cloud.
Wen Zheliu: “…ha, haha, it’s Miss Du again.”
“Miss Du?” chuckled He Qin. “I think you should call him Mr. Du.”
Wen Zheliu thought he had heard wrong: “…what?”
“I said,” facing Wen Zheliu, He Qin always had endless patience, “You should call him Mr. Du; if I guessed correctly, he should be a man.”
“What?!”
He Qin said helplessly: “The sitting posture, the way he talks, the way he smokes, the way he walks… don’t you see anything inconsistent?”
Wen Zheliu was struck dumb with astonishment. He was unwilling to believe this fact: “But she…… No, how could such a bug occur in a place that is 100% connected with reality like the Uncanny Valley?”
He Qin didn’t force him to believe it, but just handed him the book in his hand and said, “Then there’s no need to concern yourself with the fact that he’s a Miss or Mr. Du. Read this first.”
Wen Zheliu lowered his head and saw the “Records of Small Town’s Past Events” that He Qin had just taken.
The thin book looks a bit dated, and on the cover is a hand-painted carbon ink bird’s-eye view of the town, which is marked with the author’s name: Father Abel.
“Written by a clergyman.” So Wen Zheliu hurriedly put aside the embarrassing question just now and took a closer look at the page that He Qin had opened for him.
This is not so much a book as a priest’s diary. Apart from his daily life, there are some completely insignificant and trivial things that happened in a small town called Arlington. Wen Zheliu’s mind turned quickly, his reading speed was also fast. He scanned through a dozen pages in detail and suddenly found a crucial point.
In the narrative of the priest, he described in detail several wandering youths who returned to the small town because they were unemployed in the city. They formed the main force of the town’s guard, loafing around all day long, taking pleasure in stealing chickens and dogs, and bullying women. One of them was the nephew of the sheriff.
“The priest lives in the town where Marianne used to live, Arlington.” He pondered and continued to read on.
It’s not very good to think so, but since the priest wrote about those rascals, the content of the writing has not only become much richer but also more readable.
“…… These blasphemous criminals have not been duly punished, and they even hold weapons with the power to punish the people at will. Their behavior has become more and more rampant; how dare they call themselves emperors in this isolated town. They hurt innocent people, and in the first month of the harvest, they took turns tarnishing a faithful believer named Theresa…”
He froze for a long time, his brows almost knit into a knot.
Theresa? Why is it a coincidence that the girl mentioned by the priest has the same name as the saint nun?
“Go on reading.” He Qin said.
So Wen Zheliu went on to read: “…In the second month, they intensified. In addition to harassing the faithful believer, they also brutally violated the daughter of an unfortunate family, leaving her relatives heartbroken. Their actions became more and more rampant, but my term here has come to an end. If I have the chance, I will come back and preach the gospel to the people here… Ha, what, this priest actually ran away first ?”
The following content is full of what the priest has seen and heard in other places. Wen Zheliu is not happy to read these insignificant things. He hastily flipped the pages and finally turned to the ending of the town.
“…I came back here a few months later.” He carefully read the last two paragraphs, “My God, this town is almost completely deserted. Those sinners have died; even their bodies are missing, and the town is still covered with the shadow of death and disease. The sheriff’s mansion was crumbling, and the remains of the mangled bodies were blocking the upper reaches of the stream that ran through the town, while blood stained the rest. Is this the coming of God’s punishment, or is it the consequence of the Devil’s nefarious deeds on earth?
In any case, I finally left this place far away and vowed never to return. The mystery of what happened in this town will be buried deep in my heart until I sleep forever under the dark earth.”
This book is finished.
Wen Zheliu closed it, thought for a while, and concluded: “That is to say, there used to be a few hooligans in the town who committed all sorts of crimes. Later, they became the town’s guards with the help of one of them, and they bullied men and women and did all kinds of evil. Later, they suffered retribution and were slaughtered in the town?”
He again took out the paper on which he had previously noted the ballad and examined it, “So it seems that the ‘I‘ in ‘My mother sent me some yeast‘ refers to the victim, and those ‘young men who scare me‘, refers to the dictators of the town.”
“An isolated environment—a group of soldiers with weapons and no supervision,” He Qin said. “You don’t have to guess what will happen.”
“However, Marianne never mentioned the massacre, nor did she say why she moved here, which is very suspicious.”
Wen Zheliu frowned slightly. At this moment, he saw a mass of ink stains where the ending signature was supposed to be. He scratched it with his fingernails and wondered: “There should be a date and time when it was finished; how did it get smudged?”
He Qin came over to take a look and said, “Go out and exchange information first. Let’s figure out what we should ask Marianne during dinner.”
The two walked out of the study and joined the crowd at the dining table.
The rod of physics (the holy sword of physics, the holy rod of physics), a term from the game “Half-Life.” This thing is basically a crowbar.
Another game/anime reference…This is a Fate series reference. It was supposed to be Excalibur, but due to a mispronunciation, it became Ex-curry stick. Basically, he meant that this is a good item.
Another game/anime reference: “Higurashi When They Cry”.
Anime, Comic, Game
A famous painting. The Last Supper is the final meal that, in the Gospel accounts, Jesus shared with his apostles in Jerusalem before his crucifixion.
FYI: The task rewards on the first night for Mu Tuo’s seven-branched candles and the second night for Zhuo Qing’s eyeless doll.
Metaphor for making painstaking investigation and dispelling doubts.
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