Infinite spooky game

The old lady who took over the residence after the old man nagged Tang Yu for a few more words, then left with her key chain.

When the players gathered together, they found that nearly half of the people had disappeared after just one night.

Luo Haihua and his wife went missing because of an invisible fire caused by an overturned lantern, and it seems that they are in great danger.

Qiu Xin climbed out of the window, he should still be alive, but it is certain that he is in a different camp from the other players.

"Qiu Xin is an accomplice of the devil. She climbed out the window before midnight. She must have wanted to kill a town resident to complete her daily killing mission."

Tang Yu fiddled with the lantern in his hand and calmly deduced: "There is no light at night, and the shadows of the townspeople cannot be seen. She can only use her experience during the day to determine that the old man who manages the residence is a human. To be safe, she will most likely choose to attack the old man.

"She must have succeeded, so the old man disappeared and an old lady took over the mansion. Compared with the situation yesterday evening, it can be seen that only players in the 'Ghost' camp can actually kill the townspeople."

As a former core member of Jiuzhou, although Tang Yu looks rough at ordinary times, he actually has good qualities in all aspects.

Especially in the areas of reasoning and analysis, he had been influenced by the guild, which enabled him to think clearly and do it with ease, and explain the whole thing in just a few sentences.

While he was speaking, Qi Si suddenly reached out and patted Lin Chen's shoulder, lightly, like a gust of wind.

Lin Chen was startled and turned around to see Qi Si pulling his hand back with a long and narrow leaf still in his palm.

Qi Si threw the leaf to the ground and raised his eyelids to look at him: "I guess you got it stuck on it in the bamboo forest last night. I don't know why it hasn't fallen off yet. I just saw it too."

Lin Chen opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the cold system announcement:

[Side quest "Find all the accomplices hiding among you" has been completed]

On the system interface, the text in the side quest column turned into silvery-white light and disappeared in a few seconds.

All players who have this task can receive the prompt, and Tang Yu naturally also sees the changes on the panel.

"This dungeon looks quite complicated, how come the side quests are so easy to complete?"

He complained, but didn't dwell on it for too long, and quickly got back to business: "At present, it can be confirmed that Qiu Xin is a ghost. This is a team instance, and the faction division is obviously inconsistent with the main theme. I guess this is related to the subsequent puzzle solving.

"I have another conjecture. Our identity is 'human', but we may not really be human."

Tang Yu took out the scroll from the prop column and continued: "The effect of this prop of mine is to open a door that only spirits can enter. As a result, something unexpected happened last night, and I found by chance that I could actually go in.

"The item effect cannot be written incorrectly, which means I am in spirit form now. I guess you are similar."

He pulled out a yellowed page from his bosom, showed it to Qi Si and Lin Chen, and pointed to the last line: "It is very likely that our souls have left our bodies since we entered Yanghua Town. We don't know where our bodies were left."

Qi Si listened to Tang Yu's reasoning patiently and nodded gently: "The previous hint mentioned several forms of spirits, such as 'ghost', 'Xiao', 'Xi' and 'Yi'. We may be one of them.

"Our bodies may be in the bamboo forest where we first entered the dungeon. It's not safe there. We'd better complete the main quest as soon as possible, otherwise we may have to leave as ghosts..."

He didn't explain it clearly, but Tang Yu understood clearly and nodded seriously.

There are some things that are no secret within the big guilds, especially the Jiuzhou Guild, which is closely connected to the Weird Investigation Bureau that often searches for players offline.

Lin Chen's understanding of weird games is based on forums. Although it is extensive, it is not profound.

As for the matter of players being transformed into monsters and invading reality, he could only say that he had heard about it, but did not have a very clear impression.

Hearing Qi Si's words, he thought of the miserable state of the young man in the later stage of "Frog Hospital" and couldn't help asking: "Brother Lin, what is the difference between leaving the dungeon in ghost form and completing the level normally?"

"I haven't experienced it, so I don't know." Qi Si's expression remained unchanged. "Maybe he will die soon. I saw a post about a person who cleared the Dialectical Game NE before, but there was no news after that."

Lin Chen: “Oh!”

Skipping the unpleasant topic, Qi Si handed Tang Yu two letters he found in his and Luo Haihua's room, and briefly recounted what happened last night and the results of his discussion with Lin Chen this morning.

"The main mission is the key. Whether it's curing a disease or fighting a tiger, we can always find a reason to leave Yanghua Town and go to the bamboo forest. We can tell where our bodies are at a glance."

He lowered his eyes and looked at the lantern in his hand: "Even in the worst case scenario, as long as we have the green lantern to guide us, we will not be afraid of not being able to find the way back."

Tang Yu placed his hand on the sword at his waist, stared intently and nodded: "After meeting the so-called Master Meng today, I will leave the city."

The two of them kept talking as they walked down the stairs steadily.

Lin Chen couldn't get a word in. He just carried the medicine box and held the lantern, silently following behind.

When the three of them went down to the first floor, a figure in green clothes and a cloth crown just came towards them outside the mansion. He looked familiar. It should be the scholar who told the players the rules of Yanghua Town without any hesitation yesterday.

The scholar walked into the residence carrying a lunch box. When he saw the players, he smiled friendly and said, "My dear brothers, I suspected that there were accomplices among you yesterday. I offended you a lot. I am here today to apologize."

His attitude became much more polite and enthusiastic, completely different from yesterday.

"I brought today's meals here on the way. The grandmother here is old and doesn't care about the food, so you can just eat whatever you want. If you need anything, you can tell me."

Lin Chen looked around and saw no signs of any fire or cooking.

He couldn't help but ask, "Do all the outsiders who live here have to bring food from outside if they want to eat?"

"You can also go out to eat." The scholar said, "We have never had a fire since the house was built. I bring all the food for the guests."

Qi Si asked, "Is that so? When was this mansion built?"

"I don't remember, it was built a long time ago..." the scholar recalled.

His eyes became blurry, and his voice was as vague as a dream: "When we moved here, it was like this... There were county offices, houses, Buddhist temples and mansions. We just moved in..."

His face became ferocious for a moment, and there was a flash of struggle in his confused eyes, as if he was troubled by memories of the past.

Amid the flying dust, the shadow cast on the ground by the morning light kept shaking, wavering between the shape of a tiger and a human.

We can't continue on this topic.

Qi Si looked into the scholar's eyes and said word by word: "Stop talking, we don't want to know. We are all hungry and just want to have breakfast as soon as possible."

The scholar's mumbling was interrupted, and his fluctuating expression returned to calm in two seconds, as if nothing had happened. "Everyone, please have breakfast." He smiled friendly, and like a robot that had just recovered from a malfunction, he held the lunch box in his hand and walked deeper into the residence step by step.

There are more than a dozen tables arranged in an orderly manner in the lobby of the mansion. One can imagine the prosperous scene that once existed with guests coming and going. Unfortunately, it is now cold and idle. Although it is kept clean, it still looks lonely.

The scholar picked the largest table, put down the food box and opened the lid.

It was filled with round Qingming dumplings, green as jade and with a wet, oily sheen.

These dumplings didn’t look very fresh, with moss-like marks all over their surface. I don’t know where they came from, but they somehow reminded me of the tribute.

The scholar made a gesture of invitation, indicating that the players should sit down at the table.

Qi Si and Tang Yu did not move. Lin Chen saw this and quietly put his raised foot down.

Tang Yu looked at the scholar and said unhappily, "You said this is today's meal, we won't just eat this for the day, right? What if I don't like sweets?"

He was clearly being unreasonable, but also had the intention of testing her.

The scholar was not annoyed, and his smile was always on his face as if it was painted on: "Yes, this is today's meal, and it will be the meal in the future. This is all we have here, nothing else, and it's not sweet."

As if to confirm his words, he reached out and picked up a dumpling, brought it to his mouth and took a bite.

His hands were as thin as straw, making the Qingming dumplings look like stones. A rustling sound came from his mouth, and the food he ate seemed tasteless.

If Qingming dumplings are not sweet, what should they taste like?
Lin Chen looked at the Qingming dumplings of unknown flavor in the food box, then looked at the scholar who was biting the dumplings mechanically, and had no intention of trying a bite himself.

He asked tentatively: "If I'm not hungry, can I not eat?"

He was not talking nonsense. The players had not eaten a single grain of rice since entering the dungeon yesterday, but they did not feel hungry.

To be precise, there is no feeling at all, as if the stomach organ has disappeared out of thin air. It doesn't matter whether you are full or not, full or empty.

"If you're not hungry, you don't have to eat." The scholar nodded, "Except for foreign guests like you, we usually don't eat."

He had just finished eating a dumpling while he was speaking, and picked up another one and started biting it methodically.

Players: "..."

In short, no matter what, players don't intend to eat weird-looking things in the dungeon without mandatory requirements.

Anyway, as a common sense, spirits will not starve to death.

Seeing that the people in front of him had no intention of eating, the scholar just smiled indifferently and closed the lid of the food box.

"If you are all right, please come with me to see Master Meng. You are all guests invited by Master Meng. He wanted to see you yesterday when he knew you were coming."

He stood up and walked towards the door of the mansion, as if he was sure that the players would follow him.

This time, no one moved.

Tang Yu said loudly: "Wait a minute! Let's go upstairs to get some things and make some preparations, so that we don't have to come back again. Do you want to go up with us, or wait for us downstairs?"

The scholar stopped and looked back at everyone: "I'll just wait here for you, please hurry up."

The players turned their backs to the scholar, climbed the stairs, and soon returned to the second floor.

The scholar stood quietly from beginning to end, watching the players' backs, as motionless as a scarecrow in a wheat field.

Qi Si pulled Lin Chen, walked past Tang Yu, and walked into the empty room left by Luo Haihua and his wife.

Tang Yu understood, followed him in, and closed the door behind him.

The soundproofing of the residence must be pretty good, otherwise, given the loud noises in each room last night, people would have noticed it long ago and would not have waited until today to exchange messages to find out.

Tang Yu estimated that the scholar couldn't hear the players' conversation, so he whispered, "The scholar has a problem."

Of course there are problems with the dungeon NPCs, but what are the problems?
Lin Chen blinked and looked at Qi Si.

Qi Si continued Tang Yu's words: "Today's scholar is not the same person as yesterday's. Although they look very similar, I often make human specimens and can tell the difference.

"He is two centimeters taller than the scholar from yesterday. He has a small mole under his right ear. His eyes are narrower and his lips are thicker. These are not changes that can happen to the same person in a short period of time."

Lin Chen frowned: "But he clearly told us that it was him who talked to us yesterday."

"NPCs can lie, and memories can be deceptive. I just don't know which case he belongs to." Qi Si said indifferently, "What we need to figure out now is where the scholar went yesterday, and why the scholar profession has changed."

"Business?" Tang Yu caught the key words in Qi Si's words, "You mean..."

Lin Chen thought of the corresponding information and muttered: "The old woman who took over the residence said that in Yanghua Town, a set of clothes is a job, and her job is to manage the residence. Could 'Scholar' also be a job? Does the NPC's memory follow the job?"

Qi Si did not answer directly, but continued to talk: "I don't know if you noticed yesterday that townspeople with the same identity - or profession - wore the same clothes.

"After we leave the mansion, we will try to pay more attention to the townspeople's clothing and faces, and then compare them tomorrow morning to see if the change of occupation was accidental or something else."

As he spoke, Tang Yu bent down and picked up two paper lanterns on the ground, one in each hand.

After Luo Haihua and his wife's paper lantern fell over, the candle inside disappeared, leaving only two light paper lampshades, which trembled on the ground with the invisible wind, and occasionally rolled a few centimeters.

After being picked up by Tang Yu, the paper lampshade was still shaking, but unlike before when it was swaying aimlessly, this time it was clearly shaking gently towards the bedside table.

Qi Si seemed to have realized something and walked straight to the bedside table.

The paper and pen he had used to organize his thoughts were still lying on the bedside table, with some of his inferences about the world view and clues scribbled on them.

And below the original paragraphs, there was an extra line of neat small characters:

[Lin Wen, Lin Ya, I am Luo Haihua, Luo Jianhua and I are still in the dungeon...] (End of this chapter)