Infinite spooky game

In the year of his death, Meng Fang made a deal with the god in charge of contracts, and the new Yanghua Town was built on the sea of ​​blood and mountain of corpses of the former Yanghua Town.

The corpses of the tragically dead were piled up in the corners of the town, and tens of thousands of scarecrows were thrown into the town for the ghosts of the wrongfully dead to possess.

The scarecrows were in human and tiger shapes, and according to their different colors, they were divided into different identities, such as scholars, commoners, rich people, beggars...

Meng Fang didn't know why such a complicated classification was set up in the Scarecrow World, but he didn't dare to question the decision of the gods.

Under the power of the gods, new memories were written for each scarecrow. They forgot their past deaths in the war and thought they had followed Meng Fang to escape the war.

The wronged souls who regained their bodies became residents of the new Yanghua Town, and regarded it as a paradise away from the scourge of war.

They were grateful for Meng Fang's leadership, respected him as the head of the town, and called him "Master Meng."

Meng Fang still remembers what happened before and after his death. The memories become clearer as time goes by, but they also bring more self-blame and pain.

This was the price he paid for praying to God, and he endured it silently, considering it a form of atonement.

During his lifetime, he failed to protect the land, and ultimately, in his fight against the enemy, tens of thousands of people died and countless families were separated. After his death, he was finally able to step out of his responsibility of loyalty to the emperor and pay more attention to those innocent people.

When he was about to die, he realized that it was because of his stubborn defense and burning of the city that the people were massacred; his ideals of governing the country and helping the people came into conflict, and he was almost overwhelmed by confusion.

And now, as he watched those townspeople who should have died living like the living again, living and working in peace and contentment without worries, the cracks in his mind were gradually healed, and the pain of chewing on his memories alone did not seem so unbearable anymore.

Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. A townsman named a scholar gradually discovered that something was wrong, and he joined forces with a group of people, hoping to leave Yanghua Town.

Meng Fang clearly remembered that the gods had told him that the townspeople who left Yanghua Town would truly die.

He was afraid, and tried his best to persuade the scholar and others to give up the idea, but he could not convince them without arousing suspicion.

He had no choice but to chant the name of God and pray to Him again.

The red-robed god descended from the sky. After listening to Meng Fang's description of the situation that was out of control, a bloodthirsty smile appeared on his lips: "If you are worried that they will know the truth, just kill everyone who notices it."

Meng Fang looked up in astonishment.

The god said indifferently: "When a ghost dies, it turns into a demon. When a demon dies, it turns into a demon called Xiyi. A ghost killed by a demon will directly turn into Xiyi, which cannot be seen or heard."

The god told Meng Fang that becoming a Xiyi did not mean death, but that they could not be seen or touched by others. They could still live freely in another space.

The sacrifice of a few people is insignificant compared to the stability of the overall situation. Meng Fang hesitated for a long time and asked the gods what he should do.

God said: "I will send a few ghosts into the town every once in a while. They will deal with those disobedient ghosts. And all you need to do is stuff those ghosts into human bodies."

God had given Meng Fang the power to mobilize ghosts. That day, Meng Fang used it for the first time and stuffed the souls of the scholar and others into human-shaped straw ropes at night.

Afterwards, a group of outsiders with strange behavior entered Yanghua Town, and the souls of the scholar and others disappeared due to their actions.

Not long after, the god reappeared, accompanied by a giant tiger made of straw.

He pointed far away toward the west, and the tiger turned into a shadow and flew into the bamboo forest on the mountain behind the west side of the town.

He lowered his eyes and looked at Meng Fang with compassion: "The tiger demon is entrenched outside the town, and the people in the town no longer dare to leave. This is a new deal. I will give you the authority to modify your memory and take back the body I gave you before."

Meng agreed to the deal, which seemed to be a sure win and would keep the country calm for a long time.

Combining the existence of the tiger demon and outsiders, he compiled a set of logically self-consistent memories about "mountain gods" and "ghosts" for the townspeople.

Yanghua Town became stable again, but what was different from before was that every once in a while, six or seven outsiders would enter Yanghua Town.

Those outsiders moved in and out of the town, mostly killing each other, but occasionally coming into contact with the townspeople.

Meng Fang noticed that the townspeople who played the role of scholars always took the initiative to approach outsiders, as if they wanted to explore something.

Meng Fang lost a lot of his humanity after losing his body, becoming more negative and indifferent. He no longer hesitated, and repeatedly used the same method to use outsiders to deal with those restless scholars.

He also tried to seal the scholar's identity directly, but whenever he had this thought, the power to mobilize ghosts would always disappear briefly.

He gradually realized that the deal the gods had made with him was not salvation and grace, but exploitation and curse.

The hidden danger of discovering the truth lurks in a body made of straw. Memories will accumulate from generation to generation, and even if they are modified from time to time, it is only a temporary solution.

While the god was enjoying the pain of being exhausted and overwhelmed, he was also turning Yanghua Town into a place with a special purpose for those outsiders to roam around.

And he had no choice but to accept it.

As the days passed, more and more Xiyi appeared in Yanghua Town. Occasionally, their outlines would appear in the mirror or in the light and shadow, disturbing the remaining townspeople.

As more and more townspeople became suspicious, Meng Fang had to make a third deal with the gods.

The gods divided Yanghua Town into two parts: the east part and the west part. The east part is virtual, while the west part is real, separated by a mirror.

Xiyi was placed in the east of the town, and the townspeople were settled in the west.

Because the living space was cut in half, the townspeople had to alternate between day and night activities, and the rest of the time they were trapped in their rotting bodies.

——Just like now.

The price Meng Fang paid for this transaction was to become a "魙" who could not see the light of day and lived in a house with mirrored walls.

When the god was about to leave, Meng Fang asked, "I feel pain and wonder when I will truly die?"

The god lowered his scarlet eyes and said in a condescending tone, "After killing the tiger demon, you will regain your freedom. Everything will return to the beginning, when I made my first deal with you."

Once a person has a future, death becomes the last option.

Meng Fang asked: "I can't leave Yanghua Town, how can I kill the tiger monster?"

The god raised his right hand, and a crow with scarlet eyes appeared out of thin air and landed on Meng Fang's shoulder.

God said, "Every seven days, seven outsiders will come to this world. Write a letter and invite them to come with reasons that match their status."

Meng Fang wrote letter after letter with hope, inviting outsiders to Yanghua Town one by one. After endless waiting, he finally received the news that the tiger demon had been eliminated.

Even though his emotions had been worn away by the long years, he still felt happy.

Everything has returned to the beginning, and he still has the opportunity to run Yanghua Town from scratch...

Xiyi will be resurrected as a townsman. This time the gods will let him go free. He will build Yanghua Town into a real paradise without interference...

The mistakes he made will eventually be redeemed, and he will surely be able to atone for his past sins...

But he didn't expect that someone set a fire.

……

After setting the fire, Qi Si took out the [special pass approved by the dean] from the prop column and hid it in the wide sleeve of his left robe.

Although I don't know how wide the coverage of the effect of "entering and exiting the Frog Hospital at any time", the survival pressure in the later stages of the puzzle copy will not be too great, and there is no need to worry about the NPC suddenly going berserk and posing a BOSS battle.

Well, the experience comes from the copy of "The Grand Performance".

As time passed, the fuel burned out and the fire gradually went out.

Almost all the ghosts visible to the naked eye threw themselves into the sea of ​​fire, and the streets became much emptier and cleaner.

Qi Si looked at Meng Fang not far away, smiling sarcastically: "You were a lackey of princes and nobles when you were alive, and after your death you fenced off a piece of land for role-playing. Are you doing an anthropological experiment?" Meng Fang's story is very simple. He was tricked by Qi and gradually became a slave of the copy. He also played the role of an NPC with hope and diligence, working for Qi.

Use sugar-coated "gifts" to make traders taste the sweetness, but bury sharp hidden dangers inside, which will explode one day and create new demand.

In order to cover up the problem, traders have to fill the holes with new trades.

Even if Qi asked for a sky-high price and took huge profits, they had no choice, because if they failed in one step, they would be crushed to pieces.

Like drug addicts, they gladly trade their surplus value for small handouts, hoping that new deals will help them escape their misery.

Just like that, you lose your bottom line step by step, and finally have nothing.

Qi Si did not feel any sympathy or regret about this. He just felt that it was quite instructive and valuable for reference. Maybe he could do a better job in tricking people into signing contracts in the future.

It's like a dark and naughty child who designed a trap full of spikes and used the threats of his claws and fangs to drive small animals into it, just for fun.

At this moment, he commented seriously, "I have considered locking hundreds or thousands of people together before, setting up various game theory problems, and calculating the probability of people making various choices. If you have the ability to delete and modify memories like you, it will definitely be much more convenient."

Meng Fang calmed down and did not react with negative emotions such as anger and pain because of Qi Si's words. Perhaps, he had already lost the mechanism for generating emotions under the influence of thousands of years of memories and became indifferent and without desires.

He just shook his head and said calmly: "I caused their family to be destroyed, and now I just want to give them some years of peace and health. I have a clear conscience."

"Are you really innocent?" Qi Si continued to smile, as if he wanted to make the truth clear. "As Xi, looking at Xi Yi in the mirror every day, he should have been scared to death, unless -

"All those Xiyi died at your hands, just as the tiger demon is not afraid of the people it kills, so it is not afraid of being the minions of the 'Xu'.

"If I'm not mistaken, you were also responsible for the death of that scholar last night, right?"

"I have no choice." Meng Fang smiled bitterly. "When I was alive, the enemy invaded, and any man of blood should not give up an inch of land. The opportunity to be resurrected after death is not easy to come by, and I can't let a few people disturb the peace of the rest of us."

"But why?" Qi Si smiled and looked at Meng Fang, "In your era, the world never belonged to those unfortunate townspeople, but to the princes and nobles.

"The townspeople never enjoyed the sound of bells and drums and food in their lifetime, but they had to lose their lives for the rule of meat-eaters; after death, they could have entered the reincarnation peacefully, but for inexplicable reasons, they became Xiyi...

"You told all the townspeople that you would never hurt them, but the more you emphasized that, the more guilty you seemed."

Meng Fang said: "I know I made mistakes, so I will do my best to make up for it."

"But you don't even dare to give them the right to choose." Qi Si restrained his smile and changed his tone to solemn, "You modified their memories, fooled the people, and used tens of millions of people as experimental subjects for your political ideas. You don't know what they want, and you don't intend to know. You just gagged them and sent them to the altar as sacrifices for the change of dynasty.

"Are you trying to save the world, or are you just looking for an answer for yourself? Or are you trying to gain a good reputation and find peace of mind?"

Qis himself is not a good person, but he does not hesitate to use moral rhetoric to pressure others.

He has done a lot of similar things, so he can easily grasp the psychology of this type of people and find the loopholes in them.

He did not wait for Meng Fang to answer, and continued to speak: "Killing tens of thousands of people and burning tens of thousands of houses is unkind; seeking the skin of a tiger and then breaking the contract is unrighteous; occupying the city without reward is unrighteous; killing people with a borrowed knife and deceiving us into taking risks and subduing the tiger is immoral.

"You used the name of the tiger demon to exclude dissidents and maintain the stability of your rule in Yanghua Town. In essence, you are just a lackey of that ridiculous set of benevolence and morality. You were moved by the illusory slogans. When you were alive, you forced the people to die with you in the city, and after death, you kept their souls captive.

"Then I might as well ask you a question based on the morality you believe in: What is the fault of the people?"

[The main quest has been completed. Please follow the guidance of the green lantern to leave the dungeon.]

[Note: Each guiding green lantern can only open one exit and guide one person through]

Two lines of silver-white text hung high on the system interface, indicating that the copy had come to an end.

Qi Si, on the contrary, was not in a hurry to leave. He leisurely looked at Meng Fang's expression, as if he was looking forward to discussing moral issues with him.

To permanently close a dungeon is nothing more than destroying the basic components in the dungeon, which can be the dungeon site or the psychological defenses of the NPCs...

Once you decide to do something, you must do it thoroughly and without hesitation.

After waiting for Meng Fang's answer for a long time, Qi Si sighed in boredom: "Look, you have studied this logic for so many years, but you can't explain it clearly. Do you still expect others to believe it?
"People are ultimately selfish. In order to ensure that their quality of life is not affected, the townspeople will naturally fight against the foreign enemies, considering that they are not of the same race and must have different hearts. But if they are already living in dire straits, how can they talk about sacrificing their lives for the country?

"They keep talking about morality, but behind the scenes, it's just self-interest. It's a pity that there are too few people in the world who can see clearly. If everyone is selfish, how can there be war? After all, everyone knows that after risking their lives, the fruits of victory have to be shared with others, which is a loss."

When Qi Si said this, he seemed to have thought of some new joke and laughed out loud.

He laughed for a long time before he stopped. He turned around, walked past Meng Fang who was standing there, and walked straight towards the east of the town.

Qiu Xin didn't understand why, but he still followed him silently, and at the same time did not forget to stuff the empty wine jar in his hand into Meng Fang's arms, returning it to its original owner.

Meng Fang: ...Don’t bully Xi like this.

The two players quickly arrived at the mansion in the east of the town and climbed up the stairs.

On the second floor of the residence, Luo Haihua and his wife lay quietly on the bed, as if dead.

Qi Si stood quietly beside the bed, the candle in his hand burning diligently, with a faint flame jumping.

He just stood there, looking down for a while, and suddenly without warning, he tilted the candle and lit the corner of "Luo Haihua's" clothes.

The flames quickly climbed up along the clothes and engulfed the entire person in just a few seconds. The speed was so fast that it was a bit weird.

In the firelight, you can vaguely see burnt yellow branches, which are clearly rice straw.

"It's fake." Qi Si put away the candle and smiled lightly. "Zhendong was established to house Xiyi and prevent other townspeople from seeing them. How could they allow two living people to lie there in the open like this?"

Qiu Xin witnessed Qi Si burning people and was stunned for a second before he understood the situation.

She thought for a moment and asked, "What is the mechanism behind placing fake people in Zhendong to deceive players?"

"That's not important." Qi Si walked to the bedside table, picked up the page with words on it, and handed it to Qiu Xin, "What's important is why Mr. Luo and the others conspired with the ghosts to deceive us."

On the page, there was a description of past experiences written in Luo Haihua's handwriting. From the known clues and Meng Fang's narration, it was clear that it was complete nonsense.

Things like time travel and reaching the future have come out. It is obvious that these are fabricated and created by people who don't know the true world view of the copy.

Qiu Xin pointed at one of the lines and asked, "Why is Tang Yu included in this?"

"As a teacher, Luo Haihua is naturally sensitive to handwriting. Tang Yu was once an important member of the Jiuzhou Guild. As members of the Jiuzhou Guild, Luo Haihua and his wife know his handwriting, so it is not impossible for them to imitate it in the copy."

"……All right."

Qi Si stopped talking, turned around and walked to the second-floor platform, held the railing, and looked at the still flickering and burning fire in the distance.

The flame became smaller and smaller, and after twisting for dozens of times, it was completely extinguished, leaving only a few narrow and thin sparks twisting unwillingly.

At the same time, the candle in Qis's hand went out without warning, as if following the flames of karma.

[Number of remaining guiding green lanterns: 4]

It seems that after burning too many things, the guiding green lantern will become useless.

I just don't know if I can find the exit in time before the fire goes out. It's been almost an hour. If I run faster, it should be enough to get out of the town, right?

Of course, Qis did not intend to conduct a suicidal experiment.

After everything was done, he sank his consciousness into his mind, touched the red soul leaf, and said: "Lin Chen, I am on the second floor of the Zhendong Residence." (End of this chapter)