Infinite spooky game

"Turning back into a child" is a very abstract expression, but combined with Yu Su's current performance, players feel that only such an expression can vividly summarize the current situation.

Yu Su's condition has been wrong since last night. First, she spoke rudely to Lu Li, then she pointed out that there was something wrong with the rice regardless of the occasion, and this morning she cried over the death of her companion. This is definitely not the behavior of a mature player.

The qualification for the final copy is rare, and the players who can come here must have been carefully selected by the identity card holders, and it is absolutely impossible for them to be as emotional as Yu Su.

Yu Su's behavior could only be the mechanism of the dungeon, just like in "Red Maple Leaf Boarding School", where players suffered from amnesia and other symptoms due to insomnia.

Li Yunyang pondered for a moment, then stood up and said, “I can’t figure out what the triggering conditions for this dungeon mechanism are.

"Yu Su was with me the whole time before we came to the inn. She sat next to me on the train. She didn't do anything special, and didn't encounter any unusual situations."

Fu Jue said: "Random death points have no triggering conditions, only triggering probabilities. The moment you enter the dungeon, everyone will become the denominator of the probability, and the numerator is the number of people who actually trigger the death point."

"What's the purpose?" Li Yunyang frowned, "Turn back into children, and then what? Weaken our thinking ability and make us childish?"

"You can understand it that way." Fu Jue said calmly, "Combined with the background of this copy, it can also be understood as reincarnation. According to real-life research on Alzheimer's disease, patients' symptoms include memory impairment, aphasia, apraxia, agnosia, and visual-spatial impairment; their abstract thinking and calculation abilities are also impaired, often accompanied by changes in personality and behavior. Some scholars describe it as 'turning back into a child'.

"When an old person has Alzheimer's disease, they will take on the state of a child; after death, when their soul enters reincarnation, they will also start as a child. In this copy, there is no death, nor a specific time. Reincarnation may unfold and manifest in another form. If 'turning back to a child' is a manifestation of reincarnation, then completely losing the ability to think corresponds to death in the traditional sense."

The players were thoughtful. Li Yunyang's voice was slightly deep: "I understand. In other words, encountering this mechanism means that you can't leave the dungeon, is that right?"

"No." Fu Jue shook his head, "Clear this instance as soon as possible, maybe there will be a turning point."

Li Yunyang pursed his lips and said no more. He leaned over and helped Yu Su, who was still crying, up from the ground.

There was nothing more to discuss in the corridor. Looking at the blood and dead bodies all over the floor, the players couldn't help but feel depressed and frustrated.

Jiuzhou and Tingfeng's people walked downstairs in a mighty manner, and Qi Si had no intention of following them. Lu Li and Xu Yao naturally stayed where they were, waiting for the next order.

Lu Li stared at the corpse's abdomen with its large intestine exposed, and recalled: "Xu Yao and I saw the deceased last night. She stood at the door holding her large intestine and knocked, saying that we were the next. But I don't think this is the point of death..."

"Of course not for you." Xu Yao interrupted him, looking at Qi Si and added, "I am the next one. Lu Li is a man. It's useless to find him to make a human skin thangka."

Lu Li ignored his roommate's objection and continued, "Although this instance doesn't have a clear time limit, it uses endless death points to urge us to take action. Staying in the inn is just waiting to die. We must take the initiative to explore here. Qisi, what do you think?"

This is an obvious answer. Ultimately, the purpose of the copy is screening and competition. It is naturally impossible to allow players to hide in the inn and wait for others to die.

After all, with the strength of the players in the copy, even if they cannot successfully solve the puzzle and find a way to pass the level, it is still easy to rely on the experience accumulated in the past to avoid the attacks of ghosts and monsters and survive.

In order to prevent the contest of gods from becoming boring and longer than life, it is imperative to set up some mechanisms that force players to take action.

Qi Si took out Chu Yining's diary from his pocket and handed it to Lu Li: "All the clues I got point to the snow mountain. I'm afraid we have to set out to climb the snow mountain before tonight at the latest. Of course, the same goes for them."

Lu Li flipped through the diary in his hand and made a judgment: "Indeed, all the death points set in the inn at the foot of the mountain seem to be evaded by going up the mountain. On the snowy mountain where the temperature is below minus 20 degrees, the blood will quickly freeze into ice crystals and destroy the texture of the skin. I don't think ghosts will kill people and take their skins on the snowy mountain.

He handed the diary back to Qi Si, with a wry smile on his lips. "Let's walk around the town during the day and look for clues and props that might be useful. In Lost Horizon, the travelers arrived and were trapped in Shangri-La Town because of the Lama heritage. Perhaps we can collect information based on this idea."

"I know," said Keith.

He read the book "Lost Horizon" when he was in junior high school. He exchanged it with a classmate and they even designed word puzzle games for each other. Of course, that is now a thing of the past.

He is no longer a child. He will no longer be easily moved by a few words, nor will he be satisfied with just the stories in the books, nor will he be trapped in boredom.

Whether in the billions of years that belonged to the gods or in the twenty-two years as a human being, childhood was not beautiful and pure for Qis. Instead, it was synonymous with weakness, powerlessness, and lack of freedom.

He hated children, even if it was himself. Their low-value souls, their childish and foolish behavior, their unrealistic fantasies about the world, any of which was enough to make him feel sick.

Qi Si lowered his eyelids to hide the malice in his eyes, and said calmly: "Then let's split up into two groups, keep in touch through the team ring, and meet at the inn when we have collected enough clues."

Lu Li nodded: "Okay, Xu Yao and I will go explore near the city gate."

After Lu Li and Xu Yao left, Qi Si turned his gaze to Lin Chen who was standing beside him in silence.

The president had been hiding behind the corpse since he left the room. When he saw that most people had left, he finally took a breath, bent over with his back to the corpse and began to retch.

Qi Si looked at Lin Chen's pale face and asked suddenly: "Lin Chen, how old are you this year?"

"Fourteen... No, twenty." Lin Chen looked around and made excuses awkwardly, "I was just thinking about something and I don't know why I made a slip of the tongue..."

When people are asked a question suddenly, they will subconsciously tell the truth. It is impossible to make a mistake in a simple question like age. In other words, in Lin Chen's subconscious cognition, he is exactly fourteen years old at this moment.

Qi Si nodded in understanding and said perfunctorily: "It's okay, it just shows that you have a young heart."

Silence spread in the vast space. Lin Chen realized belatedly that something was wrong. His already pale face became even paler: "Brother Qi, did I trigger the death point? Just like Yu Su..."

His state today was definitely not normal. He hadn't slept in for a long time, and he was used to bloody scenes, but he suddenly started to stay in bed and became afraid.

It was as if I had gone back in time overnight and turned back into the good-for-nothing, useless kid I was all those years ago.

He also missed the carefree childhood, but he never wanted to become a child again under such circumstances. He didn't want to become a childish monster occupying an adult's body, and he didn't want to hold back Qis in the final dungeon full of dangers... If he was destined to become more and more stupid in the dungeon mechanism, the best way might be to die as soon as possible? Before causing irreparable trouble to his teammates...

Maybe he didn't have to commit suicide. The moment the mechanism was triggered, he was destined to die...

"What are you thinking about?" Qi Si looked into Lin Chen's eyes, as if he could see what he was thinking. He said in a gentle and comforting voice, "Yu Su is alive today, which means you will not die immediately. You can at least live until tomorrow."

Lin Chen: Thank you, I’m not comforted at all.

But he could still tell that Qi Si didn't hate him, and he relaxed for some reason. Yes, the trigger mechanism was not what he wanted, but there was no room for maneuver, but he at least had a whole day to maximize his surplus value.

Then Qi Si continued, "Collect more clues before things become irreversible. Maybe your luck is as good as always, and you can find a way out before you completely turn into a child?"

"Yeah! Thank you, Brother Qi!"

……

On the other side, Dong Xiwen was awakened by a shrill scream.

Hearing the palpable fear in the cry, a realization suddenly popped into his mind - "someone's dead."

Zhang Yiyu jumped up from the bed and scurried aside like a frightened bird. Then she remembered her resolution yesterday to "save my dad" and approached Zhou Ke with a fawning look on her face: "Boss, is there something wrong outside? Should we go check it out?"

Zhou Ke did not sleep all night last night. He stood by the floor-to-ceiling window fiddling with the tape recorder. Now he is full of energy and does not show any sign of fatigue.

He nodded slightly at Zhang Yiyu and said with a smile: "It seems that three people living in one room is not the triggering condition of the death point. You can't trust everything the old man downstairs says."

His casual words gave Dong Xiwen goosebumps.

When the rooms were assigned last night, Sang Ji hinted that the passengers should stay in pairs. He thought it was a hidden rule. Later in the night, Zhou Ke entered the room as if nothing had happened. He thought that the latter had been wandering around outside for a long time and found some new clues...

Now I realize that they just wanted to die and test the death point. Anyway, if something goes wrong, they can just fill in a tool, right?
Dong Xiwen just felt that he had too many complaints to say. After struggling for a while, he simply asked, "Brother, last night I saw you holding a recorder to lead those ghosts around. Did you find anything? Can you give us a hint in advance so that we can cooperate with you when the time comes, so as not to waste our lives in advance."

He spoke in a sincere tone, as if he was trying to help capitalists reduce their labor costs. Zhou Ke nodded slightly and said, "I discovered that the hymns can attract some sinful pilgrims and make them gather at the location where the hymns are played. The sound is so loud and intimidating, and perhaps it can be used as a bargaining chip."

"Negotiation?" Dong Xiwen blinked. "Do you want to cooperate with those people?"

Although he, Zhou Ke and Zhang Yiyu sat in the lobby for a while last night and met all the passengers who arrived earlier, considering that the lives and deaths of those people were unknown, they did not have any further contact and hurried upstairs without even having dinner.

He saw "Yuan" at a glance, but he didn't know whether this "Yuan" was pretending or something had happened to him. From his expression and behavior, it seemed that he didn't recognize him.

And if you look more closely, you will find that this "Yuan" is much younger than the one he knows in real life. Although he looks a little older due to his beard, he is far from looking like someone who has experienced too much.

With so many suspicious aspects, choosing to cooperate is a risky move. One wrong move could lead to eternal damnation.

Dong Xiwen persuaded in a low voice: "Actually, Qi Si, I think with our current strength we can do it alone, there is no need to pay attention to them..."

"It's not a collaboration." The young man interrupted him, raised the corners of his lips slightly, and revealed a malicious smile, "I'm just curious, the legendary Ark Guild, which is committed to saving everyone, can do to let more people survive. By the way -" he changed the subject and looked sideways at Dong Xiwen, "In this copy, especially in front of others, my name is 'Zhou Ke', not 'Qis'."

"Okay, okay, I'll definitely pay attention, so what's the next step?"

"Go out and check the situation first."

The three of them walked out of the room one after the other and headed in the direction where the scream had come from.

A scarlet blood color filled the air before my eyes, and in the middle of the corridor stood a skinned corpse with flesh exposed and blood gushing out.

A girl sat in a wheelchair with a pale face, staring at the corpse. Dong Xiwen remembered that the girl was called "Chu Yining". They introduced themselves after they first met, but at that time no one was sure about the other's situation, so they parted without much conversation.

At this moment, other passengers came out of the rooms one after another and gathered around the corpse, most of them looking unhappy.

While combing his hair, Xiao Fengchao kept on talking like a string of bullets: "This copy is too psychologically challenging, isn't it? There are no rules at all, and people died before they could even react. Isn't this against the rules? Do you understand what 'be polite before using force' means?"

Chu Yining took a deep breath and said, "It was Vasilyevna who died. She and I were together last night, and we were very careful... How could this happen?"

Her voice was bitter, and she was obviously feeling very uncomfortable. Xiao Fengchao sensed that the atmosphere was not right, and he stopped talking.

Lin Jue adjusted his glasses and made a judgment: "It may be a random death point, but the possibility of hidden rules cannot be ruled out. I searched my and Zhang Hongbin's room last night and only found a statue of Mahakala Buddha. Apart from that, there was nothing unusual."

"There's nothing in our room..." Chu Yining thought of something and muttered to herself, "Could it be that she got into trouble because of the lack of the Buddha statue?"

"Not necessarily." Zhou Ke said at the right time, "There is no Buddha statue in our room, but we had three people in one room last night."

Under the premise that the NPC repeatedly hinted that two people should share a room, the configuration of three people in a room is quite unorthodox. It either means that they disregard life and death, or they have a lot of hidden cards and back-ups.

The passengers' attention was briefly focused on Zhou Ke, who smiled seductively at the right moment: "This dungeon has too little information, and the rules are completely different from the previous dungeons. If you are not careful, you will be wiped out.

"I think we may be able to cooperate more deeply and share clues." (End of this chapter)