Don't provoke mentally ill people in the infinite flow genre!

At the end of the street, Yi Zanglan spotted a small gray house with a fence around the door.

Every house in the town has a house number, and this house's house number reads Jude Marlow.

The homeowner's name is Jude Marlowe.

Actually, the house didn't seem special at first glance, but Yi Zanglan noticed the wisps of smoke drifting out of the windows.

That wasn't fog, it was smoke, similar to the smoke produced when a cigar is burned.

Along the way, among all the lifeless buildings in the town, only this house was emitting smoke.

Yi Zanglan looked around, then raised her hand and rang the doorbell.

After a long while, heavy, dragging footsteps came from inside the house. Then the door opened, and an elderly man with white hair and a hunched back came out. He was wearing a long, loose-fitting long coat and trousers with a high collar, and he was holding half a cigar in his hand.

"Cough, cough, cough..." He coughed, his cloudy, lifeless eyes staring at her. "Who are you looking for?"

Yi Zanglan pondered for a moment: "Mr. Jude, I am a tourist who has just arrived in this town and would like to ask you about the situation here."

The old man shook his head, his already withered face looking even worse, and he answered in a hoarse voice.

"I never chat except when preparing corpses for burial."

"Are you a mortician?"

"I never chat except when preparing corpses for burial."

"I'm willing to pay, or you can make your request."

"I never chat except when preparing corpses for burial."

He began mechanically repeating the sentence as if he were programmed, making Yi Zanglan wonder whether he or he was the one who had come out of the mental hospital.

However, she also realized that this was a hint from an NPC in the game.

To trigger in-depth communication with NPCs, you need to fulfill the corresponding conditions.

For example, right now, to win over this mortician, she first needs to find a corpse.

The problem is, where are we going to find the body?

Yi Zanglan stood outside the door, watching the old man's figure disappear into the house.

A cold wind swept through the street, ruffling her long hair. She remained silent for a moment, then subtly tilted her head.

...It's so cold.

As if she had finally figured out a solution, a knowing smile appeared on her face. She even spun around twice with a cheerful expression before humming a song and walking back the way she came.

In the distance, behind the oak trees planted by the houses, a dark figure hurried past in a flash.

* * * * * *

Yi Zanglan took a stroll around the town and got a general understanding of the terrain and the distribution of buildings.

When we reached the edge of the terrain, all that was ahead was white, as if we were blocked by some invisible barrier and could not go any further.

This should be a system restriction, intended to limit the area where players can move around, or it may require certain timing or conditions to be met before it can be activated.

After doing all that, she went back to catch up on her sleep.

The time dimension in the game is different from that in reality; it passes much faster, and the night is much longer than the day.

So Yi Zanglan slept soundly until evening, then went to the living room to have a meal, and went upstairs.

As she was leaving, she glanced silently at the wooden puppet placed in the corner of the wall.

The puppet's jet-black eyes seem to have become lighter in color, and the traces of carving on its facial features have also faded considerably.

It is changing, though the changes are subtle and imperceptible, but they do exist.

"She can really eat." Yang Chi looked at the two plates of gleaming pork chops and the empty soup bowl on the table with disdain. "She must be a reincarnation of a glutton!"

In response, Wang Mingyue habitually explained: "It's possible that mentally ill people do nothing but sleep and eat all day long, so their daily routine is very regular."

"How do you know so much about mental illness? Were you one before?"

"No," Wang Mingyue replied patiently, without getting angry. "I volunteered at a mental hospital for two days when I was in college."

"Alright, enough of that useless talk," Li Shuo said impatiently. "Did you all go out today? Did you find any useful clues?"

"No." Sun Qianqian shook her head in distress. "I knocked on several doors, but I couldn't get any information out of them. Some of them, as soon as they heard I was from out of town, advised me to leave quickly."

"...What a piece of trash."

"Brother Li, didn't you find a clue?" Sun Qianqian didn't care about being scolded. She knew very well that she was not capable enough and needed the help of a gold-level player, so she pleaded softly, "Share it. It's more efficient if everyone works together. Thank you."

Yang Chi chimed in, "Yeah, bro, this is clearly not a competitive game. Why don't you lead us and see if we can find any clues? When it's time to step on a landmine, let that lunatic do it."

Zhao Chen and Wang Mingyue didn't speak, but they kept staring at Li Shuo, trying their best to appear humble.

Admittedly, Li Shuo enjoyed the attention he received from his teammates. He snorted and pulled a folded poster from his pocket, arrogantly slamming it onto the table.

"Who among you is good at reading? Please analyze this."

It appeared to be a propaganda poster, faded from age, but one could still make out a woman holding a puppet and handwritten, crooked characters.

Presumably to take into account the players' acceptance level, these texts are presented in Chinese translation.

Only Caroline could perform such exquisite puppetry. Countless craftsmen have tried to imitate her but failed. Her puppets are always lifelike. Indeed, as critics have praised, if the heart and soul were freed from the heavy body, they could breathe life into the cold wood.

Open a whole new realm of puppetry! The opening brass band plays a melodious tune, the spotlight is now focused on the true protagonist, the fan-shaped stage slowly unfolds, and Caroline emerges from behind the door, smiling at you while holding her puppet.

Sun Qianqian found it increasingly unbelievable as she read on: "Who writes such a long promotional slogan? Is it really not generated by AI?"

Zhao Chen sneered: "Judging from the history of this town, AI probably wasn't popular back then."

"There must be some clue hidden here." Wang Mingyue quickly scanned the poster, silently memorizing its contents. "Perhaps we'll understand as the plot unfolds."

"...So you guys don't understand at all?" Li Shuo immediately lost his patience, snatched the poster, and stuffed it back into his pocket. "Damn it, I knew a bunch of noobs couldn't be relied on!"

He suddenly stood up and strode up to the second floor.

Yang Chi muttered, "I didn't see him figure it out either, what's so great about that?"

"Even the top players aren't necessarily without merit," Zhao Chen said with a grim face. "Some people excel in brute force and have an advantage in physical strength, but their intelligence isn't necessarily high."

"So, this is the only way for now?"

"Okay, let's go back to our room first."

The clock on the wall pointed to nine o'clock, and the players returned to their respective bedrooms.

* * * * * *

Today, Yi Zanglan's live stream was filled with all sorts of complaints.

From the audience's perspective, she simply went out for a stroll, randomly knocked on a door, encountered a strange old NPC, had no clue what to do, and then went back while singing in a daze.

For the rest of the time, she did nothing but sleep and eat, showing absolutely no awareness of survival in a horror game.

[How boring, so incredibly boring. I thought she had some real skills since she survived last night, but it was probably just pure luck.]

[I told you long ago that you can't use common sense to deduce mental illness. She might not be afraid of ghosts, but that doesn't mean she's intelligent. She's just here for a vacation.]

[Could she just coast along until the end, getting lucky and being carried by a veteran player?]

[I don't believe it. Eliminating opponents in the game is allowed; it gives you experience and gold. Leaving aside others, do you think that bald guy and the guy in black would let her get away with such a juicy piece of meat?]

Yes, she's going to die no matter what, maybe even tonight.

Hurry up, I'm getting tired of waiting.

……

Tonight, Yi Zanglan is also a little crazy person who is being relentlessly criticized.

The clock in the room was about to strike ten o'clock. She remembered that it was at this time last night when she was lying in bed and suddenly felt sleepy. She fell asleep as if she had fainted in less than two seconds.

That's not a normal physiological phenomenon; it must be some kind of system mechanism that forces players to fall asleep at 10 p.m.

So if she wants to sneak out tonight, she has to do it before 10 p.m.

The bedroom door is automatically locked, but the windows are not.

She turned off the lights, drew back the curtains, and observed the night outside. After a while, she jumped down from the windowsill and nimbly climbed down the exterior wall to the ground.

The fog on the street seemed to have lifted a bit, and she walked towards Jude's residence, her steps shimmering in the moonlight.

She took a different route this time, which might save her a little time, but the road was narrow and darker because of the several low houses built around it.

She walked forward without looking back, deliberately slowing down as she went.

...I could faintly hear hurried footsteps behind me.

The footsteps drew closer until the other person's shadow was visible in her line of sight.

Someone is chasing after us.

The next second, a large, iron-like hand grabbed her neck and slammed her heavily against the wall.