Lucky billion players, you've never seen one before / I can accumulate my own luck

"..." Fan Xiao had no choice but to speak up: "Isn't your focus a bit strange? Generally speaking, is age the first thing people care about?"

"What's so strange about girls caring about their age?"

Lu Xining replied, "I feel like he made me sound old, and I'm inexplicably annoyed."

You should first deny being called "sister-in-law" and explain our relationship clearly, otherwise this indifferent attitude... Fan Xiao suppressed his urge to complain with high emotional intelligence and got down to business, saying: "I asked Li Xianqiu, and he didn't have any valuable information. The 'Five Ghosts Sending a Child' ritual is just a modified version of a folk legend."

“It’s pretty much what I guessed,” Lu Xining said. “I only came to check just to be on the safe side.”

"Are the roles you were assigned girls or boys?" Fan Xiao asked to confirm.

“I’m a girl,” Du Ruo said. “Because of my identity, I was bled and whipped… Sigh, the patriarchal mindset in this town is really too serious.”

“I’m a girl too,” Lu Xining said. “When we were worshipping the Five Ghosts, my body suddenly stopped moving. Then they drained my blood and beat me up.”

As she answered, she glanced at Fan Xiao a few times.

Upon noticing that he was so clean that there wasn't even a speck of dust on him, a hint of envy appeared in her eyes.

The "Dustless Shield" item is really useful!

When pretending to be hit, he can even simulate the reaction force.

"By the way, there's something strange. Whether it's bloodletting or whipping, the force is a bit too much for us... or rather for their daughter, for a little girl."

Du Ruo speculated, "Even whips can injure us D-level players, how could a little girl withstand it? I guess this is a special rule in this dungeon, which can double the damage we players suffer when attacked by dungeon characters."

"My conclusion on this matter remains the same."

Fan Xiao nodded and asked, "By the way, how far have you gotten in deciphering the vague information in the dungeon's background description?"

"We only decrypted the second piece of information, which is why we came here."

Lu Xining said, "The curse of 'difficulty in conceiving boys' in this town should be caused by players using items. It's probably because the townspeople offended the players, or it's simply because some players who couldn't stand the townspeople took action. I personally lean towards the latter."

On the other side, Li Jian, standing next to Fan Xiao, kept glancing at Fan Xiao, then at Lu Xining, and then at Du Ruo.

These three people were clear-headed and spoke quickly, as if they didn't need to spend time thinking.

This left him completely out of the conversation and relegated him to the margins.

For the first time, he felt acutely aware of his intellectual disadvantage.

Sigh, life is really tough...

"It seems we're all in the same boat. We're all girls, we've all participated in the Five Ghosts Worship Ritual, we're all unable to move during the ritual, and we're all being targeted by our parents... I bet other players are in the same situation."

Fan Xiao then asked, "You all probably have a younger brother, right?"

Lu Xining and Du Ruo both nodded.

"They all have younger brothers..."

Fan Xiao frowned and said, "Every family has a younger brother... Don't you find that strange? This town is cursed, where did all these boys come from?"

"It's not strange, is it? These younger brothers must have been born before the curse descended."

“This town is so sexist that if the first child is a girl, it might be acceptable. But if the second or third child is also a girl, the parents might abandon them and have more children. In the end, only the first sister and the last brother will survive.”

"So, it's not strange that every family has a younger brother, right?"

Li Jian interjected.

He finally got a word in!

Not easy.

Fan Xiao glanced at him and shook his head, saying, "What I mean is, why is it a younger brother? Why can't it be a older brother? Or rather, why are the firstborn always girls, only older sisters, and no older brothers?"

"You mean..."

Lu Xining understood his thoughts: "The curse on this town has existed for a long time, which is why everyone's first child is a girl? That's why they're all older sisters?"

"Wait, isn't the lack of a brother just a guess?"

Li Jian continued, "Before the curse descended, there must have been boys born as the firstborn, so this town shouldn't lack older brothers; we just haven't met them yet."

"What if it doesn't exist?"

Fan Xiao suddenly smiled and said, "I mean, just in case, let's assume that the fact that 'there is no brother' is true, and then we can use that as a basis for speculation."

"Is this your intuition?" Du Ruo asked.

Fan Xiao nodded: "I guess so."

"If they really don't have any brothers, I guess they were all killed by the players."

Lu Xining gave a cruel answer: "The best way to punish a town that favors sons over daughters is naturally to ensure that the descendants of the townspeople here have no boys, only girls."

"In this way, the older brother's existence becomes a nuisance, so it's not surprising that players kill them all."

"Once the older brother is gone, we'll unleash a curse on the town. Under this curse, the firstborn children will naturally all be older sisters."

“The curse will significantly reduce the birth rate of boys,” Du Ruo continued. “So after the curse is released, it’s impossible for every family to have another son; the probability of having a daughter is much higher.”

"Could it be that the ritual to appease the five ghosts actually worked? That's why my little brother was born?"

Li Jian then interjected with another question.

"The Five Ghosts Worship is just a ritual that Li Xianqiu haphazardly created," Fan Xiao shook his head. "Do you really think this kind of ritual can work?"

"I also tend to think that this ceremony is just a formality, a way to go through the motions and give yourself some psychological comfort."

Lu Xining said, "Moreover, the background information of the instance already states that the solution found by the townspeople is not very effective; it only serves to appease people... Even the game says that the ritual is ineffective, so the game wouldn't give us false information, would it?"

"so……"

Du Ruo frowned and asked, "What exactly are these younger brothers that have appeared now?"

“Anyway, they’re not normal people,” Fan Xiao said. “They’re probably all monsters in disguise. Aren’t there a lot of strange things in this town? Maybe ‘Little Brother’ is one of them.”

"Hey, what you're saying is giving me goosebumps!"

Li Jian showed a somewhat fearful expression.

They were just having dinner with their younger brother... The more I think about it, the scarier I get!

“A monster…” Lu Xining leaned closer to Fan Xiao: “You encountered a monster?”

"Yes, that's exactly what I was going to tell you."

Fan Xiao nodded and quickly recounted the story of the giant-faced monster to the two of them.

After saying that, he reminded, "This monster is very strange. My attacks seem to have no effect on it. I guess it doesn't have a physical form. To really hurt it, I'd probably need a mental attack."

"Of course, this is just my guess, and I don't guarantee it will be accurate."

"No physical form, mental attack... mental, the monster is suspected to be related to the mind..."

Lu Xining seemed to be deep in thought.

A few seconds later, she suddenly said, "That's it! It's about our minds! Our 'parents' have a cognitive bias towards us, treating us players like their daughters. Could this be due to their minds being interfered with?"

"Besides mistaking people for people, they also exhibited other strange behaviors. For example, after completing the ritual to worship the five ghosts, they completely ignored our bloody wounds and sat at the dining table to eat with us as if it were a normal day. How careless can they be?"

“Besides our parents, we also have problems ourselves. For example, during the worship ceremony, our bodies suddenly become unable to move. This may also be a form of mind control.”

"Do you think there might be a monster that can control minds and orchestrated everything that's happening now?"

"I've made that guess before."

Fan Xiao nodded and said, "I personally think it's quite possible. Starting from mind control, it can explain the abnormal phenomena of the townspeople."

"Of course, we can't be too hasty. After all, we still have too little information. For example, we haven't solved the mystery of the third piece of ambiguous information yet."

“Okay,” Lu Xining nodded, “That judgment is indeed a bit arbitrary.”

"I feel that the guess that the 'younger brother' is a monster is also a bit arbitrary."

Li Jian suddenly said, "This guess is based on the premise that there are no older brothers in the town. Whether there are really no older brothers or not, we need to go and verify it from house to house."

"Leave the verification to me."

Du Ruo said, "I just need to tell my other colleagues about the big-faced monster. I'll have them join us in gathering intelligence. More people means more efficiency, and we should be able to get results quickly."

Chapter 114 Finding Yan Keke

"And one more thing."

After the discussion about the "younger brother" ended, Fan Xiao reminded everyone, "Since we've taken on the roles of the daughters in each family, have you thought about where the original daughters went?"

Upon hearing this, both Lu Xining and Du Ruo shook their heads.

Du Ruo said, "I've thought about this problem too, but I haven't been able to figure it out."

“I suspect my daughter’s secret,” Lu Xining said, “is related to the third piece of ambiguous information.”

The third piece of ambiguous information is: what disaster actually happened in this town?

She believed that once the mystery of this message was solved, she would know where her daughter was.

As for whether these little girls are dead... this speculation is unfounded and too arbitrary.

"By the way, although I don't know where my daughter went, I found Yan Keke."

Lu Xining then changed the subject, revealing some intelligence.

Upon hearing this, everyone, including Fan Xiao, showed expressions of surprise.

"You found Yan Keke?" Li Jian exclaimed excitedly. "Then we can clear the level! Where is Yan Keke? Did you ask her for her diary?"

On the other side, Fan Xiao pondered for a moment, then suddenly asked Lu Xining, "Yan Keke isn't you, is she?"

"...You really can hide anything from me."

Lu Xining nodded and said, "My 'parents' call me Coco, and my 'brother' calls me Sister Coco. I subtly inquired about my 'father's' surname, and it turns out to be Yan."

"So, Yan Keke is also missing...?"

After muttering something to himself, Fan Xiao asked, "How many girls are in your 'family'?"

“I’m the only one,” Lu Xining said. “I also only have one younger brother.”

"Your house has already been searched, right?" Du Ruo asked.

"After learning that I was Yan Keke, I immediately began searching, secretly turning over every room and leaving no corner unchecked, but I didn't find any clues about the diary."

Lu Xining gently shook her head: "It's unlikely that the diary is in my house. Unless Yan Keke buried it underground. I haven't searched underground yet, but... the ground is concrete, so that's probably impossible, right?"

“We can start from a little girl’s perspective and try to guess where she might hide her diary. For example…”

Du Ruo thought for a moment and said, "Could the diary be at school?"

"Girls in this small town are not allowed to go to school."

Fan Xiao said, "Of course, judging from the fact that Yan Keke writes a diary, the rule that girls are not allowed to go to school should not be absolute."

"If there's no diary at home, school is definitely a strong possibility; you can try searching for it there."

"There probably won't be time to search today, right?"

Li Jian glanced at the time displayed on the player panel and reminded everyone, "It's 7:24 now. It'll probably be dark in a little while. It would be very dangerous to operate at night, wouldn't it?"

"It's definitely not advisable to go out at night."

Lu Xining said, "Whether it's this matter or confirming the existence of 'brother,' we have to postpone it until tomorrow. I hope nothing unexpected happens tonight."

"...Miss, we don't make promises we can't keep!"

Li Jian couldn't help but make a sarcastic remark.

"By the way," Fan Xiao suddenly reminded Lu Xining, "You must keep the fact that you are Yan Keke a secret. Once it gets out, things will become very troublesome, and you may be attacked by other players."

Upon hearing the reminder, Du Ruo looked at Fan Xiao in surprise and said, "I thought you would take the opportunity to lure the players who dared to make a move together, and then wipe them out in one fell swoop to steal their items."

Fan Xiao shook his head: "I'm not that bad."

Upon hearing this, Lu Xining and Du Ruo both looked at him in silence.

Fan Xiao: "..."

The atmosphere suddenly became a little awkward.

Seeing this, Du Ruo took the initiative to start a conversation to ease the atmosphere, saying, "This matter can only be kept secret for a while. When the players go door to door to search for information, Lu... Lu Renjia's identity will be exposed sooner or later. It can't be hidden anymore."

"It will take at least one or two days to be fully exposed."