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

“This…is indeed a direction to explore!” Su nodded.

The three of them quickly got to work.

With a clear goal in mind, the efficiency of the exploration increased dramatically.

In less than half an hour, Tanya and her two companions found their "kindred spirits".

Inside a thatched hut, a middle-aged man with a stubble beard is carefully taking care of a woman who is bedridden.

The two appeared to be a married couple, dressed like the other villagers, but neither wore a white cloth on their heads.

The man did not refuse Tanya's visit, but he did not show much enthusiasm either.

After Tanya entered the room, she observed the two of them for a while.

The woman lying in bed looked rather gloomy, her eyes lacking vitality.

His reaction to the man's gentle administration of the medication was also very bland, somewhat lifeless.

After feeding the medicine, the man turned to Tanya and the other two and said, "Ask us any questions you have, it's getting dark."

This attitude... seems somewhat different from the other villagers?

Tanya and the other two exchanged glances.

Finally, Tanya spoke up, saying, "We want to know the rules of White Village."

"The weather has changed twice already, I'm sure you've noticed," the man said. "If you see someone with a black umbrella on a cloudy day, just stay away. If you can't avoid them, run to a shady place, like inside a house. Also, don't go out alone, it's easy for something to happen."

"Do we need to go back to our sleeping room for lunch?" Su asked. "And at night, do we outsiders need to find empty rooms to sleep in?"

"That's what they told you?"

The man stared at Tanya and the other two, and after asking the question, he remained silent for a while.

After about ten seconds, he sighed and spoke again: "There are many things I can't tell you outsiders directly. The village chief... and the other villagers... they are protecting the people in the village, I hope you won't blame them."

He shook his head and continued, "I can tell you the truth, provided... you live to see the day you are buried."

"As for now, I can only remind you of one thing—nighttime is extremely dangerous! Only the Ghost Goddess can provide shelter for the villagers."

Chapter 539 We all want to be the groom!

"Is it very dangerous at night?" Su asked hurriedly, "What specific dangers?"

Faced with this question, the man put down the medicine bowl, shook his head, and did not answer.

He didn't say whether he didn't want to answer or couldn't answer.

Seeing this, Tanya changed the subject, asking, "How exactly does the Ghost Queen protect the villagers at night?"

"You go."

The man immediately told him to leave, seemingly unwilling to answer any more questions.

“I know you’re telling the truth. Since you’ve already said so much, what’s wrong with revealing a little more?” Su said. “For you, it’s just a few words, but for us, it’s a matter of survival.”

“I know who you are; ‘outsider’ is just a term used to describe you.”

The man turned his gaze to Su and said, "For you, this is an... adventure site. You are the main flowers, and we are the supporting leaves, the background for your adventures, the NPCs."

"So, we must help you, we must respond to your needs... That's probably what you're thinking, right?"

“You…” Su was shocked upon hearing this.

How could this man know so much information?

Moreover, NPCs... it's really hard to imagine that villagers in a backward village would use such words.

"We are living people, not just background figures!"

The man became somewhat agitated.

However, it quickly fell silent again, as if its spine had already been broken.

He sighed softly, "They're just a bunch of pathetic wretches trapped in the mud..."

The man waved to Tanya and the other two: "You can go now. I'll say it again: if you live to see your burial, I'll tell you the truth."

Seeing that the other party was so persistent, Tanya knew that she wouldn't get any more information by continuing to pester him.

She could only ask one last question: "Where is the Temple of the Ghost Goddess? Can we go and take a look?"

"It's best not to go!" the man warned solemnly. "The Ghost Goddess Temple can only be visited on the day of the burial. At other times... just remember not to go near it."

……

After leaving the man's house, Tanya repeatedly pondered what he had said, trying to determine its truthfulness based on the information she already had.

Su, walking beside him, frowned and said, "Captain, the people in this village don't seem as simple as we thought? I originally thought they were all instance creatures with fixed perceptions and hostile personalities towards players, but now it seems... they are just like us, complete human beings with normal intelligence and emotions?"

"There are many copies of normal humans that have been preserved, so there's nothing strange about it."

Tanya said, "Some dungeons even randomly recruit people from various external zones when they are short of players."

"Not every life in a dungeon is an incomplete life created according to demand. Nor does every dungeon have the authority to create life."

"The people of White Village... are probably a bunch of pitiful people who have been manipulated by the dungeon. They deceive the players, and they probably have a reason to do so."

At this point, she shook her head and said, "We can empathize, but we cannot let it shake our own will."

"I was just expressing my feelings..."

Su quickly composed herself and said, "I think that man's words are very credible. What does the captain think?"

"The credibility is indeed very high, but it's strange that he insisted on waiting until the day of his burial to tell us the truth."

Tanya thought for a moment and said, "There are two possibilities. First, telling the truth to outsiders will be punished."

"We speculate that those who aren't wearing white cloths are all 'deceased,' like us players. According to this theory, that man and his wife are also 'deceased,' and they will most likely have died on the day of their burial. As for the specific manner of their deaths... we can't figure that out yet."

"Because I will die, I can disregard the punishment for revealing the truth."

"The second possibility..."

She paused, then said uncertainly, "They might be testing us."

"test?"

Su and Jane were both taken aback.

Tanya nodded and said, "Recall our third dungeon quest—Ending the curse on this land."

"There is a curse here! The villagers of White Village must have suffered greatly from it. Their malice towards players must also stem from this."

"The villagers are just ordinary people, and they certainly can't break the curse on their own. They can only place their hopes on us players."

"If we don't even live to see our burial, telling us the truth would be harmful to them, after all... the villagers of White Village want us players to die."

"What a contradictory mindset!" Su frowned. "On one hand, they want us to break the curse, and on the other hand, they want us to die..."

"Actually, there's no contradiction."

Tanya analyzed, "They probably want us to die because if we players don't die, they'll be the ones who die."

"Those monsters with black umbrellas will devour players... Perhaps every time the dungeon opens, these monsters will need to eat, and we must feed them human flesh, whether it's the flesh of villagers or players."

"If we can live to be buried, it will indirectly prove our abilities. At that time, the villagers will probably not mind telling us the truth and letting us break the curse once and for all."

"If they do this, who would be willing to help them break the curse?" Su shook his head and said, "Not turning around and killing them is already more than enough."

"Breaking the curse is a dungeon quest, and it has nothing to do with the villagers' attitude towards us. We still have to complete it."

Tanya shook her head: "Let's not talk about that now. That man's reminder only strengthened my resolve to break into the villagers' houses at night."

“The nights are very dangerous; only the Ghost Goddess can provide shelter for the villagers—this is his reminder, or rather, warning, to us.”

"This statement can be interpreted in reverse as meaning that we must obtain the protection of the Ghost Queen in order to survive the night."

"Gaining shelter should be an active act, not something you can passively wait for by sleeping in a house. So... we must imitate the villagers' behavior at night; sleeping in empty houses is suicidal!"

If the man wasn't lying, then this conclusion is entirely valid.

……

6:40 PM.

The sun had already disappeared from the horizon, and the sky was gradually darkening.

Mongo and a burly male player emerged from a thatched hut.

Both men had gloomy expressions, their eyes flashing with irritability, and their aura became even more ferocious.

"Are all the people here just parrots?! They only ever repeat the same fake rules!"

The burly man couldn't help but curse, "I really want to tear their mouths apart!"

“It’s not necessarily a false rule,” Mongo said. “We only know that we can’t go out alone. As for whether we can go back to our rooms to eat and sleep alone, that hasn’t been verified yet. The village chief said the rooms are safe.”

"Can you really believe what the village chief says? And how do you verify it? Risk your life to verify it? This kind of thing can't be verified at all!"

The burly man frowned and said, "It's getting dark, and we don't have time to continue gathering intelligence. Besides, I feel there's no point in continuing."

At this point, he reluctantly compromised, saying, "I've decided to go with that woman; at least it'll be safer with more people around."

“Breaking into a villager’s house at night is not a good choice,” Mongo warned. “That woman has the ability to teleport and manipulate space, so she can escape much more easily than we can. She made the wrong choice and has room to maneuver, but we don’t. We might end up dying tonight!”

"Then what do you suggest we do?" the burly man asked. "We can't really go and sleep in empty houses, can we?"

"The key lies with the villagers!"

"These guys have survived in White Village for so long, they must know all about the dangers here!" Mongo said.

"They know perfectly well whether something will happen tonight, and how to avoid it if something does happen, they just don't want to tell us."

"Hmph... If it weren't for the fact that the instance isn't currently open, I would have killed them all!"

Upon hearing this, the burly man scoffed, "Anyone can talk tough. I want to kill someone too!"

“Heh… it’s not just empty threats.” Mongo sneered, “Not every instance has a rule against attacking instance creatures. Whether this one does or not is hard to say.”

The burly man exclaimed in surprise, "You wouldn't be thinking of...?"

"Don't worry, it's not torture. I wouldn't dare to do it directly."

Despite being a cannibalistic player, Mongo remained remarkably calm: "Given the current unclear situation, we can't attack rashly. We can try to threaten the villagers with words. If we can get any information, that would be great. If not, it's okay. We can just follow that woman tonight."

“…Alright,” the burly man sighed, “Continuing like this is definitely not a solution. The villagers are a potential breakthrough; it’s worth a try.”

After making their decision, the two immediately returned to the house they had visited earlier.

Upon re-entering the thatched hut, Mongo looked at the family of three inside and a sinister grin spread across his face.

He didn't need to act at all; he simply let his true emotions show on his face.

He pulled out an oversized machete from his storage space, held it in his hand, and said in a fierce tone, "I'm too tired to play these question-and-answer games with you guys anymore! Now, I'll ask you questions, and you'll answer them. If you dare to lie again, I'll just chop you to death!"

"Killing them outright would be too easy on them."

The burly man approached Mengo, staring at the three people inside the room and chuckling, "These bastards' lies have caused the deaths of many of our men. How can we kill them so easily?"

"I'll cut off their hands and feet first, hang them up, and cut off their flesh piece by piece!"

Upon hearing this, the three villagers all showed expressions of extreme fear, quickly retreating to the edge of the wall, their bodies trembling uncontrollably.

The fierce aura emanating from Mongo and the burly man seemed entirely genuine.

It was genuine murderous intent!

"Don't mess around!"

The father, one of the three, mustered his courage and stepped forward, shouting, "Harming villagers in the village will be punished by the Ghost Goddess!"

"Stop talking nonsense!" Mengo's eyes flashed with ferocity. "Now, tell me, what dangers are there tonight? How should we deal with them? If you dare to lie, I'll chop your son up first!"

The father immediately lost the courage he had finally mustered after being glared at like that.

Just then, a voice suddenly rang out from outside the thatched hut: "What are you doing?"

It's Tanya's voice.

Upon hearing this question, both Mongo and the burly man became nervous.

They quickly turned around and looked outside the thatched hut.

About ten meters from the door, Tanya was standing there, waving at them: "Come with me, I've found a way to leave."