Soul Patch

Chapter 177 Was it all a lie?

Wenjie paused slightly, preparing to turn his head away.

"I told you not to move! Don't you understand?" came the dissatisfied voice from behind.

"You don't have any items or use any reward features. It's quite remarkable that you've managed to hold on this long!" the other person said casually, with a hint of laziness and indifference in their tone.

Wenjie stared straight ahead, with the pen holder on his desk directly in front of him.

It's a small, exquisite black pen holder with Huahai's logo embossed on it, which looks quite unique.

Wenjie's gaze was focused on the silver metal decoration on that side, the shiny metal strips illuminating half of the man's body behind him.

He was a thin man with a sickly pale face.

Is it him?

Patch carrier 2, which describes a person who died from poisoning in a restaurant.

Wasn't he already dead? Did he come back to life?

After a moment's thought, Wenjie realized that he had been faking his death.

But he was clearly dead... The police also examined his body afterward.

Suddenly, Wenjie had a bad feeling: was the body the police examined the same body he had seen?

It is highly likely that when the police reviewed the surveillance footage, the body they saw had already been replaced by patch carrier 2!

"You weren't poisoned, so you've already killed Li Shiman? In that case, isn't it all over?" Wenjie wanted to deliberately provoke the person behind him.

After he finished speaking, there was no more sound behind him, so the stimulation had worked.

He took the opportunity to help Captain Wu to the sofa in the office and settled him down.

Wenjie turned his head and looked at Patch Carrier 2, which was still standing in the same spot.

At this moment, Patch Carrier 2 seemed to be deep in thought, with a smile on its lips, as if it was quite pleased with Wenjie's statement that Li Shiman was dead.

Yes, it's being completely absorbed in something.

He held the gun in one hand, pointing it vaguely in Wenjie's direction, but his attention wasn't on Wenjie. His attention was on the finger in front of him.

That hand was so withered it looked like a piece of firewood.

He stared at the hand with a look of fascination.

Wenjie was slightly taken aback when he saw this.

What is the relationship between Patch Carrier 2 and Patch Carrier 1, that is, the woman named Liu Qingqing? Why are they both so obsessed with each other?

"Let's get to know each other formally. My name is Wenjie, and my patch carrier is 5. What's yours?"

"Me? Do I need a name?" The man continued staring at his hands, seemingly undeterred.

Wenjie felt as if he were communicating with a skeleton, because the man in front of him was so thin, sickly thin. Just looking at him made Wenjie feel uneasy.

Wenjie glanced at the time; it was exactly four o'clock in the afternoon.

In twenty-three minutes, Li Shiman will be killed.

They initially thought Li Shiman was in this office, but when the police arrived, they had clearly encountered an ambush. Where is Li Shiman now?

While dealing with Patch Carrier 2, Wenjie kept a close eye on the system's message notifications.

One warning is that patch carrier 1 or 2 is using items, even though he doesn't believe they have any items left, since they've already used a lot of items, haven't they?

The second is the news of Charmaine Sheh's murder.

If she is killed, the system will definitely notify you that the mission has failed.

The system has not yet issued any notification, indicating that Li Shiman is still alive.

Wenjie approached Patch Carrier 2 without making a sound, his two fists clenching tightly, ready to let this skinny man taste the bitterness of deception.

Just as he suddenly swung his fist, ready to teach the man a lesson.

The man suddenly raised his head, his eyes flashing with a light that Wenjie couldn't understand: "Li Shiman wasn't killed by a human."

After saying that, he burst out laughing.

"Don't you think about it? If I wanted to kill her, I would have had countless opportunities to do so. Why would I wait until 16:23? Online missions are bullshit. Only a newbie like you would think about completing them. Online missions are simply impossible to complete."

The gaunt man had a look of despair on his face, and he stared at his hands again.

Wenjie's gaze swept coldly over him, then looked at Captain Wu, his thoughts momentarily in disarray.

He muttered, repeating the same sentence over and over: "Was Li Shiman not killed by a human?"

"Haha, yeah, she was planning to commit suicide at 16:23."

"Suicide? Why?"

"Who knows? Maybe they're tired of living!"

The man put down his pistol and casually tucked it into his waistband.

Dragging his shoes, he came to Wenjie's side, moved Captain Wu on the sofa to the side to make room, and sat down himself.

As soon as he settled down, he lay back on the sofa and put one leg up on the coffee table in front of him.

Wenjie glanced at the time: 16:02.

It must be said that the man's words were indeed disturbing, making him feel disoriented for a moment.

It was only for a fleeting moment; Wenjie caught a glimpse of the patch carrier 1 lying by the door out of the corner of his eye.

At this moment, Patch Carrier 1 still looks like a taxi driver, wearing a yellow taxi driver's uniform shirt, which makes him look like a good driver who brings fares to the people.

However, Wenjie felt that it was more like a dirty soul in human skin, secretly plotting some harmful scheme!

As the man spoke, he glanced towards the door and saw that Patch Carrier 1 was also ready. He smiled knowingly.

Wenjie had actually noticed all of this, but he pretended to be completely unaware.

"Alright! Since we can't get out of here and are trapped in the system mission, let's kill a couple of them to take down with us..." Wenjie said as he flew towards the door. His toes lightly touched the ground, and in the blink of an eye, he had already approached the driver who was lurking at the door.

He grabbed the driver by the neck with a fierce and forceful grip.

"Ah...ah...help me! Ah Zhi, help me!" Liu Qingqing cried out in a coquettish voice as she became anxious.

That voice, combined with the middle-aged man's appearance and the hoarse voice of an old chain smoker, is truly deadly.

Wenjie got goosebumps all over his body when he heard this.

"Qingqing!" the man called Azhi exclaimed, instinctively drawing his gun from his waist.

"Don't move!" Wenjie tightened his grip on the driver's wrist, choking him. The driver stared wide-eyed, gasping for breath, his heart pounding wildly, his limbs flailing wildly.

Under Wenjie's control, all their struggles were in vain.

Ah Zhi slowly approached the door, threw the gun in his hand on the ground, and said, "Speak, what do you want to know?"

Where is Li Shiman?

"On the rooftop, preparing to jump at 16:23."

"why?"

"I've already said, there's no such thing as a mission or anything like that. The online system is just nonsense."

There's no mission, and it's impossible to complete one; we're all trapped here.

In the system's scenarios, we either fight each other or commit suicide... In the real world, our deaths are always caused by a plausible accident.

For example: car accidents, fires, people jumping off buildings, rivers flowing into the river, buildings collapsing, earthquakes, floods, mudslides, getting lost while exploring...

Wenjie was a little confused, really confused. The hand he was using to grip Liu Qingqing's neck trembled.

"How do you know? If, as you say, there were no system missions, then how did you survive in those missions? You..."

Wenjie gestured to Azhi and Liu Qingqing with his eyes, a mocking smile playing on his lips:

"You two met through a system task and ended up getting together."

Upon hearing Wenjie's words, Ah Zhi's eyes immediately turned to Liu Qingqing.

He was puzzled: How did this person know that he was dating Liu Qingqing?

"It's different, really different! In the past, when we assigned tasks, the patch carrier would complete the task together, but this time... this time it's an impossible task."

When we chose to disguise our identities, we did some research. Li Shiman… Li Shiman is a dead person.”

Wenjie was shocked to hear this. A dead person?

How could that be? Then who is Li Shiman whom we saw today?

Could it be a patch carrier playing the role? Is the goal to find other patch carriers or the culprit, if there is another culprit?

Wenjie felt a throbbing pain in his head. He frowned slightly and swallowed.

He felt that something he had always firmly believed in had been shaken.

"But why? Even movies wouldn't dare portray something like this. I haven't done anything heinous in the real world..."

As Wenjie spoke, the image of him killing Jia Song flashed through his mind. He shook his head violently, trying to shake off the image.

"Are you sure? You didn't use the system to commit murder and arson? For testing, for system tasks, for survival, have all the things you've done been aboveboard?"

Ah Zhi's words were like a demonic whisper, each one striking his heart like a hammer blow.

Wenjie closed his eyes slightly and exhaled a breath of stale air.

"Even if you haven't done any of what I've said, can you be sure that when you changed your life trajectory before, you didn't interfere with the normal development of the real world or affect the life trajectories of other innocent people?"

As Ah Zhi spoke, his eyes met Liu Qingqing's for a moment.

A fleeting hint of smugness seemed to flash in Liu Qingqing's eyes, and the corners of her mouth unconsciously turned up.

Despite his thin appearance, Ah Zhi is very talented. The two first met during a mission when the situation was extremely critical.

A girl who wanted to jump off a building, unable to bear the blow of a broken heart, climbed the 78th floor of the tallest building in M ​​City, the Skywalk Staircase, all by herself.

She sat on the terrace with her legs dangling outside.

On that high floor, all that accompanied her were her tears, her shadow, and the howling wind.

Liu Qingqing was the first to reach the terrace. She shouted a few times against the wind, but it was no use. Instead, it made the girl even more agitated. She yelled at Liu Qingqing, "It's you skinny vixens who stole my boyfriend! I hate you! Get out of here!"

At that moment, Aji arrived as well.

As if by magic, he pulled out paper and pen from his pocket and quickly began to draw something on the paper.

"Get out! All of you get out! If you don't leave, I'll jump!" The girl became agitated as more and more people gathered.

She cried uncontrollably in the wind, as if the whole world had wronged her for losing a lover.

Azhi didn't say a word. In less than thirty seconds, he put down his pen, folded the paper a few times, borrowed a somersault rope from Liu Qingqing, and tied a stone to it.

Throw the paper with the added weight to the girl on the rooftop.

Then he called out to Liu Qingqing, "Go downstairs, let her have some peace and quiet!"

Liu Qingqing followed the thin boy and hid behind the wall of the small courtyard house, secretly observing.

As they left, the girl gradually calmed down.

She played with the note in her hand for a while, and finally slowly unfolded it. She was surprised to see that the small note had just a few strokes outlining a plump and elegant hand.

The hand was so lifelike that you could almost see the capillaries under the skin and the hot blood flowing through them, even through the paper.

Immediately, she covered her face with her hands and burst into tears.

The paper, and the line of small writing beside it, were soaked with tears. The handwriting was blurred, but it was still possible to make out that it read:

Your hands are the most beautiful I've ever seen. If he doesn't love you, someone else will! Promise me you won't give up, okay?

When the girl stumbled down from the rooftop, Liu Qingqing looked at the boy in front of her in disbelief. She couldn't believe that this frail boy had managed to complete the task with just a piece of paper.

After going downstairs, Liu Qingqing received a notification that the task was completed, and she received two virtual scenes as a system reward.

Azhi received three virtual identities and one escape item as a system reward.

She stared at the system notification in front of her, then looked blankly at A-Zhi beside her.

"Why am I getting a reward too?"

Aji smiled mysteriously and logged out of the system.

Neither of them chose a virtual identity for that mission, so when they met in real life, A-Zhi recognized Liu Qingqing at a glance.

Liu Qingqing was also surprised to encounter people from the networked system in real life.

She was still upset about receiving the reward out of nowhere, because in a later mission, a virtual scenario saved her life.

"So, can you tell me this time? About the system rewards?" Liu Qingqing blinked and looked at Azhi.

Ah Zhi blushed and lowered his head.

His gaze fell on Liu Qingqing's hands, and he said slowly, "That day I drew a sketch, and it was of your hands. Your hands are the most beautiful hands I have ever seen."

These words deeply moved Liu Qingqing.

Although she hadn't seen what the painting looked like, she believed it could move someone contemplating suicide and rekindle their will to live... The painting must be very beautiful.

It even possesses a bewitching magic!

She gently stroked her hands; she cherished them so much, but no boy had ever been so infatuated with them before, except for herself.

Perhaps it was at that moment that Ah Zhi became different from the other boys in her heart.

Others may only see Aji's outward appearance, but she can appreciate his soul and his talent.

At this moment, A-Zhi casually recounted their process of joining the online mission, which caused the patch carrier in front of him to go from firmly believing in the system mission to wavering.

Haha, which person who joins a networked mission wasn't forced into network mode in a single-player system because they interfered with the development of the real world?

This is something everyone has experienced, so when Aji said it, he spoke with such certainty that it all seemed so believable.

If Ah Zhi hadn't conspired with Liu Qingqing beforehand, Liu Qingqing might have even believed that the system was tricking them after hearing those words.

Ah Zhi's serious nonsense was surprisingly cool and flawless!

(End of this chapter)