Infinite Weird Game

In the end, Qi Si did not try to climb out of the house through the window.

The reason was simple: the old man's body was still stained with blood, and there were half-rotten pieces of meat hanging from the bones below. It was too dirty. And there seemed to be no place to take a shower in the mansion.

Qi Si and Lin Chen took advantage of the abundant light in the morning to search the room from inside to outside, but they found no new clues and had no way to complete the incomplete text in the letter.

"Baiyang River has been lost, and the soldiers and civilians have gathered in Yanghua Town to resist the invasion of foreign races..."

Lin Chen had memorized the contents of the letter. He frowned in distress and muttered to himself, "The place name 'Baiyang River' sounds so familiar. I must have seen the corresponding information in real life. Why can't I remember it all of a sudden?"

As the only place name appearing in the letter, the three words "Baiyang River" were not unfamiliar to Qi Si.

This is most likely a real place in reality, and this copy probably has a lot to do with reality.

However, Qi Si, who had never deliberately collected information or memorized knowledge points, could not remember any story about the Baiyang River.

When Lin Chen looked at him for help, he said calmly: "If you can't remember it, it means that this information is not important, at least not the key to clearing this copy.

“The weird game mainly tests the player’s talent in force and intelligence. Although the amount of information is a parameter for calculating intelligence, it does not play a decisive role. On the contrary, it may provide erroneous interference.

"Just as we cannot conclude that farmers are dumber than students because they cannot solve math problems, a fair game will not set up difficult problems that cannot be solved without knowing a certain piece of knowledge."

Lin Chen nodded in confusion and finally gave up trying to figure out the true meaning of the letter.

Qi Si sat down at the bedside table, took out a pen and paper from his backpack, and wrote down the speculations about the copy mechanism that had been discussed earlier.

When the hour hand of the fate pocket watch passed the Roman number "seven", there was finally movement outside the door.

First, there was the sound of cloth shoes stepping on the loose steps, alternating "rustling" and "creaking" sounds for a while before they landed on the solid ground.

Immediately afterwards, the sound of "tapping" of footsteps on wooden boards came closer and closer, and stopped in front of the door of the room on the left.

"Clattery", it's the sound of the chains being unfastened.

The door of Luo Haihua and his wife's room was opened.

The footsteps continued, stopping in front of the middle wooden door, and the chain was unlocked in the same way.

Qi Si was standing at the door when he heard the footsteps, and he saw the figure holding the key chain at a glance.

She was a little old lady with white hair and wrinkled skin drooping down like a layer of hanging gauze that would flutter in the wind.

She wore a sloppy straw hat and a black robe. She was hunched over and her legs were trembling under the weight. The key chain in her hand swung back and forth, making a crisp sound.

Qi Si looked at the obviously human-shaped shadow behind the old lady and asked with a smile: "Auntie, where is the old man who brought us to the residence yesterday? He said he would always take care of our food and accommodation, why didn't he come this morning?"

Upon hearing this, the old lady slowly turned her face to Qi Si and said in a hoarse voice: "Young man, I have always been in charge of this mansion. I was the one who brought you all the way here and assigned you rooms last night. Have you forgotten?"

Her attitude was genuine, and her confusion didn't seem fake.

Qi Si lifted his eyelids and looked into her eyes, smiling apologetically: "I'm sorry, maybe I was in a daze and mixed up what I dreamed about.

"It's just that... I seem to have met a talkative old man in this area. He was about the same height as you and was dressed like you."

He gestured with his hands in a pretentious manner and then spoke: "One of my companions accidentally bumped into him last night and he fell. It was too late at night and we were in a hurry, so we didn't pay close attention to his condition... I don't know if the old man went home later or if he was seriously injured."

The little old lady listened with her ear tilted, nodding her head as if she was dozing off.

After hearing the last sentence, she shook her head and said, "This area is under my control. Only outsiders are allowed to live here. No one else is allowed to come in. I have never seen anyone else wearing what I wear. This outfit can only be worn by one living person."

The unreasonable rules were stated by the old lady in a matter-of-fact tone, which made it even more weird.

Lin Chen listened for a while and couldn't help asking, "Auntie, why don't you let other people come to this area? Also, what's so special about this outfit? Why is it only allowed to be worn by one person?"

The old lady turned to him and said with a smile: "Young man, you don't know, if everyone gathers here, how can we tell who is the ghost and who is the human?

"In our town, a set of clothes is a trade. I am the only one in charge of the mansion. I am the only one in this trade."

She looked very patient and willing to help players solve their problems. From any angle, she was a hospitable old human lady.

——It seems like this NPC can provide a lot of information. We should make full use of it.

"Auntie, there is one more thing I don't know whether I should bother you with... This matter is really too weird." Qis said hesitantly, took a few steps back and made room for the window.

The sun rose higher than before, and the light and shadow that came into the room through the window shortened to the foot of the bed near the window, shining brightly like a grid made of paint.

Seeing that Qi Si and Lin Chen were both looking in the same direction, the old lady took a step forward a little slowly and stretched her head to look into the house: "Young man, what happened? Is there something wrong with our house?"

Qi Si pointed to the window and said, "As soon as night fell yesterday, there was a commotion outside the window, and there was a 'dong dong' sound of knocking on the window, as if countless people were gathered by the window and were about to rush in.

"I wanted to keep watch, but when it was midnight, I fell asleep in a daze. When I woke up this morning, I found several holes in the window."

He lowered his eyes and said softly, "Besides, I always feel like there are a lot of people outside the window looking at me... Do you think those ghosts hiding in the town are hiding behind the mansion, staring at us outsiders and attacking us?"

"This is no small matter! Let me see what's going on." The old lady's face became serious, and she walked into the room tremblingly, leaning on a cane.

She stood in front of the window, holding onto the windowsill and looking down.

A pile of corpses half a story high was right in front of us, as white and miserable as a sand hill.

The body of the old man wearing a bamboo hat and black clothes was lying at the very top, like an embellishment on the top of the mountain, only an arm's length away from the old woman.

The little old lady looked around for a long while, her expression did not show much emotion, but was instead filled with confusion.

She turned her head left and right, slowly straightened up, and muttered, "No, there's nothing outside... It's a beautiful mountain, a beautiful bamboo forest, but there's not a single person in sight. Could it be that everyone has retreated?"

Qi Si glanced at the old lady's eyes, which were filled with a cloudy, empty space and no focus.

It seemed that she really saw nothing.

In other words, what she saw was different from what the players saw.

What's going on with those piles of corpses outside?
Is it just the old lady who can't see it, or are all the NPCs unable to see it?

The notes from the Netherworld Record popped up in Qis' mind.

[Those who cannot see are called Yi, and those who cannot hear are called Xi]

[Colorless is called Yi, soundless is called Xi] Those without visible form are called “Yi”, but why can’t NPCs see them but players can?
Is there something wrong with the pile of corpses, the NPCs, or the players?

Qi Si asked: "Auntie, can you tell me what you saw?"

"I saw the bamboo forest..." The old lady suddenly stopped talking and said in a stern voice, "Can't you see what's outside? Only the ghosts see things differently from us..."

"You think too much." Qi Si interrupted with a smile, "We can see that there are not only bamboo forests outside, but also mountains."

The old lady looked at Qis twice, but still wasn't convinced.

She turned around muttering, walked out of Qi Si and Lin Chen's room, and headed towards Tang Yu and Qiu Xin's room.

After searching the room, there was nothing much to see, so Qi Si and Lin Chen followed her out of the room silently.

Qi Si went straight to the room of Luo Haihua and his wife on the left.

He noticed that during the time he was communicating with the old lady, there was no movement from Luo Haihua and his wife, and he was afraid that something bad might happen.

Qis did not feel any sadness about the deaths of these two people. Instead, he was very curious about how and how they died, wondering if there would be anything new.

Of course, what he cared more about was whether there would be any valuable clues left in the room of the two people, such as letters pointing to their worldview.

The room on the left was eerily quiet; even the smell and color were so dull that they seemed covered by a layer of mist, as if nothing had ever existed.

Qi Si walked into the house and saw no body or human figure.

It was as if the two living people had evaporated into thin air, without a trace.

Only two beds with messy bedding and two lanterns overturned at the foot of the beds could prove that someone had lived here.

Qi Si went straight to the bedside table, pulled out a yellowed piece of letter paper from under the base, and began to read.

Lin Chen followed Qi Si into the house like a ghost, and curiously leaned over to read the words above:

[If this city falls, your country will be lost, and your children and property will all become slaves and treasury...]

[Many people in the southeast are loyal to the king. Once the king's army leaves, there may be a breath left. We should gather firewood and burn down the palace. We would rather turn pearls, jade and gold tripods into ashes than help the enemy.]

He concluded habitually: "This letter is connected to the letter in our room. After they retreated to Yanghua Town, they couldn't even defend Yanghua Town. In order to prevent the invaders from obtaining supplies, they planned to burn Yanghua Town down..."

As Lin Chen continued to speak, an inexplicable grief and sorrow seeped into his skin from the point where his fingertips touched the letter paper. The letter written in black and white was dotted with blood at a certain moment, and then disappeared in an instant.

Qi Si handed the letter to Lin Chen, sat down by the window, opened the drawer of the bedside table, reached inside and touched a handful of ashes.

Not sure if it was a kaleidoscope or a replay of death, but before his eyes appeared the illusion of the lantern falling over, flames spreading along the bed sheets, and in the billowing smoke, Luo Jianhua hugging Luo Haihua tightly.

Along with it was the smell of smoke and burning, cries of fear, and the sound of things being torn apart...

The illusion appeared for only a moment and then disappeared, and there was no way to capture it.

Qi Si knew inexplicably that it was an image of Yanghua Town's past.

This undoubtedly corresponds to another part of the world view. I don’t know what the connection is with “ghosts”, but it looks very troublesome.

Qi Si pulled his hand back from the drawer, took out a handkerchief to wipe his fingertips, looked at Lin Chen and said calmly: "There was a fire here last night. It should be caused by the Luo Haihua couple who didn't have time to stop the lantern from falling over."

"Ah? On fire?" Lin Chen looked around and asked, "This room is clean and the furnishings are not damaged. It doesn't look like it has been on fire."

"Who knows?" Qi Si picked up the lantern on the ground and sighed. "If you are really curious about what happened, maybe we can try to leave the lantern alone tonight and let it fall to the ground to see what happens."

Lin Chen: Not curious at all, thank you.

He hesitated for two seconds and asked hesitantly, "Brother Qi, where are Teacher Luo and the others? Did they go out through the window?"

Disappearing at night in the dungeon was basically equivalent to a death sentence. But Lin Chen still didn't want to believe the biggest possibility.

Although he had only known Luo Haihua and his wife for one day, they seemed to be nice people. He didn't want to see such people die so easily and hastily.

"Maybe." Qi Si had no intention of bursting Lin Chen's beautiful fantasy. "If we can't see the body, everything is inconclusive. Maybe it just entered another dimension."

He said something to comfort her indifferently, staring at the lantern in his hand, his thoughts gradually drifting away.

Generally speaking, in a copy with only seven people in total, it is impossible for a large number of people to die on the first night.

In the same room, at the same death point, it is impossible to take two people away at once.

This is too wasteful, too uneconomical, and does not conform to the general rules of game design.

What's more, judging from Qi Si's experience last night, the speed at which the lantern fell was not that fast. A normal person could react in time and hold it up before the situation became irreversible.

Although Luo Haihua and his wife are not young, as veteran players, it is impossible that they do not have this much reaction speed.

At the very least, they should have life-saving items, even if they are consumables with strict working conditions.

In any case, these two people shouldn't have died inexplicably together on the first night, and died silently...

On the other side, the old lady opened the door of Tang Yu and Qiu Xin's room and said something.

Soon, Tang Yu's clear voice rang out in the corridor: "Auntie, I really didn't kill her. She was gone when I woke up this morning. Believe me!"

The old lady smiled and said, "I believe it. When a ghost harms someone, there will be blood. There is no smell of blood on you, so you didn't harm anyone."

"Thank you, Auntie..."

"But your companion must have left through the window. You opened the window at night, and you don't know if any ghosts entered the house..."

"What does this have to do with me? I'm still standing here, I'm not dead..."

"Who knows whether you are a human or a ghost now? You have to come back to my place tonight and be locked up for another day."

"I rely on!"

Qis heard the conversation between the man and the NPC clearly, and his lowered eyelids hid the darkness in his eyes.

The candidate for the accomplice has been chosen, which is good. (End of this chapter)