Madness ecstasy

No one was playing, Dou Dou was standing here alone.

The reason the arcade's interior lighting was deliberately dimmed was to make the screen light from the machines more visible.

But none of the machines were turned on, and the screens were pitch black; there was almost no space between the silent machines, like a forest of machines.

Doudou lifted his foot slightly, and the ground was very sticky to his shoes:

Pop--pop--

The sound was half wet and half crisp, like stepping on double-sided tape; the floor was sticky, and I don't know how many players had spilled soda all over it.

Chapter 109 Dream Dream Revolution

In the dim light above his head, Doudou put his hand in front of his face: the lines on his palm were clearly visible, and the pores on the back of his hand were all outlined purple by the light.

I shook my raincoat, and the feel and weight remained the same—everything was exactly the same as in reality; it was like I had been transported directly to another dimension:

"But I didn't turn into a crystal man this time? How strange."

The situation was different from when I had the "Taro Dream": at that time, the members of the society were crowded in the storage room, and they appeared together after I fell asleep.

But Ruan Jingbo, who was supposed to enter the dream with Dou Dou, disappeared without a trace.

"Different dreams, my appearance is also different. Taro dreams are not universal. What is the mechanism behind this?"

He deliberately didn't let Ai Xi enter the dream with him, just to see the strange appearance that Ruan Jingbo had transformed into.

No one knows if Ai Xi comes in, whether there will be some inexplicable changes.

As for Doudou himself, he went home last night and tried out two moves of the Locust Xingyiquan, which was quite difficult.

Although Dou Dou thought it was pretty cool, he also saw from his classmates' reactions that no one liked that look and some were even a little scared; so it was better not to let Ai Xi take the risk.

Compared to the empty [Taro Dream], this arcade called [Electronic Dungeon] is completely the opposite of it——

Crowded, colorful, cramped, and smelly:

With the feeling of sticking and pulling under his feet, Doudou began to shuttle through this arcade forest.

The game company’s brand logo is also printed on the side panel of the arcade machine - every arcade machine looks familiar.

Atari, Sega, and Casio-Bandai: Doudou bought a few issues of "Terminal Business Intelligence", and the articles called them the three giants in the current gaming industry.

All the trendy arcade machines they produce are here; among them, Casio-Bandai arcade machines are the least: but you can see advertisements of this company every few days.

The [Dr. Tormentor] that Ai Xi helped him build during the summer vacation was a model produced by Casio-Bandai.

Casio acquired Bandai a few years ago and then entered the gaming industry; everything went smoothly.

However, its main products are still handheld game consoles and gaming watches that continue its old business (Dou Dou bought one, but it could only play Tetris).

The supplementary pages of "Parapsychological Exploration" often listed the Casio-Bandai product catalog, so that readers could easily order by mail:

For example, the Magic Swan II that Doudou is talking about every day and saving money to buy is the best handheld game console on the market right now.

Casio-Bandai only has a passing knowledge of arcade machines; but whenever they release one, Doudou can't help but take a few more glances.

From fighting and light gun shooting to horizontal clearance and racing simulation, the models here are rich enough, probably more complete than the arcades that Doudou has visited.

Doudou was not very excited when he came to this familiar scene; because he didn't like hanging out in the arcade to play games.

The smell of smoke is pungent, it is noisy and stuffy; even the soda is one cent more expensive than outside, the hot dogs are pure starch, and there is not much meat on the fried chicken racks, and all you get is batter.

I often can't play the machines I want to play; many popular games are always reserved, so Doudou has to eat while watching and waiting in line behind others--

When I came to my senses, I realized that most of the coins in my wallet were spent on snacks.

Doudou's game skills were average, and when he was playing "ET Fighter", he died endlessly and was pinned to the ground and beaten by the wrinkled little gray men. He could only desperately refill his coins. In less than fifteen minutes, all the game coins he had exchanged were used up.

If ET wasn't universally recognized as the best video game ever, he wouldn't have wasted his money on this arcade version.

Not to mention that sometimes he accidentally used too much force and broke the joystick; there were other players watching from behind, so Doudou couldn't escape even if he wanted to:

If it weren't for the fact that many games don't have home console versions - it would be more comfortable to play games by yourself sitting in front of the TV.

"I had a dream. I was dancing on the Dance Dance Revolution. Where is the Dance Dance Revolution?"

Dou Dou was muttering to himself and jumping around, looking for the dance machine: according to his idea, Ruan Jingbo should appear there.

The arcade was silent, with only the clattering of footsteps.

Originally, arcades would play some weird pop songs to set the mood; even if they didn't play songs, each machine should have its own standby sound effect.

After taking a few steps, he noticed more strange things:

This arcade is really - huge!

It was almost like an air-raid shelter in the mountains, with the machines extending into the distance, forming one square formation after another, and you couldn't see the walls at all.

From this perspective, the name [Electronic Dungeon] is quite appropriate.

There are signs in front of the cash register that say [Gloves for Rent] and [Game Coin Exchange]: It is said that arcade masters like to wear gloves when playing with joysticks to prevent sweat and accidental operations; Doudou doesn't know this, he would break the joystick even with gloves on.

There was no one behind the counter, and the display screen that should have been showing the surveillance footage was pitch black; Doudou grabbed a handful of game coins and put them in his trouser pocket.

While the housing manager is away, secretly take some game coins: He has wanted to do this for a long time -

"Eh"

Doudou raised his head and saw a bright color at the edge of his vision.

-

"Ah! There are machines on!"

Doudou turned around and took two steps at a time, running towards the white light:

【Dancing Machine! Finally found it!】

Amidst the originally regular array of machines, a tangled mass of machines suddenly emerged; more than a dozen arcade machines were deformed and tangled together, like a mass of wildly growing seaweed.

Pedal platforms, handrails, display screens, and hand lights—they're all dance machines: there's Beatmania, there's the Korean Pump It Up, and what everyone calls the "slant arrow machine."

At the center is the all-too-common Dance Dance Revolution—a four-arrow dance machine that's a standard feature in almost every arcade.

They were all still on: floodlit screens, standing out in this silent jungle of arcades.

The dance machine is a very fashionable device, but Doudou has never played it much.

Without even thinking about it, he knew that if he exerted a little force, he would definitely be able to step through the entire machine.

The pedal platform of the DDR dance machine in front of me is dirty, and the acrylic board is covered with scratches, which are densely packed and look like white fog; the handrails are covered with handprints and palm prints, as if they are soaked with the sweat of the players.

I could hear the machine playing loudly, the speakers vibrating.

But the accompanying music wasn't any hot electronic dance music—it wasn't even music:

The loudspeaker was emitting a continuous and soft snoring sound, mixed with the faint sound of human voices. These sounds were piercing to the ears and were very irritating.

"Hey! Ruan Jingbo!"

Doudou put his palms in front of his face and bent them into a small trumpet shape:

"Ruan Jingbo! Scream if you hear anything!"

There was no answer, not even an echo.

"Where did you go?"

Dou Dou shrugged, put his hands behind his back, and began to look at the "Dancing Dance Revolution" closely.

The screen resolution is not very clear, because the brightness is too high, it is even a little blurry--

The content is not the song selection animation during standby:

It was a blackboard, most of the handwriting had been erased by the eraser, leaving only today's homework and the name of the monitor on the far right; the edge was painted bright yellow, the same color as the raincoat.

"Hey, this is the blackboard in our classroom."

Doudou ran around the twisted and tangled arcade vine: the screen size of each dance machine was slightly different, but the content on the screen was all the same, the blackboard with gray marks and the bright color of what seemed to be Doudou's raincoat.

"Human eye monitor? Something like that."

After a little thought, he understood -

I am observing the world through Ruan Jingbo's eyes.

He looked at the pedals of the dance machine and started to speculate:

"Well, if I play this dance machine..."

Doudou walked onto the step platform of the [Dancing Revolution] stage and grabbed the handrail behind him with both hands.

It's slippery, difficult to stand on, and has a weird static rebound feeling - Doudou doesn't know if all dance machines are like this, or if this one is particularly weird.

He carefully extended his right foot and gently tapped the pedal:

Beep!

As the toes stepped down, the left arrow lit up and the dance machine beeped -

The image on the screen tilted and rotated slightly; now one could just barely see the sunset outside the classroom window.

The foot feels okay, not like something fragile:

[It seems quite strong? ]

He exerted a little strength and grasped the handrail; took a deep breath—

Beep beep beep beep beep!

Doudou supported himself on the handrail at the back with both hands, and his feet danced on the pedal platform like raindrops.

Everything on the dance machine screen became blurry, shrouded in a veil; the picture spun upside down, full of chaos—

He could imagine: in reality, Ruan Jingbo's eyes must be rolling like crazy.

Chapter 110: What an important quality is the ability to have three heads and six arms

The sound from the speaker grew louder, and a few words could be vaguely discerned:

"..Give.you.the.face"

It was like a pair of sponge earplugs were stuffed into my left and right ear holes, and someone was yelling not far away:

The dull human voice seemed to be separated by a barrier, indistinguishable--

Suddenly, the sound became clearer, but the ending of each sound was prolonged and the pitch became lower, making it sound particularly rich and strong:

"--Whale--Bo--Dou--Dou--Can-you-hear--?"

Doudou suddenly supported himself on the handrail and raised his legs; he no longer touched the pedals under his feet.

The trembling and rotating image then stopped. The upper half of the screen was shrouded in darkness, making it difficult to see clearly; Ruan Jingbo should now be looking up with his eyes rolled back.

"It's Ai Xi's voice, but it's slowed down—time flows at different speeds. The one in the arcade is faster. This one is similar to Taro Dream."

"That's right! If I've attracted her attention, it means my eyes are also moving around in real life."

"Well! This dance machine can indeed control Ruan Jingbo's eyes."

The low, slow-motion voice sounded again, making the dance machine's speakers rumble:

"--I'm--talking-to-you--through-bone-conduction--"

Doudou rubbed his chin. Amidst this cluster of twisted and tangled dance machines, there were a dozen or so machines of various models:

"Ai Xi, remember the bone conduction secret conversation technique I taught her! Why is normal speech so poorly received, only bone conduction can hear it?"

"Then how can I communicate with her? Ruan Jingbo was able to speak yesterday, so I should be able to dance and speak with her tongue."

He now understood—or rather, had a complete guess:

The reason why Ruan Jingbo crawled into the classroom yesterday like a locust, with his elbows twirling, was because

Because her [mind] and [body] were separated for some reason:

Each of the dance machines in this giant mass of mechanical seaweed can control a part of her body.

The reason why I asked Ai Xi to customize school uniforms with rulers was probably for this reason.

"This one controls the eyes. Try another one. Which one controls the hands?"

He jumped out of the "Dancing Revolution" machine, and randomly picked up another "Fever Beat" from the hill-like cluster of machines, ready to climb up and try it out.