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

Li Jian opened his mouth and gagged, then said, "Damn it! This couple is such hypocrites!"

He glanced at the little boy running around in the living room: "That brat splashed soup on us, and the couple didn't say a word. But when the kid got splashed, they immediately panicked... Ugh! Trash parents! Trash family! Even a dog wouldn't want parents like that!"

"Are you saying you're not even as good as a dog?" Fan Xiao asked.

"..." Li Jian changed the subject, "By the way, when is this kid going to sleep? I'm ready to tell him ghost stories and scare him to death."

Fan Xiao checked the time on the player panel: 6:30.

He said, "It's only 6:30, it's still early. We probably have two or three hours before bedtime, so we should be free to do whatever we want during that time."

"Aren't we supposed to take care of him?"

Li Jian pointed at the dead child.

"Why would we need to take care of him?" Fan Xiao laughed. "The rules of the instance only tell us not to rebel against our parents, but our younger brother is not included. Let alone not taking care of him, we can beat him up without any problem."

“The rules don’t actually forbid us from beating him up, but what if he complains?” Li Jian said. “We can’t just silence him and kill him, can we?”

Fan Xiao shook his head: "It's not that bad."

Just then, the little boy ran towards the two of them.

He tugged at Fan Xiao's sleeve and said, "Sister, sister, let's play horseback riding! I want to ride the horse, and you be the horse. I want to ride you."

"You're eight years old already, aren't you?" Fan Xiao laughed. "You're riding a NM (a type of bicycle)."

"……what?"

The little boy was taken aback.

*Pfft*—Some of Fan Xiao's blood pierced through his skin and gushed out, forming a small blood blade that cut a small wound on the little boy's arm and seeped into it.

*Snap*—Fan Xiao snapped his fingers.

The little boy collapsed to the ground.

"Uh...you knocked him out?" Li Jian reminded him, "He's asleep now, and we haven't even started the story yet."

"Wait until nightfall, then wake him up and force him to listen to our stories."

Fan Xiao grabbed the little boy by the back of his collar and led him into a room, where he hid the boy under the bed.

Then he said to Li Jian, who had followed him, "Hide him here for now, and pretend we took him out to play."

"Child abuse..."

Li Jian made a sarcastic remark.

However, he showed no objection whatsoever; on the contrary, he wanted to applaud.

After all, unruly children are always detestable.

He then asked, "By the way, does leaving this poor kid here count as disobeying his parents' orders to take care of him?"

"Who said we didn't 'take care' of him?" Fan Xiao laughed. "Didn't we 'take care' of him until he fell asleep?"

"Will this... work?" Li Jian asked doubtfully.

"Do you remember what that woman said to us when we first arrived here?"

Fan Xiao said, "We waited until the food was ready before we came back, which took a lot of time. This made her very angry. This is already considered a slight disobedience to her parents. However, after we entered the house, we were not directly attacked by that big-faced monster."

"So, the inability to disobey parents here should only mean not resisting their beatings, not attacking them, etc. As for orders, instructions, and admonitions... well, wouldn't you just outwardly comply but inwardly defy them?"

"Ok."

Li Jian recalled for a moment and realized that was indeed the case, so he nodded and asked, "Where do we go next?"

“You’re pretty shameless,” Fan Xiao said. “Who said I was going to go with you?”

Li Jian: "..."

"See you later, I'm heading out now."

Fan Xiao left the bedroom and walked towards the living room.

The sky outside was noticeably darker than before; it would probably get dark in about two more hours.

"and many more!"

Li Jian quickly jogged after him, saying, "Brother Fan, let's go together and look out for each other."

"Didn't you find a few teammates?" Fan Xiao reminded him, "Now is the best time to rendezvous and exchange the information we've gathered. If we miss this opportunity, we won't be able to get out today."

“I know it’s dangerous at night. Even the game warnings say it’s best not to go out at night,” Li Jian said. “Maybe at night there will be monsters like that big-faced monster from before, monsters that are unaffected by items.”

"Since you know that, why are you still following me?"

"Well... I just think you're more reliable, Brother Fan, at least more reliable than those players who have formed a temporary partnership with me."

Li Jian shamelessly said, "Besides, it's fate that we were assigned to the same 'family,' so how about we become friends and act together?"

"Next time you come to Area 001, I'll be your tour guide. I know Area 001 very well, I guarantee I'll take you on a fantastic trip, how about it?"

Upon hearing this, Fan Xiao was somewhat tempted.

He is indeed going to Zone 001 later, and meeting a tour guide beforehand seems like a good idea.

After thinking it over, Fan Xiao accepted the existence of this tagalong.

He nodded and said, "You can follow me, but you have to be obedient. Don't resist whatever I tell you to do."

"Of course! I'd eat shit if you wanted me to pass this level!"

Li Jian patted his chest and guaranteed.

“The toilet is over there,” Fan Xiao pointed to his right. “Go eat one now and show me.”

"...Haha, I was just kidding."

Li Jian said somewhat awkwardly, "Anyway, as long as you don't screw me over, Brother Fan, I'll definitely cooperate with you."

"Let's go."

Fan Xiao didn't waste any more words and left the steps in front of the brick house.

Li Xianqiu lives in the third group of this small town, and he is going to go and investigate the situation.

In fact, after unraveling the mystery of the second ambiguous piece of information, Li Xianqiu was no longer of any value to him.

The "Five Ghosts Sending a Child" legend is just a folk tale circulating in this area and has little reference value.

It's pointless to delve into how it came to be.

However, adhering to his meticulous attitude of not overlooking any details, Fan Xiao still decided to go and take a look.

After asking three households, Fan Xiao and Li Jian finally arrived at their destination—Li Xianqiu's house.

A male gamer moved into Li Xianqiu's house, but Fan Xiao and Li Jian did not have any conflict with him.

Because the male player was covered in blood and leaning against the wall, his breathing was very weak. He only glanced at Fan and Xiao before looking away.

He seemed to have no desire to cause any trouble.

If nothing unexpected happens, this player has likely stepped on a landmine like Li Jian did before, and been attacked by the giant-faced monster.

Everything is going smoothly, which is a good thing.

Afterwards, despite Li Xianqiu's scolding and rejection, Fan Xiao persisted in asking him all sorts of questions, and eventually found out some things.

Unfortunately, Li Xianqiu was unaware of any valuable details or information.

Because his grandmother was a shaman who knew some knowledge about gods and ghosts, he followed her example and modified the current ghost-worshiping ritual based on folk legends.

Then, by chance, a boy was born into their family, and everyone believed it to be true.

As it turned out, it really was just a coincidence.

Because after that, no more boys were born in his family.

However, this ritual has been passed down to everyone.

I would rather believe it.

The situation was roughly the same as Fan Xiao had guessed.

It seems almost impossible to find a breakthrough through Li Xianqiu.

After leaving Li Xianqiu's house, Li Jian said to Fan Xiao, "Do you think this guy might be lying? Maybe he's putting on an act for us? I have a feeling that the townspeople here are all putting on an act for us."

Fan Xiao curled his lip: "Do you think everyone is an actor?"

“…Okay, that’s not what I wanted to say.” Li Jian continued, “Should we try using some strong threats to get these guys to tell the truth? The dungeon rules only say you can’t attack your own parents, but they don’t say you can’t attack other townspeople.”

Fan Xiao glanced at him and asked, "How many times has this instance been opened?"

"I don't know," Li Jian shook his head, "but this is definitely not the first time."

"You know this isn't the first time the dungeon has been opened, so wouldn't previous players have had the same idea? Wouldn't they have tried it?"

Fan Xiao said, "I suspect some players have tried to threaten townspeople by killing them directly in order to be more efficient, but as we walked this way, I looked around and every house was occupied. There were basically no empty houses. Don't you find that strange?"

"Now that you mention it...it does seem a bit strange."

Li Jian nodded and said, "This run-down town is surrounded by wasteland, with nothing to offer, so it's impossible for anyone to immigrate here. If the players from before had killed people, there should be many empty houses... So why is there no one missing?"

After thinking for a moment, he said, "Could all of these people be unkillable? We couldn't kill that big-faced monster either, could they all be monsters?"

“Your guess is quite interesting,” Fan Xiao said with a smile. “You can try it and verify it. Don’t worry, I’ll back you up.”

“…How could I dare to try?” Li Jian immediately admitted defeat: “This dungeon is already very dangerous. If I try it and something goes wrong, my life will be in danger.”

"If you're too timid and hesitant, you might not even be able to save your life in the end," Fan Xiao said.

"..."

Li Jian said speechlessly, "Brother, you're much better than me. Try it yourself."

“I will try,” Fan Xiao said mysteriously, “but not now, the time is not right yet.”

Just then, a shout came from not far to the side: "Fan Sha".

The voice was very pleasant to hear, yet slightly cold, and highly recognizable.

Fan Xiao turned his head to look, and sure enough, it was Lu Xining.

Du Ruo was following behind her.

Chapter 113 Is There Something Wrong with My Younger Brother? A Frightening Speculation

Both Lu Xining and Du Ruo had minor injuries.

It seems they also went through the ritual of worshipping the five ghosts and were whipped.

"Could it be that all the characters players get are daughters?"

Fan Xiao noticed this detail.

Because only daughters are whipped.

Speaking of which, I strangely really want to see Lu Xining being whipped!

"Looks like you beat me to it."

Du Ruo did not show any surprise when she saw Fan Xiao.

The background information for the instance is vague and contains three plot holes that are obvious to anyone with a discerning eye.

Fan Xiao has always been quick-witted, so solving the mystery shouldn't be too difficult for him.

The answer to the second riddle points to Li Xianqiu.

So Du Ruo was not surprised at all to encounter Fan Xiao at Li Xianqiu's house.

If he doesn't encounter it, he might instead wonder if he made a mistake in his decryption process.

"Is he that player from zone 001? How did you end up with him?"

At this moment, Lu Xining glanced at Li Jian, then cast an inquiring look at Fan Xiao.

Li Jian took the initiative to approach her and said in a familiar tone, "Hello, sister-in-law. You can just call me Xiao Li. Brother Fan and I happened to be assigned to the same family, so we are sisters and have formed an alliance to act together."

Who are you calling sister-in-law?

Lu Xining frowned and said, "Look at your own age, is it appropriate for you to call me that?"