Chapter 44: Carnivorous (Sixteen) Nightmare
The handwriting of the four lines of the poem that appeared this time was messy, and even several words were stained by ink stains. The panic behind it came to my face through the paper.
“Aren’t the two of you sitting in the same room?” Qisi squinted his eyes, pursed his lips and smacked the meaning behind the poem.
Two people cannot live in the same room.
There are six guest rooms in total. Not counting the tattooed woman who is about to die, the remaining players have exactly one room each.
It can be said that there is no suspense anymore.
Things went too smoothly, and the note passed by Zhou Yilin was extremely strange.
But it’s not worth caring about for Zeiss.
He has already made a guess about the solution to this dungeon, and he urgently needs a death point to verify it. The arrival of certain events is exactly what he wants.
Danger and opportunity coexist, Qisi is never afraid of taking risks and gambling. If he wins, he will make a lot of money, but if he loses, he will die.
It was completely dark, the moonless sky was pitch black, and there was no trace of any living thing.
I don’t know how long it took, but the sound of sobs sounded faintly in the distance, like threads, and it was very sad. When people heard it, they couldn’t help but feel a little sad in their hearts.
Qisi listened for a while and asked patiently: "Why are you crying?"
No answer was received.
The originally invisible darkness was dotted with little yellow lights. A gust of cold wind blew away the heat from the body, and the remaining coolness made the sleepiness dissipate in an instant.
The sobs were clearly far away before, as if they were coming from the corner of the courtyard, but now they were closer in an instant, and they were clearly coming from under the bed.
Qisi lowered his eyes and looked under the bed.
A ghost hand as thin as chicken claws stretched out from the shadow under the bed, grabbed the edge of the bed, and pulled out the skeleton-like body inch by inch with support.
…Excuse me.
Without any hesitation, Qisi took out the awl from his bracelet and pricked the vein in the joint of his hand.
The sobs suddenly rose in pitch, and the ghost's hands fell to the ground in pain.
[Side mission has been refreshed]
[Side mission (must do): Dispel the hungry ghosts]
Two lines of silver-white text were refreshed on the system interface. The background of the night is particularly vivid.
Chis raised his eyes and looked out the window.
Under the dim light, rickety and thin shadows were reflected on the dusty window lattice, their edges blurred and connected into one piece.
Something was attracted by the sobbing of the ghost under the bed. It should be the "starving ghost" mentioned in the prompt text.
Qisi held his breath, the whistle of the wind blowing glass in the silence was particularly harsh.
The strange "crunching" sounds came one after another, like a beast chewing the bones of its prey, or like the flippers of a giant creature crushing the hardwood on the ground.
Things outside seemed to have set a target, and various sounds were approaching the room where Qis lived from all directions.
"Dong dong dong."
The window was knocked gently, followed by a "crash", and a hole was broken in the part where the glass was knocked, and cracks rippled like cicada wings.
Chis saw two hands reaching into the room through the hole, one after another.
The two hands were of different sizes and should belong to different entities, but their skins were exactly the same, as dry as tree bark, completely out of the realm of what a living person could achieve.
The hand is surrounded by a circle of flesh-colored mucus, and fine blood fibers are connected to the skin and flesh, seeming to be an extension of the limbs.
It was extremely malleable like a tentacle. It was squeezed by the window hole and transformed into a shape that could be drilled into the room. At this time, it was getting closer to Qisi inch by inch. In the cramped guest room, it was only one meter away from the bed.
[Pre-tip: The bloody truth is buried in the villagers' words. Restore the truth in the words and repeat it at the right time. The villagers will not be able to cause you harm]
The pre-prompt prompts on the system interface were flashing. Qisi reached out to pick up the recorder that had been hidden under his pillow and pressed the play button.
Ah Xi’s crisp voice sounded meticulously in the night:
[Every year becomes famine, every year becomes famine, and there is no rice or face to survive the disaster]
[Outside the ancestral hall, next to the locust tree, a large pot is set up to cook meat and taste it]
The chanting sound becomes blurred after being filtered by the recording medium, but when mixed with the constant night wind, the distortion of the sound quality is reasonable.
...You asked me to solve the riddle, and I responded directly to the riddle. How should you respond?
Chis turned the volume knob. The chanting became louder and louder, and in a few seconds it succeeded in covering up the sobbing under the bed, occupying the entire room.
The two ghost hands stuck in the window hole stopped, seeming to distinguish the information conveyed by the sound, hesitating whether to move forward further.
Immediately following the first one, the second children's song came out of the tape recorder in the same tone, unusually vivid in the silence.
[My sister and brother went to grandma's house. The children's meat was tender and the bones were crispy, and grandma was drooling with greed.]
[My sister heard a crunching sound at night and asked grandma what she was eating. Said they were dried peas]
[My brother disappeared the next day, and my sister searched and searched, and broken bones were piled in the corner]
A children's song that sounded eerie during the day sounded in the dark. , actually conveyed a bit of excitement.
It turns out to be Ah Xi's voice, and it starts looping over and over again.
[Every year becomes famine, every year becomes famine...]
At this point, Ghost Hand finally made a judgment, slid out of the room like a loach along the window hole, and disappeared out of the window in a few seconds. In the endless shadows, it seems that it has never appeared here.
The dim yellow light swayed away like a lantern, and the rickety ghost figures standing in a row by the window also dispersed and disappeared into deeper darkness.
[Side mission completed]
Qisi glanced at the system interface and touched the fate watch in his pocket, feeling a little ready to make a move.
He asked abruptly: "Hey, are you just leaving like this?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the ghost hands and ghost figures that had retreated came back.
The sticky and pus-filled ghost hands squeezed into the window hole again, and the ghost shadow pressed its face against the window, its bloodshot eyeballs almost sticking to the glass, and rolled into the room.
Qisi held the cold destiny pocket watch and raised his eyes to look directly into those eyes: "You can talk about any demands you have or any unfulfilled wishes. Maybe we can make a deal... ”
What answered him was a loud "crash" sound, and the entire glass window shattered to the ground in one second.
The rustling sound was a bad warning, and the strong fishy smell was nauseating. Qisi's eyelids twitched slightly, and he immediately raised the recorder and turned the volume to the maximum.
But it seems that because of the big death he made before, the recording this time failed to have any effect, and it did not even delay things outside the room.
It was too late, countless ghosts poured into the room from the wide open window and rushed towards him...
At the last second, Zis turned the gears of the destiny pocket watch. [The "Time Backward One Minute" effect has been activated, and this effect cannot be activated again in this copy]
A cold electronic sound sounded in the air, Qisi held his breath and held his voice, watching with empty eyes the ghost figures walking crookedly back out of the window at a funny pace.
The broken glass on the ground returned to the window frame along the previous path, forming a complete glass with only a small hole.
The dripping mucus flew from the ground to the ghost hand, adhered to the skin, and then exited the room through the small hole along with the ghost hand.
The opportunity to use [Pocket Watch of Destiny] in this copy has been used up, and Qiss does not dare to waste it anymore.
He sat motionless until time completely went back to a minute ago.
【Every year brings hunger, every year brings famine, and there is no rice and no face to cope with the disaster...】
The children's song that has been played twice is ringing crisply in the ears.
Qisi listened to the system prompt of [Side Mission Completed] with a bleary expression, and thought boredly: "Is it so unplayable? You can't communicate with ghosts. It's such a boring design..."
As if to appease his resentment, new text was refreshed the next second.
[Congratulations on getting the clue "Hungry Ghosts with Resentment"]
[Are they really starving to death? Did they deserve what they experienced, or was it the beginning of another sinful feast? 】
【The crowds coming and going, the piles of money, who eats their flesh and blood? 】
【New and old ancestral halls, densely packed memorial tablets, who suppresses their souls? 】
When he saw the last line, Qiss narrowed his eyes.
He suddenly knew how to extract clues from Su Po.
......
In the middle of the night, Zhu Ling opened her eyes amid the rustling sounds.
Feeling Zhou Yilin's trembling beside her, she asked softly: "Yilin, are you still asleep?"
"Sister Zhu, I'm afraid..." The girl's voice was mixed with chattering teeth. The "gurgling" sound made the fear sound particularly real, "Brother Yang... is he... going to die?"
"Yilin, don't be afraid." Zhu Ling raised her hand to hug the girl and patted her back comfortingly, "Only you and I know about this matter, and our original intention is to end the dungeon as soon as possible so that more people can survive. Come down, isn’t it?”
“If we want to clear the final copy, sacrifice is inevitable. All we can do is remember the dead and walk firmly with their hope, as the Kyushu Guild calls for. Go down."
Zhu Ling said righteously, a pen-like prop lying in her pocket, which was vivid to the touch.
[Name: An ordinary pen]
[Type: Prop]
[Effect: writing strokes]
[Note: Some people use it to record stories, and some people use it to weave lies]
Zhou Yilin insisted on staying in the house because of her instruction.
The text clues in the travel brochure have unclear meanings. If you change a stroke, the information conveyed will be completely different.
"Chang Xu" has missed the stage of accumulating prestige, and Zhao Feng's performance is not up to par. Zhang Licai has no opinion at first glance...
As long as Yang Yundong dies at night, the balance of the game will tilt towards her; with four lives in her hands, why worry about not being able to clear the dungeon?
It would be okay even if Yang Yundong survived. He was alone and had no evidence. All he could do was swallow this dumb loss and continue to wait for death.
'I'm sorry, I have no other choice, I just want to live...' Zhu Ling felt silently sorry in her heart.
She prides herself on not being a bad person. She has saved many players with her knowledge in the past two dungeons, but this dungeon is different after all.
This is her third copy. Facing a mortality rate of up to 80%, she must use some extraordinary means to be on the safe side.
In the darkness, Zhu Ling didn't notice that the girl next to her raised her lips with a sarcastic and teasing smile.
......
When the pointer of the pocket watch pointed to six o'clock, Qisi woke up naturally.
The early morning sunlight slants into the house listlessly, casting a layer of milky white on the surfaces of all furnishings.
Qisi looked under the bed through the light and saw nothing. The ghostly hands and sobs last night seemed to be just an illusion deep in the nightmare.
He walked out the door with the travel brochure in hand and glanced at every part of the courtyard.
The tattooed woman died after dinner last night. Her body was resting in the corner, and now there was only a puddle of mucus left.
Even if there is no loss of the rest of the players, there will only be six people left in the player camp. In just two days, nearly half of the damage was lost, and the remaining three days will only be more dangerous.
Qisi walked straight to Yang Yundong's room and knocked on the door twice.
"Wait a minute!" A dull response came from the door, and then it was as silent as a mud cow entering the sea.
Qisi waited patiently. Five minutes later, the door was opened from the inside.
The bloody smell hit his face and poured into his nose.
Yang Yundong was covered in blood. His left arm seemed to have been torn off at the shoulder, and the entire sleeve of his military coat was missing.
The bones were faintly visible at the bloody fracture.
“I promised to give them meat the night before yesterday, and they came last night.” Yang Yundong’s eye sockets were sunken, but his voice was very calm, “Fortunately, the injuries in the copy cannot be removed, and there will be another two or three days. , it’s time to end.”
Zeiss looked at the man's wounds and said lukewarmly: "Continuous pain and blood loss may put you into shock. Even if your willpower is strong enough, endorphins may affect your thinking and judgment. With your current condition He is injured and cannot survive until the end of the dungeon."
"I know." Yang Yundong breathed out, with a look of relief on his face, "This is my third dungeon..."
In the third dungeon, the mortality rate is as high as 80%. There is no reason for the crisis, and the strong ones are more likely to die inexplicably. It is as if the weird game intentionally lowers the average strength of the players and blocks some people from the threshold...
After a long silence, Qisi smiled bitterly: "Brother Yang, you and I were in a room alone last night, but we were both in danger. Do you think there is a possibility - there is something wrong with the clues we got? "
"Yesterday, Zhou Yilin seemed to want to remind me of something, but unfortunately I didn't pay attention to her hint..."
The young man lowered his head, showing just the right amount of annoyance and regret, as if he felt remorseful for Yang Yundong's injury.
Yang Yundong looked away, frowning and recalling: "My clue is: 'The two of us should not sit in the house, and do not be alone in the temple. Don't mourn the newly dead ghosts, there is no need to cry when the sin has been paid off.' What do you want to say? , is this clue false?"
Qisi suddenly raised his eyes and smiled coldly: "It is not difficult for people with props to change a stroke."
Arrangement. The operation will be performed tomorrow morning. The details of whether it is benign or malignant will not be known until the operation is completed and the cutouts are sent for further testing. At present, it seems that he will not die. Everything is going well, which is a blessing among misfortunes...
(End of this chapter)