Jiang Jiaying did not intend to give up his identity as a guard. He said he would stay in the palace to continue his investigation. Before leaving, he handed over a communicator and said he could contact him at any time.

All the street vendors have been removed, and unlike the "street lights" made of wooden stakes and lanterns on both sides of the road like in the palace, the thick black night covers the sky.

"You'll never guess what currency they use here." He Wei had both sleeves covering his head to keep out the rain, and he was always talking, "My worldview was completely changed when I heard that."

Shi Yu was wearing a bright red cape with a hood on his head. The shadow of the wide brim covered his eyebrows and eyes. "Lamp oil?"

He Weiyou stumbled and almost fell into the mud: "Can you leave me some room?"

Shi Yu stopped talking.

The rain was getting heavier and heavier, and the two of them walked quickly towards the nearest inn.

The receptionist at the front desk was counting on an abacus. When he looked up at the sound, he saw the rain curtain suddenly torn apart. A female ghost in red led a male ghost in green robe, walking into the threshold of the hotel with the dim flickering light of lanterns. He jumped up from his chair with his back pressed against the wall.

The green-robed male ghost stepped forward and said, "Boss, are there any rooms left?"

It can even talk! This must be at least a ghost level! !

The shopkeeper retreated hastily, sweating all over: "Don't come over here!"

"?"

The green-robed male ghost seemed to have not expected his reaction. He paused and said, "My elder brother and I just arrived in Beijing today. We forgot to make a reservation earlier, and we still haven't found a place to stay. If you don't have a place here, then we can only sleep on the street."

...Hmm? Big brother?

The female ghost in red next to her took off her hood and revealed her face.

Although he looks like a potential sex ghost, it is still possible to tell that he is indeed a man.

The shopkeeper calmed down a little: "Are you from out of town?"

He Weiyou, dressed in a green robe, nodded quickly: "So do you have any rooms here?"

The shopkeeper finally came to his senses: "I'm sorry, there are no vacancies."

He paused, then added: "But there is a place in the cellar, covered with straw, so it shouldn't be cold. If you don't mind the poor environment..."

He Weiyu turned around to ask for advice.

Shi Yu nodded.

He Weiyou turned around and asked, "What's the price?"

The shopkeeper changed his tone to that of a deputy merchant again: "One tube of 30% lamp oil for one night."

He Weiyou did not bargain, and directly took out a palm-sized porcelain bottle from his sleeve pocket: "50% lamp oil, stay for five days."

After hearing the number, the shopkeeper carefully took the porcelain bottle, poured a little into the groove of the cork, and looked at it against the white light of the lantern next to him. After a while, as if he had confirmed something, he poured the contents of the cork back into the bottle, and took out a larger porcelain bottle and a metal tool that looked a bit like a dropper. He used the tool to take three drops of lamp oil from the bottle and dripped them into his own large porcelain bottle, then covered the lid and returned the small porcelain bottle to He Weiyu, grinning: "Waiter——"

Someone from the kitchen responded, “Here we come!”

"Take these two guests to the cellar room."

"Okay!"

※

As mentioned before, the trading currency in this world is none other than lamp oil. The porcelain bottle is the container for the lamp oil, "30%" and "50%" are the concentrations of the lamp oil, and the metal dropper is the tool for taking the lamp oil, and "one tube" is the standard measurement.

As for the direct exchange of lamp oil of different concentrations, the quality of a tube of lamp oil is regulated by the law, and it is not something that ordinary people can change at will.

The first thing He Weiyou did after arriving was to take out a flashlight, press the switch, and throw the porcelain bottle to him: "This is what I exchanged with the owner of the pawnshop before. It is said to be 50% lamp oil. The darker the color, the higher the concentration, and the higher the face value of the lamp oil. I don't know how this thing became currency."

Shi Yu also poured a little into the groove of the cork: "Maybe they are short of lamp oil."

He Wei was confused: "What?"

"The more something is missing, the more they will pursue it." Shi Yu took out the golden lighter from his bracelet, "Because it's all dark outside here, they want light."

The more He Weiyou listened, the more confused he became. "It's night time now, so of course it's dark outside. How could it be white? If they want light, can't they just wait until tomorrow morning? Just now, when it was raining and there were no lights on the street, didn't the vendors pack up and leave? As for why they can't even make it through this night?"

There was an empty lamp on the wooden table next to the straw bed.

Shi Yu took out the bottle of lamp oil he had received from the oil mill, filled the dropper with oil and dripped it into the lamp. The flame of the lighter ignited the wick, and a light suddenly rose up: "What if the sky here never gets light?"

He Weiyou's hands trembled, and he turned off the flashlight: "...What?"

"The manager I met when I first entered the dungeon told me to go get the lamp oil at dusk, but when I went to the oil mill today it was night." Shi Yu stood in front of the table, "You also said before that the people here seem to be used to hiding during the day and coming out at night. In fact, we can completely change our thinking."

"The chickens need to eat twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. If we ignore the changes in the weather and count the time from the time we enter the dungeon, it would have been exactly one day when I left the chicken farm for the second time after feeding the chickens. I went to the oil mill at night but was still able to get lamp oil. It's not because the oil mill is open all day, but because the time I went there was the You hour in the perception of the people in this world; just like what you see is night, but in the perception of the people it is day."

He Weiyu suddenly broke out in cold sweat on his back for no reason.

"Because this world is in eternal night, there is no dawn at all. Not only is there no sun in the sky, there is not even a moon or stars. Plants cannot photosynthesize, animals have no food source, and humans cannot do any industrial or agricultural work. They don't want to perish, so they will seek light sources. Lamp oil is the only combustible material they can find, so it has become a circulating currency that everyone desires; lanterns are the instruments they use to judge the morning and evening, so when the lights are on, it is day, and when they are off, it is night."

Shi Yu poured a little of his own bottle of lamp oil into the bottle cap and placed it under the lamp together with the other bottle cap. He found that the lamp oil from the palace was obviously one shade darker than the one from the pawnshop. He put both bottle caps back in: "It was only evening when I left the palace, and it is only now that it is truly night."

He Weiyou took his lamp oil bottle in a daze, and heard the sound of the waiter knocking on the door outside.

Shi Yu walked over and opened the door: "What time is it now?"

The waiter responded reflexively: "It should be almost midnight."

He Weiyou swallowed a big mouthful of saliva.

The hour of Hai is nine o'clock in the evening in modern times.

I went to the oil mill to get lamp oil after five in the afternoon. Then I was chased and left the palace. I waited in the rain for two hours and finally arrived at the inn. It should be around nine in the evening now.

※

The waiter came over to bring hot water to the two of them.

Although the cellar is small, it has everything, even a bathtub and screen.

Shi Yu changed out of the burlap bag he wore from the chicken farm, spread his thick cloak on the straw as a mattress, and heard the other party calling his name.

"What?"

He Weiyou lay on the straw, staring at the ceiling: "Do you think it's unnecessary for me to follow you?"

“…”

Shi Yu first spent a few seconds thinking about why the other party suddenly asked such a question, and then spent a few more seconds thinking about how to respond to this question. He didn't figure out the last one: "Do you want to hear the truth?"

He Weiyou said in a fearless tone: "Just tell me, I can handle it."

Shi Yu said directly: "Yes."

“…You don’t have to be so direct.”

Shi Yu locked the door, blew out the oil lamp on the wooden table, lay down on the bed with the light of a lighter, and wrapped himself in the mattress like a spring roll.

"Shi Yu."

"Um."

The air was quiet for a while.

"Shi Yu."

"how?"

The air was quiet for a while.

"Shi Yu."

“…”

This meaningless conversation lasted for seven or eight rounds, and Shi Yu finally asked him, "What do you want to say?"

"I just suddenly figured it out." He Weiyou sighed, "Behaviors like this where you shamelessly follow other players just to pass levels and wait for them to complete their tasks so that you can take advantage of them should be stopped in time, so I'm going to go back to the beginning and pass the levels on my own."

Shi Yu was silent for about ten seconds: "I remember you said that during the last game."

"say what?"

He considered his words, his tone a little confused: "Haven't you always relied on others to pass the levels since you entered the game?"

“…”

This time the air was silent for a long while.

"Shi Yu."

Shi Yu was so sleepy that he couldn't even open his eyes, but he couldn't sleep because of the nagging. He thought for a long time but couldn't figure out why whenever he slept in the same room with this person, the topic would always be brought up by the other person about his ideal life: "Didn't you feel comfortable relying on others before? Why do you suddenly want to be independent?"

He Weiyou was still staring at the ceiling: "Do you remember what you just said?"

"What?"

"You speculated that this world has only long nights and no dawn." He Weiyou said, "Then do you still remember what I guessed about the system of this world?"

“…”

"The public's daily routine is reversed," He Weiyou said. "That's why I suddenly want to be independent."

Shi Yu felt like his brain was a mess.

"You and I are so far apart." He Weiyou said sincerely, "I can't ignore the difference, I have to face it." He had to start reflecting on whether his dependence on others in the past was a nuisance, a burden, or a heavy baggage that dragged him down. After all, no one owes anyone anything in this world, and others have no obligation to take him along. He has survived more than 40 games by relying on his stubbornness, and almost every game he survived by following others. He doesn't know how many people he has owed him, and the kindness he has accumulated with his life cannot be repaid even in his next life.

Shi Yu tried to discern the meaning of his words, and said in a hoarse voice: "So when you are about to die in the game in the future, you will never ask others for help?"

"..."The passion that He Weiyu had just aroused suddenly disappeared completely.

The room was rarely quiet. After an unknown amount of time, He Wei opened his mouth and was about to say something when he suddenly heard a slight sound in his ear.

He swallowed back the words that had not yet come out of his mouth.

The sound was so light that it disappeared after just a moment, almost making one suspect that it was just an illusion that passed by in the dead of night.

He Wei glanced to his side out of the corner of his eye.

The room was pitch black. He could not see or hear anything. He wondered whether Shi Yu was asleep or not.

His heart was in his throat, but his breathing slowed down and sweat seeped out from between his fingers.

For a long, long time.

“Click.”

The lock on the door opened.

Something wet and sticky fell on his face, spreading out in a large area with a strong and pungent smell of rust.