Chapter 104 Paper Town

During the time on the way to the paper-zha town, Xiao Ni was in dire straits. He originally wanted to show off to sister Qiao Song that the black beans had been hatched, but because Tang Xiaoxiao was too diligent, he, who did homework with her, also got a new teacher.

"This formula is wrong. Go to the front and write down the basic formula first, then do the following questions."

Aunt Huo spoke very gently. She was holding a cat in her arms and petting the cat while calmly guiding Xiao Ni to do the homework. All the questions were clear to her.

Qiao Song didn't expect that Aunt Huo had been a teacher before.

"When I got older, I went back to the mountains to teach for two years. There were children of all ages there, but there were very few teachers, so I could teach basically all the courses."

But she couldn't answer Tang Xiaoxiao's senior high school questions.

"Strictly speaking, I went to the city before I even finished junior high school. I was lucky to have such a good time. I didn't have as much pressure as you kids do now. At that time, various policies had just been introduced. With a little bit of physical strength and willingness to endure hardships, you could earn your first pot of gold."

Then, standing at the forefront of the trend, she made money, got married and had children. Perhaps because her family was too poor when she was a child, she spent too much energy on her career and did not notice the changes in the people around her.

When she was approaching old age, she parted ways with the family of her first half of life. She invested most of her assets in education, elderly care, medical care, and various rural charities, and also funded many stray animal stations and left-behind children.

"If I have to say, the ones I spend the most time with are these furry kids. When we didn't have money, they ate steamed buns with me. Later, when conditions improved, they would feed me canned cat food. But most of the time, they also want to eat what I eat."

The little Sanhua rubbed her leg and meowed, then jumped onto the desk and watched Xiao Ni do his homework quietly, its tail shaking from time to time, bending into a small question mark.

Aunt Huo immediately laughed: "Xiao Ni, the value in the second row is wrong, pay attention to the question."

I don’t know if it’s because the pressure brought by mathematics is too strong, but I suddenly feel that even cats are not so cute.

A little dinosaur came over to the table and helped him push the pen pitifully.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex's big eyes blinked, as if saying: Hurry up and write, and then we'll go play!

Xiao Ni: ...

How can you little dinosaurs understand the pain of doing homework?

Qiao Song, who was not far away, couldn't help laughing either: "Hahaha, okay, let's finish this page and take a rest today. Hei Dou, don't disturb him. Go play with Xiao Yu Mao and the others."

The palm-sized dinosaur on the table roared and ran away immediately.

A closer look reveals that the joints of these dinosaurs are all parts.

After Xiao Ni hatched them from the eggs, all that fell out were toy dinosaurs.

A pterosaur in the sky flew around Qiao Song twice, chirped a few times, and then returned to the living area of ​​the little dinosaurs.

Over there is the dinosaur park that Xiaoying, as the vehicle AI, specially built for Heidou and the others. The entire wall is divided into several layers, directly simulating the setting of Jurassic Park, from lakes to cliffs in the forest, all kinds of ecological environments are available.

Of course, these are all toy sets, not real grass and trees. Even if it is a small shadow, it is impossible to create a real ecosystem. The hearse does not have enough energy.

After Xiao Ni's ability evolved, in addition to the original mirror shuttle ability, he also gained an additional ability to mirror teleport toys.

After finishing the last math problem quickly and having Aunt Huo correct it, the little guy finally breathed a sigh of relief and ran to the other end of the long table:

"Sister Qiao Song, Hei Dou sneaked into the Archaeological and Cultural Creative Center earlier!"

Qiao Song, who was playing flying chess with Lin Xuan by the window, hummed, "I know. When I saw the dinosaur skeleton rubbing against me so affectionately, I knew it was it. How could you send Hei Dou and the others directly into the dungeon?"

"We can't send them directly, but we can open a small gap and throw them in. The copy seems to automatically generate a suitable role for Hei Dou and the others, and most importantly-"

Xiao Ni used both hands to prop himself up on the table, boasting with sparkling eyes: "Hei Dou told me that it felt like switching from one body to another. I won't die and I won't feel any pain! I can also use Hei Dou's eyes to see the situation in the dungeon, so I can go into the dungeon to accompany you!"

Of course, Hei Dou’s body is still a small toy, and currently only the black Tyrannosaurus Rex can go out. The other dinosaurs are slightly smaller than Hei Dou. It seems that their soul energy is not enough and they need to be nurtured.

"Speaking of this--" Qiao Song clicked on a map on the desktop, and the screen showed that their next copy point was only a few hours' drive away.

"Ghosts can also enter the Paper Clothes Town dungeon, and it won't have any bad effects like the Hearse Entertainment. Do you want to go in and take a look?"

Xiao Ni looked at the long sections of copy annotations on the table, which were all the copy information they had inquired about through various channels in the past few days.

He tapped the table in confusion, and finally nodded vigorously: "Okay, I want to go this time too!"

Now Xiaoying can look after the house by himself, and he doesn’t want to be left in the car every time.

"But if you go in, you will probably turn into a paper man."

The rules of the paper-making town are very simple. When a living person enters, he or she will turn into a walking skeleton, and when a ghost or monster enters, he or she will turn into paper figures of various shapes.

No wonder they say that once you go in, you can avoid being hunted down by your enemies. You can’t see their faces, everyone is just a skeleton, and no one talks, so how can anyone recognize each other?

"By the way, Sister Qiao Song, I have some new changes regarding my skills." Tang Xiaoxiao closed her notebook, having completed today's enjoyable daily practice of questions.

[Changes in host's professional recognition detected, unlocking new skills]

【Nine-subject encyclopedia, self-made version】

[A nerd who can't ask questions is not a qualified nerd. After using this skill, you can ask any question within the scope of high school subjects in the exercise book on the spot. The targeted person must complete the answer within the specified time. Those who fail to answer the question will be forced to copy the wrong question book.]

"After leaving the illusion of the Hell Community, I seem to have unlocked new control skills."

Tang Xiaoxiao has become much more stable after coming out of the Hell Community this time. Ever since she confessed the lies she told in the convenience store, she seemed to have put a big stone down in her heart.

When saying this, Qiao Song hugged her for a long time, touched her head and said, "You must have suffered a lot." Tang Xiaoxiao couldn't help it, and cried loudly while hugging Qiao Song without caring about her image. Later, she continued to do the questions with swollen eyes, and even cried when Xiaoni was asked to do it.

Although everyone knows her real name, they still call her Tang Xiaoxiao.

A top student is a top student. When Qiao Song heard the name of Tang Xiaoxiao's new skill, his eyes lit up and he immediately asked her to try it.

Qiao Song was lucky. She had not been in college for long and had not completely forgotten her high school knowledge. She struggled to finish the questions before finishing the skills review and avoided the punishment.

The same goes for Aunt Huo.

Lin Xuan, as an adult who has been in society for more than ten years, is not like Aunt Huo, who has been a teacher for several years. He can't even understand the questions of these inexplicable things that look like letters and numbers.

Mathematics is a very pure thing. If you know it, you know it. If you don’t know it, you don’t know it. How can there be people who can use knowledge as a weapon? It’s too scary.

After the countdown ended, a collection of wrong questions appeared directly in front of him.

"Can you move?"

Lin Xuan first tried to take out a prop to escape, but found that it was useless.

"My legs can move, but I have to copy the questions by hand, otherwise my hands can't do anything else."

The escape item is also ineffective, it seems that this skill is quite powerful.

Xiao Ni looked at Tang Xiaoxiao with even more resentment. It was really hard for a poor student to imagine that some people's skills were proportional to their learning level.

Lin Xuan sighed: "Your skills are upgraded quite quickly. You have just joined Infinite Highway not long ago. I have been here for several years and only now have more than three main skills."

The skill system of Infinite Flow Highway is very peculiar. It basically varies from person to person. Everyone's upgrade method is also different. Some are similar to epiphany, some are more like being honed in a dungeon, and some people will even suddenly change their main skills.

Just like Xiao Ni, who used to be a little water ghost who shuttled through the mirror, but now he is almost becoming a Surprise Egg manipulator.

Aunt Huo has the most skills among everyone present. Each cat has a unique ability, and she has more than a dozen kittens. However, most of these abilities are strange and scattered, and their actual combat effectiveness is not high.

If we talk about comprehensive combat power, Qiao Song is still the one with the highest strength by default. The creatures in the dungeons that have been beaten by her should have a lot to say about this.

Poking his toolbox, Qiao Song took a look at the progress bar after completing the extraction of tools for today.

The system had reminded her before that, unlike others, Qiao Song needed to increase her money-making efforts if she wanted to upgrade her skills. Qiao Song had already been wondering if soul coins had any special meaning to her. Otherwise, at her current rate of making money, it would be difficult for her to surpass Hearse Entertainment in a short period of time.

Now, after completing the Hell Community copy, the toolbox still does not produce new items, but this time a progress bar appears, which directly shows how long it is left to the next level, which is quite clear.

"Not much different. It seems that after this copy, I can finally have an extra weapon."

,

In fact, she quite liked the baton, but it was a special prop for an NPC, a set of equipment for a security guard. If she took it away rashly without being rewarded by the system, who knew what price she would have to pay?

This dog system is not very understanding when facing players.

Come to think of it, props like batons were actually made by human players. I wonder what kind of organization Eye of Wisdom is...

"Sister Qiao Song! Look outside, is that a paper figure?"

Xiao Ni was originally playing with Hei Dou and the others in the dinosaur park on the wall when he suddenly noticed the dark scene in the distance and began to observe the situation outside the road.

As we got closer to the dungeon, the fog became much thinner and the vision became clearer.

The windows of the RV are very large. When Xiaoying was decorating it, she took everyone's preferences into consideration and finally chose a whole piece of large glass with edge-to-edge. It has a very high transparency, which makes the gradually approaching special scenery outside appear more impactful.

Giant monsters as continuous as mountains were crawling on both sides of the road. Some of them rushed towards the roadside with their mouths wide open, as if they were ready to bite at any time. Some of them were like some kind of prehistoric monsters, with large wings growing behind them. If they were not fixed in place, it seemed that any gust of wind would cause the floating wings of these monsters to vibrate and fly directly into the sky.

The giant beasts have different shapes, postures, and styles. The only thing they have in common is that they are all made of paper and their eyeballs are blank without any eyeballs drawn on them, otherwise they would scare people in broad daylight.

“These paper-cut artworks are very well made.”

The newsstand that Lin Xuan opened in the real world was on a central street where there were many young people. He often saw young people in strange costumes. Under this influence, he could feel that these things were not only realistic, but if they were put into the real world, it would not be a problem to directly hold a theme cultural festival.

"Wait, the theme of the paper-making town is 'Beauty Contest', aren't they asking us to make something like this too?"

He is very clumsy with his hands. In the past, whenever his daughter helped him with her homework, she always disliked him and said he only made things more complicated. In the end, her daughter would not let him help except with some physical work like paper cutting or some delicate handicrafts.

Aunt Huo held the cat in her arms, and the furry children looked out the window curiously: "It shouldn't be. Have you forgotten what we will look like after entering the game?"

Will turn into a skeleton.

Tang Xiaoxiao, who was standing next to him, was thinking quickly: "Using skeletons to participate in a beauty pageant?"

Xiao Ni muttered, "When people enter the town, they are just skeletons. How can they become beautiful?"

Wait, didn’t Sister Qiao Song say that he would turn into a paper man if he went in?

Qiao Song: "We'll know how to compete after we get off the bus."

In front of the vehicle, Xiaoying adjusted the field of view of the central screen so that everyone could have a clear view of the entire scene ahead on the road.

A dense but not compact mountain of paper came towards me, which consisted of countless paper "giant beasts" crawling on the ground.

If they hadn't known the name of the replica in advance, they would have thought it was a sculpture, or even a living thing.

Even without eyes, these paper artworks still have a strong impact, as if they would come alive in the next second as long as the eyes were completed.

Paper creatures of various textures and styles began to appear in groups. One could even see that they formed a quiet team just like the road, queuing silently and reverently on both sides of the road.

The pilgrims headed towards the town and just took a short break along the way.

Perhaps the creatures on both sides of the road were so shocking that the hearses on the Infinite Highway slowed down.

As the vehicle continued to move forward, we could see buildings of varying heights appearing at the end of the road.

In the distant sky, there is a huge Chinese-style square wooden archway. Even though it is still some distance away, you can still see the four big characters "Paper-Zha Town".

After seeing these paper-made monsters, everyone began to wonder if the entire town was made of paper.

And how can this town be small? It is not an exaggeration to call it a cultural city.

Someone said silently: "If there is a fire, won't the whole town be..."

"Probably not."

Qiao Song pointed at a car in the distance. A player who looked quite cunning had already stuck his head out of the car, took out a prop and burned a white paper peacock not far away.

The peacock was as big as a car. A huge ball of fire fell on it and burned up to ashes, but it couldn't burn it up.

The feathers on the white peacock flutter gently when the car passes by, and it is obvious that they are really made of paper.

If the fire resistance factor is high, there is no need to worry about the whole town being burned down for the time being. After all, it is a red copy of the Twelve Committees and should not be much different from the Hell Community.

"You know what, the artistic atmosphere is quite strong."

As you get closer to the dungeon, the fog on the road will become thinner.

Qiao Song and his friends could already see nearby vehicles. It was not easy for the players to get the map and come here. They must have done a lot of homework in advance. They could even see a lot of fancy-looking hearses. They should have known in advance that this copy was related to the beauty pageant.

I just don’t know what the definition of “beauty” is.

Qiao Song asked Xiaoying to make the exterior of the car a bit more ordinary in advance. Driving a motorhome directly would be a bit too eye-catching. With so many passengers in their car, it would be more convenient to just turn it into an ordinary minibus.

Xiaoying from the hearse company is different. He was smart enough to give their minibus a special treatment on its exterior, turning it into an armed minibus that looks battle-hardened and not to be messed with.

Old players are always more respectable than new players. Due to the special nature of the paper-breaking copy, it is estimated that many desperadoes will come here to hide from their enemies. Behaving as difficult to deal with as possible can save a lot of trouble.

The town’s parking lot is at the foot of the mountain, and you can see endless bamboo forests in the distance.

When Qiao Song and the others got off the car, the two people who had set fire to the peacock just happened to be not far away.

The two men were driving a Penguin Speedster with a very special shape. There were many fancy stickers on the outside, all of which were very commemorative classic mini-games. It was obvious that the car was customized.

"Interesting, ordinary fire can't make them burn, then can lightning? Should I try a few more methods after we go in? By the way, can water wet them? I should have driven slower just now and tried a few more times, or maybe used some other corrosive liquids..."

"Forget about it. Just finish the dungeon carefully this time. The guild master has issued a strict order this time. Don't cause any trouble in the near future. If you continue to mess around, you'll be kicked out of the guild."

"Oh, I know, I know."

This style of behavior, this preference for vehicle decoration, and this conversation full of flaws.

Qiao Song stared at the two faces for a while. They were not the two people he had seen in Hearse Entertainment, but they felt too much like the group of psychopaths in the strategy group.

It is said that the paper-zha town has several entrances. The entire town stretches from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain, forming a circular area with five or six entrances. It is said that many desperadoes will choose to enter through some remote entrances to avoid encountering their enemies.

As long as you can successfully enter the copy, you won’t be afraid of being recognized.

There were already villagers waiting near the parking lot.

But how can I put it? The villagers here all have their own style, and it’s very stylish.

A silver-haired old lady was leaning near the entrance, and Lin Xuan felt like he was about to have a rheumatic attack.

Grandma wore a black skull scarf on her head, and her body was covered with all kinds of metal ornaments. Her fingernails were also black. From her vest to her overalls, including the sunglasses on her V-neck, every detail was matched perfectly. Even her silver hair adorned with small ornaments looked extra special.

At this age when all the makeup has been washed away, even wrinkles have become a fatal sight for ordinary young people.

It’s so damp.

"New tourists, gather here. Everyone can choose where to go now. There are four different villages in the town, east, south, west and north. Everyone can choose the style they like. When the beauty contest comes, you have to compete with the villagers in your own village."

In addition to the rocking old lady, there were villagers not far away holding flower cards, and little girls with flowers on their heads. Their bodies were covered with all kinds of colorful decorations. The color combination was extremely harmonious. With the gorgeous color combination, it was like putting the whole spring on the body, but it didn't look too heavy.

Her hands were wrapped with layers of bright red threads, and her ethnic-style clothing made her look beautiful yet a little weird.

Further away, there are martial arts-style villagers wearing long robes and carrying ancient swords, wasteland style villagers wearing rags, sacks and rags in a unique way, futuristic style that combines the Peking Opera style with mechanical cybernetics... and so on. Villagers of various styles are attracting new tourists to join their village.

Is this really an ordinary paper-making village? Has Burning Man moved to the Infinite Stream world?

When ordinary players enter the town for the first time, they feel like their eyes have been cleansed. After a brief aesthetic critique, their brains begin to restart. It is like Liu Laolao accompanying the Jia family to attend the Paris Fashion Week and seeing Lin Daiyu riding a motorcycle onto the T-stage and performing a fashion show with a muscular man.

Although it is messy, there is order in the chaos, and the chaos is beautiful and shocking.

Some players received a second shock after selecting villagers, preparing, and entering the dungeon with them.

The players were so enchanted by the giant paper-made monsters and the beauty of the villagers around them that they received too much information and for a moment they forgot to remember that they were all paper figures.

The villagers looked no different from humans, and were even more handsome than ordinary players. Except that their joints were not as flexible when they walked, they were no different from living people.

Qiao Song watched for a while, and finally hesitated between Peking Opera Cyber ​​and Martial Arts. Qiao Song chose Peking Opera Cyber ​​in the north.

Lin Xuan went to the ancient sword village in the east with his martial arts dream from his youth. Tang Xiaoxiao was from the hairpin minority area in the south, and Aunt Huo was from the wasteland style in the west.

Xiao Ni looked hesitant and conflicted, like an underage child who was left behind after his parents decided to go their separate ways.

Receiving his gaze, Qiao Song said, "Don't think about who to follow specifically, just choose the style you like. Anyway, everyone is here to relax in this dungeon."

The Paper-Zha Town dungeon is not a competitive dungeon, so the score is not that important. At most, it will affect the clearance evaluation. They are not here for the small rewards given by the system every time.

Xiao Ni finally followed Qiao Song to the village in the north. The villager leading the way looked like a mechanical Bodhisattva, with several arms behind him reflecting metallic luster. If you didn’t know the name of the copy, it would be hard to imagine that it was all made of paper.

"So this style is called Chinese cyber, so cool." Xiao Ni exclaimed in a low voice.

In fact, Tang Xiaoxiao also wanted to choose this, but Zanhua was also interested, so the four of them just went in four different directions, which was just right.

Every seven days, there will be a bonfire party in the Zhazhi Town. Villagers from the four villages will rate the players' appearance at the party. They agree to share information with each other on the same day and contact each other by phone in case of emergency.

"Everyone, please pay attention. After you step over the boundary marker, your form will change. Please collect the clothes that fall off your body."

The paper guide led them for a short while before they arrived at a mountain road. In front of them was a stone staircase and two large square boundary markers on the left and right.

The words engraved on it seem to be ancient Chinese. It is impossible to tell what is written on it, but one can vaguely make out the word "paper".

Players who also chose this area have already started packing up.

Most of the players who can come to the paper-breaking town do not carry ordinary maps. Although the copies under the jurisdiction of the Twelve Committees are not the most difficult, they must have the most peculiar properties. Ordinary new players basically don’t even have a way to get here.

It is not uncommon for such players to have an item that can store clothes.

Qiao Song also took out the net bag. The moment she slowly stepped over the boundary marker, she realized that her palms holding the net bag had turned into white bones.

Once I had completely crossed the dividing line, all the clothes on my body fell to the ground with a clatter.

[Ding—You have entered the copy of Paper Town. There is no clearance requirement for this copy. You can leave at any time, but the longer you stay in this copy, the higher the score and the higher the reward. ]

The system rewards never give good things like props. The higher the so-called reward, the more soul coins you will get.

This group of players obviously didn't care about the system announcement and were all bending over to pick up their dropped items.

No wonder the villagers inside told them to wait a while and pack their clothes.

So, their current form is more like spirits than solid humans? Otherwise, it is difficult to explain why the clothes do not hang on the body, but fall directly to the ground after the flesh and blood disappear.

"Sister Qiao Song, your bones are glowing, so beautiful!"

Qiao Song looked down at his chest and could see his ribs arranged in a very regular pattern. Further down were his hip bones, leg bones, and the white bones of his feet.

She has probably never been so thin in her life, real skinny beauty.

It was the first time that Qiao Song observed himself from such a strange angle. He looked at himself from front to back and left to right. There were no strange cracks on his bones, and they were quite symmetrical on both sides. His bones were snow-white and radiant, and he looked very healthy.

It's not like she had never seen human bone specimens in the laboratory, but this was the first time she had seen her own bones.

Xiao Ni also let out a wow at this time. He lowered his head and stared at his hands, then quickly touched his face and hair up and down, and even the collar of his clothes, which felt a rustling texture.

He even patted his belly, and there was a strange hollow echo.

"I have become a paper man too."

But the strange thing was that all the clothes on his body had faded, leaving only a pale appearance. Compared with the villager NPC in front of him, he was simply too plain.

"In the paper-zha town, you have to earn every decoration on your body. You still have enough time to find decorations in the village before the party tomorrow."

Cyber ​​Bodhisattva narrowed her eyes slightly, her tone slowed down, and the mechanical arm behind her moved, handing over several pieces of paper to different skeletons.

"This is the address of the villagers in Cyber ​​Village. If you want to stay, you have to find the villagers yourself. A reminder, although it is the initial appearance now, the villagers of Paper Town are a bit ugly, so you'd better dress up nicely. Oh, by the way, if you want to stay in the town for one more day, you need to collect corresponding items, otherwise you will be kicked out, which is what you call passing the level."

This was the first time Qiao Song had heard of a dungeon threatening players, saying that if they didn't complete the mission well, they would be sent to clear the dungeon...

"The first day's task is to find a pen, which is used to draw patterns on paper figures or bones. Hurry up, the task will be settled every 24 hours. The next task will appear on the paper after it is completed."

The skeletons all began to look down at the information on the paper. Only the Bodhisattva looked around at the new visitors, and finally stopped slowly on Qiao Song, exclaiming:

"Your bones are quite beautiful. The paper-making craftsmen in our village will definitely like them."

Qiao Song turned the paper over: "Thank you, I like myself too."

Cyber ​​Bodhisattva looked at Qiao Song with a smile for a while, and after confirming that all players had obtained the map of the villagers' locations, he quickly left, as if he wanted to continue recruiting villagers, leaving the few white skeletons that came in this round looking at each other in bewilderment.

It was probably the first time for everyone to come to a dungeon where they were forced to pass it without completing any quests, and they were a little at a loss for a moment.

Qiao Song continued to look at the paper in his hand, which could not be called a map.

On the front is a settlement map of Beifang Village, with houses and villagers' names drawn on it, and small words written next to it, which seems to be an introduction to each household.

The day's task was written on the back, and their current task was to find a pen to draw patterns for themselves.

Qiao Song searched for a long time in the front, and suddenly raised his eyebrows, and saw a paper-making craftsman's house with a very interesting description.

She found that she was lucky and picked a good place right away.

"Come on, Xiao Ni, I'll take you to meet some acquaintances."

After leaving Hearse Entertainment, I don’t know if the boys and girls will be surprised to see her this time.

The author has something to say:

Young boys and girls: Uncles and aunts, help me!!! There are dirty creatures coming to our dungeon!!!